Editing Conspiracy BBS Archive/cncka003 (section)

== [[Victoria Adams]]: An Important Witness ==

Another problem confronting WC supporters is the fact that
[[Victoria Adams]] went down the stairs shortly after the last shot
was fired, and neither saw nor heard anyone else on those
stairs.  Miss Adams was with [[Sandra Styles]] on the fourth floor
during the shooting.  After the shots were fired, she said that
she and Miss Styles waited 15-30 seconds by the window and then
"ran" down the stairs to the first floor.  Miss Adams testified
that as she entered the first floor from the stairway she saw
[[Bill Lovelady]] and [[William Shelley]] standing near the elevator. 
Realizing the implications of Miss Adams' account, the WC
suggested that Miss Adams' recollection of her movements was in
error--and not by just a little bit, but by "several minutes." 
This is highly unlikely.  Moreover, Lovelady and Shelley gave
sworn statements on the day of the shooting that tend to support
her account.

Miss Adams said that from her position on the fourth floor
she "ran" down the back stairs to the first floor very soon after
the last shot.  She told the Commission that "at the most" it
took her no longer than a minute to reach the bottom of the
stairs on the first floor after she waited at the window.  She
further informed the Commission that she RAN down the stairs.

If Miss Adams remained at the window for 15-30 seconds
before taking "no more than a minute" to reach the first floor,
she could have arrived there before Baker and Truly did, as these
time lines show:

Action                                  Time
-------------------------------------------------
Last shot is fired....................00:00-00:00
Waits at window.......................00:00-00:15
Reaches fourth-floor landing..........00:15-00:30
Reaches bottom of first-floor
   stairs.............................00:30-00:42
Moves several feet away from
   first-floor stairs.................00:42-00:44

From her position on the fourth floor, Miss Adams would have
had to run about 60 feet, which a normal female of her age could
have done in 15 seconds or less.  After that, she only had to go
down three flights of stairs.  Since she was going DOWN, and
since it is always easier to go down stairs than to go up them,
it is entirely possible that she "ran" down the stairs in 12
seconds.  Even we want to stretch her stair-running time to 15
seconds, that could still get her away from the first-floor
stairs before Baker and Truly neared the stairs.  Surely no one
will dispute the fact that a healthy young female adult could
have "run" and gotten several feet away from the first-floor
stairs in 3 seconds.  In any event, let's add a second here and
there and see what we get:

Action                                  Time
-------------------------------------------------
Last shot is fired....................00:00-00:00
Waits at window.......................00:00-00:15
Reaches fourth-floor landing..........00:15-00:30
Reaches bottom of first-floor
   stairs.............................00:30-00:45
Moves several feet away from
   first-floor stairs.................00:45-00:47

As we can see, I've added 3 seconds to the time it took her
to go down the stairs, and 2 seconds to the time it took her to
move several feet away from the first-floor stairs.  Even with
the extra time, she still could have reached the first floor
before Baker and Truly entered the landing area.  Now, let's bend
a little more and see what we get:

Action                                  Time
-------------------------------------------------
Last shot is fired....................00:00-00:00
Waits at window.......................00:00-00:17
Reaches fourth-floor landing..........00:17-00:32
Reaches bottom of first-floor
   stairs.............................00:32-00:47
Moves several feet away from
   first-floor stairs.................00:47-00:49

Even in this time line, we see that Miss Adams still could
have reached the first floor 3 seconds before Baker and Truly
reached the first-floor landing area.

What if Miss Adams literally raced from the window after
pausing at it for 15 seconds?  The following would be the fastest
scenario:

Action                                  Time
-------------------------------------------------
Last shot is fired....................00:00-00:00
Waits at window.......................00:00-00:15
Reaches fourth-floor landing..........00:15-00:30
Reaches bottom of first-floor
   stairs.............................00:30-00:39
Moves several feet away from
   first-floor stairs.................00:39-00:40

What about Lovelady and Shelley?  Judging from their
November 22 statements, they made it to the first floor in well
under a minute.  Lovelady, who was standing on the steps of the
Depository, said that after the shots were fired he went
back into the building.  Shelley said that after he heard shots,
he ran across the street, encountered a girl who said JFK had
been shot, and then went back to the TSBD to call his
wife.  One would imagine that Shelley was anxious to phone his
wife with this shocking news and that therefore he moved at a
fairly quick pace.  So both Lovelady and Shelley, according to
their November 22 statements, could have been on the first floor
in time to be seen by Miss Adams 40-50 seconds after the
shooting.

