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The “Three Tramps” Photographed in Dealey Plaza After the Assassination Were Not Actually Tramps

A nother issue that stirred controversy was that several photographs were taken of three men who were arrested shortly after the assassination. In point of fact, they never were arrested, but they appear to be in custody and look to be led down the street by officers.

But there are a lot of weird things that researchers noticed about those photographs. The men were reportedly “three tramps” who police had found inside the boxcar of a freight train near the spot where Kennedy was killed. But they didn’t actually look like tramps. For example, they had very good shoes. If you look closely at the photos, the cops who are with them seem very relaxed; too relaxed, in some observers’ opinions. If you look online by searching “JFK three tramps,” you’ll see what I mean.

The FBI said that the three men in the photos were just tramps; that they were arrested, checked out, and then released. They even released their names: Gus Abrams, Harold Doyle, and John F. Gedney. Researchers checked it out, and sure enough, the specific three individuals whom the FBI had conveniently identified, actually were arrested and were apparently homeless. But notably absent was any proof that they were actually the same three men who had appeared in those photos. So everybody sort of wrote that one off; even Oliver Stone, director of the film JFK, apparently said that “he’d be happy to concede that one mystery had been resolved” on the condition that he’d still like to see photos of the men matched with the photos of the tramps.²⁶⁶

But further controversy has ensued over the years because other researchers have attributed “photographic matches” to various individuals. You may have heard or seen it written that CIA agent E. Howard Hunt was “one of the three tramps in Dealey Plaza.” Part of the confusion resulted from sorting out the arrest records of men who were taken in by police after the assassination. Other researchers “identified” people they thought were likely conspirators—such as Sturgis and Hunt—and became convinced by the photographic similarities that it was actually them in the photos.

But it’s easy to compare photographs and be “taken in”; convinced of a match in identities that turns out to have been incorrect. That’s why police departments only trust forensic artists to make scientific matches using proven methods in the practice of criminology.

Forensic expert Lois Gibson is known as The World’s Most Successful Forensic Artist. She is the world record holder for the most forensic success stories; over a thousand criminals have been caught by her forensic methods.²⁶⁷ So Lois Gibson was the perfect person to examine the evidence and make the precise photographic comparisons between the photographs taken of the three men and those whom various people allege they may have actually been. Her work was successful in that regard.

She knows what she’s doing and you can see that for yourself. Lois Gibson’s “Slide Presentation of The Three Tramps” is online at: jfkmurdersolved.com/lois1.htm.

Analysis by Lois Gibson positively identified the three men—via an extensive and professional match process that she documents very specifically in that study—as Chauncey Holt, Charles Rogers, and Charles Harrelson.²⁶⁸

Who are they?

Well, Chauncey Holt was an expert forger and career criminal with mobsters and also did work for the CIA; Charles Harrelson and Charles Rogers [also known as Richard Montoya] were convicted killers.

What’s their story?

Rogers was a cold-blooded killer—literally, in his case. He’s known as “The Icebox Killer” because in 1965 they found the pieces of his parents’ chopped up bodies inside the freezer at Rogers’ home. But Rogers disappeared; he took off on a private plane just as police came looking for him, and is still a wanted fugitive. Rogers was also known to do “work” for the CIA.²⁶⁹ So his only comment on being one of the three tramps was Adios.

Harrelson was a professional hit man who was convicted for the assassination of a federal judge, John Wood, in Texas in 1979, and then died in prison of heart disease in 2007. He was also the estranged father of actor Woody Harrelson. During a six-hour standoff with police before his arrest, he confessed to killing both the federal judge and John F. Kennedy. But authorities wrote that off to the fact that he was “high on cocaine.”²⁷⁰ An attorney in Texas testified in court that Harrelson had told him that he killed President Kennedy and even drew the attorney a map of where he hid after the assassination.²⁷¹ But the FBI “discounted any involvement by Harrelson in the Kennedy assassination” and the information all went to a quiet resting place somewhere far from public scrutiny.²⁷² There’s a chilling prison interview with Charles Harrelson in which he mockingly refers to the absurd naiveté of believing for one second that lone gunman Lee Harvey Oswald pulled off the assassination all by himself. Below is what he says, but I also suggest that you watch it for yourself at: youtube.com/watch?v=RpVlqh14WHY.

Well, do you believe Lee Harvey Oswald killed President Kennedy. Alone? We’ll get back to that. Without any aid from a rogue agency of the U.S. government, or at least a portion of that agency? I believe you’re very naïve if you do.²⁷³

So Harrelson did or didn’t really have a lot to say, depending on how you look at it.

Chauncey Holt was a completely different story though. He not only talked about it, he confessed to it, wrote about it, and even did a film about it. In fact, Chauncey Holt is still speaking about it, even from the grave! He died in 1997, but has his autobiography coming out later this year!²⁷⁴ So you probably won’t see that in mainstream media anytime soon, but it’s out there, believe me.

Holt was a career criminal who was a very colorful character. He was an expert in weaponry, ammunition loads, forgery, and accounting practices.²⁷⁵ Holt describes the whole boxcar incident in detail in his book, as well as the details that preceded it.

