a patrol wagon, which might be referred to as a paddy wagon, moved from the first two spaces, and have the television cameras set up there. If they, the news media, wanted to set them up, they would have to be set up there.

Mr. Hubert.

At that time it had not been decided whether Oswald would be transferred by armored car or by your police car, or for that matter, by the sheriff?
Chief CURRY. That's correct.

Mr. Hubert.

Do you remember whether anyone gave any orders to the effect that press media and all authorized persons there should be kept on the east side of the rail that you just described, and not in the ramp area?
Chief CURRY. That's right.

Mr. Hubert.

That order was given, do you remember?
Chief CURRY. At the time, I instructed that all the press would be behind the guardrail--all the news media.

Mr. Hubert.

Was any request made by anybody that they should be allowed to stand on the west side of the rail?
Chief CURRY. Not to me.

Mr. Hubert.

Was it your thought all the way through that they were being kept on the other side?
Chief CURRY. Yes.

Mr. Hubert.

Now, as I understand it, of course, the plans were formulated by yourself and Batchelor and perhaps Stevenson, and after you learned that Sheriff Decker was agreeable to your bringing the prisoner over, or it was agreed that you would, the plan of carrying him there by armored truck was first discussed, and later that was changed. That was the plan. Who was in charge of actually executing the plan?
Chief CURRY. I don't suppose any one particular man would have been charged with the responsibility of the entire movement.
Chief Stevenson and Chief Batchelor and Chief Lumpkin, all of these men went into the basement immediately prior to the transfer, and each would have had responsibility to correct anything that was amiss.

Mr. Hubert.

All were aware of the plan?
Chief CURRY. Yes.

Mr. Hubert.

To use the armored truck which had meanwhile pulled up as a decoy and carried out as you described a few moments ago?
Chief CURRY. Yes.

Mr. Hubert.

I think there has been some testimony by other people prior that an attempt had been made to reach you early Sunday morning but that the line was reported busy.
Chief CURRY. The FBI asked me about that a few days ago, and I recall that the squad that came out, or that they actually called me and said they had been trying to get me and the squad was on the way out there; and discussing this with my wife, she said that she had taken the phone off the hook sometime during the night, and that the telephone company had made some kind of noise over the phone that woke her up and told her that something was wrong with the line, and the phone was off the hook, and she replaced it on the hook.
But when I was talking to the FBI Agent Vince Drain, about this, I didn't remember just what was wrong with the telephone.
At the time, I had been up for quite awhile, and it was not my instructions to her to take it off the hook. She took it off sometime on her own initiative, she said, so we could get some sleep. That was the trouble with the phone.

Mr. Hubert.

Chief, is it possible to comment upon this? To what extent was the failure of security caused by the presence of news media in the basement?
Chief CURRY. Well, in my opinion, it afforded some concealment for Ruby after he entered the basement, the presence of these news media people.

Mr. Hubert.

You mean by that, that it was difficult to distinguish him from news people?
Chief CURRY. Yes; looking back now, I can see that, had they all been excluded, that he would have immediately been seen as an unauthorized person in the basement, and that some action would have been taken to remove him.

Mr. Hubert.

Was any consideration given to the action of the single individual in the security precautions discussed?

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