We will begin by reviewing of the official Warren Commission (WC) testimony of Ex-General Edwin Walker. Here's my summary of the entire session. Walker testified on July 23, 1964, in Dallas, accompanied by his lawyer, Clyde Watts, and interviewed by WC attorney, Wesley Liebeler.
1. Walker was born in 1909 and raised at Center Point, Texas, which is in Kerr County. That is 60 miles west of San Antonio.
2. Walker insisted that he was not “retired” but “resigned” from the US Army. (He was actually the only US General to resign in the 20th century.) Walker became a resident of Dallas since his resignation from the US Army in November 1961, in order to pursue a career as a right-wing political activist.
3. At 9 PM on April 10, 1963, somebody fired a shot at General Walker through a back window of his home as he sat at his desk doing his taxes. His window shades were open, and his lights were on when he heard a blast and a crack above his head.
4. Walker noticed a gaping hole in the wall of his house, close to where his head had been. He rushed upstairs to get his pistol. While upstairs, he looked out his front window and saw two taillights of a car at the bottom of the Church alley, turning onto Turtle Creek Blvd. It seemed that the car had gone from the Church parking lot down the alley to Turtle Creek. It was too dark to make out details. This car would have left at about the right time for a getaway.
5. Walker rushed out the back door with his pistol to take a closer look. He ran halfway down the alley and saw nothing. He returned to his home and called the Police. (At this point Walker identified several Dallas Police photographs of his house, the damage to his window and walls, and his neighborhood, including aerial photos.)
6. Walker recalled that he showed the Police the rooms of his house. He couldn’t recall if they walked outside together. The Police lined up the shot from the hole in Walker’s wall to the hole in his window to rifle burn in the lattice fence in his backyard. The distance was about 120 feet.
7. Walker explained what he meant when he told a Policeman that the shooter “must have been a lousy shot.” While locating the spot from where the shot was fired, one Policeman said, “He couldn’t have missed you.” Another Policeman said: “It was an attempted assassination.” Walker asked, “What makes you call it that?” The Policeman replied, “Because he definitely was out to get you.” That was why Walker said, “he must have been a lousy shot.”
8. Later, however, Walker realized that the shooter from that position could never (even with a scope) see through the windows or screens because of the lighting. So, the shooter barely missed, except for a few metal slivers that went into Walker’s arm.
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ON THE 1957 CHEVY OF CHARLES KLIHR
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9. Liebeler showed Walker a photo of his backyard driveway with a 1957 Chevy parked there, in which the license plate had been blacked out. Liebeler identified the car as belonging to Charles Klihr. Walker asked for the spelling and claimed he did not know that name with that spelling, but he did know that name with a different spelling. Klihr and his wife were regular volunteers for the “American Eagle Publishing Company.”
10. Liebeler asked Walker if he knew Robert Alan Surrey, and Walker said, yes. Liebeler told Walker that on June 3, 1964, the FBI interviewed Surrey about this photograph, and Surrey identified the car as Klihr’s 1957 Chevy. Walker claimed that he thought the “hole” shown was a literal hole in the car.
11. Liebeler asked Walker if Surrey had told him that he identified Charles Klihr to the FBI. Walker said, no.
12. Liebeler asked Walker if Surrey had informed Walker that Surrey saw two suspicious men in the
vicinity of Walker’s house shortly before April 10, 1963. Walker said yes, but he didn’t remember exactly when. Walker said Surrey had seen two men in a car with no license plate, parked on Avondale, and he walked around until he saw two men moving around in the alley.
13. Then, Surrey followed their car. They went down to the center of town, and he lost them. Walker suspected that Surrey told Walker the story the next morning, if not that night. Walker himself called that sighting into the police the next day.
14. The Police developed some suspects, but Walker didn’t recall any. Lee Harvey Oswald was not named in any way at that time, testified Walker.
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ON WILLIAM DUFF
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15. Liebeler identified William Duff as a man who lived in Walker’s house from about December 1962 until about March 1963. Walker said that Duff wasn’t living in his house at the time of the April attack.
Walker said that he did suspect Duff at one point – and asked his attorney, Clyde Watts, to hire detectives to investigate.
16. Clyde Watts then chimed in to explain matters to Liebeler. He testified that he got a call from Walker’s secretary, Julia Knecht, that a neighbor lady had called to complain that Duff had been going with her daughter and had boasted that he shot at General Walker. Watts’ detectives took Duff into custody and questioned him at length, driving around Dallas and using a tape recorder.
