TSBD Encirclement & Sealing.... Who? When? Where? Why? How?

[Marjan Rynkiewicz]

I think that Foster did not look around the carpark with Brennan.
And, Foster could not have confronted Adams & Styles, koz Foster says that he did not go to the TSBD until many minutes had passed.
Below is all that i could find on www re Foster in Sneed's book.

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:
J.W. FOSTER Accident Investigator Dallas Police Department "You could see about where the bullet had come from by checking the angle where it scraped across the concrete and the column where it struck the pedestrian. It appeared to have come from the north-east, approximately from the book store area, but we were never able to find the slug... " J. W. Foster was born in Italy, Texas, and was raised in nearby Hillsboro. After serving in the military, he worked at construction jobs fer ten years prior to joining the Dallas Police Department in 1955. For the next seven years he worked in Radio Patrol, and at the time of the assassination was an accident investigator. I was assigned to patrol the triple overpass over Elm Street and arrived down there about 9:30. Our orders were to keep all personnel off the railroad overpass. During the morning, there were several people who came up, and I told them they had to leave. I checked the ID's of the railroad people and tried to get them to leave, but they had the idea that I couldn't do that. If I'd have gotten them off, they would have probably pulled the engine up right behind me, which would have created a noise problem. So there wasn't much I could do about that.
212 NO MORE SILENCE At the time the motorcade came through, there were about seven or eight people up there. As you looked down, I was standing over the third lane from the north curb of Elm Street. Four or five were standing right in front of me, and there were several on down the trestle away from me. Just prior to the shots, a three engine locomotive went by, so there wasn't a lot that you could see or hear from up there even though the locomotive had already passed and just the boxcars were going by at the time the motorcade passed through. At about 12:30, I saw the motorcade as they came around the comer off of Houston onto Elm proceeding west. When they got about halfway between Houston and the Triple Underpass, I heard three distinct, evenly spaced shots. I could see into the car but couldn't really determine anything, but I did see Mrs. Kennedy crawl up on the back of the car and the driver of the vehicle swerve to his right and a Secret Service agent push her back into the car. From that point, they proceeded west on Elm Street to the Stemmons Freeway. At the time, all I could tell about the shots was that they all sounded about the same, and they came from back toward Elm and Houston Streets.
None of them came from the grassy knoll.
After the shooting, one officer ran up and said the shots came from the overpass, and I told him they didn't. Then I moved around to the end of the viaduct where somebody said some man had run up the railroad track from that location.
So I proceeded up to the yards to check the empty boxcars to see if anybody had run up that way.

I was in the yards maybe ten to fifteen minutes looking in the cars, but I didn't find anything.

Nor did I see anything suspicious behind the picket fence or see anyone with Secret Service or FBI identification, as some have stated.
From there I moved on down to the book store and walked on down to the south side of Elm.
The plaza had been freshly mowed the day before, thus I noticed this clump of sod that was laying there and was trying to find out what caused that clump of grass to be there. That's when I found where the bullet had struck the concrete skirt by the manhole cover and knocked that clump of grass up. Buddy Walthers, one of the sheriffs deputies, came up and talked to me about it, and we discussed the direction from which the bullet had come. It struck the skirt near the manhole cover
 l.W. FOSTER, ACCIDENT INVESTIGATOR 213 and then hit this person who had stood by the column over on Commerce Street. He came by and had a cut on his face where the bullet had struck the column. You could see about where the bullet had come from by checking the angle where it scraped across the concrete and the...

