Lot - Riveting Contemporary Eyewitness and Sheriff’s Office Reports of John F. Kennedy’s Assassination. Unique!

Description:

John F. Kennedy
Dallas, TX, ca. November 22-27, 1963
Riveting Contemporary Eyewitness and Sheriff's Office Reports of John F. Kennedy's Assassination. Unique!
Archive
[JOHN F. KENNEDY.] Archive of Dallas County Sheriff's Department reports of interviews of witnesses to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy and the wounding of Governor John Connelly, November 22-27, 1963, Dallas, TX. Original carbon copy of Crime Reports and contemporary "Xero Copies" of the Witness Affidavits and the Supplementary Investigation Reports, 77 pp.

This fascinating archive includes immediate eye-witness accounts of the assassination, together with reports from sheriff's deputies of their actions in the investigation, and original carbon copies of the Crime Reports against President John F. Kennedy and Texas Governor John B. Connally, who was wounded in the assassination. Together, they reveal the difficulty of reconciling multiple eyewitness accounts in many details. For example, many witnesses heard three or four shots, but others thought there were as many as eight; many mistook them for firecrackers or a vehicle backfire initially. Theories abounded on the direction from which the shots came, and one witness failed to remember the color of Jacqueline Kennedy's dress, insisting it was yellow or orange; it was pink. Deputies vividly described the confusion in the immediate aftermath of the shooting, as they tried to ascertain what had happened and gather witness statements. The firsthand accounts bring an immediacy to the tragedy that later descriptions cannot duplicate. Even the typographical errors reflect the urgency with which the sheriff's department was working to gather information about the assassination.

After shooting President John F. Kennedy at 12:30 p.m., on November 22, 1963, Lee Harvey Oswald left the Texas School Book Depository before police sealed it off. He rode a city bus for a few blocks then took a taxi to his rooming house. At approximately 1:15 p.m., Dallas Patrolman J. D. Tippit encountered Oswald walking along the street. After exchanging words with Oswald, Tippit got out of his patrol car, and Oswald shot Tippit four times, killing him. A shoe store manager saw Oswald slip into a movie theater without paying and alerted police. There, Dallas Police Officer Nick McDonald confronted Oswald, struggled with him, and took him into custody with the aid of other officers.

When authorities began questioning witnesses of the assassination, they decided to send them to the sheriff's office, one block away from Dealy Plaza rather than to the Dallas Police Department located more than three-quarters of a mile away. That afternoon, the Dallas County Sheriff's Department took signed affidavits from many witnesses. This collection includes typed and signed affidavits from 30 of those witnesses and 2 others who provided affidavits on November 23 and 25. The witnesses ranged in age from 15 to 62. Also included are 26 "Supplementary Investigation Reports" from 21 different deputies. Some deputies filed multiple reports.

Items and Excerpts
- Miscellaneous Crime Report, Partially Printed Document, MURDER Report, November 22, 1963, Dallas, Texas. 1 p., 8.5" x 11". Original carbon copy.
"The complainant, THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, was riding in a motorcade with his wife Jacqeline and John B. Connally, Governor of the THE STATE OF TEXAS and Mrs. Connally. At approximately 12:35 pm, 11-22-63 three shots were heard and the PRESIDENT slumped to the seat of the vehicle in which he was riding. Investigation reveals that the shots came from the Texas School Book Depository building located at the corner of Elm Street and Houston Streets and from the next to the top floor of windows, the last window on the East end of the building."

- Miscellaneous Crime Report, Partially Printed Document, ASSAULT WITH INTENT TO COMMIT MURDER Report, November 22, 1963, Dallas, Texas. 1 p., 8.5" x 11". Original carbon copy.
"The complainant, THE GOVERNOR OF THE STATE OF TEXAS, was riding in a motorcade with JOHN KENNEDY, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES and their wives. 3 shots rang out coming from the Texas School Book Depository building located at the corner of Elm and Houston Streets."

