Why Oswald is Innocent

[Duke Lane]

... Truly was called back to testify under oath before the Warren Commission attorney and asked only one question - whether the door had an automatic closing mechanism. It did and thus the door closed automatically, though slow and did not slam, so if Oswald did go through that door, and was seen through the window by Baker, then Truly certainly would have seen him too, and the door would have been slowly closing behind him. What difference does it matter if Oswald went right or left? In either case he should not have been seen by Baker if the door was even open a little, and he had made the turn. So Oswald most certainly was walking through the vestibule from right to left, south to north, and didn't go through that door or descend the steps from the sixth floor.

To play the Devil's advocate, "would have" and "should have" are as different from each other as "might have" or "could have" is from either of them, and the last two are as close to reality as we can get in this or virtually any other instance.

Even where Truly "might have seen" Oswald - or even "certainly would have" - need to be qualified by adding "if he was paying attention," which he needn't have been doing, per se; that is, it was part of the usual activity in the building and not worthy of notice. Such "usual activity" could also have caused Truly to overlook something that, under other circumstances, might've been very noteworthy.

Likewise, it's also possible that only because of a confluence of events - a true "coincidence," or "co-incidents" - that allowed Baker to see what he saw. If Oswald, say, had gone by where Baker had seen him a second or two earlier or later - or if Baker had turned his head or been at a slightly different angle - it's just as possible that Baker wouldn't have seen him at all. That would've given Oswald "all the time in the world" to get downstairs because nobody would've known he was in the second floor lunch room so soon after the shooting.

Undoubtedly, there would've been another explanation of how he'd gotten past Baker and Truly, and my guess is that it would've been the elevator, exactly as I'd described it, and Jack would've been assumed to have been "getting some stock" upstairs to explain where he was (instead of his using the elevator himself).

Truly may even have noticed the door and/or Oswald subconsciously, but just as subconsciously (or unconsciously) brushed off both as being "normal," the actual event not registering with him at all. Point being that Truly not seeing (or noticing) the door or Oswald has no bearing on the fact that Baker apparently did.

Also, with Truly having been ahead of Baker - he'd gone up a few stairs before noticing that Baker wasn't behind him - it's quite possible that, either because a door hadn't closed far enough or Oswald hadn't been in a position to be seen seconds earlier, or both, Baker saw something that Truly would not have been able to.

The damper on the door merely explains why neither heard the door slam, which might also be explained by the fact that it was already closed. If Oswald was truly in a hurry and didn't want to be seen, it would seem to me that he'd have ducked down below where he could've been seen and pulled the door closed faster than it normally would have ... or never gone through the lunchroom door at all, or at least stayed around the corner inside the lunch room where he wouldn't be seen by passers-by.

[William Kelly]

So now Duke, plays the Devils' Advocate and speculates in the heels of Jean Davis and Dale Myers, that Oswald actually got down to the Second Floor earlier than the WC has him getting there, and goes through that door, and doublebacks and ducks and plays hide and seek with Baker and Truley.

What are the possibilities of desending from Sixth Floor - Stairs - Two Elevators -

and that's it, right?

With all the talk about the elevators, how come we haven't seen one photo, ever, of either of the elevators?

And there was an eleveator for people right by the front door that went up to fourth or fifth floor.

Could the Sixth Floor Shooter have taken the stairs down a few flights then took the other elevator?

BK

[Duke Lane]

So now Duke, plays the Devils' Advocate and speculates in the heels of Jean Davis and Dale Myers, that Oswald actually got down to the Second Floor earlier than the WC has him getting there, and goes through that door, and doublebacks and ducks and plays hide and seek with Baker and Truley.

Gosh, I feel like Ronald Reagan in the debates saying "there you go again." Where do you see that I said anything about Oswald getting "down to the second floor?" I think I've been fairly consistent in saying that Oswald wasn't upstairs at all. Why do you keep trying to set that straw man back up?

What are the possibilities of desending from Sixth Floor - Stairs - Two Elevators - and that's it, right? With all the talk about the elevators, how come we haven't seen one photo, ever, of either of the elevators?

Umm ... Bill? Because in the official version, "the assassin" came down the stairs? In that scenario, what role did the elevator(s) play? So why take pictures of them? And for that matter, have we ever seen photos of the entire stairwell, or even a long segment of it? Why not? This is a non-sequitur.

