Mr. Elliott:
Brewer's WC testimony mentions " we were listening to the transistor...".
Who is we?
His testimony: February 1964.
Yes. But let’s look at his statements made in chronological order. The earliest statements have to be considered the most reliable, although false memories can crop up very quickly.
Two weeks later:
December 6, 1963 Affidavit:
https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth339626/m1/1/No mention of “we” hearing the radio. Only “I”. Does say he heard the President had been shot. Also says he heard a police officer had been shot. This cannot be, but false memories can certainly develop in 2 weeks. Said he followed Oswald a bit out on the street. And Saw him duck into the theater.
Only problem: Remembering hearing the radio report of an officer being shot.
Four months later:
April 2, 1964 Warren Commission testimony.
https://www.jdtippit.com/brewer_nov.htmNow, as is typical with memories, problems start to crop up:
He now refers to “we”, not “I”, heard on the radio, the news about the President and the police officer. Even so, he doesn’t say that “we” were there the whole time. “We” heard the reports.
“We listened to all the events”. What does that mean? All the events up to 1:10? All the events up to the time Oswald entered the store? All the events up to the time Oswald was arrested? All the events up to the time Ruby shot Oswald two days later? We can’t tell. It could be that if others where there, they soon left to hunt up a TV set while Mr. Brewer had to stay in the shop. There is no discussion about Mr. Brewer interacting with the “others”, asking what they thought of that strange man, asking them to come with him to the theater to check the exits. Asking them to step out of the store while he temporally locked up. So, I suspect if there were others there, they had left by the time Oswald showed up. It doesn’t make sense that Mr. Brewer would forget all about them and not interact with them in some way if they were still there.
33 years later:
November 25, 1996 interview.
https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=16235&search=two_men+from+IBM+JCB#relPageId=8&tab=pageNow all sorts of problems occur with his story.
33 years later he remembers not only listening to the radio by the station, KLIF. Happens to be the same station Julie Postal said she was listening to in her 1964 testimony.
And now, not only are there others, but there were two other men in the shop when Oswald showed up. They were friends who worked for IBM. They were in there to just in there just to kill time and lounge around. The President had just been shot, but instead of hunting up a TV set, which they could do but Mr. Brewer could not, they decided instead to lounge around and kill time. And again, he does not bring up any interaction with them except when prompted by the interviewer, he responds with “Oh yes, I think I said something. “Said something”. Not asking them to come with him to the theater to watch exits. Not asking them to step out of the store while he locked up. Just said “something” and didn’t interact with them again.
He walked up to the theater booth and said ‘Julie, did you sell a ticket?’. Julie. Julie worked a block away. But he knew her before November 22, 1963? I don’t think he mentioned that in any of his earlier statements. Now Mr. Brewer was 22 years old. I don’t see Julie Postal’s age, but in her Warren Commission testimony she said she graduated from high school in California and returned to Texas, and had been working at the Texas Theater for 11, 14 or 15 years. I don’t think it’s likely that Mr. Brewer was on a first name basis with Julie before November 22, 1963.
In addition, he remembered telling Butch Burroughs “Butch, come on with me’. Butch. I think it was even less likely that Mr. Brewer was on a first name basis with Butch Burroughs.
And not only did Mr. Brewer know “Julie” and “Butch” by there first names, he also knew Oswald. Oswald bought a two-eyelet, crepe-soled shoe, model 8110, size eight and a half, sometime before the assassination. Even thirty years later Mr. Brewer has an amazing memory for all his customers and their shoes. Oswald was very fastidious and meticulous. None of this was mentioned in 1963 or 1964 but by 1996 Mr. Brewer remembered a lot about this customer he met once and sold a pair of shoes to.
All this looks like a classic case of “False Memories”. The witness starts to incorporate information he learned later into his memory. He knows “Julie”. He knows “Butch”. He knows Oswald. Hell, he may remember selling shoes to Jack Ruby by now.
There is no reason for him to make up these lies. To say he was on a first name basis with “Julie”, with “Butch”. To say he sold a pair of shoes to Oswald.
A minor problem two weeks later. More problems four months later. A host of problems 33 years later. Classic signs of false memories cropping up over time.
