Jesse E. Curry

And I returned to the city hall.

Did I understand correctly, how long were you at Love Field after the plane of the President left?

As I recall it was approximately an hour.

That is what I thought.

We waited there until the casket bearing the President, and then the cars bearing Mrs. Kennedy arrived, and it was, I would judge an hour perhaps.

Then what did you do?

I returned to my office at city hall.

Did you do anything about Lee Harvey Oswald at that time?

No. As I went into the city hall it was overrun with the news media.

What did you do about that?

I didn't do anything. They were jammed into the north hall of the third floor, which are the offices of the criminal investigation division. The television trucks, there were several of them around the city hall. I went into my administrative offices, I saw cables coming through the administrative assistant office and through the deputy chief of traffic through his office, and running through the hall they had a live TV set up on the third floor, and it was a bedlam of confusion.

Did anyone of the police department give them permission to do this?

I noticed--well, I don't know who gave them permission because I wasn't there. When I returned they were up there.

Did you inquire about whether permission had been given?

No; I didn't. We had in the past had always permitted free movement of the press around the city hall but we had never been faced with anything like this before where we had national and international news media descending upon us in this manner.

Could you describe to the Commission the difference this time as compared with the ordinary case that you have handled?

Well, the ordinary case, perhaps we have two or three or maybe a half dozen reporters, we have a room for them on the third floor where they normally on assignment at city hall they stay in this room.
As prisoners are brought to and from the interrogation offices, it is necessary to bring them down the man corridor, and they usually are waiting there where they take pictures of them as they enter and as they leave and they sometimes try to ask them questions.

Now, how was this different?