When Lee Harvey Oswald walked out the main entrance of the “Texas School Book Depository”, and into the bright sunlight and utter pandemonium on Elm Street, he knew his luck was riding high! He had stoically accepted that any attempt on the President’s life was almost certain to culminate in the loss of his own, or, at the very least, his capture. At no time had he envisaged escape. Yet here he was, less than three minutes after carrying out the assassination, walking away from the building!
Even during the actual shooting, he could hardly believe how slow the Secret-Service agents in the Presidential limo had been, to react to the sound of rifle-fire. Following the first two shots he had expected the agent driving the Lincoln to immediately hit the gas, whisking the President away to safety at high speed. Instead the limo had actually slowed down, giving him precious time for another shot.
His luck had continued to hold immediately after the shooting, as he hurried down the rear stairwell and away from the 6th floor. On hearing footsteps approaching from below, he had ducked into the 2nd floor lunchroom at almost the same time as his boss, Roy Truly, and a police officer arrived on that floor. The cop, Marrion Baker, had followed Oswald into the lunchroom, at the same time drawing his revolver. On being told by Truly that the man was an employee, Baker had continued on up the stairwell towards the roof, where he assumed that the shots had originated.
As Oswald moved hastily away from Dealey Plaza, he was already formulating another plan in his mind. In order to carry it out, it would be necessary for him to return to his rooming house on North Beckley Avenue. Once there he would collect his small snub-nosed revolver, a Smith & Wesson .38, lying encased in its cheap leather holster between some shirts, inside a bureau drawer.
Retired Army General Edwin Walker was a big prize, and, prior to the announcement of President Kennedy’s Dallas trip, had been Oswald’s ultimate target. An anti-Communist, anti-Castro, pro-segregationist, and a prominent member of the John Birch Society, Walker had run for Governor of Texas in 1962, receiving a substantial vote, and loosing out to the eventual winner, John Connolly.
On the evening of April 10th, 1963, Oswald had fired a single rifle-shot thru a rear window of Walker’s home, just narrowly missing the General. Soon afterwards, Oswald, along with his wife and child, moved to his home city of New Orleans. They remained there for several months, but following an abortive trip to Mexico City, where he had attempted to obtain a Cuban visa, the family returned to Dallas just seven weeks prior to the President’s arrival.
A second attempt on Walker was impossible, at this time, and Oswald knew it. He had attended a meeting just four weeks previously, in the city, where the great man had addressed a large crowd of enthusiastic supporters. But the General was now out-of-state, conducting a lecture-tour in nearby Louisiana.
Just prior to Oswald’s return from New Orleans, the Texas media had been buzzing with the news of a 47-year-old Dallas shoe-salesman by the name of William James Lowery, who had been acting as a volunteer citizen counter-agent for the FBI, over a number of years. Lowery had joined the Texas Communist Party in order to spy for The Bureau, and had recently testified before a Justice Department hearing in Washington D.C., where he had exposed a top member of the Party. Oswald disliked him as much as he did Walker. In 1963, the Dallas City Directory listed Lowery’s address as 1414 Kiest Boulevard, East.
On Elm Street, Oswald was on the lookout for a Beckley bus, which would drop him across the street from his rooming house. There was none in sight, so he finally boarded the first that came into view. This was a Marsalis bus which would leave him a few blocks from North Beckley, but he knew he needed to get away from the immediate area as soon as possible.
As word of the shooting began to spread, however, downtown traffic was becoming severely congested, finally grinding to a complete standstill. He was soon back on the street, and heading for the nearby Greyhound bus station, where he took a taxi. (Earlier that morning, at the home of his estranged wife, Marina, Oswald had left behind the sum of $170 as a parting gift, almost all the money he posessed. In case things did not work out as planned, and he found himself unable to carry out the assassination, he had retained a small sum for himself, just enough to tide him over until next pay-day.)
Oswald remained silent during the taxi-ride, even after a number of police cars criss-crossed their path. While the driver wondered aloud what had occured to cause such frantic activity, his passenger remained tight-lipped. Knowing that the local FBI had recently taken a renewed interest in him, and fearful that the cops may already have obtained his address, Oswald directed the driver to drop him some distance beyond his rooming house, in order to check for any suspicious activity.
