I know of 3 telephones that were in use in the TSBD after the assassination. They were:
PHONE #1: Telephone on a desk beside a pillar. Reporter Pierce Allman used this telephone. According to Roy Trulys testimony, LHO had access to a telephone on the 1st floor:
Mr. McCLOY. Did he have the use of a telephone when he was in the building?
Mr. TRULY. Yes, sir. We have a telephone on the first floor that he was free to use during his lunch hour for a minute. He was supposed to ask permission to use the phone. But he could have used the phone.
Mr. DULLES. Pay telephone or office telephone?
Mr. TRULY. No, sir; it is a regular office telephone. It is a pushbutton type.I presume these pictures show the location of this telephone:
To get your bearings in these 2 pictures, notice the little wooden counter with swinging door in the foreground of the picture. You meet this after you’ve come in through the front two sets of doors to the TSBD.
PHONE #2: Phone in 1st floor office.White House press reporter Robert MacNeil said that when he came in, Pierce Allman was at a phone at a pillar and he was directed to a phone “in the office”. He says this was a black telephone, with 4 lights, 2 of which were lit (indicating two lines were busy at that time). I presume this phone was in either Mr Trulys or Mr Shelleys office.
PHONE #3: Phone in 2nd floor office.Special Agent with the Military Intelligence Corp, James Powell, said he came in, saw Allman at the pillar phone, then ran up the stairs and used a phone in the 2nd floor office (presumably this was in Mrs Reids office).
PHONE #4: Payphone in front entrance lobby to the left of passenger elevator??On the “Harvey And Lee” website, it says the following:
The young man (HARVEY Oswald) directed Allman to a pay phone in the lobby (on the wall, left side of passenger elevator). I've never heard of this phone. The passenger elevator is the elevator near the front stairway. The elevator at the back of the TSBD is a “freight elevator”. LHO said he directed a “Secret Service” agent to a “payphone”. Here is the report:
(Source:
https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=946#relPageId=653&tab=page )
Neither Pierce Allman, Robert MacNeil or James Powell appear to have used a "payphone", and certainly not one on a wall in the front lobby beside the passenger elevator (which the "Harvey and Lee" website claims existed).
Did a payphone exist beside the passenger elevator? Or did any other phone exist on the 1st floor (not included on my map) does anyone know?
