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.