Subject: Re: Tom Alyea on the sixth floor evidence
Date: Sun, 04 Jul 1999 23:12:47 -0400
From: Dale Myers <dmyers@rust.net>
Organization: Verio
Newsgroups: alt.conspiracy.jfk

As we all know, time alters recollections. Case in point:
compare Tom Alyea’s more recent statements (posted by Dave
Reitzes) with his statement from December 19, 1963:

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"...I ran on upstairs with the Secret Service men. Then other
units came in - the Riot Squad. I thought I was going to film
a gun fight. They ran to the 4th floor and I went with them.
Some of the other units went to the top of the building. They
were conducting a systematic search. It boiled down to the
sixth floor. After awhile it was obvious that the assassin was
not in the building. They looked for the gun. I filmed 400 ft.
of film of the Secret Service men looking for the assassin,
climbing over boxes, over the rafters, and the actual finding of
the gun. At the time it was suspected that the assassin had stayed
quite a time there. There was a stack with a stack of chicken bones
on it. There was a Dr. Pepper bottle which they dusted for fingerprints.
The fingerprints were not Oswald’s. You know how he piled the boxes up?
The gun was found across the length of the room from where he fired. It
was stashed between boxes. I had difficulty in filming. They did not want
me closeto the window or to the gun. I asked permission to go to the
window to film. A Secret Service man said, ‘You are close enough.’ I asked
the Secret Service man to take pictures of the stashed gun. I set the
camera but he wiggled the camera. I got a picture of them taking the gun
from the hiding place and dusting it for fingerprints. After this the Crime
Lab man, Captain Will Fritz - and I have footage of this - pulled the bolt
back and a live round came out. They dusted the gun for fingerprints. This
was my third camera. They wouldn’t let me out of the building and they
wouldn’t let anyone else in. I never saw my film on the air because I had
to get the film to someone outside. This was the first film from there. We
had Mal Couch’s film of the crowd but not of the President being hit.
[How did you get the film out?] There’s a story for you. I actually handed
it out through the door but it had been publicized over the air and
established
everywhere that I had thrown it out of the building through a window. I
hesitate
to tell you the real story. I started to throw it out of the building but
being
so close and knowing that we had the other film, I wanted our station to be
the
first to show a film of the assassination. A A.J. L’Hoste was under the
window.
I yelled out to him. In actuality I tossed the film out the front door to
Ron Reiland who had gotten back from covering the apprehension of Oswald at
the Texas Theater. This was another ABC exclusive. There were 2 policemen at
the Depository door. They were not sure that I should get things outside.
Ron was outside and I was inside. One of the policemen there called a
Lieutenant and while they were calling him, I threw the film out....."

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Dave Reitzes wrote:

>Tom Alyea writes:

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>I was the first newsman into the building and the only newsman to
>accompany the search team as they went from floor to floor searching for
>the person who fired the shots. At this time, we did not know the
>president had been hit. I rushed in with a group of plain clothesmen and a
>few uniformed officers.

>[…]

>I [followed] the search team that was on its way to the rear elevator, to
>start the floor by floor search. We searched every floor, all the way to
>the roof. The gunman could have still been in the building. Finding
>nothing, they started back down. After approximately 18 minutes, they were
>joined by Captain Fritz, who had first gone to Parkland Hospital.

>The barricade on the sixth floor ran parallel to the windows, extending in
>an "L" shape that ended against the front wall between the first and
>second twin windows. The height of the stack of boxes was a minimum of 5
>ft. I looked over the barricade and saw three shell casings laying on the
>floor in front of the second window in the two window casement. They were
>scattered in an area that could be covered by a bushel basket. They were
>located about half way between the inside of the barricade. I set my lens
>focus at the estimated distance from the camera to the floor and held the
>camera over the top of the barricade and filmed them before anybody went
>into the enclosure. I could not position my eye to the camera's view
>finder to get the shot. After filming the casings with my wide angle lens,
>from a height of 5 ft., I asked Captain Fritz, who was standing at my
>side, if I could go behind the barricade and get a close-up shot of the
>casings. He told me that it would be better if I got my shots from outside
>the barricade. He then rounded the pile of boxes and entered the
>enclosure. This was the first time anybody walked between the barricade
>and the windows.

