Living History with Bill Mercer

[Music] good morning everyone and thank you for joining us today on this 56th anniversary of the assassination of President John F Kennedy my name is Megan Bryant director of collections and interpretation here at the sixth floor Museum at Dealey Plaza and it is my privilege to welcome you to the concluding program in our four days in November series a living history conversation with Bill Mercer an award-winning broadcast journalist who as a reporter with KRLD radio and television here in Dallas covered the breaking news of the assassination 56 years ago we are thrilled to have built here today we have long considered him a part of our extended family here at the museum in fact he did his first program with us back in 1998 over 20 years ago bill is the co-author of the book when the news went live Dallas 1963 published in 2004 I actually had the privilege to assist bill and his co-authors on selection of many of the photographs used in their book spending a very entertaining and enlightening afternoon with them exactly 16 years ago crowded around a single computer monitor in the museum's basement as we looked through hundreds of photos in the museum's collections as they told fascinating behind-the-scenes stories of the people and events seen in the pictures it's one of my fondest memories of my time here at the museum the book is available in our store and bill will in fact be signing copies after the program downstairs Stephen Fagan the museum's curator will be leading bill in this living history conversation stephen has been with the museum for 19 years and knows a thing or two about this story if you have joined us for the earlier programs in this week's series or any other past living history style programs you know that Stephen is a seasoned and agile interview interviewer and that we are in no better hands than his to guide this conversation before I hand us over to those able hands I want to point out this contraption over here to my right that is our distance learning video conferencing equipment through which we are connecting live this morning with students and adults from across the country so now please join me in welcoming Fagin and Bill Mercer thank you very much for being here on this special day for a conversation with this very special gentleman bill it's an honor to have you here and we have a fantastic packed program full of great video clips of this man on KRLD TV 56 years ago today so let's jump right in bill and and and talk about those days if we could let's set the scene first we're gonna put a couple pictures on the screen here this is this this particular photograph is four days before the 1960 presidential election inside the lobby of the Adolphus Hotel when vice president vice presidential candidate Lyndon Johnson was here with his wife Lady Bird give us a sense of the political atmosphere but you remember in Dallas in those early sixties we have a divided country right now they we could take that back to Texas and we had a divided state and that was one reason JFK came down here was to raise money of course and also solidify his base and hope he could win Texas in the election there were JFK LBJ and his wife were walking over to the Adolphus and a group of Republican women who were having a meeting in the hotel across the street and they came charging out and it was not exactly a physical melee but it was a lot of words and a lot of threatening gestures going on and we had a lot of right-wing and I suppose I could say left-wing organizations in the area at the time and I'm not really quite sure why they were here before they before Kennedy ever came here and we had interesting conversations with the John Birch Society and other people you had a talk talk show program called comment at care d and you would bring different community figures in to do interviews right Eddie Barker started that program it was the first one in at least in the state of Texas we brought people in to interview celebrities local people actors actresses and wasn't just strictly politics and it was really a very enjoyment show in fact one of the most interesting things that I was involved in we would ask questions of the person for about 30 minutes and then open the phone lines ACK I was thinking that was an easy thing in those days because unless you were in your home or someplace where they had a payphone it was hard to call in but people did and that was a great thing about it and they ask questions what one of the things that became rather obvious was the people who they tried to place in the in the show for except for example this one guy who was Barker said our news director Eddie Barker told us this fellow's a political science professor at certain University I can't remember which one it was now and he wanted to be on the show and talk about political science and foreign affairs and all that so we said okay so he came in and we started asking questions and before long he said you know there are a lot of communist cells in the country we said yeah that's probably true he said you don't know probably I'm sure you don't know but Dwight Eisenhower was connected to the Communist Party hey you know it was like ah you mean Ike yes he was he can't and we said he was connected to some communist cell yes he was we said well show us the proof of that oh I can't it's classified so we all walked out left him in there and he said okay we got a vote if he doesn't give us a fax we run him right hey everybody okay so he came back in ask him for the fax he said I don't I can't give you the facts how about I so he said thank you for joining us day when you could leave now that was the kind of stuff that went on there you had to be very careful just like today I know who you