[Marjan Rynkiewicz]

Luke Mooney Larry Sneed University of North Texas Press  Chapter View Citation
Additional Information In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:
LUKE MOONEY Deputy Sheriff Writ and Execution Division Dallas County Sheriff's Department "While we were standing there, someone brought the word that the President was dead... There wasn't a sound. I then looked over between someone 's feet and there lay a carton of books broken open with the lid flapped back. Inside the carton was a paperback book, and on the cover was Christ Leads the Way with a picture of Jesus... " A native Texan, born in Hopkins County, eighty miles east of Dallas, and a veteran of the 764th Amphibious Tank Tractor Battalion in World War II, Luke Mooney, upon discharge in 1946 attended a business college and later worked in the automobile business. After declining a transfer to a new office in another state, Mooney, due to his background in legal matters, was asked by Sheriff Bill Decker in 1958 to join the sheriff's department in the Writ and Execution Division. I was merely a spectator with a number of other plain clothes officers on Main Street just north of the Old Red Court House. We in the sheriff's department had nothing to do with security. That had all been arranged by the Dallas Police Department, the Secret Service, and the FBI. I hadn't been out there long when the motorcade came by with the President and his wife, Governor Connally and his wife, along with all the Secret Service agents
L UK E MOO N E Y, DE PUT Y SHE R IFF 225 following on the running boards of the follow up open top vehicle. The crowd was very enthusiastic. I was close enough to have shaken hands with the President. As the motorcade passed by us, we never attempted to follow it around the corner at Houston and were still standing there when we heard a shot ring out. I knew immediately that it wasn't a backfire because, if you've ever been around weapons, you knew from the echo that it was a gun of some kind.
Several of us started moving toward Houston Street at the moment we heard the first shot. By the time we reached the street, the second shot had been fired, then there was a slight hesitation between the second and the third. We had already heard all three shots before we had reached Houston Street.
We then ran over into Dealey Plaza, crossed Elm, jumped over the wall of the embankment on what's now called the grassy knoll and headed toward the railroad yards. At that time, it seemed to have been the most logical place to begin looking unless you had actually known from where the shots originated, which I didn't. People were scattered in every direction. By that time, the motorcade was en route to Parkland up Stemmons Freeway and thus out of sight.
Other officers were everywhere already checking the parking lot behind the fence. We looked around and into some of the vehicles but didn't see anything unusual.
If we had seen anything that was obvious, we would have checked it out.
I'd estimate that I was in the parking lot area less than ten minutes; whereupon, I noticed a big open wire gate near the freight area of the Book Depository. I saw a citizen there and said,
             "Let's close this off, lock it, and don't let anybody in or out unless they're an officer with identification."

 I then went into the back of the Book Depository where the freight dock was located where there was also a back entrance to a series of offices. I knew how to operate a freight elevator, so we pushed the button and went up one floor. But after one floor, the power was cut and the elevator quit operating, so we took the stairs and went toward the upper levels.
I got off on the sixth floor while some of the others went to the seventh. All you could see were books stacked about head high. At that time, I didn't search the area thoroughly, but I
226 NO MORE SILENCE noticed that everything was quiet and nothing seemed disturbed, particularly over on the southwest corner where nothing was stacked. It appeared as though some carpenter work was being done. Noticing nothing out of the ordinary, I then went on up to the seventh floor. By that time, the others had already left that floor and it was dark, so I sent out...

[Marjan Rynkiewicz]

