Justification For Killing (58 page)

The third automobile from
the street was a 1956 Bel-Air Chevrolet. Slipping between the
two-parked cars LJ opened the driver’s door, turned his head from
side to side and gave the car an admiring once over. Licking his
lips he remarked, “I have always loved the ’56 Chevy. Hey, Rocky
this one only has 63,000 miles on it!”

“
LJ, would you pipe down
and quit ogling the car – we’re here to steal it, not buy it! Get
in there and see if you can hotwire it.” No sooner had Rocky
finished making his remarks to Lonnie Joe, he heard the engine of
the Chevy turn over. It turned over a couple of times but did not
start. “How did you hotwire this sucker so fast?” Rocky
asked.

“
Skill, Rocky...just
skill,” Lonnie Joe said grinning. “ And the fact the keys were over
the visor helped, but darn, this thing has been sitting here too
long Rocky. Maybe we need to pick another one.”

“
No, give’er another
chance. I believe if you ‘goose’ the gas pedal a little she might
crank. Slide over,” Rocky said. “Let me give’er a try.”

Lonnie Joe moved over to
the passenger’s side while Rocky got behind the wheel. He reached
for the ignition and turned the key once more, this time applying a
few pumps of gas with the accelerator pedal. Rocky had been correct
the engine coughed a couple of times and then fired up. In a minute
or so the old two hundred sixty-five horsepower Chevy V-8 was
running smoothly.

“
How much gas do we
have?”

“
Fuel gauge shows half a
tank. Grab our bag of equipment and throw it into the back seat, we
are ready to go. Take out the portable police scanner from the bag
– and adjust the frequency to the Dallas police dispatcher:
155.256. We need to know what they are up to at all
times.”

A few vehicles down
from the ’56 Chevy Bud and Lou had selected a 1949 Ford. It was
old, rusty and looked like it had not been washed in ages, but it
had one thing going for it – the impound personnel had left its key
in the ignition. Who in the heck would want to steal it anyway, the
impound workers must have thought. Bud opened the door and turned
the key, nothing. The battery was dead. Bud with eyes shut, head in
hands, leaned against the steering wheel and thought of the irony:
here they were visitors from forty-nine years in the future;
approximately twenty-four hours from one of America’s most historic
tragedies; illegally trespassing in a Dallas police impound lot
attempting to steal a car, and the car, of all things, has a dead
battery
. ‘For want of a horseshoe nail’,
were they kidding?
He
thought.

Driving up in their ‘ride’
Lonnie Joe rolled down his window and was told about the battery.
“What bad luck!” he said. “Try another car, someone is apt to come
into this lot at any moment.”

“
Bud,” said Lou with no
response. “Bud,” again he got no response, “Bud!”

“
What!! What is it Lou,
for goodness sakes!”

“
Bud, you know people have
had a habit of keeping battery jumper cables in their car’s trunk.
Why don’t we look in the trunk of this car and see if maybe there
might be a pair of booster cables? If we could find a pair of
cables we can get a jump start from Lonnie and Rocky’s
car.”

“
Are you crazy Lou, who
would carry around a pair of cables in their trunk?”

“
Gimme the trunk key,”
demanded Lou.

As the old 1949 Ford sat
there with its motor humming, Lou, grinning, turned to Bud, “You
got anything to say Mr. Who-Would-Carry-Cables-In-Their-Trunk
know-it-all?”

“
Yeah, even a blind hog
finds an acorn every once in a while – smart aleck!”

Both teams now had their
transportation. “We have to get away from here before being
spotted. Let’s go a couple of blocks north on Houston and find a
place to stop, then we can finalize our plans.”

“
Okay, LJ, Lou and I will
follow you and Rocky - lead on.”

A few blocks from
downtown the two cars pulled into the huge parking lot of
the
Lone Star
supermarket.

DALLAS POLICE
HEADQUARTERS

“
Sarge!
Sarge! Yelled Patrolman Tommy Jackson running up to the Desk
Sergeant’s station in the lobby of the Dallas Police Headquarter
building only a couple of blocks south of the
Lone Star
parking
lot.

