Chapter4: Pinning the Tale on the Oswald

Above: the mug shot of the accused, Lee Harvey Oswald. It's amazing how his original mug shot (as subsequently published by the Dallas Police Archives on the University of North Texas website, at top) can look so different than this same mug shot as published by the Warren Commission (at bottom). Look in particular at the eyes. The man at top is bright-eyed and determined. He might very well be innocent. The man at bottom is bleary-eyed and haunted. He is probably guilty and quite possibly insane.This goes to show, then, how one's perception of Oswald--and his guilt--can be affected by something as basic as the publishing of a third--or even fourth--generation photo in the place of the original photo. Just imagine, then, how the filtering of evidence and information through a team of lawyers tasked with convicting a dead man could affect the public's perception of the evidence against this dead man. 

Then multiply that by a hundred...

The "So-Called" Evidence

In the preceding chapters it has been demonstrated that the Warren Commission’s conclusion Oswald fired all the shots on Kennedy was not supported by the statements of those who'd actually heard the shots. It was also demonstrated that Oswald was not the experienced and practiced sniper he would almost certainly have to have been to shoot President Kennedy twice in the time allotted for the shooting...by those who'd studied the assassination films.

But that doesn't prove Oswald's innocence. Witnesses can be mistaken. Inexperienced and/or out of practice shooters can get "lucky."

What it does prove, however, is that the Warren Commission was a whitewash. Its members and staff were dedicated to finding and exposing the truth about the assassination, all right--as long as that truth was that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone.

They ignored or dismissed much of the evidence suggesting a different truth entirely.

Well, this leads us nowhere. The days when we can pick up where they left off and look under the rocks where they refused to look are long passed.

But we can clean up some of the stuff they spewed--so that the historical record is such that future historians can look at multiple sides on this issue, and not repeat the mistakes of the past--where historians felt obligated to recite the Warren Commission's conclusions under the presumption they were conclusions derived by men sincerely interested in telling the public the truth.

I mean, really, if those tasked with deducing the truth about the assassination couldn't even acknowledge that the first shot hit Kennedy (when that was the immediate impression of the vast majority of witnesses), and couldn't even admit to the public that Oswald's ability to fire the shots in question was, in fact...highly questionable, well, then, why should we trust them on any of their many conclusions related to the case?

We shouldn't. And most of us don't.

In the next few chapters, then, we will review the evidence the Warren Commission used to sell Oswald's guilt. This was, for the most part, the same evidence presented to the nation while Oswald was in police custody...the evidence he mockingly referred to as "so-called evidence" when discussing his arrest with his family.

We will start by reviewing the statements and testimony used by the commission to suggest Oswald was in the sixth floor sniper's nest at the time of the shooting, and ran down the back stairs after the shots.

We will do this, moreover, without pretending there's a presumption of innocence. To the commission or its staff, that is. I hope you're not offended by the L word, because I'm gonna let it blast a few times.

Let's reflect. Oswald's murder while in the protective custody of the notoriously right-wing Dallas Police Department had raised reasonable questions on whether he had, in fact, been framed, and that someone or some group had conspired to ensure his silence. If he had been framed, of course, it would explain the most damning piece of evidence against him: that his rifle had fired the shots. To avoid conjecture that their conclusion Oswald acted alone was, well, unWarren-ted, then, the Warren Commission needed solid evidence that:

1. Oswald was on the sixth floor before the shooting, putting together his rifle and building the sniper's nest.

2. Oswald was in the sniper's nest window at the time of the shooting, with his rifle.

3. Oswald fired a rifle on 11-22-63.

Without convincing evidence these purported events took place, after all, there was room to doubt Oswald's involvement in the actual shooting. Without this evidence, all the Warren Commission had to suggest Oswald shot Kennedy was that his prints were found in the sniper's nest, his gun was found in the building, he fled the scene after the shooting, he soon thereafter shot a police officer, and was purported to have lied to the police in the unrecorded interrogations conducted before he could find an attorney. All this damning evidence, (and it is indeed damning evidence should it be accepted without reservation) could be explained, however, by the not-unreasonable proposition Oswald fled for his life once he realized he'd been set up as the president's assassin.

So let's take a look at the evidence the Warren Commission found so compelling.(Note: Before sinking one's teeth into this triple-decker information sandwich, one should familiarize oneself with the basic layout of the first floor of the Texas School Book Depository. This is shown below on Commission Exhibit 1061. The main entrance to the building, off Elm Street, is on the bottom. There is a stairway by this entrance that goes to the second floor, and an elevator that goes to the offices on floors 1-4. There is a second entrance to the building off the loading dock, at the top. There is a stairway near this entrance in the upper left corner that runs from the basement up to the 7th floor, and there are two freight elevators near this entrance that also run from the basement up to the 7th floor. There are no entrances or exits on the east side of the building. This leaves the west side, which many believed to have no entrances or exits but actually had two roll-up doors that led to a covered loading dock--which has strangely been left off the diagram.)

Solving the Puzzle of Where was Oswaldo

First, we look into the question of whether or not Oswald was on the sixth floor in the moments leading up to the shooting. There were two major hurdles to coming to the conclusion Oswald was on the sixth floor at this time. One was that Oswald was seen downstairs during the lunch period leading up to the shooting by a number of witnesses. And the other was that Oswald was not seen on the sixth floor during the lunch period by the one man claiming to have had lunch on the sixth floor.

Let's begin our discussion by reviewing Oswald's own claims. Captain Will Fritz's typed up notes on his first interrogation of Oswald reflect that, at the time of the shooting, Oswald said "he was having his lunch about that time on the first floor." (24H265)

Oswald was asked about this again the next day. This time, however, he was asked if anyone could confirm he'd spent his lunch period on the first floor. According to Fritz's typed-up notes, Oswald said he'd "ate lunch with some of the colored boys who worked with him. One of them was called 'Junior' and the other man was a little short man whose name he did not know." (24H267) The report of Secret Service Inspector Thomas Kelley, who was present at this second interrogation, confirms this account, moreover, stating "He said he ate his lunch with the colored boys who worked with him. He described one of them as 'Junior,' a colored boy, and the other was a little short negro boy." The report of FBI agent James Bookhout (WR622), who was also present for this interrogation, however, gives a slightly different account of Oswald's statements. Bookhout relates: "Oswald stated that on November 22, 1963, he had eaten lunch in the lunch room of the Texas School Book Depository, alone, but recalled possibly two negro employees walking through the room in this period. He stated possibly one of these employees was called 'Junior' and the other was a short individual whose name he could not recall, but whom he would be able to recognize." Bookhout's version in which Oswald did not eat lunch with these men, but merely saw them walk by, for that matter, receives solid support from an unexpected source: Fritz's original notes. In his hand-written notes, discovered after his death, Fritz reports that Oswald "saw two negroes come in one Jr. - & short negro" and says nothing about Oswald's claiming to have had lunch with these men.

In either case--whether Oswald claimed he'd had lunch with these men, or that he'd simply seen them walk by while he was eating--those investigating the assassination of President Kennedy were now tasked with finding out if James "Junior" Jarman or his lunch companion, Harold Norman (almost certainly the "short negro" in question), or anyone, for that matter, could confirm that Oswald had been in this first floor lunch room (aka the domino room) in the moments before the shooting, and, if not, whether anyone could place him on a higher floor during this same time period.

So let's retrace their footsteps and see what these men saw.

An 11-22-63 affidavit signed by Oswald co-worker Charles Givens reveals "I worked on the sixth floor today until about 11:30 A.M. Then I went downstairs and into the bathroom. At twelve o'clock I took my lunch period." (24H210) After signing this affidavit, Givens was interviewed by the FBI. A report on this interview further details “Givens observed Lee reading a newspaper in the domino room where the employees eat lunch about 11:50 A.M.” (CD5 p329) 

William Shelley, Oswald's direct boss, was also interviewed by the FBI on 11-22-63, and also told them he saw Oswald downstairs during the lunch period. The FBI reported: "Mr. William H. Shelley...furnished the following information...On the morning of November 22, 1963, Harvey Lee Oswald, who is an employee of the Texas School Book Depository, appeared at work as usual and went about his occupation filling orders for school books. He saw Oswald on two or three occasions during the morning and last saw him sometime between 11:45 A.M. and 12 noon, when he, Shelley, went to lunch." (CD5, p371)

These FBI reports thereby confirm Oswald's story he'd spent at least part of his lunchtime in the domino room. Or at least it appears to do so...

In any event, Givens snd Shelley weren't the only ones confirming Oswald came down for lunch.

An 11-23-63 statement to the Dallas County Sheriff’s Dept. signed by depository janitor Eddie Piper confirms: “Yesterday, at 12:00 noon, this fellow Lee says to me 'I’m going up to eat' and I went on to my lunch. I went to a front window on the first floor and ate my lunch and waited to see the President's parade go by. I saw the President pass and heard some shots and looked at the clock there and saw it was 12:25PM.” (19H499)

So, okay. That's two men claiming they saw Oswald downstairs. Piper says he saw Oswald at 12:00. That still leaves Oswald a half hour to scamper back upstairs and prepare to shoot the President.

But then the timeline closed considerably...

An 11-26-63 FBI report on Mrs. Caroline Arnold adds “As she was standing in front of the building, she stated she thought she caught a fleeting glimpse of Lee Harvey Oswald standing in the doorway between the front door and the double doors leading to the warehouse, located on the first floor. She could not be sure that this was Oswald, but said she felt it was and believed the time to be a few minutes before 12:15 pm.” (CD5 p41)

Now, as we go through the historical record related to the investigation of Kennedy's assassination we will encounter a number of suspicious omissions. (For ease of digestion, I have decided to mark these as "Suspicious Omission #1," "Suspicious Omission #2, etc.")

First and foremost among these omissions is that Carolyn Arnold was never re-interviewed about her belief she saw Oswald on the first floor during the time the Warren Commission would come to claim he was upstairs. Not by the FBI. Not by the Warren Commission. While the FBI report said she could not be sure she saw Oswald, this is unduly vague, and may have reflected that she'd actually told the FBI she was 99.44% sure.

Suspicious Omission #1. 

March '64--September '64. The Warren Commission fails to call Carolyn Arnold to testify, even though she told FBI investigators she believed she saw Oswald on the first floor around 12:15.

Now, if you find this omission shocking--and you should--you must prepare yourself. We're just getting started.

In describing an interview with Eddie Piper, a 12-7-63 Secret Service report on Oswald's co-workers relates "At about 12:00 noon on November 22, 1963, Piper last saw Oswald on the first floor and at that time Oswald said 'I'm going up to eat lunch.' Piper stated that he ate lunch on the first floor and was still on that floor at the time of the shots, that he looked up at the clock, and it was 12:25 P.M." (CD87 p780) Now, this was a repeat of what Piper had claimed on 11-23-63. It confirmed that he saw Oswald on the first floor 25 minutes or so before the shooting. (The shooting took place at 12:30, so his clock must have been off.)

But this wasn't the only gem in the 12-7 report.

Further down the page from its discussion of Eddie Piper, the 12-7-63 Secret Service report on Oswald's co-workers describes an interview of William Shelley, Oswald’s direct boss. It relates: "Mr. Shelley last saw Oswald at about 11:50 A.M., at which time Oswald was working at his normal duties on the first floor." (CD87 p780)

The strange wording of this report requires some discussion. While some might think Shelley's claiming he saw Oswald "working at his normal duties" means he saw Oswald working and about to head up to the sixth floor, this is blown out of the water by the fact Shelley was both Oswald's boss and the leader of the sixth floor work crew, a crew that by all accounts, (except Charles Givens', which varied quite a bit), came down for lunch around 11:45, passing Oswald on the fifth floor.

So what would Oswald be doing as part of his "normal duties" after everybody else had quit for lunch? Well, here, my own personal experience is of help. I've pulled orders in warehouses, and checked orders, too. Oswald was an order puller, tasked with gathering books that have been ordered, and bringing these books to a shipping table, where the order could be checked against the pick list, wrapped, and shipped. In reporting that Shelley said Oswald was working at his normal duties on the first floor, then, the Secret Service was quite possibly reporting that Shelley saw Oswald delivering an order to the shipping table--perhaps, even, an order of books just retrieved from the fifth floor.

In any event, by 12-7-63, it would have to have been clear to those investigating the assassination that Oswald came down for lunch, if only for a few minutes.

Now, here comes some murk.

On 12-20, the FBI finally gets around to interviewing Eddie Piper. This is not a shocking development. In what can only be considered a shocking development, however, the report on this interview omits or conceals that Piper spoke to Oswald around 12:00. Instead, it declares that Piper "advised he came to work at his usual time, 10 A.M., November 22, 1963, and during the course of his employment had seen Lee Harvey Oswald, a fellow employee, filling orders on the first floor. He did not recall the specific time he saw Oswald, stating it was shortly after he got to work and stated that this was the only time he saw Oswald on that particular day." (CD206 p13)

Suspicious Omission #2

12-20-63. The FBI omits from its report on an interview with Eddie Piper that Piper feels certain he saw Oswald on the first floor around 12:00.

So what's all this about? Was the FBI embarrassed by the fact they'd never interviewed Piper? Were they desperate to discount the importance of his recollections? And, to that end, were FBI agents Richard Harrison and William Johnson tasked with diluting Piper's consistent claim he saw Oswald around noon?

Or had Piper changed his recollections?

Not the latter. On 2-17-64, when interviewed by the Dallas Police, Piper repeated "At around 12:00 noon, I told Oswald that I was going to eat my sandwich. Oswald mumbled something that he was going up to eat. This was the last time I saw Oswald."

So there it is. The statements of Oswald's co-workers strongly support that he came down for lunch.

So why is this important?

The Strange Reliance on Charles Givens

Since the only man identifying Oswald as the shooter in the sixth floor window, Howard Brennan, said he couldn't identify Oswald as the shooter on 11-22-63, and only did so in December, weeks after Oswald's death, after being prodded by the FBI, the statements placing Oswald downstairs in the forty-five minutes before the shooting represented a major problem for those seeking to blame him for the shooting. There was no hard evidence suggesting Oswald was the man seen in the window minutes before the shooting. If Oswald had been downstairs, moreover, there was no evidence he went back up. Joseph Ball and David Belin, the Warren Commission attorneys tasked with building a case against Oswald, then, needed to explain how Oswald was able to build the sniper’s nest and re-construct his dismantled rifle in the short time between his last being seen downstairs and the arrival of the motorcade.

Except they didn't. As we've seen, they didn't even talk to Carolyn Arnold, whose belief she saw Oswald on the first floor around 12:15 was a big big problem for the commission's working hypothesis Oswald shot Kennedy from the sixth floor at 12:30.

But it's worse than that. Ball and Belin, who, according to author Philip Shenon, "became so close" during the commission's investigation that their superiors on the commission came to say their names "together as a single word, Ball-Belin," actually argued Oswald never came down for lunch.

I'm not kidding.

From the Warren Report, page 143:

Oswald's Presence on Sixth Floor Approximately 35 Minutes Before the Assassination

Additional testimony linking Oswald with the point from which the shots were fired was provided by the testimony of Charles Givens, who was the last known employee to see Oswald inside the building prior to the assassination. During the morning of November 22, Givens was working with the floor-laying crew in the southwest section of the sixth floor. At about. 11:45 a.m. the floor-laying crew used both elevators to come down from the sixth floor. The employees raced the elevators to the first floor. Givens saw Oswald standing at the gate on the fifth floor as the elevator went by. Givens testified that after reaching the first floor, "I discovered I left my cigarettes in my jacket pocket upstairs, and I took the elevator back upstairs to get my jacket with my cigarettes in it." He saw Oswald, a clipboard in hand, walking from the southeast corner of the sixth floor toward the elevator. (See Commission Exhibit No. 2707, p. 142.) Givens said to Oswald, "Boy are you going downstairs? * * * It's near lunch time." Oswald said, "No, sir. When you get downstairs, close the gate to the elevator." Oswald was referring to the west elevator which operates by pushbutton and only with the gate closed. Givens said, "Okay," and rode down in the east elevator. When he reached the first floor, the west elevator--the one with the gate was not there. Givens thought this was about 11:55 a.m. None of the Depository employees is known to have seen Oswald again until after the shooting. (WR p143)

Now, why would they make such an argument? Why flim-flam the public when taking a more honest route might lead to the same conclusion--that Lee Harvey Oswald, acting alone, killed President Kennedy?

The thought occurs that they did this because it was easier--that they were just too freakin' busy pounding square pegs into round holes to think outside the box, and recognize the true shape of the evidence before them.

When one re-reads the testimony feeding into the commission's conclusion Oswald never came down for lunch, for that matter, and re-reads the internal documents of the commission from early March '64--when the commission's workload doubled or even tripled--this actually makes a lot of sense.

On 3-2-64, let's recall, Howard Willens reported that "Most of today was consumed by two staff meetings regarding the proposed schedule of testimony before the Commission and by depositions taken by the staff. The draft memorandum for the members of the Commission which I prepared was distributed to members of the staff and was discussed at the initial meeting beginning at 11:30 a.m. The discussion quickly centered on the problem whether staff members should be permitted to interview witnesses in advance of the witness giving a deposition or testifying before the Commission. This argument went on for two hours or so and for an additional two hours or so at a continuation of the meeting beginning at 4 o’clock. Mr. Shaffer was not there and therefore his eloquence could not be brought to bear on this topic. As a result of the meetings, a set of procedures is to be made up by a committee including Messrs. Liebeler, Belin and Redlich. Mr. Redlich and Mr. Eisenberg were the most forceful proponents of the proposition that staff members should not be permitted to interview witnesses without a court reporter present. Mr. Belin was strongly opposed and Mr. Liebeler urged a somewhat intermediate position."

So, okay. Belin really wants to pre-interview his witnesses.

On 3-4-64, this ongoing debate within the commission's staff led Commission General Counsel J. Lee Rankin's top assistant Norman Redlich to put his feelings down in a memo. On the issue of whether or not commission attorneys should interview witnesses before their testimony, and in effect prepare them for their testimony, Redlich complained: "I feel that an unrecorded interview with a witness creates the inevitable danger that the witness will be conditioned to give certain testimony." Redlich then added "If we compound the lack of cross examination with the pre-conditioning of a witness, we will be presenting a record which, in my view, will be deceptively clean..."

Redlich's objection was shot down, moreover, and by the Chief Justice, no less. A 3-10-64 journal entry from Rankin's other top assistant, Howard Willens, reports that he'd had a meeting with the top staff and Earl Warren, during which Warren "indicated that he wanted to get our lawyers on the road as quickly as possible to interview witnesses. In the course of stating his views on this, the Chief Justice stated that he had complete faith in all of the members of the staff and wanted them to be free to have unrecorded interviews with the witnesses. Although he did not elaborate on his views in this matter, the Chief Justice apparently had been briefed on the staff discussions on this subject by someone, possibly Mr. Rankin or Mr. Ball."

Willens then briefly discussed Warren's wishes regarding who should be questioned next. He then added: "After the above meeting various members of the staff gathered in my office to make their suggestions regarding alterations in the schedule. Present were Messrs. Redlich, Eisenberg, Ball, Belin, Stern, Liebeler and Ely. As usual there was considerable debate among the members of the staff regarding the function of the Commission and the definition of what constitutes a thorough job. Apparently during the day’s testimony the Chief Justice had indicated his readiness to receive a clean record and not pursue in very much detail the various inconsistencies. Mr. Ball agreed with the approach suggested by the Chief Justice completely and Mr. Specter thought that we would have to amend our approach to correspond with that of the Chief Justice. Mr. Redlich and Mr. Eisenberg took a strong and articulate contrary view."

Now, it seems clear from this that Howard Willens suspected Ball was behind all this. I mean, first he says he suspects Ball may have been the one to brief Warren on the ongoing debate, and then he notes that Ball was in complete agreement with Warren's ultimate decision.

So...let's get this straight. David Belin, who has been tasked with determining (and presumably demonstrating) Oswald's guilt, has been pushing Rankin and Redlich to allow him to pre-interview and thereby shape the testimony of his witnesses... while at the same time, Joseph Ball, Belin's senior partner, has been lobbying Chief Justice Warren, whom he has known for decades, about the benefits to be derived from pre-interviewing witnesses, in order to receive as "clean" a record as possible.

Of the 14 assistant counsel for the commission, Ball and Belin are the only two tasked with demonstrating Oswald's guilt, and they are also the only two itching to pre-interview their witnesses.

Well, hell's bells. If this isn't a clear indication Ball and Belin were up to something I don't know what such an indication would look like. Unstated but implicit in Redlich's memo is that pre-interviewing witnesses in the manner subsequently proposed by Warren leads to a deceptively "clean" record through two processes. The first is that the witness learns what the lawyer wants him to say, and is more likely to say it. And the second is that the lawyer learns what questions shouldn't be asked, because the answers might lead to more questions, or even a direction opposite the preferred direction. That Ball and Belin were so gung-ho about pre-interviewing their witnesses, then, is a red flag. It cries "Future historians, look at our behavior--look at the questions we didn't ask (at least on the record), and the witnesses we never called."

And yes, should you be wondering, Ball and his junior counsel Belin did indeed pre-interview and try to mold the testimony of their witnesses. In Cover-up (1976), author J. Gary Shaw detailed a 1971 interview he'd performed with ex-Dallas County Deputy Sheriff Roger Craig. Craig told Shaw that many of the details of his 1964 testimony had been changed--things like the color of a car he saw after the shooting, or the color of the jacket of the man he saw running to this car.

Now, that could just be the ranting of a man with a bad memory. More telling, then, is this. Of David Belin, Craig complained: "He started instructing me before he got a tape recorder and a stenographer there. He told her not to write anything until he instructed her to. He did not turn the recorder on and he started instructing me. He said 'Now, Mr. Craig, I'm going to ask you this question and I want you to tell me this.' And I said 'Counselor, just ask me the questions and if I know the answers, I will tell you,' and he became irritated. So then we started the question and answer series and periodically he would turn off the recorder and instruct the stenographer to stop writing. Then he would ask me pertinent questions...And then he would say 'OK' and would start the recorder, instruct the stenographer to start writing again but he wouldn't ask me those questions he asked off the record. He'd go back again to the questions he'd already asked me, about who I worked for, what I was doing that day. He did this seven or eight times during the interview."

And Craig wasn't the only witness to complain about Belin. A December 1978 Dallas Morning News article by Earl Golz revealed that on 4-1-64 David Belin argued with witness Ronald Fischer about the color of the hair of the man Fischer saw staring out the window of the sniper's nest. According to Fischer, Belin tried to "intimidate" him, because Oswald's hair was not as light as the hair of the man Fischer saw, and he "wanted me to tell him that the man was dark-headed and I wouldn't do it." None of this was on the record, of course. 

And Fisher wasn't the last to complain. In his 2010 book, The Girl on the Stairs, Barry Ernest details a 2004 conversation he had with witness Vickie Adams, in which she similarly complained about the interviewing technique employed by David Belin. She said Belin told her he wanted her to answer his questions without elaboration, answering only the questions asked. He then began questioning her. She said that after going through these questions, Belin announced that this was all off the record. He then began questioning her again, on the record. 

Well, it seems clear from this that Belin was actively trying to weed out problematic comments and details.

And we needn't rely upon these witnesses, either. The 4-22-64 testimony of Dallas Crime Scene investigator J.C. Day has many amazing passages, but one of the most amazing passages reflects badly on Belin, not Day. Consider:

Mr. BELIN. Is there any other testimony you have with regard to the chain of possession of this shell from the time it was first found until the time it got back to your office?

Mr. DAY. No, sir; I told you in our conversation in Dallas that I marked those at the scene. After reviewing my records, I didn't think I was on all three of those hulls that you have, indicating I did not mark them at the scene, then I remembered putting them in the envelope, and Sims taking them. It was further confirmed today when I noticed that the third hull, which I did not give you, or come to me through you, does not have my mark on it.

Mr. BELIN. Now, I did interview you approximately 2 weeks ago in Dallas, more or less?

Mr. DAY. Yes, sir.

Mr. BELIN. At that time what is the fact as to whether or not I went into extended questions and answers as contrasted with just asking you to tell me about certain areas as to what happened? I mean, I questioned you, of course, but was it more along the lines of just asking you to tell me what happened, or more along the lines of interrogation, the interrogation we are doing now?

Mr. DAY. Yes, sir.

Mr. BELIN. Which one?

Mr. DAY. Wait a minute now. Say that again. I am at a loss.

Mr. BELIN. Maybe it would be easier if I just struck the question and started all over again.

Mr. DAY. I remember you asking me if I marked them.

Mr. BELIN. Yes.

Mr. DAY. I remember I told you I did.

Mr. BELIN. All right.

And that was it. Day mentioned that Belin had questioned him off the record approximately two weeks before his testimony in Washington, which led Belin to try to get Day to add that it was really no big deal, which confused the heck out of Day, which led Belin to let it drop. Belin knew people would question his behavior, and he sought to cover his rump. 

And this wouldn't be the last time Belin and Ball's Warren-approved pre-conditioning of the witnesses would be exposed in testimony. 

On 5-14-64, Belin's partner Ball interviewed Oswald's boss. Roy Truly, in Dallas, and asked him questions that Belin had failed to ask during Truly's 3-24-64 testimony in Washington. 

Now look how it gets started...

Mr. BALL. Now, Mr. Truly, this is a continuation of your deposition. I took the last one and you have been sworn and I don't know that it is exactly necessary for you to take the oath again, since this is a continuation of the deposition. I took the last one, didn't I?

Mr. TRULY. Oh, no; I gave a statement that was under oath.

Mr. BALL. Oh, no; this is a deposition. You appeared before the Commission--that's right.

Mr. TRULY. Mr. Belin took my sworn deposition also about a week before I went up there when you both were in Dallas and he also took a recorded deposition.

Mr. BALL. Yes; but that was just an investigation, an inquiry. We didn't record that. You weren't under oath then. Will you stand up and be sworn? Do you solemnly swear that the testimony you are about to give before this Commission will be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God?

Mr. TRULY. I do. 

(7H380-386)

OOPS! Ball thought Truly was still under oath from the last time he interviewed him, only...he'd only interviewed him off the record--or what he would later claim was off the record. 

Well, hell, this more than supports what seems obvious from Day's testimony...that Ball and Belin were interviewing important witnesses (e.g. Truly and Day) in Dallas a week or two before bringing them to Washington, and that the records of these initial interviews (whether they be recorded transcripts or simply notes on what should and shouldn't be asked) were then shit-canned, so as to keep problematic answers from the record...

And this wasn't the only way in which Ball and Belin helped "clean" up the testimony, and appease the "clean" testimony-loving Warren...

In a 2-16-87 interview with Gus Russo first published in 1998, Buell Frazier, who claimed he saw Oswald carry a package into the building on the morning of the shooting, complained: "They had me in one room and my sister in another. They were asking us to hold our hands apart to show how long the package was. They made me do it over and over--at least ten times. Each time they measured the distance, and it was always 25 inches, give or take an inch. They did the same with my sister and she gave the same measurement...But I don't understand what the problem is--Lee could have taken the rifle in on another day and hidden it in the warehouse. Why did he have to take it in on Friday?" 

Frazier was questioned by Ball. 

So let's take a closer look at the behavior of Messieurs Ball and Belin.

Now I must say, researching and writing what you are about to read was an agonizing experience. But it led me to an understanding of the Warren Commission and how it got it wrong that had previously eluded me...

And, I dare say, still eludes most Americans...

To sum up, when confronted with the conflicting statements about Oswald's whereabouts at the time of the shooting, and facing the possibility someone other than Oswald was Kennedy's assassin, Ball and Belin repeatedly pulled the chicken switch, and opted to stuff all the square pegs they could find into round holes.

While we don't know why they did this--in that we don't know whether Chief Justice Warren personally asked them to do this--such speculation seems reasonable given Ball's long-time relationship with Warren. And we've already demonstrated that Warren approved of Ball's stuffing these holes...

Sorry if that sounds nasty.

And sorry if it sounds mean. My mom comes from Iowa. I would like nothing more than for the two Warren Commission attorneys to have been raised in Iowa (Ball in Stuart and Council Bluffs and Belin in my mom's hometown of Sioux City) to have been the two attorneys whose reputations were unsoiled by their stint on the Commission. But this was not to be. Belin, as we shall see, took some liberties with the truth and quite possibly suborned perjury, and Ball, well, he engaged in some sneaky lawyer tricks that were designed to deceive the public.

Now, I know, I know...Ball was a legendary lawyer with a sterling reputation...among lawyers. But that's the problem. In 1999, at the age of 97, Ball wrote A Century in the Life of a Lawyer, an article telling his life story, which was then published in the California Western Law Review. Well, mixed in with his and-then-I-met-Earl-Warren-type vignettes, Ball shared a few of his sneaky lawyer tricks--such as the technique he used to help even the worst murderers avoid the death penalty, and the techniques he used to help two accused child molesters go free. (I'll give you a hint...he thought up ways to get the jury to doubt the credibility of the female victims--one couldn't tell time, and the other failed to yell out when she was being molested, so, y'know, there was reasonable doubt they were telling the truth...)

In any event, with 20/20 hindsight, or more accurately, 2017 hindsight, we can see just how Ball and Belin attempted, and largely succeeded, to "clean" up the record regarding Oswald's activities just before the shooting...

They didn't do it all at once, mind you. They did it in steps...

Step 1: The 3-24-64 Testimony of Bonnie Ray Williams...

An 11-23-63 FBI report on Bonnie Ray Williams declared: “At approximately 12 noon, Williams went back upstairs to the sixth floor with his lunch. He stayed on that floor only about three minutes, and seeing no one there, descended to the fifth floor using the stairs at the west end of the building.” (CD5 p330)

Now that was simple enough. A guy went upstairs to the sixth floor, saw nothing, and left, long before shots were fired from the far left corner of the floor.

A 12-7 Secret Service Report on an interview with Williams, however, went into more detail. It declared: "After Williams picked up his lunch on the first floor he returned to the sixth floor...Williams said he spent just a few minutes eating his lunch and that during that time he did not see anyone else or hear anything on the sixth floor. As soon as he finished his lunch, Williams went to the fifth floor of the building and he estimated the time to be prior to 12:15 P.M." (CD87 p784)

Well, this is interesting. What had been but 3 minutes could now be as much as 14 minutes... of Williams sitting alone on the sixth floor... with no Oswald in sight... This could be a problem for those wanting to sell that Oswald stayed up on the sixth floor during lunch.

It seems probable, then, that an FBI report on a 1-8-64 interview with Williams was written in an attempt to solve this problem. It declared that Williams "recalled that he ate lunch about noon on November 22, 1963 on the sixth floor of the TSBD Building and about that time he heard James Earl Jarman Jr. also known as 'Junior' and Harold 'Hank' Norman on the fifth floor and he joined them there by going down on the west elevator about 12:05 P.M." (CD329, p13)

Well, okay... This time of 12:05 is more than a little suspicious, and is quite possibly the approximation of Special agents Carter and Griffin, the writers of the report, and not Williams. Williams made it clear, after all, that he only came down to the fifth floor after hearing Jarman and Norman on the floor below. On 1-8-64, agents Carter and Griffin spoke to both Jarman and Norman. Jarman said he thought he went up to the fifth floor around 12:25 (CD329, p12) and Norman said he went up to the fifth floor "about 12:10 to 12:20" (CD329, p14).

From this one can gather that Williams was on the sixth floor as recently as 5-10 minutes before the shooting at 12:30.

Aha! Perhaps this explains why Williams' signed statement from the afternoon of the shooting suggests he was at first too scared to say he'd been on the sixth floor at all. There, Williams declared that, after he came downstairs to get his lunch, "I went back on the fifth floor with a fellow called Hank and Junior, I don't know his last name. Just after we got on the fifth floor we saw the President coming around the corner on Houston from Main Street." (24H229)

In any event, on 3-19-64, Williams, who'd originally stated he heard but two shots, made a statement drawn up by the FBI (but apparently unsigned by Williams) asserting that he'd heard three shots. He also asserted that "The last time I saw Lee Harvey Oswald on November 22, 1963 was at about 11:40 A.M. At that time Oswald was on the sixth floor on the east side of the building. I did not pay particular attention to what he was doing." (22H681)

Well, wait a second. This directly contradicted Williams' affidavit to the Dallas County Sheriff's Department signed on the afternoon of the shooting. There, he claimed "I didn't see Oswald anymore, that I remember, after I saw him at 8 A.M."

Still, it seems possible this 11:40 is a reference to the elevator race, in which Williams heard but did not see Oswald yell out from the fifth (or sixth) floor as the floor crew (Williams, Arce, Lovelady, Givens) descended to the first floor via both freight elevators. While most of those involved placed the time for this race at 11:45, there's no reason to believe Williams had committed this time to memory, and would recall it without error 4 months after the fact.

If the FBI and Warren Commission thought this signaled a new and improved Williams, one who would help them make their case that Oswald stayed on the sixth floor when everyone else came down for lunch, however, they had another think coming. When Williams testified on 3-25-64 he stated that the sixth floor crew had quit working at 5 to 12 (his statement on the afternoon of the shooting said 10 to 12) and that he had went back up to the sixth floor looking for others after grabbing his lunch. He testified further that he ate lunch by himself for “5, 10, 12 minutes…no longer than it took me to finish my chicken sandwich” before heading back down to the fifth floor. When pressed further on what time he came down to the fifth floor, he responded "I finished the chicken sandwich maybe 10 or 15 minutes after 12. I could say approximately what time it was." He then told them something no one could have been expecting: "Approximately 12:20, maybe." Later, when asked by Commissioner Dulles if he had heard anything on the sixth floor while he was eating, he responded "I felt like I was all alone. That is one of the reasons I left--because it was so quiet." (3H161-184)

As Williams sat 10 yards or so from the sniper’s nest and did not see or hear anyone else on the sixth floor, it suggests that, after spending the bulk of his lunch time downstairs, Oswald did not immediately head back up to the sixth floor, if at all.

So now let's take a closer look at Williams' testimony.

Just look at what happened after he dropped his bombshell about being on the sixth floor till 12:20.

Mr. BALL. Well, now, when you talked to the FBI on the 23d day of November, you said that you went up to the sixth floor about 12 noon with your lunch, and you stayed only about 3 minutes, and seeing no one you came down to the fifth floor, using the stairs at the west end of the building. Now, do you think you stayed longer than 3 minutes up there?

Mr. WILLIAMS. I am sure I stayed longer than 3 minutes.

Mr. BALL. Do you remember telling the FBI you only stayed 3 minutes up there?

Mr. WILLIAMS. I do not remember telling them I only stayed 3 minutes.

Mr. BALL. And then on this 14th of January 1964, when you talked to Carter and Griffin, they reported that you told them you went down to the fifth floor around 12:05 p.m., and that around 12:30 p.m. you were watching the Presidential parade. Now, do you remember telling them you went down there about 12:05 p.m.?

Mr. WILLIAMS. I remember telling the fellows that--they asked me first, they said, "How long did it take you to finish the sandwich?" I said, "Maybe 5 to 10 minutes, maybe 15 minutes." Just like I said here. I don't remember saying for a definite answer that it was 5 minutes.

Mr. BALL. Well, is it fair to say that you do not remember the exact time now?

Mr. WILLIAMS. Yes, sir.

Mr. BALL. You do remember, though, that you ate your lunch and drank your pop, your Doctor Pepper, before you came down?

Mr. WILLIAMS. Yes, sir.

Ball was trying to discredit Williams... This was to no avail, as it turned out, as Ball questioned James Jarman later that day, and Jarman testified that he didn't reach the fifth floor until "12:25 or 12:28." (3H198-211) Williams, we should recall, was clear in that he left the sixth floor when he heard Jarman and Norman on the fifth floor...

Now, it's not as if Williams was a difficult witness, who refused to budge on the slightest point. As we've seen, on 11-23-63, the FBI claimed Williams told them he'd come down from the sixth floor to the fifth via the stairs. This was a problem. The east elevator was later found on the fifth floor. If Williams hadn't brought it there, well, then, who had? Jarman and Norman claimed they'd reached the fifth floor via the west elevator. Motorcycle Patrolman Marrion Baker and Oswald's boss Roy Truly claimed that after racing to the elevator shaft, they found that both elevators were locked up on the upper floors. They said they then climbed the stairs up to the fifth floor, and rode the east elevator from the fifth floor to the seventh floor. So how did it get to the fifth? On 1-8-64, Williams was re-interviewed and now said he'd taken the west elevator from the sixth to the fifth. Oops. That didn't help matters.

Now check out how Ball cleared this up.

Mr. BALL. Now, I want to call your attention to another report I have here. On the 23d of November 1963, the report of Mr. Odum and Mr. Griffin, FBI agents, is that you told them that you went from the sixth floor to the fifth floor using the stairs at the west end of the building. Did you tell them that?

Mr. WILLIAMS. I didn't tell them I was using the stairs. I came back down to the fifth floor in the same elevator I came up to the sixth floor on.

Mr. BALL. You did?

Mr. WILLIAMS. Yes, sir.

Mr. BALL. Now, also, on January 14th, did you remember talking to a couple of agents named Carter and Griffin?

Mr. WILLIAMS. I can't remember their names, but I am sure I did.

Mr. BALL. You talked to a good many of them?

Mr. WILLIAMS. Yes, sir.

Mr. BALL. Well, they reported here that you went down to the fifth floor, and you did so by going down on the west elevator.

Mr. WILLIAMS. The east elevator. The reason I was able to determine whether it was the east elevator is because I think when you questioned us the other day, the other fellows--I told you I didn't remember which elevator first. But the other fellows said they had the west elevator. There are only two elevators. If they are sure they had the west elevator up, that only leaves the east elevator.

Mr. BALL. When you got to the fifth floor and left the elevator, at that time were both elevators on the fifth floor?

Mr. WILLIAMS. Yes, sir.

Mr. BALL. Both west and east?

Mr. WILLIAMS. Yes, sir, as I remember.

Mr. BALL. The other day, when I talked to you in Dallas, on Friday 20 March--

Mr. WILLIAMS. Yes, sir.

Mr. BALL. And at that time were you able did you remember which elevator it was?

Mr. WILLIAMS. Which elevator I had?

Mr. BALL. What you had come down from six to five on.

Mr. WILLIAMS. As I remember, I first said I wasn't sure. After the fellows said they brought the west elevator up, I said I must have the east elevator.

Mr. BALL. Is it fair to say now that you don't have any definite memory as to whether it was the east or west elevator?

