This is a map of Dealey Plaza. The motorcade route followed the green line. There are direct signs indicating that the route was initially - even still on the day of the assassination - planned to lead via Main Street and not via Houston and Elm Street. The »Dallas Morning Star« had published on November 22nd, 1963, a plan of the route which led on Main Street. The Warren Commission claimed in its report that it is impossible to go on Main Street and on to Stemmons Freeway, and therefore the motorcade had to go via Houston and Elm. But Traffic Patrolman Joe Marshall Smith testified that he knew nothing that would have prevented the motorcade from going directly down Main Street and on to the Stemmons Freeway (see WCH7 p. 538).

As an evidence that the real motorcade route was known at Friday morning, the Commission presented the above mentioned »Dallas Morning Star« issue. But the five columns where the picture had to appear were completely blanked out.

Why did this become so important?

It was essential for the Commission to prove that Oswald had a prior knowledge about the motorcade route. In fact, if Oswald would not have known at the evening of November 21, 1963, that the route passed the Texas School Book Depository Building (TSBD) then he simply could not have planned to shoot Kennedy from the TSBD.

That mentioned evening, Oswald was driven home by his fellow worker Buell Wesley Frazier to Irving, Texas, where his wife and children lived. This visit was unexpected and therefore, at the first glance, highly suspicious. The Commission believes that he retrieved his rifle and took it next morning back to Dallas. But that presupposes Oswald's knowledge of Kennedy's visit and the motorcade. The Commission demonstrated that he could have been aware of the route as early as November 19. But nothing in the testimonies indicates »that he really did!«

Most of the TSBD employees did learn at Friday morning that the motorcade would pass the building (see WCH3 p. 178, 209). Even FBI agent Hosty, who participated in the advance preparation of the Dallas visit, »...never realized that the motorcade would pass the Texas School Book Depository Building« until Thursday evening. (see WCR p. 441).

There is a very serious doubt about Oswald's prior knowledge of the route. James Jarman, Jr., testified about the morning of Friday,

»...he [Oswald] was standing up in the window and I went to the window also, and he asked me where the people gathering around on the corner for, and I told him that the President was supposed to pass that morning, and he asked me did I know which way he was coming, and I told him, yes; he propably come down Main and turn on Houston and then back again on Elm. The he said, "Oh, I see," and that was all.« (see WCH3 p. 200)

Furthermore, Jarman, asked whether it was he or Oswald who initiated the conversation, testified: »He asked me.« (see WCH3 p.209)

But Oswald himself did not mention this conversation after his arrest, according to relevant testimony and documents. He did not cite it as support of his innocence, although he did offer other facts of allegations. This is the crucial point! Why did Oswald ask Jarman about the motorcade in a way which suggested that he did not know it would pass the Book Depository?

One is: he really did not know that the motorcade was about to pass the building. The consequences that are implied by this are irrefutable: He did not plan or execute the assassination.

The other possibility is that Oswald already knew the answer to his questions, and his conversation was a "plant" to divert suspicion in the event that such suspicion of him arose after he did the fatal shots. But if that is true - why then he did not mention the "plant" for the very purpose that led him to set it up, to indicate his innocence when he was arrested and accused for the assassination?

On the other hand, Oswald left an abundant trail of incriminating evidence. An assassin, intelligent enough in preparing a »plant« that he even did not know the motorcade route in advance, would not be so careless as to carry incriminating documents in his wallet or leave photographs of himself holding the murder rifle where the police could easily find them.

You may attack either of the two assumptions; certainly there are ample arguments to be made in each one. But the Warren Commission simply did not mention these facts. They just cite Jarman as it has no meaning at all. It seems that the Commission members just did discount the possibility that Oswald really did not know the motorcade route, and his question came from an innocent curiosity.

But without an answer to why Oswald himself never confronted the police with the fabrication of his conversation with Jarman (designed for that very purpose) leaves serious doubts and the thoughts that Oswald was completely innocent.

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Last Update: Wed, 3 Aug 2016 21:56:31 CET