Let's take an impartial look at the WC testimony of Dallas Sheriff Bill Decker (1898-1970), who began his career as elected Dallas Chief Deputy Constable in 1924. He was famous for catching Bonnie and Clyde. He was re-elected to the office of County Sheriff for eight terms, was still serving as Dallas Sheriff during the Warren Commission hearings.
Lee Harvey Oswald would never set a foot inside Decker's County Jail, but instead died in the custody of the Dallas Police, there in the parking basement of Dallas City Jail. So, why would I ever be interested in Sheriff Bill Decker in relation to the JFK Assassination? The answer is that his Deputies: (1) found the sniper's nest at the TSBD 6th floor; (2) found three spent bullets there; (3) found Oswald's rifle there; (4) arrested Oswald at the Texas Theater; and (5) confiscated property from Ruth Paine's garage that linked Oswald with the JFK Assassination.
(A word of background. Police and Deputies have very different jobs. Policemen work for the City Jail as arresting officers, while Deputies work for the County Jail as guards and wardens. Policemen work the streets in uniform, arrest suspects and take them to City Jail. When suspects are convicted (or cannot make bail), Deputies transport them to County Jail. Plain clothes Deputies might work as repo men, process servers on evictions, or to deliver a summons.) Back to Sheriff Bill Decker. He rode in the JFK motorcade, in the front car ahead of JFK's limo, along with DPD Chief Jesse Curry and Dallas Secret Service agent, Forrest Sorrels. In my reading, all three were high ranking leaders in the JFK plot, immediately under Ex-General Edwin Walker.
Most of Bill Decker's WC testimony was speculation about why Lee Harvey Oswald never made it to County Jail. I will offer an approximate timeline of 11/22/1963, from noon until late the following Saturday evening.
. 12:29 PM . Sheriff Decker was riding in the front car of the JFK parade, along with DPD Chief Jesse Curry and Dallas SS agent, Forrest Sorrels.
. 12:30 PM . After their car passed under the triple underpass, and they heard shots behind them. Then JFK's limo sped past them, rushing JFK to Parkland Hospital.
*** Chief Curry used the DPD microphone and ordered Dallas Police to the "railroad yard" to investigate. Bill Decker grabbed the microphone, saying, "That will take too long. Tell my men to get to the railroad yard immediately, until Chief Curry's men can get there."
*** Bill Decker said this because the County Jail was already on Dealey Plaza, and his men were only one block away from the 'railroad yard' which was behind the picket fence of the Grassy Knoll.
. 12:31 PM . They sped to Parkland Hospital to maintain contact with the US Government leaders that would be there.
. 12:50 PM . After it became clear that JFK was gone, and that there was nothing for a Dallas Sheriff to do there, Bill Decker decided to go back to Dealey Plaza, and noticed that the TSBD building was sealed off.
. 12:55 PM . Dallas homicide Captain Will Fritz, also at Parkland Hospital, decided to go to Dealey Plaza, too, since the TSBD was now surrounded by Dallas Police.
. 12:59 PM . Sheriff Decker and Captain Fritz stood on the sidewalk in front of the TSBD, speaking with each other. The TSBD was now swarming with scores of Dallas Police and Deputies -- as well as newspaper men.
*** Eye-witnesses of the JFK Assassination were escorted to the County Jail to give written affidavits of what they saw. All available resources were pushed into this process -- including Dallas FBI agent Heitman, the Assistant Chief Deputy Sheriff, and DPD Inspector Sawyer.
. 1:00 PM . Deputy Luke Mooney stuck his head out of the 6th floor window of the TSBD, and hollered down to Decker and Fritz that he had "spotted the location," and to send men from the Dallas Crime Lab up to the 6th floor.
. 1:01 PM . Captain Will Fritz moved into action as the man in charge, and Sheriff Bill Decker walked back to his office at the County Jail.
. 1:12 PM . JC Day and Lee Studebaker of the Crime and ID Lab, arrived to take fingerprints and photographs of the three bullet shells that Mooney found.
. 1:22 PM . Deputy Eugene Boone found Oswald's rifle on the 6th floor of the TSBD. JC Day and Lee Studebaker took fingerprints and photographs of the rifle.
