Mr. BELIN. Yes, sir. Will you please state your name, sir, for the
record.
Mr. SCOGGINS. William W. Scoggins.
Mr. BELIN. Where do you live, Mr. Scoggins?
Mr. SCOGGINS. 3138 Alaska.
Mr. BELIN. In what city and State is that?
Mr. SCOGGINS. Dallas.
Mr. BELIN. Dallas, Tex.?
Mr. SCOGGINS. Yes, sir.
Mr. BELIN. How old a gentleman are you?
Mr. SCOGGINS. Forty-nine.
Mr. BELIN. What is your occupation?
Mr. SCOGGINS. Taxicab driver, operator.
Mr. BELIN. For what company?
Mr. SCOGGINS. The Dallas Transit Co. I drive out of Oak Cliff.
Mr. BELIN. You drive out of Oak Cliff?
Mr. SCOGGINS. Yes, sir; Oak Cliff, yes, sir.
Mr. BELIN. Where were you born, Mr. Scoggins?
Mr. SCOGGINS. Hillsboro, Hill County.
Mr. BELIN. Is that in Texas?
Mr. SCOGGINS. Yes, sir.
Mr. BELIN. Did you go to school there?
Mr. SCOGGINS. Well, I went most of the time in McLennan County; most of
my schooling was down in McLennan County.
Mr. BELIN. How far did you get through school before you started to
work?
Mr. SCOGGINS. Eighth grade.
Mr. BELIN. Now what did you do after school?
Mr. SCOGGINS. Well, while I was going to school, and that time we lived
on a farm, you know, and then after that, well, that would be a hard
problem there. I left home when I was rather young, stayed with some of
my brothers some, and then done odd jobs around for quite a while. My
first job, I guess you might say, would be automobile paint job.
Mr. BELIN. Automobile paint job?
Mr. SCOGGINS. Yes, New York City.
Mr. BELIN. New York City. How long did you stay in New York?
Mr. SCOGGINS. Approximately 3 years.
Mr. BELIN. And then where did you go?
Mr. SCOGGINS. I went back to Texas.
Mr. BELIN. Then what did you do there?
Mr. SCOGGINS. Done farmwork.
Mr. BELIN. And about how long did you do farmwork, approximately?
Mr. SCOGGINS. Well now, after--let's see, my life was kind of mixed up.
I have been around quite a while in different places and things. After
I left New York I went to Connecticut to join the CCC camp and stayed
there 3 years.
Mr. BELIN. CCC camp?
Mr. SCOGGINS. Yes, sir. And then I went back to Texas.
The first thing I done was open up a cafe down there and operated it
about a year, and from there went to Waco and worked in a cotton mill,
and then I moved back to west Texas to a little town about 18 miles out
of Waco, and lived there, and done farmwork for a couple or 3 years,
and then I moved to Dallas.
I think late in 1941, and I worked for Newhoff Packers in Dallas for 2
years, and then I went into the aircraft business and worked for North
American approximately 3 years, and then I went into the contracting
business for about a year, and went to General Dynamics, worked there
approximately 15-1/2 years, and then I have been working for the
company, taxicab company, for a couple of years.
Mr. BELIN. You have been driving a cab for 2 years?
Mr. SCOGGINS. No, not quite 2 years.
Mr. BELIN. A little bit less than 2 years?
Mr. SCOGGINS. A year and 9 months. I don't know exactly when I started.
Mr. BELIN. Where were you driving your cab in the early part of the
afternoon of November 22, 1963, if you remember?
Mr. SCOGGINS. Well, I picked up a gentleman at Love Field at
approximately 12:35, I would say, and I discharged him at 1 o'clock at
321 North Ewing.
Mr. BELIN. Then where did you go?
Mr. SCOGGINS. I went around by the Gentlemen's Club which I believe is
125 Patton.
Mr. BELIN. What did you do there?
