(Testimony of John Allison Smith)
Mr. Hubert.
Oswald's name and the second time he referred to him by the use of the pronoun "him," and the second time you told him, "No"?
Mr. Smith.
I said, "No, sir; they haven't brought him down, or we wouldn't still be sitting here." And he just turned and walked away.
Mr. Hubert.
Did you see him there after that day?
Mr. Smith.
Now I think I did, and I am not sure. But this is the same man. The third time was in a crowd, and I could tell you pretty well what time this was, because KRLD put a camera in front of our truck at approximately 10 a.m. That is another guess. But they had time to turn that camera on and get it warm before all the news broke, so it had to be somewhere in the neighborhood of 10 or maybe before. But after that camera was set up, KRLD bad a couple of engineers out there lining up the camera.
Mr. Hubert.
That was on Commerce Street with the camera facing down into the Commerce Street ramp of the building, I take it?
Mr. Smith.
They had this thing facing--you see, our truck wasn't up to the ramp. There was room for a car almost between our truck and the ramp. Now they had this camera in that space right directly in front of our truck there, and they had a man standing on the sidewalk lining up their camera.
And this TV camera, it always draws a crowd, and at this time there was quite a few people just standing around. But this man that I am talking about, I am almost certain, was standing on the other side of the ramp.
Mr. Hubert.
Of the Commerce Street ramp?
Mr. Smith.
Yes; on the sidewalk, i.n a group of people, just standing there watching the proceedings.
Mr. Hubert.
Do you recall the time at which the police moved all of the people from the police department side of Commerce Street over to the other side?
Mr. Smith.
No; I don't. Someone asked me that before. I don't remember that taking place. You see, I was never told anything about the move. I was inside the truck, so I didn't have any connection with that.
Mr. Hubert.
Now when you saw this man, or think you did, possibly did, the third time, had you come out of your truck?
Mr. Smith.
Yes; I had been down in the basement. We were running some microphone cords, you see. I know this adds up to an awful long story how we move around so much, and it doesn't make sense to you, I am sure, but sometime during the morning Chief of Police Curry had told us that we would not be allowed to go through the double doors that separate the underground parking area from. the underground office area. It is a double door there adjacent to the elevator opening, and he had told us that we would not be allowed beyond that door for any reason, but that be would give us a good place to put a camera and a microphone if we wouldn't interfere with his passageway from there on out to the parking lot.
So we had gotten permission to set this camera up right next to that door, and we were the first camera in line there, and we were going to run two microphones in there. That was the plan at that time, in case they should allow an interview. We had hoped that they might, which later didn't work, but in the running of this microphone, this microphone went through the downstairs door into the office area. They didn't' go down the ramp or anywhere near the parking area, but in running the microphones and in helping the Walker crew check out the mikes and all coming back to the truck is when I had seen this man standing over there to the left.
Mr. Hubert.
It was to your left as you came out of the Commerce Street ramp?
Mr. Smith.
Yes, sir.
Mr. Hubert.
How close did you get to him then?
Mr. Smith.
It was even further than before. It was all the way; well, the length of our truck is 20 some odd feet, and it was a couple of car lengths more; so I was 40 or 50 feet.
Mr. Hubert.
You mean he was a couple of car lengths beyond the entrance, the Commerce Street exit, rather?
Mr. Smith.
Yes, sir.
Mr. Hubert.
Perhaps I misunderstood you. Did you see him immediately as you came out of the Commerce Street ramp exit, or when you got back to the truck?
|
