Mr. COUCH. That would be the far east.
Mr. BELIN. The far east of what side of the building?
Mr. COUCH. The south side of the building.
Mr. BELIN. Do you remember whether or not that window at which you saw
the rifle, you say, being withdrawn--first of all, could you tell it
was a rifle?
Mr. COUCH. Yes, I'd say you could. Uh--if a person was just standing on
the--as much as I saw, if the factors that did happen, did not happen,
you might not say that it was a rifle. In other words, if you just saw
an object being pulled back into a window, you wouldn't think anything
of it. But with the excitement intense right after that third shot and
what Bob yelled, my impression was that it was a rifle.
Mr. BELIN. Did you see anything more than a steel barrel of a rifle?
Mr. COUCH. No.
Mr. BELIN. Could you tell whether or not the rifle had any telescopic
sight on it?
Mr. COUCH. No.
Mr. BELIN. Did you see any of the stock of the rifle?
Mr. COUCH. No.
Mr. BELIN. Did you see any person pulling the rifle?
Mr. COUCH. No.
Mr. BELIN. Do you remember whether or not, if you can remember, the
window was open or halfway open or what?
Mr. COUCH. It was open. To say that it was half or three-quarters open,
I wouldn't say. My impression was that it was all the way open--but
that was an impression.
Mr. BELIN. Did you see anything else in the window that you
remember--any boxes or anything like that?
Mr. COUCH. No; I didn't.
Mr. BELIN. You didn't notice whether there was or was not--or do you
definitely remember that you did not notice any?
Mr. COUCH. No; I didn't notice anything.
Mr. BELIN. Did you see any other people in any other windows in the
building?
Mr. COUCH. Yes; I recall seeing--uh--some people standing in some of
the other windows--about, roughly, third or fourth floor in the middle
of the south side. I recall one--it looked like a Negro boy with a
white T-shirt leaning out one of those windows looking up--up to the
windows up above him.
Mr. BELIN. Uh-huh. Is there anything else you can remember about the
building?
Mr. COUCH. No; that's just about the only impression I had at the
moment.
Mr. BELIN. Now, you related what you heard Bob Jackson say. Did anyone
else say anything in the car?
Mr. COUCH. No one else said anything, that I recall, about a rifle, or
anything.
Mr. BELIN. Where was the car when you saw this rifle being withdrawn?
Mr. COUCH. I'd say about 25 feet before we made the turn onto Elm. Our
car was facing the south side of the building.
Mr. BELIN. All right. Then what happened after Bob Jackson made his
exclamation and you saw what you just related?
Mr. COUCH. Well, I picked up my camera. As I recall, I had it in my
hand, but it was down leaning against my legs. And I picked it up and
made a quick glance at a setting and raised it to my eye. And--uh--you
can see from my film that we're just turning the corner. We start
the turn and we turn the corner, and you can see people running. As
I recall, there's a quick glance at the front entrance of the Texas
Depository Book Building. You can see people running and you can see
about the first three cars, maybe four, in front of me as we complete
the turn.
And then I took pictures of--uh--a few people on my left and a group,
or a sweeping, of the crowd on my right standing on the corner.
Mr. BELIN. Did you take any pictures of the School Book Depository
Building itself?
Mr. COUCH. Not of the south side at that moment.
After we went, say, 50 to 75 feet on down Elm, uh--we began to hang
on because the driver picked up speed. We got down under the--I think
there's three trestles there, three crossings underneath the--uh--at
the very bottom of Elm Street----
Mr. BELIN. Is that what they call the triple-underpass?
Mr. COUCH. Right.
And--uh--I think, as I recall, right after we'd made the turn on Elm,
one or two of the fellows jumped out. But after we got all the way down
underneath the three trestles we finally persuaded the driver--who
wasn't too anxious to stop--to stop and--uh--we all jumped out.
And I ran, I guess it was about 75 yards or a little more back up to
the School Depository Building and took some sweeping pictures of the
crowd standing around. I didn't stay there long.
Mr. BELIN. Did you take any pictures of the Depository Building
entrance?