And there was an eleveator for people right by the front door that went up to fourth or fifth floor. Could the Sixth Floor Shooter have taken the stairs down a few flights then took the other elevator?

The elevator shaft went up to the fourth floor (CE487 shows an outline on the fifth floor for the elevator shaft, noting "no opening to elev. shaft on this floor"), but I've never heard that it actually travelled any higher than the second floor. Maybe you have new information on this? Nothing would, of course, have prevented someone from walking down the front stairs - which I think also ended at the second floor, but I'm not 100% certain of that offhand - but I would think it would be a little riskier to come down from upstairss right inside the entrance of a building police might well be expected to be entering from that direction than from the rear.

But if that's what happened, who did Luke Mooney see on the back stairs? That's really the crux of the biscuit. As it turned out, if the guys that Mooney saw were shooters, then they did end up encountering police (actually, a sheriff's deputy) anyway, but apparently drew little notice: enough only that Mooney remembered them months later when he testified, but not enough that he'd thought they had anything to do with the shooting, either at the time or later.

Further to an earlier question, it is correct that Mooney had discussed an officer "Victory" (Vickery) and possibly another deputy also entering the building when he did, but if either of them were who Mooney encountered on the stairs coming down, first, why were they coming down when they'd entered the building with the intent of going up to the top (as Vickery did, according to Mooney, so who was the second "officer in plain clothes?"), and second, why didn't he recognize them as who they were?

Mooney did not say that Vickery and another officer went up, and that a couple of minutes later, Vickery and the other officer came down. Given that he knew who they were, you'd think he'd have acknowledged their identity if he knew them and especially if he'd just discussed them. But no, what he said was:

We started up [the elevator] and got to the second [floor]. I was going to let them [two women] off and go on up. And when we got there, the power undoubtedly cut off, because we had no more power on the elevator. So I looked around their office there, just a short second or two, and

then I went up the staircase myself. And I met some other officers coming down, plainclothes, and I believe they were deputy sheriffs. They were coming down the staircase. But I kept going up

.

Does that sound like he knew them? "I believe they were deputy sheriffs" is not what I'd call a firm identification, and certainly not of men he knew by name.

But meanwhile, here we have one of the very first officers to enter the building - the one credited with being the first to go out onto the sixth floor proper - saying that "other officers" were already coming down from above, when nobody other than Marrion Baker had gone up yet.

[William Kelly]

Hey Duke,

You started this web site and posted a really good article by Pat Lambert, who I didn't used to like because of False Witness, her trashy book on Garrison, but I have new found respect for her with this article. Thanks for posting it.

http://mysite.verizon.net/respxxbt/dukelane/ss491.htm

Also, I still would like to know why there are no photographs of the TSBD elevators among any of the government records?

Duke's response that since the Patsy used the stairs, there was no need to just doesn't wash.

BK

Edited April 5, 2009 by William Kelly

[Denis Pointing]

With all the talk about the elevators, how come we haven't seen one photo, ever, of either of the elevators?

And there was an eleveator for people right by the front door that went up to fourth or fifth floor.

Could the Sixth Floor Shooter have taken the stairs down a few flights then took the other elevator?

BK

Bill, the link below has some interesting pics, no elevators I'm afraid but plenty of shots of the stairwell and lunchroom etc, dont know if your already familiar with them. Bill, I cant seem to find a clear plan of the TSBD can you tell me if the vestibule door opened outwards or inwards. If I'm looking at the right pic it appears to open outwards, is that correct? Thanks.

http://www.maryferrell.org/wiki/index.php/...Depository_-_p1

Edited April 5, 2009 by Denis Pointing

[William Kelly]

With all the talk about the elevators, how come we haven't seen one photo, ever, of either of the elevators?

And there was an eleveator for people right by the front door that went up to fourth or fifth floor.

Could the Sixth Floor Shooter have taken the stairs down a few flights then took the other elevator?

BK

Bill, the link below has some interesting pics, no elevators I'm afraid but plenty of shots of the stairwell and lunchroom etc, dont know if your already familiar with them. Bill, I cant seem to find a clear plan of the TSBD can you tell me if the vestibule door opened outwards or inwards. If I'm looking at the right pic it appears to open outwards, is that correct? Thanks.

http://www.maryferrell.org/wiki/index.php/...Depository_-_p1

Hi Denis,

Thanks for your continued interest in this.

