Mary Bledsoe and the Bus Pt. 1
By John Washburn
This article deals with anomalies in Commission testimonies of police officers. And also previously uncommented upon side comments from citizen witnesses, such as Mary Bledsoe, Lee Oswald’s former landlady, and the bus driver Cecil McWatters.
What emerges from all this is that the Marsalis Street bus that Oswald was said to have been on for 4 minutes, that bus was singled out for different treatment than other buses. And also witnesses Mary Bledsoe and Roy Milton Jones described someone better resembling perhaps Larry Crafard, who worked for Jack Ruby, than Lee Oswald.
My prior articles have set out how Officers Angell, Parker, Lewis and Nelson were at the ends of strategic viaducts, meaning routes out of Dealey Plaza. But that none of those positions were by overt order as a reaction to the shots fired at Kennedy. Indeed, R. C. Nelson was in place before 12:30pm, the time of the shooting.
Commission Exhibit 2645, which was an inventory of police officer movements at around 1:00 pm on 22 November, refers to roadblocks set up in Northeast Dallas, North Dallas and Northwest Dallas in response to the assassination. Those were north and east of the Trinity River.
But the logical place to place roadblocks, given the routes out of Dealey Plaza, would have been south and west of the Trinity River. But instead of that, several DPD officers were already on that side of the river, out of District. The opposite of setting up a roadblock is being in position to assist a getaway.
II
Below is an FBI map of the supposed getaway route taken by Oswald. But blue stars have been added for the places, where Nelson, J. D. Tippit, Lewis and Parker were: from the top, Commerce St Viaduct (Gloco Service Station), Houston St Viaduct, Cadiz Viaduct, Corinth Viaduct. A green star is the common location of Tippit and Angell at Lansing and Eighth (at different times). A yellow star is where Angell then went. The red line is Tippit’s route from Top Ten Records, up Bishop, along Sunset to Beckley and 10th, dotted for the final stage to the murder site where he was killed at 1:09pm. The purple dot is Luby’s where William Mentzel was. The red dot is where Mentzel was cruising at 1:07pm. The black star is where Jerry Hill says he was at approximately 1:21pm.
The map also illustrates that, if Nelson in his position, heard the gunshots at 12:30 pm then service station workers at Gloco could have as well. The time of arrival of Nelson in Dealey Plaza, his then departure and then re-arrival via the Houston Street viaduct would be consistent with that scenario, both timewise and direction. With the one-way system, a car would leave via Commerce Street Viaduct in the Oak Cliff direction and loop back via Houston Street Viaduct. The time between his “clear” and “on south end Houston Street viaduct” is 11-12 minutes hence he’s by then coming from the south. Google maps, which doesn’t assume police car travel time, has 14 minutes for that journey which averaging 20 mph, 11 minutes would be 25 mph.
A possible scenario to consider is that that it wasn’t Oswald escaping Downtown Dallas on the Marsalis bus but an imposter, with the objective of giving the appearance Oswald had left Downtown Dallas by that method, to visit 1026 N Beckley and then go to the Texas Theater. That would breathe meaning into the presence of Tippit at the Gloco station.
There were two assassination attempts prior to Dallas. Chicago on 2 November 1963 (motorcade cancelled by the Secret Service) and Tampa on 18 November 1963 which did not take place; perhaps due to the heavy protection Kennedy had that day. A possible patsy for the Chicago plan has been identified as Thomas Vallee, and for Tampa, Gilberto Lopez. Click here for document.
To address the possibility of an imposter, then close attention needs to be on the full statements of witnesses on the bus. Particularly so because whomsoever was on the bus got off Downtown before reaching Gloco, and Tippit left Gloco.
What is relevant to this line of inquiry are descriptions of the passenger identified as Oswald, the time he got off and the circumstances around the time that he got off.
ON THE BUS
Mary Bledsoe – eyewitness
Mary Bledsoe, Lee Oswald’s former landlady in Dallas for the five days from 7 October 1963, was the only witness in any way relevant to the shooting of Tippit who knew Oswald before 22 November 1964. She was on the Marsalis bus when the person said to have been Oswald got on and then got off.
Mary Bledsoe’s testimony of 2 April 1964 (Vol VI, p 439) says two conflicting things concerning the facial appearance of the person.