WC defenders argue that since Miss Adams did not report
hearing Truly yell for the elevator and did not see Baker and
Truly, she must have been on the stairs much later than she
thought she was.  However, this is not necessarily correct. 
There were other people in that area of the first floor (the
vicinity of the stairs) at the time, and if Miss Adams reached
the foot of the first-floor stairs at the early times that I've
suggested, then Baker and Truly would have been a good 20 feet
away from her when she arrived.  With the other people that were
there, and given the excitement at the time, it is understandable
that Miss Adams didn't notice Baker and Truly, just as she
undoubtedly didn't notice certain other people who were there. 
Under such circumstances, nobody takes note of every single
person around them.  Similarly, Shelley was very unsure that he
had seen Miss Adams on the first floor, and Lovelady said he
"couldn't swear" that he had seen her, yet she noticed both of
them.

As for Miss Adams not hearing Truly yell, this is entirely
understandable.  The elevator shaft was some 15-20 feet from
the stairs, and the shaft and the stairs were separated by a
wall.  Miss Adams' running down the stairs would have created
noise by itself, which might have further obscured the sound of
Truly's voice.  And, if she was near or at the foot of the stairs
when Truly yelled, noise from the other people who were on the
floor could have also partially obscured the sound of Truly's
voice.  There is also the distinct possibility that Miss Adams
reached the first floor BEFORE Truly yelled for the elevator, as
the above time lines show.

As mentioned, Sandra Styles was with Miss Adams on the
fourth floor and accompanied her down the stairs.  Yet,
incredibly, the Commission not only failed to call her as a
witness, but it didn't even have the FBI obtain a statement from
her concerning her movements after the shooting.  Sylvia Meagher
rightly asks, "Why was . . . Sandra Styles--who was in a position
to confirm or contradict . . . [Miss Adams'] testimony--not
called before the Commission and questioned?" (Meagher 73). 
Surely it must have occurred to the WC that Miss Styles was a
crucial witness.  One can't help but suspect that the Commission
ignored her because it feared she would confirm that Miss Adams
went down the stairs less than a minute after the shots rang out.

It should be noted that it is possible that Oswald could
have come down the stairs without being seen or heard by Miss
Adams.  This seems unlikely, but it is possible.  The value
of Miss Adams' testimony is that if she made it to the first
floor around 40-50 seconds after the shots were fired, this would
appear to refute, or at least cast strong doubt on, any attempt
to put Oswald in or near the lunchroom before Truly had a view of
the second-floor landing.  If nothing else, her testimony
indicates that she was on the fourth-floor stairs no later than
50 seconds after the shooting but neither saw nor heard anyone
else on the stairs.

Now let us consider three timing scenarios to reinforce the
fact that Oswald could not have made it from the sixth floor to
the second-floor lunchroom without being seen by Truly or in time
to be seen by Baker within inches of the foyer door just after
Baker reached the second-floor landing.

Before we do so, a word needs to be said about Oswald's
supposed route and the distance he would have had to cover in
going from the sniper's nest to the rifle's hiding place.  In
previous versions of this article, it was assumed for the sake of
argument that Oswald would have had a straight path from the
sniper's nest to the rifle's hiding place (as is claimed by
Gerald Posner in his book CASE CLOSED).  This would have required
him to walk or run around 75 feet to arrive at the spot where the
rifle was hidden.  However, photos taken of the sixth floor
shortly after the shooting prove that this would have been
impossible (see, for example, Savage 165-172; Groden 65).  The
photos show that the sixth floor was crowded with rows of stacks
of book boxes, and that Oswald would have had to run down the
east wall and then along the north wall in order to reach the
rifle's hiding place.  This was the only clear path to the
rifle's hiding place (cf. Savage 294; Savage posits the same
route).  Using this route, Oswald would have had to cover at
least 150 feet to go from the sniper's nest to the stack of boxes
where the rifle was later found.  Yet, although I assumed a
distance of only 75 feet for this journey in earlier versions of
this article, I have NOT lengthened the times for it.  I have
done so in order to give the lone-gunman theory the benefit of
the doubt.