Yes, the door appears to open outward, though it does seem to have been closed when Truly and Baker appeared at the scene.

Nor can I seem to find a clear plan of the TSBD. All of those schematic drawings of the TSBD floor plans seem to have been made special for the Warren Commission, and are not archatectual renderings. For instance, the south side door to the Vestibule of the Second Floor Lunchroom seems to lead to a large office, where Oswald is said to have passed through with his coke bottle on the way out during the Great Escape.

But since the secretary who saw him there on the way out, didn't see him on the way in, as she should have, then how did Oswald get to the vestibule without going through the offices? The scematic drawing of the Second Floor of the TSBD shows that the south door to the vestibule also leads to a hall with mens and womens restrooms, which are depected as all one room, when we know there must have been a wall between them.

Also, there seems to be windows from the 2nd floor men's room, which overlooks the Grassy Knoll and Triple Underpass and parking lot.

One of the black guys on the fifth floor said he had "washed up" between eating in the first floor lunchroom and going outside and walking a block to a parking lot where he knew the parking lot attendant. Then he walked back to the TSBD, walked around the back and went up to the Fifth Floor in time to witness the assassination.

Where did he "wash up"? The second floor men's room?

And yea, I'm very familair with all of the Warren Commission, HSCA and ARRB photos of the TSBD and I can't locate one that includes the elevators.

I guess Gary Mack would know the answer to that question.

Bill Kelly

bkjfk3@yahoo.com

Edited April 6, 2009 by William Kelly

[William Kelly]

Hey Duke,

You started this web site and posted a really good article by Pat Lambert, who I didn't used to like because of False Witness, her trashy book on Garrison, but I have new found respect for her with this article. Thanks for posting it.

http://mysite.verizon.net/respxxbt/dukelane/ss491.htm

Also, I still would like to know why there are no photographs of the TSBD elevators among any of the government records?

Duke's response that since the Patsy used the stairs, there was no need to just doesn't wash.

There must be photos of the TSBD elevators somewhere, and if not, a real reason why not.

BK

Here's Luke Mooney's afidavite:

http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/russ/testimony/mooney1.htm

Here's the original SS Report:

http://www.maryferrell.org/mffweb/archive/...p;relPageId=775

And Lillian Mooneyham's report from across the street, seeing a man in the Sixth Floor window five to six minutes after the shootings.

http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/russ/exhibits/ce2098.htm

If not the Sixth Floor Shooter, who was that?

There is also evidence that someone moved boxes around the Sniper's Nest after the shooting.

BK

Edited April 6, 2009 by William Kelly

[J. Raymond Carroll]

here we have one of the very first officers to enter the building - the one credited with being the first to go out onto the sixth floor proper - saying that "other officers" were already coming down from above, when nobody other than Marrion Baker had gone up yet.

Great work Duke, and further notice to the rest of us that there there are gems of evidence still waiting to be dusted off in the Warren Commission records.

If Luke Mooney was the first law enforcement officer to climb the TSBD stairs after Marion Baker, and saw two unidentified men come down the stairs, then we have a very large elephant in the room that the Warren Commission did not want to highlight, and that even critics of the Commission never noticed up to now.

Have you made an estimate of how much time elapsed before Mooney focused his attention on the TSBD and can you estimate what time it was when Mooney took the elevator?

[Duke Lane]

... But since the secretary who saw him there on the way out, didn't see him on the way in, as she should have, then how did Oswald get to the vestibule without going through the offices? The scematic drawing of the Second Floor of the TSBD shows that the south door to the vestibule also leads to a hall with mens and womens restrooms, which are depected as all one room, when we know there must have been a wall between them.

... One of the black guys on the fifth floor said he had "washed up" between eating in the first floor lunchroom and going outside and walking a block to a parking lot where he knew the parking lot attendant. Then he walked back to the TSBD, walked around the back and went up to the Fifth Floor in time to witness the assassination. Where did he "wash up"? The second floor men's room?

In the first instance, you're referring to Geraldean (Mrs. Robert A.) Reid, who had been outside watching the parade in front of the building, standing with Roy Truly and O.C. Campbell. She testified that "all the other girls" who worked for her had already gone outside by the time she had - she was the last one out - so there was nobody in the office to witness Oswald walking through the office space if that's what he did. More on that in a second.

