Post by John Duncan on Feb 3, 2023 20:07:35 GMT -5
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Oswald's Alibi Checked Out, Gave Fritz Fits
By Donald Willis 7/2004
If on 11/22/63 one wanted to give Lee Oswald a fair chance to exonerate himself, this fair-minded person might have asked him if could tell him something re the movements of his fellow employees within the building, something which he could not have known had he been ensconced in the sixth-floor "sniper's nest" at 12:30pm. In fact, as it happens, Oswald did tell his interrogators something which--unless he had second sight--he could not have known...
The moderately curious, if they want to learn a little something re the JFK assassination, will take a look at the Warren Report. There, they will find, in the text, that Oswald claimed to have had lunch with fellow depository worker James Jarman Jr., that "Junior" said that he did not have lunch with Oswald (p. 182). Those a little more curious will dig a little deeper, into the WR footnotes, & see that Oswald claimed to have had lunch with *two* fellow employees, "Junior" and "Shorty" (pp. 605, 626/Fritz, Kelley [Secret Service], resp.). The truly industrious will keep on digging & find that a third, unfootnoted report on the interview in question (included in the appendices of the WR) actually stated that Oswald claimed only to have *seen* these two particular other employees (p622/Bookhout [FBI]). And, finally, at the very center of the earth, the most dedicated diggers will come to this resonant note from DPD Captain Will Fritz's notes re the 10:30am 11/23/63 interview of Oswald: says two negros came in.
As it happens, Fritz's five little words here (or Oswald's four) could in fact describe a scene played out downstairs in the depository sometime after 12:15pm the day before. With those five words--which did not make it to Fritz's final report--Fritz helps clear Oswald of the shooting of the President, helps reconcile Oswald's version of events with that of co-workers Jarman and Harold "Shorty" Norman, & helps give us a clearer picture of Oswald's movements between 11:45am & 12:30pm. Dynamite five words....
Just before noon, several depository employees--including Bonnie Ray Williams (V3, p. 168), Danny Arce (v6p364), Charles Givens (WR p143)--saw, or heard, Oswald on the fifth and/or sixth floors. Meanwhile--between 11:45 & about 12:10--Norman was on the first floor, in the washroom & lunch room, or "domino room," where he ate lunch (V3, pp. 188-89), Jarman was on his own, too, mainly on the first floor, eating lunch while "walking around" (V3, p. 201). Between about 11:55 (when Givens says that he last saw Oswald upstairs) at 12:10, then, we cannot be sure exactly where Oswald was, & Jarman and Norman had not yet joined forces. But the scene which Fritz's words seem to describe took place a bit *later*, and uncannily featured the same two players specified by Oswald....
By about 12:20pm, we know that Oswald was in or around the first-floor domino room because (a) at 12:20, Jarman (p. 202) and Norman (p. 190), out front, heard that the motorcade was on Main [12:21, as per "Death of a President" p137], & re-entered the.depository through the "back of the building" (Jarman p. 202) --this was not a planned route which Oswald could have foreseen (Counsel: "You didn't go through & cross the first floor?"/Jarman: "No, sir, there was too many people standing on the stairway there" (p. 202); (b) anyone coming in the back, or north, door, walking to the freight elevators would have been seen from the door of the domino room (WR diagram p. 148); (c) "Oswald stated that...he had eaten lunch in the lunch room at the TSBD, alone, but recalled possibly two Negro employees walking through the room during this period. (WR p622/Bookhout), and, best for last, (d) Oswald [as per Fritz] "say two negroes came in. One Jr. + short negro."
In other words--contrary to the Fritz & Kelley reports--Oswald was *not*.claiming to have gone downstairs, around noon, to join Jarman & Norman at a.table. Between his earlier notes & his report, Fritz changed his phraseology, & the seemingly slight, but really pretty radical revision permitted Jarman to handily nullify Oswald's (Fritz-revised) alibi: "[Oswald] said he ate lunch.with some of the colored boys" (WR p605). Bookhout, unambiguously, said *alone*, however, & Fritz's original "came in" echoes Bookhout's "walking through," & suggests that what Fritz actually heard Oswald say was closer, ironically, to the Bookhout report than to his own! Both phrases suggest,.further, that Oswald was already on the first floor of the depository--in or near the domino room--when Jarman & Norman entered.
Pretty clearly, then--in between the time that Fritz did his notes & the time that he put them into report form--he discovered that Jarman & Norman indeed "came in" the back way--too near the domino room for (Fritz's) comfort--and the phrases "came in," "walked through" & "alone"--or anything which might seem to synchronize Oswald with Jarman and Norman around 12:25--had to go, to be replaced (in both Fritz's report & Tweedledum Kelley's undated report) by the easily contradicted "ate lunch with". If you read only the final reports of Fritz, Kelley, and Bookhout, it sounds as if it were odd-man-out Bookhout who had the bum ear here; but Fritz's original, discarded "came in" reconciles Fritz with Bookhout, leaves *Kelley* out in the cold, with Fritz's now-suspect "ate lunch with" Kelley's own "ate his lunch with". Because "two negr came in" implies.in fact that Oswald **was alone**, "alone" brings us back to Bookhout -- 12:25....
