Justification For Killing (67 page)

The Warren Commission
attorney asks, “Did he see you?”

“
No.”

“
Did you look at this man
very long?”

“
I didn’t look at him at
all, I only glanced at him as he walked on the bus.”

“
After he took a seat did
you have an occasion to look at him?”

“
No, as I said, I did not
want to see him.”

“
Why?”

“
I just didn’t like
him.”

“
He only stayed at your
house five days, is this right?”

“
Uh-huh.”

“
Did he say or do
something to make you mad at him?”

“
No, I just didn’t like
his looks.”

The Warren Commissions
only witness for substantiating Oswald’s presence on the bus was
Mary Bledsoe, an elderly widow who lives at 621 North Marsalis
Street (Mrs. Bledsoe first met Lee Harvey Oswald in early October
1963 when he had rented a room in her house. He stayed there for
less than a week. This is the first time she has supposedly seen
him since then.)

Her account, however,
differed from two other witnesses on the bus: the bus driver, Cecil
J. McWatters and Milton Jones (a part-time student attending the
morning classes at Dallas Technical High School) who was sitting
near the front of the bus. McWatters and Jones agree the man who
boards the bus was wearing a jacket. Mrs. Bledsoe testifies the man
she saw, Oswald is in shirtsleeves, and he boarded the bus taking a
seat near the front of the bus -- immediately behind Jones. Mr.
McWatters said the man sat in the back of the bus. The Commission
accepts Mrs. Bledsoe’s testimony over McWatters and
Jones.

The bus was headed west
toward Dealey Plaza; it ran into a bumper-to-bumper traffic jam,
bringing all traffic to a stop. Mr. McWatters testified to the
Warren Commission attorney, Mr. Ball, that once the bus had become
entangled in traffic a woman asked if she could get off because she
had to catch a train at Union Station, four blocks south of Dealy
Plaza on Houston Street. She asked, and received a transfer ticket,
telling the driver she would reboard the bus if he were able to
proceed through the traffic tie-up. Mr. McWatters further testified
another man said he was getting off the bus also, and he wanted a
transfer. The driver thought this strange since he had only got on
the bus two blocks earlier.

“
This all occurred at the
intersection near Lamar Street? Lamar is only three blocks from the
corner of Houston and Elm?”

“
That is correct,”
answered Mr. McWatters.

“
Did you later go to
police headquarters and witness a lineup?”

“
Yes.”

“
Did you identify Lee
Harvey Oswald?”

“
No, I identified one of
the men in the lineup that was of the same build as the man who got
on my bus between Griffin and Field Street, but I never said he was
Oswald.”

“
Did you know if the man
you identified in the lineup was Oswald, the man who boarded your
bus?”

“
No sir, I was never told
whether it was him or not.”

“
Okay, let me get this
straight – later that afternoon Mr. McWatters you were taken to the
Dallas Police headquarters and shown a lineup. Lee Harvey Oswald
was in the group of four men. You were asked if any of the four men
was the man who boarded your bus at Griffin Street, received a
transfer ticket and got off at Lamar Street.” Mr. Ball, attorney
for the Warren Commission asked. “Anyway, you were not able to
identify any man in the lineup as the passenger?”

The bus driver Mr.
McWatters answered, “No sir.”

Two blocks to the west
Rocky Jolliet, walking as fast as humanly possible south on Lamar,
had beaten Oswald to the Greyhound Bus Station and was now,
breathing hard but resting comfortably in the car with Lonnie Joe
was awaiting Oswald’s arrival across the street at the taxi
stand.

After leaving McWatters
bus, the official story, as now taken as fact, states Oswald walked
two blocks south to the Greyhound bus station at the corner of
Lamar and Commerce Street. He walks up to a cab and says to William
Whaley, the cab driver, “May I have this cab?”

“
You sure can, get
in.”

Instead of opening the
rear passenger door, the man opens the front passenger door and
gets in next to the driver. Mr. Whatley explains this is done
frequently and is okay with his company.

