Lee Bowers

Personal

Vocation

Notable

American witness to the assassination of John F. Kennedy in Dallas, Texas on 22 November 1963. The timing and circumstances of Bowers' death has led to suspicion and allegations that it was part of an alleged cover-up after the murder of John F. Kennedy. Bowers served in the U.S. Navy from ages 17 to 21. He attended Hardin-Simmons University for two years then Southern Methodist University for two years, majoring in religion. He worked for the Union Terminal Co. railyard for 15 years, also working as a self-employed builder. In 1964 he began working as business manager for a hospital and convalescent home. At the moment of the assassination, Bowers was operating the Union Terminal Company's two-story interlocking tower, overlooking the parking lot just north of the grassy knoll and west of the Texas School Book Depository. He had an unobstructed view of the rear of the concrete pergola and the stockade fence at the top of the grassy knoll. He described hearing three shots that came from either the Depository on his left or near the mouth of the Triple Underpass railroad bridge on his right; he was unsure because of the reverberation from the shots. On 2 April 1964, Lee Bowers provided testimony to Joseph A. Ball, assistant counsel of the Warren Commission, at the US Post Office Building in Dallas. When asked by Ball, "Now, were there any people standing on the high side — high ground between your tower and where Elm Street goes down under the underpass toward the mouth of the underpass?" Bowers testified that at the time the motorcade went by on Elm Street, four men were in the area: one or two uniformed parking lot attendants, one of whom Bowers knew; and two men standing 10 to 15 feet (3 to 5 m) apart near the Triple Underpass, who did not appear to know each other. Bowers told assassination researcher Mark Lane that as the motorcade passed "there was a flash of light or smoke" in the vicinity of where the two suspicious men were standing. Bowers died on 9 August 1966, aged 41, when his car left an empty road and struck a concrete bridge abutment near Midlothian, Texas. Bowers was played by Pruitt Taylor Vince in the 1991 film JFK. Link to Wikipedia biography