Post by John McAdamsPost by donald willisPost by John McAdamsPost by clavigerAmos Euins never said that. A witness claims he overheard Euins say that.
Euins denies he ever said anything like that. Read his official signed
same day statement.
http://alt.assassination.jfk.narkive.com/Ke9RNuaD/amos-euins-sworn-statement-and-testimony
Note that *if* Euins said that (and the reporter who claimed that
could have been mistaken)
Doubtful. Reporter Kent Biffle overheard Euins telling that to a cop.
Post a link to Kent Biffle saying that.
Amos Euins tells two reporters that he saw a "colored man" shooting from
an upper floor of the depository. (Kent Biffle, DMN, 1964/James Underwood
v6p170)
Testimony Of James Robert Underwood
The testimony of James Robert Underwood was taken at 11:25 a.m., on
April 1, 1964, in the office of the U.S. attorney, 301 Post Office
Building, Bryan and Ervay Streets, Dallas, Tex., by Mr. Joseph A. Ball,
assistant counsel of the President's Commission.
Mr. Ball.
Mr. Underwood, will you stand up and be sworn?
(Complying.)
Mr. Ball.
Do you solemnly swear the testimony you are about to give before
this Commission shall be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the
truth, so help you God?
Mr. Underwood.
I do.
Mr. Ball.
Will you state your name, please?
Mr. Underwood.
My name is James Robert Underwood.
Mr. Ball.
Your occupation?
Mr. Underwood.
I am the assistant news director of KRLD-TV and radio in Dallas.
Mr. Ball.
On November 22, 1963, you were in the motorcade, the Presidential
motorcade?
Mr. Underwood.
Yes, sir; I was three cars behind the President.
Mr. Ball.
Who was in the car with you?
Mr. Underwood.
There was a photographer from channel 5, WBAP-TV, whose name is
James Darnell, and a photographer from the Dallas Morning News--- I know
his name but I can't think of it right now----
Mr. Ball.
Tom Dillard?
Mr. Underwood.
Yes; Tom Dillard, and a photographer from the Dallas Times-Herald
whose name is Bob Jackson, also a photographer from WFAA-TV and I do not
know his name. I heard it but I don't remember it.
Mr. Ball.
There was a driver, also?
Mr. Underwood.
Yes; the driver I later found out was a member of the department of
public safety.
Mr. Ball.
You are a photographer, also?
Mr. Underwood.
Yes, sir; I wear many hats in my business but one of which is news
photographer.
Mr. Ball.
Did you have your camera with you that day?
Mr. Underwood.
Yes, sir; I did.
Mr. Ball.
What is your experience; where were you born; where did you go to
school; how did you get to get the experience that fit you for your
present job? Just in your own. words, tell me something about yourself.
Mr. Underwood.
I was born in Oklahoma City, Okla., in 1922; I served in the Marine
Corps from 1940 until 1943, almost 4 years, and after that I attended the
University of Tulsa and after that I worked---I began working in radio as
an announcer while I was going to college. When I got out of college, I
went to Corpus Christi, Tex. That was about 1947 and I became program
director and news director of a radio station in Corpus Christi and I
stayed there until 1950 when I went to a station in Jacksonville, Fla.,
where I was also program director and news director, and in 1953, I came
to Dallas, and I worked for a year and a half for WFAA-TV as an announcer,
then I freelanced in television and radio from September of 1954 until
November---and I have to count for a minute 6 years this November that
would be until November 1958 when I went to work for KRLD-TV and Radio
News and shortly thereafter I became assistant news director but I earned
part of my living, I still freelance in television which is all freelance
in televisi on and I have a regular job which entails every type of
reporting, including photography which I enjoy doing. Mr. Ball.
On the day of the assassination, you were in the motorcade with
these men you mentioned and you think your car was third behind the
Presidential car?
Mr. Underwood.
Yes; and I thought it was six or seven. I shot sound on film of the
President's arrival and Vice President's arrival at Dallas Love Field the
morning he came in on the 22d and then I took off the rather cumbersome
sound on film equipment and took my hand camera because I had an assigned
place in the motorcade and I could not tell out there because of the many
people I could not tell what position we were in. I could not see that far
ahead to determine exactly where we were in the motorcade, although I knew
we were in the front of it. The motorcade stopped once on the way
downtown, this was briefly, and I jumped over this side---we were in
a---convertible and ran toward the President's car and I was aware of the
crowd and the motorcade immediately started and I ran back to the
convertible, not wanting to be left, and looking afterward at the films
that I took there, I could then count the cars there. I realized we were
three behind him, according to my movies we took. When we turned onto Main
Street downto wn and headed west toward the scene of where the
assassination took place, either the regulator or the mainspring in my
camera broke and I was without a camera. I knew that we had two men, at
least two men on the parade route who were on the street and would be
filming the motorcade as we came by and I hoped to exchange my broken
camera for one of theirs because I knew I could make more use of the one
that would operate. The only problem was we went down Main Street so
rapidly it would have been impossible to get anything from someone
standing on the street and at Main and Record one of our men was stationed
and I tried to holier at him my camera was broken and I wanted to switch
and I started to and there was no point in it because we passed there that
rapidly. I thought it was the fastest motorcade that passed through a
crowd; this was really moving, as far as I was concerned. Then, we came to
the scene where the shots were fired. Do you want me to go on?
