Oswald: No power lunch

[Dan O'meara]

Go back to the channel two radio traffic. At 12:39-12:40, Howard reports that he is at Industrial. Given the context of the motorcade, and Howard's relationship to it, Howard must be at Industrial & I-35E by the Trade Mart. At that time, Howard is told to stay at his position. It would take the Sergeant at least 5 minutes to start up his motor, make it to Dealey Plaza, shut down, dismount, and appear at the front entrance. It's just possible to get him there by 12:45, but only just, and only if he completely discarded his orders to remain on Industrial.

I don't see any other traffic involving Howard in the "official" channel two transcript. He also doesn't reappear in O'Dell's version of the channel two recording. He seems to have stayed in place for a while on Industrial, at least as far as the radio traffic can tell us.

As for other Sergeants, Simpson says he's heading towards the TSBD at 12:43, but he's in charge of the Lemon avenue stretch of the route, so he's going to be a few minutes coming. It's hard to see how he could get to the front of the TSBD by 12:45.  Campbell headed up the effort along Main between Harwood and Field. He's close enough to get to Elm and Houston relatively quickly. His second assignment WRT the motorcade is to report to the Trade Mart after the motorcade has passed by his original station, so he might have already started heading towards the TSBD even before it became the hub of attention beginning at 12:35.

Or, maybe events shown in the clip happened later that either of us have been thinking.
Maybe.

I'm looking through the transcript of DPD tapes for channel 2 and can't find anything for Howard.
Am I missing something?

[Mitch Todd]

I'm looking through the transcript of DPD tapes for channel 2 and can't find anything for Howard.
Am I missing something?

Consult the O'Dell version of the Channel 2 recording. That's the gold standard for channel 2.

[Robert Reeves]

I was fairly sure I had a document naming all four, but haven't found it.

I am curious to know who this officer is talking to the mystery person in the doorway. Looks like a senior officer, possibly one of these Inspectors (I noticed he's wearing a white shirt & possibly a formal suit, traffic cops with white caps appear to have normal dark shirts.

[Robert Reeves]

Crops of Allen pictures.



Probably the same [unknown] officer that was speaking with the mystery man similar in appearance to Oswald. He appears to have been positioned in the TSBD doorway for a while.









Not sure if the same guy in the TSBD doorway was with Oswald when he was shot by Ruby.



Both have a faint slanted line down their cheek underneath the right eye

[Royell Storing]

The clip below shows the moment Sawyer takes Brennan to the car.
In the background the large gates of the TSBD are closed.
In the Martin film these gates are open.
This seems to back up the assertion that the pic of Brennan in the car was at some point just before Sawyer makes the call with the suspect's description.



LATER EDIT:

In the above clip there are two police officers. I am very confident the one with the cigarette in his hand is Sawyer.
The other, judging by the insignia on his sleeve, is a sergeant. Could this be Sergeant Howard? If not, then maybe Harkness.

[Tom Graves]

There is a batch of Murray pics taken where the Elm St extension runs into the car park towards the railroad tracks. In this one I believe we see Amos Euins (circled):

host pictures


This puts this pic at before 12:36 PM when wee see Euins being whisked away from this area by Harkness in the Martin film. Here is a Murray pic of the area we see Harkness taking Euins away. Not the large gates of the TSBD are open:



The reason I keep mentioning the large gates is because of Mooney's testimony:

"Mr. Ball.
Were the doors open?

Mr. Mooney.
They were wide open, the big gates. So I grabbed one, and we swung them to, and there was a citizen there, and I put him on orders to keep them shut, because I don't recall whether there was a lock on them or not. Didn't want to lock them because you never know what might happen.
So he stood guard, I assume, until a uniformed officer took over.
We shut the back door--there was a back door on a little dock. And then we went in through the docks, through the rear entrance."

It is safe to assume that at the time of the assassination these gates were open until Mooney had them closed. The Murray pics above are before the gates are closed, the Alyea clip of Sawyer escorting Brennan to the car is after the gates are closed, so the gates provide a very basic timestamp. Kind of.

Over at the JFK Truth Be Told FB page, Jerry Dealey posted a big color photo of the gates with the diamonds on them. He wrote, "Hard to tell, but hinges appear to be on the outside, indicating it swung out."

[Dan O'meara]

Over at the JFK Truth Be Told FB page, Jerry Dealey posted a big color photo of the gates with the diamonds on them. He wrote, "Hard to tell, but hinges appear to be on the outside, indicating it swung out."

In the still from the Martin film above it looks like the gates are closed but they're not.
When the gates are wide open they rest against the interior wall. The shadows of the diamond pattern on the gates can be seen being cast against the wall.
If the gates can swing outward they can also swing inward, as this is the position we see them in the above image.