- Typed Document Signed, Voluntary Statement of Barbara Walker Rowland, age 17, November 22, 1963, Dallas, TX. 1 p., 8.5" x 11".
"My husband, Arnold Rowland and I came to downtown Dallas today at approximately 12:10PM to see the President in the motorcade. We are both students at Adamson High School, but my husband has been ill and neither of us went to school today in order to see the President.... Arnold told me to look up at the building which was the Texas Book Depository at two adjoining open windows, that there was a man up there holding a rifle and he must be a secret service man. I looked up and Arnold told me he had moved back, but I didn't see anything because I am very nearsighted and I didn't have my glasses on."

- Typed Document Signed, Voluntary Statement of Amos Lee Euins, age 15, African American, November 22, 1963, Dallas, TX. 1 p., 8.5" x 11".
"I am presently going to school at Franklin D. Roosevelt High School and am in the 9th grade. I got out of school this morning to see the President of the United States when he came to Dallas.... I watched the car on down the street and about the time the car got near the black and white sign I heard a shot. I started looking around and then I looked up in the red brick building. I saw a man in a window with a gun and I saw him shoot twice. He then stepped back behind some boxes. I could tell the gun was a rifle and it sounded like an automatic rifle the way he was shooting. I just saw a little bit of the barrel, and some of the trigger housing. This was a white man, he did not have on a hat. I just saw this man for a few seconds."

- Typed Document Signed, Voluntary Statement of Garland Glenwill Slack, age 59, November 22, 1963, Dallas, TX. 1 p., 8.5" x 11".
"Today, I was standing on Houston Street, just below the window to Sheriff Bill Decker's office waiting for the parade. I was standing there when the President's car passed and just after they rounded the corner from Houston onto Elm Street, I heard a report and I knew at once that it was a high-powered rifle shot. I am a big game hunter and am familiar with the sound of hi powered rifles and I knew when I heard the retort that the shot had hit something. Within a few seconds I heard another retort and knew it also had hit something and all I could see was the highly colored hat that Mrs. Kennedy had on."

- Typed Document Signed, Voluntary Statement of Mary Ann Moorman, age 31, November 22, 1963, Dallas, TX. 1 p., 8.5" x 11".
"I had a Polariod [Polaroid] Camera with me and was intending to take pictures of President Kennedy and the motorcade. As the motorcade started toward me I took two pictures. As President Kennedy was opposite me, I took a picture of him. As I snapped the picture of President Kennedy, I heard a shot ring out. President Kennedy kind of slumped over. Then I heard another shot ring out and Mrs. Kennedy jumped up in the car and said, ‘My God, he has been shot.' When I heard these shots ring out, I fell to the ground to keep from being hit myself. I heard three or four shots in all. After the pictures I took were developed, the Picture of President Kennedy showed him slumped over. When the pictures were developed, they came out real light. These pictures have been turned over to Officers investigating this incident."
Mary Moorman's photograph became the source for one of many conspiracy theories associated with the Kennedy assassination.

- Typed Document Signed, Voluntary Statement of Jim Braden, age 49, November 22, 1963, Dallas, TX. 1 p., 8.5" x 11".
"I am here on business (oil business) and was walking down Elm Street trying to get a cab and there wasn't any. I heard people talking saying ‘My God the President has been shot.' Police cars were passing me coming town toward the triple underpass.... I ask one of the girls if there was a telephone that I could use and she said ‘Yes, there is one on the third floor of the building where I work.'... I got on the elevator and returned to the ground floor and the colored man who ran the elevator said you are a stranger in this building and I was not suppose to let you up and he ran outside to an officer and said to the officer that he had just taken me up and down in the elevator and the officer said for me to identify myself and I presented him with a credit card and he said well we have to check out everything and took me to his superior and said for me to wait and we will check it out. I was then taken to the Sheriffs office and interrogated."

- Typed Document Signed, Voluntary Statement of S. M. Holland, age 57, November 22, 1963, Dallas, TX. 1 p., 8.5" x 11".
"Everything is spinning in my head and if I remember anything else later I will come back and tell Bill."

