Prayer Man in the news

Prayer Man: Out of the Shadows and Into the Light a Mary Ferrell Foundation Featured Book for 2015!

Mary Ferrell (1922–2004) was an American historian and independent researcher who created a large database on the John F. Kennedy assassination. Her non-profit organization has a vast digital archive containing over 1.3 million pages of documents, government reports, books, essays, hours of multimedia and innovative research tools.

For its featured books of 2015, MFF included Prayer Man and Greg Parker's Lee Harvey Oswald's Cold War: Why the Kennedy Assassination should be Reinvestigated.

https://www.maryferrell.org/pages/Featured_2015_Books.html

Prayer Man Best Book of 2015!

So says a staff member of an Oklahoma newspaper:

"Prayer Man: Out of the shadows and into the light. A must read for anyone who doesn’t believe the official version of the JFK assassination events." – GREG BOLLINGER | Photographer

http://www.thetulsavoice.com/January-A-2016/Voices-choices/

JFK Lancer–Mary Ferrell 2016 New Frontier Award

More recently, Bart Kamp was a winner of the prestigious 2016 New Frontier Award presented by JFK Lancer–Mary Ferrell organization for "reexamining the official story of the encounter with Lee Oswald Texas School Book Depository building second floor has brought forward a broad array of new data, including documents and statements of the participants and a variety of TSBD witnesses."

Bart continues researching Prayer Man and builds upon what is covered in my book. Links to his exciting and groundbreaking work are provided on the left.  

http://myemail.constantcontact.com/2016-JFK-Lancer-Conference-Update---DVDs.html?soid=1100889772973&aid=gdzXvUO0k34

Prayer Man is Oswald and not a woman

Life observation: Truth gets attacked. It just does.

I don't know why this is. I really don't. The only rational way for me to explain it is that there is evil in the world and evil hates the truth. It's the only explanation that makes sense to me.

Those who have read Prayer Man see the solid case put forth that Oswald was out in front when the assassination took place. Just like he said he was. You may not agree with my conclusions, but I submit the facts for Oswald being down in front are stronger than for any other scenario, certainly the official Warren Commission version.

The notion of Prayer Man (i.e. Oswald on the first floor of the TSBD as the motorcade passed by) is routinely attacked by others. One such vociferous attacker has the surname Doyle. At the Reopen Kennedy Case (ROKC) website, we often lampoon such attackers who offer nothing but hate and vitriol. 

This funny video lampoons Doyle and people like him. It contains some inside jokes and information that members and regular readers of ROKC will appreciate. Enjoy!

Off like a dirty shirt

Commission Exhibit (CE) 150 is the well-known brown shirt Oswald was arrested in (below left). CE 151 (below right) was a light-brown shirt of Oswald's. CE-151 is not included in a November 27, 1963 Secret Service list of Oswald's clean clothes taken from his N. Beckley rooming house (it doesn't look like a freshly laundered shirt in the photo).

According to Will Fritz's transcription of FBI Agent Bookhout's interrogation notes, Oswald said he "changed shirts" back at his rooming hours and he described the shirt as "reddish." CE 151 was among the non-clean clothes found at Oswald's rooming house.

Sean Murphy believes—and I agree—that the disheveled looking "light brown" long sleeve shirt itemized as CE 151 is the "reddish" shirt that Oswald wore to work the day of the assassination. And we submit that it's the very shirt that we see Prayer Man wearing.

First statements

Perhaps the reason Dallas Police Chief Jesse Curry had second thoughts about Oswald's guilt was that he recalled some of his first statements he made to press. On the evening of November 22, 1963, Curry was admitting candidly that Oswald had been stopped leaving the building immediately after the assassination. These were not some of those early false rumors, but early true facts:

One flew over the sniper's nest

It's hard to be in the Sixth Floor "sniper's nest" when you're on the First Floor.

Second thoughts

Years after the assassination, Dallas Police Chief Jesse Curry had second thoughts about Oswald's guilt. When Curry says things like "We don't have any proof he fired the rifle," and "No one has been able to positively put him in that building with a gun in his hand," well, that should tell anyone that the case against Oswald is NOT closed and FAR from "cinched."

