[[ posted on alt.jfk/m on Nov. 4, '96 by:
    brundage@aimnet.com (Martin Brundage)]]
==========================================================================

----------------------- On the Tippit Slaying  ---------------------------

>From Jim Marrs Crossfire: The Shooting of J. D. Tippit

Of all the aspects of the Kennedy assassination, the shooting of Dallas 
Policeman Jefferson Davis Tippit has received less attention than most 
others.  Allegedly, Tippit was shot down while attempting to arrest Lee 
Harvey Oswald 45 minutes after the assassination in Oak Cliff, south of 
downtown Dallas.  And it was the slaying of this policeman which led to 
the arrest of Lee Harvey Oswald and, in many ways, became a cornerstone of
the case for Oswald's guilt - Warren Commission Attorney David Belin 
called the shooting the "Rosetta Stone" to the JFK assassination.  "After 
all," stated the conventional wisdom of 1963-64, "Oswald killed that 
policeman.  Why would he do that if he hadn't killed the President?" Yet 
today there is a growing body of evidence to suggest that Oswald did not 
kill Tippit -which, if true, destroys the argument above.  

Little is known about Tippit or his life and personal contacts.  This 
absence of information prompted researcher Sylvia Meagher to write: 

"Tippit, the policeman and the man, is a one-dimensional and insubstantial
figure - unknown and unknowable.  The (Warren) Commission was not 
interested in Tippit's life, and apparently interested in his death only 
to the extent that it could be ascribed to Oswald, despite massive defects
in the evidence against him." 

With no real knowledge of Tippit's background or associations and with a 
number of problems with several aspects of the evidence, the Warren 
Commission nevertheless concluded that Oswald was his killer based on four
primary pieces of evidence.  1.  Two witnesses who saw the shooting and 
seven who saw a man fleeing "positively identified Lee Harvey Oswald as 
the man they saw fire the shots or flee from the scene." The chief witness
for the Warren Commission was Helen Markham, whose credibility, even at 
the time of the Commission, was strained to the breaking point.  Markham 
claimed to have talked for some time with the dying Tippit, yet medical 
authorities said he was killed instantly.  She said she saw Tippit's 
killer talk with the policeman through his patrol car's right hand window,
although pictures taken at the scene show that window was shut.  She was 
in hysterics at the time and even left her shoes on top of Tippit's car.  
Later, in her testimony before the Warren Commission, Markham stated six 
times she did not recognize anyone in the police lineup that evening, 
before Commission Attorney Joseph Ball prompted, "Was there a Number two 
man in there?" Markham responded: 

"Number two is the one I picked...When I saw this man I wasn't sure, but I

had cold chills just run all over me..." 

Furthermore, other witnesses at the scene - William Scoggins, Ted Calloway
and Emory Austin - even today claim they never saw Mrs. Markham in the 
minutes immediately following the shooting.  Cabdriver Scoggins also 
identified Oswald that day, although Scoggins admitted he did not actually
witness the shooting and his view of the fleeing killer was obscured 
because he ducked down behind his cab as the man came by.  Scoggins and 
cabdriver William Whaley, who allegedly drove Oswald home that day, both 
viewed a Dallas police lineup composed of five "young teenagers" and 
Oswald.  Whaley told the Warren Commission: 

"...you could have picked (Oswald) out without identifying him by just 
listening to him because he was bawling out the policemen, telling them it
wasn't right to put him in line with these teenagers....He showed no 
respect for the policemen, he told them what he thought about them...they 
were trying to railroad him and he wanted his lawyer...Anybody who wasn't 
sure could have picked out the right one just for that..." 

If his protestations weren't enough to guide the witnesses in their 
identification of Oswald, the suspect had conspicuous bruises and a black 
eye.  Furthermore, Oswald stated he was asked and gave his correct name 
and place of employment.  By Friday evening, everyone in Dallas who 
attended the police lineups had heard that shots were fired from the Texas
School Book Depository.  On Saturday, Scoggins again identified Oswald, 
although in his Warren Commission testimony he admitted seeing Oswald's 
photograph in a morning paper prior to viewing the police lineup.  

His identification of Oswald fell further into disrepute when he told the 
Commission that after the lineup, an FBI or Secret Service agent showed 
him several pictures of men, which Scoggins narrowed down to two.  
Scoggins recalled: 

"...I told them one of these two pictures is him (Oswald)...and then he 
told me the other one was Oswald." 

