Bledsoe and 24 hours

[Tony Krome]

Sequence of shots that killed Tippit;

First we see how the gunman surprised Tippit. He shoots three times from the hip like a regular gunslinger;

 Let's hear from Benavides about the three shots that he heard;

Mr. BENAVIDES - The other man was standing to the right side of the car, riders side of the car, and was standing right in front of the windshield on the right front fender. And then I heard the shot. Actually I wasn't looking for anything like that, so I heard the shot, and I just turned into the curb. Looked around to miss a car, I think.
And then I pulled up to the curb, hitting the curb, and I ducked down, and then I heard two more shots. 
Mr. BELIN - How many shots did you hear all told? 
Mr. BENAVIDES - I heard three shots. 

Benavides hears the first shot, then we have a short interval where he has time to swerve, miss a car, hit the kerb, and finally duck before hearing two more shots.

Mr. BELIN - Oh, I see. You heard the shot and pulled in and then what? 
Mr. BENAVIDES - Then I ducked down. 
Mr. BELIN - Then what happened? 
Mr. BENAVIDES - Then I heard the other two shots and I looked up and the Policeman was in, he seemed like he kind of stumbled and fell. 
Mr. BELIN - Did you see the Policeman as he fell? 
Mr. BENAVIDES - Yes, sir.

After the third shot, he looks up and sees Tippit in the process of falling to the ground. We can discount the first shot as being the shot that went through Tippit's head as he would have immediately collapsed before Benavides looked up after the brief interval and third shot.

Just how good was this gunslinger? Shooting three times into the torso from the hip seems possible for a competent gunman, but including a shot to the temple in that burst of three shots seems extraordinary.

Yet we have four shots that hit Tippit ....

 

[Tony Krome]

Back to the Texas Theatre;

The diagram below shows how a movie late-comer is unlikely to access the lower theatre without being seen by Burroughs. This is why Julia Postal pointed out the balcony stairs in the lobby to police when they arrived. The doors to the theatre were closed. They were closed because the movie had started. Burroughs does not have the suspect entering the closed doors or descending the northern stairs from the balcony. If Oswald was driven directly to the theatre, he would have arrived before the doors were closed. Oswald could have been seated in the lower theatre when Brewer's and Postal's suspect ducked in and climbed the stairs in the lobby.

 

So we may have a suspect on the balcony, and it seems, an empty pick-up truck outside with the motor running;

 

[Tony Krome]

Crafard enlisted in the US Army in 1958 and specialised in anti-aircraft and underwent a eight week advanced missile training course. He stated he intended to watch the parade;

Mr. HUBERT. Did you ask Jack's permission to leave to go watch it? 
Mr. CRAFARD. I think we both told Jack that we was going to go watch it. 
Mr. HUBERT. You and Andy did? 
Mr. CRAFARD. Yes; I believe so. 

Andy Armstrong could hear sirens getting louder;

Mr. ARMSTRONG. Yes--I went in and I had to use the restroom, and so I went to the restroom and then I heard a lot of sirens and I listened to the sirens for a second or two and they got louder and they got more sirens, so I decided I would go get my transistor and see what was going on, and that's when I heard that there had been a shooting at the President or something like that. Somebody had tried to assassinate the President, or something, and then I run in and I woke Larry up--Larry was staying there. 
Mr. HUBERT. Who is Larry? 
Mr. ARMSTRONG. Larry Crafard.

Obviously they weren't at the parade. But what happens when Crafard is woken up in the midst of sirens?

Mr. ARMSTRONG. ... I told him somebody shot at the President, and Larry--I noticed the couple of times that I had woke him up he always went back to sleep and he did the same thing this time

Crafard goes back to sleep to the soothing sounds of sirens and thinking aren't I supposed to be at the parade? Later, Andy stated that Crafard got up when he was told the President was actually shot.

Or so Andy Armstrong said, the same Andy Armstrong that Jack Ruby listed as one of his closest friends.

