Erasing the Past to Protect a Fairytale

66 The original and complete Alyea Film


Related:
16 The camera original of the Nix film
19 The Pitzer Film
21 Several frames from the Towner film
30 The original Wiegman film
31 The original Darnell film
32 Unseen Darnell footage
33 The Cook film
91 Record of Ellsworth questioning Oswald

Erasing the Past...Discussions



MR. GUNN:
Q: Look at the next one on the list, please,
the Thomas Alyea film. What is the earliest
generation copy that you have of the Alyea film?

A: I don’t know. I had a multi-generation
copy, which was rather contrasty. And I don’t have
any idea what the source was. It was much later
than the original.

Q: Have you ever had access to an earlier
source?

A: Not that I’m aware of. I’ve seen- I have
seen Alyea footage-earlier prints that I did not
have access to, which had footage that I had never
seen before. But it was definitely his film.

Q: Okay. We’d like you to bring that-your
earliest generation of the Alyea film, as well.
Have you ever seen the original Alyea film?

A: The camera original?

Q: Camera original.

A: Not that I’m aware of, no.

(Robert Groden, ARRB deposition, 1996)

WFAA-Reporter Tom Alyea was one of the first people to reach the 6th floor of the Texas School Book Depository.
Alyea was one of the people to see the 6th floor as it was left behind by the shooter(s). The reporter managed to
get his film out of the depository by throwing it down to a colleague on Elm Street. The original and complete film
vanished. Only some incomplete fragments remain.

(Flip de Mey, Cold Case Kennedy, p. 186/187)



Tom Alyea interviewed in front of the book depository in 1964.
The Warren Committee showed no interest in his footage and he was not asked to testify.

68  One portion of (partially eaten?) fried chicken




"Evidence that William's lunch was interrupted?"


The 'sniper's window' in Hughes, seconds before the shooting

Arnold Rowland was standing on Houston Street, about 150 feet from the Book Depository. He described a man holding
a rifle thusly,

"He had on a light shirt, a very light-colored shirt, white or a light blue or a color such as that. This was open at the
collar. I think it was unbuttoned about halfway, and then he had a regular t-shirt, a polo shirt under this, at least this is
what it appeared to be." (2WH171)

( ... )

The Warren Commission’s statement is true if by limited one means limited to the parts of the descriptions that fit Oswald.
The testimony of one eyewitness in particular, Arnold Rowland, was especially relevant.

Among all the witnesses who saw a gunman on the sixth floor, Rowland was alone in stating that he had seen the gunman
on the west end of the building. In reading Rowland's testimony it is obvious that he was aware of the news reports that
shots were fired from the window on the southeast corner. In that window, he insisted, he had seen another man; a man
he described as an "elderly negro."

The accuracy of Rowland's judgment of the time is unassailable. Rowland testified that about the time he saw the
gunman in the window he heard the police dispatcher on a nearby motorcycle radio announce the time as 12:16 and
that the motorcade was at Cedar Springs road near Turtle Creek.

The police radio recording does show a broadcast that the motorcade was at Cedar Springs turning off Turtle Creek
and the dispatcher does give the time as 12:16 (CE 1974, p. 159)

The Warren Commission could not accept Rowland's detailed testimony and still infer that Oswald was in place in the
sniper's nest for the thirty minutes preceding the assassination. It is obvious now that the "negro" seen by Rowland
was a Book Depository employee named Bonnie Ray Williams.


Bonnie Ray Williams (left) and Harold Norman a minute after the shooting

Exactly what Bonnie Ray Williams saw on the sixth floor that day is open to question. Williams was one of the four men
working on the sixth floor that morning. He testified that when the crew went to lunch early that day they had agreed to
return to the sixth floor to watch the President’s motorcade go by (3WH169). Williams retrieved his lunch from the
Domino room, a “Chicken-on-the-bone sandwich.” He then went to the second floor lunchroom and bought a bottle of Dr.
Pepper from the machine and took this meal to the sixth floor, evidently expecting to be joined by the other crew
members.

First issue: when was Williams on the sixth floor? According to his testimony, Bonnie Ray Williams arrived on the sixth
floor with his chicken dinner and a soda-pop about, or shortly after, 12 noon. Williams testified that he neither saw nor
heard anyone else on the sixth floor. As to when he left, Williams said,

"I finished the chicken sandwich maybe 10 or fifteen minutes after 12. I could say approximately what time it was ...
approximately 12:20 maybe." (3WH173; WR68)

( … )

The witnesses who arrived after Fritz saw the chicken lunch and pop bottle on the third aisle. All those witnesses who
arrived ahead of Fritz saw the chicken bones scattered on the boxes in the sniper's nest.