interviewed and what they had to offer but we had more fun with that show than that let's jump right to this day 56 years ago Friday November 22nd 1963 you were in the studio that day you didn't have an assignment out in the field as it were well in the summer I was broadcasting baseball and in the fall and winter I was the news announcer and I had been over there since September and since I didn't have any news sources to check I was doing that new news I came in early the morning took what we had last night redid it added stories to it and that day I was doing my usual thing I was on the air at 12:00 for a 15-minute newscast in that time I didn't know what was going on outside the station so when I finished the newscast and walked across the street to the news department in the back of the KRLD everybody was screaming and yelling and crying and I said what's going on and they said Kennedy's been shot Wow so I spent the rest of the afternoon answering phones I had a direct line to a Boston radio station and we stayed busy trying to give as much information as we could get to other sources around the country but my being just in the studio didn't last very long you were in the studio through the six o'clock broadcast right and then you were sent to Dallas Police Headquarters yeah they just we I was the only one left standing all of the guys have been out covering everything since 6 o'clock that morning so Parker I didn't know what they were doing they said you go to the police department on the third floor and make reports I said how do I make reports well you'll find out what they've moved the studio cameras you know those big ones over to the third floor one of them and we're microwaving back to the station so the news will be whatever you're doing will be live will to videotape it by the way we had just gotten our first two inch videotape machine which was really a deal probably the first modern thing we got to cover so in a camera and an engineer and me in the third floor of that police station ready for a night of real interesting situations yeah we're gonna we're gonna join you on the third floor here we're gonna show a clip of I think one of the first times you you did live commentary and you are talking with a police sergeant named Jerry Hill let me say okay this room this hallway was about as wide as that area over there or that other section all wrong and in fact I and you can imagine what happened later in the evening as people kept coming in but it was very very crowded so we'll we'll show this clip of you talking with Jerry Hill who calls you Jim for some reason during the middle and always thought Jim Underwood in the background though notice but right between Bill Mercer and Jerry Hill at the very beginning of this clip is a man who would go on to become a pretty well-known journalist it's Jim lair from PBS back then he was with the Dallas Morning News so look for a gym lair lurking in the background in this clip here with Bill Mercer great man that's me with hair this is a very good friend of ours is going sergeant Jerry Hill of the Dallas Police Department Jerry Hill was one of the six men who apprehended Lee Oswald this afternoon at the Texas theater Jerry recount how this situation started and what happened we first got into the situation when we received a call that the President had been shot and for us to report to the location of the shooting at elm and Houston Street when we got to this location the search of the building reveal that 300 block 8 room 317 here of homicide department man who'll be brought down the street the aisle here is Lee Oswald now there will be a great deal of confusion mr. Oswald is put through the door I don't know if you saw him Oswald lives at 10:26 North Beckley he's an employee of a bookbinding firm in the building which the police and Secret Service men believe the president was shot today that was a suspect Lee Oswald the rumor if you I did not happen to see the gentlemen the rumor has been rampant around the police department there is a very good case that this is a man who they believe was involved in the assassination this is strictly really like fine Jerry Hill again now I keep looking for him all evening you you do eventually get back together with Jerry Hill and almost immediately as you're talking with him all of these other reporters surround you in microphones as you can see here in this picture a thrust into Jerry's face and that was pretty indicative of the situation it's very clear who the local reporters were bill give us a sense of the difference that you observed between the local guys covering this story and the national and international reporters who were flying in and rushing to police headquarters Oh drop back a little when I arrived at the police station got the microphone out the first encounter I had with an outside source was a rather large man with a lot of cameras on him and he said what's that cable on the floor and I said that's my mic cable runs down to the camera at the other end and he said well I that cable gets in my way I'll just yank it out and I had a microphone about that long and I without remembering that I was on the air all the time I said you touched that cable I'll mash this microphone over your head the engineer came down and said what's up what's the matter us and nothing he's gone but yeah we knew all the you know with our location in town and being in the news part where we knew everybody so early on it when I see the Chief of Police or one of the guys that we knew and I'd walk over to him and start talking to him and whoever had come in from out of town would come over I was kind of like Pied Piper they all kept following me around for a while and then they just kept coming and coming and I don't know