TIMELINE of a Manufactured Getaway

TIMELINE of a Manufactured Getaway

Nov 22
12:30: Bledsoe catches bus home from parade. Sees former lodger whose name she cannot recall. He is wearing torn brown shirt and ragged trousers and looks like a "maniac".

? Arrives home. Tells neighbors JFK shot. They reply he was killed. Young boy comes in and turns on radio. She hears that a suspect named Oswald has been arrested in a brown shirt and begins to convince herself he must have been the former lodger she had seen on the bus.

5:00-5:30*: Craig IDs Oswald as person he saw get into Rambler between 10 and 15 minutes after the assassination.

? Son Porter arrives home. Rings police after discussion with his mother.

? Someone (possibly Graves) From the Special Services Bureau goes to her house with Oswald's shirt for identification.

? McWatters is hauled in. Transfer is obtained and later claimed to have been found in Oswald's pocket prior to first line-up at about 4:45**. We can be certain this did not happen as it was not raised at the interrogation which immediately followed the line up. Instead, this interrogation is where the Craig eye witness account comes to light. The first mention of a bus appears during the interrogation commencing at 7:55.

6:30: Line-up for viewing by McWatters, Guinyard and Callaway. As has been demonstrated in other threads, McWatters thought he was there to ID Milton Jones whose grinning at the announcement of the assassination somehow got conflated with Bledsoe's description of Oswald as looking like a maniac

7:55***: The interrogation that commenced at this time is the first in which he "admits" he'd lied about how he left downtown... allegedly saying "I took a bus, but due to a traffic jam, I left the bus and got a taxicab, by which I actually arrived at my residence"

Nov 23
? In answer to a question by WFAA, Curry admits they have not got Oswald traced yet between his place of work and place of arrest.

? in a separate interview with WFAA, the behind-the-times Curry admits they have information that Oswald got a lift in a car driven by a "Negro", and that they are interested in finding him.

? Porter takes his mother to City Hall where she is questioned by somewhere around 9 to 12 investigators. Gives first description of shirt which is noted in the FBI report but absent in that of Det. Graves.

?PM: During WFAA interview with Fritz he explains that Oswald used a bus and cab to get to Oak Cliff. He is then asked 3 times about the getaway car and driver they had previously announced and fails to reply on each occasion.

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Oswald's "getaway" was as per Roger Craig's earliest statements on the afternoon of Nov 22nd. This evidence was initially accepted and would have been investigated had it not been for Porter Bledsoe's phone call and an order from higher authority to forget about conspiracy angles. In that respect, Porter's call was a Godsend as it allowed them to make the "getaway" a solo effort.

Porter's phone call had been made after his mother explained that the man under arrest was a former lodger whom she had seen on the bus home. In reality, she had been on the Romana bus and had seen a former lodger dressed in a ripped brown shirt and ragged trousers who looked like a "maniac". Being bad with names, she could not recall what his was, but while listening to the unfolding news that a man named Oswald was arrested in a brown shirt she convinced herself that this was "her" ex-lodger from the bus. For his part, a look at the records would have told Porter that the lodger had been someone else. What he saw was an opportunity to make money – if he could get others to accept his mother's word. He destroyed the rental records and made his call to City Hall.

As so much seemed to rely on the identification of the shirt, some one from Special Services**** (possibly Graves) drove with the shirt to the Bledsoe residence. Arrangements were also made for Porter to drive his mother to City Hall the following day.

From that point on, "witnesses" and "evidence" would be gathered to support Bledsoe's fantasy and the bus/taxi getaway was born.

Some time in the days following the assassination, Porter wrote Oswald's name on their calendar, tore it out and sold it for $4.00 according to the FBI or $5.00 according to Mary. The FBI obtained a copy from the buyer who voluntarily took it to them, but the FBI knew better than to try and authenticate it. The original later sold at auction in New York for substantially more than $4.00 or $5.00, but remains unauthenticated by competent authorities.

We may as well look at Whaley while we're at it. I propose that his passenger had been Bledsoe's actual former lodger from the Romana bus, and that Whaley's earliest statements are actually fairly accurate as to the shirt, the timing of the journey and where the passenger was let out. My guess is that there is another boarding house at that location and this chap happened to live there.

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*Timing of Craig's arrival at Fritz's office taken from Craig's WC testimony

**Sims stated in his WC testimony he had found the transfer in Oswald's pocket during a search prior to the first line-up. This was a lie. Oswald was not asked about during the following interrogation. It came up in a later session and therefore was obtained sometime between those two sessions and AFTER McWatters enters the picture. Why say it was found before the first line-up? It was too late to claim it was found in the initial post-arrest search. The next logical time to find it would be the search conducted before a line-up.

***Timing of interrogations taken from the Last Words of Lee Harvey Oswald by Mae Brussell

****Note that Bledsoe, in her testimony constantly and mistakenly refers to the Secret Service. Since however, Graves was a detective in the DPD Special Services Bureau, it is not hard to understand her confusion on that point.

