I pointed out to him that if he did not wish to discuss the case
with me, I would not force him to. There was no way that he would
be compelled to answer any of the questions that I asked him. But,
however, in our democratic society, the FBI cannot order anyone not to
discuss a case, and that such an order to him was not a valid order, if
he wanted to discuss the case with me--he could.
So he did. And he told me what I informed you--that the FBI told him
not to discuss the case, and that he mailed this rifle with the holes
already bored and with the telescopic sight already mounted to someone
named A. Hidell.
He also said that "No ammunition was purchased from me by Hidell at
that time or since."
Senator COOPER. Mr. Chairman, may I ask a question?
The CHAIRMAN. Yes, sir.
Senator COOPER. Did he name any person with the FBI who told him not to
discuss the case?
Mr. LANE. No; he did not.
Senator COOPER. Can you identify--did he identify him in any way?
Mr. LANE. He did not identify him. Earlier, perhaps before you arrived,
Senator, I made reference to a statement made by Mrs. Hill, who was
told by the Secret Service--I think perhaps you were here--that only
three shots were fired. And I asked her specifically if she could
identify that Secret Service agent, and she told me that she could not,
there was such tremendous confusion at that time, there were so many
agents of the FBI and Secret Service that she spoke to, that she did
not think she could. But possibly if she saw him, she might be able to
recognize him.
I didn't go any further into that question, however, with Mr. Klein. He
seemed very reluctant to discuss that entire area--to discuss anything,
but particularly that area.
I read in the Dallas Times Herald, on November 25, 1963, the statement
made by Mr. Wade, when asked what they had tying Oswald to the
"crime of the century" and his response was, according to the Dallas
Times Herald, "If I had to single out any one thing, it would be the
fingerprints on the rifle, and the book cartons which he used to prop
the weapon on."
On the same day the World Telegram and Sun reported "Federal
authorities have concluded that no readable print was found on the
murder weapon when it was flown to Washington for laboratory studies."
There were certain leaks that a fingerprint or a palm print was
discovered on the bolt of the rifle. If that is so, it would be
remarkable if it were a print belonging to anyone other than Captain
Fritz of the Homicide Squad in Dallas, because according to the
affidavit signed by Officer Weitzman, who discovered the weapon, and I
am quoting now from the affidavit on file--at that time on file with
the district attorney's office, "The time the rifle was found was 1:22
p.m. Captain Fritz took charge of the rifle, and ejected one live round
from the Chamber. I then went back to the office after this."
Now, you know if you have worked with that rifle that the--on most
Italian carbines that bolt is not worked too easily. One really has to
grab a hold of it and pull back. It would be unusual if a fingerprint
belonging to someone other than the person who did that survived.
The first statement made by Mr. Wade in reference to the taxi driver
who he alleged--he, Wade, alleged took Oswald generally from this
scene, indicated that the driver's name was Daryl Click.
Now, that statement was not made in the first hours of the arrest. That
statement was not made until after Chief Curry had announced to the
press in Dallas, on that day, November 24th that the case was closed,
there would be no further investigation--Oswald was the assassin, he
had acted alone, he was then dead. And as a result of the change in
policy, to reopen the case and have Mr. Wade assume a position in front
of the radio and television microphones and cameras of the Nation, on
that evening November 24, Mr. Wade then presented what he said was the
evidence "for you piece by piece." And part of the evidence which he
had secured was the proof that a taxi driver named Daryl Click drove
Oswald roughly from the scene to his home, to Oswald's home.
When I was in Dallas--I suppose this was on January 2d, my first trip
there in reference to this matter--I spoke with a Mr. Roseboro of the
Teamsters Union--they have organized the taxi drivers in Dallas--and
asked him if he knew--if he could give me any information about a Daryl
Click. He said he did not have the name in his files, but Texas being a
right-to-work law State, it is possible, he said, that Mr. Click was a
driver but not a member of that union. He referred me to the personnel
department of the City Transportation Co., which he told me was the one
company monopoly running all the taxis in Dallas.
