(Testimony of Winston G. , Accompanied By Fred B. Smith, Lawson)
Mr. Lawson.
vehicle. Sometimes if you are in an area where there are State police and police and sheriff's and quite a few jurisdictions, where it is a long motorcade i and you are going through various counties you are not able to have a command officer of every jurisdiction in that.
But in Dallas the lead car, the car that I was in directly ahead of the President was a police car, and of course it had a radio that was in contact with the pilot car and any other radio on the police net. In addition to that, I had a portable radio on the Secret Service White House network.
Mr. Mccloy.
Was there a Secret Service agent riding in the pilot car?
Mr. Lawson.
No sir; there was not.
Mr. Mccloy.
The first Secret Service agent was----
Mr. Lawson.
In the lead car.
Mr. Mccloy.
Was in the lead car. I don't know whether you want to have got to leave. Are you going to ask why they didn't go down Main Street?
Mr. Stern.
Yes.
Mr. Mccloy.
Take care of that. The suggestion was made yesterday--you are going to cover that?
(Discussion off the record.)
Representative Ford.
I would like if I might to follow up with a question which you asked a minute ago on the record. As I recall your testimony, Mr. Lawson, you indicated that the police who were assigned along the route had the responsibility to check windows and the crowd. Is that what you indicated?
Mr. Lawson.
And also the agents as they went by; yes,-sir. It wouldn't be just a police responsibility; no, sir.
Representative Ford.
How did the police know they had that responsibility?
Mr. Lawson.
In our police meetings, of which we had three or four listed in here, we talked about crowd control and watching the crowd, and of course the agents just do that anyway. That is part of their function. And in the newspaper accounts it said how watchful the police were going to be of all kinds of activity, and actually they requested public assistance, as I recall it, anyone that noticed anything unusual they had asked that they notify the police.
Representative Ford.
When you meet with police officials, in this case Chief Curry, Sheriff Decker, and who else, is this clearly laid out that the members of their organization have the specific responsibility of checking windows? Do you followup to see whether this is actually put in writing to the members of the police force, and the Sheriff's department?
Mr. Lawson.
No, sir; I do not followup to see if it was put in writing.
Mr. Dulled.
You mean an external check don't you? You don't mean going through each building?
Representative Ford.
No. As I understood it, policemen have the responsibility to check windows and to look at the crowd, and I was just wondering whether there is any followup to be sure that the chief of police and the sheriff or anybody else actually makes this specific communication to the people in their organizations.
Mr. Lawson.
In this particular instance there was not. Sometimes on my own advances I have received copies of police directives. Sometimes this is covered and sometimes there are other directives. This is not normal though. It is just that the police say "Here is a copy of one of our orders." Sometimes it is the posting of police, sometimes it is that. In Berlin where I was assisting on an advance for President Kennedy's trip in June, we received all kinds of information of this type, even to the fact where the police had requested anyone to notify them of anyone that tried to gain entry into their room that didn't belong there, if it was a business office or if it was a private home or if all of a sudden they discovered they had a friend that they never knew they had before and all that. But this is not always done.
Mr. Mccloy.
I want to get it clear. In your presence, in the instructions to the police in Dallas, did you tell the police to keep their eye on windows as you went along?
Mr. Lawson.
I cannot say definitely that I told the police to watch windows. I usually do. On this particular case I cannot say whether I definitely said that. I believe I did, but I would not swear to the fact that I said watch all the windows.
|
