Oswald's last weekend
Oswald, on the last few days of his miserable little life, deviated from his normal routine by asking a co-worker, Buell Wesley Frazier, for a ride to Irving after work on Thursday, November 21. Oswald told Frazier he needed curtain rods for his room in Oak Cliff, curtain rods from Ruth Paine's garage. Oswald had never come to Ruth Paine's house without asking and never during the week. But Oswald was not interested in curtain rods, his object was a military surplus Italian rifle and some ammunition.
That evening, Marina rebuffed Oswald's attempts at intimacy, she was still angry about their conversations earlier in the week, and she refused to consider reconciliation. He went to bed early, around 9:00 pm. When Marina came to bed, she was unsure if he was asleep but, according to Priscilla McMillan, Marina chose to ignore him. She let him stew.
Oswald arose the next morning, made coffee for himself and, before leaving, told Marina to buy the children some things. He kissed the children, placed $170.00 on the dresser, and left his wedding ring in a small cup. He told Marina he would not be coming out to Irving for the weekend and left for work. A few minutes later, at a house near Ruth Paine's, Linnie Mae Randle saw a strange man at her kitchen window.
Ms. Randle, the neighbor who told Ruth Paine about a possible job opening at the Texas School Book Depository, looked at the man outside her window and asked her brother, "Who's that?" Wesley Frazier looked up from his breakfast and said, "Oh, that is Lee. I guess it is time to go." Frazier, as he opened the door to his car, looked at the package on the back seat, and asked Oswald about it. "Curtain rods, remember?" Oswald remarked.
Linnie Mae Randle's testimony before the Warren Commission revealed interesting facts:
Mr. BALL. What was he carrying?
Mrs. RANDLE. He was carrying a package in a sort of a heavy brown bag, heavier than a grocery bag it looked to me. It was about, if I might measure, about this long, I suppose, and he carried it in his right hand, had the top sort of folded down and had a grip like this, and the bottom, he carried it this way, you know, and it almost touched the ground as he carried it.
Mr. BALL. Let me see. He carried it in his right hand, did he?
Mrs. RANDLE. That is right.
Mr. BALL. And where was his hand gripping the middle of the package?
Mrs. RANDLE. No, sir; the top with just a little bit sticking up. You know just like you grab something like that.
Mr. BALL. And he was grabbing it with his right hand at the top of the package and the package almost touched the ground?
Mrs. RANDLE. Yes, sir.
When Frazier and Oswald arrived at the TSBD, Oswald retrieved the package from the back seat, tucked it next to his body, and walked ahead of Frazier, still seated in his car. What Oswald did with the package is unclear, no one can say with any certainty how and when the rifle got to the sixth floor. But what is irrefutable is the fact that no curtain rods were ever found in the TSBD. An empty package resembling the one Oswald carried into the building that morning was found on the sixth floor.
Buell Wesley Frazier's testimony speaks volumes. He told the Warren Commission that, when Oswald reminded him the package contained curtain rods, he admitted not "thinking any more about it." Frazier indicated the package was about two feet long, "give and take a few inches" and covered about half the length of the back seat of his car. Frazier, in more recent years, changed his mind about the package Oswald carried the morning of the assassination, he succumbed to the dark politicians of conspiracy and reversed himself. Oswald's package was too short to be a rifle, he later claimed. However, the brown paper package, made from material similar to wrapping paper available in the TSBD, was long enough to hold a disassembled Carcano rifle.
Oswald was seen on various floors of the TSBD during the morning of November 22. James Jarman, Jr. saw him around 9:30 looking out a window on the first floor towards Elm St. Oswald asked "Junior" Jarman what all the people were doing outside? Jarman explained to Oswald the president's motorcade would be coming down right in front of their building, down Main Street, left on Houston, and right on Elm Street. Oswald said, "Oh, yeah," and walked off. Later, about 11:45, a crew of workers descended in the freight elevators from the sixth floor for lunch. They normally knocked off five minutes early but, on that Friday, they left a little earlier because the President of the United States was coming. As the elevators descended past the fifth floor, they heard Oswald shout, "Close the gate and send the elevator back up." It is not clear which floor Oswald was on, but Charles Givens, one of the workers on the elevator, returned to the sixth floor to get his cigarettes and was startled by Oswald.