I spoke with the City Transportation Co. personnel office, Mr. Pott, as
I recalled, who checked the records, and indicated to me that there was
no Daryl Click who drove a taxi in Dallas.
Some time after Mr. Wade stated that Daryl Click was the taxi driver,
he then stated that a person by the name of William Whaley was the taxi
driver who took Oswald from the scene after he left the bus to his home.
It is therefore alleged by the prosecution that Oswald, after firing
upon the Presidential limousine, walked the entire floor from the front
of the Book Depository Building to the rear of the warehouse, almost
to the extreme rear, where he hid the rifle, where it was found, and
then took the stairs at the rear of the Book Depository Building and
walked down four flights, until he arrived at the second floor, and
then he walked to the Coca-Cola machine, which was at the front of the
building, meaning he crossed the entire warehouse floor again, and
he purchased a Coca-Cola, and was sipping it when a police officer
arrived with a gun drawn, questioned him briefly. Mr. Truly explained
to the officer that Oswald worked there. And eventually Oswald left the
building, boarded a bus, then walked, after leaving the bus--walked two
blocks and entered Mr. Whaley's taxi, at exactly 12:30, according to
Mr. Whaley. The shots that killed the President were fired at 12:31.
Now, there is on file in the district attorney's office--I assume you
have the original or copies of it--a report of a paraffin test taken
of Oswald, of both his hands and his face. The test proved, according
to Mr. Curry, and the statement that he made on Saturday, November
23, to the press that Oswald had fired the murder weapon. However, a
reading of the test indicates that one could come to a very different
conclusion.
The test in reference to the face proved negative, indicating that
Oswald had not fired a rifle on November 22, 1963--although the test on
the hands showed positive--indicating, according to the person who did
the analysis, the kinds of patterns consistent with one having fired
a revolver. That was the statement on the test taken and conducted by
a Louis L. Anderson, on November 23, 1963, by the Dallas City County
Crime Investigation Laboratory.
Now, it has, of course, been alleged that after Oswald shot the
President and took a bus and a taxi, and went home and got a jacket,
he then shot and killed Officer Tippit. The affidavit in the district
attorney's office indicates that a person saw a stopped police car,
walked up to the police car, leaned on it with his arms on the window,
or what would be a windowsill or window ledge of the automobile, and
then stepped back a step or two, the officer came out, and this person
shot Officer Tippit to death.
The affidavit is peculiarly sparse in reference to the description of
the assailant, the man who killed Tippit, by an eyewitness who said she
was just 50 feet away.
Her description of this person is found in two different portions of
the affidavit--he was young, white, male, and that is the entire
description present in the affidavit at that time.
I spoke with the deponent, the eyewitness, Helen Louise Markham,
and Mrs. Markham told me--Miss or Mrs., I didn't ask her if she was
married--told me that she was a hundred feet away from the police
car, not the 50 feet which appears in the affidavit. She gave to me
a more detailed description of the man who she said shot Officer
Tippit. She said he was short, a little on the heavy side, and his
hair was somewhat bushy. I think it is fair to state that an accurate
description of Oswald would be average height, quite slender, with thin
and receding hair.
Helen Markham said to me that she was taken to the police station on
that same day, that she was very upset, she of course had never seen
anyone killed in front of her eyes before, and that in the police
station she identified Oswald as the person who had shot Officer Tippit
in the lineup, including three other persons. She said no one pointed
Oswald out to her--she was just shown four people, and she picked
Oswald.
She said--when I asked her how she could identify him--she indicated
she was able to identify him because of his clothing, a gray jacket and
dark trousers. And this was the basis for her identification--although
Oswald physically does not meet the description which she indicated.
Representative FORD. When did you have this conversation with the
deponent?
Mr. LANE. Within the last 5 days.
Representative FORD. Some time in late February 1964?
Mr. LANE. Or perhaps even early March, yes, sir.
Now, I inquired--I told her that I was coming here today, and that I
was completing my investigation as Oswald's lawyer, and asked her if
she would discuss the matter with me, and she said she would.
