What does Whaley's manifest tell you?
This is how you answer a direct question.
Looking at the above manifest, in particular entry #14, the first thing to notice is the "P" in the left hand column. This indicates the fare was a 'pick-up'. 8 of Whaley's fares that day were 'pick-ups' and 13 were 'calls'. If the passenger was Oswald fleeing the TSBD we would expect him to be a 'pick up'.
The next relevant column tells us the pick-up point was 'Greyhound'. This is a reference to the Greyhound bus station at 207 Lamar Street. Whaley was parked on Lamar close to Jackson. He spotted 'Oswald' approaching south on Lamar. This is the direction we would expect Oswald to be approaching from if he'd abandoned the bus on Elm St.
The next column tells us the destination was '500 No. Beckley', the 500 block on North Beckley Avenue (note no specific house number is given). This is the street Oswald lives on, so the fare travels from close to the TSBD to close to 1026 North Beckley. This is what we would expect if it is Oswald. That he gets dropped off past his address is easily explained as someone on the run wanting to check if anyone is waiting for him outside where he lives.
The next column reports the fare as 95 cents (incorrectly reported as 85 cents by Fritz)
The next column indicates it was a single passenger as we would expect if it was Oswald.
The next two columns record the time picked up and dropped off. It must be noted that all the figures in these two columns are estimations. This is clear by the fact all the numbers are rounded up to either 5 or 0. The 8 fares between 11:00am and 2:45pm are all given in 15 minute blocks. This tallies with Whaley's account of not using a watch and estimating his times. The best we can say is that Whaley picks up this fare somewhere between 12:30pm and 12:45pm. As we would expect if it was Oswald after abandoning the bus.
The next two columns indicate that the distance travelled was 3 miles. All the figures in these columns are also rounded up. The actual distance of the trip is 2.6 miles and takes around 7 minutes.
There is nothing in Whaley's manifest that is inconsistent with the account of Oswald catching a cab after abandoning the bus.
The question is - why would anyone want to fake the bus ride and cab ride? What's the point? Why not just fake one or the other?
And if you believe they are fake then how did he get to the rooming house?
Agreed, even though the miles travelled are inconsistent, the time slots are generally in 15 minute increments, except that is for those times when Whaley has to shoehorn in an extra journey which is totally consistent with a man who didn't use a watch and as he says
"I don't put the correct time on the sheet because they don't require it, sir, but anywhere approximate." and to just reinforce his guessing and that it isn't that important, is that he says
"sometimes I make three or four trips before I make the entries."Another interesting fact is that besides Whaley's passenger only giving the destination, this passenger doesn't say a word in response to being asked about the
"the police cars, the sirens was going, running crisscrossing everywhere, just a big uproar in that end of town and I said, "What the hell. I wonder what the hell is the uproar?" And he never said anything." While not conclusive this arrogant behaviour is typical Oswald.
When Oswald got in the cab shortly after getting off the bus for the trip to Oak Cliff, and the cab drove off, the cabdriver, seeing all the police cars crisscrossing everywhere with their sirens screaming, said to Oswald, “I wonder what the hell is the uproar?” The cabdriver said Oswald “never said anything.” Granted, there are people who are very stingy with their words, and this nonresponse by Oswald, by itself, is not conclusive of his guilt. But ask yourself this: If a thousand people were put in Oswald’s place in the cab, particularly if they, like Oswald, were at the scene of the assassination in Dealey Plaza and knew what had happened, how many do you suppose wouldn’t have said one single word in response to the cabby’s questionVincent Bugliosi Reclaiming History
JohnM