Jack Faulkner Larry Sneed University of North Texas Press Chapter View Citation
Additional Information   In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:
JACK FAULKNER Deputy Sheriff Criminal Investigation Division Dallas County Sheriff's Department "We had many people inside the Texas School Book Depository tell us that those shots didn't come from that building. That was understandable since I have seen deer shot at and, not knowing which way the bullet came from, they would look all around not knowing which way to run. It's hard to determine where a shot comes from a rifle... " Born and raised in Dallas, Jack Faulkner lived next door to Bill Decker, who was elected sheriff of Dallas County in 1948. Faulkner then joined the sheriffs department on January 1, 1949. I was a criminal investigator working out of the sheriffs office downtown and was standing outside the office waiting to see the President, as were many of the other deputies, since the sheriffs department had no role in the security for the parade. This was not unusual since the Dallas police were responsible for events inside the city, while the sheriffs department dealt with matters outside the city, but still inside Dallas County. Much has been written about how unpopular John Kennedy was in Dallas, but as the Presidential parade came down Main Street right in front of the office where the deputies were standing, that obviously wasn't true because I saw the crowds
216 NO MORE SILENCE cheering him as he drove by. I certainly didn't see anybody that hated him. The sheriff was in the parade along with Chief Curry, who was driving and leading the parade. But, of course, everybody wanted to see the President of the United States. I recall very well Jackie wearing the pink outfit and the smiles that John Kennedy had when they turned the corner off Main onto Houston. It was all very inspiring!
When they turned back onto Elm Street and headed toward the Triple Underpass, then I heard three very distinct shots. I'll never forget the sequence: there was a pause between number one and number two, then number two and three were rapid. At that time, I actually thought that someone had attempted to shoot the President and possibly the Secret Service had shot back. It was that fast!
A.D. McCurley and myself moved down the knoll that's just west of Houston Street between Main and Elm Streets. People were pointing back toward the railroad yards, so we headed in that direction.
As we were crossing Elm Street, McCurley picked up a white piece of bone near the north curb. He asked me,
"Do you suppose that could be part of his skull?"
I said, "There's no blood on it," and he put it down. Later, we got to thinking, and somebody said your skull doesn't necessarily have to be touching something that's bloody. We went back and looked for it later but never found it. To this day, I believe it was a piece of John Kennedy's skull.
In any case, when we reached the grassy knoll, people were lying down trying to dodge the bullets.
There were quite a few people and officers searching the parking lot and going through railroad cars in the railroad yards, but of course, there was nothing. I really didn't do that myself. There was probably as much mass confusion as you can imagine because no one was in charge, but everyone was doing what they were trained to do. I know my partner, who was on the other side of the street, started gathering people to take statements.
We then went up in front of the Texas School Book Depository Building where a little black boy was telling a police sergeant that he had seen a man shoot out of that building. The sergeant then related that information to us. So Bill Wiseman, A.D. McCurley, Joe Lorraine, who had been a former deputy who worked for the State Labor Board, and I took it from there and went in the front door of the building. This was about ten minutes
JACK FAULKNER, SHERIFF'S DEPUTY 217           after the shooting. At that time, the building had not yet been sealed by the police. We contacted the manager who said,
 "Well, everybody is still here that was here when the parade went through when the shooting occurred except Lee Oswald."
We then went up the freight elevator and began searching. I was expecting to see someone with a gun, so I had my gun out...

[Marjan Rynkiewicz]

