Entombed March 13, 2001
Biography, below, submitted by F.A.G. volunteer, Linda (#48291572), September 20, 2016.
Thank you, Linda, for all your work on behalf of this man!
EUGENE PATRICK ALDREDGE was born and grew up on Swiss Avenue in what is now the Swiss Avenue Historic District, and was a lifelong Dallas resident, author, and witness and researcher into the assassination of President Kennedy. He was responsible for reporting to the FBI an additional bullet strike found on the sidewalk on the north side of Elm St. after the assassination, for which the FBI opened an investigation (more below). From that time forward he was a firm believer that there was more than one gunman involved in the assassination. He graduated from Bryan Adams HS in Dallas in 1922.
According to the 1930 Census he and his mother were living at 4702 San Jacinto in Dallas, with his aunt and uncle - her sister (Jo L. Moessner) and her husband (Gustave H. Moessner, born in Germany). Moessner was a jeweler from NYC who had relocated to Dallas. Eugene's father was born in Alabama and his mother, Mildred S. Aldredge, who was widowed, was born in Georgia. Eugene, 26, was a routing clerk working at the Dallas Power & Light Plant, and his mother, 48, and a saleslady at a "studio gallery".
Sometime after the 1930 census he married Martha Ellen Gafford (b. Dec. 9, 1911, Colorado City, Mitchell, TX ; d. Dec. 2, 1996, Dallas) daughter of James Christopher Gafford and Emma Overstreet. They had no children.
Aldredge was the author of 2 books about his life and Dallas history "Lest I Forget" (1973) about his life in Dallas up to age 21, and "Past 21" (1980) about his life in Dallas after age 21. Both are available at the Dallas Public Library in the Dallas History section. He also contributed an oral history to the Lakewood Oral History Project at the Lakewood [Dallas] Community Library, taped 3/1/1976, which focused on the development and growth of the East Dallas/Lakewood area and provide a glimpse into the customs, social life, community spirit, and evolution of this old Dallas neighborhood. A long-time resident of East Dallas, Aldredge highlighted coetaneous community history including a delightful story of courting at White Rock Lake Park. It is available at the Dallas Public Library. Compared to "Aldridge", Aldredge is a rather rare name and he may be related to former Dallas Mayor Sawnie Aldredge (1921-1923) who lived in the same Swiss Avenue neighborhood, and whose wife contributed an oral history to this same project.
At some point Aldredge had a "letter service" in downtown Dallas. This was revealed in fascinating article in the September 6, 1992 Dallas Morning News, entitled "Early Inventor Builds Water-Powered Auto" about Henry "Dad" Garrett, "a multi-talented Dallas inventor with a bent for electrical contrivances" who among other things invented the nation's first stop light system, the first car radio in his own car which he later developed for police use, and the world's first municipal radio station which he personally manned in Dallas. In 1935, he and his son, C.H. Garrett, patented and exhibited an automobile that ran on water - actually, on hydrogen after the water was broken down by electrolysis. (The News had originally run an article about their invention in 1935.) Aldredge, who had the Garretts as a customer, was interviewed for the article:
Eugene P. Aldredge recalled the Garretts: "I had rented a small office on the seventh floor of the Allen building [1700 Commerce] in downtown Dallas for my letter service, and one of my early customers was the eighteenth floor National Electric Signal Co. owned by Dad Garrett and son C.H. I was informed that the two were experimenting with an automobile that used water for fuel, that they carried on their experiments in a workshop adjacent to their office on the top floor, and that two separate explosions (from dangerous hydrogen) had nearly blown a hole in the roof of the building...Neither was hurt." More here: http://www.electricitybook.com/electrolytic-carburetor/
Aldredge, has an enduring place in history as an eyewitness to a fresh scar gouged out of the sidewalk on the north side of Elm, after President Kennedy's assassination, that appeared to be a bullet strike coming from the direction of the South Knoll (opposite the "Grassy Knoll"). It was 4" long and 1/2" wide. On 11/22/63, after the assassination of President Kennedy, a local Dallas newsman, probably from KRLD/CBS according to Aldredge, pointed out this fresh scar in the sidewalk to the DPD and the reporter called it a "bullet mark" on air. The DPD then parked a patrol car over the spot on the sidewalk, as can be seen in aerial and ground level photographs of Dealey Plaza taken the afternoon of 11/22/63. The story was reported on the local 6pm news that day and numerous people, including Aldredge, recalled seeing it broadcast on KRLD-CBS, Channel 4. However, upon inquiring about the film in 1964 after the Warren Report came out, they denied its existence.
