Capt William R Westbrook

First topic message reminder :

There seems to be extraordinarily sparse information on DPD Capt William R Westbrook.

He's an important figure in the events around the JFK assassination because he was present when the mystery wallet (allegedly one of Oswald's wallets) was found at the scene of the Tippit shooting by Sgt Kenneth Croy, and he was also at the scene when Oswald's jacket was discovered underneath a car.

Westbrook wasn't a patrol officer. He was in the Personnel Division of the DPD, he had a cushy desk job. Who ordered him to the Tippit scene? (And why was Bob Barrett along?)

One interesting thing about William Ralph Westbrook, is that he appears almost nowhere on Google. It's almost as if he didn't exist. The information in the Sneed book indicates that Westbrook "retired" from the DPD in 1966, and subsequently became an advisor to the Saigon police. It also claims he worked at Schepp's Dairy and as an investigator for Henry Wade (a position from which he also allegedly "retired"). The Sneed book claims he died in 1996. However I can't corroborate any of this with a simple google search.

First, I'd greatly appreciate linkage to any first-hand sources about Westbrook.

Second, I have a question. The DPD retirement records list an Anna F Westbrook as having passed away in 2011. Texas marriage records show a William R Westbrook marrying an Anna F Moore in 1992. Question: is this the same person?

All the people who took part in the arrest and transport of Oswald back downtown gathered together in the Personnel Office to compare notes and write up their reports. Westbrook was not only there, but was making suggested changes.

WC testimony of Bob Carroll
https://www.jfk-assassination.net/russ/testimony/carroll.htm


“...took him[Oswald] right into the homicide and robbery office and took him into one of our interrogation rooms, where we released him to the homicide and robbery office.
Mr. BALL. Whom did you release him to?
Mr. CARROLL. I don't recall which one of the officers it was - there were several standing around there, but they would just take him and hand him to one particular officer. We just put him in the room and they more or less come in and we would back off.
Mr. BALL. Where did you go?
Mr. CARROLL. I went into the police personnel office.
Mr. BALL. Who went In there with you?
Mr. CARROLL. There was Jerry Hill, Ray Hawkins, McDonald, Hutson, Bentley, Lyons, and myself.”



WC testimony of Gerald Hill
https://www.jfk-assassination.net/russ/testimony/hill_gl.htm


Mr. HILL. “Talked to Walker after he left the interrogation room. He came into the personnel office with us, and we sat down and made sure that--we just talked over our story and made sure that we had all the details as to who was where in the arrest,...”


“And at about this point Captain Westbrook suggested that I change the heading of my report to include arrest of the suspect in the assassination of the President and in the murder of Officer J. D. Tippit, which I did.
I originally wrote the report for Bob Carroll's signature and for my signature, and left it with the captain to be typed while we moved over in another office to get a cup of coffee and sort of calm down and recap the events.
By then McDonald was there, and we had added some information that he could give us such as the information about "This is it." Which the suspect allegedly said as he came into contact with him.
The exact location of the officers and who was there on the original arrest and everything, and we were waiting around for the secretary to finish the report.
When we got it back ready to sign, Carroll and I were sitting there, and it had Captain Westbrook's name for signature, and added a paragraph about he and the FBI agent being there, and not seeing that it made any difference, I went ahead and signed the report.
Actually, they were there, but I didn't make any corrections.
And as far as the report, didn't allege what they did, but had added a paragraph to our report to include the fact that he was there, and also that the FBI agent was there.
Now as to why this was done, your guess is as good as mine.”

Steve Thomas

Dallas Morning News, Saturday, Aug. 20, 1966, p. 34:
https://archives.dallasnews.com/uncategorized/IO_96b639d7-88cf-4b77-af4c-6d0636bc26ef/
Westbrook May Go To Vietnam


“Friday, the 48 year old Westbrook made the jump. He announced intentions to resign and join AID, the U.S. Agency for International Development.”

Creating the Oswald Legend – Part 5

Written by Vasilios Vazakas
in Kenndys and King
https://www.kennedysandking.com/john-f-kennedy-articles/creating-the-oswald-legend-part-5



CIA POLICE TRAINING and THE CIS
John Gilligan, director of USAID under Jimmy Carter, said that “At one time, many USAID field offices were infiltrated from top to bottom with CIA people. The idea was to plant operatives in every kind of activity we had overseas, government, volunteer, religious, every kind.”[19] John Hannah, Nixon’s director of USAID admitted publicly that the USAID had funded CIA operations in Laos and that both organizations had co-operated in Ecuador, Uruguay, Thailand, and the Philippines.[20]


[16] Yusuf hasan, http://jfkthelonegunmanmyth.blogspot.com/2014/09/a-few-words-on-former-dpd-captain.html
[20] Colby & Dennett, Thy Will Be Done, Harper Perennial, 1995, p. 743.