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Mr. BALL - What bus did you catch?
Mrs. BLEDSOE - Well, I don't remember whether it was the Marsalis or the Romana.
Mr. BALL - When did you first notify the police that you believe you'd seen Oswald?
Mrs. BLEDSOE - When I got home, first thing I did I went next door and told them the President had been shot, and he said, "Why, he has got killed." Well, I turned on the radio--television--and we heard ambulances and going around and there was a little boy came in that room in the back and he turned it on, and we listened and hear about the President, only one I was interested in, so, he went on back to work and they kept talking about this boy Oswald and had on a brown shirt, and all of a sudden, well, I declare, I believe that this was this boy, and his name was Oswald---that is---give me his right name, you know, and so, about an hour my son came home, and I told him and he immediately called the police and told them, because we wanted to do all we could, and so, I went down the next night. He took me down, and I made a statement to them, what kind of---Secret Service man or something down there.
Mr. BALL - Do you know the name of the man who showed you the picture of the man with the gun?
Mrs. BLEDSOE - I am so bad about names.
Mr. BALL - Was there one man or more than one man?
Mrs. BLEDSOE - Oh, about a dozen.
Mr. BALL - Oh, a dozen men?
Mrs. BLEDSOE - There sure was a lot of them. Two Secret Service men, and two to do this, and oh, I had interviewed about 9 or 10 or 12, plenty of them.

Mr. BALL - No, I am talking about---I am showing you this shirt now, and you said, "That is it." You mean---What do you mean by "that is it"?
Mrs. BLEDSOE - That is the one he had out there that day?
Mr. BALL - Who had it out there?
Mrs. BLEDSOE - Some Secret Service man.
Mr. BALL - He brought it out. Now, I am---you have seen this shirt then before?
Mrs. BLEDSOE - Yes.
Mr. BALL - It was brought out by the Secret Service man and shown to you?
Mrs. BLEDSOE - Yes.
Mr. BALL - Had you ever seen the shirt before that?
Mrs. BLEDSOE - Well---
Mr. BALL - Have you?
Mrs. BLEDSOE - No; he had it on, though.
Mr. BALL - Who had it on?
Mrs. BLEDSOE - Oswald.
Mr. BALL - Oswald had it on?
Mrs. BLEDSOE - Oswald had it on.
Miss DOUTHIT - Mary, why don't you pull up your chair and be comfortable while you are doing this. Now, you are all right.


Mr. BALL - Now, you have a calendar here?
Mrs. BLEDSOE - That is my calendar.
Mr. BALL - That is the calendar for December 1963, and I notice it has dates and names and dates. Is that the way you keep books on your rooms?
Mrs. BLEDSOE - Yes; but I don't now. I did then, because I just had started. The first one I got was in September.
Mr. BALL - September of 1963?
Mrs. BLEDSOE - Uh-huh.
Mr. BALL - He put his name on the calendar?
Mrs. BLEDSOE - Well, got it in September. He got it, my son sold it for $5, and I didn't even know that he tore that out.
Mr. BALL - Now, let me see here in this calendar. It runs from January 1963, to December of 1963, but October of 1963, has been torn out?
Mrs. BLEDSOE - Uh-huh. And he said his name was Lee Oswald was what his name was, and I said, "Well, I can't think of that name Oswald, I will call you Lee."


Following transcript excerpts found in WC VOL XXIV


Curry interview WFAA 11/23
(time unknown)
Q: Are you satisfied that you've got him traced directly from the scene of the shooting to his arrest?
Curry: Yes. You mean from the scene of the Presidential assassination?

Q: Yes.
Curry: No, we haven't got all --

Q: How much time is involved in this – how big a lapse of time?
Curry: Roughly 45 minutes I believe.


Curry interview with WFAA 11/23
(time unknown)
Q: Have you heard any more about how he got from downtown to the Oak Cliff section?
Curry: Not that I know of.

Q: What time is established – how Oswald got to the other side of town – is there anything that can be come up about – did he go over by a bus, by a car, did he have to walk?
Curry: I don't know. We have heard that he was picked up by a Negro in a car.

Q: That is not confirmed?
Curry: No, it is not confirmed as far as I know.

Q: Are you looking for the Negro?
Curry: We would like to know about him if this is so; we'd certainly like to find him.

Fritz interview with WFAA 11/23
(pm - exact time unknown)
Q: How did he actually get back in Oak Cliff?
Fritz: He left the building and started toward his home by bus.

Q: By bus?
(no reply)

Q: By bus? He caught a bus to go home?
Fritz: He left the bus along the way and then caught a cab part of the way and then walked on along the way home.

Q: Why did he say he did this?
Fritz: He said the bus was traveling too slow.

(Later from same interview)
Q Did he get back to his room on Beckley and then leave it and then encounter the officer?
Fritz: That's right. He changed his clothes. He went to his room, changed his clothing, then started to the picture show and encountered the officer on the way to the picture show.

Q: Did he have the bus transfer in his pocket?
Fritz: Yes he did. He had it.

(Later from same interview)
Q: Wasn't there, didn't he, somebody else beside the taxi, aren't you looking for a driver of another car --
(no reply)

Q: That was an untrue story?
(no reply)

Q: Was that an untrue story?
(no reply)

(later from same interview)
Q: What about the bus driver?
(no reply)

Q: Did you talk to him, do you know who he was? The bus driver?
Fritz: Yes, sir; we know the bus driver.

This timeline is now superseded. Please see: Oswald and Bus 1213.