He said, "He is in our Communist file. We knew he was here in Dallas."
At that time Hosty and I started walking off, and Brian, as well as
I recall, sort of stayed back, and as we got onto the elevator or
just prior to getting on the elevator Mr. Hosty related that they had
information that this man was capable of this, and at this I blew up at
him, and I said, "Jim"----
Mr. RANKIN. What did he say in regard to his being capable?
Mr. REVILL. This was it. They had--"We had information that this man
was capable"----
Mr. RANKIN. Of what?
Mr. REVILL. Of committing this assassination. This is what I understood
him to say.
Mr. RANKIN. Are those his exact words?
Mr. REVILL. As well as I recall. Give him the benefit of the doubt; I
might have misunderstood him. But I don't believe I did, because the
part about him being in Dallas, and the fact that he was a suspected
Communist, I understand by the rules of the Attorney General they
cannot tell us this, but the information about him being capable,
I felt that we had taken a part in the security measures for Mr.
Kennedy, and if such, if such information was available to another law
enforcement agency, I felt they should have made it known to all of us,
and I asked Hosty where he was going at that time. By this time we were
on the elevator and he said he was going up to homicide and robbery to
tell Captain Fritz the same thing. I said, "Do you know Captain Fritz?"
and he said he had never met him. I said, "All right, I will take you
up and introduce you to Captain Fritz." So Detective Brian and I and
Hosty went to the third floor of the city hall and went to Captain
Fritz' office, the homicide and robbery bureau. We didn't see Captain
Fritz, he may or may not have been there. His office door was closed.
Mr. DULLES. What time of the day, could you give me the approximate
time?
Mr. REVILL. Between 2:30 and 3 o'clock, and I have the reason for
saying this because of the typing of this report here. Our secretary
got off at 4 o'clock.
Mr. DULLES. And Chief Curry had not yet returned, had he?
Mr. REVILL. I don't know where he was.
Mr. DULLES. You didn't know about that?
Mr. REVILL. No, sir.
Mr. RANKIN. Did you say anything about this to Captain Fritz?
Mr. REVILL. I did not talk to Captain Fritz, as I said, I didn't see
him. I introduced Mr. Hosty to Lieutenant Ted Wells, who is one of
the lieutenants assigned to the homicide and robbery bureau and also
present at that time was another special agent, Mr. Bookhout, and
Hosty, there was confusion within this office, so Brian and I, after
introducing Mr. Hosty to Wells, left and went back to the special
service bureau office.
Mr. RANKIN. And you didn't say anything to the inspector about it?
Mr. REVILL. The inspector?
Mr. RANKIN. Lieutenant Wells.
Mr. REVILL. No, sir; I did not.
Mr. RANKIN. You didn't tell him this important information?
Mr. REVILL. Hosty was going up to tell him the same thing.
Mr. RANKIN. Did he tell you that?
Mr. REVILL. Yes, sir; he told me that.
Mr. RANKIN. And Hosty told you then that he was going up to tell him
that they knew he was capable of being the assassin?
Mr. REVILL. Yes, sir; being at that time I was out of touch with
everything, being in the building, I had put no connection between the
shooting of Tippit and the President.
Mr. RANKIN. Did you know that Oswald had been arrested?
Mr. REVILL. No, sir; at that time I did not.
Mr. RANKIN. You just knew about the someone by the name of Lee, didn't
you?
Mr. REVILL. Yes, sir; Lee. And this was told to me by a colored
employee of the School Book Depository. Myself and Lieutenant Frank
Dyson took charge of the search of the building and we must have had
75 or 80 men in the building assisting in this search. I talked to a
Negro----
Mr. DULLES. Were you in charge of that?
Mr. REVILL. Yes, sir; I was in charge of that phase of the search.
I talked to a Negro by the name of Givens, and we had handled this
person in the past for marijuana violations and I recognized him and in
talking to him I asked him if he had been on the sixth floor, and as
well as I recall, and Detective Brian was present at this same time he
said, yes, that he had observed Mr. Lee, over by this window. Well,
I asked him who Mr. Lee was, he said, "It is a white boy." He didn't
know his full name. So, I turned this Givens individual over to one
of our Negro detectives and told him to take him to Captain Fritz for
interrogation, and while going to the city hall, or the police station
I passed this detective and Givens, and they came into the homicide
and robbery bureau shortly after Hosty and I did, so I am sure Captain
Fritz did talk to Mr. Givens.
Mr. RANKIN. When did you learn that Oswald had been arrested?
Mr. REVILL. I really don't know, sir. Because time, we were all shocked
that this thing had happened in our city and I personally felt that
maybe a sense of responsibility, maybe we could have done more to
prevent this thing. I just don't know when I heard that he had been
arrested.
Mr. RANKIN. Did you know it by the time you went to Lieutenant Wells'
office?
Mr. REVILL. No, sir; I did not. He may have been in the office at that
time.
Mr. RANKIN. You didn't know that Oswald was already in the police
department?
