Mr. Stevenson.

They had discussed the possibility of transferring the prisoner in an armored car due to these threats. I walked in the office, in the chiefs office while that was being discussed, and the chief asked me what I thought about it.

I told him I thought it would be a good idea, in view of the threats. Chief Batchelor went to his office to contact one of the local armored truck operators, who was, I believe, a Mr. Fleming, and made arrangements to get an armored truck. I remained around the office on the third floor, and I believe Chief Batchelor and I made another trip down in the basement before I went after some coffee.
Chief Batchelor advised Chief Curry he had ordered the armored truck and told Chief Curry, he and I were going to the basement and look the area over. We went to the basement, and Captain Talbert had set up, what we thought, was a very good security.

Mr. Hubert.

Did you see it yourself?

Mr. Stevenson.

Yes; I saw the officers, where they were distributed.

Mr. Hubert.

Would you state then for the record just what you saw, what you stated you considered to be good security? And it might be that you will want to use that chart to indicate what you mean.

Mr. Stevenson.

He had placed officers--he had not stationed them definitely, but he had officers there checking everybody that came into the basement. He had officers down there that searched the entire basement area, searching cars,

on top of the heat conduits, and so forth. He had officers on the ramp up here.

Mr. Hubert.

Wait a minute, you say, "up here"?

Mr. Stevenson.

At the top of the Commerce Street ramp.

Mr. Hubert.

How many officers did he have there?

Mr. Stevenson.

I don't know just how many. He had some reserve and regular officers. And Captain Arnett advised us, I believe it was on this trip, that he had been instructed by Captain Talbert to move all of the people to the southside of Commerce Street, permit none of them to congregate on the city hall or Police and Courts Building side of Commerce, and that he had done that. We observed that the crowd was across the street. He had an officer stationed up here at the top of the Main Street ramp.

Mr. Hubert.

Do you know that officer's name ?

Mr. Stevenson.

Vaughn, I believe it was.

Mr. Hubert.

I wonder if you would write his name there in your own handwriting.
Let the record indicate that Mr. Stevenson is writing the name of the Officer Vaughn on Exhibit 5050.
Can you tell us what officers you saw in the basement area?

Mr. Stevenson.

At that time when I was down there, I cannot say other than that I did see Captain Talbert. He was all over the area.

Mr. Hubert.

What time was this, about, again?

Mr. Stevenson.

This was around 9:45, I guess. As best I recall the time on that.

Mr. Hubert.

Any of the news people there then ?

Mr. Stevenson.

Yes, sir; there were a few. This camera had been moved. They were back over in this area back in here.

Mr. Hubert.

Well, now, you are indicating on the chart that they had been moved to what is called there the parking area ?

Mr. Stevenson.

Parking area of the basement; yes.

Mr. Hubert.

All right; go ahead.

Mr. Stevenson.

We returned back upstairs to the third floor. Chief Lumpkin and I went to the second floor to the patrol captain's office. Captain Talbert came up to the office and asked us to have a cup of coffee with him, which we did. He asked us at this time about the time of the route of the transfer. We told him at that time that we didn't know definitely, but that we believed that it would be east on Commerce to Central, north on Central to Main, and west on Main to the county jail.

Mr. Hubert.

You say that you were not certain of that information, but that you had gathered it? Could you expand on that and tell us where you think you got that information? As far as you are concerned, then, there had been no plans that you knew of as to the route?