Oak Cliff Time Trials

[Bill Brown]

I believe Oswald removed the spent shell casings from his revolver as he was making his way to the corner of Tenth and Patton in order to have a fully loaded revolver in case another cop was around the corner.

Remember, Dallas Sheriff's Deputy Unit #109 reported that he was very nearby once news of the Tippit shooting went out over the police airwaves.  If 109 was nearby AFTERWARDS, he could have been there shortly before.  Point being, I believe Oswald saw 109, reversed direction and soon afterwards encountered Tippit.  These two "encounters" (if you will) would definitely give Oswald concern to proceed further without a loaded weapon.

If you're Oswald, once you've seen two patrol cars in a matter of two minutes, you'll want to be sure your weapon is fully loaded before turning the next corner.

[Richard Smith]

I believe Oswald removed the spent shell casings from his revolver as he was making his way to the corner of Tenth and Patton in order to have a fully loaded revolver in case another cop was around the corner.

Remember, Dallas Sheriff's Deputy Unit #109 reported that he was very nearby once news of the Tippit shooting went out over the police airwaves.  If 109 was nearby AFTERWARDS, he could have been there shortly before.  Point being, I believe Oswald saw 109, reversed direction and soon afterwards encountered Tippit.  These two "encounters" (if you will) would definitely give Oswald concern to proceed further without a loaded weapon.

If you're Oswald, once you've seen two patrol cars in a matter of two minutes, you'll want to be sure your weapon is fully loaded before turning the next corner.

And even if he hadn't seen other police cars, Oswald is the most wanted person in the world after assassinating the president and killing a police officer.   The logical thing to do is reload his gun and keep moving for as long as possible.  There was no viable "plan" at that point.  Oswald is just moving in the direction of least resistance.

[Joe Mannix]

Oswald did it.

OJ Simpson was innocent.

Covid came from a bat.

Biden rec'd 81 million votes.


There. Is everyone happy now?   

[Bill Brown]

Great post Bill.  Nothing like going back to the actual scene.  A couple of points stand out to me.  Oswald was certainly acting as though he believed that he could already have been identified as a suspect by the time he is in the cab.  Getting out of the cab a distance away confirms that.  He had good reason to do so since he knew he was already a person known to the FBI as a political nut.  For all he knew, they had connected the dots.  A police officer had already pulled a gun on him.  He was missing from the crime scene - his place of work.  He had good cause to believe the authorities were on to him.  That has implications for shooting Tippit.  Oswald can't identify himself to Tippit if he thinks that he is already a suspect.  He has to shoot him before it gets to that point.  In addition, Oswald's options were limited for escape.  He doesn't have much money.  No car.  What does he know?  The bus system.  Where has he recently gone on a bus?   Mexico.  Where is the only place that he could conceivably get asylum?  Cuba.  Where has he been trying to get to for months for before the assassination?  Cuba.   Put them all together and the most logical avenue available to Oswald is to take a bus to Mexico, try to get to the Cuban or Russian embassy and ask for asylum.   Of course, that's a longshot fantasy on his part but there was no other option.  I think Oswald had already accepted the likely outcome of his death or arrest in the commission of the act.  After the Tippit encounter, he is just moving in any direction still available and ducking into the TT to get off the street is not a bad idea.  He just should have paused to buy a ticket.   Like James Earl Ray, it is not impossible that Oswald might have made it out of the country in those days.  I can't see Oswald toughing it for long in Mexico but he would be beyond the direct jurisdiction of the American authorities making it more difficult to find him.

Great points, Richard.  I agree with everything you said above.
 

[John Iacoletti]

Cool story, bro. And you deserve props for conducting the experiment, but surely you realize that it doesn’t prove anything about anything. It’s mainly an exercise in estimating things to fit what you already believe.

I do have to point out a few problems with your story though. The devil is always in the details.

- Myers has no way of knowing the exact time to the second that Bowley tried to get on the radio.
- Whaley’s trip log says he picked up his passenger at 12:30.
- The traffic would have been very different for Whaley’s reconstruction.
- Whaley originally said he dropped his passenger off at the 500 block of N Beckley.
- Roberts said Oswald was in his room 3 or 4 minutes.
- There is no evidence whatsoever that the man Tippit spoke to “reversed direction”.
- Burt said in his 12/26/63 affidavit that he saw the man enter the alley from Patton Street.
- There is no evidence for what time the ambulance was dispatched from the Dudley-Hughes Funeral Home.
- Robert Brock never said he saw Oswald.
- Postal never said she saw anybody approaching from the East, and certainly never said that she saw Oswald. When Brewer approached her she said “what man?”, and said that she was looking the other direction.

