Post by Gil Jesus on Apr 25, 2022 9:40:33 GMT -5
Another piece of phony “evidence” is the bus transfer reportedly recovered from [Lee Harvey] Oswald.
The transfer was supposedly found on Oswald as he was searched waiting for the first lineup to begin at 4:05 pm.
It was allegedly found by Detective Richard Sims, who took it back up to the office, initialed it and put it in an envelope and left it in a desk of a superior officer of whom he could not remember. (7 H 173)
This is chain-of-custody?
So the police arrested Oswald and didn’t search him for almost an hour and a half after his arrest?
Not quite.
It appears more than likely that this item was planted by police to defend the idea that Oswald fled on his own and not with an accomplice.
Why do I call this transfer phony? Several reasons.
Firstly, Officer M.G. Hall assisted Sims and Boyd with the escort of Oswald to the first and second lineups. His report makes no mention of finding any bus transfer on Oswald.
Secondly, Detective Paul Bentley reported that he personally searched Oswald at the time of his arrest and his pockets were emptied. No mention of a bus transfer.
Thirdly, Oswald was searched a second time as he sat in Capt. Fritz’s office by Dallas policeman C.T. Walker PRIOR TO HIS BEING TAKEN TO THE FIRST LINEUP. Walker "found nothing".
Finally, bus driver McWatters testified that he was stopped by police downtown on the evening of the 22nd:
“Well, they told me that they had a transfer that I had issued that was cut for Lamar St at 1 o’clock and wanted to know if I knew anything about it.” (2 H 268)
The Dallas Police could not have known the location that the transfer was issued. That information is not on the transfer.
The Commission found that out when they questioned McWatters:
MR BALL. If this transfer was issued around the Lamar area or St.Paul–Elm area, is there any place where you could punch and show that particular location?
MR. McWATTERS. No, sir. (2 H 291)
So how could the Dallas Police know WHERE the transfer was punched?
They couldn’t. Unless there had been a previous contact between McWatters and police and he told them about it.
The evidence that police had previous contact with McWatters came through an FBI interview of Roy Milton Jones on March 30, 1964. The FBI interviewed the teenager on the bus to see if he could identify Oswald as the man on the bus. He could not.
But during that interview, Jones told the FBI that “a policeman notified the driver that 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.”
He went on to say that, “he estimated there were about fifteen people on the bus at this time and two police officers boarded the bus and checked each passenger to see if they were carrying any firearms.”
And finally, that “the bus was held up by the police officers for about one hour.” (25 H 900)
Not surprisingly, neither McWatters, Mrs. Bledsoe, nor young Jones were ever asked any questions regarding the events that transpired during the hour that the Dallas Police were on the bus.
For example, what were the names of the two police officers who boarded the bus?
If police were looking for a weapon, normal procedure would have been to force all the passengers to evacuate the bus while the police conducted a search of it.
Was this done?
Was McWatters on board while the search was going on or was he outside the bus?
During this search, did the police have access to the transfer book?
Did McWatters tell them that he had just dropped off a man and given him a transfer?
McWatters testified that he only gave out two transfers to passengers on that run. But did he give police a “sample” of one of his transfers with his punch mark for comparison in case they encountered the man who left the bus?
I know if I were that cop and I was searching buses, I’d want a sample of that transfer in case I ran into that guy. I’d want the transfer number and/or an example of the punch mark.
These are questions the Commission didn’t ask.
It seems that the transfer book and any information regarding it vanished into thin air never to be seen again.
On March 10, 1964, the FBI went looking for Cecil McWatters’ transfer book. Mr. F.F. Yates, Superintendent of the Dallas Transit System reported that “after checking his records, he was unable to find any record of the transfer books that were issued to driver Cecil McWatters on November 22, 1963.” (CD 897, pg. 175)
What a surprise. What happened to McWatters’ transfer book? Did the police take it?
To this day it remains missing.
Conclusion
This is the Commission’s evidence that Oswald boarded a bus after leaving the Texas School Book Depository.
A bus driver who couldn’t identify him
A teenage passenger who couldn’t identify him.
A woman who whose memory was damaged so badly from a previous stroke that she had to read from a script. She couldn’t remember what she had for breakfast.
And there’s the bus transfer that was taken from Oswald after his pockets had been emptied, he had been searched twice and the officer who searched him the second time "found nothing" in his pockets. The same transfer that was issued from a transfer book that vanished into thin air.