Curry is correct: "The evidence must be allowed to speak for itself and allow the reader to make up his own mind." Prayer Man presents solid evidence that speaks for itself and should give anyone "second thoughts" about the case.

It doesn't work

For the Second Floor lunchroom encounter to work as claimed by the Warren Commission, two things need to happen:

1.) Oswald needs to run down the rear stairs from the Sixth Floor and get to the Second Floor lunchroom 90 seconds after firing the shots and hiding the rifle.

2.) Baker and Truly need to enter the TSBD through the front entrance, make their way across the First Floor to the rear stairs in the northwest corner of building, stopping to see if the freight elevators were available first, climb the stairs to the Second Floor to be there as Oswald has already passed through the foyer door on his way into the lunchroom.

Vicki Adams says she and Sandra Styles left almost immediately after the final shot, went to the rear stairs on the Fourth Floor, and made their way down to the First Floor. The trip took about one minute and they saw or heard no one in the process.

The obvious takeaway here is that Oswald could not have come down the stairs per the Warren Commission account. The other, perhaps less obvious conclusion is that Baker and Truly could not have come up the stairs while the two women were going down them.

With the way we've seen the Second Floor story evolve into the final form that suited the Warren Commission's purposes, it's no wonder that anyone with testimony or information that conflicted with the official account would be ignored or told they were mistaken.

That's certainly been the case with Victoria Adams.

No boys on the stairs

For the official story to hold up, Oswald had to be hightailing it down the stairs from the Sixth Floor after the shots to make it to the Second Floor lunchroom in time for his "encounter" with Baker 90 seconds later.

Vicki Adams' insistence that she saw or heard nothing while she and Sandra Styles went down the stairs during this critical time-frame seriously undermines the official account. Since Warren Commission apologists and many conspiracy theorists postulate the Second Floor lunchroom encounter absolutely did happen, they maintain Adams and company are simply mistaken about when they went down the stairs. They understand if Vicki and Sandra were correct, Oswald wasn't on the stairs and therefore couldn't make it to the Second Floor in time for the rendezvous with Baker and Truly. And if people start going down this path, a whole lot of things start to unravel.

But Oswald running down the rear stairs is not the only part of the official story damaged by Adams' statements.

She saw or heard no one

We've established that the Second Floor lunchroom encounter is fraught with problems. One almost needs the help of Google Maps to follow all the places where this story goes. Recently we asked why not just stay with Baker's first statement about seeing a man walking away from the stairway on the Third or Fourth Floor. Victoria Adams was the reason.

Vicki Adams worked on the Fourth Floor of the TSBD and watched the assassination from a south-facing window on that floor in the company of several colleagues. She claimed to have run down the back stairs to the First Floor with her coworker Sandra Styles. She insisted that she and Sandra had left the Fourth Floor window within just seconds of the last shot being fired and had gone downstairs immediately.

In the estimated one minute it took to go down the stairs to the First Floor, Adams didn't see or hear Oswald coming down the stairs. She also didn't see or hear Roy Truly and Marrion Baker coming up the stairs. Adams and Styles statements and recollections are supported by her supervisor Dorothy Garner.

What to make of all this?

Moving on up

We now see what a big mess the Second Floor lunchroom encounter theory is. First-day statements—the most reliable—all point to an Oswald encounter on the First Floor. If Oswald was to be the patsy that he claimed to be, he needs to be "moved" away from the First Floor entrance area so he won't have a rock-solid alibi.

We see this "moving" process begin right away. And if new variations of the moving story introduce new problems, no worries mate—just keep changing the story until something theoretically works. It doesn't have to be pretty or even plausible, just a link in a chain of events that points to Oswald's guilt. And the Second Floor lunchroom encounter is not a pretty link—it's ugly. It's crappy. It's doesn't work, but it's the best they got.

