The CHAIRMAN. Sit right down, Mr. Boone.
Senator COOPER. The purpose of this hearing is to hear the testimony
of M. L. Baker, Mrs. R. A. Reid, Eugene Boone, Luke Mooney, and M.
N. McDonald. Officer Baker and Mrs. Reid were in the vicinity of the
Texas School Book Depository Building at the time of the assassination.
Deputy Sheriffs Boone and Mooney assisted in the search of the sixth
floor of the Texas School Book Depository Building shortly after the
assassination, and Officer McDonald apprehended Lee Harvey Oswald at
the Texas theatre.
Will you be sworn? Do you solemnly swear the testimony you are about to
give will be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so
help you God?
Mr. BOONE. I do.
Senator COOPER. You understand the purpose of this inquiry?
Mr. BOONE. Yes, sir.
Senator COOPER. You have come here voluntarily to testify?
Mr. BOONE. Yes.
Senator COOPER. Do you have a counsel with you?
Mr. BOONE. No.
Senator COOPER. Do you desire one?
Mr. BOONE. No.
Mr. BALL. What is your business?
Mr. BOONE. I am a deputy sheriff in or for the county of Dallas.
Mr. BALL. How long have you been a deputy sheriff?
Mr. BOONE. A year and a half.
Mr. BALL. Where were you born?
Mr. BOONE. Dallas, Tex.
Mr. BALL. Go to school there?
Mr. BOONE. Yes, sir.
Mr. BALL. How far through school did you go?
Mr. BOONE. High school.
Mr. BALL. In Dallas?
Mr. BOONE. Yes, sir.
Mr. BALL. What did you do after you got out of school?
Mr. BOONE. I was working with the Dallas Times Herald Newspaper there,
in the advertising department.
Mr. BALL. How long did you work there?
Mr. BOONE. Well, I worked there part time when I was going to school,
up until the time I quit, 8 years.
Mr. BALL. Is that the time you went with the sheriff's office?
Mr. BOONE. Yes, sir.
Mr. BALL. How old are you?
Mr. BOONE. Twenty-six.
Mr. BALL. On the 22d of November, where were you working?
Mr. BOONE. I was working downtown. I was out viewing the parade.
Mr. BALL. Where did you view the parade?
Mr. BOONE. Right in front of the sheriff's office.
Mr. BALL. Had you been assigned a place, a job that day?
Mr. BOONE. No.
Mr. BALL. You were out in front of the sheriff's office on Main Street?
Mr. BOONE. That is correct.
Mr. BALL. Near Houston?
Mr. BOONE. Yes.
Mr. BALL. And who were you with?
Mr. BOONE. Officer Mooney was out there, I believe, and several of the
office personnel, women in the office, clerk-typist and what-have-you.
Ralph Walters, Buddy Walthers, Allen Sweatt, L. C. Smith. Officer
Gramstaff. That is about all I can remember.
Mr. BALL. What happened there?
Mr. BOONE. Well, it was approximately 1 o'clock when we heard the
shots. The motorcade had already passed by us and turned back to the
north on Houston Street. And we heard what we thought to be a shot.
And there seemed to be a pause between the first shot and the second
shot and third shots--a little longer pause. And we raced across the
street there.
Mr. BALL. You raced across what street?
Mr. BOONE. Houston Street.
Mr. BALL. You turned to your right and went west?
Mr. BOONE. Well, there is a big cement works out there. We went on west
across Houston Street, and then cut across the grass out there behind
the large cement works there. Some of the bystanders over there seemed
to think the shots came from up over the railroad in the freight yards,
from over the triple underpass.
So there was some city officer, I don't know who he was, motorcycle
officer had laid his motorcycle down and was running up the embankment
to get over a little retaining wall that separates the freight yards
there. He went over the wall first, and I was right behind him, going
into the freight yards. We searched out the freight yards. We were
unable to find anything.
Mr. BALL. A good many officers over there searching?
