(Testimony of William S. Biggio)
Mr. Biggio.
was attending a real estate convention which was here and being held here in Dallas and the word was sent to him from the company that he works for, the Bill Hardy Real Estate Co.--word was sent to the man, his name was Chesher [spelling] C-h-e-s-h-e-r--Bill was his first name. I believe it is correct--William R. He lives on Lupton Street.
Mr. Jenner.
Is he still alive?
Mr. Biggio.
No, sir. I tried to contact Hellinghousen today. Mr. Davis had gone up to talk to Captain Gannaway in regard to that report. I had understood that Hellinghousen had written a report from what he had learned from Mr. Chesher and I tried to contact him and could not, after Captain Gannaway had called me, so I went out to the Bill Hardy Real Estate Co. where Chesher works, and I talked to the manager of that company who is Wey, Jr. The location of the real estate company is 6340 E. Mockingbird Lane. Mr. Wey informed us that Bill Chesher died night before last of a heart attack in the hospital here. We then asked him if he had talked to Chesher any about hearing this mechanic talking in the cafe and he said, "No, he had heard some talk of it, though and he knew one man who had talked to him" and he called in another employee of the company, Mr. John P. [spelling] S-c-h-n-i-t-z-i-u-s, who is also an employee of the Bill Hardy Real Estate Co. and he told us that Chesher told him the same thing, that the mechanic had came in and sat by him and it was--that it took place at approximately 10 o'clock at night. He was leaving town--he was going out of town. He stopped there to get coffee and a sandwich and the man came in while he was there and he had given no description of the mechanic other than that he was short and was dressed in work clothes and that the clothes were greasy and that's the information that he had, and I believe the man was telling the truth when he said he was a mechanic and that's as far as we have been able to go.
Mr. Jenner.
What is it that the mechanic is alleged to have said?
Mr. Biggio.
He said that Oswald had been driving Ruby's car for approximately 2 weeks and that he had brought the car into his garage for repairs, but he did not mention the name of the garage or the type of repairs, the type of automobile or anything else.
Now, we, of course just as soon as that came through, there were checks made on the repairs on Ruby's automobile. His automobile was parked regularly, just a short distance up from the Carousel Club at the old Adolphus Hotel parking garage and also mechanical work had been done at that location, and the only other place we can find out where it had been to any type of garage at all was from receipts in his car and they were apparently for gas and oil and such things as that--no mechanical work whatsoever, so we didn't put much stock in the report, since it was third hand to start off with.
Also, we made an error ourselves--Hellinghousen thought when we brought that information back about Chesher that I would write up the report and I thought he was preparing the report, since he was the one who actually contacted the man and no report was made, but I'm sure the report went to the FBI, but there is no name in the original report connecting anybody with it and there was nothing in that that we could check on except the way we thought was through the mechanical repair bills and they would possibly be in the car.
Mr. Jenner.
You have told me all the incidents from the beginning to the present time?
Mr. Biggio.
Yes, sir.
Mr. Jenner.
And what you and your fellow officers have done with respect to running this down?
Mr. Biggio.
Yes, sir. I might add that the gentlemen out at Bill Hardy's Real Estate Co. were very cooperative and they said they would be willing to talk to any one of you. This lady who called me was very worried about being called herself or about Mr. Chesher possibly being called and him not liking it.
Mr. Jenner.
Now, the lady who reported it to you, she was not present--it had been a report to her?
Mr. Biggio.
She was not present. That's the reason I say it was third-hand information. It was written up in the report that way, although I considered her reliable. The information was third-hand and there is no way of actually
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