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"Aren't hard facts and evidence always more believable than wild speculation and conjecture? And aren't many/most/all [JFK]
conspiracy theories created out of just that -- speculation?"
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LEE HARVEY OSWALD'S SOLE
GUILT....POINT-BY-POINT:
When one piece of evidence that favors Lee Harvey Oswald's guilt is piled atop another, and another, and another....I'm just curious to know how many pieces of evidence that show Oswald killed President John F. Kennedy in 1963 it takes to sway a person away from the notion of conspiracy? Or, if nothing else, to sway that person away from the "Oswald is completely innocent" claims?
From everything I can see, it's a veritable mountain of "Oswald Is Guilty" evidence (both circumstantial and physical). And not a single speck of it has been shown to be refutable with 100% absolute certainty.
Does the average researcher just simply ignore all of the evidence that supports Oswald's lone guilt (and every bit of hard evidence supports it), or is the idea of a conspiracy in JFK's assassination so ingrained into subsequent generations of people since the event took place that they feel they have no choice BUT to go with the flow and believe the conspiracy theorists?
For I ask --- How could ALL of the following evidence against Lee Harvey Oswald have been either fabricated, planted, distorted, or in some manner faked? There's just TOO MUCH stuff here on the "Oswald Did It" table to ignore.
Granted, I'd agree that perhaps one or two of these things could have been manufactured to set up a patsy. But ALL of these items?! And complete silence be maintained by the many, many operatives who must certainly have been involved in the acts themselves and ensuing 40-year cover-up?!
Common sense (to me) dictates otherwise. And the "otherwise" leads anybody who isn't prone to cry "Conspiracy!" at every turn in the road to finally envision the fact that 24-year-old Lee Oswald was a lone nut who DID indeed pull off what the majority of people say couldn't happen in a million years.
Author and ballistics expert Larry M. Sturdivan said it very well in his 2005 book "The JFK Myths", when he said this on page 246:
"While one of the pieces of physical evidence could conceivably have been faked by an expert, there is no possibility that an expert, or team of super-experts, could have fabricated the perfectly coordinated whole...with superhuman abilities to fake physical evidence that is in complete agreement with all the other faked evidence." -- Larry Sturdivan
Lee Harvey Oswald murdered President John F. Kennedy without the assistance of others in November of 1963 in Dallas, Texas, USA.
The evidence against Lee H. Oswald includes these subtle tidbits:
1.) Lee Harvey Oswald owned the rifle found on the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository on Friday afternoon, November 22, 1963.
2.) Oswald owned the handgun that was shown to have been used in the murder of Dallas Police Officer J.D. Tippit.
3.) Oswald was positively identified by witness Howard L. Brennan as the person firing a rifle at JFK on 11/22/63. .... And to believe that Brennan was "influenced" by TV and newspaper reports showing Oswald before Brennan positively identified LHO, we must remember that Brennan's INITIAL description of the killer very closely matched Oswald, given to police within minutes of the shooting (prior to 12:44 PM).
Is this just another in a series of "coincidences" that has Brennan's man in the window closely matching Oswald's description? Yes, I'll admit, the description was "general" in nature, and could fit thousands of men in the world. But out of ALL the possible descriptions he COULD have offered up to describe the person he saw in that window (even "general" descriptions), what description does he give just minutes after the assassination (and well BEFORE he ever laid eyes on Lee Oswald)? --- He describes a person who COULD INDEED BE LEE HARVEY OSWALD.
Brennan COULD, conceivably, have seen a fat black man, with a beard, 5-feet-2, 200 pounds in that window. But, instead, he sees a slender white male, about 30, 5-feet-10, approx. 165 pounds. That description isn't a dead-on match for Oswald, no. But it's close enough so that LHO certainly isn't ELIMINATED from the pack when it comes to this description.
BTW, concerning Brennan's "age" bracket of Oswald (30, or "early 30s") -- IMO, Oswald looked older than 24. (And he had just turned 24 one month prior to the assassination.) Oswald always seemed much older than 24 to me, in both looks and demeanor. Possibly, when it came to his looks, Howard Brennan agreed with me on that.
4.) Marina Oswald admits to having taken pictures of Lee with these weapons on his person, which (all by itself) validates the "Backyard Photographs". But even if conspiracists wish to think that Marina is a liar, there's the fact that the HSCA [House Select Committee on Assassinations] panel of photo experts vouched for the backyard pictures (and the autopsy photos and X-rays, to boot). ....
AUTHENTICATING THE BACKYARD PHOTOS
AND THE AUTOPSY PHOTOS & X-RAYS
5.) Buell Wesley Frazier observed Oswald take a package into the Book Depository Building on the morning of November 22nd, 1963. .... Frazier said (via his 11/22/63 affidavit): "I saw him go in the back door at the Loading Dock of the building that we work in, and he still had the package under his arm."
6.) Oswald's claim of "curtain rods" within the package cannot be supported at all. His room needed no curtains, nor rods, and no such rods were ever found in the TSBD or at his residence at 1026 N. Beckley Avenue in Oak Cliff.
7.) Oswald was seen working on the Depository's sixth floor that morning. LHO even asked a co-worker (Charles Givens) to send an elevator back up to him on the sixth floor shortly before the assassination. This fact, of course, doesn't nearly prove Oswald was guilty of a crime; but what it does do is place him on the Death Floor (alone) a short time (approximately 35 minutes) before Kennedy's assassination. This fact, too, is a solid piece of often-overlooked or scoffed-at circumstantial evidence.
8.) Oswald's palmprint [Warren Commission Exhibit #637] is found on his Mannlicher-Carcano rifle after the assassination. .... But, of course, this print is really just a "bonus" for the DPD in linking LHO to the weapon. Because even without it, it's glaringly obvious that the weapon was Oswald's.
It was proven that the alias "A.J. Hidell" was actually Oswald himself; and the order form from Klein's Sporting Goods to purchase the mail-order rifle was positively proven to have been in Oswald's handwriting, and sent to a Dallas post-office box that was used by him.
Obviously, just LHO's owning the rifle doesn't prove he pulled the trigger. But doesn't just plain ordinary garden-variety logic dictate (with a pretty good percentage of probability) that it was the owner of said weapon, a Mr. Lee H. Oswald, that fired the shots on November 22?
The alternative is to believe that Oswald, for some unknown reason, handed over his Carcano to someone else for the purpose of using it. Why would he knowingly have done this idiotic act, knowing full well what might be the implications of doing so?
As another "alternative" to the obvious Occam's Razor solution to the rifle topic, some theorists like to pretend that Oswald's rifle was stolen by evil conspirators while the weapon was being stored in Ruth Paine's garage during the autumn of 1963. Of course, as with all conspiracy theories surrounding the JFK case, this one too doesn't have anything of a concrete nature to hold it up.
9.) Not ONE SPECK of any bullets/bullet fragments/bullet shells OTHER THAN THOSE COMING FROM OSWALD'S 6.5-MILLIMETER MANNLICHER-CARCANO RIFLE were discovered anywhere in Dealey Plaza, the limousine, the TSBD, Parkland Hospital, or in the victims.
This item, to me, is simply impossible for conspiracy advocates to overcome, IF there had been (as some claim) up to 3 firing teams and 4 to 10 shots fired at JFK on November 22nd. For, HOW could every single scrap of ballistics evidence be completely eradicated from the two (or more!) non-Oswald weapons almost immediately after the event? Couldn't have been accomplished by even Kreskin.
Plus: This massive task of removing all non-Oswald wounds and bullets would most certainly have had to include the many doctors who worked on both the President and wounded Texas Governor John B. Connally at Parkland Hospital.