“
Calm down Tom... tell me
what’s the problem? The desk sergeant said looking over his desk at
the perspiring patrolman.

Removing his handkerchief
from his back pocket, Officer Jackson mopped his brow as he began
to explain, “Sarge, I was comin’ up Commerce, headin’ east and I
glanced over to my left toward the Texas School Book
Building...”

“
And... and... you got
more? I drove by it this morning, didn’t see nothin’ out of the
ordinary.”

“
Yeah, yeah, Sarge there
was somethin’... somethin’ shiny on the roof. The morning sunlight
was bouncing off it like it was on fire. It was real shiny
Sarge!”

“
Ah, Tom, you must’ve seen
one of them air vents. They are metal, and aluminum would shine
pretty bright in the morning sun.”

“
Nah, that wern’t no air
vent Sarge... I know what I seen. Just as quick as I get into my
patrol car I’m goin’ over there and check it out. I know I saw
somethin’ that weren’t normal.”

After roll call, Officer
Jackson and his partner Patrolmen Bert Lambert exited the police
underground parking lot in their 1960 Ford cruiser and pointed it
north on Houston toward the School Book Building. Passing the
building Jackson said, “Bert, turn left right here into the police
impoundment lot... we can see the top of the building real good
from there.”

“
Hey Tommy, look here.”
Bert said pointed to the two empty car slots as the patrol car
pulled into the vehicle storage lot. “Look, there’s been grass
growin’ around these two spots. Someone has moved these two cars
recently Tommy.”

“
Reckon who would be
stupid enough to steal cars from a police yard Bert?”

“
I don’t know, but this
ain’t the actual impoundment lot Tommy, this is the Dallas City
Storage Lot. The normal impoundment lot is on the other side of
that chain link fence over yonder,” Bert said motioning with his
finger to another part of the large area of vehicles parked within
the fenced in facility. “Cars left here have been here a long time,
sometimes months. Let’s go talk with the Supervisor in charge.
Maybe he moved ’em.”

Finding the small wooden
building used as the office for the two persons in charge of the
impoundment facility Officer Jackson and Lambert began questioning
the employees about the disappearance of the two
vehicles.

Checking through his card
file Mr. Willoughby the lot supervisor, looked over his glasses at
the two officers standing in his office, and remarked, “Well I’ll
be!! You’re right. There hasn’t been a removal of any vehicles from
the Storage Lot in over two months. Those two vehicles must have
been stolen. Oh my! This is going to be a stain on my impeccable
record... I have never before lost a vehicle under my care. Your
the police, do your duty... go find my two missing
cars.”

Patrolman Jackson relayed
the incident of the two stolen vehicles and their descriptions back
to police headquarters. In a matter of minutes, the police
dispatcher keyed her mike and announced to all patrol cars in the
Dallas metropolitan area:

“
Attention all units,
attention all units – BOLO for two vehicles stolen from Police
Impoundment, one 1956 White over Blue two-door Bel-Air Chevrolet,
Texas license CRT-045, expired March 1963 and one black 1949 four
door Ford Mainline sedan, Texas license BRY-356, expired July 1962,
direction of travel unknown at this time. Be On Look Out, if
spotted approach with care occupants may be armed and
dangerous.”

As Patrolman Jackson and
Lambert were driving away from the impoundment office, Lambert
turned and asked Jackson, “Tom, what was it you wanted to see on
the Texas School Book buildin’ anyway?”

Glancing up to the roof of
the School Book building Patrolman Jackson not seeing anything
unusual replied, “Aw, nothing, just thought I saw somethin’ up
there this mornin’ but I must’ve been seein’ things. There’s
nothing up there. Come on let’s get back on patrol and look for
them two stolen cars.”

Taking a right on
Houston the patrol car headed back into downtown Dallas towards
Dealy Plaza. Little did the two police officers realize if they
had, by chance, turned left instead of making a right turn, in a
couple of blocks they would have discovered both of their stolen
vehicles parked side by side in the
Lone
Star
supermarket’s parking lot. The
‘possibly armed and dangerous’ thieves would have been leaning
against the hood and front fenders of the Chevy talking strategy
about their next move. So it is with chance, fate or just pure ole
dumb luck.

