Speculation.—No one saw Oswald enter the Texas Theatre.
Commission finding.—A nearby shoe store manager, Johnny C. Brewer, and the theatre cashier, Julia Postal, saw Oswald enter the lobby of the theatre from where he went on into the theatre proper.[A12-68]
Speculation.—Not a single one of the people in the Texas Theatre at the time of Oswald’s arrest has come forward or been brought forward to give an eyewitness account of the arrest.
Commission finding.—Johnny C. Brewer, the shoe store manager, and two patrons of the theatre—John Gibson and George Jefferson Applin, Jr.—were present in the theatre and testified before the Commission on the circumstances of Oswald’s arrest at the Texas Theatre. Only 6 or 7 people were seated on the main floor of the theatre.[A12-69]
Speculation.—There is no independent witness aside from the police who testified that Oswald was carrying a gun when arrested by the police.
Commission finding.—Johnny Brewer testified before the Commission that he saw Oswald pull a gun and that he saw it taken away from him by a policeman.[A12-70]
OSWALD AFTER HIS ARREST
The Commission found that assertions that the Dallas police treated Oswald brutally and denied him his constitutional rights to legal counsel had no foundation in fact. Insinuations that Dallas police officials and District Attorney Henry M. Wade fabricated or altered evidence to establish the guilt of Oswald were baseless. It is true that police officials and the district attorney made errors in giving evidential information to the press, but these were clearly the result of misapprehensions or ignorance rather than intent, and at the worst represent bad judgment. At least one imputed fabrication of fact, further embellished by repetition, never really occurred. Sinister connotations were evoked by the attribution to the district attorney of the statement that a taxicab driver named Darryl Click drove Oswald from downtown Dallas to the area of his roominghouse in Oak Cliff. It has been correctly ascertained that no such taxicab driver existed in Dallas. On the other hand, the district attorney, who was quoted in a newspaper transcript as making the statement, never made the statement nor did any one else. Audio tapes of the district attorney’s press conference make clear that the person who transcribed the conference rendered a reference to the “Oak Cliff” area of Dallas as a person, “Darryl Click”. This error in transcription is the sole source for the existence of a “Darryl Click” as a taxicab driver.
Speculation.—Oswald was the victim of police brutality.
Commission finding.—Oswald resisted arrest in the Texas Theatre and drew a gun. He received a slight cut over his right eye and a bruise under his left eye in the course of his struggles. During the time he was in police custody, he was neither ill-treated nor abused.[A12-71]