You are also confusing Charles "Slim" Givens, who went to the parking lot at Record & Elm, as being one of the men who'd gone to the fifth floor; he did not. He was out in front of the building with Junior Jarman and Hank Norman, but when they left to go upstairs after hearing that the motorcade was on Main, Givens walked across Houston Street and up the block to Record Street to see his friend at the parking lot. When he got there, the two of them walked the block over to Main in time to see the parade pass, and were walking back to Elm when Givens heard the shots, saw the commotion down Elm, and returned to the TSBD. He did not go inside.

Two notes on timing here: I've walked the distance from the TSBD to Record to Main and then back; it takes about 90 seconds at a "normal" walk. If Givens had made it back from Main as far as Elm on Record - approximately half the distance - then he was at Main Street approximately 45 seconds to a minute before the shooting, i.e., at 12:29. If they didn't have to wait for the parade to pass - got there just ahead of it - he'd have been at Record & Elm the first time at about 12:28 and, if he didn't have to wait for his friend to collect himself before walking to Main, he left Elm & Houston 45 seconds before that, or around 12:27.

The point to that is that it is within the time that "word came around" that the parade was on Main Street, which last came over the police radio at 12:26, and first at around 12:22. The above reconstruction gives Givens one to one-and-a-half minute's leeway in getting from Elm & Houston to Main & Record after the last "Main Street" broadcast, very do-able and supporting Junior Jarman's statement that they'd left to go upstairs at that time, as well as Roy Truly's statement that the men were in front of the building until "shortly" before the parade arrived. Truly, in fact, specifically remembered Givens crossing Houston and walking up Elm.

If "the word" they heard about the parade was the 12:22 broadcast, it is even more do-able for Givens to have made that walk, but still supportive of the fact that Hank and Junior didn't get to the fifth floor until no earlier than 12:24 and possibly as late as 12:28. Bonnie Ray Williams arrived after them, meaning he'd been upstairs until that time.

The second note is that Mrs. Reid's return to her office was also timed during the March 20 "reconstruction." According to her testimony and the apparent concurrence of counsel Belin, it took her two minutes from the time of the last shot to the time she saw Oswald, who was then just stepping into the office space, coke in hand, after which he walked through and left, so this was clearly after the lunchroom encounter (and, therefore, the lunchroom encounter was over within two minutes of the shooting), bringing us full-circle to the question:

... But since the secretary who saw him there on the way out, didn't see him on the way in, as she should have, then how did Oswald get to the vestibule without going through the offices?

We now know that there is no reason that she "should" have seen Oswald prior to her own post-Baker encounter with him. Seen or unseen, this doesn't mean that Oswald didn't go through the office space, only that nobody saw him do so because there was nobody there. This gives us three options on how Oswald got to the vestibule and lunchroom:

• He went through the office space, but it being empty, nobody saw him. It is possible that he did so on the basis of getting change for the coke machine as well as for the bus ride home later (since he must've had change for the machine) or simply because it was easier to cut through the office diagnonally than to have taken the second option,
  
• He took the hallway around the office space, which would explain why, if there had been anyone in the office, the didn't see him. But nobody was there, so either way, he'd have been unseen; or
  
• He took the back stairway up to the second floor and went in before Baker and Truly came up behind him, possibly sticking his head into the office to see if Mrs. Reid was there so he could get change.
  

It is not so that the only direction that Oswald could have come from to enter the vestibule doorway from the stairwell is from above; he could as easily have come from below and gotten there moments before B&T. Indeed, given the fact that he said he'd had lunch on the first floor, and every indication is that he'd had it in the domino room, then his taking the back stairway up to the second floor makes better sense.

The reason is that the domino room was at the northeast (back right) corner of the building while the stairway was at the northwest (back left) corner, that is, both in the back of the building. It would have been a walk straight across the rear of the building to the stairwell, rather than to walk to the front of the building and then have to walk back to the rear of the building; that is, taking one leg of a triangle rather than the other leg and the hypotenuse.

In doing so, he would not have been seen by Troy West, who ate (according to his testimony, he was very much a creature of habit) facing away from the rear of the building, the elevators and stairway, or by Eddie Piper, watching the parade out of the front window. Pretty much everyone else was outside watching; at least, I can't recall any of the other first-floor workers who were still inside.

