Here’s my analysis of the WC testimony of Warren Reynolds, taken in July 1964, in Dallas, by WC Attorney Wesley Liebeler.
SECTION 1: REYNOLDS SEES LEE HARVEY OSWALD RUNNING FROM THE SCENE OF A SHOOTING
1. In the context of the JFK Assassination, the only claim to fame for Warren Allen Reynolds is that he chased Lee Harvey Oswald (LHO) about two blocks on Jefferson Street, before losing LHO behind a Texaco gas station. That’s it. That’s all.
2. Was it LHO? All available evidence shows it that it was. Did Reynolds see LHO clearly? Yes, from across the street, for nearly a block. Yet the main problem with Reynolds' witness was that he never took it to the Dallas Police Department to write out a sworn affidavit. He never stood for a Police lineup including LHO in the lineup. These were big problems for the Warren Commission (WC), which relied almost entirely on FBI and Dallas Police official information. The FBI also relied on Dallas Police information.
3. Mark Lane interviewed Warren Reynolds, to complain that the WC severely devalued Reynolds’ testimony.
4. Yet, here’s why the WC was bored by Reynolds’ claim to have seen LHO personally: (1) Reynolds brought his witness six months after the JFK Assassination; (2) all that Reynolds saw was a man running down Jefferson street with a gun, three miles from Dealey Plaza, 40 minutes after the JFK shooting; (3) Reynolds had no idea that the man had just shot a policeman, or who he was chasing, or why; and (4) although Reynolds later recognized the man as LHO, he made no official report at the Dallas Police Station.
5. There were rumors in newspaper and TV news that Warren Reynolds pointed out LHO to Dallas Police in the Texas Theater – but WC officials knew that was baloney. Reynolds himself admitted that it was baloney.
6. One minor discrepancy – Reynolds’ WC account of his LHO “chase” was a bit different from what he later told Mark Lane in 1965. Before a camera, Reynolds told Mark Lane that he didn’t so much “chase” LHO, as to “walk” alongside him on the other side of the street – keeping a safe distance. Reynolds wanted only to keep track of this armed stranger, hoping to flag a nearby policeman. Suddenly, LHO ducked behind the Texaco station and Reynolds never saw him again. After searching in vain, Reynolds walked back to work, but on his way, a policeman stopped him, and asked if he had seen anything. Yes, said Reynolds, and told his story. There was a news cameraman in the patrol car with that one policeman. Reynolds’ account – short as it was – was filmed by TV news. (That film clip is available on YouTube.)
SECTION 2: REYNOLDS WAS A VICTIM OF A DALLAS SHOOTING:
7. Two months later, on January 23, 1964, somebody shot Warren Reynolds in the head with a rifle. The bullet entered his right temple and lodged under his left ear. Almost miraculously, this didn’t kill Reynolds, who ran away from the scene.
8. Once upstairs, the stunned Reynolds saw a man run out of the basement and run away with a rifle. Reynolds quickly called the Dallas Police at 9:19 PM. An ambulance sped there and took Reynolds to the hospital where he recovered.
9. Reynolds was never able to identify the shooter who ran out of that basement, yet two neighbors also saw a man running from the lot with a rifle and filed police reports. He was a dark Spanish or Cuban male, 5 foot 4, 130 or 140 pounds. On that same day, his own brother, Johnny Reynolds, told police that this description matched Darrell Wayne Garner. Garner tried to sell Johnny a stolen car only three days earlier; and Garner became enraged when Johnny refused him.
10. Oddly, Reynolds refused to believe the evidence, the neighbors, the Dallas Police or his own brother, that Garner was his shooter. Reynolds somehow came to believe that some accomplice of HO had shot him because he had chased LHO down Jefferson street.
11. The WC attorney objected. That’s no reason for a shooting. Several other Tippit murder witnesses had filed Dallas Police reports and had viewed Oswald in police lineups. They also testified for the WC and were now internationally known – yet nobody had tried to shoot them.