Mr. WILLIAMS. Yes, sir. I believe that would be true.

Ball reminded Williams of his prior statements, and put these on the record so the commissioners would know Williams was not to be trusted.

And that's not the last of the Williams switcheroos. In his 11-22-63 affidavit, signed but hours after the shooting, Williams swore that along with Jarman and Norman he ran to the west end of the fifth floor after hearing the shots and seeing the crowd below run towards the grassy knoll. He then declared: "We stayed there and in a little while some officers came up. They left and then we took an elevator to the fourth floor." (24H229). Well, this wouldn't do. In the scenario ultimately proffered by the FBI and WC, to be clear, there was no elevator on the fifth floor 4-5 minutes after the shooting.

So let's see what Williams said the next day. An 11-23-63 FBI memo on an interview with Williams reports: "While they were standing at the west end of the building on the fifth floor, a police officer came up on the elevator and looked all around the fifth floor and left the floor" and that furthermore "he and Hank and Junior were standing where they would have seen anyone coming down from the sixth floor via the stairs and that they did not see anyone coming down. He stated someone might have been coming down on the elevator and they would not have noticed that. He stated that after the police officer left the fifth floor, Williams went down to the fourth floor where there were a lot of women around the west end of the floor." (CD5, p330-333) Okay. No switcheroo yet.

So what did Williams say to the Secret Service a few weeks later? "While they were still on the fifth floor, Williams saw a policeman near the stairway at the back of the building, but he did not know whether the policeman was going up or down the stairway. The policeman did not speak to Williams and apparently did not see him. Williams estimated that about five minutes had passed between the time of the shots and the time he and the others started down the stairs to the first floor." (CD87, p784) Aha! There's the switch. No elevator. Not even a stop on the fourth floor.

And here's Williams again in a statement to the FBI from 3-19-64: "While we were standing at the west end of the building on the fifth floor, a police officer came up on the elevator and looked all around the fifth floor and left the floor. I did not see anyone come down from the stairs." (22H681)

Now, that's strange. The police officer (presumably Marrion Baker) has once again arrived via elevator.

And here's Williams' 3-24-64 testimony regarding this police officer:

Mr. BALL. Now, when you were questioned by the FBI agents, talking to Mr. Odum and Mr. Griffin, they reported in writing here that while you were standing at the west end of the building on the fifth floor, a police officer came up on the elevator and looked all around the fifth floor and left the floor. Did you see anything like that?

Mr. WILLIAMS. Well, at the time I was up there I saw a motorcycle policeman. He came up. And the only thing I saw of him was his white helmet.

Mr. BALL. What did he

Mr. WILLIAMS. He just came around, and around to the elevator.

Mr. BALL. Which elevator?

Mr. WILLIAMS. I believe it was the east elevator.

Mr. BALL. Did you see anybody with him?

Mr. WILLIAMS. I did not.

Mr. BALL. You were only able to see the top of his helmet?

Mr. WILLIAMS. Yes, sir.

Mr. BALL. You could only see the top of his helmet

Mr. WILLIAMS. Yes, sir; that is the only thing I saw about it.

Mr. BALL. They reported that you told them on the 23d of November that you and Hank, that is Hank Norman, isn't it--

Mr. WILLIAMS. Yes, sir.

Mr. BALL. And Junior--that is Junior Jarman--were standing where they would have seen anyone coming down from the sixth floor by way of the stairs. Did you tell them that?

Mr. WILLIAMS. I could not possibly have told him that, because you cannot see anything coming down from that position.

Mr. BALL. And that you did not see anyone coming down.

Mr. WILLIAMS. No, sir. An elephant could walk by there, and you could not see him.

And here's Williams' testimony regarding their descent to the first floor.

Mr. WILLIAMS. After we stood at the west window for a while, we decided to go down. Then we left.

Mr. BALL. How did you go down?

Mr. WILLIAMS. By stairs.

Mr. BALL. Where did you go?

Mr. WILLIAMS. We went to the fourth floor first. Then we paused for a minute there, where we saw these women looking out of the window. Then we decided to go down to the first floor, and we ran on down.

(3-24-64 Testimony of Bonnie Ray Williams, 3H161-184)

Williams had originally claimed they'd descended via the elevator, but now claimed they'd left by the stairs.

Well, what about Jarman and Norman? Did they support Williams' original statements? Or his subsequent testimony?

A 12-7-63 Secret Service report on Jarman relates: "He went with Williams and Norman to the west side of the building where they looked out those windows for a few minutes and then went down the back stairway to the first floor. He did not see any police officer on the stairway, but says that he did see a woman looking out a window on the west side of the fourth floor as they went down...Jarman estimated that they remained on the fifth floor for about five minutes after the shots, before they started down the stairway." (CD87 p785) And a 12-4-63 affidavit by Harold Norman confirms that after they (Jarman, Norman, and Williams) reached the west side of the building, "We discussed the shots, and where they had come from, and decided we better go down stairs. We walked down the stairs to the first floor and did not see anyone else on the stairway as we went down. From the time of the shots until we started downstairs was about five minutes." (CD7, p783)

On 3-24-64, just after Williams, Norman and Jarman would similarly testify that they ran down from the fifth floor, with Jarman even specifying that they looked for an elevator, but found none were available.

It seems clear, then, that Williams was quite flexible with his recollections. And that, even so, he stood strong about his being on the sixth floor until 12:20 or so. And was correct in doing so...

This leads us, then, to the testimony of Williams' fifth floor companions, James Jarman and Harold Norman.

Step 2: The 3-24-64 Testimony of James Jarman and Harold Norman...

The testimony of James Jarman and Harold Norman was of vital importance to the commission. Oswald had cited them as witnesses to his being downstairs in the moments before the shooting. Commission Counsel Ball and Belin, then, needed Jarman and Norman to refute Oswald's claim.

They got some help from Jarman, but not much. In his 11-22 Affidavit to Dallas County, Jarman remembered last seeing Oswald "between 11:30 A.M. and 12:00 noon when he was taking the elevator upstairs to go get boxes." Jarman then added: "At about 11:45 A.M. all of the employees who were working on the sixth floor came downstairs and we were all out on the street about 12:00 noon." (24H213)

Now, this was nothing if not vague. Jarman said he saw Oswald go upstairs between 11:30 and 12:00, and that the sixth floor crew came down around 11:45. In sum, then, he couldn't remember whether or not he saw Oswald go upstairs before or after the sixth floor crew came down for lunch. But we needn't be so confused. As the sixth floor work crew remembered seeing and hearing Oswald upstairs when they came down for lunch, it's more than likely Jarman saw Oswald go upstairs just ahead of lunchtime. It's far more reasonable, after all, to assume someone who was seen going somewhere went there before he was seen in that location by others, than to assume he went there, was seen in that location by others, then came back, and then returned.

Still, for some, this was beside the point. On 3-24-64, Jarman testified before the Warren Commission and told them what they almost certainly wanted to hear. He told them that, although he'd been in the domino room after quitting for lunch at 5 to 12, he didn't remember seeing Oswald at this time. (3H198-211)

Now, we've already demonstrated why this wasn't as damaging for Oswald as at first it might appear. Oswald's boss William Shelley, the leader of the sixth floor work crew Jarman saw come down to the first floor around 11:45, had by the time of Jarman's testimony acknowledged seeing Oswald on the first floor around 11:50. And Charles Givens had apparently told the FBI he saw Oswald in the domino room around this same time. And Eddie Piper had repeatedly claimed he saw Oswald on the first floor shortly after this, around noon. And Carolyn Arnold had purportedly claimed she thought she saw Oswald on the first floor around 12:15.

So it's hard to see how Jarman's testimony buried Oswald...

When one considers Jarman's subsequent statements, moreover, this is even harder to see. While those seeking to pin the blame for the assassination on Oswald, and Oswald alone, inevitably use Jarman's claim he didn't see Oswald in the domino room as evidence for Oswald's guilt, they never, and I mean never, acknowledge that Jarman spoke to federal investigators working for the HSCA on 9-25-77, and that, by then, his story had changed a bit. In this interview, to be clear, Jarman now recalled that he'd sent Oswald upstairs to correct a mistake around 11:25, or 11:30, and that Oswald had returned with the proper book shortly thereafter.

Now this is interesting, in several respects. For one, it seems Jarman now remembered, as a fact, seeing Oswald come down from the upper floors just before the shooting. While he could have been mistaken about this, we can't dismiss another possibility--that he'd been afraid to say this in 1963 and 1964, and had only got the gumption to say it after the passage of time. I mean, who knows? Perhaps Jarman had come to realize Shelley and Piper had also seen Oswald on the first floor. Perhaps, by 1977, he felt free to tell the truth. We really don't know, now do we?

But there is something we do know. While Jarman's story had changed a bit--from Oswald's going up to get boxes to his going up to correct a mistake and then coming back downstairs--his story was consistent on one key point--that Oswald had had a legitimate reason to go upstairs, and that this errand wasn't so arduous it would have interfered with his coming back down for lunch with the rest of the work crew.

So, in this light, Jarman's statements and testimony were more suggestive of Oswald's innocence, than his guilt.

The statements and testimony of Harold "Hank" Norman, Jarman's "short" companion, were even less suggestive of Oswald's guilt. In his 3-24-64 testimony, Norman admitted "I ate my lunch in the domino room." When asked if anyone had been in there with him, moreover, he answered in an odd manner: "I think there was someone else in there because we usually played dominoes in there but that particular day we didn't play that morning."  (3H186-198)

Now, look at Joe Ball's follow-up question.

Mr. BALL. Why didn't you play that morning?

Mr. NORMAN. Well, didn't nobody show up there to play like the guys usually come in to play.

Mr. BALL. You usually play dominoes during the noon hour?

Mr. NORMAN. Noon hour and the break period.

Ball never asked Norman how his not playing dominoes made him think there was someone else in there!

Suspicious Omission #3                                                                                                    

3-24-64. Warren Commission attorney Joseph Ball fails to follow up with witness Harold Norman and find out how his not playing dominoes at lunch made him think someone else was in the room--an inquiry that almost certainly would have led to Norman's saying he thought this someone else was Oswald. 

So, let's see if we can answer for Norman. How would Norman's normally playing dominoes but not on that day make him think someone else was in the room? Well, after reading everything I could about the domino room I think I found the answer. This answer is contained in a 12-7-63 Secret Service Report on the depository employees, in which Billy Lovelady is quoted as follows: "The other employees usually play dominoes during their lunch period after they have eaten, but Oswald never showed any interest in taking part in the games." (CD87 p780)

So, yeah, Norman's statement about the dominoes is a clear indication the "someone else" Norman thought was in the domino room was someone in particular, someone who didn't play dominoes, someone named Lee Harvey Oswald.

Now, let's debunk some junk... Vincent Bugliosi, in his monster tome Reclaiming History, dismisses the possibility Oswald was in the break room with Norman by claiming "But Danny Arce told the Warren Commission that he and Jack Dougherty ate their lunch in the domino room during the period Norman described. In fact, Arce was one of those who joined Norman and Jarman when they walked outside a moment later. Obviously, Arce and Dougherty were the 'someone else' Norman had referred to."

Except not so fast, Mr. Over-zealous Prosecutor. Arce in fact testified that he went outside "With Billy Lovelady and Mr. Shelley and I was out there with Junior." Well, this indicates that he did not leave the break room with Norman and Jarman, as suggested by Bugliosi, but that he only saw Jarman outside. Even worse, Arce specified that he did not see Norman in the break room. In fact, when asked if he had seen Bonnie Ray Williams downstairs, Arce responded: "No, he stayed upstairs with Hank." Hank is Norman. If Arce thought Williams was upstairs with Hank, it follows that he did not see Hank in the domino room, and that he left the room before Hank's arrival. Bugliosi's dismissal is therefore so much moonshine, and the point he claims is "obvious" is obvious BS.

Well, then, what about Jack Dougherty? Here we enter uncharted territory. Jack Dougherty was a co-worker of Oswald's with a slight mental disorder. It was claimed he was easily confused, and that he'd been confused by the shooting, and it's clear he had a hard time during his testimony. Even so, he would ultimately testify that he ate his lunch in the domino room, but did not see Oswald. Now, for some, this debunks Oswald's claim he was sitting in the domino room at the time of the shooting. Except... it really doesn't. Dougherty also testified that he spent "just a short length of time" in the domino room after finishing his lunch. So, yeah, it's entirely reasonable to suspect that Dougherty, as Arce, ate his lunch very quickly, and left the domino room before Oswald's arrival from the second floor, where he'd bought himself a Coke. . 

And this isn't just wild speculation. An early 1970's taped interview of Dougherty by researcher Gil Toff sheds further light on this... When asked by Toff if he saw Oswald downstairs around the time of the shooting, Dougherty said that when he came down for lunch, he saw Oswald in the lunchroom downstairs. Toff then asked him if they had lunch in the Domino Room together. To which Dougherty responded, “I was downstairs having lunch and he was having lunch on two.” Toff then asked if he saw Oswald before he had his lunch or after he had his lunch. He said “After” but then corrected himself: “I came down and I happened to see him, y’know, inside on two, see, and I went downstairs and had mine.” (Note: it's unclear how Dougherty came downstairs. While he told the Warren Commission he’d taken an elevator downstairs after the floor-laying crew had descended, he was almost certainly confused about this—perhaps, then, he was thinking of his descent from the fifth floor after he’d returned to work. His words to Toff, of course, suggest he’d taken the stairs down for lunch (as one could not see into the second floor lunchroom from the elevators.) And this only makes sense…as no elevators would have been available when he (or Oswald) came down. To be clear, the floor-laying crew on the sixth floor testified to taking both elevators down in an “elevator race.” Lovelady, Arce, and Williams--who failed to mention Dougherty—took the west elevator while Charles Givens—who failed to mention Dougherty--took the east elevator down. The east elevator could not be called to another floor. While the west elevator could be called this was only if someone pulled the roll-up gate down after leaving the elevator.  Well, none of the men involved in the elevator race--Lovelady, Arce, Williams, and Givens--said they pulled the gate down.)

And that's not all. When Dougherty was interviewed by Gil Toff in the early '70's, he told Toff that when he came down to the first floor after hearing the "shot" he saw Truly in his office, and that Truly was there "for a while." Well, think about it. If Dougherty came down after hearing a shot, and Truly raced inside the building and then up to the roof after hearing this same shot, and didn't come down for 10 minutes...how could Dougherty have seen Truly in his office when he came down? It only follows, then, that Dougherty came down AFTER Truly and Baker had returned to the first floor.

So, let's get back to Norman. After making his comment about the dominoes, Norman told the commission that he got together with Jarman after finishing his lunch and that the two of them went outside around "12 or 12:10." (3H186-197). As Norman was of small stature and was almost certainly the short man Oswald claimed he saw with Jarman, for that matter, it appears that Oswald actually did see Norman and Jarman together at this time... or that he'd made an incredibly lucky guess.

There is another alternative, however.

Let's go back for a second. 

Agent Bookhout's report on Oswald's interrogation, let's recall, did not claim Oswald had said he'd eaten lunch with Jarman and Norman, as presented by Capt. Fritz. It said: "Oswald stated that on November 22, 1963, he had eaten lunch in the lunch room of the Texas School Book Depository, alone, but recalled possibly two negro employees walking through the room in this period. He stated possibly one of these employees was called 'Junior' and the other was a short individual whose name he could not recall, but whom he would be able to recognize." Perhaps, then, Oswald had seen Jarman and Norman not when most assume he claimed he'd seen them--when he first came down for lunch--but later, when they came back in the building and went back upstairs. I mean, that only makes sense. If the police ask you who can vouch that you weren't at the scene of a crime, you tell them the names of the LAST people who might remember seeing you somewhere else, and not those who saw you 30 minutes or more before the crime occurred. 

With this in mind, then, it seems a bit of a coincidence that, according to Jarman's testimony, there were "too many people standing on the stairway" in front of the building when he and Norman decided to go back inside and view the motorcade from an upstairs window, and that he and Norman had thereupon re-entered the building by its north entrance. In doing so, by golly, they would have passed directly in front of the open door to the domino room, where Oswald claimed he was sitting at the time of the shooting.

Here, see for yourself. The diagram below has been cropped from Warren Commission Exhibit 1061, the Warren Commission's diagram for the first floor of the school book depository. The domino room is on the right, in the northwest corner of the building. A toilet is to its left. The north entrance from the loading dock is the door to the left of this toilet. From the street, one can reach this entrance in two ways. There are steps from the sidewalk on the east side of the building that lead up onto the dock and then an overhead door just a few feet from the entrance by the toilet. And there are steps from where the trucks park that lead to a door cut at an angle to the loading dock, that is also quite close to the entrance by the toilet.

Should that not suffice, moreover, there's an FBI photo taken for the specific purpose of depicting the relationship between the north entrance and domino room. (I've searched in vain for a memo indicating who, specifically, ordered this picture, and can only assume it was Warren Commission counsel Joseph Ball and David Belin, the men tasked with establishing Oswald's guilt. Now, if this is so, well, then, it more than suggests they knew full well that Jarman and Norman passed right in front of the open door to the domino room.)

In any event, this photo is presented below. (It can be found in the commission's records in CD496, p 19). The rear entrance from the loading dock is the door on the left and the door to the domino room is the door on the right.

Let's now note that Jarman, in his 3-24-64 testimony, claimed that he and Norman re-entered the building via its north or rear entrance "about 12:20...between 12:20 and 12:25"...

Well, then, who's to say that Oswald wasn't sitting in the domino room when Jarman and Norman came in the back door? And that he wasn't still sitting there five to ten minutes later, as shots were being fired upstairs?

Certainly not the Warren Commission... They were supposed to get at the facts. And reveal them to the public. And yet right here is a total major fact that (if we are to give them the benefit of the doubt) eluded them, and went unreported...

Let this soak in...

Jarman and Norman were the only two depository employees to admit coming in the north entrance when Oswald claimed he was sitting right by this entrance, and they were the only two depository employees Oswald recalled seeing while he was sitting there.

What are the odds?

I'll tell you the odds. The odds are that Oswald was indeed where he sad he was, when he said he was.

So what did Ball and Belin do when they stumbled upon this fact? Did they write the commissioners a letter saying "Hey, maybe our working thesis--that Oswald put together his rifle in the sniper's nest, just before shooting Kennedy--is in error"?

Nope. That Jarman and Norman admitted walking past the domino room when Oswald said he was in the domino room was never discussed, as far as one can tell from studying the records of the commissioners and their staff.

Suspicious Omission #4                                                                                                     

3-24-64--September 1964. Warren Commission attorney Joseph Ball fails to point out during testimony or subsequently acknowledge that Jarman and Norman's claim they re-entered the building via the back door supported Oswald's claim he'd been sitting in a room with a view of the back door area, and had observed Jarman and Norman at this time.

Now, strangely enough, this wasn't the last time the testimony of one of Oswald's co-workers regarding Oswald and the domino room would be ignored.

But, before we move on to that. Let's add another little piece into our timeline.

On 4-7-64, depository foreman William Shelley testified and made it clear that when he last saw Oswald, it was after Shelley and those under his command had quit for lunch. When asked if he'd seen Oswald at work on 11-22-63, Shelley volunteered: “I do remember seeing him when I came down to eat lunch about 10 to 12.” (6H327-334)  (Note: Shelley would be asked about this a second time on 5-14-64, and would stand by his recollection. When asked the last time he saw Oswald before the shooting he replied "It was 10 or 15 minutes before 12." When asked where he saw him, he replied "On the first floor over near the telephone.") (7H390-393)

Step 3: The 4-8-64 Testimony of Eddie Piper

There are questionable conclusions, and there are conclusions so questionable they are suspicious. And the conclusion Oswald never came down for lunch was (and is) the latter.

We've already shown how Eddie Piper, within hours of the shooting, swore he talked to Oswald on the first floor around noon. And we showed how he repeated this claim.

So it should come as no surprise then that on 4-8-64, Piper testified before the Warren Commission and once again claimed he saw Oswald on the first floor around noon. 

But that's not all Piper said. Here, in testimony taken 4 1/2 months after the killing of President Kennedy, Piper finally said where on the first floor he saw Oswald. Now, it's not as if anyone asked Piper this incredibly important detail. And it's not as if Piper volunteered it when they didn't. It just kinda...came out. Here, see for yourself.

Mr. BALL. What time did you go to work that day?

Mr. PIPER. 10 o'clock.

Mr. BALL. That was your usual time to go to work?

Mr. PIPER. Yes.                                                                                                                               

Mr. BALL. And, did you see Oswald that morning?

Mr. PIPER. Yes, sir.

Mr. BALL. Where?

Mr. PIPER. Down on the first floor filling orders.

Mr. BALL. Did you ever see him again that day?

Mr. PIPER You mean all day---the rest of the day?

Mr. BALL. Yes, sir.

Mr. PIPER. No.

Mr. BALL. Was that the last time you saw him?

Mr. PIPER. Just at 12 o'clock.

Mr. BALL. Where were you at 12 o'clock?

Mr. PIPER. Down on the first floor.

Mr. BALL. What was he doing?

Mr. PIPER. Well, I said to him---"It's about lunch time. I believe I'll go have lunch." So, he says, "Yeah"---he mumbled something---I don't know whether he said he was going up or going out, so I got my sandwich off of the radiator and went on back to the first window of the first floor.          

(4-8-64 Testimony of Eddie Piper, 10:20 AM, 6H382-386)

Piper saw Oswald by a radiator.

Now, let's stop right here and point out that Piper is not sure Oswald said he was "going up," as originally reported, and that he now says Oswald could have said "going out." Now, some will claim it makes no difference because no one saw Oswald go up or out. But this is short-sighted. As we've seen, no one saw Oswald between 12:00, when Piper saw him, and a few minutes before 12:15, when Carolyn Arnold thought she saw him on the first floor, near the front door. Well, this suggests the possibility that, after talking to Piper, Oswald went out the back of the building to take a walk. And that he returned 15 minutes later. And that he even considered going out front with his co-workers upon his return, but saw the crowded steps outside, and thought better of it.

And no, this isn't pure conjecture. In his 11-22-63 affidavit to the Dallas County Sheriff's Department, William Shelley, Oswald's boss, opted to add a little detail about Oswald that has been largely over-looked. He revealed: "This man stayed by himself most of the time, and would go for a walk at noon time. Lee would bring his lunch and usually eat with us in the lounge and read the paper." (CD87, p273)

So, there you have it. Oswald's going "out" at noon, and then returning to sit by himself in the domino room, while sipping on a drink and reading the paper, would not have been a deviation from his usual routine. It WAS his routine.

We now return to Ball's questioning of Piper...

Mr. BALL. The first window on the first floor?                                                                                     

Mr. PIPER. No, not the first window---but on the first floor about the second window on the first floor. I was intending to sit there so I could see the parade because the street was so crowded with people---I didn't see anything.

It's curious, to say the least, that Ball failed to follow-up on Piper's claim he saw Oswald at 12 by a radiator by asking him the precise location of this radiator, and that he oped instead to change the subject from the relevant issue of Piper's discussion with Oswald to the barely relevant issue of which window Piper chose to sit behind while watching the motorcade.

But if Ball was trying to lure Piper to sleep so he could circle back and undermine Piper's testimony he saw Oswald on the first floor around 12:00, he was in for a surprise.

Mr. BALL. What time was it that you spoke to Oswald and said you thought you would have your lunch?

Mr. PIPER. Just about 12 o'clock.

Mr. BALL. And do you remember exactly what he said?

Mr. PIPER. No, sir; I don't remember exactly. All I remember him was muttering out something---I didn't know whether he said he was going up or going out.

Mr. BALL. He said something like that?

Mr. PIPER. Yes--something like that.

Now, apparently, this ticked Ball off. If he gets Piper to say Oswald said he was going "up", the Commission can conclude Oswald did just that--went back "up"...to the sixth floor.

Piper's refusal to specify "up" as opposed to "out", then, could only have been seen as a set-back for Ball. Now, look how he responds.

Mr. BALL. Now, that day, you went over to the sheriff's office and made a statement, didn't you?

Mr. PIPER. Yes, sir---no, sir; not that day.

Mr. BALL. Did you the next day?                                                                                                      

Mr. PIPER. Saturday.

Mr. BALL. Did you go to the sheriff's department?

Mr. PIPER. I went to the county---yes, sir.

Mr. BALL. And did you tell them at any time that you saw Lee about 12 o'clock?

Mr. PIPER. Yes.

Mr. BALL. And that Lee said, "I'm going up to eat?"

Mr. PIPER. He said either "up" or "out"---that's the way I reported it.

Mr. BALL. That's what you told them?                                                                                               

Mr. PIPER. Yes, sir. 

(4-8-64 10:20 AM, 6H382-386)

Now, this is important in light of subsequent developments... When Piper didn't testify in the manner most damaging to Oswald, and most supportive of what we can only assume was Ball's presumption Oswald acted alone, Ball reminded Piper of his previous statements, and undermined Piper's credibility to the Commissioners tasked with studying Piper's testimony. 

And he did this, moreover, at the expense of asking the far more relevant question of where it was on the first floor Piper saw Oswald.

It wasn't until 2017, for that matter, that I realized Piper's claim he got his "sandwich off of the radiator" (after briefly talking to Oswald) had actually answered the question Ball had failed to ask.

Here's an FBI photograph of the domino room, entered into evidence as Kaiser Exhibit B. (20H334) The radiator is on the left. Note that Oswald's jacket was later discovered by this radiator.

And here's another FBI photo of the radiator. Note that the window sill is used to store found items and lunch bags. Presumably, Piper brought a hot sandwich for lunch and placed it on the radiator to keep warm.

Note also that this version of the photo was marked with an X by depository employee Frankie Kaiser, to show where he found Oswald's jacket weeks after the shooting. This version of the photo was entered into evidence as Kaiser Exhibit C (20H335).

While some might prefer to believe Ball had no idea what Piper was telling him when he said he picked his sandwich off the radiator and went back to the front window after talking to Oswald, and that it was just an oversight on Ball's part that he failed to put on the record that Piper was thereby confirming Oswald's claim he came down for lunch and went to the domino room... there's no good reason for us to do so. Kaiser Exhibits B and C, photos of the domino room in which the radiator is obvious, were entered into evidence on 4-8-64, roughly 4 hours after Piper testified. Kaiser's testimony, as Piper's, was taken by Joe Ball. Ball personally handled Kaiser Exhibits B and C. As a consequence one can only assume these photos were in Ball's briefcase when he took Piper's testimony.

So, yeah, you can bet you bippy Ball knew full well that the radiator discussed by Piper was the radiator in the domino room.

And that it was no coincidence Ball failed to put this on the record.

Suspicious Omission #5                                                                                                     

4-8-64. Warren Commission attorney Joseph Ball fails to ask Eddie Piper where on the first floor he saw Oswald at 12:00, and thereby conceals from the Commission and public that Piper felt certain he saw Oswald just where Oswald said he was during the lunch period--in the domino room.

Now, here's a third photo showing the radiator in the domino room. (CD 496, p 24) Note that there was a shower in the domino room.

Some of the questions about who was in the domino room, and when, and why didn't so-and-so see such and such, might have been answered should the FBI agents and Warren Commission counsel tasked with getting to the bottom of what happened have asked detailed questions about when Oswald and his co-workers used the bathrooms and shower. But, alas, few, if any, of these questions were asked.

In any event, Piper's statements were consistent, and indicative Oswald was in the first floor lunch room (or domino room) around noon. (As Piper's original statement indicates he thought the President was shot around 12:25, when he was actually shot around 12:30, moreover, it's reasonable to assume the clock he was looking at was a bit slow, and that he actually saw Oswald around 12:05. Under no circumstances can it be taken to suggest he failed to see Oswald at all, or that he actually saw him much earlier in the day.)

Piper was a credible witness who was ultimately ignored. That's bad.

But there's something far worse... A lying witness who is treated like a credible witness...by attorneys who really have to--and I mean really have to--know their witness is lying.

Step 4: The 4-8-64 Testimony of Charles Givens

We now arrive at the 4-8-64 testimony of Charles Givens (6H345-356). There are four problems with Givens' testimony that would almost certainly have come to light should Oswald have been provided a defense, or even if Ball (and his junior partner Belin) had found his testimony at odds with the Oswald-did-it conclusion.

The first problem bubbles up near the beginning of his testimony.

Mr. BELIN. Do you remember what time you got to work that day?

Mr. GIVENS. Yes; I got to work around about a quarter to eight.                                                         

Mr. BELIN. Where did you go when you got to work?

Mr. GIVENS. I went in a little lunchroom that we have downstairs.

Mr. BELIN. Is that what you call the domino room?

Mr. GIVENS. Yes, sir.

Mr. BELIN. You carry your lunch with you?

Mr. GIVENS. Yes, sir.

Mr. BELIN. You put your lunch there?

Mr. GIVENS. Yes, sir.

Mr. BELIN. Did you wear a jacket to work that day?

Mr. GIVENS. I wore a raincoat, I believe. It was misting that morning.

Mr. BELIN. Did you hang up your coat in that room, too?

Mr. GIVENS. Yes, sir.

Now, this is clear, right? Belin asked Givens about a jacket, and Givens corrected Belin and told him he'd wore a raincoat, and that he'd hung it up in the domino room.

Belin then asked Givens about his seeing Oswald on the morning of the 22nd. Givens said he saw Oswald on the first floor around 8:30. Belin then asked Givens about the next time he saw Oswald.

Here is his response: “Well, it was about a quarter till 12, we were on our way downstairs, and we passed him, and he (Oswald) was standing at the gate on the fifth floor. I came downstairs, and I discovered I left my cigarettes in my jacket pocket upstairs, and I took the elevator back upstairs to get my jacket with my cigarettes in it."

Well, wait a second. This bit about the jacket is not only in conflict with Givens' earlier testimony he hung up his raincoat (not jacket) in the domino room, it's in conflict with a statement Givens provided the FBI on 3-18-64, in which he asserted that he was a block away from Dealey Plaza when the President was shot, but that "After the President was shot I returned to the Texas School Book Depository Building, and was told by a Dallas policeman that I could not enter the building. About an hour later, I went to the Dallas Police Department and was questioned by the police for about forty-five minutes. Then I returned to the Book Depository Building about 5 o'clock that same afternoon to pick up my hat and coat. I left the building a few minutes after I picked up my hat and coat." (22H649)

Okay. Let's get this straight. Givens said he went to the sixth floor to get cigarettes from his jacket. No jacket was found on the sixth floor. It follows then that Givens took his jacket with him when he went to lunch. Now, he also claimed he returned to the building to get his coat. Well, the only way Givens' statements and testimony can make any sense, then, is if we give him the benefit of the doubt and assume he wore both a coat and jacket to work on 11-22-63.

Now, should we give him that benefit? Absolutely not. Givens was a warehouse worker. He did not work in a jacket. So, why should we believe he wore a raincoat to work over a jacket, removed this raincoat in the domino room, and then removed the jacket up on the sixth floor? I repeat, he was a warehouse worker. He would know, upon entrance into the building, that he wasn't gonna need a jacket while working up on the sixth floor. It follows, then, that he would have left his jacket (if he was even wearing a jacket) with his coat in the domino room. I mean, think about it. The order pullers and floor crew with access to the sixth floor were not allowed to return to that floor after the shooting. Some of them--Harold Norman, Bonnie Ray Williams, and Billy Lovelady come to mind--were captured in photographs during or just after the shooting. And yet none of them were wearing jackets when photographed. And yet none of their jackets were found on the sixth floor.

Givens' claim he left a jacket on the sixth floor is simply not credible.

Belin's failure to clarify Givens' testimony regarding his raincoat and/or jacket is also strange, if not suspicious...

Suspicious Omission #6                                                                                                     

4-8-64. Warren Commission attorney David Belin fails to follow-up and clarify the record when Charles Givens testifies to leaving his coat in the domino room upon his arrival at work, but then going back up to the sixth floor to get his jacket after everyone else had left for lunch--a brand new addition to Givens' story that allowed Belin and the Commission to place Oswald in the proximity of the sniper's nest shortly before the shooting.

This brings us to the second problem with Givens' testimony.

Givens continued: "When I got back upstairs, he was on the sixth floor in that vicinity, coming from that way…Toward the window up front where the shots were fired from…he had his clipboard in his hand…He was coming towards the elevators…He said…'When you get downstairs, close the gate to the elevator.'" 

Now, this is the centerpiece of Givens' testimony. He changed his story from seeing and hearing Oswald yell out to close the gate when the floor crew was heading down to lunch to his seeing Oswald on the sixth floor (and hearing Oswald yell out to close the gate) after the floor crew had gone down to lunch and he (Givens) had returned to the sixth floor.

And Belin knew this. A 3-18-64 Ball/Belin memo outlined the topics to be explored in Givens' upcoming testimony. Under the subject heading "Elevator," Belin noted: "Oswald was on the fifth floor. Oswald called for them to stop. Oswald yelled at Givens to close the gates so that Oswald could have the elevator to return to the sixth floor." Well, heck. That's almost shocking. But a few weeks before Givens testified to Oswald's yelling out when he (Givens) came down alone, Ball and Belin were planning to spin that Oswald's yelling out when the floor crew came down meant he wanted to use the elevator to go back up to the sixth floor.

In any event, when Givens testified to returning to the sixth floor on his lunch hour, seeing Oswald on the sixth floor near the sniper's nest, and hearing Oswald yell out when he (Givens) descended to the first floor, Belin failed to remind Givens of his prior statements. Or even the testimony of his co-workers, Bonnie Ray Williams, Danny Arce, and Billy Lovelady, who claimed Oswald yelled out when Givens first headed down for lunch.

Suspicious Omission #7                                                                                                     

4-8-64--September 1964. Warren Commission attorney David Belin fails to point out in testimony or subsequently acknowledge that Givens' new story was in conflict with both his previous recollections, and that of his co-workers.

Oh, that's right. Williams, Arce and Lovelady. Williams had testified in March. Arce and Lovelady had testified on 4-7-64, but one day before Givens. All three had said they'd heard Oswald yell out to Givens when Givens came down for lunch, and said nothing about Givens going back up to get his cigarettes or anything like that. Still, let's look at their exact words.

Bonnie Ray Williams, 3-24-64:"We always had a little kids game we played racing down with the elevators. And I think one fellow, Charles Givens, had the east elevator, and me, and I think two or three more fellows had the west elevator. And we was racing down... On the way down I heard Oswald--and I am not sure whether he was on the fifth or the sixth floor. But on the way down Oswald hollered "Guys, how about an elevator?" I don't know whether those are his exact words. But he said something about the elevator. And Charles said, "Come on, boy," just like that. And he (Oswald) said, "Close the gate on the elevator and send the elevator back up." (3H161-164)

Danny Arce, 4-7-64: (When asked if he saw or heard Oswald as the elevator descended from the sixth floor) "Yeah, he was up there and I believe someone asked if he wanted to go down." (When asked what floor he was on at the time) "That's what I'm not too sure; I believe he was on (the fifth) or the sixth floor. I am not too sure but we were going down and I believe he was on the fifth; I am not too sure." (When asked Oswald's words) "He said "You all close the door on the elevator, I will be down," or somethin'. I didn't pay too much attention. He said to leave the elevator (gate) down." (6H363-367) 

Now, was Arce really not sure? Or was he playing along with his interrogator, Joseph Ball? Arce had, to be clear, signed a hand-written affidavit within two hours of the shooting stating he saw Oswald "on the fifth floor as we were leaving for lunch at 11:50 A.M." (CD87 p286) He didn't say "the fifth or sixth." He said "fifth."

And yet here he takes the fifth, so to speak.

But I digress. 

Billy Lovelady, 4-7-64: "I heard him holler to one of the boys to stop, he wanted the elevator. They said, 'No; we're going down to lunch.'" (6H336-341)

Well, wait a second. The statements of these three witnesses, taken in sum, indicate that Oswald wasn't trying to get Givens to make an elevator available (via pulling down the gate) so he could call it back up to the sixth floor and expedite his escape after the shooting, but stop, and let him on the elevator, so he could go down for lunch, along with everybody else. And that Givens refused to stop.

And, no, Oswald's asking Givens to stop the elevator wasn't a latter-day embellishment by Lovelady. The FBI interviewed Lovelady on 11-22-63, within hours of the shooting. The report on this interview reflects that Lovelady's last contact with Oswald at work was "about 11:50 AM, when Lovelady, Charles Givens, a Negro employee, Danny Arce (phonetic), and another Negro male started down from the sixth floor on the two elevators to take their lunch break. As they passed the fifth floor, Lovelady heard Oswald call for them to stop, but one of the four told him "We're going to wash our hands" and did not stop for him." (CD5, p332-333)

Well, this suggests Oswald's innocence. I mean, if Givens had stopped for Oswald, and Oswald had descended with his co-workers, would he have raced back up later? I mean, what would be the point? Why come down in the first place if he'd planned on killing Kennedy with a rifle that could be traced back to him with very little effort?

That Belin failed to appreciate the significance of Williams' and Lovelady's testimony, and made no attempt to reconcile their claim Oswald asked Givens to stop but was told no with Arce and Givens' recollection Oswald asked merely that Givens make the west elevator (in which he was not even riding!) available upon his descent, is yet another suspicious omission.

Suspicious Omission #8                                                                                                       

4-8-64--September 1964. Warren Commission attorney David Belin fails to clarify the record regarding Givens' discussion with Oswald as Givens headed down for lunch in an elevator, or even acknowledge that 2 of the 3 witnesses to their exchange claimed Oswald asked Givens to stop the elevator and let him on, but that Givens had blown him off.

So, yikes, this was a huge problem for Ball and Belin, the Warren Commission counsel tasked with identifying the assassin firing from the sniper's nest. They needed Oswald to be on the sixth floor in the moments leading up to the shooting, putting his rifle together and stacking up the boxes in the sniper's nest. Not downstairs with his co-workers.

So it was quite fortuitous then that Givens, testifying the day after Lovelady even though he was originally scheduled to testify the same day, suddenly remembered 1) seeing Oswald near the sniper's nest, 2) asking Oswald if he wanted to come down on the elevator, and 3) having Oswald refuse his offer but ask him to close the gate on the elevator (and thereby make the elevator accessible to Oswald on the sixth floor) when he reached the bottom.

Now for some it seems fortuitous that Arce backed up Givens' story, or at least a small part of it, by claiming someone had offered Oswald a ride but that he'd told them no, and said they should instead leave the gate down on the elevator so he could call it back up. I mean, that's a far cry from Williams' and Lovelady's testimony in which Oswald wanted to come down but was told no. But we have reason to doubt this snippet of Arce's testimony.