>Fritz then walked to the casings, picked them up and held them in his hand
>over the top of the boxes for me to get a close-up shot of the evidence. I
>filmed about eight seconds of a close-up shot of the shell casings in
>Captain Fritz's hand. I stopped filming, and thanked him. I do not recall
>if he placed them in his pocket or returned them back to the floor,
>because I was preoccupied with recording other views of the crime scene. I
>have been asked many times if I thought it was peculiar that the Captain
>of Homicide picked up evidence with his hands. Actually, that was the
>first thought that came to me when he did it, but I rationalized that he
>was the homicide expert and no prints could be taken from spent shell
>casings. Therefore, any photograph of shell casings taken after this, is
>staged and not correct. It is highly doubtful that the shell casings that
>appear in Dallas police photos of the crime scene are the same casings
>that were found originally. The originals by this time were probably in a
>plastic bag at police headquarters. Why? Probably this was a missing link
>in the report the police department had to send to the FBI and they had to
>stage it and the barricade box placement to complete their report and
>photo records.

>The position of the barricade, while difficult to follow for one who was
>not there, is important because of the difference in photographs seen
>today.

>There are four different box positions.

>1) There was one box in the barricade stack that was considerably higher
>than the others. This box is the one that can be seen in the photos taken
>from outside the window by Tom Dillard, because it was high enough to
>catch the sunlight and still be seen from the ground below. It is not to
>be confused with the second box set at an angle in the window sill, that
>was used as a brace for the assassin's rifle.

>2) A portion of this box can also be seen in these same photos taken by
>Tom Dillard. It shows up in the lower right hand corner of the picture.

>3) Two boxes were stacked on the floor, inside the window, to give arm
>support to the assassin. The top box was one of the two boxes from which
>the crime lab lifted palm prints.

>4) The fourth box of importance was on the floor behind the sniper
>location. Officers also lifted palm prints from this box. It is suspected
>that the sniper sat on this box while he waited for the motorcade to pass.

>The positioning of boxes 2, 3, and 4 were recorded by the police crime
>lab. They are the only boxes involved in the crime scene.

>The actual positioning of the barricade was never photographed by the
>police. It s actual positioning is only on my movie footage, which was
>taken before the police started dismantling the arrangement.

>We all looked over the barricade to see if the half open window with three
>boxes piled to form a shooting rest for a gunman. One box was actually on
>the window sill, tilted at an angle. There was a reason for this that I
>cover in my JFK Facts newsletter. The shooting location consists of two
>windows set together to form one single window. (The police photo showing
>the shell casings laying next to the brick wall was staged later by crime
>lab people who did not see the original positioning because they were not
>called upon the scene until after the rifle was found nearly an hour
>later.)

>[…]

>Only recently I saw a picture of Lt. Day with a news still cameraman on
>the 6th floor. Day was shown pointing to the location where the rifle was
>found. This was nearly 3:30 or after. It was my understanding that Day and
>Studebaker had taken the prints, rifle and homemade sack back to police
>headquarters. I personally would like to know what they were doing back at
>the scene unless it was to reconstruct shots they had failed to take
>during the primary investigation. But this evidence had been destroyed and
>they were forced to create their own version. The photo I have seen of the
>barricade wasn't even close. I have also seen recently a police photo of
>the assassin's lair taken from a high angle which indicates that it was
>shot before the barricade box arrangement was destroyed, but it did not
>show the barricade itself. This has no bearing on the case other than the
>public has never seen the original placement. I show it in my JFK Facts
>newsletter.

>Police officers who claim they were on the 6th floor when the assassin's
>window was found have reported that they saw chicken bones at or near the
>site. One officer reported that he saw chicken bones on the floor near the
>location. Another said he saw chicken bones on the barricade boxes, while
>another reported that he saw chicken bones on the box which was laying
>across the window sill. Some of these officers have given testimony as to
>the location of the shell casings. Their testimony differs and none of it
>is true. I have no idea why they are clinging to these statements. They
>must have a reason. Perhaps it is because they put it in a report and they
>must stick to it.