Ruth Paine and "the garage"
Shots fired
Sometime around noon, Oswald was seen on the sixth floor by Charles Givens and, from outside the TSBD, a person was later seen with a rifle on the sixth floor. Arnold Rowland testified seeing a man on the sixth floor, a slender white or Latino man, close cut hair, 140-150 pounds holding a rifle across his chest near the west end corner window. Rowland's testimony is confusing, he said the man with the rifle was on the west end of the sixth floor and a black man was on the east end of the same floor, hanging out the window, the same window where the shots were fired. The black man Rowland observed hanging out a window was probably Harold Norman but, from photographic evidence, Norman was on the fifth floor, not the sixth.
Harold Norman, Bonnie Ray Williams, and Junior Jarman were, in fact on the fifth floor directly below the southeast corner. As the three men knelt down and leaned out over a low sill, they could talk to each other outside the building. They had an exceptional view of the motorcade route. They could hear the cheering of the crowds on Main Street as the motorcade got closer.
Howard Brennan was directly across the street from the entrance to the TSBD and observed the three black men at the fifth-floor windows. He testified seeing another man, a slender white man at the window directly above on the southeast corner of the building. Brennan's description of the man was consistent with Arnold Rowland's but gave the man's weight at 160-170 pounds. Brennan heard a loud explosion, perhaps a motorcycle backfire or a firecracker, he glanced up at the building in his front, thinking a firecracker had been thrown from one of the open windows, he observed the same white man with a rifle to his right shoulder fire a shot downwards at the motorcade. The man paused a moment to look at his target area, then withdrew the rifle and disappeared from view.
Directly below the sixth-floor window, Norman, Williams, and Jarman heard the shots. They more than heard the shots, they felt the shots. The concussion from the blast shook the windows and caused dirt, debris, and plaster to fall from the ceiling directly above them. Harold Norman said her heard the empty shell casings hitting the floor. The three men on the fifth floor leaned out the windows and looked up towards the sixth floor.
Bob Jackson, staff photographer for the Dallas Times Herald, was seated on top of the back seat of a Chevrolet convertible when he heard the shots. The press car was tenth behind the presidential limousine and, as the car was traveling north on Houston Street, Jackson saw the three men leaning out the windows, looking upward. His eyes were drawn to the sixth floor and a rifle barrel from the corner window. Jackson shouted, "There's a gun." Before the others in the car were drawn to the spot, the rifle was pulled back inside the window.
Bob Jackson, courtesy Sixth Floor Museum
The occupants of the presidential limousine and the Secret Service follow-up car all heard three shots, all agreed the shots came from the rights side of the car, and most testified the shots came from the rear. Nellie and John Connolly indicated the shots came from the right rear, as did driver Bill Greer and Roy Kellerman. In the follow-up car, the agents riding on the running boards, Clint Hill, John Ready, Paul Landis, and William McIntyre, all heard shots from the rear except McIntyre, who was unsure of the origin of the reports. Follow-up car driver, Sam Kinney, and agent Emory Roberts, seated next to Kinney, did not identify the direction of origin of the shots. Presidential special assistants, Ken O'Donnell and Dave Powers, seated behind the driver Kinney and agent Roberts, heard shots from the right rear. Seated in the rear of the follow-up car, agents Glen Bennett and George Hickey also heard shots from the rear.
Marrion Baker, a ten-year veteran of the Dallas Police Department, was riding his motorcycle near Bob Jackson's press car when he heard rifle shots. Baker was certain the shots came from a rifle and noticed birds fly away from the roof of the School Book Depository. Baker accelerated north on Houston Street, parked his motorcycle on the corner of Houston and Elm, near the red brick building, and ran up the front steps. He entered the lobby and shouted, "Where is the elevator?" Roy Truly, the building manager said, "Follow me."
Baker and Truly went to the northwest corner of the building and found the service elevators gone. Truly pushed the elevator call button but nothing happened. "Bring the elevator down," Truly shouted up the elevator shaft. Baker turned, ran up the stairs with Truly in the lead. On the second floor, Baker, about to go up the stairs to the third floor, saw a man out of the corner of his eye through a small window in the door to the lunchroom. He walked in, service revolver in hand, told the man, "Come here." Truly, a few steps behind, told Baker the man worked for him, Baker turned and continued up the stairs. The man Baker and Truly left in the lunchroom was Lee Harvey Oswald.