This is the “evidence” that forms the foundation of the Commission’s conclusion that Oswald boarded a bus to escape the scene of the assassination.
The transfer was supposedly found on Oswald as he was searched waiting for the first lineup to begin at 4:05 pm.
It was allegedly found by Detective Richard Sims, who took it back up to the office, initialed it and put it in an envelope and left it in a desk of a superior officer of whom he could not remember. (7 H 173)
This is chain-of-custody?
So the police arrested Oswald and didn’t search him for almost an hour and a half after his arrest?
Not quite.
It appears more than likely that this item was planted by police to defend the idea that Oswald fled on his own and not with an accomplice.
Why do I call this transfer phony? Several reasons.
Firstly, Officer M.G. Hall assisted Sims and Boyd with the escort of Oswald to the first and second lineups. His report makes no mention of finding any bus transfer on Oswald.
Secondly, Detective Paul Bentley reported that he personally searched Oswald at the time of his arrest and his pockets were emptied. No mention of a bus transfer.
Thirdly, Oswald was searched a second time as he sat in Capt. Fritz’s office by Dallas policeman C.T. Walker PRIOR TO HIS BEING TAKEN TO THE FIRST LINEUP. Walker "found nothing".
Finally, bus driver McWatters testified that he was stopped by police downtown on the evening of the 22nd:
“Well, they told me that they had a transfer that I had issued that was cut for Lamar St at 1 o’clock and wanted to know if I knew anything about it.” (2 H 268)
The Dallas Police could not have known the location that the transfer was issued. That information is not on the transfer.
The Commission found that out when they questioned McWatters:
MR BALL. If this transfer was issued around the Lamar area or St.Paul–Elm area, is there any place where you could punch and show that particular location?
MR. McWATTERS. No, sir. (2 H 291)
So how could the Dallas Police know WHERE the transfer was punched?
They couldn’t. Unless there had been a previous contact between McWatters and police and he told them about it.
The evidence that police had previous contact with McWatters came through an FBI interview of Roy Milton Jones on March 30, 1964. The FBI interviewed the teenager on the bus to see if he could identify Oswald as the man on the bus. He could not.
But during that interview, Jones told the FBI that “a policeman notified the driver that 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.”
He went on to say that, “he estimated there were about fifteen people on the bus at this time and two police officers boarded the bus and checked each passenger to see if they were carrying any firearms.”
And finally, that “the bus was held up by the police officers for about one hour.” (25 H 900)
Not surprisingly, neither McWatters, Mrs. Bledsoe, nor young Jones were ever asked any questions regarding the events that transpired during the hour that the Dallas Police were on the bus.
For example, what were the names of the two police officers who boarded the bus?
If police were looking for a weapon, normal procedure would have been to force all the passengers to evacuate the bus while the police conducted a search of it.
Was this done?
Was McWatters on board while the search was going on or was he outside the bus?
During this search, did the police have access to the transfer book?
Did McWatters tell them that he had just dropped off a man and given him a transfer?
McWatters testified that he only gave out two transfers to passengers on that run. But did he give police a “sample” of one of his transfers with his punch mark for comparison in case they encountered the man who left the bus?
I know if I were that cop and I was searching buses, I’d want a sample of that transfer in case I ran into that guy. I’d want the transfer number and/or an example of the punch mark.
These are questions the Commission didn’t ask.
It seems that the transfer book and any information regarding it vanished into thin air never to be seen again.
On March 10, 1964, the FBI went looking for Cecil McWatters’ transfer book. Mr. F.F. Yates, Superintendent of the Dallas Transit System reported that “after checking his records, he was unable to find any record of the transfer books that were issued to driver Cecil McWatters on November 22, 1963.” (CD 897, pg. 175)
What a surprise. What happened to McWatters’ transfer book? Did the police take it?
To this day it remains missing.
Conclusion
This is the Commission’s evidence that Oswald boarded a bus after leaving the Texas School Book Depository.
A bus driver who couldn’t identify him
A teenage passenger who couldn’t identify him.
A woman who whose memory was damaged so badly from a previous stroke that she had to read from a script. She couldn’t remember what she had for breakfast.
And there’s the bus transfer that was taken from Oswald after his pockets had been emptied, he had been searched twice and the officer who searched him the second time "found nothing" in his pockets. The same transfer that was issued from a transfer book that vanished into thin air.
This is the “evidence” that forms the foundation of the Commission’s conclusion that Oswald boarded a bus to escape the scene of the assassination.