DescriptionOriginal 35mm black and white negative taken by Dallas Times Herald staff photographer William Allen. This image shows three men (front to back, Harold Doyle, John Gedney, and Gus Abrams) being escorted to the Sheriff's office by Dallas Police officers, Marvin Wise in the front and Billy Bass in the rear, on November 22, 1963, about 90 minutes after the assassination. The Texas School Book Depository is visible in the background.
Doyle, Gedney and Abrams had been found in a boxcar while police were investigating the railroad yards near Dealey Plaza after the assassination. They were arrested for investigation of vagrancy and robbery; all three were released the following Monday, never having been charged with anything.
Curatorial Commentary
The so-called "Three Tramps" have been part of Kennedy assassination mythology since the mid-1960s. Researcher Richard E. Sprague provided images of the tramps to New Orleans D.A. Jim Garrison during his controversial investigation. Garrison, suggesting that the men were involved in the president's death, shared the images during a 1968 appearance on The Tonight Show. Years later, researchers suggested that two of the tramps resembled Watergate burglars Frank Sturgis and E. Howard Hunt. (There have been other allegations over the years as well). The true identity of the tramps became known in 1992, when journalist Mary La Fontaine found their Dallas Police arrest records, which had been released in 1989. - Stephen Fagin, Curator
William Allen was the last of three news photographers who took pictures of the group that is now referred to as "The Three Tramps." The other photographers were, first, George Smith of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, and then Jack Beers of The Dallas Morning News. All of the photos were taken about two hours after the assassination as Dallas Police led Gedney, Doyle and Abrams from the south railroad yards below Dealey Plaza to the Sheriff’s office for transport to the Dallas Police station. Since the men were arrested on charges unrelated to the Kennedy assassination, their arrest records were never forwarded to federal investigators.
Photos of the three men were discovered by private researcher Richard Sprague a few years after the assassination and the arrest records were made public in city of Dallas records in 1989 to be found by researchers Ray and Mary LaFontaine four years later. At that time, both Doyle and Gedney were still alive. – Gary Mack, Curator