These were the two star government witnesses.  Other witnesses, including 
Domingo Benavides - the person closest to the killing - were never asked 
to view a lineup nor were they able to identify Oswald as the killer.  
Several other witnesses, including Acquilla Clemons, who claimed two men 
were involved in the Tippit shooting but said she was threatened into 
silence by a man with a gun, were never questioned by federal 
investigators.  The Warren Commission even denied her existence, claiming:

"The only woman among the witnesses to the slaying of Tippit known to the 
Commission is Helen Markham." 

Markham reportedly initially said that Tippit's killer was short and 
stocky with bushy hair.  This is the same description given by Clemons who
in a filmed interview said the killer was "kind of a short guy...kind of 
heavy." Markham later denied giving this description.  Frank Wright lived 
near the scene of the Tippit shooting.  He heard shots and ran outside.  
In an interview with private researchers less than a year later, Wright 
said he saw Tippit roll over once and lie still.  He added: 

"I saw a man standing in front of the car.  He was looking toward the man 
on the ground....He had on a long coat.  It ended just above his hands.  I
didn't see any gun.  He ran around on the passenger side of the police 
car.  He ran as fast as he could go, and he got into his car.  His car was
a little gray old coupe.  It was about a 1950-51, maybe a Plymouth.  It 
was a gray car, parked on the same side of the street as the police car, 
but beyond it from me.  It was heading away from me.  He got in that car 
and he drove away as fast as you could see...After that a whole lot of 
police came up.  I tried to tell two or three people what I saw.  They 
didn't pay any attention.  I've seen what came out on television and in 
the newspaper, but I know that's not what happened." 

Another witness was Warren Reynolds who chased Tippit's killer.  He too 
failed to identify Oswald as Tippit's killer until after he was shot in 
the head two months later.  After recovering, Reynolds identified Oswald 
to the Warren Commission.  (A suspect was arrested in the Reynolds 
shooting, but released when a former Jack Ruby stripper named Betty Mooney
MacDonald provided an alibi.  One week after her word released the 
suspect, MacDonald was arrested by Dallas Police and a few hours later, 
was found hanged in her jail cell.  Neither the FBI nor the Warren 
Commission investigated this strange incident.) 

2.  The cartridge cases found near the Tippit slaying "were fired from the
revolver in the possession of Oswald at the time of his arrest, to the 
exclusion of all other weapons," claimed the Warren Commission.  There are
many problems with this evidence.  First, Dallas Police Sergeant Gerald 
Hill, at the time of the Tippit shooting, radioed the police dispatcher, 
saying: 

"The shells at the scene indicate that the suspect is armed with an 
automatic .38 rather than a pistol." 

Oswald reportedly was captured with a .38 Special revolver.  There is a 
significant difference between an automatic, which ejects spent shells 
onto the ground, and a revolver which requires deliberate emptying of the 
weapon.  These weapons also require different types of ammunition.  It was
the belief of other officers at the scene based on the distance from 
Tippit's body where the shells were found and what some perceived to be 
ejector scratches on the shells that an automatic weapon was used.  If 
this were so, than Oswald's revolver cannot be blamed for Tippit's death.

Then there's the problem of identification of the empty shells.  Policeman
J.M.  Poe received two cartridge cases from witness Benavides at the 
scene.  In an FBI report, Poe firmly stated that he marked the case with 
his initials, "J.M.P." before turning them over to Dallas Crime Lab 
personnel.  However, on June 12, 1964, the FBI showed Poe the four .38 
Special cases used as evidence of Oswald's guilt by the Warren Commission.

The Bureau reported: 

"...He (Poe) recalled marking these cases before giving them to (lab 
personnel), but he stated after a thorough examination of the four 
cartridges shown to him...he cannot locate his marks; therefore, he cannot
positively identify any of these cartridges as being the same ones he 
received from Benavides." 

Testifying to the Warren Commission, Poe vacillated, saying he couldn't 
swear to marking the cases.  However, asked to identify the cartridges, 
Poe also stated: 

"I want to say these two are mine, but I couldn't swear to it."

