But further controversy has ensued over the years because other researchers have attributed “photographic matches” to various individuals. You may have heard or seen it written that CIA agent E. Howard Hunt was “one of the three tramps in Dealey Plaza.” Part of the confusion resulted from sorting out the arrest records of men who were taken in by police after the assassination. Other researchers “identified” people they thought were likely conspirators—such as Sturgis and Hunt—and became convinced by the photographic similarities that it was actually them in the photos.
But it’s easy to compare photographs and be “taken in”; convinced of a match in identities that turns out to have been incorrect. That’s why police departments only trust forensic artists to make scientific matches using proven methods in the practice of criminology.
Forensic expert Lois Gibson is known as The World’s Most Successful Forensic Artist. She is the world record holder for the most forensic success stories; over a thousand criminals have been caught by her forensic methods.267 So Lois Gibson was the perfect person to examine the evidence and make the precise photographic comparisons between the photographs taken of the three men and those whom various people allege they may have actually been. Her work was successful in that regard.
She knows what she’s doing and you can see that for yourself. Lois Gibson’s “Slide Presentation of The Three Tramps” is online at: jfkmurdersolved.com/lois1.htm.
Analysis by Lois Gibson positively identified the three men—via an extensive and professional match process that she documents very specifically in that study—as Chauncey Holt, Charles Rogers, and Charles Harrelson.268
Who are they?
Well, Chauncey Holt was an expert forger and career criminal with mobsters and also did work for the CIA; Charles Harrelson and Charles Rogers [also known as Richard Montoya] were convicted killers.
What’s their story?
Rogers was a cold-blooded killer—literally, in his case. He’s known as “The Icebox Killer” because in 1965 they found the pieces of his parents’ chopped up bodies inside the freezer at Rogers’ home. But Rogers disappeared; he took off on a private plane just as police came looking for him, and is still a wanted fugitive. Rogers was also known to do “work” for the CIA.269 So his only comment on being one of the three tramps was Adios.
Harrelson was a professional hit man who was convicted for the assassination of a federal judge, John Wood, in Texas in 1979, and then died in prison of heart disease in 2007. He was also the estranged father of actor Woody Harrelson. During a six-hour standoff with police before his arrest, he confessed to killing both the federal judge and John F. Kennedy. But authorities wrote that off to the fact that he was “high on cocaine.”270 An attorney in Texas testified in court that Harrelson had told him that he killed President Kennedy and even drew the attorney a map of where he hid after the assassination.271 But the FBI “discounted any involvement by Harrelson in the Kennedy assassination” and the information all went to a quiet resting place somewhere far from public scrutiny.272 There’s a chilling prison interview with Charles Harrelson in which he mockingly refers to the absurd naiveté of believing for one second that lone gunman Lee Harvey Oswald pulled off the assassination all by himself. Below is what he says, but I also suggest that you watch it for yourself at: youtube.com/watch?v=RpVlqh14WHY.
Well, do you believe Lee Harvey Oswald killed President Kennedy. Alone? We’ll get back to that. Without any aid from a rogue agency of the U.S. government, or at least a portion of that agency? I believe you’re very naïve if you do.273
So Harrelson did or didn’t really have a lot to say, depending on how you look at it.
Chauncey Holt was a completely different story though. He not only talked about it, he confessed to it, wrote about it, and even did a film about it. In fact, Chauncey Holt is still speaking about it, even from the grave! He died in 1997, but has his autobiography coming out later this year!274 So you probably won’t see that in mainstream media anytime soon, but it’s out there, believe me.
Holt was a career criminal who was a very colorful character. He was an expert in weaponry, ammunition loads, forgery, and accounting practices.275 Holt describes the whole boxcar incident in detail in his book, as well as the details that preceded it.
The statements of Chauncey Holt also explain how the real “three tramps” were never traced. It’s because they were never actually arrested.276 There was no record of them in Dallas. They told police they were undercover agents with the ATF, showed their forged IDs, and said they were working on an operation involving stolen weapons. According to Holt, since that matched up with the weapons that were in the boxcar where the men were found, police let them go.277 Veteran FBI Special Agent Zack Shelton has thoroughly verified the bona fides of Chauncey Marvin Holt.
