ML Baker Sept '64 FBI Affidavit- Oswald and the Soda

[Alan Ford]

There was no post-assassination lunchroom encounter. That it became such a great fetish of CTers helps explain why Mr Oswald's true whereabouts at the time of the shooting are only emerging in recent years! (The other great factor was that any suggestion Mr Oswald was out front became associated with the barmy Oswald-In-Altgens army. When Prayer Man came along, the comfort-zone CTers straight out refused to give it a fair hearing. They still do!)


Alan, You have posted the scribbled notes of the interrogation of Lee Oswald, so you certainly must know that both the accused ( Lee Oswald)... and the accuser( The State, represented by Marrion Baker)  were in total agreement that they had met in the second floor lunchroom just seconds after the shots were fired.   

So how can you say that it didn't happen?

Already explained, Mr Cakebread!

The 'Fritz' notes are not Fritz's own scribbled notes of the interrogation of Mr Oswald. They are Fritz's scribbled notes of Agent Bookhout's version of what Mr Oswald said in custody
----------the same Agent Bookhout who suppressed Mr Oswald's claim to have visited the 2nd fl lunchroom before the assassination and gone "outside to watch P. Parade"
----------the same Agent Bookhout who put an absurd claimed timeline into Mr Oswald's mouth.

Geddit now? 

[Walt Cakebread]

Already explained, Mr Cakebread!

The 'Fritz' notes are not Fritz's own scribbled notes of the interrogation of Mr Oswald. They are Fritz's scribbled notes of Agent Bookhout's version of what Mr Oswald said in custody
----------the same Agent Bookhout who suppressed Mr Oswald's claim to have visited the 2nd fl lunchroom before the assassination and gone "outside to watch P. Parade"
----------the same Agent Bookhout who put an absurd claimed timeline into Mr Oswald's mouth.

Geddit now? 

Yes...I understand that you think Fritz copied Bookhout's notes.... But I think that you've been smokin some funny tobacco...  One glance at Fritz disorganized, truncated, scribbling would be enough to convince any rational person that Fritz jotted those notes as he heard Lee's replies.....

[Walt Cakebread]

Thank you for your clear answer, Mr von Pein! 

If Mr Oswald did indeed indeed confirm the 2nd floor lunchroom incident, then how do we explain this from Agent Hosty?



Did Mr Oswald tell Captain Fritz he went to the 2nd fl lunchroom to buy a coke, came downstairs to eat his lunch, went out front to watch the parade, then (just after the shooting) went to the 2nd fl lunchroom to buy a coke, came downstairs to eat his lunch, went out front?

THe penmanship appears to be the same.....

AFFIDAVIT IN ANY FACT
THE STATE OF TEXAS
COUNTY OF DALLAS
BEFORE ME, Mary Rattan, a Notary Public in and for said County, State of Texas, on this day personally appeared M. L. Baker, Patrolman Dallas Police Department who, after being by me duly sworn, on oath deposes and says:

Friday November 22, 1963 I was riding motorcycle escort for the President of the United States. At approximately 12:30 pm I was on Houston Street and the President's car had made a left turn from Houston onto Elm Street. Just as I approached Elm Street and Houston I heard three shots. I realized those shots were rifle shots and I began to try to figure out where they came from. I decided the shots had come from the building on the northwest corner of Elm and Houston. This building is used by the Board of Education for book storage. I jumped off my motor and ran inside the building. As I entered the door I saw several people standing around. I asked these people where the stairs were. A man stepped forward and stated he was the building manager and that he would show me where the stairs were. I followed the man to the rear of the building and he said, "Let's take the elevator." The elevator was hung several floors up so we used the stairs instead. As we reached the third or fourth floor I saw a man walking away from the stairway. I called to the man and he turned around and came back toward me. The manager said, "I know that man, he works here." I then turned the man loose and went up to the top floor. The man I saw was a white man approximately 30 years old, 5'9", 165 pounds, dark hair and wearing a light brown jacket.

s/ M. L. Baker

SUBSCRIBED AND SWORN BEFORE ME THIS 22 DAY OF November A.D. 1963

/s/ Mary Rattan

[Walt Cakebread]

Ptm Baker had already given his testimony to the Warren Commission but for some unknown reason the FBI had him come in, sit down and hand write another affidavit just before the Commission's works went into print. This document was entered as CE-3076.
In his testimony, the Coke machine was mentioned but there was no mention of Oswald drinking a beverage.
However in his first mention of the lunchroom encounter Baker stated that they [He and Truly] had made their way up to the third or forth floor before Oswald was encountered. That seems rather puzzling. By the time he testified though, he had learned to count to two.
 "Mr. Belin - What happened?"
Mr. BAKER -" As I came out to the second floor there, Mr. Truly was ahead of me, and as I come out I was kind of scanning, you know, the rooms, and I caught a glimpse of this man walking away from this--I happened to see him through this window in this door. I don't know how come I saw him, but I had a glimpse of him coming down there."         
http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/russ/testimony/baker_m3.htm
Mr Baker had mentioned that Oswald was drinking a coke in earlier interviews. Apparently this could have been the reasoning for the last minute affidavit. 
 
 The words drinking a Coke are crossed out. I suppose it seemed a bit much to have to fit all that in after an alleged super dive from the sixth floor.

 

"On the second or third floor where the lunchroom is located I saw a man standing in the room and drinking a Coke".....

[Mike Orr]

If the soda was not a big deal then why would someone have looked at that and said " You know , come to think of it , I'm not sure now if LHO had a soda in his hand or not , but since the FBI said he did not have a soda in his hand, well they are always right because if he did then that would mean he had to dig the change out of his pocket and insert the change into the soda machine and then pull out the soda and open it and that would have just taken him a little longer than we thought for him to have made those shots and then mosey on down to the breakroom . Damn FBI , they are good ! Whew ! Hoover tells LBJ on the 29th of Nov. that LHO had made 3 shots in 3 seconds . Hoover was such an idiot !

[Walt Cakebread]

If the soda was not a big deal then why would someone have looked at that and said " You know , come to think of it , I'm not sure now if LHO had a soda in his hand or not , but since the FBI said he did not have a soda in his hand, well they are always right because if he did then that would mean he had to dig the change out of his pocket and insert the change into the soda machine and then pull out the soda and open it and that would have just taken him a little longer than we thought for him to have made those shots and then mosey on down to the breakroom . Damn FBI , they are good ! Whew ! Hoover tells LBJ on the 29th of Nov. that LHO had made 3 shots in 3 seconds . Hoover was such an idiot !

Actually Hoover was insane....   Very much like Adolph Hitler.

[Alan Hardaker]

Of course that is what I meant by 'it didn't look good'. The precious seconds it took to wiggle around the book stacks on the sixth floor...conceal a weapon... fly down the stairs ...dig change out of a pocket...select the right coins...deposit money...select drink...wait for drink to ka-chink out of the machine...open...then start consuming, didn't sit well with the concept of an agitated killer going on the run. 
 

Wouldn't be that LHO was cute enough to think "I'll crab a coke"...thinking what would look more natural and casual for an employee to be getting a coke..what could be more innocent looking that that.

[John Iacoletti]

If it turns out that Prayer Person is not Oswald, wouldn't that tend to incriminate him, especially if we are to believe that he was eating his lunch in the nearby Domino Room "at the time"?

Is that what John Iacoletti is so worried about?

Why would John Iacoletti be worried about your hypothetical questions?

Is there any good reason to think that a person sitting in the domino room would have heard shots?  Did Troy West hear any shots from his position on the first floor which was closer to Elm Street?