These are some original witness statements taken immediately after the
assassination by the Dallas Police, published later in the Warren Commission Hearings
volumes.
Click a name to read that person's full
statement. Wait for the page to fully load before clicking.
"Police and a lot of spectators started running up the hill on the
opposite side of the street from me to a fence of wood. I assumed that that was where the
shot was fired from at that time." - Hugh
Beztner, Jr.
"I believe that I could identify this man if I ever saw him
again." - Howard Brennan, who failed to ID Lee
Harvey Oswald when shown him in a police lineup.
"I looked over toward the arcade and trees and saw a puff of smoke
come from the trees and I heard three more shots after the first shot but that was the
only puff of smoke I saw." - S. M. Holland
"I do remember one peculair [sic] thing happened just at the time I
saw the man up there. There was a girl walked in the Texas School Book Depository
Building, a rather tall girl.... She was walking in while everyone else had been coming
out." Ronald Fischer
"We can place the time that we saw this man walking with the gun as
I recall someone in the crowd asking for the time and they said it was 11:50A.M." - Philip Ben Hathaway
Warren Commission Hearings (WCH)
Vol. 19, p. 467, taken 11-22-63:
I was standing on Houston Street near the intersection of Elm
Street. I took a picture of President Kennedy's car as it passed along Houston Street. I
have an old camera. I looked down real quick and rolled the film to take the next picture.
I then ran down to the corner of Elm and Houston Streets, this being the southwest corner.
I took another picture just as President Kennedy's car rounded the corner. He was just
about all the way around the corner. I was standing back from the corner and had to take
the pictures through some of the crowd. I ran on down Elm a little more and President
Kennedy's car was starting to go down the hill to the triple underpass. I was running
trying to keep the President's car in my view and was winding my film as I ran. I took
another picture as the President's car was going down the hill on Elm Street. I started to
wind my film again and I heard a loud noise. I thought that this noise was either a
firecracker or a car had backfired. I looked up and it seemed like there was another loud
noise in the matter of a few seconds. I looked down the street and I could see the
President's car and another one and they looked like the cars were stopped. Then I saw a a
[sic] flash of pink like someone standing up and then sitting back down in the car. Then I
ran around so I could look over the back of a monument and I either saw the following then
or when I was standing back down on the corner of Elm Street. I cannot remember exactly
where I was when I saw the following: I heard at least two shots fired and I saw what
looked like a firecracker going off in the president's car. My assumption for this was
because I saw fragments going up in the air. I also saw a man in either the President's
car or the car behind his and someone down in one of those cars pulled out what looked
like a rifle. I also remember seeing what looked like a nickel revolver in someone's hand
in the President's car or somewhere immediately around his car. Then the President's car
sped on under the underpass. Police and a lot of spectators started running up the hill on
the opposite side of the street from me to a fence of wood. I assumed that that was where
the shot was fired from at that time. I kept watching the crowd. Then I came around the
monument over to Main Street. I walked down toward where the President's car had stopped.
I saw a Police Officer and some men in plain clothes. I don't know who they were. These
Police Officers and the men in plain clothes were digging around in the dirt as if they
were looking for a bullet. I walked back around the monument over to Elm Street where they
were digging in the dirt. I went on across the street and up the embankment to where the
fence is located. By this time almost all of the people had left. There were quite a few
people down on the street crowded around a motorcycle. I was looking around the fence as
the rumor had spread that that was where the shot had come from. I started figuring where
I was when I had taken the third picture and it seemed to me that the fence row would have
been in the picture. I saw a group of men who looked like they might be officers and one
of them turned out to be Deputy Sheriff Boone. I told him about the picture I had taken.
Deputy Sheriff Boone contacted superiors and was told to bring me over to the Sheriff's
Office. Deputy Sheriff Boone took my camera and asked me to wait. I waited in the
Sheriff's Office and some time later, an hour or two, he brought my camera back and told
me that as soon as they got through with the film and they were dry that they would give
me the film. A little later he came in and gave me the negatives and told me that they
were interested in a couple of pictures and implied that the negatives was all I was going
to get back. To the best of my knowledge, this is all I know about this incident.
I am presently employed by the Wallace and Beard Construction Company as a Steam fitter
and have been so employed for about the past 7 weeks. I am working in the Katy Railroad
yards at the West end of Pacific Street near the railroad tracks. We had knocked off for
lunch and I had dinner at the cafeteria at Record and Main Street and had come back to see
the President of the United States. I was sitting on a ledge or wall near the intersection
of Houston Street and Elm Street near the red light pole. I was facing in a northerly
direction looking not only at Elm street but I could see the large red brick building
across the street from where I was sitting. I take this building across the street to be
about 7 stories anyway in the east end of the building and the second row of windows from
the top I saw a man in this window. I had seen him before the President's car arrived. He
was just sitting up there looking down apparantly [sic] waiting for the same thing I was
to see the President. I did not notice anything unusual about this man. He was a white man
in his early 30's, slender, nice looking, slender and would weigh about 165 to 175 pounds.
