My Re-Evaluation of Johnny Brewer’s Initial Report of December 6, 1963

[John Tonkovich]

The KBOX recording:

Like many local Dallas radio stations, KBOX took awhile to set up a recording of their broadcast immediately after the assassination.

0:00:46 We also have one Dallas detective reported dead on arrival at Parkland hospital.

 0:03:58 “The President died at 2 o’clock Eastern Standard Time, 1 o’clock Dallas time, some 39 minutes ago.”

The recording starts at 1:35 and by 1:36 we have the report of the death of a Dallas police officer on at least one station, KBOX.

Now, one can say, this report has errors. A detective? DOA at Parkland? Could this be an erroneous report, that had nothing to do with the Officer Tippit shooting? Like the report of a Secret Service agent being killed at Dealey Plaza? It doesn’t matter. Mr. Brewer could have heard that radio report. And learned within the hour more details, that it was officer Tippit, shot in the Oak Cliff area just 20 minutes before Oswald showed up. And report two weeks later that he heard about the policeman being shot just before Oswald showed up.

And we don’t know what was being broadcast by other radio stations at that time. There is a strong clue that WFAA may have reported the shooting of a police officer. Officer E. G. Sabastian reported to dispatch that there was such a media report at 1:28.

Certainly, any reporters listening to the police radio broadcasts should know that the shooting was in the Oak Cliff area, and this may have been reported, possibly by KBOX (before 1:35) or WFAA or other stations. But since so many stations had not started recording their own broadcast before 1:35, there is no way to tell.

The detective at Parland was erroneous. Not, "could this"? There was no dead detective.

Was Parkland close to the Brewer location? No.
Was Tippit taken to Parkland? No.

Are you grasping at straws?

[Joe Elliott]

The detective at Parland was erroneous. Not, "could this"? There was no dead detective.

Was Parkland close to the Brewer location? No.
Was Tippit taken to Parkland? No.

Are you grasping at straws?

Not known to be erroneous. Not 100% correct? Definitely.

It could be a totally erroneous report. Like that of the Secret Service agent killed at Dealey Plaza. Or it could be an early report about the shooting of Officer Tippit, with someone mishearing some of the information they were getting over the police radio, while getting some details right.

At the about that time, around 1:25, the police radio was talking about the need to get blood to Parkland. I would assume for Governor Connally. The mention of Parkland could have confused someone.

In any case, a totally erroneous report, or a valid report with significant errors, this could be the basis of Mr. Brewer remembering hearing about the shooting of a Dallas police officer just before Oswald showed up.

[Jerry Freeman]

Are you grasping at straws?

J T ...don't you see by now?---They are the straw   

[John Iacoletti]

I'm just telling the tell. Batting clean-up.
Using my artistic-license privileges.

You lot can't even manage a Texas-leaguer, ffs.
Seems you 'knowledge-advancers' are going to need a walk-off homer.

More incoherent and irrelevant babbling.

[John Tonkovich]

More incoherent and irrelevant babbling.

Correct, Mr I.
Oddly, his language reminds me of Mr. Storing.
As the Bard spake: " sound and fury, signifying nothing".

[John Iacoletti]

So, was Officer E. G. Sabastian correct that the death of an officer was reported by the media? We have no reason to believe he was not correct.

He was incorrect. NBC News made no such report. You can hope that he heard it somewhere and you can hope that Brewer heard it somewhere, but that doesn’t make it a fact.

Do people think that Officer E. G. Sabastian was hearing voices?

Do you think that Brewer hallucinated two IBM men?

P. S.

But even the 1:36 report is early enough that Mr. Brewer could have heard this just before Oswald walked up to his store.

That would imply that you know what time it was when Brewer saw the man in front of his store.

[John Iacoletti]

Not true. There are several other Dallas-area radio stations that Brewer could have been listening to for which there is no extant audio at all (as of this date in August 2020) -- e.g., WRR, KVIL, KIXL, and KSKY (and perhaps some others too).

Fair enough. I should have said “major radio stations with live news departments”.

But my point remains the same. There’s no reason to think that Brewer was “probably” listening to KBOX, or that he heard an announcement of a policeman being shot in Oak Cliff, prior to the man appearing in front of his shop.

[John Mytton]

Do you think that Brewer hallucinated two IBM men?

Mr. BELIN - I want to take you back to November 22, 1963. This was the day that President Kennedy was assassinated. How did you find out about the assassination, Mr. Brewer?
Mr. BREWER - We were listening to a transistor radio there in the store, just listening to a regular radio program, and they broke in with the bulletin that the President had been shot. And from then, that is all there was. We listened to all of the events.

JohnM