TSBD Encirclement & Sealing.... Who? When? Where? Why? How?

[Marjan Rynkiewicz]

Edgar L. Smith  Larry Sneed  University of North Texas Press  Chapter
View Citation  Additional Information  In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:
EDGAR L. SMITH Accident Investigator Dallas Police Department "As the motorcade passed right by me and made its left turn onto Elm Street going toward the Triple Underpass, my eyes were primarily on the motorcade. I was fascinated with John Kennedy and Jackie and felt that they were just larger than life. Seeing them really made an impression on me... " Born in Myrtle Springs, about fifty miles east of Dallas, Ed Smith moved to Dallas at the age often, graduated from Crozier Tech High School in Dallas in 1950 and joined the Dallas Police Department in 1956. Beginning in Radio Patrol, Smith went into the Traffic Division in 1960, and at the time of the assassination was an accident investigator. I worked the evening shift as an accident investigator and was working overtime stationed at Houston and Elm Streets when the Presidential motorcade came through town. In fact, I was situated on the southeast comer of Houston and Elm in front of the Criminal Records Building. Prior to the motorcade's arrival, I had approximately an hour and a half to stand on the comer and, at that time, I believe that I might have looked up at the School Book Depository and all those windows and sort of fantasized about how easy it would be for someone to shoot out of one of those windows. I had a completely unobstructed view; unfortunately, I didn't look up there during the event itself. But there were a lot of people and
198 NO MORE SILENCE they were in a great mood. Everybody seemed really happy and looking forward to seeing the President. I was like many of the people that were lining the streets; I was there more as an observer than as a police officer, despite the fact that, by nature, I'm not a very observant person. My job was to keep the pedestrians back and to look for any kind of suspicious events that might take place. As the motorcade passed right by me and made its left tum onto Elm Street going toward the Triple Underpass, my eyes were primarily on the motorcade. I was fascinated with John Kennedy and Jackie and felt like they were just larger than life. Seeing them really made an impression on me.
 It seemed like a short time, maybe ten or fifteen seconds after they had made the tum, that the first shot rang out. At the time, I didn't think much of it; in fact, I thought it was probably just firecrackers. The thought ran through my mind that this was really a dirty trick to be playing on the President. Then the next two occurred. It seemed like a lot of time elapsed between the three shots. I couldn't really tell where the shots came from, but they sounded like they all came from the same location. Certainly it didn't seem to me that they came from the sixth floor, but things seemed to just echo around there. At the time of the shooting, I was looking more toward the grassy knoll; however, it was sort of obstructed because there were other cars passing by. I looked down there and was able to see the Presidential car lurch off. That was the first time that I realized that something really had taken place; I didn't know what, but I knew that something was wrong. Meanwhile the crowd got quiet and then it became loud.
I reacted by running across the street from the south side of Elm toward the underpass, then cut across the street and saw that something had happened as the crowd started moving toward that location. I ran in that direction because of the crowd reaction and from what I overheard since I had no idea where the shots originated. I followed the crowd with my pistol drawn but holstered it before I crossed Elm headed toward the grassy knoll. I don't recall the amount of time that elapsed, but we did check out the area behind the grassy knoll. There was a tremendous amount of confusion! We had no earthly idea what was going on, and we had very little leadership out there. It was chaos; at least it was for
EDGAR L. SMITH. DALLAS POLICE 199           me. It didn't seem as though anyone was in charge as we had police officers from different divisions there. There were also, what I assumed, Secret Service and FBI agents there simply...

