First to Second Evolution – Part 17

Believe it or not, on September 23, 1964, there was still something left for Roy Truly and Marrion Baker to do.

The next day, September 24 was to be the presentation of the final Warren Commission Report to President Johnson. Truly and Baker were asked to go back on the record to clarify an important point: was Oswald on his own in the Second Floor lunchroom when they saw him just after the assassination?

There had been press reports—based in large part upon statements made by Jesse Curry communicating with the press on November 23—that Oswald was with others in the room when the officer came in. Don't want to fuel any messy conspiracy theories over loose ends. Let's get it right!

Roy Truly Voluntary Handwritten Statement to FBI, 9.23.1964

I, ROY S. TRULY, do hereby furnish this voluntary statement to Richard J. Burnett who has identified himself to me to be a Special Agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

I am the Superintendent of the Texas School Book Depository located at 411 Elm Street, Dallas Texas, and was so employed as of November 22, 1963.

On the above date and just as President Kennedy's motorcade passed in front of my building, I reentered the building with a Dallas police officer after some shots had been heard coming from the general vicinity.

The officer and I proceeded to the stairways located in the northwest corner of the Texas School Book Depository building in order to proceed to the upper part of the building to see if we could see who had fired the shots.

I was leading the way up the stairs and the police officer was following me. After I was starting to ascend the stairs towards the third floor from the second floor, I noticed that the police

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officer was talking to someone in the lunch room located on the second floor.

I then went to the lunch room where I saw the officer facing Lee Harvey Oswald. Oswald was by himself in the lunch room. There was no one else in the vicinity of the lunch room on the second floor other than Oswald, the police officer and myself.

I identified Oswald to the police officer as an employee of the Texas School Book Depository.

I have read this statement consisting of this page and one other page and t is true and correct to the best of my recollection.

x RS Truly

  Roy S Truly

 

Witnesses

Richard J. Burnett Special Agent, F.B.I., 9/23/64, Dallas

William H. Shelley 126 S. Tatum Dallas 11, Tex 9-23-64
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Truly says no one else was in the lunchroom other than Oswald, himself and the police officer. Everything else is pretty much consistent with his Warren Commission testimony.  Either Truly dictated this statement to FBI Special Agent Richard J. Burnett or it was prepared for him and he signed it as being true.

Same with Baker here:

Marrion Baker Voluntary Handwritten Statement to FBI, 9.23.1964

I, Marrion L. Baker, do hereby furnish this voluntary signed statement to Richard J. Burnett who has identified himself to me as a Special Agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

I am employed as an officer with the Dallas police department and was so employed as of November 22, 1963.

On the early afternoon of that day after hearing what sounded like to me to be bullet shots, I entered the Texas School Book Depository Building on the northwest corner of Elm and Houston Streets in downtown Dallas.

I had entered the building in an effort to determine if the shots might have come from this building.

On the second or third floor floor, [line out with initials MLB] where the lunch room is located, I saw a man standing in the lunch room, drinking a coke [line out with initials MLB].  He was alone in the lunch room at this time.

I saw no one else in the vicinity of the lunch room at this time.

ML Baker

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I have read this statement consisting of this page and one other page and it is true and correct to the best of my knowledge. I have initialed each page and each correction.

x Marrion L Baker

Witnesses

Richard J. Burnett Special Agent, F.B.I., 9/23/64, Dallas

Bobby W. Hargis #1082 Dallas Police Dept.
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Like Truly, Baker says no one else was in the lunchroom other than Oswald. But Baker's statement doesn't look like his Warren Commission testimony.

Forget about the corrections for a moment—why they may be there and what they may suggest—Baker doesn't mention catching "a glimpse of him" through a window going away from him as he ran to a door and opened it and looked on down in the lunchroom where Oswald was on down there about 20 feet moving about as fast as he was. He sees "a man standing in the lunch room."

It's as if Baker is having a hard time keeping up with First to Second Evolution.