My take is that Crafard was not there, Ruby was later at Parkland, and Andy had their backs

[Joseph McBride]

Andy may just have been lying. Crafard split town in a hurry.

[Tony Krome]

1 hour ago, Joseph McBride said:

Andy may just have been lying. Crafard split town in a hurry.

That's exactly what I am saying;

"My take is that Crafard was not there, Ruby was later at Parkland, and Andy had their backs"

Andy was covering for both Crafard and Ruby who arrived back at the club at a later time than Andy suggested. I do not have Crafard anywhere near the Club when Andy said Crafard was snoozing while sirens were blaring.

[Tony Krome]

If you believe that several Dallas Police officers were confronted with who they thought were Secret Service agents in the immediate aftermath of the shooting, then you must consider that the report of Oswald believing he saw a Secret Service agent to have some merit;

Picture below shows phone location on TSBD first floor;

Regardless of who that "Secret Service agent" may have been, the point is that Oswald related the same theme that members of the DPD later did. Oswald would have had no idea on Sunday morning, when he told SS Kelley, that other Secret Service sighting reports even existed. This statement was one of the last Oswald made before he was gunned down in the basement.

We see that Oswald was by the front entrance, was asked where the phone was, points to the phone, and watched as the person approached the phone. We have an Oswald that is cool and calm when confronted by who he thought was Secret Service. We have an Oswald that is cool and calm when confronted by Officer Baker. What we don't have is a wild maniac according to Bledsoe

Edited June 18, 2021 by Tony Krome

[Tony Krome]

Bookhout reported Oswald as saying he spent 5 to 10 minutes outside the TDBD. Split that time, 7 to 8 minutes, add the encounters with Baker and the "Secret Service agent", and you end up with approx 12:40, the same time that Roger Craig witnessed, who he believed was the man in Fritz's office, hailing a car outside the TSBD.

Bookhout wasn't the only one to report Oswald out front with Bill. Fritz has the same in his notes. So it appears certain that Oswald did in fact say that. The WC has Oswald blocks away up Elm St boarding a bus at around 12:40.

Do you wish to believe Oswald/Craig or go with WC/DPD/Bledsoe?

[Tony Krome]

So how do we deal with the interrogation reports that mention the bus?

The timeline has Oswald arrested, taken to DPD, then interrogated.

Roger Craig has Oswald saying "I told you people I did" at around 5 to 5:30pm Friday afternoon. This would be after the first round of interrogation. Oswald has told something to the people in the first round of interrogation before Craig arrived. That something was relative to Fritz asking him, in Craig's presence, about Craig having seen Oswald's means of departure via a car.

At this point, Fritz has both Oswald's and Craig's accounts that seem to suggest that a car was involved. It follows then, that the information was then passed on to Fritz's boss, Curry, who then passed it on to reporters on Saturday. The individual Bookhout FBI report from the 22nd indeed shows no mention of a bus.

Following the Craig/Fritz/Oswald meeting, and in very short order, McWatters was dragged off his bus;

Mr. McWATTERS - Well, they stopped me; it was, I would say around 6:15 or somewhere around 6:15 or 6:20 that afternoon. 
Mr. BALL - You were still on duty, were you? 
Mr. McWATTERS - Yes, sir. 
Mr. BALL - Still on your bus? 
Mr. McWATTERS - I was on duty but I was on a different line and a different bus.

The DPD quickly arrange a lineup;

Mr. McWATTERS - Yes, sir; when they stopped me over there and took me into the police department there, like I say, it was around 6:15 or 6:20, they took me down before the lineup there and asked me if I could identify anyone in that lineup as getting on my bus that day. 
Mr. BALL - Did they take you down and show you a lineup? 
Mr. McWATTERS - Yes, sir. 