“He was looking for a job, and called on the phone, wanted different ones, and I got the book, and papers, and tried to look for him a job, because he was a nice-looking boy, and wanted a job”. [p404],
But she later said of him on the bus.
“Mr. Ball. Did he look at you as he went by? Did he look at you?
Mrs. Bledsoe. I don't know. I didn't look at him. That is—I was just— he looked so bad in his face, and his face was so distorted. [p409]”.
Although Oswald under arrest an hour later had a black eye from his arrest, his appearance stood up remarkably well to press coverage and questioning at the police department in film and TV footage. His face is only ‘distorted’ at the point Jack Ruby shoots him. It follows that whoever Mary Bledsoe saw on the bus probably wasn’t Oswald . It may have been Crafard. Any facial distortion could be explained by the fact Crafard had no front teeth.
Mary Bledsoe came forward as a witness as a result of knowing that Oswald had been arrested, rather than simply recognising him on the bus.
(Photo of Crafard on left and Oswald on right)
Roy Milton Jones – eyewitness
Roy Milton Jones was also a passenger on the Marsalis bus. He was an 11th grade student of 17 who regularly used the bus and knew driver Cecil McWatters. This is from his FBI statement (CE2641) of 20 March 1964.
“JONES advised that before the bus was stopped the driver made his last passenger pickup six blocks before Houston Street, that one was a blonde-haired woman, and the other was a dark-haired man. He said the man sat in the seat directly behind him and the woman occupied the seat further to the rear of the bus.
“JONES said that after the driver mentioned this and from his recollection of OSWALD's picture as it appeared on television and in the newspapers, he thought it was possible it could have been OSWALD. He emphasized, however, that he did not have a good view of this man at any time and could not positively identify him as being identical with LEE HARVEY OSWALD. He said he was inclined to think it might have been OSWALD only because the bus driver told him so.”
“He said the man was not carrying any packages and he certainly did not see a gun in his possession at any time. He said the man did not seem to appear nervous or excited and seemed to him to be an ordinary passenger.” (Emphasis added)
That doesn’t merely indicate that the person might not have been Oswald, but it also indicates that what Mary Bledsoe saw as a “distorted face” wasn’t due to nervous pressure and distress of Oswald being on the run.
Furthermore, a Commission memorandum, reference 100-10461 (p 26) (Click here for document) states that bus driver Cecil McWatters on 26 March 1964 (6 days after Milton Jones’ statement above) withdrew his identification of Oswald and said that the person he recognised was Roy Milton Jones.
Consistent with all of that, the first police description of the fugitive from the Tippit murder scene put out on police radio at 1:17pm (corrected time) was a man with black hair. Also, Domingo Benavides a witness at the Tippit murder scene who as well as being a mechanic was a mortuary barber, said the assailant wasn’t Oswald as the assailant had a square neckline and Oswald’s was tapered--a military-type cut. (Vol. VI, p. 444).
The stop at which “Oswald” got on the bus at Field and Elm was the closest stop to Jack Ruby’s Carousel Club at Field and Commerce (the streets ran parallel, Elm, Main, Commerce). That is where Larry Crafard said he slept the night of 21/22 Nov 1963 - and slept in past the time of the assassination – but then left Dallas in a rush on 23 November 1963.
The rest of this article explores evidence that may explain when, how and why did that person, assumed to be Crafard, then got off the bus when they did, and then do all of the things attributed to Oswald.
In normal traffic conditions the bus would have arrived at Gloco between 12:45 and 12:50pm. But the traffic was not normal. As covered later.
A logical deduction, given the witnesses who saw Tippit arrive and then leave Gloco at speed heading in the direction of Lancaster Avenue, is that the person would get off the bus – by being removed - if Tippit was no longer waiting.
If Tippit was no longer waiting, then he’d be a marked man if other confederates had by then committed capital crimes. Events after Kennedy was shot, point to elements of an intended plan falling apart, with the result that Tippit was shot and Oswald, the patsy, was not killed at the Texas Theater.
The Commission line was that only Oswald and a “blonde lady” got off the Marsalis bus at the same time in the vicinity of Lamar/Griffin and Elm. But once again, the evidence of Mary Bledsoe is interesting, and has been missed by the Commission’s assertions and most if not all subsequent researchers. In two separate statements in her testimony she lets something slip. Cecil McWatters the driver also let somethings slip.