It would also have to include the multitude of people who observed the body at Bethesda during President Kennedy's autopsy (unless you subscribe to the totally implausible accounts of body alteration and all that business aboard Air Force One, or elsewhere, before the body got to Washington. Again, even Kreskin would be amazed by such incredible sleight-of-hand).
ALL ballistic evidence was traced back to being consistent with (or provably from) the weapon owned by Lee Oswald. The probability of this occurring IF there were multiple guns firing at the motorcade is probably so low to be considered virtually impossible.
The "bullet/ballistic" evidence that was linked conclusively to Oswald's Carcano rifle includes the following items:
...The three bullet shells found under the window in the Sniper's Nest on the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository.
...The two large bullet fragments found by the Secret Service in the front seat area of the Presidential limousine.
...Warren Commission Exhibit No. 399, which was found on Governor Connally's stretcher at Parkland Hospital shortly after the assassination by Darrell C. Tomlinson.
10.) The majority of Dealey Plaza witnesses said shots came from behind the President, in the direction of the School Book Depository Building.
In addition, an even larger percentage of witnesses said they heard EXACTLY three shots fired. No more, no less. And three spent shells (co-incidentally?) were found in the Sniper's Nest.
I also find it extremely interesting (and quite telling) that virtually EVERY SINGLE ONE (if not 100%) of the newsmen and reporters riding in the motorcade in Dealey Plaza, who were in a position to immediately report the shooting to the world via media outlets (radio, television, and newswire services), heard EXACTLY THREE SHOTS FIRED. Precisely the number that the "plotters" NEED to have Oswald firing in the Depository.
This would include Merriman Smith, Jack Bell, Pierce Allman, Jay Watson, and Jerry Haynes (among still others who reported "3 Shots" to a TV and radio audience before 1:00 PM on November 22nd).
Do conspiracy theorists think that all of these various reporters and newsmen were just being nice to the evil plotters by cooperating with their "Three-Shots-Needed" plot/plan? An odd "coincidence" if there had really been 4 to 10 shots fired in Dealey Plaza that Friday. Don't conspiracists think ANY of the reporters just might have heard a DIFFERENT number (other than "3") if the plot involved so many more shots?
11.) Oswald makes an unusual trip to Irving on Thursday, November 21, 1963, to retrieve his "curtain rods". His rifle is found missing from Ruth Paine's garage the following day.
But, interestingly, some curtain rods, which Mrs. Paine testified she DID have in her garage prior to the assassination (via 1986 questioning of her by Vincent Bugliosi during the TV Docu-Trial "On Trial: Lee Harvey Oswald"), were STILL IN HER GARAGE AFTER NOVEMBER 22.
Plus: Never ONCE did Ruth Paine or Marina Oswald hear Lee Oswald mention anything at all about "curtain rods" during his surprise Thursday visit to Irving, Texas.
Don't you think he might have at least MENTIONED the "rods" to either woman if the only reason for his Irving visit was to pick up said rods -- especially seeing as how it was Mrs. Paine's house, not Oswald's?
12.) Oswald left behind, presumably for wife Marina, his wedding ring and just about every dime he had to his name ($170), on the morning of 11/22/63. Logic dictates that he felt he may not return.
13.) Oswald was the only Depository employee known to have been INSIDE the Depository Building at the time of the assassination to leave work prematurely on Friday, November 22nd. Why do you suppose this was? The day was only half over.
Plus: Oswald's reason for ducking out of work at 12:33 PM is extremely weak -- not to menion downright prescient on his part. For HOW, three minutes after a shooting that he supposedly knew NOTHING about (what with him supposedly being in the lunchroom eating lunch at the time), could Oswald have possibly known for a fact that TSBD Superintendent Roy Truly (or Oswald's immediate supervisor, Bill Shelley) would spring everybody for the day due to the commotion caused by the shooting, which is exactly the convenient excuse he gave to police after his arrest?
If Oswald was telling the whole truth every step of the way on November 22, he would have had NO knowledge that any shots would have come from HIS building (the TSBD) to cause Mr. Truly to let everyone go due to THAT building being the source of gunfire.
Oswald also, if he's not the liar I know him to be, would not really have known much of anything about the President's shooting (certainly not from an EYEWITNESS standpoint, since the beloved Oswald was supposedly located on the first or second floor of the building eating his lunch when the assassination took place), although Mrs. Robert Reid DID tell Oswald on his way out of the building that "the President has been shot".
Plus: Who would want to LEAVE such an exciting (albeit very sad) scene like that right after a Presidential shooting? An average Joe would want to stick around and rubber-neck and see what the hell had happened. Does Oswald do this? No. He doesn't stay around the exciting scene at all. He evidently couldn't care less, because he leaves within THREE MINUTES of the shooting.
He doesn't talk to anyone (that we know of), except Pierce Allman or Bob MacNeil, when one (or perhaps both) of those newsmen asked Oswald where he/(they) could find a telephone.
In short: Oswald's leaving his workplace without a truly valid and believable reason to do so at 12:33 is solid circumstantial evidence of his guilt. He WANTED to leave, fairly obviously, before he was caught.
Addendum:
"The committee [House Select Committee on Assassinations] found that while most of the depository employees were outside of the building at the time of the assassination and returned inside afterwards, Oswald did the reverse; he was inside before the assassination, and afterward he went outside. That Oswald left the building within minutes of the assassination was significant. Every other depository employee either had an alibi for the time of the assassination or returned to the building immediately thereafter. Oswald alone neither remained nor had an alibi." -- HSCA Final Report; Page 59
14.) Oswald, in flight, shoots and kills Dallas patrolman J.D. Tippit on 10th Street in the Dallas suburb of Oak Cliff. Multiple witnesses confirm it was Oswald who shot Officer Tippit.
In the Tippit case, are we truly to accept the minority number of people (which is a minority of one, Mrs. Acquilla Clemons) who stated "It was a larger man" or "There were two people", rather than believe the vast majority of witnesses who claimed they saw Oswald—and Oswald alone—kill Tippit or flee the scene of the murder immediately after the shooting?
15.) WHY does Oswald kill Officer Tippit if he's innocent of another crime just 45 minutes earlier in Dealey Plaza?
Answer: He would have no such reason to do so. If the Tippit shooting isn't one of the biggest reasons to shout from the rooftops "Oswald Shot JFK!", then I don't know what would be.
And in addition to the multiple eyewitnesses who identified Lee Oswald either at or near the scene of J.D. Tippit's murder, the very best evidence against Oswald in that crime are the four spent bullet shell casings that LHO was nice enough to dump on the ground near the corner of Tenth & Patton immediately after he shot Officer Tippit.
Those four bullet shells, according to various firearms experts, were determined to have positively been fired from the same revolver that Lee Oswald still had in his own possession when he was arrested at the Texas Theater just half-an-hour after Tippit was shot.
Under those circumstances, it's simply not possible for Oswald to be innocent of killing Dallas policeman J.D. Tippit—unless we want to believe in a fantasy like this one....
16.) Oswald, just days after acquiring his Carcano weapon, attempts to murder retired General Edwin Walker in Dallas, on April 10, 1963. Marina Oswald herself testifies that "He [Lee]...told me that he had shot at General Walker."
Another key fact surrounding Oswald and his killing of JFK is the Walker murder attempt, as I think any reasonable person looking at the case objectively would concur. For, it displays in Oswald a definite tendency toward violent action on his part during the months leading up to November 22nd.
