Mr. CURRY. I mean early Saturday morning. Late Friday night or early
Saturday morning.
Representative FORD. Where do you actually do this filing?
Mr. CURRY. Ordinarily our detectives would go down to the courthouse
which is right near where the President was assassinated and file it
in the district attorney's office. However, in this case the district
attorney and also his assistant was up at the city hall with us, and we
drew up the complaints there at the city hall.
Mr. RANKIN. Who do you mean by we?
Mr. CURRY. When I say we, I mean the Dallas police officers and the
homicide officers working in this case.
Mr. RANKIN. I see.
Representative FORD. What evidence did you have at that point?
Mr. CURRY. I couldn't tell you all the evidence. I think Captain Fritz
can tell you better than I. Captain Fritz just told me on Friday
afternoon he said, "We have sufficient evidence to file a case on
Oswald for the murder of Tippit." Later on that night, somewhere around
midnight, I believe, he told me, he said, "We now have sufficient
evidence to file on Lee Harvey Oswald for the assassination of
President Kennedy."
He told me he had talked it over with Henry Wade and with the assistant
district attorney and they agreed we had enough evidence to file a
case, and a decision was made then to file the case, which we did.
Representative FORD. At that time you had the rifle, did you not?
Mr. CURRY. Yes, sir.
Representative FORD. Who made the original identification of the rifle,
the kind of rifle that it was?
Mr. CURRY. I don't know, sir.
Representative FORD. It was reported that the original identification
was a 7.65 Mauser. Are those reports true or untrue?
Mr. CURRY. I wouldn't know, sir.
Representative FORD. You don't know?
Mr. CURRY. I don't know.
Representative FORD. Do you know when it was finally determined that it
was not a 7.65 Mauser?
Mr. CURRY. No, sir; I don't know that.
Mr. McCLOY. As far as I know there was no police report that it was a
7.65 rifle.
(Discussion off the record.)
Mr. RANKIN. Chief Curry, do you know of any police records of your
police department that showed that this weapon that was purportedly
involved in the assassination was a Mauser rifle?
Mr. CURRY. No, sir; not to my knowledge.
Representative FORD. All of your records show affirmatively it was the
Italian rifle?
Mr. CURRY. Yes, sir. That is correct.
Mr. McCLOY. While we are waiting for Mr. Rankin to continue his
examination, let me ask you this question, Chief.
Did you, prior to the assassination, know or hear of Oswald?
Mr. CURRY. Never.
Mr. McCLOY. Didn't hear that he had been--there was a defector named
Oswald in the city of Dallas?
Mr. CURRY. No, sir.
Mr. McCLOY. Never heard of his name?
Mr. CURRY. We didn't have it in our files.
Representative FORD. Was there anything in your files that Lee Harvey
Oswald had been involved with the Dallas police force?
Mr. CURRY. No, sir.
Representative FORD. No record whatsoever?
Mr. CURRY. No, sir.
Mr. DULLES. Was there any record of his having made a trip to the
Soviet Union and returned?
Mr. CURRY. Not in our files.
Mr. DULLES. And returned to Texas?
Mr. CURRY. We didn't have anything in our files regarding Lee Harvey
Oswald.
Senator COOPER. Could I follow up on that, did you have any record of
any individuals, persons, in Dallas, or the area, who because of any
threats of violence against the President or any Communist background
required you to take any special security measures?
Mr. CURRY. Yes, sir; when we have notables, celebrities visiting us,
there are some groups in Dallas that are known to be extreme rightwing
and extreme leftwing groups. We try to keep track of these people and
what their plans are. We have been able to infiltrate most of their
organizations.
Senator COOPER. Now prior to the President's visit, did you take
any--did the Dallas Police force take any special security measures
about any persons that you might suspect of possible violence?
Mr. CURRY. Yes, sir; we kept some people under surveillance or groups
under surveillance. We had prior to this visit, we had some information
brought to us, I don't know who brought it to us, that there was a
man in Sherman or Denison, who said that he is going to see that the
President was embarrassed when he came to Dallas.
Senator COOPER. Who was that man, do you know?
Mr. DULLES. We have a Secret Service report, I believe with regard to
this case. Here is one from the chief of police of Denton, Tex.
