Bill Decker was born in
1898. After leaving school he became a elevator operator in the Dallas
courthouse. Later he was promoted to court clerk and in 1924 he became
a deputy constable. In 1935 he was appointed chief deputy sheriff
for Dallas County. He held that post until being elected sheriff
in January, 1949.
On 22nd November, 1963,
Decker rode in the backseat of the motorcade's lead car. With him
in the car was Jesse Curry and Winston
G. Lawson.
After hearing the firing at President John
F. Kennedy
Decker gave the order: "Move
all available men out of my office into the railroad yard... and hold
everything secure until Homicide and other investigators should get
there."
After Lee
Harvey Oswald was
arrested he was interrogated by Will Fritz.
During this interview Decker phoned Fritz and ordered him to his office
to receive an important message. After leaving Oswald and walking
to the City Hall, Fritz had a long meeting with Decker.
In his book, The
Mafia Killed President Kennedy (1988) David
E. Scheim
claimed that "Decker
was well-connected in the underworld... Decker maintained friendships
with two notorious local hoodlums and served as a character reference
for Joseph Civello when the Dallas Mafia boss applied for parole on
a narcotics conviction."
Open
Debate on the Kennedy Assassination
(1)
Roger
Craig,
When
They Kill A President (1971)
The Dallas County
Court House at 505 Main Street was indeed a unique place to come to
hear what was WRONG with John F. Kennedy and his policies as President
of these United States.
This building housed the
elite troops of the Dallas County Sheriff's Department (of which I
was one), who, with blind obedience, followed the orders of their
Great White Father: Bill Decker, Sheriff of Dallas County.
From these elite troops
came the most bitter verbal attacks on President Kennedy. They spoke
very strongly against his policies concerning the Bay of Pigs incident
and the Cuban Missile crisis. They seemed to resent very much the
fact that President Kennedy was a Catholic. I do not know why this
was such a critical issue with many of the deputies but they did seem
to hold this against President Kennedy.
The concession stand in
the lobby of the court house was the best place to get into a discussion
concerning the President. The old man who ran the stand evidenced
a particular hatred for President Kennedy. He seemed to go out of
his way to drag anyone who came by his stand into a discussion about
the President. His name is J. C. Kiser.
He was a little man with
a short mustache and glasses that he wore right on the end of his
nose. He was a particularly good friend of Sheriff Decker, and he
held the concession in the lobby for many years. Like Decker, he was
unopposed when his lease came up for renewal. It was common knowledge
that Bill Decker made it possible for him to remain there as long
as he wished. This sick little man not only had a deep hatred for
John F. Kennedy, he also hated the black people, even those who spent
their money at his stand. He would often curse them as they walked
away after making a purchase from him. He flatly refused to make telephone
change for them even though he would be simultaneously making change
for a white person.
Thus... we have the atmosphere
that was to greet the President of the United States upon his arrival
in Dallas. However, things were to get even worse before he arrived.
The battle ground had been
picked and the unwelcome mat was out for President Kennedy. Unknown
to most of us, the rest of the plan was being completed. The patsy
had been chosen and placed in the building across from the court house
- where he could not deny his presence after it was all over. This
was done with the apparent approval and certainly with the knowledge
of our co-workers, the F.B.I., since they later admitted that they
knew Lee Harvey Oswald was employed at the School Book Depository
Building located on the corner of Elm Street and Houston Street across
from the Sheriff's Office.
The security had been arranged
by the Secret Service and the Dallas Police - our boys in blue. The
final touch was put on by Sheriff James Eric (Bill) Decker. On the
morning of November 22, 1963 the patrolmen in the districts which
make up the Dallas County Sheriff's Patrol Division were left in the
field, ignorant of what was going on in the downtown area, which was
just as well. Decker was not going to let them do anything anyway.
On July 17, 1970, I reported
for work to find another man doing my job. I was told by this "replacement"
that Jim wanted to see me. As I sat in Jim's office I knew what was
coming. Jim said, "Roger, you've done a good job but it is time
for a change." I asked him for an explanation but all he would
say was that it was time for a change and he was sorry!
Bill Decker died in August.