Mr. REVILL. No, sir; I did not. I had been in this building since word
came of the shots being fired until about 2:30, 2:35, and at that time
I decided that my unit could possibly do more at our office where we
kept all of our files, cataloging these people, the suspects that were
running through my mind at that time. So, I was, I put out a call for
all of the intelligence unit personnel to meet me at the office and I
got no reply to this because they were all up in the special service
bureau. We had been assigned to the Trade Mart, and two or three of my
officers had taken into custody four or five of these picket carriers,
and we did this more for protection than anything else because after
the word came of the assassination, well, I am afraid they would have
been mobbed, and they were all up in the special service bureau booking
these prisoners at the time, and I decided we would stop by the special
service bureau office, to report back to my captain and see if there
was something we could do there. And as I pulled into the basement this
conversation took place with Mr. Hosty.
Mr. RANKIN. And the particular words about Oswald being capable of
being an assassin those were told you by Agent Hosty in the elevator?
Mr. REVILL. No, sir; either just outside the elevator and as we got on.
He never mentioned this again because I guess I lost my temper at him
for withholding this type of information.
Mr. RANKIN. I see. Did you do anything about losing your temper, did
you say anything?
Mr. REVILL. No; Jim Hosty and I are friends, and this has hurt me that
I have involved Hosty into this thing, because he is a good agent, he
is one of the agents there that we can work with; that has been most
cooperative in the past, and I worked with him just like he is one of
us.
Mr. RANKIN. You went to the third floor on the elevator?
Mr. REVILL. Yes, sir.
Mr. RANKIN. Who else went with you?
Mr. REVILL. Detective Brian and Hosty, the elevator was--had several
people on it. I don't recall who they were.
Mr. RANKIN. Was Detective Brian on that elevator?
Mr. REVILL. Yes, sir; he was.
Mr. RANKIN. At that same time?
Mr. REVILL. He went to the third floor with me.
Mr. RANKIN. And you are sure Agent Hosty was on the elevator with you?
Mr. REVILL. Yes, sir; he was.
Mr. RANKIN. And you are sure you were on the elevator?
Mr. REVILL. Yes, sir.
Mr. RANKIN. Now, will you tell us exactly what you said to Hosty and
also what he said to you?
Mr. REVILL. After hearing about the information that they were
purported to have had----
Mr. RANKIN. Have you told us all the information that Hosty told you?
Mr. REVILL. As well as I recall; yes, sir.
Mr. RANKIN. Now, did you say anything to him about it?
Mr. REVILL. Yes, sir.
Mr. RANKIN. What?
Mr. REVILL. I asked him why he had not told us this, and the best, my
recollection is that he said he couldn't. Now, what he meant by that I
don't know. Because in the past our relations had been such that this
type of information, it surprised me they had not, if they had such
information he had not brought it or hadn't made it available to us.
Mr. RANKIN. And you are certain you went up there on the elevator
together?
Mr. REVILL. Yes, sir; took him to the third floor and introduced him to
Lieutenant Wells.
Mr. RANKIN. Are you sure you didn't go up the stairs together.
Mr. REVILL. No, sir; we went to the third floor on the elevator.
Mr. RANKIN. You are positive?
Mr. REVILL. Yes, sir; because we caught the elevator in the basement,
and there would have been no reason to walk up the stairs.
Mr. RANKIN. If Agent Hosty said you went up the stairs rapidly
together, that would be untrue?
Mr. REVILL. Yes, sir; this would be untrue.
Mr. DULLES. Did you go in that same driveway that the car went in that
was to take Oswald out?
Mr. REVILL. Yes, sir.
Mr. DULLES. That driveway; and you took that elevator right to the left
as you went in there?
Mr. REVILL. No, sir; we go straight into the doors into the elevator
that goes up to the third floor.
Mr. DULLES. Yes.
Mr. REVILL. Third and fourth floor.
Representative FORD. May I ask a question to reconstruct this a bit?
Both Detective Brian and yourself came in one car?
Mr. REVILL. Yes, sir.
Representative FORD. And you had two other officers with you?
Mr. REVILL. Yes, sir.
Representative FORD. More or less the same time Mr. Hosty came in?
Mr. REVILL. We followed Mr. Hosty into the basement.
Mr. DULLES. Each in a car?
Mr. REVILL. Yes, sir; he was in a car and we were in mine.
Representative FORD. Your first contact with Mr. Hosty was in the
basement there?
Mr. REVILL. Yes, sir.
Representative FORD. What did he say there?
Mr. REVILL. He come running up to me, and he said, "Jack, a Communist
killed President Kennedy." I said, "What? What are you talking about?"
He said, "Lee Harvey Oswald killed President Kennedy," and at that I
said "Who is Lee Harvey Oswald?" And then he told me about him having
him in their security files, and then that, "We had information that he
was capable of this." By "we" I assumed he meant the Federal Bureau of
Investigation.
Representative FORD. Then Brian, Hosty, and yourself walked to the
elevator?
Mr. REVILL. Yes, sir.
Representative FORD. And the three of you took the elevator up to the
third floor?
Mr. REVILL. Yes, sir.
Mr. DULLES. It is about 10 feet as I remember it.
Mr. REVILL. No, sir; it is more than that.
Mr. DULLES. It is a different elevator. It is not the one that take
prisoners down?
Mr. REVILL. No, sir; it is the swinging doors, you go through the
swinging doors.
Mr. DULLES. It is another elevator?
Mr. REVILL. Yes, sir.
Representative FORD. At what point in the sequence did you blow up, as
you say?