Mark Lane. That's 'what about'
What Mrs. Clemons saw
You?ll recall that according to Mark Lane, Acquilla Clemons watched Tippit drive up upon two men conversing across the street from each other. Officer Tippit stopped his car, got out, and approached one of the men who pulled a gun and shot him. The shooter then waved the other man off and the two fled in opposite directions. Lane supposedly obtained all of this from Martin?s interview of Clemons.
But, according to the transcript, that?s not what Mrs. Clemons told Shirley Martin.
According to Mrs. Clemons, she was watching news of the Kennedy assassination on television. [28] She grew tired and came out onto the front porch and sat down. [29] A tow truck was hauling a wrecked car away from the corner of Tenth and Patton. The wreck was the result of an earlier accident in which a motorist, heading south on Patton, had gone off the road, knocked over the stop sign on the southeast corner, crossed the sidewalk, plowed through the bushes, and struck the porch of the corner house at 400 E. Tenth.
This was the same house occupied by Barbara Jeanette and Virginia Davis ? the eyewitnesses who saw Oswald cut across their lawn while fleeing the Tippit shooting scene. Police photographed the stop sign as part of the Tippit shooting investigation, but later determined that the two events weren?t connected.
It is not clear from the transcript whether Mrs. Clemons returned to the interior of her employer?s home or was still sitting on the front porch, however, a short time after the tow truck left with the wrecked car, the shooting of police officer unfolded.
Contrary to Mark Lane?s version of events, Mrs. Clemons did not see the shooting. She said she heard three shots.
CLEMONS: I thought it was firecrackers. I wasn?t paying any attention. [30]
Mrs. Clemons ran out onto the front lawn of the Smotherman residence, located two houses west of Tenth and Patton on the north side of the Tenth street. She stopped near the sidewalk and looked eastward toward the Patton. [31]
Helen Markham was screaming and, according to Mrs. Clemons, told her to ?look at the man? who had just shot the policeman. [32]
It?s doubtful that Markham even knew Clemons was there, given that she was behind Markham?s position. According to Barbara Jeannette Davis, Mrs. Markham was pointing at Oswald and screaming, ?He shot him! He shot him! He killed him!? [33]
Fig. 2 | Acquilla Clemons dashes out into the front yard at 327 E. Tenth. [Graphic: DKM ? 2017]
Mrs. Clemons looked diagonally across the street, toward where Mrs. Markham was pointing, and saw a man cutting across the corner lot at 400 E. Tenth as he unloaded and reloaded his gun.
CLEMONS: He went across that lot there, that?s all I know. He went across that lot, I don?t know which way? I don?t know which way he went after I seen him unloading and loading his gun. That?s all I seen?. [34] I was afraid. He frightened me. To come out and see him unloading his gun and reload it. But, I didn?t pay no attention [to what he was wearing]. I just tried to get out of the way, because I thought he was going to shoot me? and I didn?t pay him any mind. I was getting out of the way? [35] See, I was pretty close to him. [He was] between that telegram (sic) post and that tree, loading his gun... And I was on this side of the walk standing right there and I didn?t want him to be shooting me. [36]
Fig. 3 | Oswald escapes as Helen Markham and Acquilla Clemons look on. [Graphic: DKM ? 2017]
Shirley Martin was already aware that Mrs. Clemons had told Vincent Salandria, Harold Feldman, and the Nashes that there were two men on Tenth Street at the time of the shooting. She asked Mrs. Clemons about it:
MARTIN: There were supposed to be two men weren?t there?
CLEMONS: Well, it was two men. I don?t know, I wouldn?t know them if I was to see them.
MARTIN: No, of course not. I wouldn?t expect you to do that. They were both on that same corner?
CLEMONS: I don?t know. All I know, he was talking to [unintelligible] who done the shooting [unintelligible]. [The gunman] was talking to a tall guy on the other side of the street with yellow khakis and a white shirt on, but I don?t know whether he was in it or he was just going to get out of the way or something. I don?t know because I had to go back in and tend to [Mr. Smotherman]. [37]
Later in the interview, Martin asked Mrs. Clemons if she heard the two men ?yell or say anything? to each other.