To me, it's not a wild stretch of one's imagination to think that if this guy is willing to bump off Walker, then he might just set his sights a little higher when the perfect opportunity presents itself seven months later.
The fact that Oswald was a kind of loner, oddball, and rejected authority at just about every turn in life cannot be underestimated when talking of motive. He admitted that he hated America (in general terms) for not being able to just come and go as he pleased to Russia and Cuba whenever it pleased him in the months just prior to November 22.
As a former Marine acquaintance of Oswald's once said: "He always thought he was a little better than everyone else." This statement speaks volumes, in my opinion, when gazing into Oswald's background and possible motive in the JFK murder.
17.) It was PROVEN, no matter what anybody wants to believe to the contrary, that three shots could be fired in the allotted timeframe from Oswald's rifle (and with good accuracy). The probability that Oswald had, in fact, approx. 8.4 seconds to accomplish the shooting further increases the likelihood that Lee could have performed the deed.
If the first (missed) shot hit a tree branch and ricocheted to strike James Tague by the underpass at approx. Frame 160 of the Zapruder film (as I believe did happen), then the total time between shots #1 and #3 increases to more than eight seconds, much more than the minimum required time to get off the three shots.
18.) Try as the conspiracy theorists might, the Single-Bullet Theory [SBT] has still not been disproven. The Zapruder film shows that the SBT is almost certainly the correct scenario to explain the initial non-fatal wounds sustained by JFK and all of the wounds suffered by Governor John Connally.
Kennedy and Connally are reacting to their initial wounds at virtually an identical time, just after Zapruder frame 224. Unfortunately, that damn Stemmons sign is blocking our view during what might be a critical point on the film. It can therefore never be determined by anybody whether JFK was reacting to his throat/neck wound at a frame earlier than Z224. But, based on the available evidence, the SBT (judging by the reactions of the two victims in the limo) most certainly cannot be said to be false.
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19.) While viewing the Zapruder Film, I cannot see how anybody can say that the BACK of President Kennedy's head is blown away as a result of the head shot. It seems quite obvious while watching and freezing the film at various post-Z313 frames, that the entire rear portion of JFK's head remains intact throughout the shooting.
The RIGHT-FRONT portion of his head is blown apart. Isn't it obvious that it's the FRONTAL portion of his skull that is being displaced by the swiftly-moving projectile? And if so, doesn't this demonstrate the actions of an object that's just been struck from BEHIND, not from the front?
In addition (and probably more importantly), the Zapruder Film, when viewed in super-slow-motion -- LIKE THIS CLIP -- verifies beyond question that President Kennedy's head moves FORWARD (not backward) at the critical MOMENT OF IMPACT, indicating that the fatal bullet that hit his head came from BEHIND him and not from the front or right-front of JFK's limousine.
Also -- If JFK had been shot from the infamous "Grassy Knoll" (which was located to the right-front of Kennedy's car at the time he was shot), why wasn't there any damage to the LEFT side of President Kennedy's head? Instead, the left side of his head remained completely intact and undamaged, as can easily be seen in this autopsy photograph HERE.
20.) It was also proven that Oswald could have indeed travelled, in 90 seconds or less, the distance across the sixth floor of the TSBD and descended the four flights of stairs in time to have been seen by policeman Marrion L. Baker on the building's second floor. [See Warren Commission Report; Page 152 -- HERE.]
21.) And then there are the several lies told by Lee Harvey Oswald during the two days he was being held in custody by the Dallas Police Department. I lay out most of Oswald's lies at two of my webpages, HERE and HERE.
Those provably false statements that were made by Lee Oswald provide extremely strong circumstantial evidence of his guilt in the two murders he was charged with committing in Dallas on 11/22/63. If he had truly been innocent of both of those crimes (as he claimed he was), then he wouldn't have had the slightest desire to start telling the police one lie after another on November 22 and 23.
In my opinion, possibly the biggest lie that came from Oswald's lips was when he told the police that he had not carried any kind of large-ish paper package into the Book Depository on the morning of November 22nd. And, to go along with that lie, Oswald told the companion falsehood about how he had not said a single word to Buell Wesley Frazier about wanting to go out to Irving to retrieve some curtain rods from Ruth Paine's house. Those twin lies are very damning to Lee Oswald. As are many of the other untrue statements uttered by LHO during the brief time he was in police custody.
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I have no doubt that the many conspiracy theorists, who claim that Oswald had nothing whatsoever to do with the events of 11/22/63, could provide a lengthy list of their own, favoring (in their view) theories such as: "Oswald Was Framed", "Oswald Was A Patsy", or "Oswald Was A Figment Of Everyone's Imagination And Was Never Even In Dallas During His Lifetime". I'm sure the conspiracy-happy people of the world would have no trouble denouncing my views as "More Warren Commission-related B.S.!"
However, while compiling such a "conspiracy" list and rejecting the vast array of evidence that convincingly shows that a Mr. Oswald pulled that trigger, I think it might be wise to ask this question ..... IS IT EVEN REMOTELY POSSIBLE THAT OSWALD COULD HAVE COMMITTED THIS CRIME ALONE?! (And every bit of evidence that has been unearthed to this point has shown that it WAS indeed possible for Lee Oswald to have performed this task.)
And if the answer to the above question is even a hesitant "Yes" amongst conspiracy theorists, doesn't that, by definition (at least partly in a CTer's mind) validate the belief of Oswald's lone participation in the JFK assassination?
For, aren't hard facts and evidence always more believable than wild speculation and conjecture? And aren't many/most/all conspiracy theories created out of just that -- speculation?
David Von Pein
July 2003
Revised and Expanded in:
July 2005
July 2009
April 2011
October 2014
May 2022
June 2024
October 2024
ORIGINAL ARTICLE
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SIX THINGS MADE TO ORDER
FOR LEE HARVEY OSWALD:
It's time for conspiracy theorists to wake up from their many years of sleep and realize that there's no credible evidence of anyone having shot and killed President Kennedy and Dallas Police Officer J.D. Tippit except a screwball named Lee Harvey Oswald, a 24-year-old nuthatch who was lucky enough (from his warped point-of-view) to have these six things all align themselves into perfect harmony on November 22, 1963:
1.) Lee Harvey Oswald hated America and its Government's representatives.
2.) Oswald owned and had ready access to a rifle in November of 1963.
3.) Oswald worked in a building which just happened to overlook the last portion of JFK's motorcade route through Dallas on 11/22/63.
4.) It stopped raining prior to 12:00 noon on 11/22/63 (hence, the bubbletop roof was left off of JFK's limousine for the motorcade drive through Dallas). The bubbletop roof was not bulletproof at all, but it's quite possible that Oswald wouldn't have known that fact on November 22nd. Seeing the roof in place that day, if it continued to rain, just might have made Oswald think twice about firing those gunshots at the limo.
5.) Oswald was lucky enough to have President Kennedy visit Dallas on a Friday (i.e., a regular workday for Lee Oswald and the other Book Depository employees), instead of, say, a Saturday or a Sunday.
6.) Another small item that relates to #5 above is something that could well have played a very big factor in Oswald pulling off the shooting that Friday -- and that is the fact that not only did Kennedy's visit to Dallas occur on a workday for Oswald (a Friday), but the parade route took JFK's limo past the Book Depository Building RIGHT AT LUNCHTIME as well, which meant that most TSBD employees were on their normal lunch breaks at that hour of the day (and would have been even if Kennedy had not been scheduled to drive by the building at noontime).
