Reclaiming History (68 page)

“I’ll transport him in one car, with myself and two detectives,” Fritz says, “and we’ll have another carload of detectives as backup. We can cut out of the caravan at Main Street and head straight west on Main Street to Houston, then make a right turn to the county jail. The rest of the convoy can go on to Elm Street to Houston, turn left, but not enter the jail. We’ll be in the county jail before they even get there.”
¹³²²

Curry nods his approval, “Okay.”

The door to the homicide office opens and Deputy Chief Stevenson comes in and tells Chief Curry that the armored truck is in place. Chief Curry tells him there has been a change in plans and that they’re going to move Oswald in an unmarked police car.

“You know, Chief,” Fritz says, “we ought to get rid of the television lights and cameramen so they don’t interfere with our getting to the car.”
¹³²³

Curry knows that Fritz is suggesting he get rid of the press entirely.

“The lights have already been moved back,” Curry replies, “and the media have been moved back in the basement, back of the rail, and the spectators have been moved across the street. You won’t have any trouble.”
¹³²⁴

Detective Leavelle takes Fritz aside. “Why don’t we take him out on the first floor and put him in a car on Main Street,” Leavelle says to Fritz. “We could be in the county jail before they even know we’ve left the jail.”
¹³²⁵

“Well, we wouldn’t have much protection getting off on another floor,” Fritz replies.

“You can only get so many men on the elevator.” Fritz adds that he didn’t think Curry would go for it because the chief had given his word to the press that they would be able to witness Oswald’s transfer.
¹³²⁶

11:10 a.m.

There is a flurry of activity now as the police brass make last-minute changes to the transfer plan. Captain Fritz instructs Detectives C. N. Dhority, C. W. Brown, and E. R. Beck to go to the basement and get two cars set up for the transfer. Dhority will drive the car transporting Oswald. Fritz tells him to park it near the entrance to the jail office, the door Oswald will emerge from in the basement. (The car will be between Oswald and the media behind the railing on the other side of the ramp.) Beck will drive a posse of detectives in the lead car,
*
parked directly ahead of Oswald’s car. When both cars pull out of the Commerce Street exit behind the armored car, they will turn left two blocks to Central, turn left one block to Main, turn left and go west on Main to Houston, then right a half block to the county jail. Beck will drive past the entrance, and Dhority and Fritz, behind them, will pull right in to the jail entrance.
¹³²⁷
Someone is already on the telephone to Sheriff Decker, making arrangements to have the steel gate at the county jail entrance open when they arrive.
¹³²⁸

“Get going,” Fritz tells the detectives, who head downstairs.

Curry turns to Lieutenant Rio S. Pierce and instructs him to get a third car, to be used as a decoy, park it in front of the armored truck, and when the signal is given, lead the caravan left two blocks to Central, turn left up to Elm (while the Oswald vehicle breaks away from the caravan by turning left a block earlier on Main), turn left on Elm to Houston, then left past the jail.
¹³²⁹

Captain Fritz is so intent on preventing anyone from harming Oswald or allowing him the opportunity to escape that he pulls Leavelle aside and orders him to handcuff himself to the prisoner.
¹³³⁰

“Lee, I want you to follow Detective Leavelle when we get downstairs,” Fritz says, “and stay close to him.”

Fritz realizes that Oswald is clad only in a T-shirt.

“Do you want something to put over your T-shirt?” he asks.

“Yes,” Oswald says.

Fritz orders a detective to go and get some of the clothing police confiscated from Oswald’s room. No more than a minute later, they bring in some clothes on hangers and hand Oswald one of the better-looking items, a light-colored shirt.

“If it’s all the same to you,” Oswald says, “I’d rather wear that black sweater. That might be a little warmer.”

Oswald points at a black, Ivy League–type, slip-over sweater that has some ragged holes near the right shoulder. Someone makes a remark that the other shirt looks better, but Oswald insists on the black sweater. They hand it to him as Detective Leavelle releases one of the handcuffs from Oswald’s wrists. Detective Graves helps him pull it over his head.
¹³³¹
In his black trousers and black sweater, Oswald looks very much the way he did in the backyard photographs, the snapshots where he posed proudly with a rifle and pistol. Captain Fritz asks whether Oswald would like to wear a hat to camouflage his appearance during the transfer, but Oswald doesn’t want to do that.
¹³³²

11:15 a.m.

In the City Hall basement, Deputy Chief Stevenson corrals Chief Batchelor and Captain Jones.