Why not stay with Baker's first statement: "As we reached the third or fourth floor I saw a man walking away from the stairway"? No x-ray vision needed to see Oswald through a Second Floor foyer door/window that he wasn't behind anyway. No sitting, standing, or leaning on a counter. Just move Oswald from the First Floor up to the Third or Fourth Floor, have Truly vouch for him there like he did on the Second Floor, and run with it. Much simpler.

There is one good reason that wasn't an option: Victoria Adams.

We'll talk about her next.

Ei incumbit probatio qui dicit, non qui negat

"The burden of the proof lies upon him who affirms, not him who denies"

Lee Harvey Oswald never confessed or admitted guilt. He never went to trial. He never was convicted. By law, he still has the presumption of innocence to this day.

Second floor story evolution

Let's recap where we are with this Second Floor lunchroom business.

We've already seen some serious problems with the Second Floor lunchroom encounter theory. Hours after the assassination, Police Officer Marrion Baker said "As we reached the third or fourth floor I saw a man walking away from the stairway."

Not long after that Roy Truly reported a Second Floor encounter in a "snack bar," then a few days later Baker issued a revised report that referenced the Second Floor lunchroom encounter. In the weeks that followed, the Second Floor lunchroom story continued to evolve, including:

• Oswald in the lunchroom
• Oswald sitting at one of the tables in the lunchroom
• Oswald leaning against a counter in the lunchroom
• Oswald standing at the coke machine sipping a Coca-Cola in the lunchroom
• Oswald moving into the lunchroom

This last bullet was the story Baker told the Warren Commission in March 1964 of how he "caught a glimpse of this man" through a window in a door moving away from him, moving as fast as Baker was moving. After four months, we're glad to see they were able to finally get that all ironed out.

Or did they?

On September 23, 1964—THE DAY BEFORE the final Warren Report is to be presented to President Johnson—they bring Marrion Baker back down to once again clarify some things. Below is an image of his handwritten statement.

Notice this account doesn't even resemble what he told the Warren Commission at all! After all this time, he's still has to think about what floor the "encounter" took place on (he lined out and initialed "or third floor"), he says he saw a man "standing in the lunchroom," and he crosses out and initials "drinking a coke." And get this: Baker doesn't even mention Oswald by name in this statement! He just saw "a man."

What the hell is going on here?

See any similarities?

Cropped Darnell frame of Prayer Man with three images of Lee Oswald added for comparison.

Hoover talks about an encounter at the front entrance

In a telephone conversation between President Johnson and FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover on November 29, 1963, 1:40 p.m., Hoover tells the President:

"...at the entrance of the building he [Oswald] was stopped by police officers and some manager in the building told the police officers, 'well he's all right…he works there…you needn't hold him.' They let him go."

This is ONE WEEK after the assassination—ONE WEEK after Police Captain Will Fritz declared the case was "cinched"—and there is NO mention of the Second Floor lunchroom encounter by the Director of the FBI.

Yeah.

More JFK assassination magic

As with the Single Bullet Theory, the Second Floor Lunchroom Encounter (pick your favorite version) is so bad it needs a little magic to make it work too.

Merging stories

In an effort to "showcase 50 years of automotive innovation," Ford and the National Inventors Hall of Fame Museum in Alexandria, Virginia recently unveiled a permanent new display: a 1965 and a 2015 Mustang fused together lengthwise.

It might showcase innovation, but it also showcases the fact that the two Mustangs don't fit.  

Marrion Baker testified before the Warren Commission on March 25, 1964 that Lee Oswald was just behind the door with the glass pane when he first glimpsed him:

"Now, through this window you can't see too much but I just caught a glimpse of him through this window going away from me and as I ran to this door and opened it, and looked on down in the lunchroom he was on down there about 20 feet so he was moving about as fast as I was."

Oswald was "moving about as fast" into the lunchroom as Baker was moving from the landing just off the stairway to the door? It's hard to see how. Baker's story is that he "ran" to the door in order to go after a man he had glimpsed "walking away." Yet we are to believe that they covered about the same distance in the same time—i.e., that Baker running did not cover more ground than Oswald walking.

