Mr. SURREY. It is 2 hours from here.
The CHAIRMAN. Two hours from here when we have daylight savings.
Mr. SURREY. You have daylight saving now?
The CHAIRMAN. Yes.
Mr. JENNER. Only 1 hour then.
Mr. SURREY. Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER. After looking around, you say newspapermen began to come.
Mr. SURREY. That is right.
Mr. JENNER. And interview General Walker?
Mr. SURREY. Yes.
Mr. JENNER. In your presence?
Mr. SURREY. Yes.
Mr. JENNER. And in the presence of the policemen?
Mr. SURREY. Yes.
Mr. JENNER. When did you leave General Walker's home that night?
Mr. SURREY. I stayed that night.
Mr. JENNER. Did you hear General Walker being interviewed?
Mr. SURREY. Yes.
Mr. JENNER. What did he say about what had occurred, if anything?
Mr. SURREY. He said, "Somebody took a shot at me." This is the general
tenor of the interviews as to what happened, and he said, "Somebody
took a shot at me." I guess--"That is the closest I have ever been
missed in 30 years of military service."
Mr. JENNER. Did he say anything about whether he was seated--whether he
had been moving about?
Mr. SURREY. No; he said he had been seated at his desk when it
happened. Working on his income tax.
Mr. JENNER. Now, Mr. Surrey, was there an occasion preceding
October--April 10, 1963, that you noticed an automobile and some people
in the automobile in and about General Walker's premises?
Mr. SURREY. Yes; that was 2 nights before, on Monday evening.
Mr. JENNER. That would be April 10?
Mr. SURREY. Yes.
Mr. JENNER. I mean April 8, I am sorry.
Mr. SURREY. April 8; yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER. What time?
Mr. SURREY. About 8:30 to 9. I am not sure about what time it was.
Mr. JENNER. I take it, then, it was dark?
Mr. SURREY. Yes; it was.
Mr. JENNER. And tell the Commission what led up to that, what you said,
and what you did. This incident that you have in mind.
Mr. SURREY. I was coming from my home, came down Turtle Creek
Boulevard, passed in front of the general's house, and took a
right-hand turn on Avondale, to come up to the alley.
Mr. JENNER. Have we put Avondale into your plat? You are now turning to
Commission Exhibit No. 1005. [Witness draws.]
Mr. SURREY. The normal route into the parking lot behind the general's
house----
Mr. JENNER. He does have a parking lot?
Mr. SURREY. Yes; this is the parking area back in here.
Mr. JENNER. Now, would you crossline that, so we know it is the parking
lot? [Witness draws.]
That is fine.
Mr. SURREY. I came up Turtle Creek Boulevard and turned right on
Avondale prior to turning again up the alleyway, to go into the parking
lot in back of General Walker's house. And I noticed a car parked 30
feet--about 20 yards actually----
Mr. JENNER. You have now drawn a rectangle on the edge of the sheet of
paper, Exhibit No. 1005, marked with the letter "N." Would you write
the word "car" in there?
The CHAIRMAN. What is this designed to establish, Mr. Jenner? We are
getting a little afield, it seems to me.
Mr. JENNER. Mr. Surrey, Mr. Chief Justice, was interviewed and related
this particular incident, and we want to dissipate any possibility--I
don't want to put it this way----
The CHAIRMAN. If it has some relevancy, all right. But let's don't take
too long, because it is getting to be quite collateral. Go right ahead.
Mr. SURREY. Well, the gist of the matter is that two nights before
the assassination attempt, I saw two men around the house peeking in
windows and so forth, and reported this to the general the following
morning, and he, in turn, reported it to the police on Tuesday, and it
was Wednesday night that he was shot at. So that is really the gist of
the whole thing.
The CHAIRMAN. All right.
Mr. JENNER. I show you an exhibit marked Garner Exhibit No. 1. At
anytime prior to April 10, 1963, were you familiar with the person who
is shown on Garner Exhibit No. 1?
Mr. SURREY. No.
Mr. JENNER. When I say familiar, I mean did you know of or had you seen
consciously a person with that physiognomy and physical appearance?
Mr. SURREY. No; I have not.
Mr. JENNER. That is a side view.
I show you Commission Exhibit No. 520. The man in the center--had you
prior to April 10, 1963, ever seen a man with that physiognomy, facial
showing, and body?
Mr. SURREY. No.
Mr. JENNER. All right, sir. I take it, then--I ask you this question.
Neither of the two men that you saw in that automobile on the 8th of
April 1963, at least to your present recollection, was the man shown on
Garner Exhibit No. 1, and Commission Exhibit No. 520?
Mr. SURREY. I don't believe either of them was.
Mr. JENNER. All right.
The CHAIRMAN. May I ask--is this what you spoke of as the book?
Mr. SURREY. Yes, sir.
The CHAIRMAN. I notice on here that there is no price of any kind. You
say you sold this for $5?
Mr. SURREY. That was an afterthought. The original intent was not a
sale.
The CHAIRMAN. Was it ever advertised to the public as for sale from $5?
Mr. SURREY. Yes.
The CHAIRMAN. Where was it advertised?
Mr. SURREY. In just a flier that we included with some materials we
were mailing out.
The CHAIRMAN. I see. I would like to ask you if you were present
when--at the time that they had--that there was the demonstration
against Ambassador Adlai Stevenson?
Mr. SURREY. No; I was not.
The CHAIRMAN. Did you have anything to do with that demonstration?
Mr. SURREY. No, sir.
The CHAIRMAN. Were you present when the demonstration was against then
Vice President Johnson in Dallas?
Mr. SURREY. No, sir.
The CHAIRMAN. Did you have anything to do with that?