On September 29, 1964, after the Warren Report was published and Aldredge noted the story and photos of the scar were not in the Report, he contacted a Dallas Morning News reporter, Charles Freund, and together they returned to Dealey Plaza to view the scar. Both men thought it was the result of a bullet strike; and Mr. Aldredge then reported the scar to the Dallas FBI. When they asked why he hadn't reported it at time of the assassination, he said hadn't wanted want to get involved and assumed it would being looked into by the authorities and properly investigated by the Warren Commission. However, when he saw it was completely ignored, he decided he had to speak up since another (missed) shot meant there was more than one shooter.
According to FBI documents, on Sept. 30, 1964, two Dallas FBI agents, Manning C. Clements and Richard J. Burnett, investigated but did not find the find the scar, and it was soon learned because they had searched the wrong area. FBI headquarters subsequently sent out a memo that they had not looked in the proper location and told them to re-investigate and this time were to take Aldredge with them to locate it, and they were also to interview Freund. This time Aldredge pointed out the the 4" scar and they took scrapings for spectrographic analysis, for which there is an FBI report and a receipt in the National Archives, however, the results of the spectrographic analysis were withheld from the public. Five days later Aldredge and a friend returned to the site and according to Aldredge “found that the mark had been filled up with what appeared to be a mixture of concrete and asbestos [fibers were seen when they scraped the fill] and an attempt made to make it appear like the surrounding area.”
Researcher and author Ed Tatro wrote in an article in the 1984 Quincy Sun (Massachusettes) that Aldredge again contacted the FBI to inform them of the patch and again the FBI returned to remove material from it to have analyzed for a foreign substance. Amazingly, these spectrographic test results were also witheld from the American public.
In 1975, DMN reporter Earl Golz also contacted the FBI in Dallas and D.C. to inquire anew about the results of the analysis but it was never produced. Researcher Harold Weisberg later found the microfilm at the National Archives that contained the spectrographic analysis had been destroyed by the FBI. “This was the only spectrographic plate claimed to be missing," Weisberg stated. "The FBI’s unsworn and conjectural explanation of its disappearance was that it was destroyed to 'save space'".
Another interesting bit of assassination history about Mr. Aldredge is when Barry Ernest, renowned author of the groundbreaking book "The Girl on the Stairs" about TSBD employee and eyewitness, Vickie Adams, first went to Dallas to begin researching decades ago, the first person he met was Aldredge, who took him to see the bullet mark in the sidewalk.
Changing subjects entirely, Aldredge was a dog lover and, according to a post on a Kennel Club forum, once owned a champion dog whose United Kennel Club UKC name was "Aldredge's Champ". Champ was a very intelligent dog that could climb a ladder, jump through a hoop, go upon order to different rooms of the house, and in all obeyed 33 verbal commands from his master. He was written by "Ripley's Believe It or Not" and appeared three times in the Dallas Times Herald, once on Dallas Morning News and Kennel News and twice in the periodical of the UKC Bloodlines Journal. He played live on television in Dallas KRLD (now KDFW).
================
Maternal link provided by F.A.G. volunteer, Linda (#48291572), September 19, 2016.
Thank you, again, Linda!
Biography, below, submitted by F.A.G. volunteer, Linda (#48291572), September 20, 2016.
Thank you, Linda, for all your work on behalf of this man!
EUGENE PATRICK ALDREDGE was born and grew up on Swiss Avenue in what is now the Swiss Avenue Historic District, and was a lifelong Dallas resident, author, and witness and researcher into the assassination of President Kennedy. He was responsible for reporting to the FBI an additional bullet strike found on the sidewalk on the north side of Elm St. after the assassination, for which the FBI opened an investigation (more below). From that time forward he was a firm believer that there was more than one gunman involved in the assassination. He graduated from Bryan Adams HS in Dallas in 1922.
According to the 1930 Census he and his mother were living at 4702 San Jacinto in Dallas, with his aunt and uncle - her sister (Jo L. Moessner) and her husband (Gustave H. Moessner, born in Germany). Moessner was a jeweler from NYC who had relocated to Dallas. Eugene's father was born in Alabama and his mother, Mildred S. Aldredge, who was widowed, was born in Georgia. Eugene, 26, was a routing clerk working at the Dallas Power & Light Plant, and his mother, 48, and a saleslady at a "studio gallery".
