Mr. Hubert. Can you comment upon this Lancaster Smith Proposal of a parade?
Mr. Cabell. Lane Smith is a very well-known, very active lay worker in the Catholic church, and he had called me earlier, and I think the suggestion for this came from some nuns, and when he first talked to me I didn't realize frankly the implications or the hazard of a procession such as that, and I told him—he asked about a permit, and I said that that is a matter that is handled by the chief of police, that he would have to be the one to issue a permit for any type of parade, because that is what that amounted to.
Mr. Hubert. What was the proposal of Mr. Smith?
Mr. Cabell. Well, a torchlight procession of both the clergy and any lay people as a procession of mourning that would pass by the site of the assassination and put flowers at the site.
Mr. Hubert. That was proposed for Sunday night?
Mr. Cabell. That was proposed for Sunday night, and after having talked with him, then the implications began to dawn on me, and when I realized that that was in a rather poorly lighted area, it is not in the best part of town, and that the procession itself would pass possibly under the very window of the jail where Oswald presumably would be by that time, then that was the reason behind my calling the chief then.
He told me he had issued the permit because he had no reason not to, and then that is when I made the recommendation that it be canceled.
Mr. Hubert. It was canceled in fact?
Mr. Cabell. Yes; it was.
Mr. Hubert. Before Oswald was shot?