Mr. CURRY. Yes; we had some information that the students at North
Texas were planning some demonstrations.
Senator COOPER. My question is, did your police force take any special
security measures about anyone that you felt might be capable of
violence against the President?
Mr. CURRY. Not at this particular time, because we had reports from
the different groups, and we had information from inside these groups
that they were not planning to do anything on the day the President was
there. We knew that General Walker was out of the city, and we knew
that his group that sometimes put on demonstrations.
Senator COOPER. When you say planning, you are not limiting it to any
violence, but you are talking about any possible demonstrations?
Mr. CURRY. Yes; demonstrations.
Senator COOPER. I want to come back to that point later, but I want to
ask this, outside of what you had in your police files, your records,
did you know yourself, or did you know whether anyone in authority in
the police force or anyone in the police force, to your knowledge, had
any knowledge of the presence of Oswald in Dallas?
Mr. CURRY. No, sir; I have asked my criminal intelligence section,
which would have been the persons who had knowledge of this.
Senator COOPER. Had anyone informed you that he was working in the
Texas School Book Depository Building?
Mr. CURRY. No, sir.
Mr. DULLES. Had he ever tangled with the Dallas Police in any respect
of which there is any record?
Mr. CURRY. We have no record at all of him.
Representative FORD. Did the Secret Service people inquire of you as to
your knowledge of these various groups that you had infiltrated?
Mr. CURRY. I don't remember them specifically asking me what were these
groups planning to do.
Representative FORD. Did you volunteer any information on it?
Mr. CURRY. I think perhaps we told them what we had done. They
were aware of the fact that we did know the plans of the various
organizations, and I know we sent Lieutenant Revill and a couple of his
men up to Denison, or Denton, to talk to a man that had purportedly
said they were going to embarrass the President and had made some
remarks about it and after we talked with him he said, "I won't even
be in Dallas. I was just popping off. I will assure you I am not even
going to be down there. I don't want any part of it."
Then some of the study group in North Texas, we had an informant in
this group, and they had decided they would be in Dallas with some
placards to express opinions about the President or some of his views.
Some of these people were arrested after the shooting because we were
afraid that the people were going to harm them. They were down around
the Trade Mart with some placards.
Senator COOPER. I have a couple of more questions.
Do you remember the full page advertisement that was in the Dallas
paper?
Mr. CURRY. I saw it; yes.
Senator COOPER. Directed against the President of the United States?
Mr. CURRY. Yes.
Senator COOPER. What date did you give that statement in making any
kind of preparations for his visit?
Mr. CURRY. In the first place, I didn't think it was very appropriate,
it makes us apprehensive, a little more apprehensive of the security of
the President, but we were doing everything that I knew we could do to
protect him. I will never forget that as we turned to go down toward
that underpass the remark was made, "We have almost got it made," and I
was very relieved that we had brought him through this downtown area,
and were fixing to get on this expressway where we could take him out
to the Trade Mart where we had a tremendous amount of security set up
for him.
Senator COOPER. Since the assassination, have you had any actual
factors or any evidence or information of any kind which would indicate
that any person other than Oswald was involved in the assassination of
President Kennedy?
Mr. CURRY. No, sir; I have not.
Mr. DULLES. Was any investigation made of, I believe it was Weissman,
or somebody by that name, who inserted this advertisement to which
Senator Cooper referred, was any particular investigation made?
Mr. CURRY. Not any investigation by us.
(At this point, Representative Ford withdrew from the hearing room.)
Mr. McCLOY. I have one question.
Did you since the assassination or before have any information or any
credible information which would indicate that there was any connection
between Ruby and Oswald?
Mr. CURRY. No, sir; we were not able to establish any connection
between them.
Mr. McCLOY. You made a thorough investigation of that?
Mr. CURRY. Yes, sir; we made every attempt to prove or disprove an
association between them, and we were not able to connect the two.
Mr. McCLOY. Do you intend to ask the chief about the General Walker
episode?
Mr. RANKIN. Yes; and also about the Ruby episode.
Mr. McCLOY. I think that is all I have at the moment.
Mr. RANKIN. Chief, I put in front of you there as Exhibit 705, now
marked as "Exhibit 705," your radio log that you have just been looking
at and referred to, is that right?
