Sean Murphy

It must surely rank as one of the most peculiar moments in the WC's many pages of witness testimony:

Mr. BALL - Do you have any idea how long it was from the time you heard those three sounds or three noises until you saw Truly and Baker going into the building?
Mr. SHELLEY - It would have to be 3 or 4 minutes I would say because this girl that ran back up there was down near where the car was when the President was hit.
Mr. BALL - She ran back up to the door and you had still remained standing there?
Mr. SHELLEY - Yes.
Mr. BALL - Going to watch the rest of the parade were you?
Mr. SHELLEY - Yes.
Mr. BALL - The Vice President hadn't gone by, had he, by your place?
Mr. SHELLEY - I don't know. I didn't recognize him. I did recognize Mr. Kennedy and his suntan I had been hearing about.
Mr. BALL - How did you happen to see Truly?
Mr. SHELLEY - We ran out on the island while some of the people that were out watching it from our building were walking back and we turned around and we saw an officer and Truly.
Mr. BALL - And Truly?
Mr. SHELLEY - Yes.
Mr. BALL - Did you see them go into the building?
Mr. SHELLEY - No; we didn't watch that long but they were at the first step like they were fixin' to go in.

We know from the Darnell film that Shelley's sighting of Baker and Truly actually happened around half a minute after the shooting.

Yet here we have Shelley himself giving us a time estimate that is extravagantly outsize.

**

The peculiarity is only compounded, however, when we hear the person who was with Shelley out on the 'island' backing him up in this time estimate:

Mr. BALL - You heard the shots. And how long after that was it before Gloria Calvary came up?
Mr. LOVELADY - Oh, approximately 3 minutes, I would say.
Mr. BALL - Three minutes is a long time.
Mr. LOVELADY - Yes, it's---I say approximately; I can't say because I don't have a watch; it could.
Mr. BALL - Had people started to run?
Mr. LOVELADY - Well, I couldn't say because she came up to us and we was talking to her, wasn't looking that direction at that time, but when we came off the steps--see, that entrance, you have a blind side when you go down the steps.
Mr. BALL - Right after you talked to Gloria, did you leave the steps and go toward the tracks?
Mr. LOVELADY - Yes.

Three minutes, as Ball correctly notes, is indeed a long time for Lovelady to be estimating for his and Shelley's departure from the front steps.

In fact it's plain absurd.

While one might--at a stretch--credit one witness's memory going badly askew due to the shock of an assassination, being asked to believe that the time sense of this witness's companion was off to precisely the same extent (3 minutes for the departure from the steps; between 3 and 4 minutes for the sighting of Baker and Truly) will surely tax the credulity of even the most trusting of readers.

**

How do we explain this shared error on the part of Shelley and Lovelady?

Why are both misremembering in such unbelievably synchronised fashion?

Their error cannot have come from WC prompting, for the timeline the Commission had painstakingly put together via a series of rigged time trials already accommodated perforce a realistically early entry into the building by Baker and Truly.

**

I submit that Shelley and Lovelady are giving us evidence of very early coaching by DPD men and/or FBI agents.

For, as we have seen, the case/admission was made on the evening of the assassination that Oswald had been 'stopped' by the officer at the front entrance.

When Jesse Curry blithely announced this fact to news reporters that evening, he can have had no idea just how how troublesome a hostage to fortune he was giving. The disastrous evidence of the Darnell film was not yet known at this stage, so the first tack was simply to delay Baker's entry into the building to a point that would give Oswald time to make his descent from the sixth floor and 'escape'.

If this meant working on a couple of witnesses to Baker and Truly's entry, then so be it. (Cf. what Sandra Styles told me about the authorities' informing her that the first officers to reach the building did not arrive until some 15-20 minutes after the shooting.)

Unfortunately, no one thought to mention to Shelley and Lovelady ahead of their WC appearances that they could revert to their real memories and just tell the truth: we left the front entrance less than half a minute after the last shot.

**

As we shall see presently, the WC will have its own dirty work to do on Shelley and Lovelady, this time in relation to the Vicki Adams problem.

But for now let's turn to what happened in the first few days after the assassination to the original plan of extending the timeline so as to contrive a scenario consistent with Oswald's descent and guilt.

BTW, could you provide a link to the statement or testimony from Pauline Sanders that confirms this?

