Donald Willis
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Why Whaley separates Neely & N. Beckley from "500 block"
Q: Why does William Whaley, in the "Four Days in November" video segment, say, "So I carried [Oswald] off across the viaduct, turned left at the 500 block of North Beckley, and when I got over on N. Beckley came on the intersection of Neely, North Beckley?? The left turn onto Beckley from the viaduct is at the 1000 block, the block of Oswald's rooming house, not the 500 block.
A: Because Oswald improvised a last-minute change of destination. As recorded in Whaley's manifest, Oswald initially told him to take him to the 500 block of Beckley. But while Whaley was turning left onto Beckley, Oswald saw that there were no patrol cars in front of the rooming house, hence no need for Whaley to travel five more blocks, south to Neely, the actual 500 block on N. Beckley. So he tells Whaley "This will do fine", and Whaley deposits him there, on the sidewalk opposite the rooming house. Whaley then, as noted above, thinks that the 1000 block was the 500 block, as per Oswald's *original* instruction, because the taciturn Oswald (as Whaley describes him) does not tell him otherwise.
Hence, also, this exchange at the hearings:
Ball: You drove until you reached the 500 block, or not?
Whaley: No, sir. I didn't drive until I reached the 500 block. I drove until I reached Beckley & Neely. (4/8/64 testimony)
Oswald has, no doubt, been kindly informed--probably more than once--that the 500 block and Neely are one and the same thing. But his actual experience is that he let Oswald out at N. Beckley near Neches, the 1000 block--where Oswald said, "This will do fine"--and that that location has been imprinted on his mind. Hence, the separation, in his mind of "500 block" and "Neely & Beckley".
Import: Oswald did not walk back the five blocks to the rooming house from Neely. He just walked across the street, after Whaley let him out at the (in Whaley's mind) "500 block". So the timeline for his supposed walk from the rooming house to 10th & Patton is reduced by a corresponding four or five minutes, to about 1:11. By 1:15 or 1:16, then, Oswald is nearing the Texas Theatre, not arriving at 10th & Patton.
dcw