The conspiracy community has made the meeting between Officer Baker and Oswald a serious point of debate. The conspirators contend Oswald was in the lunchroom drinking a coke at the time of the assassination. Baker, in timed re-creations of his entrance to the TSBD for the Warren Commission, was able to travel down Houston Street, park his motorcycle, enter the building, find Roy Truly, go to the elevators, then go up the stairs in a time of one minute and thirty seconds the first trial and one minute fifteen seconds the second trial. Was it possible for Oswald to go from the southeast corner of the building to the northwest corner, hide the rifle, descend four flights of stairs, enter the lunchroom ahead of Baker's arrival, in less than one minute fifteen seconds and not be out of breath or, at least, breathing hard?
The conspiracy community contends Oswald could not have descended from the sixth floor to the second floor, in just over a minute without breathing hard. Oswald was twenty-four and slender, this writer is forty years older, forty pounds heavier, and I can descend four flights of stairs in the allotted time without breathing hard. The members of the Warren Commission, including the Chief Justice, accomplished the same feat as Oswald.
The ability of Oswald to descend four flights of stairs in under sixty seconds is not debatable. What was strange, and remains a point of serious doubt, was Oswald's calm, expressionless demeanor after the shooting as reported by Officer Baker and Roy Truly. Baker testified Oswald was not breathing hard and displayed no outward sign of guilt. Both Baker and Truly testified their meeting with Oswald in the lunchroom was very brief and the only question asked was, "does this man work here?" After receiving an answer in the affirmative from Truly, they both ran up the stairs to the upper floors leaving Oswald in the lunchroom.
One would, most certainly, be forced by common sense to believe that an encounter with Oswald, moments after shooting the President of the United States, would have revealed a man overcome with fear and incapacitated by the enormity of the deed. How Oswald maintained an expressionless appearance while Officer Baker pointed a revolver at him from three feet away is beyond comprehension. But somehow, he did it. To contend Oswald maintained the lack of emotion because of complete innocence is false.
A recreation of Oswald's flight down the stairs to the second-floor lunchroom, from the History Channel.
Shots fired at presidential limousine
the grassy knoll
There is a significant amount of testimony that indicated shots were fired from the area, now infamously, known as the Grassy Knoll, the triple overpass, or the area behind the stockade fence. This testimony, given in good faith by honest citizens, cannot be dismissed without serious consideration and, if true, is the cornerstone to the conspiracy to murder President John F. Kennedy.
Bill and Gayle Newman, a Dallas couple and their two young sons, were in Dealey Plaza approximately ten to fifteen feet from the location of the president's fatal head shot. The Newmans gave statements to the Dallas County Sheriff's Office and the FBI stating three shots were fired at the presidential limousine and the shots appeared to come from directly behind. Their statements suggested shots came from the stockade fence atop the Grassy Knoll. The Newmans did not testify before the Warren Commission.
Jean Hill and Mary Moorman were on the south side of Elm Street, not far from the Newmans, when shots rang out, Hill in a red coat, Moorman in a blue coat, were both clearly visible in the amateur film of Abraham Zapruder. Hill testified that four to six shots were fired while Moorman heard three shots. Hill's testimony is confusing and rambling but, a curious exchange between Hill and Warren Commission counsel Arlen Specter overshadowed her entire testimony to challenge her credibility. Hill was asked to describe a possible suspect seen leaving the Grassy Knoll after the assassination, a man she described as Jack Ruby:
Mr. SPECTER - Now, a moment ago you said you didn't want to say anything more about the identity of the man. Why did you tell me that, Mrs. Hill?
Mrs. HILL - Well, because I have had an awful lot of fun made of me over being a witness in this and I'm real tired of it.
Mr. SPECTER - Who made fun of you?
Mrs. HILL - Well, quite a lot of people.
Mr. SPECTER - Anybody connected with the official investigation in the case?
Mrs. HILL - No, oh, no; it was just people, but people that I know.
Mr. SPECTER - All right, and why have they made fun of you, because of your identification of who that man was?
Mrs. HILL - Yes.
Mr. SPECTER - Any other reason?