“There’s been a change in plans,” he advises them. “We are going to put two cars on the driveway and transfer him in one of them.” Stevenson quickly outlines how the armored truck will now be used as a decoy.

“Why?” Batchelor wants to know.

“Curry and the others in homicide have decided using the decoy would be a wise move in case anyone attacks the caravan,” Stevenson says.
¹³³³

B
y the time Ruby fills out the money order in the Western Union office, there’s only one client ahead of him in line. Doyle Lane, the thirty-five-year-old senior delivery clerk on duty, recognizes Ruby as a fairly frequent customer. Ruby has already filled out the order in large printing, “$25.00, to KAREN BENNETT, WILL CALL, FTH WORTH,” but Lane crosses out “FTH WORTH” and, according to the company regulation, which requires the full destination on the body of a money order, writes “Fort Worth, Texas” in the space provided. He asks Ruby for his own name and address and fills in Ruby’s reply: “Jack Ruby, 13121/2 Commerce.” Doyle writes “Mod FTW,” for “Money Order Department Fort Worth” and “rates” the order, adding a charge of $.55, a toll charge of $1.20, and the tax of $.12, for a total of $26.87. He makes change from $30.00 in bills Ruby gives him, stamps the money order and the receipt with the time clock, which rotates on the counter on a minute-to-minute basis, and hands a copy of the receipt and the change back to Ruby. The time, signifying the end of the transaction and synchronized to the U.S. Naval Observatory time in Washington, D.C., as are all Western Union clocks at eleven every morning, reads 11:17.

As Doyle puts the money order into the pneumatic tube that blows it upstairs for transmission, he sees Ruby turn from the counter, walk out the door and turn left, toward City Hall at the other end of the block, walking at an ordinary gait.
¹³³⁴

It will be more than an hour before the money order is wired to Fort Worth. Normally it takes no more than about twenty minutes for a transmission to Fort Worth, but the office has had a lot of reporters running in with their scribbled notes, and the extra traffic has slowed the wire way down.
¹³³⁵

11:18 a.m.

In the third-floor Homicide and Robbery Bureau, Captain Fritz steps out into the outer office, where Chief Curry waits.

“Is everything ready?” Fritz asks.

“Yes, as far as I know,” Curry replies. “Everything is ready to go. I’ll go on down to the basement. Chief Stevenson and I will meet you at the county jail.”
¹³³⁶

As Curry leaves, Secret Service agent Sorrels approaches Fritz.

“If I were you, I would not move Oswald to the county jail at an announced time like this,” Sorrels says. “I would take him out at three or four in the morning when there’s no one around.”

Personally, Fritz couldn’t agree more. But this is not his show.

“Chief Curry wants to go along with the press and not try to put anything over on them,” Fritz tells him.
¹³³⁷

Curry has just exited the Homicide and Robbery Bureau when an officer walks up to him.

“Mayor Cabell is on the phone for you, Chief.”

Curry heads to his office down the hall, where he takes the call. Cabell wants to know how everything is progressing, and when Curry plans to transfer Oswald to the county jail.

“We’re getting set to transfer him now,” Curry says, and quickly brings the mayor up to speed on the transfer.
¹³³⁸

Four floors below, the public elevator opens onto the basement corridor just outside the jail office, and a crowd of detectives piles out followed by two WBAP cameramen, struggling to push a rolling tripod with a large TV camera perched atop it. When it nearly topples over, a third crewman from the WBAP basement team rushes over and helps them roll it out to the ramp. The word from the two crewmen who have just come from the third floor is that Oswald could be brought down at any moment.
¹³³⁹

11:19 a.m.

In Captain Fritz’s office, Oswald stands quietly, his hands manacled in front. Detective Leavelle snaps one end of a second pair of handcuffs on Oswald’s right wrist, the other end on his own left wrist.

“Lee, if anybody shoots at you, I hope they’re as good a shot as you are,” Leavelle says half-jokingly, not only meaning that he hopes Oswald gets hit and not him, but that he knows Oswald killed Kennedy.

“Aw, there ain’t going to be anybody shooting at me,” Oswald replies with a laugh, one of the few jovial moments he’s had since his arrest, “you’re just being melodramatic.”

“Well, if there’s any trouble, you know what to do?” Leavelle says. “Hit the floor.”

“Captain Fritz told me to follow you,” Oswald answers. “I’ll do whatever you do.”

