Another Possible Solution To The "Wallet Mystery"
David Von Pein
http://DVP-Potpourri.blogspot.com/2009/12/reiland-film-november-22-1963.html
WFAA-TV cameraman Ron Reiland took some film footage of a wallet being
examined by police officers on 10th Street in Oak Cliff shortly after
the murder of Patrolman J.D. Tippit. Many conspiracy theorists over
the years have insisted that the wallet seen in Reiland's film must
have been Lee Harvey Oswald's. (The entire Reiland film is linked
above.)
I, however, have written multiple posts in the past stating my firm
belief that the wallet in Reiland's film belonged to the slain police
officer, Tippit. And, in fact, Reiland himself said that the wallet
was Tippit's when he narrated his film very shortly after the film was
developed and broadcast on the air at WFAA-TV.
But, of course, a grain of salt must be placed beside Reiland's
comment about the wallet being Tippit's, since Reiland also said that
the gun which can be seen in the hands of Sergeant Bud Owens of the
Dallas Police Department in Reiland's film was the gun that was used
to kill Officer Tippit, which we know is not correct. The revolver
seen in Reiland's film is Tippit's own service revolver.
But here's a theory regarding the "mystery wallet" that I think makes
quite a bit of sense:
I think it's possible (but far from "provable", I will readily admit)
that the wallet that can be seen in Ron Reiland's WFAA-TV footage
belonged to eyewitness Ted Callaway.
In my opinion, the Dallas police would have had every reason to want
to check out Callaway's identification (and hence, look inside his
wallet), due to the fact that it was Callaway who had taken Tippit's
gun and went to hunt for Tippit's killer in William Scoggins' cab. And
at that time, there was just one police officer at the scene of the
crime, Kenneth Croy, who later told the Warren Commission that he
thought Callaway was a "private detective".
If I had been a police officer at the scene of Tippit's murder, and a
man had just returned to that scene carrying the murdered policeman's
gun, I think I might want to ask "Who the heck are you? And why did
you take it upon yourself to take the dead officer's revolver and
search for the killer, instead of letting the police handle this
matter?"
I don't think that asking to see Callaway's identification (and hence,
his wallet) would have been out of line at all, considering the
circumstances regarding Callaway running off with Tippit's revolver on
11/22/63.
We know from the available evidence that Ted Callaway returned to the
scene of the murder after searching for Tippit's killer for a brief
period of time. And we also know that he turned over Tippit's revolver
to police officer Kenneth Croy.
Croy, at some point shortly thereafter, then gave the revolver to
Sergeant Bud Owens, who was then photographed holding the gun in his
left hand by WFAA cameraman Ron Reiland. [CD735; Page 263; An FBI
interview of Ted Callaway, dated 2/26/64, linked below]
http://www.maryferrell.org/mffweb/archive/viewer/showDoc.do?docId=11133&relPageId=271
Croy also said this during his Warren Commission testimony:
"There was a report that a cab driver had picked up Tippit's gun
and had left, presumably. They don't know whether he was the one that
had shot Tippit, or whether the man, I think it was he, brought
someone out there, something. Anyway, he saw it and he picked up
Tippit's gun and attempted to give chase or something like that. ....
He brought the taxi driver back to the scene. .... I took Tippit's gun
and several other officers came up, and I turned him over to them and
they questioned him."
http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/russ/testimony/croy.htm
Croy, who was somewhat confused about who had actually picked up
Tippit's gun, was obviously talking about Ted Callaway in his above
testimony. And it was obviously Callaway (not the "taxi driver",
William Scoggins) whom Croy had "turned over" to the "other officers"
for questioning.
My contention is that after Croy had retrieved Tippit's revolver from
Callaway and had "turned over" Callaway to the other policemen at the
scene (one of which was Bud Owens), it's quite possible that Owens
then asked Callaway for more information and also asked him to produce
some identification.
Therefore, it makes perfect sense that Ron Reiland could have filmed
Sergeant Owens holding both Tippit's revolver (after having just
received it from Croy) and Ted Callaway's wallet.
