JFK Assassination Reconstruction Film

[William Kelly]

Part 1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rWM_Pni45Go...feature=related

Part 2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=trs8W-gLwJE...feature=related

Part 3

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xEn63X61fRo...feature=related

These reenactment films are important to understand the situation behind the scenes at the Texas School Book Depository, showing the 6th floor as it was at the time, the construction of the sniper's lair, how someone back there could be hidden from view and how the sniper deposited the rifle near the stairs and walked down to the 2nd floor lunchroom.

It also shows - at the end of Part 3 - (7:09 - 7:15 seconds) quite clearly how Howard Roffman is correct in his demonstration that someone who walked into the little foyer room from the stairs would not be seen from the stairs through the window in the door seconds later, as Oswald was seen by Truly and the cop. This is positive proof that if seen through the window Oswald entered the lunchroom via the adjacent door from the south side and did not come down the stairs.

BK

Edited November 30, 2008 by William Kelly

[Pamela Brown]

Part 1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rWM_Pni45Go...feature=related

Part 2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=trs8W-gLwJE...feature=related

Part 3

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xEn63X61fRo...feature=related

These reenactment films are important to understand the situation behind the scenes at the Texas School Book Depository, showing the 6th floor as it was at the time, the construction of the sniper's lair, how someone back there could be hidden from view and how the sniper deposited the rifle near the stairs and walked down to the 2nd floor lunchroom.

It also shows - at the end of Part 3 - (7:09 - 7:15 seconds) quite clearly how Howard Roffman is correct in his demonstration that someone who walked into the little foyer room from the stairs would not be seen from the stairs through the window in the door seconds later, as Oswald was seen by Truly and the cop. This is positive proof that if seen through the window Oswald entered the lunchroom via the adjacent door from the south side and did not come down the stairs.

BK

Good point. In addition, if LHO had any knowledge even that shots had come from the TSBD it is unlikely he would have bothered to stop for a bottle of pop in the first place. That he did shows his lack of awareness of the events that had just taken place.

[Denis Pointing]

Part 1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rWM_Pni45Go...feature=related

Part 2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=trs8W-gLwJE...feature=related

Part 3

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xEn63X61fRo...feature=related

These reenactment films are important to understand the situation behind the scenes at the Texas School Book Depository, showing the 6th floor as it was at the time, the construction of the sniper's lair, how someone back there could be hidden from view and how the sniper deposited the rifle near the stairs and walked down to the 2nd floor lunchroom.

It also shows - at the end of Part 3 - (7:09 - 7:15 seconds) quite clearly how Howard Roffman is correct in his demonstration that someone who walked into the little foyer room from the stairs would not be seen from the stairs through the window in the door seconds later, as Oswald was seen by Truly and the cop. This is positive proof that if seen through the window Oswald entered the lunchroom via the adjacent door from the south side and did not come down the stairs.

BK

Good point. In addition, if LHO had any knowledge even that shots had come from the TSBD it is unlikely he would have bothered to stop for a bottle of pop in the first place. That he did shows his lack of awareness of the events that had just taken place.

Pam, you seem to be missing an importaint point here. If Oswald was rushing down from the 6th floor he didn't go in the lunch room because he fancied a quick Dr Peppers, the allegation is that he dived in there to avoid Roy Truly and officer Marion L. Baker rushing up the stairs towards him.

Edited November 30, 2008 by Denis Pointing

[William Kelly]

Part 1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rWM_Pni45Go...feature=related

Part 2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=trs8W-gLwJE...feature=related

Part 3

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xEn63X61fRo...feature=related

These reenactment films are important to understand the situation behind the scenes at the Texas School Book Depository, showing the 6th floor as it was at the time, the construction of the sniper's lair, how someone back there could be hidden from view and how the sniper deposited the rifle near the stairs and walked down to the 2nd floor lunchroom.

It also shows - at the end of Part 3 - (7:09 - 7:15 seconds) quite clearly how Howard Roffman is correct in his demonstration that someone who walked into the little foyer room from the stairs would not be seen from the stairs through the window in the door seconds later, as Oswald was seen by Truly and the cop. This is positive proof that if seen through the window Oswald entered the lunchroom via the adjacent door from the south side and did not come down the stairs.

BK

Good point. In addition, if LHO had any knowledge even that shots had come from the TSBD it is unlikely he would have bothered to stop for a bottle of pop in the first place. That he did shows his lack of awareness of the events that had just taken place.

Pam, you seem to be missing an importaint point here. If Oswald was rushing down from the 6th floor he didn't go in the lunch room because he fancied a quick Dr Peppers, the allegation is that he dived in there to avoid Roy Truly and officer Marion L. Baker rushing up the stairs towards him.

http://www.ratical.org/ratville/JFK/PG/PGchp8.html

The Alibi: Oswald's Actions after the Shots

The first person to see Oswald after the assassination was Dallas Patrolman Marrion Baker, who had been riding a motorcycle behind the last camera car in the motorcade. As he reached a position some 60 to 80 feet past the turn from Main Street onto Houston, Baker heard the first shot (3H246). Immediately after the last shot, he "revved up that motorcycle" and drove it to a point near a signal light on the northwest corner of Elm and Houston (3H247). From here Baker ran 45 feet to the main entrance of the Book Depository, pushing through people and quickly scanning the area. At the main entrance, Baker's shouts for the stairs were spontaneously answered by building manager Roy Truly as both men continued across the first floor to the northwest corner, where Truly hollered up twice for an elevator. When an elevator failed to descend, Truly led Baker up the adjacent steps to the second floor. From the second floor, Truly continued up the steps to the third; Baker, however, did not. The Report describes the situation:

On the second floor landing there is a small open area with a door at the east end. This door leads into a small vestibule, and another door leads from the vestibule into the second-floor lunchroom. The lunchroom door is usually open, but the first door is kept shut by a closing mechanism on the door. This vestibule door is solid except for a small glass window in the upper part of the door. As Baker reached the second floor, he was about 20 feet from the vestibule door. He intended to continue around to his left toward the stairway going up but through the window in the door he caught a fleeting glimpse of a man walking in the vestibule toward the lunchroom. (R151)

Baker ran into the vestibule with his pistol drawn and stopped the man, who turned out to be Lee Harvey Oswald. Truly, realizing that Baker was no longer following him, came down to the second floor and identified Oswald as one of his employees. The two men then continued up the stairs toward the Depository roof.