Mr. SCOGGINS. I pulled up and parked at the corner of Patton and 10th
and went back down to the club. At first, whenever I passed by, one of
the guys hollered at me and asked me did I know the President had been
shot, and I made the remark that I had not heard that one. I found a
place to park and I came back, and he came back there in a couple of
minutes and told me the facts about it. I thought it was some kind of a
joke.
So I had to go plumb up to the corner of 10th before I could find a
parking place, and I parked right there on the corner and went back and
got me a coke and watched the deal, watched the television.
Mr. DULLES. Would you speak a little louder, please; I can't quite hear.
Mr. SCOGGINS. I got me a coke and watched television for a few minutes,
I would say 10, 12, 15 minutes, there, and went out to eat my lunch.
Mr. DULLES. What were you seeing on television?
Mr. SCOGGINS. The deal about the President getting assassinated; and
when I got back to my cab and got my lunch, and, well, I noticed a
police car cruising east there on 10th Street.
Mr. BELIN. Where was your cab parked with relationship to the
intersection of Patton and 10th?
Mr. SCOGGINS. Well, it was headed north on Patton, facing 10th Street,
on the right-hand side of the street, right close to where the stop
sign had been.
Mr. BELIN. Now, the right-hand side of the street would be the east or
the west?
Mr. SCOGGINS. It would be the east side. I was headed north.
Mr. BELIN. All right. Were you on the north side of the intersection or
the south side of the intersection?
Mr. SCOGGINS. South side.
Mr. DULLES. How near the intersection were you?
Mr. SCOGGINS. Right near. They had a stop sign there and someone had
had a wreck previously, I don't know, the sign was down. It was laying
there, it had been bent over.
Representative FORD. Was this a normal stop for you, or how did you
happen to be stopped there?
Mr. SCOGGINS. Well, I just went around just like I say. We can take our
lunch hour anytime, you know; we can call in and say we are going to be
out of service for lunch or for anything we might want to be out for,
and that is what I had done.
Representative FORD. This was not a regular place where you waited for
calls?
Mr. SCOGGINS. No. You see the way we operate there, just where we
discharge a passenger, then we call in and tell them where we are at on
our radio, and if they have anybody in that vicinity who needs a cab,
they give us their address, you see. Of course, now in the downtown
area we do have stands to operate from, at the hotels, and then we
have some stands at the medical buildings and the depot and the bus
stations; and if we want to pick up there, we can pick up and we don't
need to call in. But if we want to sit there we can call in that we are
in this neighborhood. If they have got someone who has requested a cab,
they give us the address, you see.
Mr. BELIN. Mr. Scoggins, showing you Commission Exhibit 528, I would
like to ask you to state, if you know, what this is.
Mr. SCOGGINS. Yes, sir; that is the corner where I was sitting right
here, you see, on 10th.
Mr. BELIN. You are pointing to something in the front-center part of
the picture. What is that?
Mr. SCOGGINS. That is the stop sign that had been knocked over.
Mr. BELIN. That is the knocked-over stop sign?
Mr. SCOGGINS. Yes.
Mr. BELIN. What intersection is that?
Mr. SCOGGINS. Tenth and Patton.
Mr. BELIN. Now, we offer in evidence remarked Exhibit 527 and also
Exhibit 528.
(The items identified as Commission Exhibits Nos. 527 and 528 were
received in evidence.)
Mr. BELIN. Mr. Scoggins, handing you what has been marked as Commission
Exhibit 523, which purports to be a plat, you see the streets of Patton
Avenue there and East 10th. Do you see any number on that exhibit,
Exhibit 523, which would indicate the approximate location of your car
during the period that you are describing here?
Mr. SCOGGINS. Well, it looks to me like this number 10.
Mr. BELIN. You are not pointing to number 10.
Mr. SCOGGINS. Eleven, isn't it?
Mr. BELIN. It is 11, and here is 9.
Mr. SCOGGINS. It looked like a 10 to me. Number 11.