Bowers, Holland & Rolland

On November 22, 1963, railroad supervisor Lee Bowers had an unobstructed view of the parking lot behind the picket fence from his observation tower. Sometime around noon, less than half-an-hour before the assassination, Bowers noticed three cars suspiciously riding around the parking lot. Since the police had closed off the parking lot to traffic in anticipation of the President’s motorcade, they were conspicuous as they surveyed the area.

The first car was a 1959 Oldsmobile station wagon, blue and white, with out-of-state license plates. It had several bumper stickers on it, one of which was a "Goldwater for President" sticker. At 12:20 P.M., a 1957 black Ford with Texas plates entered the lot. It was driven by a lone male, who held some sort of radio or telephone to his mouth as he searched the same area as the first car. This was followed by a white 1961 or 1962 Chevrolet Impala 4-door sedan. It also had out-of-state plates, as well as bumper stickers similar to the ones on the Oldsmobile wagon. It was covered with red mud or dirt up to the windows.

In a sketch Holland drew for Josiah Thompson’s Six Seconds in Dallas, we see the footprints he and James L. Simmons described in their testimony. The station wagon with the muddy bumper is described as a "Light tan Olds '61." Chauncy Holt claimed to have parked his Oldsmobile station wagon in the parking lot on the knoll. The car next to the wagon, on the side where the foot-prints lead, is described as a 1960-1961 off-white Chevy 4-door sedan. The car parked closest to the corner of the picket fence is "'58-'59 Black or dark blue."

These three cars match the description of the three cars seen by Lee Bowers shortly before the assassination. Is it possible that these three cars are in fact the same cars Bowers noticed driving around the parking lot?

Finally, late in the afternoon of the assassination, David Ferrie and his two friends showed up at the Winterland Ice Rink in Houston. Chuck Rolland, who managed the Winterland, was questioned by the FBI on the Sunday morning following the assassination concerning Ferrie’s activities on Friday. Rolland had noticed the car the three men had been driving on Friday evening. He described it as a large, light-colored sedan with Louisiana plates. He saw it at night, so he wasn’t sure of the exact color. But he did notice that it was covered with red dust and dirt.

 

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