End of Days by James L. Swanson

Author:James L. Swanson
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780062300201
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2013-10-16T16:00:00+00:00

OUTSIDE ON the street, a pasty-complexioned, unattractive man wearing a dark suit, white shirt, dark tie, dark hat, and dark shoes approached the mouth of the driveway and the armored car parked at the top of the ramp. He slipped through the narrow space between one side of the truck and the wall. No one stopped him. He proceeded down the ramp until he found himself in the basement garage. He mingled with the scrum of journalists and others and melted into the crowd. He did not stand out.

To some people, he looked familiar in a vague way. They had seen him before. Other men in the basement, the ones who knew him, either did not spot him or did not care. This uninvited guest was just one of dozens of well-dressed men waiting for Lee Harvey Oswald.

At 11:19 A.M., Oswald was double-handcuffed in Captain Fritz’s office. One pair secured his hands together. The second pair connected one of his wrists to one of Detective Leavelle’s so that the two men could not be separated, and Oswald could not run and make a break for it. But the handcuff arrangement would also make it hard for Oswald to duck if someone took a shot at him. It was also dangerous for Leavelle.

“Lee, if anybody shoots at you,” the detective joked, “I hope they’re as good a shot as you are.”

“Aw, they ain’t going to be anybody shooting at me, you’re just being melodramatic.”

“Well, if there’s any trouble you know what to do. Hit the floor.”

“Captain Fritz told me to follow you. I’ll do whatever you do.”

“In that case,” Leavelle said, “you’ll be on the floor.”

In the garage, NBC News reporter Tom Pettit was waiting for them: “We are standing in the basement corridor where Lee Oswald will pass through momentarily. Extraordinary security precautions have been taken for the prisoner.” But Pettit was dead wrong. The Dallas police should have transferred Oswald in secrecy. Pettit’s gullible comments echoed the statements that the naive reporters who had covered JFK’s arrival in Dallas had made about security.

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