What the Warren Report claimed......
Though the fingerprints other than Oswald's on the boxes thus provide no indication of the presence of an accomplice at the window, two Depository employees are known to have been present briefly on the sixth floor during the period between 11:45 a.m., when the floor-laying crew stopped for lunch, and the moment of the assassination. One of these was Charles Givens, a member of the floor-laying crew, who went down on the elevator with the others and then, returned to the sixth floor to get his jacket and cigarettes.49 He saw Oswald walking away from the southeast corner, but saw no one else on the sixth floor at that time. He then took one of the elevators back to the first floor at approximately 11:55 a.m.50
CC. The author of the Report forgot to mention Jack Dougherty who mentioned going back to work via the west elevator shortly before the shots, going to the 6th floor before getting out at the 5th. The dubious testimony of Givens is taken as gospel although mention of his significant sighting of Oswald during his cigarette trip occurs for the first time while testifying six months after the assassination, in Dallas and in the presence of David Belin only. His treatment is in stark contrast to that of Arnold Rowland, who claimed sighting an African-American in the SN prior to the shots.
“Rowland's failure to report his story despite several interviews until his appearance before the Commission, the lack of probative corroboration, and the serious doubts about his credibility, have led the Commission to reject the testimony that Rowland saw an elderly balding Negro man in the southeast corner window of the sixth floor of the Depository Building several minutes before the assassination.”
CC. Strangely the Commission only investigated the whereabouts of two “elderly” African-American TSBD employees just before the shooting, Eddie Piper and Troy West, to rebut Rowland’s claim. Apparently ignoring their own depiction of Rowland as an exaggerator they chose to ignore the younger Bonnie Ray Williams as a likely candidate even though they knew he was on the 6th floor around that time.
Bonnie Ray Williams, who was also working with the floor-laying crew, returned to the sixth floor at about noon to eat his lunch and watch the motorcade.51 He looked out on Elm Street from a position in the area of the third or fourth set of windows from the east wall.52 At this point he was approximately 20-30 feet away from the southeast corner window. He remained for about "5, 10, maybe 12 minutes" eating his lunch which consisted of chicken and a bottle of soda pop.53 Williams saw no one on the sixth floor during this period, although the stacks of books prevented his seeing the east side of the building.54 After finishing his lunch Williams took the elevator down because no one had joined him on the sixth floor to watch the motorcade.55 He stopped at the fifth floor where he joined Harold Norman and James Jarman, Jr., who watched the motorcade with him from a position on the fifth floor directly below the point from which the shots were fired. Williams left the remains of his lunch, including chicken bones and a bottle of soda, near the window where he was eating.56
CC. I have no doubt that the first and last sentences of this paragraph are true. Williams returned to the 6th floor to eat his lunch sometime after noon and left the remains of his lunch near the window where he was eating. Why the report claims confusion about the position (the third or fourth set of windows) is unclear as Studebaker clearly stated the third set of windows in his statement. We know that at least half a dozen officers who saw the SN initially, prior to the arrival of Capt. Fritz, all confirmed the lunch remnants were in the SN. Conveniently the Report suggest that Williams left the 6th floor prior to 12.15pm, the time when Rowland saw a man holding a rifle behind the SW window.
Logically for this to be true, Williams departure from the 6th floor can only be after the arrival of Jarman and Norman on the 5th floor in a position immediately below the SN. Careful analysis of their statements and testimonies reveals that they did not depart their position near the steps of the TSBD until about 12.20pm. Clearly Williams was on the 6th floor at the same time as the man with the rifle. This was completely consistent with the timeline suggested by Rowland. This was obvious to Belin and Ball, who likely came to the same conclusion during their various re-enactments in Dallas in late March 1964. The report essentially rejects their efforts completely and simply relies on the various estimates provided before appearing before the WC on March 24th 1964. They suggest he was not necessarily there at the same time as the assassin and if he was the arrangement of books prevented him seeing the east side of the building ignoring the fact that Rowland saw a man holding a rifle on the west side.