Holt’s criminal expertise dated back to working with Meyer Lansky, a criminal genius often credited with masterminding the Mob’s entry into legitimate businesses as well as with organizing the intricacies of money laundering. Holt was a gifted artist who used those skills to become an expert forger. He was working out of a company called the Los Angeles Stamp & Stationery Company (LASCO). That company was what’s known as a proprietary, a “CIA front” that was established with the help of William Harvey, the Agency’s point man on assassinations as head of its program named ZR/Rifle. Most of LASCO’s business was legitimate, but they also performed special work for “The Company” such as forged identifications of various types.
Holt began producing fake IDs that were used in Dallas for the assassination. Here it is summarized briefly, from the work substantiated by FBI veteran Zack Shelton:
Chauncey Holt, an expert forger affiliated with both the Mafia and CIA, began producing IDs for Lee Harvey Oswald, including all of his aliases, around April, 1963. In June, Holt delivered the IDs to Guy Bannister in New Orleans, at which time Holt was photographed by news reporters in the same photo with Oswald. In or around October, Holt was instructed by his handler to prepare Secret Service Identification Pins for the President’s trip to Dallas. On November 16, Holt received a letter from mobster Peter Licavoli stating that Chuck Nicoletti was at the Grace Ranch in Arizona and for Holt to come and drive Nicoletti to Dallas. On November 21, Holt drove Nicoletti to Dallas. On November 22, Holt delivered the Secret Service Pins; he drove into the railroad yard in a white 1959 Oldsmobile Station Wagon. This was corroborated by the testimony of [Lee] Bowers. When the shots rang out, he reported to the boxcar of the freight train, as he had been instructed, and met up there with Charles Harrelson and Charles Rogers (known to Holt as Richard Montoya). All three of these individuals were detained by the Dallas Police Department and later released. Several photographs were taken of these three men and they are known as the three tramps. Lois Gibson, respected forensic artist, verified the three as Holt and Charles Harrelson and Charles Rogers, two violent criminals.278
So the “three tramps,” in addition to not being tramps, were actually three very experienced criminals who were apparently involved operationally in the JFK assassination. They may not have fired the actual shots (although in the case of Harrelson and Rogers, we do not know where they were at the time of the shots and they were both highly professional killers), but they seem to have all three been involved, at least in some type of support capacity.
266 John Aloysious Farrell, “‘JFK’ director, in capital, discusses files,” March 5, 1992, Boston Globe: .pqasb.pqarchiver.com/boston/access/61720029.html?FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&type=current&date=Mar+05%2C+1992&author=John+Aloysius+Farrell%2C+Globe+Staff&pub=Boston+Globe+(pre-1997+Fulltext)&desc=%60JFK’+director%2C+in+capital%2C+discusses+files&pqatl=google">pqasb.pqarchiver.com/boston/access/61720029.html?FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&type=current&date=Mar+05%2C+1992&author=John+Aloysius+Farrell%2C+Globe+Staff&pub=Boston+Globe+(pre-1997+Fulltext)&desc=%60JFK’+director%2C+in+capital%2C+discusses+files&pqatl=google
267 LoisGibson.com, “Bio of Lois Gibson,” retrieved 3 May 2013: loisgibson.com/biograp
hy.asp
268 Wim Dankbaar, “The Three Tramps,” retrieved 3 May 2013: jfkmurdersolved.com/lois1.htm
269 John R. Craig & Phillip A. Rogers, The Man on the Grassy Knoll (Avon Books: 1992).
270 Marrs, Crossfire: The Plot That Killed Kennedy, 333–335.
271 Jay Jorden, “Kennedy controversy still goes on,” Associated Press, November 22, 1982: news. google.com/newspapers?id=neBNAAAAIBAJ&sjid=H4sDAAAAIBAJ&pg=6841%2C3312974
272 Ibid.
273 Charles Harrelson, “Hitman Charles Harrelson on the assassination of JFK,” retrieved 3 May 2013: youtube.com/watch?v=RpVlqh14WHY
274 Chauncey Holt, Self-Portrait of a Scoundrel (TrineDay: 2013).
275 Ibid.
276 Ibid.
277 Ibid.
278 Wim Dankbaar, Files on JFK (TrineDay: 2008) and Zack Shelton, The Shelton Report, in Belzer & Wayne, Dead Wrong, 132–135.