To be clear, Arce's early statements fail to describe the encounter. His 11-22-63 signed statement does declare, however, that the other employees liked to tease Oswald, and that "I last saw Lee Oswald...at approximately 11:50 A.M., this being on the fifth floor near the elevators." Well, this suggests that Arce, and Givens, saw Oswald after the race described by Williams was already underway. And that Oswald asked them to stop the elevator, but was rejected. (They were in a race, after all.) And, yes, Arce's testimony backs this up. When asked on what floor it was he he heard Oswald, he replied: "I am not too sure but we were going down and I believe he was on the fifth; I am not too sure."

There's stink and then there's stank, and Givens' claim he went back up and saw Oswald on the sixth floor is the latter. It just boggles the mind. How could Givens fail to tell investigators he last saw Oswald standing near the sniper's nest prior to his testimony 4 1/2 months after the shooting? And how could Belin not note the monumental change in Givens' story?

When then asked the time of his return to the first floor, Givens responded "Well, I would say it was about 5 minutes to 12, then because it was---" But Givens would never get to explain his reasoning. David Belin interrupted him with a question about what he did next. Givens testified "When I got down to the first floor Harold Norman, James Jarman and myself, we stood over by the window, and then we said we was going outside and watch the parade, so we walked out and we stood there a while, and then I said, "I believe I will walk up to the parking lot."

This leads us, then, to a third problem with Givens' claim he saw Oswald after going back to get his cigarettes... It seems likely that, great gosh a mighty, Givens couldn't have seen Oswald from where he claimed he was standing when he saw Oswald!

A Secret Service film created 12-5-63 shows a panoramic view of the sixth floor from the location pointed out below. 

The camera starts off facing the south side of the building, then turns to the left towards the southeast corner, the location of the sniper's nest. (Here is a mixture of two of these frames. Note how it is darker on the east side of the building.)

And here is a mixture of three frames as the camera passes by the southeast corner and continues on to face the east side of the building. 

Well, heck it's mighty dark over on that side...so dark, in fact, that the narrator of the Secret Service film offered "As you see, it's impossible to see anything in the opposite corner of the building." 

So, yes, this raises the question of whether or not Givens could have seen Oswald as purported. 

So...where was it, precisely, that Givens was standing when he supposedly saw Oswald...and where was it, precisely, where he claimed Oswald had been standing?

Mr. BELIN. Just a second, where did you go? Where were you when you saw him on the sixth floor?

Mr. GIVENS. I had went and got my jacket and was on my way back to the elevator.

Mr. BELIN. All right, just a second. I am going to get a plan of the sixth floor, if I have one, and try and have you point that out to me.

Mr. GIVENS. Yes, sir.

Mr. BELIN. Well, I don't seem to have a sixth floor plan here, but perhaps we can use another plan here to help us. Here is a diagram of the front of the building. This is the Elm Street side, and you can see the arrow pointing north. This perhaps would be a diagram of the third floor. You notice that there are one, two, three, four, five, six, seven sets of windows, right?

Mr. GIVENS. Yes.

Mr. BELIN. On the Elm Street side, seven pairs of windows?

Mr. GIVENS. Yes, sir.

Mr. BELIN. You notice the two freight elevators toward the rear. Now did you see--when you first saw him on the sixth floor there, were you standing near any of these windows?

Mr. GIVENS. No, sir. I was over here by the elevators.

Mr. BELIN. You are pointing your finger to a spot which would be somewhat to the east of the east elevator, is that correct?

Mr. GIVENS. That's correct.

Mr. BELIN. At a spot which is about on the same line as what I call the south side of the east elevator, and about as far east of the front part of that elevator as the distance from the front of the elevator to the back of the east elevator, is that about as far east of the front part of that elevator, is that about right?

Mr. GIVENS. Yes, sir.

Mr. BELIN. You were standing at that point, and where did you see Lee Harvey Oswald?

Mr. GIVENS. Well, I was along here [indicating].

Mr. BELIN. All right, you are pointing at a spot you say along in here?

Mr. GIVENS. Yes, sir.

Mr. BELIN. That would be near the east wall of the building,                                                               

Mr. GIVENS. Yes, sir.                                                                                                                       

Mr. BELIN. You can see a scale here that is from 0 to 20 feet. Well, it would be about 30 to 40 feet north of the south wall of that building, is that right? 

Mr. GIVENS. Yes, sir.                                                                                                                       

Mr. BELIN. And around 10 feet or so away from the east wall, is that about right?                                 

(4-8-64 9:00 AM, 6H345-356)

Okay. Givens claimed he was near the east elevator, (around 25 feet to the east of the location from which the Secret Service had filmed their panoramic view), and Oswald was in the first aisle 10 feet from the east wall at a point 30-40 feet north of the south wall. 

Now, let's see if Givens could have seen Oswald from his purported location. 

Here's a drawing of the sixth floor, made by the Dallas Police, showing the approximate locations and directions from which they took their crime scene photos. Each tiny square represents a square foot. I have added a G and an O to this drawing to designate the approximate locations of Givens and Oswald when Givens supposedly saw Oswald. I have also added the numbers 1 to 7 to designate the locations of the fronts windows along Elm Street.

Now, this is already helpful. It establishes that Givens, by his own estimation, was about 60 feet from Oswald when he supposedly saw Oswald. And that he would have been looking at Oswald at an angle, about 30 degrees to the left from straight down the aisle. 

Now note the small black squares on the DPD drawing. These reveal the locations of the wooden support pillars within the building. Well, heck, this shows that Oswald would have been on the far side of three pillars to the south of Givens and two pillars to the east. 

Now, here's a photo found on the Sixth Floor Museum website, showing the Sixth floor when gutted. The unmarked area between the blue line I've added on the floor and the blue arrow stretching from the roof approximates the supposed location of Oswald in relation to Givens when Givens supposedly saw Oswald before lunch. 

Let us now look at photos taken on the day of the shooting.

Let's start with Dallas Police crime scene photo #2. This was taken down the first aisle towards the sniper's nest. This was purportedly taken from a location 85 feet north of the sniper's nest window. Givens claimed he was roughly this distance back from the front of the building when he saw Oswald, only two and a half aisles over. He also claimed Oswald was less than halfway up this aisle. Unfortunately, there is no photo of the sixth floor taken from such an angle.

Still, what photos do exist are enough to give us doubt Givens saw Oswald as claimed. Note that there's an awful lot of stock on the right side of this first aisle. Note also that the highest stack appears to be between the second and third post from the camera. If so, it seems possible this stack would have blocked Givens' view of Oswald, who was, according to Givens, within ten feet or so of the fourth post away from the camera.

Now, let's look at DPD photo #4. This one was taken in the second aisle. The Dallas Police claimed this photo was taken from 40 feet north of the front window. Givens, as we've seen, claimed he saw Oswald heading north along the aisle to the left, at a location 30 to 40 feet from the front window in the aisle to the left. And that he saw this from the back of the aisle to the right.

And yet... There are high stacks of boxes on the left and the right. While there are some gaps in these stacks, the rows are double-wide between aisles. This means there are 4 rows of boxes between the third aisle where Givens claimed he was standing and the first aisle where he claimed Oswald was walking. When looking towards Oswald, for that matter, Givens would be viewing these boxes at an angle. This angle would serve to distort the width of these boxes, not to mention the 9 1/2" by 9 1/2" wooden posts in the building, and block out an additional 25-30% of what lay behind.

Yes, there's no escaping it. There's reason to doubt Givens saw Oswald as claimed.

Now let's look at DPD photo 5. The Dallas Police said they took this one looking down the third aisle, from 45 feet north of the windows.

Well, that doesn't do much to relieve our doubts, now does it? Look back at the photo of the second aisle. The left side of this aisle down by the windows is largely open space. The left side of the next aisle over in the photo above, however, is heavily populated by boxes. There's also this. The wooden post on the left side of the photo above is in line with the right side of the aisle to the left. There is no such post on the right side of the second aisle. This proves there was an aisle between these two aisles that was not photographed by the Dallas Police. And this means there were actually five or six rows of boxes stretching from north to south between Givens' purported location when he saw Oswald, and the location he claimed for Oswald..

There was a wall of boxes on the left side of this de facto third aisle, for that matter, that would have blocked Givens' view of Oswald for much of the first aisle. There was a wall on the right side of the fourth aisle as well.

And yet, it seems possible Givens' line of sight passed to the north and to the east of these boxes, and that the stacks along the northern half of these aisles were shorter. And that this allowed Givens to get a clear view of Oswald.

Only not so fast. DPD photo #11 shows the west elevator, with the northernmost section of aisle 2 (or is it 3? or 4?) in the background.

Now, it's too dark in the background to see these boxes, so I took the liberty of cropping the area to the right of the wooden post and left of the boxes, and lightening it up.

Well, pardon the size of this image. But I wanted to be sure you could make out the multiple rows of boxes in the background, and that there appears to be stacks of boxes at the depth of the third and second aisles that would have interfered with Givens' line of sight towards the first aisle.

So now let's look at an image from the newsreel footage of Tom Alyea. This shows Lt. J.C. Day and Capt. Will Fritz inspecting the rifle found in the northwest corner of the sixth floor. (I have marked as 1-4 the locations of four pillars in this image.)

So now let's add the large stacks of boxes apparent in these images onto the DPD drawing of the sixth floor, and see how these boxes would have obstructed Givens' purported line of sight. (An attempt at such a reconstruction is demonstrated below. The approximate location and size of these stacks have been added and color-coded to match the photo in which they are apparent. It is a bit rough. It is hoped that this attempt will inspire someone with more experience in photo reconstruction and analysis to take the time to perform a more precise re-construction.)

In my admittedly amateur analysis, there's not enough information in these images to prove that Givens could not have seen Oswald while Oswald was standing in the first aisle 30 or 40 feet north of the southeast window of the building. There may, in fact, have been a small gap through which he could have seen Oswald.

But Givens didn't say he noticed Oswald while Oswald was standing in a small gap between a high stack of boxes and a wooden pillar. He said he saw all of Oswald, while Oswald was walking. And that Oswald had a clipboard in his hand.

Mr. GIVENS. He was between the stock and the window, coming towards the elevators.

Mr. BELIN. Coming towards the elevators?

Mr. GIVENS. Yes, sir.

Mr. BELIN. Did you see all of his body or not?

Mr. GIVENS. Yes, sir; he had his clipboard in his hand.

Mr. BELIN. He had his clipboard in his hand?

Mr. GIVENS. Yes, sir.

Mr. BELIN. Was that kind of an aisleway over there right next to the east wall that he was walking along, or what?

Mr. GIVENS. Yes, sir; they have aisles.

Mr. BELIN. Now, was there stock in back of him as well as in front of him? Were you there where you had stacked it up, or not, or don't you remember?

Mr. GIVENS. Well, it was already some books stacked there.

Mr. BELIN. Were there books stacked between where you saw him and the window itself?

Mr. GIVENS. Yes, sir.

Mr. BELIN. All right, he was walking with his clipboard from that southeast corner?

Mr. GIVENS. Yes, sir.

Mr. BELIN. Where did you see him walking? What direction did you see him walking in?

Mr. GIVENS. He was coming towards the elevators.

Mr. BELIN. From the Elm Street side of the building?

Mr. GIVENS. Yes, Sir.

Mr. BELIN. So that would be walking in a northerly direction?

Mr. GIVENS. Yes, sir.

Mr. BELIN. Now, you said that he had a clipboard in his hand?

Mr. GIVENS. Yes; he had his board with his orders on it.

Mr. BELIN. Did you see the orders on the board?

Mr. GIVENS. Well, yes, sir; he had it in his hand.

Givens' claim he had a clear view of Oswald from half-way across the building is just not credible.

And Belin knew it. On 3-24-64, Belin asked book depository boss Roy Truly if he could see the southeast corner of the sixth floor from the east elevator. This was roughly ten feet to the west of where Givens claimed he was standing.

Mr. BELIN. Could you see the southeast corner of the sixth floor from there?

Mr. TRULY. I don't think so; no, sir. You could not.

The commission took numerous re-enactment shots showing where Bonnie Ray Williams, Harold Norman and James Jarman were standing when the shots were fired. They even took pictures of Howard Brennan, sitting where he claimed to have been sitting. But they took no pictures of anyone where Givens claimed he saw Oswald from where Givens claimed he was standing when he saw Oswald if only to see, y'know, whether their new star witness was completely full of crap.

Suspicious Omission #9                                                                                  

4-8-64. Warren Commission attorney David Belin, the man behind a number of re-enactments, fails to re-enact Givens' purported sighting of Oswald, to see if Givens could actually have seen Oswald where he said he saw him. 

Now let's sink our teeth into a fourth problem with Givens' testimony.

After discussing Givens' hanging up his coat in the domino room, and his seeing Oswald on the first floor around 8:30 PM, Belin asked Givens about seeing Oswald in the domino room.

Mr. BELIN. Did you see him come into the domino room at all?

Mr. GIVENS. Not that morning, no, sir; I didn't.

Mr. BELIN. When did you leave the domino room to go up to the sixth floor?

Mr. GIVENS. 8 o'clock.

Mr. BELIN.. At 8 o'clock?

Mr. GIVENS. Yes, sir.

Mr. BELIN. So you don't feel he came in the domino room before 8 o'clock?

Mr. GIVENS. No, sir; not that morning he didn't.

Now that might go unnoticed. But Belin later returned to the domino room.

Mr. BELIN. Did you see Lee Oswald anywhere else in the building between 11:55 and the time you left the building?

Mr. GIVENS. No, sir.

Mr. BELIN. On November 22d?

Mr. GIVENS. No, sir.

Mr. BELIN. Did you see him in the domino room at all around anywhere between 11:30 and 12 or 12:30?

Mr. GIVENS. No, sir.

Mr. BELIN. Did you see him reading the newspaper?

Mr. GIVENS. No; not that day. I did--he generally sit in there every morning. He would come to work and sit in there and read the paper, the next day paper, like if the day was Tuesday, he would read Monday's paper in the morning when he would come to work, but he didn't that morning because he didn't go in the domino room that morning. I didn't see him in the domino room that morning. 

And this wasn't the last time Belin brought up the domino room.

Mr. BELIN. Did you ever tell anyone that you saw Lee Oswald reading a newspaper in the domino room around 11:50, 10 minutes to 12 on that morning on November 22nd?

Mr. GIVENS. No, sir.

So what in blazes was going on?

Belin was clearly referencing the FBI's initial report on Givens, in which it was claimed "Givens observed Lee reading a newspaper in the domino room where the employees eat lunch about 11:50 A.M.”

So was Belin pushing Givens into disputing this report?

Apparently so. Still, surprise surprise, he may not have been wrong to do so.

In February 2012, I stumbled across the FBI's first teletype regarding Givens. (This teletype can be found in FBI file 62-109060 sec 9 p54 on the Mary Ferrell Foundation website.) Here, only hours after he'd been interviewed, it was claimed "Charles Douglas Givens, Employee, TSBD, worked on sixth floor until about eleven thirty A.M. Left at this time going down on elevator. Saw Oswald on fifth floor as left going down. Oswald told him to close the gates when he got to first floor so Oswald could signal for elevator later. Givens stayed on first floor until twelve o'clock and then walked out of the building to watch the parade pass. Oswald was reading paper in the first floor domino room seven-fifty A.M. November twenty two last when Givens came to work."

Well, heck. What's this? Here in this summary of its interview with Givens it is claimed Givens told the FBI he saw Oswald at 7:50 A.M., not 11:50 A.M.

This led me to re-read the FBI's report on this interview. I then realized that the sentences I cut out of Givens' statement at the beginning of this chapter were far more important than I thought, and helped provide the proper context for Givens' statement about seeing Oswald in the domino room. Here is the oft-quoted statement in its proper context: "Givens said that during the past few days Lee had commented that he rode to work with a boy named Wesley. Givens said all employees enter the back door of the building when Jack Dougherty, the foreman opens the door about 7 A.M. On the morning of November 22, 1963, Givens observed Lee reading a newspaper in the domino room where the employees eat lunch about 11:50 A.M.” Within this context, the "about 11:50 A.M." represents the time the employees eat lunch, not the time Givens saw Oswald. Givens had thereby claimed he saw Oswald in the domino room EARLY in the morning. Before starting work. And not during lunch, as most assume.

So let's sum this up. Givens told the FBI he saw Oswald before work. A poorly-worded FBI report made it seem as though Givens saw him during lunch, however. In his testimony, Givens denied seeing Oswald during lunch. This was consistent with the FBI's original teletype. The problem, then, is that Givens also denied seeing Oswald before work.

No matter how one twists it, Givens' testimony was in conflict with what the FBI claimed he'd told them. 

Belin, the Generous?

Above: Warren Commission Counsel David Belin (L) points out the location of the school book depository to Commissioners Dulles (M) and Cooper (R) on the 

morning of May 9, 1964. And, yes, you're seeing correctly. They are standing on the railroad overpass overlooking Dealey Plaza.

So why didn't Belin read Givens the FBI report, and ask Givens for an explanation? Or follow up with the FBI and ask them if the report could have been mistaken? The Warren Commission's counsel were tasked with acting as both prosecutor and defense attorney. Truth was (supposedly) their only client. So why did Belin fail to challenge his witness with a report in conflict with his testimony?

I mean, it's not as if Belin's partner Joseph Ball was averse to challenging their witnesses. As we've seen, Ball pretty-much manhandled Bonnie Ray Williams and Eddie Piper over the inconsistencies contained within their purported statements.

So why didn't Belin push Givens on his inconsistencies?

Suspicious Omission #10                                                                                                   

4-8-64. Warren Commission attorney David Belin goes against the precedent established during the testimony of Bonnie Ray Williams and others and allows Charles Givens to dispute the claims of an FBI report--without putting the source of these claims on the record. 

There really is no answer here other than that Belin was trying to shield a friendly witness...and that Ball and Belin did their damnedest to harass witnesses whose recollections were non-supportive of their Oswald-did-it conclusion, while treating those whose recollections were supportive of their conclusion--no matter how dubious--with kid gloves.

If Belin had avoided the subject of Givens' seeing Oswald in the domino room, after all, one might believe he was simply asking questions and letting Givens tell his story. But he asked numerous questions about the subject. And was clearly trying to get Givens to refute the FBI's report...without actually citing the report.

Now, this was actually pretty smart. If Belin had publicly criticized the FBI's report, it could have led to the FBI's defending itself...by releasing not only its report on its interview with Givens, but Shanklin's original memo on the FBI's interview with Givens.

Here's Shanklin once again:

Charles Douglas Givens, Employee, TSBD, worked on sixth floor until about eleven thirty A.M. Left at this time going down on elevator. Saw Oswald on fifth floor as left going down. Oswald told him to close the gates when he got to first floor so Oswald could signal for elevator later. Givens stayed on first floor until twelve o'clock and then walked out of the building to watch the parade pass. Oswald was reading paper in the first floor domino room seven-fifty A.M. November twenty two last when Givens came to work." (FBI file 62-109060, sec 9, p54)

So yeah, in November, when questioned by the FBI, Givens not only didn't tell the FBI about going back up to the sixth floor around 11:55, he specified that after coming down for lunch he stayed on the first floor until he left the building at noon.

Well, this is all we need to know. Givens' new-found story was not to be relied upon..

It seems clear Belin was aware of this, for that matter, but was unwilling to expose this fact in testimony he knew would be read by the commissioners tasked with weighing Givens' credibility.

And this, when added to Belin's far more significant failure to expose Givens' changing his story from his seeing Oswald as he went down for lunch to his seeing Oswald when he went back up to get cigarettes from his jacket pocket, and then topped off by Belin's failure to confront Givens on the fact he said he'd left his coat in the domino room, but then claimed he was retrieving cigarettes from his jacket pocket when he saw Oswald on the sixth floor, suggests Belin was complicit in Givens' lies. Belin, as the public's representative, either had reason to believe Givens was lying, and had refused to put it on the record, or had actually helped arrange Givens' lies.

With that in mind, then, it seems a wee bit curious that Belin's partner Joe Ball was supposed to take Givens' testimony on 4-7, but that this was changed at the last minute. (Source: 3-24-64 Ball-Rankin memo found on the website of Howard Willens.)

In any event, Belin chose to treat Givens as a credible witness, and pollute the Warren Report with one of its worst passages (and that's saying a lot).

Here it is again:

Additional testimony linking Oswald with the point from which the shots were fired was provided by the testimony of Charles Givens, who was the last known employee to see Oswald inside the building prior to the assassination.

The highlighted section above is a whopper of epic proportions. Ball and Belin and most everyone involved in the writing of the report would have to have known that Eddie Piper, from the outset, said he'd spoken to Oswald at 12:00, five minutes after Givens would eventually claim he saw Oswald on the sixth floor. And that's not even to mention that within days of the shooting Carolyn Arnold told the FBI she thought she saw Oswald on the first floor around 12:15, but was never re-interviewed by the FBI or called by the commission.

So what happened? They wouldn't just lie about this, would they?

Well, yes and no. They would have lied, if they'd needed to. But they didn't. No, it seems clear to me that they hadn't planned on writing something that was provably untrue, but had instead decided to obfuscate (aka bullshit). Catch the lawyerese in the last sentence of this paragraph: "None of the depository employees is known to have seen Oswald again..."  "Is known..." Well, that could be said about anything, right? None of the Warren Commissioners is known to have actually read their report before signing it... None of the Warren Commission's staff is known to have given a rat's ass about doing a good job... You get the point.

In any event, I suspect that one of those tasked with re-writing the report (perhaps Norman Redlich, perhaps one of the commissioners), tried to insert the lawyerese from the end of the paragraph ("None of the depository employees is known") into the beginning of the paragraph, and created an awkward phrase that was almost certainly false ("Givens was the last known employee") in the process.

That Belin was a liar, however, is supported by his behavior when the inconsistencies of Givens' testimony came to light. In 1973, Belin published November 22, 1963: You are the Jury!, a defense of the Warren Commission. Here, he presented Givens as credible, never mentioning the inconsistencies he had previously acknowledged. Here, on at least three separate occasions, he claimed Givens was the last to see Oswald in the building before the shooting. Here, he never once mentioned Eddie Piper, the janitor who had consistently and from the beginning claimed to see Oswald on the ground floor around noon, five minutes after the time Givens had claimed to see Oswald. Piper's claim he saw Oswald at noon had been discussed, moreover, in a February 24, 1964 memo authored by Belin. This memo had in turn been discussed by Sylvia Meagher in an August 1971 article in the Texas Observer, upon which Belin had negatively commented. Piper's April 8, 1964 testimony had been taken, for that matter, by Joseph Ball, Belin's partner in the investigation. There is simply no way Belin was unaware of Piper's testimony, and his failure to acknowledge it in his book was inexcusable.

And that's but one example of Belin's slipperiness. In February 1976, in an extended article published in the National Review, Belin once again defended his behavior regarding Givens. Here, he claimed Givens had first said he saw Oswald on the sixth floor with a clipboard months before his testimony, when he spoke to the Secret Service in December. Belin thereby suggested that Givens' testimony about seeing Oswald on the sixth floor was just a clarification of an earlier story, and not a brand new concoction worthy of cross-examination. 

Let's take a look at the Secret Service's report on Givens: "On November 22, 1963, Givens, along with other employees working on the sixth floor, was laying the new plywood floor. Givens stated that he saw Oswald on the sixth floor at about 11:45 A.M. on that date, and that Oswald was carrying a clipboard that appeared to have some orders on it. Givens felt that Oswald was looking for some books to fill an order, which is his job, and did not give the matter further thought. Shortly, thereafter, Givens and the other employees working on the floor-laying project quit for lunch and they took both elevators. They were racing the elevators to the first floor and Givens heard Oswald call to them to send one of the elevators back up. It is Givens' recollection that Oswald was wearing a brown shirt, when he last saw him." (CD 87, p780).

Jinkies! Belin failed to tell his readers that Givens had also told the Secret Service he saw Oswald on the sixth floor BEFORE he--Givens--went down for lunch, and not after he returned to get his cigarettes, as he would later testify. As a number of witnesses, including Givens himself when first interviewed by the FBI, claimed they saw or heard Oswald on the fifth floor as they went down for lunch, there is a world of difference in the stories, as one places Oswald on the fifth or sixth floor about 11:45--and asking for access to an elevator--and one places Oswald on the sixth floor just before noon--and refusing to come down on an elevator. It's hard to believe, moreover, that Belin would fail to appreciate the significance of this change in the story, and think it of such little importance he would fail to tell it to his readers. It follows, then, that he was being willfully deceptive. 

But enough about Belin. He repeated his claim Givens was the last to see Oswald in his 1988 book Final Disclosure, and was either a big fat liar or cognitively impaired.

Let's go back to Givens.

Shadow of a Lie

Subsequent to his testimony, the FBI decided to interview Givens yet again. The 6-4-64 FBI report (CD1245 p182) on this meeting reflects that Givens stood by his Warren Commission testimony and that “he now recalls he returned to the sixth floor at about 11:45 A.M. to get his cigarettes which he had left there. Givens stated it was at this time that he saw Lee Harvey Oswald, known to him as Lee, standing in the southeast corner of the building on that floor. He said Oswald had orders and a clip board in his hand and in response to a question by Givens whether or not Oswald was going to come downstairs, Oswald responded "No, not now." Givens stated he then got on the elevator and as he was leaving the sixth floor Oswald yelled at him to close the gates on the elevator so that he, Oswald, could have the elevator returned to the sixth floor.”

Well, first of all, this report is strange in that it fails to even address the question of whether or not Givens saw Oswald in the domino room on the afternoon (or morning) of the shooting, and Givens' contradiction of the FBI's initial report on this question in his testimony.

And, second of all, this report is strange in that it fails to provide much context to Givens' new and improved recollection. Givens, nearly five months after the shooting, "now recalled" seeing Oswald after going back up to get his cigarettes from the sixth floor, and having Oswald yell out to him as he left, and, apparently, no longer recalled having Oswald yell out to him from the fifth floor when the floor crew came down for lunch. This was the story Givens had been telling for a number of months. It was backed-up by the other members of the floor crew. And yet there is no evidence anyone pointed this out to Givens, And there was no follow-up with those who came down with Givens, to see if they could vouch that the exchange with Oswald Givens now recollected as occurring while he was alone, was different than the one they observed when they were with him in the elevator, or even that he returned upstairs. I mean, one or more of them could have remembered his doing so, if in fact he did so, or that he hadn't left his jacket upstairs because, well, it just wasn't done. But no, none of them were contacted to support, or back-up Givens' story. He'd told Belin and the Commission what they'd wanted to hear and that was that.

The FBI's 6-4-64 report is helpful in one way, however. It provides us with some more examples of Givens' acute unreliability. As opposed to his Warren Commission testimony, in which he claimed he saw Oswald on the sixth floor around 11:55, Givens now claimed he took the 2 minute or so trip to the sixth floor around 11:45 (which would in turn suggest he saw Oswald around 11:47-11:48). 

But that's not the worst of it. As opposed to his Warren Commission testimony, in which he claimed he saw Oswald walking away from the southeast corner of the building, Givens was now purported to have claimed he saw Oswald "standing in the southeast corner" of the building. 

And we're just getting going. Whereas Givens, in his 3-18-64 statement to the FBI, declared that he went to the Dallas Police Dept. about an hour after the shooting (i.e., about 1:30), that he was questioned for about 45 minutes, and that he "returned to the Book Depository Building about 5 o'clock that same afternoon to pick up my hat and coat," he now said he was taken to the police station "between 1:30 and 2:00 PM," that he and the other TSBD employees were released "around 3:00 or 3:30 PM," and that he then returned to the TSBD, where he "picked up his hat and coat." Some way, somehow, 1 1/2 to 2 hours had disappeared from his timeline!

Well, what is one to think of this? Maybe Givens had a bad memory. Maybe Belin realized this and exploited it, so he could claim both that Oswald never intended to come down for lunch, and never did come down for lunch.

Was Givens' new and improved recollection, separate from Belin's spin on his new and improved recollection, so significant we should think he was lying?

There are reasons to believe not. Givens’ assertion that he went back upstairs and encountered Oswald shortly after 11:45, when taken with Shelley’s and Piper’s statements, after all, suggests only that Oswald followed Givens back downstairs and made a phone call. Certainly, one can not take Givens' delayed recollection that he returned to the first floor "about 5 to 12" as evidence that Shelley failed to see Oswald at 10 to 12 or that Piper was wrong about seeing him at 12.

Well, at least no one reasonable. Beyond Belin and the Warren Commission, few have insisted Givens was the last to see Oswald in the building before the shooting.

An exception would be Vincent Bugliosi. In Reclaiming History Bugliosi argues that we should believe that Shelley and Piper--who saw Oswald on the first floor at "10 to 12" and "12", respectively, had in fact seen Oswald several minutes before Givens--whose sense of time he inexplicably trusts--saw him on the fifth floor "about a quarter to 12". But this is hoo-ha. It seems much more likely that Givens was confused about when and where he saw Oswald than that Piper was off by more than 15 minutes in a statement signed the day after the shooting, and had completely mis-remembered the circumstances under which he saw Oswald. Piper, after all, knew when he went to lunch, and felt certain he saw Oswald as he went to lunch. This is the kind of thing that a janitor would be likely to know.

Still, let's not pretend. The likelihood is and has been (since this issue was first explored by researcher Sylvia Meagher) that Givens flat out lied when he said he'd went back up to the sixth floor after he came down for lunch. The 11-23-63 FBI teletype reporting on its interview of Givens, after all, claimed that after coming down for lunch "Givens stayed on first floor until twelve o'clock and then walked out of the building to watch the parade pass." The 12-7-63 Secret Service Report  summarizing an interview with Givens, for that matter, not only failed to mention that he'd went back upstairs and encountered Oswald, it actually had him stating that he saw Oswald with the clipboard and heard him yell out before he came down for lunch. (CD87 p780)

So how can he suddenly change his story to his not staying on the first floor after first coming down for lunch, and to his hearing Oswald yell out after going back up for his cigarettes? He can't. Or at least shouldn't.

Now this raises a question. Did someone pressure or pay Givens to change his story?

A 2-9-64 article in the Fort Worth Star Telegram gives us reason to believe this occurred. According to the article, written by Thayer Waldo, a Secret Service agent had boasted that a negro witness, who "had been arrested in the past by the Special Services office of the Dallas Police for gambling" had come forward, and had claimed to have seen Oswald actually fire the shots that killed Kennedy. According to Waldo, who claimed to have sat in on a conversation between this agent and another man, the agent said "Wait till that old black boy gets up in front of the Warren Commission and tells his story. That will settle everything. Yes, sir. He was right there on the same floor, looking out the next window; and, after the first shot, he looked and saw Oswald, and then he ran. I saw him in the Dallas Police station. He was still the scaredest nigger I ever seen. I heard him tell the officer, 'Man you don't know how fast fast is, because you didn't see me run that day.' He said he ran and hid behind the boxes because he was afraid that Oswald would shoot him." As Givens was the only school book depository employee with a notable police record, and was also one of the very few to have seen Oswald in the hour before the shooting, the "negro witness" described in the article is most certainly Givens.

Since Givens never signed a statement or offered testimony describing these events, however, it suggests that either Givens had lied to the police, the agent was lying to Waldo, or that Waldo himself had embellished his story. Perhaps the agent, who Waldo would later reveal to be Mike Howard, had merely indicated that Givens' story was damaging to Oswald, and Waldo had filled in the blanks. 

On 2-13-64 the FBI looked into this story. They contacted Jack Revill, a Lieutenant in the Dallas PD's Special Service Bureau. Revill told them the man described in the article was most logically Charles Givens. Revill told them that Givens had a history of drug use and “would change his story for money”. Revill told them, furthermore, that although he thought the character in the story was Givens, "that when Givens was interviewed immediately after the assassination, he stated he was not in the building at the time of the assassination." The FBI report then recounts Givens' earlier story that he came down for lunch around 11:30, and that, as he came down, he heard Oswald yell out and ask to have the elevator sent back up. (CD735, p295-296).

Months later, after Waldo's story was dredged up by Mark Lane as an indication the Secret Service had been planting false stories in the press, the FBI re-investigated. On May 28, 1964, the FBI wrote a report after talking with agent Mike Howard. (25H844-845). While Howard admitted that he and his brother, Deputy Sheriff Pat Howard, had had a conversation with Waldo, he claimed they did not know he was a reporter, and that they'd never discussed a negro witness to the shooting. On this same day Waldo signed a sworn statement backing his published version of the story. (25H846-848). A few days later, the Bureau contacted Pat Howard, and he admitted that he and his brother had told Waldo about a negro employee with a criminal record who had fled the building after the shots, for fear he would be implicated. (25H849-850) This is clearly a reference to Givens. If the Howards were telling the truth, and they just mentioned Givens because they thought his flight was an "amusing incident," it seems an incredible coincidence that Givens would shortly thereafter change his story and help the Warren Commission put the rifle in Oswald's hand.

Yes, you read that right...I wrote shortly thereafter. You see there is reason to believe that, although Givens first officially told his tale on 4-08-64, that he began to change his story within days of Howard's talking to Waldo. The February 21, 1964 cover story of Life Magazine, which treated Oswald's sole guilt as a proven fact, revealed "A few minutes after noon, as the President and his wife were pulling away from the airport in the open presidential limousine, an employee in the school book building, Charles Givens, saw Oswald on the sixth floor and said 'Let's go down and watch the President go by.' 'Not now,' Oswald responded. 'Just send the elevator back up.'"

So, hmmm...a story sneaks out that a black man with a criminal record is gonna implicate Oswald; a report is then written indicating that this man is Charles Givens, that he will change his story for money, and that he really doesn't know anything; a thoroughly-biased article then appears in a prominent magazine citing Givens as the source of previously undisclosed information, and that this information is extremely damaging to Oswald; this info, furthermore, is inconsistent with Givens' sworn testimony months later. Well, from this one might gather Life paid Givens for his story, and that he lied to them, or that someone paid or pressured Givens to lie to them, and that he then told an even bigger lie to David Belin. One can not reasonably assert or assume his cloudy memory suddenly became clear. 

Adding to the mystery surrounding Givens' sudden change of mind is the fact that only a few hours after Givens testified Dallas Police inspector J. Herbert Sawyer testified about the events leading up to his putting out an APB for someone matching Oswald's description (4H315-325)...and that his words appeared to confirm Givens' story. When asked if he'd put out an APB for anyone besides the white male observed in the sniper's nest, he replied "There is another broadcast in there somewhere, though. I put out another description on the colored boy that worked in that department...He is one that had a previous record in the narcotics, and he was supposed to have been a witness to the man being on that floor. He was supposed to have been a witness to Oswald being there."  He was then asked if this man was Charles Givens, and replied "Yes, I think that is the name, and I put out a description on him." When asked the vital question of how he found out Givens had seen Oswald, he replied: "Somebody told me that. Somebody came to me with the information. And again, that particular party, whoever it was, I don't know. I remember that a deputy sheriff came up to me who had been over taking these affidavits, that I sent them over there, and he came over from the sheriff's office with a picture and a description of this colored boy and he said that he was supposed to have worked at the Texas Book Depository, and he was the one employee who was missing, or he was missing from the building. He wasn't accounted for, and that he was supposed to have some information about the man that did the shooting." 

Now, it must be pointed out that Sawyer's story not only supported Givens' brand new spanking story, but was a brand new story in itself.

And yet Belin failed to challenge Sawyer on his story.

Suspicious Omission #11                                                                                                   

4-8-64. Warren Commission attorney David Belin allows Dallas Police Inspector J. Herbert Sawyer to testify as though Charles Givens' new-found story (about seeing Oswald near the sniper's nest after everyone else had left the sixth floor) had been common knowledge on 11-22-63, when Belin knew this wasn't true.

This point can't be over-emphasized. Before 4-8-64 no reports or testimony existed claiming or supporting that Charles Givens had seen Oswald on the sixth floor after everyone else had gone down for lunch. And then, suddenly, not one but two witnesses, Givens and a Dallas Police Inspector, said or suggested as much.

David Belin owed it to the public to get to the bottom of this onslaught of new information. Was the similarity of these two new stories a coincidence? And, if not, who was behind it?

Since Belin was pre-interviewing his witnesses, moreover, we can only assume he knew these stories were coming. So why didn't he stop them, or at the very least put on the record that these stories were new, and contradicted by all previously available information?

The question re-surfaces... Was Belin the one behind Givens' new and improved story?

Now, I've already weighed in on this. But let me restate it in case I wasn't clear.

I have no doubt that David Belin was a liar, and that he supported the perjury of Charles Givens on 4-8-64. He may not have told Givens to lie, but he undoubtedly knew he was lying and failed to cross-examine him as he would if Givens had suddenly popped up with something suggesting Oswald's innocence.

Now, Sawyer is another matter. His claim the police were looking for Givens (a convicted felon, who never came back to the depository after lunch) because he saw Oswald on the sixth floor is so much hooey.

Still, there's something intriguing about Sawyer's testimony.

Assuming he was telling the truth, or at least the truth as he knew it, who was this "somebody" who knew that Givens had seen Oswald? Givens had not talked to anyone in the building after the shooting. Therefore, it must have been someone who'd talked to him after he'd come down from the sixth floor, but before he left the building...someone who'd spoken to the Dallas police on 11-22, or who'd spoken to someone who'd spoken to the police. This person could very well be James Jarman. While Jarman did not sign an affidavit until 11-23, he almost certainly spoke to his boss Roy Truly (who spent a considerable amount of time with the police on 11-22) about the so-called line-up of depository employees, in which it was discovered that both Oswald and Givens were missing. Jarman had also spoken to Givens after Givens had come down for lunch. It seems reasonable then to suspect that the two spoke about Oswald sometime around noon, before Givens walked up the street, and that Jarman had told this to Truly when both Oswald and Givens went missing. (When Jarman testified on 3-24-64, he was not asked about any conversations with Givens.) Perhaps Givens had told Jarman that Oswald had asked for someone to send the elevator back up for him when the sixth floor crew came down for lunch. And that no one had done so.

Of course, there's two sides to the "perhaps" game. Perhaps Givens had mentioned going back up to the sixth floor to get his cigarettes, and his seeing Oswald still up there.

