The "smirk"

[Bill Chapman]

Frankly, I hadn't read McWatters' WC testimony and took the affidavit at face value. I don't mind saying so when I am wrong or ignorant or both; and it does appear that the one McWatters saw "grinning" was not LHO. Thanks for pointing this out.

However, I do find it interesting that the WC took enough time with McWatters to try to correct the inaccurate statement in the affidavit. Because in doing so, it tends to discount McWatters and counter the claim that the WC was trying to frame LHO, or cover up something. And it shows that they were trying to obtain the correct facts.

Here's more testimony:

Senator Cooper. Well, did the passenger that you have testified about, and whom you stated that you later identified, did he get on in the vicinity of Murphy Street?
Mr. McWatters. Yes sir.
Senator Cooper. Murphy Street - You proceeded from Murphy Street toward the Texas School Book Depository?
Mr McWatters. Yes sir.
Senator Cooper. Is that correct?
Mr. McWatters. That is correct.
Senator Cooper. Was the passenger that got on near Murphy Street the same passenger that you later testified about who told you that the President had been shot in the temple?
Mr. McWatters. Well, they told me later that it was, but at the time they didn't tell me.
Senator Cooper. Who didn't tell you?
Mr. McWatters. The police didn't.
.
.
.
Senator Cooper. Now was this man that you saw got on the bus the same one who told you that the President got shot in the temple?
Mr. McWatters. The man who got on the bus now?
Senator Cooper. Yes. The man to whom you have just referred as getting on the bus near Murphy Street.
Mr. McWatters. Yes.
Senator Cooper. Is he the same man who told you that the President had been shot in the temple?
Mr. McWatters. No, sir.
Senator Cooper. Who told you that?
Mr. McWatters. A man in an automobile in front of me, in other words, that was sitting in a car come back and told me.
Senator Cooper. Told you what?
Mr. McWatters. That the President had been shot, that he had heard over his radio in his car that the President had been shot.
Senator Cooper. I think that you have testified that someone, some passenger on the bus, in response to a question that you had asked, "I wonder where they shot the President" said "They shot him in the temple."
Mr. McWatters. Oh that was now, that was after we had done, that is when I turned on Houston Street, the conversation with the teenage boy.
Senator Cooper. It was the teenage boy that told you that?
Mr. McWatters. Yes, sir; it was the teenage boy, sitting on his right side of the seat there, the one that I conversationed with about the President being shot in the head or temple, I don't remember, but the teenage boy was the one. That was after the man that had already got off that had boarded my bus around Griffin up there.
Senator Cooper. Then the one that told you the President had been shot in the temple was not the one you later identified in the police lineup?
Mr. McWatters. No, sir.
Senator Cooper. This has probably already been testified to, but where did the man that you later identified in the police lineup get off the bus?
Mr. McWatters. Got off between Poydras and Lamar Street.
.
.
.
Mr. Ball. I have a few more questions to ask you, a few more questions, Mr. McWatters. Let's look again at this affidavit.
Mr. McWatters. Yes, sir.
Mr. Ball. "I picked up a man on the lower end of town on Elm around Houston," as I remember you didn't stop at Elm and Houston; you stopped at Record and Houston for a pickup.
Mr. McWatters. Yes.
Mr. Ball. Do you remember having picked up any man around the lower end of town at Elm around Houston?
Mr. McWatters. Elm and Houston?
Mr. Ball. Yes.
Mr. McWatters. No, no sir; I didn't pick up. I made a statement here I picked up---
Mr. Ball. Take a look at it. "I picked up a man on the lower end of town on Elm around Houston."
Mr. McWatters. No I didn't. I picked--- "I picked up a man on the lower end of town at Elm," no, sir, I didn't pick up no man. No, I was tied up in traffic there. Market Street is the--- I must not have read that very good when I signed that, because I sure didn't. No I didn't.
.
.
.
Mr. Ball. In other words, this statement is not an accurate statement?
Mr. McWatters. That is right sir, because in fact that day the police wouldn't let nobody, in other words they run them buses through but they wouldn't let nothing stop there, in other words.

Kennedy was shot in the temple? I thought he was shot in Dealey Plaza.

Budda-boom, budda-bing.

[Jerry Freeman]

Kennedy was shot in the temple? I thought he was shot in Dealey Plaza. Budda-boom, budda-bing.

Smirk

 

[Charles Collins]

Kennedy was shot in the temple? I thought he was shot in Dealey Plaza.

Budda-boom, budda-bing.

Well, you know that there was a sound of a bell on the DPD recording allegedly about the same time as the “shots.” Did the temple have a bell? wink, wink...

[Charles Collins]

This gives us some insight on how the police manipulated the witnesses.

This gives us some insight on how the police manipulated the witnesses.

I think it was more of a miscommunication than a manipulation. McWatters was not easy to communicate with, that is apparent in his WC testimony. They sometimes had to ask him the same question several different ways to get an answer that made any sense. McWatters was probably shocked and befuddled when they whisked him off the bus to question him on the evening of 11/22/63. And he had hardly any time to contemplate what had happened before he was taken to the lineup. Our memories are not like snapshots, they are reconstructions based on associations. In all the confusion, McWatters mistakenly associated his conversation with the teenager to the bus transfer. (This type of thing happens to the best of us every once in a while.) He was thinking about the teenager when he saw the lineup, hence the hesitancy to say for sure. I can only guess that, sometime that evening, McWatters must have related the story of the teenager's words to someone at the Dallas Police Department and they assumed it was the same person who got the bus transfer. The two facts (who said the President was shot in the temple then grinned; and where LHO got on the bus) in error in the affidavit are not as important as the fact that is correct: "The transfer #004459 is a transfer from my bus with my punch mark."

[John Iacoletti]

The two facts (who said the President was shot in the temple then grinned; and where LHO got on the bus) in error in the affidavit are not as important as the fact that is correct: "The transfer #004459 is a transfer from my bus with my punch mark."

I’m not sure I understand the importance of whether or not Oswald was on McWatters’ bus.

[Charles Collins]

I’m not sure I understand the importance of whether or not Oswald was on McWatters’ bus.

It is hard evidence of his whereabouts at that point in time.

[John Iacoletti]

It is hard evidence of his whereabouts at that point in time.

No, it’s hard evidence that the police claimed to “find” a bus transfer in his pocket a couple of hours after his arrest in a shirt that he may or may not have been wearing at the point in time of the bus ride.

But either way, it tells us nothing about who shot JFK.

[Jack Trojan]

Sorry, but a smirk is meaningless, however, a wink is worth a thousand words.

When LBJ wanted to get sworn in by Sarah Hughes aboard AF1, she said to him, "Sorry but I don't have the Oath of Office on me." LBJ pulled a copy of the Oath from his pocket and handed it to her then turned to the small crowd aboard AF1 and said jokingly, "If any of you speak of this, I'll deny it."  He did all this right in front of Jackie who still had blood on her clothes. Then he turned to his long-time friend, Texas congressman Brian Thomas who winked at him. Johnson returned a smile.

[Charles Collins]

Sorry, but a smirk is meaningless, however, a wink is worth a thousand words.

It never ceases to amaze me how easily y’all accept such nonsense and dismiss hard evidence.

[Jack Trojan]

It never ceases to amaze me how easily y’all accept such nonsense and dismiss hard evidence.

You must be easily amazed. Hard evidence? Oh, you're serious.