Mr. Dulles.

areas here as between you as chief of police and the Secret Service and the FBI?

Mr. Curry.

Prior to the President's visit, no; there was nothing there.

Mr. Dulles.

Prior to or subsequent to?

Mr. Curry.

Now, subsequent to that, we felt this, that this was a murder that had been committed in the county, city and county of Dallas, and that we had prior, I mean we had jurisdiction over this. The FBI actually had no jurisdiction over it, the Secret Service actually had no jurisdiction over it. But in an effort to cooperate with these agencies we went all out to do whatever they wanted us to do that we could do to let them observe what was taking place, but actually we knew that this was a case that happened in Dallas, Tex., and would have to be tried in Dallas, Tex., and it was our responsibility to gather the evidence and present the evidence.
We kept getting calls from the FBI. They wanted this evidence up in Washington, in the laboratory, and there was some discussion, Fritz told me, he says, "Well, I need the evidence here, I need to get some people to try to identify the gun, to try to identify this pistol and these things, and if it is in Washington how can I do it?"
But we finally, the night, about midnight of Friday night, we agreed to let the FBI have all the evidence and they said they would bring it to their laboratory and they would have an agent stand by and when they were finished with it to return it to us.

Mr. Dulles.

An agent of the police force, you mean?

Mr. Curry.

An agent of the FBI.

Mr. Dulles.

FBI?

Mr. Curry.

Yes.

Mr. Dulles.

There was no agent of the Dallas police that went to Washington with the evidence?

Mr. Curry.

Not to my knowledge.

Mr. Rankin.

Did that work out all right so far?

Mr. Curry.

Well, not exactly, because they were to give us pictures of everything that was brought to Washington, and Fritz tells me that some of these little items that it was very poor reproduction of some of the items on microfilm.
Subsequently they photographed these things in Washington and sent us copies, some 400, I think, 400 copies of different items. So far as I know, we have never received any of that evidence back. It is still in Washington, I guess.
Perhaps the Commission has it.

Mr. Rankin.

Yes; the Commission is still working with it.

Mr. Curry.

Yes.

Mr. Rankin.

But apparently the FBI tried to carry out their agreement with you, didn't they?

Mr. Curry.

Yes; they did.

Mr. Rankin.

And it is a question of whether or not their reproductions were as good as you would like to have?

Mr. Curry.

There were made, some of them, in the office down in Dallas, they were in a tremendous hurry to get all of these items to the laboratory here in Washington, and our only concern was this, that if this ease is tried in Dallas, we need the evidence to be presented here in a court in Dallas and we were a little bit apprehensive about it if it gets to Washington will it be available to us when we need it. If we need somebody to identify, attempt to identify the gun or other items will it be here for them to see? And that was our only concern.
We got several calls insisting we send this, and nobody would tell me exactly who it was that was insisting, "just say I got a call from Washington, and they wanted this evidence up there," insinuated it was someone in high authority that was requesting this, and we finally agreed as a matter of trying to cooperate with them, actually.

Mr. Dulles.

Have you any more questions?

Mr. Mccloy.

Not at this stage.

Mr. Rankin.

Shall we convene at 2?

Mr. Dulles.

Mr. Murray, do you have any?

Mr. Murray.

No, thank you.
(Whereupon, at 12:45 p.m., the President's Commission recessed.)