Sure thing--

http://www.maryferrell.org/mffweb/archive/viewer/showDoc.do?docId=1317&relPageId=702

Buell Wesley Frazier, interview of 07/07/13:

"I turned to Sarah, she said someone shot the President."

Buell Wesley Frazier, testimony to the WC, 1964:

"Mr. BALL - Anybody else you can remember?

Mr. FRAZIER - There was a lady there, a heavy-set lady who worked upstairs there whose name is Sarah something, I don't know her last name."

Once again, what was Sarah's last name, where did she work in the TSBD, and where was she standing during and after the assassination?

Robert, that's Sarah Stanton.

She was standing beside Pauline Sanders, who was standing over at the east end of the entrance.

Sorry, Sean, I posted before I saw you had replied.

I hate to keep asking questions but, considering the seriousness of our topic, what proof is there that Sarah Stanton was on the east side of the entrance?

Please understand, I am more than prepared to be convinced P.M. was not Sarah Stanton. I simply have no desire to have some LN throw this in our faces later on, should we be mistaken.

No problem, Robert. And asking questions is what we're all here for.

Pauline Sanders places Sarah Stanton right beside her (PM is conspicuously on his own) over on the east side of the entrance (PM is over on the west side).

Buell Wesley Frazier, interview of 07/07/13:

"I turned to Sarah, she said someone shot the President."

Buell Wesley Frazier, testimony to the WC, 1964:

"Mr. BALL - Anybody else you can remember?

Mr. FRAZIER - There was a lady there, a heavy-set lady who worked upstairs there whose name is Sarah something, I don't know her last name."

Once again, what was Sarah's last name, where did she work in the TSBD, and where was she standing during and after the assassination?

I believe I have identified her. Her name is Sarah D. Stanton, d.o.b. 06/09/22. This link is to her statement to the FBI, in which she claimed to be standing on the front steps of the TSBD with Shelley, Williams, Lovelady and Mrs. N.K. Sanders. She does not tell us where she was standing on the steps but, she does tell us this, though, "I heard three shots after the President's car passed the front of the building but I could not see the President's car at that time".

http://www.maryferrell.org/mffweb/archive/viewer/showDoc.do?absPageId=171505

Why was she unable to see the President's car "at that time"?

Like others on the front steps, she lost sight of the President's car due to the dipping of the road: people's view was blocked by the spectators lining the street and/or the wall. See for instance Frazier's own testimony on that score.

Buell Wesley Frazier, interview of 07/07/13:

"I turned to Sarah, she said someone shot the President."

Buell Wesley Frazier, testimony to the WC, 1964:

"Mr. BALL - Anybody else you can remember?

Mr. FRAZIER - There was a lady there, a heavy-set lady who worked upstairs there whose name is Sarah something, I don't know her last name."

Once again, what was Sarah's last name, where did she work in the TSBD, and where was she standing during and after the assassination?

Robert, that's Sarah Stanton.

She was standing beside Pauline Sanders, who was standing over at the east end of the entrance.

There was an employee at the other building who kept the files on employees who Truly called seeking Oswald's address. I don't believe this employee was questioned.

BK

Bill,

This sounds like it might have been an office worker or secretary.

Do you have any other info?

That's H. S. Aiken: he was questioned and his movements fully accounted for.

You're really enjoying this "Prayer Man" stuff, aren't you Sean?

You actually think that the fuzzy "preacher" in the doorway is Lee Oswald, don't you? Even with Buell Frazier standing right beside him, with Frazier telling us later that Oswald was NOT in that doorway at 12:30? And even with Oswald himself telling the world he was inside the building when the shooting occurred?

And what is so incredibly impossible (or "desperate", to use your word) about "Mr. Prayer Man" being a non-TSBD worker? I'm sure there were many Dal-Tex workers and Post Office Annex workers, etc., who were in the area of Elm & Houston when the President's motorcade passed through Dealey Plaza. Why would it be unheard of for a non-Depository individual to take advantage of those steps? After all, the Depository was a public building. Those steps weren't marked "For Depository Workers Only" on November 22, 1963.

To hear you talk, you seem to be of the opinion that the only person on the planet who could be "Prayer Man" is Lee Harvey Oswald.....which, of course, is pure nonsense. (Especially when factoring in all of the "Oswald Shot JFK" evidence that exists on the sixth floor of the Book Depository.)

