At 2:15 on November 24 Deputy McCoy, of the Dallas County Sheriff's
office received a call from a man who said he was a member of a grop
of one hundred people. The man wanted the Sheriff's office to know
that they had voted one hundred percent to kill Oswald while he was in
the process of being transferred to the county jail. He wanted to
inform the Sheriff's department so that none of the Deputies would get
hurt.
A short time later SA Milton L. Newsom called McCoy and asked if the
Sheriff's office had received any calls threatening Oswald's life.
McCoy told Newsom about the previous call and then called the Dallas
Police Department to see if they had received any threatening phone
calls.
At 2:30 a.m. an unknown individual telephoned the Dallas FBI office
and asked to speak with the man in charge. After being told that the
SAC (Special Agent in Charge) was not present the caller said, "I
represent a committee that is neither right nor left wing and tonight,
tomorrow morning, or tomorrow night, we are going to kill the man that
killed the President. There will be no excitement and we will kill
him. We wanted to be sure and tell the FBI, Police Department, and
Sheriff's Office, and we will be there and we will kill him." The man
who took the call, Vernon Glossup, immediately prepared a memorandum
which he furnished to SA Milton Newsom who it turn furnished the
information to the Dallas County Sheriff's office and to the Dallas
Police Department.
At 3:00 a.m. Dallas Police Officer Billy Grammer received a phone call
from a familiar voice warning him that Oswald would be killed if the
police didn't transfer him in secret. Grammer was home the next
morning watching Oswald's transfer on television when he saw his
friend, Jack Ruby, shoot Oswald. He instantly remembered the call
from the previous night and realized the caller was Ruby. Grammer
gave a sworn affadavit to the Dallas Police but was never asked to
testify before the Warren Commission.
Within an hour, between 2:00 a.m. and 3:00 a.m. someone, probably Jack
Ruby, called the FBI, Dallas Sheriff and Dallas Pokice and told them
Oswald would be killed if he were not transferred in secret. The man
who placed these callse was probably trying to get the DPD to transfer
Oswald in secret so that he would not have to kill Oswald as ordered.
SS agent Forrest Sorrels told the Warren Commission, "I did hear that
there had been an anonymous call come into the police department that
someone would try to kill hem when they removed him."
At 3:45 a.m. SA Newsom called Dallas Police Captain W.B. Frazier and
told him about the anonymous call in which the individual and a group
of people was going to kill Lee Harvey Oswald that night or the
following day and there was nothing that anyone could do about it.
Frazier telephoned Captain Fritz at 5:00 a.m. and relayed the
information to him.
A short while later Dallas Deputy Sheriff Cox telephoned the Dallas
Police and said that Sheriff Decker wanted Oswald transferred to the
County Jail as soon as possible. Frazier, then attempted to contact
Chief Curry at his residence (about 6:00 a.m.), but was unable to
reach him. When Frazier told Captain C.E. Talbert that he was unable
to reach Curry by telephone, a squad car was sent to Curry's home with
instructions for him to call the office.
Jack Ruby went to bed between 3:30 a.m. and 4:00 a.m., if at all, and
was up by 6:30 a.m. Around 7:00 a.m. Ruby parked his 1960 Oldsmobile
at the Allright Parking Lot at the corner of Main and Pearl Streets
across from the Western Union Building near the police station. He
left his dog in the car along with three Dallas newspapers which
contained articles about President Kennedy's assassination. In the
glove compartment Ruby left his wallet and keys to the trunk of his
car. In the trunk he left keys to the ignition of the car, 200
photographs of nearly **** girls, and $873.50 in cash. When parking
lot attendant Theodore Jackson arrived at work he noticed that Ruby's
1960 Oldsmobile was already there.
At 8:00 a.m. John A. Smith, a remote video operator for WBAP-TV, saw
Ruby standing on the sidewalk next to the police station on Commerce
Street. Smith said that about 8:10 a.m. Ruby walked over to his truck
and asked, "Have they brought Oswald down yet? Smith said the next
time he saw Ruby was about 10:00 a.m., standing on the sidewalk on the
Commerce Street side of the Police station next to the ramp leading to
the basement.
Mr. I.N. Walker was in the WBAP-TV Mobile Unit truck parked outside of
Dallas City Hall on Commerce Street on the morning of November 24th.
He remembered that Ruby twice came over to his truck and asked, "Have
they brought Oswald down yet?" From these witnesses, it is clear that
Ruby arrived at DPD headquarters prior to 8:00 a.m and was planning to
kill Oswald.
At 9:30 a.m. Oswald was interrogated for the last time by Captain
Fritz with Inspector Kelley, SAC Forrest Sorrels, :Postal Inspector
Harry Holmes, DPD detectives J.R. Leavelle, L..C. Graves (near the end
of questioning), and Captain C.N. Dhority in attendance. (Note:
Oswald's final interrogation was the only occasion during which Postal
Inspector Harry Holmes was known to have been present).
Skipping Interrogation.
According to Deputy Sheriff Bill Corson it was normally the Sheriff's
Department that transferred prisoners from the city to the county
jail. He thought that Jesse Curry yielded to political pressure from
Mayor Earle Cabell for the Dallas Police to transfer Oswald.
As Oswald was preparing to leave Fritz's office on the 3rd floor Jack
Ruby was at the Western Union office, one block east of DPD
headquarters, sending a $25.00 money order to Karen Carlin in Fort
Worth. After obtaining a time-stamped receipt at 11:17 a.m. he
departed for DPD headquarters.
