Mr. Olds. I had never been in the police building. No one had any way of knowing who I was, or what my business was.
Mr. Stern. Did you have to identify yourself to get into this building to begin with?
Mr. Olds. No; no problem getting into the building. No one in the lobby, and I don't believe there was anyone at all until you get up to the third or fourth floor where the police department section of the building begins.
Mr. Stern. What were the conditions of this room and the scene?
Mr. Olds. Well, you mean the room where the press conference was held, where Oswald came in? It was very noisy, and when Oswald came in it was very confusing. The reporters were yelling at each other to get out of the way, and they were, the photographers were having a very bad time with it, and people kept crowding toward the front and standing on tables so that they could see and hear and Oswald was there such a brief time, and was not able to be heard beyond the first row of reporters who were circled around him. Thereafter reporters were interviewing reporters who were on the front row to see what had been said, and some sort of confusion existed, and enough of—oh, probably 50 reporters standing around there, and it was a very confusing situation it seemed. And Oswald had to be brought through the hall on his way from the interrogation room to his cell, so, he couldn't avoid being seen, and it was at this time that he was making the statements that were being quoted.
Mr. Stern. Did you observe this?
Mr. Olds. No; I didn't. I saw this on television, but I could imagine it from that.
Mr. Stern. How did he look to you when he was at this press conference?
Mr. Olds. He looked remarkably composed and determined. He had a—I remarked afterwards that I would have been very much distraught, and he seemed very well self-contained and determined and maintained his innocence. I heard that, and beyond that scratch above—on his forehead and the eye that was swollen and the little—he looked all right.
He looked a little tired, of course, and I think his clothes were dirty, but he looked remarkably in good shape, I thought.