Mr. BELIN. Could you tell whether or not he bought a ticket?
Mr. BREWER. No; he just turned and walked right straight in.
Mr. BELIN. When he walked right straight in, could you see the box
office?
Mr. BREWER. Well, the box office is right in the middle in front of the
theatre, and he turned right at the corner and went in. You could see
him if he was buying a ticket, because the box office is flush with all
the other buildings.
Mr. BELIN. If he had purchased a ticket, would you have seen him
purchasing the ticket from where you were standing or walking?
Mr. BREWER. I could have seen him, yes; standing in front of the box
office.
Mr. BELIN. Then did you know when you saw him walk in and when you
walked up to Julia Postal that he had not bought a ticket?
Mr. BREWER. I knew that he hadn't.
Mr. BELIN. Why did you ask Julia Postal whether he had or hadn't?
Mr. BREWER. I don't know.
Mr. BELIN. You just asked her?
Mr. BREWER. Just asked her whether he had bought or she had seen him go
in.
Mr. BELIN. She--did she say whether she had seen him, or don't you
remember?
Mr. BREWER. She said she couldn't remember a man of that description
going in.
Mr. BELIN. All right. You saw this person Butch?
Mr. BREWER. Yes, sir.
Mr. BELIN. You say he is the usher, too?
Mr. BREWER. Yes.
Mr. BELIN. What did you and Butch do?
Mr. BREWER. We walked down to the front of the theatre to the stage.
First we checked the front exit, and it hadn't been opened. We went to
the back and it hadn't been opened.
Mr. BELIN. How could you tell that it hadn't been opened?
Mr. BREWER. Well, you open it from the inside, and you raise a bar, and
a rod sticks into a hole at the bottom and then you open it. When you
close it, it doesn't fall back in. You have to raise the rod again to
close it from the inside.
Mr. BELIN. In other words, you have to close it from the inside?
Mr. BREWER. You can close it from the outside, but it won't lock.
Mr. BELIN. It was locked when you got there?
Mr. BREWER. Yes.
Mr. BELIN. So you knew that no one had left?
Mr. BREWER. Yes.
Mr. BELIN. Then what did you do?
Mr. BREWER. We went back up front and went in the balcony and looked
around but we couldn't see anything.
Mr. BELIN. Now you first looked on the bottom floor and you did not see
him?
Mr. BREWER. Yes.
Mr. BELIN. How many patrons were in the theatre at that time?
Mr. BREWER. I couldn't really tell. There weren't many, but it was dark
and we couldn't see how many people were in there. There were 15 or 20.
I would say, at the most, upstairs and downstairs.
Mr. BELIN. Together, 15 or 20?
Mr. BREWER. Yes.
Mr. BELIN. Then you went upstairs. Did you see him upstairs?
Mr. BREWER. No; I couldn't see anything upstairs.
Mr. BELIN. Did you hear any noises there?
Mr. BREWER. When we first went down to the exit by the stage, we heard
a seat pop up, but couldn't see anybody. And we never did see him.
But we went back and upstairs and checked, and we came down and went
back to the box office and told Julia that we hadn't seen him.
Mr. BELIN. Julia Postal is the cashier?
Mr. BREWER. Yes; and she called the police, and we went--Butch went to
the front exit, and I went down by the stage to the back exit and stood
there until the police came.
Mr. BELIN. Then what happened?
Mr. BREWER. Well, just before they came, they turned the house lights
on, and I looked out from the curtains and saw the man.
Mr. BELIN. Where was he when you saw him?
Mr. BREWER. He was in the center section about six or seven rows, from
the back, toward the back.
Mr. BELIN. Toward the back? Are you sure? Mr. Brewer, do you know
exactly which row he was in from the back?
Mr. BREWER. No; I don't know which row.
Mr. BELIN. Then what did you see?
Mr. BREWER. He stood up and walked to the aisle to his right and then
he turned around and walked back and sat down and at this time there
was no place I could see.
Mr. BELIN. Did he sit down in the same seat he had been in to begin
with?
Mr. BREWER. I don't remember if it was the same seat or not.
Mr. BELIN. Then what happened?
Mr. BREWER. I heard a noise outside, and I opened the door, and the
alley, I guess it was filled with police cars and policemen were on
the fire exits and stacked around the alley, and they grabbed me, a
couple of them and held and searched me and asked me what I was doing
there, and I told them that there was a guy in the theatre that I was
suspicious of, and he asked me if he was still there.
And I said, yes, I just seen him. And he asked me if I would point him
out.
And I and two or three other officers walked out on the stage and I
pointed him out, and there were officers coming in from the front of
the show, I guess, coming toward that way, and officers going from the
back.
Mr. BELIN. Then what did you see?
Mr. BREWER. Well, I saw this policeman approach Oswald, and Oswald
stood up and I heard some hollering, I don't know exactly what he said,
and this man hit Patrolman McDonald.
Mr. BELIN. You say this man hit Patrolman McDonald. Did you know it was
Patrolman McDonald?
Mr. BREWER. I didn't know his name, but I had seen him quite a few
times around Oak Cliff. But I didn't know his name.
Mr. BELIN. Then you later found out this was Patrolman McDonald?
Mr. BREWER. Yes.
Mr. BELIN. Did you say this man was the same man?
Mr. BREWER. The same man that had stood in my lobby that I followed to
the show.
Mr. BELIN. Who hit who first?
Mr. BREWER. Oswald hit McDonald first, and he knocked him to the seat.
Mr. BELIN. Who knocked who?
Mr. BREWER. He knocked McDonald down. McDonald fell against one of the
seats. And then real quick he was back up.