Captain Talbert. His reaction was startled, and that he even alleged that he came in that way, and that it couldn’t possibly have been true.
Mr. Hubert. By that you mean that the information conveyed to you by Pierce was that Ruby claimed to have entered through the Main Street entrance as Pierce went out, and Pierce’s reaction was negative on that, and of a vociferous nature?
Captain Talbert. And startled, as I recall. Sam can be rather positive in his views. He is positive in his views, not can be. And he was very positive in that.
Mr. Hubert. Were you aware at anytime on the morning of the 24th that threats had come through concerning the harm to Oswald during the transfer?
Captain Talbert. I am sorry?
Mr. Hubert. Were you aware at anytime prior to Oswald’s shooting that threats had come to the attention of the police department concerning the safety of Oswald?
Captain Talbert. Yes, sir. That is the reason I took the action of—if you will analyze what I did with assigning the total personnel that I had assigned that day, and that included myself, including all the patrolmen and supervisors, I took all the precautions possible against mob action, and took elementary precautions against an individual action. And needless to say, from the subsequent events, it was unsuccessful.
Mr. Hubert. Did you in fact address your consideration of security measures to both types of threats? That is, to the mob action and single action by one man?
Captain Talbert. Right, sir. The individual officer on Main Street, for instance, we had the buildup of the crowd on the opposite side of the building on Commerce where the people obviously knew was an exit ramp, so the individual officer on Main Street was one of, if not the best patrolmen I have. He is the type person that you can depend on thoroughly, and quite sizable physically. I don’t know whether you have met Vaughn or not, but if we went into physical combat, I would want an edge on him of some sort. And if an individual had tried to attack him to get in, we had adequate personnel in the basement to take care of him if they got past. In my opinion, they would never have gotten past. If a mob had tried to attack him, we still had adequate personnel. We had a total of four—let me correct that. I know positively that we had three tear gas cases down there as well as numerous shotguns or side arms, and we could have taken care of mob action with the short notification we would have had after they go past Vaughn.
Mr. Hubert. I think you said earlier that you took elaborate precautions against a mob, but I think you used the word elementary. What do you mean by that? What contrast do you mean to point out?