Sometime after the 1930 census he married Martha Ellen Gafford (b. Dec. 9, 1911, Colorado City, Mitchell, TX ; d. Dec. 2, 1996, Dallas) daughter of James Christopher Gafford and Emma Overstreet. They had no children.
Aldredge was the author of 2 books about his life and Dallas history "Lest I Forget" (1973) about his life in Dallas up to age 21, and "Past 21" (1980) about his life in Dallas after age 21. Both are available at the Dallas Public Library in the Dallas History section. He also contributed an oral history to the Lakewood Oral History Project at the Lakewood [Dallas] Community Library, taped 3/1/1976, which focused on the development and growth of the East Dallas/Lakewood area and provide a glimpse into the customs, social life, community spirit, and evolution of this old Dallas neighborhood. A long-time resident of East Dallas, Aldredge highlighted coetaneous community history including a delightful story of courting at White Rock Lake Park. It is available at the Dallas Public Library. Compared to "Aldridge", Aldredge is a rather rare name and he may be related to former Dallas Mayor Sawnie Aldredge (1921-1923) who lived in the same Swiss Avenue neighborhood, and whose wife contributed an oral history to this same project.
At some point Aldredge had a "letter service" in downtown Dallas. This was revealed in fascinating article in the September 6, 1992 Dallas Morning News, entitled "Early Inventor Builds Water-Powered Auto" about Henry "Dad" Garrett, "a multi-talented Dallas inventor with a bent for electrical contrivances" who among other things invented the nation's first stop light system, the first car radio in his own car which he later developed for police use, and the world's first municipal radio station which he personally manned in Dallas. In 1935, he and his son, C.H. Garrett, patented and exhibited an automobile that ran on water - actually, on hydrogen after the water was broken down by electrolysis. (The News had originally run an article about their invention in 1935.) Aldredge, who had the Garretts as a customer, was interviewed for the article:
Eugene P. Aldredge recalled the Garretts: "I had rented a small office on the seventh floor of the Allen building [1700 Commerce] in downtown Dallas for my letter service, and one of my early customers was the eighteenth floor National Electric Signal Co. owned by Dad Garrett and son C.H. I was informed that the two were experimenting with an automobile that used water for fuel, that they carried on their experiments in a workshop adjacent to their office on the top floor, and that two separate explosions (from dangerous hydrogen) had nearly blown a hole in the roof of the building...Neither was hurt." More here: http://www.electricitybook.com/electrolytic-carburetor/
Aldredge, has an enduring place in history as an eyewitness to a fresh scar gouged out of the sidewalk on the north side of Elm, after President Kennedy's assassination, that appeared to be a bullet strike coming from the direction of the South Knoll (opposite the "Grassy Knoll"). It was 4" long and 1/2" wide. On 11/22/63, after the assassination of President Kennedy, a local Dallas newsman, probably from KRLD/CBS according to Aldredge, pointed out this fresh scar in the sidewalk to the DPD and the reporter called it a "bullet mark" on air. The DPD then parked a patrol car over the spot on the sidewalk, as can be seen in aerial and ground level photographs of Dealey Plaza taken the afternoon of 11/22/63. The story was reported on the local 6pm news that day and numerous people, including Aldredge, recalled seeing it broadcast on KRLD-CBS, Channel 4. However, upon inquiring about the film in 1964 after the Warren Report came out, they denied its existence.
On September 29, 1964, after the Warren Report was published and Aldredge noted the story and photos of the scar were not in the Report, he contacted a Dallas Morning News reporter, Charles Freund, and together they returned to Dealey Plaza to view the scar. Both men thought it was the result of a bullet strike; and Mr. Aldredge then reported the scar to the Dallas FBI. When they asked why he hadn't reported it at time of the assassination, he said hadn't wanted want to get involved and assumed it would being looked into by the authorities and properly investigated by the Warren Commission. However, when he saw it was completely ignored, he decided he had to speak up since another (missed) shot meant there was more than one shooter.