[Marjan Rynkiewicz]

David V. Harkness Larry Sneed University of North Texas Press Chapter
View Citation Additional Information In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:
DAVID V. HARKNESS Sergeant, Traffic Division Dallas Police Department "Even some of the people, immediately after the assassination, were angry at the police. They assumed we'd let the President get shot. Some of them were real abusive. " After having served four years in the U.S. Coast Guard during the Second World War, Harkness joined the Dallas Police Department July 8th, 1946. Prior to 1963, Harkness had worked in the Patrol Division, as an accident investigator in the Traffic Division, in school safety, and then as a downtown traffic sergeant.
I was assigned to the parade route as a three-wheel officer supervising point control and three-wheel officers. My assignment was to keep the parade route open from Main and Field to Elm and Houston. At the time of the arrival of the President, I was at the intersection of Main and Houston because I could see all of my area. If there were any problems, like congestion or anything, I could get to it quickly. So I had a good view all the way up Main Street and over to the Book Depository.
Just about the time the parade was at Elm and Harwood, getting ready to tum west on Main, we had a person who had an epileptic seizure over on Houston Street across from the county jail in Dealey Plaza. So I asked for an ambulance to get him to
DA VID V. H ARKN E S S, S ERG E ANT 205            Parkland and get him out of the area. It just seemed to be a person normally having an epileptic seizure. He did strike his head on the concrete retaining wall right there near the curb, and he was taken to Parkland. We got an ambulance and got him out of there, so it didn't interfere with the parade. I radioed to the officer assigned to Parkland to get the information because we didn't obtain any information at the scene. We were interested in getting him loaded and getting him out of the way. All this happened just four to five minutes before the parade arrived.
I was on the northwest corner of the intersection when I saw the parade coming west on Main and making the turn onto Houston. I was looking at the President, made eye contact with him, and he waved at me. As soon as the motorcade passed, the people that were standing near the intersection where I was kind of walked back. So, when the motorcade made the turn to go down Elm Street, they went back to the grassy area there in the median between Main and Elm to get a better view of him. So I kind of followed the crowd.
As the first shot rang out, then the second, I saw the President's head jerk. Then, as the third shot was fired, Mrs. Kennedy came out of the car and was on all fours on the trunk lid of the car. At the time, I was probably 150-200 feet from the car at the edge of the grassy median between Main and Elm, not far from where my motor was parked at the intersection. The sounds were loud reports. It seemed like there was more time between the first and the second shots than between the second and the third. The second and the third were pretty close together.
Due to the echo pattern in Dealey Plaza, though, I was unable to tell the direction of the shots. After they heard the shots, some people fell down. My first observation on this, if I would have been suspecting where the shots came from, I would have picked the building across from the School Book Depository because I looked up and there was a huge flock of pigeons that flew up from that building. You know how pigeons congregate on top of these buildings; well, they flew up from over there, so I focused my attention to that building. I couldn't see the sixth floor window of the School Book Depository because the colonnade structure in Dealey Plaza was between me and the sixth floor at the level where I was. I was
206 NO MORE SILENCE         right behind that structure. What I could see was the outline of the President's head, and I could see it jerk. I tried to find someone. . . an escape route. I knew we had people stationed all around the place, so I got on my...

[Marjan Rynkiewicz]

