Phillip Willis

Phillip LaFrance Willis (August 2, 1918 – January 27, 1995) was a World War II veteran and a witness to the assassination of President Kennedy who testified before the Warren Commission.

Early life and military service Phillip Willis was born in Kaufman County, Texas, the son of Alvin Samuel Willis, a school teacher, and Eliza Jane Phillips. He had a brother, Doyle. Standing near the curb at the corner of Houston and Elm Streets, he took a series of color slides with his Argus Autronic I Model 35156-M immediately before, during, and after the assassination. showing the presidential limousine and its occupants, the United States Secret Service agents' follow-up car and occupants, parade onlookers, and the grassy knoll visible in the background.

Testimony and aftermath On July 22, 1964, Willis provided testimony to Wesley J. Liebeler, assistant counsel of the Warren Commission, at the Post Office Building in Dallas. Willis testified to the Commission that his fifth photo was inadvertently snapped when, just after he had prepared his 35mm Argus camera to capture a photo, he was suddenly startled by a gunshot related noise (the first of three shots he remembered hearing), and his finger that was already on the camera shutter button reacted to the gunshot related noise, then, he quickly depressed the button and the fifth photo was captured.

In his fifth photo, some conspiracists allege that the image of a still-unknown person can be seen located up on the grassy knoll, seen near a 3-foot-tall concrete wall and near the 5-foot-tall stockade fence. The angled shape of this still-unknown person's outline has led to that person's image being labeled by authors in books and persons working in the Kennedy assassination research community the "black dog man". In Willis's Warren Commission testimony he stated that shots came from the Texas School Book Depository.

Later life On January 27, 1995, Willis died of leukemia at his home in Dallas. The Texas House passed a resolution to honor him.