Basement Search Procedures
The basement of the Police and Courts Building contains the jail office, police garage, and an auto ramp running from Main Street to Commerce Street, with three elevator doors, a door to the municipal building, and a fifth door to a sub-basement. Shortly after 9 a.m. Sunday, policemen cleared the basement of non-police personnel, stationing guards at the top of the Main and Commerce Street ramps, at each of the five garage doorways, and at the double doors near the jail office. Sergeant Patrick T. Dean directed 14 men in a thorough search of the garage, examining rafters, air conditioning ducts, closets, rooms, and the interiors and trunks of parked automobiles, while maintenance workers were directed to leave. The two passenger elevators were locked, and the service elevator was moved to the first floor with the operator instructed not to return it.
Basement Security Weak Points
Despite the thoroughness of the search, weak points remained in controlling garage access. Testimony did not conclusively resolve whether the stairway door near the public elevators was locked both from inside and outside as required. Additionally, the hallway near the jail office was accessible from inside the Police and Courts Building without identification being necessary, allowing newsmen hurrying to photograph Oswald to run unchallenged through those double doors into the basement until seconds before Oswald was shot.
Press Access to Basement
After the search, police allowed news representatives to reenter the basement area and gather along the garage entrance and east side of the Main Street ramp. Officers had instructions to admit only identified news media representatives, accepting any credentials that appeared authentic, with some officers checking for corroborating identification like pictures. Many newsmen reported being checked more than once, though a small number did not recall their credentials being checked. Chief Curry instructed that reporters and cameramen be kept out of the jail office and that television equipment remain behind the railing, and he was generally satisfied with Talbert’s security measures.
Final Transfer Security Arrangements
By the time Oswald reached the basement, 40 to 50 newsmen and 70 to 75 police officers had assembled there. Three television cameras stood along the railing, with most newsmen congregated in that area and at the top of the adjacent decline into the garage. Captain O. A. Jones brought additional detectives from the third floor to line the walls on either side of the passageway, forming barriers along an aisle for the transfer party. With Batchelor’s permission, Jones removed photographers who had gathered in the jail office and directed newsmen to remain behind an imaginary line from the southeast corner of the jail office to the east railing. The final security arrangement positioned about 20 people across the bottom of the Main Street ramp, approximately eight detectives along the south wall outside the jail office, three detectives along the north wall, and two officers in front of the double doors to the corridor.
KAPITEL V.
On Sunday morning, Chief Curry informed a press conference at approximately 10:20 a.m. that Oswald would be transferred in an armored truck and outlined general security precautions, although the transfer route was withheld from newsmen and not disclosed to the truck driver until his arrival at the Commerce Street exit near 11:07 a.m. Because the driver feared the truck might stall on the ramp and that overhead clearance was inadequate, Assistant Chief Batchelor had it backed only into the top of the entranceway, prompting Captain Fritz—who learned of the armored truck plan only at that moment—to urge instead an unmarked police car for greater speed and maneuverability, a suggestion Curry accepted, converting the armored truck into a decoy that would leave first along a circuitous route while a police car carrying Oswald peeled off after one block and proceeded directly to the county jail. Detectives Brown, Dhority, and a third officer were instructed to position the followup and transfer cars on the auto ramp, Lieutenant Pierce obtained a lead vehicle from the basement for Commerce Street, and Oswald was given his sweater with his right hand handcuffed to Detective Leavelle’s left before the procession moved toward the Main Street ramp at about 11:20 a.m. When Fritz emerged from the jail office with Oswald and detectives Leavelle, Graves, and Montgomery, spotlights flared, the crowd of newsmen surged forward, and Jack Ruby slipped between a newsman and a detective at the edge of the straining line on the Main Street ramp, stepped quickly toward Oswald with a .38 caliber revolver extended in his right hand, and fired a single fatal bullet into Oswald’s abdomen.
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