David, I am of the opinion that

• a non-TSBD person would have stuck out like a sore thumb on those steps
• a TSBD worker, especially one who slipped out through the front door very shortly before the shooting, would not
• the only TSBD worker on the planet who could be "Prayer Man" is Lee Oswald
• we therefore have a simple solution to the riddle: who is Prayer Man?--it's Lee Oswald.

No need for the silly and farfetched theory you are trying to sell here.

Obvious? You've got to be kidding.

We have a blurry unidentified figure in a photograph that some think looks like Oswald. It could be any one of a number of people, the number of which is unclear. It could even be a woman. From what we have uncovered, nobody standing near this person ever said this person was Oswald. And the existing record suggests that Oswald himself never said he was in this location at the time of the shooting. I mean, nothing. If it was Oswald, he could have said "Don't worry, Marina, I was out front when the shots were fired with lots of people nearby." But no, nothing.

So, there's no one saying it was Oswald...up against a number of people whose stories become problematic if it was Oswald.

And that's where it's likely to rest.

Now, that said, I still find this topic intriguing and worthwhile. Why? A whole bunch of reasons. 1) it arouses interest in the case. 2) it invites study of the record. 3) it may lead somewhere. Several years back, I had this vague notion that the paper bag photographed outside the building was not the paper bag in the FBI photographs. It sounded kinda loopy. But as I dug deeper, I found many indications that this was indeed the case. Did I prove it? Probably not. But was it worthwhile? Yep.

In this instance, you have found some evidence supporting that Baker and Truly saw Oswald as they entered the building. Have you proved it? No. It would be almost impossible to prove it at this point. But have you succeeded in blurring the once accepted fact that after the shooting Oswald was first observed by Baker in the second floor lunch room? And even raised the possibility Oswald was outside when the shots were fired?

For many, the answer will be yes.

Pat,

If this were simply a matter of plucking out a rather blurry image and, solely on the basis of that image, rushing to the judgment, 'Look, it's obviously Oswald!', then your point would be well taken.

But that is not what has happened here. Not even close.

The Prayer Man images relate in a powerful way to a body of evidence putting Oswald, and the Oswald-Baker-Truly encounter, on the first floor and at the front entrance of the first floor.

Wiegman and Darnell show us

1. a white man (I know you don't agree, and we'll come to that)
2. who is neither besuited nor wearing the white shirt of an office worker
3. who has short hair
4. who has dark hair
5. who appears to be holding at least one item
6. who appears to be holding at least one item up to his lower face area during the assassination sequence (Wiegman)
7. who appears to have lowered his right arm again just seconds after the shooting (Darnell)
8. who is right in Baker's entry route as he rushes up the front steps.

All things being equal, which would you say is the more likely scenario?

a ) this is a TSBD (Elm St) person amongst lots of other TSBD (Elm St) people?

b ) this is a non-TSBD (Elm St) person amongst lots of TSBD (Elm St) people?

It's a no-brainer: the more likely scenario, by far, is a)

There have been intensive efforts in recent days to propose a single viable candidate from amidst the ranks of the TSBD personnel. We've been told it's probably Lovelady, Frazier, Molina, Williams, etc. I'm still waiting for someone to nominate the 'confused' Jack Dougherty.

Every single effort along these lines has come up blank.

Except one: TSBD (Elm St) employee Lee Oswald.

So we're left, by a process of simple elimination, with the explanation to the best and most obvious inference:

It's Oswald, eating his lunch

And if you're telling me that Prayer Man looks so unlike Oswald as to force us to look elsewhere for a more far-fetched explanation, well I really must beg to differ.

If an image this clear had been found at the SN window, I and I suspect most other CTs would have no choice but to wave the white flag and accept that Oswald was indeed the sixth floor shooter.

**

Now you have several times offered the suggestion that Prayer Man is in fact a woman.

At one point you even suggested 'she' was holding "a large purse in her hands".

Can you, with reference to actual images from Darnell, back up this idea?

Data, please.

It could be anybody, Sean. I don't know who it is. Nor do you.

It could be anybody, David? Really? Could it be Billy Lovelady? Could it be Roy Truly? Could it be Bonnie Ray Williams?

Thought not.