It is approximately twenty
minutes before one o’clock; records of The Warren Commission
establish Lee Harvey Oswald obtained a ride from a taxicab parked
in front of the Greyhound bus station. Proof of this taxicab ride
was provided by the driver’s taxi log for Friday the 22nd, which
showed a trip for a single passenger from the Greyhound Bus Station
to the 500 Block of North Beckley.

Mr. Whatley’s records
showed the taxi ride lasted from 12:30 p.m. to 12:45 p.m. If the
times he recorded were correct, it would mean Oswald boarded the
cab at the exact time an assassin shot JFK from the window of the
Texas School Book depository about seven blocks away. Obviously,
the assassin could not have been Oswald.

The Warren Commission
explained this apparent inconsistency by saying the taxi driver
recorded his trips by quarter-hour intervals regardless of their
actual length. Using the same log the Commission could have proven
Mr. Whatley may have been logging actual trip data. A look at his
entire log show he had pickups and discharges at 7:40, 8:10, 9:25,
11:05 and 11:35. Further, Whatley testified just as he shifted his
taxi into low gear to leave the bus station, an elderly woman
approached his driver side window and asked Mr. Whatley if he would
get her a cab. Whatley’s passenger, presumably Lee Harvey Oswald,
opens the cab door and tells the lady, “I am in no hurry, you can
have my cab.” The lady says she appreciated the gesture, but the
driver could call another cab for her.

Does anyone else seem to
think it strange the passenger’s behavior in this instance was
peculiar? Especially since this man has just assassinated the
President of the United States and was attempting to flee the scene
of the crime? This all seems farfetched; however, the Warren
Commission would eventually conclude Oswald, was without a doubt,
the passenger Mr. Whatley drove from the Greyhound Bus Station to
North Beckley at a couple of minutes past 12:30 the afternoon of
November the 22nd. To come to this conclusion, the Warren
Commission would rely solely on the testimony of the taxi driver
Mr. Whatley.

Ten minutes after the
Presidential shooting, the staff at the Parkland Hospital emergency
room was prepared to receive John Kennedy, case ‘24740, white male,
suffering from gunshot wounds to the back and neck.’

It was long until the
mortally wounded President Kennedy was wheeled into the emergency
room at Parkland Hospital. A couple of minutes later, Secret
Service Agent Clint Hill, the agent who had earlier been spread
eagled on the rear of the Presidential limousine, was now walking
around the emergency room in a wild-eyed, disoriented fashion,
waving his .38 caliber service revolver over his head threatening
to shoot someone. Robbie Newman the head nurse in the trauma room
spoke to Hill and tried to calm him down, “I can tell you agent,
whoever shot the President is not in this emergency room. That I
can assure you.” Hill huffed, stared at her and attempted to say
something, but thought better of it and leaves.

Police broadcast over the
police airwaves a description of the suspect in the President
Kennedy assassination. The description was for, “a white male, age
approximately thirty to thirty-five, slim build, height around five
feet ten inches, weight estimated to be around one hundred
sixty-five pounds possibly armed and dangerous.” The time of
broadcast: 12:45 p.m.

About this same time, J.D.
Tippit was reportedly seen sitting in his police car at a Good Luck
Oil Company (Gloco) gas station in Oak Cliff.

Transcripts of the
Dictaphone belts of the Dallas police dispatcher indicated Officer
J.D. Tippit was instructed to go to the central Oak Cliff area, and
was to remain on the alert for any emergency. Oak Cliff was about
four miles southwest from Dealey Plaza.

Records indicated a
man by the name of Eugene Brodley was arrested a couple of minutes
after the shooting in the Dal-Tex Building. The Dal-Tex Building
was on the east of Houston just across the street from the TSBD on
the corner of Houston and Elm. This was the same building where
Abraham Zapruder had his dress factory. Police say Brodley was
acting suspiciously (in what way was never disclosed) but after
questioning he was released after he used a fictitious name (James
Braden), and convinces the FBI, Secret Service and Dallas Police he
was only making a phone call. (It was later learned Brodley spent
the night of the 21st of November at the sleazy Little Havana Motel
in Dallas. This, in and of itself, would not seem significant;
however, Joe Camponella, who had strong ties with Carlos Mancini,
owns the Little Havana. Carlos Mancini, as we know, was sitting in
the Carousel Club on November the 21st
talking with Jack Ruby. If Carlos Mancini had possible links
to the Cosa Nostra, it is highly probable Brodley did too. Did
Brodley actually direct the assassination?

