The testimony of Warren E. Richey was taken at 1:30 p.m., on April 15,
1964, at the Post Office Building, Fort Worth, Tex., by Mr. Leon D.
Hubert, Jr., assistant counsel of the President’s Commission.
Mr. HUBERT. Mr. Richey, I have to read some formalities here. My name
is Leon Hubert. I am a member of the advisory staff of the General
Counsel of the President’s Commission. Under the provisions of
President Johnson’s Executive Order 11130, dated November 29, 1963,
the joint resolution of Congress No. 137, and the rules of procedure
adopted by the Commission, in conformance with that Executive order
and that joint resolution, I have been authorized to take a sworn
deposition from you, Mr. Richey.
I state to you now that the general nature of the Commission’s inquiry
is to ascertain, evaluate, and report upon the facts relative to the
assassination of President Kennedy and the subsequent violent death of
Lee Harvey Oswald. In particular, as to you, Mr. Richey, the nature of
the inquiry today is to determine what facts you know about the death
of Oswald and any other pertinent facts you may know about the general
inquiry and particularly whether a man known as Jack Ruby was seen by
you near the Dallas Police Department on November 24, 1963.
Now, Mr. Richey, I think you have appeared here by virtue of a letter
addressed to you by Mr. J. Lee Rankin, General Counsel, for the
President’s Commission. Did you receive that letter more than 3 days
ago?
Mr. RICHEY. I did.
Mr. HUBERT. All right, sir, would you please be sworn. Do you solemnly
swear that the testimony you are about to give in this matter will be
the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God?
Mr. RICHEY. I do.
Mr. HUBERT. Will you please state your name.
Mr. RICHEY. Warren E. Richey.
Mr. HUBERT. And your age?
Mr. RICHEY. 40.
Mr. HUBERT. Where do you live, sir?
Mr. RICHEY. 1600 Grantland Circle.
Mr. HUBERT. Fort Worth?
Mr. RICHEY. Yes, sir.
Mr. HUBERT. What is your occupation?
Mr. RICHEY. TV engineer.
Mr. HUBERT. What station?
Mr. RICHEY. WBAP-TV.
Mr. HUBERT. How long have you been so occupied?
Mr. RICHEY. Thirteen years.
Mr. HUBERT. What is the function in general of a TV engineer?
Mr. RICHEY. Well, it is all phases of operation of TV equipment.
Mr. HUBERT. Were you on duty with the remote truck of WBAP-TV in Dallas
on November 23 and 24?
Mr. RICHEY. Yes.
Mr. HUBERT. Where was the truck parked?
Mr. RICHEY. It was parked on Commerce Street facing east.
Mr. HUBERT. That is to say, facing what street? Pearl or North Express?
Mr. RICHEY. I don’t know really. It was on the left-hand side of the
street facing east, right in front of the city hall, or whatever it is.
Mr. HUBERT. Do you know where Harwood Street is?
Mr. RICHEY. Harwood? No, sir; I am not very familiar with the streets.
Mr. HUBERT. How far away from the corner was the back of your truck?
Mr. RICHEY. Oh, I would say 40 or 50 feet, approximately. I don’t know.
Mr. HUBERT. How much room was there between the front of the truck and
the street curbing forming part of the entrance or exit from the police
department into Commerce Street?
Mr. RICHEY. Oh, 15 or 20 feet, I imagine. It wasn’t too far.
Mr. HUBERT. Were you on duty on the 23d of November? That is to say,
Saturday, November 23, 1963?
Mr. RICHEY. Yes, sir.
Mr. HUBERT. Was the position of the truck that you have just described
different on the 24th than that which you have described?
Mr. RICHEY. No, sir; it was moved in and left.
Mr. HUBERT. Stayed there both days?
Mr. RICHEY. Yes, sir.
Mr. HUBERT. What hours were you on duty on the 23d? That is to say,
Saturday?
Mr. RICHEY. I don’t remember exactly what time we got over there. I
think we had a 6 o’clock call from here, from Fort Worth.
Mr. HUBERT. Six in the morning?
Mr. RICHEY. Yes. And I think we would have pictures by 8 o’clock, so I
would say we were there somewhere around 6:30, I imagine.
Mr. HUBERT. How long did you stay there?
Mr. RICHEY. It was till late that night. I am not sure of the time. I
believe it was around 8 or 9 o’clock, that night, but I am not sure.
Mr. HUBERT. When you went home, you left the equipment where it was?
Mr. RICHEY. That was on Saturday; yes, sir.
Mr. HUBERT. What time did you go back to work on Sunday, the 24th?
Mr. RICHEY. Sunday, I think I’m mixed up here. Sunday was the morning
we had a 6 o’clock call. Saturday morning is the day we moved in early.
We had a 1 o’clock call.
Mr. HUBERT. One o’clock?
Mr. RICHEY. Yes.
Mr. HUBERT. So you worked from 1 in the morning until about 8 Saturday
night?
Mr. RICHEY. It was rather not that Saturday night. We got back about
6:30 on Sunday morning. Saturday night is the night we stayed late.
Mr. HUBERT. Now prior to the 23d, or the 24th, did you know a man by
the name of Jack Ruby?
Mr. RICHEY. No; I never heard of him.
