Justification For Killing (64 page)

“
Oh, yes sir. He is one of
our favorite customers.”

“
I know he purchased a
movie camera from you last week. If possible I would like to see
one just like it,” the Captain said.

“
Just a second sir and I
will check our records... No, no... that will not be necessary”,
said the clerk. “I remember it was a Bell & Howell,
eight-millimeter, Director Series, Zoomatic with a leather carrying
case. Funny thing... when he came into the store he wanted one of
those cheap instant-photo type camera to film the Presidential
parade.”

“
What
happened?”

“
We only keep one or two
of those low-end type cameras in stock. I explained we mostly carry
the high quality, top of the line cameras, and if he had arrived a
couple of minutes earlier the store would have had one in stock. He
was told we had sold the last instant camera just a few minutes
before he walked in. I suggested he purchase a movie camera. I told
him it was like first impressions; he would only get one
opportunity to get a good picture of President John F. Kennedy, and
suggested it was the perfect time to buy - the Bell & Howell
was on sale.”

“
And he obviously took you
up on your suggestion?”

“
Oh yes...” replied the
clerk reaching into the display counter and removing the exact
model Bell & Howell Mr. Zapruder had purchased a few days
earlier. “Here it is – still on sale... just $89.99 plus $9.99
extra for the leather carrying case. You have a good eye sir; as I
told Mr. Zapruder this is the top of the line home movie camera. I
think you will be very pleased with it, and the total price is only
$99.98. Shall I wrap it?”

“
Doesn’t it include a roll
of film?”

“
Yes sir, it does. It
comes with a roll of Kodak Kodachrome II film.”

“
Perfect... perfect, the
exact film Mr. Zapruder used? Then I will take two... no need to
wrap them... we are going to film the presidential parade later on
this morning also,” the Captain said handing the clerk two one
hundred dollar bills (one hundred dollar bills issued in 1963) plus
an extra twenty for a tip.

Walking from the jewelry
store, the Captain smiled to himself. He couldn’t help but think
how different history’s future portrayal of the JFK Assassination
would be if Mr. Abraham Zapruder had arrived just five minutes
earlier, and walked out with an instant snapshot camera instead of
the top of the line movie camera.

Forty-five minutes after
arriving Bud and Lou were joined in the Stephen Austin Hotel
parking lot by Lonnie Joe and Rocky. The Stephen Austin is located
one block south of Dealy Plaza on the east side of Houston Street.
Lonnie Joe and Rocky parked alongside Bud and Lou. Lonnie Joe rolls
down his driver window and inquires to their time of departure. Bud
replies they would walk up to the Texas School Book Depository
building around 11:30.

At other places in Dallas
preparations are going smoothly for the forthcoming motorcade. All
vehicular traffic to the area around Dealy Plaza is being blocked
at all intersections by the Dallas police department just as Lonnie
Joe and Rocky predicted.

The Secret Service is
monitoring all activity; however, the Secret Service headquarters
in Washington, D. C. just issued an urgent message stating there
may be an attempt on the President’s life. The Secret Service in
Dallas did not receive the warning message. However, the Washington
office will later state they received a confirmation reply from
Dallas confirming receipt of the warning. Who sent the Dallas
reply, to this day no one knows. The original warning was sent at
10:35 a.m. and the confirmation reply was received at 10:38 a.m. in
Washington. Strange!

A few minutes before
eleven o’clock, the presidential party walked out of the Texas
Hotel, entered the waiting cars and began the motorcade to the
enormous Carswell Air Force base. From Carswell to Love Field in
Dallas was a flight of less than fifteen minutes.

Less than thirty minutes
from leaving the Texas Hotel, the President’s plane taxied toward
its rendezvous with destiny. Lou, Bud, Lonnie Joe and Rocky were
within easy walking distance to the Texas School Book
Depository.