Mr. Ball.
From the time you turned, tell me what you observed after you made
the turn at Main and Houston to drive north on Houston.
Mr. Underwood.
After we turned onto Houston Street, the car I was in was about, as
far as I can remember, about in the middle of the block or a little bit
north of the center of the block, which is a short block, when I heard
the first shot.
Mr. Ball.
Between Main and Elm?
Mr. Underwood.
Yes; between Main and Elm, closer to the Elm intersection, Elm and
Houston intersection, when I heard the first shot fired. I thought it was
an explosion. I have heard many rifles fired but it did not sound like a
rifle to me. Evidently must have been a reverberation from the buildings
.or something. I believe I said to one of the other fellows it sounds like
a giant firecracker and the car I was in was about in the intersection of
Elm and Houston when I heard a second shot fired and moments later a third
shot fired and I realized that they were by that time, the last two shots,
I realized they were coming from overhead.
Mr. Ball.
You realized they were coming from overhead and that would be from
what source?
Mr. Underwood.
That would be from the Texas School Book Depository Building.
Mr. Ball.
It sounded like they were coming from that direction?
Mr. Underwood.
Yes, sir; the last two. Now, the first was just a loud explosion but
it sounded like a giant firecracker or something had gone off. By the time
the third shot was fired, the car I was in stopped almost through the
intersection in front of the Texas School Book Depository Building and I
leaped out of the car before the car stopped. Bob Jackson from the Herald
said he thought he saw a rifle in the window and I looked where he pointed
and I saw nothing. Below the window he was pointing at, I saw two colored
men leaning out there with their heads turned toward the top of the
building, trying, I suppose, to determine where the shots were coming
from.
Mr. Ball.
What words did you hear Bob Jackson say?
Mr. Underwood.
I don't know that I can remember exactly except I did hear him say
words to the effect that "I saw a rifle" and I looked at that instant
and I saw nothing myself. If he saw a rifle, I did not.
Mr. Ball.
At that point when you looked, where was your car?
Mr. Underwood.
Our car was in the intersection, in the intersection of Elm and
Houston Street.
Mr. Ball.
Had it made the turn yet?
Mr. Underwood.
It had partially made the turn or had just begun to make the turn.
Frankly, I was looking up and around and I saw at the same time people
falling on the ground down the street toward the underpass and my first
impression was some of these people falling to the ground had been shot.
Mr. Ball.
Did your car stop?
Mr. Underwood.
Our car stopped and the minute it stopped I leaped out of the car.
Mr. Ball.
Where was your car when it stopped?
Mr. Underwood.
Right in the intersection, perhaps just past the intersection,
turned onto Elm.
Mr. Ball.
Did you get out before the car parked along the curb?
Mr. Underwood.
Yes, sir; the minute it stopped, I leaped over the side.
Mr. Ball.
What did you do?
Mr. Underwood.
I left my camera in the car, the camera that was broken, and ran as
fast as I could back toward the man we had at Record and Main in order
to get a camera. There I was without a camera; the only thought I had
was to get a camera.
Mr. Ball.
Did you get one?
Mr. Underwood.
Yes; I ran the full block back to Main Street and our man there, name
of Sanderson, was running down Main toward Houston. He was running to meet
me, although he didn't know what was happening and that my camera was
broke. Suddenly, motorcycles and sirens had been turned on police cars and
were all headed toward Main. I met him just around the corner on Main past
Houston and grabbed his camera and said, "Someone had been shooting at the
President." I didn't know this but I assumed it happened. I took his
camera and got back to the scene. When I got back to the scene, most of
the people in the area were running up the grassy slope toward the railway
yards just behind the Texas School Book Depository Building. Actually, I
assumed, which is the only thing I could do, I assumed perhaps who had
fired the shots had run in that direction. I recognized at least a dozen
deputy sheriffs running also in that area--it seems to me that many, and I
ran up there and took some films and they were running through the railr
oad yard and they very quickly found nothing and I was having, frankly, a
hard time breathing because I had done more running in those few minutes
than I am used to doing. I gasped out to a couple people--I don't know who
they are that I thought the shots came from that building and one of the
fellows in the car with me said they had seen a rifle barrel in the
building.