It's a nonsensical scenario, so ridiculous that one wonders why Baker is making such a transparently unrealistic claim. Why doesn't he just say that Oswald was running? Or, alternatively, that Oswald was only a few feet into the lunchroom by the time he himself opened the door and looked into the lunchroom?

The short answer is Baker has to merge two stories that cannot easily be merged:

1. I saw a man walking away (per Baker's original November 22 affidavit).
2. I saw Oswald standing by the coke machine (as per a later draft of the story, as told by Roy Truly).

As with the two Mustangs, Baker's two stories don't fit.

Reenacting a fairy tale

Here's a reenactment sequence that attempts to show what Marrion Baker told the Warren Commission:

1. Baker comes up to the Second Floor via the rear stairs,
2. He catches a glimpse of a man through the window of the vestibule door going into the lunchroom (note the impossible angle from Baker's point of view),
3. He passes through the vestibule door and into the lunchroom to confront the man.

Look believable?

More second floor problems

We have already begun to see problems with the Second Floor lunchroom encounter, a key plank in the official case against Oswald. And it only gets worse.

According to Captain Will Fritz, Lee Oswald claimed to have been on the First Floor at the time of the assassination but that "he was on the second floor drinking a Coca-Cola when the officer came in."

FBI Agent James Bookhout's second report of Oswald's first interrogation makes pretty much the same claim: "[Oswald] was on the second floor of [the TSBD] building, having just purchased a Coca-Cola from the soft-drink machine, at which time a police officer came into the room with pistol drawn and asked him if he worked there."

Police Officer Marrion Baker said something different. He tells the Warren Commission when he first glimpsed Oswald, Oswald was on his way INTO the Second Floor lunchroom, NOT already inside it at or near the Coke machine: "Now, through this window you can't see too much but I just caught a glimpse of him through this window going away from me and as I ran to this door and opened it, and looked on down in the lunchroom he was on down there about 20 feet so he was moving about as fast as I was."

"Moving about as fast as I was" is much different that standing in the lunchroom "drinking a Coca-Cola."

TSBD Superintendent Roy Truly said he was with Officer Marrion Baker as he went up the rear stairs and to the lunchroom. Truly's story evolved over the first ten days or so as follows:

• 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 saw Oswald standing at the coke machine sipping a Coca-Cola in the lunchroom

Yet Truly's Warren Commission testimony will make it clear that he could not have seen these things. All he said he actually saw was Baker standing at the lunchroom door with his gun up against Oswald, who was standing just inside the lunchroom door.

What the hell is going on here?

Who is he?

Good question…

Have You Seen Lee Oswald, Baby, er...Frazier

An unconfirmed story has it that this was the very short-lived first version of what would later become the well-known 1966 hit single "Have You Seen Your Mother, Baby, Standing in the Shadow?" by The Rolling Stones.*

As we have noted previously, Buell Wesley Frazier is the tall guy seen standing up top in the middle of the stairs looking in the direction of Prayer Man, standing a few feet away in the corner.

*I think I may have dated myself with this tongue-in-cheek "unconfirmed story" showing a 45 rpm record. Anyone remember those?

Warren Commission awards second floor first place

Before we proceed further, let's review the Second Floor lunchroom encounter and see why the official conclusions absolutely depend on this event having occurred.

To claim Oswald fired the shots from the Sixth Floor "sniper's nest," there has to be a sequence of events that gets him off of the Sixth Floor and eventually out of the building in a few minutes. This sequence of events doesn't have to be plausible—most things associated with the JFK assassination are not. No, the sequence of events only has to be theoretically possible. And this sequence must have some degree of support via witness statements and testimony. And if those statements must be revised over time to achieve the desired results, then so be it.

So what is this basic, "official" sequence?

1.) Using a rifle (carbine), Lee Oswald fired three shots in about 7 seconds from the southeast window on the Sixth Floor at 12:30 p.m.

2.) He then ran over to an area on the opposite side of the Sixth Floor to hide the rifle. After this he proceeded to the rear stairs in the northwest corner of the building and ran down to the Fifth Floor.