17. Duff didn’t confess to shooting at Walker, but he did joke that he would do it for $5,000.
18. Walker took this as a joke. He also took Duff’s alleged boasting to the complaining lady’s daughter as idle chatter. Nobody offered further evidence against Duff. (The Dallas Police gave Duff a lie detector test, and Duff passed.) Walker added that he “wouldn’t believe anything the boy would say” unless it was verified by authorities.
19. Clyde Watts added that only a few months ago, in Oklahoma, William Duff appeared unexpectedly at his house, asking for legal help. Duff told Watts that he had joined the US Army and was stationed at Fort Sill. Yet soon after the JFK assassination Duff was discharged by the Justice Department due to fraudulent enlistment, because he had failed to disclose that he had worked for General Walker. Duff was now living at Fort Sills without pay.
20. Watts asked the Judge Advocate at Fort Sills about Duff, and the Judge doubted Duff’s story. Watts said that he personally suspects Duff of knowing more about the Walker shooting than he has told. In any case, Watts found Duff a temporary job, and then a permanent job. Watts intended to question Duff more fully in the future.
21. Liebeler asked if Walker had any indication at all if Duff was involved in the April attack. Walker said no, not based on Duff’s nature. Duff never appeared to be vicious fellow, said Walker, and he “rather liked the guy for what he was supposed to do at the time I had him.” Duff liked beer bars and “he could still know something and not be involved himself.”
22. Walker added, “I felt that he had left feeling friendly, actually, except that he left by having been ushered to the door while I was gone and told not to come back.”
23. Walker added that Duff did appear back in his house at one time after this – he just walked in. Walker said he couldn’t recall the purpose of his visit, but it wasn’t very long.
24. Liebeler asked Walker if Walker had any reason to believe that Duff was connected with Oswald.
Walker said, “None at all.”
25. Liebeler pressed, “You never even heard of Oswald?” Walker answered, “I have no information of Oswald’s name ever being mentioned in my house, and I had never heard of the name with regard to the individual we are referring to at any time since I have been in Dallas or any other time.”
26. Liebeler added, “Until November 22, 1963?” Walker replied, “Until his activities of November 22.”
27. Liebeler asked Walker about his opinion about who shot at him. Walker answered: “I am pretty well blocked by you all...as the FBI having taken the information on the case from the city police, and it is difficult to find who is now responsible for an open case, and also the lack of contact with my counsel at any time regarding Oswald’s position in this from the time the shot was fired or even after the events of November 22, 1963.”
28. Walker added, “I still think that the information that Kirk Coleman gave is very relevant to this case, and I would like to say as far as I am concerned, our efforts are practically blocked. I would like to see at least a capability of my counsel being able to talk to these witnesses freely and that you or the FBI give a release on them with respect to being able to discuss it as it involves me.”
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ON KIRK COLEMAN
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29. Attorney Liebeler asked General Walker if he or Watts tried to talk with Kirk Coleman, who was a fourteen-year-old neighbor and an eyewitness to two men behind the Church parking lot rushing into their cars immediately after the shots were fired. Watts and Walker agreed that they could never interview Coleman, who refused to speak to anyone.
30. Walker presumed that some Law Enforcement Agency advised Kirk Coleman to remain silent.
31. Walker added, “But the important thing we would like to find out is who is responsible for the open case, if it is back in the hands of the city police or if it is still held under advisement, and as soon as it got back into their hands, we can go to dealing with them. Until it does, under your requirements, the question becomes, when can we get into this further?”
32. Liebeler told Walker that the WC would finally disclose the truth about everything connected to the JFK Assassination, and would inform Walker as well.
33. Walker replied that the WC “must be handling the case, because we have information that the city police turned all the information over to the FBI and there was nothing for us to deal with the police about.”
34. Walker added that Watts “went to the city police on this,” who said the FBI took it over. Then the FBI said that they had turned it over to the WC, and so were under whatever “wraps that kept them from carrying on any development of the cases.”
35. Liebeler replied that there were no “wraps” nor did the WC prevent the FBI from investigating anything at all. Liebeler said, “The FBI conducts its investigation in any way it sees fit. And the Dallas Police Department does the same thing.”
36. Walker then requested a “round robin discussion” between the Dallas Police, FBI, and the WC, to clarify which entity is responsible for the open cases in Dallas – and place the Walker case and the Warren Reynolds case “back where they should be.”
37. Attorney Liebeler said that the WC “is certainly not responsible for open cases in the city of Dallas...That is perfectly obvious.”
38. Walker replied that he wanted “to go on the record” that the Dallas Police had blamed the FBI and the WC for their own failure to solve the Walker case and the Reynolds case.