III
The Commission timeline for Oswald’s purported movements required 4 minutes for the bus to travel from Elm at Field to Elm at Lamar. The sequence of parallel cross streets from east to west being Field, Murphy, Griffin, Poydras, Lamar. (Murphy and Poydras are now built over at Elm but still present elsewhere).
Commission Report page 190 sets out that:
“In a reconstruction of this bus trip, agents of the Secret Service and the FBI walked the seven blocks from the front entrance of the Depository Building to Murphy and Elm three times, averaging 6.5 minutes for the three trips. A bus moving through heavy traffic on Elm from Murphy to Lamar was timed at 4 minutes.
“If Oswald left the Depository Building at 12:33 p.m., walked seven blocks directly to Murphy and Elm, and boarded a bus almost immediately, he would have boarded the bus at approximately 12:40 p.m. and left it at approximately 12:44 p.m. (See Commission Exhibit No.1119-A, p. 158.)”
That timeline was tight as it needed to sit with Oswald then walking from Elm, over Main and Commerce along Lamar and getting a cab from Greyhound Bus Station at 12:48pm.
However, a detailed read of testimonies shows that simulation doesn’t fit the facts. One obvious problem is that the 4-minute simulation for the Commission was a bus “moving through heavy traffic”. Those were not the conditions on 22nd November 1963. The traffic was static because there was obstruction on Elm Street in Dealey Plaza - the road lanes Kennedy was shot in. Elm was three lanes one way, buses in the right-hand curb-side lane would stack back eastwards along Elm.
Furthermore, Roy Milton Jones said in his statement to the FBI that the bus was held up for about an hour not merely because of traffic conditions but also because police got on and detained them. This is his FBI statement on 30 March 1964 (CE2641).
“JONES advised that the bus proceeded in the direction of Houston Street and, approximately four blocks before Houston Street, was completely stopped by traffic which was backed up in this area.
“He recalled that at this time a policeman notified the driver the President had been shot and he told the driver no one was to leave the bus until police officers had talked to each passenger. JONES estimated that there were more than about fifteen people on the bus at this time and two police officers boarded the bus and checked each passenger to see if any were carrying firearms.”
“JONES estimated the bus was held up by the police officers for about one hour and, after they were permitted to resume, they crossed the Marsalis Bridge.”
None of that appears in the Commission Report as a matter of interest despite the questions it begs.
Mary Bledsoe, said in her Commission examination that she got off the bus and got onto another bus that was behind with the “blonde woman” who’d got off when ‘Oswald‘ got off as the blonde woman was anxious that the holdup would make her miss her 1:00pm train from Union Station, which is on Houston Street. This is the exchange,
“Mr. BALL. Did she ask for a transfer?
Mrs. BLEDSOE. Yes; she had the man give her one, because she caught the bus before she got to the train station.
Mr. BALL. How do you know that?
Mrs. BLEDSOE. Well, I saw her.
Mr. BALL. You saw her catch another bus?
Mrs. BLEDSOE. She got on when we did. She rode a block.
Mr. BALL. Did anybody get off when the lady got off? Anybody that was going to the train station?
Mrs. BLEDSOE. No.”
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.
(p410)
That blows apart the line that only Oswald and the blonde lady got off. But it is consistent with what is logical. Police boarding a bus would let the women off. Mary Bledsoe’s getting off the bus also throws into to the air the story of only two bus transfers, one for Oswald (and purportedly found on him) and one for the blonde lady. There would have been at least three given that Mary Bledsoe also got off the bus to get on another one.
Cecil McWatters – eyewitness
McWatters’ testimony (Vol II p 62) omits the police getting on the bus as well as omitting Mary Bledsoe getting off. But he does say someone got out of a car and spoke to him. He also says the bus was stalled.
“Mr. BALL. Where were you when you first heard the President had been shot?
Mr. McWATTERS. Well, I was sitting in the bus, there was some gentleman in front of me in a car, and he came back and walked up to the bus and I opened the doorand he said, "I have heard over my radio in my car that the President has been —" I believe he used the word-"has been shot."
Mr. BALL. Is that when you were stalled in traffic?
