Episode 291 The Tippit Murder Part 4 Witness Acquilla Clemons

Episode 291  is the fourth  episode of our mini-series on the Tippit murder.  It is completely dedicated to the story of witness Acquilla Clemons.  David Belin, the celebrated Warren Commission attorney called this murder the "Rosetta Stone" of the JFK assassination. It may very well be... just that! In  this  episode we continue with coverage at the crime  scene and address a little known witness that the authorities sidestepped. She was discovered by Vincent Salandria working with Mark Lane at the time. Mrs. Clemons eventually (and  reluctantly) participated in several interviews... including one with Mark Lane in his quest to produce the book (and later the film) Rush to Judgement. She is considered a key but controversial witness in that her account differs markedly from the official witnesses interviewed by the authorities. That day, she saw two men at the scene, one short and kind of chunky and one who was tall. After the shooting, one  of the men motioned to the other, and then  both went in different directions down 10th street. This narrative was embraced by certain researchers including John Armstrong who integrated it with his complex theory of the two Oswalds. She is corroborated by several others including witness Frank Wright and an anonymous letter written to Playboy magazine by a person who claimed that he was also there at the scene and that at least six others witnessed the same thing. Other witnesses who were part of the official record  (such as Virginia Davis and Sam Guinyard)  may have seen elements of what she saw. These first few episodes of the mini-series provide  a deep dive into those events at the crime scene itself. There is so much more to come. In this mini-series, we examine the evidence, and delve into the bewildering array of contradictory eyewitness testimonies, from those who struggled to identify Oswald, to others like  todays focus on Aquilla Clemons, who bravely reported seeing not one, but two men at the murder scene, neither resembling Oswald. And we hear of witnesses such as Mrs. Clemons that were subsequently threatened into silence or submission. We'll review the  questionable ballistics evidence: bullets and shells of different manufacturers with marks that mysteriously vanished, and a chain of custody so compromised it renders the evidence highly suspect. And then, there's the enigma of Oswald's wallet, containing his ID and an alias, inexplicably found at the Tippit murder scene by Dallas police Captain Westbrook, even as the official story claims it was taken from Oswald upon his arrest at the Texas Theatre. We begin with a group of core episodes that cover the murder itself. And then we work our way backwards and forwards...finally capturing Lee Harvey Oswald at the Texas Theatre. This raises uncomfortable questions about the Dallas Police Department itself. We  scrutinize the actions of officers like Captain William Westbrook and Sergeant Gerald Hill, whose movements, statements, and handling of evidence on November 22nd, 1963, appear less like routine police work, and more like a deliberate effort to frame Lee Harvey Oswald. Was this simply incompetence, or did elements within the DPD actively participate in a cover-up? And what of J.D. Tippit himself? We will  cover details about his personal life: a financially burdened veteran suffering from war trauma, a man  with an alleged "dark side" and connections to the right-wing underworld, including Jack Ruby.  We’ll track his frantic, agitated behavior and unusual movements in the hour before his death…movements which  suggest he was not merely on routine patrol, but actively searching for someone, possibly Oswald, under direct orders—orders that mysteriously bypassed official police radio channels. And of course…all of this has  lead some very well respected  researc