The normal time for the warehouse employees to break for lunch at the Depository was from 12:00 Noon to 12:45 PM, just exactly the time period when President Kennedy was scheduled to drive through Dealey Plaza on Friday, November 22nd. That information was confirmed via the Warren Commission testimony of Buell Wesley Frazier (the 19-year-old TSBD employee who drove Oswald to work on the morning of the assassination):
WESLEY FRAZIER -- "12 o'clock is when we always eat lunch."
JOSEPH BALL -- "12 to 12:45?"
FRAZIER -- "Right."
This meant fewer people staying on the upper Depository floors (i.e., the "warehouse" floors, which were floors 5, 6, and 7), with those employees going down to the first-floor "Domino/Lunch Room" or the second-floor lunch room (or going outside the building to watch the President pass by) during the exact time when Lee Oswald would require a VACANT sixth floor in his preparations for shooting the President during this Friday lunch period.
For Oswald, the above combination of things was simply a made-to-order combination of factors that just fell into his lap on November 22nd, 1963, including item numbers 4, 5, and 6 mentioned above, which are things that Oswald HIMSELF could not possibly have had any control over whatsoever. And even #3 as well, to the extent that Oswald was hired at the TSBD on October 15, 1963, which was a full month prior to anyone officially announcing the details of JFK's final motorcade route through Dallas (which included the turn onto Elm Street in front of the Depository).
Happenstance (and a kook named Lee Harvey) got John F. Kennedy killed. Not conspiracy.
David Von Pein
January 2008
ORIGINAL ARTICLE
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EVERYTHING LEE HARVEY OSWALD DID ON
NOVEMBER 22, 1963, SAYS "I'M GUILTY!":
Here are some of my miscellaneous thoughts concerning assassin Lee Harvey Oswald's "Lone Killer" status in association with the murders of both President John F. Kennedy and Dallas policeman J.D. Tippit in Dallas, Texas, on the 22nd day of November in the year of 1963......
Regarding Oswald's quick descent from the 6th Floor to the 2nd Floor of the Texas School Book Depository Building just after the gunshots were fired; and Oswald's "breathing" status at 12:32 PM; and the reasons why two Depository employees didn't bump into or hear LHO on the stairs:
No one was on the stairs at the exact same time as Oswald. Via the overall weight of the witness testimony given to the Warren Commission in 1964, it's very probable that the two employees in question (Victoria Adams and Sandra Styles) didn't even start down the stairs until a few minutes AFTER the shooting. Those two ladies did not encounter anyone (or hear anyone) on the stairs, including Marrion Baker and Roy Truly, who were positively running up those same stairs within approx. 60 to 70 seconds of the last shot being fired.
Given these facts -- Oswald, Baker, and Truly must certainly have been on those stairs PRIOR to the time that Adams and Styles descended that same staircase. But the conspiracy advocates, incorrectly, insist that Oswald and the two women HAD to be on the stairs at the exact same time (and such an unsupportable scenario was also re-created by Oliver Stone in his 1991 motion picture, "JFK"). But that "Everybody's Using The Stairs At Once" version of the event simply cannot be accurate, and is not at all necessary to accommodate the available evidence concerning this issue.
As for being out of breath -- Short of being 5-foot-1 and 299 pounds, I'm guessing that just about anybody could quickly travel down four flights of stairs and NOT be "out of breath". It must be remembered that Oswald was going DOWN the stairs, not UP.
Gliding down stairs certainly wouldn't necessarily make somebody winded at all. I've never felt the need to go on oxygen after going DOWN just a few steps. Plus: Oswald was NOT physically unfit either (5-foot-9; slender build; approx. 150 pounds).
Also: The Warren Commission re-enacted Oswald's trip to the 2nd Floor -- and it was easily accomplished multiple times in less than 80 seconds (Oswald was seen by policeman Baker approx. 90 seconds after the shooting). The re-enactments also included taking the time to hide the rifle in the place where Oswald hid it (near the stairwell).
Secret Service Agent John J. Howlett performed two separate "re-creations" of Oswald's probable post-shooting movements, taking 78 seconds on his first try and 74 seconds on the second. And Howlett was not out of breath upon reaching the second-floor lunchroom at the completion of either one of the test runs, which were conducted at a regular walking pace and a "fast walk", respectively.
Conspiracists who continue to believe that Oswald's 90-second, 4-flight trip to the second floor was a virtual impossibility are simply wrong. It was easily a doable trek for Oswald, or for anybody else with two legs who wasn't in a wheelchair.
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Regarding the subject of why Oswald was left "hung out to dry" (via the less-popular conspiracy-flavored scenario which has Oswald actively involved in the assassination plot in some fashion, but NOT being set up as a "Patsy" by a group of unknown conspirators):
In such a case, why in the world would Oswald's other "teammates" who are "in" on the plan just leave Oswald hanging out to dry after the shots were fired?
In such a large plot involving Oswald (or in just a smaller two-man or three-man plot), it would seem logical that one of the other plotters would have provided their co-conspirator (Oswald) with some transportation away from the murder scene.
But, instead, Oswald is left to hoof it on his own -- then take a city bus, then a taxi to his roominghouse -- running the risk of being spotted by other bus passengers (which, in fact, he was; a former landlady of Oswald's, Mary Bledsoe, incredibly, was on the very same Marsalis Street bus that Oswald boarded minutes after the assassination; she later positively identified Oswald as having been on the bus).
Then Oswald is left completely alone to fend for himself yet again -- travelling on foot from his Beckley Avenue residence to the scene of the J.D. Tippit killing (and if the Tippit murder isn't an indication that Oswald was involved in the JFK shooting, then nothing is, IMO). Then he walks to a movie theater, a perfect place to "lay low" without running a huge risk of being spotted in the nearly-empty and dark theater.
ALL of the above signifies one thing for sure --- Oswald had NO ACCOMPLICES on November 22, 1963. For if he had, all of these walking and public-transportation methods of locomotion would certainly have been avoided.
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But, in a total "Lone Nut" scenario, every single thing Lee H. Oswald did after the President was shot makes perfect sense. Such as the following laundry list of things telling us the President's murder was the act of one lone killer, firing from his 6th-Floor perch:
1.) Lee Oswald couldn't drive (not very well at any rate; he had a few lessons from Ruth Paine, and was not impressive behind the wheel according to Mrs. Paine). Therefore, he's left to his own resources after shooting the President, and forced to rely on other modes of transportation for his getaway.
2.) Even if he COULD drive, Oswald had no vehicle to take him from Point A (Dealey Plaza) to Point B (anyplace else) after the shooting. And in an "LN" scenario, it's highly doubtful that he's going to go up to Wesley Frazier (who gave him a lift that morning) and ask: "Hey Wes, can you give me a ride home Friday? I'm gonna plug the Chief Executive around lunchtime and need a getaway driver. OK with you?"
3.) LHO is not the least bit surprised when having Marrion Baker's gun pointed at him just minutes after the assassination. Lee is quite calm and cool. This calm reaction is an odd one if he were completely innocent of the shooting and had no idea of what just happened out on Elm Street.
IMO, Lee Oswald wasn't surprised by Baker's confronting him for one simple reason -- he expected the police to be entering the building quickly; and he had no reason to say to the officer, "What the heck is going on here?! Why am I being stopped?!" -- because he KNEW what was going on, because HE, himself caused it. Any innocent bystander in that same situation is going to get scared, and at the very least ask "What's going on? What did I do?"; but not Oswald; he never uttered a word.
4.) He departs work quickly (within 3 minutes of the shooting), not caring in the least about all the turmoil and police activity going on outside the building.