According to FBI documents, on Sept. 30, 1964, two Dallas FBI agents, Manning C. Clements and Richard J. Burnett, investigated but did not find the find the scar, and it was soon learned because they had searched the wrong area. FBI headquarters subsequently sent out a memo that they had not looked in the proper location and told them to re-investigate and this time were to take Aldredge with them to locate it, and they were also to interview Freund. This time Aldredge pointed out the the 4" scar and they took scrapings for spectrographic analysis, for which there is an FBI report and a receipt in the National Archives, however, the results of the spectrographic analysis were withheld from the public. Five days later Aldredge and a friend returned to the site and according to Aldredge “found that the mark had been filled up with what appeared to be a mixture of concrete and asbestos [fibers were seen when they scraped the fill] and an attempt made to make it appear like the surrounding area.”
Researcher and author Ed Tatro wrote in an article in the 1984 Quincy Sun (Massachusettes) that Aldredge again contacted the FBI to inform them of the patch and again the FBI returned to remove material from it to have analyzed for a foreign substance. Amazingly, these spectrographic test results were also witheld from the American public.
In 1975, DMN reporter Earl Golz also contacted the FBI in Dallas and D.C. to inquire anew about the results of the analysis but it was never produced. Researcher Harold Weisberg later found the microfilm at the National Archives that contained the spectrographic analysis had been destroyed by the FBI. “This was the only spectrographic plate claimed to be missing," Weisberg stated. "The FBI’s unsworn and conjectural explanation of its disappearance was that it was destroyed to 'save space'".
Another interesting bit of assassination history about Mr. Aldredge is when Barry Ernest, renowned author of the groundbreaking book "The Girl on the Stairs" about TSBD employee and eyewitness, Vickie Adams, first went to Dallas to begin researching decades ago, the first person he met was Aldredge, who took him to see the bullet mark in the sidewalk.
Changing subjects entirely, Aldredge was a dog lover and, according to a post on a Kennel Club forum, once owned a champion dog whose United Kennel Club UKC name was "Aldredge's Champ". Champ was a very intelligent dog that could climb a ladder, jump through a hoop, go upon order to different rooms of the house, and in all obeyed 33 verbal commands from his master. He was written by "Ripley's Believe It or Not" and appeared three times in the Dallas Times Herald, once on Dallas Morning News and Kennel News and twice in the periodical of the UKC Bloodlines Journal. He played live on television in Dallas KRLD (now KDFW).
================
Maternal link provided by F.A.G. volunteer, Linda (#48291572), September 19, 2016.
Thank you, again, Linda!
Entombed March 13, 2001
Biography, below, submitted by F.A.G. volunteer, Linda (#48291572), September 20, 2016.
Thank you, Linda, for all your work on behalf of this man!
EUGENE PATRICK ALDREDGE was born and grew up on Swiss Avenue in what is now the Swiss Avenue Historic District, and was a lifelong Dallas resident, author, and witness and researcher into the assassination of President Kennedy. He was responsible for reporting to the FBI an additional bullet strike found on the sidewalk on the north side of Elm St. after the assassination, for which the FBI opened an investigation (more below). From that time forward he was a firm believer that there was more than one gunman involved in the assassination. He graduated from Bryan Adams HS in Dallas in 1922.
According to the 1930 Census he and his mother were living at 4702 San Jacinto in Dallas, with his aunt and uncle - her sister (Jo L. Moessner) and her husband (Gustave H. Moessner, born in Germany). Moessner was a jeweler from NYC who had relocated to Dallas. Eugene's father was born in Alabama and his mother, Mildred S. Aldredge, who was widowed, was born in Georgia. Eugene, 26, was a routing clerk working at the Dallas Power & Light Plant, and his mother, 48, and a saleslady at a "studio gallery".
Sometime after the 1930 census he married Martha Ellen Gafford (b. Dec. 9, 1911, Colorado City, Mitchell, TX ; d. Dec. 2, 1996, Dallas) daughter of James Christopher Gafford and Emma Overstreet. They had no children.
Aldredge was the author of 2 books about his life and Dallas history "Lest I Forget" (1973) about his life in Dallas up to age 21, and "Past 21" (1980) about his life in Dallas after age 21. Both are available at the Dallas Public Library in the Dallas History section. He also contributed an oral history to the Lakewood Oral History Project at the Lakewood [Dallas] Community Library, taped 3/1/1976, which focused on the development and growth of the East Dallas/Lakewood area and provide a glimpse into the customs, social life, community spirit, and evolution of this old Dallas neighborhood. A long-time resident of East Dallas, Aldredge highlighted coetaneous community history including a delightful story of courting at White Rock Lake Park. It is available at the Dallas Public Library. Compared to "Aldridge", Aldredge is a rather rare name and he may be related to former Dallas Mayor Sawnie Aldredge (1921-1923) who lived in the same Swiss Avenue neighborhood, and whose wife contributed an oral history to this same project.
