The testimony of Walter Eugene Potts was taken at 11:45 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. Will you hold up your right hand and be sworn, please?
Mr. POTTS. Yes, sir.
Mr. BALL. Do you solemnly swear that the testimony you are about to
give before the Commission shall be the truth, the whole truth, and
nothing but the truth, so help you God?
Mr. POTTS. I do.
Mr. BALL. Will you state your name, please?
Mr. POTTS. Walter Eugene Potts.
Mr. BALL. What business or occupation are you in?
Mr. POTTS. I am a detective with the police department, homicide,
Dallas.
Mr. BALL. How long have you been with the police department in Dallas?
Mr. POTTS. Since October 21, 1947.
Mr. BALL. And how long have you been with the homicide department?
Mr. POTTS. June 6, 1956.
Mr. BALL. Can you tell me something about where you were born and where
you were educated and what you have done since then?
Mr. POTTS. I was born at Sherman, Tex., April 28, 1922, and I came to
Dallas in 1924 and was raised here in Dallas, attended public schools
in Dallas, graduated from this Dallas--it's Crozier Tech now, but it
was Dallas Technical High School right here on Bryan Street in 1941,
and when I graduated I went to work for Southwest Airmotive at Love
Field, and I worked for Taycee Badgett Aviation in 1942 and 1943, in
Shreveport, La., and I took an aviation cadet mental and physical down
there and came back to Dallas to be inducted into the service, and I
worked for Lockheed at Love Field before I went in the service, and I
went in the service in July 1945. I was discharged in January 1947. I
was in the 796th Military Police Battalion in Vienna, Austria, and also
the 505th there.
I came back and went to work for the Taylor Publishing Co. just before
I went to work for the police department. My mother and father, they
still live here out on Brookfield and my sister lives here. I am one of
the very few native boys in this police department down here--that's
raised right here.
Mr. BALL. And on November 22, 1963, you had the day off, didn't you?
Mr. POTTS. Yes, sir; that was my day off.
Mr. BALL. And did you hear on the radio the President had been shot?
Mr. POTTS. Well, my wife and I had gone to the cleaners up there at Jim
Miller and Military, and I suppose it was around 12:30 or a quarter to
1--around 1 o'clock and we pulled up in front of the cleaners there and
Mr. Wright at the barbershop came out to the car and he said, "Have you
heard about the President getting shot?"
You know, I thought he was joking and I thought he was kidding and I
turned on my car radio and there it was.
We went on back home and I called the office immediately and talked to
Detective Baker, he's a lieutenant now, and he said he was calling all
the men back and I started to get dressed--get ready, and I told him
I would be there as soon as I could, and I got dressed and got there
within the hour, which was around 2 or before.
Mr. BALL. What did you do when you first got there?
Mr. POTTS. When I was walking across the street there, I parked my car
over at the Scottish Rite parking lot there and it's the Masonic lot
and when I come across the street there at Commerce and Harwood this
officer on the corner there said, "Did you hear about Tippit getting
killed?" I said, "No; I didn't hear about that." He said, "Yes; I
understand he got killed on a disturbance call over in Oak Cliff."
That's the first I had heard about Tippit and when I got to the office,
I walked in and Baker told me, "We have some people here from the Texas
School Book Depository--there are four or five of them back there," and
he said, "Would you go back there and take some affidavits from them?"
And I said, "Sure," and I went back there and took one from this Arce,
and I was in the process of taking one from this Jack Dougherty when I
heard some officers coming in the door there, and I heard one of them
say, "We've got the man that killed Tippit."
So, they brought him on back in while we were sitting back in the
squadroom and I was sitting back there with Dougherty and Arce, and
they came by and put him in the side interrogation room back there. As
you walk in the door, there is an interrogation room right straight
ahead and then you turn right to go back in the squadroom and you go
on back in the squadroom, and this Mr. Dougherty looked at me and he
said, "I know that man."
He said, "He works down there in that building--the Texas School Book
Depository Building." He said, "I don't know his name, but I know him."
So did Arce--he said, "Yes, he works down there."
So, I went ahead and took those affidavits from them--from those people
and we got them notarized.
Mr. BALL. You mean Arce and Dougherty?
Mr. POTTS. Arce and Dougherty. There were some more officers back
there taking affidavits from some of the others--some of those other
people--I don't know--you know, time and all the confusion around
there, you don't exactly know what time, but my partner, Bill Senkel,
and F. M. Turner--we work a three-man squad, and Bill came around and
he talked to Captain Fritz, and he said "Come on, let's go. We are
going out to 1026 North Beckley."
He came around and told me, he said--he asked me if I had finished
taking the affidavits, and I told him, "Yes," and he said, "Captain
Fritz wants you and I to go out to Oswald's or Hidell's or Oswald's
room."
On his person--he must have had--he did have identification with
the name Alex Hidell and Oswald--Lee Harvey Oswald, but Lt. E. L.
