(Testimony of Robert Inman Bouck Resumed)
Mr. Bouck.
type of information about any citizen if we knew he had a particular vantage point on a route.
Mr. Stern.
But a citizen, possessing all the characteristics you believe to have been known about Oswald but not having access through employment or residence or some comparable relationship to the parade route, would not have been of concern to you under the criteria and practices in effect at the time of Dallas, is that what you are saying?
Mr. Bouck.
I think a little broader than that. Access of any kind, working in a hotel or any point where he might have unusual access.
If you broaden the question to that, I would say that is what I am saying.
Mr. Stern.
Unusual access?
Mr. Bouck.
Yes.
Mr. Mccloy.
If I might intervene here, if I understand it. I don't know whether it is good but there is speculation and conjecture in it, I don't know it you will get far with it. Probably if you had known all the derogatory information that you now know was accumulated in all of the agencies of the Government irrespective of where this fellow was in Dallas you might have kept your eye on him.
Mr. Bouck.
Again, that would be speculation. I don't know. It wouldn't be normal. It wouldn't fit within our normal category unless we knew he was--he had a vantage point. We know of tremendous numbers of people who are bad people that we don't keep an eye on.
Mr. Mccloy.
Yes; but suppose you knew these men, or suppose you encountered some of these defectors, I am told there are 18 others, wouldn't you have been somewhat negligent if you didn't check up on him when he got to the vantage point in Dallas?
Mr. Bouck.
If we had checked up, I don't know whether we would have gone beyond that.
Mr. Mccloy.
I don't suggest that but you might have kept him under surveillance.
Mr. Bouck.
We would have taken note of this.
Mr. Stern.
Would that have been true if he had not been known to be living in Dallas, if his last known address was New Orleans?
Mr. Bouck.
If he had not been living in Dallas we would not have checked on on him in this trip area even with the other information.
Mr. Stern.
Suppose he had been living in Fort Worth?
Mr. Bouck.
Well, if we had known he were living in Fort Worth that would be the same as Dallas, to us. When we speak of a city we speak of the driving distance or the commutable distance to a city.
Mr. Stern.
We will move very quickly to questions concerning Oswald and I would like to go back now and cover the details of your file search and other PRS activity for the Texas trip, the total Texas trip. If you would start with the first date you heard that the President was preparing to travel to Texas and tell us what your Section did and what you found.
Mr. Bouck.
Our first knowledge of the Texas trip was on November 8 when the advance agent, Agent Lawson, reported to the Protective Research Section that the President was going to Texas, and that Dallas was one of the stops. A check at that time was made of our trip index, and no cards were found on Dallas to indicate that there was an uncontrolled dangerous person in Dallas.
Two such people were found at the Houston stop. This information was imparted to Mr. Lawson at that time.
Mr. Stern.
Excuse me, could you identify the two Houston cases from Exhibit 762?
Mr. Bouck.
Yes; they are in here. Case No. 21 is one. This individual is a local law-enforcement officer that was not considered awfully dangerous but again because he might have an unusual vantage point we made arrangements each time to see that he was not used in any way that he might have a vantage point. Case 26 is the other one, which is a case that goes back many, many years of an individual who has been repeatedly threatening but we have been unable to do much about. She has been in and out of mental hospitals.
Mr. Stern.
So these were the two cases?
Mr. Bouck.
The two cases.
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