Joe Murphy      Larry Sneed      University of North Texas Press Chapter  View Citation
Additional Information      In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:
JOE MURPHY Traffic Division Dallas Police Department "   I could see that something was wrong in the car as it got nearer to my position because the President's wife was leaning over toward President Kennedy, and as ] was standing right above them, ] heard someone say, "Get us to the nearest hospital!"
Born and raised in Dallas, Joe Murphy was offered a contract to play baseball in the Chicago White Sox organization. After playing a year at Midland in the West Texas-Mexican League and later for a semi-pro team in Baytown, Texas, he returned to Dallas and upon the advise of an uncle, joined the Dallas Police Department in 1942. Interrupted by service in the Army during World War II, Murphy returned to the police department in 1946 where he served most of his career in the Traffic Division. He is reputed to have given the most traffic tickets in the history of the Dallas Police Department.
I was assigned on the Stemmons Freeway over Elm Street about 150 yards from the School Book Depository. My job was to keep traffic moving and not to allow anybody to stop on the bridge or park their car anywhere on the shoulders so that they could watch the motorcade from the bridge. I was facing west by the way the motorcade was traveling, and it was to go up the service road to my right and onto the freeway. Several motor jockeys and other officers were there to stop traffic completely
JOE M U R PH Y. T R A F FIe 195           when the motorcade was to pass. That was the only time that traffic was allowed to stop on the freeway. Many of the officers were north of the overpass as much as a quarter of a mile from the overpass where the Elm Street entrance entered the freeway. Others were just riding the area stopping with messages they had for me. We were all channelled to listen for any information from the office or from the dispatcher.
Prior to the arrival of the motorcade I saw some men walking up on the Triple Underpass. Based on how they were dressed, I assumed they were railroad people. There was also at least one officer there as well. I could see the motorcade when it came down Main and turned right onto Houston and over to Elm. But there were some trees that obscured my view at Elm and Houston, so I lost sight of it for a moment or two.
As it approached my position, I heard the shots and a flock of pigeons took off flying in circles. I couldn't tell where the noise was coming from due to the reverberations. In fact, I didn't realize they were shots at first. But I did hear three, what were later defined as shots, and they were about evenly spaced. I could see that something was wrong in the car as it got nearer to my position because the President's wife was leaning over toward President Kennedy, and as I was standing right above them, I heard someone say, "Get us to the nearest hospital!" I waited to hear something on the radio and had difficulty hearing due to all the noise.
By that time, traffic had been reopened north on Stemmons so the noise factor had increased. I wasn't able to tell much about what was going on in Dealey Plaza. I saw a number of people on the ground, then some began to move back up toward the hill. Most were headed toward the intersection at Elm and Houston. I didn't see anybody below me or in that grassy area. I've heard so many tales about that grassy area, but I don't recall seeing anybody over there either running or walking.
After the shooting, the order was given for all us three wheelers to come to the School Book Depository. We were told that some people were supposed to have been running behind the building. So we circled the area looking for anything and yet nothing in particular.
196 NO MORE SILENCE              I remember talking with several people just to see if they had seen anything, but there was nothing of any value that I recall that concerned the shooting. I wasn't involved in anything further in the investigation. My usual hours were 6:00 A.M. to 2:00 P.M., but they held us over late that afternoon. I had...

[Marjan Rynkiewicz]

