Charles Givens, a floor-layer, testified that about 35 minutes before the assassination, he saw Oswald with a clipboard walking from the sixth-floor southeast corner toward the elevator, asking Givens to close the west gate behind him. A clipboard bearing three unfilled November 22 order slips was later found hidden among book cartons in the northwest corner near where the rifle was discovered.
Howard Brennan, viewing from a concrete wall at the southwest corner of Elm and Houston, described the shooter as white, slender, in his early thirties, approximately 5’10“. Brennan initially identified Oswald from a lineup as resembling the shooter; in subsequent interviews and before the Commission, he confirmed the identification. Ronald Fischer and Robert Edwards described seeing a man in the southeast corner window approximately one minute before the motorcade, dressed in a light-colored shirt with brown hair and a slender face. Fifteen-year-old Amos Euins alerted police to the Depository as the source of the shots but could not identify the shooter’s race.
Immediately after the assassination, Patrolman M.L. Baker entered the Depository with superintendent Roy Truly. Reaching the second-floor lunchroom, Baker drew his revolver and ordered, “Come here,” as a man walked back with empty hands. Truly identified him as Oswald. Commission timing tests showed Baker could have reached the lunchroom in 1:15–1:30, while a Secret Service agent needed 1:14–1:18 to descend from the sixth-floor southeast corner—proving Oswald had time. Within a minute, Mrs. R.A. Reid saw Oswald walking through the second-floor clerical office toward the front stairs, carrying a Coca-Cola bottle and wearing only a T-shirt—his blue jacket was later found in the building. The building remained unsealed; Officer W.E. Barnett began guarding the front door about three minutes after the shots, and Inspector Herbert Sawyer did not order the doors sealed until at least 12:37 p.m. Oswald could have departed by 12:33 p.m.
Reconstructing Oswald’s movements, the Commission determined he walked seven blocks east on Elm Street and boarded a Marsalis bus. Bus driver Cecil McWatters issued him a transfer. Mary Bledsoe, Oswald’s former landlady who boarded the same bus, identified him by a distinctive hole in his right shirt elbow, describing him as appearing “like a maniac” with his sleeve torn and his face distorted. Oswald alighted near Lamar Street, walked to the Greyhound station, and entered taxi driver William Whaley’s cab around 12:47 p.m. Whaley drove him to the 500 block of North Beckley, where Oswald paid 95 cents with a dollar bill and departed. Housekeeper Earlene Roberts reported Oswald arriving at his roominghouse at 1026 North Beckley around 1 p.m., staying three to four minutes, and emerging zipping up a jacket.
At approximately 1:15 p.m., about nine-tenths of a mile from the roominghouse, Officer J.D. Tippit stopped a man matching the broadcast description of the President’s killer at 10th Street and Patton Avenue. As Tippit walked around the front of his patrol car, the man drew a revolver and fired several shots, killing Tippit instantly. The gunman retreated toward Patton Avenue, ejecting empty cartridges while reloading. Taxicab driver William Scoggins, observing from his cab on Patton, identified Oswald from a four-person lineup the next day as the man he had seen muttering “Poor damn cop” while fleeing. Multiple other witnesses identified Oswald through lineups or photographs, providing substantial evidence linking him to the killing of Patrolman Tippit within forty-five minutes of the assassination.
chapter V of this report.
The Warren Commission identified Lee Harvey Oswald as President Kennedy’s assassin through witness testimony, forensic analysis, and documentary evidence, including evidence concerning Dallas Police Patrolman J. D. Tippit, killed approximately forty-five minutes after the presidential limousine passed Dealey Plaza.
Eyewitnesses and palm print evidence placed Oswald at the Depository’s sixth-floor window. Howard L. Brennan at Elm and Houston saw a man holding a rifle fire two more shots, then step back, and identified Oswald. Amos Lee Euins, Mrs. Robert E. Hicks, Mrs. Donald Baker, Mrs. E. W. Walker, and Mr. and Mrs. Jack D. Tippit gave consistent testimony. Officers found near the southeast corner window a paper sack, three spent cartridge cases, and a partial palm print on a cardboard carton. FBI expert Sebastian F. Latona identified the print as Oswald’s right palm. No other prints placed any other person at the window or on the floor.
The 35-inch paper bag could accommodate the disassembled 36-inch Mannlicher-Carcano rifle and its 40-inch telescopic sight. Linnie Mae Randle testified she observed Oswald near the Depository that morning carrying a long brown paper-wrapped package about five feet long. Mrs. Mary Bledsoe had given Oswald a ride to a nearby bus stop earlier. The Commission concluded Oswald brought the rifle in this bag, carried it to the sixth floor, and fired from the southeast corner window.
Several witnesses identified the Tippit killer. Domingo Benavides saw a man fire three shots at Tippit’s patrol car, empty the revolver, and toss shells into bushes; he reported the killing at 1:16 p.m. Helen Markham watched the gunman fire three shots and positively identified Oswald in a lineup. The Commission rejected allegations she had described the shooter as short, stocky, and bushy-haired. Barbara Jeanette Davis and Virginia Davis saw a man with a revolver cross their lawn; both picked Oswald from a lineup. William Arthur Smith saw a man running west. At a Patton Avenue used-car lot, Ted Callaway and Sam Guinyard saw a man running south with a revolver raised; both identified Oswald. Warren Reynolds, Harold Russell, Pat Patterson, and L. J. Lewis also saw a white male with a revolver running south; Russell and Patterson identified Oswald from photographs two months later, and Reynolds eventually did the same.
The murder weapon was a Smith & Wesson .38 Special revolver, serial V510210, found on Oswald at arrest. Four cartridge cases were fired from that revolver to the exclusion of all other weapons, FBI experts Cortlandt Cunningham, Robert Frazier, and Charles Killion testified, based on breech face marks and firing pin impressions; Joseph Nicol agreed. Bullets from Tippit’s body shared the rifle’s rifling but their smaller-than-barrel size prevented positive identification, though Nicol concluded one bullet was fired from Oswald’s revolver.
The revolver traced to Oswald. On January 3, 1963, George Rose & Co. of Los Angeles received ninety-nine revolvers, including V510210, whose barrel was shortened. A mail-order coupon ordered “.38 St. W. 2” Bbl.“ at $29.95 with $10 enclosed, signed “A. J. Hidell, aged 28,” with a return address of P.O. Box 2915, Dallas. Treasury and FBI handwriting experts identified the writing as Oswald’s. Marina Oswald identified the revolver as her husband’s.
Fifteen minutes before the Tippit shooting, Oswald left his roominghouse wearing a zipper jacket he had not worn upon arriving home; he had no jacket at arrest. A light-colored zipper jacket was found under a car behind a service station on Jefferson Boulevard. Captain W. R. Westbrook discovered it; Marina identified it as her husband’s gray jacket. Several witnesses identified it as worn by the Tippit shooter.
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