Oswald in the doorway: the blog of the Oswald Innocence Campaign, by Ralph Cinque

This just in from John Armstrong about the amazing photographic coup de theatre of Stuart Reed. Talk about being in the right place at the right time. 

HARVEY, wearing a long-sleeved brown shirt, leaves Dealey Plaza

A few minutes after President Kennedy was shot HARVEY Oswald, wearing a long-sleeve brown shirt, left the book depository. HARVEY Oswald walked east on Elm Street and saw a city bus stopped in traffic as he was approaching Griffin St. He walked to the bus and began pounding on the door. Driver Cecil McWatters opened the door and allowed HARVEY Oswald, and a blond woman, to board the bus around 12:40 PM.


NOTE: Stuart L. Reed, a 30-year army veteran, photographed McWatters' bus a few blocks from the TSBD in real time. Reed was a US government employee, operating company civilian employees under the auspices of the U.S. Army, in charge of the Panama Canal. 


McWatters bus was soon stalled in traffic and about 4 minutes later Oswald got up from his seat, obtained a bus transfer, and left the bus via the front door. The blond woman left the bus at the same time via the rear door. This blond woman may have been following Oswald, may have followed him to Whaley's cab, and may have been the woman who asked Whaley to call a taxi for her. HARVEY Oswald walked three blocks south on Lamar St. toward the Greyhound Bus station and got into William Whaley's taxi. Whaley said, "He wasn't in any hurry. He wasn't nervous or anything." Oswald was wearing a dark brown button-up shirt, a t-shirt, and a grey jacket. As Whaley was driving Oswald toward Oak Cliff, two unidentified police officers boarded McWatters bus with pistols drawn, as described by Roy Milton Jones in CE 2641.  There are no police or FBI reports of DPD officers boarding this bus.


NOTE: Stuart L. Reed took a second photograph of McWatters' bus a few minutes later while the bus was stalled in traffic close to the TSBD. This was very near the time two police officers boarded the bus with pistols drawn, looking for the assassin of President Kennedy. Reed then took a photo of the 6th floor window at the TSBD, and one hour later Stuart Reed took several photos of HARVEY Oswald as he was being escorted from the Texas Theater in handcuffs. Reed took all of these photos, which sequentially followed Oswald's movements, within 1 1/2 hours. Reed dropped his film off at a photo lab in Dallas, and then hurried to New Orleans to catch a boat to the Canal Zone. Prior to boarding the boat, Reed signed an authorization that allowed the FBI to pick up his developed photo slides in Dallas. The FBI told the WC that a government executive (Reed), answering to the military, took the photos. This seemed to satisfy the WC, and Reed dropped out of sight without ever seeing his photos.