5.) Oswald takes the only transportation available to him, in his flight from the scene -- a public bus. When the bus gets clogged in traffic, he changes to a taxi cab (highly unusual for the penny-pinching Oswald; in fact, a researcher might be searching forever if he were to try and verify a single other occasion when Lee Oswald spent money on a cab ride within the United States).
6.) Lee has the taxi driver, William Whaley, take him NOT to the front door of 1026 N. Beckley (LHO's residence) -- but instead to a point three blocks BEYOND his home. He actually passes his house first in the cab, which, IMO, is an obvious attempt to see if any cops are waiting for him there yet, and so that the cab driver won't know exactly where his passenger lives.
7.) Oswald then grabs a handgun at his home, puts on a jacket (to conceal the weapon more easily), and hustles out of the roominghouse, not saying a word to housekeeper Earlene Roberts (who noted his hurried behavior).
8.) Upon encountering Officer J.D. Tippit on 10th Street within 15 minutes of leaving his roominghouse, Oswald shoots and kills the officer almost immediately (after very little conversation), plugging him one extra time (in the head at point-blank range).
9.) Oswald knows he's got really big troubles now (as if killing JFK weren't enough already). He knows multiple witnesses saw him kill Tippit, but he's only got so much ammunition with him (he cannot eliminate ALL these witnesses). So he'll save his last bullets for when it really counts -- on more cops. Which is EXACTLY what he attempted to do once he was cornered in the Texas Theater at approximately 1:50 PM on November 22nd.
10.) In the theater, Oswald tries to kill police officer Nick McDonald with the same gun he used on Tippit a half-hour earlier. But, luckily, McDonald and other officers are able to wrest the gun away from their suspect before it can be successfully fired, saving Oswald from yet another possible murder charge that day.
11.) Oswald's first words when cornered are also indicative of guilt -- "It's all over now!" and/or "This is it!" are the quotes that have been attributed to LHO within the movie theater.
12.) When questioned by the police, Lee Harvey tells one lie after another regarding crucial information -- such as lying after being asked each of the following questions: "Do you own a rifle?", "Who is A.J. Hidell?", and "Did you bring a package to work this morning?".
If Oswald had really been the "Patsy" (as he shouted out to the press in the DPD hallways), then WHY didn't he reveal some names for the police to check out? Don't tell me Oswald was involved in this massive plan to assassinate the President and yet he had not one shred of an idea as to what any of his co-conspirators looked like or what any of their names (even fake names) might have been?!
In short -- The "Patsy" theory is simply pure out-and-out hogwash!
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What do all of the above points add up to (in their totality)? -- In a certain sector of the "It Was A Conspiracy" world, these points (somehow) add up to a "Patsy" who not only didn't murder the President, but is also innocent of the even-more-provably-committed-by-Oswald murder of Officer Tippit.
In that same portion of the "CT" world, the above items also add up to a man (Oswald) who is apparently totally oblivious to the fact that he is being "used" by hired, professional assassins, and who hadn't the slightest idea that he would be used in this manner right up to the time of the actual shooting itself.
Otherwise, Mr. Oswald would never have even shown up for work at the Depository on Friday morning (if he had possessed even the slightest notion, that is, of the covert "plot" that would be implicating HIM, and him alone, after 12:30 PM on November 22nd, 1963).
And only AFTER the assassination itself does Oswald "get smart" (evidently) and put the pieces together, and realize he's just been "used" as the "Patsy" in this thing.
His "Patsy" remark has launched a mile-high pile of additional conspiracy theories -- and I do think it was smart of Oswald to announce to the TV cameras "I'm just a patsy!" for the world to hear. A very smart move indeed. Because it accomplished exactly what he had probably intended for it to accomplish -- i.e., it diverted some attention away from Oswald himself.
That ONE single word out of Oswald's mouth ("Patsy!") has sent CTers scrambling in all directions looking for "connections" to a plot -- any plot. None of which has been verified to this day to have the slightest bit of truth in them (among the theories placed on the table to date).
Zero pieces of credible, verifiable, provable information have been unearthed to date that tie Lee Harvey Oswald to any of the various proposed conspiracy theories.
The above "points", every single one, IMO, add up to the actions of one lone killer of President Kennedy and Officer Tippit. A man, on foot, who tries desperately to flee the scenes of his two crimes and avoid capture, even attempting to kill yet another person along the way (but failing in that attempt before being handcuffed).
IN A NUTSHELL......
No conspiracy theorist can possibly deny the fact that each of the points I've stressed above could certainly (at the very least) be easily reconciled within an "Oswald Did It And Did It By Himself" point-of-view.
If conspiracy promoters do choose to deny the fact that Lee Harvey Oswald's post-12:30 actions on November the 22nd could possibly be looked upon as the actions of ONE LONE KILLER, then I feel they are not being honest about what Oswald's actions truly reveal.
Lawyer Vince Bugliosi said it very nicely when he screamed these words to the jury in a London courtroom in July of 1986:
"If Lee Harvey Oswald had nothing to do with President Kennedy's assassination and was framed....this otherwise independent and defiant would-be revolutionary, who disliked taking orders from anyone, turned out to be the most willing and cooperative frame-ee in the history of mankind!! Because the evidence of his guilt is so monumental, that he could have just as well gone around with a large sign on his back declaring in bold letters 'I Just Murdered President John F. Kennedy'!!!" -- Vincent T. Bugliosi; "On Trial: Lee Harvey Oswald"
David Von Pein
March 2006
February 2007
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THESE TWO THINGS PROVE
LEE HARVEY OSWALD'S GUILT:
In late September of 1964, Chief Justice Earl Warren handed a thick book to President Lyndon B. Johnson at the White House. That heavy tome was the final "Warren Commission Report" regarding the investigation into the November 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
The seven-member Warren Commission panel (plus its staff of counsel members and legal staff), in a nearly ten-month probe into the circumstances surrounding the murder of JFK, arrived at a conclusion which has divided America ever since -- they concluded that Lee Harvey Oswald, by himself, had fired all of the bullets that struck down and killed President Kennedy in Dallas, Texas.
A vast majority of people vehemently disagree with these WC findings. I, however, am not a member of that majority. Lee Harvey Oswald was indeed, in my opinion, the sole gunman that day in Dallas. The physical evidence (as well as the circumstantial evidence) that is currently in the official record tells me that Oswald was most certainly the murderer of America's 35th President.
And when virtually ALL of the hard, PHYSICAL evidence in a criminal case leans one way and supports one single conclusion, reaching an opposite conclusion (as most conspiracy theorists have done with respect to the evidence in the JFK case) -- i.e., that Oswald is totally INNOCENT of the two murders he was charged with on 11/22/63 (both JFK's and police officer J.D. Tippit's as well) -- defies all logic and reasoned thinking.
Like most things in life, the John Kennedy murder case can be reduced (in most areas within it) to common sense and the hard, documented physical evidence, and we all know where the latter leads -- right straight into the two guns of one Lee Harvey Oswald (his Mannlicher-Carcano rifle plus his revolver, the latter which was used to kill Officer Tippit). Plus, the "common sense" part of that equation leads directly to Lee Oswald and his weaponry as well. And "common sense" would tell anybody that Oswald is guilty.
I was thinking recently about the following quote by author-attorney-LNer Vincent Bugliosi (I think a lot about his comments, because they make so much "sense" of the "common" variety).....
"Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone in the assassination of President Kennedy. The evidence is absolutely overwhelming that he carried out the tragic shooting all by himself. In fact, you could throw 80 percent of the evidence against him out the window and there would still be more than enough left to convince any reasonable person of his sole role in the crime." -- Vince Bugliosi
.....And then, just for the sake of illustrating the validity of the above-mentioned statement made by Mr. Bugliosi, I went about the task of tossing out certain pieces of evidence that lead toward Oswald's guilt in both the JFK and Tippit murders.....and I came to the conclusion, after stripping away several "LHO Is Guilty" items, that the following two things prove Lee Harvey Oswald guilty beyond a reasonable doubt (or at least they prove his guilt beyond all of my personal "reasonable doubt")......
1.) Lee Harvey Oswald's rifle was positively the weapon that was used to assassinate President Kennedy and wound Texas Governor John Connally. (With said weapon being found inside the building where Oswald was definitely located at 12:30 PM on November 22, 1963, when both of these men were wounded by rifle fire.)
2.) Oswald was seen carrying a bulky paper package into his place of employment at the Texas School Book Depository Building on the morning of 11/22/63, and Oswald (beyond a reasonable doubt) lied about the contents of this package to a co-worker.
As an extension to #2 above --- We KNOW Oswald lied about the "curtain rods" based on the following:
A.) No "curtain rods" were found anywhere within the Book Depository after the assassination.
B.) Oswald definitely did not carry any package inside his roominghouse at 1026 N. Beckley Avenue when he arrived back home just prior to 1:00 PM on the afternoon of the assassination.
A and B above add up to the inescapable fact that: No "curtain rods" were in that paper package on 11/22/63.
Adding #1 to #2 above, all by themselves, with nothing else in evidence but those items, makes Oswald a guilty assassin.
Now, when you start adding in the wealth of ADDITIONAL physical and circumstantial evidence against Oswald -- his guilt is then proven not beyond just a "reasonable" doubt...but it's proven beyond any SPECK of a doubt.
Things like: Oswald's prints on a paper bag IN THE SNIPER'S NEST; which was a paper bag that perfectly matches the type of bag that co-worker Wesley Frazier said Oswald carried into the Depository building at 8:00 AM on November 22nd. (With a nicely-incriminating "right palmprint" of Oswald's later discovered by the police in the VERY SPOT on that bag which equates PERFECTLY with the precise way Frazier said Oswald carried the bag in his right hand! That's a very important point, IMO, and is undeniably-strong physical evidence of Oswald's guilt.)
Plus there are these additional items: Eyewitness Howard Brennan's positive IDing of Oswald as a gunman in the Sniper's Nest window. .... The Tippit murder that was unquestionably committed by Oswald. .... The fingerprints of Oswald located on the rifle, plus his prints located on multiple boxes DEEP WITHIN THE SNIPER'S NEST. .... Fibers inside the empty paper bag which was found in the Sniper's Nest were consistent with fibers from the blanket in Ruth Paine's garage where Oswald stored his rifle in the months leading up to the assassination. .... Oswald having no verifiable alibi for the precise time when President Kennedy was being gunned down on Elm Street at 12:30 PM on 11/22/63. .... Oswald dashing out of the TSBD at approximately 12:33 PM, just minutes after a U.S. President had been shot within yards of Oswald's workplace. .... And Oswald's other lies he told to the police after his arrest (apart from the obvious large lie regarding the curtain rods).
But it all starts with the basic points brought out by #1 and #2 above. The evidence (and Oswald's OWN words and actions) tell a reasonable person that Lee H. Oswald was guilty as ever-lovin' sin of two murders in 1963, and there's nothing any CTer (or anybody else on the planet) can do or say to change that basic of all facts.
The conspiracists will continue to try to set Oswald free, of course, like always. But the more a reasonable person examines the evidence (and applies just a small dose of ordinary common sense to these facts in evidence), the more hollow, shallow, and inept all those pro-conspiracy arguments become.
David Von Pein
January 2006
May 2016
ORIGINAL ARTICLE
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A LEE HARVEY OSWALD “TIMELINE”
FOR NOVEMBER 22, 1963:
My Proposed "LEE HARVEY OSWALD ASSASSINATION TIMELINE"......
(Beginning at lunchtime on November 22, 1963; all times approximate)......
11:45-11:50 AM CST (Friday, Nov. 22, 1963) -- Bill Shelley sees Lee Harvey Oswald downstairs on the first floor. ....
JOE BALL [of the Warren Commission] -- "On November 22, 1963, the day the President was shot, when is the last time you saw Oswald?"
WILLIAM SHELLEY -- "It was 10 or 15 minutes before 12."
MR. BALL -- "Where?"
MR. SHELLEY -- "On the first floor over near the telephone."
11:50-11:54 AM -- Oswald goes from the first floor to the sixth floor. Just a few minutes after getting to the sixth floor, the five other men who are on the 6th Floor break for lunch and race the two freight elevators downstairs. Oswald remains on the sixth floor.
11:55 AM -- Charles Givens comes back up to the sixth floor to retrieve his jacket and cigarettes. He sees Oswald, with clipboard in hand, on the east end of the floor. Per Givens' testimony, it's during this "cigarette trip" back up to the sixth floor when Oswald asks Givens to close the elevator gate and to send the elevator back up to him. This differs in chronology from the other witnesses who said they heard Oswald requesting the elevator during the "racing" of the elevators downstairs...i.e., BEFORE Givens went back up by himself.
In any event, it's fairly certain that (at some point just prior to 12:00) Oswald did ask for an elevator to be returned back up to him on the sixth floor.
It's very likely that no one inside the Book Depository Building saw Lee Oswald after approx. 11:55 AM on November 22nd, until LHO was next seen by Marrion Baker at approx. 12:31-12:32 PM on the second floor.
Carolyn Arnold has stated her belief that she saw Oswald in the lunchroom, eating his lunch, at either 12:15 PM or about 12:25 PM (over the years, she apparently has used both of those time estimates).
Now, such an "Oswald sighting" by Arnold at either of those times still would not give Oswald an alibi for the exact time of the assassination (12:30). But, it would be hard to believe that LHO would have been downstairs, casually eating his lunch, just a few minutes before dashing upstairs to murder the President.
But other witness testimony tends to debunk Carolyn Arnold's "I Saw LHO In The Lunchroom" account. And, in my view, there's just too much evidence (overall) that concretely puts Oswald on the 6th Floor during the approximate timeframe when Arnold claimed he was in the lunchroom.
11:55 AM-12:05 PM -- Oswald has the whole sixth floor to himself. This is just prior to Bonnie Ray Williams coming back up to the 6th Floor to eat his lunch. It's my belief that Lee Oswald, during this (approx.) 10-minute time period around noon or shortly after, probably went to the west end of the sixth floor (where he had his rifle hidden in the brown bag).
Oswald unwraps the rifle at the west end of the sixth floor and assembles the rifle at the west end (hence, Arnold Rowland sees a white man with a rifle at the west end of the building at approx. this time, maybe a little later, 12:15 or so, but keep in mind the approximation of all times).
It's quite possible, IMO, that Oswald initially was considering using the WEST-end window as his shooting window. But, for one reason or another, he decided that a window on the EAST end of the sixth floor would better serve his purposes.
Perhaps he was mentally factoring in the angles and trajectories in his head, and possibly realized that an east-end perch would be a better one, especially since the Secret Service agents would all have their backs to him when he began firing, if he decided to wait until after the cars had turned to Elm/Houston corner....which, IMO, Oswald definitely had in his mind to do, due to the pre-arranged way the rifle-rest boxes were constructed (i.e., in a "Rifle Always Pointing West/Southwest" manner).
It's also possible that, as Oswald mulled over potential shooting locations, he realized that a goodly number of boxes were already down on the east end of the 6th Floor, which would make constructing a makeshift "Nest" all the easier for him.
