Skip to main content
Affidavit for search warrant for Ruth Paine's home
Affidavit for search warrant for Ruth Paine's home

Affidavit for search warrant for Ruth Paine's home

Object number2004.010.0006
Date11/23/1963
ClassificationsDocuments
Creator Dallas County
ObjectDocument
Credit LineJudge Joe B. Brown, Jr. Collection/The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza
MediumPaper
Dimensions14 x 8 1/2 in. (35.6 x 21.6 cm)
DescriptionAffidavit for a search warrant for Ruth Paine's Irving, Texas home, signed on November 23, 1963, by Justice of the Peace Joe B. Brown, Jr. Lee Harvey Oswald's wife and children lived with Paine at the time of the assassination. Oswald regularly visited his family at Paine's home and spent the night before the assassination there. The printed blanks on the cover have not been filled out; only the "No." blank has had "162" written in it in blue ink. A blue rubber stamp was applied near the bottom of the affidavit reading, "FILED '63 NOV 27 AM 9:14. J.P. COURT, PCT. 7-PL. 2." On the inside, the printed blanks have been filled in with typed text. "G.F. Rose and R.S. Stovall," are typed in as the officers bringing in the affidavit for "a private residence at 2515 West Fifth Street in the City of Irving, Texas," belonging to Ruth Paine, which is a place where implements are kept for the crime of murder. G.F. Rose and R.S. Stovall signed the affidavit in blue ink at the bottom along with Joe B. Brown, Jr. The date was typed in as November 23, 1963 and the precinct as number 7.
Curatorial Commentary
The Dallas Justice of the Peace who issued this search warrant, Joe B. Brown, Jr., was the son of Judge Joe B. Brown who presided over the Jack Ruby trial in 1964. Brown, Jr., who later became a Dallas County judge like his father, recorded an oral history with the Museum in 2004 and at that time donated a large collection of his late father's papers, correspondence, and memorabilia, including several of his pipes and gavels. - Stephen Fagin, Curator