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ON WARREN REYNOLDS
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39. Liebeler asked Walker, “Do you know Warren Reynolds?” Walker said, yes. “When did you meet him?” Walker said, “My first contact with Warren Reynolds was by telephone, 8 or 10 days after he was shot through the temple.” Walker had seen in the January 23, 1964 newspapers that Warren Reynolds was shot in the head but survived.
40. Walker “left on a trip and came back,” and then asked his people to look up Reynolds. They did and they referred Walker to the hospital where Reynolds remained in recovery. The hospital advised that they had released Reynolds that very day in early February – ten days after the Reynolds shooting.
41. Walker called Warren Reynolds who agreed to talk. Walker invited Reynolds to his house, and early February 1964, Reynolds and his brother visited General Walker and told Walker his story. Reynolds visited twice and talked regularly on the telephone with Walker.
42. Liebeler asked, “In fact, you talked on the telephone with him yesterday noon, didn’t you?”
Walker said, yes. Liebeler asked for the substance of the conversation. Walker said he was interested in the Reynolds case – why anybody would want to kill him – the last one to see Lee Harvey Oswald running free after he had killed J.D. Tippit. Walker wanted to know what the Dallas Police were doing about it.
43. Liebeler asked if Reynolds and Walker discussed a possible connection between the Reynolds shooting and Oswald killing J.D. Tippit. Walker said, yes; both men thought it was plausible.
44. Liebeler asked Walker for evidence. Walker said, “People would like to shut up anybody that knows anything about this case. People right here in Dallas. And I don’t think anybody knows or would have known at the time after November 22 how much or how little Warren Reynolds knew.”
45. Liebeler added, “In fact, he doesn’t know very much, does he?” Walker replied, “He would become a very good example, regardless of what he knew, to let everybody know that they better keep their mouths shut.”
46. Liebeler reminded Walker that that was nothing but guesswork. Walker replied, “Yes, but everything is speculation until you prove it or disprove it.” Liebeler reminded Walker that the WC needs material evidence to make a connection.
46. Walker offered the rumors about one of Jack Ruby’s strippers who hung herself in a prison cell shortly after successfully giving an alibi to Darrel Garner, the suspected shooter at Warren Reynolds.
47. Liebeler noted that these rumors began with a melodramatic newspaper article by Bob Considine. Walker admitted that Considine was his source. Liebeler asked if these were all Walker had to offer: (a) his guess about keeping people quiet; (b) the Considine article; and (c) his guess about Warren Reynolds.
48. Walker retorted that the FBI visited Reynolds only two days before Reynolds was shot, and this should be material proof that an assassin didn’t want Reynolds to talk. The fact that Reynolds had personally chased Oswald – this must be important factor in the Reynold’s shooting. Also, the Dallas Police had failed to convict any shooter. So the case remains open.
49. Liebeler noted that Walker sent a telegram to the WC suggesting that they question Warren Reynolds. Walker admitted it. Liebeler noted that Reynolds was a WC witness the day before. Walker knew that, too, as he had spoken with Reynolds over the telephone the night before. Walker again demanded that the WC “get the chain of responsibility straightened out” with respect to the Walker and Reynolds cases.
50. Liebeler repeated that the WC had no control over the duties of the FBI or the Dallas Police. Walker repeated that the Dallas Police refers him to the FBI, and the FBI refers him to the WC.
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A COMMUNIST CONSPIRACY TO KILL JFK?
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51. Liebeler asked Walker for any material evidence that Lee Harvey Oswald was involved in a conspiracy to assassinate JFK. Walker said, yes, a Communist conspiracy. Oswald admitted it when he admitted membership in the FPCC, which was a Communist organization.
52. Liebeler said that was mere opinion. The FPCC did not advertise Communism. Also, not every member of the FPCC was a Communist. He repeated his demand for any material evidence that Walker had, such as witnessing actual conversations. Walker admitted that he had none.
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ON JACK RUBY
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53. Liebeler asked Walker if he had any other evidence to share. Walker said, yes, he had evidence that Jack Ruby and Lee Harvey Oswald were connected. Liebeler asked how. Walker replied that
Ruby took his car in to be fixed, and Oswald signed the ticket to pick up the car.
54. Liebeler asked if Walker knew the names of those sources. Walker replied that his friend heard it from a car repairman, and Walker refused to give their names, advising that the FBI could obtain the records from the car shop. Besides, Walker didn’t know the name of the car repairman, or the name of the garage – but it was probably a hotel garage.