Back in the house, he went directly to his bedroom, where he removed his loaded revolver from its hiding place, pushed it into his pants waistband, and proceeded to fill one pocket with a handful of spare bullets. As an afterthought, even though the day was warm, he pulled on a light colored zipper-jacket in order to conceal the weapon. It was around 1pm as he left 1026 North Beckley for the last time.
Meanwhile, back at the Depository building, Capt. Will Fritz, chief of the Homicide Bureau, was leading the investigation into the assassination. A description of the assassin, obtained from a witness to the shooting, had been broadcast over the police radio network at 12.45, 12.48 and 12.55 ; “slender white male, about thirty years old, five feet ten inches, and weighing about 165 pounds”. A roll-call of Depository employees, called by Roy Truly around 1pm, would reveal that Lee Harvey Oswald was missing. In a short time, the three empty cartridge cases, and the Mannlicher-Carcano rifle would be discovered on the 6th floor.
Across the street from his rooming house, Oswald was once again waiting for a Beckley bus to show up, and once again he was out of luck. (The bus would have taken him south to Kiest Boulevard, at the junction of East and West, some fourteen blocks from his destination.) Growing more fearful of the imminent arrival of the police, he decided not to make their work any easier, and took off south on Beckley. A short time later, while walking east on 10th Street, disaster struck. A police car pulled up alongside him.
There has been much speculation by the conspiracy writers, as to why Oswald ended up on 10th Street. One theory has it that he was trying to get to Red Bird airport, off Highway 67, in order to make his escape. However, the shortest route to 67 was to keep going south on Beckley. 10th Street makes no sense, at all. However, a couple of blocks further on from where he was stopped, was bus route 30, the Marsalis bus, which would have brought him to within seven blocks of his target! Two blocks further on, again, was bus route 55, the Lancaster bus, which would have taken him almost to the house.!
Within minutes of the assassination, all police officers in the city were put on immediate alert. In an attempt to cut off escape from the general downtown area every available patrol car was assigned an outlying section of the city, with orders to watch out for anything suspicious. A number of cars were assigned to Oak Cliff, south of Dealey Plaza and across the Trinity river, with officer J. D. Tippit ordered to patrol the central section.
At 12.54pm, shortly before Oswald reached his rooming-house, Tippit reported back to the dispatcher at Police H.Q., that he was “at Lancaster and 8th”. Around 1.12pm, cruising east on tree-lined 10th Street, he noticed a man ahead of him walking hurridly in the same direction. While it was probably Oswald’s fast pace that first drew his attention, Tippit soon noticed that the man fitted the general description of the President’s assassin, broadcast earlier. (Around twenty people fitting that description were stopped by police officers, and taken to H.Q. for questioning, within one hour of the shooting.)
Tippit called out to the man thru the open vent window, and Oswald walked slowly over to the car, keeping both hands inside his jacket pockets. Maybe not satisfied with replys to questions regarding his destination, and his need for such a hurry, Tippit decided to step out of the car, in order to check things out further. He did not at this point draw his revolver, but kept his hand on the butt.
By now, Oswald realized that the game was up. Quickly whipping out his gun, he fired off a number of shots in rapid fashion. Tippit fell to the ground, mortally wounded in the chest. His killer was about to flee the scene, when a low moan from the officer brought him out onto the street, where he fired a final shot to the head. Oswald now fled down the nearest escape route, Patton Street.
There were four people close to the spot where Tippit was gunned down, and they saw some or all of the shooting.( Like the assassination, itself, various conspiracy theories have been woven into this second killing.) The four people were Helen Markham, William Scoggins, Domingo Benavides and Jack Tatum, with the latters red Ford car becoming the “red car” seen fleeing from the scene, and used by some writers to foster conspiracy theories.
Markham, who became hysterical following the shooting, was standing at the northwest junction of 10th and Patton when it occured. She covered her face with both hands, in a somewhat pathetic attempt to hide from Oswald as the latter ran away. Scoggins, a taxi driver, was eating lunch in his cab, while parked on Patton. When Oswald fled, he passed within a few feet of him. Benavides was driving his pick-up truck west along 10th when the shooting broke out. He was within feet of the police car, and immediately pulled his truck into the side, huddling down inside the cab.(He had noticed a red Ford car pulling up, about six car-lengths ahead of him.) Benavides called in the killing to Police H.Q., over Tippit’s own car radio.
