Charles Douglas Givens vs. Lee Harvey Oswald

A favourite “witness” amongst lone gunman zealots in the case against Oswald is Charles Douglas Givens. At the time of the assassination, Givens was working at the TSBD as an order filler. Givens testified to the Warren Commission that he had seen Oswald on the 6^th floor of the TSBD at approximately 11:55 pm. However, in his affidavit to the DPD (here) on the day of the assassination, and during his interview with the FBI on the following day, Givens made absolutely no mention of seeing Oswald on the 6^th floor, as he claimed to the Warren Commission.

According to page 143 of the Warren report, Givens was the last person to see Oswald prior to the assassination at 12:30 pm. However, this was an outright lie! Eddie Piper, the Janitor of the TSBD, testified before the Warren Commission that he observed Oswald on the first floor at 12:00 pm. Carolyn Arnold, the secretary to the Vice President of the TSBD, informed the FBI that she caught a glimpse of a man whom she believed was Oswald on the first floor just prior to the assassination (See here for a good discussion on Arnold’s observations).

It is not my intention to discuss the lies told by Givens, as his lies have been covered in great detail by countless researchers. However, suffice it to say that only the most delusional of Warren Commission defenders would consider Givens reliable – and without hesitation, they do. My intention in this article is to discuss how Givens was likely suborned to lie about Oswald’s presence on the 6^th floor prior to the assassination.

First of all, consider that Givens was reported as missing from the TSBD following the assassination. At 1:46 pm, an All-Points Bulletin (APB) was broadcast on channel 1 of the DPD radio by DPD inspector Herbert Sawyer, concerning Charles Givens. Oddly, there was no APB broadcast on Oswald – even though Roy Truly (the superintendent of the TSBD) had reported to DPD Captain Will Fritz that Oswald was missing. The following was the APB broadcast concerning Givens.

“We have a man we would like to have you pass this up on to the CID to see if we can pick this man up. Charles Douglas Givens, G-I-V-E-N-S. He's a colored male, thirty-seven, six foot three, a hundred sixty-five pounds. He has an ID number in the Sheriff's Department, 37954. He's a porter that worked on this floor up here. He has a police record and he left.”

Secondly, as stated in the APB, Givens had a criminal record. Givens had apparently been arrested for possession of narcotics. Obviously, the fact that Givens and had a prior Police record, made him suspicious enough to inspector Sawyer to broadcast an APB on the DPD radio, that he was missing from the TSBD following the assassination. 

Finally, let’s take into account the observation of former Dallas deputy Sheriff, Roger Craig. As I explained here, Roger Craig claimed he saw Oswald enter a Nash rambler station wagon driving west along Elm Street. Craig also claimed the man driving the station wagon was a “Dark complected white male”.

During an interview with reporters on the day following the assassination (here), DPD chief Jesse Curry was asked how Oswald had travelled “to the other side of town”. Curry responded by explaining “We have heard that he was picked-up by a Negroe in a car”. The source for this information was undoubtedly Roger Craig. Now, although Craig claimed the driver of the station wagon was a “Dark complected white male”, Curry could easily have misinterpreted this to mean a Negroe.

Now think about it. Givens had a criminal record. He was reported as missing from the TSBD following the assassination. Roger Craig believed he saw a “Dark complected white male” driving the station wagon, which Curry interpreted as a Negroe. Charles Givens, of course, was a Negroe. In my opinion, the DPD and/or the FBI had threatened to charge Givens as Oswald’s Co-conspirator who drove Oswald away from Dealey Plaza - unless he co-operated with them to implicate Oswald as President Kennedy’s assassin! I believe this is why Givens later claimed that he had seen Oswald on the 6^th floor at about 11:55 pm.

It should be noted that Givens’s excuse for going to the 6^th floor was to retrieve a packet of Cigarettes from his jacket which he had allegedly left there. I highly recommend you read through Pat Speer’s discussion on Givens here, and also be sure to check out Gil Jesus’s discussion on Givens here.

Although lone gunman zealots naturally scoff at the idea that Givens was suborned by the DPD and/or the FBI to implicate Oswald, there is good reason to believe that they would. First of all, consider that with the President of the United States murdered, someone had to quickly be held accountable. Oswald had left the TSBD shortly following the assassination. He had punched DPD Officer Nick McDonald inside the Texas Theatre after allegedly shouting “This is it” or “Well, it’s all over now” (See here), and then allegedly tried to shoot him with a revolver.

Furthermore, Oswald’s finger/palm prints were found on two of the boxes in the so-called sniper’s nest, and the so-called backyard photographs of Oswald holding the rifle were discovered on the day following the assassination. With a viable suspect such as Oswald already in custody, does anyone honestly believe the DPD and the FBI would claim the assassin(s) of the President were at large? In my honest opinion, there’s no chance in hell they would!

For a discussion of the evidence against Oswald, please refer to my two part article here. Better yet, check out Pat Speer’s excellent discussion of the evidence on his website, and also check out Gil Jesus’s discussion of the evidence on his website. Let me also state for the record that the DPD and Henry Wade (the Dallas District attorney at the time of the assassination) were notorious for convicting innocent people. An excellent discussion of this issue can be found here on the CTKA.net website.

There are some researchers who will argue that Givens’s wasn’t suborned to implicate Oswald, since he made no mention of seeing Oswald with a rifle on the 6^th floor. However, Givens could not be suborned to state that he saw Oswald with a rifle, because if he truly had, there would be no way in which he could rationally explain to the Warren Commission why he didn’t inform the DPD the FBI and the Secret Service, that he had seen Oswald with a rifle on the 6^th floor. I hope that makes sense.

On a final note, some conspiracy advocates have argued that Givens was in fact the “Dark complected White male” who was driving the Nash rambler station wagon along Elm Street. Although I think this is an intriguing possibility, there is absolutely no firm evidence which proves this claim.