Mark Lane/Mrs. Markham
John McAdams
Tippit killer as "short, heavy, and with bushy hair."
It's Mark Lane who is responsible for this factoid.
The following is excerpted from David Belin's NOVEMBER 22, 1963: YOU
ARE THE JURY.
What did Mark Lane tell the WC:
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I spoke with the deponent, the eyewitness, Helen Louise
Markham, and Mrs. Markham told me--Miss or Mrs., I didn't
ask her if she was married--told me that she was a
hundred feet away from the police car, not the fifty feet
which appears in the affidavit. She gave me a more
detailed description of the man who she said shot Officer
Tippit. She said he was short, a little on the heavy
side, and his hair was somewhat bushy. I think it is fair
to state that an accurate description of Oswald would be
average height, quite slender with thin and receding
hair.
------------------
Lane then (after some wrangling) presented the WC with a tape that
supposedly supported Lane's account of her testimony.
And what did his taped conversation with Mrs. Markham actually
show?
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Mr. Lane. But, well, just, could you just give me one moment and
tell me. I read that you told some of the reporters that he was
short, stocky, and had bushy hair.
Mrs. Markham. No, no. I did not say this.
Mr. Lane. You did not say that?
Mrs. Markham. No, sir.
Mr. Lane. Well, would you say that he was stocky?
Mrs. Markham. Uh, he was short.
Mr. Lane. He was short.
Mrs. Markham. Yes.
Mr. Lane. And was he a little bit on the heavy side?
Mrs. Markham. Uh, not too heavy.
Mr. Lane. Not too heavy, but slightly heavy?
Mrs. Markham. Oh, well, he was, no he wasn't, didn't look too
heavy, uh-uh.
Mr. Lane. He wasn't too heavy, and would you say that he had rather
bushy hair, kind of hair?
Mrs. Markham. Yeh, just a little bit bushy, uh huh.
Mr. Lane. It was a little bit bushy.
Mrs. Markham. Yes.
[Then Lane questioned her about the police lineup. Mrs. Markham
stated that she identified Oswald in the police lineup. Lane asked
whether the police had told her who it might be. Mrs. Markham
replied, "They didn't tell me one thing." Lane then returned to
the events of the Tippit shooting and once again went back to Mrs.
Markham's description of the gunman]
Mr. Lane. Did you say that he was short and a little bit on the
heavy side and had slightly bushy hair?
Mrs. Markham. Uh, no, I did not. They didn't ask me that.
[Then Lane asked her again about how she had described Oswald when
she made the affidavit.]
Mr. Lane. And when you were there, did they ever ask you anything
else about Oswald? About whether he was tall or short?
Mrs. Markham. Uh, yes, sir. They asked me that.
Mr. Lane. And you said he was short, eh?
Mrs. Markham. Yes, sir, he is short. He was short.
Mr. Lane. He was short. And they asked if he was thin or heavy, and
you said he was a little on the heavy side?
Mrs. Markham. And he was, uh, uh, well not too heavy. Uh, say
around 160, maybe 150.
Mr. Lane. Well, did you say he wasn't too heavy, but he was a
little heavy?
Mrs. Markham. Uh-huh.
Mr. Lane. You did say that?
Mrs. Markham. I did identify him in the lineup.
Mr. Lane. Yes, and did you say that the man who shot, did you tell
the officers that the man who shot Tippit had bushy hair?
Mrs. Markham. Uh, no, I did not.
Mr. Lane. But, but he did have bushy hair you said, just a little
bushy?
Mrs. Markham. Well, you wouldn't say it hadn't been combed you know
or anything.
Mr. Lane. Yes.
Mrs. Markham. Of course, he probably had been through a lot, and
was kind of tore up a little . . .
[Lane returned to the shooting of Officer Tippit and what Mrs.
Markham saw and then he asked her about her identification of the
gunman in the police station. She said that she wanted to be sure,
so she had had the police turn the man in the lineup "and they
turned him, and it was him." For a third time Lane tried to have
Mrs. Markham state that the person that shot Tippit was short,
stocky and had bushy hair.]
Mr. Lane. Have you told any reporters about anything?
Mrs. Markham. Well, one. They worried me to death.
Mr. Lane. I'm sure they are after you because you're a very
important witness.
Mrs. Markham. Uh-huh.
Mr. Lane. Did any of the reporters, did you tell any reporter that
the person that shot Oswald, shot Tippit was short, stocky, and had
bushy hair?
Mrs. Markham I did not.
Mr. Lane. You don't remember telling it because one of the
reporters reported that in the newspaper.
Mrs. Markham. Yes, I read that.
Mr. Lane. You read that. What paper was that, do you recall?
Mrs. Markham. Uh, I believe it was in the Herald.
Mr. Lane. The Herald?
Mrs. Markham. I believe, it might have been the News.
Mr. Lane. It was one of the Dallas papers, uh?
Mrs. Markham. Yes, sir.
Mr. Lane. And, do you know what day that was?
Mrs. Markham. No, sir.
Mr. Lane. That was shortly after, though, wasn't it?
Mrs. Markham. Yes, sir. They gave my address, name and everything.
Mr. Lane. Yes, and they had you quoted as saying that he was short,
stocky, and had bushy hair.
Mrs. Markham. Well, they are just not right.
Mr. Lane. But that's what they said, though.
Mrs. Markham. I know it. They can put anything in papers.
Mark Singer
I didn't repeat McAdams' post because I didn't understand its purpose.
Is this a denunciation of Lane? and/or
Is this support for the testimony of Helen Markham?
If the latter, do you accept her id through the lineup as did the WR?
