Mr. HUBERT. I show you a document marked previously for identification
as 5126, and ask you to identify that document.
Mr. HARDIN. This is a copy of the call sheet taken from the police
dispatcher’s tape.
Mr. HUBERT. Whose handwriting appears on that sheet?
Mr. HARDIN. This is my handwriting on this one.
Mr. HUBERT. As I see it, that is sort of a reconstruction, or amendment
of the first document, 5125, is that correct?
Mr. HARDIN. Yes, sir; it is.
Mr. HUBERT. There is some data missing from 5125, which is supplied on
5126, is that right?
Mr. HARDIN. Yes, sir.
Mr. HUBERT. And you supplied that missing information by inserting the
times, principally, in your own handwriting, which times you obtained
from the police tape relevant to this transaction?
Mr. HARDIN. Yes, sir.
Mr. HUBERT. All of that is in your handwriting?
Mr. HARDIN. Yes, sir; it is.
Mr. HUBERT. Do you state now for the record that those times entered on
Exhibit 5126, were accurate entries as you gathered them and found out
about them from the police log?
Mr. HARDIN. That’s right; yes, sir.
Mr. HUBERT. Now, I show you the document marked 5127, and ask you if
you can identify that.
Mr. HARDIN. That is the ambulance--the call ticket that was made on the
call.
Mr. HUBERT. Whose handwriting is that document written in?
Mr. HARDIN. That is my handwriting.
Mr. HUBERT. When was it written?
Mr. HARDIN. Written at the time of the call, or right after the call
was made.
Mr. HUBERT. And before you answered the call?
Mr. HARDIN. No, sir; after we had already answered the call and cleared.
Mr. HUBERT. In other words, after the person had been brought to the
hospital?
Mr. HARDIN. Yes, sir.
Mr. HUBERT. You then executed that form. All right. Now, tell us what
you know about what happened on November 24, 1963.
Mr. HARDIN. We were en route to the funeral home from veterans
hospital, and we were on the Stemmons Freeway, about a quarter of a
mile southwest of Industrial Boulevard, and we received a call that--at
11:21 over the police radio on signal 19, which is a shooting in the
basement of the city hall.
Mr. HUBERT. Did you have radio equipment in your car?
Mr. HARDIN. Yes, sir; we do. It is police radio equipment. Hooked up
directly with the police dispatcher. Just regular police equipment.
Mr. HUBERT. Is it 2-way?
Mr. HARDIN. Yes; 3-way.
Mr. HUBERT. Three-way?
Mr. HARDIN. Yes, sir.
Mr. HUBERT. What is the third way?
Mr. HARDIN. We can talk to the squads and they can talk back to us and
we can talk to the dispatcher and he can talk, and we can talk to the
squad and the dispatcher.
Mr. HUBERT. I see. It is customary for you to have that radio machine
open and operating when you are traveling?
Mr. HARDIN. Yes, sir; it is.
Mr. HUBERT. Well, tell us what you heard.
Mr. HARDIN. Well, a call came out on signal 19, in the basement.
Mr. HUBERT. Did you know what signal 19 meant?
Mr. HARDIN. Yes, sir; it means shooting.
Mr. HUBERT. How is it identified as being a shooting in the basement?
Mr. HARDIN. They gave us the call as signal 19, in the basement. Code
3, which means emergency, red lights and sirens, and at the time I
heard them dispatch three squads, I believe it was, to the basement on
this call, and at that time they dispatched us to the call and----
Mr. HUBERT. Who dispatched you?
Mr. HARDIN. This police dispatcher. They phoned--the dispatcher phoned
our office, O’Neal’s Funeral Home and he gave our dispatcher the call,
and our dispatcher in turn told the police dispatcher we were en route
back to the office from the veterans hospital and should be close to
that vicinity when the call came out, so, he, in turn gave it to us,
used our call number, which is 605, and gave it to us.
Mr. HUBERT. Called 605 and you knew that was you?
Mr. HARDIN. Yes, sir.
Mr. HUBERT. You also knew what the signal 19 was, and what the other
signal you mentioned----
Mr. HARDIN. Code 3.
Mr. HUBERT. You knew what that was?