how we got through that place it was such a small area but and my butt being exactly tall I got really and you'll hear it here in a while I really got pushed around and trampled a little bit it's interesting as we watch these this chronological progression of clips that the hallways are going to get more and more crowded almost impossibly so by the end we'll take a look at another clip now this is a you briefly encountering District Attorney Henry Wade in the hallway here is a district attorney Wade mr. Wade and walk along here with you sir yeah what have you learned so far about the suspect sir there's really nothing new on it they've filed on him for murder of the police officer but there's nothing new on the building where the gun was fired from well I don't have any further comment to make on it he was in the building in the building today Thank You mr. Wade Thank You mr. way that was district attorney in reweighed who you just heard the statement off the face as he said murder charges have been filed against him for the death of officer Tiffany who was shot while he stopped the suspect driving his car on East Jefferson and as you did hear it was reported that the man was in the building at the time of the shooting of the President of the United States we'll keep in contact with room 317 see if there's any further word and we give you a chance to see the suspect Lee Oswald now back to KRLD whatever was said there I suppose was lost to history you don't remember that account remember that and I don't remember the policemen either I'm sure a conspiracy theory has just developed about what was exchanged at that moment there I imagine it was pretty nice well I included that because it's really indicative of the good rapport that the local press enjoyed with the police at that time I mean there are all sorts of stories in in the book you co-wrote with your Carroll D colleagues about reporters would sometimes witness documents at the police station they would ride on patrol with officers there I mean there was definitely preferential access to the local reporters and the national guys coming in really took advantage of that situation Jerry Hill who I was trying to find the detective he and arch McDonald captured Lee Harvey Oswald in the Texas theater the Lee Harvey had gone down the street and he made a mistake of going across to the theater but not paying to get in and a gentleman who was watching him called the police and told him what happened so arch McDonald went down the hall aisle and then came up in front of Lee Harvey and Jerry Hill came in from the back hall pulled out his pistol and started to shoot McDonnell who put his hand in and hammer came down and did not connect with the gun and then Jerry he all sort of just politely knocked him out and that was the way it happened so that's you hear also all the occasion he would say I got hit by a policeman and use that all night but that's the same hit every time just a little add yeah and in this photo you're talking with homicide captain will Fritz yeah now you mentioned earlier in that first clip about about hearing rumors rumors about this and that there's a little bit of misinformation I think at one point you say that Oswald was captured driving down Jefferson which is not accurate of course as you just as plainly walked in the theater can you give us a sense of where and how these rumors were making their way out into the hands of reporters well somebody would just walk in and said I talked to so-and-so and they said and then they give us a rumor I didn't find out later because I was there down in his basement so if somebody came in and one of the reporters and gave you some clue that our talk to people you just sort of packed it away because there were a lot of rumors for us who didn't know anything about it but as you know Oswald walked up the street from his apartment tip had stopped got out of his car and hosel shot him there were 13 witnesses to that so there was no question who killed him and then then he goes on up the street and he was captured that I found out later let's take a look at another clip this one you're in dire straits the hallway is impossibly crowded at this point and I mean it'll just speak for itself here is a suspect we roll it please suspect [Applause] giving me a hearing without legal representation or anything you shoot the president I didn't shoot anybody no sir just heard Oswald who said he did not shoot anybody I'm being pummeled here being pummeled very heavily you just heard Oswald say I did not shoot anybody it was one time the shot was alva one after one of the did the detectives door and there were some guys standing out there they had the door open and everybody came out and I wondered where I was and when the door closed they pushed me behind the door it was it was Friday yeah you needed a little bit physical of muscle that I didn't have to get involved with this this is a nice wide shot of that hallway just you know shoulder to shoulder with you can see those giant 1960s 2-inch video cameras there at the end of the hallway directly beneath that one camera on the far left that balding man there that's Dallas police chief Jesse curry and if you look close you might notice that a reporter is actually balancing his notepad on Curry's back and is taking notes on the police chief's back while while this is happening of throughout that weekend there were security concerns of course the president's just been shot Oswald is being marched up and down the third floor hallways there this room is packed and of course there's no x-ray machines or metal detectors or anything were you concerned at all that at any point that weekend someone might just pull out a gun as Jack Ruby did on Sunday no I didn't think about