I said, "Take us to the hospital immediately," and I got on the
radio and I told them to notify Parkland Hospital to stand by for an
emergency, and this is approximately, I would say, perhaps a couple of
miles or so to Parkland Hospital from this, and we went to Parkland and
I notified them to have them to be standing by for an emergency, and we
went out there under siren escort and went into the emergency entrance.
As I recall, I got out of the car and rushed to the emergency entrance
and told them to bring the stretchers out, and they loaded the
President, President Kennedy and Governor Connally onto stretchers and
took them into the hospital.
Mrs. Kennedy, I went into the hospital, and I know she was outside
the door of where they were working with the President, and someone
suggested to her that she sit down and she was very calm, and she said,
"I am all right. Some of your people need to sit down more than I do."
But everyone was very concerned. I remained around the hospital. I was
contacted by some of the special sergeants who asked me to stand by in
my car and get another car and take the President, then Vice President
Johnson to Love Field.
Mr. RANKIN. You have told us about that, haven't you?
Mr. CURRY. Yes; I have told you about that.
Mr. RANKIN. And you told us you attended the swearing in of President
Johnson?
Mr. CURRY. Yes; I did.
Mr. RANKIN. And that you waited until the plane left and then you came
back?
Mr. CURRY. To my offices.
Mr. RANKIN. And Judge Hughes left at the same time?
Mr. CURRY. Yes.
Mr. RANKIN. Now, did you do anything about the assassination after this
or at some time?
Mr. CURRY. No. I left this to be handled by Captain Fritz who is in
charge of all homicide investigations.
Mr. RANKIN. Do you know whether anything was done, did you make inquiry?
Mr. CURRY. Yes; he told me they were interrogating him, Oswald about
the assassination and trying to check on the movements of Oswald, and
they obtained, I understand, some search warrants to go out and search,
they found out where he had been staying.
Mr. RANKIN. What about the building immediately after the occasion?
Mr. CURRY. It was sealed off, Inspector Sawyer who is a uniformed
police inspector, I think was the first ranking officer to the School
Depository Building. He would have had to come perhaps 10 blocks. I
believe he told me that he was about at Akard and Maine when this came
on the air that we had had some trouble down there.
Mr. RANKIN. You say you imagine. Is this something that they reported
to you?
Mr. CURRY. Yes. He told me later that he did immediately go to the
scene of the Texas--of where the shots were fired from.
Mr. RANKIN. What did he tell you he did then?
Mr. CURRY. He took charge of the investigation.
Mr. RANKIN. What did he do about the building?
Mr. CURRY. He had it sealed off. This perhaps would have been perhaps,
5, 8, 10 minutes after the original----
Mr. RANKIN. About what time?
Mr. CURRY. I would say perhaps 12:40.
Mr. RANKIN. And was that before or after a description of Lee Oswald
was put on the radio?
Mr. CURRY.I couldn't say whether it was before or after.
Mr. RANKIN. What else happened?
Mr. CURRY. I think he perhaps was the one who gave that description, I
am not sure.
A deputy chief of services who was in the pilot car ahead of us, was at
Love Field, and he had some more Secret Service men with him, I believe.
Mr. RANKIN. Who is that?
Mr. CURRY. George Lumpkin. George L. Lumpkin. He asked me at the
hospital if I didn't want him to go back to the Texas School Book
Depository and assist in the search of the building and I told him yes,
and he did go back, and took over on the search of the building then.
Mr. RANKIN. Did he report to you later what he did about that?
Mr. CURRY. Yes, he did. He told me that he had sealed it off and he
appointed two search teams to search the building from top to bottom,
starting at the bottom and going to the top and starting at the top and
going to the bottom.
Mr. McCLOY. Who was this man?
Mr. CURRY. George L. Lumpkin.
Mr. McCLOY. Secret Service?
Mr. CURRY. No.
Mr. McCLOY. On your staff?
Mr. CURRY. No; he is a police officer.
Mr. RANKIN. Was he an assistant chief?
Mr. CURRY. He is not an assistant chief. Each of the divisions have a
deputy chief in charge of them. I have one assistant chief and four
deputy chiefs.
Mr. RANKIN. And this was a deputy chief?
Mr. CURRY. A deputy chief; yes.
Mr. RANKIN. Under your system the highest civil service status is
inspector, is it?
Mr. CURRY. That is correct.
Mr. RANKIN. And the other officers are appointed?
Mr. CURRY. Appointed, yes.
Mr. RANKIN. By you?
Mr. CURRY. By me, yes.
Mr. RANKIN. Now, these two teams that you referred to that the deputy
chief appointed to search the building, do you know how many officers
were in those teams?
Mr. CURRY. No, sir; I don't.
Mr. RANKIN. Do you know whether the search was made?
Mr. CURRY. They reported to me that it was made, yes.
Mr. RANKIN. Do you know what else happened in regard to the building or
the search for the assassin?
Mr. CURRY. After it was searched I understand it was sealed off and
they were asked not to let anybody come or go from the building until
further orders.
Mr. RANKIN. Then what happened after that?
Mr. DULLES. Could I inquire there. I thought it was sealed off previous
to the search according to your previous testimony.
Mr. CURRY. It was. But after they searched it and all of the
investigators left there, they asked Mr. Truly, I believe, the building
manager, not to let anybody come and go.
Mr. DULLES. Was that supplemented, though, by the police?
Mr. CURRY. Yes; I believe we had officers there.
Mr. DULLES. Then there were in a way two sealings off. One that you
gave the order was given 8 or 10 minutes----
Mr. CURRY. Almost immediately, yes.
Mr. DULLES. After the assassination, and then the other one was after
this search had been made.
Mr. CURRY. Yes, sir.
Mr. McCLOY. There is one element I am not clear on, I may be
anticipating, Mr. Rankin. But I believe we have had some testimony
heretofore, that Mr.--an officer went in with Mr. Truly into the
building.
Mr. CURRY. Yes, sir.
Mr. McCLOY. And started to go upstairs, and they ran into Oswald on the
second floor. Was that before the inspector got there?
Mr. CURRY. Yes, sir; I am sure it was, because this officer was there
at the scene.
Mr. McCLOY. Do you remember that officer's name?
Mr. CURRY. No, sir; I don't. It is in the record.
Mr. BELIN. It is officer M. L. Baker. He was in the motorcade.
Mr. McCLOY. Did M. L. Baker purport to seal off the building?
Mr. CURRY. No, sir; he didn't. The first officers in there were rushing
up to the upper floors.