The County Commissioners appointed his executive assistant, Clarence
Jones, to fill the job until November, when he had to run for election
(with the backing of the Democratic Party). For the first time since
Decker's reign, the Republicans nominated someone to oppose a Democrat
for the office. The man was Jack Revel, former Chief of the Dallas
Police Intelligence Division. This meant that the voters had the choice
between two evils. Well, Clarence Jones was elected - his campaign
signs and posters read, "Elect Clarence Jones - In the Tradition
of Bill Decker"! It would be nice if Jack Revel would be upset
enough over his loss of the election to make public some information--but
this is very wishful thinking indeed.
Meanwhile, I am still out
of a job (but still looking). I would like to think that the people
of Dallas will change and rise up against the dishonest and irresponsible
tyrants who govern in their name--but I do not see it happening in
the near future. Dallas is my home but I will always feel like an
outsider because I simply will not adjust to the idea that for Dallas,
for Texas, for America this must serve as democracy.
(2)
Bill Decker, Interviewed by Leon D. Hubert on 16th April, 1964.
Leon D. Hubert:
Now, when did you
make any efforts to take custody of Oswald?
Bill Decker: I can't tell
you that as to when - the homicide occurred and the boy was taken
in custody in the afternoon and that was on a Friday - I'm not going
to tell you for certain because there was so much and on Friday afternoon
we were taking statements in my office you know - this thing happened,
occurred just across the street from my office and we moved all the
witnesses when we were on the ground there at the scene, all the witnesses
we could locate I was working there and I had Inspector Sawyer, who
is there with me, and also Heitman of the FBI and my assistant chief
deputy, and every witness, just as we picked up a witness that had
any information at all, we sent him directly across the street to
my office and reduced his statement to writing. Then, I talked to
Fritz after he arrived. We had by then located the gun and the ammunition,
my officers had located it in the building, and was awaiting the arrival
of the scene searchers and also the arrival of my scene searchers
and Fritz arrived and then I talked to Fritz and then we went across
the street and he phoned and that's when I learned Oswald had been
formerly employed there at that building. And, Fritz went to the city
- now, here's something I'm uncertain about - whether I talked to
him that afternoon or the next day about this removal, I cannot tell
you because there was so much happening and so much press in our hair,
I couldn't say, but I did discuss with him and advise with that I
wished to be notified when he started to move this boy, so that I
would have my security in shape to receive him when he arrived there.
Leon D. Hubert: You think
that was no later than Saturday, the 23d?
Bill Decker: Oh, no; it
wasn't. I don't think it was any later than that - no.
Leon D. Hubert: In other
words, as I understood you, you couldn't tell whether it was on Friday
or Saturday, but it could not have been Sunday?
Bill Decker: No; it wasn't
Sunday. I remember there were different conversations on Sunday, different
conversations on Saturday and different conversations on Saturday
night.
Leon D. Hubert: Well, now,
perhaps if you can, you can tell us about these various conversations,
if you remember them - who they were with and about what time?
Bill Decker: Well, on Saturday,
the homicide, I believe, if I'm correct - now, the date of the homicide
of Oswald was what?
Leon D. Hubert: It was
Sunday the 24th.
Bill Decker: The 24th -
Sunday. Friday, after we had completed our investigation and gotten
our files together to some extent, we then closed shop, shall we say,
and went back into our routine work, and on Saturday arrival at our
office we then again, I'm reasonably sure that was the day, we talked
about moving Oswald but I just don't remember. That's one of those-
'things you just don't remember the date.
Leon D. Hubert: But you
talked to Fritz?
Bill Decker: That's when
I talked to Fritz.
Leon D. Hubert: What did
Fritz tell you, do you know?
Bill Decker: He said he
would notify me when he was ready to move.
Leon D. Hubert: He wasn't
ready at that time?
Bill Decker: He wasn't
ready at that time, witnesses were being brought in, he was still
interviewing witnesses. Now, then, later that afternoon the rumor
was out that they were going to bring him down - of course, we had
rumors, rumors, rumors all the day, because we had worldwide press
and they were in the city hall, you couldn't get in the city hall
for them and they were running back and forth down to our pressroom,
and this word was here that they were coming, so late that afternoon,
on Saturday, Jim Kerr was the first man that brought me the date of
the 10 o'clock transfer Sunday morning. Jim Kerr is associated with
channel 5, and there were several of the pressmen in my office and
members of my staff and we were discussing it and later in the evening,
later about 9 o'clock it was getting on to be, and he notified us
they were going to move in and I think I then confirmed that with
someone in the city and they said yes - the next morning at 10 o'clock
and then I went to my home...
