Prayer Man Trailer

Trailer for the book Prayer Man: Out of the Shadows and Into the Light, by Stan Dane.

First to Second Video Series

I started a series of videos based on the First to Second posts we went through in recent weeks. I hope you find them helpful.

First to Second Evolution – Conclusion

The First to Second Evolution series was created to consolidate most of the key evidence in one spot supporting relocation of the Oswald-Baker-Truly encounter from the front of the TSBD to the second floor lunchroom. What I've laid out here is not a totally thorough or exhaustive look at this—far from it. Evolution is not an entirely linear process, but it's branching as well. I've selected what I consider to be the main taproot of information. There are many other things that branch off from this that are relevant and connected to the story as well.

For example, I didn't talk here about Victoria Adams, Sandra Styles, Carolyn Arnold, Jack Dougherty, Buell Wesley Frazier, Billy Lovelady, Jeraldean Reid, Bill Shelley, or many others. They are all connected to the taproot and are important to the overall story.

More significantly, I never talked about what went on down on the front steps. There was no discussion of Darnell or Wiegman, no use of the term Prayer Man. There's a reason for that. The case for First to Second Evolution does not hinge on what is seen in some picture. It is only enhanced by it.

First to Second Evolution was the process used to deprive Lee Oswald of his air-tight alibi because he was the designated patsy.

First to Second Evolution – Part 18

When I was a boy growing up in rural Michigan, a man my father worked with gave us a black sheepdog he could no longer keep. The dog, Samson, was about six years old and he fit right in with our family. Many months after we got him, Samson got loose and escaped from our yard. We couldn't find him anywhere. A day later, the original owner, who lived about 5 miles away, called to let us know Samson was sitting on his front porch. We picked him up and had no more problems.

About three years later, we found Samson missing one morning. We drove around the countryside looking for him. He was nowhere to be seen. Then my dad got a hunch. He drove over to the original owner's house and viola, there was Samson sitting on the front porch!

We realized, even though he was totally familiar with us as a family and was happy and content, Samson was never able to shake the knowledge of where his first home was.

We have just seen where Marrion Baker was brought back to clarify some things for the Warren Commission. In March 1964, he had testified at length about catching a glimpse of a man through the window of a door leading to the second floor lunchroom. Now, six months later, Baker's handwritten statement looked different.

Why?

We've pointed out a lot of evidence for First to Second Evolution over the days and weeks following the assassination. It must have been difficult for Officer Baker to keep up with all of the changes.

We can be sure he was thoroughly briefed on the "game plan" prior to his Warren Commission appearance, but after six months, his original memory and the things he said in his November 22, 1963 affidavit kicked in and overshadowed his shaky WC testimony.

I believe, like Samson the sheepdog, Marrion Baker always ran back to what he first knew.

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
--------------------

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.
--------------------

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.

First to Second Evolution – Part 16

Truly and Baker have now told their stories to the Warren Commission and it was what it was. They answered all the questions directed to them, and while some of those answers may not have been totally satisfactory, the questions were answered.

Looking back, we have absolutely nothing on-the-record from Baker himself between the end of November 1963 and his Warren Commission testimony in March 1964. While Baker was…somewhere, it was Truly who frog-marched us through the process of First to Second Evolution to get us to the point we were now at:

Baker glimpsed Oswald going into the second floor lunchroom and Truly said uh-huh.

Now the deal was done. The time for questions was over. Nothing left to do.

But like the Lord, First to Second Evolution worked in mysterious ways.

First to Second Evolution – Part 15

We have seen Roy Truly's lunchroom story evolve over the first ten days or so through the following stages:

● The officer saw Oswald in the lunchroom...

● The officer saw Oswald sitting at one of the tables in the lunchroom...

● The officer saw Oswald leaning against a counter in the lunchroom...

● The officer (what's his name again?) saw Oswald standing at the Coke machine sipping a Coke in the lunchroom...

Yet Truly's Warren Commission testimony made it clear that Truly himself could have seen none of these things. All he actually said he saw was the officer standing at the lunchroom door with his gun up against Oswald, who was standing just inside the lunchroom door.

