(Testimony of Capt. Cecil E. Talbert)
Mr. Hubert.
Approximately 2 years prior to that I was having breakfast at the Pancake House at the Ramada Inn with other officers when a man going out--we were sitting down and the man was going out and passed by and stopped. Was--and he was obtrusively friendly with the other officer, one of them he knew. He knew Lieutenant Pierce who was with me, and Lieutenant Pierce introduced me to him, and from that point until the point where he was on the floor at the jail office, I don't recall having seen him, and the only reason that I remember the Pancake incident, it was after the incident I was reminded of the incident by Lieutenant Pierce. I don't recall of having met him at any time since the old days of his operation at the Silver Spur.
Mr. Hubert.
Did you talk to him, or see him after that?
Captain TALBERT. No, sir, I asked--at that time, I didn't know they had the gun. I didn't see the gun, so, I thought it was still in the crowd, and I asked Chief Batchelor for permission to put all of the news media in the police assembly room for interrogation, or somebody said, "I don't think we have the gun." One of the officers who was kneeling on Ruby--literally, you couldn't hardly see Ruby for this officer kneeling on him--said, "I have the gun." Or perhaps he said, "Graves has the gun." And then I told Chief Batchelor that it wouldn't be necessary to search them. I got a batch of memo pads from the jail office and gave some of them to Sergeant Everett, passed some out myself, told the officers to get the names, identification and location at the time of the shooting of anyone before they let them out of the basement. Chief Batchelor had told me to go to Parkland and secure it. I immediately got in my car, got on there and told the dispatcher to gather up all of my squads and to have them to report to me cede 3, at Parkland and followed the ambulance out to Parkland.
Mr. Hubert.
When did you first hear that Ruby had stated that he had come down the Main Street ramp?
Captain TALBERT. I started my own investigation. Of course, I had nothing to do with this official investigation of the incident in the basement, but it is only natural that a police officer and a police supervisor is going to instigate his own investigation. I started mine from the hospital on the phone, and that question would be impossible to answer. I may have heard it through the news media. I heard--may have heard it through another officer who had overheard what they said up in the jail. It could have been something of that sort. I couldn't tell you exactly, sir.
Mr. Hubert.
Did you, in fact, conduct an independent investigation of your own?
Captain TALBERT. Just a very cursory one, and during a very brief period until the official investigation got underway.
Mr. Hubert.
How long a time would that have been ?
Captain TALBERT. Well, maybe
Mr. Hubert.
Put it this way, what did you do by way of instigating the investigation?
Captain TALBERT. Contacted, attempted to ascertain how Ruby entered the ramp, or entered the parking area rather. I contacted each of my officers who were on the entrances, and I did that while I was at the hospital. That was before the death of--or during the operation on Oswald, and while we still had the hospital secured by the squads, and I contacted the supervisors who were there, and after that I was told that an official investigation would be conducted, and I dropped it.
Mr. Hubert.
Would you say that it was about an hour?
Captain TALBERT. No, sir; I wouldn't estimate the time.
Mr. Hubert.
Did you contact Vaughn particularly?
Captain TALBERT. Yes, sir; I had contacted Vaughn. Then contacted him the next day. I found that Vaughn had let one man in onto the ramp that he hadn't included in his report the next day. This man being a city employee, a--one who Vaughn thought was authorized to enter the ramp. He was Chenault, the mechanic in charge of the garage, so Chenault told Vaughn. This was not in Vaughn's report, but when Vaughn was broached with-it, and this was on the 26th--I believe that could have been the 27th. Could you hold the---
Mr. Hubert.
Well---
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