"In an effort to determine whether Oswald could have descended to the lunchroom from the sixth floor by the time Baker and Truly arrived," the Commission staged a timed reconstruction of events. The Commission knew that this encounter in the lunchroom such a short time after the shots could have provided Oswald with an alibi, thus exculpating him from involvement in the shooting. The reconstruction could not establish whether Oswald was at the sixth-floor window; it could, however, tell whether he was not. In the interest of determining the truth, it was vital that this reenactment be faithfully conducted, simulating the proper actions to the most accurate degree possible.

From beginning to end, the execution of the reconstruction was in disregard of the known actions of the participants, stretching -- if not by intent, certainly in effect -- the time consumed for Baker to have arrived on the second floor and shrinking the time for the "assassin's" descent.[1]

To begin with, the reconstruction of Baker's movements started at the wrong time. Baker testified that he revved up his motorcycle immediately after the last shot (3H247). However, Baker's time was clocked from a simulated first shot (3H252). To compare the time of the assassin's descent with that of Baker's ascent, the reconstruction obviously had to start after the last shot. Since the time span of the shots was, according to the Report, from 4.8 to over 7 seconds, the times obtained for Baker's movements are between 4.8 and 7 seconds in excess.

Although Baker testified that he was flanking the last "press" car in the motorcade (3H245), the record indicates that he was, in fact, flanking the last camera car -- the last of the convertibles carrying the various photographers, closer to the front of the procession than the vehicles carrying other press representatives. Baker said he was some 60 to 80 feet along Houston Street north of Main when he heard the first shot (3H246). Those in the last camera car were also in this general location at the time of the first shot (Jackson: 2H158; Couch: 6H156; Dillard: 6H163-64; Underwood: 6H169;). During the reconstruction, Baker drove his motorcycle from his location at the time of the first shot a distance of 180 to 200 feet to the point in front of the Depository at which he dismounted (3H247). However, since Baker had revved up his cycle immediately after the last shot on November 22, the distance he traveled in the reenactment was entirely too long. Since the motorcade advanced about 116 feet during the time span of the shots, the distance Baker should have driven in the reconstruction was no greater than 84 feet (200 - 116 = 84). This would have placed Baker near the intersection of Elm and Houston at the time he revved up his cycle, not 180 feet from it as was reconstructed. Likewise, the men in the last camera car recalled being in proximity to the intersection at the time of the last shot (Underwood: 6H169; Couch: 6H158; Jackson: 2H159).

With 116 feet extra to travel in a corresponding added time of 4.8 to 7 seconds, Baker was able to reach the front entrance of the Depository in only 15 seconds during the reconstruction (7H593). Had the reenactment properly started at the time of the last shot, it follows that Baker could have reached the main entrance in 8 to 10 seconds. Did Baker actually consume so little time in getting to the Depository on November 22?

The Commission made no effort to answer this question, leaving an incomplete and unreliable record. Billy Lovelady, Bill Shelley, Joe Molina, and several other employees were standing on the steps of the Depository's main entrance during the assassination. Lovelady and Shelley testified that another employee, Gloria Calvery, ran up to them and stated that the President had been shot; the three of them began to run west toward the parking lot, at which time they saw Truly and a police officer run into the Depository (6H329-31, 339). This story is contradicted by Molina, who contended that Truly (he did not notice Baker) ran into the main entrance before Gloria Calvery arrived (6H372). Mrs. Calvery was not called to testify, and the one statement by her to the FBI does not address this issue. From her position just east of the Stemmons Freeway sign on the north side of Elm (22H638), it does not seem likely that she could have made the 150-foot run to the main entrance in only 15 seconds. Yet, adding to this confusion is an affidavit that Shelly executed for the Dallas Police on November 22, 1963. Here he stated that he ran down to the "park" on Elm Street and met Gloria Calvery there (24H226). Obviously, the issue cannot be resolved through these witnesses.

While Molina felt that Truly ran into the Depository some 20 to 30 seconds after the shots (6H372), Lovelady and Shelley estimated that as much as three minutes had elapsed (6H329, 339). When Counsel Joe Ball cautioned Lovelady that "three minutes is a long time," Lovelady partially retracted because he did not have a watch then and could not be exact (6H339). Supporting Molina's estimate, Roy Truly told the Secret Service in December 1963 that Baker made his way to the front entrance "almost immediately" (CD87, Secret Service Control No. 491); almost a year later Truly said on a CBS News Special that Baker's arrival "was just a matter of seconds after the third shot."[2]

I was able to resolve the issue concerning Baker's arrival at the Depository through evidence strangely absent from the Commission's record. Malcolm Couch, riding in the last camera car (Camera Car 3), took some very important motion-picture footage immediately after the shots. Couch, whose car was almost at the intersection of Elm and Houston when the last shot sounded, immediately picked up his camera, made the proper adjustments, and began filming (6H158). Others in Camera Car 3 related how their car came to a stop or hesitated in the middle of the turn into Elm to let some of the photographers out (2H162; 6H165, 169). Couch's film begins slightly before the stop, just as the car was making the turn (6H158). From Couch's testimony and the scenes depicted in his film, in addition to the testimony of others in the same car, it can be determined that Couch began filming no more than 10 seconds after the last shot.[3]