CLEMONS: No. I heard no more than I heard that lady call. She told me to look at the man shooting the police. [38]
This seems to contradict Mrs. Clemons? earlier comment that ?He (the gunman) was talking to a tall guy on the other side of the street? [39] As will be seen in a moment, Mrs. Clemons apparently surmised the supposed conversation from gestures the gunman made.
Mrs. Martin asked Acquilla Clemons what happened to the man standing across the street after the gunman ran off.
MARTIN: The other one went up that? Patton?
CLEMONS: Yeah. He went up [unintelligible]. He may have been just a boy getting out of the way. [emphasis added]
MARTIN: Scared maybe.
CLEMONS: Yeah. Probably somebody he told to get out of his way or something? [40]
Here, too, is another ah-hah moment ? a sharp, left-turn off the path that we were led down fifty-three years ago.
It is quite clear from the above exchange, that Mrs. Clemons didn?t think the man standing across the street from the gunman was an accomplice ? as has been presented as a matter-of-fact by Mark Lane and virtually every person seeking to exonerate Oswald for the Tippit murder ? but rather, that Mrs. Clemons thought the man might have been simply another eyewitness who, like her, ran away from the gunman in fear of losing his life.
In her 1966 filmed interview with Mark Lane, Mrs. Clemons reiterated what she told Shirley Martin about the two men, though you wouldn?t know that from the final cut of the film. First, here?s the unedited transcript:
LANE: And was there any other man there?
CLEMONS: Yes, there was one on the other side of the street, but I don?t know what is with him, or not. All I know, he told him to go on.
Mrs. Clemons? reply doesn?t make much sense as transcribed. It seems more likely, especially given what she told Shirley Martin, that what she meant to say is that ?I don?t know whether he (the man across the street) was with him (the gunman), or not.? In any event, her reply didn?t fit the story Lane wanted to tell. He tried again.
LANE: Now, you saw this man on the other side of the street ?
CLEMONS: Uh-huh.
LANE: And did the man with the gun talk to the man on the other side of the street. (emphasis in original)
CLEMONS: I couldn?t tell.
Again, Mrs. Clemons tells Lane the same thing she told Shirley Martin ? she couldn?t tell if the two men shared words. Lane tried again:
LANE: Did he motion to him?
CLEMONS: He just looked at him and went on.
Once again, according to Mrs. Clemons, there is no exchange of dialogue between the two men ? just brief eye contact, and then they run in opposite directions. Lane tries again to paint a picture of two accomplices on Tenth Street:
LANE: Mrs. Clemons ? er ? the man who had the gun ? uh ? did he make any motion at all to the other man across the street?
CLEMONS: No more?n told him to go on.
LANE: Well, he waved his hand and said, ?Go on.?
Actually, Mrs. Clemons had just said that she couldn?t tell if words were exchanged. No matter, Lane simply put the words he wanted to hear into Mrs. Clemons? mouth and she then dutifully repeated them:
CLEMONS: Yes, said, ?Go on.?
LANE: And then what happened with the man with the gun?
CLEMONS: Er ? he unloaded and reloaded.
LANE: And what did the other man do?
CLEMONS: Man kept going ? straight down the street.
LANE: And then did they go in opposite directions?
CLEMONS: Yes, they were ? they weren?t together, they went this way from each other ? the one done the shooting went this way; other went straight down Tenth Street that way. [41]
After some careful editing, Lane had his accomplice. Here?s Acquilla Clemons? statement about the two men as it appears in the final cut of the film, Rush to Judgment:
[Note that each camera CUT (designated in brackets) is an opportunity to edit the dialogue.]
LANE: And was there any other man there?
CLEMONS: Yes, there was one on the other side of the street. [DISSOLVE CUT] All I know is he told him to go on.
[CUT to medium shot of CLEMONS.]
LANE: Mrs. Clemons, the man who had the gun, did he make any motion at all to the other man across the street?
CLEMONS: No more - told him to go on. [indicating with a dismissive gesture using her right arm]
LANE: Oh, he waved his hand and said, ?Go on??
CLEMONS: Yeah, said, ?Go on.? [indicating again with a dismissive gesture using her right arm]
LANE: And then what happened with the man with the gun?
CLEMONS: He unloaded it and reloaded it.
LANE: And what did the other man do?
CLEMONS: The man kept going, straight down the street.
LANE: And then did they go in opposite directions?