Quoting from Dale Myers' 1998 book:
"The opening sequence [of Ron Reiland's film] shows police
gathered around Tippit's squad car questioning eyewitness Helen
Markham. The officers depicted include Patrolman Joe M. Poe and
Leonard E. Jez, Reserve Sergeant Kenneth Croy, and Sergeant Calvin
"Bud" Owens.
"Within seconds, crime scene search Officer W.E. "Pete" Barnes
and Detective Paul Bentley arrive at the scene. The arrival of Barnes
and Bentley pins the time frame of these sequences to 1:42 p.m.--about
eight minutes before Oswald's arrest at the Texas Theater." -- Page
292 of "With Malice: Lee Harvey Oswald And The Murder Of Officer J.D.
Tippit"
===========================
Vincent Bugliosi wrote this in his 2007 book:
"No one other than [FBI agent Robert M.] Barrett ever mentioned
Oswald’s wallet, or any wallet, being found at the Tippit murder
scene. The only item mentioned by anyone as being found near Tippit’s
body was his service revolver. Indeed, every civilian and police
witness whom [Dale] Myers questioned said they saw no wallet at the
murder scene. For instance, Ted Callaway said, “I’ll tell you one
thing, there was no billfold at that scene. If there was, there would
have been too many people who would have seen it” (Myers, 'With
Malice', p.300)." -- Page 453 of "Reclaiming History: The
Assassination Of President John F. Kennedy" (Endnotes)
Now, granted, the "no billfold at that scene" quote from the lips of
Ted Callaway could conceivably throw a monkey wrench into my theory
about the wallet possibly being Callaway's, because since Callaway
said those words to "With Malice" author Dale K. Myers in an interview
on April 9, 1996, the argument could be made that Callaway's memory
would certainly have been refreshed and revitalized concerning the
issue of wallets and/or "billfold[s]" being on display at the scene of
Officer Tippit's murder. And, therefore, Callaway would probably have
remembered handing his own wallet over to Sergeant Owens on Tenth
Street.
But, then too, Callaway's comment to Myers in 1996 about there being
"no billfold" found on the ground at the Tippit murder scene is really
not inconsistent with my theory about the wallet possibly belonging to
Callaway himself. After all, Callaway was talking to Myers about a
billfold/wallet being found on the ground AT THE SCENE OF THE CRIME.
Obviously, my theory about the wallet possibly being Callaway's is far
from conclusive and is pure speculation on my part (and I want to
identify it as such). The "wallet mystery" remains a mystery, and
probably will never be completely resolved. I merely wanted to add one
additional possibility to the list of theories regarding this wallet
issue.
In the final analysis, like Vincent Bugliosi, I think the most likely
answer is that the wallet being examined by the Dallas police on 10th
Street belonged to J.D. Tippit. But after thinking about this wallet
topic more and more in the last couple of days, I think my new theory
about Callaway makes a great deal of sense as well.
===========================
WALLET ADDENDUM:
Here are some more excerpts from Mr. Bugliosi's book concerning this
topic:
"One thing we can be reasonably certain about: the wallet was
not Oswald’s. Myers closely compared a close-up photo of Oswald’s
arrest wallet with the wallet found at the murder scene and found
definite physical differences, causing him to conclude that “the
Oswald arrest wallet is not the same billfold seen in the WFAA
newsfilm” (Myers, 'With Malice', pp.298–299).
"Furthermore, a Dallas police officer had just been slain. It is
inconceivable that members of the Dallas Police Department like
Captains Westbrook and Doughty and Sergeant Hill would suppress and
keep secret the fact that Tippit’s killer had left his calling card at
the murder scene. That simply would not, could not, have happened.
"If Oswald’s wallet had been found at the murder scene, it is
inconceivable that nowhere in the testimony or the reports of
Westbrook, Hill, Doughty, Poe, and so on, would they bother to mention
this extremely important fact. ....
"If I had to wager, I’d conclude it was Tippit’s wallet, and the
reason Reiland stated, on WFAA film, that it was Tippit’s wallet is
that the police had informed him at the scene that it was. Quite apart
from Barrett, it makes no sense to me that the Dallas police and
detectives, several of whom were Tippit’s friends, would keep from the
world that his killer’s wallet was found near his body." -- Vincent
Bugliosi; Pages 454 and 456 of "Reclaiming History" (Endnotes)(c.2007)
dcwi...@yahoo.com
> http://DVP-Potpourri.blogspot.com/2009/12/reiland-film-november-22-19...