James C. Bowles    Larry Sneed    University of North Texas Press   Chapter  View Citation
Additional Information   In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:
JAMES C. BOWLES Communications Supervisor Dallas Police Department "McLain assumed, since they were government lawyers working for the flag, motherhood, and Chevrolet coupes, that they wouldn't lie to you. McLain had no idea, in his naive innocence, that they were trying to concoct a tale and that he was a vital validator to their chain... " After serving a stint in the Navy and later operating a small business, James Bowles joined the Dallas Police Department in 1951. In 1963, Bowles was the communications supervisor of the dispatch office. In the years following the assassination, Bowles transcribed the so-called Dallas Police Tapes and later wrote a manuscript titled "The Kennedy Assassination Tapes: A Rebuttal to the Acoustics Evidence." Based on his background with the police department, he is recognized as the authority on the inner workings of the radio communications of the Dallas Police Department and corresponding events at the time of the assassination.
I was at Love Field as part of the reception for the President while my dad, Major, was at Baylor Hospital after suffering a stroke. Before the President arrived, Chief Fisher· came over to me and said that Major had taken a tum for the worse and that I'd better take his car over to the hospital before it was too late. So I • The title "chief' is an umbrella term used by Dallas policemen for assistant chiefs and deputy chiefs as well as the chief of police.
170 NO MORE SILENCE              took his car, rushed to the hospital, and returned as soon as I could. By then the reception at the airport was over. My dad passed away about the same time as Kennedy, so I had to divide my attention between family and department matters for the next couple of days. Since I was the communications supervisor in charge of the dispatch office, I became involved with the tapes of all radio communications of the Dallas Police Department that day, the same tapes which were analyzed by the Warren Commission and later the House Select Committee on Assassinations. There should be no controversy about the tapes. The tapes are very simple and self explanatory if you accept them for what they're worth. Now, if you have a bit of imagination, you can use all kinds of dreams and concoctions to try to fabricate anything you want with them. Very simply, the tapes are recordings of the two radio channels operating at that time. Regular police operations were maintained on Channel 1. All personnel assigned to the Presidential motorcade, which ultimately became involved in the assassination scenario, were on Channel 2. It's hard to say whether they operated continuously or not. What we had in there was a sound activated recorder with a delay so it would pick it up and hold in the record mode for four seconds after the sound or noise level dropped, and there were two recording systems, one each on the two channel operations.
On Channel 1 we used a two phase dictaphone voice recording. I stress voice recording because it was not a precision quality; it was a stenographic type recording. You had a comparatively dull stylus making a simple impression on a thin celluloid belt.
The Channel 2 activity was a little better in its potential but not as good in reality because of its age. We had an old Gray recorder; I think they called them Gray audiographs. Anyway, it was a thin flat disk with the stylus cutting a groove in the disk much like in the typical phonographic recording. But the machine was old and worn. It was prone quite frequently to repeating itself, picking up transmissions and not letting them go. There were times when it was repeating itself that it didn't pick up what someone was saying. Then there were times that it didn't pick up anything. In other words, it just didn't work. So we have no way of knowing what traffic would have been on Channel 2 had we had
JAMES C. BOWLES, COMMUNICATIONS 171         a more sophisticated, state of the art, by today's standards, recording capability. One point that needs to be clarified which some folks, qualified and unqualified, who have tried to pick up and run with the assassination investigations, don't seem to understand. They use the words "voice activated" very generally and inaccurately. More correctly it's not voice, it's sound activated. Sound would tum it on if the decibel...

[Marjan Rynkiewicz]

H.B. McLain    Larry Sneed    University of North Texas Press   Chapter   View Citation
Additional Information   In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:
H.B. McLAIN Solo Motor cycle Officer Dallas Police Department "Unfortunately all their accusations that it was my microphone that was stuck open and the shots were heard on it were printed in the newspapers, and it'll be that way from now on. They'll never be convinced otherwise, regardless ofwhat I say... " Born in the piney woods of East Texas in Nacogdoches County, H.B. McLain moved to Dallas in 1942, attended high school for six weeks, then joined the Merchant Marines during the Second World War.
After joining the Dallas Police Department in 1953, he worked in the Patrol and Burglary and Theft Divisions until he became a solo motorcycle officer in November 1955. McLain was one of the escort officers in the motorcade on November 22, 1963. It was a hazy morning as we went out to Love Field to wait for the President to come in. When we arrived, we parked our motorcycles on the outside of the fenced area until he arrived. Then, as the motorcade began, we met it at the gate and came on out. The escort route had been picked out for him by the Tactical Group. Normally we had done our own scheduling, but they took it upon themselves this time. It was rather unusual because they had people working in positions they didn't normally work. We usually rode side by side with the senior man riding on the left and the junior man on the right. In this case, they had it reversed.
 H. B. MeL A IN, MOT 0 R eye L E 163          My assignment was to ride alongside the procession mostly between the President's car and the press buses five or six cars behind the President on the left side. There was nothing extra special about the escort as we had done many of them. It was routine. Our job was to keep the pedestrians back out of the way so they didn't get run over. We'd just ride alongside, and if anybody was too close, we'd tell them to move back. If that didn't work, we might bump them. There were a lot of people along the motorcade route, especially in the downtown area from Akard to Houston Streets.
When I made the turn onto Houston on the left side, we had caught up with the cars in front of us, and I had stopped right by the side of the entrance to the old jail, which is about midway between Main and Elm Streets on Houston. I heard one very clear shot. Evidently I must have felt like it was coming from straight ahead because at that instant I was looking down, and when I heard the shot, threw my head up and it appeared that about 5,000 pigeons flew out from behind that building (the Texas School Book Depository) straight ahead. In fact, I thought to myself, "Somebody's shooting at the pigeons!" But I could see the limousine off to my left on Elm and saw Mrs. Kennedy crawling on the back of the car. I had a good idea that somebody had been shot at but didn't know which one.
About that time the chief came on the radio and said, "Get to Parkland Hospital!" and the race was on. As I sped through Dealey Plaza, the only thing I noticed was Hargis with his motorcycle laid down crawling on his hands and knees across the grassy knoll. I didn't have any idea what he was doing. You think maybe he might have fallen or that he lost his footing when he stepped off and slipped on the grass.
In any case, I caught up with and got in front of the limousine on Stemmons somewhere around Continental. The ride was wild! You know in your mind that you're going way too fast, but if you slow down or fall, the cars behind are going to run over you. But you don't think about those things, though, at the time; it's all instinct.
We had to slow down when we got off Stemmons at Industrial. Along Industrial there was a railroad track which was located on a small incline some twenty to thirty feet before we were to hit
164 NO MORE SILENCE           Harry Hines Boulevard. Chaney, myself and another officer went airborne up the incline, hit the ground, and made the sharp left onto Hines. When we arrived at...

