Justification For Killing (14 page)

Sitting idly in his car
had proved to be too much for James, he was beginning to get
uncomfortably warm and starting to perspire.

The local AM radio
station WDAL, finished the last notes of the latest top twenty
country hit as James turned off his radio, opened his door and
stepped out of his car. He stood on the curbside of Commerce Street
wanting to see if he could get a glimpse of the President and his
entourage. Besides, it was much cooler standing in the shade close
to the concrete column supporting the overpass.
Might as well see him since I’m already here,
he thought.

Standing on the west side
of Commerce only Main Street and a narrow strip of grass separated
him from Elm Street and the planned presidential route. Looking
east directly up Main Street, he could see the parade procession
had made its ninety-degree right turn onto Houston. Another 120
degree left on Elm, and in a few seconds President Kennedy would be
right across the street from him.

“
What
was that noise,” he said out loud? “That sounded like rifle fire.”
Teague, a decorated Army veteran of the Korean War, and currently a
member of the Texas National Guard later described the events at
the Warren Commission hearings saying,
“It
certainly didn't sound like a rifle shot. It was a loud cannon-type
sound.”
Teague gave his account,
“that it was more of a "flat sound,” whereas the
others were sharp "cracks" which sounded more like a rifle
shot.”
Later he would tell his friends, or
anyone who would listen, “If I had to guess I would say the first
shot was from a military 30-06, an M-1. I have heard that rifle
fired many, many times, and it sounded exactly the
same.”

Almost at the same time he
heard the M-1 fire, something struck the curb to his front, and he
quickly jumped behind the concrete abutment of the triple overpass.
Cautiously sticking his head out he could see folks running in all
directions... one police officer had jumped off his motorcycle and
was running up the grassy slope toward the railroad parking lot...
James had heard shots, how many? He wasn’t certain... for sure
three... but was it four?

Everything was
spinning and seemed to be moving at slow-motion speed, and his
cheek hurt. Did he think his cheek hurt? It must have, his right
cheek was bleeding. He had not noticed the blood during all the
excitement.
It must have been a bullet
that hit the curb at his front
, he
thought.
Was that truly a bullet
strike?
He wondered.

At that moment, Teague saw
the man with the umbrella too. At first he didn’t think much of it,
but watching the other folks running, hiding, ducking, screaming
and trying to protect themselves, Mr. Teague thought it strange
that this diminutive sized man would not be more concerned for his
own safety. And an umbrella! And an overcoat! Was that a silver
medallion around his neck? Surely not! Thomas and Teague both saw
this pint-sized, man, and he also appears in a number of pictures
taken that fateful day. His back is plainly seen in the Zapruder
film raising the umbrella at frame 225 and quickly lowering it. Was
this some type of signal - to whom? The shooter? The shooters? This
unknown ‘umbrella’ man has never been officially identified, and he
never gave a statement to the FBI or the Dallas Police. He was a
totally unknown eyewitness to the John F. Kennedy assassination
attempt. The report from the press of that day cannot identify
him... we alone know whom this little man was... Anhur, you little
devil.

Little ten-year-old
Rosemary Willis was standing with her mother and fourteen year old
sister Linda on the southwest corner of Houston and Elm, directly
across the street from the Texas School Book Depository. Later she
would recount some of what she saw on this fateful day,
“Them people in the parade turned off Houston
onto the street where the President got shot, they'd just gone a
few feet when I heard the first shot, when I heard the noise, I
looked up and tried to see if I could see where the sound came
from. I didn't know it was a gun. I just saw the pigeons start to
fly from the roof of the schoolbook building. I looked for the
noise I heard, and I seen the pigeons, you know, they were scared
to death, and took off flying. Next thing I heard was another gun.
And after that, there's another shot and another shot. We have
argued and argued about how many shots I heard. I think I heard
four. Mommy and June, my sister don’t agree. If you ask me how many
shots I think there were, I really think there were at least six,
but I believe I heard four.”
Later she
added a few details that were not told earlier:
“I turned as the President’s car passed by us and I started
to run to try to keep up with it when all of a sudden a pigeon fell
on the grass right next to me. Well the bird wasn’t RIGHT next to
me. It was in the grass. It didn’t just fly in and light it just
fell out of the sky! I thought it was hurt, and I could see it
wasn’t dead, so I ran over and picked it up. It was beautiful, gray
and white it was. It had been hurt but not bad, so I was going to
sit it back down on the grass but it flew off before I could do
it.”

Most witnesses testifying
to the Warren Commission about that day also agree the first shot
occurred just as President Kennedy was raising his right hand and
waving.

Special Agent Roy
Kellerman who rode in the front passenger seat of the presidential
limousine described the shots he heard to the Warren
Commission:
“If I recall correctly the
first two shots were very sharp shots, sir."

“
Did they sound different
from the third shot,” asked one of the Commission
members?

"Yes. It sure did.
Very much so."
Kellerman added,
"Let me purpose an example ... have you ever
heard the noise of a plane breaking the sound barrier, bang, bang?
That’s how it was. It was like two bangs --- bang,
bang."

Special Agent Hickey
seated in the right rear seat of the presidential follow car
described,
"... two loud explosions, which
I thought at first, were backfires ... then I realized they were
gun shots... there seemed to be practically no time between
them."

William Green, the
Special Agent driving the limousine stated, under oath to the
Warren Commission,
"the two shots occurred
one following the other. Both in rapid
succession."

