JFK Assassination: Earlene Roberts

Ramparts

November 1966 pp. 42-43

 

Mrs. Roberts, the plump widow who managed the rooming house where Oswald was living under the name of O. H. Lee, was one of the key witnesses before the Warren Commission. She testified that “around 1 o’clock, or maybe a little after” on November 22, Oswald rushed into the rooming house, stayed in his room for “not over 3 or 4 minutes” and walked out zipping on a light-weight jacket. The last she saw of him he was waiting at a nearby bus stop. A few minutes later, one mile away, Officer Tippit was shot dead; Oswald was accused of the crime.

Mrs. Roberts also testified that during the brief time Oswald was in his room, a police car with two uniformed cops in it pulled up in front of the rooming house, and that she did not recognize either the car or the policeman. She heard the horn honk, “just kind of ‘tit-tit’ – twice,” and after a moment saw the police car move off down the street. Moments later Oswald left the house.

The police department issued a report saying all patrol cars in the area (except Officer Tippit’s) were accounted for. The Warren Commission let it go at that. It did not seek to resolve the question: what were policemen doing honking the horn outside Oswald’s rooming house 30 minutes after the Presidential assassination? Their swift departure would indicate they certainly were not coming to apprehend him. It is perhaps too far-fetched to imagine they were giving Oswald some kind of signal, [42] although it seems plausible as any other explanation of this bizarre incident.

After testifying in Dallas in April of 1964, Mrs. Roberts was subjected to intensive police harassment. They visited her at all hours of the day and night, contacted her employers and identified her as the Oswald rooming house lady. As a result she was dismissed from three housekeeping and nursing jobs in April, May and June of 1964 alone; no telling how many jobs she lost after that. Relatives report that right up until her death a year and a half later, Earlene complained of being “worried to death” by the police.

Mrs. Roberts died January 9, 1966 in Parkland Hospital. Police said she suffered a heart attack in her home. No autopsy was performed. [43] (The Legacy of Penn Jones, Jr., Ramparts November 1966 pp. 42-43)