[Ben Holmes]

(17) Oswald walked past his normal bus stop and walked seven blocks to board a different line.

Sheer speculation... The evidence that Oswald got on a bus isn't very credible. There are three witnesses to Oswald getting on a bus... let's examine them:

Mr. McWatters, bus driver - according to the Dallas Police (CE 2003, pg 293) McWatters identified Oswald as the one on the bus... but according to his testimony, he thought a teenager named Milton Jones was the one he saw. He also testified that he picked up "Oswald" at Elm & Houston – although Bugliosi argues that Oswald walked past that bus stop. McWatters also gave Oswald an alibi in his earliest statement – his affidavit puts Oswald off the bus later than the Tippit murder.

Mary Bledsoe - former landlady for Oswald - testified that she'd seen Oswald on the bus, "looking like a maniac," his shirt undone, his "sleeve was out here," he was dirty, he "looked so bad in his face, and his face was so distorted." Mrs. Bledsoe clearly despised Oswald, and could hardly be considered a credible witness in her description. She also gives evidence that she was NOT on the bus at the time, since there's a critical anachronism found in her testimony:

Quote:Mr. BALL - Was there traffic? Was the traffic heavy?
Mrs. BLEDSOE - Oh, it was awful in the city, and then they had roped off that around where the President was killed, shot, and we were the first car that come around there, and then all of us were talking about the man, and we were looking up to see where he was shot and looking---and then they had one man and taking him already got him in jail, and we got----"Well, I am glad they found him." 
Mr. BALL - You were looking up at where?
Mrs. BLEDSOE - At where the boy was shot.
Mr. BALL - You mean the Texas Book Depository? 
Mrs. BLEDSOE - Yes, uh-huh.
Mr. BALL - School Book Depository?
Mrs. BLEDSOE - Uh-huh, because we were right four blocks from there, you see.

(Testimony can be found here.)

As Don Willis has pointed out: No one just entering Dealey, on a bus, around 12:40pm, would have been "looking up" at the depository, as a scene of shooting. The building had been mentioned only on the police radio, at that point, not on public TV or radio. And the area had not yet been "roped off", as Mrs. Bledsoe said that it was when they passed: "By approximately 1:00 the crowd is kept back from the front of the [depository], though not yet behind rope barricades" (photo caption, page 519, "Pictures of the Pain").

This anachronism shows that Mrs. Bledsoe was hardly a credible witness at all.


Milton Jones, a 17 year old - who stated that a person who might have been Oswald got on the bus about 6 blocks before Houston Street (Did Oswald walk six blocks before getting on the bus?). This is in direct conflict with McWatter's testimony. The only reason that Milton Jones gave for his belief that he'd seen Oswald was a conversation he had with McWatters the following Monday - where McWatters said that the man they'd both saw might have been Oswald.

So all we have here is second-hand corroboration for McWatter's statements, not an independent identification of Oswald.

It's interesting to note that both McWatters and Jones stated that this person had a blue jacket on. Jones said: "Light blue", McWatters said "faded blue". And yet, a blue jacket alleged to belong to Oswald was found at the Texas School Book Depository a few weeks later.

Mary Bledsoe, the least credible witness, asserted that he had no jacket on - and the Warren Commission accepted this - despite having two credible, corroborating witnesses that described someone who could not have been Oswald. She was also reading off notes during her Warren commission testimony - prepared by Secret Service Agent, Forrest Sorrels. When Warren commission counsel, Joseph Ball, asked her why she had notes, she responded: "Well, because I forgot what I had to say."

Note that Milton Jones accepted thought that the man he'd seen was Oswald because McWatters thought it was, yet McWatters testified that it was Milton Jones he'd seen!

The evidence for Oswald getting on the Marsalis bus has been all but refuted.

And certainly, Bugliosi's claim that Oswald walked past his normal bus stop rests on unbelievably shaky grounds.

Hardly the sort of "evidence" one would normally look for in determining the guilt of someone.