S. M. Holland’s
testimony said he had been watching the motorcade from the railroad
overpass just a few feet from where Michael Thomas and his kids
were standing when he heard, what he thought was four shots. The
third and fourth sounding like two shots remarkably close together.
He thought some of the shots came from the trees close to the fence
on the Grassy Knoll.
"Well it would be
like you're firing a small caliber pistol right beside a shotgun,
or a bigger pistol right beside a shotgun... the third shot was
louder than the first two ... If I had to guess I’d say the third
or the fourth shot was the one that hit the
President."

Roger Craig, a
Deputy Sheriff stated,
"I believe that the
first shot ... sounded like it echoed or bounced off the buildings,
so to speak ... well, it wasn’t much of a pause between the first
and second shots ... It could have been a bit longer, I’d say less
than a second or two...”
Between the
second and third shots there was,
"Surely
no more than maybe two seconds. It was -- they were fairly
quick."

Joe R.
Molina,
"... I heard the first shot fired
then there was a short space between the first and second, a lot
shorter than between the second and third. I would say it sounded
like an echo if I had to guess I think it came from the west side;
that was all I got from the experience.”

From the spot where Joe
Molina watched the motorcade, on the steps of the Texas School Book
Depository, the west side would have been down toward the triple
overpass.

Seymour Weitzman, a
Dallas Police Officer said in his report to the FBI on Nov 24,
1963:
"First one, then the second two
seemed to be simultaneous. A total of three shots rang out, and I
immediately ran to the point where Elm Street turns to go under the
overpass and up the grassy slope located on the opposite side of
Elm Street to a fence.”
He stated they
located no one, and after talking to the yardman, Weitzman said he
was told the noise had to come from the end of the fence closest to
the Texas School Book Depository, and a search was immediately made
of that area.

While still on the other
side of the fence, someone, believed to have been Deputy Boone of
the Dallas County Sheriff’s Office, mentioned having seen or having
heard about something red rolling on Elm Street. When found it
appeared to be a portion of a bone or bone structure, which bore
fresh bloodstains. This was taken to the Dallas Police
Laboratory... This bone fragment was later determined to be part of
Special Agent Hill’s shoulder wound.

Eugene Boone, Dallas
county Deputy was one of those who later found the sniper rifle
stuck between some boxes or crates on the sixth floor of the
building.”

WHO COULD DO SUCH A
DEED?

On the 22nd of November,
1963 President John F. Kennedy, his wife Jacqueline, and their
entourage left the Fort Worth Texas Hotel and traveled to the
Strategic Air Command’s Carswell Air Force Base located adjacent to
the city of White Settlement on Ft. Worth’s west side. At the front
gate, the motorcade passed by the Air Policemen who stood at
attention and saluted. It proceeded down the long row of B-52
long-range bombers known as the Stratofortress, to Air Force One
where the party boarded for the thirteen-minute flight to
Dallas.

The time of departure was
11:26.

The Presidential party
arrived at Love Field at 11:39 A.M. President and Mrs. Kennedy
stepped down from their aircraft and immediately walked toward a
fence where an immense crowd of well-wishers had assembled. Very
cordially the President moved down the line from the right to left
extending his hand to as many as he could touch. He and the First
Lady spent several minutes shaking hands.

The invitations that had
been sent out indicated a noon start time to the luncheon with the
Presidential speech around 12:15 p.m. Meanwhile, SS Agent Lawson
was beginning to get worried. He told Chief Curry, due to arriving
at Love Field late, they would not make it to the Trade Mart on
time. Lawson was hoping the President and the First Lady would end
the pressing of the flesh, so-to-speak, and get the show on the
road.

The first lady received a
bouquet of red roses from the Dallas mayor’s wife, which she
brought with her when they finally entered the waiting black
limousine. Texas Governor John Connally and his wife, Nellie had
already seated themselves in the open convertible’s jump seats. The
Kennedys entered and sat in the seat behind them. Since the rain
had stopped, the plastic bubble top had been removed. Vice
President and Mrs. Johnson occupied another car in the
motorcade.

The motorcade consisted of
the lead car, an unmarked Ford driven by Dallas Police Chief Jesse
Curry. Next was the black 1961 Cadillac limousine containing the
Kennedys; behind the President was the Secret Service follow-car
codenamed ‘Halfback’; next the Vice President’s limousine and
following it another Secret Service hardtop automobile codenamed
‘Varsity’. After those vehicles were a couple of cars carrying
members of the press.

The procession left the
airport, through a hole cut in the airport fence, and traveled
along a ten-mile route winding through downtown Dallas on the way
to the Trade Mart where the President was scheduled to speak at the
assembled group of Dallas dignitaries.

The route was to make a
left turn from the south end of Love Field to West Mockingbird
Lane, then turn right on Lemmon Ave. Next a right, at the "Y" on
Turtle Creek Blvd. Go straight on Cedar Springs Rd, turn left on
North Harwood St, make a right on Main St, another right on Houston
St, a sharp left on Elm St, drop down through the triple overpass.
Take a right turn up the ramp to North Stemmons Freeway, to Dallas
Trade Mart located at 2100 North Stemmons.

Originally the motorcade
was to continue straight down Main instead of turning right onto
Houston, toward the Texas School Book Depository, but the Secret
Service noticed Elm Street provided the only direct route from
Dealey Plaza to the Stemmons Freeway, so the original route had to
be changed.

As the motorcade drove
into downtown Dallas the President, twice, ordered his car to stop
while he got out and shook a few hands. The throngs of people
crowding the sidewalks loved him. He seemed to be getting as large
a charge out of them as they were from him.

At one point a group
of Catholic girls and their Nuns held up a sign reading, “Please
Mr. President shake our hands.” As on cue, the car stopped, and Mr.
Kennedy gave the Nuns, and their students the thrill of their lives
- he shook all their outstretched hands.
Please Mr. President
, thought one of
the Secret Agents,
get back in the
car!