OSWALD AT WINDOW
Lee Harvey Oswald was hired on October 15, 1963, by the Texas School Book Depository as an “order filler.”[C4-204] He worked principally on the first and sixth floors of the building, gathering books listed on orders and delivering them to the shipping room on the first floor.[C4-205] He had ready access to the sixth floor,[C4-206] from the southeast corner window of which the shots were fired.[C4-207] The Commission evaluated the physical evidence found near the window after the assassination and the testimony of eyewitnesses in deciding whether Lee Harvey Oswald was present at this window at the time of the assassination.
Commission Exhibit No. 1301
SOUTHEAST CORNER OF SIXTH FLOOR SHOWING ARRANGEMENT OF CARTONS SHORTLY AFTER SHOTS WERE FIRED.
Commission Exhibit No. 1302
APPROXIMATE LOCATION OF WRAPPING-PAPER BAG AND LOCATION OF PALM PRINT ON CARTON NEAR WINDOW IN SOUTHEAST CORNER. (HAND POSITION SHOWN BY DOTTED LINE ON BOX)
Palmprints and Fingerprints on Cartons and Paper Bag
Below the southeast corner window on the sixth floor was a large carton of books measuring approximately 18 by 12 by 14 inches which had been moved from a stack along the south wall.[C4-208] Atop this carton was a small carton marked “Rolling Readers,” measuring approximately 13 by 9 by 8 inches.[C4-209] In front of this small carton and resting partially on the windowsill was another small “Rolling Readers” carton.[C4-210] These two small cartons had been moved from a stack about three aisles away.[C4-211] The boxes in the window appeared to have been arranged as a convenient gun rest.[C4-212] (See Commission Exhibit No. 1301, [p. 138].) Behind these boxes was another carton placed on the floor on which a man sitting could look southwesterly down Elm Street over the top of the “Rolling Readers” cartons.[C4-213] Next to these cartons was the handmade paper bag, previously discussed, on which appeared the print of the left index finger and right palm of Lee Harvey Oswald.[C4-214] (See Commission Exhibit No. 1302, [p. 139].)
The cartons were forwarded to the FBI in Washington. Sebastian F. Latona, supervisor of the Latent Fingerprint Section, testified that 20 identifiable fingerprints and 8 palmprints were developed on these cartons.[C4-215] The carton on the windowsill and the large carton below the window contained no prints which could be identified as being those of Lee Harvey Oswald.[C4-216] The other “Rolling Readers” carton, however, contained a palmprint and a fingerprint which were identified by Latona as being the left palmprint and right index fingerprint of Lee Harvey Oswald.[C4-217] (See app. X, [p. 566].)
The Commission has considered the possibility that the cartons might have been moved in connection with the work that was being performed on the sixth floor on November 22. Depository employees were laying a new floor at the west end and transferring books from the west to the east end of the building.[C4-218] The “Rolling Readers” cartons, however, had not been moved by the floor layers and had apparently been taken to the window from their regular position for some particular purpose.[C4-219] The “Rolling Readers” boxes contained, instead of books, light blocks used as reading aids.[C4-220] They could be easily adjusted and were still solid enough to serve as a gun rest.
The box on the floor, behind the three near the window, had been one of these moved by the floor layers from the west wall to near the east side of the building in preparation for the laying of the floor.[C4-221] During the afternoon of November 22, Lieutenant Day of the Dallas police dusted this carton with powder and developed a palmprint on the top edge of the carton on the side nearest the window.[C4-222] The position of this palmprint on the carton was parallel with the long axis of the box, and at right angles with the short axis; the bottom of the palm rested on the box.[C4-223] Someone sitting on the box facing the window would have his palm in this position if he placed his hand alongside his right hip. (See Commission Exhibit No. 1302, [p. 139].) This print which had been cut out of the box was also forwarded to the FBI and Latona identified it as Oswald’s right palmprint.[C4-224] In Latona’s opinion “not too long” a time had elapsed between the time that the print was placed on the carton and the time that it had been developed by the Dallas police.[C4-225] Although Bureau experiments had shown that 24 hours was a likely maximum time, Latona stated that he could only testify with certainty that the print was less than 3 days old.[C4-226]
The print, therefore, could have been placed on the carton at any time within this period. The freshness of this print could be estimated only because the Dallas police developed it through the use of powder. Since cartons absorb perspiration, powder can successfully develop a print on such material[C4-227] only within a limited time. When the FBI in Washington received the cartons, the remaining prints, including Oswald’s on the Rolling Readers carton, were developed by chemical processes. The freshness of prints developed in this manner[C4-228] cannot be estimated, so no conclusions can be drawn as to whether these remaining prints preceded or followed the print developed in Dallas by powder. Most of the prints were found to have been placed on the cartons by an FBI clerk and a Dallas police officer after the cartons had been processed with powder by the Dallas Police.[C4-229] (See ch. VI, [p. 249]; app. X, [p. 566].)
