Witnesses Barbara Jeanette Davis and Virginia Davis
In their apartment at the southeast corner of 10th and Patton, the Davis sisters heard gunfire and Helen Markham’s screams, then ran to the door in time to see a man with a revolver cut across their lawn toward Patton. Barbara Jeanette saw him emptying his gun. Each woman found an empty shell near the house, which were delivered to police. Both identified Oswald in a four-man lineup that evening. Neither had been shown photographs beforehand, and Virginia Davis had not seen television or newspapers. Sitting alongside each other, each whispered Oswald’s number to the detective, with each claiming to be the first to identify him.
CHAPITRE III. [C4-305] Euins, who was on the southwest corner of Elm and
Chapter III[C4-305] details the investigation into the murder of Dallas Police Patrolman J.D. Tippit, presenting eyewitness testimony, lineup procedures, ballistic evidence linking the murder weapon to Oswald, the trace of the revolver’s ownership to Oswald, the recovery of Oswald’s jacket along the flight path, and the sequence of events leading to Oswald’s arrest at the Texas Theatre.
William Arthur Smith
William Arthur Smith, standing about a block east of 10th and Patton, heard shots and saw a man running west and a policeman falling. He did not come forward on November 22, but several days later reported what he saw to the FBI. After seeing Oswald on television—where his hair appeared blond—Smith later viewed a photograph of Oswald with brown hair and told the FBI the man in the picture more closely resembled the person he saw running from the scene.
Ted Callaway and Sam Guinyard
Ted Callaway (manager of a used-car lot) and Sam Guinyard (a porter) heard shots and saw a man running south on Patton with a revolver held high. Callaway called out to the man, who halted briefly then continued west on Jefferson. The two found Tippit lying beside his car, picked up his fallen revolver, and attempted to pursue the gunman in a taxicab without success. That evening both positively identified Oswald from a four-man lineup as the man with the gun, and both testified they had not been shown photographs prior to the lineup.
Lineup Procedures
The Dallas Police Department provided the Commission with photographs of the men who appeared in lineups with Oswald, and the Commission investigated both general Dallas Police lineup procedures and the specific procedures used in lineups involving Oswald. The Commission expressed satisfaction that the lineups were conducted fairly.
Used-Car Lot Witnesses
Four men at a used-car lot on the southeast corner of Patton and Jefferson—Warren Reynolds, Harold Russell, Pat Patterson, and L.J. Lewis—saw a white male carrying a revolver running south on Patton, then turning west on Jefferson. Reynolds and Patterson followed him until he turned north toward a service station parking area. Russell and Patterson identified Oswald from photographs; Reynolds later confirmed the identification before a Commission staff member; Lewis declined to make a positive identification due to the distance of his observation.
Murder Weapon
When arrested, Oswald possessed a Smith & Wesson .38 Special revolver (serial V510210), positively identified by three arresting officers. Four cartridge cases found at 10th and Patton were unanimously identified by FBI experts (Cunningham, Frazier, Killion) and by Illinois Bureau expert Nicol as having been fired from Oswald’s revolver to the exclusion of all other weapons. Four lead bullets recovered from Tippit’s body matched the revolver’s rifling characteristics (five lands and grooves, right twist), but due to mutilation, experts could not definitively identify them as fired from Oswald’s weapon—though Nicol concluded one bullet matched to the exclusion of all others. Ballistic and cartridge evidence suggested that five shots may have been fired, with one cartridge case or bullet unaccounted for.
Ownership of Revolver
FBI tracing identified George Rose & Co. of Los Angeles as a distributor of this revolver model. Seaport Traders, Inc. records showed that on January 3, 1963, a shipment of 99 guns was received, including the serial-numbered revolver, which was later shortened to a 2¼-inch barrel. A mail-order coupon signed “A.J. Hidell, aged 28” with a Dallas P.O. box was received after January 27, 1963, with the witness signature “D.F. Drittal.” The revolver was shipped March 20, 1963. Treasury and FBI handwriting experts, along with Marina Oswald, identified the order and witness signature as Oswald’s handwriting. Marina identified the revolver as her husband’s and recognized it in Neely Street photographs; police recovered an empty holster matching the photos from Oswald’s room.
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