by Gus Russo
FBI agent Jim Hosty was also aware of the mystery flight. “I was told by an FBI agent who was sent to Mexico to investigate,” recalls Hosty, “that the CIA agents in Mexico City were investigating the possibility of Castro’s involvement. They picked up information about a mysterious person flying in from the United States, and then departing under mysterious circumstances on an airplane for Cuba, when all of a sudden they received orders to cease and desist their investigation.”13
It should be noted that the address and phone number of Cubana Airlines was found in Oswald’s addressbook, just below that of Sylvia Duran. CIA transcripts of Cuban Embassy wiretaps reveal a flurry of phone conversations between the Embassy and Cubana Airlines on November 22, asking about flight arrivals. One call reveals that “the ambassador went to the airport to receive some passengers.”14 Also, calls were monitored that day between Luisa Calderon, Oswald’s alleged contact in Havana, and Cubana Airlines.
Saturday: Border Crossing
If Lee Oswald was headed for Cuba via Mexico City in the hours after the assassination, he was not the only suspicious person with that intent. The border between Texas and Mexico was closed immediately after Kennedy’s murder, but when it was reopened the next day at noon, a Cuban-born American named Gilberto Policarpo Lopez was among those lined up in cars and on foot awaiting entry into Mexico from Laredo. (The border shut-down was so thorough that busloads of school children were trapped on both sides.)15
On November 17, prior to his arrival in Texas, Lopez had spent a night in the Tampa, Florida home of the president of that city’s chapter of the Fair Play For Cuba Committee (FPCC). The Tampa branch had been personally formed by FPCC’s president, V.T. Lee, with whom Oswald had corresponded while living in New Orleans. Lee had written to Oswald on May 29, 1963, advising him against forming his own New Orleans chapter of the FPCC, and had also recommended that he work instead through the Tampa branch. Tampa was V.T. Lee’s home before he moved to New York. He would eventually move back to Tampa and retire there. V.T. Lee was also known to have been smuggled into Cuba by the Cuban Embassy official in Mexico City (Rogelio Rodriguez) whom the CIA believed was an assassination specialist.
Not only was Lopez linked to the same FPCC branch as Oswald, but previously he had worked with pro-Castro groups in Los Angeles, where Oswald had first made contact with pro-Castro Cubans.16 Friends would later testify that Lopez was decidedly pro-Castro, and had in fact been attempting to return to Cuba for over a year. Manuel Artime’s secretary, Nilo Messer, heard from good sources in Cuba that Lopez’s brother held a high rank in Castro’s military.17
On November 23, Lopez arrived in Mexico City, where he seemed to receive special treatment. Congressional investigator Jim Johnston would later write, “The Cuban government appeared too eager to get Lopez out of Mexico. It cut through red tape and gave Lopez a Cuban courtesy visa, ignoring the fact that his U.S. passport had expired.”18 It would later be determined that Lopez flew on to Havana on November 27 aboard Cubana flight #465, the only passenger on a flight manned by a crew of nine.
By December 5, the CIA’s Mexico Station had been advised of Lopez’s “suspicious” activities and sent a classified message to headquarters requesting “urgent traces” on Lopez. The FBI also had gathered details about Lopez which it considered suspicious, specifically that Lopez, in Havana in 1964, was not working, and was seen spending his time in the leisured pursuit of dominoes and other games. By March 19, 1964, the “suspicious” activity became more focused: a CIA source in Mexico City advised the Station that “Gilberto Lopes [sic] was involved in the Kennedy assassination.”19
Taking all this into account, the House Select Committee on Assassinations concluded in 1979 that the Lopez reports “all amount to a troublesome circumstance that the committee was unable to resolve with confidence.”20 Could Lopez, Miguelito, and the other men on the Redbird and Cubana Airlines flights have been Oswald’s “Latin friends”? Were the four of them supposed to act as Oswald’s escorts to Cuba? Just like “The Cubana Airlines Incident,” the Lopez lead was never sufficiently investigated. But other facts came to light in the days after the assassination reinforcing the idea that Oswald might have been counting on help.
