Report of the President's Commission on the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy

by United States. Warren Commission

ACTIVITY OF NEWSMEN

Within an hour of Oswald’s arrival at the police department on November 22, it became known to newsmen that he was a possible suspect in the slaying of President Kennedy as well as in the murder of Patrolman Tippit. At least as early as 3:26 p.m. a television report carried this information. Reporters and cameramen flooded into the building and congregated in the corridor of the third floor, joining those few who had been present when Oswald first arrived.[C5-53]

On the Third Floor

Felix McKnight, editor of the Dallas Times-Herald, who handled press arrangements for the President’s visit, estimated that within 24 hours of the assassination more than 300 representatives of news media were in Dallas, including correspondents from foreign newspapers and press associations.[C5-54] District Attorney Henry M. Wade thought that the crowd in the third floor hallway itself may have numbered as many as 300.[C5-55] Most estimates, including those based on examination of video tapes, place upwards of 100 newsmen and cameramen in the third floor corridor of the police department by the evening of November 22.[C5-56] (See Commission Exhibit No. 2633, [p. 203].)

In the words of an FBI agent who was present, the conditions at the police station were “not too much unlike Grand Central Station at rush hour, maybe like the Yankee Stadium during the World Series games. * * *”[C5-57] In the lobby of the third floor, television cameramen set up two large cameras and floodlights in strategic positions that gave them a sweep of the corridor in either direction. Technicians stretched their television cables into and out of offices, running some of them out of the windows of a deputy chief’s office and down the side of the building. Men with newsreel cameras, still cameras, and microphones, more mobile than the television cameramen, moved back and forth seeking information and opportunities for interviews. Newsmen wandered into the offices of other bureaus located on the third floor, sat on desks, and used police telephones; indeed, one reporter admits hiding a telephone behind a desk so that he would have exclusive access to it if something developed.[C5-58]

By the time Chief Curry returned to the building in the middle of the afternoon from Love Field where he had escorted President Johnson from Parkland Hospital, he found that “there was just pandemonium on the third floor.”[C5-59] The news representatives, he testified:

* * * were jammed into the north hall of the third floor, which are the offices of the criminal investigation division. The television trucks, there were several of them around the city hall. I went into my administrative offices, I saw cables coming through the administrative assistant office and through the deputy chief of traffic through his office, and running through the hall they had a live TV set up on the third floor, and it was a bedlam of confusion.[C5-60]

According to Special Agent Winston G. Lawson of the Secret Service:

At least by 6 or 7 o’clock * * * [the reporters and cameramen] were quite in evidence up and down the corridors, cameras on the tripods, the sound equipment, people with still cameras, motion picture-type hand cameras, all kinds of people with tape recorders, and they were trying to interview people, anybody that belonged in police headquarters that might know anything about Oswald * * *[C5-61]

Commission Exhibit No. 2633

Scene in third floor corridor.

The corridor became so jammed that policemen and newsmen had to push and shove if they wanted to get through, stepping over cables, wires, and tripods.[C5-62] The crowd in the hallway was so dense that District Attorney Wade found it a “strain to get the door open” to get into the homicide office.[C5-63] According to Lawson, “You had to literally fight your way through the people to get up and down the corridor.”[C5-64] A witness who was escorted into the homicide offices on Saturday afternoon related that he

tried to get by the reporters, stepping over television cables and you couldn’t hardly get by, they would grab you and wanted to know what you were doing down here, even with the detectives one in front and one behind you.[C5-65]

The television cameras continued to record the scene on the third floor as some of the newsmen kept vigil through the night.[C5-66]

Such police efforts as there were to control the newsmen were unavailing. Capt. Glen D. King, administrative assistant to Chief Curry, witnessed efforts to clear an aisle through the hallway, but related that “this was a constant battle because of the number of newsmen who were there. They would move back into the aisleway that had been cleared. They interfered with the movement of people who had to be there.”[C5-67] According to one detective, “they would be asked to stand back and stay back but it wouldn’t do much good, and they would push forward and you had to hold them off physically.” The detective recalled that on one occasion when he was escorting a witness through the corridor he “stopped * * * and looked down and there was a joker had a camera stuck between * * * [his] legs taking pictures. * * *”[C5-68] Forrest V. Sorrels of the Secret Service had the impression that the “press and the television people just * * * took over.”[C5-69]

Police control over the access of other than newsmen to the third floor was of limited but increasing effectiveness after Oswald’s arrival at the police department. Initially no steps were taken to exclude unauthorized persons from the third floor corridor, but late Friday afternoon Assistant Chief Charles Batchelor stationed guards at the elevators and the stairway to prevent the admission of such persons. He also directed the records room in the basement to issue passes, after verification by the bureaus involved, to people who had legitimate business on the third floor.[C5-70] Throughout the 3 days of Oswald’s detention, the police were obliged to continue normal business in all five bureaus located along the third floor hallway. Thus many persons—relatives of prisoners, complainants, witnesses[C5-71]—had occasion to visit police offices on the third floor on business unrelated to the investigation of the assassination.