The University That Launched a CIA Front Operation in Vietnam
How the friendship between a Vietnamese politician and an American academic led Michigan State University into a vast experiment in nation-building and pulled America deeper into war.
By ERIC SCIGLIANO March 25, 2018
https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/03/25/vietnam-war-secret-msu-michigan-state-217705/


“Diệm promptly requested aid from his key backers, the U.S. government and Michigan State University, and asked his old friend Wes Fishel to come aboard as an adviser. Fishel did, officially serving as liaison to Diệm on the staff President Dwight Eisenhower’s special emissary in Vietnam.
Their political partnership suited the times. America’s cold warriors were scrambling to turn fragile postcolonial states into bulwarks against Marxist ideology and Soviet influence. Many universities enlisted in this effort, eager to turn theory into practice, take their missions to a global level, and rake in federal dollars. By the mid-1950s, the U.S. government was sponsoring 42 university aid missions around the world.
None enlisted more eagerly than Michigan State, whose Vietnam group became the largest of those missions. The school’s longtime president, John Hannah, was an idealist, an empire-builder and former assistant secretary of defense with deep ties in Washington, D.C. Over the 28 years he led the school, Hannah transformed the backwater Michigan State College into one of the nation’s largest universities and an important research institution, growing its enrollment more than sixfold.”

“But this nuts-and-bolts civics work took a second seat to the police program. MSU’s law enforcement instructors, mostly retired police officers and officials, worked earnestly to train Vietnam’s various police agencies in everything from professional deportment and arrest procedures to forensics and firearms. They had some success with the Saigon police, particularly in helping them tame the city’s notoriously chaotic traffic. (I delighted in watching the white-gloved officers signaling atop their crossroads podiums with the aplomb of orchestra conductors.) “



Steve Thomas

To W. R. Westbrook, Jr. -- thank you for coming forward offering to answer questions concerning your father. My question is this: I wonder if I may have met your father ca. 1982, 1983, or 1984, either in northeast Tulsa or northeast of Tulsa just outside of Tulsa, somewhere in that time frame. I was only working in Tulsa 1982-1985 so it could not have been outside those years, and I think it was toward the earlier part of that time period rather than later. The man I met was a retired Dallas police force captain (I think he was--my memory is clear he had a higher position than a regular street police officer), who was the owner of some kind of either a new or existing regional burger restaurant franchise location. I briefly did business with him and he talked to me of being part of the Dallas police force in 1963 at the time of the JFK assassination, and told me some stories from those days of which he was very knowledgeable. As I recall this was a regional chain, whose name I cannot recall at the moment, not the name of one of the famous national chains today. He was running the eatery and although he was opening it up like a manager that morning he came across to me as the owner of the place, not simply a hired manager (in my business dealings I could usually tell the two apart). It was located off a freeway exit just east or ne of Tulsa (off hwy 169? off I-44?). 

Among other things he told me that in Dallas before the assassination he or his family had once found a lost dog which was returned to its owner who drove out to their house to pick it up and was immensely grateful to get his dog back, who happened to be Jack Ruby, the famous owner of the Carousel Club. Do you remember any story something like that in your family? 

Does it sound possible to you that that was your father I met? He treated me well and was cracking jokes and friendly, was my memory. Thank you!

Greg, I read your original post on this subject yesterday.  While it's possible he may have visited Tulsa during that time period, he definitely was not involved in starting or running any kind of business.  He and my mother were living in Dallas and I'm pretty sure he was still working for DA Henry Wade as an investigator for the grand jury.  Even if he had been in Tulsa, it's very unlikely he would have been participating in a conversation like this.  He was a very modest, unassuming and friendly person and unlikely to talk about himself.  I don't remember a story about the dog and Jack Ruby.  However, he did know Jack Ruby like many other policeman, and I would not be surprised if he had visited the Carousel Club.

Thank you for the answer W. R. Westbrook Jr. From the Dallas obituary of your father it says that he worked for the district attorney (Wade) in Dallas until 1983: "He also worked as a special investigator for the Dallas County district attorney's office from 1970 to 1983". I assume at some point your parents moved from Dallas to Oklahoma since I understand he and your mother ended their days in Tahlequah, Oklahoma (east of Tulsa). Could that have been in 1983?

