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

[Jerry Freeman]

I don't advocate damnation over all this. Back to the topic-- There still seems to be a strong corroboration about the lunchroom encounter with the soda. Fritz notes ...Oswald said he went to get the soda after eating. Mrs Reid sees Oswald with the soda. Officer Baker did reference seeing Oswald with a soda. You want silliness? I saw this----

In the book, Conspiracy Of One (1990, The Summit Group), author Jim Moore presents a variety of reasons why he believes Lee Harvey Oswald was the sole assassin of U.S. President John F. Kennedy. One of those reasons is on page 53, detailing the period immediately after the assassination when Oswald was spotted in the lunchroom of the Texas School Book Depository: Oswald...put a nickel in the soda machine and selected a Coca-Cola. It may be that this single action on Oswald's part holds the key to his guilt. Oswald habitually drank Dr Pepper. There can be only one realistic explanation for a miser like Oswald to fail to select his soft drink of choice-he was nervous. Three other possibilities exist, all unlikely: 1. Oswald really bought a Dr Pepper and every witness questioned recalled it as a Coca-Cola 2. The soda machine was out of Dr Pepper.
 3. The soda machine-a Coca-Cola product, malfunctioned in favor of its manufacturer.

"......every witness questioned recalled it as a Coca-Cola."----actually no one said it was a Coca Cola.
  See? Oswald was guilty because he indeed did have a coke  [It's the Real Thing]         

[David Von Pein]

In the book, Conspiracy Of One (1990, The Summit Group), author Jim Moore presents a variety of reasons why he believes Lee Harvey Oswald was the sole assassin of U.S. President John F. Kennedy. One of those reasons is on page 53, detailing the period immediately after the assassination when Oswald was spotted in the lunchroom of the Texas School Book Depository:

Oswald...put a nickel in the soda machine and selected a Coca-Cola. It may be that this single action on Oswald's part holds the key to his guilt. Oswald habitually drank Dr Pepper. There can be only one realistic explanation for a miser like Oswald to fail to select his soft drink of choice---he was nervous. Three other possibilities exist, all unlikely:

1. Oswald really bought a Dr Pepper and every witness questioned recalled it as a Coca-Cola.

2. The soda machine was out of Dr Pepper.

3. The soda machine---a Coca-Cola product---malfunctioned in favor of its manufacturer.

Of course, author Jim Moore, at the time he wrote the above statements in his book (1990 or earlier), had no idea that the Coke machine on the second floor very likely did not dispense "Dr. Pepper" at all....because it was later learned that the "Dr. Pepper" machine was located on the first floor and not the second. (See CD496; Photo 7 below.)

http://www.maryferrell.org/mffweb/archive/viewer/showDoc.do?docId=10896&relPageId=12

http://jfk-archives.blogspot.com/2010/06/dr-pepper-talk.html

[David Von Pein]

In support of David's factually correct reply to Jerry's question in the OP:
https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=59643&relPageId=2&search=marion_baker%20and%20rankin

Thanks for linking to that document, Tom. It gives me one more link to add to my "Baker/Coke" page at my site.

The version of that page that appears in CD1526 (below) doesn't include the last paragraph which verifies the reason for the WC wanting the Sept. '64 Baker/Truly statements....

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=11921&relPageId=2

[Alan Ford]

Yes, of course he did.

Oswald knew he couldn't lie his way out of that question like he did with so many others that Fritz asked him. Oswald knew there were TWO other people who would confirm where the "encounter" took place, so he admitted it to Fritz.

Plus, he admitted it because he knew that just because he was in the lunchroom a minute or two after the shooting, that didn't have to mean he was the assassin. So he felt comfortable telling the truth (for once).

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?

[Alan Ford]

Do you believe that Mr Oswald confirmed this incident to Captain Fritz?

Yes... Hosty and Bookhout confirm that Oswald told them that he'd gone from the first floor to the second floor to buy a bottle of Coke from the vending machine. There would have been no reason for Lee to relate that trivial bit of info if He hadn't been encountered there by Baker.... On page 619 WR  Bookhout's report says....

"he was on the second floor of said 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 if he worked there, Mr Truly was present and verified that he was an employee.".....

Thank you for your clear answer, Mr Cakebread! 

If Mr Oswald did confirm a post-shooting 2nd fl lunchroom incident, why then does Agent Hosty, in his unpublished notes below, tell us that Mr Oswald told them that, after buying a bottle of Coke from the vending machine, he "went outside to watch P. Parade"?



A post-assassination Presidential Parade? Really?

[Alan Ford]

What is this thread about, again? What is the expected outcome, in the best of all possible worlds, of the Oswald out in front obsession?

Hello Mr Scully! 

I guess some of us less sophisticated researchers hold the accused assassin's location at the time of the assassination to be a rather important issue.

[David Von Pein]

Thank you for your clear answer, Mr von Pein [sic]! 