New York
Just before midnight on the day of the assassination, Clare Booth Luce and her husband, wealthy Time-Life publisher Henry Luce, were in their New York apartment. Like the rest of the nation, they were watching TV coverage of the assassination. When the phone rang, the Cuban voice on the other end was a familiar one, but the information he was conveying was shocking, if true. For years, Clare Booth Luce had been giving financial assistance to the Cuban exiles who operated out of Miami and New Orleans, including the “renegades” who operated outside of the Kennedy loop. The caller told her that he feared for his life and swore Luce to secrecy. Fifteen years later, testifying before a Congressional investigation, Luce finally divulged the facts that the call had originated in New Orleans and that the caller’s name was “something like Julio Fernandez.”
“Fernandez” told his benefactor that he and two of his “comrades” had encountered Oswald in New Orleans, where Oswald had attempted to infiltrate their anti-Castro cell. Suspicious, the Cubans monitored Oswald, later tape recording him at a secret pro-Castro meeting. On this occasion, Fernandez alleged, Oswald had boasted that he was “a crack marksman and could shoot anybody—including the President or the Secretary of the Navy.” Fernandez went on to say, “There is a Cuban Communist assassination team at-large, and Oswald was their hired gun.”
Of course, all this information could be seen merely as a self-serving attempt to rally influential citizens to the exiles’ cause. However, Fernandez’s story was elevated beyond the expected hyperbole with the final bit of information he passed on to Luce: through his network of contacts, Fernandez was aware that Oswald had traveled to Mexico City, where he came into a large sum of money. As will be seen, the rumor that the Cubans, in Mexico City, gave Oswald money for Kennedy’s assassination made the rounds in many cities (including Mexico City itself) and was never sufficiently investigated. In any case, the statement is significant—on the night of the assassination, no one in the public-at-large knew of Oswald’s Mexico City visit.
Luce instructed her friend, “Go at once to the FBI, give them your tapes, give them your photographs. Tell them everything you know.” Luce forgot the incident until 1967, when one of the Cubans called to tell her that, in 1963, the three had complied with her suggestion to give the material to the Bureau. The FBI agents, he told her, took both the photos and tapes, then “roughed them up and told them to scram and keep their mouths shut and disappear or they would all be deported.”
Years later, at the behest of Senator Richard Schweiker (R-PA), who was then investigating the Kennedy murder, Luce herself contacted “Fernandez,” who by then was a successful attorney in Miami. “I told him he could testify in secret if he wanted,” Luce recalled in 1979. “But he said he would just as soon broadcast from the top of the Empire State Building as testify before a Senate investigating committee. He begged me not to reveal his name because he would then be on the Cuban [Castro] hit list.” Luce honored his request, and never divulged the attorney’s name. Luce later determined that the second of Fernandez’s comrades was deported, while the third was murdered in Miami.21
If the murder in Miami was, indeed, performed by pro-Castro Cubans, was it intended to frighten Fernandez into silence? If so, it accomplished its purpose. Perhaps the three anti-Castro Cubans had stumbled into Oswald, Lopez, Miguelito, and his friend secretly meeting to plan the Kennedy assassination. Perhaps Oswald met with a different group of Cubans assembling for the same end, or towards a different end. Or perhaps the Fernandez story is made up, an attempt to profit from the controversy surrounding Oswald’s past.
In any case, the preceding leads were never investigated any further. They were not reported to the Warren Commission any more than the Cuba Project was. In fact, the Warren Co
mmission was deliberately steered away from any Cuban connection, preferring to focus on aspects of the assassination that were inconsequential or irrelevant to Oswald’s motivation. This was the very beginning of the government’s coverup of the Kennedy assassination, which has grown to be the abiding mystery of the twentieth century.
Meanwhile, Oswald would reach his apartment in the Oak Cliff suburbs, but would never reach whatever escape route he had planned. He might have been betrayed by confederates who did not mean to or were unable to spirit him away (recall the “Machado” allegation that Oswald missed his appointed rendezvous.) There might have been a chance accident on someone’s part. Or he might have betrayed himself in Oak Cliff. However, the chance is slim to none that Oswald, after rigorously planning his escape from the Walker attempt, did not bother to plan his escape from the Kennedy assassination.
