Speculation.—The son of the only witness to the Tippit slaying was arrested after talking to some private investigators and soon plunged to his death from an unbarred jail window.
Commission finding.—According to Mrs. Helen Markham, one of the witnesses to the Tippit slaying, Mrs. Marguerite Oswald and two men who claimed to be reporters from Philadelphia sought to interview her on June 27, 1964. Mrs. Markham did not wish to be interviewed and put them off. Afterward, Mrs. Markham’s son, William Edward Markham, talked with Mrs. Oswald and the men about the Oswald matter and the shooting of Patrolman Tippit. William Edward Markham had been in Norfolk, Va., at the time of the assassination and had not returned to Dallas until May 7, 1964. He had no personal knowledge of the shooting of Patrolman Tippit. On June 30, 1964, another of Mrs. Markham’s sons, James Alfred Markham, was arrested at Mrs. Markham’s apartment by Dallas Police on a charge of burglary. While trying to escape, he fell from the bathroom of the apartment to a concrete driveway about 20 feet below. He was taken to Parkland Memorial Hospital, treated for injuries, and after 6½ hours was taken to jail. As of July 31, 1964, he was in Dallas County Jail awaiting trial. There was also a warrant outstanding against him for parole violation.[A12-129]
Speculation.—The headquarters detachment of the U.S. Army, under orders from [Secretary of Defense Robert S.] McNamara’s office, began to rehearse for the funeral more than a week before the assassination.
Commission finding.—This assertion is based on an interview with U.S. Army Capt. Richard C. Cloy that appeared in the Jackson, Miss., Clarion-Ledger of February 21, 1964. The newspaper quotes Captain Cloy, who was a member of the Army unit charged with conducting funeral ceremonials in honor of deceased Chiefs of State, as having said that, “we were in a state of readiness and had just finished a funeral rehearsal because there was grave concern for President Hoover’s health. But we never expected that our practice was preparing us for President Kennedy.”[A12-130]
Speculation.—The ship in which Oswald went to Europe in 1959 stopped in Havana on the way.
Commission finding.—Oswald boarded the SS Marion Lykes in New Orleans and it sailed on September 20, 1959. It docked in Le Havre, France, on October 8 with only one previous stop—at another French port, La Pallice.[A12-131]
APPENDIX XIII
Biography of Lee Harvey Oswald
EARLY YEARS
Marguerite Claverie, the mother of Lee Harvey Oswald, was born in New Orleans in 1907,[A13-1] into a family of French and German extraction.[A13-2] Her mother died a few years after Marguerite was born, leaving her and five other young children in the care of their father, a streetcar conductor.[A13-3] Although Marguerite describes herself as “a child of one parent,” she recalls being “one of the most popular young ladies in the [grammar] school,” and thinks of her childhood as a “very full happy” one.[A13-4] Her older sister, Mrs. Lillian Murret, remembers Marguerite as “a very pretty child, a very beautiful girl,”[A13-5] as does a former acquaintance, Clem H. Sehrt, who knew the Claveries.[A13-6] The family was poor but, according to Mrs. Murret, was a “happy family * * * singing all the time.”[A13-7] Marguerite had 1 year of high school.[A13-8] Shortly before she was 17, she went to work as a receptionist for a law firm in New Orleans.[A13-9]