Mr. CURRY. Yes, sir.
Mr. RANKIN. Will you turn to the page there where you find the first
broadcast of the description of the suspect of the assassination of the
President? Is that on your page 6 or thereabouts?
Mr. CURRY. The pages--yes, it is page 6, channel 1.
Mr. RANKIN. Will you tell what time of the day that is recorded as
having been made?
Mr. CURRY. This shows at the end the broadcast to be 12:45 p.m. It
would be on November 22d.
Mr. RANKIN. Mr. Chairman, I would like to offer Exhibit 705 being
this radio log which covers a great many matters, but in light of the
importance of the time and the description and all, I think the entire
log should go in and then we can refer to different items in it.
Mr. DULLES. It will be admitted as Commission's Exhibit No. 705.
(The document referred to was marked Commission Exhibit No. 705, and
received in evidence.)
Mr. RANKIN. Now, will you read to the Commission a description that was
given at that time of the suspect of the assassination?
Mr. CURRY. The broadcast reads as follows: "Attention all squads.
Attention all squads. At Elm and Houston, reported to be an unknown
white male, approximately 30, slender build, height 5 feet 10 inches,
165 pounds. Reported to be armed with what is believed to be a
.30-caliber rifle.
"Attention all squads, the suspect is believed to be white male, 30, 5
feet 10 inches, slender build, 165 pounds, armed with what is thought
to be a .30-.30 rifle. No further description or information at this
time. KKB there 64 Dallas, and the time given as 12:45 p.m."
Mr. RANKIN. You have described Officer Tippit's number?
Mr. CURRY. District 78.
Mr. RANKIN. And that is recorded along the left-hand side when there is
any message either from him or to him, is that right?
Mr. CURRY. That is correct.
Mr. RANKIN. Do you find there a message directed to him about moving to
the central Oak Cliff area?
Mr. CURRY. Yes, sir.
Mr. RANKIN. And what time is that message recorded?
Mr. CURRY. Immediately following this dispatch to him to district
squads 87 and 78, EBG 78.
Mr. RANKIN. What time?
Mr. CURRY. The time is given as 12:46.
Mr. RANKIN. What does it say?
Mr. CURRY. The dispatcher asked him "87 and 78" or instructed him "Move
into the central Oak Cliff area."
Mr. RANKIN. Did he respond to that?
Mr. CURRY. A little later he did.
Mr. RANKIN. When?
Mr. CURRY. We have--he was asked his location, would be about 1 o'clock.
Mr. RANKIN. Did he say what it was?
Mr. CURRY. He didn't come back in at that time. At 1:08 p.m. they
called him again.
Mr. RANKIN. Did he respond?
Mr. CURRY. It is at 12:54. The dispatcher said "78" and he responded,
he said, "You are in the Oak Cliff area, are you not?"
Seventy-eight responded and said, "Lancaster and 8," which would be in
the central section of Oak Cliff.
The dispatcher said, "You will be at large for any emergency that comes
in."
And he responded, "10-4," which means message received. And he would
follow those instructions.
Mr. RANKIN. Do you have an item there of a broadcast of a person who
murdered Tippit?
Mr. CURRY. We have apparently--a citizen came in on the radio and he
said, "Somebody shot a police officer at 404 10th Street." Someone in
the background said 78, squad 78, car No. 10. And the citizen said,
"You get that?" and the dispatcher said, "78."
And there was no response and the citizen said, "Hello, police
operator, did you get that?" Some other unknown voice came in and said,
"510 East Jefferson."
Mr. RANKIN. What time of the day?
Mr. CURRY. This was about 1:15; 1:19 is the next time that shows up on
the radio log. The dispatcher at 1:19 said, "The subject is running
west on Jefferson from the location."
Citizen came back in on the radio and said, "From out here on 10th
street, 500 block, the police officer just shot, I think he is dead."
Dispatcher said, "10-4, we have the information."
The citizen using the radio remained off the radio.
Dispatcher to 15, he was the sergeant, said, "Did you receive the
information of police officer shot?"
And he said, "10-4, but didn't that citizen say first he was on
Jefferson and 10th and then Chesapeake?"