The statements of Chauncey Holt also explain how the real “three tramps” were never traced. It’s because they were never actually arrested.²⁷⁶ There was no record of them in Dallas. They told police they were undercover agents with the ATF, showed their forged IDs, and said they were working on an operation involving stolen weapons. According to Holt, since that matched up with the weapons that were in the boxcar where the men were found, police let them go.²⁷⁷ Veteran FBI Special Agent Zack Shelton has thoroughly verified the bona fides of Chauncey Marvin Holt.

Holt’s criminal expertise dated back to working with Meyer Lansky, a criminal genius often credited with masterminding the Mob’s entry into legitimate businesses as well as with organizing the intricacies of money laundering. Holt was a gifted artist who used those skills to become an expert forger. He was working out of a company called the Los Angeles Stamp & Stationery Company (LASCO). That company was what’s known as a proprietary, a “CIA front” that was established with the help of William Harvey, the Agency’s point man on assassinations as head of its program named ZR/Rifle. Most of LASCO’s business was legitimate, but they also performed special work for “The Company” such as forged identifications of various types.

Holt began producing fake IDs that were used in Dallas for the assassination. Here it is summarized briefly, from the work substantiated by FBI veteran Zack Shelton:

Chauncey Holt, an expert forger affiliated with both the Mafia and CIA, began producing IDs for Lee Harvey Oswald, including all of his aliases, around April, 1963. In June, Holt delivered the IDs to Guy Bannister in New Orleans, at which time Holt was photographed by news reporters in the same photo with Oswald. In or around October, Holt was instructed by his handler to prepare Secret Service Identification Pins for the President’s trip to Dallas. On November 16, Holt received a letter from mobster Peter Licavoli stating that Chuck Nicoletti was at the Grace Ranch in Arizona and for Holt to come and drive Nicoletti to Dallas. On November 21, Holt drove Nicoletti to Dallas. On November 22, Holt delivered the Secret Service Pins; he drove into the railroad yard in a white 1959 Oldsmobile Station Wagon. This was corroborated by the testimony of [Lee] Bowers. When the shots rang out, he reported to the boxcar of the freight train, as he had been instructed, and met up there with Charles Harrelson and Charles Rogers (known to Holt as Richard Montoya). All three of these individuals were detained by the Dallas Police Department and later released. Several photographs were taken of these three men and they are known as the three tramps. Lois Gibson, respected forensic artist, verified the three as Holt and Charles Harrelson and Charles Rogers, two violent criminals.²⁷⁸

So the “three tramps,” in addition to not being tramps, were actually three very experienced criminals who were apparently involved operationally in the JFK assassination. They may not have fired the actual shots (although in the case of Harrelson and Rogers, we do not know where they were at the time of the shots and they were both highly professional killers), but they seem to have all three been involved, at least in some type of support capacity.

²⁶⁶ John Aloysious Farrell, “‘JFK’ director, in capital, discusses files,” March 5, 1992, Boston Globe: .pqasb.pqarchiver.com/boston/access/61720029.html?FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&type=current&date=Mar+05%2C+1992&author=John+Aloysius+Farrell%2C+Globe+Staff&pub=Boston+Globe+(pre-1997+Fulltext)&desc=%60JFK’+director%2C+in+capital%2C+discusses+files&pqatl=google">pqasb.pqarchiver.com/boston/access/61720029.html?FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&type=current&date=Mar+05%2C+1992&author=John+Aloysius+Farrell%2C+Globe+Staff&pub=Boston+Globe+(pre-1997+Fulltext)&desc=%60JFK’+director%2C+in+capital%2C+discusses+files&pqatl=google

²⁶⁷ LoisGibson.com, “Bio of Lois Gibson,” retrieved 3 May 2013: loisgibson.com/biography.asp

²⁶⁸ Wim Dankbaar, “The Three Tramps,” retrieved 3 May 2013: jfkmurdersolved.com/lois1.htm

²⁶⁹ John R. Craig & Phillip A. Rogers, The Man on the Grassy Knoll (Avon Books: 1992).

²⁷⁰ Marrs, Crossfire: The Plot That Killed Kennedy, 333–335.

²⁷¹ Jay Jorden, “Kennedy controversy still goes on,” Associated Press, November 22, 1982: news. google.com/newspapers?id=neBNAAAAIBAJ&sjid=H4sDAAAAIBAJ&pg=6841%2C3312974

²⁷² Ibid.

²⁷³ Charles Harrelson, “Hitman Charles Harrelson on the assassination of JFK,” retrieved 3 May 2013: youtube.com/watch?v=RpVlqh14WHY

²⁷⁴ Chauncey Holt, Self-Portrait of a Scoundrel (TrineDay: 2013).

²⁷⁵ Ibid.

²⁷⁶ Ibid.

²⁷⁷ Ibid.

²⁷⁸ Wim Dankbaar, Files on JFK (TrineDay: 2008) and Zack Shelton, The Shelton Report, in Belzer & Wayne, Dead Wrong, 132–135.