The Tippit Shooting At 1:15-1:16, FACT

[Bill Brown]

FROM J.C. BOWLES (DISPATCH SUPERVISOR IN CHARGE OF THE DALLAS POLICE DISPATCH OFFICE)

"First, consideration should focus on how the dispatcher's office operated with regard to determining and recording time, especially since the Committee Report did not mention their method for making such determinations, and since they reported the recording methods inaccurately.

A master clock on the telephone room wall was connected to the City Hall system. This clock reported "official" time. Within the dispatcher's office there were numerous other time giving and time recording devices, both in the telephone room and in the radio room. Telephone operators and radio operators were furnished "Simplex" clocks. Because the hands often worked loose, they indicated the incorrect time. However, their purpose was to stamp the time, day and date on incoming calls. While they were reliable at this, they were not synchronized as stated in the Committee report. Therefore, it was not uncommon for the time stamped on calls to be a minute to two ahead or behind the "official" time shown on the master clock. Accordingly, at "exactly" 10:10, various clocks could be stamping from 10:08 to 10:12, for example. When clocks were as much as a minute or so out of synchronization it was normal procedure to make the needed adjustments. During busy periods this was not readily done.

In addition to the times stamped on calls by telephone operators, the radio operators stamped the "time" as calls were dispatched, and the "time" that officers completed an assignment and returned to service. Radio operators were also furnished with 12-hour digital clocks to facilitate their time references when they were not using call sheets containing stamped time. These digital clocks were not synchronized with any time standard. Therefore, the time "actual" and time "broadcast" could easily be a minute or so apart.

Now, multiply this by two since the police department was operating on two radio frequencies. For convenience they were referred to as Channel 1 and Channel 2. Calls for police service or information as well as interdepartmental messages were placed through the police communications office. Telephone clerks trained for the task handled the initial contacts. Telephone calls which required that an officer be sent to render a service were transcribed by hand on "call sheets" to inform the radio dispatcher as to the location and nature of the service request. The telephone clerk inserted the call sheet into the nearest time clock, causing the call sheet to be stamped with a "call received" time. The operator then sent the call sheet to the dispatcher by way of a conveyer belt which passed continuously between operators sitting opposite each other at the telephone stations. The conveyer belt terminated at the radio operator's console. The radio operator, upon receiving a call sheet, would select the officer appropriate to handle the call, dispatch the call to that officer, and stamp the call sheet with a "call dispatched" time. When the officer assigned a call had rendered the necessary service, he would inform the dispatcher that he was "clear." The dispatcher would then stamp the call sheet to obtain a "call cleared" time, and inform the officer of his clearing time. On November 22, 1963, the regular business of the department was conducted on Channel 1, and radio traffic associated with the President's visit was conducted on Channel 2. Next, consideration should be given to the methods of individual radio operators. A given operator at a given time might broadcast "time" a little early in one event then a little late the next. Accordingly, a call initiated at, say, 10:10 might be stamped at 10:13 by the dispatcher, only to have intervening radio traffic delay his broadcast. He might go ahead and announce the dispatch time as 10:13 and the digital clock then showed 10:14. Time intervals of less than one minute were never used. Likewise, the time stated in periodic station identification time checks was not always exact. During quiet intervals, station time checks were usually on time. However, radio operators did not interrupt radio traffic in progress just to give a station check. Accordingly, an operator might give, say, the 10:30 check as 10:30 when it was actually 10:29 or perhaps 10:31 or later. On another occasion, that same operator might state, "10:31 KKB 364," the correct time even though he was at least a minute late."

It is foolish to argue that the Tippit shooting took place before 1:10 PM and therefore Oswald could have not arrived in time to shoot Tippit.

Mary Wright stated that she heard the shots and called the police immediately after the shooting. (interview with George & Patricia Nash)

Barbara Davis heard the shots and stated that, from the door, she saw Helen Markham across the street yelling that a police officer was shot and killed and then she saw a man with a gun walking across her front yard. Davis looked over and saw the police car. Immediately after seeing the police car, she went inside and phoned the operator and reported the shooting to the police. (affidavit, 11/22/63)

L.J. Lewis was at the Johnny Reynolds Motor Company, located one block south of the shooting. He called the police immediately after hearing the gunshots and seeing a man with a gun trotting down Patton toward Jefferson. (affidavit, 8/26/64)

Murray Jackson, the police radio dispatcher, received an alert at 1:17 from the "citizen using the police radio" (T.F. Bowley). Upon being told by the citizen that a policeman had been shot and that it was on Tenth Street between Marsalis & Beckley, Jackson immediately calls out for "78". After getting no response, he again calls out for "78". Jackson is calling out for "78" because that is Tippit's call number. On 11/22/63, Tippit was "78". That he calls out for Tippit after receiving the alert from the "citizen using the police radio" tells us that at 1:17, Jackson was made aware, for the very first time, that Tippit had been shot.

Since we know that Mary Wright, Barbara Davis and L.J. Lewis called the police immediately... and we know that Murray Jackson (the dispatcher) was unaware of the shooting until 1:17, it becomes painfully obvious that Wright, Davis and Lewis phoned in the shooting at a point in time just before the "citizen using the police radio" alerted Jackson. If these three witnesses had phoned in the shooting much earlier, then Jackson would have been already made aware of the shooting by the time Bowley reported it at 1:17 and would have put an all-points bulletin. No all-points bulletin was put out by dispatch until AFTER dispatch (Jackson) was alerted at 1:17 by Bowley using the patrol car radio.