But I doubt it. It seems highly unlikely that the Warren Commission, desperate to prove that Oswald had stayed up on the sixth floor during his lunch period, would fail to provide a corroborating witness for Givens' latter-day story that he saw Oswald at 5 to 12, should there have been one. It appears, therefore, that Jarman--or whomever--remembered Givens saying that he saw Oswald when he came down with the others, and not that he saw him after going back up for cigarettes.

In any case, Sawyer's testimony suggests 3 possibilities: 1) that Sawyer's memory was accurate and that Givens had told someone he saw Oswald on the sixth floor when he went back up for cigarettes, but that the Warren Commission had failed to identify and interview this person; 2) that Sawyer lied to bolster Givens' testimony by pretending the Dallas Police were aware that Givens' had had important information on Oswald all along; and 3) that Sawyer incorrectly remembered why they were looking for Givens. As Givens was the only convicted felon working in the building and as he just so happened to disappear after the shooting, it only makes sense that they'd be looking for him. The Dallas Police tapes of Sawyer's conversation about Givens, in fact, reflect that he explained why he wanted Givens to be located, and had said simply "He is a porter that worked on this floor up here. He has a police record and he left.” So perhaps Sawyer was simply mistaken.

At this point, I'm leaning toward option number three. On his website, single-assassin theorist Dale Myers makes a reasonably convincing argument that Sawyer was just clutching at straws, and had no real recollection of why they were looking for Givens. 

But there are reasons to suspect option two--that Sawyer deliberately lied in order to help prop up Givens' newfound story. On 5-13-64, Detective Jack Revill, who had warned the FBI on 2-13-64 that Givens would "change his story for money," testified before the Warren Commission in support of Givens' newly-changed story. In his testimony, Revill discussed his actions in the hours just after the shooting. Amazingly, he testified that within hours of the shots, "I talked to a negro by the name of Givens...I asked him if he had been on the sixth floor, and as well as I recall, and Detective Brian was present at this same time, he said yes, that he had observed Mr. Lee over by this window. Well, I asked him who Mr. Lee was, he said, a 'It is a white boy.' He didn't know his full name. So I turned this Givens individual over to one of our negro detectives and told him to take him to Captain Fritz for interrogation." (5H33-47).

Detective Brian testified just after Revill. Brian was never asked about Givens in his testimony.

Suspicious Omission #12                                                                                                  

 5-13-64. Dallas Police Detective Jack Revill testifies in support of Givens' new-found story, and offers Dallas Police Detective V. J. Brian as a witness to his discussion with Givens, only to have Warren Commission General Counsel J. Lee Rankin fail to ask Brian about Givens in testimony taken just after Revill dropped his smelly surprise.

When Captain Fritz testified he was also not asked about Givens. Even stranger, there is no record that Givens--who Revill, in his testimony, would have us believe was an important witness--was extensively interrogated on 11-22-63, or that he said he saw Oswald by the window. Givens' signed statement from 11-22-63, in fact, never even mentions Oswald. We should recall as well that Revill, when interviewed by the FBI on 2-13-64, failed to say anything about Givens' seeing Oswald by the window. He had, in fact, been dismissive that Givens knew anything about the shooting.

Now, strangely enough, at least one member of the Commission's staff also came to suspect Revill committed perjury when testifying before the Commission. Warren Commission counsel Howard Willens, in his 2013 book History Will Prove Us Right, offers up his own reasons for believing Revill lied. On the day of the shooting, FBI agent James Hosty and Revill had a brief discussion about Oswald, in which Hosty acknowledged he was supposed to have been keeping tabs on Oswald. Revill told this to Dallas Police Chief Jesse Curry, and soon it was out that the FBI was responsible for Kennedy's death, because it knew Oswald was dangerous, but failed to stop him from killing Kennedy. This drove FBI Director Hoover nuts, of course, and he soon thereafter stopped cooperating with the Dallas Police Department. 

Well, this set the stage for Hosty's testimony, in which he denied ever telling Revill he knew Oswald was dangerous. And then Revill's testimony, in which he swore he'd written a report on Hosty's comments within an hour of their discussion, and presented this report to the Commission. Now, here's the kicker. Revill said his report was part of the DPD's Oswald file. Well, a copy of this file had been provided the Commission months before, and it failed to include Revill's report. And Revill's report wasn't signed and sworn to be true until April, around the time someone leaked the contents of this report to the press.

So yeah, it's clear from all this that Willens--and quite possibly his boss Rankin--thought Revill a big fat liar.

Ultimately, however, whether or not Givens or Sawyer or Revill lied is not as important as the fact that the Commission accepted Givens’ inconsistent and incredible testimony as evidence Oswald never came down for lunch. By doing so, the commission defiantly disregarded the consistent statements of the far more credible Shelley, Piper and Arnold. As we've seen, the commission's report asserted that Givens saw Oswald at 11:55 and “was the last known employee to see Oswald inside the building prior to the assassination.” This was a flat-out lie, no matter what Belin would come to claim later. Piper, of course, repeatedly claimed he saw Oswald at 12:00. 

While I tend to give people the benefit of the doubt, I just can't believe the Warren Commission's actions on this matter were innocent. When an official report, re-written numerous times by men supposedly versed in the facts, makes an almost certainly false claim, based on the statements of someone who has repeatedly changed his story, and then supports the relevance of this claim by making a demonstrably false claim, it seems reasonable to assume that a decision has been made to deceive the public and obstruct its search for truth. 

Particularly when there's other false claims supporting this same almost certainly false claim...

In its report, the Commission supports Givens' story by claiming:

"The significance of Givens' observation that Oswald was carrying his clipboard became apparent on December 2, 1963, when an employee, Frankie Kaiser, found a clipboard hidden by book cartons in the northwest corner of the sixth floor at the west wall a few feet from where the rifle had been found. This clipboard had been made by Kaiser and had his name on it. Kaiser identified it as the clipboard which Oswald had appropriated from him when Oswald came to work at the Depository. Three invoices on this clipboard, each dated November 22, were for Scott Foresman books, located on the first and sixth floors. Oswald had not filled any of the three orders."

Let's break this down... There are three deceptions in the paragraph.

The first of these deceptions is a subtle one. The significance of Givens' story about the clipboard did not become apparent when Kaiser found the clipboard, as contended in the report. For starters, the FBI thought the clipboard so unimportant that they let Kaiser keep it as a souvenir until March 10, more than three months after its discovery. I mean, they didn't even take a picture of it. For all they knew, moreover, the clipboard provided them on March 10 was a different clipboard entirely than the one Kaiser showed Pinkston on December 2. And for closers--well, it's right there--Kaiser found the clipboard on December 2. Well, none of the statements by Givens or memos on Givens mentioned Oswald's having a clipboard until December 7, when Givens was reported to have said he saw Oswald with the clipboard as he (Givens) first came down for lunch. By implying Givens' story about the clipboard preceded Kaiser's finding of the clipboard, to be clear, the Commission gives the false impression Givens had told the story he first told more than four months after the shooting--about going back up to get his cigarettes and running into Oswald on the sixth floor--from the beginning. They knew this wasn't true.

The second deception is more concrete. The clipboard was not hidden by book cartons, as contended. The discoverer of the clipboard, Frankie Kaiser, testified that the clipboard was "just laying there in the plain open...you see, we've got a pretty good space back there and I just noticed it laying over there...it was laying on the floor." When asked further if there were "any boxes between the wall and the clipboard?" he answered directly "No, not between the wall and the clipboard--there wasn't." When asked the more concrete question if there were any "boxes between the stairway and the clipboard?" he answered "No, you see, here's---let me see just a second---here's the stairs right here, and we went down this way and here's the stairs this way going up and here's the--and it was laying right in here by the cards--there are about four or five cards, I guess, running in front of it--just laying between the part you go down and the part you go up....right there in the corner." (6H341-345). Neither Kaiser nor his boss, William Shelley, nor the FBI's Nat Pinkston, who also saw the clipboard in this location, ever described it as being "hidden". The photo of the boxes by which the clipboard was found, moreover, marked by Kaiser and submitted into evidence as Kaiser exhibit A, shows that this clipboard would have been laying between two short rows of books with an open end, whereby anyone standing at the end of these rows, or even passing by, could see the clipboard laying right there on the floor. It was not hidden.

The third deception is also significant. The clipboard was found more than "a few feet" from the rifle. It was more like 12-15 feet, across an aisle and a row of boxes. By saying "a few feet" the report implies that Oswald most probably stashed the clipboard at the same time he was stashing the rifle. This is simply not  true. The clipboard location was in fact past the entrance to the down staircase from the rifle location. That Oswald would walk out of his way to hide a clipboard containing orders that gave him a legitimate excuse to be on the sixth floor, while in flight for his life, makes little sense. It's more logical to believe Oswald left these orders unfilled, and planned on returning to them after lunch. The clipboard location was, after all, close to both the elevator and the staircase.

The relative locations of the rifle and clipboard are best demonstrated in Commission Exhibit 2707 (26H78).

And here is a drawing prepared by Roy Rose in March 1964, that was the source for this exhibit. (Thanks to Gary Murr and Bart Kamp for bringing this to my attention.)

Note that the stairway to the roof was indeed blocked off, and that the only way up to the roof was a ladder with 21 risers. Such a ladder does not stop at a door, but at a hatch.

Something like this...

There is a photo of the roof on the Baylor University website, from its Jack White collection, that supports my "hatch" theory, moreover. (Mucho thanks to Robin Unger for bringing this to my attention.) 

Here it is.

The County Records Building, sitting on the southeast corner of Houston and Elm, is in the background, on the right side of the photo.

The white building on the left side of the photo is a small building which in 1963 sat atop the elevator shaft. The small shack in front of it then would have to have covered the outlet to the roof from the "Ladder to Roof" on the seventh floor diagram. 

There wasn't enough room to stand up in this shack. It appears from this, then, that the outlet onto the roof was in the form of a hatch...that would have made a loud noise should it have been slammed shut.

It should be noted here, while we're at it, that at least one other Dealey Plaza witness heard a loud sound around the time Baker and Truly descended from the roof. This was J.C. Price, an employee of the General Services Administration. Price watched the motorcade from the roof of the U.S. Post Office Terminal Annex Building. This was on the south side of the Plaza, and Price's recollections reflect that he was viewing the motorcade from some distance. On the day of the shooting, he presented the Dallas County Sheriff's Department with a signed statement. He asserted: "I was on the roof of the Terminal Annex Bldg on the NE corner when the presidential motorcade came down Main to Houston, North on Houston and then West on Elm. The cars had proceeded west on Elm and was just a short distance from the Triple underpass, when I saw Gov. Connally slump over. I did not see the president as his car had gotten out of my view under the underpass. There was a volley of shots, and then much later, maybe as much as five minutes later, another one." 

Now ain't that something. The only witness who'd watched the motorcade from the roof of a building to make a statement was also the only witness to claim he'd heard a loud sound around the time Baker and Truly came down from the roof of the depository building. The Terminal Annex Building is directly across the Plaza from the school book depository. It's about the same height... It's near certain a loud sound on the roof of the depository would be heard across the way. And was...

In any event, it seems probable that the sound heard by Dougherty came from the roof of the building as Baker and Truly returned to the seventh floor to take the east elevator down.

The sound Dougherty heard, after all, came from above him, not from the southeast windows of the fifth floor, off to his side. These were open windows but a few feet below an open window through which a high-powered rifle had supposedly fired three shots. Should shots have been fired while he was on the fifth floor, he would have heard these shots from the sniper's nest through these windows. That only makes sense.

So, okay, there's another one. Why wasn't this point ever brought up by Ball? Or Belin? And why wasn't this tested?

Suspicious Omission #16                                                                                                   

4-8-64--September 1964. The Warren Commission failed to test whether or not a rifle shot from the sixth floor sniper's nest window could have been heard by Jack Dougherty, standing near the opposite end of the building, as a sound coming from above him.

Yeah, I know. It's really confusing. But this scenario certainly makes more sense than what Ball, Belin, and the Warren Commission ultimately pushed upon the public--that Dougherty: 1) was wrong about going up to the sixth floor around 12:40, as he had actually taken the elevator up to the sixth floor at 12:25 or earlier; 2) was on the one-room sixth floor at the same time as the assassin or assassins, but did not notice him or them; 3) only heard one of the three shots fired from the floor above him after going down to the fifth floor; 4) believed this "shot" came from above him, even though he would have heard a shot fired from the sniper's nest through the open windows in the southeast corner of the building; 5) was on the one-room fifth floor the same time as Jarman, Norman, and Williams, but did not notice them or hear them, even as they excitedly exchanged comments after the shooting and raced over to the west end of the building; 6) failed to do anything but stand by the elevator shaft for the one to two minute period between the time the shots were fired and the time Baker and Truly began their ascent on the stairs; and 7) failed to hear his boss Roy Truly yell up to him to release the elevator, even though he was standing but a few yards from the elevator shaft.

Let's review items five and six.

Here, again, is the conclusion of the Warren Commission contained in the Warren Report.

Three employees James Jarman, Jr., Harold Norman, and Bonnie Ray Williams were watching the parade from the fifth floor, directly below the window from which the shots were fired. They rushed to the west windows after the shots were fired and remained there until after they saw Patrolman Baker's white helmet on the fifth floor moving toward the elevator.

While they were at the west windows their view of the stairwell was completely blocked by shelves and boxes. This is the period during which Oswald would have descended the stairs. In all likelihood Dougherty took the elevator down from the fifth floor after Jarman, Norman, and Williams ran to the west windows and were deciding what to do. None of these three men saw Dougherty, probably because of the anxiety of the moment and because of the books which may have blocked the view.

Well, that's another whopper.

Here again is Dougherty's testimony regarding his position on the fifth floor when he heard the loud sound.

Mr. BALL - Tell me this---when you heard that explosion or whatever it was--- that loud noise, where were you on the fifth floor-tell me exactly where you were?

Mr. DOUGHERTY - Well, I was about 10 feet from the west elevator---the west side of the elevator.

Dougherty didn't mention leaving this location before taking the west elevator down to the first floor. Since this elevator did not begin its descent from the fifth (or sixth floor) until Baker and Truly ran up the stairs, moreover, the Commission was forced to conclude Dougherty did not begin his descent for 90 seconds or more after the shooting. They just left him standing there for more than a minute. Meanwhile, Jarman, Norman, and Williams raced across the floor along the front windows, from the front windows in the southeast corner to the front window in the southwest corner. They then moved over to the second window from the front on the west side of the building..

This is where historians got lucky. Since Jarman, Norman, and Williams claimed they failed to see Oswald race downstairs at this time, the Commission was anxious to prove he could have raced down the stairs without their seeing him, and had photographs taken from their position by the west window toward the stairs and elevator, with the three men standing back by the north window between the stairs and elevator.

The photo that became CE 492 is presented below.

Note that one can easily make out that someone is standing in front of the north window. This window is about ten feet to the west of the west elevator, which puts it right by where Dougherty claimed he was standing at the time. Dougherty was purportedly a big fella. If so, it seems highly unlikely Jarman, Norman, and Williams would fail to notice him back there. Williams, by far the tallest of the three, claimed he saw Marrion Baker walk from the stairs to the east elevator from this location. In doing so, Baker would have been in his line of sight for just a few seconds. So how can we believe he failed to see Dougherty, who by nature of his claiming he was standing 10 feet from the west side of the west elevator, and his not using the elevator for 90 seconds or more after the shooting, would have been far easier to spot than Baker?

Or that, even worse, Dougherty failed to notice three excited, if not semi-hysterical, co-workers, racing across the front of the building by the windows, and thereby blocking out much of the light streaming in at the end of the aisle or aisles before him?

And that's not even to mention the incredible hypocrisy shown by the commission in pushing that Givens could see Oswald across a crowded sixth floor from three aisles over, but that Williams could not be expected to see Dougherty across a less-crowded fifth floor from one or two aisles over.

Or that... Wait a second...

Here is the Warren Commission's diagram for the fifth floor of the school book depository, taken from Commission Document 496. I have added JD to represent the location of Jack Dougherty when he heard the loud sound the Warren Commission insisted was a shot. I have also added BRW to represent the location of Bonnie Ray Williams after he raced to the west end of the building.

And here's the photo that was used to create CE 491, a photo purportedly presented in support of CE 490 and 492, which showed Bonnie Ray Williams' view as he looked toward the stairs. This shows the position of Williams, Norman, and Jarman, from our L to R, as they stood by the north window.

Now think about the location of the photographer. The west side of the west elevator would be directly at his right, in line with the large beam hovering in the foreground above Williams', Norman's, and Jarman's heads. Well, heck, this picture was taken from within a few feet of where Jack Dougherty claimed he was standing when he heard the loud sound.

Now look to the left of Williams. Those stairs lead up to the sixth floor. Those are the stairs down which Oswald was purported to have either run, or descended quickly, within a minute of the shooting. He is purported to have come down these stairs, and then curled to his right, and then continued down the stairs concealed behind the wall of boxes on the left side of the photograph.

Let's figure this out. The Warren Commission did two re-enactments in which Secret Service agent John Joe Howlett got up from the sniper's nest, hid a simulated rifle by the stairs in the northwest corner of the sixth floor, and descended the stairs to the second floor lunch room. One re-enactment took 78 seconds, the other took 74. If these re-enactments were reasonably accurate, then, it seems clear Oswald would have come down these stairs and then out into the open some 50-60 seconds after the shooting.

Well, then, what about Dougherty? The Warren Commission re-enacted Baker's actions after the shooting as well. They found that he reached the area outside the second floor lunch room--where he first saw Oswald--75 to 90 seconds after the shooting. At a minimum. That means he reached the freight elevator shaft--where Roy Truly looked up and saw the west elevator up on the fifth or sixth floor--about 60 to 75 seconds after the shooting. At a minimum.

Of course, that's assuming the elevator started its descent just as Baker and Truly raced for the stairs. The reality is that it may not have begun its descent--assuming that it descended from the fifth floor and contained Dougherty--for another 45 seconds or so, after Baker confronted Oswald, and Baker and Truly continued up the stairs to the fifth floor.

It seems obvious, then, that in the Commission's scenario, Dougherty remained on the fifth floor in the vicinity of the west elevator for somewhere between 1 and 2 minutes after the shooting.

Well, that proves it then. Something that's been overlooked for years... If Dougherty rode the fifth floor elevator down as Baker and Truly ran up--as claimed by the Commission--he would have been standing near this elevator when Oswald raced down the stairs but 20 feet or so away...on a route that would have taken him out in the open.

And yet Dougherty...saw nothing. And heard nothing... from Oswald, Jarman, Norman and Williams...

There's just no reason to believe Dougherty was on the fifth floor at this time. It actually defies belief.

Suspicious Omission #17

4-8-64--September 1964. Attorneys Joseph Ball and David Belin and the Warren Commission as a whole fail to acknowledge that their conclusion Jack Dougherty rode the west elevator down to the first floor as Baker and Truly ran upstairs places Dougherty on the fifth floor as Oswald raced past him across an open stretch of floor.

And there's more to it. When one thinks about it, it seems an awful coincidence Ball and Belin took a photo from Dougherty's supposed position, which just so happened to prove he'd have seen Oswald should Oswald have run down the stairs as proposed. The other photos taken in this re-enactment, CE 490 and CE 492, presented Williams' view of the back stairs, and helped establish that he might not have noticed Oswald should Oswald have raced down the back stairs. It only makes sense, then, that Ball and Belin would have had a similar photo taken from Dougherty's position.

Now, I'd fought this conclusion under the belief they didn't know Dougherty's position when they took the photos. CE 491 was taken on 3-20, and Dougherty didn't testify until 4-8. But, guess what, I was wrong. On 3-18-64, but two days before CE 491 was taken, Jack Dougherty gave a statement to the FBI, which claimed: "At the time President Kennedy was shot I was at a point about 10 feet from the elevator on the fifth floor of the Texas School Book Depository Building. I was alone at the time." (22H645) It seems quite possible, then, that Ball and Belin had CE 491 taken from Dougherty's position, saw that it undermined their conclusion it was he who rode the west elevator down as Baker and Truly ran up, and then introduced it into evidence for the sole purpose of showing the location of the stairs in comparison to CE 490 and CE 492.

When you think about it, moreover, Ball and Belin's twisting of Dougherty's 4-8-64 testimony represents the Warren Commission at its worst. Here was a mentally-handicapped man--in that he had difficulty expressing himself--whose testimony was largely ignored (e.g. the time he went back to work, the time he heard the loud sound) so they could insert him into a scenario in which the movement of the west elevator as Baker and Truly climbed the stairs had an innocent explanation. 

Playing the Piper  

That Ball and Belin had little interest in the truth is supported, moreover, by the questions asked Dougherty (and about Dougherty). As we've seen, Ball never asked Dougherty if he called the west elevator from the fifth floor (where it was left by Jarman and Norman), or whether he'd found it on the first floor. Just as unbelievably, he never asked Eddie Piper, who'd testified just before Dougherty, anything about the conversation he'd supposedly had with Dougherty after Dougherty descended from the fifth floor. I mean, did this conversation take place a few seconds after Piper had witnessed Baker and Truly run up the stairs, as in Ball and Belin's scenario, or 5 to 10 minutes later, as in the scenario suggested by Dougherty?

And, yeah, that's another one. That Ball failed to ask Piper anything about his conversation with Dougherty, even though Dougherty mentioned this conversation in both his 11-22-63 affidavit (24H206) and his 12-18-63 FBI interview (19H619) before Piper testified, and then again in his testimony just after Piper testified, is a real head-scratcher...and hair-puller.

Suspicious Omission #18                                                                                                  

4-8-64. Warren Commission attorney Joseph Ball fails to ask Eddie Piper about his discussion with Jack Dougherty, something that was desperately needed for the establishment of Dougherty as the passenger coming down in the west elevator after the shooting.

And should one think it unfair for me to second-guess Ball in this manner, well, lucky for us, Warren Commission counsel Howard Willens shared some of the Commission's internal documents on his website for a short period surrounding the 50th anniversary of the assassination, and one of these was a 5-6-64 memo from Ball to Commission counsel J. Wesley Liebeler outlining what questions Liebeler should ask when re-interviewing a number of witnesses. Apparently, Ball was hoping to shove these interviews off on Liebeler on Liebeler's upcoming trip to Dallas.

Here is Ball's section on Piper:

"Eddie Piper. The deposition of Eddie Piper was taken in Dallas, Texas on Wednesday April 8, 1964. Piper is a janitor employed by the Texas School Book Depository. He watched the motorcade from the first floor window which opens on to Elm. After he heard the shots he walked away from the window; he saw Truly and some officer (Baker) run into the building and up the stairway. Ask Piper if he saw Jack Dougherty come to the first floor immediately afterwards. Dougherty has testified that he was on the fifth floor when he heard the shots; that he came to the first floor by way of the west elevator; that the first person whom he saw was Eddie Piper; that Piper then told him that the President had been shot."

Now here's a surprise. Or maybe not. Ball himself took Piper's testimony on 5-14-64, and failed to ask Piper if he even talked to Dougherty on 11-22-63!

And yet, here, once again, question or no question, when Eddie Piper spoke, the truth somehow slipped out...

Mr. PIPER. Well, Mr. Truly and this fellow run up the steps. He just hollered for the elevator and I said, 'I don't know where it is at,' and I'm still standing over there by that table and he ran up on up the steps with this police officer--him and another fellow and I was standing there and the people began swarming out and around--different ones coming in, but it was where nobody could come out.

Mr. BALL. They were the first ones to go up the steps?

Mr. PIPER. That's right.

Mr. BALL. Had anybody come down the steps before they went up the steps?

Mr. PIPER. No, sir.

Mr. BALL. They weren't the first ones to come down?

Mr. PIPER. Yes; and when the elevators come down---I really don't know who brought the elevators down, but I know nobody ever come down the steps.

Mr. BALL. Did you ever see Vicki Adams come down the steps?

Mr. PIPER. No, sir; I don't know about that, if she said she did, it was after I got over here and walked over to the back door.

(The 5-14-64 Testimony of Eddie Piper, 7H388-390)

Well, there it is... The implosion of the story pushed by Ball and Belin. Piper didn't know who brought the elevators down. He couldn't confirm that Dougherty brought the west elevator down just after Baker and Truly ran up the stairs, even though he watched Baker and Truly run up the stairs a minute or so before.

Suspicious Omission (or, in this Case, Commission) #19a                              

 5-14-64--September 1964. Warren Commission attorney Joseph Ball cuts off Eddie Piper after Piper volunteers that he has no idea who brought the elevators down just after the shots, and steers him to what he believes is a more productive course--that he failed to see Vickie Adams come down the stairs.

And yes, Ball failed to follow up on this anywhere in Piper's testimony. He never asked Piper about speaking to Dougherty just after Baker and Truly ran up the stairs. He never mentioned Dougherty at all. 

Well, this is damning. That Ball was supposed to ask Piper about Dougherty, but failed to ask him about Dougherty on the record, strongly suggests that Ball asked Piper about Dougherty in the pre-interview, and really, really didn't like Piper's answer. Yes, it seems probable Ball opted to leave Piper's refusal to back up that Dougherty came straight down after the shooting (or perhaps even Piper's clear recollection Dougherty came up to talk to him 10 minutes or so after the shooting) off the record.

And, no, it's not mean or irrational or any other TV pundit term for us to assume Ball's failure to ask Piper about Dougherty (or Shelley, or Lovelady) on the record was deliberate. Piper's answers may very well have shot down the scenario Ball and the rest of the commission staff had already decided upon--that no one besides Oswald could have fired the shots from the sixth floor and gotten out of the building before Baker and Truly arrived at the back stairs. And Ball, we can only assume, was having none of that.

That Ball and Belin had it in for Piper, and had decided to undermine his credibility, is supported, for that matter, by their subsequent discussion of the elevator problem in the Warren Report. On page 153, they wrote: "Jack Dougherty, an employee working on the fifth floor, testified that he took the west elevator to the first floor after hearing a noise which sounded like a backfire. Eddie Piper, the janitor, told Dougherty that the president had been shot, but in his testimony Piper did not mention either seeing or talking with Dougherty during these moments of excitement. Both Dougherty and Piper were confused witnesses. They had no exact memory of the events of that afternoon."

Wait-what??? Ball and Belin failed to follow up with Piper to see if he would back up Dougherty's story, and they blamed it on Piper? They used THEIR FAILURE to do their job and ask the questions they'd outlined for Liebeler as a means of discrediting Piper?

I don't believe it. Nor should you... Ball almost certainly asked Piper about Dougherty. I mean, think about it. Ball and Belin's writing off Piper as a "confused" witness only makes sense if he told Ball and Belin something they really didn't want to accept. Oswald's being on the first floor around 12 wouldn't have been enough. They could always argue he went back up. We can only assume, then--based upon Piper's testimony "when the elevators come down---I really don't know who brought the elevators down"--that Piper told Ball in a pre-interview that he didn't talk to Dougherty just after the shooting, or that he did talk to Dougherty, but that this was some time later, after Baker and Truly had returned from their run up the stairs. 

I mean, there are lies and then there are damned lies, and the commission's claim Piper had no exact memory of the events of that afternoon, when Piper was actually one of the more consistent witnesses, is a damned lie.

Suspicious Omission (or, in this Case, Commission) #19b                                       

5-14-64--September 1964. Warren Commission attorney Joseph Ball not only fails to ask Eddie Piper the questions about Jack Dougherty he'd claimed in a memo needed to be asked, but uses the failure of Piper to provide answers to these never-asked questions as a means of discrediting him.  

Now, that's pretty sleazy, and indicative of just how low the commission's staff were willing to go to sell that no one came down from the sixth floor using the elevator after the shooting, and that Oswald musta dunnit...alone.

It should be noted, moreover, that interviews conducted after the completion of the Warren Commission's investigation only add to the probability Dougherty went upstairs after the shooting, and came back down to talk to Piper after Truly and Baker had already returned to the first floor.

An interview with researcher Gil Toff (circa 1969-1971) and transcribed by Bart Kamp in 2020 reveals that Dougherty said Roy Truly was in his office when he (Dougherty) came back down after the shooting. Well, think about it, The official story--the one in which Dougherty came down within a minute or so of the final shot--has Dougherty going down within the west elevator as Truly ran up, and Truly remaining upstairs for five minutes or more. There is no way this recollection fits that scenario. It only makes sense, moreover, if what I've concluded is true--that Dougherty went upstairs after someone else came downstairs, and that he returned after hearing Baker and Truly coming down from the roof.   

There's also this...

From a 6-21-02 Sixth Floor Museum Oral History interview of Oswald co-worker Buell Frazier by museum curator Gary Mack...

Gary: A couple of quick questions. Has anyone either with... has anyone ever told you to not talk to anyone?

Buell: No. That’s kind of something I kind of developed on my own.

Gary: OK. In other words, you’ve never been threatened? No one’s ever come up to you and said, “It would be good of you not to say anything?”

Buell: (shaking head) No.

Gary: Has... did that happen to anyone at the Depository?

Buell: Now that, I do not know. I think I know what you’re referring to (smiling). There was a coworker that worked there, and his name was Jack Dougherty?

Gary: Jack Dougherty?

Buell: (nodding) Yes. For the people that had worked there like... were employed there at the time, Mr. Shelley and some of my coworkers, we often wondered about Jack after that. I know I talked with Mr. Shelley, and he talked with me because I know when someone would mention the assassination of John F. Kennedy, Jack would... would begin to act unusual and would usually leave your presence. And I’m not implicating or saying... and I don’t want to imply that, that he had anything to do with that at all. But... but we often wondered that. If... if maybe Jack saw something or... or knew something and was afraid to tell..."

But, wait, it gets worse...

In The Girl on the Stairs (2010), Barry Ernest describes a December 2004 phone call with Officer Marrion Baker that further fuels my conclusion someone other than Oswald came down the elevator, and that Dougherty then took this elevator back up. 

When asked if he could describe the two white men he'd testified to seeing near the elevators on 11-22-63, Baker said he didn't recall seeing any white men, just an "older, large black man sitting toward the back stairs, near the elevators there." He then told Ernest that he asked Roy Truly about this guy, and that Roy Truly said the man was an employee and "slightly retarded."

Well, Baker was almost certainly confused, at least a little bit. The only black employees known to be anywhere near the back of the building at this time were Eddie Piper and Troy West. Piper, 55 at the time, was all of 5'10" and 140 lb.s, and West, 56 at the time, was all of 5' 9 1/2" and 155 lb.s. (CD789 p5-6).

So who was Baker talking about? 

Most probably Troy West. While Eddie Piper was an older black man within the building at the time, who made his presence  known to Truly and Baker, Piper was a trusted employee, and almost certainly not "retarded," not even a little bit. He also was not sitting when Truly and Baker came into the building, but walking to or standing by the coffee counter. West, on the other hand, said he was sitting down and having lunch by the coffee counter 40 feet or so from the back stairs when the police came in the building. He was only interviewed a few times, and never in much detail, His testimony before the Warren Commission was notoriously short on detail. It seems probable, then, that Baker was thinking of West. 

But, hold on, wait a second, there was an older, large white man who Truly was in the habit of describing as "mentally retarded." And that was...Jack Dougherty, who was 40.

Here, let's remember, is the Secret Service on Dougherty in their 12-7-63 report on Oswald's co-workers..."When Dougherty was interviewed, he seemed to be very confused about times and places. Mr. Truly furnished the information that, although Dougherty is a very good employee and a hard worker, he is mentally retarded and has difficulty in remembering facts, such as dates, times, places, and has been especially confused since the assassination. Dougherty was therefore not questioned further." (CD87, p781).   

So, Baker remembered seeing an older, large man who Truly said was "retarded" sitting near the back of the building as they ran up the stairs. And this might very well have been Dougherty.

If true, this means that...someone other than Dougherty--and Oswald (who Baker and Truly saw on the second floor seconds after starting up the stairs)--took the west elevator down as Baker and Truly ran up...

The Adams Problem (in which the Warren Commission bent over backwards to dismiss a problematic witness so it could pretend Oswald ran down the stairs)

The complicity of Ball, Belin, and their bosses on the commission in a cover-up of the evidence becomes clear when one studies the commission's treatment of Victoria Adams.

To begin, a 2-25-64 Ball and Belin memo (retrieved from the Archives by researcher Barry Ernest) reveals that, from the start, before they'd even taken one day's testimony, Ball and Belin had recognized that Oswald "had to descend to the second floor in a short space of time in order to meet Truly and Baker" in the second floor lunch room within 90 seconds of the shooting. And that, as a consequence, Adams' claim she and Sandra Styles ran down the stairs Oswald would have to have used, at the same time he would have had to have used them, was a problem. And that, as a result, they needed to "pin down this time sequence."

So let's see how they "pinned" it down.

But first, an acknowledgement. There are legitimate reasons to doubt Adams and her testimony claiming she raced down the stairs but didn't see Oswald or anyone else. The main cause for doubt is that she claimed she saw William Shelley and Billy Lovelady at the bottom of the stairs after she'd raced down the stairs, and they claimed they went over to the train yards for a spell just after the shooting, and then re-entered the building via a loading dock on the west side of the building. Well, the assumption is that this would have taken Shelley and Lovelady 4 minutes or more. If so, they would have re-entered the building after Baker and Truly had started their run up the stairs. If so, Adams would have to have run down the stairs after Baker and Truly had run up the stairs past her floor. And that would open up a minute or so before they ran up the stairs, for Oswald to run down the stairs to the second floor lunch room, where he was observed by Officer Baker.

But what's that they say about assumptions?

Mr. BELIN - What did you see and what did you do as you ran into the building?

Mr. BAKER - As I entered this building, there was, it seems to me like there was outside doors and then there is a little lobby.

Mr. BELIN - All right.

Mr. BAKER - And then there are some inner doors and another door you have to go through, a swinging door type. As I entered this lobby there were people going in as I entered. And I asked, I just spoke out and asked where the stairs or elevator was, and this man, Mr. Truly, spoke up and says, it seems to me like he says, "I am a building manager. Follow me, officer, and I will show you." So we immediately went out through the second set of doors, and we ran into the swinging door.

Mr. BELIN - All right.

Now, during the course of running into the swinging door, did you bump into the back of Mr. Truly?

Mr. BAKER - Yes, sir; I did.

Mr. BELIN - Then what happened?

Mr. BAKER - We finally backed up and got through that little swinging door there and we kind of all ran, not real fast but, you know, a good trot, to the back of the Building, I was following him.

Mr. BELIN - All right. Then what did you do?

Mr. BAKER - We went to the northwest corner, we was kind of on the, I would say, the southeast corner of the Building there where we entered it, and we went across it to the northwest corner which is in the rear, back there.

Mr. BELIN - All right.

Mr. BAKER - And he was trying to get that service elevator down there.

Mr. BELIN - All right. What did you see Mr. Truly do?

Mr. BAKER - He ran over there and pushed the button to get it down.

Mr. BELIN - Did the elevator come down after he pushed the button?

Mr. BAKER - No, sir; it didn't.

Mr. BELIN - Then what did he do?

Mr. BAKER - He hollered for it, said, "Bring that elevator down here."

Mr. BELIN - How many times did he holler, to the best of your recollection?

Mr. BAKER - It seemed like he did it twice.

Mr. BELIN - All right.

Then what did he do?

Mr. BAKER - I said let's take the stairs.

Mr. BELIN - All right. Then what did you do?

Mr. BAKER - He said, "Okay" and so he immediately turned around, which the stairs is just to the, would be to the, well, the west of this elevator.

Mr. BELIN - All right.

Mr. BAKER - And we went up them.

(3-25-64 9:50 AM, 3H242-270)

Now, this testimony--of racing to the back of the building--yelling up the elevator shaft, and racing up the stairs--was pretty much a repeat of what Roy Truly had testified to the day before.

Well, then, what about Shelley and Lovelady? Did they race?

Perhaps not. There's this... "Immediately following the shooting, Billy N. Lovelady and I accompanied some uniformed police officers to the railroad yards just west of the building and returned through the west side door of the building about ten minutes later." (The 3-18-64 statement of William Shelley to the FBI, 22H673)

But then there's this...

Mr. BALL - Did you see Truly, Mr. Truly and an officer go into the building?

Mr. SHELLEY - Yeah, we saw them right at the front of the building while we were on the island.

Mr. BALL - While you were out there before you walked to the railroad yards?

Mr. SHELLEY - Yes.

Mr. BALL - Do you have any idea how long it was from the time you heard those three sounds or three noises until you saw Truly and Baker going into the building?

Mr. SHELLEY - It would have to be 3 or 4 minutes I would say because this girl that ran back up there was down near where the car was when the President was hit.                                

Mr. BALL - She ran back up to the door and you had still remained standing there?

Mr. SHELLEY - Yes.

Well, we're off to a heckuva start. Simply incredible. On March 20, Ball's partner Belin timed a re-enactment of Marrion Baker's actions after the shooting, from his hearing the first shot to his observing Oswald on the second floor. Baker testified that they performed this re-enactment twice, with the re-enactment taking 90 seconds the first time and 75 seconds the second, when they sped things up a little. Now, this is key--according to their re-enactment, Baker reached the front of the building within 15 seconds of the first shot.

So what's this mean? It has long been noted that stress has a negative impact on our perception of time, and that witnesses to a stressful or traumatic event will usually over-estimate the length of the traumatic event they'd witnessed, often by a factor of 3 or more. (One 1977 study, by Dr. Robert Buckhout, published in Criminal Defense, reported that subjects over-estimated the duration of a video they'd been asked to view of a staged assault on a college campus by a factor or almost 2 1/2 to 1...on average.) So Shelley's testimony isn't all that surprising. He has recalled a series of events that would subsequently be re-enacted in 15 seconds--(but probably took more like 25 seconds)--as taking 3 or 4 minutes. For him, time slowed down by a factor of 7.2 or more.

Now this, in turn, suggests Shelley and Lovelady returned to the building through the west side door about 83 seconds after the shooting, not 10 minutes.

Let's see if we can break this down further... Ball returned to this line of questioning a few minutes later.

Mr. BALL - Then you went out across Elm?

Mr. SHELLEY - Yes, to the divider.

Mr. BALL - Between the two Elm Streets?

Mr. SHELLEY - Yes.

Mr. BALL - The one street dead ends and the other street that goes on down under the viaduct?

Mr. SHELLEY - Yes.

Mr. BALL - Did you run out to the point or walk out?

Mr. SHELLEY - I believe we trotted out there.

Mr. BALL - Did you stay very long?

Mr. SHELLEY - Oh, it wasn't very long.