--
Mark Singer
m...@netcom.com
James Robert McElroy
In response to John Locke's post on Mrs. Markham and Mark Lane (please see
earlier post by Locke):
First, we cannot ignore Markham's testimony to the Warren Commission about
Oswald and Tippet. This is pretty famous by now, but I will repeat it anyway:
(The following is about Mrs. Markham observing a line-up with Lee Harvey
Oswald and three other men -- Markham had seen the person who shot Tippet
and was asked to view the line-up with Oswald in it.)
Q. Now when you went into the room you looked these people over, these four
men?
Markham: Yes Sir.
Q. Did you recognize anyone in the lineup?
Markham: No Sir.
Q. You did not? Did you see anybody -- I have asked you that question before
-- did you recognize anybody from their face?
Markham: From their face, no.
Q. Did you identify anybody in these four people?
Markham: I didn't know nobody.
Q. I know you didn't know anybody, but did anybody in that lineup look like
anybody you had seen before?
Markham: No. I had never seen none of them, none of these men.
Q. No one of the four?
Markham: No one of them.
Q. No one of all four?
Markham: No, Sir.
(Taken from Rush to Judgement, pp 179 -180. Lane states this passage comes
from the Warren Commission Volumes of Testimony and Evidence, Volume III,
pg. 310.)
Lane then goes on, in a less formal style, to describe further testimony:
At this point counsel, a teacher of criminal law and procedure at the University
of Southern California and a member of the U.S. Judicial Conference Advisory
Committee on Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, asked a rather leading
question. Mrs. Markham said that she recognized no one at the lineup; counsel
tried five times for a more acceptable answer. Then, departing a little from
the legal procedure he teaches, he next asked his friendly but disconcerting
witness, "Was there a number two man in there?" Mrs markham replied, "Number
two is the one I picked." Counsel began another question: "I thought you just
told me that you hadn't --", but Mrs Markham interrupted to answer in-
explicably, "I thought you wanted me to describe their clothing".
Counsel then inquired:
Q. You recognized him from his appearance?
Markham: I asked -- I looked at him. When I saw this man I wasn't sure, but
I had cold chills just run all over me.
(Lane, Rush to Judgement, pg. 180. Lane references WC volume III, pg. 311.)
Now, if you would care to refute the above by supplying the exact content of
WC vol. III, pgs. 310 and 311, that is fine with me, because I don't have
access to it.
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I have a tape recording of Mark Lane interviewing a Mrs. Aquilla Clemmons, who
claimed to be a witness to the Tippett shooting, but who was never called
before the Warren Commission. In this recording, reference to a short stocky
man was made, but there was no mention of wavy hair.
A transcript of the tape follows:
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Lane: And did you hear the shots?
Clemmons: Yes, I heard the shots.
Lane: And what did you do?
Clemmons: I ran out into the street and looked down the street, and I ran
back down the street where he was lying, and I looked at him.
Lane: Now, when you heard the shots, and you went out of the house, did you
see a man with a gun?
Clemmons: Yes I did.
Lane: What was he doing?
Clemmons: Oh, he was reloading. What I see was he was reloading his gun.
Lane: And how would you describe that man?
Clemmons: Well, he was kind of chunky, he was kind of heavy. He wasn't a
very big man.
Lane: Was he tall or short.
Clemmons: He was kind of a short guy.
Lane: Short and heavy.
Clemmons: Yes.
Lane: And was there any other man there?
Clemmons: Yes, another one on the side of the street. All I know is he
told him to go on.
Lane: Mrs. Clemmons, the man who had the gun, did he make any motion at
all to the other man across the street.
Clemmons: Moved his arm and told him to go on.
Lane: Oh, he waved his hand and said "go on?"
Clemmons: Yea, he said "go on."
Lane: And then what happened with the man with the gun?
Clemmons: Oh, he unloaded and reloaded.
Lane: And what did the other man do?
Clemmons: The man kept going, straight down the street.
Lane: Now, did you testify to the Warren Commission about this?
Clemmons: I haven't said anything to anyone.
Lane: Did anyone come to see you after the murder of officer Tippett?
Clemmons: Yes, he was... a man came -- I don't know what he was. He came to
my house and talked to me. But I don't know -- he looked like a policeman
to me.
Lane: He did? Did he have a gun?
Clemmons: Yes, he wore a gun.
Lane: Mrs. Clemmons, how long after Tippett was shot did this man with the
gun come to visit you?
Clemmons: About two, about two days, it was about two days. He said that I
might get hurt, or someone might hurt me if I would talk...
Lane: About what you saw.
Clemmons: About what I saw. He just told me it woud be best if I didn't say
anything because I might get hurt.
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Taken from the Movie "Executive Action" -- an interview with Mrs. Aquilla
Clemmons.
If anything knows more about Aquilla Clemmons, please let me know.
Jim
--
Jim McElroy
Calif. State Univ., Chico
mce...@ecst.csuchico.edu
John McAdams
>
>I didn't repeat McAdams' post because I didn't understand its purpose.
>
>
>Is this a denunciation of Lane? and/or
>
>Is this support for the testimony of Helen Markham?
>
Both.
The interview makes it quite clear what a sleaze Lane is.
>If the latter, do you accept her id through the lineup as did the WR?
>
Yes I do.
Ironically, the Lane interview makes it clearer than *any* WC
testimony could that she saw Oswald and that she knew it was Oswald.
Unlike the WC counsel, Lane *wanted* her to say it was somebody other
than Oswald, and tried mightily to lead her in that direction.
But the lady, ditzy as she may have been in some ways, was absolutely
firm that Oswald was the man.
.John