At some point Aldredge had a "letter service" in downtown Dallas. This was revealed in fascinating article in the September 6, 1992 Dallas Morning News, entitled "Early Inventor Builds Water-Powered Auto" about Henry "Dad" Garrett, "a multi-talented Dallas inventor with a bent for electrical contrivances" who among other things invented the nation's first stop light system, the first car radio in his own car which he later developed for police use, and the world's first municipal radio station which he personally manned in Dallas. In 1935, he and his son, C.H. Garrett, patented and exhibited an automobile that ran on water - actually, on hydrogen after the water was broken down by electrolysis. (The News had originally run an article about their invention in 1935.) Aldredge, who had the Garretts as a customer, was interviewed for the article:
Eugene P. Aldredge recalled the Garretts: "I had rented a small office on the seventh floor of the Allen building [1700 Commerce] in downtown Dallas for my letter service, and one of my early customers was the eighteenth floor National Electric Signal Co. owned by Dad Garrett and son C.H. I was informed that the two were experimenting with an automobile that used water for fuel, that they carried on their experiments in a workshop adjacent to their office on the top floor, and that two separate explosions (from dangerous hydrogen) had nearly blown a hole in the roof of the building...Neither was hurt." More here: http://www.electricitybook.com/electrolytic-carburetor/
Aldredge, has an enduring place in history as an eyewitness to a fresh scar gouged out of the sidewalk on the north side of Elm, after President Kennedy's assassination, that appeared to be a bullet strike coming from the direction of the South Knoll (opposite the "Grassy Knoll"). It was 4" long and 1/2" wide. On 11/22/63, after the assassination of President Kennedy, a local Dallas newsman, probably from KRLD/CBS according to Aldredge, pointed out this fresh scar in the sidewalk to the DPD and the reporter called it a "bullet mark" on air. The DPD then parked a patrol car over the spot on the sidewalk, as can be seen in aerial and ground level photographs of Dealey Plaza taken the afternoon of 11/22/63. The story was reported on the local 6pm news that day and numerous people, including Aldredge, recalled seeing it broadcast on KRLD-CBS, Channel 4. However, upon inquiring about the film in 1964 after the Warren Report came out, they denied its existence.
On September 29, 1964, after the Warren Report was published and Aldredge noted the story and photos of the scar were not in the Report, he contacted a Dallas Morning News reporter, Charles Freund, and together they returned to Dealey Plaza to view the scar. Both men thought it was the result of a bullet strike; and Mr. Aldredge then reported the scar to the Dallas FBI. When they asked why he hadn't reported it at time of the assassination, he said hadn't wanted want to get involved and assumed it would being looked into by the authorities and properly investigated by the Warren Commission. However, when he saw it was completely ignored, he decided he had to speak up since another (missed) shot meant there was more than one shooter.
According to FBI documents, on Sept. 30, 1964, two Dallas FBI agents, Manning C. Clements and Richard J. Burnett, investigated but did not find the find the scar, and it was soon learned because they had searched the wrong area. FBI headquarters subsequently sent out a memo that they had not looked in the proper location and told them to re-investigate and this time were to take Aldredge with them to locate it, and they were also to interview Freund. This time Aldredge pointed out the the 4" scar and they took scrapings for spectrographic analysis, for which there is an FBI report and a receipt in the National Archives, however, the results of the spectrographic analysis were withheld from the public. Five days later Aldredge and a friend returned to the site and according to Aldredge “found that the mark had been filled up with what appeared to be a mixture of concrete and asbestos [fibers were seen when they scraped the fill] and an attempt made to make it appear like the surrounding area.”
Researcher and author Ed Tatro wrote in an article in the 1984 Quincy Sun (Massachusettes) that Aldredge again contacted the FBI to inform them of the patch and again the FBI returned to remove material from it to have analyzed for a foreign substance. Amazingly, these spectrographic test results were also witheld from the American public.
In 1975, DMN reporter Earl Golz also contacted the FBI in Dallas and D.C. to inquire anew about the results of the analysis but it was never produced. Researcher Harold Weisberg later found the microfilm at the National Archives that contained the spectrographic analysis had been destroyed by the FBI. “This was the only spectrographic plate claimed to be missing," Weisberg stated. "The FBI’s unsworn and conjectural explanation of its disappearance was that it was destroyed to 'save space'".
