The testimony of Richard S. Stovall was taken at 11 a.m., on April 3,
1964, in the office of the U.S. attorney, 301 Post Office Building,
Bryan and Ervay Streets, Dallas, Tex., by Mr. Joseph A. Ball, assistant
counsel of the President's Commission.
Mr. BALL. Would you please stand up, Mr. Stovall, and be sworn.
Do you solemnly swear that the testimony you give before this
Commission will be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the
truth, so help you God?
Mr. STOVALL. I do.
Mr. BALL. Will you please state your name for the record?
Mr. STOVALL. Richard S. Stovall.
Mr. BALL. And what is your address, please?
Mr. STOVALL. 3211 Grayson Drive, Dallas.
Mr. BALL. And what is your occupation?
Mr. STOVALL. Detective with the Homicide Bureau, City Police Department.
Mr. BALL. How long have you been with the Dallas Police Department?
Mr. STOVALL. Approximately 10 years--it will be 10 years this May.
Mr. BALL. Now, the Commission has asked us to ask every witness to
tell us about where he was born and his education and what he has
done, because they are unable to see you and they would like to know
something about you.
Can you tell me that, please?
Mr. STOVALL. Yes, I was born here in Dallas in 1928. I was born in a
frame house over here on West Page--329 West Page. I went to grade
school at Winnetka Elementary School and I attended W. E. Greiner
Junior High School over here on South Edgefield. I went to high school
at Sunset High out on Jefferson Boulevard. After I left high school, I
went to the Navy for 2 years, which was just after World War II and I
quit high school, by the way, and after I got out of the Navy I came
back to summer school Tech and finished.
After that, I went to work for the post office. After a few other jobs
I had been with for just a short period of time--I went to work at the
post office and I worked there for them for approximately 5 years, I
believe; I think it was from 1949 to 1954, and in 1954 I quit the post
office and went to the Police Department and I have been there since
then.
Mr. BALL. You are a detective, are you?
Mr. STOVALL. Yes, sir.
Mr. BALL. You work in plain clothes?
Mr. STOVALL. Yes, sir.
Mr. BALL. How long have you been in this particular department?
Mr. STOVALL. I have been in this department since approximately August
15, 1962--about 18 months, I guess.
Mr. BALL. What do you call your department of the Detective Bureau?
Mr. STOVALL. It's Homicide-Robbery Bureau.
Mr. BALL. Do you work under Captain Fritz?
Mr. STOVALL. Yes, sir.
Mr. BALL. On November 22, 1963, had you been assigned a special duty,
in view of the President's visit to Dallas?
Mr. STOVALL. Yes, sir; I had--after I got to work.
Mr. BALL. At what time was that?
Mr. STOVALL. It was around 2 o'clock--I was watching television that
morning and heard the deal on television.
Mr. BALL. You were not on duty at the time the President was shot?
Mr. STOVALL. No, sir.
Mr. BALL. You went to work at 2 o'clock?
Mr. STOVALL. Well, I was scheduled to go to work at 4 that day, I
believe, but as soon as I heard that I got cleaned up and got ready for
work and went on in.
Mr. BALL. Were you given an assignment as soon as you got down there?
Mr. STOVALL. No, sir; I wasn't--as soon as I got there.
I got there and one of my partners, G. F. Rose, got there about the
same time. We were talking to a witness that had seen all the people
standing out there--he didn't actually see anything, so we didn't even
take an affidavit from him because he didn't see anything.
While talking to him, the officers brought Lee Harvey Oswald into the
Homicide Bureau and put him into an interrogation room we have there
at the bureau. After we finished talking to this witness, we went back
there and talked to him briefly.
Mr. BALL. Do you remember what was said to him and what he said to you?
Mr. STOVALL. I don't recall exactly--I went in and asked him for his
identification, asked him who he was and he said his name was Lee
Oswald, as well as I remember. Rose and I were both in there at the
time. He had his billfold and in it he had the identification of "A.
Hidell," which was on a selective service card, as well as I remember.
Mr. BALL. That's [spelling] H-i-d-e-l-l, isn't it?
Mr. STOVALL. I'm not positive on that--I believe it was [spelling]
H-i-d-e-l-l, I'm not sure.
And he also had identification of Lee Harvey Oswald, and I believe that
was on a Social Security card and at that time Captain Fritz opened the
door to the office there and sent Rose and I to go out to this address
in Irving at 2515 West Fifth Street in Irving.
That was--I don't know where the Captain got the address, but it was an
address where he was supposed to be staying part of the time.
Mr. BALL. The captain had you get another man to go with you?
Mr. STOVALL. Yes; we got J. P. Adamcik to go with us.
Mr. BALL. Is he a detective?
Mr. STOVALL. Yes; he is.
Mr. BALL. And you did that, did you, you drove out there to Irving?
Mr. STOVALL. Yes, sir.
Mr. BALL. The three of you?
