JFK Assassination: Did Howard Brennan Actually Attend Any of the DPD Lineups and ID Oswald?

According to Vol. XXIV p. 347 CE 2003 p. 293, Brennan was never called upon to identify Lee Harvey Oswald as the shooter in the sixth-floor window of the TSBD.

SHOWUPS OF OSWALD

#1.

11-22-63, 4:35 pm

To: Helen Markham, positive identification.

 

Officers with Oswald: R.M. Sims, M.G. Hall, E.L. Boyd

Officers with witnesses: L.C. Graves, J.R. Leavelle, Chief

                    Curry, C.W. Brown, Captain Fritz.

In the showup: #1, Bill Perry, #2 Lee Harvey Oswald #3 R.L.

          Clark #4 Dan Ables.

#2.

11-22-63, 6:30 pm

To: J. McWatters, positive identification

    Sam Guinyard, positive identification

    Ted Calloway, positive identification

 

Officers with Oswald: R.M. Sims, E.L. Boyd, M.G. Hall

Officers with witnesses: J.R. Leavelle, C.W. Brown, C.N.

                         Dhority

In Showup: #1 Billy Perry, #2 Lee Harvey Oswald, #3 R. L. Clark

           #4 Dan Ables

#3.

11-22-63, 7:55 pm

To: Barbara Jeanette David, positive identification

    Virginia Davis, positive identification

Officers with Oswald: C.W. Brown, C.N. Dhority

In showup: #1 Richard Walter Borshardt, #2 Lee Harvey Oswald

           #3 Ellis Carl Braswell, #4 Dan Ables

November 23, 1963, 2:15 pm

 

To: W.W. Scoggins, positive identification

    William Wayne Whaley, positive identification

Officers with Oswald: B.L. Senkel, W.E. Potts, M.G. Hall, C.W.

                      Brown

Officers with witnesses: J.R. Leavelle

 

In showup: #1 John Thurman Horn #2 David Knapp #3 Lee Oswald

           #4 David Lujan

JFK Assassination: Lee Bowers: WC VI pp. 284-289

Biography

1. Navy veteran, 4 years.

2. Attended Hardin-Simmons University, 2 years.

3. Attended Southern Methodist University, 2 years, majoring in religion.

4. Employed by the Union Terminal Co. for 15 years.

5. Self-employed builder.

6. Business manager for Dr. Tim Green.

7. Working hours for Union Terminal were 7 a.m. to 3 p.m., M-F.

 

The Switching Tower

The tower he worked in was 14 feet in height with windows on all sides. (VI p. 284)

The tower was “within 50 yards of the back of the School Depository Building, or less.” (VI p. 285)

 

 

Railroad Yard and Parking Lot Restricted by Police

The parking lot and railroad yards “had been covered by police for some 2 hours. Since approximately 10 o’clock in the morning traffic had been cut off into the area so that anyone moving around could actually be observed.” (VI p. 284)

 

Automobiles

“There were three cars that came in during the time from around noon until the time of the shooting … they came into the vicinity of the tower, which was at the extension of Elm Street, which runs in front of the School Depository, and which there is no way out. It is not a through street to anywhere.” (VI p. 284)

“The first car was a 1959 Oldsmobile, blue and white station wagon with out-of-state license. (VI p. 286) The car proceeded in front of the Depository Building down across 2 or 3 tracks and circled the area in front of the tower, and to the west of the tower, and, as if he was searching for a way out, or was checking the area, and then proceeded back through the only way he could, the same outlet he came into. (VI p. 285) “[It] had a bumper sticker, one of which was a Goldwater sticker, and the other of which was of some scenic location, I think.” (VI p. 286)

 

Note: When Joseph Ball asked Mr. Bowers if he knew what out-of-state license was on the Oldsmobile, Bowers replied, “No; I do not. I would know it, I could identify it, I think, if I looked at a list.” Mr. Bowers thought he could identify the State which issued the license, but Mr. Ball was not interested in pursuing this. (VI p. 286)

 

“… some 15 minutes or so after this [spotting the 1959 Oldsmobile], at approximately … I guess 12:20 … there was another car which was a 1957 black Ford, with one male in it that seemed to have a mike or telephone or something that gave the appearance of that at least. He was holding something up to his mouth with one hand and he was driving with the other, and gave that appearance. He was very close to the tower. I could see him as he proceeded around the area. [The car] had a Texas license. [It] came in from the extension of Elm Street in front of the School Depository. “… after 3 or 4 minutes cruising the area it departed the same way. He did probe a little further into the area than the first car.” (VI p. 286)