CLEMONS: Yes, they were ? they ? they weren?t together, they went this way from each other. [indicating with arms moving wide apart] The one done the shooting went this way [indicating with her right arm that the gunman was moving directly away from her, south on Patton], the other one went straight down Tenth Street, that way [indicating with her left arm that the second man was moving away from her to her left, east along the north side of Tenth Street]. [42]
Once again, Mark Lane manipulates the Acquilla Clemons story ? turning what Clemons herself thought was probably another eyewitness running for his life, into an accomplice in the Tippit shooting.
There is corroborating testimony for Mrs. Clemons observation that places a man across the street from Tippit?s police car shortly after the shooting.
Fig. 4 | Frank Cimino dashes out just as Oswald vanishes from sight. [Graphic: DKM ? 2017]
As I wrote in my book, With Malice: Lee Harvey Oswald and the Murder of Officer J.D. Tippit:
Frank Cimino lived in an apartment at 405 East Tenth Street, directly across the street from Tippit?s squad car. He told the FBI that he was in his apartment listening to the radio when he heard ?four loud noises which sounded like shots, and then he heard a woman scream.?
Cimino jumped up, slipped on his shoes, and ran outside the house where he encountered a hysterical Helen Markham. She shouted at Cimino, ?Call the police!? The waitress explained that a man had just shot a police officer and pointed in the direction of the alley between Tenth and Jefferson, off Patton. Cimino looked but could not see anyone. He walked over toward Tippit and saw that he had been shot in the head. Just then, people came running from all directions.
Cimino?s account matches the time period which Acquilla Clemons claimed that a man was standing across the street from Tippit?s squad car. Was Mrs. Clemons? ?accomplice? really Cimino? It seems likely, considering the timing of Frank Cimino?s actions and Clemons? distance from the scene. [43]
The shooting aftermath
We know from a multitude of cross-matching testimony, that as the two men ran off, Mrs. Helen Markham ran toward Officer Tippit?s body. What isn?t widely known is that Acquilla Clemons followed her.
CLEMONS: ? [Mrs. Markham] runned in front of me and I went down there when ? when I went down there, there wasn?t anybody there but her. I guess she was there. I don?t know. It was all excitement? (emphasis in original) [44]
At one point, Mrs. Martin asked:
MARTIN: And you think the policeman died right away?
CLEMONS: He did. He died before I got there. [45]
Mrs. Martin asked Acquilla if she remembered which way Tippit?s car was facing ? east or west?
CLEMONS: I can?t remember that. I don?t know. I went down there and looked at him (Tippit), but I don?t know. I forgot ? it was just an upset day. I couldn?t think. I don?t know which way the car was. I been trying to think. [46]
Mrs. Clemons told Shirley Martin that ?a lot of people came running out? and that ?someone? (we now know to be Domingo Benavides) tried to notify police of the shooting using Tippit?s car radio:
CLEMONS: All I know, somebody got up in that car to call the police. I went to the door to call the police and I couldn?t get in. I had left him ? and I don?t know who, I don?t know how they got them. Somebody called them on the police car. I don?t know who it was ?cause I had to come back here. [Mr. Smotherman] was very sick. I didn?t pay anything ? any attention ?cause I was just looking. ?Cause [Mr. Smotherman] was awful sick and I had to go. [47]
Although it is not entirely clear, Mrs. Clemons seems to be saying that she witnessed Domingo Benavides? unsuccessful attempts to use Tippit?s radio, before she returned to the Smotherman house (she uses the word ?door,? instead of ?house?) and tried to call police herself from there, but couldn?t get through. [48]
Within a few minutes, Mrs. Clemons told Martin, there were ?so many policemen you couldn?t walk out there.? [49]
Oddly, Mrs. Clemons insisted that Tippit was shot ?early in the morning.? Pressed as to the exact time, Mrs. Clemons explained that she usually ate lunch at 11:30 a.m., and that the shooting occurred before then. [50] It?s clear from the transcript that not even Shirley Martin believed Mrs. Clemons? timing of the shooting.
Of course, there is ample evidence to show Tippit was killed at about 1:15 p.m., but don?t be surprised to see future bottom-feeders citing Acquilla Clemons? statements as supporting evidence for a shooting time ? any shooting time ? that will exonerate Oswald from culpability.