26
Oswald Could Not Have Murdered Officer Tippit
In the exact same way that Oswald could not have shot President Kennedy, it has also been shown that he could not have shot Officer J. D. Tippit. He did not possess motive, means, or the opportunity. And if you can prove to a jury that you were not even present when a crime was committed, then that jury would find you not guilty of that crime. About forty minutes after President Kennedy was assassinated in Dealey Plaza, Dallas Police Officer J. D. Tippit was shot and killed by an unknown suspect in the Oak Cliff section of Dallas, a few miles away from Dealey Plaza. The official government version states that it was Lee Harvey Oswald who committed that crime, after which he sought shelter from police in a nearby movie theater and was arrested by an army of Dallas police officers shortly thereafter. To which I say, Bullshit!
Let’s start with the official government version:
Dallas Police Officer J. D. Tippit saw a man who fit the description of the man wanted for President Kennedy’s murder and attempted to arrest him, but the man—Lee Harvey Oswald—drew a weapon and gunned down Officer Tippit. As I believe I may have already emphatically stated, Bullshit!
In the [Warren] commission’s account, J. D. Tippit, who was a “fine, dedicated officer,” was driving his patrol car when he saw a man who fit the general description of the suspect wanted in the murder of President Kennedy. This “fine, dedicated officer,” who had the chance to make the arrest of a lifetime, did not try to arrest this dangerous suspect, nor did he draw his gun [according to the wanted description broadcast over the police radio, the suspect was carrying a 30.06 rifle]. Instead, he called the man over to his car and began having a casual conversation.279
Would you like to know the actual police description that really went over the radio right before Tippit was killed? Here it is, verbatim:
Attention, all squads, the suspect is believed to be a white male, age 30, 5 feet 10 inches, slender build, 165 pounds, armed with what is thought to be a 30-30 rifle. No further description or information at this time.
Thus the broadcast description was for a suspect that was neither short nor tall, a man that was neither large nor small, and neither young nor old. It was a description for the average white guy, while Oswald, a slight young man at 24 years of age and only 131 pounds, was not a good fit for the description.280
So that didn’t really fit Oswald’s description even though it did fit the description of thousands of other men in Dallas; not to even mention the huge point that Oswald obviously was not carrying a rifle! So how the hell could that explain stopping Oswald?
Then there’s the bizarre fact of what actually happened when Tippit pulled this pedestrian, whoever he was, over by the sidewalk after the officer curbed his car. Tippit didn’t even get out of his police car, let alone draw his weapon or tell this guy to “assume the position.” He just talked to him through the passenger side of the police car. According to several eyewitnesses, they were conversing “amiably”; it was a friendly conversation. That’s why all the witnesses were surprised when Tippit got shot by the guy. Because it hadn’t seemed like anything sinister at all. But that proves that Tippit didn’t think that guy was the killer, or else he obviously would’ve acted very differently. Everybody thought Tippit even knew the guy. And maybe he did.
First of all, it’s a simple matter of timing. The official scenario is not logistically plausible. Oswald’s exact whereabouts are clearly established at an exact time.
Oswald’s whereabouts at 1:04 p.m. were pinpointed by his landlady, who looked out of the window and saw Oswald standing at the bus stop at that time.281 At 1:06 p.m., only two minutes later, Officer Tippit, by some reports, had already been shot and lay dead on the ground. District Attorney Jim Garrison figured out that it wasn’t logistically possible. He put the time of the shooting at 1:06 p.m. Garrison knew that there wasn’t time for Oswald to have made it to that crime scene. Here’s the way that a District Attorney figured the math on that one:
First of all, given what was known about Oswald’s movements, it was highly improbable that he could have been physically present at the time of Tippit’s murder. According to several eyewitnesses at the scene, Tippit was shot anywhere from 1:06 p.m. to 1:10 p.m. Deputy Sheriff Roger Craig, who was at the Book Depository at the time, confirmed this. When he heard the report of Tippit’s death on the radio, he looked at his watch; it was 1:06 p.m.