------------------------------------------------------
SCENARIO #1: TIMES FAVORABLE TO THE LONE-GUNMAN THEORY
------------------------------------------------------

Notice that in this scenario it is assumed that Oswald RAN
across the sixth floor and down the stairs, and that he only took
8 seconds to hide the rifle.  These times, along with two or
three others, are more than generous in order to give the
lone-gunman theory the benefit of the doubt, and all of the
listed times are reasonable and consistent with the evidence.

"OSWALD" TIME LINE #1:

Alleged Action                                      Time
-------------------------------------------------------------
Fires last shot.........................................00:00
Chambers another round............................00:00-00:01
Stays at window to gloat over feat................00:01-00:05
Slowly withdraws rifle, casually moves away from
   window, walks around boxes stacked next
   to window, and reaches entrance to sniper's
   nest...........................................00:05-00:11
Squeezes out of sniper's nest.....................00:11-00:13
Runs approximately 150 feet across the sixth
   floor and reaches spot where rifle was
   found..........................................00:13-00:29
Wipes off the rifle...............................00:29-00:33
Hides the rifle...................................00:33-00:41
Turns from rifle's hiding place and then runs
   approximately 7 feet to the top of the
   sixth-floor stairs.............................00:41-00:43
Runs down four flights of stairs and reaches
   the bottom stair on the second-floor stairs....00:43-00:59
Opens door to second-floor landing and goes
   through it.....................................00:59-01:00
Runs approximately 20 feet across the
   second-floor landing to the foyer door.........01:00-01:02
Opens foyer door and goes through it..............01:02-01:03

TRULY TIME LINE #1:

Action                                              Time
-------------------------------------------------------------
Last shot is fired......................................00:00
Baker races motorcycle, dismounts, runs to
   TSBD, and comes through building's
   entrance.......................................00:00-00:25
Leads Baker across the first floor and arrives
   to entrance to first-floor stairs..............00:15-00:55
Opens and goes through door to first-floor
   stairs.........................................00:55-00:56
Runs up stairs and gets far enough
   to see second-floor landing....................00:56-01:02

Thus, even after making generous allowances in favor of the
lone-gunman theory, we see that Truly would have had a view of
the second-floor landing BEFORE Oswald would gone through the
the foyer door.  Not only would Truly have seen Oswald going
through the door, but he would have also seen the slow
automatic door closing behind Oswald.

Of course, if Oswald had RUN 150 feet from the sniper's nest
to the rifle's hiding place, raced down four flights of stairs,
and then bolted across the second-floor landing to dash through
the foyer door, he surely would have been at least somewhat out
of breath, and not "calm and collected," when Baker encountered
him.

Furthermore, as indicated above, it is possible that Baker
and Truly took less than 40 seconds to get to the foot of the
first-floor stairs.  We have assumed that it took "Oswald" only
16 seconds to run the roughly 150 feet from the sniper's nest to
the spot where the rifle was hidden.  Why, then, would it have
taken Baker and Truly, who were running at a fast pace, 40
seconds to reach the entrance to the first-floor stairs?  I think
one could plausibly argue that it took them as little as 25
seconds to do so, bearing in mind that they probably spent 5-10
seconds calling for and trying to use the elevator before they
decided to go up the stairs.  Or, one could bend a little more
and assume it took them 35 seconds to reach the first-floor
stairs.  This is a plausible estimate.

Now let us see why Baker's story about seeing Oswald 20 feet
away just after Baker reached the second-floor landing would, if
true, prove that Oswald did not shoot Kennedy.  Keep in mind that
Oswald would have been opening and then walking through the foyer
door 62-63 seconds after the shots were fired.

BAKER TIME LINE #1:

Action                                              Time
-------------------------------------------------------------
Last shot is fired......................................00:00
Races motorcycle, dismounts, runs to
   TSBD, and comes through building's
   entrance.......................................00:00-00:15
Goes with Truly across the first floor and
   arrives to entrance to first-floor stairs......00:15-00:55
Truly opens door to first-floor stairs and
   Baker follows..................................00:55-00:57
Runs up stairs and reaches second-floor
   landing about 2-3 seconds after Truly
   does...........................................00:57-01:04

It is apparent that Oswald would have just finished walking
through the foyer door when Baker reached the second-floor
landing and began to scan the area, and that therefore the foyer
door would have just barely started to close behind Oswald when
Baker looked at it.  Also, Truly was running well ahead of Baker
by that time and would have easily spotted Oswald crossing the
landing, or reaching for the door, or going through the door.

