Editing Conspiracy BBS Archive/cncka003 (section)

== New [[Lone-Gunman Theory|Lone-Gunman Theories]] About the Baker-Oswald Encounter ==

A few WC supporters have suggested that Oswald got inside
the foyer door even BEFORE Truly reached THE LANDING.  Among
other things, this theory would require us to believe that our
alleged fleeing assassin, who was supposedly desperate to provide
an alibi for himself, inexplicably just stood right next to the
door while Truly came up the stairs, while Truly reached the
landing, while Truly looked at the landing area (including the
door), while Truly started up the third-floor stairs (or at least
arrived to within a few feet of the foot of those stairs), and
while Baker came up the stairs at least a couple seconds behind
him.  What's more, this theory would appear to refute Baker's
tentative claim that the foyer door was in motion when he looked
at it, since the door was apparently closed when Truly saw it. 
If so, this would mean that Oswald unbelievably just stood there
and waited for the door to close, and that this suicidal 3-6
second wait occurred even BEFORE Truly had a view of the landing. 
Why would Oswald have waited by the foyer door when he was
supposedly trying to give himself an alibi by getting as far
away from the stairs as possible?  Why wouldn't Oswald have moved
away from the door upon hearing Baker and Truly running up the
stairs?  If one assumes Oswald didn't hear them running up the
stairs, then surely he would have started to move away from the
foyer door when Truly came through the stairway door to the
landing, in which case Oswald would not have been visible to
Baker when Baker looked through the foyer door's window a few
seconds later.  The very idea that any fleeing gunman would have
stood by the foyer door seems wholly implausible.  His most
important mission in life at that time would have been to get as
far away from the stairs as possible, and, correspondingly, to
get out of the line of sight of anyone who might look through the
foyer door's window.

An even more implausible scenario, offered by a few WC
supporters, goes something like this: 

Oswald was coming down the stairs when Truly called
for the elevator.  Upon hearing Truly holler, or
perhaps after hearing Baker and Truly running up
the stairs, Oswald ducked into the lunchroom and
then moments later went back to the foyer door to
see if the way was clear to continue on down the
stairs (in the hope of exiting the building
from the rear door).  When Oswald went back to the
foyer door, he might have even begun to open it,
but then, after seeing Truly, turned around and was
just in the process of starting to walk back toward
the lunchroom when Baker spotted him, which would
explain why Baker said he might have seen the door
in motion.
       
For starters, why would Oswald have returned so quickly
to the foyer door?  Why wouldn't he have stood away from the door
so as to be out of sight but close enough to hear Baker and Truly
run up the stairs?  Then, once they had passed, he could have
gone down the stairs in the hope of leaving the building from the
rear exit.  Why would Oswald have started to open the door before
he was sure the way was clear?  If it is suggested that he
started to open the door just before Truly reached the landing
but then pulled back when he saw and/or heard Truly, then Oswald
would have had ample time to duck away from the door, and thus
get out of sight, by the time Baker reached the landing.

If it is theorized that Oswald didn't start to open the door
but that he merely began to turn around when he saw Truly, he
still would have had time to duck out of view by the time Baker
reached the landing.  And wouldn't Oswald have heard Baker and
Truly running up the stairs as they neared the landing?  If so,
why would he have even gotten close to the foyer door?  Wouldn't
he have stayed away from the door, out of view, until he heard
Baker and Truly continue up the stairs?

What's more, in his WC testimony Baker indicated that Oswald
had his back to the door when he spotted him.  This claim causes
several problems for the traditional lone-gunman version of the
Baker-Oswald encounter.  It also creates difficulties for any
theory that puts Oswald on the second floor before Truly reached
the landing.  For example, if Oswald had returned to the foyer
door and started to push it open but then pulled back when he saw
or heard Truly, why on earth would he have bothered to turn
around before heading back to the lunchroom?  Why wouldn't he
have simply stepped backwards as soon as he saw or heard Truly? 
For that matter, why wouldn't he have just ducked below the
window as soon as he saw or heard Truly?  Then, he could have
easily rushed back into the lunchroom and been out of sight when
Baker reached the landing.  And, again, wouldn't Oswald have
heard Baker and Truly running up the stairs as he began to return
to the foyer door?  And wouldn't he have therefore stayed away
from the door, and out of sight, until he heard Baker and Truly
continue up the stairs?  Also, how could Oswald have reached the
second floor so quickly in the first place?  How could Baker
and Truly have reached the elevator shaft or the stairs before
Oswald reached the second-floor landing if Oswald arrived there
as early as some WC supporters have suggested he did?  According
to some WC defenders, Oswald only had to chamber a bullet, bolt
out of the sniper's nest, sprint across the sixth floor, stop
momentarily and literally "throw" the rifle into its hiding
place, and then dash down the stairs.  Such a scenario would
require the following time line:

Action                                  Time
---------------------------------------------------------
Fires last shot.......................00:00-00:00
Chambers one round....................00:00-00:01
Exits sniper's nest...................00:01-00:04
Sprints 150 feet across sixth floor
   to rifle's hiding place............00:04-00:18
Stops, turns to face rifle's
   hiding place, and throws rifle
   down...............................00:18-00:21
Turns around and runs to sixth-floor
   stairway...........................00:21-00:23
Dashes down four flights of stairs
   and reaches second-floor landing...00:23-00:36

Obviously, this scenario is markedly unrealistic.  However,
if we assume it is correct, how can we accept the theory that
Oswald was on the stairs when Truly yelled for the elevator or
when Baker and Truly were running up the stairs to the second
floor?  Baker and Truly could not have reached the elevator shaft
so soon after the shots were fired.  These are just some of the
problems associated with any theory that assumes Oswald somehow
made it to the second floor before Truly reached the landing.

If Oswald had reached the second floor in less than 40
seconds, why wouldn't he have just continued going down the
stairs and exited the building's rear door?  Baker and Truly
could not have even been at the elevator shaft by that time.  So
why would Oswald have bothered to go to the second-floor
lunchroom?

A third scenario proposed by some WC supporters involves the
idea that Oswald WALKED from the window to the rifle's hiding
place.  According to this theory, Oswald "walked briskly" after
he allegedly fired the shots.

Wouldn't Harold Norman and the two other men who were with
him just below the sniper's nest have heard a grown man "walking
briskly" above them?  Walking quickly creates almost as much
noise as running makes.  Yet, the three men didn't hear a sound
come from the sniper's nest after the shooting.

And wouldn't Oswald have RUN for dear life?  One would think
that he would have wanted to get as far away from the sniper's
nest as quickly possible.  Why, then, wouldn't he have run from
the sniper's nest and then dashed down the stairs?  Again,
though, walking briskly makes almost as much noise as running
makes.  How could Norman, with his supposedly superhuman hearing,
not have heard a grown man speed-walking across the floor?

Anyway, if Oswald had walked briskly, and if we accept for
the sake of argument the other assumptions about his movements
made the WC supporters who advance this theory, he would have
been behind the foyer door around 50 seconds after the shooting. 
If we assume that Oswald exited the foyer door 10-15 seconds
later but then turned around when he heard Truly yell or heard
Baker and Truly running up the stairs, a number of problems come
to mind:  For starters, if he heard Truly yell, he would have had
plenty of time to get back in the lunchroom and well out of
Baker's sight.

The only other option is to assume that Oswald heard Baker
and Truly coming up the stairs and had just barely gone back
through the foyer door when Baker looked at it.  But, and this is
an important point, then we're right back to square one with
having to explain how Truly could have missed seeing Oswald and
how Oswald would or could have been visible to Baker by the time
Baker looked at the door.
 
Only if Oswald had been standing right next to the door
would Baker have had any chance of "spotting" him through the
door's window.  This scenario becomes even more problematic with
Baker's claim that Oswald was walking away from the door, in
which case the door would not have had time to close or nearly
close behind him by the time Baker allegedly spotted him.  This,
in turn, brings us right back to the issue of how Truly possibly
could have missed seeing Oswald since Oswald would, at the very
least, have been in the middle of the doorway, with the door
plainly open, when Truly saw the door.  Truly said if there had
been anyone in the landing area, he would have seen him; and to
judge from Truly's testimony, the door was shut when he looked at
it.  And if the door was shut when Truly looked at it, and/or if
Oswald had ducked back through the door when he heard Baker and
Truly running up the stairs, he would not have been visible
through the foyer door's window by the time Baker looked toward
the door.

One could, out of desperation, assume that Oswald just stood
there inside the door and didn't start to move away until a
second before Baker looked at the door, but this idea is
impossible from the outset unless we also assume that Oswald was
back inside the door BEFORE TRULY reached the landing area.  But
surely Oswald would have stepped away from the door (if not
ducked down) when he saw Truly arrive to the landing, and thus he
would not have been visible through the window when Baker reached
the landing.  And, if Oswald, incredibly, just stood by the door
until a second before Baker looked at it, how could Oswald have
been facing AWAY from the door, i.e., with his back to the door,
when Baker supposedly spotted him through the window?