The first portion of the Couch film depicts the crowds dispersing along the island at the northwest corner of Elm and Houston. The camera pans in a westerly direction as the grassy knoll and Elm Street come into view. In these beginning sequences, a motorcycle is visible, parked next to the north curb of Elm, very slightly west of a traffic light at the head of the island. Baker testified that he parked his cycle 10 feet east of this signal light (3H247-48). The position of the motorcycle in the Couch film is not in great conflict with the position at which Baker recalled having dismounted; it is doubtful that Baker paid much attention to the exact position of his motorcycle in those confused moments. It would appear that this cycle, identical with the others driven in the motorcade, must have been Baker's, for it is not visible in any photographs taken during the shots, including footage of that area by David Weigman,[4] and no other motorcycle officer arrived at that location in so short a time after the shots. No policeman appears on or around the cycle depicted in the Couch film.

Thus, photographic evidence known to, but never sought by, the Commission proves that Officer Baker had parked and dismounted his motorcycle within 10 seconds after the shots. Corroborative evidence is found in the testimony of Bob Jackson, also riding in Camera Car 3. Jackson told the Commission that after the last shot, as his car hesitated through the turn into Elm, he saw a policeman run up the Depository steps, toward the front door (2H164). This is entirely consistent with Baker's abandoned motorcycle's appearing at this same time in the Couch film.

During the Baker-Truly reconstructions, Baker reached the second floor in one minute and 30 seconds on the first attempt and one minute, 15 seconds on the second (3H252). Since Baker's simulated movements up to the time he reached the main entrance consumed 15 seconds (7H593), the actions subsequent to that must have been reenacted in a span of one minute to about 75 seconds. However, since Baker actually reached the main entrance within 10 seconds on November 22, the reconstructed time is cut by at least five seconds. Further reductions are in order.

Officer Baker described the manner in which he simulated his movements subsequent to dismounting his motorcycle:

From the time I got off the motorcycle we walked the first time and then we kind of run the second time from the motorcycle on into the building. (3H253)

Baker neither walked nor "kind of" ran to the Depository entrance on November 22. From his own description, he surveyed the scene as he was parking his cycle, and then "ran straight to" the main entrance (3H248-249). Billy Lovelady also swore that Baker was running (6H339). However, Truly provided the most graphic description of Baker's apparent "mad dash" to the building:

I saw a young motorcycle policeman

run

up to the building, up the steps to the entrance of our building. He

ran

right by me. And he was pushing people out of the way. He pushed a number of people out of the way before he got to me. I saw him coming through, I believe. As he

ran

up the stairway -- I mean up the steps, I was almost to the steps, and I

ran

up and caught up with him. (3H221; emphasis added)

Thus, walking through this part of the reconstruction was, as Harold Weisberg aptly termed it, pure fakery, unnecessarily and unfaithfully burdening Baker's time.[5] The Report, on the other hand, assures us that the time on November 22 would actually have been longer, because "no allowance was made for the special conditions which existed on the day of the assassination -- possible delayed reaction to the shot, jostling with the crowd of people on the steps and scanning the area along Elm Street and the Parkway" (R152-53). Had the Commission directed any significant effort to obtaining as many contemporaneous pictures as possible -- including those taken by Couch -- it could not have engaged in such excuse-making. Even at that, how could the Commission dare go to all the efforts of staging a reconstruction and then admit -- to its own advantage -- that it deliberately failed to simulate actions? As was discussed in chapter 1, this child's play was inexcusable as an effort bearing such weight in deciding Oswald's guilt. The Couch film eliminates the possibility that the factors mentioned in the Report could have slowed Baker down. As for "jostling with the crowd of people on the steps," the Report neglected to mention other disproof of this as a slowing factor. As Truly testified,

when the officer and I ran in, we were shouldering people aside in front of the building, so we possibly were slowed a little bit more coming in than we were when he and I came in on March 20 (date of the reconstruction).

I don't believe so. But it wouldn't be enough to matter there

. (3H228; emphasis added)

Once in the building during the reconstruction, the two men proceded [sic] to the elevators "at a kind of trot . . . it wasn't a real fast run, an open run. It was more of a trot, kind of" (3H253). This, again, was not an accurate simulation of the real actions. While Truly admitted that the reconstruction pace across the first floor was "about" the same as that of November 22, he described the former as a trot and the latter as "a little more than a trot" (3H228). Baker himself said that once through the door, he and Truly "kind of ran, not real fast but, you know, a good trot" (3H249), not the "kind of trot" he described during the reconstruction. A swinging door at the end of the lobby in the main entrance was jammed because the bolt had been stuck. Apparently, the pace on November 22 was of sufficient speed for Truly to bang right into this door and Baker to subsequently collide with Truly in the instant before the door was forced open (3H222). Likewise, Eddie Piper, a first-floor witness, had seen the two men run into the building, yell up for an elevator, and "take off" up the stairs (6H385).

In walking through part of the reconstruction, which should have been conducted running and was begun at least five seconds early, Baker and Truly managed to arrive on the second floor in one minute, 30 seconds. In the reconstruction, equally begun too early but staged at a pace closer to, though not simulating that of November 22, the time narrowed to a minute and 15 seconds. While Baker and Truly felt that the reconstructed times were minimums (3H228, 253), it would seem that the opposite was true. Subtracting the extra seconds tacked on by including the time span of the shots reduces even the maximum time to one minute, 25 seconds. The understandably hurried pace of November 22 as manifested in all the evidence would indicate that Truly and Baker reached the second floor in under 85 seconds, and the Couch film introduces the possibility that it may have taken as little as 70 seconds, since Baker parked and abandoned his motorcycle within ten seconds of the last shot.

