(The document referred to was marked Seth Kantor Deposition, June 2, 1964, Exhibit No. 1, for identification.)
Mr. Griffin. Now, referring to Exhibit No. 1, Mr. Kantor, why don’t you go ahead and fill in the details and talk as you think is appropriate.
Mr. Kantor. All right. We were waved in off of Harry Hines Boulevard, by an officer, which led us on a path on the southern side of the hospital to a point where the emergency entrance is on the western side. We were let out of the station wagon about 25 yards, I would guess, directly opposite the emergency entranceway.
Mr. Griffin. All right. Now, you have marked that—shall we call that point 1 on the diagram. Mark that point 1, where you were let out.
Mr. Kantor. All right.
Mr. Griffin. Now, what did you do from there?
Mr. Kantor. I remember that I was one of the reporters who hollered an assurance to the driver of the car that he could stay with us. He was worried about what would happen to him and his car. And he wanted, also, to know what was going on. But I left him cold. I ran as fast as I could to the front of the emergency entranceway, where I saw the President’s limousine. There I saw a great deposit of blood on the ground next to it, on the right-hand side of the car.
Senator Ralph Yarborough, of Texas, was standing very close by, probably 4 or 5 yards away. And I went up to him and asked him what had happened, and he was reluctant to tell me what he had seen, although subsequently he told me he had seen enough to know that the President was dead, or in a dying condition. But he gave me several comments which would lead me to believe that a horrible thing had happened. And I told him that I absolutely had to get in.
He led me to a police officer standing in front of the emergency door and told the officer that I was with the party, and I produced my White House credentials. And the officer let me in.
I took up search for a telephone. I saw Merriman Smith of United Press International using a phone at a desk in a hallway, and went past him, down a hallway just a very short distance to where I found a phone in a booth.