Poe's failure to find his initials on the cases, coupled with the fact 
that the cases were not turned over to the FBI until six days after other 
inventoried evidence, leaves many researchers with the suspicion that 
shell cases from Oswald's revolver were substituted for the ones marked by
Poe.  To further confuse the issue, the Warren Commission discovered that 
the shell cases allegedly recovered at the scene of the shooting do not 
match up with the slugs which were recovered from Tippit's body.  The four

cases are made up of two of Winchester-Western manufacture and two of 
Remington-Peters, while of the bullets removed from Tippit, only one is 
Remington-Peters and three are from Winchester-Western.  

Weakly, the Warren Commission attempted to explain this anomaly by 
surmising that perhaps a fifth shot had been fired but not recovered (most
of the witnesses recalled no more than four shots) or that perhaps Oswald 
already had an expended Remington-Peters case in his pistol prior to 
shooting Tippit.  The Commission even suggested that perhaps "...to save 
money...he might have loaded one make of bullet into another make of 
cartridge case." This, of course, would require Oswald to own or have 
access to reloading equipment.  It should be pointed out that when 
arrested, Oswald reportedly was carrying five live Winchester-Western 
bullets in his pocket in addition to the fully-loaded revolver, which 
apparently was never tested to determine if it had been fired recently.  
With this exception, authorities found no other ammunition or gun cleaning
materials in any of Oswald's possessions.  

3.  The Warren Commission determined that the revolver in Oswald's 
possession at the time of his arrest was purchased by and belonged to him.
While this segment of the evidence against Oswald may be true (Some 
researchers are not convinced that the weapons order signed by A.J.  
Hidell can conclusively be traced to Oswald), it does not prove that the 
gun was used to kill Tippit.  For instance, even the resources of the FBI 
failed to prove that the slugs recovered from Tippit's body had been fired
from Oswald's pistol.  

FBI officials claimed that since the Oswald revolver had been rechambered 
to accept .38 Special ammunition, the barrel was oversize for the bullet 
causing inconsistent ballistic markings.  Thus, "...consecutive bullets 
fired in the revolver by the FBI could not even be identified with each 
other under the microscope," stated the Commission in an appendix to its 
Report.  This statement is most odd, for several firearms experts have 
told this author that similar .38 Specials do fit the rifling grooves and 
can be checked ballistically.  

If the slugs from Tippit's body cannot be matched to Oswald's revolver, 
perhaps it is because they did not come from that gun.  Adding fuel to 
this speculation is the statement of Eddie Kinsley, the ambulance 
attendant who drove the mortally-wounded Tippit to a hospital.  In recent 
years, Kinsley told newsman Earl Golz of an extraneous bullet.  According 
to Kinsley, as he unloaded Tippit from his ambulance: 

"I kicked one of the bullets out of my ambulance that went into his 
button...onto the parking lot of Methodist Hospital.  It didn't go in the 
body...It fell off the ambulance still in this button." 

Since Tippit reportedly was struck by all four bullets fired at him and 
these slugs were placed in evidence with the Warren Commission, what is 
the explanation for Kinsley's fifth slug?  Kinsley told Golz he had never 
been questioned by the Warren Commission.  Recent work by Texas 
researchers indicate that the cases now residing in the National Archives,
exhibited by the Warren Commission as the shells used in the Tippit 
slaying may not have been fired by Oswald's pistol.  Oswald's pistol was 
originally a Military and Police Smith & Wesson 1905 Model .38-caliber 
revolver, the largest-selling quality revolver ever produced.  Originally 
shipped to England during World War II, more than 88,000 were shipped back
to the United States in the late 1950s and early 1960s.  The pistol in 
question, serial number V510210, ended up in California, where it 
apparently was converted to a .38 Special Model.  This involved cutting 
off the barrel from its original five inches to two-and-a-quarter inches.

The Warren Commission said the pistol also was rechambered to accept .38 
Special ammunition, although Commission testimony fails to establish this 
change.  The .38 Special bullet is slightly smaller in diameter but has 
more length than .38 Standard ammunition.  

Texas researcher and veteran hunter Larry Howard discovered after buying 
an exact duplicate of Oswald .38 revolver that .38 Special cartridges, 
when fired in a rechambered weapon, bulge noticeably in the center.  
Howard told this author: 

"I have checked this with several expert gunsmiths.  Since the 
rechambering cannot change the diameter of the cylinder, but only makes it
longer to accept .38 Special ammo, the bullet bulges in the middle when 
fired.  I've done it time after time.  My wife can notice the bulge.  The 
case looks like it's pregnant.  Studying the shells depicted in the Warren
Commission volumes and also in a close-up clear photograph in the November
1983, commemorative issue of "Life" magazine, it appears to everyone that 
the shell cases in the National Archives (supposedly the casings found at 
the scene of Tippit's death) do not show any bulging at all.  This 
indicates to me and other experts that those cases could not have been 
fired from the .38 Special that was supposed to belong to Oswald." 

