What routes did witnesses report seeing Oswald take between the TSBD, the bus depot, the Texas Theatre, and his arrest, and how consistent are those accounts?
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Executive summary
Witnesses placed Lee Harvey Oswald running from the Tippit shooting area through Oak Cliff along Jefferson (discarding a jacket), then into the Texas Theatre where theatre employees or patrons spotted him and called police; official accounts and later retellings differ over precise timing, the bus-depot hypothesis is not supported by the provided reporting, and several eyewitness details conflict on when and where he entered the theater and what he did beforehand [1] [2] [3] [4].
1. Reported route from the Tippit shooting toward the Texas Theatre
Multiple contemporary and later accounts describe Oswald being seen fleeing the Tippit murder site and running through Oak Cliff toward the Texas Theatre, moving along East/West Jefferson Boulevard and discarding a windbreaker along the way; local news reporting and museum summaries relay that he ran past Beckley Avenue toward the theatre after ditching the jacket on Jefferson [1] [5] [2]. The Warren Commission and police testimony similarly reconstruct him as moving from the area of the Tippit shooting toward the theater, which explains the concentration of patrol cars searching nearby buildings shortly after the broadcast description of the killer [4] [2].
2. How witnesses described his entry to the Texas Theatre — disagreement on timing and who saw him
The most contested detail is when and how Oswald entered the Texas Theatre: concession worker Butch Burroughs later claimed he sold Oswald popcorn at about 1:15 p.m., and patron Jack Davis also said he saw Oswald before 1:20 p.m., but ticket-seller Julia Postal said she never saw him enter and relied on Burroughs’ account, and official reports place the theater incident closer to 1:35 p.m.; this creates a several‑minute window where witness memories diverge significantly [3] [2] [4]. The Warren Commission accepted testimony from theatre staff and several officers that Oswald ducked in without paying and was later identified by Johnny Brewer and others, but it also recounted that some witnesses’ times and impressions varied, and the Commission flagged such contradictions in its appendix [4] [2].
3. What witnesses and officers said about the arrest inside the theater
Police and arresting officers provide the most consistent parts of the story: when alerted by theatre staff, officers entered, found Oswald in the auditorium, and subdued him after a brief struggle during which he was said to have struck Officer McDonald and drawn a pistol (officers’ accounts collected by the Warren Commission and later oral-history exhibits concur on the basic physical arrest narrative) [4] [6]. Museums and police recollections emphasize that the radio description of the Tippit killer prompted patrols to “shake down” nearby buildings, leading officers to the theater after staff reported a man who had entered without paying [2] [6].
4. The bus-depot claim and gaps in the record
None of the supplied sources substantiate a credible route through a bus depot between the Texas School Book Depository, the Tippit scene, and the Texas Theatre; some secondary narratives and conspiracy retellings (and Oliver Stone’s filmic treatment) imply prearranged meetings or alternate transportation but those claims are either speculative or challenged by witnesses and the Warren Commission [7] [2]. The reporting provided also notes an evidentiary gap: there is no eyewitness account in these sources that traces a continuous, minute-by-minute walk or ride from the Depository to the Tippit site to the theatre — only sightings at intervals (e.g., leaving the boarding house, being observed running on Jefferson, being seen in the theatre) — so any claim of a specific intermediate stop like a bus depot exceeds what these sources document [8] [1].
5. Overall consistency and where uncertainty remains
Taken together, the strongest, most consistent elements are that Oswald left his rooming house in Oak Cliff, was seen running through Jefferson (discarding his jacket), entered the Texas Theatre without paying, and was arrested there after theatre staff alerted police; the weakest and most disputed elements are exact times and who saw him when — staff and patrons offered times ranging from about 1:15 to 1:35 p.m., and later retellings have amplified or filled gaps with conjecture about prearranged meetings or alternate routes that are not supported in the primary witness record provided [1] [3] [4] [2]. Where sources disagree, official investigative notes (Warren Commission appendix) flag those differences, and oral-history compilations acknowledge memory contradictions among arresting officers and theatre witnesses [4] [6].