Mr. Ball.
This group of men were deputy sheriffs?
Mr. Underwood.
For the most part, yes; I don't think I could recall--Lemmy Lewis I
see in my mind, but I am not sure Lemmy was there. This was a kaleidoscope
of things happening. In my business, you need to make a quick appraisal of
what is happening if you are going to shoot pictures of it. I was confused
and out of breath and unbelieving of what happened.
Mr. Ball.
Where did you go from the grassy slopes?
Mr. Underwood.
I went from the railroad yards--actually, I was back in the track
area---I went immediately with these men at a run to the Texas School
Depository.
Mr. Ball.
Which entrance?
Mr. Underwood.
The front entrance.
Mr. Ball.
On Elm?
Mr. Underwood.
Yes; and I ran down there and I think I took some pictures of some
men--yes, I know I did, going in and out of the building. By that time
there was one police officer there and he was a three-wheeled motorcycle
officer and a little colored boy whose last name I remember as Eunice.
Mr. Ball.
Euins?
Mr. Underwood.
It may have been Euins. It was difficult to understand when he said
his name. He was telling the motorcycle officer he had seen a colored man
lean out of the window upstairs and he had a rifle. He was telling this to
the officer and the officer took him over and put him in a squad car. By
that time, motorcycle officers were arriving, homicide officers were
arriving and I went over and asked this boy if he had seen someone with a
rifle and he said "Yes, sir." I said, "Were they white or black?" He said,
"It was a colored man." I said, "Are you sure it was a colored man?" He
said, "Yes, sir" and I asked him his name and the only thing I could
understand was what I thought his name was Eunice.
Mr. Ball.
Was he about 15?
Mr. Underwood.
I couldn't tell his age; looked to me to be younger. I would have
expected him to be about 10 or 11 years old.
Mr. Ball.
Then what did you do?
Mr. Underwood.
I stayed in front of the building; actually, I stayed in the
intersection of Elm and Houston and took movies of police arriving and
fire--- and I think some fire equipment arrived on the scene, one
firetruck or two fire-trucks, I'm not sure, and I just shot some general
film on the area. I have since searched that film to see if I could see
any face in it that would have been important to this.
Mr. Ball.
Leaving the building?
Mr. Underwood.
Yes; but I haven't found any except that of officers arriving and
just people generally in the area; none of it, though, that you could---I
spent several days at this, I guess during January when things had calmed
down. I was on the side street of the building, around the front of the
building and in the intersection for the next 10 minutes, then I went
across the street to the courthouse and phoned several news reports to
C.B.S. in New York and described what was taking place in the building at
that time. There were firemen with ladders in front of the building and
officers running in and out and they cordoned off the building and kept
the spectators out of the building, but there was quite a time lapse
between the time the shots were fired and the time anyone checked the
building. The main effort was to run to the railroad yards instead of the
School Book Depository.
Mr. Ball.
I think that's all. Mr. Underwood, this will be typed up and you
can waive signature if you wish or you can sign it if you wish.
Mr. Underwood.
I don't have to sign it. I will waive signature.
Source:
Warren Commission Hearings, Vol. VI, p. 167.
This page has been built by RTF2HTML, 1996
Post by John McAdamsPost by donald willisBut
another reporter James Underwood, actually questioned Euins, who told him
he saw a "colored man". Underwood asked him if he were sure, and Euins
said he was. It's in Underwood's Commission testimony.
, that would be quite an understandable
Post by John McAdamserror.
Bullets are flying, and he looks up and sees one of the black men on
the 5th floor.
That's all I'm saying, thank you. Does this mean we're in agreement on
something? A first, or second. Of course that still means that Euins'
later affidavit, interviews, and testimony reflected some kind of
"evolution", but I won't put my own spin on that....
Excellent. If he changed his testimony, it doesn't mean Evil Minions
of the Conspiracy got to him and forced him to lie.
It's not changing his testimony. His first statments to the reporters
and then the police were not testimony. They warned him to change his
story that he would testify to lest it start a race riot.
So don't think of it as a conspiracy or a cover-up, but as a civic duty.
Post by John McAdamsIt would just mean that he was embarrassed he said something at odds
with what everybody else was saying, and backed off.
Yeah, you mean like Jean Hill?
Post by John McAdams.John
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