Chronology
The policemen who seized Oswald at the Texas Theatre arrived with him at the police department building at about 2 p.m. and brought him immediately to the third floor offices of the homicide and robbery bureau to await the arrival of Captain Fritz from the Texas School Book Depository. After about 15 or 20 minutes Oswald was ushered into the office of Captain Fritz for the first of several interrogation sessions.[C5-2] At 4:05 p.m. he was taken to the basement assembly room for his first lineup.[C5-3] While waiting outside the lineup room, Oswald was searched, and five cartridges and other items were removed from his pockets.[C5-4] After the lineup, at about 4:20, Oswald was returned to Captain Fritz’ office for further questioning.[C5-5] Two hours later, at 6:20 p.m., Oswald was taken downstairs for a second lineup and returned to Captain Fritz’ office within 15 minutes for additional interrogation.[C5-6] Shortly after 7 p.m., Captain Fritz signed a complaint charging Oswald with the murder of Patrolman Tippit. Oswald was formally arraigned, i.e., advised of the charges, at 7:10 p.m., before Justice of the Peace David L. Johnston, who came to Captain Fritz’ office for the occasion.[C5-7]
After a third lineup at about 7:40 p.m., Oswald was returned to Fritz’ office.[C5-8] About an hour later, after further questioning, Oswald’s fingerprints and palmprints were taken and a paraffin test (see [app. XI]) administered in Fritz’ office, after which the questioning resumed.[C5-9] At 11:26 p.m. Fritz signed the complaint charging Oswald with the murder of President Kennedy.[C5-10] Shortly after midnight, detectives took Oswald to the basement assembly room for an appearance of several minutes before members of the press.[C5-11] At about 12:20 a.m. Oswald was delivered to the jailer who placed him in a maximum security cell on the fifth floor.[C5-12] His cell was the center one in a block of three cells that were separated from the remainder of the jail area. The cells on either side of Oswald were empty and a guard was nearby whenever Oswald was present.[C5-13] Shortly after 1:30 a.m. Oswald was brought to the identification bureau on the fourth floor and arraigned before Justice of the Peace Johnston, this time for the murder of President Kennedy.[C5-14]
Questioning resumed in Fritz’ office on Saturday morning at about 10:25 a.m., and the session lasted nearly an hour and 10 minutes.[C5-15] Oswald was then returned to his cell for an hour, and at 12:35 p.m. he was brought back to Fritz’ office for an additional half-hour of questioning.[C5-16] From 1:10 to 1:30 p.m., Oswald’s wife and mother visited him in the fourth floor visiting area;[C5-17] at 1:40 p.m. he attempted to call an attorney in New York.[C5-18] He appeared in another lineup at 2:15 p.m.[C5-19] At 2:45 p.m., with Oswald’s consent, a member of the identification bureau obtained fingernail scrapings and specimens of hair from him.[C5-20] He returned to the fourth floor at 3:30 p.m. for a 10-minute visit with his brother, Robert.[C5-21] Between 4 and 4:30 p.m., Oswald made two telephone calls to Mrs. Ruth Paine[C5-22] at her home in Irving; at about 5:30 p.m. he was visited by the president of the Dallas Bar Association[C5-23] with whom he spoke for about 5 minutes. From 6 to 7:15 p.m. Oswald was interrogated once again in Captain Fritz’ office and then returned to his cell.[C5-24] At 8 p.m. he called the Paine residence again and asked to speak to his wife, but Mrs. Paine told him that his wife was no longer there.[C5-25]
Oswald was signed out of jail at 9:30 a.m. on Sunday, November 24, and taken to Captain Fritz’ office for a final round of questioning.[C5-26] The transfer party left Fritz’ office at about 11:15 a.m.;[C5-27] at 11:21 a.m. Oswald was shot.[C5-28] He was declared dead at Parkland Hospital at 1:07 p.m.[C5-29]
Interrogation Sessions
During the period between 2:30 p.m. on Friday afternoon and 11:15 a.m. Sunday morning, Oswald was interrogated for a total of approximately 12 hours.[C5-30] Though subject to intermittent questioning for more than 7 hours on Friday, Oswald was given 8 to 9 hours to rest that night. On Saturday he was questioned for a total of only 3 hours during three interrogation sessions, and on Sunday he was questioned for less than 2 hours.[C5-31] (These interrogations are discussed in [ch. IV].)
Captain Fritz’ office, within which the interrogations took place, was a small room, 14 feet by 9½ feet in size.[C5-32] In addition to the policemen guarding the prisoner, those present usually included Dallas detectives, investigators from the FBI and the Secret Service, and occasionally other officials, particularly a post office inspector and the U.S. marshal. (See statements in [app. XI].) As many as seven or eight people crowded into the small office.[C5-33] In all, more than 25 different persons participated in or were present at some time during interrogations. Captain Fritz, who conducted most of the interrogations, was frequently called from the room. He said, “I don’t believe there was any time when I went through a very long period without having to step to the door, or step outside, to get a report from some pair of officers, or to give them additional assignments.”[C5-34] In his absence, others present would occasionally question Oswald.[C5-35]
The interrogators differ on whether the confusion prevailing in the main third floor corridor penetrated Fritz’ office and affected the atmosphere within.[C5-36] Oswald’s processions through the third floor corridor, described more fully below, tended, in Fritz’ opinion, to keep Oswald upset, and the remarks and questions of newsmen sometimes caused him to become annoyed. Despite the confusion that frequently prevailed, Oswald remained calm most of the time during the interrogations.[C5-37] According to Captain Fritz:
You know I didn’t have trouble with him. If we would just talk to him quietly like we are talking right now, we talked all right until I asked him a question that meant something, every time I asked him a question that meant something, that would produce evidence he immediately told me he wouldn’t tell me about it and he seemed to anticipate what I was going to ask.[C5-38]