A short stocky man
Finally, in his 1966 book, Rush to Judgment, and the film of the same title, Mark Lane made a big deal out of Acquilla Clemons? description of the killer:
On March 23, 1966, I interviewed Mrs. Clemons at her home at 618 Corinth Street Road in Dallas. During our filmed and tape-recorded conversation, she described the gunman as ?kind of a short guy? and ?kind of heavy? and said that the other man was tall and thin and wore light khaki trousers and a white shirt. [51]
Two years earlier, during a secretly tape-recorded interview, Lane had badgered Helen Markham into describing the gunman as ?a short man, somewhat on the heavy side, with slightly bushy hair.? He was all too happy to allow audiences to note the similarities between the two women?s description of the shooter ? and in particular ? that the description didn?t fit Oswald.
However, Mrs. Clemons makes it crystal clear to Shirley Martin that she didn?t pay any attention to the shooters? clothing or description. Asked whether the man across the street was wearing a coat or a jacket, Mrs. Clemons said:
CLEMONS: No. The other man (gunman) had on a jacket, but [unintelligible] it?s been so long. I don?t know.
MARTIN: But it was white? (emphasis in original)
CLEMONS: One (the man across the street) had a white. I don?t know what the other one (gunman) had. But I didn?t pay no attention. I just tried to get out of the way because I thought he was going to shoot me ? and I didn?t pay him any mind. I was getting out of the way.
MARTIN: And the one with the gun had the white shirt on?
CLEMONS: No, the one with the khakis had the white shirt on ? was on the other side of the street. I don?t know what the one with the gun had on because I was getting out of the way. [52]
Later in the interview, Shirley Martin returns to the subject:
MARTIN: And this man [with the gun] who ran this way, his top color was what?
CLEMONS: I can?t remember. I was afraid. He frightened me. To come out and see him unloading his gun and reload it.
MARTIN: He didn?t have a white shirt on?
CLEMONS: I didn?t [unintelligible]. He may have had some bro ? I don?t know.
Shirley?s daughter, Vickie, who prepared the transcript notes: ?Here she had begun to say ?brown.?? Oswald, of course, was wearing a brown shirt when arrested at the Texas Theater. Mrs. Clemons continued:
CLEMONS: The other one had on white ? with the gun ? I didn?t pay him much attention ?cause I was getting out of his way. He acted like he wanted to shoot me.
Out of the blue, Shirley Martin asks a leading question:
MARTIN: Was he a short, kind of heavy-set man?
CLEMONS: Yes, he was short. Heavy.
MARTIN: He was kind of heavy?
CLEMONS: Yeah, he was kind of stocky-built. Stocky-build ? whatever you call it.
MARTIN: You wouldn?t say he was kind of thin?
CLEMONS: No, I wouldn?t, ?course he was just awful [fat or fast (the transcriber isn't sure which she said)]. I just saw him and I was getting out of his way.
MARTIN: And did you notice his hair as all? Was it thick hair?
CLEMONS: No. I didn?t pay his hair any attention. I was getting out of his way? [53]
Despite Mrs. Clemons repeated statements that she didn?t pay any attention to what the gunman was wearing or what he looked like, Shirley Martin managed to elicit from Clemons a description anyway ? one that fit Martin?s own narrative of an innocent Oswald.
Unfortunately, Mrs. Clemons description of a ?stocky? gunman would have had more bite if Shirley Martin had allowed Clemons to describe the gunman on her own. But, apparently, Mrs. Martin couldn?t risk that, or resist the temptation to insert her own views into the historic narrative.
If you strip away all the malarkey and manipulation that?s been added to the Acquilla Clemons story, one single cohesive picture begins to emerge. The minor details that she brings to the table about the murder on Tenth Street only support that which we already know to be true based on physical evidence and the testimony of a myriad of other witnesses ? and that truth is that Lee Harvey Oswald murdered J. D. Tippit.
The dirty details
When it comes to the malicious distortion of the truth for personal and ideological gain, few in the history of the assassination story have managed to crawl as low as Mark Lane.
Heralded by a generation unwilling to confront his deceptions, dishonesty, and repeated cover-ups, Lane?s handling of the Acquilla Clemons story should serve as the primary exhibit of what lengths dedicated propogandists are willing to go to twist the simple, uncomplicated truth into a pack of fables that serve their own deceitful ends.