>One officer stated that he found the assassin's location at the 6th floor
>window. He went on to say that as he and his fellow officers were leaving
>the building, he passed Captain Fritz coming in. He said he stopped
>briefly to tell Captain Fritz that he had found the assassin's lair at the
>6th floor window. This seems highly unlikely because Captain Fritz joined
>us on the 5th floor and aided in the search. The chances are great that
>this, or these officers heard the report, that stemmed from WFAA-TV's
>incorrect announcement that the chicken bones were found on the 6th floor.
>This officer or officers perhaps used this information to formulate their
>presence at the scene. There were no chicken bones found on the 6th floor.
>We covered every inch of it and I filmed everything that could possibly be
>suspected as evidence. There definitely were no chicken bones were no
>chicken bones on or near the barricade or boxes at the window. I shot
>close-up shots of the entire area. The most outstanding puzzle as to why
>these officers are sticking to this story is the fact they claim to have
>found the sniper's location, then left the building, as they said to join
>the investigators at the Tippit shooting location. I have never seen a
>report that indicates they attempted to use any telephone in the building
>in an attempt to notify other investigators. They just left the scene to
>check another assignment, and by chance ran into Capt. Fritz coming in the
>front door. They claim to have placed a detective at the location but they
>did not relay their finding to any other officer before they left the
>building. I presume that the alleged detective they allegedly left at the
>scene was instructed to stand there until someone else stumbled upon the
>scene, or they found time to report it after investigating the Tippit
>scene. Sorry, it doesn't wash.

>I do however know that Officer Mooney was present when the rifle was found
>because I took film of him at the scene. He is shown talking to another
>detective, but this was nearly an hour after the sniper's location was
>found at the window. I have no idea when he arrived. We ended up with more
>men than when we started. As they joined us during the search the
>latecomers would bring us the latest news of the president's condition.
>When Captain Fritz arrived 18 minutes after we started, he brought news
>that both Governor Connally and the president had been hit but by the time
>he left, the seriousness of their wounds was unknown. Fritz left the
>hospital almost immediately when he was notified that a search was
>underway in the Texas School Book Depository for the sniper. We in the
>search team had no phones, radios or TV sets. As I recall, we learned that
>the president was dead about the time we found the rifle. I don't know who
>brought us this word. Several officers arrived while we were waiting for
>Lt. Day. One of them was Roger Craig, who is responsible for giving much
>misinformation to the press. None of us were prepared to hear that the
>president's wound was a fatal one. We thought perhaps it was a minor thing
>or possibly a flesh wound. It was a stunning shock, and our attitude
>[towards] the rifle had suddenly changed. We stared at the small portion
>of the butt as it lay under the overhang boxes while we waited for Lt. Day
>to arrive and recover the weapon that killed our president. I give an
>account of this in JFK Facts.

>[…]

>We finished combing the 6th floor, looking for the assassin or any other
>evidence. Finding nothing more at this time Captain Fritz ordered all of
>us to the elevator and we started searching the 7th floor and from there
>we went to the roof.

>Nothing in the way of evidence was found so we retraced our search back
>down, floor by floor. Shortly after we arrived back on the 6th floor,
>Deputy Eugene Boone located the assassin's rifle almost completely hidden
>by some overhanging boxes near the stairwell. I filmed it as it was found.
>In my shot, the figure of Captain Fritz is standing within the enclosure
>next to the rifle. He knew then that the possibility of a fire fight with
>the sniper had greatly diminished. He dispatched one of his men to go down
>and call for the crime lab. About fifteen minutes later, Lt. Day and
>Studebaker arrived. Still pictures were taken of the positioning of the
>rifle, then Lt. Day slid it out from its hiding place and held it up for
>all of us to see. The world has seen my shot of this many times. Lt. Day
>immediately turned toward the window behind him and started dusting the
>weapon for fingerprints. Day was still within the enclosure formed by the
>surrounding boxes. I filmed him lifting prints from the rifle. He lifted
>them off with scotch tape and placed them on little white cards. When he
>had finished, he handed the rifle to Captain Fritz. Fritz pulled the bolt
>back and a live round ejected and landed on the boxes below. Fritz put the
>cartridge in his pocket. I did not see Fritz pick up anything other than
>the live round.

>[…]

>I filmed Captain Fritz talking with associates in this dismantled area
>[the "sniper's nest"], along with Studebaker, who was dusting the Dr.
>Pepper bottle which had been brought up to him from the 5th floor. This is
>all recorded on my film. I never learned if prints were lifted from the
>pop bottle. I'm not sure if anybody ever asked.

>I took the film from my camera, placed it back into its metal can, wrapped
>the tape around it, and tossed it to our News Editor, A. J. L'Hoste, who
>was waiting outside with the other newsmen who were not allowed in the
>building. A. J. raced it to the television station which was about three
>blocks away. About fifteen minutes later the world saw the murder weapon,
>where it was found and pictures of the crime lab people dusting it for
>fingerprints, and the shell casings that once housed those bullets. They
>also saw how the assassin prepared for his ambush and the view he had of
>the killing zone (Tom Alyea, "Facts and Photos," Connie Kritzberg,
>*Secrets from the Sixth Floor Window,* 39-46).

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