PRESIDENT'S COMMISSION
ON THE ASSASSINATION OF
PRESIDENT JOHN F. KENNEDY
GREAT BRITAIN AND NORTHERN IRELAND,
_County of Lancaster, City of Liverpool,
Consulate of the United States of America, ss_:
Before me Wilfred V. Duke, Consul of the United States of America, duly
commissioned and qualified, personally came John Bryan McFarland and
Meryl McFarland, of 7a Riversdale Road, Liverpool, 19, England, who
being duly sworn, depose and say that:
Q. When and where did you board the bus for Mexico City?
A. We boarded the Continental Trailways bus at Jackson, Mississippi,
and traveled via connecting buses to Mexico City where we arrived
September 27, 1963.
Q. When and where did you first see the man later identified as Lee
Harvey Oswald?
A. We changed buses at Houston, Texas, at 2:00 a.m. September 26th and
it was probably about 6:00 a.m. after it became light that we first saw
him.
Q. What reason did Oswald give for traveling to Mexico?
A. He stated that he was en route to Cuba and that he could not travel
there from the United States as it was against the law.
Q. Did you see Oswald speaking to any other persons?
A. Yes. We observed him conversing occasionally with two young
Australian women who boarded the bus on the evening of September 26th
at Monterrey, Mexico. He also conversed occasionally with an elderly
man who sat in the seat next to him for a time.
Q. When did it first occur to you that Lee Harvey Oswald was the man
you had met on the bus?
A. When we saw his pictures in the newspapers.
Q. How many suitcases was Oswald carrying when he boarded the bus at
Houston, Texas, or any other time?
A. We did not see him carrying any suitcases at any time.
Q. Did Oswald check any luggage with the bus company so it would have
been carried underneath the bus in the baggage compartment?
A. We never actually saw him check any luggage in with the bus
company, but in the bus station at Mexico City the last we saw of him
was waiting at the luggage check-out place obviously to collect some
luggage.
Q. What kind of luggage was he carrying?
A. We did not notice but presume he must have been carrying some hand
luggage.
Q. Did he check any suitcases or other packages at a place en route to
Mexico City or otherwise dispose of them?
A. We never actually saw him check any luggage in with the bus
company, but in the bus station at Mexico City the last we saw of him
was waiting at the luggage check-out place obviously to collect some
luggage.
Q. What kind of clothing was he wearing?
A. As far as we recollect, ordinary slacks and, a more definite
recollection, a sort of zipper jerkin.
Q. Did he mention any names or places either in the United States or
Mexico, in any connection whatever?
A. Only New Orleans, whence he said he had come. In the course of
conversation, we worked out that he must have left New Orleans at about
the same time we had left Jackson, Mississippi, i.e. 2:00 p.m. on
Wednesday, September 25th, 1963.
Q. Did he show you any documents, such as passport or Fair Play for
Cuba Committee Card, or letters, newspaper clippings or other similar
material? If so, describe them as fully as possible.
A. We saw no document, but he said he was the secretary of the New
Orleans branch of the Fair Play for Cuba Organization, and that he was
on his way to Cuba to see Castro if he could. We saw him at the next
table to ourselves in the Customs Shed at Laredo, but did not notice
his passport or tourist card.
Signed the 28th day of May 1964.
(S) J. B. McFarland,
JOHN BRYAN McFARLAND.
(S) Meryl McFarland,
MERYL McFARLAND.