Mr. Leavelle. Well, this would be on Monday morning, I guess, the next Monday morning around 11, around the same hour that Oswald was transferred. The captain had not showed up and I—he called on the telephone and asked for me and his secretary called me to the phone, and I was in the squad room where several officers were, and asked me if I was in a position where I could talk, and I said, “No, not really,” and he said, “Well—” told me to go into his office and take the phone in there, which I did, and he said, “I am down at the Greyhound Bus Station, and I have Officers Graves and Montgomery with me.”
He had run into them on the street. Said, “We have cased the jail and it looks clear. I am going to make a suggestion to you, and if you don’t think it will work I want you to tell me.”
Said—he said, “We’ll pull through the basement of the city hall,” said, “You go get Ruby out of the jail anyway you want to, on a “tempo” or whatever you think best, and bring him down to me, down in the elevator and we’ll pull through the basement at some given time, and we’ll load him up and whisk him right on down and let another squad follow us and we will take him right on down to the county jail.”
Said, “The sheriff—I haven’t called Decker or the chief about it, either.” Said, “Do you think it will work?”
I said, “Yes.” Said, “How many men—got enough there to help you with him?”
I said, “Yes, there is three or four here I can get.”
“Don’t tell anybody where you are going. Just get them like you are going after coffee and get downstairs or somewhere and tell them what you are going to do.”
So, I went into the squad room (Captain Fritz had called) Lieutenant Wells, and told him not to let the officers out of the office because he wanted us when he got in there so I just walked out and motioned to Mr. Brown and Dhority and Mr. Beck and told them to follow me, and didn’t say a word to anyone, and walked downstairs, and, of course, they are curious, and when I got downstairs I outlined the deal to them and told Beck and Brown to get the car—get the other car in the basement and have it in position to go out, and Dhority and I went up and got the prisoner and brought him down.
Mr. Hubert. Brought him down the jail elevator?
Mr. Leavelle. Down the jail elevator.