Michaelis Exhibit No. 4
Michaelis Exhibit No. 5
Sometime after January 27, 1963, Seaport Traders, Inc., received through the mail a mail-order coupon for one “.38 St. W. 2” Bbl.,” cost $29.95. Ten dollars in cash was enclosed. The order was signed in ink by “A. J. Hidell, aged 28.”[C4-586] (See Commission Exhibit No. 790, [p. 173].) The date of the order was January 27 (no year shown), and the return address was Post Office Box 2915, Dallas, Tex. Also on the order form was an order, written in ink, for one box of ammunition and one holster, but a line was drawn through these items. The mail-order form had a line for the name of a witness to attest that the person ordering the gun was a U.S. citizen and had not been convicted of a felony. The name written in this space was D. F. Drittal.[C4-587]
Heinz W. Michaelis, office manager of both George Rose & Co., Inc., and Seaport Traders, Inc., identified records of Seaport Traders, Inc., which showed that a “.38 S and W Special two-inch Commando, serial number V510210” was shipped on March 20, 1963, to A. J. Hidell, Post Office Box 2915, Dallas, Tex. The invoice was prepared on March 13, 1963; the revolver was actually shipped on March 20 by Railway Express. The balance due on the purchase was $19.95. Michaelis furnished the shipping copy of the invoice, and the Railway Express Agency shipping documents, showing that $19.95, plus $1.27 shipping charge, had been collected from the consignee, Hidell.[C4-588] (See Michaelis Exhibits Nos. 2, 4, 5, [p. 173].)
Handwriting experts, Alwyn Cole of the Treasury Department and James C. Cadigan of the FBI, testified before the Commission that the writing on the coupon was Oswald’s. The signature of the witness, D. F. Drittal, who attested that the fictitious Hidell was an American citizen and had not been convicted of a felony, was also in Oswald’s handwriting.[C4-589] Marina Oswald gave as her opinion that the mail-order coupon was in Oswald’s handwriting.[C4-590] When shown the revolver, she stated that she recognized it as the one owned by her husband.[C4-591] She also testified that this appeared to be the revolver seen in Oswald’s belt in the picture she took in late March or early April 1963 when the family was living on Neely Street in Dallas.[C4-592] Police found an empty revolver holster when they searched Oswald’s room on Beckley Avenue after his arrest.[C4-593] Marina Oswald testified that this was the holster which contained the revolver in the photographs taken on Neely Street.[C4-594]
Oswald’s Jacket
Approximately 15 minutes before the shooting of Tippit, Oswald was seen leaving his roominghouse.[C4-595] He was wearing a zipper jacket which he had not been wearing moments before when he had arrived home.[C4-596] When Oswald was arrested, he did not have a jacket.[C4-597] Shortly after Tippit was slain, policemen found a light-colored zipper jacket along the route taken by the killer as he attempted to escape.[C4-598] (See Commission Exhibit No. 1968, [p. 164].)
At 1:22 p.m. the Dallas police radio described the man wanted for the murder of Tippit as “a white male about thirty, five foot eight inches, black hair, slender, wearing a white jacket, white shirt and dark slacks.”[C4-599] According to Patrolman Poe this description came from Mrs. Markham and Mrs. Barbara Jeanette Davis.[C4-600] Mrs. Markham told Poe that the man was a “white male, about 25, about five feet eight, brown hair, medium,” and wearing a “white jacket.” Mrs. Davis gave Poe the same general description: a “white male in his early twenties, around five foot seven inches or eight inches, about 145 pounds,” and wearing a white jacket.
As has been discussed previously, two witnesses, Warren Reynolds and B. M. Patterson, saw the gunman run toward the rear of a gasoline service station on Jefferson Boulevard. Mrs. Mary Brock, the wife of a mechanic who worked at the station, was there at the time and she saw a white male, “5 feet, 10 inches * * * wearing light clothing * * * a light-colored jacket” walk past her at a fast pace with his hands in his pocket. She last saw him in the parking lot directly behind the service station. When interviewed by FBI agents on January 21, 1964, she identified a picture of Oswald as being the same person she saw on November 22. She confirmed this interview by a sworn affidavit.[C4-601]
At 1:24 p.m., the police radio reported, “The suspect last seen running west on Jefferson from 400 East Jefferson.”[C4-602] Police Capt. W. R. Westbrook and several other officers concentrated their search along Jefferson Boulevard.[C4-603] Westbrook walked through the parking lot behind the service station[C4-604] and found a light-colored jacket lying under the rear of one of the cars.[C4-605] Westbrook identified Commission Exhibit No. 162 as the light-colored jacket which he discovered underneath the automobile.[C4-606]