As with most lies, the truth can be found in the dirty little details. [END]
[Read: With Malice: Lee Harvey Oswald and the Murder of Officer J.D. Tippit (Oak Cliff Press, 2013) by Dale K. Myers ? the only definitive second-by-second account of the life and death of the forgotten Dallas patrolman.]
Endnotes
[1] FBI 105-82555, Oswald HQ File, Section 201 [aka FOIPA#233,988] / FBI Letterhead Memo, Aug. 11, 1964, Barry Gray Show Transcript, July 19, 1964, pp.9-10
[2] FBI 105-82555, Oswald HQ File, Section 201 / FBI Airtel, SAC Dallas to Director, August 13, 1964, p.2
[3] Lane, Mark, Rush to Judgment, Holt, Rinehart and Winston, New York, 1966, p.176
[4] Warren Commission, Mark Lane, Key Persons File, CD1418a, FBI Letterhead Memorandum, August 7, 1964, p.2
[5] FBI 62-109090, Warren Commission HQ File, Section 18, p.99 / FBI Letter, Director to J. Lee Rankin, August 21, 1964, p.1
[6] Kelin, John, Praise from a Future Generation, Wings Press, San Antonio, TX, 2007, p.62
[7] ?credible,? Ibid, p.93, Fn 38 [Note: In a letter dated June 23, 1964, Deirdre Griswold, secretary of the Citizens Committee of Inquiry (CCI), sent Vincent Salandria six pages of ?important leads? including questions, copies of affidavits, and other information to get Salandria started on his forthcoming Dallas investigation. A card file that the CCI maintained ?included names that, Griswold said, had only rarely appeared in the public record.? (Kelin, John, Praise from a Future Generation, Wings Press, San Antonio, TX, 2007, p.62)]
[8] Kelin, op.cit., pp.91, 94; Nash, George and Patricia, ?The Other Witnesses,? The New Leader, October 12, 1964, FBI 62-109090 Warren Commission HQ File, Section 24, pp.139-143
[9] Nash, op. cit.
[10] FOIPA No.233,988 ? Acquilla Clemmons, 1984; / FBI Airtel, SAC Dallas to Director, Oct 21, 1964, pp.1-4; aka FBI 105-82555 Oswald HQ File, Section 218, pp.66-69
[11] FBI 124-10369-10019, pp.236-237 / FBI Airtel, Director to SAC Dallas, May 13, 1964, pp.1-2
[12] FBI 62-109090, Warren Commission HQ File, Section 18, p.99 / FBI Letter, Director to J. Lee Rankin, August 21, 1964, p.2
[13] FOIPA No.233,988 ? Acquilla Clemons, 1984; / FBI Memorandum, Belmont to Rosen, Oct 28, 1964, p.2; aka FBI 62-109090 Warren Commission HQ File, Section 24, p.138
[14] Kelin, John, Praise from a Future Generation, Wings Press, San Antonio, TX, 2007, p.94
[15] Lane, op. cit., p.190. Fn 8
[16] Ibid, p.194
[17] Note: Kelin obtained the transcript from Shirley Martin and published only selected portions of it in his 2007 book, Praise from a Future Generation (pp.94-98).
[18] Kelin, op. cit.
[19] Taped conversation with Mrs. Acquilla Clemons, interviewed by Shirley Martin, mid-July, 1964, p.1
[20] Ibid, p.1
[21] Ibid, p.6
[22] Ibid, p.7
[23] Ibid, p.5
[24] Note: In the transcript, Vickie Martin typed: ?Her who?? next to this reference.
[25] Ibid, pp.7-8
[26] Emile de Antonio Papers at Wisconsin Center for Film & Theater Research, Wisconsin Historical Society, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Box 60, Folder 1, pp.30-32; Transcript of filmed interview of Acquilla Clemons, pp.4-6
[27] Excerpt from the film, Rush to Judgment (1966)
[28] Clemons, 1964, op.cit, p.3
[29] Ibid, p.6
[30] Ibid, p.5
[31] Ibid, p.4
[32] Ibid, p.4
[33] CD87, p.556, Secret Service affidavit of Barbara Jeanette Davis, Dec. 1, 1963; 3H343-344, WCT of Barbara Jeanette Davis, March 26, 1964
[34] Clemons, 1964, op. cit., p.3
[35] Ibid, p.2
[36] Ibid, p.4
[37] Ibid, p.2
[38] Ibid, p.4
[39] Note: The transcript, prepared by Vickie Martin, contains a notation to this effect: ?Earlier, however, she says they were talking together.?