Until further testing can be done on the cartridge cases in question, this
is hardly solid proof of Oswald's innocence in the Tippit shooting.  But 
it is further proof of the wide gaps still open in the case against 
Oswald.  4.  According to the Warren Commission, Oswald's jacket was found
along the path of flight taken by Tippit's killer.  The Warren Commission 
wrote: 

"...Oswald was seen leaving his roominghouse at about 1 p.m.  wearing a 
zipper jacket...the man who killed Tippit was wearing a light-colored 
jacket, that he was seen running along Jefferson Boulevard, that a jacket 
was found under a car in a lot adjoining Jefferson Boulevard...when he was
arrested at approximately 1:50 p.m., he was in shirt sleeves.  These facts
warrant the finding that Lee Harvey Oswald disposed of his jacket as he 
fled from the scene of the Tippit killing." 

But did the facts warrant such a conclusion?  Not really, since almost 
every aspect of the jacket story has since come under question.  Oswald, 
it is known, had only two jackets - one blue and one a lightweight gray 
zipper jacket.  At least two witnesses at the scene of Tippit's slaying 
reported his killer wore a white jacket.  One of these, Helen Markham, was
shown Oswald's gray jacket by a Warren Commission attorney who asked, "Did
you ever see this before?" Despite having been shown the jacket by the FBI
prior to her testimony, Markham replied: 

"No, I did not....that jacket is a darker jacket than that, I know it
was."

Witness Domingo Benavides was shown a jacket by Commission Attorney David 
Belin, who said, "I am handing you a jacket which had been marked as 
`Commission's Exhibit 163,' and ask you to state whether this bears any 
similarity to the jacket you saw this man with the gun wearing?" The 
accommodating Benavides responded: 

"I would say this looks just like it..."

The problem here is that Commission's Exhibit 163 is Oswald's dark blue 
jacket.  The gray jacket is Commission's Exhibit 162.  Here is yet another
example of a witness obligingly providing the answers they felt were 
wanted.  Another example is cabdriver William Whaley, who reportedly drove
Oswald home from downtown Dallas.  Whaley identified the gray jacket as 
the one Oswald was wearing in his cab.  Yet the Warren Commission, based 
on testimony from Oswald's landlady, stated that Oswald put on the jacket 
AFTER arriving at his lodgings.  

	 Testifying to the Warren Commission, Roberts said:

"He (Oswald) went to his room and he was in his shirt sleeves...and he got
a jacket and put it on - it was kind of a zipper jacket.  (She then was 
shown Commission's Exhibit 162, Oswald's gray jacket, and asked if she had
seen it before)...Well, maybe I have, but I don't remember it.  It seems 
like the one he put on was darker than that..." 

Barbara Davis, another witness at the Tippit slaying, also could not 
identify Oswald's gray jacket to the Warren Commission.  In fact, she 
stated the killer wore "a dark coat...it looked like it was maybe a wool 
fabric...more of a sporting jacket." Cabdriver William Scoggins also 
failed to identify Oswald's jacket, saying, "I thought it was a little 
darker." Despite these problems of identification, the Commission went 
right on asserting that the jacket belonged to Oswald.  

More Commission deception occurred in its reporting of the discovery of 
the jacket.  The Warren Report stated: 

"Police Capt.  W.R.  Westbrook...walked through the parking lot behind the
service station and found a light-colored jacket lying under the rear of 
one of the cars." 

However, in his testimony, Westbrook was asked if he found some clothing.

He replied: 

"Actually, I didn't find it - it was pointed out to me by... some
officer..."

