Justification For Killing

by Larry Edward Hunt

  Oswald was carried down for another lineup; he also had a paraffin test conducted on his hands. The paraffin test is to determine whether or not he had recently fired a weapon. The results of the test were never released.

  Lineup complete, Oswald returned to Captain Fritz’s office.

  Lee Harvey Oswald was officially charged with the murder of J. D. Tippit. Time on the official charge: 7:00 p.m.

  The police began Oswald’s third interrogation session. He was still not representing by counsel, no one was there to represent him. A number of Secret Service agents, and, at least four FBI Special Agents question him. Again they do not use a stenographer and do not tape record the interrogation. One Secret Service agent noted the time was 7:40 p.m.

  He placed another phone call to Ruth Paine. Mrs. Paine will later say the time was 8:00 p.m.

  Oswald was taken to the Robbery and Homicide Office for fingerprinting, again.

  Captain Fritz signed a formal complaint at 11:26 p.m. charging Lee Harvey Oswald with the murder of John F. Kennedy.

  Saturday, November 23, 1963, 12:04 a.m.: Oswald met with the press in the basement assembly room of the Dallas Police department.

  Lee Oswald was moved to his cell – Cell Number 2 on the fifth floor of the Dallas City jail. He notices the wall has been freshly painted. The clock at the end of the hall shows 12:20 a.m.

  Ten minutes later he is fingerprinted once again and photographed. Why another set of fingerprints?

  Oswald was formally charged with the murder of JFK. The time was 12:34 a.m.

  Lee Harvey Oswald was returned to Captain Fritz’s office for more questioning. Oswald has not been provided with counsel, and the interrogating officers keeps no notes and no tape recording were prepared.

  He was returned to his cell on the fifth floor. He notices the clock’s time was 1:10 a.m.

  His mother Marguerite Oswald, and his wife Marina Oswald visit Oswald. Marina says the time was 1:30 a.m.

  He was carried downstairs for yet another lineup.

  Returned to his cell after his 4th line up. It was now 2:30 a.m.

  Dallas detectives come to Oswald’s cell and obtain samples of hair from all portions of his body.

  Oswald calls Ruth Paine again. She said it was around 3:15 A.M.

  Sunday, November 23, 1963 at 2:15 a.m. - The Dallas FBI receives an anonymous phone call stating during the transfer to the county jail later this morning someone was going to kill Lee Harvey Oswald. The Dallas Sheriff’s office also receives a similar phone call; however, there was no significant change of plans. They write the calls off as a prank.

  A few minutes after ten o’clock Dallas Police Chief Jesse Curry stated during a press conference Oswald would be moved by armored car, and he gave a general description of the security measures.

  Captain Fritz finished interrogating Oswald and asked what clothes he wanted to wear. Oswald only chose a black pullover sweater then indicated he was ready to go. It was almost eleven o’clock.

  Dallas police detectives escorted Oswald down the elevator and into the narrow corridor of the basement of the city jail. The time was 11:19 a.m.

  One minute later Jack Ruby came down the ramp from Main Street into the basement of the Dallas City Hall. The Dallas Police Department was housed in the City Hall building. No police office challenges him nor questions his authority for being present.

  Lee Harvey Oswald was handcuffed to Detective Leavelle on the right, and Detective Graves on his left arm. Captain Fritz and Lieutenant Swain followed by Detective Montgomery lead the procession from the elevator out into the basement.

  No one had seen Jack Ruby before he shot Oswald. The time was 11:21 a.m. As the bright television cameras were switched on, blinding the policemen for a moment, Jack Ruby stepped forward and used a Colt Cobra .38 caliber snub-nosed revolver – murders Lee Harvey Oswald – all caught live on nationwide television.

  Lee Harvey Oswald died at Parkland Hospital.

  The time: 2:07 Sunday afternoon, November 24, 1963.

  Chapter Fifty-Two

  “WE’VE GOT TO GET THE HECK OUT OF DODGE”

  Exactly forty-nine hours and thirty-four minutes earlier. Lee Harvey Oswald left the Texas School Book Depository and inadvertently bumps into Bud and Lou. Two short days later Oswald will think these two men were Secret Service agents. Darn what luck! Now Oswald will know what we look like. This is going to make following him more difficult, thought Bud.