Mr. HUBERT. Never seen him before?
Mr. RICHEY. Never heard of him.
Mr. HUBERT. Did you see Jack Ruby or a man that you have now come to
believe was Jack Ruby or know was Jack Ruby on the 23d or the 24th?
Mr. RICHEY. Not on the 23d, but on the 24th, that would be Sunday, yes,
sir.
Mr. HUBERT. Now would you tell us about that.
Mr. RICHEY. Well, the man that I think was him and I am positive,
pretty sure in my own mind it was, he was just out on the street
alongside the truck in front of the building, the city court building.
Mr. HUBERT. Was he in the street in the sense that the place where the
automobiles were, or on the sidewalk alongside the building? On the
left side of the truck then?
Mr. RICHEY. Yes, sir.
Mr. HUBERT. Between the left side of the truck and the building?
Mr. RICHEY. Yes, sir.
Mr. HUBERT. Where were you?
Mr. RICHEY. I was on top of the truck with a camera.
Mr. HUBERT. Tell us what happened.
Mr. RICHEY. Well, the time that I saw him was, I would say, in the
neighborhood of 8 o’clock in the morning.
Mr. HUBERT. Is there any way you fix the time?
Mr. RICHEY. Not definitely, because we were busy lining up cameras, and
I didn’t really pay much attention to the time, but I would say it was
somewhere in that neighborhood.
Mr. HUBERT. What happened between the two of you?
Mr. RICHEY. Nothing, as far as I was concerned. I just saw him out
there.
Mr. HUBERT. Did you hear him say anything?
Mr. RICHEY. No, sir; I never did hear him say anything, because it was
cold and I had a coat pulled up over my ears.
Mr. HUBERT. How was he dressed?
Mr. RICHEY. He had on a sort of grayish topcoat and sort of a
gray-looking hat, and he didn’t look like, you know, he didn’t look
very neatly dressed.
Mr. HUBERT. Did he have a tie on?
Mr. RICHEY. I don’t recall.
Mr. HUBERT. Did he have an overcoat?
Mr. RICHEY. Topcoat; overcoat.
Mr. HUBERT. You think that was about 8 o’clock, in the morning?
Mr. RICHEY. The first time I saw him was somewhere in the neighborhood
of 8 o’clock. I am not positive.
Mr. HUBERT. Do you remember how long he stood around there?
Mr. RICHEY. Well, I saw him again sometime, I would say, around 10 or
a little before 10, and he was down past the ramp this time that goes
into the building--basement.
Mr. HUBERT. Do you mean he was down past in the sense that he had
progressed ahead of the front of your truck?
Mr. RICHEY. Yes, sir; he was down.
Mr. HUBERT. The Commerce Street entrance was between your truck and him?
Mr. RICHEY. Yes, sir.
Mr. HUBERT. Is there anything that drew your attention to him then?
Mr. RICHEY. No; not really.
Mr. HUBERT. Was he dressed in the same way?
Mr. RICHEY. At this time he was still dressed the same way. That was
the last time I saw him.
Mr. HUBERT. Those two occasions were roughly separated by about 2
hours, you think?
Mr. RICHEY. Somewhere around there; yes.
Mr. HUBERT. You didn’t know it was Jack Ruby?
Mr. RICHEY. No; I had no idea. I just thought he was a newsman, because
there were several out there walking around, and they moved the people
across the street, and he was one of the few that was left.
This person was one of the few that was left out there, and that is one
reason I thought he was a newsman, because they weren’t bothering the
newsmen.
Mr. HUBERT. Did you see him talk to any of the police that were
stationed along there?
Mr. RICHEY. No, sir; I didn’t see him talk to anyone.
Mr. HUBERT. You said that the second time was about 10 o’clock?
Mr. RICHEY. Yes, sir.
Mr. HUBERT. Is there any way in which you fix that time?
Mr. RICHEY. No, sir; not really. Well, it was about the time that we
thought they were to bring Oswald out. I think they told us it would
be about 10 o’clock. It was in that time period that we were sort of
looking for them to bring him out.
Mr. HUBERT. Judging from the time that Oswald was actually shot or
measuring from that time backward, could you tell us how long it was
from the time Oswald was shot, backward until you saw Ruby; or to put
it another way, how much time elapsed from the last time you saw Ruby
until Oswald was shot?
Mr. RICHEY. It was an hour or better.
Mr. HUBERT. Now can you tell us when was the very first time you
associated that man that you have just described as having seen at 8
o’clock and again at 10, or a little better, with Jack Ruby?
Mr. RICHEY. It was that night when I saw the rerun of the tape that was
made. And when I saw him, it looked like the same man that was dressed
differently, to me.
Mr. HUBERT. Now did the reruns show his face?
Mr. RICHEY. Not too good.
Mr. HUBERT. Did you ever see any mug shots?
Mr. RICHEY. I saw still shots.
Mr. HUBERT. When did you see those?
Mr. RICHEY. The next day, I believe; whenever the papers came out. It
was the pictures in the Dallas Herald, I believe, the big full-page
picture.
Mr. HUBERT. Do you know Ira N. Walker?
Mr. RICHEY. Yes, sir.
Mr. HUBERT. Was he on duty on the same truck with you that day?
Mr. RICHEY. Yes.