But the bus driver fails to pick out Oswald as passenger. Instead, he picks out Oswald as the closest person that resembled the grinning teenager, Milton Jones;

Mr. BALL - Who was the No. 2 man you saw in the lineup on November 22, 1963? 
Mr. McWATTERS - Well, just like I say, he was the shortest man in the lineup, in other words, when they brought these men out there, in other words, he was about the shortest, and the lightest weight one, I guess, was the reason I say that he looked like the man, because the rest of them were larger men than-- 
Mr. BALL - Well, now, at that time, when you saw the lineup-- 
Mr. McWATTERS - Yes. 
Mr. BALL - Were you under the impression that this man that you saw in the lineup and whom you pointed out to the police, was the teenage boy who had been grinning? 
Mr. McWATTERS - I was, yes, sir; I was under the impression-- 
Mr. BALL - That was the fellow? 
Mr. McWATTERS - That was the fellow. 

At this point, Fritz wasn't about to tell Curry about a busted ID on Oswald. Something more substantial was needed. Enter the bus transfer "found" on Oswald. If there was in fact a bus transfer in Oswald's possession at the time of arrest, Fritz would have known about it and related that to Curry. But we know that Curry only had the negro/car info when asked by reporters about whether Oswald got across town by bus.

It appears, the bus scenario was developed from about 5:30pm Friday but hit a few bumps, for there a many versions of the Oswald journey;

1. A single bus ride home

2. One bus to another bus ride home

3. A single bus and a cab ride home

In the end, they settled for number 3.

[Tony Krome]

The man that banged on the bus door;

Mr. McWATTERS - ..... He was to me just dressed in what I would call work clothes, just some type of little old jacket on

The man buys a ticket;

Mr. BALL - Paid his fare, did he? 
Mr. McWATTERS - Yes, sir; he just paid his fare and sat down on the second cross seat on the right. 

I have read a lot about Oswald to know that he was quite frugal, and utilised bus transportation regularly. If Oswald was transporting himself between his home and the TSBD, you would expect him to have a bus pass. Buying individual tickets is not an economical method.

The man that banged on the bus door, according to the WC, was Oswald. He had just walked 7 blocks up Elm to board a bus;

Mr. McWATTERS - ..... As I left Field Street, I pulled out into the, in other words, the first lane of traffic and traffic was beginning to back up then; in other words, it was blocked further down the street, and after I pulled out in it for a short distance there I come to a complete stop, and when I did, someone come up and beat on the door of the bus

"Oswald" had the opportunity, walking 7 blocks, to see that traffic was held up along Elm.

So the bus he selects, and pays for, would obviously, to him, be caught in traffic. Not only that, his bus of choice would take him straight back to the corner of Elm and Houston. Further, and this is most bizarre, the bus right behind McWatters bus, was the Beckley bus.

If you insist that it was Oswald that boarded the McWatters bus, then it is quite obvious he didn't live on Beckley.

Mr. BALL - Seven blocks, Beckley is seven blocks west of Marsalis, is that correct? 
Mr. McWATTERS - Yes. 
Mr. BALL - Your bus line doesn't run down Beckley? 
Mr. McWATTERS - No, sir. 

[Karl Kinaski]

Quote Garrison ON THE TRAIL OF THE ASSASSINS

 

 Roger Craig,
honored in 1960 for his performance as a Dallas deputy sheriff,
remembered that a few minutes after the assassination he observed the
Dallas police questioning a Latin man on Elm Street. As Craig recalled it,
the police, frustrated when the man did not answer their questions because
he could not speak English, released him. Some minutes afterwards, Craig
saw a Nash Rambler station wagon pull up in front of the Depository and
recognized the driver as the Latin man who had just been released by the
police. Before he could do anything, a young white man—whom Craig later
identified as Lee Oswald—came running down from in front of the
Depository, jumped in, and the station wagon tore off.*

Footnote: (ON THE TRAIL ...)

