No More Silence: An Oral History of the Assassination of President Kennedy

James Tague

JAMES TAGUE E yewi tness HI called my father and told him that Kennedy had been killed. He said, 'Jim. I'm watching the TV and they said he's still alive.' I told him. 'Dad. believe me. he's dead because I was there. •... " Originally from Indiana, James Tague moved to the Dallas area in 1956 while in the Air Force, married a Texas girl, and later fathered five children. By 1960 he was employed in the automobile business. He is sometimes referred to by some assassination researchers as "the other victim." I was working for Chuck Hinton Dodge on Lemmon Avenue in Dallas and was running late taking a friend to lunch around noon. At that point, I drove down Stemmons, turned to go east on Commerce and was stopped at the Triple Underpass. I realized that the Kennedy motorcade was coming through that area and, due to the fact that traffic came to a momentary stop in the left lane where I was, I stepped out of my car with the nose of the car sticking out of the east side of the underpass just seconds before the motorcade turned the corner in front of the School Book Depository. So I was standing to the front of the car on the cement where it narrows to go under the Triple Underpass between Main and Commerce Streets. I could see the car turn left onto Elm Street then I heard three shots. When I heard the first shot, I thought somebody had thrown a firecracker and was standing there wondering what had 110 NO MORE SILENCE happened. Then I heard another sound which was a little different. The third shot sounded the same as the second. At that point, I realized that they were possibly gunshots, so I ducked behind the concrete support and peeked out just as the Presidential limousine was passing into the Triple Underpass. In hindsight it was already over at that time. I could not honestly tell from where the shots had originated, but the first shot I found the most interesting. A number of people described that shot as a firecracker, and it was different from the next two. After the limousine had passed, one policeman stopped his motorcycle, drew his gun and ran up the grassy knoll while another came running. Other than a few people running for whatever reason, either toward the grassy knoll or in other directions, many people were just standing there, stunned. Veteran policemen were not reacting. While I was standing there watching this, a man in a suit, who later identified himself as Deputy Sheriff Buddy Walthers, ran up and said, "What happened?" I told him that I didn't know, so we then walked over to the curb next to the grassy knoll on the north side of Elm where a motorcycle policeman had stopped and where three to five people were standing around. One of the men was very anguished and said his head had exploded. When the policeman asked him who, he said, "The President's!" That was the first that Mr. Walthers and I even knew that somebody had shot at the President. At that point, Mr. Walthers looked at me and said, "You've got blood on your cheek!" So I reached up and felt a couple of drops of blood. That was the first time that I recalled that there'd been something that had stung me, much like a sweat bee sting. So he said, "Let's go back over to where you were standing." Before we could cross Main Street we saw the mark on the curb from across the street. It appeared that a shot had hit the curb right at my feet. I don't know the exact measurements but it was on the rounded edge of the curb on the south edge of Main Street about ten to twelve feet out from the Triple Underpass. According to the photographs and police tapes I probably stayed in the area a little over seven minutes. In fact the motorcycle policeman called in: "I have one more possibly with JAMES TAGUE, EYEWITNESS 111 minor injuries." I was then told to go down to Homicide and give them a statement, which I did. I think I got to police headquarters about 1: 15 because I stopped and called the person I was to have had the luncheon engagement...