I find myself in basic agreement with DVP here--that is, the witness
who picked up Tippit's gun was also the one who turned over his wallet
to the police. However, I believe that this witness was WW Scoggins,
not Callaway. At one point in his testimony, Scoggins sez that he
left the scene in a police car, apparently to look for the killer.
That would lend credence to Croy's belief that it was indeed the cab
driver who was reported to have left the scene with Tippit's gun.
Croy was not confused....
David Von Pein
The theory about the wallet being Callaway's is even mentioned in Dale
Myers' book:
"The suggestion is that Callaway's free use of Tippit's revolver
might have sparked police to check his identification upon his return to
the murder scene. Yet, Callaway says it never happened.
"[In a 1996 interview, Callaway said this:] "When I got out of the
cab, I didn't hesitate a bit like a lot of guys would. I walked straight
to this plainclothes officer [wearing hat and glasses] and I said, 'Here's
the officer's pistol.' He said, 'Okay, thank you very much.' After that I
walked right back to the lot [the nearby used-car lot on Jefferson
Boulevard where Callaway was employed]." -- Page 303 of "With Malice"
However, the above comments made by Ted Callaway in 1996 conflict with the
testimony of Kenneth Croy of the DPD, who said: "I took Tippit's gun and
WBurg...@aol.com
>
> read more »- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -
Didn't the name "Hidell" come up in the exchange between the police
officer and another person at the scene? How would he know "Hidell?"
Got anything on that?
Burgundy
yeuhd
makes more sense than it being Oswald's or Tippit's. If it had been
Oswald's, there is no way that no one else would have remembered such an
incriminating find. If it had been Tippit's, as soon as they knew it was
his, they would have respected the privacy of their fallen fellow officer
and let it be, and not treated it as a curiosity to be browsed through on
camera.
William W. Scoggins died in 1990, and Ted Callaway died in 2005. I wonder
if any of their family members might know more about the wallet.
WBurg...@aol.com
>
> read more »- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -
FROM MICHAEL T. GRIFFITH REVIEWING DALES MYERS BOOK RE: THE WALLET:
The Fake Oswald Wallet and the Fake Hidell ID Card
Myers refuses to admit that someone clearly planted a fake
"Oswald" wallet, complete with a fake Hidell ID card, at the Tippit
murder scene, even though former FBI Special Agent Robert Barrett
adamantly insists an Oswald wallet with both Oswald ID and fake Hidell
ID was found at the scene, and even though Barrett clearly recalls
that he was asked if he knew who Oswald or Hidell was by the policeman
who was examining the wallet. In addition, former FBI Special Agent
James Hosty confirmed that Barrett told him about the finding of an
Oswald wallet at the Tippit scene, and there is newsfilm footage of
policemen examining a wallet right next to Tippit's patrol car (pp.
287-303).
Myers says that although the wallet in the newsfilm resembles
Oswald's arrest wallet in a number of features, "photographs show that
the Oswald arrest wallet is NOT the same billfold" that's seen in the
news footage (p. 298, original emphasis). Myers argues that the metal
band on the arrest wallet's leather flap is not quite the same as the
band on the newsfilm wallet's flap, and that the arrest wallet's
leather flap is shaped slightly differently than the leather flap of
the wallet in the newsfilm. I dispute both arguments.
The photos in question by no means clearly establish either of
these claims. It is hard to make out the exact length and shape of the
metal band on the flap of the newsfilm wallet. Allowing for a modest
amount of sun reflection and the somewhat grainy nature of the
newsfilm, the news footage wallet's metal band might very well be
identical to the arrest wallet's metal band. As for the argument about
the length of the bands, Myers fails to consider the fact that in the
photo of the arrest wallet the flap is lying down flat and is
apparently snapped shut, whereas in the newsfilm the wallet's flap is
unsnapped and partially up. Also, the top left edge of the newsfilm
wallet's flap is somewhat obscured by a plastic photo sleeve beneath
it, and it's hard to determine the exact shape of the other edge of
the flap because of the grainy nature of the newsfilm, because of the
camera angle, and because the flap is up and not lying flat. The two
flaps look to me like they could very well be identical. For that
matter, the wallets look identical in size and in all their essential
features.