What you're actually saying of course is:

It must be someone who didn't work at the TSBD.

Because that's the rather desperate last line of defence against the obvious explanation of someone who has invested too many years of his life in the silly Lone Nut Theory.

Anybody (But Oswald), eh David?

Beyond that I think "Prayer Man" looks like a woman, I think those pushing that Prayer Man must be Oswald are missing something. The TSBD had a second building just up Houston. The employees from that building had access to the TSBD and may very well have mingled with their co-workers on the steps.

Now, is there a full accounting of those employees, so that we can see who was on Elm during the shooting? I'm pretty sure the answer is no.

Pat, which do you think is more likely:

a ) Prayer Man would be a TSBD (Elm Street) employee

or

b ) Prayer would not be a TSBD (Elm Street) employee?

And how likely is it that someone from the other building would "mingle with" co-workers and have their presence there noticed by not a single one of those co-workers?

Why such resistance to the obvious explanation: it's Oswald?

Do you still think Prayer Man is Buell Wesley Frazier?

I never said I thought "Prayer Man" was Frazier. I think you're probably right about Frazier. Frazier is the person you've got circled in your photo above. At least I think it certainly could be Frazier inside that circle.

As for "Prayer Man" -- I haven't the slightest idea who that person is.

Okay, David. So it's not Frazier. And you rule out its being Oswald.

Can you offer us a single name, coupled with supporting evidence, as to who it might possibly be?

Even one candidate?

Or are you all out of ideas like the rest of the Lone Nut brotherhood?

Sean,

Do you think "Prayer Man" is wearing a long-sleeve or a short-sleeve shirt?

David,

Sleeves rolled up or else short-sleeved.

Do you still think Prayer Man is Buell Wesley Frazier?

Hi David,

Thought you might be interested to know that Buell Wesley Frazier has been identified in the Darnell film showing the front steps of the TSBD just seconds after the shooting.

He's exactly where his testimony puts him:

I know how glad you will be to learn that this question has been laid to rest, for you seemed pretty determined to help us answer it.

As for who Prayer Man might be in the same frames, we're all just completely stumped...

... and really could use your expert and unbiased input.

All the best,

Sean

Seems like there are several unspoken assumptions in this thread.

One is that PM cannot be on the top step/or Entrance Lobby when Baker goes by, and then also see Baker in the 2nd floor lunch room area.

A second one is that Oswald could only have purchased one Coke that day.

In my own mind, I have not made those concessions just yet.

I understand that Sean has presented a comprehensive scenario that eliminates the 2nd floor encounter. He has most definitely done an outstanding job providing News articles, Photo and film evidence, witness testimony, and applied sound logic and critical thinking to make his case. A tremendous effort that he has shared with the JFK Research community.

But I also believe that we can begin from the same starting point (with Prayer Man on the steps, Baker and Truly coming in through the entrance) and entertain the possibility of some of the story unfolding in a different way, or in a slightly different form than Sean's scenario.

Hi Richard,

Thanks for the kind words.

My take on the second-floor lunchroom is as follows:

a ) It almost certainly did not happen.

b ) In the very unlikely event that it did happen, it most certainly cannot have involved Oswald/Prayer Man's hurrying upstairs for a coca-cola: he must surely have been keeping tabs on Baker and Truly's progress.

c ) Those CTs (and I don't mean you!) who are open to the Prayer Man-Oswald identification but dogmatically closed to any doubts whatsoever about the second-floor lunchroom incident seem unaware of the accusation of complicity they are in effect levelling at Oswald.

d ) That said, simultaneous acceptance that Oswald is Prayer Man and rejection of the second-floor lunchroom story does not entail any necessary commitment to the view that Oswald is wholly innocent of any involvement in the assassination; it allows for arguments both ways.

As we have seen, Marrion Baker went to DPD HQ the afternoon of the assassination and gave an affidavit stating that he had caught a man walking away from the rear stairway on the third or fourth floor, but that he had let the man go when the building manager vouched for him as an employee.

This story--a fiction--would likely have formed the sensational centrepiece of Baker and Truly's WC testimony had it not been for two things:

a ) the adverse and quite possibly principled reaction of Baker upon seeing Oswald being brought into the Homicide Office just as he was giving his affidavit

b ) the bravery of one woman: Vicki Adams.