Karen Carlin either knew or suspected that Ruby was somehow involved
with Oswald. She told Secret Service Agent Roger Warner that whe was
under the impression that Lee Harvey Oswald, Jack Ruby, and other
individuals unknown to her were involved in a plot to assassinate
President Kennedy and that she would be killed if she gave any
information to the authorities.
As Lee HARVEY Oswald left Captain Fritz's office for the elevator ride
to the basement Tom Howard, Jack Ruby's attorney, was standing
nearby. Detective H.L. McGee saw Howard enter the basement of the
police station through the Harwood Street ramp and walk up to the jail
office window. When Oswald was brought off the jail elevator, only
moments before he was shot, Howard turned away from the window and
went back to the Harwood Street entrance. He waved at Detective McGee
and said, "That's all I wanted to see."
As Jack Ruby shot Harvey Oswald, Tom Howard left the Police station
and arrived at the Sheriff's office before the ambulance carrying
Oswald arrived at Parkland Hospital. Howard was carrying a writ for
the purpose of obtaining a release for Ruby, which he apparently
prepared even before he visited the police station.
Later that afternoon, after Jack Ruby was in custody, Houston Post
re****ter Alonzo Hudkins asked Tom Howard if Ruby had the pistol with
him at the Friday night press conference in the police station.
Howard told Hudkins that Ruby did have the pistol with him at that
time. If Howard knew Ruby was carrying a gun at the press conference
on Friday night, and prepared a writ early Sunday morning for Ruby's
release before he shot Oswald, then it appears Tom Howard knew in
advance Ruby was going to shoot Oswald.
A year and four months after Ruby shot Oswald, Tom Howard died
unexpectedly of a heart attack at age 48, on March 28, 1965.
On November 29, 1963 Detective August, M. Eberhardt wrote a memo to
DPD Chief Jesse Curry and re****ted, "Our Reserve Officer, H.R. Holly,
Jr., informed me this date.... that prior to the shooting he observed,
or he himself admitted, Jack Ruby to the basement. That Mr. Ruby was
wearing a press identification card on his jacket. The Dallas Police
ignored the memo and, on December 16, 1963, a panel of 8 police
officials re****ted that they had interviewed 90 police (20 patrolmen,
21 reserves, 30 detectives, and 19 supervisors) of nearly 1200 members
of the police force. Chief Curry told the Warren Commission that Ruby
had between 25 and 50 acquaintences on the force, when, in fact, Ruby
knew several times as many police officers.
Jack Ruby's access to Oswald in the basement of Dallas Police
Headquarters was thought by many to have been the result of assistance
from one or more Dallas Police officers. The Commission published,
but ultimately ignored, the statement of former DPD Officer N.J.
Daniels who ws at the police station on November 24. Daniels said, "I
noticed a white male, approxiamately 50 years of age, 5-foot 10,
weighing about 155-160, wearing a dark single breasted suit, white
****rt, and dark colored tie...approaching the ramp from the direction
of the Western Union. This person walked in the ramp and into the
basement going between Officer Vaughn and the east side of the
building. I did not see Officer Vaughn challenge this person nor did
he show any signs of recognizing him, nor even being aware that he was
passing, but I know that he saw him. The Commission ignored Daniels,
and chose instead to rely on the Dallas Police re****t that cleared all
DPD Officers of any collusion with Ruby.
The HSCA disagreed with the Warren Commission and found that Ruby may
have had assistance from Dallas police officers in entering the
basement. They learned the doors of a stairway near the elevators
were left unlocked, and the men guarding these doors were reassigned
shortly before Oswald's transfer. The officer responsible for the
transfer of the police guard, Sergeant Patrick Dean, was given a
polygraph test, which he failed.
On November 24 Frederick A. Biererdorf was a medical student at
Southwestern Medical School in Dallas and working as a First Aid
attendant in the basement of the Police and Courts Building. He was
in the basement when he heard a gunshot and ran to the area where Ruby
shot Oswald. He saw Ruby lying face up in the jail office lobby and
saw Oswald in the same position. Beilberdorf examined Oswald but was
unable to detect a pulse or a heartbeat, and began to massage his
sternum.
When the ambulance arrived Oswald was placed on a stretcher and lifted
into the ambulance. Beiberdorf climbed into the ambulance and
continued to massage Oswald's sternum and began to use a cup
resucitator which he placed over Oswald's mouth (oxygen, or any
aspirator administered to the victim of a gunshot wound to the stomach
can be fatal, as any medical student knows). Approxiamately 5 blocks
from the hospital Oswald started thra****ng about and resisting
Beiberdorf's efforts to massage his sternum and attempted to remove
the resuscitator from over his mouth.
After Oswald arrived at Parkland Memorial Hospital the doctors did all
they could to save Oswald's life. In his book, "Let's Set The Record
Straight," Dr. Crenshaw wrote, "At one point, a nurse tapped me on the
shoulder and asked me to take a telephone call. In an adjoining
office, I talked with President Lyndon Johnson, who told me that we
should try to get a confession from Oswald." According to Dr.
Crenshaw the President said, "I will expect your full cooperation,"
while government agents stood nearby dressed in emergency room
clothing. This man known to the world as Lee Harvey Oswald died on
November 24, 1963, but his true identity remains unknown.
Harvey and Lee pgs 937-38, 44-45
CJ
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