When did the Coke Appear?

[James DiEugenio]

Since Baker was confused about this point all the way to September, and I don't think Truly mentioned it in his testimony, when was the first appearance of the Coke Oswald allegedly was drinking on the second floor?

Did it come from the Fritz notes?

[Steve Thomas]

17 hours ago, James DiEugenio said:

Since Baker was confused about this point all the way to September, and I don't think Truly mentioned it in his testimony, when was the first appearance of the Coke Oswald allegedly was drinking on the second floor?

Did it come from the Fritz notes?

Jim,

 

Roy Truly testified to the WC on March 24, 1964.

Marrion Baker and Mrs. Reid (who worked in the TSBD) testified on March 25, 1964.

Baker testified first, and Reid followed him

Reid in (3H 270)

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

 

"Mr. BELIN. All right. You went up through the stairs and then what did you do?
Mrs. REID. I went into the office.
Mr. BELIN. You went into your office?
Mrs. REID. Yes.
Mr. BELIN. And then what did you do?
Mrs. REID. Well, I kept walking and I looked up and Oswald was coming in the back door of the office. I met him by the time I passed my desk several feet and I told him, I said, "Oh, the President has been shot, but maybe they didn't hit him."
He mumbled something to me, I kept walking, he did, too. I didn't pay any attention to what he said because I had no thoughts of anything of him having any connection with it at all because he was very calm. He had gotten a coke and was holding it in his hands..."

 

DPD Archives, Box 5, Folder# 2, Item# 51.

http://jfk.ci.dallas.tx.us/box5.htm

Affidavit by Mrs. Robert Reid on November 23, 1963

"Lee mumbled something and walked on out of the office. I did not understand what he said, he had a coke in his hand."

 

Steve Thomas

[James DiEugenio]

Thanks Steve.  

[Steve Thomas]

1 hour ago, James DiEugenio said:

Thanks Steve.  

Jim,

 

I also ran across an FBI interview of Roy Truly done on 11/23.

During his interview, he said that Mrs. Reid had told him that LHO had had a coke in his hand.

I can dig it out if you need.

 

Steve Thomas

[Ron Bulman]

I looked briefly last night in Prayer Man thinking I'd read about it being Baker there.  It supports what Steve says but I wanted to look at the testimony it was based on before I stuck my foot in my mouth and it was late.  I also had a thought someone had tried to place the occurrence earlier but had no substantiation for such a claim.  Strange it took them four months to find a coke.

[Ron Bulman]

I read something about a foreign correspondent hearing from local or us journalists about Oswald having a coke and him asking Truly about it in January 64 if I'm not mistaken.

Is this in his testimony?  Can anyone help?  I'm pretty sure I didn't imagine it.

[James DiEugenio]

I got a reply from Greg Parker on this.

He says that the first mention of the coke was in Oswald's  FBI interrogation.  But the problem with that was he made it pretty clear that he had gotten the coke before the motorcade had come by and was drinking and eating on the first floor.

Therefore, after the was killed, both the FBI and DPD went to work changing that story to vitiate his alibi..

[David Von Pein]

1 hour ago, James DiEugenio said:

I got a reply from Greg Parker on this.

He says that the first mention of the coke was in Oswald's  FBI interrogation.  But the problem with that was he made it pretty clear that he had gotten the coke before the motorcade had come by and was drinking and eating on the first floor.

And Oswald would never lie.....right Jim?

http://jfk-archives.blogspot.com/2010/07/Oswald, Baker, Truly, And The Coke

Edited December 15, 2017 by David Von Pein

[Ron Bulman]

Prayer Man says the coke was mentioned in both FBI agent Bookout's solo interrogation report written hours after Oswald's demise and in Fritz's interrogation report written for the Warren Commission (months later?).  It also provides part of a Washington Post article from Dec 1, 1963, "That's my building Truly shouted"..."As they made their way to a back stairway, the policeman saw Oswald standing beside a soft drink machine, sipping from a coke bottle." 

[James DiEugenio]

Greg sent me some other stuff on this which I will post later.

[Steve Thomas]

On 12/13/2017 at 3:34 PM, James DiEugenio said:

Since Baker was confused about this point all the way to September, and I don't think Truly mentioned it in his testimony, when was the first appearance of the Coke Oswald allegedly was drinking on the second floor?

Did it come from the Fritz notes?

Jim,

 

You have asked a very interesting question.

 

http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/russ/testimony/fritz1.htm

Mr. FRITZ. Let's see, I have it right here. Oswald was arrested at 1:40 and I think he was taken to the city hall about 2:15 and I started talking to him probably a little bit after that.

Mr. BALL. You will notice that Sims and Boyd make it, state they brought him from the conference room to your office at about 2:20.
Mr. FRITZ. That might be all right because I have 2:15 here but I think 2:15 may be 5 or 10 minutes too early.

Mr. FRITZ. Yes; my desk is right here and I sit behind it right here and there are some chairs and telephone table right here and I had him sitting in a chair, right here.

Just about the time I started talking to him, I had just started to question him, I got a phone call from Mr. Shanklin, Gordon Shanklin, agent in charge of the FBI calling for Mr. Bookhout, and I asked Mr. Bookhout to go to pick up the extension.