In his independent investigation, Arthur Mandella of the New York City Police Department reached the same conclusion as Latona that the prints found on the cartons were those of Lee Harvey Oswald.[C4-229] In addition, Mandella was of the opinion that the print taken from the carton on the floor was probably made within a day or a day and a half of the examination on November 22.[C4-230] Moreover, another expert with the FBI, Ronald G. Wittmus, conducted a separate examination and also agreed with Latona that the prints were Oswald’s.[C4-231]
In evaluating the significance of these fingerprint and palmprint identifications, the Commission considered the possibility that Oswald handled these cartons as part of his normal duties. Since other identifiable prints were developed on the cartons, the Commission requested that they be compared with the prints of the 12 warehouse employees who, like Oswald, might have handled the cartons. They were also compared with the prints of those law enforcement officials who might have handled the cartons. The results of this investigation are fully discussed in chapter VI, page 249. Although a person could handle a carton and not leave identifiable prints, none of these employees except Oswald left identifiable prints on the cartons.[C4-232] This finding, in addition to the freshness of one of the prints and the presence of Oswald’s prints on two of the four cartons and the paper bag led the Commission to attach some probative value to the fingerprint and palmprint identifications in reaching the conclusion that Oswald was at the window from which the shots were fired, although the prints do not establish the exact time he was there.
Commission Exhibit No. 2707
SIXTH FLOOR, TEXAS SCHOOL BOOK DEPOSITORY DALLAS, TEXAS
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.[C4-233] 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.[C4-234] Givens saw Oswald standing at the gate on the fifth floor as the elevator went by.[C4-235] 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.”[C4-236] He saw Oswald, a clipboard in hand, walking from the southeast corner of the sixth floor toward the elevator.[C4-237] (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.”[C4-238] Oswald was referring to the west elevator which operates by pushbutton and only with the gate closed.[C4-239] 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.[C4-240] None of the Depository employees is known to have seen Oswald again until after the shooting.[C4-241]
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.[C4-242] This clipboard had been made by Kaiser and had his name on it.[C4-243] Kaiser identified it as the clipboard which Oswald had appropriated from him when Oswald came to work at the Depository.[C4-244] Three invoices on this clipboard, each dated November 22, were for Scott-Foresman books, located on the first and sixth floors.[C4-245] Oswald had not filled any of the three orders.[C4-246]
Eyewitness Identification of Assassin
Howard L. Brennan was an eyewitness to the shooting. As indicated previously the Commission considered his testimony as probative in reaching the conclusion that the shots came from the sixth floor, southeast corner window of the Depository Building.[C4-247] (See ch. III, [pp. 61-68].) Brennan also testified that Lee Harvey Oswald, whom he viewed in a police lineup on the night of the assassination, was the man he saw fire the shots from the sixth-floor window of the Depository Building.[C4-248] When the shots were fired, Brennan was in an excellent position to observe anyone in the window. He was sitting on a concrete wall on the southwest corner of Elm and Houston Streets, looking north at the Depository Building which was directly in front of him.[C4-249] The window was approximately 120 feet away.[C4-250](See Commission Exhibit No. 477, [p. 62].)
