Mr. BALL - Now, I have got a piece of clothing here, which is marked---
Mrs. BLEDSOE - That is it.
Mr. BALL - Commission Exhibit 150.
Mrs. BLEDSOE - That is it.
Mr. BALL - This is a shirt.
Mrs. BLEDSOE - That is it.
Mr. BALL - What do you mean by "that is it?"
Mrs. BMLEDSOE - Because they brought it out to the house and showed it.
Mr. BALL - I know. What do you mean by "that is it?"
Mrs. BLEDSOE - Well, because I can recognize it.
Mr. BALL - Recognize it as what?
Mrs. BLEDSOE - Yes, sir; see there?
Mr. BALL - Yes. You tell me what do you see here? What permits you to recognize it?
Mrs. BLEDSOE - I recognize---first thing I notice the elbow is out and then I saw---when the man brought it out and let me see it?
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"?
The question is of course how Bledsoe could have seen the damage of the sleeve on CE 150 on the bus, when Oswald wasn't wearing that shirt that morning?
How could Lee have removed that shirt in his room and put it in the dresser drawer at 1:00 pm , if he wasn't wearing it???)
I doubt that Mrs Bledsoe saw Lee Oswald on the Mc Watter's bus.....She clearly says that the FBI BROUGHT THE SHIRT ( The shirt from Lee's dresser at the rooming house, NOT the arrest shirt) out to her residence and displayed it to her.
I have to disagree, Walt. Ball showed her CE 150 which is in fact the arrest shirt. And that was actually the shirt they brought to her home. But you are right, she couldn't have seen the damage to the sleeve of that shirt on the bus, if Oswald was in fact wearing CE 151 that Friday morning. In her affidavit she only says that she saw Oswald get on and off the bus. There is no mention of the damaged sleeve.
However, in her testimony she says this;
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 - Where?
Mrs. BLEDSOE - At the police station.
Mr. BALL - Uh-huh. Now, did you ever see Oswald in a lineup?
Mrs. BLEDSOE - No.
Mr. BALL - Never did see Oswald after he was arrested?
Mrs. BLEDSOE - Not after he got off the bus; no.
Mr. BALL -
But, you looked at the pictures of Oswald?Mrs. BLEDSOE -
Yes.Mr. BALL - Showed you the pictures of Oswald?
Mrs. BLEDSOE - The man down at the police station, he had a picture of him with a gun, and said, "Do you recognize him?"
And I said, "Yes; it is Oswald." That is the one that I remember him.
It is somewhat convoluted, but I believe she is saying that she actually recognized Oswald by his name, which was mentioned on the television or radio. She then went down to the police station, where she was shown pictures of Oswald, and that's where she saw the brown shirt (with the damaged sleeve) he was arrested in.
After officers brought the arrest shirt to her home, prior to her testimony, she mixed the identification of Oswald by name with her seeing the damaged sleeve at her home into one (false) recollection of seeing the damaged sleeve on the bus.