Mr. McWATTERS. That is right. That is when I was stalled right there.
Mr. BALL. Was that before or after the man got off the bus that asked for the transfer?
Mr. McWATTERS. That was before. In other words, at that time no one had gotten off the bus.
Mr. BALL. What was your location then, near what street?
Mr. McWATTERS. Between Poydras and Lamar, in other words, because I stayed stopped there for, I guess oh, 3 or 4 minutes anyway before I made any progress at that one stop right there and that is where the gentleman got off the bus. fact, I was talking to the man, the man that come out of the car; in other words, he just stepped up in the door of the bus, and was telling me that what he had heard over his radio and that is when the lady who was standing there decided she would walk and when the other gentleman decided he would also get off at that point.”(p265)
“Mr. BALL. Do you remember what he said to you when he asked you for the transfer?
Mr. McWATTERS. Well, the reason I recall the incident, I had—there was a lady that when I stopped in this traffic, who had a suitcase and she said “I have to make a 1 o’clock train at Union Station” she said "I don't believe - from the looks of this traffic you are going to be held up." She said, "Would you give me a transfer and I am going to walk on down," which is about from where I was at that time about 7 or 8 blocks to Union Station and she asked me if I would give her a transfer in case I did get through the traffic if I would pick her up on the way. So, I said, "I sure will." So I gave her a transfer and opened the door and as she was going out the gentleman I had picked up about 2 blocks asked for transfer and got off at the same place in the middle of the block where the lady did.” (P264)
Mary Bledsoe’s affidavit of 23rd November 1963 said
“The traffic was heavy and it took quite some time to travel two or three blocks. During that time someone made the statement that the President had been shotand while the bus was stopped due to the heavy traffic, Oswald got off the bus and I didn’t see him again.”
IV
Therefore the testimonies of Bledsoe and Milton Jones, and the slipping out of things by McWatters don’t accord with the Commission account. The bus was not slow but static, there was an intervention by which people on the bus knew that the president had been shot, and the bus was held for up to an hour by police. ‘Oswald’ got off when a man got out of a car and asked for the bus door to be opened. Roy Milton Jones said that was a policeman.
As to the delay, McWatters in the Dallas Morning News 28 November 1963 said
“By the time we had gone to the middle block of Poydras and Elm, traffic was held up. We were stalled there in the traffic. A man about 55 and dressed in working clothes got out of his car in front of us and walked towards the bus, I knew I hadn’t done anything to offend him.”
McWatters’ testimony also says:
“Mr. McWATTERS. Yes, sir. 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, and that is about even with Griffin Street. In other words, it is a street that dead ends into Elm Street which there is no bus stop at this street, because I stopped across Field Street in the middle of the intersection and it is just a short distance onto Griffin Street, and that is when someone, a man, came up and knocked on the door of the bus, and I opened the door of the bus and he got on.”
So, by all that, Oswald didn’t get off having been on the for bus 4 minutes from where he got on. The normal time to travel those two blocks would be 1-2 minutes. The 3–4-minute delay at that one stop added to the normal travel time would have used up the time allowed of 4 minutes, and the bus had already been stuck in traffic and delayed before that stop.
The Commission time, of only two minutes more than the usual two minutes it would have normally taken, is not long enough for someone to become not only agitated about the delay but agitated enough so that others on the bus would know about it.
But there is another issue. The bus transfer that was purported to have been found in Oswald chest pocket was cut for 1:00pm, and hence valid until 1:15pm. Transfers were cut rounding up to the next quarter hour and valid for the 15 minutes after that. Had any passenger – including Oswald - got off the bus at 12:44pm, then the transfer should have been cut for 12:45pm and hence valid until 1:00pm. So, the transfer rather than supporting the Commission line puts the time of disembarkation somewhere between 12:45 and 1:00pm
As we shall see later, there is relevance in where the bus halted based on this exchange.
Mr. BALL. You were beyond Field and before you got to Griffin?
Mr. McWATTERS. That is right. It was along about even with Griffin Street before I was stopped in the traffic.
Mr. BALL. And that is about seven or, eight blocks from the Texas Book Depository Building, isn't it?
Mr. McWATTERS. Yes, sir. It would be seven, I would say that is seven, it would be about seven blocks.
Mr. BALL. From there?