In the 6- to 8-minute period before the motorcade arrived,[C4-251] Brennan saw a man leave and return to the window “a couple of times.”[C4-252] After hearing the first shot, which he thought was a motorcycle backfire, Brennan glanced up at the window. He testified that “this man I saw previously was aiming for his last shot * * * as it appeared to me he was standing up and resting against the left window sill * * *.”[C4-253]
Brennan saw the man fire the last shot and disappear from the window. Within minutes of the assassination, Brennan described the man to the police.[C4-254] This description most probably led to the radio alert sent to police cars at approximately 12:45 p.m., which described the suspect as white, slender, weighing about 165 pounds, about 5’10” tall, and in his early thirties.[C4-255] In his sworn statement to the police later that day, Brennan described the man in similar terms, except that he gave the weight as between 165 and 175 pounds and the height was omitted.[C4-256] In his testimony before the Commission, Brennan described the person he saw as “* * * a man in his early thirties, fair complexion, slender, but neat, neat slender, possible 5 foot 10 * * * 160 to 170 pounds.”[C4-257] Oswald was 5’9”, slender and 24 years old. When arrested, he gave his weight as 140 pounds.[C4-258] On other occasions he gave weights of both 140 and 150 pounds.[C4-259] The New Orleans police records of his arrest in August of 1963 show a weight of 136 pounds.[C4-260] The autopsy report indicated an estimated weight of 150 pounds.[C4-261]
Brennan’s description should also be compared with the eyewitness description broadcast over the Dallas police radio at 1:22 p.m. of the man who shot Patrolman J. D. Tippit. The suspect was described as “a white male about 30, 5’8”, black hair, slender. * * *”[C4-262] At 1:29 p.m. the police radio reported that the description of the suspect in the Tippit shooting was similar to the description which had been given by Brennan in connection with the assassination.[C4-263] Approximately 7 or 8 minutes later the police radio reported that “an eyeball witness” described the suspect in the Tippit shooting as “a white male, 27, 5’11”, 165 pounds, black wavy hair.”[C4-264] As will be discussed fully below, the Commission has concluded that this suspect was Lee Harvey Oswald.
Although Brennan testified that the man in the window was standing when he fired the shots,[C4-265] most probably he was either sitting or kneeling. The half-open window,[C4-266] the arrangement of the boxes,[C4-267] and the angle of the shots virtually preclude a standing position.[C4-268] It is understandable, however, for Brennan to have believed that the man with the rifle was standing. A photograph of the building taken seconds after the assassination shows three employees looking out of the fifth-floor window directly below the window from which the shots were fired. Brennan testified that they were standing,[C4-269] which is their apparent position in the photograph.[C4-270] (See Dillard Exhibits Nos. C and D. [pp. 66-67].) But the testimony of these employees,[C4-271] together with photographs subsequently taken of them at the scene of the assassination,[C4-272] establishes that they were either squatting or kneeling. (See Commission Exhibit No. 485, [p. 69].) Since the window ledges in the Depository Building are lower than in most buildings,[C4-273] a person squatting or kneeling exposes more of his body than would normally be the case. From the street, this creates the impression that the person is standing. Brennan could have seen enough of the body of a kneeling or squatting person to estimate his height.
Shortly after the assassination Brennan noticed two of these employees leaving the building and immediately identified them as having been in the fifth-floor windows.[C4-274] When the three employees appeared before the Commission, Brennan identified the two whom he saw leave the building.[C4-275] The two men, Harold Norman and James Jarman, Jr., each confirmed that when they came out of the building, they saw and heard Brennan describing what he had seen.[C4-276] Norman stated, “* * * I remember him talking and I believe I remember seeing him saying that he saw us when we first went up to the fifth-floor window, he saw us then.”[C4-277] Jarman heard Brennan “talking to this officer about that he had heard these shots and he had seen the barrel of the gun sticking out the window, and he said that the shots came from inside the building.”[C4-278]
During the evening of November 22, Brennan identified Oswald as the person in the lineup who bore the closest resemblance to the man in the window but he said he was unable to make a positive identification.[C4-279] Prior to the lineup, Brennan had seen Oswald’s picture on television and he told the Commission that whether this affected his identification “is something I do not know.”[C4-280] In an interview with FBI agents on December 17, 1963, Brennan stated that he was sure that the person firing the rifle was Oswald.[C4-281] In another interview with FBI agents on January 7, 1964, Brennan appeared to revert to his earlier inability to make a positive identification,[C4-282] but, in his testimony before the Commission, Brennan stated that his remarks of January 7 were intended by him merely as an accurate report of what he said on November 22.[C4-283]
Brennan told the Commission that he could have made a positive identification in the lineup on November 22 but did not do so because he felt that the assassination was “a Communist activity, and I felt like there hadn’t been more than one eyewitness, and if it got to be a known fact that I was an eyewitness, my family or I, either one, might not be safe.”[C4-284] When specifically asked before the Commission whether or not he could positively identify the man he saw in the sixth-floor window as the same man he saw in the police station, Brennan stated, “I could at that time—I could, with all sincerity, identify him as being the same man.”[C4-285]
Although the record indicates that Brennan was an accurate observer, he declined to make a positive identification of Oswald when he first saw him in the police lineup.[C4-286] The Commission, therefore, does not base its conclusion concerning the identity of the assassin on Brennan’s subsequent certain identification of Lee Harvey Oswald as the man he saw fire the rifle. Immediately after the assassination, however, Brennan described to the police the man he saw in the window and then identified Oswald as the person who most nearly resembled the man he saw. The Commission is satisfied that, at the least, Brennan saw a man in the window who closely resembled Lee Harvey Oswald, and that Brennan believes the man he saw was in fact Lee Harvey Oswald.