* A few months after I (Garrison) had read his testimony, Craig came to see me in New Orleans. An alert and
idealistic young man who looked more like a cheerleader than a deputy sheriff, Craig had been
driven out of Dallas by the law enforcement establishment. His honest testimony had doomed his law
enforcement career and he had decided to leave Dallas after someone took a shot at him, grazing his
scalp. I got him a job at the Willard Robertson Volkswagen company, and Craig met frequently with
me, reviewing in detail what he had seen at Dealey Plaza and at Dallas police headquarters after the
assassination.
Shortly after he learned that a suspect had been arrested, Craig told me, he went straight to Dallas
police headquarters to see if he could help the homicide department with the identification. He told
Captain Will Fritz, the head of homicide who was running the investigation, about the Nash Rambler
incident he had seen. The two of them then went into Fritz’s private office, where Oswald was sitting.
Fritz pointed at Craig and told Oswald, “This man saw you leave.” Oswald replied, “I told you
people I did.” Fritz told Oswald to take it easy, that he was just trying to find out what happened.
Then Fritz said, “What about the car?” Oswald answered, “That station wagon belongs to Mrs. Paine
—don’t try to tie her into this.”

Close Quote Garrison ON THE TRAIL OF THE ASSASSINS 

 

IMO The reason of the McWatters-Bus-Coverstory-piece was twofold: Blame Oswald and protect the Paines. Note: The tax return records of the Paines are still classified for reasons of "National Security." 

 

Edited June 11, 2021 by Karl Kinaski

[Tony Krome]

On 6/9/2021 at 10:25 AM, Tony Krome said:

 

Kelley's statement above is backed up by Sorrels;

its very important to know that Oswald was shown a "book of identification" that indicated to him that the phone seeker was Secret Service. The same thing happened to Police Officer Joe Smith;

Mr. SMITH. Yes, sir; I checked all the cars. I looked into all the cars and checked around the bushes. Of course, I wasn't alone. There was some deputy sheriff with me, and I believe one Secret Service man when I got there.
I got to make this statement, too. I felt awfully silly, but after the shot and this woman, I pulled my pistol from my holster, and I thought, this is silly, I don't know who I am looking for, and I put it back. Just as I did, he showed me that he was a Secret Service agent. 

Police Officer D. V. Harkness was also confronted by "Secret Service";

Mr. BELIN - Then you went around to the back of the building? 
Mr. HARKNESS - Yes, sir. 
Mr. BELIN - Was anyone around in the back when you got there? 
Mr. HARKNESS - There were some Secret Service agents there. I didn't get them identified. They told me they were Secret Service. 

It is truly remarkable that Oswald and Officer Joe Smith were shown Secret Service ID within minutes of the shooting.

 

 

[Tony Krome]

On 6/10/2021 at 2:00 PM, Tony Krome said:

The man that banged on the bus door;

Mr. McWATTERS - ..... He was to me just dressed in what I would call work clothes, just some type of little old jacket on

 

McWatters and the cab driver have jackets on their man;

 

 

Bledsoe saw a hole in "Oswald's" shirt at the elbow, which means no jacket;

Mr. BALL - Now, what color shirt did he have on? 
Mrs. BLEDSOE - He had a brown shirt. 
Mr. BALL - And unraveled? 
Mrs. BLEDSOE - Hole in his sleeve right here [indicating]. 
Mr. BALL - Which is the elbow of the sleeve? That is, you pointed to the elbow? 
Mrs. BLEDSOE - Well, it is. 
Mr. BALL - And that would be which elbow, right or left elbow? 
Mrs. BLEDSOE - Right. 

[Tony Krome]

Back to the Texas Theatre;

The person that theatre employees suspected ran up into the balcony didn't just vanish. Note below that the Deputy Sheriff is heading up to the balcony level, and before entering the balcony proper, notes that that an officer is holding a white man. The movie was running at this time, yet there is a white man held by an officer outside the the theatre area, and before Oswald was arrested downstairs;