**

Regarding a )

The document filed by or on behalf of Will Fritz at some point after Oswald's death made a false claim:

Baker attended no such lineup.

He made no such formal identification of Oswald.

Indeed, we have good reason to believe he positively refused to do so.

And the crisis which his refusal was causing is reflected in the fact that the above note makes no mention of where in the building Officer Baker had seen Oswald.

All they had, and all they could clutch on to, was the crucial fact that Oswald's presence in the building just after the assassination was securely established by an officer's sighting of him.

Given the collapse of the affidavit version of events, the precise where and how of this sighting still had to be worked out--and Baker worked on.

**

Regarding b )

As Barry Ernest has confirmed to me, the authorities heard very quickly indeed from Ms. Adams:

Vicki told me she was questioned by several authorities when she returned to her office shortly after the assassination. She said she told each one about her trip down the stairs with Sandra. She and others in her office were dismissed around 2 p.m.

I have not found a record of these "interviews" taken that early in the game. The first recorded interview of Miss Adams occurred by the FBI on 11/24/63. It was detailed and during part of that interview, it was said, "She [Miss Adams] and her friend then ran immediately to the back of the stairs."

Suddenly, maddeningly, the area by the rear stairway was off limits for an Oswald-Baker encounter.

**

And the authorities' fourth-floor headache did not end with Adams and Styles.

Let us remind ourselves again of what Adams's supervisor Dorothy Garner told Barry when he tracked her down in 2011:

Did Miss Adams and Miss Styles leave the window right away, I asked her.

"The girls did," she responded. "I remember them being there and the next thing I knew, they were gone."

They had left "very quickly…within a matter of moments," she added.

What did Mrs. Garner do after that?

"There was this warehouse or storage area behind our office, out by the freight elevators and the rear stairway, and I went out there."

Her move to that area clearly put her into a position where she could have observed activity on the back stairs as well as on the elevators. But how fast had she arrived there?

Mrs. Garner said she immediately went to this area, following "shortly after…right behind" Miss Adams and Miss Styles. She couldn't remember exactly why she went out there, other than to say, "probably to get something." Mrs. Garner said she did not actually see "the girls" enter the stairway, though, arriving on the fourth- floor landing seconds after. When I asked how she knew they had gone down, Mrs. Garner said, "I remember hearing them, after they started down. I remember the stairs were very noisy."

Were the freight elevators in operation during this time?

"I don't recall that," she answered. "They were very noisy too!"

Mrs. Garner said she remained at that spot and was alone for a moment before "several came out back from the office to look out those windows there."

The rear of the fourth floor was getting horribly crowded, so it had to be ruled out--subsequent to Baker's disastrous affidavit statement!--as a viable venue for the phoney Baker-Oswald-Truly encounter.

Same went for the third floor: to put (or keep) the encounter there would be very dangerous, throwing a spotlight on the failure of anyone to see Oswald going down the stairs to three--and raising an awkward question as to whether any amongst these women had noticed Baker and Truly coming up. What if that quesiton elicited the use of the taboo word 'elevator' rather 'stairway'...?

**

Place the encounter any higher than the fourth floor, and things would just start getting silly.

How on earth was Jesse Curry going to explain to the world how one of his men had had Oswald in his clutches in the most incriminating place imaginable--by the rear stairway, right in the shooter's escape route, way up in the building--only to let him loose?

And how on earth was Marrion Baker going to be inveigled into testifying away his good reputation as an officer by signing up to that damning story?

**

What was needed, and urgently, was a Baker-Oswald-Truly encounter away from the front entrance but also somewhere away from the stairs yet still within striking distance of Oswald's escape route down those stairs.

There was literally only one viable venue left: the second-floor lunchroom.

It was far from ideal.

In fact it was pretty crappy.

But it was the best that could be come up with under trying circumstances.

And on the Friday night a decision was made--by the FBI if not by DPD--to run with this new location and somehow make the best of a bad job.

From an FBI teletype sent from Dallas to Washington in the early hours of the Saturday morning:

It needs to be stated again that the theory I have been outlining in this thread posits an encounter involving Lee Oswald, Marrion Baker and Roy Truly that was perfectly simple and straightforward.

Oswald is out front for the motorcade...

... and Marrion Baker very briefly addresses him as he, Baker, runs into the building... only to have Roy Truly intervene and offer his assistance as building manager.