- Charles Polk Player, Dallas Sheriff's Department, Typed Document Signed, to Bill Decker, Supplementary Investigation Report, November 22, 1963, Dallas, TX. 1 p., 8.5" x 11".
"I watched the motorcade pass on Record St. from your office window. After the President's car passed I started back to my desk. I heard three shots and went back to the window. People were running in all directions. I left the office by the back door and went across the street to where my squad car was parked on the side street just back of the book depository. I drove the car on to the rail road tracks, turned the car around and stopped headed west. Sgt. Harkness of the Dallas Police arrived on a 3 wheeler. He turned his radio to DPD Channel 2 and I had the sheriff's 37.300 and DPD Channel 1 in my car. We acted as a West command post for about 2 hours. No one was permitted to leave any of the parking lots until cleared and then a Dallas Police Officer took their names. Officers were directed to search all of the cars in the area, search the rail road cars and to bring anyone in that knew, saw or heard anything."

- Ralph Walters, Dallas Sheriff's Department, Typed Document, to Bill Decker, Supplementary Investigation Report, November 22, 1963, Dallas, TX. 2 pp., 8.5" x 11".
"Capt. Fritz took over the search [of the Texas School Book Depository] at this time and one of the other Deputies who had been in the building came and told us that Sheriff Decker had given orders to let the City take over the investigation and for the Deputies to return to the Sheriff's Office, which we did. We then brought the lights back and put them up and by this time the Sheriff's Office was so full of people and witnesses that no one could move around. I stayed at my desk awaiting further instructions. At approximately 7:00 PM Sheriff Decker told us that we should go home and that we were to stay on call and if we were needed, he would contact us."

- E. L. Boone, Dallas Sheriff's Department, Typed Document, to Bill Decker, Supplementary Investigation Report, November 22, 1963, Dallas, TX. 1 p., 8.5" x 11".
"I was assisting in the search of the 6th floor of the Dallas County Book Depository at Elm st and Houston St. proceeding from the East side of the building. Officer Whitman DPD and I were together as we approached the Northwest corner of the building I was [saw] the rifle partially hidden behind a row of books with two (2) other boxes of books against the rifle. The rifle appeared to be a 7.65 mm Mauser with a telescope sight on the rifle. Capt. Fritz was called to the scene and also some one from the ID pictures were taken and then Capt Fritz picked up the rifle. I first saw the rifle at 1:22pm date."

- Buddy Walthers, Dallas Sheriff's Department, Typed Document, to Bill Decker, Supplementary Investigation Report, November 23, 26, 1963, Dallas, TX. 1 p., 8.5" x 11".
"About 8:00 am this morning, while in the presents of Allen Sweatt, I talked to Sorrels the head of the Dallas Secreat Service. I advised him that for the past few months at a house at 3128 Harlendale some Cubans had been having meetings on the week ends and were possably connected with the ‘Freedom for Cuba Party' of which Oswald was a member."
"11-26-63 / I don't know what action the secreat service has taken but I learned today that sometime between seven days before the president was shot and the day after he was shot these Cubans moved from this house. My informant stated that subject Oswald had been to this house before."

- Allan Sweatt, Dallas Sheriff's Department, Typed Document, to Bill Decker, Supplementary Investigation Report, November 23, 1963, Dallas, TX. 3 pp., 8.5" x 11".
"I separated certain witnesses whom seemed to have more facts than others and turned them over to Mrs. Rosemary Allen of the Dallas Sheriff's Office, Mr. Wallace Heitman of the FBI and Mr. Forrest Sorrells of the Secret Service, and they took witnesses to the Polygraph room of the Sheriff's Office where they obtained statements."
"After this we correlated all statements, getting copies separated and in separate files. Sent a complete set of all statements taken to Capt. Fritz of the Dallas Police Department."