Cunningham of the forgery bureau, who used to be a member of the
homicide and robbery bureau before he made lieutenant, he went with us
and we went out there.
Mr. BALL. Before you went out there, did you get a search warrant?
Mr. POTTS. No; we didn't--we didn't get a search warrant at that time.
We went to the location and talked to the people there.
Mr. BALL. That's Lt. E. L. Cunningham?
Mr. POTTS. Yes, sir.
Mr. BALL. And who else?
Mr. POTTS. B. L. Senkel.
Mr. BALL. And yourself?
Mr. POTTS. And myself.
Mr. BALL. And you went out to where?
Mr. POTTS. 1026 North Beckley.
Mr. BALL. What happened when you got there?
Mr. POTTS. We got there and we talked to this Mrs.--I believe her name
was Johnson.
Mr. BALL. Mrs. A. C. Johnson?
Mr. POTTS. Mrs. Johnson and Mrs. Roberts.
Mr. BALL. Earlene Roberts?
Mr. POTTS. Yes; and they didn't know a Lee Harvey Oswald or an Alex
Hidell either one and they couldn't--they just didn't have any idea who
we were talking about, so the television--it is a rooming house, and
there was a television----
Mr. BALL. Did you check their registration books?
Mr. POTTS. Yes, sir; we looked at the registration book--Senkel, I
think, or Cunningham--well, we all looked through the registration book
and there wasn't anyone by that name, and the television was on in the
living room. There's an area there where the roomers sit, I guess it's
the living quarters--it flashed Oswald's picture on there and one of
the women, either Mrs. Roberts or Mrs. Johnson said, "That's the man
that lives here. That's Mr. Lee--O. H. Lee." She said, "His room is
right here right off of the living room."
Senkel or Cunningham, one of them, called the office and they said that
Turner was en route with a search warrant and we waited there until
4:30 or 5 that afternoon. We got out there about 3.
Mr. BALL. You waited there in the home?
Mr. POTTS. We waited there in the living quarters.
Mr. BALL. You did not go into the small room that had been rented by
Lee?
Mr. POTTS. No; we didn't--we didn't search the room at all until we got
the warrant.
Mr. BALL. Who brought the warrant out?
Mr. POTTS. Judge David Johnston.
Mr. BALL. The judge issued it, but who brought it out?
Mr. POTTS. Well, F. M. Turner and H. M. Moore was with him, and Judge
David Johnston was there, and also Assistant District Attorney Bill
Alexander.
Mr. BALL. Did David L. Johnston go too, the justice of the peace?
Mr. POTTS. Yes, the judge was there in person.
Mr. BALL. He was?
Mr. POTTS. Yes; and also Assistant District Attorney Bill
Alexander--they all came in the same car.
Mr. BALL. What did you do then?
Mr. POTTS. Well, after we showed Johnson the search warrant, I think it
was Johnson, we went on in the room and continued to search the room,
and we took everything in there that we could find.
Mr. BALL. Would you describe the room, the appearance of the room?
Mr. POTTS. Well, the room was off--as you walk into the house, the
living area, the room was right there at the front door, and it was off
to the left of the living room. It was a real small room. It was, oh, I
don't suppose it was 6 to 8 feet wide, and maybe 10 feet long. It was a
real small room. It had a half bed in there and back in the back there
it had a shelf--some shelves and stuff that he had some food and stuff
back there in.
Mr. BALL. How was it furnished?
Mr. POTTS. Well, it just had the bed in there, and I believe, if
remember, it might have had a chair--I'm not sure. So, Moore, Senkel,
Cunningham and all of us--we searched that room--we took everything
in there all but--there was some food on the shelf we didn't take and
we went through the trash can and there was some banana peelings and
stuff, but everything in there--we took everything in there we could
find. We even took the pillow cases off of one of the pillows and put
stuff in it. He had one of those little zipper-type bags and he had a
lot of stuff in it.
Mr. BALL. What color was the bag?
Mr. POTTS. I don't recall the color of that bag.
Mr. BALL. Did you bring it with you--you picked it up too, and brought
it in, too?
Mr. POTTS. Yes, sir; we brought everything out of the room we could
find.
Mr. BALL. Were there curtains on the windows?
Mr. POTTS. Yes, sir; I think so.
Mr. BALL. Hanging on rods?
Mr. POTTS. If I remember correctly, I think there was curtains on the
walls, but we looked behind the curtains and everything--and looked
behind the blinds and everything.
Mr. BALL. Now, did you see anything of a leather holster?
Mr. POTTS. A .38 leather holster--I have a list there of all the stuff
we brought out of there.
Mr. BALL. Could I see that, please?
Mr. POTTS. Yes, sir; you sure can. This is a list Mr. Turner and Mr.
Moore and myself compiled after we brought it into the office.
Mr. BALL. You brought the stuff into the office?
Mr. POTTS. Yes, sir.