[Bill Brown]

Cool story, bro. And you deserve props for conducting the experiment, but surely you realize that it doesn’t prove anything about anything. It’s mainly an exercise in estimating things to fit what you already believe.

I do have to point out a few problems with your story though. The devil is always in the details.

- Myers has no way of knowing the exact time to the second that Bowley tried to get on the radio.
- Whaley’s trip log says he picked up his passenger at 12:30.
- The traffic would have been very different for Whaley’s reconstruction.
- Whaley originally said he dropped his passenger off at the 500 block of N Beckley.
- Roberts said Oswald was in his room 3 or 4 minutes.
- There is no evidence whatsoever that the man Tippit spoke to “reversed direction”.
- Burt said in his 12/26/63 affidavit that he saw the man enter the alley from Patton Street.
- There is no evidence for what time the ambulance was dispatched from the Dudley-Hughes Funeral Home.
- Robert Brock never said he saw Oswald.
- Postal never said she saw anybody approaching from the East, and certainly never said that she saw Oswald. When Brewer approached her she said “what man?”, and said that she was looking the other direction.

- Roberts said Oswald was in his room 3 or 4 minutes.

Roberts also said Oswald was back in his room NOT OVER 3 or 4 minutes.  In addition, she stated that he was back in his room just long enough to grab a jacket and put it on.  How long does it take you to grab a jacket and put it on?  I can do it in less than a minute and I have no super powers.

- Burt said in his 12/26/63 affidavit that he saw the man enter the alley from Patton Street.

Burt told Al Chapman in 1968 that he and Bill Smith were in the front yard of the house on the corner of Tenth and Denver, one block east of Tenth and Patton.  Upon hearing the shots, they looked down the street.  Smith said he saw Tippit fall to the ground and the killer run from the scene.  Burt said they went to the scene and hung out there for a few minutes before deciding to go off in search of the killer (they had seen him turn south onto Patton).  Burt told Chapman that at the point when they were halfway down Patton, they looked west in the alley and saw the guy almost down at the next block.

Burt saw the killer in the alley and assumed that the killer fled south on Patton and then into the alley.  But, we know the killer fled all the way down Patton to Jefferson and then west on Jefferson for a block before going behind the Texaco station.  The rear lot of the Texaco station butts up against the alley and this is when Burt and Smith saw the guy in the alley behind the Texaco.

- There is no evidence for what time the ambulance was dispatched from the Dudley-Hughes Funeral Home.

For what it's worth, George & Patricia Nash were given a copy of the trip ticket by JC Butler.  They stated that the time was 1:18.  Butler confirmed that he gave them a copy of the ticket.

- Postal never said she saw anybody approaching from the East...

No.

Postal saw the guy.  She said he was just off the sidewalk and had a panicked look on his face.

The rest of your above statements don't warrant a response.

[John Iacoletti]

Roberts also said Oswald was back in his room NOT OVER 3 or 4 minutes.  In addition, she stated that he was back in his room just long enough to grab a jacket and put it on.  How long does it take you to grab a jacket and put it on?  I can do it in less than a minute and I have no super powers.

I doesn't matter what you can do.  Roberts said 3 or 4 minutes.

Burt told Al Chapman in 1968 that he and Bill Smith were in the front yard of the house on the corner of Tenth and Denver, one block east of Tenth and Patton.  Upon hearing the shots, they looked down the street.  Smith said he saw Tippit fall to the ground and the killer run from the scene.  Burt said they went to the scene and hung out there for a few minutes before deciding to go off in search of the killer (they had seen him turn south onto Patton).  Burt told Chapman that at the point when they were halfway down Patton, they looked west in the alley and saw the guy almost down at the next block.

Why would you prefer something Burt said 5 years later to what he said in 1963?  Do you apply that standard to any other witness?

But, we know the killer fled all the way down Patton to Jefferson and then west on Jefferson for a block before going behind the Texaco station.

No, "we" don't know that.

For what it's worth, George & Patricia Nash were given a copy of the trip ticket by JC Butler.  They stated that the time was 1:18.  Butler confirmed that he gave them a copy of the ticket.

It's not worth much.  The ticket either exists or it does not.

Postal saw the guy.  She said he was just off the sidewalk and had a panicked look on his face.

When Brewer asked her if she sold a ticket to "that man", she asked "what man?"  Why would she ask that if she had just seen somebody with a panicked look on his face duck in? And why wouldn't she have stopped him and made him buy a ticket?  She also testified that she had stepped out of the box office and went to the front and was facing west at the time.  Did she have eyes in the back of her head?