So, I got up from my desk and walked over to the lieutenant's office and asked Mr. Bookhout to come in, the reason I asked both of them to come in and Mr. Bookhout is in my office most of every day and works with us in a lot of cases and asked him to come in with Mr. Hosty.
Mr. BALL. So Bookhout and Hosty came into your office?
Mr. FRITZ. Yes, sir.

 

Hosty didn't get to police headquarters until about 3:15.

 

DPD Archives Box 15, Folder# 1, Item# 111, page 2

http://jfk.ci.dallas.tx.us/box15.htm

 

“I invited Mr. Bookhout and Mr. Hosty in to help with the interview. Mr. Truly had told me that one of the police officers had stopped this man immediately after the shooting 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....”

 

Frit's handwritten interrogation notes:

http://www.jfklancer.com/Fritzdocs.html

 

The notes begin at 3:15PM

Hosty and Bookhout are present.

“claims 2^nd floor Coke when off came in”

 

What did Fritz and Oswald talk about in the one hour between 2:20 and 3:15 PM?

Did they talk at all?

 

Steve Thomas

 

 

[Ron Bulman]

Truly mentioned the coke machine in his affidavit on November 23 but not the coke.  "The officer stuck his head in the lunch room where there are coke and candy machines.  Lee Oswald was in there.  The officer asked me if he was an employee.  I said yes.  We then took the stairs..."

So we have Truly on the 23rd mentioning the lunch room, coke machine and Oswald.  Nothing about a coke or Baker sticking his gun in Oswald's face or gut. Per Truly Baker stuck his head in the lunch room, asked is this he and employee, and when Truly said yes they took off.

[Ron Bulman]

So we have Truly officially on the 23rd mention the lunch room, coke machine and Oswald and that's it.

Then a little over a week later for the public he goes into greater detail via the Washington Post article on December 1.  The full context of the related part of what he said was: "As they made their way to a back stairway, the policeman saw Oswald standing beside a soft drink machine, sipping from a Coke bottle.  The officer ran toward Oswald and held the revolver at close range.  he's one of my employees assured Truly."

Given that Baker and Truly's run up to the roof otherwise produced absolutely no other leads I find it incredible that the actual officer of the law would fail to mention the one incident that would become so important in placing Oswald at the scene would fail to report it on the very day of the assassination.  Instead he mentions a man walking away from the stairs on the third or fourth floor that he calls back and Truly identifies as an employee.  Nothing about "ran"  toward the employee, he "called him back".  One who Bakers description of does not fit Oswald.  One who Baker states he never saw again.  No one ever asks Truly (to my knowledge) "Who was the employee you identified for Baker as an employee on the third or fourth floor. 

[James DiEugenio]

This is the rest of the email Greg sent me, I think it jibes with what Steve was implying above:

 

the first mention of the coke was by Oswald himself during the initial interrogation.

From the Hosty-Bookhout report:
"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 this building."

That clearly indicates he got the coke prior to the motorcade going past.

After Oswald's death - Bookhout - who Fritz admitted in testimony, was an almost daily visitor to Fritz's office - wrote a solo report which changed the sequence of evidence among other significant changes aimed at destroying Oswald's alibi.

From Bookhout's solo report:
"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 form the soft-drink machine, at which time a police officer came into the room with pistol drawn and asked him if he worked there."

Fritz later cribbed from Bookhout to write his own report - which is why they are all but identical. 

As for Baker's FBI statement in which the coke is crossed out and initialed - this is one of those things that has grown a conspiratorial life of it its own but has no basis for doing so.

This is from a New Yorker article where a reporter went undercover to do the Reid Interrogation Training program. It is specifically about writing confessions for suspects to sign, but could just as easily be used for witness statements to help verify comprehension:
 

"As a finishing touch, you introduce some trivial mistakes into the document, which the suspect will correct and initial. That will show the court that the suspect understood what he was signing."
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2013/12/09/the-interview-7

If you look at the document, it is clear that Baker's signature is in a different hand to the body of the statement - in other words - he did not write - he just corrected the (deliberate) errors and signed off on it. 

Baker never met Oswald inside the TSBD. I doubt Baker even ran into that building. I think he ran to where all the action was - the Dal-Tex - which he THOUGHT still housed the TSBD (it did up until '61 or '62). 

The cop Lee encountered was Erich Kaminsky.  Truly let Oswald go and then reported him missing  (you will soon find out whose b---h Truly was) . The Hosty - Bookhout and Harry Holmes reports more or less accurately state was Oswald said.  Bookhout rewrote what Oswald said after Oswald could no longer deny it. Fritz followed suit. 

Edited December 17, 2017 by James DiEugenio

[Ron Bulman]

"(you will soon find out whose b--h Truly was)" rather than distract from the focus of Jim's thread I am going to bump this thread.  Though Truly, Baker, Fritz and Bookout are all at the center of the importance of the coke I think Truly deserves closer scrutiny in the big picture that would distract from the focus here.  E.G. when searching for info on the coke I saw a story which mentioned Baker changing his story about the coke four times from March to September.