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Warren Commission Hearings: Vol. XII - Page 8« Previous | Next »

(Testimony of Assistant Chief Charles Batchelor)

Chief BATCHELOR. Armored Motor Car Service. It is actually a Fort Worth company who services both Dallas and Fort Worth, and they have an office here, too.

Mr. Griffin.
Go ahead.
Chief BATCHELOR. After this, I told him that I thought I could get one. I then went to the city directory to see who was in charge here, where I might get ahold of his phone number. And I called the vice president at his home. This was on Sunday morning. It was before he had gone to church. It must have been somewhere around 9 o'clock.
Mr. Griffin.
Can you give us the name of the vice president?
Chief BATCHELOR. It was Mr. Fleming. Mr. Fleming was the vice president, and I talked to him at his home, and he told me that he would be glad to furnish us one. As a matter of fact, he had two trucks which we could take our choice.

One was a small truck, but would accommodate only one passenger in the back. The other one was what they call an overland truck, and it had seats on either side in the back and would accommodate several people.
And I said, "I don't know whether this will go down to the basement or not." But I asked him how tall it was and he said he didn't know, but he would have it measured and let me know. And I told him that I would find out what the height of the ramp was. We have a low place in the ramp as you go down at the bottom of the ramp, and it is only 7 feet 5 inches tall at that point, so I found out what that height was, and I called him back.
Mr. Griffin.
Now at the time you first talked with Mr. Fleming, did you indicate to him what time you would need the armored vehicle?
Chief BATCHELOR. Yes; I told him sometime around 10 or a little after. And he said he would get there as quickly as possible. He had to call a crew down to man the truck. And Mr. Hall, who is their Dallas representative here,

brought the truck down with another driver driving the small one.
Mr. Griffin.
When was the truck brought down?
Chief BATCHELOR. It was brought down--probably it wasn't at 10 o'clock, because they didn't get there that early. It must have been closer to 11 o'clock when they finally got down there with it.
Mr. Griffin.
Did you say anything else to Mr. Fleming during this first telephone conversation? Did you tell him anything about the route?
Chief BATCHELOR. I don't believe that I told him the route we were going to take, no. I know I didn't tell him.
Mr. Griffin.
While you were on the telephone with Mr. Fleming, where was Chief Curry, if you know?
Chief BATCHELOR. He was in his office. I called Mr. Fleming from my office. I left his office and went into my office and called him.
Mr. Griffin.
How about Chief Stevenson, where was he?
Chief BATCHELOR. He was either in his office or in Chief Curry's office with him. We were all together.
Mr. Griffin.
At the time that Curry got off the first telephone call with Decker, was there anything that Stevenson was supposed to do ?
Chief BATCHELOR. Well, he and I both, under Chief Curry's instructions, he said you'd better go downstairs and see what manpower you will need to cover that basement down there. One other thing, Chief Lumpkin had come in and he was the man I asked to find out for me how tall that ramp was down there, what the clearance was.
Mr. Griffin.
Now, did Lumpkin go down there before or after you called Fleming ?
Chief BATCHELOR. I think he went down there. He called somebody down that knew how tall it was, but that was after I talked to Fleming the first time.
Mr. Griffin.
Does your office, Chief, maintain any records of outgoing telephone calls?
Chief BATCHELOR. No, Sir.
Mr. Griffin.
At the time that you were talking to Fleming, between the time that the chief talked with Decker and you talked with Fleming, would there have been any occasion for a dispatcher to make any particular communication to the people in the field as a result of the conversation with Decker?
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