Whatever Oswald’s plans, they were rendered meaningless when he encountered Dallas Police Officer J.D. Tippit on the streets of Oak Cliff at approximately 1:15 p.m.. The man who had just murdered the 35th President of the United States, and had, amazingly, escaped the immediate vicinity of Dealey Plaza undetected, had one more murderous hurdle to jump. And he almost made it.
The Murder of J. D. Tippit
“Attention all squads. Attention all squads. The suspect in the shooting at Elm and Houston is reported to be an unknown white male, approximately thirty, slender build, height five feet, ten inches, weight one hundred and sixty-five pounds, reported to be armed with what is though to be a 30 caliber rifle. . . No further description at this time or information 12:45 p.m. KKB-364, Dallas.”
As a result of Howard Brennan’s description, the entire Dallas police force was now alerted to the first details of the killer’s appearance. Dozens of police cars headed straight for Dealey Plaza, leaving the outskirts unprotected in the simultaneous event of a robbery or accident. With this in mind, Police dispatcher Murry Jackson contacted Officer J.D. Tippit and told him to remain in his suburban precinct of Oak Cliff, instructing him, “You will be at-large for any emergency that comes in.”
Thirty-nine year-old Tippit, an eleven-year veteran of the force, had just returned from lunch with his wife. He initially proceeded to an Oak Cliff service station, where he remained for a few minutes. According to witnesses, Tippit suddenly raced off at a high rate of speed. He was seen at approximately 1:11 p.m. in the Top Ten Record store on Jefferson Boulevard, where he asked several patrons to move aside and let him use the phone. He then placed a call, letting the other end ring several times, but getting no answer. He then hurried out of the store. It has never been determined whom Tippit was attempting to contact.22 Except by his killer, the officer was not seen alive again.
Oswald had left his rooming house a few minutes after 1 p.m. It is not known how he traversed the nine-tenths of a mile to Tenth and Patton in the intervening 15 or 16 minutes. It is also not known for certain if Elcan Elliott witnessed Oswald’s strange movements before or after the Tippit encounter. However, it can be deduced that, due to the police dispatch describing the killer and Oswald’s erratic back-and-forth movements on foot in Oak Cliff, Tippit had good reason to pull over and speak with the young man walking along Tenth Street.
Witnesses to the encounter differ on which direction Oswald was walking when Tippit stopped him. An equal number claim he was walking east as walking west. They may both be right. If Elcan is correct regarding Oswald’s constant changing of direction, it is possible that Oswald, walking east, saw the westbound Tippit approaching, and turned to walk west.
Some have claimed that, from his rooming house nine-tenths of a mile away, Oswald didn’t have time to reach the Tippit murder scene by 1:17 p.m. The fact is that he could have easily reached Tenth and Patton by then, and with time to spare. Reconstruction of Oswald’s cab ride from downtown showed that he would have arrived at the apartment around 12:55. Oswald’s landlady, Earlene Roberts, testified that Oswald ran into the Beckley Street house just after she heard a bulletin on the President’s shooting. The bulletins had started as early as 12:45. Roberts testified that Oswald was in his room for a couple of minutes, then dashed out again.
Reconstructions show that, going at a fast walk, one could reach the Tippit slaying site in 11 minutes. But consider that almost everyone in Dallas that day was at home glued to the TV set. In that case, as one writer has stated, “Oswald could have run a four-minute mile naked and no one would have seen him.” As it was, most of the witnesses to the Tippit slaying were on their way to or from their places of employment, supposedly going to or returning from lunch. The rest had to tear themselves away from their TVs when they heard the shots.