it oh those things just didn't happen right and as far as I was knew everybody up there was in the media so then can't imagine them shooting anybody it never it never crossed my mind of course Jack Ruby was famously there on Friday night while you were there passing out sandwiches did you know Ruby no no West wise knew him well well it's speaking of sandwiches that's a perfect tie end of this next Clips very short but I just had to include it sure I asked one of those engineers on the hit set if they've got any sandwiches down there I'm going to stay down here at this location but I'd like something eat I'm starving you know you see studio work today and there's a floor manager and they've got to somebody handle this and you got you're always in constant contact I the engineer and I I don't the engineers have had to contact the station but I had no contact the station I'm out there running on fumes Penn do try to do this job without any direction so it was quite a test for us locals to get involved with stuff like this it was first time did you end up with one of Jack Ruby sandwiches no so you never got to eat I never got to eat you know they didn't care I was over there I had to stay there I couldn't leave so what the heck so so the night wore on and the picture we're looking at here of course there you are right next to that care of the video camera and we see Oswald this is during the famous midnight press showing press conference as it's been described now that camera it's worth noting that's the camera that was up on the third floor earlier and used to be in the studio right and so they they had to get that down this is the basement Assembly Room was that a process those engineers were amazing they had to run cable take that thing down set it up check it out and get it awful in a short time about 30 minutes I think unless they knew ahead of time that they were going down there this picture was a problem for me you see I'm back there by the camera I'm the guy back there were they here and Pechaluk is the engineer but you'll find out what happens here that I talked to Oswald and when we got this picture and we're making this book up I said I know I was down there below him but now I'm not sure maybe I was just dreaming it but my son called in and said he'd heard it and so we said okay you did talk to him so and this is your claim to fame as far as the Kennedy assassination is that's right earned this in the Ice Bowl well with the Kennedy assassination this is the moment you were actually the one who first informed Oswald that he had been formally charged with the murder of President Kennedy and it happens right there on the on the TV cameras and oswald definitely has a reaction to it as we'll see in this next clip I was told just before I came downstairs by a detective came out and he said bill here's some news for you so you might be able to use we've just signed the charge papers on Oswald for killing the president so he's been charged I said okay you know that's one of those things you pick it up so I brought it downstairs with me and used it to great effect in this clip we're about to watch here it sounds a little low only because the camera or the microphones were so far away from Oswald but the clip will get louder as those mics got closer to Oswald there is a slight filling with some scratches and marks around his face making well I was very short and sweet hearing I really don't know what what the situation about nobody is home [Music] I know nothing more than that I do request someone to come give me a legal assistant no I've not been charged with that in fact nobody has said that to me yet the first thing I heard about was when the newspaper reporters in the hall asked me that question well we have been here honest about all I had to say what did what did you make of this fellow you saw him several times in the hallway what was your impression I yeah that thought about that for 56 years and I think he was just a lonely failed guy he failed at everything he did he didn't have any personality he didn't seem to be particularly aggressive some people have said he was but I didn't see it I just was a peculiar sort of fellow who you know and read the book and find out about he and marina and his his other ideas that make himself known or I think he what he wanted you know he took a shot with that cheap rifle he bought at Edwin Walker General Edwin Walker who had his own right-wing group and he missed him so there he shoots at a conservative and then goes out a couple of weeks later and kills a liberal president there's no there's no common sense there so I don't know I just think he was lost and had no balance no idea what he was going to do and decided he had to be get some attention I that's of course Jack Ruby took any chance of talking to him away later on so we don't really know but I wasn't impressed with him I wasn't impressed with him I said as a as I heard a father or whatever that just was a guy who kind of empty suit we've got one more clip of you at police headquarters this is now just past midnight so now we're into Saturday the 23rd and this is you clearly exhausted but being a little contemplative about the day that has just passed I really enjoyed this clip recapping the ending of all this and this has been November 22nd and now November 23rd these are two momentous days the first day which started or ended at approximately twelve thirty five this morning this afternoon when the President of the United States was shot as he motored through the western part of downtown Dallas it ended then for President Kennedy and it began a manhunt for the man who shot him heard the man Lee Oswald was arrested at approximately three o'clock this afternoon in the Texas theater he has allegedly