Newsmen seeking admission to the third floor were required to identify themselves by their personal press cards; however, the department did not follow its usual procedure of checking the authenticity of press credentials.[C5-72] Captain King felt that this would have been impossible in light of “the atmosphere that existed over there, the tremendous pressures that existed, the fact that telephones were ringing constantly, that there were droves of people in there * * * the fact that the method by which you positively identify someone * * * it’s not easy.”[C5-73]

Commission Exhibit No. 2631

Oswald being moved through third floor corridor.

Police officers on the third floor testified that they carefully checked all persons for credentials, and most newsmen indicated that after Batchelor imposed security they were required to identify themselves by their press cards.[C5-74] Special Agent Sorrels of the Secret Service stated that he was requested to present credentials on some of his visits to the third floor.[C5-75] However, other newsmen apparently went unchallenged during the entire period before Oswald was killed, although some of them were wearing press badges on their lapels and some may have been known to the police officers.[C5-76]

According to some reporters and policemen, people who appeared to be unauthorized were present on the third floor after security procedures were instituted, and video tapes seem to confirm their observations.[C5-77] Jack Ruby was present on the third floor on Friday night.[C5-78] Assistant Chief of Police N. T. Fisher testified that even on Saturday “anybody could come up with a plausible reason for going to one of the third floor bureaus and was able to get in.”[C5-79]

Oswald and the Press

When the police car bringing Oswald from the Texas Theatre drove into the basement of police headquarters at about 2 p.m. on Friday, some reporters and cameramen, principally from local papers and stations, were already on hand. The policemen formed a wedge around Oswald and conducted him to the elevator, but several newsmen crowded into the elevator with Oswald and the police. When the elevator stopped at the third floor, the cameramen ran ahead down the corridor, and then turned around and backed up, taking pictures of Oswald as he was escorted toward the homicide and robbery bureau office. According to one escorting officer, some six or seven reporters followed the police into the bureau office.[C5-80]

From Friday afternoon, when Oswald arrived in the building, until Sunday, newspaper reporters and television cameras focused their attention on the homicide office. In full view and within arm’s length of the assembled newsmen, Oswald traversed the 20 feet of corridor between the homicide office and the locked door leading to the jail elevator at least 15 times after his initial arrival. The jail elevator, sealed off from public use, took him to his fifth floor cell and to the assembly room in the basement for lineups and the Friday night news conference.[C5-81]

On most occasions, Oswald’s escort of three to six detectives and policemen had to push their way through the newsmen who sought to surround them. (See Commission Exhibit No. 2631, [p. 205].) Although the Dallas press normally did not take pictures of a prisoner without first obtaining permission of the police, who generally asked the prisoner, this practice was not followed by any of the newsmen with Oswald.[C5-82] Generally when Oswald appeared the newsmen turned their cameras on him, thrust microphones at his face, and shouted questions at him. Sometimes he answered. Reporters in the forefront of the throng would repeat his answers for the benefit of those behind them who could not hear. On Saturday, however in response to police admonitions, the reporters exercised more restraint and shouted fewer questions at Oswald when he passed through the corridor.[C5-83]

COMMISSION EXHIBIT NO. 2965

OSWALD AT PRESS CONFERENCE IN ASSEMBLY ROOM, FRIDAY NIGHT

Oswald’s most prolonged exposure occurred at the midnight press conference on Friday night. In response to demands of newsmen, District Attorney Wade, after consulting with Chief Curry and Captain Fritz, had announced shortly before midnight that Oswald would appear at a press conference in the basement assembly room.[C5-84] An estimated 70 to 100 people, including Jack Ruby, and other unauthorized persons, crowded into the small downstairs room. No identification was required.[C5-85] The room was so packed that Deputy Chief M. W. Stevenson and Captain Fritz who came down to the basement after the crowd had assembled could not get in and were forced to remain in the doorway.[C5-86]

Oswald was brought into the room shortly after midnight.[C5-87] Curry had instructed policemen not to permit newsmen to touch Oswald or get close to him, but no steps were taken to shield Oswald from the crowd.[C5-88] Captain Fritz had asked that Oswald be placed on the platform used for lineups so that he could be more easily removed “if anything happened.”[C5-89] Chief Curry, however, insisted that Oswald stand on the floor in front of the stage, where he was also in front of the one-way nylon-cloth screen customarily used to prevent a suspect from seeing those present in the room. This was done because cameramen had told Curry that their cameras would not photograph well through the screen.[C5-90]

Curry had instructed the reporters that they were not to “ask any questions and try to interview * * * [Oswald] in any way,” but when he was brought into the room, “immediately they began to shoot questions at him and shove microphones into his face.”[C5-91] It was difficult to hear Oswald’s answers above the uproar. Cameramen stood on the tables to take pictures and others pushed forward to get close-ups. (See Commission Exhibit No. 2965, [p. 207].) The noise and confusion mounted as reporters shouted at each other to get out of the way and camermen made frantic efforts to get into position for pictures.[C5-92] After Oswald had been in the room only a few minutes, Chief Curry intervened and directed that Oswald be taken back to the jail because, he testified, the newsmen “tried to overrun him.”[C5-93]