According to the Dallas Police Radio log, a "white jacket" was found by 
"279 (Unknown)" a full 15 minutes before Westbrook arrived on the scene.  
The Commission made no effort to determine who really found the jacket, if
a jacket was actually found or if it was a white jacket which only later 
was transformed into Oswald's gray jacket.  Recently, the owner of the 
Texaco station where the jacket reportedly was found told Texas 
researchers that no one - neither the FBI, Dallas police nor the Warren 
Commission - ever questioned him or his employees about this important 
piece of evidence.  In addition, the jacket identified by federal 
authorities as belonging to Oswald carried inside a laundry mark "30 030" 
and a dry-cleaning tag "B ." A full-scale search by the FBI in both Dallas
and New Orleans failed to identify any laundry or dry cleaners using those
marks.  Oswald's wife, Marina, testified she could not recall her husband 
ever sending his jackets to a cleaning establishment, but that she did 
recall washing t hem herself.  Further investigation by the FBI turned up 
no laundry or dry-cleaning tags on any of Oswald's other clothing.  Oswald
wore size "small" shirts, the jacket is a "medium" size, which adds to the
suspicion that it was not his jacket.  

With all this, in addition to a broken chain of evidence, the jacket 
cannot be considered evidence of Oswald's guilt in the killing of Officer 
Tippit.  Then there is a matter of time and a strange incident at Oswald's
lodging.  Earlene Roberts, Oswald's landlady, told the Warren Commission 
she was watching television coverage of the assassination about 1 p.m.  
when Oswald - who had been registered at the rooming house as O.H.  Lee - 
hurried in and went to his room.  She said next a Dallas police car pulled
up in front of her house and honked.  She explained: 

"I had worked for some policemen and sometimes they come by...I just 
glanced out saw the number (on the car)...It wasn't the police car I 
knew...and I ignored it...." 

She said the police car was directly in front of her home when the driver 
sounded the horn, like "tit-tit." She said the car then "...just eased 
on...and they just went around the corner that way." According to Roberts,
there were two uniformed policemen in the car, most unusual since daytime 
patrols in that area of the city were limited to one officer - such as 
Tippit.  She could not recall the number of the car precisely, but said 
she recalled that the first two numbers of a possible three-digit 
combination were a "1" and a "0." Tippit was driving car No.  10 that day 
and Tippit failed to respond to a dispatcher call at the approximate time 
of the police car incident.  

Immediately following the police car episode, Roberts said Oswald came out
of his room and left hurriedly, zipping up a jacket.  She said he left her
house three or four minutes after 1 p.m.  Roberts said she looked out of 
the window and last saw Oswald standing at a nearby bus stop.  According 
to the Warren Commission, a man keyed a microphone at 1:16 p.m., saying, 
"Hello police operator...We've had a shooting here...it's a police 
officer, somebody shot him." This, of course, referred to Tippit, who lay 
dead about a mile from Oswald's residence.  

The Commission tried to establish that the Tippit shooting occurred 
moments after 1:15 p.m., hardly enough time to allow Oswald to run from 
his rooming house to the scene of the Tippit slaying at 10th and Patton.  
The Commission could not locate even one witness who saw Oswald walking or
running between his rooming house and the scene of the Tippit slaying.  
This time frame becomes stretched to the breaking point when one considers
the Tippit witnesses' testimony.  Even Helen Markham, who was so confused 
about other matters, was certain of the time because she was on her way to
catch her usual 1:12 p.m.  bus for work.  Asked by a Warren Commission 
attorney about the time she saw the Tippit shooting, Markham responded: 

"I wouldn't be afraid to bet it wasn't six or seven minutes after one."

In this instance, Mrs.  Markham's recollection must be correct since 
another Tippit shooting witness, Jack Tatum, told researchers that Mrs.  
Markham did not want to remain at the scene because she feared missing her
bus for work.  T.F.  Bowley, the man who made the call to the police 
dispatcher, was never called to testify to the Warren Commission.  The 
reason may be that Bowley heard shots, saw Tippit's body lying next to his
squad car and looked at his watch.  It was 1:10 p.m.  Other witnesses hid 
at the sound of the shots, afraid the gunman would turn on them.  Only 
after the killer fled, did they venture out.  One of the first persons to 
reach Tippit was Benavides who told the Warren Commission he was in a 
truck across the street from the shooting.  

	 After hearing only three shots, Benavides said: 

"...I sat there for just a few minutes...I thought maybe he (the killer) 
had lived in there (the house where he last saw the gunman) and I didn't 
want to get out and rush right up.  He might start shooting again....That 
is when I got out of the truck and walked over to the policeman...The 
policeman, I believe, was dead when he hit the ground..." 