An interesting report by a
witness Laura Norton said she saw Lee Harvey Oswald make a phone
call from a pay phone in the Clean and Wash Launderette at Davis
and West Jefferson. The time was 12:47 p.m.

An officer radios the
Police Dispatcher, “Has Governor Connelly been shot?” He got no
response. He asks the question, “What are the police supposed to do
at the Dallas Trade Mart?” Obviously, the Dallas police station was
in a state of panic. The clock on the station wall shows the time:
12:49 p.m.

The Police Dispatcher
received a radio call from J.D. Tippit, who stated he was at
Lancaster and Eighth in central Oak Cliff. Dispatcher instructs him
to “be at ready for any emergency that comes in.” Officer Tippit in
patrol car number ten, radios he has moved as directed and will be
available for any emergency. Checking his watch he noticed it was
12:52 p.m. By this time, the police radio, had broadcast several
messages alerting the patrol officers to the suspect some said they
saw at the scene of the assassination — a slender white male, about
thirty years old, approximately five feet ten inches and weighing
around 165 pounds. Does no one make the connection that Tippit,
after roll call this morning, left to go on patrol in car Number
Twenty-Five and is now responding to Headquarters in patrol car
Number Ten!!

Five minutes before one
o’clock the emergency room doctors and nurses at Parkland Hospital
prepared Governor Connelly for surgery.

At the exact moment,
the doctors are working on the Texas Governor over on the Oak Cliff
side of the Houston Street viaduct at the Good Luck Oil Company
(Gloco) service station five witnesses saw J.D. Tippit arrive at
the Gloco station. For roughly five to ten minutes, he appeared to
sit in his car and peered intently at the traffic as it crossed the
bridge outbound from Dallas. Why was he there? No police dispatcher
instructed Tippit to go to that location. Tippit seems to be
watching for something or someone, the question was what? Or whom?
The witnesses failed to see another car pull alongside Tippit’s
car. A short, fat, man with curly black hair, dressed in a dark
blue business suit leaves his car, opened the door and sat down on
the passenger side of Officer Tippit’s car. Tippit and his
passenger left Gloco and sped south on Lancaster. Three minutes
later, at 12:58 p.m., Tippit answers his dispatcher and said he was
at “Ninth
and Jefferson”- a mile south of
the Gloco Station, and less than a mile from Lee Harvey Oswald’s
boarding house. He turned right on Jefferson Boulevard and stopped
at the Top Ten Record Store a few minutes before 1:00 p.m. The
storeowner and his clerk observed Tippit rush into the store and
use the pay phone. He, apparently let the phone ring a couple of
time, but without completing his call or speaking to store
personnel Tippit slammed out the front door, jumped into his idling
patrol car, and sped across Jefferson Boulevard. A couple of
witnesses say he headed north. They say he was in such a hurry he
ran a stop sign, turned right on Sunset and was last seen traveling
at a high rate of speed east – one block from North Beckley. At
this position, Tippit was now only two minutes from Oswald’s
rooming house. Tippit drops off everyone’s grid for the next eight
to ten minutes, where he goes no one has ever
known.

It was not quite one
o’clock; a priest was called for President Kennedy at Parkland
Hospital. At this time, Lee Harvey Oswald was reported to have
arrived at his rooming house. According to Earlene Rodgers, the
housekeeper, he goes to his room. In a few seconds, a Dallas police
car pulls up in front of the rooming house and taps its horn twice,
in rapid succession. Demonstrating, Mrs. Rodgers said, “Beep-beep,
short taps, close together, then the police car drove off. I went
to the window and looked out, you see, I used to work for a
policeman and sometimes they would come by and tell me something
their wives wanted me to know, anyway, it was two policemen in
uniform, but it wasn’t the ones I knew. Their police car was Number
170, and I believe that car was 106.” A report by the FBI in 1964
could not determine the reason for the police car beeping, nor
could they identify whom the policemen might be. Their report
speculated it might have been a police car watching to see if
Oswald returned home.