Crossfire: The Plot That Killed Kennedy by Jim Marrs Read Free Book Online Page A

direction even before Decker's radio
order to "... saturate the area of the park, railroad and all buildings . .."
arrived.
    Deputy L. C. Smith, in a report made that day, told a story that was
typical of the deputies' experiences:
    I was standing in front of the Sheriff's Office on Main Street and
watched the President and his party drive by. Just a few seconds later, I
heard the first shot, which I thought was a backfire, then the second
shot and third shot rang out. I knew that this was gun shots and
everyone else did also. I ran as fast as I could to Elm Street just west of
Houston and I heard a woman unknown to me say the President was
shot in the head and the shots came from the fence on the north side of
Elm. I went at [once] behind the fence and searched also in the parking
area. Then came . . . word the shot was thought to have come from the
Texas School Book Depository . . .
    Supporting the deputies stories was W. W. Mabra, then a county bailiff.
Mabra, too, was on the corner of Main and Houston:
    .. . so close to the President that I could almost have reached out and
touched him. Then I heard the first shot. I thought it was a backfire. People ran toward the knoll. Some said they saw smoke there. I thought
at first the shot may have come from there.

    Across Main Street from the deputies and Mabra stood Dallas County
surveyor Robert H. West, who watched the presidential limousine move
slowly toward the Triple Underpass. He heard one small report "similar to
a motorcycle backfire" then three like "rifle fire." He said the shots came
from the "northwest quadrant of Dealey Plaza (the area of the picket fence
on the Grassy Knoll. " West later participated in reconstructions of the
assassination for both Life magazine and the FBI, which convinced him the
crime could not have been the work of one man.
    Mr. and Mrs. Arnold Rowland were both high-school students who had
come to town to see the President. They were standing on Houston Street
near Decker's office, the west side of which faces Dealey Plaza. Both of
the Rowlands believed the shots came from down near the Triple Underpass despite the fact that fifteen minutes before the motorcade arrived they
had remarked about seeing two men, one with a rifle and telescopic sight,
on the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository. Arnold Rowland
had assumed the men were part of the Secret Service protection.
    He said the man with the rifle was in the far west window of the
Depository's sixth floor while the other man, described as an elderly
Negro with thin hair wearing a plaid shirt, was seen in the easternmost
window (the so-called "sniper's nest" window). Rowland said he lost
sight of the man with the rifle as the motorcade approached, but again saw
the black man just before Kennedy arrived.
    During the excitement of the moment, Rowland said he neglected to
mention the black man when he talked to authorities in the Sheriff's
Office. However, he said the next day FBI agents came to his home and
got him to sign a statement. He recalled: At that time I told them I did see
the Negro man there and they told me it didn't have any bearing or such on
the case right then. In fact, they just the same as told me to forget it now."
    Although the agents "didn't seem interested" in Rowland's story of the
two men on the sixth floor, they did attempt to get an identification of the
man with the gun by showing Rowland photos of Oswald. However,
Rowland said: "I just couldn't identify him . . . because I just didn't have
a good enough look at his face."
    Rowland's story of seeing two men was corroborated to the Warren
Commission by Deputy Sheriff Roger D. Craig. Craig said Rowland told
him about seeing two men pacing the Depository approximately ten minutes after the assassination as Craig interviewed Rowland in Dealey Plaza.
    The two men also were seen by Mrs. Carolyn Walther, who worked in a
dress factory in the Dal-Tex Building.
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