Edgar L. Smith  Larry Sneed  University of North Texas Press  Chapter
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EDGAR L. SMITH Accident Investigator Dallas Police Department "As the motorcade passed right by me and made its left turn onto Elm Street going toward the Triple Underpass, my eyes were primarily on the motorcade. I was fascinated with John Kennedy and Jackie and felt that they were just larger than life. Seeing them really made an impression on me... " Born in Myrtle Springs, about fifty miles east of Dallas, Ed Smith moved to Dallas at the age often, graduated from Crozier Tech High School in Dallas in 1950 and joined the Dallas Police Department in 1956. Beginning in Radio Patrol, Smith went into the Traffic Division in 1960, and at the time of the assassination was an accident investigator. I worked the evening shift as an accident investigator and was working overtime stationed at Houston and Elm Streets when the Presidential motorcade came through town. In fact, I was situated on the southeast comer of Houston and Elm in front of the Criminal Records Building. Prior to the motorcade's arrival, I had approximately an hour and a half to stand on the comer and, at that time, I believe that I might have looked up at the School Book Depository and all those windows and sort of fantasized about how easy it would be for someone to shoot out of one of those windows. I had a completely unobstructed view; unfortunately, I didn't look up there during the event itself. But there were a lot of people and
198 NO MORE SILENCE they were in a great mood. Everybody seemed really happy and looking forward to seeing the President. I was like many of the people that were lining the streets; I was there more as an observer than as a police officer, despite the fact that, by nature, I'm not a very observant person. My job was to keep the pedestrians back and to look for any kind of suspicious events that might take place. As the motorcade passed right by me and made its left tum onto Elm Street going toward the Triple Underpass, my eyes were primarily on the motorcade. I was fascinated with John Kennedy and Jackie and felt like they were just larger than life. Seeing them really made an impression on me.
 It seemed like a short time, maybe ten or fifteen seconds after they had made the tum, that the first shot rang out. At the time, I didn't think much of it; in fact, I thought it was probably just firecrackers. The thought ran through my mind that this was really a dirty trick to be playing on the President. Then the next two occurred. It seemed like a lot of time elapsed between the three shots. I couldn't really tell where the shots came from, but they sounded like they all came from the same location. Certainly it didn't seem to me that they came from the sixth floor, but things seemed to just echo around there. At the time of the shooting, I was looking more toward the grassy knoll; however, it was sort of obstructed because there were other cars passing by. I looked down there and was able to see the Presidential car lurch off. That was the first time that I realized that something really had taken place; I didn't know what, but I knew that something was wrong. Meanwhile the crowd got quiet and then it became loud.
I reacted by running across the street from the south side of Elm toward the underpass, then cut across the street and saw that something had happened as the crowd started moving toward that location. I ran in that direction because of the crowd reaction and from what I overheard since I had no idea where the shots originated. I followed the crowd with my pistol drawn but holstered it before I crossed Elm headed toward the grassy knoll. I don't recall the amount of time that elapsed, but we did check out the area behind the grassy knoll. There was a tremendous amount of confusion! We had no earthly idea what was going on, and we had very little leadership out there. It was chaos; at least it was for
EDGAR L. SMITH. DALLAS POLICE 199           me. It didn't seem as though anyone was in charge as we had police officers from different divisions there. There were also, what I assumed, Secret Service and FBI agents there simply...

[Marjan Rynkiewicz]

David V. Harkness Larry Sneed University of North Texas Press Chapter
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DAVID V. HARKNESS Sergeant, Traffic Division Dallas Police Department "Even some of the people, immediately after the assassination, were angry at the police. They assumed we'd let the President get shot. Some of them were real abusive. " After having served four years in the U.S. Coast Guard during the Second World War, Harkness joined the Dallas Police Department July 8th, 1946. Prior to 1963, Harkness had worked in the Patrol Division, as an accident investigator in the Traffic Division, in school safety, and then as a downtown traffic sergeant.
I was assigned to the parade route as a three-wheel officer supervising point control and three-wheel officers. My assignment was to keep the parade route open from Main and Field to Elm and Houston. At the time of the arrival of the President, I was at the intersection of Main and Houston because I could see all of my area. If there were any problems, like congestion or anything, I could get to it quickly. So I had a good view all the way up Main Street and over to the Book Depository.
Just about the time the parade was at Elm and Harwood, getting ready to tum west on Main, we had a person who had an epileptic seizure over on Houston Street across from the county jail in Dealey Plaza. So I asked for an ambulance to get him to
DA VID V. H ARKN E S S, S ERG E ANT 205            Parkland and get him out of the area. It just seemed to be a person normally having an epileptic seizure. He did strike his head on the concrete retaining wall right there near the curb, and he was taken to Parkland. We got an ambulance and got him out of there, so it didn't interfere with the parade. I radioed to the officer assigned to Parkland to get the information because we didn't obtain any information at the scene. We were interested in getting him loaded and getting him out of the way. All this happened just four to five minutes before the parade arrived.
I was on the northwest corner of the intersection when I saw the parade coming west on Main and making the turn onto Houston. I was looking at the President, made eye contact with him, and he waved at me. As soon as the motorcade passed, the people that were standing near the intersection where I was kind of walked back. So, when the motorcade made the turn to go down Elm Street, they went back to the grassy area there in the median between Main and Elm to get a better view of him. So I kind of followed the crowd.
As the first shot rang out, then the second, I saw the President's head jerk. Then, as the third shot was fired, Mrs. Kennedy came out of the car and was on all fours on the trunk lid of the car. At the time, I was probably 150-200 feet from the car at the edge of the grassy median between Main and Elm, not far from where my motor was parked at the intersection. The sounds were loud reports. It seemed like there was more time between the first and the second shots than between the second and the third. The second and the third were pretty close together.
Due to the echo pattern in Dealey Plaza, though, I was unable to tell the direction of the shots. After they heard the shots, some people fell down. My first observation on this, if I would have been suspecting where the shots came from, I would have picked the building across from the School Book Depository because I looked up and there was a huge flock of pigeons that flew up from that building. You know how pigeons congregate on top of these buildings; well, they flew up from over there, so I focused my attention to that building. I couldn't see the sixth floor window of the School Book Depository because the colonnade structure in Dealey Plaza was between me and the sixth floor at the level where I was. I was
206 NO MORE SILENCE         right behind that structure. What I could see was the outline of the President's head, and I could see it jerk. I tried to find someone. . . an escape route. I knew we had people stationed all around the place, so I got on my...

