Commission Exhibit No. 2874, James Standard, reporter, Oklahoma City Times,

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Commission Exhibit No. 2874, James Standard, reporter, Oklahoma City Times,

On June 10, 1964, the President's Commission On the Assassination of President Kennedy received a telegram from Mrs. Shirley Martin, of Hominy, Oklahoma, in which she stated that Mr. William Koester, an Oklahoma City detective told one Jim Standard, an Oklahoma City reporter, that there were many things that he, Keester, had to say about the attempted assassination of Major General Edwin A . Walker. Mr. Keester was reported to have said, however, that he was afraid to tell Mr . Standard what those things were.

On June 30, 1964, Mr . J. Lee Rankin, General Counsel for the Commission, requested interviews of Mr. Standard and Mr . Keester to determine whether or not there is any truth in the allegations made by Mrs . Martin. These interviews are reported hereinafter.

On July 3, 1964, Mr . James Standard, reporter, Oklahoma City Times, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, who advised he had been interviewed previously concerning his coverage of the events following the assassination of President Kennedy at Dallas, Texas, stated that several weeks following his return to Oklahoma City on November 25, 1963, he had chanced to talk to William R. Keester, a former detective on the Oklahoma City Police Department, then employed as a private investigator.

On the occasion of this conversation, Mr. Standard said Keester told him he had done some private investigative work in partnership with Cliff Roberts for General Clyde J . Watts, Oklahoma City attorney, and counsel for General Edwin A . Walker. The assignment had related to the attempted shooting of General Walker at Dallas, Texas, in the spring of 1963, and had involved investigation by Keester and Robert. at Dallas, Texas .

Mr. Standard said that, as his conversation with Keester was prior to that time when Oswald definitely had been established as the one attempting the assassination of General Walker, he was interested in any information which Keester and Roberts might have developed, and had indicated this to Keester . Keester, who had then stated he might have to return to Dallas on the same matter, promised to give Mr. Standard information for a story, unless such should be prohibited either by General Watts, by whom he had been retained, or by General Walker. This, Mr. Standard said, was the reason that Keester had not related any details to him in this matter of the attempted shooting of General Walker--the story would await possible additional investigation and clearance by Generals Watts and Walker .

Mr. Standard said that the later developments concerning Lee Harvey Oswald were such that he had not pursued this matter with Keester thereafter.

Mr . Standard said he had related this to Mrs. Shirley Martin, of Hominy, Oklahoma, when she had called him from Hominy. She had called, as she had numerous times in the past, to ask questions of Mr. Standard, and to tell of "interesting things," as Mr . Standard put it . Mr . Standard said that shortly following the assassination, he had visited Mrs. Martin in Hominy for the purposes of obtaining material for a feature story which he had prepared concerning her investigative activities relating to the assassination. Long since, he said, he has merely filed away anything she has directed to him . He felt that Mrs. Martin has supplied him with copies of almost every paper she has prepared.

It was in this most recent telephone conversation with Mrs. Martin, which she had initiated, that Mr . Standard said he had mentioned the Keester conversation to her. He said he had related no more than the contact with Keester as he had described. If Mrs . Martin had inferred anything beyond this, Mr . Standard said that it was in her failure to understand, or of her imagination.

Mr . Standard advised he has no information which "could indicate that any person, other than Lee Harvey Oswald, made the assassination attempt on General Edwin A.
Walker.

Concerning William R. Keester, Mr . Standard said that he still is engaged in private investigative work at Oklahoma City, insofar as he knew. He has been so engaged since his discharge from the Oklahoma City Police Department in the spring of 1963 . Initially, he had operated in partnership with Cliff Roberts, as the K & R Investigation Service, but Roberts now is employed as an agent by the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation, and may be presumed no longer active in the partnership. Keester's principal accounts have been Looney, Watts, Looney, Nichols, and Johnson, Attorneys, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma ; and Cooper, Lawrence and Gullett, also Attorneys, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.