The testimony of Warren Allen Reynolds may seem trivial – but it accidentally references General Walker. This makes Reynolds relevant in my list of Dallas civilians who: (1) testified to the Warren Commission; and (2) who gave WC testimony that links them closely to my theory about a Dallas Radical Right wing plot to assassinate JFK.
Warren Reynolds is the only other Warren Commission (WC) witness -- after Robert Alan Surrey -- who deliberately evaded a WC question. He cannot compare with Surrey’s 24 pleadings of the 5th Amendment – because Reynolds evaded only one question. Yet this evasion supports my opinion that Reynolds knew more about General Walker and the JFK Assassination than he was willing to tell the WC.
Here’s my summary of the WC testimony of Warren Reynolds, taken in July 1964, in Dallas, by Attorney Wesley Liebeler.
SECTION 1: REYNOLDS SEES LEE HARVEY OSWALD RUNNING FROM THE SCENE OF A SHOOTING
1. Warren Reynolds was 28 years old, a Dallas native, and a high-school graduate employed by his brother at the Johnny Reynolds Motor Company. They sold used cars.
2. Reynolds was working on Friday, November 22, 1963, around 1 PM, when he heard a gun shot, and then more shots (he didn’t recall how many).
3. Reynolds looked out of his office porch and saw a man running down the street with a gun in his hand, turning the corner of Patton and Jefferson streets, going west. After turning the corner, the man put the gun into his pants and walked fast. Reynolds had seen the man’s face clearly.
4. Reynolds ran after the man, who began running again. Reynolds chased the man up Jefferson street and behind a Texaco service station at the corner of Crawford street. Reynolds lost him in the parking lot in back of the station. Reynolds searched the area thoroughly and couldn’t find him.
5. Soon the police arrived, and Reynolds assured the police that the shooter was still there in the parking lot. They didn’t find the shooter, but they found the shooter’s jacket. That’s when Reynolds first heard from police that this shooter had shot a policeman. He was stunned.
6. The Dallas Police took Reynold’s name while a Dallas TV camera took film. Then all the police heard a report that the Tippit shooter was at a library about 3 blocks down the street, so they all rushed away. So, Reynolds returned to work and told his co-workers what had happened.
7. One co-worker called a radio talk-show to boast about Reynolds. The radio station replayed that recording several times all afternoon. Other stations embellished the story further.
8. Reynolds did not in any way identify Lee Harvey Oswald (LHO) to the Police Department or to anyone official, either in November or December 1963, as would have been proper.
9. Although Reynolds filed no police report with the Dallas Police, he spoke with many friends about his chase, and all were convinced that the runner with the gun was LHO as seen on TV and in newspaper photographs.
10. Later that evening, TV news falsely reported that Warren Reynolds had directed the police to the Texas Theater and had pointed out Oswald to the police. Yet Reynolds had done no such thing. Reynolds had only told police that he last saw the shooter running westward on Jefferson street, and that he lost sight of the shooter who had ducked into the parking lot behind the Texaco station. Reynolds never saw him again. So, the TV reporters got it wrong.
SECTION 2: REYNOLDS WAS A VICTIM OF A DALLAS SHOOTING:
11. Two months later, on January 23, 1964, Reynolds was shot in the head by a rifle. The bullet entered his right temple and lodged under his left ear. Oddly, this did not kill Reynolds, who ran away from the scene. It occurred like this:
12. A shooter was apparently lying in wait with a rifle for many hours in the office basement of Johnny Reynolds Motor Company, which was open at night. After closing time, at about 9:15 PM, Reynolds went down to this basement to their switchboard to turn off the building lights. The basement light failed, so Reynolds entered the room in the dark. After Reynolds turned two switches, the shooter shot Reynolds in the head once, at close range. Reynolds didn’t know what hit him.
13. Reynolds, dazed and thinking that he had been electrocuted, ran upstairs for a towel to stop the blood. Then Reynolds saw a man run out of the basement and run away with a rifle. Reynolds realized that he had been shot, so he quickly called the police. Dallas Police recorded the call at 9:19 PM.