He had on light colored clothing but definately [sic] not a suit. I proceeded to watch the
President's car as it turned left at the corner where I was and about 50 yards from the
intersection of Elm and Houston and to a point I would say the President's back was in
line with the last window I have previously described I heard what I thought was a back
fire. It run in my mind that it might be someone throwing firecrackers out the window of
the red brick building and I looked up at the building. I then saw this man I have
described in the window and he was taking aim with a high powered rifle. I could see all
of the barrel of the gun. I do not know if it had a scope on it or not. I was looking at
the man in this window at the time of the last explosion. Then this man let the gun down
to his side and stepped down out of sight. He did not seem to be in any hurry. I could see
this man from about his belt up. There was nothing unusual about him at all in appearance.
I believe that I could identify this man if I ever saw him again.
Statement of S. M. Holland,
WCH 19, p. 473, taken 11/22/63:
I am a signal supervisor for the Union Terminal and I was inspecting
signal and switches and stopped to watch the parade. I was standing on top of the triple
underpass and the President's car was coming down Elm Street and when they got just about
to the Arcade I heard what I thought for the moment was a fire cracker and he slumped over
and I looked over toward the arcade and trees and saw a puff of smoke come from the trees
and I heard three more shots after the first shot but that was the only puff of smoke I
saw. I immediately ran around to where I could see behind the arcade and did not see
anyone running from there. But the puff of smoke I saw definitely came fromm behind the
arcade through the trees. After the first shot the President slumped over and Mrs. Kennedy
jumped up and tried to get over in the back seat to him and then the second shot rang out.
After the first shot the secret service man raised up in the seat with a machine gun and
then dropped back down in the seat. And they immediately sped off. Everything is spinning
in my head and if I remember anything else later I will come back and tell Bill.
Today, November 22nd, 1963, I was with Ronald Fischer, and we were on the corner at Elm
and Houston, and I happened to look up there at the building, the Texas School Book
Depository Building, and I saw a man at the window on the fifth floor, the window was wide
open all the way; there was a stack of boxes around him, I could see. Bob remarked that he
must be hiding from somebody. I noticed that he had on a sport shirt, it was light
colored, it was yellow or white, something to that effect, and his hair was rather short;
I thought he might be something around twenty-six, as near as I could tell.
The motorcade rounded the corner at about this time, and then I thought I heard four
shots, but it never occurred to us what it was. The shots seemed to come from that
building there.
Today, November 22nd, 1963, I was with Robert E. (Bob) Edwards, we were standing on the
corner of Elm and Houston, on the southwest corner; about thirty seconds before the
motorcade came by, Bob turned to me and said that there was a man on the fifth floor of
the Texas School Book Depository Building, at the window there, and I looked up and saw
the man. I looked up at the window and I noticed that he seemed to be laying down there or
in a funny position anyway, because all I could see was his head. I noticed that he was
light-headed and that he had on an open neck shirt, and that was before the motorcade
rounded the corner. I noticed his complexion seemed to be clear. and that he was in his
twenty's, appeared to be in his twenty's.
I turned away and by that time the motorcade rounded the corner. And then I heard what
I thought was three shots, and the motorcade was about where that Stemmons Freeway sign is
there.
I do remember one peculair [sic] thing happened just at the time I saw the man up
there. There was a girl walked in the Texas School Book Depository Building, a rather tall
girl, and looked to me like she might be an employee in that building. She was walking in
while everyone else had been coming out.
From Decker Exhibit No. 5323
WCH 19, p. 477
statement of Philip Ben Hathaway, age 28, taken 11/22/63:
Just before Noon today, my friend John Stevens Rutter Lawrence, who works with me, and
I and two other friends left the Texaco Building where we work going to the parade. We
were walking down Commerce up to Main and Main to Akard and while we were walking up Akard
towards Main Street we passed a man who was carrying a rifle in a gun case. I saw this man
walking towards me, walking towards Commerce, and took particular attention to him because
of his size. I am 6'5" and weigh 200 pounds. This man was very tall, approx [sic]
6'6" or 6'7" over 250 pounds, very thick and big through the chest, in his 30's,
dirty blonde hair worn in a crew cut. Was wearing a grey colored business suit with white
dress shirt, fair complexion. I remarked to my friend that there was a guy carrying a gun
in all this crowd and made the remark that he was probably a secret service man. I could
very easily identify this man if I ever saw him again. The gun case was holding a rifle
because I could tell there was a gun in it as it was a combination leather and cloth gun
case and without a gun, it would have been limp, but it was heavy and he was carrying it
by the handle and the barrell of the gun was up at a 45 degree angle. It was beige or tan
leather and olive drab material.
We can place the time that we saw this man walking with the gun as I recall someone in
the crowd asking for the time and they said it was 11:50A.M.
