Episode 306 is the nineteenth episode of our mini-series on the Tippit murder. David Belin, the celebrated Warren Commission attorney called it the "Rosetta Stone" of the JFK assassination. It may very well be just that...but for other reasons! In this nineteenth episode, we tell the story of Air Force Sergeant Robert Vinson. On the morning of November 22, 1963 Vinson boarded a flight at Andrews Air Force Base bound for Lowry Airforce Base in Colorado. He was hitching a ride to his duty station at Ent Air Force Base and the plane was empty with the exception of Sergeant Vinson, the pilot and the copilot. Shortly after take off, the crew announced president Kennedy's shooting in Dallas and the plane made an immediate detour south. It was not long before they were over Dallas, a city that Vinson recognized as he peered out the window. They would soon land on a sandy strip of land along the Trinity River in Dallas, and without shutting down the aircraft engines, would take on two passengers. From there they would fly to Roswell Air Force Base in New Mexico. The purported landing area would have put the plane close to Oak Cliff. One of the men who boarded in Dallas was Latino. The other was a taller Caucasian man. The pilots and the two men would hastily depart the aircraft upon landing at Roswell. A departure from the original flight plan, Vinson was forced to stay overnight at Roswell and catch a plane the next day to Colorado. But that night he would see pictures of Lee Harvey Oswald on television and feel certain that one of the passengers on the plane, the Caucasian, bore a striking resemblance to Oswald. Vinson would keep this information private until after he retired from the Airforce. Could it have been Oswald's double? Yes…there is a grave possibility that the true "Rosetta Stone" of November 22nd, 1963, might just lie in the quiet Dallas suburb of Oak Cliff, waiting for us to finally put the pieces together. This is a wander I’ve created especially for you…and of all the wanders you have taken with me, this Tippit series may be the most thrilling of all! And don’t worry, as the fall winds turn cooler, we will all be vacationing once again, in Mexico…I think you know what I mean by that. But our new wander takes precedent. As we wind down the Tippit series, I hope that you will enjoy these last few episodes of what is one of the most riveting aspects of the JFK assassination story.