However, even if the wallet in the newsfilm footage isn't Oswald's
arrest wallet, the fact remains that former Special Agent Barrett
insists an Oswald wallet with both Oswald ID and fake Hidell ID was
found at the scene, and that Barrett clearly recalls that he was asked
if he knew who Oswald or Hidell was by the policeman who was examining
the wallet. Nor does it change the fact that former Special Agent
Hosty confirmed that Barrett told him about the finding of an Oswald
wallet at the Tippit scene. Nor does it change the fact that there is
newsfilm footage of policemen examining a wallet right next to
Tippit's patrol car. The Dallas police said they found Oswald's "real"
wallet on his person while they were driving him to the police
station. So the Oswald wallet that was found at the Tippit scene was
fake and was planted there in an effort to frame Oswald.
QUOTE OFF
David Von Pein
http://groups.google.com/group/alt.assassination.jfk/browse_thread/thread/bd65cc09df14d39e
>>> "I find myself in basic agreement with DVP here--that is, the witness
who picked up Tippit's gun was also the one who turned over his wallet to
the police. However, I believe that this witness was WW Scoggins, not
Callaway." <<<
The above comment by Donald Willis is total nonsense. And just one quick
glance at William W. Scoggins' Warren Commission testimony confirms that
it's nonsense. Let's take that quick glance now:
WILLIAM SCOGGINS -- "We cruised around several blocks looking for him
[J.D. Tippit's killer], and...one of these police cars came by and this
fellow who was with me stopped it, and we got back in the car and went
back up to the scene, and he give [sic] them the pistol, and that time is
when I found out he [Ted Callaway] wasn't an officer."
Replay:
"And he [Ted Callaway] give them the pistol." -- W.W. Scoggins
>>> "At one point in his testimony, Scoggins [says] that he left the scene
in a police car, apparently to look for the killer. That would lend
credence to Croy's belief that it was indeed the cab driver who was
reported to have left the scene with Tippit's gun. Croy was not confused."
<<<
Please point out the part of Scoggins' testimony where he says he got into
a "police car" to go hunt for Tippit's slayer. Why on Earth would Scoggins
tell the WC anything like that anyway?
David Von Pein
>>> "Your theory about the wallet belonging to Ted Callaway or William
Scoggins makes more sense than it being Oswald's or Tippit's. If it had
been Oswald's, there is no way that no one else would have remembered such
an incriminating find. If it had been Tippit's, as soon as they knew it
was his, they would have respected the privacy of their fallen fellow
officer and let it be, and not treated it as a curiosity to be browsed
through on camera." <<<
I don't think that last sentence is necessarily true. The policemen
holding the wallet might not have even realized that Ron Reiland was
filming their activity at that precise moment in time. (The camera does
appear to be pretty close to the wallet, however. But maybe that's
misleading. Perhaps Reiland had the camera in "full zoom" mode for that
shot.)
Or: the police might have been too busy at the scene of the crime to pay
much attention to Reiland and his TV camera.
Plus, I don't think that merely filming the dead policeman's wallet is to
be considered any kind of severe "invasion of privacy". It's not like
Reiland had the camera focusing on distinct pictures of Tippit's family or
something like that.
Anyway, I still think it was probably J.D. Tippit's wallet. But my #2
guess is certainly Callaway, despite Callaway telling Dale Myers in 1996
that he never talked to the police at all after returning to the crime
scene. Callaway, however, didn't specifically say this to Myers in '96: "I
did not show anybody my wallet that day on Tenth Street."
And we know that Callaway definitely did talk to at least one policeman
after he returned with Tippit's gun. He talked briefly with Ken Croy when
he gave Croy Tippit's revolver.
BTW/FYI -- I never theorized about the wallet belonging to cab driver
William Scoggins in my previous posts. That was Don Willis who said that.