What follows is a time line that is extremely favorable to
the lone-gunman theory, which we will call Oswald Time Line #2. 
In it we have eliminated some of Oswald's alleged actions and
have shortened the times given for a number of the remaining
activities.  However, we have also taken the reasonable step of
allowing a few seconds--actually only 2 seconds--for the slow
automatic door to close or "nearly close" behind Oswald.  We have
further assumed that it took Baker and Truly somewhat less than
40 seconds to reach the first-floor stairway.  Then, let us
compare this second Oswald time line with more plausible
time lines for Baker and Truly.  Although these Baker and Truly
time lines are more plausible, and hence less favorable to the
lone-gunman hypothesis, they will include the assumptions that
(1) it took Baker 15 seconds to reach the TSBD's entrance, and
(2) that Truly didn't have a view of the second-floor landing
until 7 seconds after he started running up the stairs.  I would
like to emphasize that the following time line is NOT realistic,
since, as stated above, it omits some of Oswald's alleged actions
and contains shortened times for a number of his remaining
supposed activities.

"OSWALD" TIME LINE #2:

Alleged Action                                      Time
-------------------------------------------------------------
Fires last shot.........................................00:00
Chambers another round............................00:00-00:01
Slowly withdraws rifle, casually moves away from
   window, and walks around boxes stacked next
   to window......................................00:01-00:06
Reaches outer/outside edge of sniper's nest
   and exits nest.................................00:06-00:09
Runs approximately 150 feet across the sixth
   floor and reaches spot where rifle was
   found..........................................00:09-00:23
Hurriedly wipes off those parts of the rifle
   that he handled during the shooting............00:23-00:28
Hides the rifle...................................00:28-00:34
Turns from rifle's hiding place and then runs
   approximately 7 feet to the top of the
   sixth-floor stairs.............................00:34-00:36
Runs down four flights of stairs and reaches
   the bottom stair on the second-floor stairs....00:36-00:49
Opens door to second-floor landing and
   goes through it................................00:49-00:50
Runs approximately 20 feet across the
   second-floor landing to the foyer door.........00:50-00:52
Opens foyer door and goes through it..............00:52-00:53
Automatic-closing foyer door closes nearly
   all the way behind him.........................00:53-00:55

If the foyer door was like most automatic doors, it could have
taken as much as 5 seconds, or more, to close or nearly close. 
But, for the sake of argument, we have assumed it only took 2
seconds to do so.

TRULY TIME LINE #2:

Action                                              Time
-------------------------------------------------------------
Last shot is fired......................................00:00
Baker races motorcycle, dismounts, and comes
   through TSBD entrance..........................00:00-00:15
Leads Baker across the first floor and arrives
   to entrance to first-floor stairs..............00:10-00:40
Opens and goes through door to first-floor
   stairs.........................................00:40-00:41
Runs up stairs and gets far enough on stairs
   to see second-floor landing....................00:41-00:48

BAKER TIME LINE #2:

Action                                              Time
-------------------------------------------------------------
Last shot is fired......................................00:00
Races motorcycle, dismounts, runs to TSBD,
   and comes through building's
   entrance.......................................00:00-00:15
Goes with Truly across the first floor and
   arrives to entrance to first-floor stairs......00:10-00:40
Truly opens door to first-floor stairs and
   Baker follows..................................00:40-00:42
Runs up stairs and reaches second-floor
   landing about 2-3 seconds after Truly
   does...........................................00:42-00:51

Even these Baker and Truly time lines are not as fast as
they could be (and probably should be), yet we still see that
Oswald could not have made it from the sixth floor without being
seen by Truly and in time to be spotted by Baker.

