Earl Warren: At the scene of the shooting, there was evident confusion at the outset concerning the point of origin of the shots. Witnesses differed in their accounts of the direction from which the sound of the shots emanated.
Deputy C.M. Jones: I mingled in the crowd in an effort to see what I could learn. I then returned to this office and went immediately to the interrogation room where I spent the next few hours interrogating witnesses and taking affidavits from them.
Ronald Fischer: Today, November 22nd, 1963, I was with Bob Edwards. We were standing on the corner of Elm and Houston, on the southwest corner.
James Worrell: I was standing on the sidewalk against a building on the corner of Elm and Houston Streets watching the motorcade of the President.
A. J. Millican: I was standing on the north side of Elm Street, about half way between Houston and the Underpass.
Arnold Rowland: Between 12:10 and 12:15 pm, I looked toward the Book Depository. The two rectangular windows at the extreme west end of the Depository on the next-to-the-top floor were open. I saw what I believed to be a man standing about twelve to fifteen feet back from the window on the right. He appeared to be holding a rifle with scope attached, in a ready position or in military terminology, port arms. I saw him only momentarily and he seemed to disappear in the shadows of the room.
Austin Miller: I and Roy Shelton who works with me was standing on the Triple Underpass bridge with a large group of people watching for the Presidential Motorcade.
Jean Hill: I was standing directly across from the Texas School Depository Building on a grassy slope and the triangle toward the underpass.
Ronald Fischer: About thirty seconds before the motorcade came by, Bob turned to me and said that there was a man on the fifth floor of the Texas School Book Depository building, at the window there, and I looked up and saw the man.
William Newman: I was standing in a group of people on Elm Street near the west end of the concrete standard when the President's car turned left off Houston Street onto Elm Street.
J.C. Price: I was on the roof of the Terminal Annex Building. The cars had proceeded west on Elm and was just a short distance from the Triple Underpass, when I saw Governor Connally slump over.
James Worrell: I heard a loud noise like a firecracker or gun shots. I looked up and saw the barrel of a rifle sticking out of a window over my head about five or six stories up. While I was looking at the gun it was fired again. I looked back at Mr. Kennedy and he was slumping over. I got scared and ran.
Deputy L.C. Smith: I heard the first shot, which I thought was a backfire, then the second shot and third shot rang out. I knew then that this was gun shots and everyone else did also.
Arlen Specter: How many shots were there altogether?
Jean Hill: I have always said there were some four to six shots.
William Newman: It was just like an explosion and he was standing up. By this time he was directly in front of us and I was looking directly at him when he was hit in the side of the head.
A. J. Millican: It sounded approximately like a .45 automatic, or a high-powered rifle.
Garland Slack: I have heard this same sort of sound when a shot has come from within a cave, as I have been on many big game hunts.
Deputy L.C. Smith: I ran as fast as I could to Elm Street just west of Houston and I heard a woman unknown to me say the President was shot in the head, and the shots came from the fence on the north side of Elm.
Deputy Jack Faulkner: The crowd began to move en masse toward Elm Street. When I reached Elm Street there was much confusion. I asked a woman if they had hit the President, and she told me that he was dead, that he had been shot through the head.
William Newman: I thought the shot had come from the garden directly behind me, that was on an elevation from where I was, as I was right on the curb.
A. J. Millican: Everybody started running up the hill.
Officer A.D. McCurley: I saw people running toward the railroad yards beyond Elm Street and I ran over and jumped a fence, and a railroad worker stated to me that he believed the smoke from the bullets came from the vicinity of a stockade fence which surrounds the park area.
S.M. Holland: I told the people at the sheriff's office, whoever took the statement, that I believed there was four shots, because they were so close together, and I have also told those two, four, six Federal men that have been out there that I definitely saw the puff of smoke and heard the report from under those trees.
Samuel Stern: Did you realize that these were shots then?
S.M. Holland: Yes; I think I realized what was happening out there.
Austin Miller: I saw something which I thought was smoke or steam coming from a group of trees north of Elm off the railroad tracks. I did not see anyone on the tracks or in the trees. A large group of people concreated and a motorcycle officer dropped his motor and took off on foot to the car.
Officer A.D. McCurley: A search was made of this vicinity and then information came to us that the shots came from the Texas School Book Depository Building at the corner of Elm and Houston.
William Newman: I do not recall looking toward the Texas School Book Depository. I looked back in the vicinity of the garden.
Gayle Newman: Everyone started running back toward the brick structure. We got up and went back there.
Deputy Jack Faulkner: A boy came up to a Dallas uniform officer and told him that he saw a man shoot out of the window of the School Book Depository.