Another interesting bit of assassination history about Mr. Aldredge is when Barry Ernest, renowned author of the groundbreaking book "The Girl on the Stairs" about TSBD employee and eyewitness, Vickie Adams, first went to Dallas to begin researching decades ago, the first person he met was Aldredge, who took him to see the bullet mark in the sidewalk.
Changing subjects entirely, Aldredge was a dog lover and, according to a post on a Kennel Club forum, once owned a champion dog whose United Kennel Club UKC name was "Aldredge's Champ". Champ was a very intelligent dog that could climb a ladder, jump through a hoop, go upon order to different rooms of the house, and in all obeyed 33 verbal commands from his master. He was written by "Ripley's Believe It or Not" and appeared three times in the Dallas Times Herald, once on Dallas Morning News and Kennel News and twice in the periodical of the UKC Bloodlines Journal. He played live on television in Dallas KRLD (now KDFW).
================
Maternal link provided by F.A.G. volunteer, Linda (#48291572), September 19, 2016.
Thank you, again, Linda!
Biography, below, submitted by F.A.G. volunteer, Linda (#48291572), September 20, 2016.
Thank you, Linda, for all your work on behalf of this man!
EUGENE PATRICK ALDREDGE was born and grew up on Swiss Avenue in what is now the Swiss Avenue Historic District, and was a lifelong Dallas resident, author, and witness and researcher into the assassination of President Kennedy. He was responsible for reporting to the FBI an additional bullet strike found on the sidewalk on the north side of Elm St. after the assassination, for which the FBI opened an investigation (more below). From that time forward he was a firm believer that there was more than one gunman involved in the assassination. He graduated from Bryan Adams HS in Dallas in 1922.
According to the 1930 Census he and his mother were living at 4702 San Jacinto in Dallas, with his aunt and uncle - her sister (Jo L. Moessner) and her husband (Gustave H. Moessner, born in Germany). Moessner was a jeweler from NYC who had relocated to Dallas. Eugene's father was born in Alabama and his mother, Mildred S. Aldredge, who was widowed, was born in Georgia. Eugene, 26, was a routing clerk working at the Dallas Power & Light Plant, and his mother, 48, and a saleslady at a "studio gallery".
Sometime after the 1930 census he married Martha Ellen Gafford (b. Dec. 9, 1911, Colorado City, Mitchell, TX ; d. Dec. 2, 1996, Dallas) daughter of James Christopher Gafford and Emma Overstreet. They had no children.
Aldredge was the author of 2 books about his life and Dallas history "Lest I Forget" (1973) about his life in Dallas up to age 21, and "Past 21" (1980) about his life in Dallas after age 21. Both are available at the Dallas Public Library in the Dallas History section. He also contributed an oral history to the Lakewood Oral History Project at the Lakewood [Dallas] Community Library, taped 3/1/1976, which focused on the development and growth of the East Dallas/Lakewood area and provide a glimpse into the customs, social life, community spirit, and evolution of this old Dallas neighborhood. A long-time resident of East Dallas, Aldredge highlighted coetaneous community history including a delightful story of courting at White Rock Lake Park. It is available at the Dallas Public Library. Compared to "Aldridge", Aldredge is a rather rare name and he may be related to former Dallas Mayor Sawnie Aldredge (1921-1923) who lived in the same Swiss Avenue neighborhood, and whose wife contributed an oral history to this same project.
