Mr. Hubert. Now, you are talking about the charge with respect to Tippit, are you, or the death of the President, or both?
Mr. Decker. Well, I rather think it was both.
Mr. Hubert. The warrants then were not put into your possession at all?
Mr. Decker. No, sir; not at that time.
Mr. Hubert. And that is in accordance with the custom, too?
Mr. Decker. Yes.
Mr. Hubert. What would normally happen in circumstances such as we are dealing with here, where warrants were issued about 7 o'clock in one case, as to Tippit, and a little later about 11 o'clock on the 22d of November, as to the death of the President, what would be the normal situation as to your getting control and custody and your becoming the keeper of these prisoners?
Mr. Decker. The whole thing would be that if we, if those warrants had come through the regular channels to us, we would have contacted—I imagine we would have contacted Captain Fritz because it was a homicide and that is in his division, and asked him about the prisoner and discussed with him if he was ready for transfer—if he was going to transfer or did he want us to transfer. That would have been the normal procedure with us.
Mr. Hubert. In other words, it is normal to have them transfer the prisoner to you, rather than for you to go and get them, or both?
Mr. Decker. No; it is normal but it is not too much—they transfer maybe one-tenth of maybe 1 percent, but as hot a piece of merchandise as this prisoner was, chances are Captain Fritz and his men would have attempted to bring him from the city hall to the courthouse.