“In that case,” Leavelle tells him, “you’ll be on the floor.”
¹³⁴⁰

With the Commerce Street exit blocked by the armored truck, Lieutenant Rio S. Pierce, who has been assigned to drive a car with two detectives in front of the armored truck, decides to exit the basement with his squad car via the Main Street ramp (which is actually the entrance into the basement), circle the block, and back up in front of the armored truck. It will mean he’ll have to travel the wrong way on what is normally a one-way ramp, but he has little choice. With Sergeant James Putnam in the passenger seat and Sergeant Billy Joe Maxey in the left backseat, Pierce flips on the flashing red lights, cranks the steering wheel to the right, and inches toward the newsmen lined up across the bottom of the ramp. Captain Talbert splits the group apart so Pierce can get through. As soon as the squad car moves through the line of reporters, the line closes up like water behind a boat.
¹³⁴¹
Two more cars, driven by Detectives C. N. Dhority and C.W. Brown, one of which will transport Oswald, begin to move into position at the base of the Commerce Street ramp behind the armored truck.
¹³⁴²

I
n the third-floor hallway outside Homicide and Robbery, uniformed officers and plainclothes detectives have begun moving the dozen or so reporters still on the third floor against the far wall of the corridor. They’re told not to move toward Oswald when he comes out, or ask any questions or shout at him. In the basement, two lines of Dallas detectives form to protect Oswald from the jail office door to where the vehicle to be used for the transfer of Oswald will soon appear. They have instructions to close in behind the prisoner as he walks past them.

Inside the homicide office, Captain Fritz turns to Lieutenant T. L. Baker.

“Call down and tell them we’re on our way,” he orders.

The door opens into the third-floor hallway and Lieutenant Swain leads the way out, followed by Captain Fritz. As reporters jostle for position, Detective Leavelle steps out the door with Oswald’s right wrist cuffed to Leavelle’s left wrist. Detective L. C. Graves is close behind, holding Oswald’s left arm. Detective L. D. Montgomery follows, covering the rear.
¹³⁴³
As soon as Oswald emerges, several reporters ignore police orders and begin shouting questions at him. A microphone picks up part of Oswald’s response to one question.

“I’d like to contact a member…representative of the American Civil Liberties Union…”

Oswald’s words are broken off as he is pulled into the anteroom of the jail elevator. As soon as he disappears, reporters Jerry O’Leary of the
Washington Evening Star
and Ike Pappas, from New York’s WNEW radio, accompanied by Maurice “Mickey” Carroll of the
New York Herald Tribune
, bolt for the stairway in their planned bid to get to the basement before Oswald does.
¹³⁴⁴

11:20 a.m.

The telephone in the jail office rings and Lieutenant Woodrow Wiggins, standing at the booking desk, answers it.

“They’re on their way down,” Lieutenant Baker says. “Is everything ready?”

“All clear,” Wiggins replies. He hangs up the phone and sees the jail elevator lights cascading downward as the elevator makes its descent.
¹³⁴⁵

Patrolman Roy E. Vaughn, assigned to guard the entrance to the Main Street ramp, is surprised to see the squad car driven by Lieutenant Pierce exiting from the entranceway. As the squad car approaches the top of the ramp, Vaughn, who was not standing at the top of the ramp but inside a few feet (apparently to see as much of what was going on below as he could), is forced to step to his right to get out of the way of the car, all the while backing up to the top of the ramp that faces the sidewalk. There are small groups of people on each side of the ramp exit on the sidewalk. He clears them, steps out into the sidewalk, checks for traffic on Main, and waves the car through. Pierce turns left onto Main Street and heads for the top of the Commerce Street exit ramp to position himself in front of the armored truck.
¹³⁴⁶

A
s Ruby, who has walked the long block on Main from the Western Union office to City Hall, approaches the top of the Main Street ramp, he sees, with a quick glance, the officer at the entrance (Vaughn) backing up and stepping to his right, his back toward Ruby. By the time Ruby reaches the entrance to the ramp, Pierce’s car has temporarily stopped at the sidewalk outside the ramp, and Ruby recognizes Pierce. Jack is one of many who call the detective by his middle name, Sam, rather than his first, Rio. Ruby sees Vaughn stoop down to acknowledge the officers in the car. Without breaking his stride, Ruby turns left toward the ramp, slips past the car, and hurries down the ramp, not sure whether Vaughn has seen him or not. He knows from a lifetime of gatecrashing that the best way to get in is to look as though you belong there. Halfway down the ramp he hears someone shout something like, “Hey, you,” but he pays no attention, just keeps walking down the ramp into the basement.
¹³⁴⁷