and has been charged with the murder of officer Tippit who was killed approximately two o'clock when he stopped the automobile in which the suspect was driving and then he was brought to police headquarters a little before four o'clock and since that time we and these members of the press have been standing here outside the room occasionally getting glimpses of him as he walked to the elevator into other parts of the building saying as he passed a few times I didn't shoot anybody I've been framed my civil rights have been taken away and it was just about five minutes of 12:00 that captain Fritz chief curry and district attorney Henry Wade stepped out into the hall and announced that he had been charged with the murder of the President of the United States and you heard the rest of the story and it will continue throughout this day and for many weeks to come bill mercer reporting from the police station in Dallas Texas I can't live for any well at the time your facts are a little off on some other time but yeah you know but still the the the the fact that you were there after midnight absorbing this entire day but you're able to stand let alone regurgitate all this information is pretty impressive bill your reporter and clearly had a job to do that day but the President of the United States had been killed right in your town when did or did the emotion of that moment creep in to the professionalism that you were demonstrating that day not for a now for several days my fellow authors and I need to mention them Bob Huffaker who is the leader now lead author who got us to write the book West wise you became mayor of Dallas and George Phoenix and I talked about that and it came over as gradually I when I went out to survey those you'll see this later the flowers on the triple underpass it really you're all these wishes from people and it began to my you know I typed my voice tightened up and I realized this was tough this is why we're here and but I tell you every time we come here every year for 56 years and this event happens I get a cold straight down the back of my neck and back if George Phoenix were here he would tear up before he could tell you anything so everybody had a little different reaction in different times but it's still there and that those pictures never go away and we saw pictures that the public hadn't seen we saw the Zapruder film which conclusively proved that mr. Kennedy was shot from the back from the sixth floor those things were terrible to see then but they just we're all a part of the scene that we were taking in those days and weeks and speaking of terrible things to see on Sunday this event occurred right here Bob Huffer this is the basement floor of the Dallas City Hall and that's a scuffle on the basement floor it seems funny think about what you know technology we didn't have much of you see this live which was the only news operation we ever covered prior to this answer this week we took cameras out to the Cotton Bowl to shoot football games but we never took those big studio cameras out to shoot a news event that happened we just couldn't do it and so this is why we named the book when the news went live it was the first time we ever covered the news life and it was special thank goodness we could do it but we had you know all we had was little handheld cameras a audio audio camera we called it a Mickey Mouse because it had big roller and in the mobile units we had a push-to-talk microphone which you could pull out the door but you still were attached to the car if you wanted to interview anybody out there so we were pretty well had a hard time for instant news and that's why this is so important you were at the studio when Jack Ruby here shot Lee Harvey Oswald yeah can you give us your immediate reaction to seeing this happen on on camera well I can't tell you exact words but I know some of us are saying my god it's going on forever what is gonna happen now who's gonna shoot Ruby because we didn't know what he was doing why he was in it and it just seemed like you know the thing goes and goes and goes and then after that it's settled out pretty well but it was just about too much to take you alluded to this a moment ago but you did go out with a film camera man to the plaza when it was covered with these wreaths and and floral designs and and guards tell us what the purpose of that was well I was just in the newsroom and the CBS producer says because send you out to the triple underpass and I want you to do a report on all the flowers that are out there so this cameraman went with me and I just looked it over before we got there there were still people around huh you know interested some of them in tears and I and I thought well the only thing I can do to make this interesting is to see the people who have sent flowers and see what they said and so I walked through and picked up and looked down at the flowers and and read the card on it I remember one from the Tyler John Tyler High School and there was a rosary on it and God forgive us or something like that that was the kind of thing and as I said that got to be I think that was the last one I read and thangkas I don't sure I could have read them anymore but Huffaker said that every time he saw that he he got tears in his eyes so I guess it was okay and after the plaza here on Monday not only was that President Kennedy's funeral it was also Oswald's funeral out in Fort Worth and it was JD Tippit funeral in Oak Cliff and you were there for that what what memories do you have of the tippet funeral well I wasn't well we didn't go inside there wasn't a new thing I could do in there naturally I didn't have any equipment so I just went up and set the scene and they've had the funeral and then I set the scene as they came