I asked her if anyone had asked her not to discuss this matter with me.
At first she seemed reluctant, and she said she was reluctant because
I called her at her place of employment, the Eat Well Cafe in Dallas.
I tried her at home many times before then, but her phone was always
busy. I believe it is a phone which is not her personal one, but is a
common phone shared by others in the building where she resides.
I apologized for calling her at her place of employment. And she seemed
reluctant to talk to me. I asked if anyone had asked her not to talk
about this case with anyone. She said yes, she had been told by the
FBI, by Secret Service agents, and by Dallas police, all three groups,
not to discuss anything in relation to this case, and that by and large
she had not.
I told her that somewhere it occurred to me that I had seen an article
in a newspaper in which she described the assailant of Oswald as short,
stocky, and with bushy hair--I'm sorry, the assailant of Tippit--as
being short, stocky, with bushy hair. And she said she did talk to a
reporter, she thinks, for one of the Dallas newspapers, the Dallas
Times-Herald or the Dallas Morning News--but that is the only time she
talked to anybody.
I would like to call to the Commission's attention the entire brief
narrative of the entire case, as presented by the district attorney's
office at this point, or at least on the 24th, because it seems to me
to be so full of incredible happenings, that it would be very difficult
to submit such a story to a jury by a prosecution generally.
If everything that the prosecution in this case says is true, one must
conclude that Oswald behaved in a very, very unusual manner from the
beginning to the end.
He decided on Thursday, November 21, that he was going to assassinate
the President, and so he decided to go back to Irving, Tex., to secure
a rifle there, in order to carry out that purpose. He had on his person
some $13 when arrested, and almost $150 in cash in the top drawer
of his dresser--so we can assume that on Thursday, the 21st, he had
roughly that amount of money present.
One can purchase a rifle for less than $13 in many stores in Dallas.
There is no question about that. By using a small portion of that $150,
he could have purchased a rifle absolutely superior to the Italian
carbine at home in Irving in many respects. And there are gun magazines
which have had editorials dwelling on this question, saying that if
Oswald did it with this weapon, and they do not move into the question
of whether or not he did, it was an absolute miracle, because no one
who knew anything about rifles would have chosen such a decrepit,
worthless rifle, as this Italian carbine, manufactured in 1938, for
which there is such pure ammunition. There are a series, I believe, of
editorials in gun magazines proving that Oswald, I think, as a matter
of pride, from a sportsman's viewpoint--that Oswald was in no way
associated with weapons and did not belong in that category, because he
could not have chosen such a weapon.
Representative FORD. Could you give us the citations of one of these
magazines?
Mr. LANE. Yes. One is called Gun Magazine. I do not recall the names.
But that is one of them. I am sure there was such an editorial in that
one. I will get the other one and mail those to you also.
But I think there would have to be a more compelling reason for Oswald
not to go home and get that particular inferior rifle if he decided on
Thursday to kill the President. That was the only rifle in the whole
world probably that could be traced to him. One can purchase a rifle
in almost any community in this country, certainly in Dallas, without
any notoriety attaching to it, without giving one's name or address, or
having a serial number attached to a receipt kept by a store indicating
who owns that particular rifle.
But here we have Oswald going home to get an inferior rifle, which
rifle is the only rifle in the whole world which can be traced to him,
which rifle he is going to leave behind as a calling card after the
assassination is complete.
And so he goes home to Irving, Tex., and he gets this rifle, and
he wraps it up in paper, we are told, and brings it in to the Book
Depository Building.
Now, the rifle can be broken down, I believe, from examining other
Italian carbines. But it would be not much shorter if it was broken
down--perhaps 6 or 7 inches shorter. Evidently, though, he did not do
that.