All the complexity in the theory--all of it--pertains to the frantic attempts made in the hours, days and weeks ahead to cover up this simple event.

For those attempts had one brutal aim: to deprive Oswald of his all too clear alibi by displacing the Baker encounter to a location somewhere at or near the rear of the building--i.e. a location consistent with the notion of Oswald as the sixth floor shooter.

The incident in black actually happened.

The incidents in red and green are pure fiction.

And it is in understanding the precise relationship between the one real event and each of the two fictions, as well as the precise relationship between the two fictions themselves, that we can come to account for the carefully coached nonsense of Baker and Truly's WC testimony.

Gary Mack has kindly CC'd me on an email to Richard, which I hope Richard does not mind me posting:

Sean's observation is correct, I do not think Prayer Man is Lovelady, for I'm well aware that Lovelady stood to PM's left. I have no excuse for my temporary lapse in judgment and I apologize. Sorry. But I stand by my ID of Darnell in the Cook footage and, while I cannot rule out someone else, the man wearing the hat in Bond 5 is probably Dave Wiegman.

Thanks, Gary, the speedy and unequivocal clarification is appreciated.

Your original identification was clearly based on the observation that Prayer Man resembles Billy Lovelady.

Who, if not Lovelady, do you think he might be?

Here's "Prayer Man" and three photos of Oswald that was put together by someone who is not a member of this forum and emailed to me a while back, and I'm sorry I've been off line and haven't had time to post it, and haven't kept up with this thread so I don't know if it has already been posted.

http://jfkcountercoup.blogspot.com/2013/prayer-man-at-tsbd

I think it makes it clear that "Prayer Man" could most certainly be Oswald, though I am also giving odds on it possibly being B.W. Frazer.

I don't buy the speculation that "Prayer Man" is eating Oswald's cheese sandwich, drinking a coke, taking pictures or eating an apple, or that this is where the encounter with Baker and Truly takes place - as Baker would have no reason to suspect "Prayer Man" of being suspicious, and he can't be drinking a coke - if he is Oswald because he didn't buy the coke yet. I also don't think Baker and Truly found Oswald sitting at a table in the second floor lunchroom drinking a coke, as the SS reenactment photo would indicate.

I also place more credence in the original Youtube film of "College Boy" standing on the steps and then walking down and east on Elm, who I believe could be "Prayer Man" and/or Oswald, and this segment needs to be identified as to who took the film and who is in it.

I'd also like to hear what Buel Wesley Frazer has to say about it.

BK

Bill,

Yes, it most certainly could be Oswald:

Frazier has already been firmly identified:

The speculation is not that Baker found Oswald suspicious at the front entrance.

It's that Baker, needing someone to point him to the stairs, asked Oswald if he worked there.

Why Oswald? Because he was right in Baker's path as he entered the building.

This briefest of exchanges was that evening recast by Dallas police as Baker's challenging or 'stopping' Oswald at the front entrance.

Thanks, Richard.

As for PM, I think he’s Billy Lovelady who was shorter and heavier than Oswald; also, the Couch film shows two other men, not Shelley and Lovelady, walking along Elm so that means Lovelady must still be on the steps."

No, I'm sorry, but when Gary wrote these words he must have been unaware that Prayer Man and Lovelady can be seen beside one another in the Wiegman film.

Another message from Gary Mack to clarify his position, paraphrased in Purple below:

[begin paraphrase]

Gary is positive of his identification of Jimmy Darnell in the Cook film.

Gary is having second thoughts about the ID of the man in the Brown suit and hat in the Bond #5. Not positive at this point of his ID.

Regarding PM: Gary feels PM is Billy Lovelady who was shorter and heavier than Oswald. He also says the Couch film shows two other men, not Shelley and Lovelady walking along Elm, so Lovelady must still be on the steps.

[end paraphrase]

A final note: Gary is a member of this forum and may be contacted through the Personal Message feature.

Richard,

I'm sorry, but Gary Mack cannot possibly believe that Prayer Man is Billy Lovelady.

He knows that the Wiegman frames show Prayer Man standing in the shadows beside Lovelady:

And Gary cannot possibly be telling people that Lovelady and Bill Shelley lied outlandishly in their WC testimony.