Mr. STOVALL. Yes; the three of us--we went out to the location and
parked, oh, a block or half block from the house. We were supposed to
meet some county officers out there.
Mr. BALL. Why were you to meet the county officers out there?
Mr. STOVALL. Well, Irving is out of our jurisdiction, actually, we had
to either have the Irving police or the county officers with us.
Mr. BALL. Would that be within the jurisdiction of the sheriff's office?
Mr. STOVALL. Yes, sir.
Mr. BALL. And did you meet some county officers there?
Mr. STOVALL. Yes, sir; they arrived about 30 to 45 minutes after we
did--after we got out there; yes.
Mr. BALL. Did you wait for them?
Mr. STOVALL. Yes, sir.
Mr. BALL. Where did you wait for them?
Mr. STOVALL. This was about one-half a block or a block from the house
address.
Mr. BALL. Had you arranged to meet the county officers at this spot?
Mr. STOVALL. Yes, yes, no, sir; we hadn't. We told them we were down
the street about half a block. Of course when they came out there they
could see us parked in the car down the street.
Mr. BALL. And what county officers did you meet out there?
Mr. STOVALL. Well, there was Harry Weatherford and the other two--one
name was Oxford, and I don't recall the other one's name.
Mr. BALL. How about Walthers--does Buddy Walthers sound like it?
Mr. STOVALL. Yes, sir.
Mr. BALL. He was the third one.
Mr. STOVALL. Yes, sir.
Mr. BALL. And then after you met them, what did you do?
Mr. STOVALL. We went on down to them and drove up in front of the house
and parked and got out and walked up to the front door and Adamcik and
two of the officers went to the back and Rose and I went, and the other
officers went to the front door and we knocked on the door, we could
see some people inside the house and we could see through the front
door, the door was open and the television was playing and Ruth Paine
came to the door and identified herself to us. She said, "Yes; you are
here about this mess that's on television."
Mr. BALL. What did you tell her about that?
Mr. STOVALL. At that time we told her that we wanted to search the
house. We explained to her that we did not have a search warrant but
if she wanted us to get one we would, and she said, "That won't be
necessary"--for us to come right on in, so we went on in the house
and started to search out the house, and the part of the house that I
searched was the front bedroom where Marina Oswald was staying. There
are quite a few items on the list of property I have--I believe you
have a copy of it. There are two that were taken out of that bedroom
there--a bunch of camera equipment, for one thing.
Mr. BALL. Now, I want to go backward at the moment--have you identified
that property from your list, and can you tell me what was the division
of labor there between you officers when you were permitted to search
the house, you went into the bedroom; who went with you?
Mr. STOVALL. I don't believe there was anybody went with me at the time
I went in. I heard--I think Rose started to the back bedroom, which
would be Ruth Paine's bedroom and Ruth Paine was standing there talking
to him--I could hear her talking to him and she told him that Marina
suggested that he look out into the garage and so they looked and they
were out of my sight then.
Mr. BALL. You heard Ruth say to Rose that Marina had suggested he look
in the garage?
Mr. STOVALL. Yes.
Mr. BALL. Did you hear Ruth Paine tell him why Mariana had made that
suggestion--what her reasons for it were?
Mr. STOVALL. No, sir; I didn't.
Mr. BALL. So, you think that Rose went to the garage?
Mr. STOVALL. Yes, sir.
Mr. BALL. What did Adamcik do?
Mr. STOVALL. Well, Adamcik was out in the back. Now, before I went into
the bedroom, I went to the back door and opened it and Adamcik and the
two county officers came inside, but where Adamcik went, I couldn't
tell you for sure. I know that he looked through some of the stuff in
what I would call the den, which is adjoining the kitchen there.
Mr. BALL. Off the record.
(Discussion between Counsel Ball and the Witness Stovall off the
record.)
Mr. BALL. Getting back on the record.
Mr. STOVALL. Shortly after that, Rose came back in carrying this
blanket, as well as I remember, it was tied at one end and the other
end was open.
Mr. BALL. It was tied with what kind of material?
Mr. STOVALL. It was tied with a white cord, as well as I remember.
Mr. BALL. A white what?
Mr. STOVALL. A white twine--it was thicker than a kite twine that
you see or use on kites--more like this they use for wrapping large
packages and tying them and he showed me that end, of course, he told
me----
Mr. BALL. What did he tell you?
Mr. STOVALL. He told me that when he went to the garage, Marina had
pointed to the blanket there and she said something to Ruth Paine and
Ruth Paine told him that that was where Lee kept his rifle.
Mr. BALL. And the search that you made was in Marina's bedroom?
Mr. STOVALL. Yes, sir.
Mr. BALL. Now, do you have a list of the articles that were taken from
Marina's bedroom?
Mr. STOVALL. Yes, I do. I've got a list of all the articles we took
from the house.
Mr. BALL. Give me that list first.