Chapter II. With the assistance of Agent in Charge Sorrels of the (Part 9 of 21)
Captain J.W. Fritz of the Dallas Police Homicide Bureau filed a report on Oswald’s November 22–24 interrogation based on rough notes and memory. Conditions were adverse: his office measured 9 feet 6 inches by 14 feet with one front door, forcing Fritz to lead Oswald through hundreds of shouting, jeering people to reach the jail door 20 feet away. Large glass windows on three sides exposed the interrogation to public view, with officers working on phones and at desks around the cramped space.
After the Depository search and learning of Officer J.D. Tippit’s murder in Oak Cliff, Fritz interrogated Oswald. Oswald denied owning a rifle, claiming Mr. Truly had shown employees one days earlier. He claimed to be on the first floor drinking a Coca-Cola when shots were fired, then left because no more work would be done. His transportation story changed—from bus to cab due to traffic. He admitted carrying a pistol “because… you know how boys do when they have a gun.” Confronted with FPCC and “Alex Hidell” cards, Oswald admitted the FPCC card but claimed he “picked up that name in New Orleans while working in the Fair Play for Cuba organization.”
FBI Special Agents James P. Hosty, Jr., and James W. Bookhout filed FD-302 reports. Their November 22 interview (2:30–4:05 p.m.) noted Oswald’s “violent attitude toward the FBI,” his accusation that Hosty had accosted his wife, and admissions of three years in Russia, FPCC New Orleans secretaryship, and a Marine Corps marksmanship award. He denied shooting Tippit and Kennedy and admitted changing his residence name to “O.H. Lee” on North Beckley.
In November 23 interviews, Oswald continued denying rifle ownership, claimed to have changed clothes after arriving home, and described a cheese sandwich and fruit lunch from Mrs. Paine’s house in Irving. He requested attorney John Abt of New York—having read of Abt’s defense of Smith Act “victims” in 1949–50. He refused polygraph examination, denied Communist Party membership but called himself a Marxist. Shown the Oswald and Hidell classification notices side by side, he claimed the photograph was fake—his face superimposed on another’s body.
Chapter II. With the assistance of Agent in Charge Sorrels of the (Part 10 of 21)
U.S. Secret Service Inspector Thomas J. Kelley, present at the interrogations, filed his own reports. At the 10:30 a.m. November 23 interview, Kelley and SAIC Forrest Sorrels attended as observers since Oswald was in Dallas Police custody. Kelley described Oswald as quick and practiced, familiar with interrogation techniques. When asked if he had shot the President, Oswald flatly denied it; the same for Connally. At the 6:00 p.m. November 23 interview, when Fritz showed Oswald the enlarged photograph of him holding the rifle, Oswald sneered and claimed it was fake—the police had superimposed his face—while claiming intimate knowledge of photography.
At the final November 24 interview, Captain Fritz asked directly if Oswald was a Communist. “No, I am a Marxist but I am not a Marxist Leninist,” he replied. Postal Inspector H.D. Holmes recorded impressions in a December 17, 1963 memorandum, finding Oswald “quite alert,” “skillful in parrying those questions which he did not want to answer,” and doubted he would have confessed. Confronted about PO box 30061 applications listing Marina Oswald and A.J. Hidell as recipients, Oswald shrugged about Marina but claimed no recollection of Hidell. Asked about a Depository mark on his street map, he claimed it marked a job interview location.
About 11:00 a.m. November 24, Oswald selected a black slip-over sweater despite its jagged shoulder holes and was handcuffed for transfer to the county jail. Chief of Police Jesse Curry discussed arrangements; Fritz then terminated the interview. Inspector Kelley, with the others out of hearing, explained his Secret Service role in presidential safety and desire to talk once Oswald had counsel. Oswald said he would discuss it with his attorney but had nothing more to say.
Oswald was escorted from the third-floor Homicide Office to the basement, where Jack Ruby shot him. Kelley and Sorrels, discussing the interview in Curry’s office, ran down the steps. Kelley accompanied the stretcher to the ambulance and followed to Parkland Hospital. Oswald was unconscious during transport and never regained consciousness before death. Special Agents Warner and Patterson proceeded to Parkland upon hearing the shooting. After Oswald was pronounced dead, Kelley arranged for the family to view the body; Special Agents Howard and Kunkel provided security per SAIC Bouck’s instructions that “all precautions should be taken to insure that no harm befell them.”
In the same memorandum, Holmes recorded Oswald’s emphatic denials of shooting both Kennedy and Tippit. Asked about religion, Oswald said Karl Marx was his religion. Holmes recorded no questions about the chicken lunch remains found on the sixth floor. The encyclopedic Appendix XII addressed rumors and speculation that had grown since November 22, 1963—shots from the railroad overpass, multiple shooters, accomplices in the building, and Oswald’s affiliations. The Commission addressed each systematically, observing that “myths have traditionally surrounded the dramatic assassinations of history” and finding “no credible evidence” of conspiracy, criminal association, or connection between Oswald and Ruby beyond their brief, fatal encounter.
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