--------------------------------------------------------------
SCENARIO #2: MORE PLAUSIBLE TIMES FOR OSWALD'S ALLEGED ACTIONS
--------------------------------------------------------------

In this scenario, "Oswald" does not run across the sixth
floor and down the stairs; he walks at a fast pace, as did SSA
Howlett for his FASTEST time in the WC's reenactments.  Also,
notice that it is assumed that the hiding of the rifle took 10
seconds.  This is a very reasonable time, since the evidence
clearly shows that the weapon was very carefully concealed.  The
weapon was surrounded by boxes on all sides and was held upright
by at least one box.  This time line also assumes that the door
to the second-floor landing was open.

"OSWALD" TIME LINE #3:

Alleged Action                                      Time
-------------------------------------------------------------
Fires last shot.........................................00:00
Chambers another round............................00:00-00:01
Stays at window to gloat over feat................00:01-00:05
Slowly withdraws rifle, casually moves away
   from window, walks around boxes stacked next
   to window, and reaches entrance to sniper's
   nest...........................................00:05-00:10
Squeezes out of sniper's nest.....................00:10-00:11
Runs approximately 150 feet across the sixth
   floor and reaches spot where rifle was
   found..........................................00:11-00:30
Wipes off the rifle...............................00:30-00:36
Hides the rifle...................................00:36-00:46
Turns from rifle's hiding place and then runs
   approximately 7 feet to the top of the
   sixth-floor stairs.............................00:46-00:49
Runs down four flights of stairs and reaches
   the bottom stair on the second-floor stairs....00:49-01:06
Steps off bottom stair and walks approximately
   20 feet across second-floor landing to
   foyer door.....................................01:06-01:10
Opens foyer door and goes through it..............01:10-01:12

This time line is a telling blow against the lone-gunman
theory when it is kept in mind that Truly surely was on the
second-floor landing 60 seconds after the shots were fired, as
shown in Truly Time Line #1.  It should also be remembered that
in the WC's simulations, the Oswald stand-in, skipping some
actions and fudging on others, made it from the sniper's nest to
the lunchroom in 1 minute and 14 seconds.

---------------------------------------
SCENARIO #3: CONSIDERING THE COUCH FILM
---------------------------------------

Officer Baker appears in the Couch film.  He is seen running
toward the TSBD.  In the segment of the film in which he appears,
he is within a few seconds of the building's entrance.  According
to W. Anthony Marsh, the Couch film shows that it might have
taken Baker as long as 30 seconds to reach the front door. 
Howard Roffman, on the other hand, suggests the film shows that
it took Baker 10-15 seconds to do so.  I propose a compromise
figure of 25 seconds, although I believe the film could indicate
that Baker reached the door a little sooner than this.

When Baker parked his motorcycle, he was only 45 feet from
the TSBD's front entrance (WCR 149, 152).  By the time he
appears in the Couch film he has clearly long since dismounted
(he parked his motorcycle about 10 feet from the traffic signal,
at the northwest corner of Elm and Houston, which would have put
him only seconds away from the entrance to begin with).  He's
seen running toward the TSBD and appears to be very close to the
entrance, since, among other things, he's near a car that is
parked on the NORTH side of Elm Street, i.e., the side closest to
the building, and he's clearly beyond and well to the right of
the traffic light (Trask 424; compare with Trask 500, 548, 551,
and 587, and with WCR 62).

Even allowing for Baker's having to push his way through a
few people at the foot of the entrance, I don't see how it could
have taken him longer than 5 or 6 seconds to reach the front door
from the point at which he appears in the Couch film.  If you
correlate the Couch frame on page 424 of Trask's PICTURES OF THE
PAIN with the photo on page 62 of the WCR, it's clear that Baker
was very close to the entrance in this frame when Couch captured
him on film.

The exact time that Couch filmed Baker running toward the
TSBD cannot be established.  Couch said he started filming
immediately after he saw a rifle barrel being slowly withdrawn
from the sixth-floor window.  Baker appears in the segment that
Couch filmed while Couch was still in the car.  The in-car
segment is only 22.5 seconds long, and the frames with Baker in
them are NOT the last ones that Couch took from the car.  Since
Baker was only a few seconds away from the Depository's entrance
when Couch filmed him, and given the fact that the Baker segment
was not the last in-car footage, a time of 25 seconds seems
reasonable.