The second part of the reconstruction was supposed to have simulated the "assassin's" movements from the sixth-floor window down to the second-floor lunchroom. Here the figurative lead weights tied to Baker and Truly during the reconstruction of their movements are exchanged for figurative roller skates, to shorten the time of the "assassin's" descent.

Secret Service Agent John Howlett stood in for the "assassin." He executed an affidavit for the Commission in which he described his actions:

I carried a rifle from the southeast corner of the sixth floor northernly along the east aisle to the northern corner, then westernly [

sic

] along the north wall past the elevators to the northwest corner. There I placed the rifle on the floor. I then entered the stairwell, walked down the stairway to the second floor landing, and then into the lunchroom. (7H592)

This test was done twice. At a "normal walk" it took one minute and 18 seconds; at a "fast walk," one minute, 14 seconds (3H254). This reconstruction also suffered from most serious ommissions.[sic]

The "assassin" could not just have walked away from his window as Howlett apparently did. If the gunman fired the last shot from the Carcano as the official theory demands, a minimum time of 2.3 seconds after the last shot must be added to the reconstructed time since the cartridge case from that shot had to be ejected -- an operation that involves working the rifle bolt. Furthermore, witnesses recalled that the gunman had been in no hurry to leave his window (2H159; 3H144).

There were also physical obstructions that prevented immediate evacuation of the area. Commission Exhibit 734 shows that some stacks of boxes nearest to the "assassin's" window did not extend far enough toward the east wall of the building to have blocked off the window there completely. However, as Commission Exhibits 723 and 726 clearly show, other columns of boxes were situated behind the first stacks; these formed a wall that had no openings large enough for a man to penetrate without contortion. Deputy Sheriff Luke Mooney discovered three cartridge cases by this window. He had to squeeze "between these two stacks of boxes, I had to turn myself sideways to get in there" (3H285). The gunman would have had to squeeze through these stacks of boxes while carrying a 40-inch, 8-pound rifle. Considering these details, we must add at least six or seven seconds to the Commission's time to allow for the various necessary factors that would slow departure from the window.

To simulate the hiding of the rifle, Howlett "leaned over as if he were putting a rifle there [near the stair landing at the northwest corner of the sixth floor]" (3H253). The Commission did not do justice to its putative assassin who, as the photographs reveal, took meticulous care in concealing his weapon. The mere act of gaining access to the immediate area in which the rifle was hidden required time. This is what Deputy Sheriff Eugene Boone went through before he discovered the rifle:

As I got to the west wall, there were a row of windows there, and a slight space between some boxes and the wall. I squeezed through them. . . . I caught a glimpse of the rifle, stuffed down between two rows of boxes with another box or so pulled over the top of it. (3H293)

Luke Mooney "had to get around to the right angle" before he could see the rifle (3H298). Likewise, Deputy Constable Seymour Weitzman reported that "it was covered with boxes. It was very well protected as far as the naked eye" (7H107). Another Deputy Sheriff, Roger Craig, recalled that the ends of the rows between which the rifle had been pushed were closed off by boxes, so that one could not see through them (6H269).

Photographs of the area in which the rifle was found (e.g., CE 719), and a bird's-eye view of the hidden rifle itself (e.g., CE 517), corroborate what these men have described and add other information. CE 719 shows that the rifle was found amid clusters of boxes that did not permit easy access. CE 517, in particular, is very revealing. It shows that the rifle had been pushed upright on its side between two rows of boxes that partially overlapped on top, thus eliminating the possibility that the rifle had merely been dropped down between the stacks. CE 517 also demonstrates that both ends of the rows of boxes were partially sealed off by other boxes, indicating a possibility never pursued by the Commission -- namely, that boxes had to be moved to gain access to the weapon. When interviewed by CBS News, Seymour Weitzman inadvertently admitted this fact:

I'll be very frank with you. I stumbled over it two times, not knowing it was there. . . . And Mr. Bone [sic] was climbing on top, and I was down on my knees looking, and

I moved a box, and he moved a carton, and there it was

. And he in turn hollered that we had found a rifle.

[

6

]

Hence, the concealment of the rifle required much maneuvering. In addition to squeezing in between boxes, the gunman had to move certain cartons filled with books. The rifle itself had been very carefully placed in position. Doubtless this would have added at least 15, perhaps 20, seconds to the reconstructed time even if the hiding place had been chosen in advance (of which there is no evidence either way).

If we take the Commission's minimum time of one minute, 14 seconds (giving the advantage to the official story) and add the additional six or seven seconds needed just to evacuate the immediate area of the window, plus the 15 to 20 seconds more for hiding the rifle, we find that it would have taken at least a minute and 35 seconds to a minute and 41 seconds for a sixth-floor gunman to have reached the second-floor lunchroom, had all his maneuvers been planned in advance. Had Oswald been the assassin, he would have arrived in the lunchroom at least five to eleven seconds after Baker reached the second floor, even if Baker took the longest time obtainable for his ascent -- a minute, 30 seconds. Had Baker ascended in 70 seconds -- as he easily could have -- he would have arrived at least 25 seconds before Oswald. Either case removes the possibility that Oswald descended from the sixth floor, for on November 22 he had unquestionably arrived in the lunchroom before Baker.