Listen to Truly 'splain it all:

Warren Commission Testimony of Roy S. Truly, 3.24.1964

Mr. TRULY: I don't know. I think I opened the door. I feel like I did. I don't remember.

Mr. BELIN: It could have been open or it could have been closed, you do not remember?

Mr. TRULY: The chances are it was closed.

Mr. BELIN: You thought you opened it?

Mr. TRULY: I think I opened it. I opened the door back and leaned in this way.

Mr. BELIN: What did you see?

Mr. TRULY: I saw the officer almost directly in the doorway of the lunch-room facing Lee Harvey Oswald.

Mr. BELIN: And where was Lee Harvey Oswald at the time you saw him?

Mr. TRULY: He was at the front of the lunchroom, not very far inside he was just inside the lunchroom door.

Mr. BELIN: All right.

Mr. TRULY: 2 or 3 feet, possibly.

Mr. BELIN: …What did you see or hear the officer say or do?

Mr. TRULY: When I reached there, the officer had his gun pointing at Oswald. The officer turned this way and said, "This man work here?" And I said, "Yes."

Mr. BELIN: And then what happened?

Mr. TRULY: Then we left Lee Harvey Oswald immediately and continued to run up the stairways until we reached the fifth floor.

Mr. BELIN: All right. Let me ask you this now. How far was the officer's gun from Lee Harvey Oswald when he asked the question?

Mr. TRULY: It would be hard for me to say, but it seemed to me like it was almost touching him.

Mr. BELIN: What portion of his body?

Mr. TRULY: Towards the middle portion of his body.

Mr. BELIN: Could you see Lee Harvey Oswald's hands?

Mr. TRULY: Yes.

Mr. BELIN: Could you see--

Mr. TRULY: I am sure I could, yes. I could see most of him, because I was looking in the room on an angle, and they were this way.

Mr. BELIN: When you say you were looking in the room on an angle--

Mr. TRULY: What I mean--this door offsets the lunchroom door.

Mr. BELIN: By this door, you mean door No. 23 is at an angle to door No. 24?

Mr. TRULY: Yes. One this way and the other one is this way.

Mr. BELIN: All right. Could you see whether or not Lee Harvey Oswald had anything in either hand?

Mr. TRULY: I noticed nothing in either hand.

Mr. BELIN: Did you see both of his hands?

Mr. TRULY: I am sure I did. I could be wrong, but I am almost sure. I did.

Mr. BELIN: About how long did Officer Baker stand there with Lee Harvey Oswald after you saw them?

Mr. TRULY: He left him immediately after I told him--after he asked me, does this man work here. I said, yes. The officer left him immediately.

Mr. BELIN: Did you hear Lee Harvey Oswald say anything?

Mr. TRULY: Not a thing.

Mr. BELIN: Did you see any expression on his face? Or weren't you paying attention?

Mr. TRULY: He didn't seem to be excited or overly afraid or anything. He might have been a bit startled, like I might have been if somebody confronted me. But I cannot recall any change in expression of any kind on his face.

…

Mr. DULLES: May I ask you a question? Do you know why it was that the officer didn't follow you up the stairs, but instead was distracted, as it were, and went with Lee Harvey Oswald into the lunchroom?

Mr. TRULY: I never knew until a day or two ago that he said he saw a movement, saw a man going away from him.

Mr. DULLES: As he was going up the stairs?

Mr. TRULY: As he got to the second floor landing. While I was going around, he saw a movement.

Mr. DULLES: And he followed that?

Mr. TRULY: That is right.

Representative FORD: He saw a movement in the lunchroom or a man go into the lunchroom?

Mr. TRULY: He saw the back of a man inside the door--I suppose door No. 23. But that isn't my statement. I didn't learn about that, you see, until the other day.

…

Mr. BELIN: Now, by the way, I have used the name Officer Baker. When did you find out what his name was?

Mr. TRULY: I never did know for sure what his name was until he was down to the building and you were interviewing him last week.

Mr. BELIN: This was on Friday, March 20th.

Mr. TRULY: I had heard his name was Baker or Burton or various other names. But I never did try to find out what his name was.

("Never did try to find out what his name was"…huh?)

This is where First to Second Evolution has taken us.

But are we done yet?