Howard Brennan
Encyclopedia
Assassination of John F. Kennedy
John Fitzgerald Kennedy, the thirty-fifth President of the United States, was assassinated at 12:30 p.m. Central Standard Time on Friday, November 22, 1963, in Dealey Plaza, Dallas, Texas...
in Dallas, Texas
Dallas, Texas
Dallas is the third-largest city in Texas and the ninth-largest in the United States. The Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex is the largest metropolitan area in the South and fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States...
on November 22, 1963. His description of a sniper
Sniper
A sniper is a marksman who shoots targets from concealed positions or distances exceeding the capabilities of regular personnel. Snipers typically have specialized training and distinct high-precision rifles....
he saw was, according to the Warren Commission
Warren Commission
The President's Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy, known unofficially as the Warren Commission, was established on November 27, 1963, by Lyndon B. Johnson to investigate the assassination of United States President John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963...
, probative in reaching the conclusion that the shots came from the sixth floor, southeast corner window of the Texas School Book Depository
Texas School Book Depository
The Texas School Book Depository is the former name of a seven-floor building facing Dealey Plaza in Dallas, Texas . Located on the northwest corner of Elm and North Houston Streets, at the western end of downtown Dallas, its address is 411 Elm Street. The building is notable for its connection to...
Building.
The assassination
Brennan, a 44-year-old steamfitter, watched the presidential motorcade from a concrete retaining wall at the southwest corner of Elm and Houston streets in Dealey PlazaDealey Plaza
Dealey Plaza , in the historic West End district of downtown Dallas, Texas , is the location of the assassination of John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963...
, where he had a clear view of the south side of the Depository Building. He arrived at about 12:23 p.m., and while waiting for the motorcade, he looked up and saw a man appear at an open window at the southeast corner of the sixth floor, 120 feet (37 m) from Brennan, and observed him leave the window "a couple of times."
Brennan watched the Presidential limousine turn left from Houston to Elm at 12:30, where it passed the Depository and headed toward a freeway entrance. Soon after the President's car passed, he heard an explosion like the backfire of a motorcycle.
Brennan quickly reported his observations to police officers, and a description of the suspect was broadcast to all Dallas police at 12:45 p.m., 12:48 p.m., and 12:55 p.m. About a half hour later, Patrolman J. D. Tippit
J. D. Tippit
Tippit attended a Veterans Administration vocational training school at Bogata, Texas, from January 1950 until June 1952. He was then hired by the Dallas Police Department as a patrolman on July 28, 1952...
was shot and killed, allegedly by Lee Harvey Oswald
Lee Harvey Oswald
Lee Harvey Oswald was, according to four government investigations,These were investigations by: the Federal Bureau of Investigation , the Warren Commission , the House Select Committee on Assassinations , and the Dallas Police Department. the sniper who assassinated John F...
after Tippit spotted him walking along a sidewalk, and stopped to speak to him. Oswald fled and was captured in a nearby movie theater.
A few hours later, Brennan saw Oswald on television. Later the same evening Brennan identified Oswald in a police lineup as the person who most closely resembled the man in the window but Brennan said he was unable to make a positive identification. On December 17, 1963, he told the FBI that he was sure that Oswald was the rifleman he had seen in the window. Several months later, he also testified to the Warren Commission
Warren Commission
The President's Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy, known unofficially as the Warren Commission, was established on November 27, 1963, by Lyndon B. Johnson to investigate the assassination of United States President John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963...
that at the time of the lineup, he believed the assassination was part of a conspiracy, and he was afraid for the safety of himself and his family. Because Brennan declined to make a positive identification in the police lineup, the commission regarded Brennan's subsequent testimony, that he sincerely believed he saw Oswald, as probative but not conclusive evidence that Oswald was the gunman in the sixth floor window.
The House Select Committee on Assassinations cited Howard Brennan in 1979 as support for its conclusion that the assassin shot at President Kennedy from the Book Depository Building.
Brennan's memoir Eyewitness to History: The Kennedy Assassination as Seen by Howard L. Brennan, written with J. Edward Cherryholmes, was published posthumously in 1987 by Texian Press. (ISBN 0872440761)