At some point Aldredge had a "letter service" in downtown Dallas. This was revealed in fascinating article in the September 6, 1992 Dallas Morning News, entitled "Early Inventor Builds Water-Powered Auto" about Henry "Dad" Garrett, "a multi-talented Dallas inventor with a bent for electrical contrivances" who among other things invented the nation's first stop light system, the first car radio in his own car which he later developed for police use, and the world's first municipal radio station which he personally manned in Dallas. In 1935, he and his son, C.H. Garrett, patented and exhibited an automobile that ran on water - actually, on hydrogen after the water was broken down by electrolysis. (The News had originally run an article about their invention in 1935.) Aldredge, who had the Garretts as a customer, was interviewed for the article:
Eugene P. Aldredge recalled the Garretts: "I had rented a small office on the seventh floor of the Allen building [1700 Commerce] in downtown Dallas for my letter service, and one of my early customers was the eighteenth floor National Electric Signal Co. owned by Dad Garrett and son C.H. I was informed that the two were experimenting with an automobile that used water for fuel, that they carried on their experiments in a workshop adjacent to their office on the top floor, and that two separate explosions (from dangerous hydrogen) had nearly blown a hole in the roof of the building...Neither was hurt." More here: http://www.electricitybook.com/electrolytic-carburetor/
Aldredge, has an enduring place in history as an eyewitness to a fresh scar gouged out of the sidewalk on the north side of Elm, after President Kennedy's assassination, that appeared to be a bullet strike coming from the direction of the South Knoll (opposite the "Grassy Knoll"). It was 4" long and 1/2" wide. On 11/22/63, after the assassination of President Kennedy, a local Dallas newsman, probably from KRLD/CBS according to Aldredge, pointed out this fresh scar in the sidewalk to the DPD and the reporter called it a "bullet mark" on air. The DPD then parked a patrol car over the spot on the sidewalk, as can be seen in aerial and ground level photographs of Dealey Plaza taken the afternoon of 11/22/63. The story was reported on the local 6pm news that day and numerous people, including Aldredge, recalled seeing it broadcast on KRLD-CBS, Channel 4. However, upon inquiring about the film in 1964 after the Warren Report came out, they denied its existence.
On September 29, 1964, after the Warren Report was published and Aldredge noted the story and photos of the scar were not in the Report, he contacted a Dallas Morning News reporter, Charles Freund, and together they returned to Dealey Plaza to view the scar. Both men thought it was the result of a bullet strike; and Mr. Aldredge then reported the scar to the Dallas FBI. When they asked why he hadn't reported it at time of the assassination, he said hadn't wanted want to get involved and assumed it would being looked into by the authorities and properly investigated by the Warren Commission. However, when he saw it was completely ignored, he decided he had to speak up since another (missed) shot meant there was more than one shooter.
According to FBI documents, on Sept. 30, 1964, two Dallas FBI agents, Manning C. Clements and Richard J. Burnett, investigated but did not find the find the scar, and it was soon learned because they had searched the wrong area. FBI headquarters subsequently sent out a memo that they had not looked in the proper location and told them to re-investigate and this time were to take Aldredge with them to locate it, and they were also to interview Freund. This time Aldredge pointed out the the 4" scar and they took scrapings for spectrographic analysis, for which there is an FBI report and a receipt in the National Archives, however, the results of the spectrographic analysis were withheld from the public. Five days later Aldredge and a friend returned to the site and according to Aldredge “found that the mark had been filled up with what appeared to be a mixture of concrete and asbestos [fibers were seen when they scraped the fill] and an attempt made to make it appear like the surrounding area.”
Researcher and author Ed Tatro wrote in an article in the 1984 Quincy Sun (Massachusettes) that Aldredge again contacted the FBI to inform them of the patch and again the FBI returned to remove material from it to have analyzed for a foreign substance. Amazingly, these spectrographic test results were also witheld from the American public.
In 1975, DMN reporter Earl Golz also contacted the FBI in Dallas and D.C. to inquire anew about the results of the analysis but it was never produced. Researcher Harold Weisberg later found the microfilm at the National Archives that contained the spectrographic analysis had been destroyed by the FBI. “This was the only spectrographic plate claimed to be missing," Weisberg stated. "The FBI’s unsworn and conjectural explanation of its disappearance was that it was destroyed to 'save space'".
Another interesting bit of assassination history about Mr. Aldredge is when Barry Ernest, renowned author of the groundbreaking book "The Girl on the Stairs" about TSBD employee and eyewitness, Vickie Adams, first went to Dallas to begin researching decades ago, the first person he met was Aldredge, who took him to see the bullet mark in the sidewalk.
Changing subjects entirely, Aldredge was a dog lover and, according to a post on a Kennel Club forum, once owned a champion dog whose United Kennel Club UKC name was "Aldredge's Champ". Champ was a very intelligent dog that could climb a ladder, jump through a hoop, go upon order to different rooms of the house, and in all obeyed 33 verbal commands from his master. He was written by "Ripley's Believe It or Not" and appeared three times in the Dallas Times Herald, once on Dallas Morning News and Kennel News and twice in the periodical of the UKC Bloodlines Journal. He played live on television in Dallas KRLD (now KDFW).
================
Maternal link provided by F.A.G. volunteer, Linda (#48291572), September 19, 2016.
Thank you, again, Linda!
Gravesite Details
Preceded by wife Martha Ellen (Gafford) Aldridge in 1996
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