“Third car, which entered the area, which was some seven or nine minutes before the shooting. I believe was a 1961 or 1962 Chevrolet, four-door Impala, white, showed signs of being on the road. It was muddy up to the windows, bore similar out-of-state license to the first car I observed, occupied also by one while male. He spent a little more time in the area. He tried – he circled the area and probed one spot right at the tower in an attempt to get and was forced to back out some considerable distance, and slowly cruised down back towards the front of the School Depository Building. The last I saw of him he was pausing just about in – just above the assassination site.” Asked whether it parked or continued, Bowers stated, “Whether it continued on at that very moment or whether it pulled up only a short distance, I couldn’t tell. I was busy.” When asked how long this was before the President’s car passed there, Bowers stated, “about 8 minutes.” (VI p. 286)

 

Line of Sight from the Tower

When asked if he could see the corner of Elm and Houston from his location in the tower, Bowers stated, “No; I could not see the corner of Elm and Houston. I could see the corner of Main and Houston as they came down and turned on, then I couldn’t see it for about half a block, and after they passed the corner of Elm and Houston the car came in sight again … It [the Presidential limousine] came in sight after it had turned the corner of Elm and Houston. (VI p. 286)

 

Number of Shots

“I heard three shots. One, then a slight pause, then two very close together. Also, reverberation from the shots.” (VI p. 287)

 

Source of Shots

“The sounds came from either from up against the School Depository Building or near the mouth of the triple underpass.” When asked if he could tell if the shots came from the Depository or the triple underpass, he stated, “No; I could not.” (VI p. 287)

 

Men on the Knoll

Joseph Ball asked if there any people “standing on the high side – high ground between your tower and where Elm Street goes down and the underpass toward the mouth of the underpass.”

 

Note: This would be on the WEST end of the wooden fence.

 

Bowers replied, “Directly in line, towards the mouth of the underpass, there were two men. One man, middle-aged, or slightly older, fairly heavy set, in a white shirt, fairly dark trousers. Another younger man about mid-twenties, in either a plaid shirt or plaid coat or jacket. They were standing within 10 or 15 feet of each other, and gave no appearance of being together, as far as I knew. They were facing and looking up towards Main and Houston, following the caravan as it came down.  (VI p. 287)

 

 

Men on the Triple Underpass

“On the triple underpass, there were two policemen. One facing each direction, both east and west. There was one railroad employee, a signal man there with the Union Terminal Co., and two welders that worked for the Fort Worth Welding firm, and there was also a laborer’s assistant furnished by the railroad to these welders. They were standing on top of it [triple underpass] facing towards Houston Street, all except … the one policeman on the west side.” (VI p. 287)

 

Other Men in the Area

“There were one or two people in the [high ground] area. Not in this same vicinity. One of them was a parking lot attendant that operates a parking lot there. One or two. Each had uniforms similar to those custodians at the courthouse. But they were some distance back, just a light distance back.” (VI p. 287)

 

Direction of Bowers Attention During the Shots

“At the moment I heard the sound, I was looking directly towards that area – at the moment of the first shot, as close as my recollection serves, the car was out of sight behind this decorative masonry wall in the area.” Ball asked if Bowers could see the car during the second and third shots. “No; at the moment of the shots, I could – I do not think that it was in sight. It came in sight immediately following the last shot.” (VI p. 288)

 

The Motorcycle Policeman

“Immediately following [the shooting] there was a motorcycle policeman who shot nearly all of the way to the top of the incline. He was part of the motorcade and had left it for some reason, which I do not know. He came almost to the top and I believe abandoned his motorcycle for a moment and then got on it and proceeded, I don’t know. He just shot up over the curb and up … he left the motorcade and came up the incline on the motorcycle. He came up into the area where there are some trees, and where I had described the two men were in the general vicinity of this.” Asked if the two men were there during this time, Bowers stated, “I – as far as I know, one of them was. The other I could not say. The darker dressed man was too hard to distinguish from the trees. The one in the white shirt, yea; I think he was. (VI p. 288)

 

Commotion on the Knoll

“At the time of the shooting there seemed to be some commotion …I am unable to describe rather than it was something out of the ordinary, a sort of milling around, but something occurred in this particular spot which was out of the ordinary, which attracted my eye for some reason, which I could not identify … nothing that I could pinpoint as having happened that …”

 

Note: At this point Joseph Ball cut off Bowers’ description of the “commotion” he had witnessed and asked about the “good many people com[ing] up there on this high ground at the tower.” It’s more than obvious that Mr. Ball knew which areas of the inquiry to avoid. (VI p. 288)

 

People Rushing Toward the Knoll

“A large number of people came, more than one direction. One group converged from the corner of Elm and Houston, and came down the extension of Elm and came into the high ground, and another large group went across the triangular area between Houston and Elm then across Elm and then up the incline. Some of them all the way up.