Mr. BALL - How long?

Mr. SHELLEY - Maybe a minute or two.

Mr. BALL - And that's the place you saw Truly and Baker, you say, going into the building?

Mr. SHELLEY - Yes, uh-huh,

So, to be clear, Shelley has claimed that he and Lovelady saw Baker and Truly enter the building 3 or 4 minutes after the shooting from a vantage point on the divider, and that they had been there 1 or 2 minutes. This, then, suggests they stood on the steps for 2 minutes or so before heading over to the divider.

Mr. BALL - Then you went down the Elm Street that dead ends to the first railroad track?

Mr. SHELLEY - Yes.

Mr. BALL - That's about what distance?

Mr. SHELLEY - Approximately 100 yards.

Mr. BALL - Did you trot, run or walk?

Mr. SHELLEY - We were walking but it was a pretty fast walk.

Mr. BALL - Did you stay there any length of time?

Mr. SHELLEY - Not very long.

Mr. BALL - How long would you say?

Mr. SHELLEY - I wouldn't say over a minute or minute and a half.

Mr. BALL - Then you went back to the building?

Mr. SHELLEY - Yes.

So, here, in his testimony, Shelley backs off his purported approximation of 10 minutes. He says it was 3-4 minutes before Baker and Truly entered the building, and that he and Lovelady spent another 1 to 1 1/2 minutes by the railroad tracks. That's it. Add in the travel time to this last location--and then back into the building (around 30 seconds)--and you have a grand total of 4 1/2 to 6 minutes.

Now, keep in mind that this was Shelley's approximation...which, based upon the studies cited above, we can assume was inflated by a factor of 2 1/2 or so.

So, believe it or not, Shelley's testimony suggesting it took him 270 to 360 seconds to re-enter the building after the shots actually suggested he'd re-entered the building 108 to 144 seconds after the shots, and possibly much less, seeing as he'd approximated the initial 15-30 second segment as 3-4 minutes.

So the gap between Shelley's return and Baker and Truly's reaching the back stairs is not as large as most imagine.

If such a gap existed...

Consider, Baker testified that the 75-90 second time for the re-enactments was the "minimum" amount of time for the actual event, seeing as they failed to re-enact his slowing down to make his way through the crowd by the entrance to the building, etc.

There's also this. In April 1964, high school newspaper reporter Roy E. Bode (the future editor of the Dallas Times-Herald) scooped the adults and finagled an interview with Roy Truly. This interview was then published in the Odessa American. In this interview, Truly discussed the difficulty he'd encountered in getting his life, and business, back to normal. But he also discussed his recent trip to Washington to testify before the Commission. Bode reports "Truly flew to Washington with a construction worker, who has a new ulcer, and a policeman. All testified before the Commission. The worker developed his ulcer after seeing John F. Kennedy murdered. Truly says he was the only actual eyewitness to the slaying. 'The man was standing on the wall of a monument near Elm Street. He looked toward the building and saw the killer, aiming the rifle. The shots were fired and he ran across the street where a policeman and I were standing,' Truly said. 'He yelled to us that the man was on the fourth floor and told us what kind of clothes he was wearing. I understand he later identified Oswald as the killer at police headquarters.' Truly said that after the man pointed out the killer (note: Bode presumably meant to write 'the location of the killer')  he (Truly) and the policeman ran upstairs to the second floor. They bumped into Oswald there as he was calmly leaving the depository's cafeteria. 'The policeman put his gun on him and asked me who he was,' Truly continued. 'I was misquoted by the press on my reply. I did not say 'He's all right, he works here.' I said 'He works here.' There's a lot of difference in these two statements." 

Now, this is just a ball of confusion, right? Did Truly, after talking to Howard Brennan on the plane, come to believe that he and Baker had talked to Brennan before running into the building? And, if so, why did they go to the roof of the building, when Brennan had told them the killer was on the fourth? The thought occurs that the teen-aged reporter got his notes mixed-up. In any event, it remains possible that Baker and Truly discussed something with somebody before running towards the back of the building.

Well, this puts Shelley and Lovelady, entering from the west side of the building, ahead or in a virtual tie in a race to the back of the building with Baker and Truly, entering via the front steps.

So let's read on and see if we can figure out who got there first.

Mr. BALL - What did you and Billy Lovelady do?

Mr. SHELLEY - We walked on down to the first railroad track there on the dead-end street and stood there and watched them searching cars down there in the parking lots for a little while and then we came in through our parking lot at the west end.

Mr. BALL - At the west end?

Mr. SHELLEY - Yes; and then in the side door into the shipping room.

Mr. BALL - When you came into the shipping room did you see anybody?

Mr. SHELLEY - I saw Eddie Piper.

Mr. BALL - What was he doing?

Mr. SHELLEY - He was coming back from where he was watching the motorcade in the southwest corner of the shipping room.

Mr. BALL - Of the first floor of the building?

Mr. SHELLEY - Yes.

Mr. BALL - Who else did you see?

Mr. SHELLEY - That's all we saw immediately.

(4-7-64 Testimony of William Shelley, 4:10 PM 6H327-334)

So let's see what Piper had to say about this when Ball questioned him the next day.

Mr. PIPER. I heard one shot, and then the next shot went off---the one that shot him--and I got on up and went on back, back where they make coffee at the end of the counter where I could see what happened (Note: we can presume from this that he was planning to turn on a radio) and before I could get there, the third shot went off, and I seen the people all running and in a few minutes someone came in the building, and I looked up and it was the boss-man and a policeman or someone.

And then later...

Mr. BALL. Did you look out the window later?

Mr. PIPER. No more no, sir; I didn't go back to any window.

Mr. BALL. You mentioned you saw Truly?

Mr. PIPER. I don't know whether it was a policeman or FBI or who it was, but another fellow was with him.

Mr. BALL And where were you?

Mr. PIPER. Standing right there where they make coffee.

So let's get this straight. Shelley claimed that when he and Lovelady came in from the western dock he saw Piper heading back from the front window...and Piper said he left his spot at the front window and went back to the coffee counter, that Roy Truly came in "a few minutes" later when he was at the coffee counter, and that he failed to return to the front window after Truly came in.

Well, this is a clear indication Shelley and Lovelady arrived at the back of the building before Baker and Truly.

Now, let's go back to Shelley's testimony... and reflect a little... Ball has asked Shelley if he saw Roy Truly enter the building, but has failed to ask him if he saw Truly in the building after his own return to the building. It's hard to believe this was a coincidence.

Suspicious Omission #20                                                                                                  

 4-7-64. Warren Commission attorney Joseph Ball asks William Shelley if he saw Roy Truly enter the depository building, but fails to ask him the more important question if he saw Truly at a later point, before Truly and officer Baker ran up the back staircase.

Still, it's not as if Ball failed to ask Shelley about Adams.

Mr. BALL - Did you ever see Vickie Adams?

Mr. SHELLEY - I saw her that day but I don't remember where I saw her.

Mr. BALL - You don't remember whether you saw her when you came back?

Mr. SHELLEY - It was after we entered the building.

Mr. BALL - You think you did see her after you entered the building?

Mr. SHELLEY - Yes, sir; I thought it was on the fourth floor awhile after that.                              

Mr. BALL - Now, did the police come into the building?

Mr. SHELLEY - Yes, sir; they started coming in pretty fast.

Mr. BALL - Did you go with them any place?

Mr. SHELLEY - Yes; Mr. Truly left me guarding the elevator, not to let anybody up and down the elevator or stairway and some plainclothesmen came in; I don't know whether they were Secret Service or FBI or what but they wanted me to take them upstairs, so we went up and started searching the various floors.

(4-7-64 Testimony of William Shelley, 4:10 PM 6H327-334)

Now, I suspect most of those reading this have assumed Shelley is talking about the freight elevator in the back of the building. But why should we do that? There was an elevator in the front as well. Most of those using elevators in the building used this elevator. Anyone coming in from the street and wanting to use an elevator would want to use this elevator. It seems near certain then that this is the elevator Truly asked Shelley to guard.

Let's see if this is supported by any of Shelley's previous statements. 

Here's a beauty: “Today approximately 12:30 P.M. November 22, 1963, I was standing on the front steps at 411 Elm watching the President in the parade. The President’s car was about halfway from Houston Street to the Triple Underpass when I heard what sounded like three shots. I couldn’t tell where they came from. I ran across the street to the corner of the park and ran into a girl crying and she said the President had been shot. The girl’s name is Gloria Calvery who is an employee of this same building. I went back to the building and went inside and called my wife and told her what had happened. I was on the first floor then and I stayed at the elevator and was told not to let anyone out of the elevator. I left the elevator and went with the police on up to the other floors. I left Jack Dougherty in charge of the elevator."  (The 11-22-63 affidavit of William Shelley to the Dallas County Sheriff’s Department, 24H226)

Now this gives us a number of things to think about. One is that Shelley never even mentioned stopping off in the train yards in his initial statement. This supports our belief he really spent very little time there.

Still another item of interest is Shelley's claim he guarded an elevator--singular, not plural. This supports that he did in fact guard the front elevator. And yet another is that he said he left Jack Dougherty in charge of this elevator. While this supports that Dougherty was on the first floor just after Baker and Truly went upstairs--which could mean he descended as they rose--Dougherty claimed he turned around and went back up to the sixth floor after coming down from the fifth floor and talking to Piper. So that's a no go.

While Dougherty's minding the front elevator is also problematic to the belief he went upstairs via the rear elevator a few minutes after the shooting, this isn't as big a problem as it seems. Outside of Shelley, no one ever mentioned Dougherty's guarding any elevator. Well, this suggests that within a short time of Shelley's ascent, Dougherty got bored or confused and simply returned to work. (It bears repeating here that Dougherty claimed he was unaware Kennedy had been shot until told as much by Piper.)

Quest for Phone

This brings us, then, to yet another interesting ingredient in Shelley's original statement--that he made a phone call to his wife upon his return to the building. Apparently, he thought she'd be worried. In any event, if we can isolate when this call was made in comparison to other events, we can better estimate the time of his return.

So let's compare the statements of some others who entered the building...in a quest for phone.

First up is newsman Pierce Allman. He was interviewed by the Secret Service on 1-29-64. "Mr. Allman stated that he was watching the parade from a position near the corner of Elm and Houston. Upon hearing the shots he ran across Elm Street to a couple who had fallen on the ground. He asked the man if he was all right; the man stated that he was.  Allman then ran up an incline toward Houston Street. Upon reaching the top of the incline, he turned and ran down. He stated that he is at a a loss to explain this action other than he was extremely excited and upset by the assassination. Mr. Allman then stated that he ran full speed into the Texas School Book Depository Building with intention of locating a phone and calling his television station WFAA. Mr. Allman stated that after he had entered into the front door of the building, he emerged into a hallway and there he met a white male whom he could not further identify. He asked this white male for the location of a telephone. Mr. Allman stated that he did not identify himself to this person; stated further that he was extremely excited at the time and that he could not remember anything about the person except for the fact that he was a white male. Mr. Allman has seen pictures of Lee Harvey Oswald and could not positively state whether or not he was the one of whom he inquired. Mr. Allman stated that the person pointed out a phone to him which was located in an open area of the first floor of the Texas School Book Depository; that he immediately went to the telephone and stayed at this position for approximately 25 minutes talking to his office. Mr. Allman stated that he was accompanied by a fellow worker, Terry Ford." (CD 354, p5)

So what did Ford have to say about this when interviewed on 1-31-64? "Mr. Ford stated that he had accompanied Mr. Allman to the corner of Houston and Elm Streets to watch the procession; that upon hearing shots, he retreated to a concrete building near the side of the small park bordering Elm Street, then running back toward the Texas School Book Depository. He followed Allman into the building, walking on his right side. He remembers Allman turning to his left to ask a white male the location of a telephone. Ford stated the white male, who he can neither identify nor describe, indicated in some manner that a telephone was inside a room directly ahead. Ford does not remember Allman identifying himself at this time. Ford stated that he did not have a press card at this time and did not identify himself to anyone until he left the building about one hour later." (CD354, p6)

Next up is newsman Robert MacNeill MacNeill furnished the FBI a typewritten statement on 11-30-63. "On hearing the shots I got out of the bus immediately and followed some police officers who were running up the grass slope to the right of the road on which the President was shot. We climbed a fence and I followed the police who appeared to be chasing someone, or under the impression they were chasing someone, across the railroad tracks. Wanting to phone news of the shooting, I left there and went to the nearest place that looked like an office. It was the Texas School Book Depository. I believe I entered the front door about four minutes after the shooting. I went immediately into the clear space on the ground floor and asked where there was a phone. There were, as I recall, three men there, all I think in shirt sleeves. What, on recollection, strikes me as possibly significant is that all three seemed to be exceedingly calm and relaxed, compared to the pandemonium which existed right outside their front door. I did not pay attention to this at the time. I asked the first man I saw--a man who was telephoning from a phone by a pillar in the middle of the room--where I could call from. He directed me to another man nearer the door, who pointed to an office. When I got to the phone, two of the lines were already lit up. I made my call and left. I do not believe any police officers entered the building before me or until I left. I was in too much of a hurry to remember what the three men there looked like. But their manner was very relaxed. My New York news desk has since placed the time of my call at 12:36 Dallas time." (CD 206, p5)

And our fourth man up is military intelligence officer James Powell. Powell was interviewed by the Secret Service on 1-28-64. "Mr. Powell stated that he had been watching the parade from a position near the corner of Houston and Elm Streets, the site of the assassination. Mr. Powell stated further that he heard the shots and he then joined a group of Sheriff's Deputies, who were heading toward the rear of the Texas School Book Depository on the basis of information that the assassin had shot from the railroad yards. Mr. Powell worked with the Sheriff's Deputies at the rear of the Texas School Book Depository Building for about six or eight minutes. He then entered the front door of the Depository, in search of a phone from which to call his office. Mr. Powell, upon entering the Texas School Book Depository, observed Mr. Pierce Allman using a phone in the lobby of the building. Mr. Powell stated that he did not meet anyone upon entering the building nor was he called upon to identify himself to anyone. Mr. Powell said that the only persons present on the first floor of the building at the time of his entry were Mr. Allman and an unidentified white male described as being tall and about 30 years of age; both of these men were near a desk in the lobby and Mr. Allman was using a telephone." (CD354, p4-5)

Well, hell. This raises almost as many questions as it answers. 

Its does suggest, however, that Shelley re-entered the building and called his wife before Allman and MacNeill came in. The phone used by Allman was in the middle of the building. He was on the phone by 12:34. He was there before MacNeill, who was on a different phone by 12:36. Allman would have noticed should Styles and Adams come running down the stairs, and run into Shelley and Lovelady near the back elevators, 5-6 minutes after the shooting. Yet he did not see them. This suggests, then, that Shelley had already re-entered the building, called his wife, and went over to guard the front elevator and stairs when Allman came in.

Now, to the questions... Who showed Allman the phone? Presumably Oswald, who is reported to have told the FBI he'd spoken to a man with a crew-cut--who had ID'ed himself as as Secret Service agent--as he (Oswald) was leaving the building.

And who were the three men observed by MacNeil? Presumably Allman, Ford, and either Shelley or Dougherty nearer the door. As Lovelady was photographed outside on the steps after his return to the building, and as Shelley claimed he'd been told to guard the front elevator, we should probably suspect Shelley. 

And who was the one man beyond Allman observed by Powell? Presumably Ford, who claimed he remained in the building for an hour...

But maybe Dougherty. Buell Frazier claims Dougherty was a giant of a man. His military records have him at 6'2". But was Ford equally as tall? Good question. Here he is with Allman in two shots from the Dorman film. Ford is on the left of the image on the left and the right on the image on the right. Ford appears to be a few inches taller than Allman.

But how tall was Allman? Not very, as it turns out. A quick photo search online reveals that Allman is around a foot shorter than former football player Jason Witten, who was listed as 6'6". So Allman was 5'8" tops. Which means Ford was 5'10" to 6'. Tops. Tall? Not remarkably so.

And what about his age? Powell pegged the tall man as being about 30. Ford had just turned 22. Jack Dougherty was 40. So it's a bit of a toss-up.

So, hmmm. We have reason to suspect Shelley had already made his call and went upstairs with the police before Powell came it into the building. And that Lovelady had followed or went outside. And that the other man observed by Powell beyond Allman was thereby either Ford or Dougherty. But more probably Ford. Powell came into the building around 6-8 minutes after the shooting. Dougherty had probably taken the west elevator up by that time. 

But it's still a bit murky, isn't it?

Still, never fear, we have solid gold reasons to believe Dougherty was on the first floor at the time of the shooting, and went up to the sixth floor afterwards. In the story pushed by Ball and Belin, let's recall, Dougherty was working on the fifth floor, unaware of anyone else on the floor. He then heard a loud sound from above him, even though he would have heard a shot from the sniper's nest window on the sixth floor, through the open windows just below the sniper's nest, directly to the east of where Dougherty was standing when he heard this sound. He then went into some sort of time warp, whereby he thought he took the west elevator down from the fifth floor to the first floor to find out what happened, but where he actually waited 90 seconds or more before doing so. It should be noted, furthermore, that Dougherty was unseen and unheard by Jarman, Norman, and Williams--who were looking out the west windows of the depository but sixty feet or so away from where Dougherty said he was standing when he heard this loud sound--during the last of these 90 seconds. In any event, in Ball and Belin's story--the one pushed in the Warren Report--Dougherty then descended to the first floor, talked to Eddie Piper, and then took the elevator back up to the sixth floor, but saw nobody.

Let's now recall that Roy Truly, who is purported to have run up the stairs as Dougherty came down to talk to Piper, testified to seeing Dougherty on the fifth floor as he came back down on the east elevator. Now, those desperate to defend the Warren Commission myth composed by Ball and Belin, will say, but of course, Dougherty went back to work on the fifth floor after going up to the sixth floor to look around. But they're missing something. Two somethings, actually. One is that Dougherty testified to not going back up to the sixth floor until after the rifle had been discovered. And two is that Shelley's initial statement makes it crystal clear Dougherty was on the first floor when he (Shelley) took Truly's cue and raced up the stairs with the police.

Well, when was this, you might ask? How do we know Shelley didn't go upstairs 10-15 minutes after the shooting, after Truly had come back downstairs, with Dougherty behind him?

If only we knew the name of one of the "plainclothesmen" Shelley led upstairs, we might straighten this out, right?

Well, guess what? We do. Sort of.  The first plainclothesman to storm into the building stormed into the building alongside Dallas Police Inspector J. Herbert Sawyer. Sawyer testified the day after Shelley.

Mr. SAWYER. I heard Sheriff Decker come on the radio and tell the dispatcher to get all of his men over to, and I thought he said Texas School Book Depository, but at least that was the overall gist of the conversation. That is what I gathered. He may not have said Texas School Book Depository, but the Texas School Book Depository was mentioned in the broadcasts that were made at that time.

Mr. BELIN. Was this on Channel 1 or Channel 2 if you remember?

Mr. SAWYER. Channel 2, I am sure.

Mr. BELIN. Did Sheriff Decker have any particular call number at all, or not, in your police number system?

Mr. SAWYER. No. I was wondering why he come on our radio, but then I think that he was with Chief Curry and probably using that radio.

Mr. BELIN. All right, in any event, a call was made from Chief Curry's car?

Mr. SAWYER. Well, this I don't know either. I don't know what car it was made from, but I think it was Sheriff Decker talking. I could recognize his voice, yes.

Mr. BELIN. What did you do then?

Mr. SAWYER. Then I went on down to the Texas Book Depository.

Mr. BELIN. Where did you park your car?

Mr. SAWYER. In front of the Texas School Book Depository.

Mr. BELIN. In front of the main entrance there?

Mr. SAWYER. In front of the main entrance.

Mr. BELIN. What did you do then?

Mr. SAWYER. Immediately went into---well, talked to some of the officers around there who told me the story that they had thought some shots had come from one of the floors in the building, and I think the fifth floor was mentioned, but nobody seemed to know who the shots were directed at or what had actually happened, except there had been a shooting there at the time the President's motorcade had gone by. And I went with a couple of officers and a man who I believed worked in the building. The elevator was just to the right of the main entrance, and we went to the top floor, which was pointed out to me by this other man as being the floor that we were talking about. We had talked about the fifth floor. And we went back to the storage area and looked around and didn't see anything. 

So let's jump in here and point out that Shelley was almost certainly the man Sawyer believed worked in the building. The only other TSBD employees to admit guiding policemen upstairs were Billy Lovelady and Jack Dougherty, and neither of them indicated that they did this within a few minutes of the shooting.

Also telling is this... The top floor for the front elevator was the fourth floor, where Shelley thought he might have talked to Adams.

Mr. BELIN. Now you took an elevator up, is that correct?

Mr. SAWYER. That's right.

Mr. BELIN. The route that you took to the elevator, you went to the front door?

Mr. SAWYER. Right.

Mr. BELIN. Then what did you do?

Mr. SAWYER. We got into the elevator. We run into this man.

Mr. BELIN. Well, when you say you got into the elevator, where was the elevator as you walked in the front door?

Mr. SAWYER. It was to the right.

Mr. BELIN. To the right?

Mr. SAWYER. Yes, sir.

Mr. BELIN. Was it a freight elevator or a passenger elevator?

Mr. SAWYER. The best of my recollection, it was a passenger elevator.

Mr. BELIN. Did you push for the top button in that elevator?

Mr. SAWYER. Well, I don't know who pushed it, but we went up to the top floor.

Mr. BELIN. You went up to the top floor that the elevator would go to?

Mr. SAWYER. That's right. 

Let's recall: the front elevator was the only passenger elevator in the building and it only went up to the fourth floor.

Mr. BELIN. You got off, and were there officers there?

Mr. SAWYER. There was one or two other officers with me.

Mr. BELIN. Now when you got off, you say you went into the back there into a warehouse area?

Mr. SAWYER. Storage area; what appeared to be a storage area.

Mr. BELIN. Did you go into any place other than a warehouse or storage area?

Mr. SAWYER. No.

Mr. BELIN. Was there anything other than a warehouse or storage area there?

Mr. SAWYER. Well, to one side I could see an office over there with people in it. Some women that apparently were office workers. 

Well, it's clear, then. For whatever reason, Shelley took Sawyer up to the fourth floor, it had offices in the front, and a storage area in the back. 

Mr. BELIN. Now Inspector, what did you do then?

Mr. SAWYER. Well, I didn't see anything that was out of the ordinary, so I immediately came back downstairs to check the security on the building.

Belin then did something unexpected...his job.

Mr. BELIN. Would it be fair for me to assume then that you had not at least completely left your car by 12:34 p.m?

Mr. SAWYER. Correct.

Mr. BELIN. Then when you got to the Texas School Book Depository, well, you got out of the car and talked to some people or to some officers?

Mr. SAWYER. Officers.

Mr. BELIN. And then what did the officers tell you?

Mr. SAWYER. That their information was that the shots had come from the fifth floor of the Texas School Book Depository.

Mr. BELIN. Did any officers give you any other information about the source of the shots other than the fact that it came from the Texas School Book Depository, at that particular time?

Mr. SAWYER. I can't say whether it was officers or who, but there was a reference also made to the overpass.

Mr. BELIN. All right, in any event--pardon me, do you have anything else to add?

Mr. SAWYER. Also, there was a broadcast here in the transcript about the railroad yard.

Mr. BELIN. All right.

Mr. SAWYER. And this could be part of what I was thinking about, or what I had heard, was this broadcast on the radio about the railroad yard.

Mr. BELIN. Then what did you do? You went inside the building, is that correct?

Mr. SAWYER. We immediately went inside the building. I took--I believe Sgt. Harkness may have gone with me. I am not positive of that.

(Note: nor should he be. Harkness claimed he stayed outside.)

Mr. BELIN. Was the elevator on the first floor when you got there, or did you have to wait for it to come down?

Mr. SAWYER. Best of my recollection, it was there.

Mr. BELIN. You got to the elevator, went up, looked around back there. How long did you spend up there at the top floor that the elevator took you to?

Mr. SAWYER. Just took a quick look around and made sure there was nobody hiding on that floor. I doubt if it took over a minute at the most.

Mr. BELIN. To go up and look around and come down?

Mr. SAWYER. To look around on the floor. How long it took to go up, it couldn't have been over 3 minutes at the most from the time we left, got up and back down.

Mr. BELIN. Then that would put it around no sooner than 12:37, if you heard the call at 12:34?  

Mr. SAWYER. Yes, sir.

Mr. BELIN. Then you got down and what did you do?

Mr. SAWYER. I asked the Sergeant to doublecheck the security around the building, and then I took two patrolmen and stationed them at the front door and told them, with instructions not to let anybody in or out.

Mr. BELIN. Now up to the time you did this, had anyone else sealed off the building, that you know of?

Mr. SAWYER. When I arrived, the sergeant told me he had the building sealed off. There were officers all around the building. To the best of my recollection, there was no officer actually stationed on the front door, at the front door. There was some on the sidewalk in front of the front door, and also, as far as I know, had no instructions been issued to anyone to let anybody in or out.

Mr. BELIN. So yours would have been the first instructions to stop traffic from coming in and out of the front door, am I correct in that?

Mr. SAWYER. That's right.

Mr. BELIN. All right, anybody that would have been seen leaving the building would have been stopped and interrogated by the officers that were there? Even before you instructed them?

Mr. SAWYER. Yes, because they were looking for something or anything, and I know that anybody coming out of the back doors, from what the Sergeant told me, they would have stopped them, too.

Mr. BELIN. What happened at the front door now. There were people standing. out on the area of the steps, were there not?

Mr. SAWYER. No. There were some people around, yes.

Mr. BELIN. Do you know whether or not any of those would have been stopped?

Mr. SAWYER. For sure, no; I don't.

Mr. BELIN. Now after you got down and you issued these orders, then what did you

Mr. SAWYER. I set up a command post in front. The various officers were bringing up different witnesses who had seen various things, and I saw that this was quite an involved situation. It was so many of these people that had information, that I knew I didn't have time to take this information down, and by this time several deputy sheriffs were standing there, and one of them, I think he was a supervisor, I had his name at one time, I can't think of it now, was there, and he offered the use of an interrogation room of Sheriff Decker's office, I think he said, for interrogating these people.

(Note: this was Chief Criminal Deputy Sheriff Allan Sweatt.)

Mr. BELIN. That is located down the street a little bit there?

Mr. SAWYER. Well, it is catty-corner across the street.

Mr. BELIN. All right.                                                                                                                        

Mr. SAWYER. It is southeast across the street from the Texas School Book Depository, at least from the corner, and so we set up a group of officers and deputy sheriffs who were to take charge of the witnesses and take them over to see that affidavits were taken from them. They were more or less an escort service so the witness wouldn't get away. And then as our detectives began to show up, I sent them over to the Sheriff's Office to assist in taking these depositions or affidavits.

Mr. BELIN. How many witnesses were there around there during this period of time that you talked to?

Mr. SAWYER. Well, during the entire period of time that I was there, I would venture to say between 25 to 50 different people had come up with information of one kind or another.

Mr. BELIN. Now, on this radio log, Sawyer's Deposition Exhibit A, do you notice your number there for any calls at all that might have come in? What number did you use?

Mr. SAWYER. I used No. 9. That is my regular call No. 9.

Mr. BELIN. I notice here a No. 9, the first time that appears to come in here is at 12:40 p.m.; is that right?

Mr. SAWYER. That is the first one after 12:40, sir.

Mr. BELIN. The first one after 12:30?

Mr. SAWYER. The first one after 12:30, yes, that is true.

(4-8-64, 3:45 PM, 6H315-325)

So, yikes. By Sawyer's account, Shelley led him upstairs a short time after 12:34. (It was probably more like 12:36. Sawyer said he arrived about 12:34, and talked with some officers before going inside. He also said he spent about 3 minutes in the building, and that he got back on his radio about 12:40...) In any event, Sawyer (and Shelley) went upstairs before Roy Truly returned from the roof with Baker. It only follows, then, that if Truly spoke to Shelley and told Shelley to guard the elevator before Shelley guarded the elevator and gave Sawyer and two unnamed policemen a tour--as Shelley claimed--that he did so when he first came into the building. And that--Ta-da!--Shelley was in the building BEFORE Baker and Truly.

Now, some might wish to believe that Sawyer was just wrong about this, and that he'd actually went upstairs with Shelley after Baker and Truly had come down from the roof, and Truly had had a chance to talk with Shelley.

Except, no go.

Mr. BELIN. Now, after you got down from the seventh floor, you then went down to the sixth floor with Officer Baker?

Mr. TRULY. Yes.

Mr. BELIN. Did he look around on the sixth floor at all or not?

Mr. TRULY. Just before we got on the elevator on the seventh floor, Officer Baker ran over and looked in a little room on the seventh floor, and glanced around on that floor, which is open, and it didn't take much of a search. And then we reached the sixth floor. I stopped. He glanced over the sixth floor quickly.

Mr. BELIN. Could you see the southeast corner of the sixth floor from there?

Mr. TRULY. I don't think so; no, sir. You could not.                                                                              

Mr. BELIN. Then what?

Mr. TRULY. Then we continued on down, and we saw officers on the fourth floor. I don't recall that we stopped any more until we reached the first floor. But I do recall there was an officer on the fourth floor, by the time we got down that far.

Mr. BELIN. All right. And then you got down eventually to the first floor?

Mr. TRULY. That is right.

Now that's interesting. But how do we know this was Sawyer?

Mr. BELIN - When you got back down from the roof to this top floor, did you have any occasion to notice whether or not the west elevator was on that top floor or not?

Mr. BAKER - No, sir; I still didn't look at the elevator. I was following Mr. Truly and every time I had a chance I would look around over the building.

Mr. BELIN - You would look over the floor itself rather than the other elevator?

Mr. BAKER - That is right.

Mr. BELIN - You then got on the elevator to go on back down?

Mr. BAKER - That is correct.

Mr. BELIN - And I believe you said it was the east elevator, is that correct?

Mr. BAKER - That is correct.

Mr. BELIN - How far did you take the east elevator down?

Mr. BAKER - As we descended, somewhere around--we were still talking and I was still looking over the building.

Mr. BELIN - As the elevator was moving?

Mr. BAKER - Yes, sir; downward.

Mr. BELIN - All right.

Mr. BAKER - The next thing that I noticed was Inspector Sawyer, he was on one of those floors there, he is a police inspector.

Mr. DULLES - City of Dallas Police?

Mr. BAKER - Yes, sir. And he was on, I really didn't notice which floor he was on, but that is the first thing I saw as we descended how this freight elevator, you know, it has got these picket boards in front of it and it has got it open so far, and it seemed to me like we stopped for a moment and I spoke to him and I told him that I had been to the roof, and there wasn't anything on the roof that would indicate anybody being up there, and then we started on down.

Mr. BELIN - Did you stay on the elevator while you spoke to him?

Mr. BAKER - Yes, sir.

Mr. BELIN - Do you remember what floor it was that you spoke to him on or how many floors down that you went from the top before you saw him?

Mr. BAKER - No, sir; not at that time. It seemed to me like it was on either the third or the fourth floor.

Mr. BELIN - Do you remember about how long you stayed on the roof?

Mr. BAKER - It was a little over 5 minutes.

Mr. BELIN - When you continued moving on the elevator after you talked to Inspector Sawyer how far did you go on the elevator?

Mr. BAKER - We went to the, I believe it would be the first floor there.

Mr. BELIN - All right. You got off the elevator then?

Mr. BAKER - Yes, sir.

Mr. BELIN - Did you leave Mr. Truly or did you stay with him?

Mr. BAKER - I left Mr. Truly there.

Well, that's it, people. If Shelley and Lovelady were in the building when Baker and Truly came in and headed to the back elevators, well, then, it follows that they could have been there when Vickie Adams and Sandra Styles came down from the fourth floor, moments earlier...

And that--ta-da! ta-da!--Vickie Adams was probably telling the truth about running down the back stairs just after the shooting... and not seeing Oswald...

Oh, yeah, Oswald... 

Smelly Shelley

Let's recall the response of William Shelley when asked if he went anywhere with any policemen after the shooting: "Mr. Truly left me guarding the elevator, not to let anybody up and down the elevator or stairway and some plainclothesmen came in; I don't know whether they were Secret Service or FBI or what but they wanted me to take them upstairs, so we went up and started searching the various floors." 

Now here is the east/front quadrant of the building, as presented in CD 496. 

Note the location of the front stairway (which is marked by an "up"), which leads from the first to the second floors, and vice-versa. This is the stairway down which Oswald was presumed to have descended before leaving the building 3-4 minutes after the shooting. 

Now look above it. It's the elevator Shelley was "guarding" before Sawyer came in the building and requested his guide services. This was no earlier than 12:34 and no later than 12:36.

So...YIKES. It's possible Shelley was standing at the base of the stairs when Oswald came down the stairs. 

Now note that Shelley said he'd been told to guard the stairs as well as the elevators...

Well, this is HUGE. This suggests that for Oswald to go outside...he would have to have made it past Shelley. 

So what did Oswald have to say about this? 

Capt. Will Fritz's report on the initial interrogation of Oswald proclaims: "I asked him what part of the building he was in when the President was shot, and he said he was having his lunch about that time on the first floor. Mr. Truly had told me that one of the police officers had stopped this man immediately somewhere near the back stairway, so I asked Oswald where he was when the police officer stopped him. He said he was on the second floor drinking a Coca Cola when the officer came in. I asked him why he left the building, and he said there was so much excitement he didn't think there would be any more work that day, and that as this company wasn't particular about their hours, that they did not punch a clock, and that he thought it would be just as well that he left for the rest of the afternoon." (WR 601)

The joint report of FBI agents Hosty and Bookhout on this interview proclaims: "Oswald stated that he went to lunch at approximately noon and he claimed he ate his lunch on the first floor in the lunchroom; however he went to the second floor where the Coca-Cola machine was located and obtained a bottle of Coca-Cola for his lunch. Oswald claimed to be on the first floor when President John F. Kennedy passed his building. After hearing what had happened, he said that because of all the confusion there would be no work performed that afternoon so he decided to go home." (WR 612)

And the solo report of Agent Bookhout on this interview proclaims: "Oswald stated that on November 22, 1963, at the time of the search of the Texas School Book Depository building by Dallas Police officers, he was on the second floor of said building, having just purchased a Coca-Cola from the soft-drink machine, at which time a police officer came into the room with pistol drawn and asked him if he worked there. Mr. Truly was present and verified that he was an employee and the police officer thereafter left the room and continued through the building. Oswald stated that he took this Coke down to the first floor and stood around and had lunch in the employee's lunch room. He thereafter went outside and stood around for five or ten minutes with foreman Bill Shelley, and thereafter went home. He stated that he left work because, in his opinion, based upon remarks of Bill Shelley, he did not believe that there was going to be any work that day due to the confusion in the building." (WR 619)

Well, this was obviously a lot of hooey. And not Oswald-hooey, either. The Bookhout solo report has Oswald going downstairs to eat AFTER the shooting. And talking to Shelley for five or ten minutes AFTER having his lunch. This did not happen and none of the other reports claim as much. 

And yet, there is one bit in this last report that rings true--and that is that Oswald said he only left the building after talking with and/or listening to Bill Shelley. 

I mean...WHAT ARE THE ODDS? Bill Shelley said he was told to guard the front stairway--the stairway down which Oswald is presumed to have descended before leaving the building--and claimed further that yessiree he did guard that stairway--and Oswald just so happened to suggest he'd had a talk with Bill Shelley, or overheard Bill Shelley talking,  before he left the building.

Well, how would Oswald have known Shelley was guarding the front of the building...unless...Oswald had seen him doing so?

NOW...assuming Oswald had seen Shelley, is it possible he actually talked to him?

The Warren Report suggested as much--that Oswald had said he'd spoken to Shelley and that Shelley had told him there'd be no more work done that day.  Now, some have cited this as an example of Oswald's lying.

But it turns out this is nonsense. Vincent Bugliosi, of all people, dived down into this subject and was unable to find any report or testimony in which anyone claimed Oswald had said he'd spoken to Shelley. Scroll back up to Bookhout's report. He claimed Oswald said he left "based upon remarks of Bill Shelley", not that Oswald left after personally speaking to Shelley... 

So perhaps Oswald had overheard Shelley talking to someone else, perhaps Inspector Sawyer. 

Or perhaps someone else entirely had told him Shelley had said the day was done. Kaput. 

Here's another curiosity.  When Shelley testified on 4-7-64, he was not asked one question about Oswald's talking with him before leaving the building. Not one. If the Warren Commission attorneys tasked with taking his testimony, David Belin and Joseph Ball, had actually given a crap about getting the story straight, one would think they'd have asked Shelley if he'd talked to Oswald or if Oswald could have heard him talkng to someone else. 

Now, apparently someone noticed this, and decided it was really important they get Shelley on the record denying he'd had any contact with Oswald after the shooting.

Now, this may have been Ball himself. On 5-6-64 he wrote a memo to Commission Counsel Wesley Liebeler and told him to be sure to ask William Shelley to clarify this matter in an upcoming deposition.

It seems apparent, then, that Ball thought he could hand his dirty work off to Liebeler. But no such luck. On 5-14-64 Ball himself took Shelley's deposition, and put the following on the record:

Mr. BALL. On November 22, 1963, the day the President was shot, when is the last time you saw Oswald?                                                              

Mr. SHELLEY. It was 10 or 15 minutes before 12. 

Mr. BALL. Where? 

Mr. SHELLEY. On the first floor over near the telephone. 

Mr. BALL. Did you ever see him again? 

Mr. SHELLEY. At the police station when they brought him in. 

Mr. BALL. Did you see him in the building at any time after 12? 

Mr. SHELLEY. No.

Mr. BALL. Did you at anytime after the President was shot see Oswald in the building?

Mr. SHELLEY. No, sir.

Mr. BALL. Did you at anytime after the President was shot tell Oswald to go home?

Mr. SHELLEY. No, sir.

Mr. BALL. Did you tell anybody to go home?

Mr. SHELLEY. No.

Mr. BALL. You didn't tell anybody to leave the building at all?

Mr. SHELLEY. No, sir.

Straight and to the point. Like rehearsed testimony. 

In any event, getting back to Vickie Adams, and Shelley's claim Truly told him to guard the front elevator, yes, even Oswald's words support that Truly talked to Shelley before heading up the stairs (and not after he came back down). 

So...what's Lovelady got to say about all this?