After checking on Tippit, Benavides said he tried to call on the patrol 
car's radio but got no answer.  Another bystander, Bowley, then got in the
car and was successful in raising the police dispatcher and reported the 
shooting.  Obviously, several minutes went by between the time of the 
shooting and 1:16 p.m.  when the police radio log recorded the citizen's 
alert.  This places the actual shooting closer to Bowley's time of 1:10 
p.m.  - a time frame which rules out the possibility that Oswald could 
have traveled on foot from his rooming house to the scene of the shooting.


The conversations of police regarding time sequences, orders, discovery of
evidence, etc.  were recorded on Dallas Police Radio recording equipment.
These recordings should have provided accurate times and movement orders -
in fact, they were relied on greatly by the Warren Commission and 
subsequent investigations.  Today there is evidence that the Dallas Police
Radio recordings may have been edited.  Soon after the assassination, the 
tapes may have been taken by federal authorities, who certainly have 
access to the most sophisticated audio equipment.  Any police broadcasts 
not consistent with the lone assassin theory could have been simply edited
out and an edited copy returned to Dallas Police for conveyance to the 
Warren Commission.  Is there any evidence that this occurred?  Yes.  Dr.  
James Barger, chief acoustic scientist for the House Select Committee on 
Assassinations, studied the "original" police tapes and discovered a break
in the 60-cycle hum background tone.  He found two separate tones on the 
tape, which could only result from copying.  Although ignored publicly, 
the Ramsey Panel, studying the recordings for the National Academy of 
Science, did suggest in an appendix of its report that "The original 
Dictabelt could be studied more extensively for possible evidence...of 
being a copy..." 

Researcher Gary Mack reported that in recent years, former Dallas Police 
Sgt.  J.C.  Bowles, the radio room supervisor who prepared transcripts for
the Warren Commission, stated that a few days after the assassination, 
federal agents "borrowed" the original police Dictabelt and at the time he
was under the impression that they took them to a recording studio in 
Oklahoma.  Like so much of the Warren Commission's evidence, now the 
Dallas Police radio recordings are open to question.  Another strong 
argument for Oswald's innocence in the Tippit slaying comes from W.H.  
"Butch" Burroughs, who on November 22 was manning the concession stand in 
the Texas Theater.  Burroughs told this author that he distinctly recalls 
selling popcorn to Oswald about 1:15 p.m.  -the exact time of the Tippit 
shooting.  

He said he watched the man take his popcorn and sit next to a pregnant 
woman in the lower floor of the theater.  Burroughs said about 20 minutes 
later police rushed into the theater and dragged the man out.  He later 
recognized media photos of Lee Harvey Oswald as the same man who purchased
popcorn.  The House Select Committee on Assassinations supported the 
Warren Commission's conclusion that Oswald killed Tippit, however, it 
obliquely indicated that all is not known about the killing.  Committee 
investigators studied information developed by researcher Larry Harris 
that Tippit may have been killed as the result of personal problems.  They
also talked with yet another witness who had not been interviewed by the 
Warren Commission.  Jack Ray Tatum told Committee investigators that 
Tippit's killer, after shooting the officer from the sidewalk, walked 
around the patrol car and shot Tippit once in the head at point blank 
range.  Correctly, the Committee wrote: 

"This action, which is often encountered in gangland murders and is 
commonly described as a coup de grace, is more indicative of an execution 
than an act of defense intended to allow escape or prevent apprehension." 

There is a problem with Tatum's story however.  Most of the witnesses 
stated that four shots were fired in succession - with no interval between
the shots.  Several serious students of the Tippit incident now believe 
that his death may have had no connection with the Kennedy assassination.

And of the researchers who still believe such a connection exists, few 
cling to the belief that Oswald was killer.  Regardless of who actually 
killed Officer Tippit, that event was the catalyst which set off a flurry 
of police activity in Oak Cliff resulting in the arrest of Lee Harvey 
Oswald.  

Prior to his arrest, there were at least two incidents of police obviously
seeking a suspect.  Sometime after 1 p.m., a number of policemen stormed 
the Oak Cliff branch of the Dallas Public Library.  Unable to locate who 
they were looking for, they quickly left.  Oswald was a frequent visitor 
to that library.  Then shortly before being called to the Texas Theater, 
the scene of Oswald's arrest, police surrounded a church near the scene of
the Tippit slaying in the belief that Tippit's killer had hidden there.  
However, before they could conduct a search of the building, they were 
called to the theater.  

-----------------------------  end  -------------------------------------