Two other witnesses were able to offer partial descriptions of a man they saw in the southeast corner window of the sixth floor approximately 1 minute before the assassination, although neither witness saw the shots being fired.[C4-287] Ronald Fischer and Robert Edwards were standing on the curb at the southwest corner of Elm and Houston Streets,[C4-288] the same corner where Brennan was sitting on a concrete wall.[C4-289] Fischer testified that about 10 or 15 seconds before the motorcade turned onto Houston Street from Main Street, Edwards said, “Look at that guy there in that window.”[C4-290]
Fischer looked up and watched the man in the window for 10 or 15 seconds and then started watching the motorcade, which came into view on Houston Street.[C4-291] He said that the man held his attention until the motorcade came because the man:
* * * appeared uncomfortable for one, and secondly, he wasn’t watching * * * he didn’t look like he was watching for the parade. He looked like he was looking down toward the Trinity River and the Triple Underpass down at the end—toward the end of Elm Street. And * * * all the time I watched him, he never moved his head, he never—he never moved anything. Just was there transfixed.[C4-292]
Fischer placed the man in the easternmost window on the south side of the Depository Building on either the fifth or the sixth floor.[C4-293] He said that he could see the man from the middle of his chest to the top of his head, and that as he was facing the window the man was in the lower right-hand portion of the window and “seemed to be sitting a little forward.”[C4-294] The man was dressed in a light-colored, open-neck shirt which could have been either a sports shirt or a T-shirt, and he had brown hair, a slender face and neck with light complexion, and looked to be 22 or 24 years old.[C4-295] The person in the window was a white man and “looked to me like he was looking straight at the Triple Underpass” down Elm Street.[C4-296] Boxes and cases were stacked behind him.[C4-297]
Approximately 1 week after the assassination, according to Fischer, policemen showed him a picture of Oswald.[C4-298] In his testimony he said, “I told them that that could have been the man. * * * That that could have been the man that I saw in the window in the School Book Depository Building, but that I was not sure.”[C4-299] Fischer described the man’s hair as some shade of brown—“it wasn’t dark and it wasn’t light.”[C4-300] On November 22, Fischer had apparently described the man as “light-headed.”[C4-301] Fischer explained that he did not mean by the earlier statement that the man was blond, but rather that his hair was not black.[C4-302]
Robert Edwards said that, while looking at the south side of the Depository Building shortly before the motorcade, he saw nothing of importance “except maybe one individual who was up there in the corner room of the sixth floor which was crowded in among boxes.”[C4-303] He said that this was a white man about average in size, “possibly thin,” and that he thought the man had light-brown hair.[C4-304] Fischer and Edwards did not see the man clearly enough or long enough to identify him. Their testimony is of probative value, however, because their limited description is consistent with that of the man who has been found by the Commission, based on other evidence, to have fired the shots from the window.
Another person who saw the assassin as the shots were fired was Amos L. Euins, age 15, who was one of the first witnesses to alert the police to the Depository as the source of the shots, as has been discussed in chapter III.[C4-305] Euins, who was on the southwest corner of Elm and Houston Streets,[C4-306] testified that he could not describe the man he saw in the window. According to Euins, however, as the man lowered his head in order to aim the rifle down Elm Street, he appeared to have a white bald spot on his head.[C4-307] Shortly after the assassination, Euins signed an affidavit describing the man as “white,”[C4-308] but a radio reporter testified that Euins described the man to him as “colored.”[C4-309] In his Commission testimony, Euins stated that he could not ascertain the man’s race and that the statement in the affidavit was intended to refer only to the white spot on the man’s head and not to his race.[C4-310] A Secret Service agent who spoke to Euins approximately 20 to 30 minutes after the assassination confirmed that Euins could neither describe the man in the window nor indicate his race.[C4-311] Accordingly, Euins’ testimony is considered probative as to the source of the shots but is inconclusive as to the identity of the man in the window.
