From McWatters’ testimony (in case you missed it):
Mr. BALL - Let's get back to that lineup.
Did you pick out one man or two men that night as people you had seen, as a person you had seen before?
Mr. McWATTERS - Well, I picked out, the only one that I told them it was the short man that I picked out up there.
Mr. BALL - And you thought he was the teenager whom you described?
Mr. McWATTERS - Yes, first that is what I thought he was.
Mr. BALL - Now you have named him Milton Jones.
Mr. McWATTERS - Yes, he was--
Mr. BALL - Now you realize you were mistaken in your identification that night?
Mr. McWATTERS - That is right.
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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