The circumstances surrounding the lunchroom encounter indicate that Oswald entered the lunchroom not by the vestibule door from without, as he would have had he descended from the sixth floor, but through a hallway leading into the vestibule. The outer vestibule door is closed automatically by a closing mechanism on the door (7H591). When Truly arrived on the second floor, he did not see Oswald entering the vestibule (R151). For the Commission's case to be valid, Oswald must have entered the vestibule through the first door before Truly arrived. Baker reached the second floor immediately after Truly and caught a fleeting glimpse of Oswald in the vestibule through a small window in the outer door. Although Baker said the vestibule door "might have been, you know, closing and almost shut at that time" (3H255), it is dubious that he could have distinguished whether the door was fully or "almost" closed.

Baker's and Truly's observations are not at all consistent with Oswald's having entered the vestibule through the first door. Had Oswald done this, he could have been inside the lunchroom well before the automatic mechanism closed the vestibule door. Truly's testimony that he saw no one entering the vestibule indicates either that Oswald was already in the vestibule at this time or was approaching it from another source. However, had Oswald already entered the vestibule when Truly arrived on the second floor, it is doubtful that he would have remained there long enough for Baker to see him seconds later. Likewise, the fact that neither man saw the mechanically closed door in motion is cogent evidence that Oswald did not enter the vestibule through that door.

One of the crucial aspects of Baker's story is his position at the time he caught a "fleeting glimpse" of a man in the vestibule. Baker marked this position during his testimony as having been immediately adjacent to the stairs at the northwest corner of the building (3H256; CE 497). "I was just stepping out on to the second floor when I caught this glimpse of this man through this doorway," said Baker.

It should be noted that the Report never mentions Baker's position at the time he saw Oswald in the vestibule (R149-51). Instead, it prints a floor plan of the second floor and notes Baker's position "when he observed Oswald in lunchroom" (R150). This location, as indicated in the Report, was immediately outside the vestibule door (see CE 1118). The reader of the Report is left with the impression that Baker saw Oswald in the vestibule as well from this position. However, Baker testified explicitly that he first caught a glimpse of the man in the vestibule from the stairs and, upon running to the vestibule door, saw Oswald in the lunchroom (3H256). The Report's failure to point out Baker's position is significant.

Had Oswald descended from the sixth floor, his path through the vestibule into the lunchroom would have been confined to the north wall of the vestibule. Yet the line of sight from Baker's position at the steps does not include any area near the north wall. From the steps, Baker could have seen only one area in the vestibule -- the southeast portion. The only way Oswald could have been in this area on his way to the lunchroom is if he entered the vestibule through the southernmost door, as the previously cited testimony indicates he did.

Oswald could not have entered the vestibule in this manner had he just descended from the sixth floor. The only way he could have gotten to the southern door is from the first floor up through either a large office space or an adjacent corridor. As the Report concedes, Oswald told police he had eaten his lunch on the first floor and gone up to the second to purchase a coke when he encountered an officer (R182).

Thus, Oswald had an alibi. Had he been the sixth-floor gunman, he would have arrived at the lunchroom at least 5 seconds after Baker did, probably more. It is extremely doubtful that he could have entered the vestibule through the first door without Baker's or Truly's having seen the door in motion. Oswald's position in the vestibule when seen by Baker was consistent only with his having come up from the first floor as he told the police.

Oswald could not have been the assassin.

The Commission had great difficulty with facts, for none supported the ultimate conclusions. Instead, it found comfort and security in intangibles that usually had no bearing on the actual evidence. Amateur psychology seems to have been one of the Commission's favorite sciences, approached with the predisposition that Oswald was a murderer. This was manifested in the Report's lengthy chapter, "Lee Harvey Oswald: Background and Possible Motives" (R375-424).

To lend credibility to its otherwise incredible conclusion that Oswald was the assassin, the Commission accused Oswald of yet another assassination attempt -- a shot fired at right-wing Maj. Gen. Edwin Walker on April 10, 1963 (R183-87). Thus, Oswald officially was not a newcomer to the "game" of political assassination. Although I am not in accord with the conclusion that Oswald shot at Walker, I find it illuminating that the Commission did not follow its inclination for psychology in its comparison of Oswald as the Walker assailant to Oswald as the Kennedy assailant.

Having just torn open the head of the President of the United States, as the Commission asserts, how did Oswald react when stopped by a policeman with a drawn gun? Roy Truly was first asked about Oswald's reaction to the encounter with Baker:

Mr. Belin: Did you see any expression on his face? Or weren't you paying attention?

Mr. Truly: He didn't seem to be excited or overly afraid or anything. He might have been a little startled, like I might have been if someone confronted me. But I cannot recall any change in expression of any kind on his face. (3H225)

Officer Baker was more explicit under similar questioning:

Rep. Boggs: When you saw him [Oswald] . . ., was he out of breath, did he appear to have been running or what?

Mr. Baker: It didn't appear that to me. He appeared normal you know.

Rep. Boggs: Was he calm and collected?

Mr. Baker: Yes, sir. He never did say a word or nothing. In fact, he didn't change his expression one bit.

Mr. Belin: Did he flinch in anyway when you put the gun up . . .?

Mr. Baker: No, sir. (3H252) Sen. Cooper: He did not show any evidence of any emotion?

Mr. Baker: No, sir. (3H263)

This "calm and collected" "assassin" proceeded to buy himself a coke and at his normal "very slow pace," was then observed by Depository employee Mrs. Robert Reid walking through the office space on the second floor on his way down to the first floor (3H279). Presumably he finished his coke on the first floor. Documents in the Commission's files (but omitted from the Report, which assumes Oswald made an immediate get-away) indicate very strongly that, at the main entrance after the shots, Oswald directed two newsmen to the Depository phones (CD354).