out and we got some shots outside there I was the auto funeral there was nobody to carry the casket except the reporters who were there and mrs. Oswald and marina and the children were there and his brother and at five or six reporters so they carried the casket from the the amma from the hearse to the grave and that was a moment for them there was a deliberate sensitivity expressed here not not going into the church not trying to spread to any of the family or anything like that there was another story that came out of KRLD that proved to be extremely controversial involving dan Rather do you want to tell us that story and then we have a clip to watch of that okay Eddie Barker's children went to this school in North Dallas and a person called in and said when they announced that the president had been killed the students applauded and laughed or what her anyway did not react as you would expect so dan Rather had also had a call dad was a CBS News reporter out of Austin who came up and covered for CBS and they were all in our newsroom so Dan and Eddie Barker talked about this call and Eddie said well let's just wait let's don't use any of this until we send people out there and we find out for sure because I don't think it happened you know the announcement could have been school's out the president's been shot and there could have been I don't know how they would have announced that but some way if that happened you can understand that might have friends created some interest so Dan Rather's said okay we'll wait and marker then began getting some people to come in from the school well lo and behold the next newscast at CBS dan Rather reports that children applauded when the announcement of Kennedy's death was announced and they were free to go home Barker who could almost go insane occasionally over there's somebody who knows he went out and and we had these big trash cans out and he kicked the trash can all over the new this was typical he was furious and he walked out and he said out you so-and-so's will see me s get the heck out of my newsroom and you're not coming back and rather said well I say you to rather you're the worst of the bunch here we are a CBS station and our news director has just kicked CBS out of the station and I don't know where they went but anyway that caused quite a discussion between New York and the management for quite a while but in the meantime we had that story was that true or was it false and to contextualize this a little bit one of Eddie Barker's concerns was Dallas's already fragile reputation yeah Alice was already criticized as this hotbed of radical insanity ISM which is interestingly there was this focus on the city's conservatism and yet it a left-leaning Marxist was the man accused and arrested for the crime but but rather story which went nationwide just poured gasoline on that fire Oh so Barker put together essentially a rebuttal for a story that aired on his own station let's take a look at a clip from this because you got roped into being a gut the assignment earlier this evening on the Walter Cronkite CBS news program a segment of the news broadcast originated in Dallas and a local minister was quoted as saying that in a fourth grade school in North Dallas when the announcement was made that President Kennedy had been assassinated the children cheered and clapped a CBS News representative in Dallas told Kold that the school in question was the University Park school we have with us in the studio now a fourth grade teacher in the University Park School she is mrs. Genevieve Cleveland she has been a teacher in that school for 26 years and Bill Mercer will talk will discuss with her now what happened in the University Park School in one fourth-grade class on the afternoon that the president was assassinated bill this is Cleveland where was your fourth grade class at the time with the announcement of the president's death there was no announcement made at school as a matter of policy mr. Williams felt that it would be better for the children to hear it from their parents at home he felt that it would be a very disturbing thing to happen so early in the day how many fourth grade classes are there at the University Park there are five now there are five classes did you talk to the other fourth-grade teachers at University Park Elementary School that day yes we were all shocked in Harvard it was very difficult to be able to carry on a class knowing the news and not telling the children did any of the other teachers mention to you that any incident at all happened in any of their grades no nothing was said at all we've been together today nothing was said of any thing that the children might have said for my room they came in from a special class they had heard the news in the hall they were shocked and horrified and concern just as we all were there was nothing of anything that this report is said to my knowledge and belief you do believe that if if an incident had occurred that because the teachers are so close together that this would have been a year not exam I believe so I am sure that I would have heard anything like that powerful rebuttal and it's worth noting that Eddie Barker's children went to University Park Elementary School I know we talked about rumors ago and we got calls all the time about stories I got a call from a friend of mine who called me and said hey little story I'll tell you you can use it or not he said my next-door neighbor's son came home from school early and he was crying he said you know and I went out to him and I said what's the matter and he said mister the the president's been shot and I'm afraid my father did it so undercurrent of all this divided we had somebody left a feeling in the air for this little boy I didn't use that