Mr. HUBERT. You got that, though, from newsmen, you think?
Mr. DECKER. Jim Kerr is the man that gave me the information.
Mr. HUBERT. You didn't talk to Fritz or Curry about that?
Mr. DECKER. No; but I checked it up at the city with somebody there,
and I don't know who it was now.
Mr. HUBERT. You, yourself, don't know who it was?
Mr. DECKER. I checked it on the telephone.
Mr. HUBERT. But you don't remember who you talked to?
Mr. DECKER. No; I don't remember who I talked to.
Mr. HUBERT. And it was confirmed that he would not be moved that night?
Mr. DECKER. It was confirmed that he wouldn't be moved that night and
that's all there was to it.
Mr. HUBERT. But you say your normal operations went on and I assume you
went to your home?
Mr. DECKER. Yes.
Mr. HUBERT. What time did you get to your office on Sunday, the 24th of
November?
Mr. DECKER. It was before 10--around 10 o'clock--wait a minute, let
me see if I can refresh my memory just a little bit here [examining
records in his possession]. I am considering that time of when I
was advised by the city that transfer might be made the first time,
if you care to incorporate this in there--the first time was 3:30
p.m. Saturday. At that time it was not at 10 o'clock. I have this
note--however, I arrived at my office early Sunday morning to recheck
all security measures that had been provided for the transfer of
Oswald, so what would be early for me, sir, I am a man that doesn't get
down to the office until 9 o'clock, and so if I arrived at 9 o'clock,
that would be early arrival for me, so you can place it near that
period.
Mr. HUBERT. Mr. Decker, I would like for you to carry on from there in
narrative form as to just all of the events that happened as they came
to your knowledge.
Mr. DECKER. You mean on that morning, on Sunday morning?
Mr. HUBERT. Yes, sir.
Mr. DECKER. For additional security, I placed all members of the
press--you see, I forgot to give you this a moment ago--on Saturday
afternoon and Saturday night when they learned that they were going to
transfer Oswald down there, the world's press moved from the 2000 block
on Main to the 500 block on Main. They were laying on my floor, they
were laying on the sidewalks----
Mr. HUBERT. You mean that was Saturday night?
Mr. DECKER. That was Saturday night, waiting for the Sunday morning
transfer. They just started moving out of the city hall and moved down
there--suddenly they were all over the streets, the sidewalks, the
floors, we had cameras running out our ears.
Mr. HUBERT. Television too?
Mr. DECKER. Yes; everything--live television moved in, and some
remained at the city, you see, and they set up down there a press--back
and forth--so, I heard that my halls were full and my carport was full,
so I moved them all out. I told them to come in the building, bring
their cameras with them, that they were going to utilize, and the
remainder not operate unless they were on the street--into a room--you
will have to see my building to realize it--it's where you walk in
the front, you see, the building is on Main and you come in the rear
from the carport. There is a room that runs down about 45 or 40 feet,
which is just an open hall space and a room where people stand who are
attempting to get information out of the jail or visit someone in the
jail, and I moved them into that and closed the doors on them.
Mr. HUBERT. In other words, you cleared them from where?
Mr. DECKER. I cleared them from the carport, where the man would be
brought in, and put them behind locked doors--I'm talking about steel
doors, now.
Mr. HUBERT. So, there was no news press or anybody else at the spot
where the prisoner would be brought?
Mr. DECKER. Well, there may have been some on the street--I'm not so
sure of that--but what I mean, I cleared the port and kept them in this
room where they could only see him as he came by one door and by the
second door, and they were away from him a distance then. He was to be
in the carport and they were 20 or 25 feet back in the building.
Mr. HUBERT. You say you had them under lock and key, but they could see
out--could they see through windows?
Mr. DECKER. No; bars, they were barred doors.
Mr. HUBERT. Oh, I see.
Mr. DECKER. They were barred doors.
Mr. HUBERT. And you put all the press people out there?
Mr. DECKER. Yes, sir.
Mr. HUBERT. Did you check to see whether they were press people or not?
Mr. DECKER. All in all--I was under the impression that they were--that
the majority of them were press people. I don't think there was anybody
in that room that wasn't.
Mr. HUBERT. I mean, did you have any system of checking?
Mr. DECKER. No; I didn't personally check and search each one of them
because they had so darn much equipment--everybody had equipment--I
don't care who they were, and I had my officers mix and mingle with
them and knew most of them. You see, we got pretty well acquainted with
that press for 2 or 3 days there because they were continually in our
hair, you see.
Mr. HUBERT. All right, sir; go ahead.
Mr. DECKER. At the outside drive, or at the entrance to my carport--I
moved a couple of my men--four or five of my special men there to be
sure that it was clear when the man did arrive. I had been notified by
Curry that maybe they would bring him down in an armored car and I had
some other rumors--they would be bringing him in a car, and about that
time on those live TV cameras in that room, the flash came that shots
had been fired, that there was a riot on in the basement of the city
hall, and if you will pardon my French and you don't need to put this
in here, young lady, "We caught lightening in the jug in that room,"
sir. There is no question. They tried to crawl the walls, they tried to
tear down those barred doors, they tried to do everything to get out of
there and it looked like I would never get them out of the damn room.
Mr. HUBERT. You mean the ones you had locked up?
Mr. DECKER. The press--they were locked up and couldn't get out of
there with all of their equipment, so as I say, "We caught lightening
in the jug." There wasn't any question. Finally, I got the doors
open and they tore out on Main Street and out on Houston Street and
commandeered cars with cameras hanging on their backs, some of their
own equipment, back up Main Street. I lost the majority of them then
for a few minutes.
Mr. HUBERT. Have you been given any warning by the FBI that they had
received a message, or had the message been received, I think, by your
office, that some attempt would be made by a group to injure Oswald?
Mr. DECKER. That's along 12:30 or 1 o'clock in the morning--that's when
that occurred. That's when I got on the telephone, you see, sir--I'm
sure that you don't understand this, but, you know, but no man--it
makes no difference how long he is an officer, ever imagined that he
could work on an investigation the size of this one and therefore, of
course, you realize that my officers and I'm sure some of the city
officers, myself included, were working under just a little bit of
pressure.
Anyway, this thing you are talking about came to me from my office man,
Sergeant McCoy, and he had received a call from the Federal Bureau of
Investigation, Milt Newsom, who stated to him that this boy was going
to be killed and that he had good information. He relayed that message
to me at my home, and I asked him had the city been notified and he
said, "Yes."
Mr. HUBERT. That was early in the morning, as I recall?
Mr. DECKER. It was 12:30; 12:30 in the night.
Mr. HUBERT. 12:30 on the morning of the 24th?
Mr. DECKER. Yes; and I called that office and I talked to a man whom I
believe to be Frazier, is that correct?