Report of the President's Commission on the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy

Conclusion: Sixth Floor Window

The Commission concluded that Oswald was present at the window from which the shots were fired at the time of the assassination. This conclusion rested on multiple findings: fingerprint and palmprint evidence established that Oswald handled two of the four cartons next to the window and a paper bag found nearby; Oswald was seen near the southeast corner of the sixth floor approximately 35 minutes before the assassination, and no one could place him elsewhere in the building until after the shooting; an eyewitness immediately provided a description matching Oswald’s appearance, identified Oswald in a lineup as the man most nearly resembling the man in the window, and later confirmed this identification; and Oswald’s known actions immediately after the assassination were consistent with his having been at the southeast corner window at 12:30 p.m.

The Killing of Patrolman Tippit

After leaving the Depository at approximately 12:33 p.m., Oswald traveled to his roominghouse by bus and taxi, arriving at approximately 1 p.m. and leaving a few minutes later. At about 1:16 p.m., Dallas Police Officer J.D. Tippit was shot less than one mile from Oswald’s roominghouse. In determining whether Oswald killed Tippit, the Commission considered four categories of evidence: (1) positive identification of the killer by two eyewitnesses to the shooting and seven eyewitnesses who heard the shots and saw the gunman flee with revolver in hand; (2) firearms identification expert testimony establishing the murder weapon’s identity; (3) evidence establishing ownership of the murder weapon; and (4) evidence establishing ownership of a zipper jacket found along the gunman’s flight path to the place of arrest.

Oswald’s Movements After Depository

According to the timeline reconstruction the Commission found most credible, Oswald left the Depository approximately 3 minutes after the assassination. He likely walked east on Elm Street for seven blocks to the corner of Elm and Murphy, where he boarded a bus heading back toward Oak Cliff. A bus transfer found in Oswald’s shirt pocket upon his apprehension was dated November 22, 1963, and identified as having been issued by busdriver Cecil J. McWatters of the Dallas Transit Co. McWatters testified that he issued the transfer on a trip passing a checkpoint at St. Paul and Elm Streets at 12:36 p.m., reaching Field Street at about 12:40 p.m. He recalled issuing the transfer to a man who boarded just beyond Field Street after beating on the front door of the bus. Deputy Sheriff Roger D. Craig claimed to have seen a man he later identified as Oswald running toward a light-colored Rambler station wagon about 15 minutes after the assassination, and that Oswald later remarked in the interrogation room, “Everybody will know who I am now.” The Commission could not accept key elements of Craig’s testimony, noting that Captain Fritz did not recall the dramatic statement and that the overwhelming evidence placed Oswald far from the building by that time. The Commission concluded the man Craig saw enter the Rambler was not Oswald.

The Bus Ride

McWatters picked Oswald from a police lineup on the evening of the assassination as the man who boarded the bus at the “lower end of town on Elm around Houston,” though McWatters later testified he had been in error and a teenager named Milton Jones was the passenger he had in mind about the bus argument. An elderly passenger, Mary Bledsoe, who had rented a room to Oswald about six weeks earlier on October 7 but asked him to leave after a week, boarded the Marsalis bus at St. Paul and Elm Streets to return home after watching the motorcade. She testified that Oswald boarded at Murphy, appearing disheveled with his sleeve torn, his shirt dirty and unbuttoned, his face “so distorted” he “looked like a maniac.” When arrested at the Texas Theatre, Oswald wore a brown sport shirt with a hole in the right sleeve at the elbow, which Mrs. Bledsoe identified as the shirt Oswald was wearing on the bus. She stated she was certain Oswald boarded the bus, sat halfway to the rear as traffic moved slowly, heard a passing motorist inform the driver that the President had been shot, and disappeared into the crowd when the bus neared Lamar Street. The Marsalis bus traveled west on Elm, south on Houston, and southwest across the Houston viaduct along Marsalis—whereas the Beckley bus, which stopped across the street from Oswald’s roominghouse at 1026 North Beckley, continued west on Elm past the Depository. Rather than waiting for the Beckley bus, Oswald boarded the first Oak Cliff bus that came along. Secret Service and FBI agents reconstructed the trip, walking the seven blocks from the Depository to Murphy and Elm in an average of 6½ minutes, and timing the bus ride from Murphy to Lamar at 4 minutes, placing Oswald on the bus from approximately 12:40 p.m. to 12:44 p.m. if he left the Depository at 12:33 p.m.