Deputy Sheriff Luke Mooney, the first person on the scene, was asked if he noticed a paper wrapper (the alleged gun
case) lying near the window. He replied,

"I did see this one partially eaten piece of fried chicken laying over to the right...It would be laying over on top of
these other boxes..." (3WH286)

"There was one of them partially eaten. And there was a little small paper poke" (3WH288)



Patrolman E.D. Brewer was looking over Haygood's shoulder and testified that he saw next to the sniper's nest window
a, "...paper lunch sack and some chicken bones or partially eaten piece of chicken, or a piece of chicken...a cold drink
bottle, soda pop bottle." (6WH307)

Day was asked what had become of these remnants and he answered that he had kept the sack and bottle but thrown
away the chicken bones (4WH278).

The testimony that the chicken was only partially eaten is evidence that William's lunch was interrupted.
The fact is that the physical evidence coupled with the eyewitness testimony, indicates that Bonnie Ray Williams was in
the snipers nest at 12:16 and probably later. Whoever the assassin was he could not have moved into place until a few
minutes before the shooting. Yet, he must have been lurking somewhere on the sixth floor, perhaps on the west end of
the building just as Rowland had testified.

(excerpts from Rewriting History: Bugliosi Parses the Testimony by Don Thomas)

70  One piece of scalp




“One of my pictures shows a policeman running toward the car with his .45 pulled, pointed right at my camera (and my head).
‘Get down!’ he yelled, ‘Get down!’

“By the time we had gone another 50 yards or so, we wanted out of the car. Our driver was scared stiff. We pounded on his
back to stop the car. “Finally, he slowed down enough for some of us to peel off the back and sides. We hit the ground running.
We raced back to the scene of the shooting.
“I’ll never forget running along — with my camera going — yelling at the top of my lungs. ‘They can’t do it! They just can’t do
it! You just don’t shoot the President!’ “The next moment, a woman came walking toward me slowly, crying her eyes out.
Then a man ran past me, pursued by an FBI man. “At the scene, people were still lying on the ground, some protecting their
children. Others were running. Policemen were scattering in every direction with shotguns and pistols drawn. “I started toward
the building where I had seen the rifle in the window. Then I saw something very weird. There was a trail of blood from the spot
where the shooting occurred to the entrance of the Texas School Book Depository. I pointed it out to a man with me.
“Just then an FBI man stepped out of the building, and in his hand was an object dripping blood. It looked like a piece of hairy
flesh. I know I didn’t imagine this. The scene is very clear to me.
“I was also one of the few persons to see a small amount of brain matter near where the shooting had occurred.

(JFK Shooting Recalled Local Resident, Former TV Reporter Remembers Kennedy Assassination Couch’s Memories Remain Clear 37 Years Later, Clifton [Texas] Record, November 22, 2000)

72  Clint Peoples manuscript 


See also:
71 Jim Hood Photograph


Peoples (1910-1992) was a lawman for 60 years including service as a Deputy Sheriff in Montgomery County,
27 years as a Texas Ranger, and US Marshal. He died when his vehicle veered off the road and hit a telephone pole.

The men took this advice (see 71.). However, in 1988, a film crew from Los Angeles contacted Coley and asked him if he would be willing to be interviewed for a documentary they were making on Jack Ruby. Coley agreed and during the interview he told them the story of the blood on the steps. The reporter was fascinated with the story and he was filmed at the spot where the blood was found. It was assumed by the reporter, that someone had been hit in the crossfire and therefore confirmed the view that there must have been two gunman involved in the killing of JFK. Three days later the reporter phoned to say that the director of the documentary had decided not to use the section on the pool of blood. Coley was relieved as his wife had complained when she heard that he had told the reporter the story.

In 1990 Coley told the story to Wallace O. Chariton. He was convinced that Coley was telling the truth (by this time Hood and Mulkey were dead). Aynesworth was interviewed and he confirmed the story but claims that he was convinced that it was some sort of dark drink had been spilt on the steps.

Coley was working on the Henry Marshall case at the time. He therefore asked Clint Peoples about the story of the blood on the steps. Peoples, who was carrying out his own investigation into the JFK assassination at the time, admitted that he already knew about the story. What is more, he believed it was an important factor in explaining the mystery of the assassination.

What Chariton does not say in the article, is that Peoples claimed that he was on the verge of solving the case. He told several friends this at this time. Clint Peoples was killed shortly after Chariton’s book was published in 1991. His manuscript on the JFK assassination has never been found.

(John Simkin, Education Forum, Posted February 12, 2006)