  Across from TSBD on the north side of Dealy Plaza Lonnie Joe and Rocky were beginning to make their way across Elm Street toward the TSBD entrance where they had just seen Oswald exiting. Bud turned and gave a motion toward Oswald to his two partners as they hurried toward his location. He was afraid they might not have seen Oswald coming out of the building. Rocky nodded his head signaling he had seen Oswald and had him in sight.

  Oswald crossed Houston and began walking east on Elm Street; Rocky was shadowing him from a half block back. The crowds were heavy – many panicky people were fleeing trying to escape the scene of the recent carnage, curious others were just as swiftly attempting to make their way toward Dealy Plaza to see what happened.

  Rocky blended into the mass of hysterical humanity becoming just another face in the crowd. From previous historical reports, Rocky knew Oswald would head east about seven blocks then board the Dallas City Transit bus. The bus would continue west toward Dealy Plaza, but after two blocks, Oswald will get off at the corner of Lamar Street and Elm, and head for the bus station. Instead of closely following Oswald Lonnie Joe turns right on Houston Street and goes one block south to his parked car at the Stephen Austin Hotel. A short three block drive east on Wood Street finds him at the corner of Lamar. A left and one block he arrives at the Greyhound bus terminal. A row of taxis is lined up at the taxi stand.

  Lonnie parked where he could observe anyone entering one of the yellow cabs, realizing it would be just a matter of minutes until Lee Harvey Oswald walks down from Lamar and enters William Whatley’s cab. Before Oswald could arrive Rocky swiftly came walking down the east side of Lamar, seeing Lonnie Joe parked at the curb on the northwest corner of Jackson and Lamar, he quickly crosses Jackson and got into the car with Lonnie Joe.

  Only a few minutes remained until Oswald arrived to ask Whatley to carry him to the 500 block of Beckley Avenue in Oak Cliff.

  While Lonnie Joe and Rocky sat waiting for Oswald to make his appearance at the bus station a startling development was beginning to take place back at the TSBD, Bud and Lou had followed Lonnie Joe back to their cars at the Austin Hotel. Rocky and Lonnie Joe would follow Oswald from the bus station; meanwhile, Bud and Lou would be driving to the vicinity of 10th Street and Patton. At this location, they are going to witness the murder of J. D. Tippit.

  As Captain Scarburg, Forrest and Olive Marie turn the northwestern corner of the Texas School Book Depository from Elm onto Houston they observe something quite unusual.

  As they began to cross Houston Street to the Dal-Tex building heading towards their truck and Army Jeep parked in the lot just north of the Dal-Tex building, they watched a black ’62, four-door, Cadillac, Sedan DeVille pull up to the curb next to the TSBD building. A young man, of slender build, with dark hair, wearing a brown ‘Ike’ jacket with dark trousers, appeared from the back of the building and quickly jumped into the back seat of the car. The driver appeared to be an older gentleman with a dark complexion. Black? Hispanic? Asian? They could not see clearly enough to tell. The car door had not quite slammed shut when the car ‘tore out like a scalded dog’ headed south on Houston. A mile or so south and over the Houston Street viaduct the car and its passengers would be in the suburb of Oak Cliff.

  Forrest turned to the Captain, “Grandpa, did you see that? Was that Lee Harvey Oswald...wasn’t that him? Did you all see him?”

  “Yes... yes... but this can’t be right,” answered Captain Scarburg. “I know he is walking east on Elm Street at this very minute – Rocky is following him!”


  “Hurry guys, we’ll follow that car and see where it goes,” demanded Captain Scarburg beginning to run north on Houston Street toward their vehicles. By the time they arrived at the parking lot the station wagon with “Lee Harvey Oswald” had disappeared into the mass of traffic headed south on Houston. The Cadillac was completely out of sight. A quick input of Lonnie Joe’s phone number validated their assumption that LJ’s Lee Harvey Oswald was at that very minute, getting into Mr. Whatley’s cab at the Greyhound bus station. Turning back to Forrest and Olive Marie, “LJ and Rocky are watching Oswald as we speak, what is the meaning of this? Who was the “Oswald” that just got into that car?”

  “What do we do, Grandpa?”

