Lee Oswald The Cop Killer

[Gary Craig]

Helen Markham was on foot, walking south along Patton toward her bus stop, which
was on Jefferson Boulevard.  Markham was just reaching the northwest corner of
Tenth and Patton when she noticed Tippit's patrol car pass through the
intersection, heading east along Tenth Street.  Markham testified that the
patrol car pulled up to a man who was walking on the sidewalk on the south side
of Tenth Street.  Helen Markham positively identified Lee Oswald as the man she
saw talking to, and shoot, J.D. Tippit.  She testified that she saw Oswald run
from the scene, heading down Patton with a gun in his hand.

~snip~
 

from
"VINNIE IT IS ROUND"
by Mark Lane


                     "The Commission claimed that Mrs. Markham identified Lee Harvey Oswald as the man who shot the policeman at a line up on November 22 and that in testimony before the Commission, Mrs. Markham confirmed her positive identification of Lee Harvey Oswald as the man she saw kill Officer Tippit. Captain Fritz - who needed that identification real quickly -- testified that the lineup was hurriedly arranged at 4:30 that afternoon, less than three and a half hours after Tippit's death and less than that after Oswald's arrest. Mrs Markham was "quite hysterical" when she arrived at police headquarters. Her state and the atmosphere in the lineup room are best described by the record of her testimony."

Q: Now when you went into the room you looked these people over, these four men?

Markham: Yes , sir.

Q: Did you recognize anyone in the lineup?

Markham: No, sir

Q: You did not? Did you see anybody-I have asked you that question before-did you recognize anybody from their face?

          "Counsel wished to remind Mrs. Markham that when he had prepared her for her testimony, before
a record of her answers was made, the matter had been discussed. To prepare a witness for testimony may
be acceptable where adversary and hostile cross-examination is expected, and it is also a legitimate way of
preventing repetition and irrelevant conjecture. The record of the Warren Commission, however, reveals no
such cross-examination and was burdened to such a degree by repetition and irrelevance that the initial
preparation seems to have been for the purpose of leading the witness to give an appropiate answer."

Markham: From their face, no.

Q: Did you identify anybody in these four people?

Markham: I didn't know nobody.

Q: I know you didn't know nobody, but did anybody in that lineup look like anybody you had seen before?

Markham: No. I had never seen none of them, none of these men.

Q: No one of the four?

Markham: No one of them.

Q: No one of the four?

Markham: No, sir.

        "At this point counsel, a teacher of criminal law and procedure at the University of Southern California and a member of the U.S. Judical Conference Advisory Committee on Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, asked a rather leading question. Mrs. Markham said that she recognized no one at the lineup; counsel tried five times for a more acceptable answer. Then, departing a little from the legal procedure he teaches, he next asked his friendly but disconcerting witness, "Was there a number two man in there?" Mrs. Markham replied, "Number two is the one I picked." Counsel began another question: "I thought you just told me that you hadn't, but Mrs. Markham interrupted to answer inexplicably, "I thought you wanted me to describe their clothing."

Counsel then inquired:

Q: You recognized him from his appearance?

Markham: I asked-I looked at him. When I saw this man I wasn't sure, but I had cold chills just run all over me.

        "A mystical identification at best. However, the Commission was satisfied that its lawyer had at last
obtained the right answer: "Addressing itself solely to the probative value of Mrs. Markham's contemporaneous description of the gunman and her identification of Oswald at a police lineup, the Commission considers her testimony reliable."

[Gary Craig]

~snip~

As for the revolver, Jim Leavelle briefly spoke with Oswald when Oswald was brought in from the theater.  Leavelle told Oswald that they could run ballistic tests on the revolver and match the revolver to the bullets taken from the officer's body, proving that the revolver taken from Oswald was the revolver responsible for the officer's death.  Oswald did not deny owning the revolver.  According to Leavelle, Oswald's only reply was "Well, you're just going to have to do it."

~snip~

Warren Commission Hearings, Volume VII
Current Section: James R. Leavelle

-snip-

Mr. Ball. You took part in the investigation, did you not, as a member of
the Dallas Police Department?

Mr. Leavelle. A minor part you might say. I didn't have much to do with
Oswald myself.

-snip-

Mr. Ball. Anybody ask him about a gun, whether or not he bought a rifle?

Mr. Leavelle I am sure they did. I remember some of them asking about
the rifle and about it being sent to the box here in Dallas but I do not recall.
I am not sure he denied it but I do not recall what his exact denial was.

Mr. Ball. You say he denied it. Do you remember whether or not he denied
that he had bought a rifle?

Mr. Leavelle. To the best of my knowledge I do. He did deny it but I would
not swear to it

Mr. Ball. Was anything said about a revolver?

Mr. Leavelle I am sure they asked him something about the revolver, too,
but I do not recall what it was.

-snip-

Mr. Ball Did you make any notes of the conversations?

Mr. Leavelle. No. I did not myself. That was the only time I ever sat in on
the interrogation of him by Captain Fritz or anyone.

Mr. Ball. Is that the first time you had seen Oswald?

Mr. Leavelle. No; I had seen him of course, the first day he was arrested
and when they brought him in and out of the office taking him to and from the
jail and of course, I had saw him at the showups, what have you.

Mr. Ball. Had you ever talked to him before?

Mr. Leavelle. No; I had never talked to him before.

-snip-

Mr. Stern. He engaged in banter with you and police officials?