And yet Oswald, it was generally acknowledged, had returned to his rooming house at around 1:00 p.m. He left quickly and Earline Roberts, the housekeeper, observed him standing by the northbound Beckley Avenue bus stop at 1:04. The area where Tippit was killed was in the opposite direction, a mile to the south. Using the broadest interpretation of the time element, even if Oswald had changed his mind about the bus and run southward, it was virtually impossible for him to have arrived at the scene before the shooting of the police officer.282
Case closed, to borrow the term. That’s a qualified District Attorney telling you that a suspect could not have even been at that crime scene!
So the Lone Nut Brigade was stuck and they apparently knew it. But try as they may:
The Commission could not locate even one witness who saw Oswald walking or running between his rooming house and the scene of the Tippit slaying.283
So what did those wondrous protectors of justice known as the Warren Commission do about that point? I’ll tell you what they did: they moved the time. That’s right, Ladies and Gents, they just moved up the time of Tippit’s murder to make it late enough for Oswald to have made it there. I kid you not.
The Warren Commission officially placed the time of Tippit’s death at 1:16 p.m., solving the aforementioned timing problem that was apparent after it became known that Oswald was waiting at the bus stop at 1:04 p.m.284
Then there’s the problem with the eyewitnesses to the shooting. Big problem there, too. For openers, most of the eyewitnesses described the shooter as looking nothing at all like Lee Harvey Oswald.
Acquilla Clemons lived on the north side of Tenth Street in Dallas. On November 22, 1963, Clemons was sitting on the porch of her house when she saw Officer J. D. Tippit killed. Afterwards she claimed that there were two men involved in the attack on Tippit. She later testified that the gunman was a “short guy and kind of heavy” . . . The Dallas police warned her not to repeat this story to others or “she might get hurt.” Clemons was not called to give evidence to the Warren Commission.285
You’ll begin to notice a pattern in the witness testimony and in the way that testimony was “received” by law enforcement authorities in this case:
Domingo Benevides, a dark, slim auto mechanic, was a witness to the murder of Officer Tippit who testified that he “really got a good view” of the slayer. He was not asked to see the police lineup in which Oswald appeared. Although he later said the killer resembled newspaper pictures of Oswald, he described the man differently: “I remember the back of his head seemed like his hairline sort of went square instead of tapered off . . . it kind of went down and squared off and made his head look flat
in back.” Domingo reports that he has been repeatedly threatened by police, and advised not to talk about what he saw.286
And here’s one more, just to make sure that you notice the pattern:
Warren Reynolds did not see the shooting but saw the gunman running from the scene of the crime. He claimed that the man was not Oswald. After he survived an attempt to kill him, he changed his mind and identified Oswald as the man he had seen.287
Well, doesn’t that speak highly of the legal system that was supposed to be investigating the assassination of the President and an officer of the Dallas Police Department? Instead of following the evidence, they manipulated it. And unfortunately, that’s a pattern we see throughout this case by the various “Powers that Be” who were involved.
Then there was also the problem with the guns. It was reported that Officer Tippit was shot with an automatic weapon, yet Oswald was carrying a revolver. That’s a huge difference.
Two witnesses at the scene of the shooting who were very familiar with firearms—a police Sergeant and a combat-experienced former Marine—said that the crime scene gun was an automatic.288
District Attorney Garrison was keenly aware of that important point as well:
As I continued my research, I discovered that beyond the eye-witnesses there was other evidence gathered and altered by the Dallas homicide unit showing that Lee Oswald had been framed in the Tippit murder. For instance, I read transcripts of the messages sent over the Dallas police radio shortly after the murder. These were recorded automatically on a log. Just minutes after a citizen first reported the murder on Tippit’s radio, Patrolman H. W. Summers in Dallas police unit number 221 [the designation for the squad car] reported that an “eyeball witness to the getaway man” had been located. The suspect was described as having black wavy hair, wearing an Eisenhower jacket of light color, with dark trousers and a white shirt. He was “apparently armed with a .32, dark finish, automatic pistol,” which he had in his right hand. Moments later, Sergeant G. Hill reported that “the shell at the scene indicates that the suspect is armed with an automatic .38 rather than a pistol.”289
They Killed Our President Page 14
