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.