Now, I cannot fully explain why Oswald wanted to take the empty paper bag WITH HIM to the east end from the west end via this scenario I'm laying out here....but I've got to assume (naturally) that he DID do just that after assembling the rifle on the west end.
Perhaps--just perhaps--Oswald had it in his mind that he would be able to re-insert the weapon back into that bag and, just maybe, get the incriminating rifle out of the building the same way he smuggled it in--in the brown paper package that supposedly contained those never-found "curtain rods".
Yes, that last part is fairly weak...I'll admit that. I don't much like that idea either. For, Oswald would surely have known that he wouldn't have the time (or want to take time) to dismantle the rifle AFTER shooting at the President.
But, then too, who can know what crazy thoughts might be swimming through the head of a person who is contemplating murdering a U.S. President from his very own place of employment? That's a difficult type of mind to thoroughly probe and to figure out....indeed. Wouldn't you all agree?
12:00-12:05 PM -- Oswald (with his rifle and the paper bag) moves to the east end of the sixth floor, where Oswald works on constructing his Sniper's Nest. Now, some of these boxes might have been pretty close to the SN window already...which, as I mentioned, could have been a partial factor in Oswald choosing that southeast corner window to begin with. So, perhaps the building of the "Nest" wasn't as difficult or as time-consuming as some people seem to think it had to be.
I really have no idea how long it would have taken Oswald to create his makeshift Sniper's Nest of book cartons. And nobody else knows for sure either. This is one of the several "unknowables" surrounding this case.
But the sum total of "Oswald Was There" evidence tells me that Lee Oswald (alone) DID construct that Sniper's Nest at some point prior to Bonnie Ray Williams arriving back up on that sixth floor (or, at least Oz had ENOUGH of the Nest constructed so that he was able to hide behind a wall of partially-constructed boxes during Williams brief 5-to-12-minute stay up on that floor).
12:05-12:15 PM -- Oswald can hear Bonnie Ray Williams in the middle portion of the sixth floor, near the south windows, as Williams eats his lunch. I think, therefore, it's logical to assume that Oswald would have been trying to remain extra quiet as he hides within his "Nest" of boxes (whether the Nest is totally complete or not, we cannot know; but we do know that some boxes in that southeast corner are prohibiting Williams from seeing deep into that corner). ....
"Well, at the time I couldn't see too much of the sixth floor, because the books at the time were stacked so high. I could see only in the path that I was standing--as I remember, I could not possibly see anything to the east side of the building." -- Bonnie Ray Williams
But Oswald's rifle was probably already completely assembled when Williams was on the sixth floor....so there's no need for any noise to be coming from the metal parts in this "rifle" regard.
And I think it's logical to assume that Oswald was probably getting a tad anxious, waiting for his prey to turn from Main to Houston...and, at the same time, wondering if he'll have to abandon his murder attempt due to Williams' pesky presence on the very same 6th Floor. So Oswald quietly moves to the window and looks out a couple of times (per Brennan), but without his rifle in his hands....the rifle is no doubt resting at Oswald's feet in the SN.
Re: Howard Brennan -- I'm going to have to take issue with Mr. Brennan's account of seeing Oswald sitting "sideways on the window sill", however. I'm just doubting that was even physically possible, given the arrangement of book cartons IN the window itself. And it doesn't seem likely that Oswald would want to sit up on the sill anyhow, thereby making himself even MORE visible to anyone outside.
However, as a footnote to my last comments, it's possible (but not provable by any means) that Oswald had not yet placed the rifle-rest boxes in the window at the time Brennan said he saw the man (later IDed by Brennan as Lee Oswald) sitting "sideways on the window sill".
Perhaps Oswald, as alluded to previously, was interrupted (by Williams' presence) during the construction of his Sniper's Nest (the timeline was, indeed, a fairly-tight one, granted, between Givens seeing Oswald at approx. 11:55 and Williams arriving back on the 6th Floor a very few minutes later...with Williams seeing nobody at all on the entire sixth floor).
So, Brennan could very well be correct regarding the "sideways on the sill" observation. But I'm going to exercise my proverbial "grain of salt" option when considering the accuracy of such a "sideways" observation.
12:10-12:15 PM -- Bonnie Ray Williams finishes his "chicken-on-the-bone" sandwich (~LOL~) and his Dr. Pepper soft drink and vacates the sixth floor (after Williams heard some activity on the 5th Floor below him). Williams takes an elevator down one flight to join two other employees on the fifth floor to watch the motorcade.
Lee Oswald now is alone, once again, on the Texas School Book Depository's sixth floor. He has approximately 15 minutes to wait until the President will come into his view on the street below him.
During these last few minutes prior to 12:30 PM, it's possible that Oswald puts some finishing touches on his Sniper's Nest....and/or his rifle-rest cartons.
Regarding the 5th-Floor witnesses (Harold Norman, James Jarman, and Bonnie Ray Williams), and what they heard.....
Norman stated positively that he heard three rifle shots being fired from directly above him. And he told Vincent Bugliosi in 1986 that he heard precisely three "hulls" (shells) hitting the floor as the shooting was taking place above him....
BUGLIOSI -- "And by 'hulls', you mean cartridge casings?"
NORMAN -- "Cartridges."
BUGLIOSI -- "How many did you hear falling to the floor?"
NORMAN -- "Three."
Now, as far as the fifth-floor witnesses not specifically hearing any footsteps from the assassin upstairs just before and just after the assassination -- I'd ask: What difference does that really make?
Obviously, SOMEBODY was up on that sixth floor, in that Sniper's Nest, firing a gun (be it Lee Harvey Oswald or somebody else....SOME HUMAN BEING WITH TWO FEET was up there with a gun).
So the conspiracy theorists who think it's odd to have Norman, Jarman, and Williams not hearing the footsteps of Oswald just prior to and just after 12:30 on November 22nd are not thinking the situation through logically.
Because somebody was located in that southeast corner of the 6th Floor at 12:30 (and, naturally, just a little bit PRIOR to 12:30 too)....so if it wasn't Lee Oswald doing the shooting, then the CTers have to wonder why the "real killer's" footsteps were not heard by N,J,&W either. It turns out to be a moot argument from anyone's particular point-of-view.
POST-SHOOTING CHRONOLOGY......
Lee Oswald is able to perform his deadly deed at 12:30, as he fires three of his four bullets from his 6th-Floor window, killing JFK with shot #3. I'm guessing that Oswald, too, like the rest of the world, was very surprised indeed that he had actually been able to pull off this task in total secrecy from his workplace (not counting Mr. Brennan outside the building). I'm doubting LHO thought he'd REALLY get a golden chance to do it.
But, unfortunately, he was given that chance when Williams vacated the sixth floor....and Oswald was aided further, as it turns out, when no other employees decided they would use the SIXTH floor as a parade-watching perch that Friday.
12:30:30 PM -- Lee Harvey Oswald's task is completed. He pauses at the window for just a moment (per Brennan's account), and then disappears from Brennan's view.
Oswald, in his haste, leaves the three traceable rifle shells and the brown paper sack in the Sniper's Nest. He hustles (with rifle in hand, and with one remaining bullet chambered in his Carcano, if needed) to the northwest corner of the sixth floor.
It's my personal belief that Oswald (during this trip to the NW corner) was wiping as many fingerprints off of his Mannlicher-Carcano rifle as he could in the time allowed. He was very likely (IMO) using the brown shirt in which he was arrested to perform this print-wiping task, which is quite possibly how some fibers managed to get wedged under the butt plate of the rifle. Those fresh fibers were later discovered by the authorities and were consistent with the shirt Oswald was wearing when he was arrested in the Texas Theater.