story that's too much of a rumor and no facts involved in it but that that just one of those things that came up if you have questions for mr. Mercer if you'll pass your question cards to either into the rows we'll take a few of those in just a moment a week after the assassination CBS sent you back to Dealey Plaza for a rather interesting story let's conclude with that because it bookends nicely where we started this and about the political atmosphere in the city but it was a long time and we'd had that thing of the teachers and the other activity that was going on so this CBS audio producer came up with a an engineer had a little thing over his that and a little recorder a little tiny recorder and the producer said to me now want you to go out to Dealey Plaza and interview a conservative that was the assignment that was the assignment interview a conservative and I thought dang they don't wear their across their chest so we get in the car and the engineer says how the heck are we gonna fight a conservative I said I don't know well why we goin out here I said because I've been told to go out of here and find what well we got there and there weren't very many people there that day so we we saw little african-american gentleman sitting up on some of the works out there he had white beard white hair and he was just sitting there and I said let's go up and talk to him first there was nobody down below and he gave us a beautiful in a guy that was used to by the way his worry was about the children Lee Harvey Oswald children what's going to happen to them mrs. Kennedy and the most children and children who have heard about this and and now they're all worried about can they get through there's somebody else gonna get shot it was it was just perfect for kind of a synopsis so he walked down on Main Street on the sidewalk right for the flowers were and the engineer said come on Bill let's go back this we have got anything and I said and I happen to look up there's a little hill there you know now I looked up and a person walked over the hill he had on a very nice overcoat a nice hat a three-piece suit and a brief cast a briefcase and an umbrella I thought well maybe and I said right let's wait a minute let's let this gentleman come down and see what he's doing so he walked out and he started looking at the flowers reading cars up I wasn't we weren't one of those reporters who would rush up and throw the bike in his face but I just said stood there for a while and let him seek in what he was doing no no I casually walked over to him and I said let me introduce myself I'm Bill Mercer CBS News and I saw you come down here today you looked like a businessman it has a lot to do can you tell me why you came down here today and he said point-blank I hated John Kennedy but I didn't want him dead and then he continued to talk about how terrible it was and how much we hate each other and we this and that and we shouldn't do that and and and I am so sorry I came down here to apologize and tell him I'm sorry for the way I felt I didn't get an award for that great reporting great reporting sometimes it's just being at the right place at the right time and that was one of those things but I wouldn't ever want to try it again did you ever get a feeling for why CBS was so insistent that you speak to a conservative I guess there had been so much got a liberal talk and they wanted to balance things or something and and of course everybody knew that their conservatives were you know they call them Democrats what they were Republicans and Democrats clothing then that they ran the country of the state and so it was this was discussed and this so let's see what the conservative says about this and that was their idea I'm sure I don't know if they expected to get what they got all right so we have some questions here I have a couple in my hand here already I have to read them for me I can't see no I will I will absolutely do you think it's inappropriate for police to talk about someone's crime and explain evidence before they have been formally charged with a crime speak to whom the media I believe it's with reference to in the hallways the rumors police officer oh oh and this is during the day prior to Oswald being officially charged it's something that wouldn't happen today in 2019 well that old thing wouldn't have happened they wouldn't have brought a Oswald in the hall they would have and that would not have it's probably wrong for anybody up there and and the police particularly but if they had a rumor they would probably tell it to one of us that they knew no I don't think it's a good idea because the reporter then has to make a judgement if he should use it or not and I would not have used it just the rumor is not fact and you're probably right they probably shouldn't do that but when you're good friends like with Jerry Hill he would tell me something and I believed it and he wouldn't tell me anything unless it was true arch McDonald the same way and others so I don't think that happens very much when you were traveling with the Dallas Cowboys were you ever criticized from being as from being from Dallas oh yeah of course and I went out to see my cousin and cousin of mine in California when I was we went out there for a game and she was sure that LBJ is orchestrated the whole thing and why didn't we or why wasn't he arrested in etc etc but I can tell you a story not personally as much firstly as the reporters were black he shared who was doing color with me on the Cowboys later and other reporters were in New York and they wrote their stories and they got out and went down and caught a cab and says they had to go into town to the hotel so the captain her being loquacious as New Yorkers [ __ ] said where you guys from and