Fort Worth Star-Telegram 1964

[claviger]

Fort Worth Star-Telegram

Negro To Give Details

Janitor Near-by As Shots Fired

by Thayer Waldo
1964, Fort Worth Star-Telegram

A witness to the shooting of President Kennedy can positively
identify Lee Harvey Oswald as the assassin, the Star-Telegram
has learned.

The witness a reliable source said, is a Negro janitor, then
employed by the Texas School Book Depositary in Dallas,
who was on the 6th floor Nov. 22.

He saw Oswald fire the shots that killed the President and
wounded Governor Connally.

STORY RELATED

The witness' story, as reported by the source, is this:

He was looking out a window at the presidential motorcade
when he heard a shot, very loud and close. Jumping back
he saw Oswald at the next window kneeling, with a rifle
aimed at the street below.

The man said he turned and ran to a spot near the door
leading to the stairway, where some empty crates were
piled, and crouched behind these.

He was quoted as having told police officers later:

"I was scared to death. I thought he was going to kill me, too."

He said the second shot was fired as he was running toward
the crates and the third after he was hidden behind them.
Then he said Oswald dropped the rifle and ran out the door
to the stairway.

* * *

JAILED IN DALLAS

"He almost stepped on me when he went past," the janitor told
officers.

The informant said the man, described as in his 30s, waited a
few minutes then fled the building and surrendered.

"Police slapped a vagrancy charge on him so he could be held,"
the source added. He was jailed in Dallas but has since been
moved elsewhere. I do not know the new location."

The Negro has a record of previous arrests on misdemeanor
charges, mostly for gambling, the informant said.

[David Von Pein]

WTF????

What kind of goofy fairy tale is this? I've never seen this story before.
This story actually was printed in the Fort Worth paper in 1964? If so,
that's quite embarrassing for Bob Schieffer's paper, to have printed such
utter fantasy.

[David Von Pein]

Follow-Up Regarding Thayer Waldo....

After my first post in this thread above, I decided to gather some more
information about Fort Worth Star-Telegram reporter Thayer Waldo. And I
found some interesting documents pertaining to him (linked below),
including an endnote in Vincent Bugliosi's book which I had totally
forgotten about. But, in my own defense, it's rather easy to forget a
story that turned out to be as bogus as Mr. Waldo's. ....

https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Z7EKOH2ACvo/XC78bfv18UI/AAAAAAABQf4/CkU-qp-3SpYMsF5s1VnA4yBdihMrD-tIQCLcBGAs/s1600/RH-Endnote-On-Thayer-Waldo.png

CE2578:
https://history-matters.com/archive/jfk/wc/wcvols/wh25/html/WC_Vol25_0437b.htm

CE2579:
https://history-matters.com/archive/jfk/wc/wcvols/wh25/html/WC_Vol25_0438b.htm

https://catalog.archives.gov/id/7461249

[Mark]

Waldo's reputation in Dallas was not good and fairly well known.
Another poor soul who wanted SOMETHING to do with JFK's death:

"Another fakir was Thayer Waldo at the STAR-TELEGRAM.

"In February 1964, Waldo wrote that the government was holding in
protective custody a close 'eye-witness' who could solidly identify Oswald
as Kennedy's assassin. When this 'exclusive' ran in the paper's early
editions, the Associated Press called me for a comment. I told them there
was a solid witness, but as far I knew he wasn't being held anywhere.
This wasn't the first factual leap I'd seen Waldo take. I think I termed
it 'a bunch of crap.' Justice Department spokesman Edwin O. Guthman
concurred. 'There is no truth to the story at all,' said Guthman, 'and no
such witness exists.'

"'The story, Mike Cochran remembered, 'was a front-page banner to start
with. After the AP talked to you, it became about two paragraphs on the
last page of the paper. Oh, you talk about an embarrassing cover-up!
Thayer Waldo was awful. He became a laughingstock.'"

Hugh Aynesworth, JFK: BREAKING THE NEWS (2003), p. 204

Mark

[claviger]

On Friday, January 4, 2019 at 1:25:05 PM UTC-6, David Von Pein wrote:

This article is an amazing revelation. The above explains the source of
this information is from a Deputy Sheriff with a brother in the Secrete
Service named Michael Howard. Has anyone confirmed this information?

Why was this information not reported to Dallas Police Detectives assigned
to this murder case and the FBI?

Where is the FBI investigation into this newspaper article? Was the witness
on the 6th floor Eddie Piper or James Jarman?

[claviger]

Maybe Charles Givens? We know Eddie Piper and James Jarman were inside
the building when shots were fired. Piper claims he was on the ground
floor during the parade and Jarman was on the 5th floor. In the first
photo Jarman is not seen. He shows up in a later photo.

The question is why keep this a secret? It would clinch the case against
LHO and make a hero out of this witness. Unless the witness was terrified
and did not want to be identified or named in the paper. Did the Police
and FBI believe they had enough evidence without using this reluctant
witness?

[claviger]

This story is not so easily dismissed. If a total fraud he should be
fired from this newspaper to protect their reputation as a reliable
news source. Did that happen?