Leon D. Hubert: Have you
been given any warning by the FBI that they had received a message,
or had the message been received, I think, by your office, that some
attempt would be made by a group to injure Oswald?
Bill Decker: That's along
12:30 or 1 o'clock in the morning - that's when that occurred. That's
when I got on the telephone, you see, sir--I'm sure that you don't
understand this, but, you know, but no man - it makes no difference
how long he is an officer, ever imagined that he could work on an
investigation the size of this one and therefore, of course, you realize
that my officers and I'm sure some of the city officers, myself included,
were working under just a little bit of pressure. Anyway, this thing
you are talking about came to me from my office man, Sergeant McCoy,
and he had received a call from the Federal Bureau of Investigation,
Milt Newsom, who stated to him that this boy was going to be killed
and that he had good information. He relayed that message to me at
my home, and I asked him had the city been notified and he said, "Yes."
(3)
Roger
Craig,
When
They Kill A President (1971)
As I finished talking
with the Agent I was confronted by the High Priest of Dallas County
Politics, Field Marshal Bill Decker... He called me aside and informed
me that the suspect had already left the scene. (How did you know?
You had just arrived.) Decker then told me to help them (the police)
search the Book Depository Building. Decker turned toward his office
across the street, then suddenly stopped, looked at me and said "Somebody
better take charge of this investigation." Then he continued
walking slowly toward his office, indicating that it was not going
to be him.
When I entered the Book
Depository Building I was joined by Deputy Sheriffs Eugene Boone and
Luke Mooney. We went up the stairs directly to the sixth floor. The
room was very dark and a thick layer of dust seemed to cover everything.
We went to the south side of the building, since this was the street
side and seemed the most logical place to start.
Luke Mooney and I reached
the southeast corner at the same time. We immediately found three
rifle cartridges laying in such a way that they looked as though they
had been carefully and deliberately placed there - in plain sight
on the floor to the right of the southeast corner window. Mooney and
I examined the cartridges very carefully and remarked how close together
they were. The three of them were no more than one inch apart and
all were facing in the same direction, a feat very difficult to achieve
with a bolt action rifle - or any rifle for that matter. One cartridge
drew our particular attention. It was crimped on the end which would
have held the slug. It had not been stepped on but merely crimped
over on one small portion of the rim. The rest of that end was perfectly
round.
Laying on the floor to
the left of the same window was a small brown paper lunch bag containing
some well cleaned chicken bones. I called across the room and summoned
the Dallas Police I.D. man, Lt. Day. When he arrived with his camera
Mooney and I left the window and started our search of the rest of
the sixth floor.
We were told by Dallas
Police to look for a rifle - something I had already concluded might
be there since the cartridges found were, apparently, from a rifle.
I was nearing the northwest corner of the sixth floor when Deputy
Eugene Boone called out, "here it is." I was about eight
feet from Boone, who was standing next to a stack of cardboard boxes.
The boxes were stacked so that there was no opening between them except
at the top. Looking over the top and down the opening I saw a rifle
with a telescopic sight laying on the floor with the bolt facing upward.
At this time Boone and I were joined by Lt. Day of the Dallas Police
Department and Dallas Homicide Captain, Will Fritz. The rifle was
retrieved by Lt. Day, who activated the bolt, ejecting one live round
of ammunition which fell to the floor.
Lt. Day inspected the rifle
briefly, then handed it to Capt. Fritz who had a puzzled look on his
face. Seymour Weitzman, a deputy constable, was standing beside me
at the time. Weitzman was an expert on weapons. He had been in the
sporting goods business for many years and was familiar with all domestic
and foreign weapons. Capt. Fritz asked if anyone knew what kind of
rifle it was. Weitzman asked to see it. After a close examination
(much longer than Fritz or Day's examination) Weitzman declared that
it was a 7.65 German Mauser. Fritz agreed with him. Apparently, someone
at the Dallas Police Department also loses things but, at least, they
are more conscientious. They did replace it - even if the replacement
was made in a different country.
At that exact moment an
unknown Dallas police officer came running up the stairs and advised
Capt. Fritz that a Dallas policeman had been shot in the Oak Cliff
area. I instinctively looked at my watch. The time was 1:06 p.m. A
token force of uniformed officers was left to keep the sixth floor
secure and Fritz, Day, Boone, Mooney, Weitzman and I left the building.
