Dallas DPD'er Joe Smith and D. Sheriff Seymour Weitzman...Saw What?

[Mitch Todd]

MC--

Seymour Weitzman had quite a day. First he encounters a Secret Service agent in the GK area, then he is shown a portion of JFK's skull, and then he mis-identifies LHO's rifle as a Mauser. Weitzman also burned his hands on a steam pipe that day.

I think DPD'er Joe Smith gave the best witness statement on the likely GK Secret Service imposter. Smith was shown ID.

My only reservation about Smith's recollection is...why would a participant in the JFKA hang around the area post-JFKA? Granted a perp might not want to run away, and attract attention, but why not walk away, as many others did?

But then common sense and logic may not apply to those willing to perp the JFKA.

It's worth noting that Haygood and CF Dodd both mentioned running into a railroad detective in the railyard/parking lot immediately after the assassination. The Railroad Police are Federally chartered law enforcement agencies, and tend to carry badges patterned in the Federal style. Railroad Dicks also often ply their trade in plain clothes. I don't think you can discount the possibility that Smith ran into a RR detective, and mistook him for a SS agent in the heat of the moment.

[Tim Nickerson]

It's worth noting that Haygood and CF Dodd both mentioned running into a railroad detective in the railyard/parking lot immediately after the assassination. The Railroad Police are Federally chartered law enforcement agencies, and tend to carry badges patterned in the Federal style. Railroad Dicks also often ply their trade in plain clothes. I don't think you can discount the possibility that Smith ran into a RR detective, and mistook him for a SS agent in the heat of the moment.

I don't recall reading about railroad detective encounters in the railyard/parking lot. It is worth considering. However, I still think that "Secret Service augmenting" James Powell is a better candidate for the guy that flashed his badge at Smith.

[Benjamin Cole]

MT-

I guess anything is possible.

AFAIK, no one has ever come forward and said, "I was the guy who met DPD officer Joe Smith near the GK. I carry a federal badge that looks somewhat like a Secret Service credential-badge."

It is possible the railroad dicks simply did not follow the JFKA case, and thus did not know they had been a source of confusion.

This seems somewhat the case of Secret Service Paul Landis.  A couple years back, Landis wrote a book that said he found a slug that looked like CE-399 in the presidential limo, and then put it on a stretcher in Parkland Hospital. There is an 11/23 FBI memo to the effect that Secret Service agent had found a slug in the limo, giving the Landis tale some credibility.

In the intervening years after 1963, Landis seemed to put the JFKA largely out his mind.

Powell, from the Army 112th Counter Intelligence Corps Group, was carrying a 1960s-era camera on 11/22, which were usually bulky. I wonder if Powell carried the camera with a strap around his neck, which was common in those days. Powell seems like a long-shot to be the ersatz Secret Service man on the GK.

Neither Weitzman or Smith mentioned a camera.