- "Watson / Radio," Dallas Sheriff's Department, Typed Document, Supplementary Investigation Report, November 22, 1963, Dallas, TX. 2 pp., 8.5" x 11".
"I had just looked out the window of the radio room facing Main St and watched the Presidential parade pass and as it turned the corner onto Record I looked over in that direction but was unable to see any of the vehicles from my location and about that time I heard three loud reports evenly spaced which I presumed to be rifle or shotgun blast. I looked at the time on the radio panel and it was about 40 seconds after 12:30 pm as I was calling Dallas PD on the hot line and I asked the operator that answered if anything had been reported and she said no I told her that I heard what I believed to be three shots and she thought I was kidding.... About that time DPD called advised that the President had definatly been hit condition unknown and was enroute to Parkland and the hospital had been advised to stand by."
"Secret Service Unit 437 was desiring to know the location of Mr. Lyndon Johnson after several calls located Mr. Johnson at Love Field in Air Force No 1 and advised SS 437 of same."
"Grand Prairie called by public service and said a Mrs. Cunningham called and said that a subject W/M no further desc. Driving a 1957 Ford green and white Texas license DT 4857 which was reported enroute to Ranger, Texas was involved in the assassination. All auth Grand Prairie PD message was broadcast, and a short while later Tarrant County advised that the subject had been taken into custody in the downtown area of Fort Worth."

- "Squad 33 / Elkins," Dallas Sheriff's Department, Typed Document, Supplementary Investigation Report, November 26, 1963, Dallas, TX. 1 p., 8.5" x 11".
"I then went back to the street and mixed with the crouds trying to get people who were witnesses to the tragedy. After I had brought several people to the office I went to TV Station WFAA and got two witnesses who had been taken there by some reporters.... I then came back to the sheriff's office where I remained the rest of the day talking to witnesses and taking statements."

- McCoy, Dallas Sheriff's Department, Typed Document, to Bill Decker, Supplementary Investigation Report, November 24, 1963, Dallas, TX. 3 pp., 8.5" x 11".
"At approx. 2:15 AM. I received a call from a person that talked like a w/m and he stated that he was a member of a group of one hundred and that he wanted the sheriff's office to know that they had voted one hundred per cent to kill Oswald while he was in the process of being transferred to the county jail and that he wanted this department to have the information so that none of the deputies would get hurt. The voice was deep and course [coarse] and sounded very sincere and talked with ease. The person did not seem excited like some of the calls that we had received running down this department, the police department and the state of Texas and he seemed very calm about the whole matter."
"As you know, when I called you at 6:00 AM., you wanted to know who was there at the office and I told you that Kennedy, Virgil, Watkins and one or two others and you asked me to call Bockemehl and have him call you at home and then you asked me if I thought that Kennedy and I could transfer Oswald from the city jail without causing much of a scene by hand cuffing Oswald to me and by keeping Oswald in the floor board of the car so that he could not be seen. I told you that we would give it a try and you advised to hold up until you talked to Fritz.... You called back at about 7:50 AM. and you stated that they would not go for making the transfer at this time (from the city jail to the county jail) and told us to go on home and get some sleep."

James E. "Bill" Decker (1898-1970) was born in Dallas, Texas. In 1920, he became an elevator operator at the Dallas County Courthouse, and he became a deputy constable in 1923. He served as chief deputy to Dallas County Sheriff Smoot Schmid from 1933 to 1946. He relentlessly pursued notorious gangsters and murderers Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker until Texas and Louisiana lawmen ambushed and killed them in 1934. When Decker's boss was defeated for reelection in 1946, Decker resigned from his position. Decker won election as sheriff in 1948 and served as sheriff of Dallas County until his death, never being opposed in an election. During his tenure, he modernized and professionalized the sheriff's office.

Provenance:
Historical Collectible Auctions, 1999
Robert Benorden, 1999
Ron Hoskins, assassinologist, 2006

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

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Dimensions:

8.5" x 11"

Artist Name:

John F. Kennedy

Medium:

Archive

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