Lee Bowers

Lee Bowers
Born
Lee Edward Bowers Jr.

(1925-01-12)January 12, 1925
Dallas, Texas, US
DiedAugust 9, 1966(1966-08-09) (aged 41)
Midlothian, Texas, US
Alma materHardin-Simmons University
Southern Methodist University
Occupation(s)Builder, business manager
Known forJFK assassination witness

Lee Edward Bowers Jr. (January 12, 1925 – August 9, 1966)[1] was a witness to the assassination of United States President John F. Kennedy in Dallas, Texas on November 22, 1963.[2] The timing and circumstances of Bowers's death have led to various allegations that his demise was part of a cover-up subsequent to the Kennedy murder.[2]

Early life and career

Bowers served in the U.S. Navy from ages 17 to 21. He attended Hardin-Simmons University for two years then Southern Methodist University for two years, majoring in religion. He worked at the Union Terminal Company railyard for 15 years, also working as a self-employed builder. In 1964, he began working as business manager for a hospital and convalescent home.[3]

Assassination of Kennedy

At the moment of the assassination, Bowers was operating the Union Terminal Company's two-story interlocking tower, overlooking the parking lot around 120 yards north of the grassy knoll and west of the Texas School Book Depository.[4][5]

Bowers worked in the gray two-story railroad tower seen nearly alone at the center-top of this photo of Dealey Plaza in Dallas, Texas

He had an unobstructed view of the rear of the concrete pergola and the stockade fence at the top of the grassy knoll.[6] He described hearing three shots that came from either the Depository on his left or near the mouth of the Triple Underpass railroad bridge on his right; he was unsure because of the reverberation from the shots.

Witness to JFK assassination

On April 2, 1964, Lee Bowers provided testimony to Joseph A. Ball, assistant counsel of the Warren Commission, at the US Post Office Building in Dallas.[7] When asked by Ball, "Now, were there any people standing on the high side—high ground between your tower and where Elm Street goes down under the underpass toward the mouth of the underpass?" Bowers testified that at the time the motorcade went by on Elm Street, four men were in the area: one or two uniformed parking lot attendants, one of whom Bowers knew; and two men standing 10 to 15 feet (3 to 5 m) apart near the Triple Underpass, who did not appear to know each other. One was "middle-aged, or slightly older, fairly heavy-set, in a white shirt, fairly dark trousers" and the other was "younger man, about midtwenties, in either a plaid shirt or plaid coat or jacket." One or both were still there when the first police officer arrived "immediately" after the shooting.[8] Many simply assumed that Bowers meant that these men were standing behind the stockade fence at the top of the grassy knoll.[9]

Bowers further stated: "At the time of the shooting there seemed to be some commotion (...)" on the high ground above Elm Street. When asked about this commotion, he added : "I just am unable to describe rather than it was something out of the ordinary, a sort of milling around, but something occurred in this particular spot which was out of the ordinary, which attracted my eye for some reason, which I could not identify."

Two years later, when Bowers was interviewed by assassination researchers Mark Lane and Emile de Antonio for their documentary film Rush to Judgment, he clarified – though the researchers chose to withhold it from their finished product – that these two men were standing in the opening between the pergola and the stockade fence, and that "no one" was behind the fence when the shots were fired; Bower's words to Lane and de Antonio, published in 2004 by Dale K. Myers from their source material, were:[10]

These two men were standing back from the street somewhat at the top of the incline and were very near two trees which were in the area. And one of them, from time to time as he walked back and forth, disappeared behind a wooden fence which is also slightly to the west of that. These two men to the best of my knowledge were standing there at the time of the shooting.

Bowers added,

Now I could see back or the South side of the wooden fence in the area, so that obviously that there was no one there who could have - uh - had anything to do with either - as accomplice or anything else because there was no one there - um - at the moment that the shots were fired.

But in his testimony, Bowers explained that from his elevated position, he could see over the top of the fence and observed no one on the south side who could have been an accomplice to the men he saw on the railroad yard side of the fence.

