THE CURIOUS TESTIMONY OF MR. GIVENS
by: Sylvia Meagher
One witness who helped to incriminate Lee Harvey Oswald in the assassination
of President John
F. Kennedy was a Book Depository porter named Charles Givens. The Warren
Commission gave
prominence to his testimony that he had forgotten his cigarettes on the
sixth floor and that
when he went to retrieve them just before noon he had encountered Oswald
near the southeast
corner window.
In a book published in 1967 (Accessories After the Fact, Bobbs-Merrill Co.,
Inc.), I discussed
the discrepancies between the Givens story as set forth in the Warren Report
and the
corresponding testimony and exhibits, and the grounds for concluding that
the story suggested
perjury and collusion. It was logically inconsistent with genuine encounter
at about 11:45
between Oswald and a group of employees who were racing two elevators from
the sixth to the
ground floor, when Oswald had called to them to send one elevator back so
that he could go down
too. Ten minutes later, if one accepted Given's testimony, Oswald declined
to go down for the
lunch break. Moreover, while Givens supposedly exchanged a few words with
Oswald on the sixth
floor, other witnesses observed him on the first floor. Most of all,
Givens' testimony was
suspect because in his affidavit to the Dallas police later that afternoon
he said nothing about
forgetting his cigarettes, returning to the sixth floor, or meeting Oswald
there - an omission
that was incomprehensible, if the encounter was authentic.
That is how the situation appeared back in 1967. Some months ago, I
obtained from the National
Archives a collection of unpublished Warren Commission documents ("CD's")
concerning Charles
Givens. Reading them was a shock not soon forgotten. I had half-expected
that the CD's would
reconcile and dispose of the contradictions that earlier had forced me to
question the
legitimacy of the Givens testimony and the role of the two or more Warren
Commission lawyers in
extracting that testimony.
Here is a chronological reconstruction of the Givens affair from which
anyone easily can judge
for himself whether or not there are sufficient grounds for an accusation of
perjury, collusion,
and falsification of evidence with the clear purpose of incriminating Oswald
as the assassin of
President Kennedy. (The citations in each case refer to both published
transcripts and exhibits
and to unpublished commission documents or internal reports and papers.)
November 22, 1963
At 1:46 p.m. Inspector Sawyer of the Dallas police issued an alert on the
police radio for
Charles Givens, a porter at the Book Depository, because he had "a police
record and he left"
(CE 705, page 30). It was know at that hour that Oswald, too, had left the
scene but no alert
for him was issued - Captain Will Fritz and two detectives intended to
proceed to Irving
personally, in search of Oswald.
Within an hour or two, Givens was escorted to the police headquarters, where
he was questioned
and where he executed an affidavit stating that he had left the sixth floor
at about 11:30 a.m.,
had gone to the washroom, at noon had taken his lunch period, had gone to a
parking lot to visit
with a friend employed there (CE 2003, page 27). Givens' affidavit said
nothing about a return
to the sixth floor for cigarettes or an encounter there with Oswald.
Later that day Givens was interviewed by FBI agents Griffen and Odum. He
gave the same story as
in the affidavit but added one additional piece if information - THAT AT
11:50 a.m. HE HAD SEEN
OSWALD READING A PAPER IN THE "DOMINO ROOM" ON THE FIRST FLOOR (CD 5, PAGE
329).
you can read more of the above article on givens and his changing story here
http://karws.gso.uri.edu/Marsh/Jfk-cons ... vens63.txt