55. Liebeler asked Walker for the name of the person who told him about the car repairman. Walker refused to tell Liebeler the name, saying, “I think your sources are better than mine on this.” Liebeler asked, “Do you even know the name?” Walker said, “Yes, I do, but I’m not telling.”
56. Walker would not reveal his sources. Let the FBI prove its truth or falsity. Walker saw no benefit to the JFK investigation by naming his friends. Walker said he was being as helpful as possible. Liebeler replied that he couldn’t tell whether Walker’s information was helpful or not, until Walker shared it.
Walker said he would answer it later, perhaps. He would think about it.
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ON JACK RUBY AND LEE HARVEY OSWALD
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57. Liebeler then asked if Walker knew of any common acquaintances between Jack Ruby and Lee Harvey Oswald. Walker answered that his source was a newspaper clipping by an informant named DeMar somewhere near the Tennessee-Kentucky border. DeMar was a performer at Jack Ruby’s clubs, and he told newspapers that he once saw Lee Harvey Oswald in the Carousel Club.
58. Liebeler asked for something more substantial than a melodramatic newspaper article. Walker said that he and his assistants had verified that Oswald lived for a short period in 1963 in the same apartment house where Jack Ruby’s sister lived. Her name is Eva Grant in Dallas. This was near Walker’s house, Walker said, in Oak Lawn.
59. Liebeler corrected Walker. From the time Oswald came back from the USSR until his death, when he lived in Dallas, he lived in an apartment on Neely Street, an apartment on Elsbeth Street, in a room on Marsalis Street, and a room at 1026 North Beckley Street. Those are the only four places he ever lived. Except for Marsalis, they were all in Oak Cliff. Walker said he would get back to Liebeler with the newspaper clipping that he had read.
60. Liebeler asked for any other information that linked Ruby and Oswald. Walker said that if Oswald was his April shooter, then he might have hidden out at Jack Ruby’s Las Vegas Club, which was less than a mile from Walker’s house. But Walker had no material evidence.
70. Liebeler asked for any other information that linked Ruby and Oswald. Walker said that both Ruby and Oswald had post office boxes in the same post office. Also, the two boxes were rented during the same week. This might suggest a connection that indicates conspiracy to assassinate JFK.
71. Liebeler demanded something besides guesswork. Walker replied that since Ruby shot Oswald, that was proof that Ruby wanted to silence Oswald. Liebeler regarded that, also, as guesswork.
72. Walker also cited the case of Professor William T. Wolf in late April 1963, who burned to death in his apartment, though he was a normal man living on the first floor. Walker didn’t think there was a connection with his own April 10th shooting, but he suspected it was murder, and that there was a rise in murders in Dallas in 1963.
73. Liebeler asked how this relates to the possibility of a conspiracy between Jack Ruby and Lee Harvey Oswald to assassinate JFK. Walker suggested that it simply adds more information. Walker then added the case of Professor George Deen, a psychiatrist, who had reportedly died of natural causes, but the only news about him was his obituary. Walker found that suspicious.
74. At this point, Liebeler simply gave up on this line of questioning.
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ON ADLAI STEVENSON AND THE MINUTEMEN IN DALLAS
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75. Liebeler asked Walker if he was familiar with the organization known as The Minutemen. Walker answered, “In general terms.” Walker denied being a member, and denied any knowledge about any connection between The Minutemen and the JFK assassination.
76. Liebeler asked Walker if he knew of any right-wing conspiracy in the JFK assassination. Walker replied, no.
77. Liebeler asked Walker if he knew of any connection between those who follow Walker as a political leader and the JFK assassination. Walker said, no, because his followers stand for Constitutional government. Assassination, he implied, was a violation of their goal; destructive of their goal.
78. Liebeler asked Walker again about any involvement of any kind between the JFK assassination and any of the organizations or people that associate with him or are involved with him. Walker said, no; instead, he would not question folks from right-wing, but only folks from the left-wing.
79. Liebeler asked Walker where he was during the week of the humiliation of UN Ambassador Adlai Stevenson in Dallas, on October 24, 1963. Walker replied that he led a political rally on the night before Adlai Stevenson’s event – in the same auditorium, in the same room, on the same platform.
80. Walker had called his event “US Day” to contrast with Adlai’s event, “UN Day.” Walker claimed that about 1,400 people had attended his own event.
81. Liebeler asked if Walker was aware that Lee Harvey Oswald had attended his event. Walker said, certainly not.
82. Liebeler asked if Walker attended any meetings of anti-Castro Cuban groups during October 1963; more specifically, the DRE revolutionary Anti-Communist group from Miami opposed to Fidel Castro group led by Carlos Bringuier. (DRE is Spanish for “Directorate of Revolutionary Students.”) Walker replied, yes, he was there, and he contributed $5 that night.