Oswald gets to the northwest corner of the building without being seen by anyone. He notices that neither of the two freight elevators is on his floor. So he's forced to take the nearby stairs in that NW corner of the building.
He stashes his rifle between some boxes very close to the stairway. It's possible that Oswald had PRE-ARRANGED this rifle-stowing location prior to the assassination. We can never know this for sure, of course. But I think it's possible.
However, I'll add here my own confusion with respect to Oswald's seemingly willy-nilly attitude toward the evidence he was leaving behind....because, as you'll recall a little bit ago, I postulated that Oswald might have been of the initial opinion that he'd be able to slip the rifle (somehow, some way) back into the paper bag and perhaps get it out of the building in such a manner.
But if he had PRE-arranged a rifle-stashing location near the stairs, that would mean he probably wasn't thinking of removing the rifle from the 6th Floor at all. Who can know for sure? No one can. Perhaps Oswald was thinking along BOTH of those lines.
Here's a possibility to consider as well (re: the rifle) -- If Oswald had never been given the chance to shoot at the President (and IMO it's VERY likely that Oswald was thinking that he might very well NOT have this perfect opportunity to carry out the shooting), it's quite possible, indeed, that Oswald would have made BOTH of the previously-mentioned rifle-hiding provisions -- e.g., pre-arranging a place on the NW side to hide the rifle from view AND having a potential need for that brown paper bag once again (even after 12:30, given the possibility he might never fire the weapon at all).
Via the last option, it's likely Oswald would probably still not want to waltz out the front door of the Depository carrying a fully-assembled Carcano rifle in full view of many people. (It could look kinda bad, in a "Maybe That Guy Is Up To No Good With That Rifle The Same Day The President Has Passed By This Building" sort of fashion.)
So, I don't think it's out of the realm of possibility that Oswald could have planned out BOTH of those rifle-stashing options on November 22.
Granted, in the option where Oswald doesn't fire the gun at all, he COULD have simply left the bag on the WEST side of the building....and then casually retrieved it after 12:30. (In such a situation, of course, no shots would have been fired, and nobody would be rushing into the building searching desperately for a gunman; hence, Oswald would not need to be in a really big hurry to gather up the bag.)
Continuing on with Oswald's post-shooting movements......
12:31-12:32 PM -- Oswald travels quickly down to the second floor of the TSBD via the back stairway. (It's possible that the reason he ducked off at Floor #2 is because he heard the footsteps of the approaching Roy Truly and Marrion Baker.)
Oswald is then stopped at gunpoint in the second-floor lunchroom by Officer Marrion Baker. LHO is then immediately cleared as an employee and is let go by Baker.
Oswald is calm, silent, and unflustered during his encounter with Baker (per Baker's testimony). This reaction, IMO, is much more indicative of GUILT than with INNOCENCE.
If innocent, isn't it quite likely that Oswald would have been a bit scared, rattled, and probably would have at least said to Baker, "What the hell is this?! What's going on?! I didn't do anything! Why are you stopping me?!"
Oswald, instead, is dead-quiet. Never changing his expression one bit (per Baker).
12:32 PM -- Oswald then buys a soft drink from the soda machine in the lunchroom, and then strolls casually and unhurriedly toward the stairs near the 2nd-Floor offices (after having just been cleared as a worker in the building, thereby probably allowing Oswald to relax a little bit more at that point in time).
Mrs. Robert A. Reid sees Oswald with a full beverage bottle. She says to him "The President has been shot". Oswald mumbles something incoherent and continues toward the front stairs, which lead to the first-floor TSBD entrance.
12:33 PM -- Lee Harvey Oswald exits the Texas School Book Depository, approximately four minutes before Dallas police officers seal off the building.
12:40 PM -- Oswald boards a bus on Elm Street, east of the Book Depository. He stays on the bus about 4 minutes, gets a transfer from driver Cecil McWatters, and then exits the bus. Mary Bledsoe positively identifies Oswald as having been on board McWatters' bus on 11/22/63.
Oswald, in an out-of-character move (given his usual tightfisted habits), spends 95 cents ($1.00 with the whopping tip given to driver William Whaley) on a cab ride from the Greyhound bus station to the general area of his Oak Cliff roominghouse.
Oswald has Whaley take him PAST the roominghouse at 1026 North Beckley Avenue (probably so that Lee can check to see if any cops are near his home at the time), with Oswald getting out of Whaley's cab at the intersection of Neely and Beckley, three blocks beyond his rented room.
Oswald then backtracks the three blocks and rushes into his roominghouse at approximately 12:59-1:00 PM.
Housekeeper Earlene Roberts said the following (during a re-enactment that was done for the 1964 movie "Four Days In November").....
"I got word about the President being killed...and he come in, in a hurry. I said 'Ooh, you're in a hurry'. He never parted his lips....he went to his room, got a short coat to put on, and then he walked on out to the bus stop....and that's the last I saw of him."
1:14-1:15 PM -- Oswald shoots and kills Dallas policeman J.D. Tippit on Tenth Street (0.85 of a mile from the roominghouse Oswald just left a short time earlier).
Multiple witnesses verify it was Lee Harvey Oswald who killed Officer Tippit. Bullet shells from Oswald's revolver ("to the exclusion") were recovered by THREE different witnesses at the Tippit murder scene.
TIPPIT'S MURDER AND THE SILLY ATTEMPTS TO DEFEND OSWALD
Oswald is next seen by Johnny Brewer at approximately 1:35 to 1:40 PM. Brewer notices Oswald's "funny" and "scared" look as LHO lurks in the entrance of Brewer's shoe store.
Brewer follows Oswald a short distance up Jefferson Boulevard and watches as Oswald slips into the Texas Theater (without paying). Brewer confers with Texas Theater employee Julia Postal about the man who just entered the theater. Postal calls the police.
The following passage can be found in Julia Postal's WC testimony transcript....
"So, well, I called the police, and he wanted to know why I thought it was their man, and I said, "Well, I didn't know," and he said, "Well, it fits the description," and I have not---I said I hadn't heard the description. All I know is, "This man is running from them for some reason"."
1:50 PM -- Lee Harvey Oswald is apprehended in the Texas Theater. Oswald pulls his revolver on Dallas Police Officer M.N. McDonald and a wild fight ensues. While inside the theater, Oswald is heard to say "It's all over now" and/or "This is it".
After his arrest, Oswald repeatedly lies to the authorities about important issues connected to the investigation of the murders of President Kennedy and Officer Tippit.
[END TIMELINE.]
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The above "Oswald timeline" is not perfect. It has some weaknesses, yes. The Arnold Rowland timeline isn't a perfect dead-on match. And the Bonnie Ray Williams timeframe isn't rock-solid either.
But those witnesses were not staring at their watches when they observed the things they observed and did the things they did on 11/22/63. And I'd say, generally-speaking (give or take a very few minutes in "real time"), that those witness accounts of the events of that November day work out pretty close to corroborating the general timeline I've laid out in this post.
The long and the short of the matter is this --- Just about every last thing Lee Harvey Oswald did both before and after the assassination of John F. Kennedy indicates a GUILTY LEE HARVEY OSWALD.
David Von Pein
April 2007
July 2009
May 2016
RELATED LINK -- A "TIMELINE" CONVERSATION WITH DALE MYERS
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FOR MORE ARTICLES PERTAINING
TO LEE HARVEY OSWALD,
CLICK HERE:
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RELATED LINKS:
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