[Marjan Rynkiewicz]

W.G. Lumpkin   Larry Sneed   University of North Texas Press   Chapter   View Citation
Additional Information   In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:
W.G. "BILL" LUMPKIN Solo Motorcycle Officer Dallas Police Depar tment "We were going fast, very fast! I'm going to say we might have hit speeds up to 80-85 MP.H on Stemmons... ! saw the limousine behind us, and ! noticed this Secret Service man hanging on the back of it with his coat hanging, and ! was amazed that he could hang on....
When we got to Hines, there was a railroad track, and! know that! got airborne....! knew that if! went down I'd probably get run over... "
Born and raised in Avery, Texas, Bill Lumpkin worked at General Dynamics as an aircraft electrician after serving a hitch in the military. He joined the Dallas Police Department in 1953 and was assigned as one of the lead motorcycle officers in the Kennedy motorcade. I don't know what time we went to work that day. I remember having a detail with all the squads of the motor jockeys together, and we were all given our assignments. We knew the route and where we were going and approximately how long we were going to be. We were told what to do in case things happened, what hospital to go to if an emergency came up. That would be the only time we would use the siren.
I was one of the people that led the parade along with Leon Gray, Ellis, and McBride. There were quite a few of us in the parade, but some of the motor jockeys weren't assigned to the parade. Some of them were sent to stand-by stations. It wasn't
W. G. L UM P KIN, MOT 0 R eye L E 155            considered necessarily an honor; you just did what they told you. I escorted a lot of parades, so it was just an assignment. Probably if I hadn't been in the parade, my feelings would have been hurt. But we used to have a lot of parades in town and there had been times when the other jockeys had gone out of town on assignments, and I'd stayed in to lead a parade because I had done it so many times. I was used to doing it.
There was nothing special about that particular morning. We spit and polished our equipment and our uniforms and were told to assemble at Love Field. There were a lot of folks there, a lot of folks! We had no problems with the parade except one time, I believe, the President got out of the car on Lemmon. The Secret Service got on the back end and proceeded again. When you lead a parade, you limit your speed to whatever speed they want to go. And so we really had to keep our eye on his vehicle by turning around and looking because he was slowing down. My job in leading the parade was to make sure the crowd was back out of the street in front, and then, of course, you alert the officers up on the parade route that the parade is behind you. But the main thing is, when you're four abreast like that, you keep the street clear for the parade. You look back and try to be sure that the parade is in a group, that it hadn't straggled out. And you can slow them down for that. But nothing stands out. It was just a presidential motorcade.
We were in front of the President's car when the shooting took place. We were stopped on Elm Street between Houston Street and the Triple Underpass. There were only three of us at the time. McBride had already gone over to Stemmons to notify them that we were getting ready to come through since they were going to close Stemmons northbound. Sergeant Ellis had asked him to go on up and notify them that we were en route.
But we had turned off of Main Street onto Houston for one block, then over to Elm Street, then turned back left, and we were stopped at the time before we heard the shots. When the shots occurred, I thought it was a motorcycle backfiring. The motors were running really hot because we had been going slowly for so long. They would have a tendency to backfire when they were running hot, and running slow for a long period would cause them to run hot.
156 NO MORE SILENCE         I heard three distinct bangs with none of them...