Well, at first glance it appears that Lovelady, as Shelley, felt he'd spent too much time in the railroad yards to arrive at the back elevator before Baker and Truly, and be observed by Adams. Let's recall that a 3-18-64 statement to the FBI prepared for Shelley's signature says he and Lovelady "accompanied" some police officers over to the railroad yards and returned to the building "about ten minutes later" (22H673). Now realize that a similar statement prepared for Lovelady's signature said they stayed in the railroad yards "for about five minutes" before returning to the building (22H662).

So let's take a second glance...

Mr. BALL - When Gloria came up and said the President had been shot, Gloria Calvary, what did you do?

Mr. LOVELADY - Well, I asked who told her. She said he had been shot so we asked her was she for certain or just had she seen the shot hit him or--she said yes, she had been right close to it to see and she had saw the blood and knew he had been hit but didn't know how serious it was and so the crowd had started towards the railroad tracks back, you know, behind our building there and we run towards that little, old island and kind of down there in that little street. We went as far as the first tracks and everybody was hollering and crying and policemen started running out that way and we said we better get back into the building, so we went back into the west entrance on the back dock had that low ramp and went into the back dock back inside the building. 

(Note: this is one of the problems with transcripts. You can rest assured Lovelady did not say  "so we went back into the west entrance on the back dock had that low ramp and went into the back dock back inside the building." He more probably said, or at least meant to say, "so we went back into the west entrance on the back dock--(that) had that low ramp-- and went into the back (door) back inside the building.")

Mr. BALL - First of all, let's get you to tell us whom you left the steps with.

Mr. LOVELADY - Mr. Shelley.

Mr. BALL - Shelley and you went down how far?

Mr. LOVELADY - Well, I would say a good 75, between 75 to 100 yards to the first tracks. See how those tracks goes---

Mr. BALL - You went down the dead end on Elm?

Mr. LOVELADY - Yes.

Mr. BALL - And down to the first tracks?

Mr. LOVELADY - Yes.

Mr. BALL - Did you see anything there?

Mr. LOVELADY - No, sir; well, just people running.

Mr. BALL - That's all?

Mr. LOVELADY - And hollerin.

Mr. BALL - How did you happen to go down there?

Mr. LOVELADY - I don't know, because everybody was running from that way and naturally, I guess---

Mr. BALL - They were running from that way or toward that way?

Mr. LOVELADY - Toward that way; everybody thought it was coming from that direction.

Mr. BALL - By the time you left the steps had Mr. Truly entered the building?

Mr. LOVELADY - As we left the steps I would say we were at least 15, maybe 25, steps away from the building. I looked back and I saw him and the policeman running into the building.

Mr. BALL - How many steps?

Mr. LOVELADY - Twenty, 25.

Mr. BALL - Steps away and you looked back and saw him enter the building?

Mr. LOVELADY - Yes.

Mr. BALL - Then you came back. How long did you stay around the railroad tracks?

Mr. LOVELADY - Oh, just a minute, maybe minute and a half.

Mr. BALL - Then what did you do?

Mr. LOVELADY - Came back right through that part where Mr. Campbell, Mr. Truly, and Mr. Shelley park their cars and I came back inside the building.

Mr. BALL - And enter from the rear?

Mr. LOVELADY - Yes, sir; sure did.  

Mr. BALL - You heard the shots. And how long after that was it before Gloria Calvary came up? 

Mr. LOVELADY - Oh, approximately 3 minutes, I would say. 

Mr. BALL - Three minutes is a long time.

Mr. LOVELADY - Yes, it's---I say approximately; I can't say because I don't have a watch; it could.

Hmmm... Shelley and Lovelady have both made an approximation for the time it took Gloria Calvery to run up to them, and have grossly inflated this time beyond what Ball and Belin purport to be true, based upon their re-enactment of Baker's actions. Ball knows this. And yet does nothing to correct the record on this point. He fails to mention the re-enactment in Shelley's and Lovelady's testimony. He fails to clarify this issue through a re-enactment of their movements after the shots. And he fails to even call Calvery as a witness.

Suspicious Omissions #21-23 

4-7-64--September 1964. Warren Commission attorneys Joseph Ball and David Belin fail to interview Gloria Calvery and re-enact the actions of William Shelley and Billy Lovelady after the shooting, even though Ball and Belin know from their testimony that Shelley and Lovelady's sense of time for the moments immediately following the shooting are at odds with the re-enactments Ball and Belin had previously performed of Officer Baker's actions after the shooting.

And it wasn't just their re-enactment of Baker's actions that Ball and Belin were ignoring. News footage of the front steps of the depository taken about 30 seconds after the last shot was fired show Shelley and Lovelady walking away from the steps towards the west end of the building...before Baker runs up to the front steps.

Here is a brilliant piece of work by Gerda Dunckel, in which she matches up the news footage of Malcolm Couch and Jimmy Darnell, and proves Shelley and Lovelady were walking west as Baker ran towards the steps, and that this all took place just seconds after the shooting. (The press car moving slowly down the street at the end of the clip was but 6 cars behind the limo in the motorcade.)

And here is a blow-up from the Darnell film focusing on Shelley and Lovelady.

And here is a comparison of the figures believed to be Shelley and Lovelady in the clip above with images of Shelley and Lovelady taken later in the day. (Images and Inspiration: Bart Kamp).

Suspicious Omission #24                                                                                   

 4-7-64--September 1964. Ball and Belin fail to consult newsreel footage which could help them establish the timing of Shelley and Lovelady's walk around the building, which could, in turn, help them establish the credibility of Vickie Adams' claim she ran down the back stairs just after the shooting, and failed to see or hear Oswald on the stairs.

Mr. BALL - Had people started to run?

Mr. LOVELADY - Well, I couldn't say because she came up to us and we was talking to her, wasn't looking that direction at that time, but when we came off the steps--see, that entrance, you have a blind side when you go down the steps.

Mr. BALL - Right after you talked to Gloria, did you leave the steps and go toward the tracks?

Mr. LOVELADY - Yes.

Mr. BALL - Did you run or walk?

Mr. LOVELADY - Medium trotting or fast walk.

Mr. BALL - A fast walk?

Mr. LOVELADY - Yes.

Mr. BALL - How did you happen to turn around and see Truly and the policeman go into the building?

Mr. LOVELADY - Somebody hollered and I looked.

Mr. BALL - You turned around and looked?

Mr. LOVELADY - Yes.

Mr. BALL - After you ran to the railroad tracks you came back and went in the back door of the building?                                                                                                                                       

Mr. LOVELADY - Right.

Well, hello. Shelley and Lovelady both testified to seeing Baker run up to the steps after they'd started heading west. Now, both the Warren Commission's re-enactment of Baker's actions and the news footage from 11-22-63 prove this happened around 30 seconds or so after the shooting. And this proves Shelley and Lovelady's claim this happened three minutes or so after the shooting to be nonsense.

This should have been clear to Ball and Belin, for that matter.. When one gets past Lovelady's obviously incorrect approximation for the time elapsed before Gloria Calvery ran up to him, one can see that Lovelady has testified that the time he and Shelley spent around the railroad tracks was about half as long as the time elapsed before Gloria Calvery ran up to them, and that Baker and Truly ran into the front of the building AFTER she ran up to them. This then suggests Shelley and Lovelady spent but fifteen seconds or so over by the railroad tracks.

Let's think about this. Shelley and Lovelady circled around from the front of the building and then re-entered the building from the west. They had a head start on Baker and Truly and were moving at a medium trot. It only makes sense, then, that they could beat Baker and Truly to the location of the freight elevators within the building. I mean, Baker and Truly would have to have spent some time discussing things, such as the fact the front elevator doesn't go to the roof. They also had a brief exchange with Eddie Piper about the elevators. It certainly seems possible then that Shelley and Lovelady were standing by these elevators when Adams and Styles came down the stairs. And that Baker and Truly ran up to Shelley and Lovelady a few seconds later.

Mr. BALL - Did you go in through the docks, the wide open door or did you go in the ordinary small door?

Mr. LOVELADY - You know where we park our trucks--that door; we have a little door.

Mr. BALL - That is where you went in, that little door?

Mr. LOVELADY - That's right.

Mr. BALL - That would be the north end of the building?

Mr. LOVELADY - That would be the west end, wouldn't it?

Mr. BALL - Is it the one right off Houston Street?

Mr. LOVELADY - No; you are thinking about another dock.

Mr. BALL - I am?

Mr. LOVELADY - Yes; we have two.

Mr. BALL - Do you have a dock on the west side and one on the north side of the building?

Mr. LOVELADY - East, and well, it would be east and west but you enter it from the south side.             

Mr. BALL - Now, the south side---

Mr. LOVELADY - Elm Street is that little dead-end street.

Mr. BALL - That's south.                                                                                                                  

Mr. LOVELADY - I drive my truck here (indicating) but we came in from this direction; that would have to be west.

Mr. BALL - You came into the building from the west side? 

Mr. LOVELADY - Right.

Note that, although Ball had previously got Lovelady to agree that he re-entered the building through the rear door, Lovelady was now clarifying his previous testimony, and making it clear--crystal freaking clear--that he'd re-entered the building from the west side.

Now note that Lovelady is talking about the door to the left of the car port in the photo below.

Here it is again.

.

Note that the door is open, but that once inside this door, one would still have a ways to walk to get into the main building. 

Mr. BALL - Where did you go into the building?

Mr. LOVELADY - Through that, those raised-up doors.

Mr. BALL - Through the raised-up doors?

Mr. LOVELADY - Through that double door that we in the morning when we get there we raised. There's a fire door and they have two wooden doors between it.

The layout of this part of the building--strangely never depicted in the Warren Commission's diagrams of the building--is depicted below.

Oh wait, that's another one.

Suspicious Omission #25                                                                                    

4-7-64--September 1964. The Warren Commission's diagrams for the first floor of the school book depository strangely fail to include the west loading dock, through which Shelley and Lovelady re-entered the building, which was presumably left unsecured for some time after the shooting.

Illustration by R.B. Cutler.

It should be pointed out as well that Ball was completely clueless about the layout of the building, and had assumed Shelley and Lovelady had returned to the building through the north dock. While this might give him a partial excuse for failing to believe Adams, it shines a brighter light on his over-all investigation--and proves he didn't have a good grasp of the facts.

And that's not to mention that Ball failed to properly explore the facts about this side door, and find out if and when it was locked up after Shelley and Lovelady entered.

Mr. BALL - You came in through the first floor?

Mr. LOVELADY - Right.

Mr. BALL - Who did you see in the first floor?

Mr. LOVELADY - I saw a girl but I wouldn't swear to it it's Vickie.

Notice how Lovelady jumps right in--"I wouldn't swear to it it's Vickie". It's clear from this he's already discussed this issue with Ball, and that Ball has told him Adams has said she saw him when she came down the stairs. Notice also that he's using lawyerese--"I wouldn't swear to it". This suggests that Ball has coached him away from saying he's fairly certain or strongly believes, and has pressured him into weakening his testimony, so that the commission could turn around and say Adams wasn't very reliable.

Mr. BALL - Who is Vickie?

Mr. LOVELADY - The girl that works for Scott, Foresman.

Mr. BALL - What is her full name?

Mr. LOVELADY - I wouldn't know.

Mr. BALL - Vickie Adams?

Mr. LOVELADY - I believe so.

Mr. BALL - Would you say it was Vickie you saw?

Mr. LOVELADY - I couldn't swear.

Mr. BALL - Where was the girl?

Mr. LOVELADY - I don't remember what place she was but I remember seeing a girl as she was talking to Bill or saw Bill or something, then I went over and asked one of the guys what time it was and to see if we should continue working or what.

Wait. There's two points of interest here. The first is that Lovelady remembers seeing the girl he thinks was Vickie interacting with Shelley in some way. As we shall see, Lovelady did not follow Shelley up to the fourth floor. It seems clear then that this must have happened on the first floor. Adams was on the first floor but twice--when she first came down just after the shooting, and when she returned to the building 8 minutes or so later, at a time when Shelley was presumably helping the police search the building upstairs. It seems probable then that she saw or spoke to Shelley when she first came down, precisely as she claimed.

This brings us to the second point. Lovelady said he spoke to some guy about whether or not they should go back to work. Well, what guy? Could this have been Eddie Piper? Could this have been Dougherty? Did Lovelady and Dougherty discuss whether or not they should go back to work? Did Dougherty, not realizing what all the hub-bub was about beyond that the President had just passed by, then take the west elevator upstairs and return to work?

We don't know because Ball failed to ask Lovelady about Dougherty.

Suspicious Omission #26                                                                                                   

4-7-64. Warren Commission attorney Joseph Ball fails to ask Billy Lovelady any of a number of relevant questions regarding Eddie Piper and Jack Dougherty's actions after the shooting.

Mr. BALL - Did you see any other people on the first floor?

Mr. LOVELADY - Oh, yes; by that time there were more; a few of the guys had come in.

Mr. BALL - And you stayed on the first floor then?

Mr. LOVELADY - I would say 30 minutes. And one of the policemen asked me would I take them up on the sixth floor.

Mr. BALL - Did you take them up there?

Mr. LOVELADY - Yes, sir; I sure did.

Mr. BALL - Mr. Lovelady, your testimony will be written up and it can be submitted to you for your signature if you wish and you can make any changes, or you can waive signature and we will make this your final---

Mr. LOVELADY - I want this to be the final one.

Mr. BALL - All right; you waive signature?

Mr. LOVELADY - Yes.

Mr. BALL - Thanks very much.

(4-7-64, 3:50 PM 6H336-341)

And that's it. BALL NEVER ASKED LOVELADY IF HE SAW TRULY AND BAKER IN THE BUILDING EITHER BEFORE THEY WENT UPSTAIRS OR AFTER THEY CAME DOWN.

He was supposed to be clearing up what happened on the back stairs and back elevators, but has done anything but... There's just no excuse for this.

Suspicious Omission #27                                                                                                   

4-7-64. Warren Commission attorney Joseph Ball also fails to ask Lovelady if he saw Roy Truly and Officer Baker run up the stairs.

This omission is particularly egregious and suspicious in light of subsequent events. On 7-5-78, Billy Lovelady was interviewed by an HSCA investigator, accompanied by an HSCA photo analyst (Robert Groden). While the tapes of this interview were not transcribed, copies of the tapes were eventually acquired by researcher Richard Gilbride and placed on Youtube. Towards the end of Tape 1, Lovelady is asked "What did you see inside the building?" after he and Shelley returned to the building. He says he saw some co-workers, but does not name them. He is then asked to describe what the police did as they ran into the building. His response is blurred as the tape runs out. At the beginning of Tape 2, however, he repeats for posterity what he was describing as the tape ran out. He repeats: "One policeman (and) Mr. Truly had run up the steps...I guess they went up the steps when they couldn't get the freight elevator to go upstairs." Lovelady is then asked "What else did you see that went on at that time after the police came in?" He responds "At that time, after Mr. Truly and (the) officer ran up, there were more Secret Service and FBI, I guess it was, that came in."

Well this strongly suggests Lovelady (and Shelley) were inside the building when Truly and Baker ran up the stairs.

So yeah, it 's painfully obvious that the commission's argument (in which Shelley and Lovelady's recollections were at odds with Adams' recollections, and somehow refuted her recollections) was nothing but smoke, and that their recollections actually supported her recollections.

Let us look beyond them, then, and see if there are any other statements and testimony supporting that Shelley and Lovelady were at the bottom of the stairs when Adams said they were, and/or that Adams came down the stairs when she said she did.

Here's one...

SENATOR COOPER - Did you see anyone else while you were in the building, other than this man you have identified later as Oswald, and Mr. Truly.                                                             Mr. BAKER - On the first floor there were two men. As we came through the main doorway to the elevators, I remember as we tried to get on the elevators I remember two men, one was sitting on this side and another one between 20 or 30 feet away from us looking at us.                                                                                                                                                  Mr. DULLES - Were they white men?

Mr. BAKER - Yes, sir.

Every employee working in the school book depository building on 11-22-63 was interviewed by the FBI. No one said anything about running back to the elevators in the seconds after the shooting. No one said anything about coming out of an office and casually walking over to the elevators, either. It should be noted, moreover, that no white men were known to have been on the first floor at this time. Well, it follows, then, that these men were most probably Shelley and Lovelady.

And, if not, men of great interest...

One should rightly wonder, then, why no effort was made to find out the identity of these men.

Suspicious Omission #28                                                                                                   

3-25-64--September 1964. Warren Commission attorneys Joseph Ball and David Belin fail to follow-up on Officer Baker's claim he saw two white men by the elevators when he came into the building, at a time when no white men besides Baker and Truly were known to be on the first floor.

It's worth noting, moreover, that the existence of these men only slipped out because a couple of the commissioners decided to do their job, that is, to ask questions, and not just swallow whatever Ball and Belin were feeding them.

This brings us, then, to Miss Adams' 4-7-64 testimony.

Mr. BELIN - When you got to the bottom of the first floor, did you see anyone there as you entered the first floor from the stairway?                                                                                                          Miss ADAMS - Yes, sir.

Mr. BELIN - Who did you see?

Miss ADAMS - Mr. Bill Shelley and Billy Lovelady.

Mr. BELIN - Where did you see them on the first floor?

Miss ADAMS - Well, this is the stairs, and this is the Houston Street dock that I went out. They were approximately in this position here, so I don't know how you would describe that.

Mr. BELIN - You are looking now at a first floor plan or diagram of the Texas School Book Depository, and you have pointed to a position where you encountered Bill Lovelady and Mr. Bill Shelley?

Miss ADAMS - That's correct.

Mr. BELIN - It would be slightly east of the front of the east elevator, and probably as far south as the length of the elevator, is that correct?

Miss ADAMS - Yes, sir.

Mr. BELIN - I have a document here called Commission's Exhibit No. 496, which includes a diagram of the first floor, and there is a No. 7 and a circle on it, and I have pointed to a place marked No. 7 on the diagram. Is that correct?

Miss ADAMS - That is approximate.

(Note: CE 496 is NOT a diagram of the first floor. It is a job application of Oswald's. The diagram shown Adams by Belin was, however, page 7 of an FBI booklet dubbed Commission Document 496. As CE 497 IS a diagram of the second floor, however, it seems possible the diagram of the first floor was going to be CE 496, but then someone changed their mind. But why? Well, one possibility is right there, in plain sight. Perhaps Ball and Belin were afraid this diagram, a diagram showing the camera locations for photos taken of the first floor, offered support for Adams. Or not. Maybe just maybe Belin confused Document 496 (which would not be made public for years after the commission's work had been completed) with Exhibit 496 (which would be published as part of the commission's volumes in November 1964), and forgot to have what he mistakenly called Exhibit 496 entered into evidence, and published along with the other exhibits shown to his witnesses. Maybe.)

In any event, here's the diagram showing the circled number 7 where Adams thought she saw Lovelady and Shelley.

Suspicious Omission #29                                                                                                   

4-7-64--Warren Commission attorney David Belin shows Vickie Adams a diagram of the first floor depicting where she claimed she saw Lovelady and Shelley, but fails to enter this diagram into evidence.

Photo 9 from Outer Space

And that's not the only suspicious aspect to CD 496. When one goes through CD 496 one finds that photo #9 is a photo taken from the north side of the warehouse towards Mr. Shelley's office. This is what's on the diagram, above, and this is what the photo shows. When one looks at the photo on the Mary Ferrel website, however, one finds that it is a barely legible photocopy of the original photo, and has been mislabeled as a photo of Roy Truly's office. 

It's enough to make one wonder if they (the FBI along with Warren Commission counsel Joseph Ball and David Belin) were trying to hide something. 

So what's in photo #9 that they might have been trying to hide?

A phone. 

Here it is. (Now, to be clear, this is not the photo as presented in CD 496. That's nearly illegible, at least on the Mary Ferrell website. This is the photo as presented in FBI file 62-109060, Section EBF Serial 2654X p.39 on the Mary Ferrell website. It's slightly better.)

Now, should you have trouble spotting it, here's the phone. 

So why would "they" try to hide that phone?

Let's go back to the beginning of this long national nightmare and re-read the initial statement of William Shelley. 

“Today approximately 12:30 P.M. November 22, 1963, I was standing on the front steps at 411 Elm watching the President in the parade. The President’s car was about halfway from Houston Street to the Triple Underpass when I heard what sounded like three shots. I couldn’t tell where they came from. I ran across the street to the corner of the park and ran into a girl crying and she said the President had been shot. The girl’s name is Gloria Calvery who is an employee of this same building. I went back to the building and went inside and called my wife and told her what had happened. I was on the first floor then and I stayed at the elevator and was told not to let anyone out of the elevator. I left the elevator and went with the police on up to the other floors. I left Jack Dougherty in charge of the elevator." (24H226)

And that's it. Nothing about hanging out in the train yards. The man rushed back in the building to call his wife, folks.

For the image below I have layered R.B. Cutler's drawing of the first floor of the school book depository (which shows the western loading dock and the pillars within the building) atop the illustration of the first floor provided the Warren Commission in CD 496. I have then marked with blue arrows the presumed route of William Shelley to the location of the phone depicted above, and marked this location with a yellow star. I have then marked with green arrows Vickie Adams' purported route from the building. 

Now note the red star. That's where Adams testified to seeing Shelley. It was right on his route to the phone! 

Now, to be clear, we don't know for fact this was the phone used by Shelley. He may have used one in his office. And yet, that doesn't matter very much, because the direct route from the side door to Shelley's office was blocked off by wrapping tables, and this would have led him to head north within the building upon entry and then east to get to his office. And this would have led him within a few feet of the location picked out by Adams. 

Well, what are the odds? A woman claims she saw two men together at a specific place and time. They admit to being at that place, but one thinks he was at that place a bit later, and isn't completely sure she was the woman he saw when he was at that place, and the other thinks he was at that place a bit later, and remembers seeing the woman, but thinks maybe he saw her a bit later on a different floor entirely, when he wasn't with the other man. 

Well, it should be readily apparent that she was right and they were wrong. Or, if not, that a little bit of thinking and/or digging could have resolved this conflict.

I mean, Lovelady remembered there being a woman when he came in the building. Well, was any effort made to identify this woman? No, of course not, because a study of the witness statements makes it pretty freakin' clear no women outside of Adams and Styles were by the back entrance of the depository in the minutes after the shooting. 

And Shelley thought maybe he talked to Adams on the fourth floor. Well, was any effort made to back this up--by establishing the time Shelley was on the fourth floor, and the time Adams returned to the fourth floor, to see if these times over-lapped? Or even to ask Adams' co-workers who remained on the fourth floor to see if they recalled her talking to Shelley? No, of course not. 

Because...Ball and Belin didn't want to know the truth. That much is clear, if nothing else. 

Here, again, is the passage in the Warren Report in which they pretend to resolve this issue:

"Lovelady and Shelley moved out into the street. About this time Shelley saw Truly and Patrolman Baker go into the building. Shelley and Lovelady, at a fast walk or trot, turned west into the railroad yards and then to the west side of the Depository Building. They reentered the building by the rear door several minutes after Baker and Truly rushed through the front entrance. On entering, Lovelady saw a girl on the first floor who he believes was Victoria Adams. If Miss Adams accurately recalled meeting Shelley and Lovelady when she reached the bottom of the stairs, then her estimate of the time when she descended from the fourth floor is incorrect, and she actually came down the stairs several minutes after Oswald and after Truly and Baker as well. "

While Shelley testified to Baker and Truly's running up the front steps 3 or 4 minutes after the shooting, and Lovelady testified to Gloria Calvary's running up to Shelley and himself 3 minutes after the shooting (and that this happened before Baker and Truly ran up the steps), Ball and Belin knew they couldn't use this to discredit Adams, because they'd already performed a re-enactment of Baker's run to the steps, and had concluded it concluded around 15 seconds after the last shot, and not 3 or 4 minutes. So they relied instead on Shelley and Lovelady's estimates regarding how long they spent in the train yards. 

But this, too, was a problem. And a pretty big one at that. While Shelley and Lovelady were purported to have told the FBI they spent 5-10 minutes in the train yards before re-entering the building, those claims were made in unsigned statements. So how did they testify? Well, when asked how long they spent by the railroad tracks, Shelley said he "wouldn't say over a minute or minute and a half" and Lovelady said "just a minute, maybe minute and a half." 

Now, wait a second. It would have taken Shelley and Lovelady but 15 seconds or so to reach the train yards, and another 15 seconds or so to re-enter the building via the side door. And they had already left the steps when Baker and Truly ran up to the steps. So let's cut 5 seconds off that 30. 

So...by their own approximation, Shelley and Lovelady were back inside the building within 85-115 seconds of Baker and Truly's entering the building (as opposed to the "several minutes" claimed in the report). 

Well, this nearly overlaps with the re-enactment performed by Baker on 3-20-64, which Baker thought was a bit faster than it had been in reality.

That re-enactment placed Baker on the second floor 60-75 seconds after entering the building. As it would take but 8 seconds or so to climb the stairs from the bottom of the elevators to the second floor, furthermore, this put Baker and Truly at the back elevators 52-67 seconds after entering the building. 

Well, that's just 18 seconds or so before Shelley and Lovelady said they were near the back elevators. 

Now, okay, Shelley and Lovelady would have to have been there 10 seconds or more before Baker and Truly ran up to be seen by Adams, and not have Adams see Baker and Truly, so that's 28 seconds. 

Which is pretty damned close, when you think of it. I mean, Shelley and Lovelady thought they re-entered the side of the building 85-115 seconds after Baker and Truly entered the front of the building. Let's say they were wrong. And that it was more like 71 seconds.

Now let's add-in that Belin's re-enactment (which Baker thought was on the short side) placed Baker by the back elevators 75 seconds or so after he entered the building. Well, what if he was wrong? And that it was more like 89 seconds?

Well, that gives Shelley and Lovelady an 18 second window in which to get to the back of the building, be addressed by Adams and Styles, and observe Baker and Truly run up to the elevators. 

That's right, a 14-second mis-estimation on the part of both Belin/Baker, and Shelley/Lovelady, changes everything. 

Now consider the opposite. For Adams to have been wrong, and for her to have descended AFTER Baker and Truly ran up the steps, she would have to have been off by 90 seconds or so in her estimation, that is, what she thought took 60 seconds or so would have to have taken 150 seconds or so.

And not just her, but Lovelady. Let's recall that Lovelady placed his return into the building at 85-115 seconds after Baker and Truly entered the building, and that he thought he saw Adams upon entering. 

Well, the scenario propped up in the Warren Report holds that he, too, was wrong, and that he'd really returned 165-180 seconds after Baker and Truly entered the building. 

So what makes more sense? That the re-enactment and the recollections of Shelley and Lovelady were slightly off, or that the recollections of Lovelady and Adams were far off--not even close?

I mean, this isn't rocket science. Ball and Belin had to choose between two scenarios--one in which the estimates of Baker, Shelley and Lovelady were slightly off and one in which the estimates of Adams and Lovelady (and presumably Styles who they never bothered to interview) were far off, and they choose the latter and refused to investigate further. 

They believed because they wanted to believe--or, more accurately, disbelieved because they wanted to disbelieve. 

If Adams was on the stairs when she claimed, it shot a hole in their belief Oswald ran downstairs, which in turn shot a hole in their belief he fired the shots, which in turn shot a hole in their belief Jack Dougherty was on the elevator that descended while Baker and Truly were running up the stairs. 

In other words, Vickie Adams, much as Arnold Rowland, Jack Dougherty and Eddie Piper, was an obstacle to the goals of the commission, that needed to be smashed. 

AND SO...One might more than wonder if it was just a coincidence that FBI photo 9--the one showing the warehouse phone presumably used by Shelley upon his return to the building--and the one right by where Vickie Adams said she saw him--was a mis-labeled mess, at least as presented within the commission's records...one might suspect foul play.

And I know. That might seem a bit of a stretch. Photos get mislabeled and are sometimes badly reproduced, etc...

But...there was no upside in the commission letting the public see this phone.

Let's recall here that Pierce Allman claimed he'd arrived at this phone (a phone in "an open area," according to Allman, and a phone "by a pillar," according to MacNeill) shortly after the assassination, and that no one was around when he came in besides the person now presumed to have been Oswald. 

Well, think about it. Allman, who has become semi-famous for 1) running into Oswald as he came in the building, and 2) claiming all the shots came from the building, and that Oswald must have acted alone, is actually one of the best witnesses for Oswald's innocence. He would have to have arrived on the scene within a few minutes to have bumped into Oswald. And yet he would almost certainly have noticed, or been noticed by, Adams, Styles, Shelley and Lovelady, should THEY have come through the side door, or down the stairs, after his arrival at the location of the phone. 

Well, it follows, then, that they had skedaddled BEFORE Allman came into the building, and not after. Allman, let's remember, stayed on the phone for 25 minutes or so...

And that means they had skedaddled BEFORE Oswald reached the front door, where Allman asked him about a phone...

And that means they had arrived on the first floor, and left the first floor, within 3 minutes of the shooting. 

Now, that doesn't prove they had their "encounter" before Baker and Truly came in the building, but it does prove the timeline pushed by many a theorist--which holds they ran into each other 6-7 minutes after the shooting--is doubtful, at best. 

(If someone knows the location of another phone within the building that would more logically be the one used by Shelley, or Allman, please let me know...)

Suspicious Omission #30                                                                                                  

March 1964--September 1964. Warren Commission attorneys Joseph Ball and David Belin fail to follow-up on the Secret Service's interviews of Pierce Allman and Terry Ford, in which they placed themselves near the back of the building at the time the commission claimed Adams and Styles had raced down the back stairs. 

Now let's get back to Belin's interrogation of Adams.

Mr. BELIN - Between the time you got off the stairs and the time you got to this point when you say you encountered them, which was somewhat to the south and a little bit east of the front of the east elevator, did you see any other employees there?

Miss ADAMS - No, sir.

Mr. BELIN - Any other people prior to the time you saw them?

Miss ADAMS - No, sir.

Mr. BELIN - Now when you were running down the stairs on your trip down the stairs, did you hear anyone using the Stairs?

Miss ADAMS - No, sir.

Mr. BELIN - Did you hear anyone calling for an elevator?

Miss ADAMS - No, sir.

Mr. BELIN - Did you see the foreman, Roy Truly? Did you see the superintendent of the warehouse, Roy S. Truly?

Miss ADAMS - No, sir; I did not.

Mr. BELIN - What about any motorcycle police officers?

Miss ADAMS - No, sir.

Mr. BELIN - Now what did you do after you encountered Mr. Shelley and Mr. Lovelady? 

Miss ADAMS - I said I believed the President was shot. 

Mr. BELIN - Do you remember what they said?

Miss ADAMS - Nothing. 

Mr. BELIN - Then what did you do? 

Miss ADAMS - I proceeded out to the Houston Street dock.

Mr. BELIN - That would be on this same diagram? It is marked Houston Street dock, and you went through what would be the north door, which is towards the rear of the first floor, is that correct?

And down some stairs towards the rear of the dock?

Miss ADAMS - That's correct.

Mr. BELIN - Where did you go from there?

Miss ADAMS - I proceeded--which way is east and west?

Mr. BELIN - East is here. East is towards Houston, and west is towards the railroad tracks. You went east or west? Towards the railroad tracks or towards Houston Street?

Miss ADAMS - I went west towards the tracks.

Mr. BELIN - How far west did you go?

Miss ADAMS - I went approximately 2 yards within the tracks and there was an officer standing there, and he said, "Get back to the building." And I said, "But I work here."

And he said, "That is tough, get back." I said, "Well, was the President shot?" And he said, "I don't know. Go back." And I said, "All right."

Mr. BELIN - Then what did you do?

Miss ADAMS - I went back, only I went southwest.

Mr. BELIN - Well, did you come back by way of the street, or did you come back the same entrance you went out?

Miss ADAMS - No, sir.

Mr. BELIN - You went back in through the front entrance, through the front of the building?

Miss ADAMS - Well, I didn't go back in right away.

Mr. BELIN - What did you do then? There is a street that would be a continuation of Elm Street that goes in front of the building, and Elm Street itself angles into the freeway. Did you go back either of those streets?

Miss ADAMS - Yes, sir. I went by the one directly in front of the building.

Mr. BELIN - What did you do when you got there?

Miss ADAMS - When I got there, I happened to look around and noticed several of the employees, and I noticed Joe Molina, for one, was standing in front of the building, and also Avery Davis, who works with me, and I said, "What do you think has happened?" And she said, "I don't know." And I said, "I want to find out." I think the President is shot.

Okay, then. Let's see if the sworn testimony of Davis and Molina can help us figure out what time this was... 

Only, oops... Davis was never asked to testify. 

And Molina... Molina's testimony was taken at 4:50 by Joseph Ball in the same office and on the same day Adams' testimony was taken by Ball's partner David Belin at 2:15. And yet Molina wasn't asked about her. Not one question. He was asked about Baker and Truly, however, and verified that Truly ran into the building "maybe 20 or 30 seconds" after the shots. He was also asked about Gloria Calvery, but only remembered her talking about the shooting after the she re-entered the building. (6H368-373)

Well, what about their earlier statements, then? An FBI report on an 11-23-63 interview of Davis says she "immediately returned to the building and to the elevator to her fourth floor offices" after the shooting. (CD7, p23) Hmmm... That doesn't sound like she waited around much. A 2-18-64 report of the Dallas Police Department (found in box 3, folder 19, file 6 of Dallas JFK Archive) similarly claims that, after the shooting, Davis "went back to work on the fourth floor." Still, that's a little vague. A 3-20-64 statements to the FBI by Mrs. Davis, however, gives us a little more detail. There Davis claimed that after the shooting: "I, along with others, started to move forward in the direction of the President's car, but after moving about fifteen feet I turned and returned inside the Depository Building." (22H642) 

It seems probable from Mrs. Davis's statements, then, that she would have told the Commission she talked to Vickie Adams 3 or 4 minutes after the shooting, as Adams was claiming, and not 6 minutes or more after the shooting, as Ball, Belin, and the Commission were pushing. It only follows, then, that one should consider their failure to ask Davis about Adams suspicious.

Suspicious Omission #31                                                                                                   

4-7-64--September 1964. The Warren Commission fails to ask Mrs. Avery Davis about Vickie Adams even though it has reason to suspect she would confirm Adams' claim she was outside on the front steps within a few minutes of the shooting.

Well, then what about Molina? An 11-23-63 report by the Dallas Police Dept. holds that, after the shooting, Molina "went down the embankment toward Commerce Street, saw officers closing the gate to the parking lot to the west of the School Book Depository Building...then went back into the building and stayed on the first floor." So that's not much help. Molina's 3-25-64 statement to the FBI similarly holds that, after the shooting, "he remained outside for a few moments and then went back inside the Texas School Depository Building." While not exactly convincing, it should nevertheless be observed that Molina's statements mirror Davis's statements in that they suggest Adams arrived on the front steps within a short time of the shooting, as opposed to six minutes or more afterwards. 

Suspicious Omission #32                                                                                                     

4-7-64--September 1964. The Warren Commission fails to ask Joe Molina about Vickie Adams even though it has reason to suspect he would confirm Adams' claim she was outside on the front steps within a few minutes of the shooting.

We now return to Adams' testimony.

Miss ADAMS: There was a motorcycle that was parked on the corner of Houston and Elm directly in front of the east end of the building, and I paused-there to listen to the report on the police radio, and they said that shots had been fired which apparently came either from the second floor or the fourth floor window, and so I panicked, as I was at the only open window on the fourth floor.

Mr. BELIN - Did they say second floor or second floor from the top?

Miss ADAMS - It said second floor. So then I decided maybe I had better go back into the building, and going up the stairs---

Now, hold it right there. Adams' recollection of this broadcast has created a time-stamp by which we can approximate the time she returned to the building.

Let's turn, then, to the testimony of motorcycle patrolman E.D. Brewer.

Mr. BELIN. Handing you what has been marked Sawyer Deposition Exhibit A, which appears to be a transcript of a police log of the Dallas Police Department, you see this exhibit here?

Mr. BREWER. Yes.

Mr. BALL. Your call number that day was?

Mr. BREWER. 137.

Mr. BELIN. I notice here that the first time there appears Call No. 137, after 12:30 is at 12:38 p.m.

There is a call from 137 to 531. You want to read what it says there?

Mr. BREWER. "A witness says he saw 'em pull the weapon from the window of the second floor on the southeast comer of the Depository Building."

Mr. BELIN. Would that have been the second floor or the second floor from the top?

Mr. BREWER. I don't know.

Mr. BELIN. Do you remember any witness talking to you at all?

Mr. BREWER. Yes.

Mr. BELIN. Do you remember what he said?

Mr. BREWER. He said that he had saw him pull a weapon from the window from that building.

Mr. BELIN. Do you remember what window he said?

Mr. BREWER. I don't remember specifically which window he indicated, but I immediately told that to the dispatcher and proceeded on up to the building.

(4-9-64 testimony of E.D. Brewer 10:00 A.M., 6H302-308)

It follows, then, that Vickie Adams was standing in front of the depository at 12:38.

Mr. BELIN - Now at this time when you went back into the building, were there any policemen standing in front of the building keeping people out?

Miss ADAMS - There was an officer on the stairs itself, and he was prohibiting people from entering the building, that is correct. But I told him I worked there.

Mr. BELIN - Did he let you come back in?

Miss ADAMS - Yes, sir.

Mr. BELIN - Then what did you do ?

Miss ADAMS - Following that, I pushed the button for the passenger elevator, but the power had been cut off on the elevator, so I took the stairs to the second floor.

Mr. BELIN - You then went all the way back to the northwest corner of the building and took the same set of stairs you had previously taken to come down, or did you take the stairs by the passenger elevator?

Miss ADAMS - By the passenger elevator.

Mr. BELIN - Do those stairs go above floor 2?

Miss ADAMS - No, sir; they didn't.

Mr. BELIN - What did you do when you got to the second floor?

Miss ADAMS - I went into the Texas School Book Depository office and just listened for a few minutes to the people that were congregating there, and decided there wasn't anything interesting going on, and went out and walked around the hall to the freight elevator meaning the one on the northwest corner.

Mr. BELIN - Would it have been the west or the east? The one nearest the stairs or the other one?

Miss ADAMS - Yes; the one nearest the stairs.

Note: it seems apparent that Adams and her companion for most of this trip, Sandra Styles, have separated by this point. A 3-19-64 statement by Styles relates that upon heading round the front of the building, "I then re-entered the building through the front door, took the elevator to the fourth floor, and returned to my office." (22H676) One would have to presume, moreover, that this was the elevator by the front stairs--the one Adams would later testify was without power on the first floor.