[Marjan Rynkiewicz]

Joe Murphy      Larry Sneed      University of North Texas Press Chapter  View Citation
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JOE MURPHY Traffic Division Dallas Police Department "   I could see that something was wrong in the car as it got nearer to my position because the President's wife was leaning over toward President Kennedy, and as ] was standing right above them, ] heard someone say, "Get us to the nearest hospital!"
Born and raised in Dallas, Joe Murphy was offered a contract to play baseball in the Chicago White Sox organization. After playing a year at Midland in the West Texas-Mexican League and later for a semi-pro team in Baytown, Texas, he returned to Dallas and upon the advise of an uncle, joined the Dallas Police Department in 1942. Interrupted by service in the Army during World War II, Murphy returned to the police department in 1946 where he served most of his career in the Traffic Division. He is reputed to have given the most traffic tickets in the history of the Dallas Police Department.
I was assigned on the Stemmons Freeway over Elm Street about 150 yards from the School Book Depository. My job was to keep traffic moving and not to allow anybody to stop on the bridge or park their car anywhere on the shoulders so that they could watch the motorcade from the bridge. I was facing west by the way the motorcade was traveling, and it was to go up the service road to my right and onto the freeway. Several motor jockeys and other officers were there to stop traffic completely
JOE M U R PH Y. T R A F FIe 195           when the motorcade was to pass. That was the only time that traffic was allowed to stop on the freeway. Many of the officers were north of the overpass as much as a quarter of a mile from the overpass where the Elm Street entrance entered the freeway. Others were just riding the area stopping with messages they had for me. We were all channelled to listen for any information from the office or from the dispatcher.
Prior to the arrival of the motorcade I saw some men walking up on the Triple Underpass. Based on how they were dressed, I assumed they were railroad people. There was also at least one officer there as well. I could see the motorcade when it came down Main and turned right onto Houston and over to Elm. But there were some trees that obscured my view at Elm and Houston, so I lost sight of it for a moment or two.
As it approached my position, I heard the shots and a flock of pigeons took off flying in circles. I couldn't tell where the noise was coming from due to the reverberations. In fact, I didn't realize they were shots at first. But I did hear three, what were later defined as shots, and they were about evenly spaced. I could see that something was wrong in the car as it got nearer to my position because the President's wife was leaning over toward President Kennedy, and as I was standing right above them, I heard someone say, "Get us to the nearest hospital!" I waited to hear something on the radio and had difficulty hearing due to all the noise.
By that time, traffic had been reopened north on Stemmons so the noise factor had increased. I wasn't able to tell much about what was going on in Dealey Plaza. I saw a number of people on the ground, then some began to move back up toward the hill. Most were headed toward the intersection at Elm and Houston. I didn't see anybody below me or in that grassy area. I've heard so many tales about that grassy area, but I don't recall seeing anybody over there either running or walking.
After the shooting, the order was given for all us three wheelers to come to the School Book Depository. We were told that some people were supposed to have been running behind the building. So we circled the area looking for anything and yet nothing in particular.
196 NO MORE SILENCE              I remember talking with several people just to see if they had seen anything, but there was nothing of any value that I recall that concerned the shooting. I wasn't involved in anything further in the investigation. My usual hours were 6:00 A.M. to 2:00 P.M., but they held us over late that afternoon. I had...