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?

Well, I'm not a mind-reader, so all I can do is provide my best guess on this. And I'm basing this "best guess" on the fact that in none of the final typed-up reports of any of the people who heard Oswald being interrogated by Captain Fritz (Bookhout, Hosty, Holmes, Kelley, and Fritz himself) do we find anything about Oswald saying he went "outside to watch the Presidential parade".

So my best guess is:

I think James Hosty's "went outside to watch P. Parade" note was very likely referring to a point in time that was AFTER the assassination, not before (even though Hosty used the words "P[residential] Parade"). That note is likely referring to the "out with Bill Shelley in front" situation (which appears in Captain Fritz' notes).

And that "out with Shelley" chronology, according to James Bookhout's solo FBI report that appears on Page 619 of the Warren Report, is clearly something that occurred after the assassination and after Oswald's encounter with the policeman on the second floor.

With respect to why there are two separate FBI reports regarding some of this same information, well, I think it's quite possible that the two FBI agents involved in the first report (Hosty and Bookhout), after filing that first report (dictated on Nov. 23), realized that a relevant and important piece of information (the 2nd-floor lunchroom encounter) had not been included in that first joint Hosty/Bookhout report. Therefore, the necessity arose for a second report to be written which would include the information about Oswald being stopped by the police on the second floor (which became the "solo Bookhout" report that was dictated a day later, on Nov. 24).

But please keep this in mind....

The Warren Commission didn't HIDE or DESTROY either of those two FBI reports. The Commission didn't conceal their existence from the public. Both of those reports---warts, omissions, and all---are readily available for anyone to view and can easily be found right there in the Warren Commission's final report, just a few pages apart in Appendix XI.

[Alan Ford]

Well, I'm not a mind-reader, so all I can do is provide my best guess on this. And I'm basing this "best guess" on the fact that in none of the final typed-up reports of any of the people who heard Oswald being interrogated by Captain Fritz (Bookhout, Hosty, Holmes, Kelley, and Fritz himself) do we find anything about Oswald saying he went "outside to watch the Presidential parade".

So my best guess is:

I think James Hosty's "went outside to watch P. Parade" note was very likely referring to a point in time that was AFTER the assassination, not before (even though Hosty used the words "P[residential] Parade"). That note is likely referring to the "out with Bill Shelley in front" situation (which appears in Captain Fritz' notes).

And that "out with Shelley" chronology, according to James Bookhout's solo FBI report that appears on Page 619 of the Warren Report, is clearly something that occurred after the assassination and after Oswald's encounter with the policeman on the second floor.

With respect to why there are two separate FBI reports regarding some of this same information, well, I think it's quite possible that the two FBI agents involved in the first report (Hosty and Bookhout), after filing that first report (dictated on Nov. 23), realized that a relevant and important piece of information (the 2nd-floor lunchroom encounter) had not been included in that first joint Hosty/Bookhout report. Therefore, the necessity arose for a second report to be written which would include the information about Oswald being stopped by the police on the second floor (which became the "solo Bookhout" report that was dictated a day later, on Nov. 24).

But please keep this in mind....

The Warren Commission didn't HIDE or DESTROY either of those two FBI reports. The Commission didn't conceal their existence from the public. Both of those reports---warts, omissions, and all---are readily available for anyone to view and can easily be found right there in the Warren Commission's final report, just a few pages apart in Appendix XI.

Oh dear, Mr von Pein, this is most unconvincing!

The devastating words in Agent Hosty's notes about Mr Oswald's claim about a pre-motorcade visit to the 2nd fl lunchroom and about going "outside to watch P. Parade" were concealed from the public. They are nowhere to be found in the Warren Commission's final report. And Agent Hosty, in his Warren Commission testimony, lied about what Mr Oswald had said: he told the commission that Mr Oswald had claimed to have been in the domino room at the time of the motorcade!

Your response to this revelation? As usual when it comes to anything that might threaten the official story of the assassination, you show yourself constitutionally incapable of either seeing evil or hearing evil!

What do you do when presented with new evidence where it is stated in the clearest terms possible by Agent Hosty that Mr Oswald claimed to have gone out to "watch the P. Parade"? You reassure yourself that Agent Hosty must have been so utterly stupid that he would misunderstand or misremember what the accused assassin of President Kennedy had said when asked where he had been at the time of the assassination.

This is not your 'best guess', Mr von Pein, it's merely your best wilful misreading of Agent Hosty's words: "Then went outside to watch P. Parade". You do know what the verb "watch" means, right? And the adjective "Presidential"? And the noun "Parade"?

You did, in fairness, get one thing right: "in none of the final typed-up reports of any of the people who heard Oswald being interrogated by Captain Fritz ... do we find anything about Oswald saying he went 'outside to watch the Presidential parade'". Your failure to draw the obvious conclusion from this silence tells us only how extraordinarily gullible you are.