3.) He came out onto the Fifth Floor and then entered the door leading to the stairs to the Fourth Floor. He continued doing this, i.e., coming down each flight of stairs to the next floor landing, then reentering a door leading further down, until he reached the Second Floor (see diagram above).

4.) Oswald then walked 20 feet over to a door leading to a small foyer with a door leading south to an office area and east to the Second Floor lunchroom.

5.) A second or two after having passed through the door to this foyer, Police Officer Marrion Baker, who was coming up the rear stairs from the First Floor with TSBD Superintendent Roy Truly, "caught a glimpse" of a man going away from him into the lunchroom as Baker came out onto the Second Floor landing.

6.) Baker then stopped his ascent, went through the door into the foyer and with gun drawn, commanded the man (Oswald) to "come here." At that time, Oswald had nothing in his hands.

7.) Baker asked Truly if he knew this man and Truly said yes. Both Baker and Truly noted Oswald was calm and not out of breath.

8.) Baker and Truly then continued up to the higher floors.

9.) Oswald bought a coke from the Second Floor lunchroom Coke machine, went through the office area and down to the front of the building where he left at 12:33 p.m.

Later time trials showed that items 1-5 occurred in just 90 seconds.

As we continue our review of the book, we'll see how the Second Floor lunchroom encounter is the only scenario that even remotely works to make Lee Oswald appear guilty. We'll also see how the witness statements and testimony evolved to support this as well. In short, we'll show how the Second Floor lunchroom encounter never happened.

Coming to a theater near you. Maybe

If I were to make a film involving the JFK assassination, one possibility might be a dark comedy called Roboclod. As we look at how Officer Marrion Baker's story evolved from his first affidavit on November 22 1963 to his Warren Commission testimony in March 1964 to his final clarification statement the day before the Warren Report was presented in September, 1964, you'll understand why I think this way.

Small storage room close to entrance

Earlier, we saw two first-day news accounts refer to an Oswald sighting in a small storage room on the First Floor immediately following the assassination. We noted the Second Floor lunchroom—a key part of the official Warren Commission report—was not even mentioned.

This image shows how close the small storage room was to the TSBD entrance and to the position where Prayer Man is seen standing:

Frazier identifies himself in Darnell

Buell Wesley Frazier testified that he stood in the center at the top of the steps of the entrance of the TSBD during the assassination. He was shown this Darnell image in 2014:

He was asked "'By the way, Mr. Frazier, is that you?' To that he responded, 'very probably ... look at the hairline.'" *

More than "very probably." There's no other possible response. The circled figure is standing exactly where Frazier he said he was standing and the resemblance is striking.

* http://reopenkennedycase.forumotion.net/t388p825-prayer-man-on-the-education-forum

No one on second

Two news accounts written on the evening of the assassination refer to an Oswald sighting.

1. From the November 23, 1963 issue of The Dallas Morning News: "He [Ochus V.Campbell] said Truly and an officer ran into the building. In a storage room on the first floor, the officer, gun drawn, spotted Oswald. 'Does this man work here?' the officer reportedly asked Truly."

2. From the November 23, 1963 issue of the New York Herald Tribune: "Mr. [Ochus V.] Campbell [vice-president of the TSBD] said, 'Shortly after the shooting we raced back into the building. We had been outside watching the parade. We saw him (Oswald) in a small storage room on the ground floor. Then we noticed he was gone.' Mr. Campbell added: 'Of course he and the others were on their lunch hour but he did not have permission to leave the building and we haven't seen him since.'"

No mention of the Second Floor.

Who's on second?

The situation as of late afternoon, early evening of November 22, 1963:

• Lee Oswald is in custody claiming to have been at the front entrance on the First Floor during the assassination and to have had a fleeting encounter with a police officer and Roy Truly as they rushed into the building.
• Detective Ed Hicks is telling the press about an incident involving Oswald and a cop at the front entrance of the building shortly after the shooting.
• Marrion Baker on record as having encountered a man walking away from the rear stairway several floors up the building.

So far, not a single reference anywhere to a Second Floor lunchroom.