Mr. BOONE. Yes; there were. Most all of the officers--well, all of the
officers in front of the sheriff's office there. There were others that
I don't recall. There were other officers in the area. Also, they all
ran in that general direction, over around the depository and also down
into the freight yards.
Mr. BALL. Any railroad employees around there?
Mr. BOONE. There was one colored boy way on back down in the freight
yards. He had been working on one of the pullmans down there.
Mr. BALL. And didn't you talk to somebody that was also in a tower?
Mr. BOONE. Yes; I did.
Mr. BALL. A man named Bowers?
Mr. BOONE. I don't know what his name was. He was up in the tower and
I hollered up there to see if he had seen anybody running out there in
the freight yards, or heard any shots. And he said he didn't hear any
shots, and he hadn't seen anybody racing around out there in the yard.
Mr. BALL. That was a railroad tower?
Mr. BOONE. Yes; it is situated between the tracks and the school book
depository. Almost directly west of the building.
Mr. BALL. After that, what did you do?
Mr. BOONE. Well, I finally went around and was talking to some of the
spectators that were in the area there, located a boy by the name of
Betzer. He had taken what he thought was some photographs, or there
were photographs--he thought he might have had a portion of the
building.
Later on we were able to ascertain that the shots had come from the
building, from that southeast corner over there. And he had some
photographs, but they didn't extend past the second floor on the
building.
Mr. BALL. Did you go up into the building then?
Mr. BOONE. I took him on over to the sheriff's office, and placed him
in the sheriff's office, took his camera, to bring it back to the ID
Bureau to be developed. Placed him in the sheriff's office at that time
to await somebody to take a statement from him.
Then some other officers, Ralph Walters and Officer Gramstaff, and I
don't know whether--I don't remember Officer Mooney was with them or
not at that time--they headed back to get some heavy power flashlights.
They said they wanted to look around in the attic. And there were a
bunch of pallets, that they moved the books around, and it was dark and
they couldn't see. So we got the lights and went over to the building.
At that time, we proceeded directly to the sixth floor.
Mr. BALL. Somebody tell you to go to the sixth floor?
Mr. BOONE. Well, that is just where everybody was going. And they said
five floors below that--I believe Inspector Sawyer with the city was
out there, and he said the other floors were in the process of being
searched or had been already searched. This was after Officer Mooney
found the shells.
Mr. BALL. Did somebody tell you Officer Mooney had found some shells?
Mr. BOONE. Not him in particular. They said the shells had been found
on the sixth floor. At that time, I didn't know he had found them.
Mr. BALL. What did you do after you got up to the sixth floor?
Mr. BOONE. Well, I proceeded to the east end of the building, I
guess, and started working our way across the building to the west
wall, looking in, under, and around all the boxes and pallets, and
what-have-you that were on the floor. Looking for the weapon. And as I
got to the west wall, there were a row of windows there, and a slight
space between some boxes and the wall. I squeezed through them.
When I did--I had my light in my hand. I was slinging it around on the
floor, and I caught a glimpse of the rifle, stuffed down between two
rows of boxes with another box or so pulled over the top of it. And I
hollered that the rifle was here.
Mr. BALL. What happened then?
Mr. BOONE. Some of the other officers came over to look at it. I told
them to stand back, not to get around close, they might want to take
prints of some of the boxes, and not touch the rifle. And at that time
Captain Fritz and an ID man came over. I believe the ID man's name
was Lieutenant Day--I am not sure. They came over and the weapon was
photographed as it lay. And at that time Captain Fritz picked it up by
the strap, and it was removed from the place where it was.
Mr. BALL. You saw them take the photograph?
Mr. BOONE. Yes.
Mr. BALL. Were you alone at that time?
Mr. BOONE. There was an Officer Weitzman, I believe. He is a deputy
constable.
Mr. BALL. Where was the rifle located on the floor, general location?
Mr. BOONE. Well, it was almost--the stairwell is in the corner of the
building, something like this, and there is a wall coming up here,
making one side of the stairwell with the building acting as the other
two sides. And from that, it was almost directly in front or about 3
feet south, I guess, it would be, from that partition wall that made up
the stairwell.