12. Reynolds insisted – these other witnesses didn’t physically “follow” LHO for two blocks – a crucial difference, he insisted. The WC attorney saw only a trivial difference, and useless to the WC, which could see no connection at all with the JFK Assassination! I can't see any connection, either.
SECTION 3: GENERAL WALKER ADVISED THE WC TO HEAR REYNOLDS, AND ADVISES REYNOLDS ABOUT WHAT TO SAY
13. Then, in a surprise move, the WC attorney asked if Reynolds had spoken with General Walker about this shooting. Reynolds admitted that he had. In fact, (as Walker himself would tell the WC), the resigned General Walker took time out of his busy schedule to come to visit Warry Reynolds in the hospital.
14. General Walker sped to the hospital bedside of Warren Reynolds to tell him that this shooting was clearly connected with the JFK Assassination. He convinced Reynolds.
15. The WC attorney informed Reynolds that his testimony was boring to the WC until General Walker personally petitioned the WC to take Reynolds seriously. Reynolds said that he knew that.
16. The WC attorney asked Reynolds if General Walker had any material evidence to link the Reynolds shooting to the JFK Assassination. Reynolds replied, “Let him answer that when he talks to you.”
17. The WC attorney was stunned. How did Reynolds know that the WC had subpoenaed Walker to testify? Reynolds admitted that he spoke with Walker five or six times in the previous weeks, and even that very afternoon.
18. But when asked about the details of their conversation, Reynolds said, “I don’t want to answer that, really,” and asked to go off the record. The WC attorney allowed this.
19. Here is the interesting part of Reynolds’ WC testimony. His bizarre belief that his own January 1964 shooting was somehow connected to the JFK Assassination was received directly from General Walker, only a few days after the shooting itself.
20. Reynolds could not answer for General Walker about evidence – most likely because Reynolds didn’t know, didn’t understand, and couldn’t easily repeat what Walker told him. But Reynolds knew that General Walker was a former US Army General – a serious man. How could a US General be mistaken? There must be a connection, if the General said so.
21. General Walker truly believed what he told Warren Reynolds, and Walker would soon tell the WC exactly whys. Walker referred Reynolds' shooting to his own shooting earlier on April 10, 1963.
22. Walker believed on the night of that shooting – and for the rest of his life – that there were two shooters at him on April 10th. LHO was one of the shooters, but there was another shooter still on the loose, out to kill Walker any day. The Dallas Police were useless because they wouldn’t believe him. But that shooter was out there, and General Walker was obsessed – for the rest of his life – to find that second shooter.
23. When Walker read in the newspapers about the shooting of Warren Reynolds, he quickly returned to Dallas, because everybody in Dallas was aware that Warren Reynolds was on TV in connection with LHO. There must be a connection, insisted Walker.
24. I offer as evidence this letter from General Walker to US Senator Frank Church in 1975.
http://www.pet880.com/images/19750623_EAW_to_Frank_Church.pdf
25. In that letter to Senator Church, the resigned General Walker insists that there were “two shooters” at him back in April, 1963, and not a “lone gunman” which the WC insisted had killed JFK. Walker worried that the CIA might be out to kill him, too, and he asked Senator Church to find out for him.
26. Church never replied. Walker was obsessed alone -- where could that second shooter be? I
27. I will supply evidence to support my claims about Walker's state of mind when I move toward my next WC witness and suspect in an alleged Dallas plot to assassinate JFK -- namely, General Walker himself.
SECTION 4: WARREN REYNOLDS CONCLUDES BY GIVING HIS OWN OPINION
27. I find nothing else interesting in the WC testimony of Warren Reynolds. Neither did the WC attorney. Reynolds merely repeated whatever General Walker told him. The Dallas Police are useless. The Warren Commission is useless. We must get some serious researchers to find this second shooter on the loose; and nobody is helping General Walker!
Regards,
--Paul Trejo