
General Edwin Walker:
This city had no shortage of strong and vocal conservative voices -- Goldwater Republicans, John Birch Society members, and other assorted and dedicated cold warriors. And then there was retired General Edwin Walker, who made a career out of seeing the Red menace in every crack and crevice. JFK accepted the general’s resignation in 1961 after Kennedy had publicly admonished him for calling Eleanor Roosevelt and Harry S. Truman “definitely pink” in a print interview and violating the Hatch Act by attempting to direct the votes of his troops. The general then ran for governor of Texas, losing to John Connally, and was arrested in 1962 for leading violent anti-segregation riots at Ole Miss. The Ole Miss incident prompted RFK to commit Walker for a 90-day psychiatric evaluation, although the general was released after five days.
Less than a month before the assassination, Walker orchestrated a group in Dallas who jeered at and spit on UN Ambassador Adlai Stevenson during a “UN Day” visit to Dallas. The distasteful event drew national headlines and a good deal of civic embarrassment.
This city had no shortage of strong and vocal conservative voices -- Goldwater Republicans, John Birch Society members, and other assorted and dedicated cold warriors. And then there was retired General Edwin Walker, who made a career out of seeing the Red menace in every crack and crevice. JFK accepted the general’s resignation in 1961 after Kennedy had publicly admonished him for calling Eleanor Roosevelt and Harry S. Truman “definitely pink” in a print interview and violating the Hatch Act by attempting to direct the votes of his troops. The general then ran for governor of Texas, losing to John Connally, and was arrested in 1962 for leading violent anti-segregation riots at Ole Miss. The Ole Miss incident prompted RFK to commit Walker for a 90-day psychiatric evaluation, although the general was released after five days.
Less than a month before the assassination, Walker orchestrated a group in Dallas who jeered at and spit on UN Ambassador Adlai Stevenson during a “UN Day” visit to Dallas. The distasteful event drew national headlines and a good deal of civic embarrassment.
Earlier in 1963, on the night of April 10, Oswald
left a cryptic note for Marina at their Neely Street house and took his rifle
to the general’s home at 4011 Turtle Creek Boulevard. Using the same mail-order
rifle used to kill the president, Oswald fired a single shot from less than 100
feet away. The shot struck the general's front window frame, narrowly missing
him. Oswald returned to his apartment on Neely Street that night to an angry
Marina.
While the evidence is pretty unequivocal that Oswald did it, questions still linger about whether Oswald could have done it alone. For one, Oswald couldn’t drive, so he would have had to make his getaway using public transit. Meanwhile, one witness to the shooting reported seeing two men flee the scene, while another claimed to have seen two suspicious men casing the location the previous day. Walker himself was a vocal critic of the Warren Commission's conclusion that it was Oswald, acting alone, who made the attempt on his life.
The general remained an outspoken community voice long after the events of 1963, often displaying hand-painted signs critical of the U.N. or Chief Justice Earl Warren on the front lawn of his Turtle Creek home. He gained some unwanted notoriety in the 1970s after he was twice arrested by Dallas police vice officers for lewd behavior in public restrooms. Only in Dallas.
While the evidence is pretty unequivocal that Oswald did it, questions still linger about whether Oswald could have done it alone. For one, Oswald couldn’t drive, so he would have had to make his getaway using public transit. Meanwhile, one witness to the shooting reported seeing two men flee the scene, while another claimed to have seen two suspicious men casing the location the previous day. Walker himself was a vocal critic of the Warren Commission's conclusion that it was Oswald, acting alone, who made the attempt on his life.
The general remained an outspoken community voice long after the events of 1963, often displaying hand-painted signs critical of the U.N. or Chief Justice Earl Warren on the front lawn of his Turtle Creek home. He gained some unwanted notoriety in the 1970s after he was twice arrested by Dallas police vice officers for lewd behavior in public restrooms. Only in Dallas.