You know.... There must have been 850 police switchboard operators on duty that day to have immediately taken all these calls that were coming in....Don't you think? There were phone callers from all over town trying to get through also.
Even in these present days-- 911 can't process too many multiple calls coming in and you will get a 'sorry we are busy' re-direct.
So come on and let's get real.
Murray Jackson, the police radio dispatcher, received an alert at 1:16 from the "citizen using the police radio". Clearly the citizen ( TF Bowley) called the dispatcher AFTER the shooting. (And commonsense dictates that Bowley called the dispatcher several minutes after the shooting) " Murray Jackson, the police radio dispatcher, received an alert at
1:16" ...thus the shooting had occurred several minutes prior to Jackson receiving the message from TF Bowley. JD Tippit was shot at 1:06, just as Mrs Markham said.
Upon being told by the citizen that a police man had been shot and that it was near Marsalis, Beckley and Tenth Street, Jackson immediately calls out for "78". After getting no response, he again calls out for "78". Jackson is calling out for "78" because that is Tippit's call number and he knows Tippit was driving car number 10. On 11/22/63, Tippit was "78". That he calls out for Tippit after receiving the alert from the "citizen using the police radio" tells us that at 1:16, Jackson was made aware, for the very first time, that Tippit had been shot.