 

Area Sealed Off by Police

“[There were] between 50 and a hundred policemen within a maximum of 5 minutes.  [They] sealed off the area.” (VI p. 288)

 

Trains and Transients

“I held off the trains until they could be examined, and there was some transients taken on at least one train.” (VI p. 288)

 

JFK Assassination: Lee Bowers

Ramparts

by David Welsh

November, 1966

Lee Bowers' testimony is perhaps as explosive as any recorded by the Warren Commission. He was one of 65 known witnesses to the President's assassination who thought shots were fired from the area of the Grassy Knoll. (The Knoll is west of the Texas School Book Depository.) But more than that, he was in a unique position to observe some pretty strange behavior in the Knoll area during and immediately before the assassination

Bowers, then a towerman with the Union Terminal Company, was stationed in his 14-foot tower directly behind the Grassy Knoll. As he faced the assassination site, he could see the railroad overpass to his right front. Directly in front of him was a parking lot, and then a wooden stockade fence and a row of trees running along the top of the Grassy Knoll. The Knoll sloped down to the spot on Elm Street where Kennedy was killed. Police had "cut off" traffic into the parking area, Bowers said, "so that anyone moving around could actually be observed."

Bowers made two significant observations which he revealed to the Commission. First, he saw three unfamiliar cars slowly cruising around the parking area in the 35 minutes before the assassination; the first two left after a few minutes. The driver of the second car appeared to be talking into "a mike or telephone" - "he was holding something up to his mouth with one hand and he was driving with the other." A third car, with out-of-state plates and mud up to the windows, probed all around the parking area. Bowers last remembered seeing it about eight minutes before the shooting, pausing "just above the assassination site." He gave detailed descriptions of the cars and their drivers.

Bowers also observed two unfamiliar men standing on top of the Knoll at the edge of the parking lot, within 10 or 15 feet of each other - "one man, middle-aged or slightly older, fairly heavy-set, in a white shirt, fairly dark trousers. Another younger man, about mid-twenties, in either a plaid shirt or a plaid coat or jacket." Both were facing toward Elm and Houston, where the motorcade would be coming from. They were the only strangers he remembered seeing. His description shows a remarkable similarity to Julia Ann Mercer's description of two unidentified men climbing the knoll.

When the shots rang out, Bowers' attention was drawn to the area where he had seen the two men; he could still make out the one in the white shirt - "the darker dressed man was too hard to distinguish from the trees." He observed "some commotion" at that spot, "...something out of the ordinary, a sort of milling around...which attracted my eye for some reason, which I could not identify." At that moment, he testified, a motorcycle policeman left the Presidential motorcade and roared up the Grassy Knoll straight to where the two mysterious gentlemen were standing behind the fence. The policeman dismounted, Bowers recalled, then after a moment climbed on his motorcycle and drove off. Later, in a film interview with attorney Mark Lane, he explained that the "commotion" that caught his eye may have been "a flash of light or smoke." His information dovetails with what other witnesses observed from different vantage points.

On the morning of August 9, 1966, Lee Bowers, now the vice-president of a construction firm, was driving south from Dallas on business. He was two miles from Midlothian when his brand new company car veered from the road and hit a bridge abutment. A farmer who saw it said the car was going 50 miles an hour, a slow speed for that road. There were no skid marks to indicate braking.

Bowers died of his wounds at 1 p.m. in a Dallas hospital. He was 41. There was no autopsy, and he was cremated soon afterward. Doctors saw no evidence that he had suffered a heart attack. A doctor from Midlothian, who rode in the ambulance with Bowers, noticed something peculiar about the victim. "He was in a strange state of shock," the old doctor said, "a different kind of shock than an accident victim experiences. I can't explain it. I've never seen anything like it."

Bowers widow at first insisted to Penn Jones that there was nothing suspicious about her husband's death. Then she became flustered and said: "They told him not to talk." (Ramparts, David Welsh, November, 1966)

 

JFK Assassination: Eva Grant in San Antonio November 21, 1963: XXVI pp. 508-509 CE 2997

UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE

FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION

 

Washington 25, D.C.