83. Walker affirmed that he didn’t see Lee Harvey Oswald at that meeting. Walker affirmed that to the best of his knowledge he “never saw or heard of Lee Harvey Oswald at any time prior to the time
that his name was announced” after the JFK assassination. No connection of any sort whatsoever, or with anybody whom Walker knew was ever associated with Oswald.
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THE DEUTSCHE NATIONALZEITUNG
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84. Liebeler asked Walker if he knew Helmet Hubert Muench, a West German journalist who wrote an article that appeared in the “Deutsche Nationalzeitung und Soldatenzeitung,” a Munich newspaper. Walker replied, no.
85. Liebeler asked Walker if he had spoken with Muench on a long-distance phone call early on morning after the JFK Assassination. Walker replied, no. Liebeler asked if Walker had told Muench that Lee Harvey Oswald was the person who tried to shoot Walker in April 1963. Walker replied that he didn’t even recognize this German name.
86. Liebeler asked Walker if he had ever seen a copy of that German newspaper. Walker replied, yes.
Liebeler produced a copy, dated November 29, 1963, with its headline in German, entitled, “The Strange Case of Oswald”. It included a story about how Oswald had shot at Walker back in April 1963. Liebeler asked Walker where Muench got that information. Walker said that he did not know.
87. Liebeler exhibited the front page of that edition, which featured a transcript of a telephone conversation between Walker and Hasso Thorsten. Walker then admitted that yes, he had spoken at length to a German journalist named Hasso Thorsten at that time.
88. Hasso Thorsten had called Walker in Shreveport, Louisiana, said Walker, early in the morning to ask about the JFK assassination. (Soon after that article was published, the Munich Police told the FBI that “Hasso Thorsten” was an alias of Helmut Muench.) Walker denied that he told Thorsten that Oswald was his shooter, because he has no closure on his case, which was left in limbo by the Dallas Police, the FBI and the WC.
89. Liebeler asked for details about Walker’s stay in Shreveport. Walker replied that he had a speaking engagement in Hattiesburg, Mississippi around the 15th of November and stayed a few days. Walker traveled from there to New Orleans and stayed a few days. Walker was in an airplane between New Orleans and Shreveport when the pilot announced that JFK had been assassinated. Walker went to the Captain Shreve Hotel in Shreveport and stayed two nights before returning to Dallas.
90. Liebeler asked Walker for the exact time in Shreveport that he spoke with Hasso Thorsten. Walker replied that he was in Shreveport the night of the 22nd and the night of the 23rd. He added that the headline article about Oswald shooting at Walker was separate from the two interview transcripts. The headline article, said Walker, was written by the newspaper editors on their own.
91. Liebeler noted that the headline article alleged that Oswald was the one who had fired at Walker; and that this fact was known by authorities who did nothing about it. The article continued that if Oswald had been imprisoned at that time, JFK would still be alive.
92. Liebeler asked Walker point blank if he told Thorsten that Oswald was his shooter, that authorities knew this at the time, and did nothing about it, long before the JFK Assassination. Walker said, no, he did not tell Thorsten that. Walker said that he was still unsure whether Oswald was his shooter or not. Walker claimed to be surprised by the article.
93. Liebeler asked why this German newspaper, dated November 29, 1963, identified Lee Harvey Oswald as Walker’s shooter, but the FBI had no clue that Oswald was Walker’s shooter until Marina Oswald revealed it early in December 1963. Walker said that people began to guess at it immediately. Liebeler agreed that public speculation was one likely explanation, and that the editors post-dating the newspaper was another likely explanation. That was the end of this line of questioning.
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FINAL WORDS
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94. Liebeler asked Walker if he had any further information that the WC ought to know. Walker said yes, the WC should investigate George De Mohrenschildt, who had already admitted a connection with Lee Harvey Oswald, and who lived next door to the Professor who was burned to death in his first-floor apartment.
95. Liebeler asked Walker for material evidence that De Mohrenschildt was involved in any way with the JFK assassination. Walker said he had none.
96. Liebeler asked for any further information the WC ought to know. Walker said that he heard, he forgot where, that the bullet fired at Walker matched the type of rifle that Oswald used on JFK. Liebeler replied that the experts had still not decided that question.
That was the end of the Walker WC testimony. There’s my summary of the full WC testimony of resigned US Major General Edwin A. Walker.