Mr. Griffin. This was a pay telephone?
Mr. Kantor. No; to my best recollection it was not. I don’t really remember for sure—but I don’t believe it was.
Mr. Griffin. But the phone was on the first floor of Parkland Hospital?
Mr. Kantor. Yes; that is right. And I had difficulty reaching Washington.
Mr. Griffin. Let me interrupt you here. Did you have to go through a hospital operator?
Mr. Kantor. I am just trying to remember. I don’t think it was a pay phone, and I think my trouble was dialing and getting out. I made several attempts at it, as I recall, and finally got a Dallas long-distance operator, who put me through to Washington. I think that is where the problem had been—just getting out. And I telephoned what I could to the Scripps-Howard office in Washington—that is, the little bit I had seen, and the comments I had gotten from Senator Yarborough.
Mr. Griffin. Now, at the time you made this telephone call, what was your impression as to the condition of the President?
Mr. Kantor. I had no idea, beyond the fact that I had seen the blood and that Senator Yarborough had told me that something very terrible had happened.
While on the phone, I discovered that I was immediately across the hall from a door which led from the emergency area. I saw Mrs. Johnson being led out, I believe, on the arm of a Secret Service man on one side and on the arm of Representative Jack Brooks, of Texas, on the other. And I saw a priest coming out of this area—out of this doorway.
Mr. Griffin. Are you able to describe what was behind that door, other than it was an emergency door?