Moreover, what if the fatal head shot came AFTER the rifle
was withdrawn from the window?  Since there is considerable
evidence that the fatal head shot was fired from the front, it is
possible that the gunman in the sixth-floor window withdrew his
rifle after he hit the President in the back or after firing all
the shots he was supposed to fire.  In other words, the
sixth-floor shooter could have been withdrawing his rifle by
around frame 225 of the Zapruder film, i.e., nearly five seconds
before Kennedy was shot in the head.

In any event, in the time lines below we will use the figure
of 25 seconds for Baker's dash to the front door.  At the same
time, however, we will also use more realistic times for Baker
and Truly's sprint from the front door to the first-floor stairs,
and for their dash up the stairs.

TRULY TIME LINE #3:

Action                                              Time
-------------------------------------------------------------
Last shot is fired......................................00:00
Baker races motorcycle, dismounts, runs to TSBD,
   and comes through building's
   entrance.......................................00:00-00:25
Leads Baker across the first floor and arrives
   to entrance to first-floor stairs..............00:25-00:50
Opens and goes through door to first-floor
   stairs.........................................00:50-00:51
Runs up stairs and gets far enough
   to see second-floor landing....................00:51-00:56

If the landing door was closed, it would have taken Truly an
extra second or two to gain a view of the landing area.

BAKER TIME LINE #3:

{| class="wikitable"
|+ BAKER TIME LINE #3:
|-
! Action !! Time
|-
| Last shot is fired || 00:00
|-
| Baker races motorcycle, dismounts, runs to TSBD, and comes through building's entrance || 00:00-00:25
|-
| Runs with Truly across the first floor and arrives to entrance to first-floor stairs || 00:25-00:50
|-
| Truly opens door to first-floor stairs and Baker follows || 00:50-00:52
|-
| Runs up stairs and reaches second-floor landing about 2-3 seconds after Truly does || 00:52-00:59
|}
When we compare these times lines with the first and third
Oswald time lines, we once again see that Oswald could not have
gone through the foyer door without being seen by Truly and in
time to be spotted by Baker.

If we consider the second Oswald time line, which is much
too favorable to the lone-gunman theory (so much so that it is
unrealistic), we see that Truly would have arrived far too LATE
for the WC's version of the event to be possible, since the
Commission admitted that if Oswald had come down the stairs and
had gone through the foyer door, then he would have had to walk
through the door just "a second or two" before BAKER reached the
second-floor landing.  This problem becomes even more pronounced
if we assume that it took Baker 5 more seconds, i.e., 30 seconds,
to reach the front door.

On the other hand, if we add 5 seconds to the time for
Baker's run to the entrance, which would give us 30 seconds for
that action, and then compare that figure with the first and
third Oswald time lines, we see that Oswald still would have
been unable to reach the foyer door without being seen by Truly
and without, at the very least, having the door clearly and
visibly open when Baker looked at it.

And I would ask the reader to remember that the times given
for Oswald's alleged run from the sniper's nest to the rifle's
hiding place were originally proposed for a journey of only
around 75 feet.  So it cannot be said that I haven't made every
effort to be fair to the lone-gunman scenario.  The problem is
that the WC's theory about how Oswald came to be in the second-
floor lunchroom is impossible.  He could not have made it there
in time to be "spotted" by Baker and without being seen by Truly.

Oswald wasn't seen or heard by Victoria Adams or Roy Truly
on the stairs because he never came down those stairs.  He was at
the soda machine buying a Coke, just as he told the authorities
during his interrogations, which was one reason that early news
reports put the Coke in his hand when Baker saw him, as did Chief
Curry on November 23, and as Baker himself initially did during
his last sworn statement to the FBI.

The simple, irrefutable fact of the matter is that Lee
Harvey Oswald could not have shot President Kennedy because he
could not have been at the alleged sniper's nest at the time of
the shooting.  He was in the second-floor lunchroom buying a
Coke.

