Oswald in the doorway: the blog of the Oswald Innocence Campaign, by Ralph Cinque

OIC senior member Robert Glenn alerted me to this monument they have put up to JD Tippit right at 10th and Patton in Dallas. It's an awful thing. What's awful about it is that it flat-out says that Tippit was murdered by Lee Harvey Oswald, and of course they mean the LHO who worked at the TSBD, went to Russia, was married to Marina, etc. 

That isn't right; it is terribly unfair. That's because Oswald was never convicted in any court of law, and he is legally and constitutionally entitled to the presumption of innocence. Furthermore, he repeatedly and vociferously denied it, or to use his choice of words, he adamantly denied it. Oswald denied killing Tippit just as adamantly as he denied killing Kennedy.

And it's amazing that they claim that Tippit pulled his gun. What evidence is that based on? What witness claimed to see Tippit pulling his gun? The only thing I found was this speculative statement from his partner in 1999:

"So, J.D. got out of the car, and maybe he put his hand back on the handle of his gun. He had a habit of resting his hand on the butt of his gun when he talked to people. So, I think he just did that out of habit and started to walk around the car. Oswald might have been spooked by that gesture and pulled his revolver thinking JD was going to draw on him." 

That is worth about as much as the dog crap you scrape off your shoe. 

 Let's be crystal about this because there are a lot of assumptions made about the Tippit murder which need to be debunked.

1. They assume that Tippit pulled over to talk to "Oswald" from suspecting that he was JFK's killer. I put "Oswald" in quotes because it has never been proven that it was Oswald, and there are circumstantial reasons to say that it was impossible, such as a witness (Butch Burroughs) placing Oswald in the Texas Theater no later than 1:07 which was long before Tippit was killed. But, since there is no doubt that Tippit pulled over to talk to somebody, we'll call that man "Oswald" in quotes. But, there is no factual basis to assume that the reason Tippit pulled over to talk to this man was because he suspected him of being JFK's killer. It is entirely a matter of helping oneself to a belief.

2. They assume that from listening to Oswald and observing his countenance and reactions, that Tippit's suspicions- that the man was JFK's killer- were elevated. Again, that is a total fabrication and not based on any known facts. But think about it: if his suspicions were increased, didn't he have to reach a state of ALARM? And wouldn't he, at that point, act with EXTREME caution? And that brings us to point 3:

3. Did or didn't Tippit pull his gun? Helen Markham denied that he pulled his gun.  Other witnesses denied it. The Warren Commission claimed that Tippit's gun was found "out of the holster and beneath him," which sounds like his body was on top of the gun. They decided that he must have been "fumbling" with it when he got shot, so it wound up underneath him. But, how likely is that? 
One witness, Domingo Benavides said this:

Mr. BELIN - Did you notice where the gun of the policeman was?
Mr. BENAVIDES - The gun was in his hand and he was partially lying on his gun in his right hand. He was partially lying on his gun and on his hand, too. 

Let's look at it from a real world perspective rather than the other dimension of the JFK assassination. From the beginning, if Tippit had the gut feeling that this was JFK's killer then he would have/should have acted with extreme caution. They were going the same direction, he and the man, so why didn't Tippit stop? Why, on Earth, would he talk to the prospective killer of JFK THROUGH THE CAR WINDOW?  And, if after talking to him, his feeling was that this was even more likely the killer, I would think that he would have first ordered him to step back from the car and turn around and raise his hands in the air. And then, I presume he would have gotten out with his gun drawn. Reportedly, Tippit got as far as the front wheel on the driver's side before "Oswald" shot him. But, that was plenty enough time to draw his gun. So, why didn't he if he really thought this was JFK's killer? And what his partner said above is of no value whatsoever because he wasn't there. He can't claim to know that Tippit put his hand on the butt of his gun. And it wouldn't be enough anyway. If he suspected this was JFK's killer, he would have drawn his gun. I mean taken it out with his finger on the trigger. Nothing less. I mean come on!  At that point? If he wasn't satisfied with the answers he was getting? If he thought "Oswald" was being evasive and lying? If he thought his mannerisms were those of a killer on the run? Did Tippit value his own life or not? In some cases, you don't take any chances at all. You assume the worst.     

So, where did they get that from, what they put on the monument, that Tippit pulled his gun? They got it from wanting to make Tippit's actions seem sensible. But, the fact is that there is no concrete evidence that Tippit did that or that his actions were demonstrable of an officer who thought he was in the presence of a killer.