Mrs. HILL - Yes--I saw a dog in the car. They kept asking me, and I even gave that out on a radio or TV interview that I had seen a dog in the car.
Mr. SPECTER - In which car?
Mrs. HILL - Between the President and Mrs. Kennedy, and they kept asking me what kind of a dog and I said, "I don't know, I wasn't interested in what was in the seat," ... I found out later that it was those roses in the seat, but I knew they were looking at something and I just barely glanced and I saw this.
Mr. SPECTER - Is there any other reason people made fun of you?
Mrs. HILL - Well, basically, the people that made fun of me was my husband, and, of course, that was because--does this have to go in the record?
Mr. SPECTER - Yes; only in the sense that we are putting everything on the record. This really isn't too important but it is the best procedure to follow, that everything be written down.
Mrs. HILL - Well.
Mr. SPECTER - In a situation of this sort.
Mrs. HILL - Well, because I talked with an Oklahoma twang, and called Mrs. Kennedy "Jackie" and I said, "He pitched forward in Jackie's lap," and I just didn't rehearse it and do it right at all, because I didn't know it was going to be taken down.
Mr. SPECTER - And those are the reasons your husband made fun of you?
Mrs. HILL - Yes; and because I saw a dog and he was thoroughly hilarious when he found out that it was roses in the back seat and that I had seen a dog, and he said, "Of all people in the United States you would have to see a dog."
Mr. SPECTER - Has anybody made fun of you besides your husband?
Mrs. HILL - No; not really, but he's done enough for a whole bunch of people.
Mary Moorman did not testify before the Warren Commission but, her testimony during the Clay Shaw trial sounded more credible. She heard three shots from an unknown location.
Dallas County sheriff's deputy, Roger Craig was in the vicinity of Dealey Plaza during the assassination. Craig, twenty-seven years old at the time, an army veteran, and a deputy with four years' experience, heard three distinct shots fired. He testified that each shot was followed with a loud echo, two explosions with each shot. Craig, from his location on Houston Street, ran into the plaza, towards the Grassy Knoll, and into the railroad yard northwest of the TSBD building. He returned to the area across Elm Street from the entrance to the TSBD and talked to Arnold Rowland, the young man who saw a person with a rifle on the sixth floor. Craig directed Arnold to speak with a criminal investigator from the Sheriff's office and, with Officer Lemmie Lewis, investigated a report of a bullet strike on south side curb of Elm Street. As Craig and Lewis walked down Elm Street, Craig was distracted by someone's loud whistle.
Craig testified that, after hearing someone whistle, his attention was drawn to a man ..."running down the Grassy Knoll and entering a light-colored Rambler station wagon." Craig, in his testimony, stated that due to heavy traffic on Elm Street, was unable to cross over and detain the suspicious individual. (One would have to believe the traffic at the scene was stopped by police and this statement is suspect) He reported the incident to the Sheriff's office. Later, Craig was summoned to the Dallas Police Department, to Captain Will Fritz's office, and asked to identify an individual in custody. Fritz asked Craig if the man in his office was the man he saw running down the Grassy Knoll. Craig answered in the affirmative, he identified Lee Harvey Oswald as the man seen leaving the scene. Captain Fritz, in his testimony, denied Craig ever saw Oswald in his office, Fritz claimed Craig's statement was incorrect.
Craig's identification of Oswald as the man on the Grassy Knoll following the assassination was significant. It flew in the face of the accepted version of Oswald's known location after the assassination. Mark Lane, in his book, Rush to Judgement, pontificated this point to support his view of Oswald's innocence. Lane, in an effort to prove the legitimacy of Craig's statement, dismissed the testimony of Mrs. Mary Bledsoe, Oswald's former landlady, that she observed Oswald on a bus at approximately the same time as Craig observed a suspicious man running to a car. Mrs. Bledsoe testified, when Oswald got on the bus, she ..."looked the other way and hoped he didn't see me," a natural reaction to contact with a person one dislikes. I suggest it is much easier to remember someone who is known and openly disliked (Mrs. Bledsoe owed money to Oswald, as well) as opposed to someone seen at a moment of extreme excitement and confusion. Lane asked his readers to believe the opposite.