Mr. BELIN - Then what did you do?

Miss ADAMS - I went into the elevator which was stopped on the second floor, with two men who were dressed in suit and hats, and I assumed they were plainclothesmen.

Mr. BELIN - What did you do then?

Miss ADAMS - I tried to get the elevator to go to the fourth floor, but it wasn't operating, so the gentlemen lifted the elevator gate and we went out and ran up the stairs to the fourth floor.

Mr. BELIN - Then you went back to the Scott Foresman Company offices?

Miss ADAMS - Yes, sir.                                                                                                                     

Mr. BELIN - Now trying to reconstruct your actions insofar as the time sequence, which we haven't done, what is your best estimate of the time between the time the shots were fired and the time you got back to the building? How much time elapsed? If you have any estimate. Maybe you don't have one.                                                                                                                                           

Miss ADAMS - I would estimate not more than 5 minutes elapsed.

It should be noted that this was in keeping with the estimate she offered the FBI on 11-24-63, where she is purported to have said "that the time between her departure from the building and her return to the building was about four or five minutes." (CD5, p40)

Well, this places her exit from the building around 12:33, at the latest. And for this to have been accurate she'd have to have started down the stairs around 12:31 or 12:32, at a time when Baker and Truly were purported to be either just below or just above her location.

Mr. BELIN - Is there any particular reason why you make this estimation?

Miss ADAMS - Yes, sir; going down the stairs toward the back, I was running. I ran to the railroad tracks. I moved quickly to the front of the building, paused briefly to talk to someone, listened only to the report of the windows from which the shot supposedly was fired, and returned to the building.

Mr. BELIN - How long do you think it was between the time the shots were fired and the time you left the window to start toward the stairway?

Miss ADAMS - Between 15 and 30 seconds, estimated, approximately.

Mr. BELIN - How long do you think it was, or do you think it took you to get from the window to the top of the fourth floor stairs?

Miss ADAMS - I don't think I can answer that question accurately, because the time approximation, without a stopwatch, would be difficult.

Mr. BELIN - How long do you think it took you. to get from the window to the bottom of the stairs on the first floor?

Miss ADAMS - I would say no longer than a minute at the most.

Mr. BELIN - So you think that from the time you left the window on the fourth floor until the time you got to the stairs at the bottom of the first floor, was approximately 1 minute?

Miss ADAMS - Yes, approximately.

Mr. BELIN - As I understand your testimony previously, you saw neither Roy Truly nor any motorcycle police officer at any time?

Miss ADAMS - That's correct.

Mr. BELIN - You heard no one else running down the stairs?

Miss ADAMS - Correct.

Mr. BELIN - When you got to the first floor did you immediately proceed to this point where you say you encountered Mr. Shelley and Mr. Lovelady? Well, you showed me on a diagram of the first floor that there was a place which was south and somewhat east of the front part of the east elevator that you encountered Truly and Lovelady?

Miss ADAMS - I saw them there.

Mr. BELIN - I mean; you saw them?

Miss ADAMS - Yes.

Mr. BELIN - Would that have been a matter of seconds after you got to the bottom of the first floor?

Miss ADAMS - Definitely.

Mr. BELIN - Less than 30 seconds?

Miss ADAMS - Yes.

And then later...

Mr. BELIN - Is there any other information that you can think of that might be relevant to anything, connected with the assassination?

Miss ADAMS - At the time I left the building on the Houston Street dock, there was an officer standing about 2 yards from the curb, and about from the curb across the street from the Texas School Depository, and about 4 yards from the corner of Houston and Elm, and when we were running out the dock, going around the building, the officer was standing there, and he didn't encounter us or ask us what we were doing or where we were going, and I don't know if that is pertinent.

Well, there's another one. Belin should have looked into this. If he had maybe he'd have realized Adams was telling the truth.

Suspicious Omission #33                                                                                                  

4-7-64--September 1964. Warren Commission attorney David Belin fails to follow-up and establish the identity of a policeman observed by Vickie Adams just after the shooting, even though the identification of this policeman could help the Commission establish the veracity of Miss Adams claim she raced down the back stairs just after the shooting.

Mr. BELIN - No one stopped you from getting out of the building when you left?

Miss ADAMS - That's correct.

Mr. BELIN - That is helpful information. Is there any other information you have that could be relevant?

Miss ADAMS - There was a man that was standing on the corner of Houston and Elm asking questions there. He was dressed in a suit and a hat, and when I encountered Avery Davis going down, we asked who he was, because he was questioning people as if he were a police officer, and we noticed him take a colored boy away on a motorcycle, and this man was asking questions very efficaciously, and we said, "I guess he is maybe a reporter," and later on on television, there was a man that looked very similar to him, and he was identified as Ruby.

(4-7-64 testimony of Victoria Adams, 2:15 P.M., 6H386-393)

Well, nobody's perfect. On this issue, Adams was obviously confused. The man driving the "colored boy" around on his motorcycle was Dallas Police Sgt. D.V. Harkness, and the man with the hat asking questions was Dallas Police Inspector J. Herbert Sawyer.

Mr. HARKNESS - I had started west on Main Street to the, I don't know what they call this area here.

Mr. BELIN - Plaza.

Mr. HARKNESS - On the plaza area with the crowd to observe the President as he went west on Elm Street.

Mr. BELIN - How many shots did you hear?

Mr. HARKNESS - Three.

Mr. BELIN - What did you do after you heard those noises? Did you know they were shots, by the way?

Mr. HARKNESS - Yes, sir.

Mr. BELIN - What did you do?

Mr. HARKNESS - When I saw the first shot and the President's car slow down to almost a stop----

Mr. BELIN - When you saw the first shot, what do you mean by that?

Mr. HARKNESS - When I heard the first shot and saw the President's car almost come to a stop and some of the agents piling off the car, I went back to the intersection to get my motorcycle.

Mr. BELIN - You were in the process of doing that when you heard the second and third shots?

Mr. HARKNESS - Yes, sir.

Mr. BELIN - Where did the shots sound like they came from?

Mr. HARKNESS - I couldn't tell. They were bouncing off the buildings down there. I couldn't tell.

Mr. BELIN - You mean the reverberations?

Mr. HARKNESS - Yes.

Mr. BELIN - Then what did you do

Mr. HARKNESS - I went west on Main to observe the area between the railroad tracks and Industrial.

Mr. BELIN - Why did you go down there?

Mr. HARKNESS - By the way the people, when I went into this area, everybody was hitting the ground, and someone led us to indicate that the shots were coming into the cars.

Mr. BELIN - You mean from some point in front of the cars?

Mr. HARKNESS - Yes.

Mr. BELIN - Do you know who that someone was?

Mr. HARKNESS - No, sir.

Mr. BELIN - What did that person do that indicated that?

Mr. HARKNESS - I don't remember.

Mr. BELIN - Then what did you

Mr. HARKNESS - I went down to Industrial to see if I could see anyone fleeing that area.

Mr. BELIN - What did you see?

Mr. HARKNESS - I didn't see anyone, so I come back to the front of the Book Depository and went around to this fence that was across the street from Elm Street.

Mr. BELIN - What do you mean across the street from Elm Street?

Mr. HARKNESS - Again, I will have to--near the railroad track.

Mr. BELIN - Behind the building?

Mr. HARKNESS - No, sir; this area right here. See, Elm Street goes down.

Mr. BELIN - What you are really saying---

Mr. HARKNESS - This area.

Mr. BELIN - You are pointing to a place between what would be the extension of Elm that doesn't go down into the parkway but the actual extension of Elm?

Mr. HARKNESS - Yes; to the plaza area.

Mr. BELIN - The plaza area?

Mr. HARKNESS - Yes, sir.

Mr. BELIN - What did you find there?

Mr. HARKNESS - I found a little colored boy, Amos Euins, who told me he saw the shots come from that building.

Mr. BELIN - Now you just picked out a little small book, one of those little pocket notebooks?

Mr. HARKNESS - Yes, sir.

Mr. BELIN - Or a notepad from your pocket here. Is that the original notation that you made?

Mr. HARKNESS - Yes, sir.

Mr. BELIN - When did you make that notation?

Mr. HARKNESS - Immediately after the shooting.

Mr. BELIN - Is that your own record that you have kept in your possession since then?

Mr. HARKNESS - Yes, sir. I turned.

Mr. BELIN - You turned what?

Mr. HARKNESS - After I took his name and address and put this information on the radio, I then took him on the back of my three-wheel motorcycle and put him in Inspector Sawyer's car.

Mr. BELIN - Now you mentioned that you put something on the radio here, and I hand you here what has been marked as Sawyer Deposition Exhibit A. Before doing that, do you remember what call number you used, you were using on that day?

Mr. HARKNESS - I believe 260.

Mr. BELIN - Well, I notice here that there is a call with a notation at 12:36 p.m., 260 to 531. 531 is your office in the main station?

Mr. HARKNESS - Yes, sir.

Mr. BELIN - What does it say there on that transcript?

Mr. HARKNESS - "Witness says shots came from fifth floor, Texas Book Depository store at Houston and Elm. I have him with me now and we are sealing off the building."

Mr. BELIN - All right, that was at 12:36 p.m.?

Mr. HARKNESS - Yes, sir.

Mr. BELIN - Had the building been sealed off at that time?

Mr. HARKNESS - Not to my knowledge. There were several officers around it, but I don't know whether it had been sealed off or not.

Mr. BELIN - In the process of sealing off the building, what did you do?

Mr. HARKNESS - Asked for a squad.

Mr. BELIN - How long did it take you after that to have the back part sealed off?

Mr. HARKNESS - The guard was arriving by the time I got off my motorcycle. There was already additional squads en route.

Mr. BELIN - How soon after 12:36 p.m., would you say the building was sealed off?

Mr. HARKNESS - It was sealed off then because I was back there and two other men.

Mr. BELIN - You are talking about the back part of the building?

Mr. HARKNESS - Yes, sir.

Mr. BELIN - What about the front part of the building? When was that sealed off?

Mr. HARKNESS - Inspector Sawyer and two officers were there.

Mr. BELIN - By the time you got around to the front part of the building?

Mr. HARKNESS - Yes, sir; by the time I put the witness in his car, I went immediately to the back.

Mr. BELIN - In other words, as I understand the sequence, you first went to the back of the building and had that sealed off first, or not?

Mr. HARKNESS - No, sir.

Mr. BELIN - You tell me what happened then.

Mr. HARKNESS - I had this witness with me. I didn't want to lose this witness.

Mr. BELIN - All right.

Mr. HARKNESS - So I took him to the car.

Mr. BELIN - To Inspector Sawyer's car?

Mr. HARKNESS - To Inspector Sawyer's car, which was right in front.

Mr. BELIN - Which was parked in front of the Texas School Book Depository?

Mr. HARKNESS - And left the witness there and went around to the back.

Mr. BELIN - On whose radio did you call? Did you call in before or after you left the witness in the car?

Mr. HARKNESS - I don't remember in exact sequence there, but it was in the process of going to the car there.

(4-9-64 Testimony of D.V. Harkness, 11:30 A.M. 6H308-315)

So...hmmm... Adams, in the company of Davis--who she and Styles encountered out in front of the building, (after Adams and Styles had already been to the railroad yards) saw Harkness questioning Euins, before putting him on his motorcycle and wheeling him over to Sawyer's car, and talking on the radio at 12:36. This puts Adams and Styles outside at 12:33 or so, and strongly supports that she raced directly down the stairs before Truly and Baker raced up the stairs.

And that's not all Harkness told us.

Mr. BELIN - Then what did you do?

Mr. HARKNESS - See, here is the thing. The radio traffic was heavy at the time, and it depended on how long you had to wait to get in.

Mr. BELIN - All right, in any event, after you made the call, what did you do on the radio? And after you got the man in the car?

Mr. HARKNESS - Well---

Mr. BELIN - The witness in the car, what did you do?

Mr. HARKNESS - Stayed at the back of the building until I was relieved by a squad.

Mr. BELIN - So you then went to the back of the building?

Mr. HARKNESS - Yes.

Mr. BELIN - When you were at Inspector Sawyer's car, did you see him there?

Mr. HARKNESS - Yes, sir.

Mr. BELIN - Was he at his car?

Mr. HARKNESS - Yes, sir; he was by his car, near his car.

Mr. BELIN - Do you know whether or not he had gone inside the building.

Mr. HARKNESS - No, sir.

Mr. BELIN - You mean you don't know?

Mr. HARKNESS - Don't know whether he had gone in or not. Actually, he was standing there in front taking information. All the information was being funneled to Inspector Sawyer.

Mr. BELIN - Did you tell him you had a witness?

Mr. HARKNESS - Yes, sir.

Mr. BELIN - In his car?

Mr. HARKNESS - Yes, sir.

Mr. BELIN - At that time, had the building been sealed off yet when you told him that?

Mr. HARKNESS - At that time?

Mr. BELIN - When you told Inspector Sawyer that you had a witness that said the shot came from the building, up to that particular moment, had the front part of the building been sealed off yet?

Mr. HARKNESS - Yes, sir.

Mr. BELIN - It had already been sealed off?

Mr. HARKNESS - There was two officers with Inspector Sawyer at the front.

Mr. BELIN - Were they stopping people from going in and out?

Mr. HARKNESS - I don't know.

Mr. BELIN - You don't know?

Mr. HARKNESS - No, sir; I don't know that, because I didn't go up and talk to them.

Mr. BELIN - Did you notice whether or not people were coming in and out of the building?

Mr. HARKNESS - No. I was interested in getting around to the back of the building to make sure it was.

Mr. BELIN - Then am I correct that your testimony is that you didn't notice whether people were coming in and out? Did you notice, or did you not notice whether people were coming out of the building at that time?

Mr. HARKNESS - Several officers at the area, and it was a lot of people around. I don't know whether they were going in or out or not. I couldn't say that.

Mr. BELIN - Then you went around to the back of the building?

Mr. HARKNESS - Yes, sir.

Mr. BELIN - Was anyone around in the back when you got there?

Mr. HARKNESS - There were some Secret Service agents there. I didn't get them identified. They told me they were Secret Service.

Mr. BELIN - Then did you stay around the back of the building?

Mr. HARKNESS - Yes; I stayed at the back until the squad got there.

(4-9-64 Testimony of D.V. Harkness, 11:30 A.M. 6H308-315)

No Secret Service agents were in the vicinity. This is curious, to say the least.

When one reads the testimony of witness James Romack, moreover, what was curious becomes, well, a little bit eerie.

Let's give his testimony some context. Romack claimed he'd viewed the motorcade make the turn from Houston onto Elm from far up Houston. And that he walked down closer to the corner of Houston and Elm after he'd heard shots... And that this put him in a position to view the back of the depository for the next several minutes.

Here's a photo approximating his perspective. While this photo was taken from the east side of Houston and Romack stood further to the west, the distance is about right

Well, this shows that, yessiree, Romack was in position to see anyone leave the back of the building, provided he was staring at the back of the building at the precise moment this person came out. So let's now read his testimony to see what he did and did not see.

Mr. BELIN. Well, you heard the shots, and then what did you do?

Mr. ROMACK. Well, I knew something was wrong. I mean, I could sense that within my own self.

Mr. BELIN. All right.

Mr. ROMACK. And I looked up and I felt kind of chilly looking down towards the--which I am facing the Houston entrance, and I looked down toward where all the people were standing along, the motorcade was passing by, and just immediately after I heard the shots, I saw a policeman running north towards me. He was running to look to see if somebody was running out of the back of this building.

Mr. BELIN. What building?

Mr. ROMACK. Texas School Book Depository Building. And he didn't stay but just, oh, he was just there to check and he runs back. Well, sensing that something is wrong, I automatically take over watching the building for the man.

Mr. BELIN. What part of the building were you watching?

Mr. ROMACK. The back

Mr. BELIN. Could you see that back dock in the back part?

Mr. ROMACK. Well, I mean, they got it sealed off. I could see as much as anyone could see.

Mr. BELIN. Could you see---there are some stairs that go up to the back dock, aren't there?

Mr. ROMACK. Right here.

Mr. BELIN. You are pointing to a first floor plan of the Texas School Book Depository?

Mr. ROMACK. Yes.

Mr. BELIN. Did you watch those stairs?

Mr. ROMACK. Yes, sir.

Mr. BELIN. How long did you watch them after you saw the policeman leave?

Mr. ROMACK. Well, I watched them all the time until someone arrived, and the only time I did take my back off, turn my back to the building, was Sam Pate with his KBOX news. He arrived before any of the police or anyone.

Mr. BELIN. Is that KBOX? 

Mr. ROMACK. Yes.

Mr. BELIN. Is that a radio or television station?

Mr. ROMACK. It is a radio station.

Mr. BELIN. How long did you take your eyes off then?

Mr. ROMACK. He was driving up and they were having a little high---the city has, a piece of wood that they use to stop traffic coming through, and I'd taken that so he could come through, drive his truck.

Mr. BELIN. How long did you leave your post?

Mr. ROMACK. I didn't leave. That was right there, even closer than what we were. But all I did was let that down for him, and then we... 

Mr. BELIN. Would that have taken less than a minute?

Mr. ROMACK. Yes.

Mr. BELIN. Less than 30 seconds, do you know?

Mr. ROMACK. Yes.

Mr. BELIN. How long did you stay after that watching that back door?

Mr. ROMACK. Well, we were all there watching it then.

Mr. BELIN. How long a period of time?

Mr. ROMACK. Pardon?

Mr. BELIN. Did you see a policeman go up there?

Mr. ROMACK. I saw policemen up in there. I didn't see anyone come up the back. They came in the front, all---most of them.

Mr. BELIN. Did you see any employees walk up the back way?

Mr. ROMACK. There was two other gentlemen which I never said anything about, that taken over. They were FBI or something standing right here at the very entrance, and just stood there.

Mr. BELIN. You are pointing again to the back stairway that leads up from the street to the dock on the north side of the building?

Mr. ROMACK. Right.

Note: there were two different flights of stairs leading to this dock, one leading directly from the street on the east side of the dock, and one in the corner between the south and west sections of the dock.

Mr. BELIN. See anyone else?

Mr. ROMACK. No, sir; other than all the motorcycle officers and squad cars. They started coming in, I would say, in 4 minutes from the time that this happened. They were swarming the building, which naturally. I quit watching anything particular.

Mr. BELIN. In other words, about 4 minutes after the shots came you quit watching it? Would that be accurate, or not?

Mr. ROMACK. Well, I would say somewhere in the neighborhood of 5 minutes, 4 or 5 minutes. That would probably be true. I stayed there, but I wasn't particularly watching.

Mr. BELIN. In other words, then as I understand your testimony, you said that from about the time of the shots until about 5 minutes after the shots, you watched the back door of the building?

Mr. ROMACK. Right.

Mr. BELIN. What is the fact as to whether or not you saw anyone leave the building?

Mr. ROMACK. They wasn't anyone left the building.

(4-8-64 testimony of James Romack 11:30, 6H277-284)

Now let's be clear about this. There were NO Secret Service or FBI agents at the Texas School Book Depository when Harkness and Romack thought they saw two of them standing by the back door. The first Secret Service agent to reach the depository was agent Forrest Sorrels. He testified before the Commission on 5-7-64 and said he arrived at the depository around 12:50. The first FBI agent to reach the school book depository, and the only one to go up to the sixth floor and look around, that has ever come forward anyhow, was Nat Pinkston. Pinkston filed no reports on his activities on 11-22. His presence on the sixth floor was acknowledged, however, by an FBI memo listing the names of the men who'd been on the sixth floor and had possibly handled the sniper's nest boxes, so their fingerprints could be checked against the unidentified prints on the boxes. And Pinkston admitted he was there in both an 8-5-94 Sixth Floor Museum Oral History, and a 7-19-07 interview conducted for the Society of Former Special Agents of the FBI (found online). What is surprising, however, is that Pinkston said that upon his arrival on the sixth floor, he saw Lt. J.C. Day handling the Mannlicher-Carcano rifle purportedly owned by Lee Harvey Oswald. This rifle, of course, wasn't even discovered until 1:22. So yeah, there were NO Secret Service agents or FBI agents standing outside the back of the depository when the two men presumed to be Secret Service agents or FBI agents were observed by Harkness and Romack.

And should one wonder if any other Secret Service agents were spotted where no Secret Service agents actually were...

Mr. LIEBELER. Did you turn to watch the motorcade? Did you turn to watch the President as the motorcade went by?

Mr. SMITH. Yes, sir; I glanced around and was watching the crowd to make sure they stayed back out of the way of the motorcade, and also to make sure none of the cars started up or anything. Then I heard the shots, and I immediately proceeded from this point.

Mr. LIEBELER. Point 4 on Commission Exhibit No. 354?

Mr. SMITH. I started up toward this Book Depository after I heard the shots, and I didn't know where the shots came from. I had no idea, because it was such a ricochet.

Mr. LIEBELER. An echo effect?

Mr. SMITH. Yes, sir; and this woman came up to me and she was just in hysterics. She told me, "They are shooting the President from the bushes." So I immediately proceeded up here.

Mr. LIEBELER. You proceeded up to an area immediately behind the concrete structure here that is described by Elm Street and the street that runs immediately in front of the Texas School Book Depository, is that right?

Mr. SMITH. I was checking all the bushes and I checked all the cars in the parking lot.

Mr. LIEBELER. There is a parking lot in behind this grassy area back from Elm Street toward the railroad tracks, and you went down to the parking lot and looked around?

Mr. SMITH. Yes, sir; I checked all the cars. I looked into all the cars and checked around the bushes. Of course, I wasn't alone. There was some deputy sheriff with me, and I believe one Secret Service man when I got there. I got to make this statement, too. I felt awfully silly, but after the shot and this woman, I pulled my pistol from my holster, and I thought, this is silly, I don't know who I am looking for, and I put it back. Just as I did, he showed me that he was a Secret Service agent.

Mr. LIEBELER. Did you accost this man?

Mr. SMITH. Well, he saw me coming with my pistol and right away he showed me who he was.

Mr. LIEBELER. Do you remember who it was?

Mr. SMITH. No, sir; I don't--because then we started checking the cars. In fact, I was checking the bushes, and I went through the cars, and I started over here in this particular section.

(The 7-23-64 testimony of Dallas Police Officer Joe Marshall Smith, 7H531-539)

(Note: James Powell, an off-duty military intelligence officer, was half a block east of Dealey Plaza when he heard shots fired. He then ran to the Plaza, where he took a famous photo of the top floors of the depository. He then ran over to the parking lot, where he lingered briefly before returning to the depository. On 4-12-96, ARRB investigator Timothy Wray interviewed Powell. The transcript of this interview is available at JFKassassinationfiles.com. In this interview, Wray asked Powell if he identified himself to anyone while he was in the parking lot. He responded: "I basically recall that I did. Because the officers were curious as to why I was joining them and I just flashed my credentials to show them." He was then asked how he would have identified himself. He responded: "Well, I'm Jim Powell, and I'm with the Military Intelligence Corps." He was then asked if he might have said he was a special agent. He then took Wray's cue and said out loud, as if auditioning for a part, "I'm a special agent with military intelligence. And show my credentials." While this raises the possibility Powell was the "agent" encountered by Smith it is far from definitive. It's clear Wray was coaxing this testimony from Powell, and that Powell had no clear memory of identifying himself to anyone in the parking lot, let alone identifying himself as an "agent".)

We should be clear about this as well. Romack's claim no one came out the back is refuted by the fact Vickie Adams and Sandra Styles came out the back. Perhaps then Romack focused his attention on the steps leading down to the street and missed Adams and Styles as they scampered out the door in the photo above, which would have been the door closest to the train yards to which they were fleeing. Romack was, we mustn't forget, 100 yards or more away when he first started watching the back door. There was a lot of people running about. It seems likely then that he focused on just the one exit.

Still, who was this officer Romack saw run over to the back of the building?

After much study, I've concluded that he's Welcome... Dallas policeman Welcome Eugene Barnett, that is.

Mr. BARNETT - When the first shot was fired, I thought it was a firecracker, and I looked across the street. In fact, I scanned the whole area to see where people would jump or move or make some action.

Mr. LIEBELER - You couldn't tell specifically where it had come from?

Mr. BARNETT - Not the first one, but I thought it was a firecracker. But none of the people moved or took any action, whereas they would have if a firecracker went off. And when the second shot was fired, it sounded high. The sound of the second one seemed to me like it was coming from up high, and I looked up at the building and I saw nothing in the windows. In fact, I couldn't even see any windows at that time.

Mr. LIEBELER - In the Texas School Book Depository?

Mr. BARNETT - No, sir; because I was standing to close, was the reason. And I looked back again at the crowd, and the third shot was fired. And I looked up again, and I decided it had to be on top of that building. To me it is the only place the sound could be coming from.

Mr. LIEBELER - What did you do when you concluded that the shots were coming from that building?

Mr. BARNETT - I ran to the back of the building.

Mr. LIEBELER - Ran down Houston Street?

Mr. BARNETT - Yes, sir.

Mr. LIEBELER - There is a door in the back of the Texas School Book Depository. Does it face on Houston or around the corner?

Mr. BARNETT - It is around the corner from Houston Street.

Mr. LIEBELER - Did you go in the building?

Mr. BARNETT - No, sir; I didn't get close to it, because I was watching for a fire escape. If the man was on top, he would have to come down, and I was looking for a fire escape, and I didn't pay much attention to the door. I was still watching the top of the building, and so far as I could see, the fire escape on the east side was the only escape down.

Mr. LIEBELER - Since you surmised that the shots had come from the building, you looked up and you didn't see any windows open. You thought they had been fired from the top of the building?

Mr. BARNETT - That's right.

Mr. LIEBELER - So you ran around here on Houston Street immediately to the east of the Texas School Book Depository Building and watched the fire escape?

Mr. BARNETT - I went 20 foot past the building still on Houston, looking up. I could see the whole back of the building and also the east side of the building.

Mr. LIEBELER - Did you see anybody coming off the fire escape up there, or any movement on top of the building?

Mr. BARNETT - Not a thing.

Mr. LIEBELER - What did you do after you went around behind the building?

Mr. BARNETT - I went looked behind the building and I saw officers searching the railroad cars. I looked around in front towards the front of the building and I saw officers going west.

Mr. LIEBELER - Going west down the little street there in front of the School Book Depository Building?

Mr. BARNETT - Yes; but there was no sign they were going into the building or watching the building, so I decided I was the only one watching the building. So since this was the only fire escape and there were officers down here watching the back door, I returned back around to the front to watch the front of the building and the fire escape. Then I decided maybe I had been wrong, so I saw the officers down here searching.

Mr. LIEBELER - You mean the officers went on down toward No. 5 on your Exhibit No. 354?

Mr. BARNETT - When I got to the front, some of the officers were coming back toward me, started back toward me.

Mr. LIEBELER - You were still back near the intersection of Elm and Houston?

Mr. BARNETT - Yes, sir; I was back where No. 8 is then. That was probably 2 1/2 minutes after the last shot was fired. About that time, my sergeant came up from this way, from the north of Houston Street and asked me to get the name of that building. I broke and ran to the front and got the name of it. There were people going in and out at that time. I ran back and told him the name of it, and about that time a construction worker ran from this southwest corner of the intersection up to me and said, "I was standing over there and saw the man in the window with the rifle." He and I and the sergeant all three broke and ran for the door. I kept the man there with me. The sergeant ran to the back to make sure it was covered. I kept the man there until they took him across the street to the courthouse. I was there until 3 o'clock, at the door there with one of the other officers, J.D. Smith.

Mr. LIEBELER - You didn't actually go into the building at the time?

Mr. BARNETT - No.

Mr. LIEBELER - How long do you think it was from the time the last shot was fired until the time you were at the front door keeping people from going in and out?

Mr. BARNETT - It was around 2 1/2 minutes. Maybe between 2 1/2 or 3 minutes.

(7-23-64 testimony of Welcome Eugene Barnett, 3:50 P.M., 7H539-544)

Now I suspect you've guessed the location of number 8.

That's right. It is EXACTLY where Adams said she saw a policeman..when she and Styles first came out the back of the building.

Here is a crop from CE 354. The number 8 is at the northeast corner of Houston and Elm, across from the school book depository, where Adams claimed she saw an officer when she exited the building. (FWIW: I thought I was the first to realize Barnett was the officer observed by Adams, but subsequently discovered Tony Fratini had been making this argument since 2015, 2 years before I came to my "realization".)

So hmmm... Adams and Styles would have to have exited the rear of the building about 12:32...when no one was watching the back of the building, in order to catch a glimpse of Barnett when he said he was at position 8. IF Baker and Truly reached the stairs in the northwest corner of the building just after Adams and Styles had left the area, moreover, well then whoever was descending in the elevator as they went up would have reached the first floor around 12:33-12:34, and been outside within a few seconds.

Did Eddie Piper see these men?

Is that why he was never asked about the elevator that came down as Truly and Baker went up?

Or was Piper somewhere else when the elevator descended?

While reading through the statements and testimony of the depository employees and the Dallas police, I came across two bits of testimony which lead me to believe Truly asked Piper to go out on the loading dock by the back door, to make sure no one ran out of the building, or got into the building, if they didn't look like they were with law enforcement. Let's recall that Truly asked Shelley to guard the front elevator, and that Dougherty ended up taking Shelley's place, if only for a minute. Well, it only follows that Truly would ask Piper, another trusted employee, to "guard" the back door.

The first to observe Piper in his "guard" location was Clyde Haygood, one of the motorcycle officers from the motorcade, who jumped off his bike and ran around the grassy knoll gathering witnesses before being told to go the depository. Here is his testimony.

Mr. HAYGOOD. Yes. My original call number is 142.

Mr. BELIN. I have here a Sawyer Deposition Exhibit A, which appears to be a transcript of a police radio log, and I notice that at 12:35 p.m., there is a call from 142 to 531. 531 is your station headquarters?

Mr. HAYGOOD. Right.

Mr. BELIN. Do you want to read what you said?

Mr. HAYGOOD. "I talked to a guy at the scene who says the shots were fired from the Texas School Book Depository Building with the Hertz Rent A Car sign on top."

Mr. BELIN. Is that what you said?

Mr. HAYGOOD. Approximately. I don't recall the exact words.

Mr. BELIN. There was a response to you. What does it say there?

Mr. HAYGOOD. "Get his name, address, phone number and all information you can."

Mr. BELIN. Did you do that?

Mr. HAYGOOD. No, I never.

Mr. BELIN. What happened?

Mr. HAYGOOD. Because I was told to go to the School Book Depository Building. I instructed the three different people to come to the front of the School Book Depository Building and remain there until they were talked to.

Mr. BELIN. You took these people that you had with you?

Mr. HAYGOOD. I did not take them, no.

Mr. BELIN. You instructed them to go there?

Mr. HAYGOOD. Yes.

Mr. BELIN. In front of the School Book Depository?

Mr. HAYGOOD. Yes.

Mr. BELIN. And remain there until someone talked to them?

Mr. HAYGOOD. Right.

Mr. BELIN. You don't know the names of these people?

Mr. HAYGOOD. No, I don't.

Mr. BELIN. Do you know who talked to them at all?

Mr. HAYGOOD. No; I don't.

Mr. HAYGOOD. At that time I went to the School Building at the rear location of it, which would be

Mr. BELIN. To the back door?

Mr. HAYGOOD. North side of it, yes.

Mr. BELIN. Where that door leads out there to the dock?

Mr. HAYGOOD. Yes; on the northeast corner there.

Mr. BELIN. What did you do then?

Mr. HAYGOOD. At that time I talked to the colored male that was standing at the door and asked him how long he had been there, and he said he had been there some 5 minutes or so. And I asked him if anyone had came out that door, and he said that they had not.

Mr. BELIN. Do you remember his name?

Mr. HAYGOOD. No; I don't.

(4-9-64 testimony, 9:15 A.M. 6H296-302)

The second man to spot Piper in this location, for that matter, was Secret Service agent Forrest Sorrels, who was a passenger in the lead car of the motorcade, who then raced back to the crime scene from Parkland Hospital.

Mr. STERN - Just a minute. How much time do you think elapsed from the time the shots were fired until the time you returned to the Book Depository?

Mr. SORRELS - I don't believe it could have been over about 20 minutes, because we went to the hospital just as fast as we possibly could, and I wasn't there very long. And we came back as fast as we could. Of course we didn't get back as fast as we went out there, because traffic was moving. The other way it was just cleared out to the Trade Mart. We had clear sailing from the time that the shots were fired until we got to the Trade Mart, because that was the route that we were going to go anyway. And that was cleared out. But coming back, of course, there was traffic. We did come back under lights and siren, as fast as we could. But there was traffic that slowed us up some.

Mr. STERN - So you estimate not more than 20 minutes?

Mr. SORRELS - I don't believe it could have been more than 20 or 25 minutes at the very most.

Mr. STERN - Then you arrived at the Book Depository Building, and did you see any police officers outside the building?

Mr. SORRELS - Yes; there were officers. I recall seeing officers. I could not say any specific one. Now, as I came into the back of the building, there was a colored man standing on the rear platform, a loading platform. And he was just standing there looking off into the distance. I don't think he knew what happened. And I said to him, "Did you see anyone run out the back?" He said, "No, sir." "Did you see anyone leave the back way?" "No, sir."

Mr. STERN - Did you get his name?

Mr. SORRELS - No, sir; I did not. I did not stop to do that, because I figured he was an employee of the building. I went on the inside of the building and asked someone for the manager and they pointed to Mr. Truly. I identified myself to Mr. Truly.

Mr. STERN - Just a minute. Did you establish how long that man had been on the loading platform?

Mr. SORRELS - No, sir; I did not.

Mr. STERN - There was no policeman stationed at the loading platform when you came up?

Mr. SORRELS - I did not see one; no, sir.

Mr. STERN - And you were able to enter the building without identifying yourself?

Mr. SORRELS - Yes, sir.

(5-7-64 Testimony of Secret Service Agent Forrest Sorrels, 9:45 A.M., 7H332-360)

That this "employee" was in fact Eddie Piper is supported, for that matter, by Piper himself. When called back to testify on 5-14-64, in the session where Joseph Ball inexplicably forgot to ask Piper about Jack Dougherty, even though he'd written Wesley Liebeler a memo on 5-8-64 describing the importance of his being asked about Dougherty, Ball did remember (of course, of course) to ask Piper about Vickie Adams.

Mr. BALL. Did you ever see Vicki Adams come down the steps?

Mr. PIPER. No, sir; I don't know about that, if she said she did, it was after I got over here and walked over to the back door.

Mr. BALL. Did Vicki Adams come down before Truly and the man went up the steps?

Mr. PIPER. No, sir, no, sir; she didn't do it.

(The 5-14-64 Testimony of Eddie Piper, 7H388-390)

Well, we have a number of reasons to doubt Piper's claim Adams (and Styles) didn't come down the steps before Truly (and "the man") raced up the steps. For one, it's clear this is coached testimony, and that Joe Ball has talked this over with Piper, and told him what he wants him to say. I mean, c'mon, Ball asks the same question twice in order to draw out a more definitive response from Piper. And c'mon, this transcript was but 2 pages long. It's pretty much "Hello, please put on the record that Vickie Adams is lying. Goodbye." For two, there's no way Piper would make such a definitive response unless he'd been coached into doing so.

There's also this. Here is Ball's partner David Belin (L) along with Warren Commission Assistant General Counsel Howard Willens (R), near the front entrance to the depository, on (one can only presume) March 20, 1964. Look at the left side of the photo.

Note the pillars and the racks, the racks stretching ten feet or more off the ground. These racks, moreover, can be seen in the previously-shown over-developed FBI photo in Commission Document 496, the photo incorrectly entitled "Roy Truly's Office." 

Well, there's no way someone sitting/standing behind the warehouse windows near the front entrance of the building (where Piper claimed he was sitting/standing while eating a sandwich and watching the motorcade pass) could have seen what was going on in the far left corner of the building, by the west elevator, and stairs. (And yes, this demonstrates that--eegads--someone could have come in at the rear of the building and made it all the way up to the sixth floor without being noticed by...anyone, except perhaps Troy West, who was sitting on the far west side of the building, and, by his own admission, looking in the other direction...)

(Now, hmmm...perhaps this was the real reason photo 9 in CD 496 looks like crap. Perhaps someone, or even a hybrid someone named Ball-Belin, wished to conceal that the first floor was in part a warehouse, with tall racks, that would have hid the activities at the back of the building from those near the front of the building. Oh, my. It does seem a bit of a coinky-dink that this was never ever ever mentioned in the commission's report. Hmmm...)

Now, let's recall that Shelley said he saw Piper walking back from the windows when he came in the building, and that Piper said he was at the coffee counter when Baker and Truly came in the building. Well, this puts Piper somewhere in the vicinity of the coffee counter when Adams and Styles came down the stairs.  

So, the possibility exists that Piper (and perhaps West, who was sitting somewhere near the coffee counter when the shooting occurred) would have been in good position to see Adams and Styles should they have come down the stairs at this time. 

So where, again, was this coffee counter? 

Good question.

Coffee Break

Here's the first of a series of DPD crime scene photos that can help us solve this mystery...

Note the brickwork on the left. That is the front of the first floor of the depository, the side facing Elm Street. Eddie Piper claimed he was somewhere near this location when the shots rang out. Now note the roll of tape beneath the table at right, and the roll of paper stretched between the legs to its left. This is a wrapping table. Troy West, who worked at the wrapping tables, claimed he was sitting somewhere near this location when the shots rang out, and that he walked up to the front of the building after police came running in.

Now note the machine on the right in the photo above... This is presumably a scale. It appears to be the same machine/scale as at left in the photo below... Now look at the table at right below. This table would have been off to the right (and out of frame) in the photo above. 

Now look at what's on the table. Well, that, my friends, is a coffee pot, the center of both Piper and West's activities in the aftermath of the shooting. Now here's a look back at the machine and the coffee counter from the other direction. 

Note that I have brightened two rectangles on this image. The first was so one could make out that there is a door open behind the man on the left. The second, at right, was so one could make out that there is a roll-up door on the west side of the building, 20 feet or so north of the coffee counter. So where was this door? And where was this counter?