In evaluating the evidence that Oswald was at the southeast corner window of the sixth floor at the time of the shooting, the Commission has considered the allegation that Oswald was photographed standing in front of the building when the shots were fired. The picture which gave rise to these allegations was taken by Associated Press Photographer James W. Altgens, who was standing on the south side of Elm Street between the Triple Underpass and the Depository Building.[C4-312] As the motorcade started its descent down Elm Street, Altgens snapped a picture of the Presidential limousine with the entrance to the Depository Building in the background.[C4-313] Just before snapping the picture Altgens heard a noise which sounded like the popping of a firecracker. Investigation has established that Altgens’ picture was taken approximately 2 seconds after the firing of the shot which entered the back of the President’s neck.[C4-314]
Commission Exhibit No. 1061
TEXAS SCHOOL BOOK DEPOSITORY DIAGRAM OF FIRST FLOOR
In the background of this picture were several employees watching the parade from the steps of the Depository Building. One of these employees was alleged to resemble Lee Harvey Oswald.[C4-315] The Commission has determined that the employee was in fact Billy Nolan Lovelady, who identified himself in the picture.[C4-316] Standing alongside him were Buell Wesley Frazier[C4-317] and William Shelley,[C4-318] who also identified Lovelady. The Commission is satisfied that Oswald does not appear in this photograph. (See Commission Exhibit No. 900, [p. 113].)
Oswald’s Actions in Building After Assassination
In considering whether Oswald was at the southeast corner window at the time the shots were fired, the Commission has reviewed the testimony of witnesses who saw Oswald in the building within minutes after the assassination. The Commission has found that Oswald’s movements, as described by these witnesses, are consistent with his having been at the window at 12:30 p.m.
The encounter in the lunchroom.—The first person to see Oswald after the assassination was Patrolman M. L. Baker of the Dallas Police Department. Baker was riding a two-wheeled motorcycle behind the last press car of the motorcade.[C4-319] As he turned the corner from Main onto Houston at a speed of about 5 to 10 miles per hour,[C4-320] a strong wind blowing from the north almost unseated him.[C4-321] At about this time he heard the first shot.[C4-322] Having recently heard the sounds of rifles while on a hunting trip, Baker recognized the shots as that of a high-powered rifle; “it sounded high and I immediately kind of looked up, and I had a feeling that it came from the building, either right in front of me [the Depository Building] or of the one across to the right of it.”[C4-323] He saw pigeons flutter upward. He was not certain, “but I am pretty sure they came from the building right on the northwest corner.”[C4-324] He heard two more shots spaced “pretty well even to me.”[C4-325] After the third shot, he “revved that motorcycle up,” drove to the northwest corner of Elm and Houston, and parked approximately 10 feet from the traffic signal.[C4-326] As he was parking he noted that people were “falling, and they were rolling around down there * * * grabbing their children” and rushing about.[C4-327] A woman screamed, “Oh, they have shot that man, they have shot that man.”[C4-328] Baker “had it in mind that the shots came from the top of this building here,” so he ran straight to the entrance of the Depository Building.[C4-329]
Baker testified that he entered the lobby of the building and “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.’”[C4-330] Baker and building superintendent Roy Truly went through a second set of doors[C4-331] and stopped at a swinging door where Baker bumped into Truly’s back.[C4-332] They went through the swinging door and continued at “a good trot” to the northwest corner of the floor where Truly hoped to find one of the two freight elevators. (See Commission Exhibit No. 1061, [p. 148].) Neither elevator was there.[C4-333] Truly pushed the button for the west elevator which operates automatically if the gate is closed.[C4-334] He shouted twice, “Turn loose the elevator.”[C4-335] When the elevator failed to come, Baker said, “let’s take the stairs,” and he followed Truly up the stairway, which is to the west of the elevator.[C4-336]
Commission Exhibit No. 1118
TEXAS SCHOOL BOOK DEPOSITORY DIAGRAM OF SECOND FLOOR SHOWING ROUTE OF OSWALD
The stairway is located in the northwest corner of the Depository Building. The stairs from one floor to the next are “L-shaped,” with both legs of the “L” approximately the same length. Because the stairway itself is enclosed, neither Baker nor Truly could see anything on the second-floor hallway until they reached the landing at the top of the stairs.[C4-337] On the second-floor landing there is a small open area with a door at the east end. This door leads into a small vestibule, and another door leads from the vestibule into the second-floor lunchroom.[C4-338] (See Commission Exhibit No. 1118, [p. 150].) The lunchroom door is usually open, but the first door is kept shut by a closing mechanism on the door.[C4-339] This vestibule door is solid except for a small glass window in the upper part of the door.[C4-340] As Baker reached the second floor, he was about 20 feet from the vestibule door.[C4-341] He intended to continue around to his left toward the stairway going up but through the window in the door he caught a fleeting glimpse of a man walking in the vestibule toward the lunchroom.[C4-342]