Another important statement from Roger Craig indicated the three shell casings (hulls)
found on the sixth floor of the TSBD were laying on the floor together "...about one inch apart in a straight row." Curiously, Craig failed to mention finding the hulls planted in a row to the Warren Commission. His testimony merely stated:
Mr. CRAIG - So, we went to the sixth floor where--uh--some empty cartridges were found.
Mr. BELIN - Did you see the empty cartridges when they were found?
Mr. CRAIG - I didn't see them when they were found. I saw them laying on the floor.
Mr. BELIN - All right. Then, what did you do?
Mr. CRAIG - I went over there and--uh--didn't get too close because the shells were laying on the ground and there was--uh--oh, a sack and a bunch of things laying over there. So, you know, not to bother the area, I just went back across.
Mr. BELIN - Where do you remember seeing the shells?
Mr. CRAIG - They were laying on the--uh--well, as you're facing the window----
Mr. BELIN - As you are facing the window and you're looking south?
Mr. CRAIG - The southeast corner window and you're looking south, the shells would be on your right and back away from the window, as I recall, about a foot.
Mr. BELIN - Do you recall any of the shells right up against the wall at all---- or don't you recall?
Mr. CRAIG - No; I don't; I didn't look that close.
Mr. BELIN - How many shells did you see there?
Mr. CRAIG - I saw three.
Craig's testimony of the discovery of the murder weapon was also rather vague, he stated:
Mr. CRAIG - Uh---everybody else took a different spot. And as I got nearly to the west end of the building, Officer Boone---Eugene Boone with the sheriff's office---hollered that here was the rifle.
Mr. BELIN - How far were you from Officer Boone when he hollered?
Mr. CRAIG - About 8-foot.
Mr. BELIN - What did you do then?
Mr. CRAIG - I went over to the--uh--[c]luster of boxes where he was standing and looked down between the boxes and saw the rifle lying on the floor.
Mr. BELIN - All right. And you gestured there in such a way that you had to lean over and look straight down? Would that be a fair statement of your gestures?
Mr. CRAIG - Yes; yes. You had to lean over the boxes and look down.
Mr. BELIN - All right. Then what happened? After you found this, did people come over---or what?
Mr. CRAIG - Yes; several other people came over.
Mr. BELIN - All right. Do you remember who else came over?
Mr. CRAIG - Oh, Officer Mooney and--uh--several of the city officers; Will Fritz came over--Capt. Will Fritz, with the city of Dallas; some of his investigators, I didn't know them; and a criminal identification man, I believe, from the city of Dallas, then came over there to take pictures of the weapon.
Mr. BELIN - The weapon was moved by the time the pictures were taken?
Mr. CRAIG - No; no. The pictures were taken as the weapon was found lying [t]here.
Mr. BELIN - Did you see the pictures taken of the shells?
Mr. CRAIG - No.
Mr. BELIN - You don't know whether or not anything was moved in that window before this?
Mr. CRAIG - No; no.
Mr. BELIN - All right. Anything else happen up to that time that you haven't related here that you feel might be important?
Mr. CRAIG - No. Uh---I'm thinking it was about this time---uh---that we got the news there had been a city officer shot over in Oak Cliff.
Mr. BELIN - And then what happened?
Mr. CRAIG - Well, there was just--uh--of course, everybody stayed there, you know, and sort of mingled around and--uh--I then went back downstairs after the weapon was picked up. The identification man from the city of Dallas then, after he took his pictures, picked the weapon up and handed it to Will Fritz.
And I then went back downstairs and over to the sheriff's office.
There was no mention to the Warren Commission of seeing a 7.65 mm Mauser rifle and his recollection of events conflicted sharply with his later account to Mark Lane.
Lt. J.C. Day, of the Dallas police crime lab, in his Warren Commission testimony, also indicated the weapon was not moved before being photographed. Day picked the weapon up from a location between stacks of boxes, firmly held the rifle while Captain Fritz operated the bolt, and ejected a live round. Day removed the weapon from the TSBD building and, while transporting the weapon to police headquarters, was asked by reporters on the scene to identify the rifle. Day indicated to the Warren Commission he did not answer any questions regarding the rifle and any false identification of the rifle was made by news personnel.