Waldo names three people he met with who had knowledge of this
witness. Two Secret Service Agents are mentioned. One is a very
prominent name: SSA Forrest V. Sorrels, head of the Dallas Office
of the US Secret Service, and the other is SSA Michael Howard.

A Tarrant County Deputy Sheriff is also mentioned: Pat Howard, a
brother of SSA Michael Howard. Even Mark Lane is involved in this
story.

As to the possibility the story could be authentic, we need to see if
any TSBD employees fit into this scenario. There are three possible
suspects as to the secret witness: Eddie Piper, Charles Givens and
James Jarman. All three had plausible alibis as to where they were
during the shooting.

Two were known to be on the 5th and 6th floor that morning. Piper
worked on the ground floor, but could easily access the 6th floor by
the elevator. The Warren Commission investigation did look into their
whereabouts at the time of the shooting.

The Arnold Rowland testimony has always been intriguing and now
even more so with this story.

[claviger]

On Saturday, January 5, 2019 at 11:25:07 AM UTC-6, claviger wrote:

And Charles Givens? All three had a plausible alibis as to where they

were during the shooting. Two were known to be on the 5th and 6th floor

that morning. Piper worked on the ground floor but could easily access the
6th floor by elevator. The Warren Commission investigation looked into

[Anthony Marsh]

How do you make up all this crap? You have a wild imagination. Where's
Waldo?

>

[claviger]

[PDF]
Warren Commission, Volume XXV: CE 2579 - FBI reports dated June ...
aarclibrary.org/publib/jfk/wc/wcvols/wh25/pdf/WH25_CE_2579.pdf

[Allan G. Johnson]

Where's the "door" that Oswald ran out of to get to the stairway?, and
where's Waldo now?

[Anthony Marsh]

Why is it that you have to point us to a conspiracy Web site to read
government documents?


> https://catalog.archives.gov/id/7461249
>

Due to the shutdown of the Federal Government, National Archives
facilities are closed, websites and social media are not being updated
or monitored, and activities are canceled, with some exceptions. Check
Archives.gov for details.

Just as in the Novel 1984 our history is being erased and we are forced
to believe Fake News.

[Anthony Marsh]

Hoax
There was no witness.

>

[claviger]

Or so you hope. Two SSA and one Deputy are named in an official signed
statement with his job on the line. Was this reporter fired over this
story? If it was a hoax he should have been! Anyone know what happened?

[Mark]

I don't know if he was fired or not. Journalism ethics have changed
over the 55 years. Here's a link to a bit of background on Waldo, and you
can find his WC testimony on the McAdams website.

https://spartacus-educational.com/JFKwaldo.htm

Mark

[Anthony Marsh]

No, I don't think so. I don't think his boss was even aware.

>
>
>

[claviger]

Why is a Fort Worth reporter at the center of so much controversy?

Why was Thayer the "go to" guy for shocking rumors?

Why do evil plotters meet in a nightclub full of people?

[bigdog]

Television did a lot to degrade journalistic ethics. With television,
getting it right often takes a back seat to getting it first. It used to
be a foundation of good journalism to get a second source. I took a few
journalism courses when I was at Ohio State and I remember one of the
professors telling us, "If your mother tells you she loves you, get
confirmation.". Now with competing cable news channels covering stories in
real time, it seems they are willing to go on the air with nothing more
than rumors. Of course that didn't start with cable news. I remember back
in 1980 at the Republican Convention when Gerald Ford went to meet with
Ronald Reagan supposedly to discuss the possibility of them putting past
differences aside and having Ford be Reagan's running mate. Dan Rather who
was working as a floor reporter actually went on the air and announced
that "the deal has been cut". A short time later, Reagan took the
unprecedented step of appearing at the convention a night before he was to
accept the nomination to announce George H. W. Bush as his running mate.
There's no telling how close Ford and Reagan came to making a deal, but
obviously the deal had not been cut.

This YouTube video has Walter Cronkite in the aftermath.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jfjra-bF-tk

[Anthony Marsh]

Yes, that's what the CIA plotters did in Florida to plan the assassination
of Castro. The cutest thing was when they were talking too loudly in their
room and were overheard by a woman who just happened to be related to an
FBI agent and she called him and told him what she had heard.

[claviger]

So they were in their room not inside a nightclub.

[Anthony Marsh]

Silly. Do your homework. The meeting was in a nightclub then then went
to one of the bedrooms.

>

[claviger]

The nightclub had bedrooms?

[Anthony Marsh]

The nightclub was part of the Fountainbleu Hotel, which had rooms for
sleeping.

[claviger]

OK, so why meet in a public place with a whole bunch of witnesses
to plot assassination of The President of the United States?

[Anthony Marsh]

Just to MEET their counterparts. No one had to know what they were
talking about. One of our local CIA assets always met with her CIA
handler at a famous cafe in Harvard Square because she only lived a
block away and the CIA office was right in Harvard Square so they were
just friends meeting for lunch. No one had to know what they were
talking about.


>