According to the evidence credited by the Commission, Oswald was not such a cool cucumber after his first assassination attempt. Here the source of the Commission's information was Oswald's wife, Marina, and his once close "friends," George and Jeanne De Mohrenschildt. The incident in question is described in the Report as follows:

The De Mohrenschildts came to Oswald's apartment on Neely Street for the first time on the evening of April 13, 1963 (three days after the Walker incident), apparently to bring an Easter gift for the Oswald child. Mrs. De Mohrenschildt then told her husband, in the presence of the Oswalds, that there was a rifle in the closet. Mrs. De Mohrenschildt testified that "George, of course, with his sense of humor -- Walker was shot at a few days ago, within that time. He said, `Did you take a pot shot at Walker by any chance?'" At that point, Mr. De Mohrenschildt testified, Oswald "sort of shriveled, you see, when I asked this question . . . made a peculiar face . . . (and) changed the expression on his face" and remarked that he did target-shooting. Marina Oswald testified that the De Mohrenschildts came to visit a few days after the Walker incident and that when De Mohrenschildt made his reference to Oswald's possibly shooting at Walker, Oswald's "face changed, . . . he almost became speechless." According to the De Mohrenschildts, Mr. De Mohrenschildt's remark was intended as a joke, and he had no knowledge of Oswald's involvement in the attack on Walker. Nonetheless, the remark appears to have created an uncomfortable silence, and the De Mohrenschildts left "very soon afterwards." (R282-83)

De Mohrenschildt further testified that his "joking" remark "had an effect on" Oswald, making him "very, very uncomfortable" (9H249-50). In another section, the Report adds that Oswald "was visibly shaken" by the remark (R274).

The Commission certainly chose a paradoxical assassin. We are asked to believe, according to the Commission, that Oswald was guilty of attacking both Walker and Kennedy. Yet, this man who officially became markedly upset when jokingly confronted with his attempt to kill Walker did not even flinch when a policeman put a gun to his stomach immediately after he murdered the President!

The Commission begged for the charge of being ludicrous in drawing its conclusions relevant to Oswald and the assassination; it insulted common sense and intelligence when it asked that those conclusions be accepted and believed.

__________

1. 
   
   
2. The first critical analysis of these reconstructions appeared in Whitewash, pp. 36-38.
   
3. CBS News Extra: "November 22 and the Warren Report," p. 28.
   
4. To my knowledge, the Couch film is not commercially available. I was fortunately able to obtain numerous stills made from individual frames of a copy of the Couch film, which was originally obtained from the Dallas television station for which Couch worked. Due to the legalities involved, these pictures can not be reproduced here.
   
5. I obtained numerous frames from the Weigman film in the same manner as described above. These can not be reproduced either.
   
6. Weisberg, Whitewash, p. 37.
   
7. CBS News Inquiry: "The Warren Report," Part I, p. 9
   

Edited December 1, 2008 by William Kelly

[Denis Pointing]

Good post Bill, some very interesting points thank you.

[William Kelly]

Good post Bill, some very interesting points thank you.

The Secret Service films are important to give you an idea of what it was really like on the Sixth Floor at the time, and the view from the sniper's nest. It's also significant in their attempt to recreate the escape of the sniper.

Howard Roffman also brings out other points that exonerate LHO from being the Sixth Floor sniper, including the fact that everyone who saw the man in the window with a rifle said he was wearing a white shirt. Brennan said light colored but when he saw Oswald in the lineup with the brown shirt, he said Oswald looked like the man in the window except he had a different shirt on. Oswald had the same shirt on when he went to work, when he got on bus, in the taxi, and when he was arrested. Brennen also said that when he got home a few hours after witnessing the assassination and saw Oswald on TV, he thought that the man in the window was five years older than Oswald.

Another witness said that he could see the man in the window aim and fire the rifle and he had a bald spot on his head, a characteristic that would also exclude Oswald as the Sixth Floor sniper.

Though at least one of those witnesses said that the sniper stuck around for a few seconds and was in no real hurry to leave, it's quite clear that whoever he was, he was quite confident he was going to get away, which makes me believe that, like the Patsy, the real sniper was either an employee or someone who would have an excuse to be there.

The Secret Service reenactor also takes his time in walking across the Sixth Floor, depositing the rifle near the door to the steps and goes down to the 2nd floor and into the lunchroom foyer.

As you can see in the SS reenactment, as soon as the man enters the door, he goes left, out of view of the window as the door shuts. And you can see the other door there where Oswald entered from the south side of the 2nd floor, allowing Baker to see him through the window from the stairs.

I wonder why the SS did not continue their reenactment? Why not include the escape of Oswald, out the 2nd floor and down the stairs - the way he actually came in, and down the street, on the Getaway Bus, into the cab, out past his rooming house, walk back, change pants and grab gun, jacket, and out to the street - to 10th and Patton and then to Texas Theater, oh, it was no use to continue the reenactment because they knew that Oswald had an alibi anyway.

Kiddos to Howard Roffman for writing Presumed Guilty (when he was a college student in Philadelphia), and for Dave Ratcliff for posting it at this web site.

BK

[William Kelly]

Good post Bill, some very interesting points thank you.

The Secret Service films are important to give you an idea of what it was really like on the Sixth Floor at the time, and the view from the sniper's nest. It's also significant in their attempt to recreate the escape of the sniper.

Howard Roffman also brings out other points that exonerate LHO from being the Sixth Floor sniper, including the fact that everyone who saw the man in the window with a rifle said he was wearing a white shirt. Brennan said light colored but when he saw Oswald in the lineup with the brown shirt, he said Oswald looked like the man in the window except he had a different shirt on. Oswald had the same shirt on when he went to work, when he got on bus, in the taxi, and when he was arrested. Brennen also said that when he got home a few hours after witnessing the assassination and saw Oswald on TV, he thought that the man in the window was five years older than Oswald.