On my way back to the Sheriff's
Office I was nearly run down several times by Dallas Police cars racing
to the scene of the shooting of a fellow officer. There were more
police units at the J. D. Tippit shooting than there were at President
John F. Kennedy's assassination.
Tippit had been instructed
to patrol the Oak Cliff area along with Dallas Police Unit 87 at 12:45
p.m. by the dispatcher. Unit 87 immediately left Oak Cliff and went
to the triple underpass, leaving Tippit alone. Why? At 12:54 p.m.,
J. D. Tippit, Dallas Police Unit 78, gave his location as Lancaster
Blvd., and Eighth St., some ten blocks from the place where he was
to be killed. The Dallas dispatcher called Tippit at 1:04 p.m. and
received no answer. He continued to call three times and there was
still no reply. Comparing this time with the time I received news
of the shooting of the police officer at 1:06 p.m., it is fair to
assume Tippit was dead or being killed between 1:04 and 1:06 p.m.
This is also corroborated by the eye witnesses at the Tippit killing,
who said he was shot between 1:05 and 1:08 p.m.
According to Officer Baker,
Dallas Police, he talked to Oswald at 12:35 p.m. in the lunch room
of the Texas School Book Depository. This would give Oswald 30 minutes
or less to finish his coke, leave the building, walk four blocks east
on Elm Street, catch a bus and ride it back west in heavy traffic
for two blocks, get off the bus and walk two more blocks west and
turn south on Lamar Street, walk four blocks and have a conversation
with a cab driver and a woman over the use of Whaley's (the cab driver)
cab, get into the cab and ride to 500 North Beckley Street, get out
and walk to 1026 North Beckley where his (Oswald's) room was located,
pick up something (?); and if that is not enough, Earlene Roberts,
the housekeeper where Oswald lived, testified that at 1:05 p.m. Oswald
was waiting for a bus in front of his rooming house and finally, to
make him the fastest man on Earth, he walked to East Tenth Street
and Patton Street, several blocks away and killed J. D. Tippit between
1:05 and 1:08 p.m. If he had not been arrested when he was, it is
my belief that Earl Warren and his Commission would have had Lee Harvey
Oswald eating dinner in Havana!
I was convinced on November
22, 1963, and I am still sure, that the man entering the Rambler station
wagon was Lee Harvey Oswald. After entering the Rambler, Oswald and
his companion would only have had to drive six blocks west on Elm
Street and they would have been on Beckley Avenue and a straight shot
to Oswald's rooming house. The Warren Commission could not accept
this even though it might have given Oswald time to kill Tippit for
having two men involved would have made it a conspiracy!
As to Lee Harvey Oswald
shooting J. D. Tippit, let us examine the evidence: Dallas Police
Unit 221 (Summers-refer-police radio log) stated on the police radio
that he had an "eye ball" witness to the shooting. The suspect
was a white male about twenty-seven, five feet, eleven inches, black
wavy hair, fair complexioned, (not Oswald) wearing an Eisenhower-type
jacket of light color, dark trousers, and a white shirt, apparently
armed with a .32 caliber, dark-finish automatic pistol which he had
in his right hand. (The jacket strongly resembles that worn by the
driver of the station wagon).
Dallas Police Unit 550
Car 2 was driven to the scene of the Tippit murder by Sgt. Gerald
Hill. He was accompanied by Bud Owens, Dallas Police Department, and
William F. Alexander, Assistant D.A. for Dallas. Unit 550 Car 2 reported
over the police radio that the shells at the scene indicated that
the suspect was armed with a .38 caliber automatic. 38 automatic shells
and 38 revolver shells are distinctly different. (Oswald allegedly
had a 38 revolver in his possession when arrested?)
After much confusion in
the Oak Cliff area the Dallas Police were finally directed to the
Texas Theater where the suspect was reported to be. Several squads
arrived at the theater and quickly surrounded it. At the back door
was none other than William F. Alexander, Assistant DA, and several
Dallas Police officers with guns drawn. While Dallas Police Officer
McDonald and others entered the theater and turned on the lights and
the suspect was pointed out to them, they started searching people
several rows in front of Oswald, giving him a chance to run if he
wanted to - right into the blazing guns of waiting officers!
This man had to be stopped.
He was the most dangerous criminal in the history of the world. Here
was a man who was able to go from one location to another with the
swiftness of Superman, to change his physical characteristics at will
and who pumped four automatic slugs into a police officer with a revolver
- indeed a master criminal.
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