Since the vestibule door is only a few feet from the lunchroom door,[C4-343] the man must have entered the vestibule only a second or two before Baker arrived at the top of the stairwell. Yet he must have entered the vestibule door before Truly reached the top of the stairwell, since Truly did not see him.[C4-344] If the man had passed from the vestibule into the lunchroom, Baker could not have seen him. Baker said:
He [Truly] had already started around the bend to come to the next elevator going up, I was coming out this one on the second floor, and I don’t know, I was kind of sweeping this area as I come up, I was looking from right to left and as I got to this door here I caught a glimpse of this man, just, you know, a sudden glimpse * * * and it looked to me like he was going away from me. * * *
I can’t say whether he had gone on through that door [the lunchroom door] or not. All I did was catch a glance at him, and evidently he was—this door might have been, you know, closing and almost shut at that time.[C4-345]
With his revolver drawn, Baker opened the vestibule door and ran into the vestibule. He saw a man walking away from him in the lunchroom. Baker stopped at the door of the lunchroom and commanded, “Come here.”[C4-346] The man turned and walked back toward Baker.[C4-347] He had been proceeding toward the rear of the lunchroom.[C4-348] Along a side wall of the lunchroom was a soft drink vending machine,[C4-349] but at that time the man had nothing in his hands.[C4-350]
Meanwhile, Truly had run up several steps toward the third floor. Missing Baker, he came back to find the officer in the doorway to the lunchroom “facing Lee Harvey Oswald.”[C4-351] Baker turned to Truly and said, “Do you know this man, does he work here?”[C4-352] Truly replied, “Yes.”[C4-353] Baker stated later that the man did not seem to be out of breath; he seemed calm. “He never did say a word or nothing. In fact, he didn’t change his expression one bit.”[C4-354] Truly said of Oswald: “He didn’t seem to be excited or overly afraid or anything. He might have been a bit startled, like I might have been if somebody confronted me. But I cannot recall any change in expression of any kind on his face.”[C4-355] Truly thought that the officer’s gun at that time appeared to be almost touching the middle portion of Oswald’s body. Truly also noted at this time that Oswald’s hands were empty.[C4-356]
In an effort to determine whether Oswald could have descended to the lunchroom from the sixth floor by the time Baker and Truly arrived, Commission counsel asked Baker and Truly to repeat their movements from the time of the shot until Baker came upon Oswald in the lunchroom. Baker placed himself on a motorcycle about 200 feet from the corner of Elm and Houston Streets where he said he heard the shots.[C4-357] Truly stood in front of the building.[C4-358] At a given signal, they reenacted the event. Baker’s movements were timed with a stopwatch. On the first test, the elapsed time between the simulated first shot and Baker’s arrival on the second-floor stair landing was 1 minute and 30 seconds. The second test run required 1 minute and 15 seconds.[C4-359]
A test was also conducted to determine the time required to walk from the southeast corner of the sixth floor to the second-floor lunchroom by stairway. Special Agent John Howlett of the Secret Service carried a rifle from the southeast corner of the sixth floor along the east aisle to the northeast corner. He placed the rifle on the floor near the site where Oswald’s rifle was actually found after the shooting. Then Howlett walked down the stairway to the second-floor landing and entered the lunchroom. The first test, run at normal walking pace, required 1 minute, 18 seconds;[C4-360] the second test, at a “fast walk” took 1 minute, 14 seconds.[C4-361] The second test followed immediately after the first. The only interval was the time necessary to ride in the elevator from the second to the sixth floor and walk back to the southeast corner. Howlett was not short winded at the end of either test run.[C4-362]
The minimum time required by Baker to park his motorcycle and reach the second-floor lunchroom was within 3 seconds of the time needed to walk from the southeast corner of the sixth floor down the stairway to the lunchroom. The time actually required for Baker and Truly to reach the second floor on November 22 was probably longer than in the test runs. For example, Baker required 15 seconds after the simulated shot to ride his motorcycle 180 to 200 feet, park it, and run 45 feet to the building.[C4-363] No allowance was made for the special conditions which existed on the day of the assassination—possible delayed reaction to the shot, jostling with the crowd of people on the steps and scanning the area along Elm Street and the parkway.[C4-364] Baker said, “We simulated the shots and by the time we got there, we did everything that I did that day, and this would be the minimum, because I am sure that I, you know, it took me a little longer.”[C4-365] On the basis of this time test, therefore, the Commission concluded that Oswald could have fired the shots and still have been present in the second-floor lunchroom when seen by Baker and Truly.