IMO, it would be much more likely that it was Callaway's wallet (vs. it
belonging to another eyewitness at the scene, such as Scoggins). Similar
to Callaway, Scoggins also maintained that he didn't talk to any policemen
at the scene after he and Callaway returned to Tenth Street.
tomnln
"yeuhd" <needle...@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:f34d928f-5a64-438c...@n31g2000vbt.googlegroups.com...
Anthony Marsh
>>> scene. The only item mentioned by anyone as being found near Tippit�s
>>> body was his service revolver. Indeed, every civilian and police
>>> witness whom [Dale] Myers questioned said they saw no wallet at the
>>> thing, there was no billfold at that scene. If there was, there would
>>> arrest wallet with the wallet found at the murder scene and found
>>> Oswald arrest wallet is not the same billfold seen in the WFAA
>>
>>> "Furthermore, a Dallas police officer had just been slain. It is
>>> inconceivable that members of the Dallas Police Department like
>>> Captains Westbrook and Doughty and Sergeant Hill would suppress and
>>> the murder scene. That simply would not, could not, have happened.
>>
>>> inconceivable that nowhere in the testimony or the reports of
>>> Westbrook, Hill, Doughty, Poe, and so on, would they bother to mention
>>> this extremely important fact. ....
>>
>>> reason Reiland stated, on WFAA film, that it was Tippit�s wallet is
>>> that the police had informed him at the scene that it was. Quite apart
>>> from Barrett, it makes no sense to me that the Dallas police and
>>> world that his killer�s wallet was found near his body." -- Vincent
>>> Bugliosi; Pages 454 and 456 of "Reclaiming History" (Endnotes)(c.2007)
>>
>>> http://www.DavidVonPein.blogspot.com
>>
>>> http://www.With--Malice.blogspot.com
>>
>> I find myself in basic agreement with DVP here--that is, the witness
>> who picked up Tippit's gun was also the one who turned over his wallet
>> to the police. However, I believe that this witness was WW Scoggins,
>> not Callaway. At one point in his testimony, Scoggins sez that he
>> left the scene in a police car, apparently to look for the killer.
>> That would lend credence to Croy's belief that it was indeed the cab
>> driver who was reported to have left ...
>>
>>
>> - Show quoted text -
>
> Didn't the name "Hidell" come up in the exchange between the police
> officer and another person at the scene? How would he know "Hidell?"
> Got anything on that?
>
Oswald didn't offer the name Hidell. It came up on the identification in
Oswald's wallet.
> Burgundy
>
dcwi...@yahoo.com
Some talk was most probably involved when he, Scoggins, got into the
police car & left the scene.
dcwi...@yahoo.com
> http://groups.google.com/group/alt.assassination.jfk/browse_thread/th...
DVP betrays his lack of familiarity with WC testimony here.
"The policemen came along, & I left my cab setting there & got in a
car with them & left the scene." (v3p337)
Maybe Scoggins just went sightseeing with the cops. Maybe Scoggins
told the WC this because it was the truth, & it just slipped out....
dw
dcwi...@yahoo.com
Actually, there is no conflict here. As Myers pointed out in a
discussion with me many years ago now, Croy does not specify from whom
he took the pistol. However, the "him" who was turned over to "other
officers" seems, in context (if memory serves), to refer to Scoggins.
tomnln
<dcwi...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:41fc3595-1aae-4a17...@m25g2000yqc.googlegroups.com...
David Von Pein
>>> " "The policemen came along, & I left my cab setting there & got in a
car with them & left the scene." (v3p337)" <<<
Thank you, Don.
>>> "Maybe Scoggins just went sightseeing with the cops. Maybe Scoggins
told the WC this because it was the truth, & it just slipped out." <<<
That's odd alright.
Beats me what Scoggins meant there at 3H337.
http://history-matters.com/archive/jfk/wc/wcvols/wh3/html/WC_Vol3_0173a.htm
~shrug~
dcwi...@yahoo.com
>
> ~shrug~
Fair enough. But notice that Scoggins' testimony here dovetails
rather neatly with Croy's:
"There was a report that a cab driver had picked up Tippit's gun & had
left.... [Counsel: Did you talk to the taxicab driver?] No, I took
Tippit's gun, & several other officers came up, & I turned him over to
them & they questioned him." (v12p202)
tomnln
<dcwi...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:459dbeea-9496-49ee...@e37g2000yqn.googlegroups.com...
curtjester1
> http://DVP-Potpourri.blogspot.com/2009/12/reiland-film-november-22-19...