[Marjan Rynkiewicz]

Stavis Ellis       Larry Sneed        University of North Texas Press     Chapter   View Citation
Additional Information        In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:
STAVIS "STEVE" ELLIS Solo Motorcycle Officer Dallas Polic e Department "Sarge, the President's hit!... Hell, he's dead! Man, his head's blown off..!"
Born in 1918 in Laredo, Texas, and raised in San Antonio, "Steve" Ellis' graduated from Brackinridge High School and later attended college in the military. During the Second World War, he joined the National Guard and served as an MP.
Ellis began his career with the Dallas Police Department in 1946 as a patrolman and became a solo motorcycle officer fifteen months later with promotion to sergeant in 1952. Sergeant Ellis was the officer in charge of the motorcycle escort for the motorcade through Dallas. I always liked riding motorcycles and had ridden them half way around the world in the Army. I guess I liked that kind of work. You work on your own; you're out there by yourself; you
 • The name Stavis has been a curiosity to a number of researchers, including the author. Sergeant Ellis's father was a Greek immigrant who entered Ellis Island at the age of thirteen. His surname, He1iopoulis, was eventually changed to Ellis either as a shortened version of Heliopoulis or for Ellis Island itself. Stavis is the Anglicized derivation of the Greek "Stavros," while "Steve," as Ellis is known to his friends, is the Americanized version of Stavis.
STA VIS ELLIS, MOTORCYCLE 143            don't have a partner that will do the driving for you. When I was a kid, my father owned a restaurant in San Antonio just a block or so from the Municipal Auditorium. Whenever the San Antonio police officers came to work traffic in and around the auditorium, they'd stop by the restaurant and drink coffee with my dad. Since I was there quite often, they became my idols. That's why I had it in my mind to become a motorcycle officer, and it's what I did for almost thirty-one years.
The motorcade assignments were, I believe, made up by Captain Lawrence and Chief Lunday. I'm just guessing at that because Lawrence had been making up all the assignments, and they'd ask me a question or two about who should be put here or there in the motorcade. I recommended the four guys that I had to ride immediately to the rear of the President's car: Chaney, Hargis, Martin, and Jackson because they made a neat appearance, and I knew that I could count on them and the job would be done properly. That morning was rainy. It wasn't raining hard, but hard enough in riding your motorcycle that you needed a rain suit. So, as we left the garage on our Harleys, we put our rain suits on and headed out to Love Field where we racked our motorcycles and waited for the motorcade to begin. A few minutes after we arrived, the rain quit, the sun came out, and we pulled our rains suits off and put them in the saddle bags.
Kennedy had arrived but there was a bit of a holdup. There was a huge crowd and he wasn't ready to go right away as he had walked over to a little fence and was talking to everybody and shaking hands. Some of the Secret Service boys seemed worried about this while other agents were taking the bullet proof top off the car. When that had been rolled up, he got in, and we took off on the escort. We didn't have any idea that anything was going to happen. Our job was to look for any kind of interruption en route: maybe some radical might run out and holler or otherwise try to stop the motorcade. We were always on the alert for that and were prepared to take quick action to get them out of the way.
I was in charge of the actual escort of the President's car. All the other officers had their assignments, but some were just assigned to us as surplus. At the airport, Chief Curry told me, "Look, you see that double-deck bus up there? That's full of news
144 NO MORE SILENCE            media. Now they've got to get to the Mart out there where the President is going to talk, but we don't want them messing up this motorcade. Just give them one of your men back there and tell him to escort them there on time but to keep them out of the...