  “Nothing, there is nothing we can do... we will just have to see if we can put these pieces together when we get back home. Maybe we can make some sense out of it all once we get Bud, Lou, Lonnie Joe and Rocky’s reports. Right now we’ve got to get the heck out of Dodge.” Forrest pulled his cell phone out and put in a call to Bud and Lonnie Joe. He reminded them that once they had wound up their surveillance to meet them at the Ponderosa if they have time, if not, he cautioned, they must be, and he reemphasized - must be at the cow pasture not later than 11:55 a.m. tomorrow. Pegasus will leave at precisely high noon, with or without them. “Hmmm,” Captain Scarburg said hearing Forrest talking on his end of the conversation, “I liked that movie,” as he began quietly singing,

  ♪“Do not forsake me, oh, my darlin’ on this our weddin’ day...♪

  The background song for the old western favorite, ‘High Noon’ sung originally by Tex Ritter. Walking up to their Ford truck, the Captain did his best imitation of the swagger of the star of High Noon, Gary Cooper.

  “Cut it out, Grandpa, act your age!” Olive Marie said rolling her eyes.

  “Grandpa, don’t give up your day job!!” replied Forrest.

  TENTH AND PATTON STREET

  Leaving the parking lot next to the Austin Hotel, Bud and Lou traveled the 2.7 miles to Tenth and Patton in a matter of minutes. The pulled into the driveway of 326, the small white framed, unoccupied house on the north side of Tenth Street where the night before a small “For Sale” sign had been, they replaced the sign and sat and waited. Waited for Lee Harvey Oswald to come walking down Tenth Street. They knew from the official records that Oswald killed J. D. Tippit near the corner of Tenth and Patton. Now they would wait... wait for the inevitable murder they knew would occur. They both felt bad... they knew it was a murder they could prevent.

  What is this? A black Cadillac sedan had pulled up to the curb about a half a block west of the Tenth and Patton intersection. A man got out. “What! This cannot be!” Bud said. “That is Lee Harvey Oswald, he is supposed to be walking! Quick Lou, grab the camera with the telephoto lens, we must get a picture of this.” As Lou began to adjust the camera’s prodigious, telescopic lens they both noticed this “person” began walking west toward the next block. That would be Denver Street. Denver Street was only three blocks from the apartment of Jack Ruby – was this man attempting to get to Ruby’s apartment? Or was he trying to leave the impression Ruby’s place was where he was headed? If so, why get out of the car he was riding in?

  “Hold on Lou, look to your left... there’s a police car coming down Tenth. That must be Tippit.”

  Both men slide down in their car seat until only their eyes protruded above the bottom of the door window. “Lou, you have to get pictures!”

  “Okay, Bud, okay... I’ll get ’em, don’t worry.”

  The police cruiser approached the man walking on the south sidewalk; it slowed and pulled up beside “Oswald.” The man on the sidewalk walked over to the patrol car and began conversing with the policemen through the open passenger’s window. Officer Tippit opened his driver’s door and stepped out onto the asphalt pavement. He took one step around his door and started around the front of the squad car. A passenger riding in the patrol car slid out onto the street from the driver’s side also.

  This man, without taking aim fired three bullets into Officer J. D. Tippit. Bud and Lou would later describe the mystery man as short and fat with black curly hair. Tippit crumpled on the roadway, probably already dead before hitting the asphalt; however, the assassin was not finished... he walked up to the policemen and without hesitation fired another round, point blank into Officer Tippit’s head. This one shot tore a gaping hole in the right rear of his head. Almost an identical wound that was inflicted on President John Kennedy’s head a mere few minutes earlier at Dealey Plaza; however, the wound to the President’s head was a bullet to the front that exited in the rear, on Tippit the bullet entered the rear and exited the front.

  As the shots were being fired at Tippit the man that had approached the patrol car hurried away, this “Oswald” looking fellow turned south and headed down Patton Street toward Jefferson. The ‘shooter’ quickly removed the spent shells from his revolver and tossed them to the ground a few hundred yards to the east of the patrol car on Tenth. After hastily reloading, the same black Cadillac pulled alongside, the shooter entered, and the car hastily drove away. Later these spent cartridges will be identified as shells used in a .38 caliber automatic pistol. Did no one in the Secret Service, FBI or the Dallas Police Department realize automatic .38 shells are different from .38 shells that fit in a revolver pistol?

