14-09-2021, 07:39 PM
(This post was last modified: 15-09-2021, 05:56 PM by Milo Reech.)
SA Robert M. Barrett got caught up in a conundrum when dictating two reports on the same day (3/17/64) relative to Markham's one block transit of Patton Street from 9th to 10th Streets.
The shorter of the two focuses solely on the objective details:
The distance from the washateria at 328 East 9th Street to the northwest corner of the intersection of East 10th and Patton Streets was walked and timed and this time was two minutes and thirty seconds.
It was ascertained from the Dallas Transit System that during the afternoon hours of every weekday a bus going to the downtown area of Dallas can be boarded about every ten minutes at the corner of Patton and Jefferson Streets. The bus is scheduled to pass this point at about 1:12 PM and every ten minutes thereafter.
FBI DL 100-10461 Barrett
This is the entire report. A handwritten note appears on the page:
Helen Markham left the washateria at 1:04. 2 1/2 minutes later, at 10th & Patton, it is 1:07.
Markham was scheduled to testify before WC in Washington nine days later, and it was inconvenient to have the only eyewitness to the actual shooting arrive at the bus stop several minutes before the alleged perp arrived at the murder scene.
So the other report contains this revision:
She was unable to reach her daughter because the line was busy, and stated that as she left the washateria she noticed that the time was 1:04 PM, according to a clock on the wall in the washateria.
She left the washateria and walked south on Patton Street, stopping at the northwest corner of the intersection of Patton and East 10th Street. She advised that she had hoped to catch a bus at about 1:15 PM.
FBI DL 100-10461 Barrett
I suppose Barrett deserves credit for not tampering with her departure time (cf. Myers' feeble attempt to retard it). On the flip side the alteration of 1:12 to "about 1:15" was shameless. This carried over to WC's explicit "1:15" (3H306). There is no reason to believe Markham actually said this, just another example of testimony manipulation.
Leaving aside the absurdity that the transit company was ignorant of its bus schedule, there is another perplexing issue. Why on earth would Markham wait at the corner of Patton & East 10th a full eight minutes for a murder to take place? She was described in many ways, but no one said she was prescient.
The willfully obtuse WC refrained from examining this conundrum. Regardless, people who think the bus was scheduled to stop at Patton & Jefferson at 1:15 are only fooling themselves. That goes double for those who argue the bus invariably ran three minutes late.
The shorter of the two focuses solely on the objective details:
The distance from the washateria at 328 East 9th Street to the northwest corner of the intersection of East 10th and Patton Streets was walked and timed and this time was two minutes and thirty seconds.
It was ascertained from the Dallas Transit System that during the afternoon hours of every weekday a bus going to the downtown area of Dallas can be boarded about every ten minutes at the corner of Patton and Jefferson Streets. The bus is scheduled to pass this point at about 1:12 PM and every ten minutes thereafter.
FBI DL 100-10461 Barrett
This is the entire report. A handwritten note appears on the page:
Helen Markham left the washateria at 1:04. 2 1/2 minutes later, at 10th & Patton, it is 1:07.
Markham was scheduled to testify before WC in Washington nine days later, and it was inconvenient to have the only eyewitness to the actual shooting arrive at the bus stop several minutes before the alleged perp arrived at the murder scene.
So the other report contains this revision:
She was unable to reach her daughter because the line was busy, and stated that as she left the washateria she noticed that the time was 1:04 PM, according to a clock on the wall in the washateria.
She left the washateria and walked south on Patton Street, stopping at the northwest corner of the intersection of Patton and East 10th Street. She advised that she had hoped to catch a bus at about 1:15 PM.
FBI DL 100-10461 Barrett
I suppose Barrett deserves credit for not tampering with her departure time (cf. Myers' feeble attempt to retard it). On the flip side the alteration of 1:12 to "about 1:15" was shameless. This carried over to WC's explicit "1:15" (3H306). There is no reason to believe Markham actually said this, just another example of testimony manipulation.
Leaving aside the absurdity that the transit company was ignorant of its bus schedule, there is another perplexing issue. Why on earth would Markham wait at the corner of Patton & East 10th a full eight minutes for a murder to take place? She was described in many ways, but no one said she was prescient.
The willfully obtuse WC refrained from examining this conundrum. Regardless, people who think the bus was scheduled to stop at Patton & Jefferson at 1:15 are only fooling themselves. That goes double for those who argue the bus invariably ran three minutes late.