Sergeant STEELE. The municipal building. The nearest door to the
municipal building.
Mr. HUBERT. Did you place any on the Main Street door to the municipal
building?
Sergeant STEELE. No, sir; I never got to the Main Street.
Mr. HUBERT. Did you place any officers to direct traffic at the
intersection of Main and Pearl, or to control traffic?
Sergeant STEELE. Well, we started--can I go on?
Mr. HUBERT. Yes; surely.
Sergeant STEELE. Well, we'll get to that. After I got these reserve
people put out, as I say, I got down--went down in the basement and
talked to the captain for a few minutes. And I stood around and things
were kind of at a standstill there. There was lots of television and
camera people in there, and about 10:30, I guess, the captain told
Sergeant Dean, who related to myself and Sergeant Putnam that they
would bring this armored car in and the armored car was going to go
down Main Street to the county jail, and he said to get all the regular
patrol officers, all the regular officers and assign them to traffic
intersections, traffic corners.
Mr. HUBERT. On what street?
Sergeant STEELE. On Main Street, and I just helped Sergeant Dean make
the assignments. I don't recall whether I specifically assigned a man
to Main and Pearl, but then the captain came along a few minutes later
and said it had been changed, that we were going to run the armored
car down Elm Street, so, whatever men we may have assigned to Main
and Pearl, that is where he would have been, and he was taken off the
assignment. They never went to it.
Mr. HUBERT. Okay. So, as far as you know there were no police officers
of any sort, reserve or regular directing traffic or controlling it in
any way on the corner of Main and Pearl?
Sergeant STEELE. To the best of my knowledge, there was no regular
officer.
Mr. HUBERT. What about a reserve officer?
Sergeant STEELE. I couldn't say that.
Mr. HUBERT. In any case, the original plan to assign one to Pearl and
Main, wasn't carried out because of the change in plans, and that man,
whoever he was, went to Pearl and Elm?
Sergeant STEELE. Yes. I think that it was--let's see. I believe it was
one of my men from Oak Cliff, but I'm not sure, but he never did get to
it.
Mr. HUBERT. Yes.
Sergeant STEELE. We didn't even leave the basement.
Mr. HUBERT. Where were you when the shot was fired?
Sergeant STEELE. I was at the county jail.
Mr. HUBERT. I mean in the basement?
Sergeant STEELE. No; I had left.
Mr. HUBERT. Oh, you had left, so, you weren't in this building at all?
Sergeant STEELE. I left about 15 minutes before it occurred. See, we
didn't have enough officers, enough radio patrolmen to fill all the
corners to put a man at each intersection on Elm Street, so, I went to
the county to contact the traffic people and see if I could get three
men from them, that is how many we needed.
Mr. HUBERT. Do you know a man by the name of Ralph Paul that lives in
Arlington?
Sergeant STEELE. No.
Mr. HUBERT. Are you familiar with a place called "The Bull Pen" there?
Sergeant STEELE. Yes.
Mr. HUBERT. What is "The Bull Pen"?
Sergeant STEELE. It is a barbecue place, sell beer.
Mr. HUBERT. Do you know the manager of it?
Sergeant STEELE. No, no; I can't recall being in that place more than
once or twice.
Mr. HUBERT. And the name Ralph Paul doesn't mean anything to you?
Sergeant STEELE. No, sir.
Mr. HUBERT. Do you know Ruby?
Sergeant STEELE. Yes.
Mr. HUBERT. How well do you know him?
Sergeant STEELE. Through contacts, various contacts when I was a
patrolman.
Mr. HUBERT. How long had you known him?
Sergeant STEELE. Well, I had actually first met him, or heard of, or
saw Jack Ruby, I guess, in 1955, about 8 years.
Mr. HUBERT. Would you recognize him by sight, do you think, if you saw
him?
Sergeant STEELE. Yes; I feel like I would, although, it has been
several years since I have seen him in person.
Mr. HUBERT. Did you have occasion to observe the number of people who
were standing in the Main Street ramp part of the basement just at the
entrance of the jail corridor? Do you know what I mean? In other words,
as you were standing in the basement looking toward Main Street where
the jail corridor intersects the ramp----