[Marjan Rynkiewicz]

James C. Bowles    Larry Sneed    University of North Texas Press   Chapter  View Citation
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JAMES C. BOWLES Communications Supervisor Dallas Police Department "McLain assumed, since they were government lawyers working for the flag, motherhood, and Chevrolet coupes, that they wouldn't lie to you. McLain had no idea, in his naive innocence, that they were trying to concoct a tale and that he was a vital validator to their chain... " After serving a stint in the Navy and later operating a small business, James Bowles joined the Dallas Police Department in 1951. In 1963, Bowles was the communications supervisor of the dispatch office. In the years following the assassination, Bowles transcribed the so-called Dallas Police Tapes and later wrote a manuscript titled "The Kennedy Assassination Tapes: A Rebuttal to the Acoustics Evidence." Based on his background with the police department, he is recognized as the authority on the inner workings of the radio communications of the Dallas Police Department and corresponding events at the time of the assassination.
I was at Love Field as part of the reception for the President while my dad, Major, was at Baylor Hospital after suffering a stroke. Before the President arrived, Chief Fisher· came over to me and said that Major had taken a tum for the worse and that I'd better take his car over to the hospital before it was too late. So I • The title "chief' is an umbrella term used by Dallas policemen for assistant chiefs and deputy chiefs as well as the chief of police.
170 NO MORE SILENCE              took his car, rushed to the hospital, and returned as soon as I could. By then the reception at the airport was over. My dad passed away about the same time as Kennedy, so I had to divide my attention between family and department matters for the next couple of days. Since I was the communications supervisor in charge of the dispatch office, I became involved with the tapes of all radio communications of the Dallas Police Department that day, the same tapes which were analyzed by the Warren Commission and later the House Select Committee on Assassinations. There should be no controversy about the tapes. The tapes are very simple and self explanatory if you accept them for what they're worth. Now, if you have a bit of imagination, you can use all kinds of dreams and concoctions to try to fabricate anything you want with them. Very simply, the tapes are recordings of the two radio channels operating at that time. Regular police operations were maintained on Channel 1. All personnel assigned to the Presidential motorcade, which ultimately became involved in the assassination scenario, were on Channel 2. It's hard to say whether they operated continuously or not. What we had in there was a sound activated recorder with a delay so it would pick it up and hold in the record mode for four seconds after the sound or noise level dropped, and there were two recording systems, one each on the two channel operations.
On Channel 1 we used a two phase dictaphone voice recording. I stress voice recording because it was not a precision quality; it was a stenographic type recording. You had a comparatively dull stylus making a simple impression on a thin celluloid belt.
The Channel 2 activity was a little better in its potential but not as good in reality because of its age. We had an old Gray recorder; I think they called them Gray audiographs. Anyway, it was a thin flat disk with the stylus cutting a groove in the disk much like in the typical phonographic recording. But the machine was old and worn. It was prone quite frequently to repeating itself, picking up transmissions and not letting them go. There were times when it was repeating itself that it didn't pick up what someone was saying. Then there were times that it didn't pick up anything. In other words, it just didn't work. So we have no way of knowing what traffic would have been on Channel 2 had we had
JAMES C. BOWLES, COMMUNICATIONS 171         a more sophisticated, state of the art, by today's standards, recording capability. One point that needs to be clarified which some folks, qualified and unqualified, who have tried to pick up and run with the assassination investigations, don't seem to understand. They use the words "voice activated" very generally and inaccurately. More correctly it's not voice, it's sound activated. Sound would tum it on if the decibel...