Speculate as you wish as to why his lunch was delayed about 20 minutes--there are both innocent & not-so-innocent possible explanations--but Oswald was on the floor to see, however briefly, Jarman & Norman, about 12:25--whether or not.*they* saw *him* at this point (they were not asked)--& he would have had to dodge the latter two (going up) and Williams (coming down) to get to the "sniper's nest" by 12:30. He saw, and said he saw, Jarman & Norman (not, say, Williams and Givens) come in....
copr 2004 Donald Willis
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Oswald's Alibi Checked Out, Gave Fritz Fits
By Donald Willis 7/2004
If on 11/22/63 one wanted to give Lee Oswald a fair chance to exonerate himself, this fair-minded person might have asked him if could tell him something re the movements of his fellow employees within the building, something which he could not have known had he been ensconced in the sixth-floor "sniper's nest" at 12:30pm. In fact, as it happens, Oswald did tell his interrogators something which--unless he had second sight--he could not have known...
The moderately curious, if they want to learn a little something re the JFK assassination, will take a look at the Warren Report. There, they will find, in the text, that Oswald claimed to have had lunch with fellow depository worker James Jarman Jr., that "Junior" said that he did not have lunch with Oswald (p. 182). Those a little more curious will dig a little deeper, into the WR footnotes, & see that Oswald claimed to have had lunch with *two* fellow employees, "Junior" and "Shorty" (pp. 605, 626/Fritz, Kelley [Secret Service], resp.). The truly industrious will keep on digging & find that a third, unfootnoted report on the interview in question (included in the appendices of the WR) actually stated that Oswald claimed only to have *seen* these two particular other employees (p622/Bookhout [FBI]). And, finally, at the very center of the earth, the most dedicated diggers will come to this resonant note from DPD Captain Will Fritz's notes re the 10:30am 11/23/63 interview of Oswald: says two negros came in.
As it happens, Fritz's five little words here (or Oswald's four) could in fact describe a scene played out downstairs in the depository sometime after 12:15pm the day before. With those five words--which did not make it to Fritz's final report--Fritz helps clear Oswald of the shooting of the President, helps reconcile Oswald's version of events with that of co-workers Jarman and Harold "Shorty" Norman, & helps give us a clearer picture of Oswald's movements between 11:45am & 12:30pm. Dynamite five words....
Just before noon, several depository employees--including Bonnie Ray Williams (V3, p. 168), Danny Arce (v6p364), Charles Givens (WR p143)--saw, or heard, Oswald on the fifth and/or sixth floors. Meanwhile--between 11:45 & about 12:10--Norman was on the first floor, in the washroom & lunch room, or "domino room," where he ate lunch (V3, pp. 188-89), Jarman was on his own, too, mainly on the first floor, eating lunch while "walking around" (V3, p. 201). Between about 11:55 (when Givens says that he last saw Oswald upstairs) at 12:10, then, we cannot be sure exactly where Oswald was, & Jarman and Norman had not yet joined forces. But the scene which Fritz's words seem to describe took place a bit *later*, and uncannily featured the same two players specified by Oswald....
By about 12:20pm, we know that Oswald was in or around the first-floor domino room because (a) at 12:20, Jarman (p. 202) and Norman (p. 190), out front, heard that the motorcade was on Main [12:21, as per "Death of a President" p137], & re-entered the.depository through the "back of the building" (Jarman p. 202) --this was not a planned route which Oswald could have foreseen (Counsel: "You didn't go through & cross the first floor?"/Jarman: "No, sir, there was too many people standing on the stairway there" (p. 202); (b) anyone coming in the back, or north, door, walking to the freight elevators would have been seen from the door of the domino room (WR diagram p. 148); (c) "Oswald stated that...he had eaten lunch in the lunch room at the TSBD, alone, but recalled possibly two Negro employees walking through the room during this period. (WR p622/Bookhout), and, best for last, (d) Oswald [as per Fritz] "say two negroes came in. One Jr. + short negro."
In other words--contrary to the Fritz & Kelley reports--Oswald was *not*.claiming to have gone downstairs, around noon, to join Jarman & Norman at a.table. Between his earlier notes & his report, Fritz changed his phraseology, & the seemingly slight, but really pretty radical revision permitted Jarman to handily nullify Oswald's (Fritz-revised) alibi: "[Oswald] said he ate lunch.with some of the colored boys" (WR p605). Bookhout, unambiguously, said *alone*, however, & Fritz's original "came in" echoes Bookhout's "walking through," & suggests that what Fritz actually heard Oswald say was closer, ironically, to the Bookhout report than to his own! Both phrases suggest,.further, that Oswald was already on the first floor of the depository--in or near the domino room--when Jarman & Norman entered.
Pretty clearly, then--in between the time that Fritz did his notes & the time that he put them into report form--he discovered that Jarman & Norman indeed "came in" the back way--too near the domino room for (Fritz's) comfort--and the phrases "came in," "walked through" & "alone"--or anything which might seem to synchronize Oswald with Jarman and Norman around 12:25--had to go, to be replaced (in both Fritz's report & Tweedledum Kelley's undated report) by the easily contradicted "ate lunch with". If you read only the final reports of Fritz, Kelley, and Bookhout, it sounds as if it were odd-man-out Bookhout who had the bum ear here; but Fritz's original, discarded "came in" reconciles Fritz with Bookhout, leaves *Kelley* out in the cold, with Fritz's now-suspect "ate lunch with" Kelley's own "ate his lunch with". Because "two negr came in" implies.in fact that Oswald **was alone**, "alone" brings us back to Bookhout -- 12:25....
Speculate as you wish as to why his lunch was delayed about 20 minutes--there are both innocent & not-so-innocent possible explanations--but Oswald was on the floor to see, however briefly, Jarman & Norman, about 12:25--whether or not.*they* saw *him* at this point (they were not asked)--& he would have had to dodge the latter two (going up) and Williams (coming down) to get to the "sniper's nest" by 12:30. He saw, and said he saw, Jarman & Norman (not, say, Williams and Givens) come in....
copr 2004 Donald Willis