DPD Tapes and a 6 Minute Discrepancy

[Chris Scally]

Dan - I hope to get time over the coming weekend to spend a little more time on this timing issue. I agree that a 5-6 minute difference is worthy of further consideration, so hopefully I'll get a chance to listen to the tapes and compare them with the transcripts over the weekend.
 

[Dan O'meara]

The "official" timeline for the Tippit murder just doesn't work (IMO) without ignoring a lot of the key witness testimony.


To me, it isn’t considered ignoring if it is in fact considered, and then decided that it must be in error.

Agreed.
"Ignoring" was the incorrect word to use.
The situation, I suppose, is that on one hand there could be a single error (the DPD tapes) and on the other there could be a number of erroneous important details regarding the timing of events as related by various witnesses.

[Dan O'meara]

Dan - I hope to get time over the coming weekend to spend a little more time on this timing issue. I agree that a 5-6 minute difference is worthy of further consideration, so hopefully I'll get a chance to listen to the tapes and compare them with the transcripts over the weekend.

No worries Chris. This problem isn't going anywhere anytime soon.
Have a good weekend

[Martin Weidmann]

Jack Watson, the Dallas County Sheriff’s Office radio dispatcher, in his report to Sheriff Decker dated 11/22/63, states that immediately after he heard the shots:

“I looked at the time on the radio panel and it was about 40-seconds after 12:30 pm as I was calling the Dallas PD on the hot line...”


https://history-matters.com/archive/jfk/wc/wcvols/wh19/pdf/WH19_Decker_Ex_5323.pdf


Also, earlier In the Sheriff’s documentation he provides the following description:

There had been no incidents during the entire route of the motorcade and we arrived at Elm Street at approximately 12 :31 PM . Mr . Lawson had just looked at his watch, stating it *as 12:31 PM and remarking that we would be approximately 5 minutes late in arriving at Market Hall.


It does appear to me that at the time of the assassination, the real time was reasonably close to the verbal times recorded on the DPD tapes. And I think that your own apparent opinion that, without any apparent reason otherwise, these verbal times should also be reasonably close to the real time 45-minutes later during the Tippit murder time period. Does this not suggest to you that the discrepancies must be in the details of the testimonies that seem to point to a six minute time difference???

Why don't you give it a try and point out where these descrepancies could be in the time line?

Here it is;
Markham leaves her home at "a little after 1" and is en route to the bus stop on Jefferson by 1:06 or 1:07
She only needs to walk one block to get from 9th street to 10th street. The FBI determined that the distance of one block takes about 2,5 minutes to walk. This gets Markham to the corner of 10th and Patton by 1:09:30 at the latest, perfectly on time to reach the bus stop on Jefferson at 1:11 or 1:12.

1:09            Shooting

                   Bowley picked up his daugther at school at 12:55 and is en route to pick up his wife from work. The distance between the school and 10th street takes about 13 to 15 minutes to
                   drive. This gets him to 10th street at 1:10

                   Benavides stays in his car until the killer has disappeared on Patton. That takes about 45 seconds. He then runs to Tippit and then the car and grabs the mic

1:10            Benevides making his call and Bowley arrives

                   Bowley says (in the video "Hunting Oswald") that when he arrived he noticed something was going on, so he parked his car at a fair distance away so his 12 year old daughter would
                   not see it. He then walked towards the police car, checked on Tippit and then noticed Benavides who could not get the radio of the patrol car to work. It's a fair estimation that this
                   would have taken him around 45 seconds. During this time Benavides is keying the mic in vain. When Bowley arrived he looked at his watch and it said 1:10

1:11            Bowley makes his call, lasting 46 seconds

                   DPD officers Poe and Jez (squad car 105) wrote in their supplementary offense report that at approximently 1:10 they heard on the radio that a police officer was involved in a
                   shooting at East Tenth Street.

1:12            Callaway arrives at the scene. He has only one block to run after his interaction with the killer. The killer running towards Jefferson and Callaway then running to 10th street takes
                   about 3 minutes after the shots were fired

1:12:30       After checking on Tippit, Callaway makes his call and hears the ambulance's sirens in the background

                   Ambulance arrives. Callaway and Bowley help loading Tippit's body into the ambulance

1:12:45       DPD officer Croy is in his car at Zang and Colorado when he hears Bowley's radio call. It takes him no more than
                  1,5 to 2 minutes to arrive at 10th street. When he arrives he sees Tippit's body being loaded into the ambulance

1:13            The ambulance leaves. The distance to Methodist Hospital takes 2 minutes to drive in normal traffic. With sirens on
                   it takes less.

                   DPD officers Davenport and Bardin are in their car and see the ambulance pass by. They follow it and arrive at the
                   same time at as the ambulance at the hospital.