-------------------------------------------------------------
WAS SOMEONE IN THE SIXTH-FLOOR WINDOW AT THE SAME TIME OSWALD
WAS SPOTTED DOWNSTAIRS IN THE LUNCHROOM?
-------------------------------------------------------------

Harold Norman was watching the motorcade from the window
directly beneath the sniper's window.  With him were Bonnie Ray
Williams and James Jarman.  Norman told the WC that he could hear
shells hitting the floor above him during the shooting (WCR, p.
70).  This was quite an accomplishment given the fact that the
TSBD's floors were built to support tons of book boxes, and given
the noise being emitted at the time from the motorcycles and the
crowd less than 180 feet from the window.  (Incredibly, Norman
also said he could hear the rifle's bolt being operated!) 
Nevertheless, the Commission said it confirmed in a simulation
that Norman could have heard shells hitting the floor, although
the simulation was not done over the noise of a cheering crowd
and of 18 motorcycles idling along less than 180 feet away. 
However, if we assume that Norman really did hear shells hitting
the floor above him during the shooting, then it is surely
significant that neither Norman nor Williams nor Jarman mentioned
hearing any movement above them after the shots were fired. 
Jarman, in fact, was asked if he heard "any steps" or "any noise
at all" above him after the shots were fired.  "No, sir," he
replied, "none."

In light of the testimony of Mrs. Lillian Mooneyham, this is
not surprising.  Mrs. Mooneyham was a law clerk who worked in
the Criminal Courts Building.  She told the FBI soon after the 
assassination that she saw a man standing in the sixth-floor
window 4-5 minutes after the shots had been fired (see, for
example, Marrs 52-53).  From her position at the window on the
west side of the County Courts Building, Mrs. Mooneyham had an
excellent view of the TSBD.  She was a highly credible witness
who reported what she had seen in a straightforward,
matter-of-fact manner.  The Commission made no effort to refute
her account.  It could not attack her credibility, nor could it
claim that she could not have seen what she said she had seen. 
So, what did the Commission do with this credible and important
account?  Nothing.  The Commission simply ignored it, and did not
even call Mrs. Mooneyham as a witness.

In 1968 researcher David Lifton obtained an FBI report from
the National Archives which said that a witness at a window on an
upper floor of a nearby building had told a Dallas lawyer that
she saw "some boxes moving" in the sixth-floor window, presumably
within minutes of the shooting (Lifton 367).

In 1979 photogrammetric experts hired by the House Select
Committee on Assassinations studied photographs of the
sixth-floor window taken within moments of the shooting and
concluded the pictures showed "an apparent rearranging of boxes
within 2 minutes after the last shot was fired at President
Kennedy" (6 HSCA 109).  Obviously, Oswald could not have been
moving boxes around in the window less than 2 minutes after the
shooting, nor could he have been the man who was seen by Mrs.
Mooneyham.

So not only could Oswald not have made it to the lunchroom
in the required amount of time, but we also have credible
testimony and evidence that someone other than Oswald was in the
sixth-floor window moments after the shots were fired.

Recommend Reading for Important Facts Mentioned Herein
------------------------------------------------------

1. The alleged murder weapon was very carefully hidden and could
not have been simply "thrown" to its hiding place as some WC
defenders have suggested: Weisberg, CASE OPEN, pp. 110-117.

2. Victoria Adams' account of her movements after the shots were
fired is accurate and is not refuted by the WC testimony of
Lovelady and Shelley: Meager, ACCESSORIES AFTER THE FACT, pp. 72-
74.

3. The WC's reenactments of the Baker-Oswald encounter were
flawed and unrealistic, and actually proved that Baker reached
the second-floor landing much earlier than he did in the
reenactments: Weisberg, SELECTIONS FROM "WHITEWASH," pp. 53-57;
Weisberg, CASE OPEN, pp. 117-124.

4. Oswald would have had to literally "squeeze" out of the
alleged sniper's nest: Meagher, ACCESSORIES AFTER THE FACT, p.
42; Trask, PICTURES OF THE PAIN, p. 525.  Some have disputed this
fact because, Luke Mooney, the police officer who said he had to
"squeeze" through the entrance to the nest, was somewhat heavy-
set.  However, the boxes that formed the entrance were at leg
level, and Mooney's legs, to judge from his appearance, were
probably right about the same size as Oswald's legs (see Trask,
PICTURES OF THE PAIN, p. 521).  If nothing else, Oswald would
have had to slow down and negotiate his way through the narrow
entrance to the nest.

5. Oswald did not appear to be out of breath but was "calm and
collected" when Baker saw him: Meagher, ACCESSORIES AFTER THE
FACT, p. 71.