>
> WFAA-TV cameraman Ron Reiland took some film footage of a wallet being
> examined by police officers on 10th Street in Oak Cliff shortly after
> the murder of Patrolman J.D. Tippit. Many conspiracy theorists over
> the years have insisted that the wallet seen in Reiland's film must
> have been Lee Harvey Oswald's. (The entire Reiland film is linked
> above.)
>
>
> My contention is that after Croy had retrieved Tippit's revolver from
> Callaway and had "turned over" Callaway to the other policemen at the
> This shows the wallet was and had to be Tippit's as Croy was the one
> that was on the scene first, and found it there. Someone handed it to
> him and he eventually gave it to Owens. Croy never left the scene so
> Owens would have had to walk over to the Texaco and have Tippit's
> wallet filmed there if it was Tippit's wallet filmed there. But there
> is no doubt that Croy found Tippit's wallet at the MURDER SCENE.
>
> Also there were three separate footages of Reiland that I had put down
> within the discussion in 2008 of the fingerprints and such surrounding
> the Tippit murder. The wallet find as per the sequence would have
> been at the murder scene and not the Texaco.
>
> http://groups.google.com/group/alt.conspiracy.jfk/browse_thread/threa...
>
In Clint Bradford's site, (under 500 Photos), there are eight Reiland
photos logged in. Here are three:
422 T " 5 Several police cars & cops
near Tippitt
shooting site - cop runs
toward police
car holding gun butt
423 T " 6 Group gathered around
Tippitt's car.
Piece of paper or poster
lying on
dashboard - no detail
424 T " 7 Cops examine Tippitt;s
billfold
(according to Reiland who is
narrat-
ing) - Note pad inside - Cops
point
to it-Cop holding Tippitt's
pistol
beside his car
Since there is NO testimony of any cop or bystander witness telling
about Tippit's wallet being looked at, AND there is evidence that a
bystander picked up a wallet at the crime scene and gave it to the
first officer to arrive there, Croy (who gave it to Owens), and again
Croy was never at the Texaco, it would seeminly show that a wallet was
found at and only at the Tippit murder scene. The only evidence of
Tippit's billfold being involved in testimony was when it was removed
at the Methodist Hospital from his back pocket. Unless one could
prove that Tippit's wallet was extracted from his back pocket at the
Tippit murder scene and somehow placed back in before the ambulance
arrived, it is pointless to conclude that Tippit's wallet was involved
and that the throw down wallet (or a wallet that Tippit might have had
via checking ID) was the wallet from the killer of Tippit. Also,
given the time constraints of officers arriving and an ambulance
arriving and leaving, would not give ANY time for a wallet to be taken
from Tippit and shown on any TV coverage by Reiland at the Texaco.
NONE. The wallet by the killer *could* have been walked over by Owens
and filmed at the Texaco, but then one would have to prove that
Reiland stating at the Tippit murder scene that he was filming
Tippit's wallet (how would he know?) was in actuality the truth. It
is very convincing that Barrett (with Westbrook) stating that he
viewed the contents at the Tippit murder scene of a wallet being a
wallet with a HIdell/Oswald ID, with Owens and Croy there filmed at
the Tippit murder scene, that the only conclusion one could come up
with is that the wallet in question was truly the killer's wallet with
ID that would certainly be extremely crucial evidence of not only TWO
wallets, as one was found upon the arrestee at the theater, but
crucial that the wallet was probably laid there to be a piece that the
police could follow as a trail to the Texas Theater where they would
have a patsy to arrest. Of course LNT'ers and CT'ers in Sheep's
Clothing may want to deny this. This wallet that was seemingly
hushed up within apparently with the eventual testimony of the
officers shows in apparence of how powerful the cover up was, and it's
influence over intimidated officers were. Only for newer divulgences
by Croy, and good research weighing of facts of the coat, shells of
the gun, and this evidence of the wallet, can we conclude that there
was a systematic cover up going on, even prior to Tippit getting
murdered.
<snippage>
CJ