Meanwhile, for those of us who prefer things to be straightforwardly logical, we have a perfectly clear claim from Mr Oswald himself:
I went to the second floor lunchroom and bought a Coke. I then went down to the first floor to have lunch. Then I took what was left of my lunch and Coke outside with me to watch the P. Parade. I was there on the front steps when the shooting happened.
Mr Oswald's claim is the primary claim. It both precedes and has a hell of a lot more going for it than the WC fairytale claim. The fact that it had to be suppressed tells us all we need to know about its correspondence to reality!
By the afternoon of the assassination, the 'investigating' authorities had a compound nightmare on their hands............
-----------The suspect was claiming, truthfully, to have been on the front steps at the time of the shooting
-----------The suspect was claiming, truthfully, to have been asked by an officer charging into the building whether he worked there
-----------That same officer was talking about confronting a man by the rear stairway several floors up
-----------There was no guarantee that a witness to the suspect (and/or to Suspect + Officer + Mr Truly) on the steps would not tell a pressman about it
-----------There was no guarantee that a photograph or film showing the suspect (and/or Suspect + Officer + Mr Truly) on the steps would not show up
What to do?
Well....
Priority #1: Get Mr Oswald away from those steps
Priority #2: Disappear the non-Oswaldian man caught walking away from the rear stairway
Thus was born the Lunchroom Encounter
-----------------A location within theoretical striking distance of the sixth floor for a shooter, but within theoretical striking distance of the front entrance for a non-shooter
-----------------A location that Mr Oswald himself would have had good reason to visit during lunchtime (should public proof of his innocence emerge)
-----------------On a floor whose layout meant that Mr Oswald could theoretically have gone up quickly enough by the front stairs to be seen "walking" (if not "walking away") by the officer coming on to the floor off the rear stairs.
Frame the suspect, but if that doesn't stick: CYA!