[Marjan Rynkiewicz]

Bobby Joe Dale   Larry Sneed   University of North Texas Press   Chapter  View Citation
Additional Information  In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:
BOBBY JOE DALE Solo Motor cycle Officer
"I caught up to the limousine on Stemmons somewhere around Continental....
Your mind runs wild at a time like that. Maybe he's hit; if he is, maybe it's an impersonator. Maybe it's not really happening....Your mind just runs loose..!" Born and raised in Dallas, Bobby Joe Dale served in the Navy as a boiler man during the Korean Conflict. Following his discharge in 1953, Dale considered working in boiler shops, but remembering the heat involved with the job, he instead joined the Dallas Police Department in 1954 as a patrolman. By 1960 he transferred to solo motorcycles and was part of the motorcycle escort for President Kennedy on November 22, 1963.
Two or three days prior to the President's visit we'd ridden with the Secret Service checking to see where the turns and problem areas might be. We had three possible routes, but we didn't know which one we were going to take, and we were not briefed on it. But by riding during the week, I kept hearing the phrase "escape routes," which dawned on me later that should something happen to any part of the motorcade we had an escape route to either Baylor or Parkland Hospitals. I was impressed with the details in covering all emergencies should they arise.
I assume the assignments were drawn up in a joint meeting of the sergeants, lieutenants, and captains. We had our assignments prior to the 22nd. It was to be a routine escort with experienced riders. At the time, I didn't consider it an honor to be included
BOBBY JOE DALE, MOTORCYCLE 133           since I had been on VIP escorts several times in the past. To me it was just another assignment. That particular morning it was raining and everybody had on their rain gear, so it really didn't matter whether your boots were polished or shined. Everybody was either assigned to the escort or at Market Center whether you were working late nights, evenings, or whatever. We all assembled at the motorcycle shed at the police department downtown; those of us who were in the escort were to meet at Love Field at a particular time. We rode casually out to Love Field in groups of four or five together riding slowly since it was raining and we were being careful. While we were waiting in the restricted area at Love Field for the plane to arrive, it cleared off, the streets dried, and everybody came out of their rain gear.
Once we were assembled and the President was ready to go, we started the motorcade by going out a gate at the far end. At that time, we didn't know which route we were taking; we had three: right, straight, or left.
As we were leaving, the word came over the radio that we would use the particular route that went left. As soon as we heard that, we knew where we were going. That meant that we would hit Mockingbird at the entrance to Love Field, make a left and go up to Lemmon Avenue, then tum right to Cedar Springs, which then changes names to Turtle Creek, then Harwood to Main. They seemed to be concerned with the timing element in this motorcade more so than in others I had been in. Time was given continually over the radio to check the progress of the motorcade. We'd give a certain check point and time was given. We were held up a little as we got to Lemmon and Lorna Alto, and after this was cleared, we were told that we were running forty-five seconds to a minute behind, so we picked it up a little to be on schedule. There was no reason given for the concern about time but, in retrospect, probably what they were doing was trying to shuffle those with multiple assignments so they could cover those assignments.
Nothing was noteworthy about the motorcade; it was jovial and everybody seemed happy till we got to Lemmon and Lorna Alto. There the crowd was lining the sidewalks and seemed to move in, narrowing the street, creating congestion. People ran to the car to greet the President once it slowed down which created a
134 NO MORE SILENCE             nuisance for us because we had a schedule to keep. It was about that time it dawned on me just how important he was. My particular assignment was behind the President...