That Oswald descended by stairway from the sixth floor to the second-floor lunchroom is consistent with the movements of the two elevators, which would have provided the other possible means of descent. When Truly, accompanied by Baker, ran to the rear of the first floor, he was certain that both elevators, which occupy the same shaft,[C4-366] were on the fifth floor.[C4-367] Baker, not realizing that there were two elevators, thought that only one elevator was in the shaft and that it was two or three floors above the second floor.[C4-368] In the few seconds which elapsed while Baker and Truly ran from the first to the second floor, neither of these slow elevators could have descended from the fifth to the second floor. Furthermore, no elevator was at the second floor when they arrived there.[C4-369] Truly and Baker continued up the stairs after the encounter with Oswald in the lunchroom. There was no elevator on the third or fourth floor. The east elevator was on the fifth floor when they arrived; the west elevator was not. They took the east elevator to the seventh floor and ran up a stairway to the roof where they searched for several minutes.[C4-370]
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.[C4-371] Eddie Piper, the janitor, told Dougherty that the President had been shot,[C4-372] but in his testimony Piper did not mention either seeing or talking with Dougherty during these moments of excitement.[C4-373] Both Dougherty and Piper were confused witnesses. They had no exact memory of the events of that afternoon. Truly was probably correct in stating that the west elevator was on the fifth floor when he looked up the elevator shaft from the first floor. The west elevator was not on the fifth floor when Baker and Truly reached that floor, probably because Jack Dougherty took it to the first floor while Baker and Truly were running up the stairs or in the lunchroom with Oswald. Neither elevator could have been used by Oswald as a means of descent.
Oswald’s use of the stairway is consistent with the testimony of other employees in the building. 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.[C4-374] While they were at the west windows their view of the stairwell was completely blocked by shelves and boxes.[C4-375] 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.[C4-376] Neither Jarman, Norman, Williams, or Dougherty saw Oswald.[C4-377]
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,[C4-378] down the rear stairs to the first floor, where she encountered two Depository employees—William Shelley and Billy Lovelady.[C4-379] 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. Actually she noticed no one on the back stairs. If she descended from the fourth to the first floor as fast as she claimed in her testimony, she would have seen Baker or Truly on the first floor or on the stairs, unless they were already in the second-floor lunchroom talking to Oswald. When she reached the first floor, she actually saw Shelley and Lovelady slightly east of the east elevator.
Shelley and Lovelady, however, have testified that they were watching the parade from the top step of the building entrance when Gloria Calverly, who works in the Depository Building, ran up and said that the President had been shot.[C4-380] Lovelady and Shelley moved out into the street.[C4-381] About this time Shelley saw Truly and Patrolman Baker go into the building.[C4-382] 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.[C4-383] On entering, Lovelady saw a girl on the first floor who he believes was Victoria Adams.[C4-384] 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.
Oswald’s departure from building.—Within a minute after Baker and Truly left Oswald in the lunchroom, Mrs. R. A. Reid, clerical supervisor for the Texas School Book Depository, saw him walk through the clerical office on the second floor toward the door leading to the front stairway. Mrs. Reid had watched the parade from the sidewalk in front of the building with Truly and Mr. O. V. Campbell, vice president of the Depository.[C4-385] She testified that she heard three shots which she thought came from the building.[C4-386] She ran inside and up the front stairs into the large open office reserved for clerical employees. As she approached her desk, she saw Oswald.[C4-387] He was walking into the office from the back hallway, carrying a full bottle of Coca-Cola in his hand,[C4-388] presumably purchased after the encounter with Baker and Truly. As Oswald passed Mrs. Reid she said, “Oh, the President has been shot, but maybe they didn’t hit him.”[C4-389] Oswald mumbled something and walked by.[C4-390] She paid no more attention to him. The only exit from the office in the direction Oswald was moving was through the door to the front stairway.[C4-391] (See Commission Exhibit 1118, [p. 150].) Mrs. Reid testified that when she saw Oswald, he was wearing a T-shirt and no jacket.[C4-392] When he left home that morning, Marina Oswald, who was still in bed, suggested that he wear a jacket.[C4-393] A blue jacket, later identified by Marina Oswald as her husband’s,[C4-394] was subsequently found in the building,[C4-395] apparently left behind by Oswald.
