Warren Commission (02 of 26): Hearings Vol. II (of 15) — Reading Companion

The Voice of the Witness: McWatters's Testimony

Cecil McWatters's testimony, as transcribed, reveals a distinctive oral style. He frequently uses the filler phrase "in other words" to rephrase his own statements, as when he explains that a dispatcher "will come out and stop you, in other words, and ask you if your watch is right." This verbal tic suggests a speaker accustomed to clarifying his meaning for official purposes. His answers are often circuitous, beginning with a qualification like "Well, the best I can remember" before arriving at a specific time or action. The transcript captures his hesitation and self-correction, as when he recalls discharging a lady passenger but then revises his memory: "I think I discharged one lady passenger there on that, to the best I can recall, because I remember that I had, when I crossed Field Street, I think I had five passengers on my bus." This halting, layered testimony contrasts with the crisp, linear questioning of Mr. Ball, creating a dynamic of legal precision meeting human fallibility.

Structure and Pace: The Rhythm of Examination

The examination of McWatters proceeds in a methodical, almost rhythmic pattern. Ball asks a series of short, factual questions—"What time are you due?" "What time did you leave?" "Had you heard any sirens?"—each building on the last. McWatters's responses, though sometimes meandering, are repeatedly steered back to the central concern: the precise timeline of his bus on November 22. The pace is deliberate, with no leaps in logic. Ball's questions often repeat or rephrase earlier ones, as when he asks twice about the time McWatters left Elm and St. Paul, first receiving a general answer and then a more specific one. This repetition is not redundancy but a tool of legal verification, forcing the witness to confirm or refine his account. The transcript thus mirrors the commission's broader task: to assemble a coherent chronology from the overlapping, sometimes uncertain memories of dozens of witnesses.

Recurring Details: The Dispatcher's Pad and the Checkpoint

Throughout McWatters's testimony, two details recur: the dispatcher's pad and the checkpoint at St. Paul and Elm. The pad, used to record badge numbers and bus numbers when a driver is ahead of schedule, becomes a symbol of the commission's reliance on documentary evidence. McWatters explains that the dispatcher "has a little pad" and would write down the driver's badge number and how far ahead he was. Yet when asked if the dispatcher wrote anything on that day, McWatters replies, "No, sir." This absence of a written record underscores the limits of the commission's evidence: the timeline must be reconstructed from memory alone. The checkpoint itself—a corner where drivers could be stopped if early—serves as a fixed point in the narrative, a place where time is measured and recorded. These small, recurring elements ground the testimony in the physical reality of Dallas's streets and the bureaucratic routines of its transit system.

Readers approaching this volume should attend to the interplay between the commission's structured questioning and the witnesses' unpolished, often hesitant speech. The transcript rewards careful reading: a single phrase, a hesitation, or a correction can reveal the limits of memory or the pressure of the moment. This is not a narrative to be consumed passively but a document to be examined, its silences and repetitions as telling as its explicit statements.

There’s something humbling about reading Cecil McWatters’ careful timetable, how a bus driver’s mundane recollections became part of a nation’s grief. It reminds me of another record of ordinary voices under extraordinary pressure—The Tryal of William Penn & William Mead for Causing a Tumult at the Sessions Held at the Old Bailey in London the 1st, 3d, 4th, and 5th of September 1670 — Inside the Classic—where a few stubborn men also stood fast, their words preserved against the weight of history. Old testimonies stay alive somehow.