1:15            Ambulance arrives at Methodist Hospital and Tippit is declared DOA at 1:15
                   The DOA time is communicated to the Justice of the Peace who issues an Authorization for Autopsy which gives the
                   time of death as 1:15.
                   Davenport writes in his report that Tippit was declared dead at 1:15 and on the form he uses to deliver a bullet
                   taken from Tippit's body and a button from his uniform to the Identification Bureau he writes in his own handwriting that Tippit was declared
                   DOA at 1:15

For the DPD times to be correct, Markham needs to be wrong about the time she left home and she also does not get to the bus stop at 1:15, Bowley's watch must be off by 7 minutes which means he was 7 minutes late to pick up his daughter from school and did not notice it. DPD officers Poe and Jez have to be wrong about the time they heard the radio call. The clocks at Methodist Hospital must be wrong, or at least the one used by Dr. Liquori and Davenport and Bardin must have been mistaken about Tippit being declared dead at 1:15.

[Charles Collins]

Why don't you give it a try and point out where these descrepancies could be in the time line?

Here it is;
Markham leaves her home at "a little after 1" and is en route to the bus stop on Jefferson by 1:06 or 1:07
She only needs to walk one block to get from 9th street to 10th street. The FBI determined that the distance of one block takes about 2,5 minutes to walk. This gets Markham to the corner of 10th and Patton by 1:09:30 at the latest, perfectly on time to reach the bus stop on Jefferson at 1:11 or 1:12.

1:09            Shooting

                   Bowley picked up his daugther at school at 12:55 and is en route to pick up his wife from work. The distance between the school and 10th street takes about 13 to 15 minutes to
                   drive. This gets him to 10th street at 1:10

                   Benavides stays in his car until the killer has disappeared on Patton. That takes about 45 seconds. He then runs to Tippit and then the car and grabs the mic

1:10            Benevides making his call and Bowley arrives

                   Bowley says (in the video "Hunting Oswald") that when he arrived he noticed something was going on, so he parked his car at a fair distance away so his 12 year old daughter would
                   not see it. He then walked towards the police car, checked on Tippit and then noticed Benavides who could not get the radio of the patrol car to work. It's a fair estimation that this
                   would have taken him around 45 seconds. During this time Benavides is keying the mic in vain. When Bowley arrived he looked at his watch and it said 1:10

1:11            Bowley makes his call, lasting 46 seconds

                   DPD officers Poe and Jez (squad car 105) wrote in their supplementary offense report that at approximently 1:10 they heard on the radio that a police officer was involved in a
                   shooting at East Tenth Street.

1:12            Callaway arrives at the scene. He has only one block to run after his interaction with the killer. The killer running towards Jefferson and Callaway then running to 10th street takes
                   about 3 minutes after the shots were fired

1:12:30       After checking on Tippit, Callaway makes his call and hears the ambulance's sirens in the background

                   Ambulance arrives. Callaway and Bowley help loading Tippit's body into the ambulance

1:12:45       DPD officer Croy is in his car at Zang and Colorado when he hears Bowley's radio call. It takes him no more than
                  1,5 to 2 minutes to arrive at 10th street. When he arrives he sees Tippit's body being loaded into the ambulance

1:13            The ambulance leaves. The distance to Methodist Hospital takes 2 minutes to drive in normal traffic. With sirens on
                   it takes less.

                   DPD officers Davenport and Bardin are in their car and see the ambulance pass by. They follow it and arrive at the
                   same time at as the ambulance at the hospital.

1:15            Ambulance arrives at Methodist Hospital and Tippit is declared DOA at 1:15
                   The DOA time is communicated to the Justice of the Peace who issues an Authorization for Autopsy which gives the
                   time of death as 1:15.
                   Davenport writes in his report that Tippit was declared dead at 1:15 and on the form he uses to deliver a bullet
                   taken from Tippit's body and a button from his uniform to the Identification Bureau he writes in his own handwriting that Tippit was declared
                   DOA at 1:15

For the DPD times to be correct, Markham needs to be wrong about the time she left home and she also does not get to the bus stop at 1:15, Bowley's watch must be off by 7 minutes which means he was 7 minutes late to pick up his daughter from school and did not notice it. DPD officers Poe and Jez have to be wrong about the time they heard the radio call. The clocks at Methodist Hospital must be wrong, or at least the one used by Dr. Liquori and Davenport and Bardin must have been mistaken about Tippit being declared dead at 1:15.

For the DPD times to be correct, Markham needs to be wrong about the time she left home and she also does not get to the bus stop at 1:15, Bowley's watch must be off by 7 minutes which means he was 7 minutes late to pick up his daughter from school and did not notice it. DPD officers Poe and Jez have to be wrong about the time they heard the radio call. The clocks at Methodist Hospital must be wrong, or at least the one used by Dr. Liquori and Davenport and Bardin must have been mistaken about Tippit being declared dead at 1:15.


Bingo!   

[Martin Weidmann]

For the DPD times to be correct, Markham needs to be wrong about the time she left home and she also does not get to the bus stop at 1:15, Bowley's watch must be off by 7 minutes which means he was 7 minutes late to pick up his daughter from school and did not notice it. DPD officers Poe and Jez have to be wrong about the time they heard the radio call. The clocks at Methodist Hospital must be wrong, or at least the one used by Dr. Liquori and Davenport and Bardin must have been mistaken about Tippit being declared dead at 1:15.


Bingo!   

WOW... Impressive reply. Let me guess, you also believe that the world is flat, right?

[Charles Collins]

WOW... Impressive reply. Let me guess, you also believe that the world is flat, right?

Not in this lifetime!