We don't know what was said between Tippit and "Oswald" (if, indeed, it
was him) during their brief conversation, as "Oswald" leaned against the
window of Tippit's police car. Tippit might have suspected he was the
missing employee from the TSBD, if "Oswald" suddenly reversed directions,
as Tippit was driving towards him (as theorized by Dale Myers in his book
WITH MALICE). He might have asked Oswald where he was going and if he knew
anything about the assassination, causing "Oswald" to panic. According to
some eyewitnesses "Oswald" was initially walking towards Tippit, but other
eyewitnesses recall him walking away from Tippit. I don't believe anyone
actually saw him reverse directions, however, and no one recalled seeing
"Oswald" walking quickly from his rooming house to the scene of the Tippit
murder. Since eyewitness Helen Markham was heading to the bus stop for
her 1:12 trip to work (at the Eat Well cafe where both Ruby and Craford
regularly ate, as it was near the club), Tippit likely was shot around
1:10, not 1:18 as the Warren Commission concluded. Oswald left his
roominghouse around 1:03 according to his landlady, and the scene of the
crime was almost a mile away.
I have speculated in my article "Creating A Patsy",available at:
http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/creatingapatsy.htm, that it might have been
Curtis Craford (aka Larry Crafard), given the fact that he told me when I
interviewed him, at his favourite restaurant in Lafayette, Oregon in Dec.
2001, that he had been a "hitman" while living in the San Francisco area
in the early 1960s. An eyewitness, who didn't come forward, but was
located by the HSCA, saw the killer calmly fire a fourth shot into
Tippit's head, who was likely already dead or unconscious from the first
three shots. The "hitman" reference is referred to in Joan Mellen's book,
based on a summary of my interview which I provided her (she also
interviewed Craford and his brother by phone, which I set up). However,
Craford had testified that he was sleeping at the Carousel Club when JFK
was shot, and that Andy Armstrong woke him up with the news. Craford had
indicated that he and others at the club had planned to watch the
motorcade, and he always got up early to start getting the club ready for
the evening, including feeding Ruby's dogs, and he normally did not go
back to bed. As you know, Craford left Dallas with only $7.00 on Nov. 23,
and hitchhiked to his sister's cabin in northern Michigan, visiting his
aunt and cousin on the way, near Detroit. The FBI tracked him down, as he
had left an envelope behind with his cousin's address on it, and he was
photographed by the FBI (colour photos, which are in the Warren volumes;
one appears in "The Search For Lee Harvey Oswald" which I showed him).
Craford is wearing a light-coloured jacket similar to the one found under
a car near the Tippit murder, which "Oswald" had disgarded. Apparently,
Ruby had bought Craford clothes at a thrift store, possibly including a
couple of light-coloured jackets. Marina was certain that the two jackets
Oswald owned had never been drycleaned, and remembered washing them. The
jacket found in the car lot (which wasn't Oswald's size) had two
drycleaning tickets stapled to it, neither of which could be linked to any
drycleaners in either Dallas/Ft. Worth or New Orleans. One of them
started with the letter "B", which might have stood for "Berkeley", where
Craford worked briefly for a company, mentioned during his WC interview by
Griffin or Hubert (although it was the only company Craford couldn't
remember working for, in his response). I contacted Judge Griffin a few
years ago (whom I had met at the 1993 JFK/RFK/MLK conference in Chicago),
but he didn't recall anything about the company. He had urged me to keep
in touch with Craford in 1993.
I should note that when I first wrote to Craford in 1989 (obtaining the
name of the town where he lived from his father, and writing c/o the post
office there), his wife wrote back (whom he married in 1964; they
separated two years after I first contacted them, and Shirley died in
2005). She insisted Craford had left Dallas on Nov. 22, not Nov. 23, as I
had mentioned, which I believe Craford wanted her to believe all these
years. I wrote back and included photocopies of Craford's statements to
the FBI, the WC and during his Ruby trial testimony, confirming he had
left on Nov. 23 (the word "fled" was used by Judge Griffin in a letter to
the HSCA). Craford told me that the expression "hightailing it", used in a
"New Yorker" review of a Mort Sahl, one-man play, in which Craford was
mentioned at length, was an accurate description, but he wouldn't
elaborate.
Craford died last year after a lengthy illness. His blind landlady, whom
I also had met, also died a few years ago, as well as one of his three
daughters (he also had a son, plus another from a previous marriage to a
woman he claimed was a lesbian.) - prwhitmey