347 Call sending officer Mentzel to traffic accident

From the Erasing list-post:

[462] [Note: Unit 91, William D. Mentzel, and unit 222, Vernon R. Nolan, were sent to a traffic accident at 1:11:32 p.m. Unit 221, Howell W. Summers, checked out on a traffic stop at 1:10:32 p.m. There is no record of Summers clearing from this stop, although an interview of Summers indicated that he was available at the time Bowley radioed dispatcher Murray Jackson.]

(Footnote from Dale Myers, With Malice, 2013 edition)


Furthermore, in an apparent attempt to explain why Jackson immediately thought of calling for Tippit instead of William Mentzel, Myers writes in his endnotes that Mentzel, and another officer named Vernon R. Nolan, were sent to a traffic accident at about 1:11 pm. Curiously, there is nothing within WCE 705* and WCE 1974* that Mentzel was sent to a traffic accident.

(Gokay Hasan Yusuf, review of Dale Myers, With Malice, part one)


Missing calls, misinterpreted calls, calls failed to be transcribed, tampered timestamps, this new article by John Washburn on KennedysandKing can be as confusing as its subject matter. But he does mention a source for the call sending officer Mentzel to a traffic accident at 1:11 p.m. on the day of the assassination. It is on the radio tapes, but the time is incorrect.

"If he took lunch at 12:32 pm and left his tray and hadn’t eaten, that suggests he stayed only 5-10 minutes. He also says that the description of the Kennedy assassination suspect hadn’t been yet broadcast. With the description being broadcast from 12:45pm, then Mentzel must have left before 12:45pm.

However, Mentzel also changed his story to say to the HSCA that he was then cruising in the area of Zang and West 10th Street before 1pm when he took a call on a traffic incident. But by the radio tapes, that call is approximately 1:07 pm (1:11pm by the time tampered tape and transcripts).

DISPATCH: Signal 7 [accident], 817 West Davis. 1:11 [DPD time]

Mentzel 91: 817 West Davis?"

In the article, Washburn suggests that Tippit and Mentzel may have met shortly before the first was murdered. Mentzel was having lunch between 12:00 and 1:00 according to the WC, but he told the HSCA a different story. Read the entire article here.



Maybe also interesting:

Videotaped oral history interview with Ardyce Mentzel. Mentzel observed the Kennedy motorcade in Dallas on November 22, 1963. Her late husband, Dallas police officer W. D. Mentzel, was assigned to patrol the area in Oak Cliff where Officer J.D. Tippit was shot and killed shortly after the Kennedy assassination. Interview conducted at The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza on May 21, 2007 by Stephen Fagin. The interview is thirty minutes long.

Ardyce Mentzel Oral History