When Tippit parked his police car, Oswald exchanged a few words with him through the passenger window vent. Tippit got out of the car and started to walk around the front of it towards Oswald. The closest witness to the entire event was Jack Tatum, the chief medical photographer at Baylor University, who happened to be in the neighborhood on business. In 1963, Tatum volunteered to tell the Dallas police what he knew, but the police never called him. His first official statement did not come until the House Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA) interviewed him in 1978. Located by the author in 1993, Tatum was persuaded to grant a series of rare interviews. He described what he saw:
I was preparing to turn on Tenth Street and I noticed a squad car coming in my direction and a young man walking on the sidewalk toward my direction. As I approached the squad car, I noticed that he was bending over talking to the officer through the passenger window. He had both hands in the pockets of his light windbreaker jacket. As I passed the squad car and looked forward, going into the intersection, I heard three, maybe four shots. I stopped my car and looked and saw the officer laying in the street.23
Tatum was the only direct witness to what happened next—Oswald’s coup de grace:
The person with a gun in his hand walked from the passenger side around behind the car, up to the officer, and shot him again in the head as he lay in the street. He then surveyed the situation, looked around. He looked in my direction and started a slow run in my direction. I was only several feet from him. I saw him direct on. The man I saw shooting the officer was average height, five eight or nine, black hair, had on a light-colored zipper jacket and darker colored pants. I saw him very clearly. I was very close to him—got positive identification. Also, he has a very unusual mouth that turns up—kind of like he’s smiling maybe—and I could not mistake that He had dark hair. I put my car in gear and went forward, watching in the side view mirror. . . He turned left and ran down Patton Street. At that point, I backed up, [and] went back to the scene to see if I could be some help.
I didn’t know who that man was at the time. That evening I saw him appear on TV as the suspect of the assassination of JFK. That was Lee Harvey Oswald—the same person I saw shoot the officer, no doubt.
I still see that face and I was very, very close to him. I still see that scene also.
Oswald was heard by another witness to say “poor damn cop” or “poor dumb cop” as he left the shooting scene. (Interestingly, Lee Oswald’s brother Robert recounts an occasion in 1957, when Lee was home on leave from the Marines. Robert, who was driving, received a citation for running a red light. As the cop pulled away, Lee, a passenger in the car, muttered, “Poor dumb cop.”24)
Oswald then made his way to Jefferson Boulevard. Tippit’s encounter with Lee Oswald on Patton Street, just west of Tenth, took place at approximately 1:17 p.m. (Witnesses who called police estimate that they waited 30 seconds to a minute before calling in. The call was recorded at the police headquarters at 1:18 p.m.,25 placing the murder at 1:16 or 1:17.)
By 1:22, police had broadcast a description of the Tippit killer. Squad cars descended on the area and proceeded to shake down all the buildings in the vicinity to locate the cop-killer. A number of Dallas police have candidly admitted to the author that they were more disturbed and angry over the slaying of Tippit than they were over
the death of Kennedy. “The President was one thing,” one officer observed, “but this was one of our own.”
In addition, most of the experienced cops automatically linked the two murders. One officer on the scene, Gerald Hill, recalls, “I made the statement that the two incidents were awfully close together. Although Dallas is a big town now, it wasn’t that big at that time. You didn’t have two major incidents like this going on that close together. It would automatically make you suspicious.”26 Former Assistant District Attorney Bill Alexander shared this professional’s gut feeling, recalling, “We all knew the same man that killed the President had killed Tippit. We had made up our minds by the time we got there.”27
When police cars screamed down the street toward the Tippit murder scene, shoe store manager Johnny Brewer saw Oswald staring into the recessed window of his storefront, just a few doors from the Texas Theatre on Jefferson Boulevard. Brewer told the FBI, “His hair was sort of messed up and it looked like he had been running, and he looked scared, and he looked funny. . . . The man looked over his shoulder toward the street as the police car headed away.”
When Brewer later walked to the street to see what the police were doing, he again noticed Oswald as he snuck into the theater while the ticket-taker, Julia Postal, was looking the other way. Brewer alerted Postal, who called the police, saying, “I know you all are very busy, but I have a man in the theater who is running from you for some reason.” Within minutes of determining that Postal’s description of the non-paying customer matched their suspect in the Tippit killing, the police swarmed the Texas Theater. Entering the theater, one officer was heard to remark, “I’ll get that son of a bitch if he’s in there.”