Lee Edward Bowers, Jr. (January 12, 1925, Dallas, Texas – August 9, 1966, Dallas, Texas)[1][2] was a key witness to the assassination of John F. Kennedy in Dallas, Texas in 1963.[3] At the moment of the assassination he 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 atop the knoll.[4] 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.
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When asked by the Warren Commission, "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. One was "middle-aged, or slightly older, fairly heavy-set, in a white shirt, fairly dark trousers" and the other was "younger man, about midtwenties, in either a plaid shirt or plaid coat or jacket." One or both were still there when the first police officer arrived "immediately" after the shooting.[5] Many assumed that Bowers meant that these men were standing behind the stockade fence at the top of the grassy knoll.[6]
However, two years later when Bowers was interviewed by assassination researchers Mark Lane and Emile de Antonio for their documentary film Rush to Judgment, he clarified that these two men were standing in the opening between the pergola and the stockade fence, and that "no one" was behind the fence when the shots were fired.[7] Bowers said,
These two men were standing back from the street somewhat at the top of the incline and were very near two trees which were in the area. And one of them, from time to time as he walked back and forth, disappeared behind a wooden fence which is also slightly to the west of that. These two men to the best of my knowledge were standing there at the time of the shooting.
Photographs of the grassy knoll during the assassination show Dealey Plaza groundskeeper Emmett Hudson and a younger man, whom Hudson estimated was in his late twenties,[8] standing on the stairway leading from Elm Street up to the stockade fence.[9][10] Bowers was not sure if he could see the older man after the shootings, and a photograph shows Hudson sitting down on the steps at that time.[11]
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.[1]
Bowers died in August , 1966, when his car left an empty road and struck a concrete bridge abutment near Midlothian, Texas.[12][13] It has often been claimed that his death was a murder, but investigator David Perry concludes that there is no basis for this belief.[14]
Bowers was played by Pruitt Taylor Vince in the 1991 film JFK.