 

December 3, 1963

 

LEE HARVEY OSWALD

 

The following information was furnished by Attorney ARTURO ALCOCER RUIZ, Called masarik #51, Mexico, D. F., Mexico, telephones 45-10-26 and 45-42-19 on November 27, 1963. ALCOCER feels that the information furnished may possibly involve JACK RUBY and his sister or both as conspirators in the assassination of President JOHN F. KENNEDY on November 22, 1963, in Dallas, Texas:

ALCOCER and his wife, DOLORES AHEDO DE ALCOCER, and her friend MARIA [?], departed Mexico City on November 20, 1963, aboard Braniff Flight #50 destined for San Antonio where they intended to rest. ALCOCER’s daughter had been killed when run over by a car in Mexico City on November 1, 1963, and this was the reason for the trip. His Mexican Passport No. 51035 and his wife’s Passport No. 51034 were stamped with U.S. entry on November 20, 1963, and re-entry into Mexico on November 26, 1963. The ALCOCERS arrived in San Antonio on November 20, 1963 (Wednesday), and could get no hotel so they spent the night at the Sea Winds Hotel on Commerce Street. On the morning of November 21, 1963, they checked in at the Gunter Hotel in Room 1002. Shortly after 9 A.M. on November 21, 1963, they departed the Gunter Hotel for a shopping tour and as they left the hotel they saw a very fat woman wearing glasses, green cotton dress, age 50, about 5' 7" tall and weighing possibly as much as 200 pounds with low bust and hair dyed blonde. The fat woman was standing in front of Carl’s Store near the Gunter Hotel. They noticed her because of her extreme obesity. They thereafter went on the Jodke’s store and other locations in San Antonio shopping. They returned to the vicinity of the Gunter Hotel shortly after 1 P.M. on 11-21-63 and started into the Manhattan Restaurant to have lunch. As this time they noticed that the fat woman was still standing at the same location. At the same moment everyone on the street became excited because President JOHN KENNEDY was passing down the street in a Caravan so they returned to the sidewalk to watch the Presidential procession. The fat woman left the area after the Presidential procession and it appeard that she had been standing in the same place in front of Carl’s store for several hours.

On November 22, 1963, following the assassination of President KENNEDY in Dallas, Texas, the ALCOCERS were watching the television programs and at 6 P.M. following the apprehension of the subject, they were watching an interview of the manager of the guest house where the subject stayed and during the course of this interview, the television camera picked up the same fat woman they had seen in San Antonio the previous day. All were in agreement on this. The fat woman was not interviewed at this time on television. Both ALCOCER and is wife, DOLORES, believe that the fat woman was at the guest house at the time the manager of the guest house was being interviewed on television and suspected she might have stayed as a guest at the same house where the subject stayed. On November 24, 1963, (Sunday), following the murder of the subject by JACK RUBY, they picked up a television program in which JACK RUBY’s sister was being interviewed and they identified her as the same fat woman they had seen in San Antonio on November 21 1963, and who had been seen on television during the interview of the subject’s residence.

ALCOCER noted that ANITA RODRIGUEZ DE LOSANO, who is married to RAYMUNDO DE LOSANO who is the daughter of ALCOCER’s good friends, FELIPE RODRIGUEZ and ANITA GARCIA DE RODRIGUEZ, 3114 West Commerce Street, telephone CA6-8507, San Antonio, Texas, was with the ALCOCERS at the time they first saw the fat woman at San Antonio. Later, when the fat woman appeared on television, RODRIGUEZ called to say his daughter, ANITA, had identified the fat woman as being [508] the same person the ALCOCERS and ANITA had seen on November 21, 1963. The ALCOCERS had already agreed that the fat woman was identical prior to receipt of the telephone call from RODRIGUEZ.

 

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)

 

JFK Assassination: Khrushchev Did Not Believe the Official Story of JFK’s Assassination

CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY

WASHINGTON 25, D.C
 

27 May, 1964

MEMORANDUM FOR: Mr. J. Lee Rankin, General Counsel

                                             President’s Commission on the

                                             Assassination of President Kennedy

SUBJECT:                         Discussion Between Chairman Khrushchev and

                                            Mr. Drew Pearson re Lee Harvey Oswald

1. This will amplify my telephonic remarks to you on 25 May, during which I informed you that Mr. and Mrs. Drew Pearson had had a 45-minute conversation in Cairo on 24 May with Chairman Khrushchev.

