Chapter Four


An Hour with Mrs. Oswald

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CH04

Old Miss and Mrs. Oswald

Back in Fort Worth, Bob got the break he had been hoping for. During his college days on the police beat for KXOL, he had covered a lot of stories with Phil Record, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram’s night police reporter, and they had become friends. Phil was promoted to night city editor, and he recommended Bob as his replacement to cover cops. This is what Bob had wanted to do since he saw his first byline in his junior high school newspaper. He got a page 1 byline on his first day on the job and never looked back. "Covering police is the best training a reporter can get, because every story is the worst moment in someone’s life," he said. "If you can get your story done in those circumstances, you’re not going to be cowed by some on-the-make politician."

With Phil Record guiding him every step of the way and editing every story he wrote, Bob said he really became a reporter. He covered crimes large and small, and on that fateful day when President Kennedy was assassinated, Bob was at the city desk when a woman called and asked for a ride to Dallas. She turned out to be Lee Harvey Oswald’s mother. Bob wrote down her address on the west side of Fort Worth, and he and another reporter, Bill Foster, drove her to Dallas. It was Bob’s first national scoop.

Watch video footage of Bob describing that fateful day