Deputy Charles Polk Player: I drove the car on to the railroad tracks, turned the car around and stopped head west. Sgt. Harkness of the Dallas Police arrived on a three wheeler. We acted as a West command post for about two hours. No one was permitted to leave any of the parking lots until cleared and then a Dallas Police Officer took their names. Officers were directed to search all of the cars in the area, search the railroad cars and to bring anyone in that knew, saw, or heard anything.
A. J. Millican: About five or ten minutes before the President came by I observed a truck from Honest Joe's Pawn Shop, and parked by the Book Depository store. Then drove off about five or ten minutes before the President's car came by.
John Stevens Rutter Lawrence: Me and Phil Hathaway and two other fellows left the Texaco Building, where we all work together, to go see the parade and President Kennedy.
Phil Hathaway: We passed a man who was carrying a rifle in a gun case. I saw this man walking towards me, walking towards Commerce, and took particular attention to him because of his size. I remarked to my friend that there was a guy carrying a gun in all this crowd and made the remark that he was probably a Secret Service man.
Officer Harold Elkins: I talked to Lee Bowers, who was on duty for the Union Terminal Company, in a tower which is located about 200 yards west of the Depository. He said that about ten minutes before the assassination he saw a car driving around behind the building. It was a 1961 Chevrolet Impala, white, occupied by one white male. He said it had a Goldwater sticker on the back window. He said about five minutes later he saw another car in the same area. It was also occupied by one white male.
Lee Bowers: There were three cars that came in during the time from around noon until the time of the shooting.
Joseph Ball: Came in where?
Lee Bowers: They came into the vicinity of the tower, which was at the extension of Elm Street.
Officer Harold Elkins: Bowers stated the occupant had what looked to be a telephone in his hand.
Lee Bowers: The one male in it seemed to have a mike or telephone, or something that gave the appearance of that at least.
Joseph Ball: How could you tell that?
Lee Bowers: He was holding something up to his mouth with one hand and he was driving with the other, and gave that appearance.
J.C. Price: There was a volley of shots, I think five and then much later, maybe as much as five minutes later another one. I saw one man run towards the passenger cars on the railroad siding after the volley of shots. He had something in his hand. I couldn't be sure but it may have been a headpiece.
A.J. Millican: I heard three shots come from up toward Houston and Elm right by the Book Depository Building, and then immediately I heard two more shots come from the Arcade between the book store and the underpass, and then three more shots came from the same direction only sounded further back.
Jean Hill: There were three shots--one right after the other, and a distinct pause, or just a moment's pause, and then I heard more.
Earl Warren: Howard L. Brennan testified that Lee Harvey Oswald, whom he viewed in a police lineup on the night of the assassination, was the man he saw fire the shots from the sixth floor window of the Depository Building.
Howard Brennan: I saw his picture twice on television before I went down to the police station for the lineup.
David Belin: Is there anything else you told the officers at the time of the lineup?
Howard Brennan: Well, I told them I could not make a positive identification.
David Belin: Did you ever later tell any officer or investigating person anything different?
Howard Brennan: Yes.
Jean Hill: Mary, my friend, was yelling at me and she was down on the ground and I looked up and I could see everyone was just stunned, there was immobility all around and I just stood there looking around. It seemed like an eternity but I'm sure there was just a slight pause before things started moving again.
Arlen Specter: Were the shots over by the time things started moving again?
Jean Hill: Yes.
Gayle Newman: Everyone was saying, "What happened? What happened?" Some man from Channel 8 here in Dallas took us over to the studio where we gave statements of what we had seen.
Malcolm Summers: The President's car sped off and everybody was just running around towards the railroad tracks and I knew that they had somebody trapped up there. I imagine I stayed there fifteen or twenty minutes and then went over on Houston Street to where I had my truck parked. I had just pulled away from the curb and was headed toward the Houston Street viaduct when an automobile that had three men in it pulled away from the curb in a burst of speed, passing me on the right side, which was very dangerous at that point, then got in front of me, and it seemed then as an afterthought, slowed in a big hurry in front of me as though realizing they would be conspicuous in speeding.
James Worrell: I ran from Elm Street to Pacific Street on Houston. When I was about a hundred yards from the building I stopped to get my breath and looked back at the building. I saw a white male come out of the building and run in the opposite direction from me.
Arlen Specter: Feel free to smoke--just relax.
Jean Hill: I would except I don't have one.
Arlen Specter: Just relax if you can.
Jean Hill: All right, if I can.
Arlen Specter: Off the record.
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Copyright © 1994 by John Kelin
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