Once a citizen picks up the telephone to call the police to report a shooting, how long does it take for that information to reach the police dispatcher? The citizen picks up the phone and dials zero to reach the operator. The operator answers and the citizen asks to be transferred to the police department to report a shooting. The citizen is transferred to the police department. The person on duty answering the phone at the police station asks the citizen for the information of what occurred and where. The citizen quickly explains that someone has been shot on Tenth Street in Oak Cliff. The phone operator at the police department then writes down the information onto a slip and sends it down a conveyor belt, if you will, straight to the police dispatcher. Once he receives the slip, the dispatcher (in this case, Murray Jackson) puts out the information over the air waves to all patrol cars in Dallas. The entire process from the time Wright, Davis and Lewis make their phone call to the time Jackson receives the information would take 60 to 90 seconds at the most. This means that by the time Bowley alerts Jackson at 1:17 that there was a shooting of an officer on Tenth Street and Jackson was unaware until that moment, combined with how long it would take the information from Mary Wright's phone call to reach Jackson (60 to 90 seconds), and Wright called immediately after hearing the shots, that the shooting occurred at 1:15-1:16.

The bottom line is that Jackson doesn't know Tippit was shot until 1:17, yet Wright, Davis and Lewis called the police immediately after the shots. Translation... Wright, Davis and Lewis called the police around 1:16. If they had called any earlier, then Jackson would have already known about the shooting by the time Bowley reported it to Jackson at 1:17.
Ted Callaway testified that after hearing the five gun shots, he ran out to the sidewalk on Patton. This was a little over a half block south of the shooting scene. Callaway saw a man (who he later identified as Oswald) cutting across Patton as he (Oswald) made his way south on Patton (towards Callaway's position). Callaway hollered out to the man as the man continued south on Patton past Callaway's position. Callaway testified that the man was running and holding a gun. Callaway saw the man head west on Jefferson (the same direction as the theater).

Once the man turned west onto Jefferson, Callaway ran a "good hard run" up to the corner of Tenth and Patton. Callaway, noticing the stopped patrol car, went to the car and saw the officer (Tippit) lying dead in the street. Callaway said the first thing he did was to grab the police car radio and report the shooting. He said he didn't know if anyone had reported it yet, so he decided to report it himself.

To recap, Callaway hears the shots. Runs to the sidewalk. Sees the gunman run south on Patton the entire block from Tenth to Jefferson. Runs the two-thirds of a block up to the shooting scene. Goes over to the police car and the first thing he does is grab the radio and report the shooting to the police dispatcher.

How much time do you believe passed from the time Callaway heard the shots to the time he reported the shooting on the police radio?

Let's say two minutes pass from the time Oswald shoots Tippit to the time Oswald turns the corner from Patton onto Jefferson. This is a little over one block and Oswald was running.

Let's say it takes Callaway one minute when he made the "good hard run" the two-thirds of a block from his location to the patrol car.

If these two time estimates are anywhere close to being correct, then Callaway is at the patrol car roughly three minutes after the shots rang out. Let's add another full minute for error. So we have Callaway at the patrol car using the police radio about four minutes after the shots rang out.

Here's the thing... Callaway's report to the dispatcher while using the patrol car radio took place at 1:19/1:20.

Do the math and work it backwards. At 1:19/1:20, Callaway makes the call. If four minutes have passed (and that's being generous, in my opinion) since the shots rang out, then the shots rang out around 1:15.

T.F. Bowley tells us that he arrived on the scene, parked, walked up to Tippit's body and noticed immediately that there was nothing he could do for the fallen officer. Bowley then took the police radio mic from Domingo Benavides and reported the shooting to dispatcher Murray Jackson. Bowley's report to Jackson took place at 1:17.

All of this matter-of-factly puts the Tippit shooting between 1:15 and 1:16. Oswald indeed had time to arrive at Tenth & Patton by then (even earlier, really).

[Martin Weidmann]

This BS again?

We've just discussed most of it in the "Podcast on Tippit" thread, where you ran away because you didn't want to answer my question about Earlene Roberts and now you want to do it all over again.

Oh well, have fun, but dealing with your propaganda once in a month is more than enough for me.

[John Corbett]

I don't think we can pin down precisely when Tippit was shot. We can make some pretty good estimates but without precise time stamps, all we can do id estimate. I don't think it is necessary to pin down precisely when Oswald opened fire on Tippit. The forensic evidence is enough to establish he did. The eyewitness accounts are just the icing on the cake.

[John Corbett]

This BS again?

We've just discussed most of it in the "Podcast on Tippit" thread, where you ran away because you didn't want to question about Earlene Roberts and now you want to do it all over again.

Oh well, have fun, but dealing with your propaganda once in a month is more than enough for me.

Earlene Roberts account is probably one of the least important pieces of evidence we have. She said Oswald came and went ABOUT 1:00. I have no reason to doubt that. She said he had his jacket on. While I have no reason to doubt that either, I wouldn't take it to the bank solely her word. The fact Oswald was seen throwing the jacket under a car and a jacket was retrieved from there that was identified belonging to him is enough for me. It witl never be enough for the dedicated CTs. They aren't in search of answers. Their game is to come up with excuses to reject evidence. Like Oswald's jacket that was found under the car.