Senator COOPER. Past the Texas Depository?
Mr. McWATTERS. Yes, sir; that is about 3 or 4 miles out in the Oak
Cliff section where the teenage boy got off of the bus.
Senator COOPER. From the time the man got on the bus, which you later
identified in the police lineup until he got off, had you noticed him,
had you looked at him again?
Mr. McWATTERS. Had I looked at him again?
Senator COOPER. Yes.
Mr. McWATTERS. Not until just like I say he was sitting--I was talking
to this teenage boy and he was sitting right behind this boy, but I
didn't pay him any particular attention, to the man.
Senator COOPER. You saw him get on the bus?
Mr. McWATTERS. Yes.
Senator COOPER. Did you see him get off?
Mr. McWATTERS. Yes; I gave him a transfer when he got off the bus,
the same place that was, the same place I was stopped where the man
come back and stepped up in the bus and told me what he had heard over
his radio in his car, the same place that the lady got off, with a
suitcase, is the place that the man got off.
Senator COOPER. The man you later identified in the police lineup?
Mr. McWATTERS. That is correct; yes, sir.
Senator COOPER. Did you pay any particular attention to him when he got
off?
Mr. McWATTERS. Not no more than I did than, I think, when he got on.
Senator COOPER. Do you remember anything about his clothes or his
general appearance in any way?
Mr. McWATTERS. Just like I say, I remember he had on, to me he had on
just work clothes, he didn't have on a suit of clothes, and some type
of jacket. I would say a cloth jacket.
Senator COOPER. I believe that is all.
Mr. BALL. You didn't--as I understand it, when you were at the police
lineup, you told us that you didn't--weren't able to identify this man
in the lineup as the man who got off, that you gave the transfer to.
Mr. McWATTERS. I told them to the best of my knowledge, I said the man
that I picked out was the same height, about the same height, weight
and description. But as far as actually saying that is the man I
couldn't----
Mr. BALL. You couldn't do it?
Mr. McWATTERS. I wouldn't do it and I wouldn't do it now.
Mr. BALL. You signed an affidavit for the Dallas Police Department, do
you remember that?
Mr. McWATTERS. Yes, sir.
Mr. BALL. I will show you a copy of it, we can get the original if you
want, but there is a copy of it, a picture taken of it.
Will you read it, please?
(At this point, Representative Ford withdrew from the hearing room.)
Mr. BALL. This document, I would like to have marked as 377, at this
time, Commission Exhibit, with the understanding that we may substitute
the photostat for the original.
Senator COOPER. Very well; let it be substituted. It has been
identified, and will be identified.
Mr. BALL. Yes, it will be; I will identify it for the record as a
photostat of an affidavit of Cecil J. McWatters made before Patsy
Collins, Notary Public of Dallas County, Tex., November 22, 1963.
(The document referred to was marked Commission Exhibit 377, and
received in evidence.)
Mr. BALL. Now, having read that, first of all, does that look like your
signature, Mr. McWatters?
Mr. McWATTERS. Yes, sir; it does.
Mr. BALL. Do you remember the circumstances under which you made that
affidavit?
Mr. McWATTERS. Well, I just told them the best I could remember.
Mr. BALL. I am showing this to you for the purpose of refreshing your
memory.
Mr. McWATTERS. Yes, I know.
Mr. BALL. I know it has been several months.
Mr. McWATTERS. Yes, I know what you mean.
Mr. BALL. And sometimes when you see something that you signed before
it refreshes your memory.
Mr. McWATTERS. It sure does.
Yes, that is what you mean, I know what you mean, I said that looked
like the man I saw.
Mr. BALL. In this affidavit, it says, it mentions the fact that when
you went to Marsalis and picked up a woman.
Mr. McWATTERS. Yes.
Mr. BALL. You asked her if she knew the President had been shot, you
told us about that a few moments ago.
Mr. McWATTERS. Yes.
Mr. BALL. She thought you were kidding, and you told her, "I told her
if she didn't believe me to ask the man behind her, that he had told me
the President was shot in the temple."
Mr. McWATTERS. Yes.
Mr. BALL. Was the man, was that the teenager?
Mr. McWATTERS. That is right, sir, that was the teenage boy. In other
words, he was, I would say, around 17 or 18 years old.
Mr. BALL. You said here, "The man didn't say anything but he was
grinning."
Mr. McWATTERS. Yes.
Mr. BALL. Do you think that happened?
Mr. McWATTERS. Well, when the lady asked him, he just kind of grinned,
in other words, and she said, "This is not a grinning or laughing
matter," or something to that effect I don't remember just exactly what
she did say.
Mr. BALL. Now you told them at that time you didn't know where you let
this man off.
Mr. McWATTERS. That is right, I didn't at that time, I didn't know
where he got off.
Mr. BALL. You told us a few moments ago you thought he got off another
place.
Mr. McWATTERS. That is right, sir.
Mr. BALL. What was that place?
Mr. McWATTERS. He got off at Brownley, because the man rode with me the
next day.
Mr. BALL. You went out there the next day, did you?
Mr. McWATTERS. Yes, sir.
Mr. BALL. With an FBI man or a Dallas policeman?