"They saw no one there"

Roy Truly was the superintendent of the Texas School Book Depository. There's a very odd detail in his FBI interview report from the evening of the assassination:

"He then noticed a Dallas City Police officer wearing a motorcycle helmet and boots running toward the entrance of the depository building and he accompanied the officer into the front of the building. They saw no one there and he accompanied the officer immediately up the stairs to the second floor of the building, where the officer…."

"They saw no one there." Where was "there"? Just inside the front of the building.

Think about this: why is Truly even having to disclaim having seen "someone" there? It seems like he had been asked the question "Did you see 'anyone' there?"

What might have given the interviewing agents the idea of asking Truly such a question? Why is the writer of the report making a point of including such a non-event in the report? Could it be that "someone" in custody has been talking noisily about having seen Truly and an officer "there," just inside the front of the building, just after the shooting?

If so, then might that "someone" be none other than Prayer Man—a person seen at the front entrance during the shooting yet went oddly unnoticed by everyone else congregated there?

Who's on first?

Police Officer Marrion Baker was riding his motorcycle toward the rear of the motorcade, and after hearing the shots and seeing pigeons fly off the roof of the TSBD, he parked his motorcycle near the building and rushed inside. Some early news reports and witness statements say a police officer ran into Oswald on the First Floor.

Baker's very first affidavit on November 22 said he went up the rear stairs and when he reached the Third or Fourth Floor, he "saw a man walking away from the stairway." He called to him and the man turned around and came back toward Baker, but Roy Truly said he knew him so they let the man go.

Later, Baker changed his story to encountering a man on the Second Floor, but even that account has a several versions. 

Which one was right?

Do you believe?

Well, if you believe the Warren Commission, you believe Lee Oswald was on the Second Floor a mere 90 seconds after firing the shots that killed President Kennedy up from the Sixth Floor.

But while he was in custody, Oswald made these claims:

1. He went to lunch in the Domino Room on the First Floor at noon.

2. He went up to the Second Floor lunchroom and bought a Coke.

3. He was on the First Floor when the President passed the building.

Claim 1 comes with a precise location—the Domino Room—and is supported by other testimony.

Claim 2 comes with a precise location—the Second Floor lunchroom—and is supported by another person's recollection.

Claim 3 comes without any precise location—just the First Floor.

It is possible Claim 3 originally did come with a precise location (e.g., front steps), but this information was suppressed in the report because it would have given Oswald an air-tight alibi? Could the location of the Prayer Man figure shown in the Wiegman and Darnell films be a factor here?

He couldn't do it either

Usain Bolt, the world's fastest man, attempts to duplicate Oswald's supposed run from the Sixth to the Second floor in the TSBD building:

You're right, Usain. That's a record you'll never touch.

Out with Bill Shelley in front

The early interrogation reports were sketchy, but they do shed light on where Lee Oswald said he was. According to the notes of Police Captain Will Fritz, Oswald claimed to be out in front with his boss, Bill Shelley.

How would Oswald have known Shelley was out in front unless he was there himself?

FBI Agents James Hosty and James Bookhout interrogated Oswald on the evening of November 22 and reported that Oswald said he went to lunch at approximately noon and ate his lunch on the First Floor in the lunchroom (also called the Domino Room). He went to the Second Floor where the Coca-Cola machine was located to get a bottle of Coke for his lunch. Oswald then claimed to be on the First Floor when President Kennedy passed the TSBD building.

The report suggests this sequence:

1. Oswald went to lunch in the Domino Room.

2. He then went up to the Second Floor lunchroom and bought a Coke.

3. Then he went back down to the First Floor, which is where he was when the President passed the building.

Why the relief?

We saw how FBI agents were "relieved" when a person in a ground-level photo that they thought could be Lee Oswald was shown not to be. How could this even be a possibility given that Oswald was supposed to be up on the Sixth Floor with a gun? Did the FBI agents know something we didn't? What did Oswald say while in custody?

You would think that there would be detailed interrogation reports complied with meticulous care for this crime of the century.

You would be wrong.

The early interrogation reports are weirdly vague on the single most important question a suspect in the assassination could have been asked: "Where exactly were you at the time of the assassination?"