As the President
prepared to leave Fort Worth, the phone in Lou’s car rings.
What do LJ and Rocky want now
, he thought; however, he was in for a shock – it was not LJ
or Rocky it was Captain Scarburg. “Where are you Captain...? We
have been worried to death… You have Forrest and Olive Marie with
you, right...? What...? You are where...? We thought you would be
back to Celina by now... Okay... I see... please be careful.”
Hanging up the phone, he turned and remarked to Bud, “You are not
going to believe this... Captain Scarburg, Forrest and Olive Marie,
are parked on the north side of the Dal-Tex Building on the corner
of North Houston and Ross Avenue. They are just one block northeast
of the Texas School Book building! They are just a couple of blocks
from us right now.”

“
What! What in the heck
are they doing there? We thought they were on their way back to
Celina.”

“
Nope, the Captain said,
‘how many times do they get a chance to witness such a historic
event.’ He wanted Forrest and Olive Marie to be present at Dealey
Plaza at 12:30. It was to momentous an event for them to
miss.”

The time was approaching
11:20 a.m. – Air Force One was sitting on the end of the runway,
all four giant turbo-fan engines, strained awaited the pilot’s
release of the brakes. It was ready to take off from Carswell Air
Force Base on its way east to Love Field in Dallas.

The city of White
Settlement was nestled on the west side of the gigantic Air Force
base, home of Strategic Air Commands 9th
Bombardment Wing and their giant B-52s - B-52s nicknamed the
‘Stratofortress.’ High on a slight ridge overlooking the Air Force
base sits the White Settlement Middle School. From the schools
large expanse of east facing windows, the students can look down
the shallow valley onto the gigantic 12,000-foot runway. The
school’s perch high above the black tarmac offers a perfect view of
all the aircraft landings or takings off from Carswell. At that
moment, Air Force One’s captain Colonel James Swindle released the
brakes and the giant Boeing began to move, Mr. Waymon Washam asked
his class of band students if they wanted to come over to the
window and watch the president’s airplane take off. Of course,
every student in the band room immediately slammed their musical
instruments down and hurried to the window just as the Boeing 707
rolled down the tarmac and lifted into the air. How little did this
small group of students comprehend they were eyewitnesses to
history? It wasn’t a spectacular event, just a large airplane
taking off, an occurrence the children had seen many times before,
but those twelve year old, sixth grade students would be telling
and retelling the story of watching this particular plane’s takeoff
for the rest of their lives.

At exactly eleven-thirty,
Lonnie Joe and Rocky leave the parking lot and walk to the adjacent
Houston Street. They turn right and walk through the assembling
crowd and continue on toward the Texas School Book Depository. Once
they arrive, they mingle with bystanders on the sidewalk in front
of the building.

At Love Field in Dallas,
the Presidential plane arrived from Ft. Worth. On the ground, to
greet President and Mrs. Kennedy were Vice President and Mrs.
Johnson.

Bud and Lou followed
Lonnie Joe and Rocky from the parking lot of the Stephen Austin
hotel and walked nonchalantly into Dealy Plaza. Bud and Lou were
amazed… this scene was real, whereas before they had only seen it
in pictures. Lou gawked at the open windows in the Texas School
Book Depository trying to see if there were anyone in the sixth
floor snipers window, inadvertently he ran into a woman standing on
the sidewalk. “Sorry,” says Lou and continues walking. He will
later say he did see anyone at the window, but there appeared to be
a shadowy figure in one of the other windows, in particular the
window at the very end closest to the Grassy Knoll.

Captain Scarburg, Forrest
and Olive Marie, walked from the parking lot on the north side of
the Dal-Tex building where they had been sitting waiting for the
past couple of hours. They walk directly in front of the TSBD on
their way to an area of the concrete pedestal where Abraham
Zapruder will film the assassination. Walking past the Book
Depository, the Captain could not restrain himself from the urge to
look up! Yes, there in the end window on the 6th floor he saw a
figure. Was that Oswald? This man had on a sports coat – he knew
from all the history books and from photos of the arrest Lee Harvey
Oswald did not wear a sports jacket. Who was this man? Down the
street they found a seat on a concrete bench in front of the
pagoda, just left of the grassy knoll. Captain Scarburg is well
aware from his previous visit that a shot comes from that area. He
did not want Olive Marie to be in the direct line of fire of the
assassin in the wooden area; however, at this location they should
still be within twenty feet of the limousine as the first shot is
fired. As they sat on the bench, the Captain loaded the Kodachrome
eight-millimeter film into both Bell & Howell cameras. Snapping
the film doors shut, he handed one camera to Forrest, “When we see
the motorcade approaching Elm from Houston, I want you to step over
beside that concrete pedestal”, Grandpa Scarburg said pointing to
the large concrete platform, “and film the motorcade as it turns
and proceeds down Elm. You will be standing directly at the feet of
Abraham Zapruder. He will be standing on the pedestal filming also.
Forrest, make sure to lock the filming switch, I want to make sure
there is no interruption in the short section of the Presidential
parade from Houston to the triple-overpasses. The Zapruder film
only lasted 26.6 seconds. Another thing Forrest, I must emphasis as
the President’s car gets immediately to your front the fatal shot
will be fired, please do not look up from the camera, keep filming,
it is extremely important.”