Mr. SURREY. No, sir.
Mr. JENNER. Mr. Chief Justice, we have marked the book as Commission
Exhibit No. 1015.
(The document referred to was marked Commission Exhibit No. 1015 for
identification.)
Mr. JENNER. Would you please examine it? You need no more than just
to look at it, so you will be able to testify that that is a true and
correct copy of the book you have testified about, published by Eagle
Publishing Co., which contains on its reverse cover side the letter to
which you made reference.
Mr. SURREY. Yes, sir; it is.
The CHAIRMAN. What did it cost you to publish that?
Mr. SURREY. It came to $2.50 and some cents. In a limited
quantity--3,000.
The CHAIRMAN. Do you now propose to offer all of the exhibits?
Mr. JENNER. Yes; I have three more FBI photos, and then I will have
completed.
The CHAIRMAN. Very well.
Mr. JENNER. Mr. Surrey, I show you three more photographs which are
identified first as Commission Exhibit No. 997. Would you read the
material that appears on the reverse side of that first, please?
(The document referred to was marked Commission Exhibit No. 997 for
identification.)
Mr. JENNER. Looking now at the face of the photograph, Commission
Exhibit No. 997, does--do the inscriptions on the reverse side
correctly describe that area of General Walker's home and the Mormon
church references?
Mr. SURREY. Yes; they do.
Mr. JENNER. You are familiar with that area?
Mr. SURREY. Yes; I am.
JENNER. And its physical appearance, except for the foliage on the
trees, is as that area looked on the night of April 10, 1963? Is that
correct?
Mr. SURREY. That is correct.
Mr. JENNER. I hand you Commission Exhibit No. 1016.
(The document referred to was marked Commission Exhibit No. 1016 for
identification.)
Mr. JENNER. Read the inscription on the reverse side, please. You are
familiar with that area shown on the photograph?
Mr. SURREY. Yes; I am.
Mr. JENNER. Do the descriptions on the reverse side of the photograph
correctly describe that area?
Mr. SURREY. With the exception that I do not know these cars and so
forth.
Mr. JENNER. I am talking about the area.
Mr. SURREY. The physical area; yes, they do.
Mr. JENNER. And that area looks the same today as it did on the evening
of April 10, or the day of April 10, 1963?
Mr. SURREY. Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER. I now hand you the last of these, Commission Exhibit No.
1017, and ask you first to read the inscription and then examine the
photograph.
(The document referred to was marked Commission Exhibit No. 1017 for
identification.)
Mr. SURREY. Yes, sir; these are substantially correct.
Mr. JENNER. As of today, as well as as of April 10, 1963?
Mr. SURREY. Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER. All right.
Now, Mr. Chief Justice, I offer in evidence the various exhibits which
we have identified in the record with the exhibit numbers, and ask that
the exhibits take the exhibit numbers I recited in each instance as to
each exhibit, being Exhibits Nos. 996 through 1000 and 1002 through
1017.
The CHAIRMAN. They may all be admitted under those numbers.
(The documents heretofore marked Commission Exhibits Nos. 996 through
1000 and 1002 through 1017 were received in evidence.)
Mr. JENNER. That includes, Mr. Chief Justice, the diagrams which the
witness has prepared for us.
The CHAIRMAN. Yes.
Mr. JENNER. As I reported to you, Mr. Chief Justice, the file on the
Walker incident reached us about 20 minutes before we opened this
morning. I think I have covered everything. Could I have the privilege
of 5 minutes to take a look?
The CHAIRMAN. Yes.
Mr. JENNER. I will do it very quickly.
The CHAIRMAN. Yes.
Mr. JENNER. Who is Mr. Coleman? Do you know a man by that name?
Mr. SURREY. Not personally.
Mr. JENNER. Walker Kirk Coleman.
Mr. SURREY. As I just read on the back of your exhibit, he is the
boy that reported seeing several automobiles at the time of the
assassination.
Mr. JENNER. That is immaterial to this issue.
You have never seen either of the two men you have mentioned before or
since the occasion you saw that automobile with the two men in it on
the evening of April 8, 1963?
Mr. SURREY. Not to my knowledge. I never was very close to them.
Mr. JENNER. Were you able to--what kind of an automobile was it, do you
know?
Mr. SURREY. It was a Ford, a new Ford at that time.
Mr. JENNER. Sedan?
Mr. SURREY. Four-door sedan.
Mr. JENNER. And it was new?
Mr. SURREY. Yes.
Mr. JENNER. To your knowledge, have you ever seen that automobile
before or since?
Mr. SURREY. No, sir.
Mr. JENNER. What color was it, if you noticed?
Mr. SURREY. It was either a dark brown or a maroon.
Mr. JENNER. You followed it awhile and then gave up the chase?
Mr. SURREY. That is correct. Actually, they made a turn which--I
am familiar with downtown Dallas--and they made a turn which would
indicate they were doubling back or not going in a straight direction.
And I thought perhaps I had been spotted in my convertible. So I left
them there.
Mr. JENNER. I will close, Mr. Chief Justice, by asking the witness--was
the Mormon church in session? Had there been----
Mr. SURREY. There had been services.
Mr. JENNER. The evening of April 10?
Mr. SURREY. They were still dispersing.
Mr. JENNER. When you arrived at approximately 9:30 in the evening of
April 10, were people still leaving the Mormon church?
Mr. SURREY. Yes; they were.
Mr. JENNER. I have no more questions.
The CHAIRMAN. That will be all, Mr. Surrey. You may be excused now.
The Commission is adjourned.
(Whereupon, at 12:20 p.m., the President's Commission recessed.)
_Thursday, June 18, 1964_