Post by Michael Capasse on Jul 14, 2020 9:56:12 GMT -5
The In and Out
Tom Tilson was a 17 year veteran of the Dallas Police Dept. in 1963.
He had the day off on Nov. 22nd and was with his daughter, on his way
to pick up her younger sister, who had gone to Dealey Plaza to watch the parade.
As he approached the Plaza eastbound from Commerce St., he heard on the police radio the president had just been shot.
Immediately the limousine and official vehicles flew past him on the way to Parkland Hospital.
Suddenly, there was a man struggling down the grass on the west side of the overpass.
This is the other side of the over pass where Julia Mercer saw a man wielding a gun case up the embankment earlier that morning.
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Dallas Morning News | August 20, 1978
"...And I saw all these people running to the scene of the shooting," he said. "By that time,
I had come across under Stemmons. Everybody was jumping out of their cars and pulling up on the median strip.
"But here's one guy coming from the railroad tracks. He came down that grassy slope on the west side of
the triple underpass, on the Elm Street side.
He had a car parked there, a black car. And he threw something in the back seat and went around the front hurriedly and
got in the car and took off. "I was on Commerce Street right there across from it, fixing to go under the triple underpass
going (east) into town. I saw all of this and I said, 'That doesn't make sense, everybody running to the scene and
one person running from it."
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He told the HSCA in 1978
The man was white, 38 to 40 years old, 5 feet 8 inches to 5 feet 9 inches in height, with a round face.
He wore a dark suit, and as he was slipping and sliding down this hill, he bumped a black car parked off the road as he landed.
He threw an object in to the back seat and took off toward the Industrial Highway.
Tilson told Defense Attorney Gerry Spence in 1986, he had known Jack Ruby for about 7 years.
He told both the HSCA and Attorney Spence he believed the man he saw was Jack, or an exact double.
He went further with the Committee,
"That impression was so strong in Tilson's mind that he noted that Ruby showed a lot of "resourcefulness"
in arranging to be identified in a newspaper office at the time of the assassination with a lot of influential witnesses." (231)
As the car crossed his path he decided to give chase, as he got closer to the vehicle he called out the license to his daughter.
She quickly wrote it down, and he backed off the chase then called the number into Dallas Homicide. He didn't remember who he spoke to.
He never heard anything further, he kept the paper for a number of years and discarded it when he emptied his house.
HSCA
"Tilson explained that he never followed up on the report with the homicide squad because of his perception that the
homicide office was run as a kind of "elite," which resented any encroachment on its authority."(236)
Tom Tilson was a 17 year veteran of the Dallas Police Dept. in 1963.
He had the day off on Nov. 22nd and was with his daughter, on his way
to pick up her younger sister, who had gone to Dealey Plaza to watch the parade.
As he approached the Plaza eastbound from Commerce St., he heard on the police radio the president had just been shot.
Immediately the limousine and official vehicles flew past him on the way to Parkland Hospital.
Suddenly, there was a man struggling down the grass on the west side of the overpass.
This is the other side of the over pass where Julia Mercer saw a man wielding a gun case up the embankment earlier that morning.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Dallas Morning News | August 20, 1978
"...And I saw all these people running to the scene of the shooting," he said. "By that time,
I had come across under Stemmons. Everybody was jumping out of their cars and pulling up on the median strip.
"But here's one guy coming from the railroad tracks. He came down that grassy slope on the west side of
the triple underpass, on the Elm Street side.
He had a car parked there, a black car. And he threw something in the back seat and went around the front hurriedly and
got in the car and took off. "I was on Commerce Street right there across from it, fixing to go under the triple underpass
going (east) into town. I saw all of this and I said, 'That doesn't make sense, everybody running to the scene and
one person running from it."
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
He told the HSCA in 1978
The man was white, 38 to 40 years old, 5 feet 8 inches to 5 feet 9 inches in height, with a round face.
He wore a dark suit, and as he was slipping and sliding down this hill, he bumped a black car parked off the road as he landed.
He threw an object in to the back seat and took off toward the Industrial Highway.
Tilson told Defense Attorney Gerry Spence in 1986, he had known Jack Ruby for about 7 years.
He told both the HSCA and Attorney Spence he believed the man he saw was Jack, or an exact double.
He went further with the Committee,
"That impression was so strong in Tilson's mind that he noted that Ruby showed a lot of "resourcefulness"
in arranging to be identified in a newspaper office at the time of the assassination with a lot of influential witnesses." (231)
As the car crossed his path he decided to give chase, as he got closer to the vehicle he called out the license to his daughter.
She quickly wrote it down, and he backed off the chase then called the number into Dallas Homicide. He didn't remember who he spoke to.
He never heard anything further, he kept the paper for a number of years and discarded it when he emptied his house.
HSCA
"Tilson explained that he never followed up on the report with the homicide squad because of his perception that the
homicide office was run as a kind of "elite," which resented any encroachment on its authority."(236)