As Jack Tatum drove west on 10th, having just turned off Denver, he noticed a white male walking in his direction. A police car pulled in close to the man, and as Tatum reached the Patton intersection, shots rang out. He pulled up immediately, but as soon as Oswald began to run away in his general direction, he sped from the scene. Tatum did not contact the police afterwards, and was therefore never interviewed by the Warren Commission. In 1978, he gave evidence before the HSCA.
In his best-selling book, “The Kennedy Conspiracy”, author Anthony Summers incorrectly places Jack Tatum on Denver, close to the junction with 10th Street, at the time of the shooting.( He also wrongly locates Oswald’s rooming house, from the scene of the Tippit shooting. )
Two witnesses initially stated that Oswald was walking west on 10th Street, when stopped by the officer. The reason for this discrepancy with the Tatum and Markham statements is simple enough. When Oswald heard the car approaching behind him, he turned around in order to check out what was happening. He was thus facing west when some people noticed the altercation.
A lack of panic had been central in ensuring his escape from the Depository, and his continuing coolness stood to him once again, during this second crisis. He ran down Patton, ejecting and reloading his revolver as he did so. Any thoughts of Lowery were gone from his head, for the moment at any rate. He was thinking simply of self-preservation.
Two men who had been attracted out onto the sidewalk by the sound of gunshots, were standing about halfway down the east side of Patton Avenue, when they caught sight of Oswald running directly towards them, with revolver in full view. Before reaching them, the gunman crossed over to the opposite side of the street, as one of the men called out ” What the hell’s going on?” This unexpecter action caused Oswald to halt momentarily, before continuing on his way again, at the same time shouting something unintelligible back in reply.
As Oswald reached Jefferson Boulevard, four men inside a car-lot on the opposite side of the street saw him arrive. His revolver was still visible, but he immediately pushed it into his pants pocket. Two of the men decided to follow the gunman as he moved west along Jefferson, but he disappeared from their view before reaching the end of the block. He had turned into the parking-lot of a nearby service-station, removing his jacket as he ran through it, and discarding it underneath one of the many parked cars.
At around 1.30pm, as Oswald was making his way tentatively along Jefferson, at Parkland hospital it was officially announced that President Kennedy was dead.
Shortly afterwards, just a few doors from the “Texas Theatre” cinema, the manager of a store saw something suspicious. Just as the wailing cry of an approaching patrol-car rent the air, Johnny Brewer noticed a man walk right up to the recessed door of his store, and remain there for a few moments. The man “looked scared”, and moved back onto the sidewalk only after the patrol-car was out of sight.
With police activity increasing in the vicinity, Oswald decided that the nearby cinema would provide a good hiding-place. He walked past an empty box-office, as the cashier was out on the sidewalk, wondering who the police were chasing. But Brewer had followed Oswald from the store, and informed the cashier what had happened. A call was immediately made to Police H.Q., and within minutes a number of patrol-cars pulled up outside the “Texas Theatre”.
With only around twenty patrons inside the cinema, Brewer quickly located the suspect. On being confronted by cops for the third time that day, Oswald reacted by punching one officer in the face. He managed to free his revolver, but was overpowered before he could use it. Dragged outside, where he protested “police brutality” to a gathering crowd, he was bundled into the nearest patrol-car and taken directly to Police H.Q. Oswald’s flight was finally over. He had not made it to Kiest Boulevard, East.
Sources ; Warren Report and 26 volumes of Hearings and Exhibits; HSCA Report and 12 volumes of Hearings and Appendices; “The Kennedy Conspiracy” Anthony Summers 1989 Edition; “Case Closed” Gerald Posner; “The Mysterious Career of Lee Harvey Oswald” An Invision Production for BBC in Association with WGBH/Boston, “The American Assassins : Lee Harvey Oswald and John F. Kennedy” CBS News Inquiry; Correspondence from William James Lowery; Thanks to the Dallas Public Library, and in particular the Texas/Dallas History and Archives Division, for all their help.