2. The CIA Chief of Station in Cairo has reported a conversation which he and his wife held with Mr. and Mrs. Drew Pearson in Cairo on 24 and 25 May. Mrs. Pearson is a cousin of the wife of our Chief of Station. Nothing in the cable quoted below should be construed as obviating any desirability the Commission may feel about securing testimony directly from Mr. and Mrs. Pearson. We are forwarding it to you solely for the purpose of placing in your hands at the earliest moment the information which had been provided to us in this privileged fashion.

3. The message from our Chief of Station in Cairo reads as follows:

“Mrs. Drew Pearson provided on the evening of 24 May the first information on the Oswald portion of the conversation with Chairman and Mrs. Khrushchev. Mrs. Khrushchev opened the conversation by inquiring about Mrs. Kennedy and expressing concern about and affection for her. Mrs. Pearson reassured her, saying that Mrs. Kennedy had borne up remarkably well and was in good health. (Most of this conversation was in English which Mrs. Khrushchev speaks fairly well, with some assistance from Khrushchev’s interpreter, who had served in the past as interpreter for the Pearsons and who helped arrange the meeting.) This led into Mrs. Khrushchev’s inquiry about their mutual friend, the wife of Chief Justice Warren, and thence into mention of the Warren Commission. Chairman Khrushchev then joined the conversation, expressing sorrow at the assassination and also inquired about Mrs. Kennedy. Thereupon he asked Mr. Pearson, ‘What really happened?’ Mr. Pearsons said in effect that the whole affair had taken place just as had been reported in the newspapers and presumably by the Soviet Ambassador in Washington. Chairman Khrushchev was utterly incredulous and his attitude was characterized by Mrs. Pearson as being archetypical “of every European I have ever talked to on this subject’. That is, that there was some kind of conspiracy to assassinate President Kennedy and then murder the assassin with the Dallas Police Department being an accessory. Mrs. Pearson got the impression that Chairman Khrushchev had some dark thoughts about the American Right Wing being behind this conspiracy although Chairman Khrushchev did not articulate this in any clear fashion. Mrs. Pearson was a bit vague on this point in distinguishing between what Chairman Khrushchev said and what she thought he believed. When Mr. Pearson said that we Americans are peculiar people, it[s] understandable that foreigners had difficulty comprehending this fantastic episode, but in fact Oswald was mad, had acted on his own, ditto Ruby, Chairman Khrushchev said flatly he did not believe this. He said he did not believe that the American security services were this inept. Mr. Pearson again said he agreed this was hard to believe but the facts were as they appeared. Mrs. Khrushchev also expressed disbelief and reiterated he affection for Mrs. Kennedy. Mrs. Pearson repeated that the reaction of Chairman Khrushchev and his wife was one of flat disbelief and archetypical of the universal European belief that there was some kind of American conspiracy behind the assassination of President Kennedy and the murder of Oswald. Chairman and Mrs. Khrushchev could not believe that the affair had happened as it apparently did and Mr. Pearson made no headway whatever in trying to change their belief that something was not on the level. Chairman Khrushchev greeted Mr. and Mrs. Pearson’s efforts with a tolerant smile. The conversation then drifted into Chairman Khrushchev’s friendly comments about President Johnson.

“On the morning of 25 May, Mr. Pearson referred en passant to the Oswald portion of the conversation, saying that Chairman Khrushchev was completely convinced that the true story of the Kennedy assassination has not come out. Mr. Pearson said somewhat ruefully, ‘I couldn’t make a nickel with Khrushchev on this one.’ He gave the impression that Chairman Khrushchev’s attitude was one of complete skepticism as to the public version rather than being one of holding concrete ideas as to exactly what happened.

“On the evening of 25 May, Mr. and Mrs. Pearson, in discussing the Khrushchev talk, made another passing reference to the fact that Chairman and Mrs. Khrushchev are convinced that the public version of the affair is not true and that nothing they could say altered this belief.”

/s/ Richard Helms

Deputy Director for Plans

 

cc: Mr. John A. McCone

       Mr. McGeorge Bundy

       Mr. Richard H. Davis

                                                                                                                                                      

Global Warming: Al Gore is a Dipshit

COPENHAGEN, Denmark, December 14, 2009 (ENS) – Snow and ice across the planet are melting much faster than anticipated, and the cryosphere – the Earth’s ice and snow cover – is very vulnerable to climate change, finds a new report presented today at the United Nations Climate Summit by former U.S. Vice President Al Gore and Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Støre.

Snow cover is diminishing, and glaciers from the Himalayas to the Alps are melting rapidly, with the greatest reductions in the Andes and the Rockies, the report shows.

 

 

Foothills of the Colorado Rockies between Denver and Wyoming, February 1, 2014.