Mr. WADE. No; I will tell you what happened then.
Mr. RANKIN. Yes, sir.
Mr. WADE. As we walked out of the thing they started yelling, I started
home, and they started yelling they wanted to see Oswald, the press.
And Perry said that he had put him in the showup room downstairs. Of
course, they were yelling all over the world they wanted a picture of
Oswald. And I don't know the mob and everybody ended up in the showup
room. It is three floors below there.
Mr. RANKIN. Still Friday night?
Mr. WADE. Yes, sir.
Mr. RANKIN. About what time?
Mr. WADE. I would say around midnight roughly. It would--it could be
either way an hour because I went down there around 11 o'clock, 10:30
or 11, some roughly and I don't know what the time element was but I
would say around midnight.
So, they started interviewing Fritz and Curry, and I started to leave
and Fritz said, "Well, we will get--" either Fritz or Curry said, "We
will show him up down there," he said, "This is Mr. Wade, the district
attorney."
He kind of introduced me to the press. I didn't say anything at that
time but down in the basement they started to put Oswald--I went down
there with them. They started to put Oswald in the lineup down there.
Mr. RANKIN. Will you describe that briefly to the Commission?
Mr. WADE. Well, I don't know whether you have seen--it is a room larger
than this and you have a glass here on this side. Behind that glass
they have a place out here where they walk prisoners in through there
and you can see through this side but you can't see through that side.
I think that is the way it is set up.
Senator COOPER. You mean observers can see?
Mr. WADE. Observers can see, but the defendants or suspects can't see
through or at least can't identify.
Mr. RANKIN. Do you remember who else besides Lee Harvey Oswald was in
the showup?
Mr. WADE. No; I am just telling you about the showup room. Now, they
had had showups on him but I wasn't there at any of those, but this
was, the purpose of this, was to let the press see Oswald, if I
understand it.
And the police were yelling, "Everybody wants to see him, wants a
picture of him." They started in the screened-in portion and a howl
went up that you can't take a picture through that screen. Then they
had a conference with, among some of them, and the next thing I knew
I was just sitting there upon a little, I guess, elevated, you might
say a speaker's stand, although there were 300 people in the room, you
couldn't even actually get out, you know.
Mr. RANKIN. Did they ask you whether they should do this?
Mr. WADE. I don't think I said yea or nay to the thing so far as I
know, because it was--and I actually didn't know what they were doing
until, the next thing I knew they said they were going to have to bring
him in there.
Well, I think I did say, "You'd better get some officers in here or
something for some protection on him."