Philip Ben Hathaway

[Dealey Joe]

Just before Noon today, my friend John Stevens Rutter Lawrence, who works with me, and I and two other friends left the Texaco Building where we work going to the parade. We were walking down Commerce up to Main and Main to Akard andwhile [sic] we were walking up Akard towards Main Street we passed a man who was carrying a rifle in a gun case. I saw this man walking towards me, walking towards Commerce, and too particular attention to him because ofhis [sic] size. I am 6'5" and weigh 200 pounds. This man was very tall, approx 6'6" or 6'7" over 250 pounds, very thick and big through the chest, in his 30's, dirty blonde hair worn in a crew cut. Was wearing a grey colored business suit with white dress shirt, fair complexion. I remarked to my friend that there was a guy carrying a gun in all this crowd and made the remark that he was probably a secret service man. I could very easily identify this man if I ever saw him again. The gun case was holding a rifle because I could tell there was a gun in it as it was a combination leather and cloth gun case and without a gun, it would have been limp, but it was heavy and he was carrying it by the handle and the barrell [sic] of the gun was up at a 45 degree angle. It was beige or tan leather and olive drab material.We can place the time we saw this man walking with the gun as I recall someone in the crowd asking for the time and they said it was 11:50A.M.