[40] Ibid, p.3
[41] Emile de Antonio Papers at Wisconsin Center for Film & Theater Research, Wisconsin Historical Society, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Box 60, Folder 1, pp.28-29; Transcript of filmed interview of Acquilla Clemons, pp.2-3 [Note: The unedited transcripts reads ??other went straight down past street that way,? however, in the final cut of the film, Mrs. Clemons can clearly be heard to say ?down Tenth Street that way.?]
[42] Excerpt from the film, Rush to Judgment (1966)
[43] Myers, Dale K., With Malice: Lee Harvey Oswald and the Murder of Officer J.D. Tippit, (Oak Cliff Press, 2013, p.124; CD7, p.411, FBI Interview of Frank Cimino, Dec. 4, 1963
[44] Ibid, p.4
[45] Ibid, p.5
[46] Ibid, p.3
[47] Ibid, p.3
[48] Note: Upon a first reading, I thought that Mrs. Clemons might have attempted to use the police radio to call police, however, there is no corroborating testimony to support that notion, no reason to suppose that Mrs. Clemons would have been bold enough to make such an attempt, and more importantly, very clear that she was worried about being away from her patient, Mr. Smotherman, and did in fact return to the Smotherman home at about this time. It seems more likely, therefore, that she made an attempt to call police from the house, and simply misspoke during the taped interview.
[49] Ibid, p.4
[50] Ibid, p.6
[51] Lane, op. cit., p.194
[52] Clemons, 1964, op. cit., p.2
[53] Ibid, p.4
Posted by Dale K. Myers at 12:30 AM
6 comments:
Steve Roe said...
Dale, correct me if I?m wrong. Tippit?s car was in front of 411 Tenth Street. The Smothermans lived on 327 Tenth. You have the Smothermans living ?opposite? the street when they should be on the same side of the street (odd numbers).
November 2, 2017 at 2:08 AM
Dale K. Myers said...
You're wrong. Tippit was parked in front of 404 E. Tenth, the opposite side of the street as the Smotherman home at 327 E. Tenth.
November 2, 2017 at 9:11 AM
Barry Ryder said...
Dale,
another excellent piece. Very many thanks for researching and posting it. It's extensive, detailed, authoritative and - above all - damning of Mark Lane.
The man was without scruple. He was berated by the Warren Commission and the HSCA yet remained impervious to the fact that he'd been exposed as a charlatan. He just spent his entire life lying to the public.
I was pleased to see that in your essay you noted that Clemons DID NOT SEE the Tippit killing. There are many who seem to believe that she did. Even in Lane's film she makes no claim to have seen the murder; she just speaks of hearing the shots, as you point out.
The above piece is an excellent expose of one of the most duplicitous men ever to hitch a ride on the assassination bandwagon.
I fully agree with your summary that,
"When it comes to the malicious distortion of the truth for personal and ideological gain, few in the history of the assassination story have managed to crawl as low as Mark Lane".
1. It matters little to me if Mark Lane used leading questions. So what? The testimony still has to hold up over time. Is there any evidence that a leading question produces bad testimony.
2. Interviewing people can be a chore. Perhaps Mark Lane and his people didn't have all day to wait for Ms. Clemons to get to the essence of what she had told them previously. Sometimes a leading question can save time. It doesn't necessarily follow that the testimony is in error.
3. Why would Mark Lane care whether there was an accomplice or not if there was already testimony indicating that the shooter might not be Oswald? Shouldn't we give Mark Lane some credit for being an attorney? Wouldn't a good attorney know that it's better to follow the truth; that the truth might help our case; and that our own foolish desires can come back to haunt us?
4. Why would Mark Lane care whether Lee Oswald killed Tippit or not? An experienced attorney would know that exonerating Oswald for Tippit's murder in no way exonerates Oswald for JFK murder.
http://jfkfiles.blogspot.com/2017/11/the-october-jfk-assassination-file.html 