If Oswald went that way, he might've done so even before the shooting and been in the stairwell when it happened, meaning that he might well not have heard it. Going up the stairs and into the vestibule would mean that several seconds later - maybe even 30, 60 or 90 - when B&T got to the door, it was already closed. Even if they'd only just missed each other going up the stairwell or whether either door had finished closing, the larger point is that Oswald's actions inside the room were not consistent with someone escaping from anything.

Even leaving aside his calm demeanor (and even whether or not he already had a coke in his hand by the time Baker confronted him), the idea that someone had ducked into the room to avoid detection is belied by the fact that he allowed himself to be in a position to be seen. I mean, if you're going to hide in a room, would you stay erect or duck down so you wouldn't be seen, or maybe sit at a table rather than walk across the room in front of a door with a window?

I think we've established fairly well that Oswald could not have come down the stairs and pass within five feet of Jack Dougherty without being seen, which he had to have done if he'd been on the sixth floor. If not, then how else he got there is pretty well moot, but if we felt there was a need to figure that out, there are other possibilities including that he went up the stairs only a short time before Baker & Truly did; down is not the only direction he could've been taking to get into the lunchroom from the stairs.

Oh! One other thing:

... One of the black guys on the fifth floor said he had "washed up" between eating in the first floor lunchroom and going outside and walking a block to a parking lot where he knew the parking lot attendant. Then he walked back to the TSBD, walked around the back and went up to the Fifth Floor in time to witness the assassination. Where did he "wash up"? The second floor men's room?

Leaving aside who "washed up" (virtually everyone did, or said they did, and "wash up" might well include a break to answer the call of nature, or as Harold Weisberg put it, to "take care of life's necessities"), the second floor served as the "executive suite" for the TSBD Company. Much ado is made of the domino room, for example, being where "minority" workers ate - including blacks and hispanics, and as someone said, "the lone Marxist" - the reality is that it was where the laborers ate, regardless of color or national origin or political beliefs.

The same held true of the washroom: management did not mingle with labor and vice-versa, even at the most basic level. Face it: suits generally don't like to have to wash up - or eat! - next to some sweaty, dusty guy who's been slinging boxes of books all morning, and for one of the laborers - and probably especially one of the black laborers - to have used the "executive washroom" would've had him sticking out like a sore thumb.

[Denis Pointing]

.

Edited December 20, 2009 by Denis Pointing

[William Kelly]

Bill, Whilst I've never been completely convinced Oswald was the actual shooter I've always believed LHO to be a key and more than willing player in the plot, I'm sure you know that from my previous post's, if I'm understanding you correctly you belive LHO was the ultimate patsy, completely innocent of any complicity. If that's the case I have a problem in that the real assassin's would have needed to keep Oswald's movements under control without, of course, Oswald being aware of this control. You cant just have Oswald strolling around the TSBD and the assassin's hoping no one will notice him. Without control Oswald may have been with any number of people when the shooting took place giving him a cast iron alibi or, in theory at least, he could have been outside on the sidewalk passing the time of day with a police officer. Any thoughts on how this "hidden" control was carried out? One of his work colleague's perhaps? Thanks.

Hey Denis,

I don't think they - those who actually orchestrated the assassination of President Kennedy, had to "control" Oswald, only monitor what he was doing.

As for his role in the assassination, I think they intended the assassination to be discovered to be a conspiracy from the git-go, and that whatever happened, whereever he was, whoever he was with, it didn't really matter, as long as JFK died before leaving Dealey Plaza, and the rifle was discovered, implicating Oswald.

They expected the conspiracy to be exposed, and Oswald's Cuban connections kick in, and LBJ, unlike the chicken-xxxx JFK, would invade Cuba as the Northwoods angle made the headlines, and one by one, the dominos implicating Castro fell into line.

When the LBJ-Bundy national security team decided, as detailed by Peter Dale Scott, to go with the Phase II, lone-nut scenario, rather than the Communist/Cuba Conspiracy (Phase I plan A), then everything else fell by the wayside.

In fact, Oswald was seen standing in the vestibule of the front door shortly before the assassination by a secretary, and his whereabouts on the first and second floor between 11:50 and 12:15 have been well established, and we know where he was a 12:31 - in the second floor lunchroom with Baker and Truly.