Roger Craig interview with Mark Lane:
Two important witnesses, both railroad employees located on the west side of the TSBD, were Lee Bowers and Sam Holland. Bowers, positioned in a switch tower overlooking the rail terminal, had an unobstructed view of the railroad bridge (triple underpass) around to the rear of the stockade fence and the semi-circular monument at the top of the Grassy Knoll. Shortly before the assassination, Bowers observed unusual vehicle traffic in the parking lot to the south of his tower, three vehicles with excessive dirt and mud, and, in the case of one vehicle, a man used what appeared to be the microphone of a radio. Each vehicle, with a white male driver, circled the parking area and left. Bowers testified he heard three shots from either the TSBD or the triple underpass bridge, a shot, a perceptible pause, then two shots in rapid succession, a cadence reported by many witnesses in Dealey Plaza. Bowers, at the time of the shots, said there was a disturbance in the area around the trees at the top of the sloped knoll, a disturbance that, even at the urging of counsel, Mr. Ball, he was unable to identify.
Two years after his appearance before the Warren Commission, Bowers, in a video-taped interview with Mark Lane, gave conflicting testimony of the events in Dealey Plaza on November 22, 1963. Bowers claimed the Warren Commission counsel interrupted his answers or redirected the questioning, apparently to obtain the desired answer. There is no evidence of this from the written transcript, in fact, counsel asked Bowers to elaborate about the unusual disturbance on the Grassy Knoll but, to Mark Lane's video recording, Bowers added he saw a "flash of light" and "smoke" in the area. This falls squarely into the category of vital information and, one wonders, why did Bowers fail to give the Warren Commission this information?
Lee Bowers interview with Mark Lane
Bowers stated, at 4:45 into the interview, he observed smoke and a flash of light from the area of the stockade fence.
Sam Holland, a signal supervisor with the Union Terminal Railroad, was on the triple underpass bridge the morning of the assassination. He worked with the Dallas Police to ensure only railroad personnel were in the area, in company with two uniformed police officers, Holland indicated he knew, by name or by sight, the men in the vicinity of the bridge. Holland heard four shots, three from further up Elm Street and one close, perhaps from the stockade fence. Further, he testified smoke was visible from under some trees by the stockade fence and the report of the shot sounded different. Holland and several of the men ran to the area behind the stockade fence, a feat that should have taken only a few seconds, but found nothing to indicate a shot from that area. Holland and the railroad men did not need to run far, to the area where the steam pipe separates from the railroad bridge, to obtain a clear view of the area behind the stockade fence.
Sam Holland was convinced what he saw and heard was smoke and a report from a shot fired from the stockade fence. Others standing on the railroad bridge reported hearing a shot that appeared to be from about the same location on the Grassy Knoll. Sam Holland said there were cars "bumper to bumper" behind the stockade fence and he described climbing over cars to get to the shooter's location. Photographic evidence shows cars in the area but not as Sam Holland testified. As much as this testimony deserves serious consideration there is, however, a key point that favors the "Lone Gunman" idea over shooters on the Grassy Knoll, the lack of physical evidence.
In the final analysis, what someone heard, thought they saw, a glimpse out of the corner of an eye, strange movements, flashes of light, and other brief interpretations of events cannot be considered as evidence.
The "Grassy Knoll" is north of Elm St. and southwest of TSBD
Confusion
The scene in Dealey Plaza immediately after the shooting was one of confusion and disbelief. People ran in the direction of the crime scene, the area on Elm Street where the President and Governor Connally were shot. Many people stood still in complete shock. Police quickly moved in to take control of the area and identify witnesses. The overwhelming majority of the people in Dealey Plaza, according to statements taken by Dallas police and the FBI, indicated the shots came from the TSBD building. Additionally, the majority of the people questioned heard three shots. However, many witnesses heard a shot followed by two shots in rapid succession, seemingly simultaneous shots, which might appear to indicate two separate shooters. What is true about witness testimony can be characterized as inconclusive. Conspiracy advocates suggest the majority of people ran towards the Grassy Knoll, video of the scene suggests otherwise, but the scene in Dealey plaza was nothing less than complete chaos.
Television news, in its relative infancy in 1963, was equally confused about the events in Dallas. Information was relayed via telephone, phones with rotary dials, cameras picked up the confusion in the national newsrooms, and news anchors did their best to relay accurate information in the midst of equipment problems, all in black and white.
Here is a link to the now famous CBS announcement by Walter Cronkite:
Area of the grassy knoll immediately after the shooting