So he took this rifle into the book depository building, which I
suggest, gentlemen, is a most remarkable thing. This was going to be
the greatest series of precautions in the history of the United States
to protect an American President. As we know now, and suspected then,
with very good reason, because of the nature of what had gone before,
with reference to public officials in Dallas--and here we have a
man who has defected to the Soviet Union, who has married a Russian
national, active on behalf of the Fair Play for Cuba Committee, we
see a discharge less than honorable from the U.S. Marine Corps, who
was working in the building exactly on the Presidential route. Not
only is it on the Presidential route, but it is the building where the
automobile is going to have to clearly slow down because of the sharp
turn, sharp left turn, made right in front of the building.
And despite all of these precautions--and I have been informed that
there were serious precautions taken in Dallas on that day by the
Dallas police and by others, and that persons who did no more publicly,
who did no more ever politically than to publicly speak in favor of
school integration, were followed that day as potential assassins in
Dallas.
Nevertheless, Oswald, with that background, is permitted to walk into
the Book Depository Building, directly on the Presidential route,
carrying with him in his hand a full rifle.
Mr. RANKIN. Can you tell us the information on which you base this,
about anyone who merely spoke about school integration?
Mr. LANE. Yes. A reporter for the Dallas Morning News told me that,
told me he was absolutely certain that was so. But before revealing
his name, I am going to have to call him and indicate I am going to do
that. I will be happy to do that. I am glad you are interested in that
matter, because I think it is a most important one.
I suggest that the Federal Bureau of Investigation knew that Oswald
worked at the Texas Book Depository Building, which was on the
Presidential route. An FBI agent by the name of Hosty visited the home
of the Paines in Irving, Tex., sometime during September and October.
He visited that home on more than one occasion. Each of the at least
two times that he was there, possibly three but I am not certain--but
I was told he was there two times--I know I was told by Mrs. Paine
in the presence of her husband, Michael Paine, that Agent Hosty was
there at least on two occasions--each time he was there he asked
where Oswald was. Mrs. Paine explained to Agent Hosty, she told me,
that Oswald lived there only on weekends, and that during the week
Agent Hosty could find him at his room in Dallas, where he stayed
during the week, or during the daytime could find him at the Texas Book
Depository Building, where he was an employee. Nevertheless--and that
Oswald would not be found in Irving, Tex. at the Paine's home during
the week. Nevertheless, Agent Hosty returned again at least one more
time to the Paine home in Irving, during the week, during the day,
I believe--certainly during the week--and again asked about Oswald,
and again Mrs. Paine told him that he worked at the Book Depository
Building, he would not be there, she said, "As we told you last time
he won't be here during the week. During the daytime during the week
you can find him at his job at the Book Depository Building, and during
the nighttime during the week you can find him at his rooming house in
Dallas."
Mr. RANKIN. Did she tell you whether she told him where the rooming
house was?
Mr. LANE. I do not believe I asked her that question, and I don't
believe she mentioned that.
Well, to go back to the prosecution narrative, or narrative according
to the facts presented by the prosecution, Oswald was on the sixth
floor, fired at the Presidential limousine, not as the automobile
approached the building, when the automobile came extremely close to
the building, so close that possibly even with that weapon one could
have shot occupants of the automobile from that window--but it is
alleged that Oswald never shot--it is now alleged that Oswald never
shot when the automobile was right outside of the building, but fired
when the automobile was some 75 yards beyond the building, when the
first shot was fired.
Then Oswald walked the entire floor--or ran--the entire floor of the
warehouse to the rear of the building, placing the rifle in between
some boxes, but visible, so that one can see it when one arrives on
the floor; went to the rear stairs, walked down the four flights to
the second floor, then to the front of the building again, where he
purchased a Coca-Cola--made no effort to leave the building at that
time, evidently was going to wait until the building was surrounded by
police before leaving.
He stayed at the top of the stairs near the Coke machine long enough so
that a police officer could come up and place a pistol near him, and
Roy Truly, the director, then intervened indicating that Mr. Oswald was
employed at the building at that time, and the officer then went on to
do other things in the building, including later on, I believe, to find
the rifle, if it was the same officer.
Mr. Truly stated that Oswald was quite calm when the officer approached
him on the stairs. He said although he did seem a little concerned
about that pistol being stuck at him--but otherwise he seemed quite
calm at that time.