Mr. Leavelle. Not with me because I didn't have occasion to question him,
but he did always smile and never hesitated for an answer, always had an answer.

http://www.maryferrell.org/mffweb/archive/viewer/showDoc.do?docId=41&relPageId=270

[Gary Craig]

~snip~

Ballistic testing can determine whether or not an empty shell casing was fired from a specific weapon to the exclusion of every other weapon in the entire world.  Before shooting, the shell casing is placed against the breech face and the firing pin.  When the pin strikes the primer, the bullet is fired off and the shell casing is thrust against the breech face of the weapon.  This causes a permanent mark on the base of the empty shell, i.e. the distinctive fine lines etched onto the breech face put their "fingerprint" on the base of the empty shell.

Joseph Nicol (Superintendent of the Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation for the State of Illinois) along with Cortlandt Cunningham, Robert Frazier and Charles Killion (of the Firearms Identification Unit of the FBI Laboratory in Washington D.C.) each examined the shells found at the Tippit scene and Oswald's revolver, which he ordered from Seaport Traders, Inc.  Each of these experts determined that the shells were linked (through ballistics) to Oswald's revolver, to the exclusion of every other weapon in the world.

Mr. EISENBERG. Now, were you able to determine whether those bullets have been fired in this weapon?
Mr. CUNNINGHAM. No; I was not.
Mr. EISENBERG. Can you explain why?
Mr. CUNNINGHAM. Yes, sir.
First of all, Commission Exhibit No. 602 was too mutilated. There were not sufficient microscopic marks remaining on the
surface of this bullet, due to the mutilation, to determine whether or not it had been fired from this weapon

snip-

Mr. EISENBERG. Now, you said that there were three bullets of Winchester-Western manufacture, those are 602, 603,
and 605, and one bullet of R.-P. manufacture.
Mr. CUNNINGHAM. That is correct.
Mr. EISENBERG. However, as to the cartridge cases, Exhibit 594, you told us there were two R.-P. cartridge cases
and two Western cartridge cases.
Mr. CUNNINGHAM. That is correct.
Mr. EISENBERG. So that the recovered cartridge cases, there is one more recovered R.-P. cartridge case than there
was recovered bullet?
Mr. CUNNINGHAM. Yes.
Mr. EISENBERG. And as to the bullets, there is one more recovered Winchester-Western bullet than there is
Winchester-Western cartridges?
Mr. CUNNINGHAM. That is correct

~snip~

[Walt Cakebread]

McDonald is quoted as saying that the firing pin failed when Oswald tried to shot him in the theater Are you saying he is incorrect??

You would do well to remind yourself that Nick McDonald was a damned liar.....

And it is a FACT the fire pin could NOT have failed as lyin Nick claimed....

[Matt Grantham]

Can you make a case for a problem with the chain of possession of the two shells found by each of the Davis girls?  For years I've asked conspiracy believers to do this but none ever have.

 You are asking him to make case against the chain of possession when the chain of possession has not been established Not surprising that you have not got an answer from CT's because its irrational

[Gary Craig]

You forgot the witness who got the best look at Tippit's killer and whose description of the murderer doesn't

match a photo taken of LHO while in DPD custody on 11/22/63.

Testimony Of Domingo Benavides

Mr. BELIN - Where were you when your vehicle stopped?
Mr. BENAVIDES - About 15 foot, just directly across the street and maybe a car length away from the police car.

~snip~

Mr. Belin: Let me ask you now, I would like you to relate again the action of the man with the gun as you saw him now.

Mr. Benavides: As I saw him, I really--I mean really got a good view of the man after the bullets were fired he had just turned. He was just turning away........

~snip~

Mr. BENAVIDES - I remember the back of his head seemed like his hairline was sort of--looked like his hairline sort of went square instead of tapered off. and he looked like he needed a haircut for about 2 weeks, but his hair didn't taper off, it kind of went down and squared off and made his head look fiat in back.

~snip~

[Gary Craig]

~snip~
 
Ted Callaway was standing out on the front porch of the used-car lot office,
where he worked.  Callaway testified that he heard five pistol shots.  Callaway
testified that he believed the shots came from the vicinity of Tenth Street,
which was behind the office he worked in.  He went out to the sidewalk on the
east side of Patton and noticed Scoggin's cab parked up near the corner of
Patton at Tenth.  As Callaway watched the cab driver (Scoggins) hide beside his
cab, he noticed a man running across Patton from the east side of Patton to the
west side.  Callaway watched the man run down Patton towards Jefferson.  Ted
Callaway positively identified Lee Oswald as the man he saw run down Patton with
a gun in his hands.
 
~snip~

TESTIMONY OF TED CALLAWAY

~snip~

Mr. BALL. He was crossing Patton?
Mr. CALLAWAY. Yes, sir.
Mr. BALL. Was that to the south or the north of the taxicab? Closer to you than the taxicab?
Mr. CALLAWAY. Yes.
Mr. BALL. Was he running or walking?
Mr. CALLAWAY. He was running.

~snip~

Mr. BALL. About what distance was he away from you--the closest that he ever was to you?
Mr. CALLAWAY. About 56 feet.
Mr. BALL. You measured that, did you?
Mr. CALLAWAY. Yes, sir.
Mr. BALL. Last Saturday morning?
Mr. CALLAWAY. Yes, sir.
Mr. BALL. Measured it with a tape measure?

~snip~