14. The ambulance arrived and took Reynolds to the hospital where he recovered.
15. Reynolds was never able to identify the shooter who ran out of that basement. Yet two neighbors also saw a man running from the lot with a rifle, and also filed police reports. They described him as male, with a dark-complexion, perhaps Spanish or Cuban, 5 foot 4, 130 or 140 pounds.
16. Reynolds expressed his belief – somebody shot him because “he knew something” about Lee Harvey Oswald. Reynolds was certain it had nothing to do with the used car business.
17. Actually, however, Johnny Reynolds, on January 23, 1964, had told the Dallas Police that Darrell Wayne Garner, petty criminal with a local reputation for cruelty to his own mother, was in his lot three days earlier, trying to sell Johnny a 1957 Oldsmobile for which Garner had no title. Johnny turned him down, and this had enraged Garner.
18. The Dallas Police arrested Darrell Wayne Garner on suspicion. Actually, Garner was known to the Reynolds brothers for 6 or 7 years in connection with used cars.
19. After arresting Wayne Garner, the Dallas Police later released him after his girlfriend, Nancy Mooney, gave Garner an alibi, swearing that Garner was with her at the time. She passed a lie detector test, and the police set Garner free. (Soon afterward, she committed suicide.)
20. Warren Reynolds, strangely, testified to the WC that he could see no connection between the Garner episode and the shooting.
21. Reynolds also had no evidence that his attack had a connection with Oswald’s arrest at the Texas Theater. Yet Dallas TV news had incorrectly broadcast that Reynolds had followed LHO all the way to the Texas Theater and pointed him out to police. Reynolds believed that many people in Dallas still believed that rumor – and that some unknown criminal decided to act on that rumor.
22. Attorney Liebeler then reminded Reynolds that several other Tippit murder witnesses had actually filed Dallas Police reports, had actually viewed Oswald in police lineups, and had also testified for the WC, and their cases were also widely broadcast by the news. Yet none of them had been attacked the way that Reynolds was.
23. Warren Reynolds testified that he saw no connection between this fact and his attack. Reynolds explained that he had been the only one to actually take *action* -- to do more than merely *look.*
SECTION 3: GENERAL WALKER ADVISES THE WC TO HEAR REYNOLDS, AND ADVISES REYNOLDS WHAT TO SAY
24. Then, in a surprise move, Attorney Liebeler asked if Reynolds had spoken with General Walker about this shooting. Reynolds admitted that he had. General Walker had expressed interest about Reynolds being been shot in connection with LHO.
25. Attorney Liebeler asked if General Walker knew of any evidence to link the Reynolds shooting to the JFK Assassination. Reynolds replied, “Let him answer that when he talks to you.”
26. Attorney Liebeler then asked Reynolds how he found out that Walker was going to testify for the WC. Reynolds admitted that he had spoken with General Walker about five or six times in the previous weeks, and as recently as that very afternoon.
27. Liebeler told Reynolds that the WC had no plans to interview Reynolds until General Walker had petitioned the WC to take Reynolds’ testimony. Reynolds said that he knew that.
28. Reynolds admitted that General Walker had taken an interest in Reynolds’ appearance before the WC. But when asked about the details of their conversation, Reynolds said, “I don’t want to answer that, really,” and asked to go off the record. Attorney Leibeller let Reynolds speak off the record.
SECTION 4: WARREN REYNOLDS CONCLUDES BY GIVING HIS OWN OPINION
29. Back on the record, Attorney Liebeler told Warren Reynolds that he had no further questions, and he asked if Reynolds would like to add remarks. Reynolds said yes – that the Federal Government should investigate his January attack.
30. Attorney Liebeler reminded Reynolds that the Dallas Police had already investigated that attack and had identified a logical suspect. Reynolds replied that the Dallas Police investigation had found nothing important.
31. Reynolds’ further added that around the 20th of February, somebody tried to coax his 10-year old daughter into a car. Also, around the 29th of February, somebody had unscrewed his front porch light bulb one night. He suspected that there might be some connection of these events with the JFK Assassination, and that the Federal Government should investigate these events, too.
32. This was the end of the testimony.
In my next blog post I’ll offer my interpretation of the WC testimony of Warren Allen Reynolds.
Best regards,
--Paul Trejo