LONE STAR PARKING
LOT

Standing next to the open
driver’s door of the ‘borrowed’ blue and white ’56 Chevy Rocky
heard the Dallas police dispatcher broadcast the BOLO for their two
stolen cars. “Guys! Guys! Did you all hear that?”

Turning from their
conversation Lou responded to Rocky’s question with a question of
his own, “What Rocky? What did you hear?”

Rocky related the All
Points Bulletin he had just heard on the police scanner. He told
them the police had just been given a Be On the Look Out order,
which gave an exact description of their two cars, right down to
the license plate numbers.

“
Okay,” said Lonnie Joe,
“now we know what we must do – we’ve got to ditch these two cars
and find two more. We will need to get them from the same
impoundment place.” He proceeded to tell the others he had noticed
there had been a number of older municipal cars parked at the end
of the second row of vehicles. He indicated they were probably
being replaced by newer models and suggested they return to the
impoundment lot, replace the ’56 Chevy and the ’49 Ford, and
‘borrow’ a couple of the Dallas city vehicles. His reasoning: the
municipal cars would not be missed since they all looked alike. He
suggested Bud go to the impoundment lot supervisor’s office and
engage the two employees in conversation. He could pretend to be
investigating the two ‘stolen’ vehicles. In the meantime he, Rocky
and Lou would ‘appropriate’ two ‘new’ vehicles.

Not much of a plan, he
admitted, but it was a plan. Right now they had to get these two
cars off the supermarket parking lot and out of sight. It was just
a matter of time before a police cruiser came by and recognized
them from the BOLO.

Forty-five minutes
later they were back parked in the same spot in the
Lone Star
supermarket
parking lot sporting different vehicles.

They had quickly driven
back to the impound lot, parked the Chevy and Ford in their old
spaces. Some of the city cars had only been parked in the lot a few
weeks, so it was rather easy to find two in decent shape and
suitable to their needs. It was also exceptionally neighborly of
the storage personnel to leave the keys in the ignition making
their ‘borrowing’ quite easy. It was so effortless; in fact, they
shopped down the row looking for two cars with gas gages
registering more than a half tank of gas. The municipal vehicles
were not much to look at. Both cars selected were cheap 1954,
black, four-door, Ford Mainlines, equipped with factory supplied,
two hundred thirty-nine cubic inch engines, one hundred-thirty
horsepower, flathead V-8s. This was the hottest engine in 1954
low-priced Ford autos. For a motley crew of 2012 car thieves plying
their trade in 1963, these two cars were perfect.

THE CAROUSEL
CLUB

“
Everyone set? LJ you and
Rocky, get over to Jack Ruby’s place and put the ‘bug’ on our Mafia
friends. Lou and I will head over to Lee Harvey Oswald rooming
house and see if we can rent a room. Just remember, be at the cow
pasture no later than 11:55 Saturday. Pegasus is going to leave
with or without us. One more thing – make sure your cellphones are
set for ‘Vibrate’, you can only talk to each other as long as you
are within five miles of the Texas School Book Depository. Good
luck to us all!” The four formed a circle and each extended his arm
and grasped the others hand. “On three - one - two - three -
SCAR!!” They all hollered at the same time, reminiscent of their
days on the athletic field.

Back into their car Lou
was behind the steering wheel, “Okay Bud, which way to Oswald’s
rooming house?”

“
Pull back out onto
Houston and turn left. We have to drive down to North Berkley
Avenue; it’s only about two miles. At Berkley, we will hang a left.
The rooming house will be at 1026, which will be just around the
corner on our left.”

“
Okay,” said Bud, “we’re
off!”

In the other black Ford
sedan, a similar conversation was taking place; however, their
destination was Jack Ruby’s club on the corner of Field and
Commerce Street. “Rocky, follow Bud and Lou until we come to
Commerce. Turn left, and we should see Ruby’s Carousel Club in four
or five blocks. It will be on our right. A parking garage is just
past the entrance to the club, pull in there, and we will go inside
Ruby’s place with our surveillance equipment.”