Chief BATCHELOR. Before he went out and announced it to the rest of the
press.
Mr. GRIFFIN. About how much time elapsed, would you say, from the
time he talked to the two reporters and the time he made the general
announcement?
Chief BATCHELOR. Oh, I would estimate maybe 30 minutes; no longer.
Mr. GRIFFIN. Now, in between times, did he talk with you about the
movement?
Chief BATCHELOR. No, sir.
Mr. GRIFFIN. Afterwards, did he talk with you about the proposed
movement?
Chief BATCHELOR. You mean the mechanics of moving him?
Mr. GRIFFIN. Anything?
Chief BATCHELOR. No, sir.
Mr. GRIFFIN. What was the next thing you learned about the proposed
movement of Oswald?
Chief BATCHELOR. I just assumed that we would move him the next morning
sometime after 10 o'clock. I didn't know exactly when, and I came down
the next morning around 8 o'clock.
Mr. GRIFFIN. Did you learn anything about the movement between the time
Chief Curry made the general announcement to the press and the time
that you went home that night?
Chief BATCHELOR. No, sir.
Mr. GRIFFIN. Was there any conversation around the building?
Chief BATCHELOR. Not to my knowledge.
Mr. GRIFFIN. Was there anybody else present from the police department
when you talked with the two newspaper reporters?
Chief BATCHELOR. There were some secretaries in the office. This was
not addressed to me particularly. They might have overheard it. We were
in the office, in the outer office nearest Chief Curry's office at this
time, and I believe Mrs. Ann Schreiber was holding down that desk.
Mr. GRIFFIN. What time did you leave the police department on Saturday
night or Sunday morning?
Chief BATCHELOR. It was, I believe, on Saturday night, or Sunday
morning. It was around midnight. It wasn't quite as late as it was the
night before when I left.
Mr. GRIFFIN. So would it be your estimate that about 4 hours elapsed
between the chief's press conference and the time you left?
Chief BATCHELOR. I would say maybe not quite that long, but that is not
too far off.
Mr. GRIFFIN. Chief, maybe this will help you a little bit to refresh
your recollection.
Chief BATCHELOR. I want to take that back. It was earlier than that
when I left there on Saturday night. It was quite late on Friday night,
but it was around 9:30 when I left Saturday night.
Mr. GRIFFIN. Are you referring to this, correcting this estimate? Are
you referring to this report dated November 23d?
Chief BATCHELOR. I think the times in this are fairly accurate.
Mr. GRIFFIN. Chief, I want to hand you what has already been marked for
identification as Stevenson Exhibit 5053. Can you identify that?
Chief BATCHELOR. Yes. This was a report signed by myself, Chief
Lumpkin, and Chief Stevenson which was the result of a staff résumé
made within a few days after Oswald was shot.
It was for the purpose of bringing together the facts and times and
elements of events in a chronological order as we all remembered them.
Some of the times, particularly with reference to the President's
arrival, which had to do with meeting with some Secret Service people
and other groups, and some of this we were a little bit hazy on at
first and we went back and checked some facts.
As an example, we checked the Baker Hotel schedule on a room that was
reserved for a meeting that was held, so we could be sure what time
this meeting was, and things of that nature.
Mr. GRIFFIN. I see. The members of the police department held a meeting
at the Baker Hotel sometime over the weekend?
Chief BATCHELOR. No. The hostess committee of the city which was
hosting the President's arrival and arranging for the luncheon, it was
kind of a planning committee, and we were asked, or I was asked to one
of these meetings with some of the Secret Service people.
So this was a reference point for some of our thinking when this
happened that we could relate some other things.
Mr. GRIFFIN. Now your report indicates that you left Saturday night at
9:30 p.m. Between the time that Chief Curry made his announcement to
the press and you left at 9:30 p.m., were you confronted by any other
newspaper people about the movement of Oswald?
Chief BATCHELOR. No, sir. As a matter of fact, we left not too long
after this because after this announcement was made, the press began to
leave themselves. The third floor became fairly quiet and there wasn't
anybody up there to speak of and it just died out.
Mr. GRIFFIN. Were you confronted by anybody after the chief made his
announcement with respect to Oswald?
Chief BATCHELOR. No, sir; not that I recall.
Mr. GRIFFIN. Do you recall how you arrived at the time at 9:30, stated
in the report? Was that based on your records?
Chief BATCHELOR. That was fresh in my mind when we wrote this report.
Mr. GRIFFIN. Now, who was left in charge of the police department that
night after you left at 9:30?
Chief BATCHELOR. We have a night chief who comes on at 5 o'clock in the
afternoon and he works until 2 in the morning.
Mr. GRIFFIN. Do you recall who it was that night?
Chief BATCHELOR. Well, there is only one. It would have been Chief Jack
Tanner.
Mr. GRIFFIN. Who would then replace him at 2 o'clock in the morning?
Chief BATCHELOR. No one. There is a, well, I say no one. There is
an inspector also who works around the clock. I don't recall which
inspector was on duty that night, but there is an inspector on duty at
night around the clock.
Mr. GRIFFIN. I notice--if you want to refer to your report on page 29,
the report indicates that you received a telephone call at your home
about 6:30 in the morning from Captain Talbert. Can you tell us what
that call was about?
Chief BATCHELOR. Yes, sir. He called and informed me that he had gotten
a call, and he didn't tell me at the time where he got it; he said an
anonymous call.
Later I learned it came from the FBI, and they in turn had called
him. That about a hundred men were going to take the prisoner Oswald
and they didn't want to get any policeman hurt. So I told him to send
a squad by Chief Curry's house and inform him about it. And at that
moment we weren't concerned about him in the jail. We were concerned
about him in the transfer.
Mr. GRIFFIN. Why did Talbert call you rather than some other member of
the police department?
Chief BATCHELOR. He tried to call Chief Curry and he couldn't get him
to answer his phone. I guess he was dog-tired and he couldn't get him
up. And I told him to send a squad car by and tell him.
Mr. GRIFFIN. I see. Did you have any discussion with him at that point
who had responsibility to make this decision? Did you feel you had the
responsibility to give instructions on the basis of having received
this report that some men were going to try to go after Oswald? Did you
feel you had any responsibility to take any protective action?
Chief BATCHELOR. At that moment?
Mr. GRIFFIN. Yes.
Chief BATCHELOR. No. The way it came to me, it was my feeling that this
was to happen when we attempted to transfer him, not to come up to the
jail and get him.
Mr. GRIFFIN. What did you do after you received that phone call?
Chief BATCHELOR. I got up and dressed to come down to the office.
Mr. GRIFFIN. What time did you arrive down at the office?
Chief BATCHELOR. About 8 o'clock.
Mr. GRIFFIN. What did you do when you got to the office?
Chief BATCHELOR. Chief Stevenson and I got there about the same time. I
parked my car in the basement and we walked into the city hall or into
the police station, and we noticed a television camera set up in the
areaway leading into the garage.
I made the comment that they would have to do something about the
television camera because it was right in the path where they would
bring the prisoner out. There was no one around the camera. It was just
sitting there.
Mr. GRIFFIN. I want to hand you here, chief, a diagram of the inside of
the basement garage area. Do you have a pencil or anything that you can
mark with?
Chief BATCHELOR. Yes. The camera--can I mark here?
Mr. GRIFFIN. Yes.
Chief BATCHELOR. The camera was sitting right here.
Mr. GRIFFIN. Would you put a "C" there so we know it is a camera.