Mr. STERN. Just a minute.
Did you establish how long that man had been on the loading platform?
Mr. SORRELS. No, sir; I did not.
Mr. STERN. There was no policeman stationed at the loading platform
when you came up?
Mr. SORRELS. I did not see one; no, sir.
Mr. STERN. And you were able to enter the building without identifying
yourself?
Mr. SORRELS. Yes, sir.
Mr. STERN. Then you got inside the building and what did you do?
Mr. SORRELS. I asked for the manager, and I was directed to Mr. Truly.
He was standing there.
I went up and identified myself to him. I said, "I want to get a
stenographer, and we would like to have you put down the names and
addresses of every employee of the building, in the building."
And I then walked on out the front door and asked, "Did anyone here see
anything?"
And someone pointed to Mr. Brennan.
Mr. STERN. What was your purpose in asking for a list of the employees
of the building?
Mr. SORRELS. Because I knew that they would have to be interviewed. I
was trying to establish at that time without any delay, who all was in
that building or was employed there, because I knew they would have to
be talked to later.
In other words, I was looking for someone that saw something.
Mr. STERN. You were looking for potential witnesses?
Mr. SORRELS. Yes, sir.
Mr. STERN. And at that time you had no basis for suspecting any
employee might be involved one way or the other?
Mr. SORRELS. No, sir; and I did not know at that time that the shots
came from the building.
When I was--when Mr. Brennan was pointed out to me, I went up and told
him who I was and asked him if he saw anything. And he told me what
he had seen. And, at that time, that is the first time that I knew
definitely that any shots had come from the building.
Mr. STERN. Now, what precisely did Mr. Brennan tell you?
Mr. SORRELS. Mr. Brennan said that he was standing across the street,
watching the parade, and that he, of course, was looking in the
direction where the President was, and he heard a sound which he
thought at first was a backfire of an automobile. And that shortly
afterwards there was another sound, and that he thought that somebody
might be throwing firecrackers out of the building.
And he glanced up to the building, and that he saw a man at the window
on the right-hand side, the second floor from the top.
And he said, "I could see the man taking deliberate aim and saw him
fire the third shot," and said then he just pulled the rifle back in
and moved back from the window, just as unconcerned as could be.
Mr. STERN. How did you happen to talk to Mr. Brennan?
Mr. SORRELS. I asked--I don't know who, someone there--"Is there anyone
here that saw anything?" And someone said, "That man over there."
He was out in front of the building and I went right to him.
Mr. STERN. Did Mr. Brennan tell you anything else?
Mr. SORRELS. I asked him whether or not he thought he could identify
the person that he saw, and he, of course, gave me a description of
him, said that he appeared to be a slender man, he had on what appeared
to be a light jacket or shirt or something to that effect, and that he
thought he could identify him--said he was slender build. Because I was
definitely interested in someone that had seen something that could
give us some definite information.
And I also asked if he had seen anybody else, and he pointed to a
young colored boy there, by the name of Euins. And I got him and Mr.
Brennan, and I took them over to the sheriff's office where we could
get statements from them.
Mr. STERN. What was the name of that young man?
Mr. SORRELS. Euins, I believe it is, or pretty close to that.
Mr. STERN. Did you interview Mr. Euins?
Mr. SORRELS. Yes, sir; I did. And he also said that he had heard the
noise there, and that he had looked up and saw the man at the window
with the rifle, and I asked him if he could identify the person, and he
said, no, he couldn't, he said he couldn't tell whether he was colored
or white.
Mr. STERN. Do you remember anything unusual about the way Mr. Brennan
was dressed?
Mr. SORRELS. He was dressed as a workman, or a laborer, and he had on a
hard hat.
Mr. STERN. Construction hat?
Mr. SORRELS. Yes, sir.
Mr. STERN. Did Mr. Brennan tell you anything else about anything else
he had observed at that time?
Mr. SORRELS. I can't recall any specific thing.
Mr. STERN. Did he mention seeing any other person or persons in the
windows of the Book Depository Building?
Mr. SORRELS. I don't recall whether he did or did not.
Mr. STERN. Did he say anything about observing anyone leave the Book
Depository Building hurriedly after the shooting?
Mr. SORRELS. No, sir.
Mr. STERN. Did he point out to you precisely the window from which he
said he saw the shot fired, the window in which he saw the sniper?
Mr. SORRELS. Yes, sir.
Mr. STERN. Where was that window in relation to the windows at which
you saw several Negro men as you drove on Houston Street?
Mr. SORRELS. It was one floor above and a little bit to the right, as I
recall it.
Mr. STERN. Can you give us these directions in terms of compass points?
Mr. SORRELS. Yes. That would be on the east side of the building.
Mr. STERN. So the window that Mr. Brennan pointed out to you was on the
extreme east side?
Mr. SORRELS. Yes, sir.
Mr. STERN. And the window or windows at which you had observed several
Negro men was more to the west?
Mr. SORRELS. A little bit more to the west--not very much--but to the
west, on the floor below.
Mr. STERN. Are you certain in your mind about the floor below?
Mr. SORRELS. Yes, I am.
Mr. STERN. Is there any particular reason for that? You said before
that you essentially glanced at the building, and didn't have very long
to observe it, and you saw these men at the window.
What makes you certain about placing the men on any particular floor?
Mr. SORRELS. Well, because I remember that they were not near the
top--I can just remember that--it seemed to me like two floors down
from the top, as I recall having seen them. And, of course, when I got
back to the building down there, there were windows open on the floor
below at the place where I recall having seen the colored men.
Mr. STERN. So it was the open window afterwards that helped you recall?
Mr. SORRELS. That is right.
Mr. STERN. And are you certain that those were the same open windows?
Mr. SORRELS. Yes, I think they were. I don't have any reason to think
otherwise.
Mr. STERN. Then you accompanied Brennan and Euins where?
Mr. SORRELS. To the sheriff's office, which was right across the street
from the Book Depository.
Mr. STERN. Did you have any further conversation with them on the way
over there?
Mr. SORRELS. Oh, yes; we discussed--I was talking to him on the way
over there about what they saw and observed, and told them we would
like to come in there where we could get their statements down in
writing.
Mr. STERN. Did they tell you anything that you have not already told us?
Mr. SORRELS. Not that I recall.
The little colored boy mentioned he was there with another colored boy
that ran off when this thing happened--at the first shot this boy ran
off. He said he stayed there, but the other boy ran off. I didn't make
any effort to get in touch with him, because he apparently saw nothing.
Mr. STERN. Then you took them into the sheriff's office?
Mr. SORRELS. Yes, sir.
Mr. STERN. What was going on in the sheriff's office?
Mr. SORRELS. At that time one of the deputy sheriffs was in the
interrogation room taking a statement from some witness there. And I
did not want to just stay there and wait too long, so I asked him would
he also write up the statements on it--Mr. Brennan and the colored boy.
And I then started out in the hall of the sheriff's office there with
the idea of going back to see if I could locate other witnesses, when
Chief Deputy Sheriff Mr. Allan Sweatt told me there was another witness
across the hallway, near Mr. Sweatt's office--he is the polygraph
operator there, and his office is not in the same area as the sheriff's
office but across the hall--that there was an FBI agent taking a
statement over there from a person.
So I accompanied him over there and hadn't been in there but just a
few minutes until Mr. Sweatt came and called me out and says "Forrest,
there are some people here I think you ought to talk to."
Mr. STERN. Whose statement was being taken by the FBI?