“
Grandpa, what do you want
me to do?” Questioned Olive Marie.

“
Don’t worry Hon, I have a
noteworthy job for you. A job, which will make you remembered
forever. When Forrest moves to the pedestal to begin filming I want
you to take this other camera, walk directly across Elm and
position yourself on the curb so you can see the President as his
car comes by. Take this red scarf and tie it around your head. We
want to get the fatal shot to President Kennedy from the opposite
side of the street from Mr. Zapruder. You will be photographed in
many photos, but we do not want you to be later identified. As you
know we do not exist in 1963 Dallas!!”

It is now fifteen minutes
before twelve o’clock; President Kennedy and Jackie walk down the
fence at Love Field shaking hands with well wishes before beginning
their parade into downtown Dallas in route to the luncheon date at
the Dallas Trade Mart. In ten minutes, they will leave Love Field
and begin the motorcade.

Creeping along at a mere
ten to twelve miles per hour the police report the crowds were
large but nothing seemed out of the ordinary.

At a quarter after twelve,
Mrs. Beverly Maxwell, secretary to the president of the Book
Depository, later testified she saw Lee Harvey Oswald eating lunch
in the second floor cafeteria. Later she recants, and states she
only caught a glimpse of him in the hallway. John Powell, along
with approximately four other inmates on the sixth floor of the
Dallas City Jail saw two men on the sixth floor of the Texas School
Book Depository fiddling with the telescope of a rifle. He assumed
they were Secret Service. Mrs. Carolyn Waters stated she also saw
two men with rifles, but she thought they were guards. One of the
men, she said, wore a brown sports jacket. Ruby Hendrix saw two men
also, one had dark hair and the second had a much darker skin color
than the other. Asked if she though he was black she answered no,
he looked more like a Mexican, (or possibly Cuban?). Arnold Rowdy
and his wife also saw a man with a rifle in the window of the sixth
floor; however, this man was not at the now famous ‘sniper’s
window’ but farther down at the western most corner window of the
building. They thought he must have been a Secret Service
agent.

If Mrs. Beverly Maxwell
were correct in seeing Lee Harvey Oswald in the lunchroom at 12:15,
then none of the men with rifles could have been Oswald. If Oswald
fired from the right-hand 6th floor window, obviously, the man Mr.
Rowdy and his wife saw in the opposite end of the building could
not have been Oswald either.

Eight minutes before the
first assassins shot, Ray Williamson, an employee of TSBD left the
sixth floor, after eating his lunch. He stated the sixth floor was
vacant when he left to go downstairs. The Warren Commission
determined Oswald was in his ‘sniper’s nest’ from 11:55 until
12:30. If Mr. Williamson were correct, Oswald had only eight
minutes (from 12:22 to 12:30) to move twenty plus boxes, each
weighing approximately fifty pounds. Some were stacked three high,
to form his ‘sniper’s nest’. Additionally he had to assemble his
Carcano rifle, with no tools. The Warren Commission stated it would
take six minutes to assemble the Italian Carcano task using a dime
as a screwdriver. The moving of boxes to construct the ‘sniper’s
nest’ later revealed only one partial palm print from Lee Harvey
Oswald. The Warren Commission will not call Ray Williamson to
testify. No gloves were found at or near the ‘sniper’s nest’, and
none were ever found neither on Oswald’s person nor in his boarding
house room.