Mrs. Reid believes that she returned to her desk from the street about 2 minutes after the shooting.[C4-396] Reconstructing her movements, Mrs. Reid ran the distance three times and was timed in 2 minutes by stopwatch.[C4-397] The reconstruction was the minimum time.[C4-398] Accordingly, she probably met Oswald at about 12:32, approximately 30-45 seconds after Oswald’s lunchroom encounter with Baker and Truly. After leaving Mrs. Reid in the front office, Oswald could have gone down the stairs and out the front door by 12:33 p.m.[C4-399]—3 minutes after the shooting. At that time the building had not yet been sealed off by the police.
While it was difficult to determine exactly when the police sealed off the building, the earliest estimates would still have permitted Oswald to leave the building by 12:33. One of the police officers assigned to the corner of Elm and Houston Streets for the Presidential motorcade, W.E. Barnett, testified that immediately after the shots he went to the rear of the building to check the fire escape. He then returned to the corner of Elm and Houston where he met a sergeant who instructed him to find out the name of the building. Barnett ran to the building, noted its name, and then returned to the corner.[C4-400] There he was met by a construction worker—in all likelihood Howard Brennan, who was wearing his work helmet.[C4-401] This worker told Barnett that the shots had been fired from a window in the Depository Building, whereupon Barnett posted himself at the front door to make certain that no one left the building. The sergeant did the same thing at the rear of the building.[C4-402] Barnett estimated that approximately 3 minutes elapsed between the time he heard the last of the shots and the time he started guarding the front door. According to Barnett, “there were people going in and out” during this period.[C4-403]
Sgt. D. V. Harkness of the Dallas police said that to his knowledge the building was not sealed off at 12:36 p.m. when he called in on police radio that a witness (Amos Euins) had seen shots fired from a window of the building.[C4-404] At that time, Inspector Herbert V. Sawyer’s car was parked in front of the building.[C4-405] Harkness did not know whether or not two officers with Sawyer were guarding the doors.[C4-406] At 12:34 p.m. Sawyer heard a call over the police radio that the shots had come from the Depository Building.[C4-407] He then entered the building and took the front passenger elevator as far as it would go—the fourth floor.[C4-408] After inspecting this floor, Sawyer returned to the street about 3 minutes after he entered the building.[C4-409] After he returned to the street he directed Sergeant Harkness to station two patrolmen at the front door and not let anyone in or out; he also directed that the back door be sealed off.[C4-410] This was no earlier than 12:37 p.m.[C4-411] and may have been later. Special Agent Forrest V. Sorrels of the Secret Service, who had been in the motorcade, testified that after driving to Parkland Hospital, he returned to the Depository Building about 20 minutes after the shooting, found no police officers at the rear door and was able to enter through this door without identifying himself.[C4-412]
Although Oswald probably left the building at about 12:33 p.m., his absence was not noticed until at least one-half hour later. Truly, who had returned with Patrolman Baker from the roof, saw the police questioning the warehouse employees. Approximately 15 men worked in the warehouse[C4-413] and Truly noticed that Oswald was not among those being questioned.[C4-414] Satisfying himself that Oswald was missing, Truly obtained Oswald’s address, phone number, and description from his employment application card. The address listed was for the Paine home in Irving. Truly gave this information to Captain Fritz who was on the sixth floor at the time[C4-415]. Truly estimated that he gave this information to Fritz about 15 or 20 minutes after the shots,[C4-416] but it was probably no earlier than 1:22 p.m., the time when the rifle was found. Fritz believed that he learned of Oswald’s absence after the rifle was found.[C4-417] The fact that Truly found Fritz in the northwest corner of the floor, near the point where the rifle was found, supports Fritz’ recollection.