As far as "controlling" Oswald, I don't think it was necessary, as they intended to blame him for providing the rifle, and they only really had to know where he worked - as detailed in Hosty's note, DeMohrenschildt's reports to J. Waton Moore, and Mrs. Paine's reports to FBI and whoever else she reported to.

Oswald has a cast iron alibi, and therefore, someone else was on the Sixth Floor shooting, and moving those boxes around four to five minutes after the shots were fired. Who was that?

I don't know.

But it wasn't Oswald.

I don't know all the answers, but I do know we can and will answer the most pertinent questions and figure most of it out, eventually.

Bill Kelly

[Neville Gully]

Bill, Whilst I've never been completely convinced Oswald was the actual shooter I've always believed LHO to be a key and more than willing player in the plot, I'm sure you know that from my previous post's, if I'm understanding you correctly you belive LHO was the ultimate patsy, completely innocent of any complicity. If that's the case I have a problem in that the real assassin's would have needed to keep Oswald's movements under control without, of course, Oswald being aware of this control. You cant just have Oswald strolling around the TSBD and the assassin's hoping no one will notice him. Without control Oswald may have been with any number of people when the shooting took place giving him a cast iron alibi or, in theory at least, he could have been outside on the sidewalk passing the time of day with a police officer. Any thoughts on how this "hidden" control was carried out? One of his work colleague's perhaps? Thanks.

I tend to agree with you on this one Dennis. The question is...... What was LHO's understanding of "The Plot", is the key I believe. In a previous post, in this thread, I outlined that maybe he thought he was part of a "protest" designed to facilitate his escape to Cuba. He would be falsely accused at firing shots from his rifle during the motoracade. Maybe this was to be part of a larger Nothwoods style operation to force Kennedy into supporting the second invasion that was in the wings. Something like....well Castro said he would get you..... now he has tried what are you going to do? As you stated for this to work LHO could not have a solid alibi, so he simply stays out of sight until the motorcade passes but in an area that is well away from where he believes the the gunfire is to take place, then leaves afterward (as he showed was possible). However shortly after the Baker incident he discovers that the President has been shot and realizes he is now in peril.

I believe that evidence against a much wide conspiracy is his ability to survivr the Texas Theatre episode, where is would have been easy for him to be silenced in a hail of bullets after drawing a gun on a policeman. (Please note that I am only stating the official story here for Oswald's capture and arrest, I know there is debate about these events also.)

Edited April 6, 2009 by Neville Gully

[John Dolva]

Baker could have shot him ih the TSBD except he had no idea if there were any witnesses. The hunt through downtown didn't work, in the theatre there were a scattering of patrons who would have followed the cops every move, the riflebutt blow to the temple didn't work, and once in custody he had to have had at least a semblance of protection. So, before he got out of their hands, the interview was stalled till the killer was in place and he was then escorted to his death, with the whole world witnessing.

"Look ma, I washed for supper..." (saving private ryan)

[Denis Pointing]

Baker could have shot him ih the TSBD except he had no idea if there were any witnesses. The hunt through downtown didn't work, in the theatre there were a scattering of patrons who would have followed the cops every move, the riflebutt blow to the temple didn't work, and once in custody he had to have had at least a semblance of protection. So, before he got out of their hands, the interview was stalled till the killer was in place and he was then escorted to his death, with the whole world witnessing.

"Look ma, I washed for supper..." (saving private ryan)

John, surly the police had more than a reasonable excuse to shoot down Oswald in the theater if that had been their intention/mission, he did try to shoot an officer there. You seem to implicate the whole DPD.

[John Dolva]

Baker could have shot him ih the TSBD except he had no idea if there were any witnesses. The hunt through downtown didn't work, in the theatre there were a scattering of patrons who would have followed the cops every move, the riflebutt blow to the temple didn't work, and once in custody he had to have had at least a semblance of protection. So, before he got out of their hands, the interview was stalled till the killer was in place and he was then escorted to his death, with the whole world witnessing.

"Look ma, I washed for supper..." (saving private ryan)

John, surly the police had more than a reasonable excuse to shoot down Oswald in the theater if that had been their intention/mission, he did try to shoot an officer there. You seem to implicate the whole DPD.

Did he try to shoot an officer there? I dunno.

Only the KKK half, the rest by omission.