*** Captain Fritz learned that somebody had killed officer JD Tippit at Oak Cliff.
*** Roy Truly promptly informed Captain Fritz that Lee Harvey Oswald was reported missing among his staff. Fritz telephoned Sheriff Bill Decker with this status.
. 1:30 PM . Bill Decker's men were to have no further role until 24-hours after the Dallas Police had arrested a suspect. At that point, under normal circumstances, Decker's Deputies were supposed to transport a serious suspect to County Jail.
*** By late that night, City Jail was still jam-packed with reporters. All work slowed to a crawl on Friday and Saturday. Coordinating the transfer was on-again, off-again, throughout the weekend. Threats against Oswald were continuous.
*** By late at night on the following Saturday, the decision to move Oswald to County Jail was scheduled for early Sunday morning. Oswald never made the trip.
That's really all there is to the testimony of Bill Decker. Now, before I offer my personal opinion and interpretation, I will make my standard disclaimer. As I name Dallas Sheriff Bill Decker as a suspect in the JFK Assassination, I emphasize that I have no animosity toward him at all. I express my opinion based only upon WC testimony.
Bill Decker chose to minimize what he told us, so I will try to fill in the blanks. Here's my reading of his role in the JFK Assassination.
(A) The original plan, as established by Ex-General Walker in September 1963 (after weighing many other options) was to use Lee Harvey Oswald (LHO) as a Patsy in the assassination of JFK.
(B) LHO had already been framed in New Orleans as a hardened Communist, with documented evidence in police records, newspapers, radio and TV. LHO had been further framed as a hardened Communist in Mexico City, at both the Cuban and Soviet consulates.
(C) Thanks to his trust in Gerry Patrick Hemming, LHO brought his rifle to work at the TSBD on 11/22/1963, to sell it to a confederate for double its value. He handed it to a trusted person outside the TSBD. That trusted person secretly handed the rifle to a Dallas Deputy (perhaps Buddy Walthers).
(D) The original plan was to have Dallas Police and Deputies in place around the Grassy Knoll, in the TSBD and in the Dal Tex building, to ambush JFK as he drove through.
(E) Then, as trusted confederates would drive LHO around Dallas for 30 minutes, Dallas Deputies inside the TSBD would slowly build a sniper's nest using LHO's rifle and spent shells from that rifle, in order to tightly frame LHO.
(F) Then, sometime around 1 PM, Dallas policeman J.D. Tippit would simply shoot LHO in the street -- on any pretext.
(G) By linking the dead LHO with the sniper's nest, the spent shells, the rifle at the TSBD, and all the FPCC evidence from New Orleans and Mexico City, an open-and-shut case would convince America that the Communists had killed JFK, and that there were several accomplices of LHO still on the loose.
(H) Buddy Walthers and the Dallas FBI would then frame Ruth and Michael Paine, and Marina Oswald, as Communist conspirators. That would fan the flames.
(I) The JFK plotters expected the USA to panic, and that Americans would demand that their government must invade Cuba immediately.
(J) That was supposed to be the end-game.
(K) However, something went horribly wrong. Instead of J.D. Tippit killing LHO, the opposite occurred. The plotters sped to Oak Cliff to descend upon LHO, but they were too late -- many innocent Deputies and Police were also among them, and a Plan B was now required.
(L) DPD Chief Curry, DPD Captain Fritz and Sheriff Decker conferred often that afternoon. Bill Decker's response was probably something like this: "My Department did a good job, but your Department dropped the ball. My Department isn't going to do anything else. The Dallas Police Department must clean up its own mess!"
(M) Sheriff Decker would follow through with his plan to send Buddy Walthers to the home of Ruth Paine, to confiscate any possible evidence that could be used to blame the Communists for the JFK Assassination.
(N) Buddy Walthers' act of confiscating the contents of Ruth Paine's garage was the final act of the Dallas Sheriff's Department on 11/22/1963.
The rest of the JFK saga, including the Dallas Police pressuring Dallas pimp Jack Ruby to assassinate LHO at the Dallas City Jail, was accomplished solely and only by Dallas Police. It had nothing further to do with the Dallas Sheriff or his Deputies. This concludes my segment on the Dallas Sheriff Bill Decker and his Dallas Deputies. In future blog posts I will focus on the Dallas Police Department.
Best regards, --Paul Trejo