But there is enough written down for us to piece together what Oswald did say.

Prayer Man is NOT Doorman

Photojournalist Ike Altgens faced the approaching limousine when he took the famous picture below of President Kennedy as he was being shot. The TSBD entrance can be seen in the background. The inset zooms in on this area. Billy Lovelady, a co-worker of Lee Oswald, is shown. It appears that he's peeking around the edge of the west wall, but this is due to the camera angle. (He can be seen in the Wiegman frame, taken within seconds of the Altgens photo, toward the middle of the steps.)

Due to his superficial resemblance to Lee Oswald, some people believed Lovelady was Oswald in the Altgens photo. Lovelady is often referred to as "Doorman" in this picture.

On the evening of November 22, the FBI went to visit Lovelady and showed him the Altgens photo blown-up and Lovelady immediately identified himself in the image. The FBI agents seemed relieved. Lovelady said one agent "had a big smile on his face because it wasn't Oswald."

Why would the FBI be relieved? After all, Oswald was up on the Sixth Floor, wasn't he?

Prayer Man cannot be seen in the Altgens photo. He's standing back in the corner to the right of Billy Lovelady (left in the picture below).

Vantage points and angles

To better understand the photographic evidence involving Prayer Man, let's look at the layout of Dealey Plaza on November 22, 1963 to see the various vantage points and angles.

In this aerial view, we see the motorcade route in blue. The red Xs are the approximate locations of the limousine when the shots hit. The locations of Darnell and Wiegman are shown when they took the images we saw earlier showing Prayer Man on front entrance steps of the TSBD.

As you can see, Darnell and Wiegman were facing almost directly towards the front of the TSBD when they captured Prayer Man standing up near the back corner in the entryway.

Notice the location of Ike Altgens when he took his historic photo of the assassination. We'll discuss the photo and its significance next.

Did he even have a prayer?

In a police station with over 70 police officers and law enforcement personnel…and someone with a gun just happens to penetrate the phalanx of protection surrounding Lee Oswald.

Was it just a tragic mistake? Or was something else going on?

Who was he?

The image above is from a different film (photographer Dave Wiegman) taken approximately 15-20 seconds prior to the Darnell image in the previous post. It shows Prayer Man standing in the same spot.

Some speculate Prayer Man is one of the employees of the Texas School Book Depository (TSBD). Others think he may have been a stranger who came up off the street and worked his way through the people standing on the steps toward the back corner to watch the presidential motorcade.

But all of the TSBD employees who testified being on the front steps during the assassination are accounted for. And all TSBD employees testified that there were no strangers in the TSBD that day.

Who was he?

Oswald leaving TSBD?

The book is about a thread in a JFK research forum. It began with a question: "Is this a photo of Oswald leaving the Texas School Book Depository building?"

This picture was a low-quality image from a news film clip (photographer James Darnell) taken seconds after the shots that killed President Kennedy. Nobody knew the identity of the person circled. One researcher, Sean Murphy from Ireland, had studied this figure for a number of years and dubbed him "Prayer Man," due to the posture of his arms.

Who was he?

Greetings!

When Lee Harvey Oswald is mentioned, many people think of him as the sniper who assassinated President John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963. They are undoubtedly influenced by the Warren Commission and other US government investigations that conclude Oswald shot and killed Kennedy as he traveled by motorcade in Dallas, Texas. This is reinforced by the mainstream media. He was declared guilty without the benefit of a trial.

But did Oswald really kill Kennedy? What are the facts?

Lee Harvey Oswald said that he didn't kill anybody. He claimed he was a patsy. No one can place him on the Sixth Floor of the Texas School Book Depository building at the time of the assassination—the place where he is said to have fired the fatal shots.

According to the official investigations, Oswald ran down to the Second Floor lunchroom after the shooting and was then spotted by a police officer. But Oswald said he was on the First Floor, and went out the front door to see what the excitement was about. Was Oswald telling the truth?

Prayer Man: Out of the Shadows and Into the Light answers that question. I'll discuss the evidence here in the weeks to come.