Mr. McWATTERS. From there, yes, sir.
This part of the testimony with questions from then Rep. Gerald Ford is also clear that the man in the car caused the door to open and ‘Oswald’ and the woman got off.
“Representative FORD. You gave her a transfer?
Mr. McWATTERS. Yes, sir.
Representative FORD. What happened?
Mr. McWATTERS. She got off and by the time when she was talking to me that is when he got up, this gentleman here in the seat got up, at seat "M" got off. In other words, the door was never closed of the bus from the time the gentleman stepped up in the door of that there, in other words, when he said what he did, and got on back in his car, in other words, the lady got off, and the man got off, too, both at the same stop.”(P273)”
McWaters does slip out that his bus was singled out and treated differently traffic-wise. He gives that away as he said that other buses behind him were let through when the authorities ‘opened up a lane’. Wholly consistent with what Mary Bledsoe said.
Mr. BALL. Was traffic still heavy along there?
Mr. McWATTERS. Yes, sir; the traffic was still tied up, but the police, they opened up a lane there, they had so many buses and everything that was tied up, they opened up, moved traffic around that they run quite a few of these buses through there. In other words, from two blocks on this side of where the incident happened they had, in other words, they was turning all the traffic to the right and to the left, in other words, north and south.
Mr. BALL. You went on down to Houston viaduct then?
He later says,
Mr. McWATTERS. Yes, I turned after they finally let—they weren't letting any cars through at that time but they just run a bunch of those buses through there.
Mr. BALL. This is west. You are going west on Elm.
Mr. McWATTERS. In other words, I am going-right here is where the police had all traffic, they weren't allowing anything to go any further than Market Street here. In other words, all the traffic there they were moving was turning either to the right or left, on Market Street. But after they held us up there so long, of course, they run these buses in this right lane here and they did open up and let a bunch of these buses go right on down here to Houston, of course, a lot of them go straight on and a lot of them turn left to Houston Street, a lot of them go under the underpass here. (P266)
He can only have known “quite a few” if - as Milton Jones said - they were held up for a considerable time and saw several other buses overtaking his bus. You wouldn’t know a “bunch of buses” had got through if you’d already got through”.
McWatter’s statement to the FBI on 23 November 1964 put the delay of the bus as “fifteen to twenty minutes”. A question is was that the delay to that one stop, or the whole journey. Click here for document.
V
It is of note that, McWatters was reported in the Dallas Morning News of 28 November 1963, which puts him at Jefferson and Marsalis after 1:30pm.
“The cashier of the Texas Theater immediately called the police- —who had just sped en masse to a false alarm at the Dallas Library branch on Jefferson, further to the east. The police sirens wailed again. Oddly enough it was at the library that McWatters, the bus driver who, unknowingly, had Oswald as a passenger earlier, had his second brush with fate. His bus pulled up at the intersection as a swarm of 10 or 15 police cars zeroed in on the library, *I couldn't imagine what was going on" said McWatters. "Little did I know!*
This incident at the library at Marsalis and Jefferson, appears on the police radio just after 1:30pm. Given the bus in ordinary conditions should have been there at 12:50pm (CE378), then the bus was more than 40 minutes late getting there. That is closer to Milton Jones’ estimate of a delay of up to an hour. Click here for document.
To summarise all that. The bus was more than 4 minutes late, past 12:45pm destroying the Commission timeline. A person, possibly a police officer in civilian clothes approached the bus and alerted people to the fact the President was shot. Mary Bledsoe and the blonde lady also got off at the place Oswald did. The men remaining on the bus were detained for about 40 minutes by other police officers.
A rational deduction is that the man was a policeman in plain clothes and that ‘Oswald’ got off as a result of an intervention that was applied to that bus, not the others.
There was no credible ID of Oswald by Milton Jones or McWatters, and the man Milton Jones saw did not appear distressed, so that is not consistent with Oswald’s face being distorted due to stress or exertion from of long walk at speed from Dealey Plaza. Oswald did not have dark hair, or a distorted face.
Milton Jones also describes the man as wearing a light blue jacket. That is consistent with the Eisenhower jacket supposedly discarded by the assailant at Ballew Texaco Service Station near the Tippit murder scene that was found, despite the persons who saw him running there didn’t see him take it off.