Mr. HARDIN. Yes, sir.
Mr. HUBERT. And I think you have explained all these meanings of
signals in the record already?
Mr. HARDIN. Yes, sir.
Mr. HUBERT. What did you do then?
Mr. HARDIN. We, as I say, we were on the Freeway about a quarter of a
mile--I guess you would call it southwest--of Industrial and we went on
the freeway, from there to Ervay Street, north on Ervay to Main, and
then east on Main Street to city hall.
Mr. HUBERT. And you came into the city hall, in your ambulance?
Mr. HARDIN. Came off the Main Street entrance to the city hall.
Mr. HUBERT. Describe for the record what you saw and what you did?
Mr. HARDIN. Now remembering coming into the basement, there were police
officers standing there guarding the basement to see nobody got out,
and let us go into the basement, and when--and boy, the basement was
pretty crowded, a bunch of photographers and newsmen down there, and
they were moving this van up the Commerce Street side so we could
get in--I mean going up the ramp toward Commerce Street side, best I
remember, now, and pulled the ambulance up just south of the--well,
I don’t--jail office I guess it would be in there, and stopped the
ambulance, and when we got out I started around the back of the
ambulance to take the stretcher out, and there was a police officer, I
don’t remember who he was or anything, but he must have not recognized
me, kind of pushed me back into the crowd. I guess he thought I was
someone just coming through, so, just a few seconds until he did
recognize me and let me on through----
Mr. HUBERT. By the way, was there anyone with you then?
Mr. HARDIN. Yes, sir; my rider attendant, was with me.
Mr. HUBERT. Who was that?
Mr. HARDIN. Harold Wayne Wolfe.
Mr. HUBERT. Go ahead.
Mr. HARDIN. And I went around to the back of the ambulance, and my
rider opened the back door and took the stretcher out, and went into
the police or jail office, and we saw Oswald lying on the floor there,
and several men around him, and we picked him up and put him on the
stretcher and put him in the ambulance, and then there were two or
three men, I don’t remember now, got into the back of the ambulance, I
believe.
Mr. HUBERT. Do you know who they were?
Mr. HARDIN. I believe they were police officers and I believe one of
them was Leavelle.
Mr. HUBERT. Yes.
Mr. HARDIN. I am not sure. And then there was a doctor riding in the
seat in the back, there, and then my assistant was in the front seat.
Mr. HUBERT. How did you know the man was a doctor?
Mr. HARDIN. I have seen him at Parkland Hospital several times and city
hall, too, and recognized him as being a doctor.
Mr. HUBERT. Do you know his name?
Mr. HARDIN. Sir?
Mr. HUBERT. Do you know his name?
Mr. HARDIN. No, sir; I don’t know his name. He was in here just before
us.
Mr. HUBERT. Let the record show that Dr. Fred Bieberdorf was in the
hall with the witness, Mr. Hardin, and appeared in this room where this
deposition is being taken just before Mr. Hardin came in. All right.
Mr. HARDIN. And we got him in the car, or ambulance, they drove the
armored truck on out of the basement on the Commerce Street side, and
we went out behind the truck. Of course, the truck was there when we
left, and then went east on Commerce to the expressway, and north on
the expressway to Elm and then west on Elm to Harwood and north on
Harwood to Harry Hines, and north on Hines to Parkland.
Mr. HUBERT. And what happened when you got to Parkland?
Mr. HARDIN. When we got to Parkland we went in the emergency entrance,
pulled around there, backed up to the dock. Of course, it was pretty
crowded there, too. People had, I guess, saw the thing on television
and came out there to see us when we came in with him, and as soon as
we got--took him out of the car, took him into the emergency room--we
got to the hall of the emergency room itself, and they put him on one
of their tables from our carriage, and we cleared from the call, but
there was a few minutes before we cleared.
We were waiting in the hall because it was so crowded that we couldn’t
get through, so we waited in the hall and I imagine it was about an
hour, from the time we got the call before the time we cleared. I
believe it was an hour and 9 minutes, if I am not mistaken.
Mr. HUBERT. Would it help you if you looked at Exhibit No. 5127, to
determine the time of the call?