Free Where Were You?: America Remembers the JFK Assassination by Gus Russo, Harry Moses Page B

recognize him, and if we took someone down to his club, he was always friendly. But it was a surprise.
    BREWER: I was out in the parking lot when Ruby shot Oswald, washing this brand-new Ford Galaxy XL that I’d taken delivery on the night before the assassination. I wasn’t even supposed to be on duty at the store the next day. My assistant called in, his young child was ill, so I went to fill in. I had every intention just to cruise around in that car, which had a police interceptor engine in it, so I didn’t see the Ruby shooting at all. My wife came out and said, “Come in; you’re not going to believe this.” It was just—damn, when is this going to stop?
    I thought before and after that it wasn’t Dallas’s fault. A lot of people took it upon themselves to make Dallas the whipping child. Dallas, to me, didn’t change. I enjoyed Dallas, I enjoyed going to the Cotton Bowl, where we would watch Tom Landry and Roger Staubach.
    HAWKINS: I agree with you, John. The city itself got a bad name, but there was really no way of stopping what occurred. It seemed that after this happened, the citizens banded together; they even seemed to take more interest in the police department. I think it hurt a lot of people. I know I didn’t appreciate the things that were said about Dallas, but I was born and raised in Dallas. I felt it was a bad story that they put on the city, but there’s not a whole lot you can do about that.
    BREWER: When I got out of the service in 1969, I had the option of staying in Dallas, retaining my job. I’d already grown tired of the assassination, so I moved to Austin. To this day—it’s kicked off a little bit the past couple of years—there are people who have known me for the longest time, who I work with, who have no idea I was involved, unless they came into the house and might have seen something framed. There was a letter from President Johnson, and they’ll ask, “What’s this?” But I play it really low key. Many people don’t have a clue. I have recently been recognized by the Dallas Police Department, got its Good Citizen Award—but I was just in the right place at the right time, however dangerous it was.
    Brewer (left) and Hawkins
    HAWKINS: And you handled it right, didn’t get shot at the back door or anything.
    BREWER: I appreciate that. The assassination brought the country together. It was scary times when we listened to the Cuban Missile Crisis live broadcast of the Russian ships turning around, so there was a lot of Cold War tension. The assassination kind of centralized Dallas, and afterward I don’t know if it was a coming together or just a realizing that, hey, we’ve all grown up here pretty quick.
    HAWKINS: I think it did bring the country together. The United States, a lot of people, myself being one of them, didn’t really pay much attention to the election. We voted, but I don’t think we really put that much into it. I think this got everybody more interested in government, exactly what was going on, and things our government was doing. I felt like it did that much for us. It changed me. I, one of those who didn’t pay a lot of attention to politics, now tried to stay up on things that were happening in the country more than I had before.
    BREWER: A couple of weeks later I had a customer on a late afternoon and saw a taxi pull up out front. This lady got out, and I recognized her from TV. It was Marguerite Oswald. She walked in just like Here I am and said, “Mr. Brewer.” I said, “Yes, Mrs. Oswald?” My customer kindof looked up. She only wanted to say that she felt Lee was innocent, and she wanted to hear from me what had happened. Not taking any sides, I said, “Mrs. Oswald, I don’t know for sure that he did kill the president, but I’m pretty sure he killed a policeman. I’m pretty sure he was involved, but, as a mother, you’re standing up for your son.” She said nothing, she just twirled around, hopped in the cab, and away she went.
    It