he said we're from Dallas and he stopped the Cabot's that get out of my cab you you guys killed President Kennedy so after a long discussion about the fact that they were reporters and knoweth Dallas did not kill Kennedy this guy transplant killed him they took faith he took him into the hotel but there was a lot of that Wes wise was that a was our other writer of this book was that a mayor's conference in some city excuse me and they were talking about thing and a mayor obviously a little bit under the weather with drink came up to him and said hey Wes wife how does it feel to be the mayor of the city that killed the president United States and West said I have two options to say nothing or hit him and I thought it would be bad for my reputation if I hit him so he just turned and walked away the next day some guys came up and said that he was drunk and he was wanted to apologize but he had to leave so those things happen I had a I went to a university party and a young lady came up to me and she was crying and she I said what's the matter she said I didn't mean to have him killed I didn't mean for him to get killed so I said what are you talking about well I didn't like the president he got killed it's you know I hated the president that sort of thing went on but I those are my recollections do you think you were the voice of the Dallas Cowboys for four years do you think that the Cowboys really helped rehabilitate the city's image nationally oh yeah came America's team and they were such a good group of guys little things happen here and there but basically they were really outstanding young men and I was thrilled to be a part of that I didn't start that until 1965 we did have some discussions though about politics and because we were the media we must be left-wing or you know leftist and some of the assistant coaches and I and others got some disparaging words and what Ivan threatened to fight me but so there there was a lot of stuff in the air in that time but mostly the Cowboys are fine and Tom Landry was a good friend of mine and never said anything about anything there are actually several questions in this stack that want your thoughts on the news today media bias and also there was one that was quite interesting asking how do you think today's news media would cover something like a presidential assassination well there'd be a lot of mayhem we got close to it as you can see but that has been you know being a reporter journalist I still live with it I have to go into it every day or I feel left out and we've some of us had talked about this it would be a I don't I don't know how they the country reacted differently then because they were overwhelmingly not as divided we were divided but not that much they're divided today and I don't know what might happen the media would our media and I may realist in the news business that why should oppose the New York Times and the network's main networks for the most part of telling the truth but there are several of the others around who and this thing might have caused you know I just hate to think about it because I I just as much as we're in evolved now in this mess with the impeachment everything something happens to him and God help the country I I just don't know what might happen but I know the news as they can do it would be on it and every helicopter and you know they did a pretty good job when was the press Martin was drinking was shot and that was an instantaneous thing yeah thanks I have a 93 year old mine now I I can't imagine them I mean I can imagine it but I hope not well God do we don't see that you talk journalist yeah 35 yeah there are several questions here about conspiracy theory oh good you're right do you think paraphrase questions this firmly convinced it was just all about let me go back to win when he put this book out we would go around to various talents all over the state answering questions and signing books and always we got the conspiracy theory and always Oswald did not do the shooting the shooting came from the triple on the other side of the other past he couldn't have acted alone and I don't think he did it any way and there must have been a conspiracy well from everything that we've done with this book and I'll tell you the truth it's not a big book and it's not never mean the number one book in the New York Times book section but if you read this book and you could find a misstatement or not a fact I will I want you to call me because we worked so hard in tracking down everything the conspiracy theory for one thing let's take the shooting about one minute till the moment of silence I just want show okay well very quickly Oswald's fingerprints were on the gun around the boxes here in the Texas suppository the shooting came from that window and that's an easiest shot for anybody who's ever fired a rifle or been in the service and if there was a conspiracy why didn't they pick him up at this location when he walked out of the building somebody should have gotten him because they needed to get him out of town didn't happen so if there's a conspiracy maybe some day after I'm gone and we're all you're all or old somebody may come up with it but there as far as I'm concerned özil did the shooting by himself and what reason nobody knows thank you very much and thank you for being here with us today please join me in thanking Bill Mercer for being our special case [Applause] you

Channel: SixthFloorMuseum

Views: 47,467

Keywords: Bill Mercer, KRLD, Lee Harvey Oswald, Dallas Police, JFK assassination, John F. Kennedy, When The News Went Live, Dallas Texas, 1963, Dallas 1963, Stephen Fagin, Jack Ruby, TV news, broadcaster, Bill Holmes, Dan Rather

Id: FwcJUxvcgsM

Length: 61min 54sec (3714 seconds)

Published: Thu Feb 06 2020