Activity of Newsmen
Within an hour of Oswald’s arrival at the police department on November 22, newsmen learned he was a suspect in both the Tippit murder and the President’s assassination—by at least 3:26 p.m. a television report had carried this information. Reporters and cameramen flooded the building and congregated on the third floor corridor. Felix McKnight of the Dallas Times-Herald estimated that more than 300 news media representatives came to Dallas within 24 hours of the assassination, including foreign correspondents. District Attorney Henry M. Wade believed the crowd in the third floor hallway alone may have numbered 300, though most estimates, including those based on video tapes, placed upwards of 100 newsmen and cameramen in the corridor by Friday evening. An FBI agent present compared the scene to “Grand Central Station at rush hour,” and Chief Curry described it as “pandemonium on the third floor.” Television cameras with floodlights were set up in the lobby, cables ran through offices and out windows, and newsmen sat on desks, used police telephones, and wandered freely among police bureaus. The corridor became so jammed that movement required pushing, shoving, and stepping over cables and tripods, and police efforts to clear an aisle were described as a “constant battle.” District Attorney Wade found it a “strain to get the door open” to the homicide office, and Secret Service Agent Forrest V. Sorrels felt the “press and the television people just * * * took over.”
On the Third Floor
The third floor of the Police and Courts Building was a 140-foot, 7-foot-wide corridor with police offices along its length, including those of Chief Curry at one end, a small pressroom at the other, and the homicide and robbery bureau—headed by Captain J. Will Fritz—between the pressroom and the lobby. While Oswald was detained, newsmen packed this corridor: television trucks surrounded the building, cables ran through offices and out windows, and cameras on tripods, sound equipment, and handheld devices filled the hallway. Police efforts to control the crowd and maintain an aisle were largely unavailing, as newsmen continually pushed back into cleared spaces. Despite the chaos, Assistant Chief Charles Batchelor stationed guards at the elevators and stairway late Friday afternoon to exclude unauthorized persons, and the basement records room issued passes to those with legitimate business. Because the police had to continue normal operations across all five bureaus on the third floor, many unrelated visitors—relatives of prisoners, complainants, and witnesses—also had to navigate the crowded corridor.
CHAPITRE V.
Chapter V of the Warren Commission Report details the security arrangements and events surrounding Lee Harvey Oswald’s detention and transfer at the Dallas Police Department headquarters from Friday through Sunday morning. The chapter covers press credential procedures on the third floor, the presence of unauthorized individuals including Jack Ruby, Oswald’s repeated exposures to the press, the chaotic Friday night press conference, the decision-making process to transfer Oswald to the county jail, anonymous death threats received overnight, planning of the transfer route through the basement, and the security measures implemented in the basement area where Oswald would ultimately be shot during the transfer.
Third Floor Press Credential Procedures
Newsmen seeking admission to the third floor were required to identify themselves with personal press cards, but the department did not verify the authenticity of these credentials. Captain King explained that under the chaotic conditions—with constantly ringing telephones and crowds of people—positively identifying individuals was not feasible. While police officers testified they carefully checked credentials and most newsmen confirmed they were required to show press cards after Batchelor imposed security, other newsmen went unchallenged for the entire period before Oswald’s death, even though some were known to officers or wore press badges.
Unauthorized Persons on Third Floor
After security procedures were instituted, people appearing to be unauthorized were present on the third floor, a fact supported by video evidence. Jack Ruby was present on the third floor on Friday night. Assistant Chief of Police N. T. Fisher testified that even on Saturday, anyone with a plausible reason could gain access to the third floor bureaus, indicating significant lapses in security.
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