6. The sixth-floor shooter remained at the window for a few
seconds and then slowly withdrew the rifle as he casually moved
away from the window: Posner, CASE CLOSED, p. 248; Hurt,
REASONABLE DOUBT, p. 89; Brown, THE PEOPLE V. LEE HARVEY OSWALD,
pp. 113-117.

7. The foyer door (and therefore its window) would have been at a
45-degree angle to Officer Baker from his position on the
second-floor landing: Groden, THE KILLING OF A PRESIDENT, p. 121;
Weisberg, SELECTIONS FROM "WHITEWASH," p. 56; Savage, FIRST DAY
EVIDENCE, pp. 286, 289.

8. In two statements, Baker said Oswald was walking away from him
when he saw him in the lunchroom, but in another statement, his
final one, Baker said he saw Oswald standing in the lunchroom,
and on the day of the shooting, Roy Truly said that Baker didn't
see Oswald until Baker "stuck his head into the lunchroom area":
Weisberg, SELECTIONS FROM "WHITEWASH," p. 54; Meagher,
ACCESSORIES AFTER THE FACT, pp. 72, 74 n.

      Notes
      -----

1. The [[Warren Commission]] seemingly contradicted itself on exactly
where Baker was when he observed Oswald in the lunchroom.  On
page 151 of the WCR, we read that Baker saw Oswald in the
lunchroom AFTER Baker went through the foyer/vestibule door. 
However, on page 3 of the report, we read that Baker saw him in
the lunchroom when Baker "rushed" to the foyer door, and the
Commission's own diagram of Baker's movements likewise puts Baker
just in front of the door when he observed Oswald.

   Bibliography
   ------------
Brown, Walt, THE PEOPLE V. LEE HARVEY OSWALD, New York:
Carroll & Graf Publishers, 1992.

Groden, Robert J., THE KILLING OF A PRESIDENT: THE COMPLETE
PHOTOGRAPHIC RECORD OF THE JFK ASSASSINATION, THE CONSPIRACY, AND
THE COVER-UP, New York: Viking Studio Books, 1993.

Hurt, Henry, REASONABLE DOUBT: AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE
ASSASSINATION OF JOHN F. KENNEDY, New York: Holt, Rinehart,
and Winston, 1985.
                         
Lifton, David, BEST EVIDENCE, New York: Carroll & Graf, 1988

Marrs, Jim, CROSSFIRE: THE PLOT THAT KILLED KENNEDY, New
York: Carroll & Graf Publishers, 1989.

Meagher, Sylvia, ACCESSORIES AFTER THE FACT, New York:
Vintage Books edition, 1992.

Posner, Gerald, CASE CLOSED: LEE HARVEY OSWALD AND THE
ASSASSINATION OF JFK, New York: Random House, 1993.

Savage, Gary, FIRST DAY EVIDENCE, Monroe, Louisiana: The
Shoppe Press, 1993,

THE WARREN COMMISSION REPORT, Washington, D.C.: Government
Printing Office, 1964.  I am using the Barnes & Noble printing of
the report.

Trask, Richard, PICTURES OF THE PAIN: PHOTOGRAPHY AND THE
ASSASSINATION OF PRESIDENT KENNEDY, Danvers, Massachusetts:
Yeoman Press, 1994.

Weisberg, Harold, NEVER AGAIN, New York: Carroll & Graf
Publishers, 1995.

-----, SELECTIONS FROM "WHITEWASH," New York: Carroll & Graf
Publishers, 1994.

-----, WHITEWASH, Hyattstown, Maryland, 1966.
 
<hr>
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Michael T. Griffith is a two-time graduate of
the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, California, and the
author of three books on Mormonism and ancient texts.  His
articles on the JFK assassination have appeared in DATELINE:
DALLAS and in DALLAS '63. (CompuServe ID: 74274,650; Internet
address: mtgriff@ironrod.win-uk.net or 74274.650@compuserve.com) 



{{article summary
| image = Category NWO.png
| title = {{TITLE}}
| summary = The fact that Officer Marrion Baker saw Lee Harvey Oswald on the second floor of the [[Texas School Book Depository]] (TSBD) building less than 90 seconds after President Kennedy was shot is proof that Oswald could not have been the assassin.
}}


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