From your answer I see that it can be ruled out that he had a business. However the man I talked to, who sounded to me like it could be your father, I do not actually know was the owner of that business. As I remember, the reason I thought so was because he was the one who called me and hired me (as an outside service business), which is something owners usually do, but a hired manager could do that too. Therefore the question to be ruled out on this identity issue for me would be whether your father could have taken employment ca. 1983 in Tulsa following the end of work for Wade, as a manager of that restaurant, or if you are certain or pretty sure that could not have been the case. Do you remember if your parents continued living in Dallas for a while after 1983, or when they moved to Oklahoma? (If you care to say.) I realize he could not have been employed as a restaurant manager in Tulsa if he was not living full-time in Oklahoma.

Some of the dates they did certain things are a little hazy but this one I can pinpoint because I was going through a divorce.  They moved in 1991.  Still no chance he was ever in the food business.  After his retirement from Henry Wade's office he spent most of his time gardening and fishing.  They also had a small camper trailer which they used from time to time. While I'm here I'll try and clear up one other issue.  My parents divorced about 1986 because of a long simmering personal problem.  They remarried a couple of years later.  They were married 57 years  minus a couple. They had to be married in order to move to the retirement home in Tahlequa.  We had distant relatives, who have posted on the original forum.  They seemed to have a lot of knowledge of the know facts.  Perhaps you ran into one of them trying to show off their knowledge.  Who knows, there were a lot of DPD officers who had a little bit of the history.  I have run into several myself over the years.

W. R. Westbrook Jr., that could not have been your father I met then. Thank you!--for clearing up this detail for me. I am a little disappointed because your father is somewhat famous and I thought it was kind of cool to have had that (maybe) random encounter with your father and discussion of the JFK assassination, but facts are facts and I am glad for the clarification. That it was some retired Dallas police officer who was in the Dallas police force in 1963 remains a fact, but now it is a mystery who and I have no idea. I have not had any encounter or read anything from any other relative of yours, only you. Best wishes--

@wrwestbrook at this point in time I have liitle interest in your father as I don't see much that incriminates him. Even if he was paid by the CIA in Vietnam, that was about 3 years later and has nothing to do with this.

What I am interested in is the culture of the Dallas Police Department at the time, and especially the Homicide and Robbery office under Fritz.

This document has him solving 656 out 666 murders. That's a 98% success rate - an impossibility even now with much improved forensics. In fact, most police forces around the world fall beween a 50 and 60% success rate.

What is strongly suggested by the stats is that Fritz put an awful lot of innocent people away. In fact, we know that is true because of sheer number set free from the early 1990s after being exonerated by DNA.

The linked document was an internal FBI memo discussing the Dallas MorningNews wanting a quote from Hoover on Fritz's remarkable success so they could use it in a story on Fritz.

If you read the next page of the linked document, you'll see all the issues that the FBI had dug up on Fritz. That he was secretive, caused disharmony in police ranks, did not cooperate with others and etc. causing Hoover to refuse the request.

His success rate was largely nbased on his ability to obtain confessions. It is obvious in hindsight that he did not care how he obtained the confession, or if his suspect was even guilty or not. 

Fritz refused a number of offers of promotion. He only retired after being moved sideways. He liked where he was. He was hero-worshipped by the local media for his clearance of cases, and I strongly suspect he was also on the take in regard to protecting a criminal gang operating out of Oak Cliff. 

This is not to tarnish every cop in Dallas - I limit this to that one deapartment. But given that is the department that was charged with the JFK/Tippit murders, it is an important line of inquiry.

Do you have any further insights or information on Fritz and how he operated?

Greg, I was 18 years-old at the time Kennedy was assassinated and away at college.  I knew several of my father's policeman friends, but not Fritz.  I had great respect for all of the officer's I knew, but I don't think for a second that there wasn't a common police culture, but I certainly wasn't aware of it at the time.  Wish I could shed more light on the subject for you, but I'm not able to.

wrwestbrook wrote:Greg, I was 18 years-old at the time Kennedy was assassinated and away at college.  I knew several of my father's policeman friends, but not Fritz.  I had great respect for all of the officer's I knew, but I don't think for a second that there wasn't a common police culture, but I certainly wasn't aware of it at the time.  Wish I could shed more light on the subject for you, but I'm not able to.

Thanks anywsy, William. Appreciate the  reply.