Now here again is a big chunk of an R.B. Cutler drawing of the first floor. (If you're having trouble orienting it, Elm Street is at the bottom of the drawing.) In any event, I have inserted this drawing instead of the Warren Commission's drawing of the first floor because it shows the pillars within the building and the western loading dock (which was inexplicably left off the Commission's exhibit). Now, as shown by the DPD's photos, the coffee counter was on the western side of a pillar at least three pillars back from the front of the building, and was just past an opening on the western side of the building. There is only one place, then, that it could be--at the location of the red star below.

Now, at first I had my doubts about this. The door behind the man in the last photo was not a roll-up door.  But then I remembered Billy Lovelady's testimony.

Mr. BALL - Where did you go into the building? 

Mr. LOVELADY - Through that, those raised-up doors. 

Mr. BALL - Through the raised-up doors? 

Mr. LOVELADY - Through that double door that we in the morning when we get there we raised. There's a fire door and they have two wooden doors between it.

While Lovelady's description was in-artful, it was nevertheless helpful. The takeaway is that there were two wooden doors behind the roll-up doors on the west side of the building, for use during the day. Well, I believe that's what we see in the background of 91-001/194.  

In any event, West, and Piper, or anyone on the western-most aisle by the coffee counter, would not have had a clear view of the bottom of the stairs (by the "up" in "up to roof" above). The wall (just above the "up" in "up from basement" above) which concealed a couple of vending machines, including, one can only presume, the legendary Dr. Pepper machine, simultaneously concealed the bottom of the stairs from anyone making or pouring coffee. 

Now, should one doubt that this wall between the "up"s was a solid wall, one need only look at photo 7 from CD 496. Here it is.

The solid wall to the nook with the refrigerator and drink machine is on the left side of the image. Next  to that is the nook. The stairs, down which Vickie Adams and Sandra Styles raced, are to the right of the nook. The edge of a roll-up door leading to the north/east loading dock is to the right of the stairs. And the south wall of the elevator shaft is on the right in the image.  

Now here, for those interested in such things, is a much closer view of the fridge nook. Well, golly gee, Goober, that's a Dr. Pepper machine...just to the left of the fridge. While Vincent Bugliosi claimed there was something innately suspicious about Oswald's saying he went up to the second floor lunchroom to get a Coke, because, y'know, he usually drank Dr. Pepper, Bugliosi was unbelievably out to lunch on this point, as a number of witnesses, including Oswald's wife, Marina, claimed he drank Coke as well.  

Now, all this discussion of coffee and soda does demonstrate one thing for, well, near-certain--and that's that even if they were looking towards the back of the building when Vickie Adams and Sandra Styles raced downstairs (which is in itself highly doubtful), neither Troy West nor Eddie Piper could have seen them at the bottom of the stairs.

Well, alright. But there's more to it. Adams' words indicate that she and Styles didn't exit through the roll-up door at the bottom of the stairs. but circled around the elevators to exit from the door by the Houston Street dock. 

Now here's a photo taken from this door looking back in the direction of the coffee counter. The pillar beside the counter has been marked with a red star.

Now, Troy West is presumed to have been near this pillar both before the shooting and when the shots rang out. This would have put him in a good position to see anything suspicious. But he said he was sitting and looking the other way. And he may have been listening to a radio. 

Well, now, here's a closer look. This photograph, taken in March '64, shows an additional wrapping table between the coffee counter and the exit. 

Alright, alright. Onward. Upward.

Back to Work

Now, let's go back to work. Before we got side-tracked by our coffee (and soda) break, we were discussing Piper's testimony in which he said Vickie Adams did not come downstairs before Truly entered the building. 

Well, seeing as he was in no position to view the bottom of the stairs, we can pretty much dismiss his assertion. 

But we can not quite ignore it entirely. Here it is again:

Mr. BALL. Did you ever see Vicki Adams come down the steps?

Mr. PIPER. No, sir; I don't know about that, if she said she did, it was after I got over here and walked over to the back door.

Note the last part--"walked over to the back door."

Let's recall here that Jack Dougherty claimed that, after hearing a loud sound, he decided to go down to the first floor and find out what was going on. Let's recall that the only person he mentioned talking to at this time was Eddie Piper. Well, it's reasonable to assume from this that Piper was near the elevators at this time (whether it be 2 minutes after the shots or 6 minutes after the shots, or more), and not in the front of the building by the window or drinking coffee at Troy West's coffee counter in the middle of the building. The back door was, as we have seen, close to the elevators. So it appears that, yessiree, Piper went over to the back door after Truly and Baker went up.

This brings us, then, to yet another reason to distrust Piper's claim Adams failed to come down before Truly went up.

While Clyde Haygood claimed the man presumed to be Piper had told him he hadn't seen anyone go out the "back way," we can now see that this cuts two ways. One way is that it proves this man, purported to have been in position for five minutes before Haygood came over to the building, i.e. since around 12:33 or 12:34, didn't see Adams and Styles leave the building. If this man was Piper, as presumed, and he was asked to "guard" the rear door by Truly, as presumed, well, this supports then that Adams and Styles came down the stairs and out the loading dock BEFORE Baker and Truly went up.

The other way is more problematic for our working theory someone (not Oswald) came down on an elevator as Baker and Truly raced up the stairs. If Piper was "guarding" the back door from the moment Baker and Truly went upstairs, and told the truth to Sorrels, it seems to suggest that the occupant or occupants of the elevator that descended as Baker and Truly ran up the stairs didn't walk out the back door.

But only seems to suggest... I mean, we don't know just when Piper arrived at the back door, now do we? For all we know, he visited the bathroom before making his way to the back door, or maybe, just maybe, he took a slow walk back to the shipping table to get some more coffee, before heading to the back door. In the meantime, someone could have come down on the elevator and walked out the back door. On March 10, 1964, in Washington, let's recall, James Richard Worrell testified that he panicked when the shots rang out, and ran from his location near the front of the depository, only to stop a block to the north of the depository on Houston St. He then looked back at the building. Now, here's the "hmmm" part. Worrell testified that "I was there approximately 3 minutes before I saw this man come out the back door..." 

Now, many choose to disbelieve Worrell. 

But, heck, 3 minutes. That's the exact right time, isn't it? Adams and Styles would be out the back about two minutes after the shots rang out. And Truly and Baker would be heading up the stairs around this same time. This means that whoever came down that west elevator as Truly and Baker ran up would have reached the bottom (and been out the back door?) approximately 3 minutes after the shooting. 

That is, assuming Piper the guard dog had not yet reported for duty...

Still, let's assume he had. And that he jumped right in, and guarded that exit... That still doesn't rule out that someone came down the elevator while Piper was by the back door, and left the building via a different route.

Perhaps the elevator inhabitant or inhabitants went out the side door through which Shelley and Lovelady had entered the building. (Troy West, who'd been sitting by that door, said he walked up to the front of the building after Baker and Truly came in the building--well, this would have left the area unoccupied, and "unguarded.") Or perhaps he or they walked out the front door and were not stopped. As we've seen, Inspector Sawyer testified that the front door wasn't officially blocked off before 12:37--12:40. Although he said he suspected someone leaving the building prior to that would have been stopped by the policemen outside, moreover, we know this isn't true. Let's not forget that Lee Harvey Oswald left the building without being stopped. Now realize that a person descending on the west elevator as Baker and Truly ran up the stairs and then heading out the front door would have been but seconds behind Oswald.

Now, some might object here, and argue "Well, no one saw anyone suspicious walk out the front door at this time!" But that misses the point. The point is this. No one saw Oswald walk out the front door at this time either!

And not only Oswald... Let's not forget that Allman, Ford, MacNeill and Powell all entered the depository after the shooting, and spent several minutes inside, and that no one pointed them out to the police who'd stormed into the building as suspicious people who didn't belong in the building. They all came and went without incident. Well, that is, except Powell. He joined in on the search of the building, to such an extent even that someone finally asked him who he was. 

But it wasn't the employees of the building who pointed him out. And no one claimed he was "suspicious."

And besides, what is "suspicious"? Perhaps the assassin or assassins had fake IDs, or, perhaps, even scarier, REAL ones, that allowed them to pass out the front door without harassment from the Dallas Police officers gathering outside.

When one reads the statements and testimony of everyone known to have been in the building after the shooting, moreover, one finds numerous references to cops and sheriff's deputies who were observed in the building shortly after the shooting who never filed a report or made a statement detailing their activities in the building. One also finds references to unnamed officers and deputies who may or may not have been among those whose names were mentioned, but who never filed a report (such as Inspector Sawyer's reference to two unnamed policeman who raced into the building at his side, and immediately started searching the building).

For all we know, one or more of these individuals was in the building BEFORE the shooting, was involved in the shooting, and then took advantage of the chaos by blending in with their fellow officers and pretending to look for the "real" shooter.

We just don't know enough about what happened in the building to say this didn't happen, or even that it probably didn't happen.

One of the things we do know, however, is that Vickie Adams, and Eddie Piper, were treated like hostile witnesses and unfairly maligned so that Joseph Ball and David Belin--not to mention their backers on the Warren Commission-- could feed the world a fantasy.

That this was so becomes crystal clear, moreover, when one realizes that Adams was not the only one who'd been on the back stairs when Oswald was purported to have been on them. And that these other witnesses were not even called before the Commission...

The first of these witnesses was Adams' companion on that day, Sandra Styles. Styles was not called before the Warren Commission to shed light on Adams' testimony, even though Adams had cited her in support, and Styles had offered her that support on 3-19-64 (almost three weeks before Adams' testimony) in the following statement:

“On November 22, 1963, I was in my office at a window facing Elm Street watching the Presidential motorcade at the time President Kennedy was shot. Also present at this window with me were Dorothy Garner, Elsie Dorman, and Victoria Adams...I never knew Lee Harvey Oswald, not even by sight as an employee at the building…I heard shots but thought at the time that they were fireworks. I was unaware of the place the shots came from. I saw people running and others lie down on the ground and realized something was happening but did not know exactly what was happening. Victoria Adams and I left the office at this time, went down the back stairs, and left the building at the back door. We then went around to the side of the building where we saw a policeman talking to someone whom I did not recognize. I was told by a policeman to go around to the front of the building and out of that area. I then re-entered the building through the front door, took the elevator to the fourth floor and returned to my office.” (The 3-19-64 statement of Sandra Styles to the FBI, 22H676)

After that, Styles pretty much disappeared. It appeared she might die an enigma. But then, for the 50th anniversary of the assassination, she stepped into the light and raised her voice to confirm that she and Adams (since passed) had in fact raced down the back stairs within a minute of the shooting...and did not see or hear Lee Harvey Oswald racing down the steps in front of them or behind them.

Suspicious Omission #34                                                                                             

March 1964--September 1964. The Warren Commission fails to call Sandra Styles to testify, even though she could confirm Vickie Adams' claim she raced down the back stairs just after the shooting and didn't see Oswald.

The second of these witnesses was Otis Williams. Williams made a number of statements suggesting he was on the back stairs within a few seconds of Adams and Styles--but did not see Oswald. So, of course, he was never called before the Warren Commission.

(11-24-63 FBI report, CD5 p.64) “He thought (the) blasts came from the location of the court house. He did not look up and immediately went back into the building into his office on the second floor.” (2-18-64 statement by Williams included in a report of the Dallas Police Department, box 3, folder 19, file 20 of the Dallas JFK Archive) "The president's car had gotten out of Mr. Williams' view when he heard the shots. Mr. Williams then came back into the building, and went to his office on the second floor. He then went to the fourth floor after hearing that the President had been shot. He used the stairway to go to the fourth floor, but stated that he did not see anyone on the stairway." (3-19-64 statement to the FBI, 22H683) “I thought these blasts or shots came from the direction of the viaduct which crosses Elm Street. I did not then know that President Kennedy had been shot. I remained momentarily on the steps and then returned inside the building.”

Williams was finally interviewed, however, by researcher Larry Sneed.

(No More Silence p.116-120, published 1998) (On the shots) “I thought it came from the underpass. I entered the building immediately, climbed up the stairs back where the warehouse elevator was which led to the sixth floor and went up to the fourth floor, which was the first one I could see from to see the underpass. After I got up there and saw that nothing was going on on the underpass, I turned around and came back down to the office and called my wife. Soon, while we were talking, people came in, officers rushed in, and I had to get off the phone... I could have gone down the steps while Oswald came down, but he came down on the elevator. Anyway, I walked down the steps but didn't see him or anything.”

It should be acknowledged here that Williams may have simply slipped through the cracks. His initial statements did not specify that he'd taken the back stairs to the second floor, and then the fourth. And, from what can be gathered, the Dallas police report on his activites, in which he specified going up to the fourth floor via the back stairs (the front stairs only go up to the second floor) was never forwarded to the commission.

Oh, wait, why the heck wasn't this report sent to the commission? On 2-17, and 2-18, 1964, members of the Dallas Police intelligence Division, along with several homicide detectives, interviewed a number of those who'd been working in the school book depository building on 11-22-63. They then prepared some of these interviews as statements from these witnesses... but somehow failed to forward all of these reports/statements regarding a crime they weren't officially investigating, to the commission appointed by the President of the United States to officially investigate this crime.

To be clear, when one looks through the contents of Box 3, File 19 of the Dallas Police JFK Archives, one will find roughly 20 different reports on TSBD building employee interviews conducted on 2-17-64 and 2-18-64. Some, but not all, of these reports were forwarded to the Warren Commission by the Dallas Police as part of Commission Document 950, a collection of Dallas Police documents forwarded to the Commission by Chief Jesse Curry on 5-19-64. The report on Williams is among those not included in CD 950.

I repeat, why the heck wasn't Williams' "statement" forwarded to the Commission. I mean, even if one assumes Williams took the elevator to the second floor, he acknowledged using the back stairs to go to the fourth floor. How soon was this after the shooting? Did he see Oswald on the stairs? Adams and Styles? Baker and Truly? Jarman, Norman, and Williams? The failure of the Dallas Police to alert the Commission to this interview/statement, or the failure of the Commission to put this interview/statement into its records, either way, has no good excuse.

So, yes, it's quite suspicious that the Dallas Police Dept.'s report on Williams never made it into the 26 volumes...particularly when you realize one of the other "missing" reports/statements belonged to Miss Vickie Adams... (Beyond Williams and Adams, the other "missing" reports--on Doris Burns, Ochus Campbell, Avery Davis, Mary Ann Hollies, Judy McCully, Joe Molina, Ruth Nelson, and Lupe Whitaker--appear to have been of little importance.)

In any event, here is Vickie Adams' statement", as prepared by Det. Jim Leavelle.

STATEMENT OF VICKIE ADAMS

I talked with Vickie Adams at 8:10 pm this date, February 17, 1964. The following statement is what she said happened November 22, 1963.

My name is Vickie Adams, 3909 Cole, Apt. D., no phone. My job is office service representative. I reported to work that day about 8:30 am, and I worked in that capacity until noon.

A friend of mine, Elsie Dorman, who lives in Oak Cliff and works in the office, wanted to take some moving pictures of the motorcade. I opened a third floor window about the third one from the front of the building. She took pictures of the motorcade. When the President got in front of us I heard someone call him, and he turned. That is when I heard the first shot. I thought it was a firecracker. Then the second shot. I saw the Secret Service man run to the back of the President's car. After the third shot, I went out the back door. I said, "I think someone has been shot." The elevator was not running and there was no one on the stairs. I went down to the first floor. I saw Mr. Shelly and another employee named Bill. The freight elevator had not moved, and I still did not see anyone on the stairs.

I ran out the back door of the depository and around to the front. I started down toward the railroad tracks when an officer stopped me and turned me back. I asked the officer if the President was shot, and he said he did not know. As I turned back I saw another employee Molena standing by the front of the building facing Elm Street. I stopped and talked with Avery Davis another employee. I saw two men in street clothes, one was gesturing with his hands and asking questions. I asked Mr. Davis who he was. I later saw Jack Ruby on TV and thought it was the same man. No one had surrounded the building at that time. I went back into the building and the passenger elevator, but the power was off. I went to the back to the freight elevator. There were two plainclothes men on it. However, the power on it also was turned off. I went up the stairs to the fourth floor to my office. We were later told to leave.

This concludes Miss Adams' statement to me.

J. R. Leavelle

Let's note that Miss Adams claimed the elevator was not moving when she first reached the stairs, and still wasn't moving when she reached the bottom of the stairs. This is yet another indication she ran down the stairs before Baker and Truly ran up. If she'd run down the stairs just after Baker and Truly had run up, after all, she would have heard the elevator coming down from above as they ran up.  While one might claim, then, that she ran down the stairs thirty seconds or so after Baker and Truly ran up and the elevator descended, this creates a new set of problems as to why Piper--who, in the commission's scenario would have been right there on the bottom floor, talking to Dougherty--failed to see her when she and Styles ran out the back door. 

Suspicious Omission #35

5-19-64. The February 17-18 statements of Vickie Adams, who claimed she raced down the stairs just after the shooting, and Otis Williams, who claimed he raced up to the fourth floor shortly after the shooting (and who later claimed he'd taken the back stairs up to the second floor just after the shooting), are inexplicably missing from a batch of interviews conducted by the Dallas Police that were only belatedly provided the Warren Commission.

Lillian Mooneyham is yet another witness whose statements were damaging to the Ball/Belin scenario of Oswald racing down the stairs, who was strangely (or not so strangely) never called to testify.

 She watched the assassination and aftermath from an upper floor of the courthouse on the northeast corner of Main and Houston. She was interviewed by the FBI on 1-8-64. Here is a segment of the report on this interview.

"Mrs. MOONEYHAM and Mrs. CLARK left Judge KING's courtroom and went to the office of Judge Julien C. Hyer on the third floor of the Records Building, where they continued to observe the happenings from Judge HYER's window. From Judge HYER's window, Mrs. MOONEYHAM noted a number of bystander running toward the cement pavilion which borders Elm Street between the railroad viaduct and the Texas School Book Depository (TSBD). Mrs. MOONEYHAM estimated that it was about 4 to 5 minutes following the shots fired by the assassin that she looked up towards the sixth floor of the TSBD and observed the figure of a man standing in a sixth floor window behind some cardboard boxes. This man appeared to Mrs. MOONEYHAM to be looking out of the window, however, the man was not close up to the window but was standing slightly back from it, so that Mrs. MOONEYHAM could not make out his features. She stated that she could give no description of this individual except to say that she is sure it was a man she observed, because the figure had on trousers. She could not recall the color of the trousers."

She said she saw someone in the sniper's nest "4 to 5 minutes" following ths shots, which, of course, could really mean she saw someone a minute or so after the shots. In either case, this couldn't have been Oswald because in the commission's scenario Oswald was already on his way down the stairs.

Mooneyham should have been called to testify, but was not called.

Suspicious Omission #36                                                                                           

March 1964--September 1964. The Warren Commission fails to call Lillian Mooneyham to testify, even thought she told the FBI on 1-8-64 that she saw a man standing in the sniper's nest at a time when Oswald was presumed to have been running down the back stairs.

There is an even better witness who wasn't called. Her name was Dorothy Ann Garner.

In his 2011 book The Girl on the Stairs, Barry Ernest revealed that within the Warren Commission's files was a 6-4-64 letter from the office of U.S. Attorney Barefoot Sanders to Warren Commission General Counsel J. Lee Rankin that read "Mr. Belin was questioning Miss Adams about whether or not she saw anyone as she was running down the stairs. Miss Garner, Miss Adams' supervisor, stated this morning that after Miss Adams went downstairs she (Miss Garner) saw Mr. Truly and the policeman come up."

Apparently, Sanders' assistant, Martha Stroud, who'd help co-ordinate the testimony of numerous witnesses, including Adams, in Sanders' office, had decided to drop by Vickie Adams' office in the depository building in order to get her to sign off on a transcript of her testimony, and had started up a conversation with Adams' boss, Miss Garner, who informed Ms. Stroud that she could vouch for the fact Adams and Styles ran down the stairs before Baker and Truly ran up the stairs, and that Oswald hadn't run down the stairs in between.

And yes, it's shocking. But all too true. Rankin, Ball, and Belin failed to follow up on Stroud's letter and ask Miss Garner a single question. Ms. Stroud's letter was put into Vickie Adams' Warren Commission file, and was never seen again until uncovered by Barry Ernest decades later.

Stroud's letter, like a paper plane thrown by a disobedient child, single-handedly collapsed the Warren Commission's house of cards. So they filed it away.

Suspicious Omission #37

6-4-64--September 1964. Vickie Adams' boss, Dorothy Ann Garner, lets it be known she'd be willing to testify in support of Adams' and Styles' claim they raced down the stairs after the shooting, and goes one step further by claiming she saw Baker and Truly run up the stairs after Adams and Styles ran down the stairs...  And is totally blown off by the Warren Commission...

A Quick Review: the Suspicious Omissions (and Commissions, with a Few New Additions) in Chronological Order

From reviewing the suspicious omissions, and placing them in chronological order, one can get a sense of where the Commission went astray. It went astray because it wasn't willing to get it right. It seems clear, moreover, that, prior to taking any testimony, Messieurs Ball and Belin had already decided to push a scenario in which Oswald stayed upstairs during lunchtime and raced downstairs after the shooting, and Jack Dougherty rode the elevator from the fifth floor on down as Baker and Truly raced up the stairs to the fifth floor.

12-20-63. The FBI omits from a report on an interview with Eddie Piper that Piper feels certain he saw Oswald on the first floor around 12:00.

March 64--September 64. The Warren Commission fails to call Carolyn Arnold to testify, even though she told FBI investigators on 11-26-63 that she believed she saw Oswald on the first floor around 12:15.

March 64--September 64. The Warren Commission fails to call Carolyn Walther to testify, even though she told FBI investigators on 12-4-63 that she saw a man with a rifle on an upper floor of the school book depository, and that there was another man behind him, to his left.

March 1964--September 1964. The Warren Commission fails to call Lillian Mooneyham to testify, even though she told the FBI on 1-8-64 that she saw a man standing in the sniper's nest at a time the Commission presumes Oswald to have been running down the back stairs.

March 1964--September 1964. The Warren Commission fails to call Sandra Styles to testify, even though she could confirm Vickie Adams' claim she raced down the back stairs just after the shooting and didn't see Oswald.

March 1964--September 1964. Warren Commission attorneys Joseph Ball and David Belin fail to follow-up on the Secret Service's interviews of Pierce Allman and Terry Ford, in which they placed themselves near the back of the building at the time the commission presumed Adams and Styles had raced down the back stairs. 

3-11-64. In a desperate attempt at getting them to change their recollection of the size of the bag they saw Oswald carrying on the morning of the 22nd (which they remembered as being too small to hold the rifle found in the school book depository) Warren Commission attorney Joseph Ball asks Buell Frazier and his sister Linnie Mae Randle to hold their hands apart to demonstrate the length of the bag. He then asks them to do this again, and again, at least ten times, according to Frazier, giving them the feeling he won't stop asking until they lie and tell him the bag was longer than they believed it was.

3-24-64. Warren Commission attorney Joseph Ball fails to follow up with witness Harold Norman and find out how his not playing dominoes at lunch made him think someone else was in the room--an inquiry that would almost certainly have led to Norman's saying he thought this someone else was Oswald.

3-24-64--September 1964. Warren Commission attorney Joseph Ball fails to point out during testimony or subsequently acknowledge that James Jarman and Harold Norman's claim they re-entered the building via the back door towards the end of their lunch time supported Oswald's claim he'd been sitting in a room with a view of the back door area during lunch time, and had observed Jarman and Norman.

3-25-64--September 1964. Warren Commission attorneys Joseph Ball and David Belin fail to follow-up on Officer Marrion Baker's claim he saw two white men by the elevators when he came into the building with Oswald's boss Roy Truly, at a time when no white men besides Baker and Truly were known to be on the first floor.

4-1-64. Warren Commission attorney David Belin argues with witness Ronald Fischer about the color of the hair of the man Fischer saw staring out the window of the sniper's nest.  According to Fischer, Belin tries to "intimidate" him, because Oswald's hair was not as light as the hair of the man Fischer saw, and he "wanted me to tell him that the man was dark-headed and I wouldn't do it." (Note: this was detailed in a December 1978 Dallas Morning News article by Earl Golz.)

4-7-64--Warren Commission attorney David Belin shows Vickie Adams a diagram of the first floor depicting where she claimed she saw Lovelady and Shelley, but fails to enter this diagram into evidence.

4-7-64. Warren Commission attorney Joseph Ball fails to ask Billy Lovelady any of a number of relevant questions regarding Eddie Piper and Jack Dougherty's actions after the shooting.

4-7-64. Warren Commission attorney Joseph Ball also fails to ask Lovelady if he saw Roy Truly and Officer Baker by the elevators, and whether or not he could be one of the white men observed by Baker.

4-7-64. Warren Commission attorney Joseph Ball asks William Shelley if he saw Roy Truly enter the depository building, but fails to ask him the more important question if he saw Truly and officer Baker by the elevators, and whether or not he could be one of the white men observed by Baker.

4-7-64. Warren Commission attorney Joseph Ball fails to ask William Shelley any of a number of relevant questions regarding Eddie Piper and Jack Dougherty's actions after the shooting.

4-7-64--September 1964. The Warren Commission's diagrams for the first floor of the school book depository strangely fail to include the west loading dock, through which Shelley and Lovelady re-entered the building, which was presumably left unsecured for some time after the shooting.

4-7-64--September 1964. Warren Commission attorneys Joseph Ball and David Belin fail to interview Gloria Calvery and re-enact the actions of William Shelley and Billy Lovelady after the shooting (in order to develop a timeline for Shelley and Lovelady's return to the building, which is essential to their assessing the credibility of Vickie Adams), even though Ball and Belin know from their testimony that Shelley and Lovelady's sense of time for the moments immediately following the shooting are at odds with the re-enactments Ball and Belin had already performed.

4-7-64--September 1964. Ball and Belin fail to consult newsreel footage which could help them establish the timing of Shelley and Lovelady's walk around the building, which could, in turn, help them establish the credibility of Vickie Adams' claim she ran down the back stairs just after the shooting, and saw Shelley and Lovelady on the first floor.

4-7-64--September 1964. The Warren Commission fails to ask Joe Molina about Vickie Adams even though it has reason to suspect he would confirm Adams' claim she was outside on the front steps within a few minutes of the shooting. 

4-7-64--September 1964. The Warren Commission fails to ask Mrs. Avery Davis about Vickie Adams even though it has reason to suspect she would confirm Adams' claim she was outside on the front steps within a few minutes of the shooting.

4-7-64--September 1964. Warren Commission attorney David Belin fails to follow-up and establish the identity of a policeman observed by Vickie Adams just after the shooting, even though the identification of this policeman could help the Commission establish the veracity of Miss Adams' claim she raced down the back stairs just after the shooting, and didn't see Oswald.

4-8-64. Warren Commission attorney David Belin fails to follow-up and clarify the record when Charles Givens testifies to leaving his coat in the domino room upon his arrival at work, but then going back up to the sixth floor to get his jacket after everyone else had left for lunch--a brand new addition to Givens' story that allowed Belin and the Commission to place Oswald in the proximity of the sniper's nest shortly before the shooting.

4-8-64--September 1964. Warren Commission attorney David Belin fails to point out in testimony or subsequently acknowledge that Givens' new story was in conflict with both his previous recollections, and that of his co-workers.

4-8-64. Warren Commission attorney David Belin goes against the precedent established during the testimony of Bonnie Ray Williams and others and allows Charles Givens to dispute the claims of an FBI report--without putting the source of these claims on the record.

4-8-64--September 1964. The Warren Commission fails to follow-up with Givens' 11-22-63 lunch partner, Edward Shields, to see if he will confirm Givens' claim he saw Oswald on the sixth floor around 11:55. 

4-8-64--September 1964. Warren Commission attorney David Belin, the man behind a number of re-enactments, fails to re-enact Givens' purported sighting of Oswald, to see if Givens could actually have seen Oswald where he said he saw him.

4-8-64. Warren Commission attorney Joseph Ball fails to ask Eddie Piper where on the first floor he saw Oswald at 12:00, and thereby conceals from the Commission and public that Piper felt certain he saw Oswald just where Oswald said he was during the lunch period--in the domino room.

4-8-64. Warren Commission attorney Joseph Ball fails to ask Eddie Piper about his discussion with Jack Dougherty, something that was desperately needed for the establishment of Dougherty as the passenger coming down in the west elevator after the shooting.                                                                                                

4-8-64. Warren Commission attorney Joseph Ball fails to ask Jack Dougherty what time he came down for lunch, and thereby conceals that Dougherty had previously claimed he was on the sixth floor until 12, and would thereby have been on the sixth floor when Charles Givens claimed he last saw Oswald. 

4-8-64. Warren Commission Attorney Joseph Ball fails to ask Jack Dougherty if he called the west elevator to the first floor after lunch, or if it was on the ground floor waiting for him, something that Dougherty may not have remembered, but something that was of vital importance and needed to be asked.

4-8-64--September 1964. The Warren Commission fails to test whether or not a rifle shot from the sixth floor sniper's nest window could have been heard by Jack Dougherty, standing near the opposite end of the building, as a sound coming from above him. 

4-8-64--September 1964. Ball, Belin, and the Warren Commission fail to explore the possibility Dougherty went upstairs to work after the shooting, after someone else had taken the west elevator to the ground floor.

4-8-64--September 1964. Attorneys Joseph Ball and David Belin and the Warren Commission as a whole fail to acknowledge that their conclusion Jack Dougherty rode the west elevator down to the first floor as Baker and Truly ran upstairs places Dougherty on the fifth floor by the west elevator as Oswald crossed an open stretch of floor before him.

4-8-64. Warren Commission attorney David Belin allows Dallas Police Inspector J. Herbert Sawyer to testify as though Charles Givens' new-found story (about seeing Oswald near the sniper's nest after everyone else had left the sixth floor) had been common knowledge on 11-22-63, when Belin knew this wasn't true. 

5-13-64. Dallas Police Detective Jack Revill testifies in support of Givens' new-found story, and offers Dallas Police Detective V. J. Brian as a witness to his discussion with Givens, only to have Warren Commission General Counsel J. Lee Rankin fail to ask Brian about Givens in testimony taken just after Revill dropped his smelly surprise. 

5-14-64--September 1964. Warren Commission attorney Joseph Ball cuts off Eddie Piper after Piper volunteers that he has no idea who brought the elevators down just after the shots, and steers him to what he believes is a more productive course--that he failed to see Vickie Adams come down the stairs.

 5-14-64--September 1964. Warren Commission attorney Joseph Ball not only fails to ask Eddie Piper the questions about Jack Dougherty he'd claimed in a memo needed to be asked, but uses the failure of Piper to provide answers to these never-asked questions as a means of discrediting him. 

5-14-64--September 1964. Warren Commission attorney Joseph Ball inexplicably fails to ask William Shelley about Jack Dougherty's 4-8-64 testimony, in which Dougherty claimed Shelley had told him he saw Oswald with a large package on 11-22-63.

5-19-64. The February 17-18 statements of Vickie Adams, who claimed she raced down the stairs just after the shooting, and Otis Williams, who claimed he raced up to the fourth floor shortly after the shooting (and who later claimed he'd taken the back stairs up to the second floor just after the shooting), are inexplicably missing from a batch of statements taken by the Dallas Police that are only now provided the Warren Commission.

6-4-64--September 1964. Vickie Adams' boss, Dorothy Ann Garner, lets it be known she'd be willing to testify in support of Adams' and Styles' claim they raced down the stairs after the shooting, and goes one step further by claiming she saw Baker and Truly run up the stairs after Adams and Styles ran down the stairs...and is totally blown off by the Warren Commission...

June-64--September 1964. Chapter IV in the Commission's Final report is presented, approved, and sold to the public even though it includes an egregious lie, which, no surprise, helps sell Oswald's guilt. In support of the Commission's conclusion Vickie Adams was mistaken, and that Oswald did in fact race down the stairs within a minute of the shooting, the report claims: "Victoria Adams, who worked on the fourth floor of the Depository Building, claimed that within about 1 minute following the shots she ran from a window on the south side of the fourth floor, down the rear stairs to the first floor, where she encountered two Depository employees--William Shelley and Billy Lovelady. If her estimate of time is correct, she reached the bottom of the stairs before Truly and Baker started up, and she must have run down the stairs ahead of Oswald and would probably have seen or heard him..." It then strikes: "Shelley and Lovelady, however, have testified that they... reentered the building by the REAR door several minutes after Baker and Truly rushed through the front entrance".

So where was the lie? I sure hope you caught it. 

It was the bit about Shelley and Lovelady re-entering the building through the REAR door several minutes after Baker and Truly rushed through the front door. While Shelley and Lovelady both struggled with their time estimates, and thereby helped the Commission in its effort to discredit Adams, they also were consistent in that they both testified--in the testimony the Commission cited by footnote to support they'd re-entered by the rear door, moreover-- to re-entering the building through the side door. By claiming they re-entered the building through the REAR door, instead of the side door, the commission had effectively doubled the distance the men were presumed to have covered in the "several minutes" of their estimate. 

And, oh yeah, "several minutes." Shelley and Lovelady both testified to spending but 60-90 seconds down by the railroad tracks, which translates to their re-entering the building 85-115 seconds after Baker and Truly entered the building. That's close, but it isn't "several minutes." In fact, while some use the word "several" to mean "more than one" the actual definition is "more than two." In such case, then, the commission's staff had flat-out lied, and had stretched a passage of time as short as 85 seconds into a passage of time no less than 180 seconds. A sneaky lawyer trick--by a sneaky lawyer liar. 

The commission's report, then, made two false claims in one sentence that served the same purpose--to stretch out the time sequence regarding Shelley and Lovelady's return to the building, which the commission could then use to discredit Adams.

This would appear to be no coincidence. 

Q and A About the Q and A

Let's summarize, then, what the Warren Commission uncovered and concluded, from the witnesses discussed in this chapter.

Question: where was Lee Harvey Oswald in the 40 minutes leading up to the shooting of President Kennedy?

What the witnesses told the commission: William Shelley, Eddie Piper, and Carolyn Arnold claimed they saw Oswald on the first floor after he came down for lunch (around 11:50, 12:00, and 12:15, respectively). Oswald identified James Jarman and Harold Norman as (presumably the last) men who could support that he was in the domino room before the shooting. Norman's testimony suggests he may have seen Oswald in the domino room as he ate his lunch, shortly before or after 12:00. But he wasn't with Jarman at this time, and Oswald said he saw them together. It's undoubtedly significant then that Norman and Jarman passed by the door to the domino room circa 12:20-12:25--a fact Oswald was unlikely to have known should he have been busy on the sixth floor at this time. Charles Givens, on the other hand, changed his story at the last minute and claimed he saw Oswald on the sixth floor around 11:55.

How the commission answered the question of Oswald's whereabouts during the 40 minutes leading up to the assassination: the commission concluded Givens was telling the truth, and that, somehow, someway, this meant Oswald never came down for lunch.

Question: who took the west elevator down from the fifth (or sixth) floor a few minutes after the shooting, around 12:32?

What the witnesses told the commission: Jack Dougherty claimed he took this elevator up to the sixth floor circa 12:35, and then down to the fifth floor, where he heard a loud noise from up above him at 12:40, and immediately returned to the first floor, where he talked to Eddie Piper. Despite his writing a memo insisting Piper be asked the time he spoke to Dougherty, Warren Commission counsel Joseph Ball failed to ask Piper this incredibly important question, at least on the record. Supporting Dougherty's claim he took the elevator up circa 12:35, and was on the fifth floor circa 12:40, moreover, was Roy Truly's recollection of seeing Dougherty on the fifth floor circa 12:35-12:40, as he (Truly) descended from the roof with Officer Marrion Baker. Supporting that a loud sound was made at this time, and came from above Dougherty's location by the west elevator (as opposed to coming from the sniper's nest, far to the east of Dougherty), for that matter, is that J.C. Price (on the roof of the building across the plaza from the depository) also claimed to hear a loud sound 5 minutes or so after the shooting, and that Baker and Truly returned from the roof via a hatch, almost directly above Dougherty's location.

So the short answer to the question of who took the west elevator down between 12:31 and 12:32...is not Dougherty. 

Here are some additional reasons to believe Dougherty took the west elevator up after the shooting--after Baker and Truly raced up the stairs, and an unidentified person came down on the west elevator:

1) Dougherty failed to see or hear Harold Norman, Bonnie Ray Williams, and James Jarman speak excitedly to one another after hearing the shots that killed Kennedy, and race across the fifth floor to the west side of the building to see what was happening. The fifth floor was an open floor being used as a warehouse. As a result, it seems certain Dougherty would have heard Norman, Williams, and Jarman, should he have been standing by the west elevator for 1-2 minutes after the time of the last shot, as presumed by the Commission.

2) Norman, Williams, and Jarman also failed to notice Dougherty at this time. He was in the government's scenario a big man standing out in the open near the elevator, who went over to the elevator, closed its gates, and rode downstairs without being noticed. Maybe. Maybe not.

3) If Dougherty actually took the west elevator down as Baker and Truly raced up the stairs, moreover, he would have to have been standing by the west elevator as the sniper raced down the stairs from the sixth floor, and across an open stretch of floor, in plain sight, less than 10 yards away. Oswald was observed, after all, on the second floor, as Baker and Truly raced up the stairs within a minute and a half of the shooting. If he was the shooter, he would have to have raced down the stairs (which are not separated by a stairwell and feed into and out of the floors) forty-five seconds or so after the shooting. Well, this would have been before Dougherty started down on the elevator. Baker and Truly insisted, after all, that the west elevator was on a top floor when they looked up the elevator shaft from the first floor, around one minute after the shooting.

And here is an additional reason to believe someone other than Dougherty took the west elevator down from the upper floors around 12:32: Vickie Adams, Sandra Styles, and Dorothy Garner all swore Adams and Styles raced down the stairs before Baker and Truly raced up the stairs, and that they didn't see or hear Oswald on the stairs as they raced down.

So it seems fairly certain someone other than Dougherty rode the west elevator down a minute or so after the shooting.

If true, this strongly suggests someone other than Oswald was the sixth floor shooter.

How the commission answered the question of who rode the west elevator to the first floor after the shooting: the commission ignored Styles and Garner, and claimed Piper, Dougherty and Adams were confused. It offered instead a scenario in which Dougherty was hard of hearing, blind, invisible and frozen-in-time between the moment of the last shot, and the moment he took the west elevator down to the first floor, a minute or more after the shooting.

The audacious nature of these conclusions, then, suggests Belin and Ball's "investigation" was nothing but a whitewash.

Let's take another look, then, at how this was done.

PatSpeer.com 

Chapter 4b: Threads of Evidence