Asked if the two men were in the area at the time the motorcycle officer came up the incline, Bowers said,

I - as far as I know, one of them was. The other I could not say. The darker dressed man was too hard to distinguish from the trees. The one in the white shirt, yes; I think he was.[11]

It is important to note that at the time the motorcycle officer ascended the knoll, witnesses Emmett Joseph Hudson and Francis Lee "F. Lee" Mudd were seated on the concrete steps of the grassy knoll and were out of Bowers' line of sight. Therefore, Bowers could not have been referring to these individuals.[12]

Bowers told Lane that as the motorcade passed "there was a flash of light or smoke" in the vicinity of where the two men were standing.[13]

Death

Bowers died in August 1966, when his car left an empty road and struck a concrete bridge abutment near Midlothian, Texas.[14][15]

Portrayals

Bowers was played by Pruitt Taylor Vince in the 1991 film JFK.

References

Citations

  1. ^ Ancestry.com. Texas Death Index, 1903-2000 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: The Generations Network, Inc., 2006.
  2. ^ a b Thompson, Helen (December 31, 1969). "Dealey Plaza Revisited". Texas Monthly. Archived from the original on May 29, 2015. Retrieved May 28, 2015.
  3. ^ Warren Commission Hearings, vol. 6, p. 284, Testimony of Lee E. Bowers, Jr. Archived 2007-10-08 at the Wayback Machine, April 2, 1964.
  4. ^ Warren Commission Report, p. 71–72, The Witnesses: At the Triple Underpass Archived 2016-03-03 at the Wayback Machine.
  5. ^ Bugliosi (2007), p. 852.
  6. ^ Warren Commission Report, p. 74, Commission Exhibit 2118, View From North Tower of Union Terminal Company, Dallas, Texas Archived 2008-04-21 at the Wayback Machine.
  7. ^ "Testimony of Lee E. Bowers, Jr.". Hearings Before the President's Commission on the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy, Volume VI. Washington, D.C.: United States Government Printing Office. 1964. pp. 284–288. Archived from the original on 2023-01-15. Retrieved 2014-07-15.
  8. ^ Warren Commission Hearings, vol. 6, p. 287–288, Testimony of Lee E. Bowers, Jr. Archived 2008-09-21 at the Wayback Machine, April 2, 1964.
  9. ^ Mark Lane, Rush to Judgment, Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1966, p. 31–32:
    "His [Bowers's] description of the two men behind the fence was not unlike Miss Mercer's ..."
    Jim Marrs, Crossfire: The Plot That Killed Kennedy, Carroll & Graf, 1993, ISBN 978-0-88184-648-5, p. 75:
    "Bowers told a fascinating story of suspicious cars moving in the sealed-off railroad yards minutes before the assassination, and of seeing strange men behind the picket fence."
    Harrison Edward Livingstone, High Treason, Carroll & Graf, 1998, ISBN 978-0-7867-0578-8, p. 116:
    "Lee Bowers Jr. … was in the railroad control behind the grassy knoll and saw two men behind the fence, a puff of smoke during the shooting, and a lot of activity."
    Anthony Summers, Not in Your Lifetime, Marlowe & Co., 1998, ISBN 978-1-56924-739-6, p. 36:
    "Lee Bowers, the railway towerman who had seen two strangers behind the fence just before the assassination, had partially lost sight of them in the foliage."
  10. ^ Rush to Judgment, which advocated a multi-shooter conspiracy, did not use that portion of Bowers's interview. The redacted portions of the Bowers interview were first published by Dale K. Myers in 2004. Dale K. Myers, Secrets of a Homicide: Badge Man – The Testimony of Lee Bowers, Jr. Archived 2012-07-21 at the Wayback Machine The interview transcript is among the papers of De Antonio at the Wisconsin Historical Society Archives.
  11. ^ Warren Commission Hearings, vol. 6, p. 288, Testimony of Lee E. Bowers, Jr.
  12. ^ Voluntary Statement by Emmett Joseph Hudson
  13. ^ Mark Lane, Rush to Judgment, Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1966, p. 31
  14. ^ Bugliosi, Vincent (2007). Reclaiming History: The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy. New York: W.W. Norton. p. 899. ISBN 978-0-393-04525-3.
  15. ^ "Executive Dies After Car Wreck", The Dallas Morning News, August 10, 1966, p. D4.

Works cited