Another witness said that he could see the man in the window aim and fire the rifle and he had a bald spot on his head, a characteristic that would also exclude Oswald as the Sixth Floor sniper.

Though at least one of those witnesses said that the sniper stuck around for a few seconds and was in no real hurry to leave, it's quite clear that whoever he was, he was quite confident he was going to get away, which makes me believe that, like the Patsy, the real sniper was either an employee or someone who would have an excuse to be there.

The Secret Service reenactor also takes his time in walking across the Sixth Floor, depositing the rifle near the door to the steps and goes down to the 2nd floor and into the lunchroom foyer.

As you can see in the SS reenactment, as soon as the man enters the door, he goes left, out of view of the window as the door shuts. And you can see the other door there where Oswald entered from the south side of the 2nd floor, allowing Baker to see him through the window from the stairs.

I wonder why the SS did not continue their reenactment? Why not include the escape of Oswald, out the 2nd floor and down the stairs - the way he actually came in, and down the street, on the Getaway Bus, into the cab, out past his rooming house, walk back, change pants and grab gun, jacket, and out to the street - to 10th and Patton and then to Texas Theater, oh, it was no use to continue the reenactment because they knew that Oswald had an alibi anyway.

Kiddos to Howard Roffman for writing Presumed Guilty (when he was a college student in Philadelphia), and for Dave Ratcliff for posting it at this web site.

BK

After officially testifying for hours, questioned by Joe Ball, Roy Truly was requested to return to the Dallas Post Office and answer one more, apparently important question.

http://www.maryferrell.org/mffweb/archive/...absPageId=18201

AFFIDAVIT OF ROY SANSOM TRULY

August 3, 1964

"I, Roy Sansom Truly, being duly sworn say:

1. I am the Superintendent of the Texas School Book Depository Building in Dallas, Texas.

2. The door opening on the vestibule of the lunchroom of the second floor of the Texas School Book Depository Building is usually shut because of a closing mechanism on the door.

Signed this 3rd day of August 1964, at Dallas, Texas. Roy S. Truly."

Short and Sweet.

Right to the Point.

They knew it.

They knew what that meant. It meant that Oswald was seen in the vestimbule of the lunchroom through the CLOSED door window, and that he was therefore entering the vestibule from the south end door and first floor steps and not the CLOSED west side door that leads to the stairwell to the Sixth floor.

BK

[Duke Lane]

The proof that Oswald wasn't on the sixth floor at 12:30 is that Bonnie Ray Williams was on the sixth floor until as late as 12:28. Since by the time Williams testified, Oswald was cold and buried and posed no threat to him, if he'd seen Oswald there, there would have been no reason not to say so. That he went to great pains to show that he wasn't on the sixth floor that late is suggestive of the fact that he still believed that a threat existed.

Proof that he was still upstairs that late is found in the testimony of Junior Jarman and Hank Norman, who testified that they left the front of the building, walked around the back, and took the freight elevator upstairs after they had heard that the motorcade was on Main Street. There were two such announcements over Channel 2, one at 12:22 and the other at 12:26. If it took them just two minutes to make the trip, including 30 seconds on the elevator, they'd have arrived on the fifth floor at 12:24-12:28.

Both Bonnie Ray and Junior said that Bonnie Ray came to the fifth floor after Jarman and Norman did, and Bonnie Ray said that he'd gone down because he heard the other two downstairs. The weight of the evidence, then, is that Bonnie Ray was still on the sixth floor when the motorcade's being on Main Street was announced over the radio.

The motorcade was five minutes late. Whoever was planning to shoot JFK from the sixth floor - assuming that he was actually shot from there - must have planned to be there at least by 12:25, and probably earlier to either or both set up the shots and/or ensure against the motorcade being ahead of schedule and early.

If someone other than Oswald had been upstairs and shooting, the question of whether Oswald could have gotten downstairs in time to meet Baker & Truly is moot. Anyone else could easily have left via the freight elevator, which was on the fifth floor together with the passenger elevator when Truly looked up the shaft (with Jack Dougherty standing immediately beside it and in the path of someone fleeing down the stairs from above), but which was gone from the fifth floor by the time Baker & Truly had reached there.

Jack was also gone, and while it was acknowledge that he had "probably ridden the elevator from the fifth floor, the question of where he went was never addressed: did he take the elevator down and pass B&T on the way (and how was it that they hadn't seen or heard him?), or did he perhaps ride it up so that it wouldn't pass B&T, then take it down when B&T rode up to the seventh floor on the passenger elevator?

And then there's the larger question of whether someone else might have been in that elevator with him. If so, and if they were the shooters, they had all the time it took for Baker to reach the second floor lunch room plus almost all of the time it took for B&T to reach the fifth floor before they had to be away from where they were.

It will also be noted that Sheriff's Deputy Luke Mooney saw two men dressed in "plainclothes" whom he believed to be in law enforcement descending from above the second floor when he himself got off of the elevator within minutes of the shooting. Mooney is credited with being the first law enforcement person to be on the sixth floor after Baker & Truly had glanced quickly around it on their way back down from the seventh floor. Since Baker was a uniformed cop, and there are no reports of any other cops in the building between Baker and Mooney (other than Mooney's partner, who'd gone up to the seventh floor and joined Mooney later), who were these plainclothes "cops" that Mooney saw?

Once these factors are taken into account, Oswald's ability - or anyone's - to have fled down the stairs, past - if not through - Jack Dougherty and without being seen or heard by Bonnie Ray, Hank and Junior, and arrive at the second floor lunchroom becomes purely academic, and we have no choice but to realize that it plays no role in the solution of the crime.