So can you please give us the exact words Gary used in his message on this matter?

Thanks,

Sean

Yes Sean

This paragraph has certainly been

embellished past participle, past tense ofem·bel·lish (Verb)

Verb

2. .
4. Make (a statement or story) more interesting or entertaining by adding extra details, esp. ones that are not true.

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. Mr. Truly was present and verified that he was an employee and the police officer thereafter left the room and continued through the building. Oswald stated that he took this Coke down to the first floor and stood around and had lunch in the employees lunch room. He thereafter went outside and stood around for five or ten minutes with foreman Bill Shelly [...]

Original

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.

at which time a police officer came into the room with pistol drawn ?

He thereafter went outside and stood around for five or ten minutes with foreman Bill Shelly ?

'Embellished' is right, Robin.

The second report is a blatant attempt to incorporate the "officer came in" element--the element so conspicuously missing from the joint Bookhout-Hosty report--in a way that is safe,

i.e. in a way that hides what is about to happen in a few seconds time here...

Bookhout's notes do not say "when [the] off[icer] came in room".

They say "when [the] off came in to [the] 1st fl[oor]"

Distinct thoughts--but run-on lines:

• Claims 2nd Floor coke
• When off[icer] came in to 1st fl[oor] [was having] lunch out with with Bill Shelley [and others] in front

In their joint interrogation report, written while Oswald was still alive, Bookhout and Hosty mentioned Oswald's non-toxic trip upstairs for the coke but completely fudged the issue of his claimed whereabouts at the time of the shooting and the officer's dash up the front steps and into the first floor:

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.

As this report was being put together by the two agents, Bookhout was looking at his notes which contained (we now know, thanks to Fritz's copy) explicit mention of an officer coming in. Yet that massively important detail is not even mentioned in the account of the lunchroom visit. Why? Because the officer coming in had nothing to do with the lunchroom visit. It had however everything to do with Oswald's alibi. And there was simply no way any of that was ever going into an official interrogation report.

James Hosty in the months and years ahead would never offer any corroboration for Bookhout’s solo report claim that Oswald talked about such an incident in the lunchroom. It is not in Hosty’s own contemporaneous interrogation notes. It is not in his Warren Commission testimony. It is not in his 1996 book Assignment: Oswald.

**

After Oswald's death, and without input or corroboration from Hosty, Bookhout took this section of his notes--

--and gave it a preposterous gloss that had the double merit of posthumously 'confirming' the lunchroom incident Roy Truly was telling people about and making Oswald sound like a very bad xxxx:

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. Mr. Truly was present and verified that he was an employee and the police officer thereafter left the room and continued through the building. Oswald stated that he took this Coke down to the first floor and stood around and had lunch in the employees lunch room. He thereafter went outside and stood around for five or ten minutes with foreman Bill Shelly [...]

Did Oswald say: I bought a coke on the second floor when...?

No.

There is a slight elevation in the position of the word 'when' with respect to the previous word--

----indicative of the beginning of a new thought:

Distinct thoughts--but run-on lines:

• Claims 2nd Floor coke
  
• When off[icer] came in to 1st fl[oor] [was having] lunch out with with Bill Shelley [and others] in front
  

Oswald is making special mention of Shelley simply because he was the most senior TSBD man standing on the steps.

Shelley however probably never even noticed that Oswald was there.

Fritz, as we have already seen, let this very big moggy out of the bag during his WC testimony:

Mr. FRITZ. Well he told me that he was eating lunch with some of the employees when this happened, and that he saw all the excitement...

We know now that Lee was telling the truth...

Has Bookhout or Fritz erroneously written the word 'says' twice?

Of course not.

There is a slight elevation in the position of the second instance of the word 'says' with respect to the previous word--

--indicative of the beginning of a new thought:

Oswald:

• I am a member of ACLU
• Mrs. Pane is too

Distinct thoughts--but run-on lines.

From Will Fritz's personal handwritten copy of FBI Special Agent James W. Bookhout's contemporaneous interrogation notes:

Did Oswald say: I don't own a rifle saw?

Of course not.

There is a slight elevation in the position of the word 'saw' with respect to the previous word--

--indicative of the beginning of a new thought:

Oswald said:

• I don't own a rifle.
• However I did see one in the building...

Distinct thoughts--but run-on lines.