  “Did you get it all Lou?”

  “Get what... what? Get what?”

  “Pictures!! Pictures, did you get pictures of the Cadillac, the “Oswald” man, and the man who did the shooting?”

  “Uh... uh... sorry Bud, I was so caught up in what was happening I failed to take a single picture.”

  “No pictures?? No pictures?? Wait ‘till Grandpa hears about this... I could have done that well!!”

  “The camera was just as close to you as it was to me... why didn’t you take the pictures Mr. Smarty, I-Know-Everything, Pants?” Replied Lou. “I’m sorry Bud... well, I... I... was just hypnotized, I have never seen a man murdered before. I just couldn’t tear my eyes away from that grisly scene; I’ve never seen anything so horrible. Bud, I think I’m going to be sick.”

  “So,” Bud said arrogantly trying hard to bolster himself up, “think of it as if you were watching a movie, come-on pull yourself together Brother.”

  “Bud,” Lou said speaking barely above a whisper with his head bowed, “you mean it didn’t bother you? Bud... Bud... we could have stopped Officer Tippit from being murdered!!”

  Realizing Lou had suffered traumatically watching the brutal murder Bud tried to comfort him, “I’m sorry... Lou what am I thinking... you’re right... we both have never witnessed anything as horrible as this... mur... mur... uh... thing that just unfolded before us, and yes it bothered me... it bothered me a great deal. I hope we never have to be a party to something like that again, but no we could not have interfered. Remember what Anhur told Grandpa, ‘simple things done in the past can cause great changes in the future.’ Don’t worry Grandpa will understand. It wasn’t your fault.”

  Later Helen Markson a witness to the J. D. Tippit shooting, will attempt to identify the murderer through a number of lineup’s conducted at Police Headquarters. She was unable to do so. She said, the police pressured her to make a decision, so she finally picked Lee Harvey Oswald as the shooter. She said she just wanted to get out of that place and go home. A few days before she testified before the Warren Commission she admitted it was not Oswald. The man she saw was short, fat and had black, bushy hair.

  During the commotion, which ensued after the shooting, Lou backed the car out of the driveway and slowly drove in an opposite direction from the murder scene. “Where to now Lou?” Bud asked.

  “We’re done, we’ve got to head this ‘pony’ back to the Ponderosa.”

  1026 NORTH BECKLEY AVENUE

  Lonnie Joe and Rocky would make reasonable facsimiles of private eyes. After watching Lee Harvey Oswald approach and enter the taxicab, they had as skillfully as Sherlock Holmes, followed the cab
unobserved. From the Greyhound bus terminal to the turn-off onto North Beckley Avenue they had remained behind the taxi far enough to watch, but not close enough to be noticed. At 1026 North Beckley, the cab kept right on going – it did not stop at Lee Harvey Oswald’s rooming house.

  It traveled on until it reached the 700 block. Noticing the brake lights coming on Lonnie Joe pulled into a parking spot along the curb. Carefully the two of them watched the taxicab. The right front passenger door opened and out stepped Lee Harvey Oswald. They could see him pay the driver who then drove south toward Jefferson Avenue. Oswald hurried across the street and began walking back toward his rooming house. When he was within a short distance from Lonnie Joe and Rocky the two of them slid down and hid themselves to keep Oswald from detecting them as he walked by on the opposite side of North Beckley. Once he was a safe distance away they made a U-turn and followed him back to the rooming house.

  Parking a half block or so below Oswald’s place they sat waiting for him to emerge. Again, they knew he only would be in there for a couple of minutes. As they sat watching a Dallas police car pulled up to the curb and honked its horn - twice. Oswald emerged from his boarding house zipping up his jacket. He walked directly to the police car and received something one of the officers passed out the passenger’s window, placing whatever he received in his jacket pocket; he then walked to the corner of North Beckley and Zang Street. Beckley and Zang was the corner for the local bus stop; also, this location was northwest of the rooming house. The murder of J. D. Tippit occurred at Tenth and Patton – a location southeast of the rooming house.

  A minute or two after standing at the bus stop a black, four-door Cadillac pulled up alongside Oswald. He approached the car, leaned over, spoke something to those inside then the back door opened, and he stepped into the rear seat.