[Duke Lane]

... Though at least one of those witnesses said that the sniper stuck around for a few seconds and was in no real hurry to leave, it's quite clear that whoever he was, he was quite confident he was going to get away, which makes me believe that, like the Patsy, the real sniper was either an employee or someone who would have an excuse to be there.

What I said before. The only trouble with that scenario, however, is that people don't want to believe that "village idiot" Jack Dougherty could've had anything at all to do with anything at all other than "getting stock."

... I wonder why the SS did not continue their reenactment? Why not include the escape of Oswald, out the 2nd floor and down the stairs - the way he actually came in, and down the street, on the Getaway Bus, into the cab, out past his rooming house, walk back, change pants and grab gun, jacket, and out to the street - to 10th and Patton and then to Texas Theater, oh, it was no use to continue the reenactment because they knew that Oswald had an alibi anyway.

Actually, almost all of that was done:

• USSS or FBI agents walked the distance from Houston to Murphy, where LHO got on the bus, three times and came up with an average of eight minutes for that portion of the trip;
  
• they rode a bus through heavy traffic from Murphy to Lamar, where LHO got off of the bus;
  
• they estimated the time it took him to walk the three blocks (at a minute a block) to the bus depot and Whaley's cab;
  
• re-enacted several times Whaley's trip until (finally, when someone else from the Texas AG's office did the driving with Whaley on board) they could shave precious minutes off so that ...
  
• the next leg of the journey - from Neeley & Beckley to 1026 N Beckley, which was timed at 6½ minutes - could get Oswald to the rooming house by 1:00, with four minutes inside; and of course ...
  
• the last leg to 10th & Patton, which was able to get them there in approximately 11 minutes, or by 1:15 (thus ignoring the fact that Tippit had already been dead for seven to ten minutes by then).
  

They also timed Helen Markham's walk from her home at 328½ W 9th to the bus stop at Patton & Jefferson at something to the tune of two minutes (CD630h).

These are all detailed in Commission Document 630, as I best recall, all during mid-March (except for Whaley's "re-enactments," which, when he did them did not allow for all of LHO's presumed movements in the time allotted). I have copies of all of that somewhere, even if my memory doesn't serve on the exact document number. I've cited them in some of the Tippit threads, including the whole bit about Mary Bledsoe, and what she and Whaley said they saw LHO wearing.

[Duke Lane]

Part 1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rWM_Pni45Go...feature=related

Part 2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=trs8W-gLwJE...feature=related

Part 3

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xEn63X61fRo...feature=related

Bummer. Removed for "terms of use violations." Were these not government-generated, i.e., public domain?

[William Kelly]

Part 1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rWM_Pni45Go...feature=related

Part 2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=trs8W-gLwJE...feature=related

Part 3

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xEn63X61fRo...feature=related

Bummer. Removed for "terms of use violations." Were these not government-generated, i.e., public domain?

Yea, Bummer. Weren't they paid for by American citizen taxpayers and should be in the public domain?

In any case, anybody who had the fortune to view them know that the Secret Service, in the course of their re-enactment of the assassination, visually filmed the supposed escape route of the Sixth Floor Assassin from the SE window of the TSBD and Sniper's Nest, across the room, down the stairs to the 2nd floor where Lee Harvey Oswald, the accused assassin, was seen through the window of the West Vestibule door window.

They also determined that if you saw anyone in that window through the west vestibule door window, they must have entered the vestibuble from the south vestibule door, and coming from the offices and south east end steps to the first floor (which don't go all the way to the sixth floor).

By interviewing William Shelley on the record for hours, and then recalling him to testify on the record the fact that the Second Floor lunchroom vestibule door has an automatic closing device, and thus was in the closed position when the accused assassin was seen by DPD officer Baker, therefore exonerating Lee Harvey Oswald as the assassin.

The Cats out of the bag and they can't put it back in.

BK

[Duke Lane]

... The Cats out of the bag and they can't put it back in.

Not unless they can somehow get it off of YouTube!

[William Kelly]

... The Cats out of the bag and they can't put it back in.

Not unless they can somehow get it off of YouTube!

Duke,

Whose They?

And why would Youtube have it?

It's already in the public domain as part of the JFK Assassinations Records at the NARA.

And everybody who has already seen it already knows, including those who did it and those who had Shelley come back just to testify under oath about the automatic door, and anybody who really wants to know.

I'd still like to know what became of the links to the SS reenactment video.

BK

[Duke Lane]

Whose They? And why would Youtube have it?

I dunno. The links you provided were to YouTube (see your first post on this topic). They have been removed for "violations of terms of use," presumably meaning the use of the footage. That was my only point. The footage, if taken by the USSS, were funded by and belong to the public, i.e., "public domain." But they're gone, and the links don't help one find the footage via NARA's website.

[William Kelly]

Whose They? And why would Youtube have it?

I dunno. The links you provided were to YouTube (see your first post on this topic). They have been removed for "violations of terms of use," presumably meaning the use of the footage. That was my only point. The footage, if taken by the USSS, were funded by and belong to the public, i.e., "public domain." But they're gone, and the links don't help one find the footage via NARA's website.

Well, it's nice to know the Dealey Plaza Cleanup Crew is still busy at work.

Then, here you can buy it for $11. The nerve of somebody making a profit off of this evidence. You can sell it but you can't give it away for free. Now that's Capitalism at work.

http://www.amazon.com/JFK-Exhibit-Reconstr...D/dp/B001201SAS

Then again, is this it?

http://video.aol.com/video-detail/jfk-assa...wald/1817124714

BK

Edited February 8, 2009 by William Kelly