Oswald's 52 seconds near the coke machine.

[Marjan Rynkiewicz]

Ok lets have another look at Adams & Styles great escape.
Adams said that after the shots they stood at the 4th floor window for 20 sec.  Styles said a bit longer. Adams said that they went to the back stairs.  Styles said that they went to the elevator first.  How long did they stand at the elevator (was the electricity off).  From there they would have walked throo the storage area to the back stairs via the door near the elevator, not the door from the office.  Anyhow the elevator detour adds a few seconds to their transit.  I reckon that they didn’t enter the storage area until 40 sec after the shots. 

After entering the storage area Adams & Styles would have taken about 48 sec to exit to the Houston dock, this route having the same overall distance & the same length of stairway & the same time as the Oswald re-enactment.  Actually, they were rushing, whilst in The 6th Floor Museum youtube re-enactment "Oswald" aint, so they would have exited in say 40 sec, making it a total of 80 sec (instead of Adam's claimed 60 sec).

In Secret Service re-enactments in the TSBD Oswald took 78 sec & 74 sec to get to the 2nd floor (after the last shot).  In a modern Sixth Floor Museum re-enactment in a similar warehouse Oswald took 48 seconds without rushing.  In the Secret Service re-enactment the Agent is mincing along nonchalant & smelling the flowers as he goes.  He must have been paid by the second.  In The 6th Floor Museum re-enactment "Oswald" was paid by the yard, but wasn’t rushing, & didn’t take any short cuts.

The critical thing is that Oswald had already quietly snuk around the say 8 paces from one leg of the stairs to the other leg well before Adams & Styles had entered the storage area.  Indeed he would have already reached the 2nd floor & exited the stairs if Adams & Styles took 48 sec to enter the storage area.

Even if Oswald did take say 8 paces on the 4th floor (to get from one leg of the stairs to the other leg) while Adams & Styles were already in the storage area then there is a possibility that they couldn’t easily see him.  The sight line from the door to the stairs is a long diagonal (they entered via the door near the elevator)(ie very near the Houston wall), there are concrete columns, there are high stacks of boxes, & possibly other infrastructure, & Adams & Styles & Oswald are not tall.  Photos of other floors in the TSBD show that it is nigh impossible to see very far on a diagonal if there are stacks of boxes.  And Oswald's 8 paces do not cross a window.  But we don’t need any of that stuff.  Oswald had already passed the 4th floor when Adams & Styles entered the storage area.

In Baker & Truly re-enactments Baker took 90 sec & 75 sec to get up to the 2nd floor after the first shot (equal to  100 sec or 85 sec if after the shots).  Baker said that he had been  slower than that there 90 sec, so lets call it 100 sec.  In which case Baker & Truly enter the storage area of the first floor at say 80 sec.  That allows 20 sec to gallop to the elevators, they are sitting at floor 5 & 6 say, the west elevator wont come down probly koz the gate has been left open. So, they then gallop to the stairs & up one floor to the 2nd floor (where they see Oswald).

Adams exited the TSBD to the Houston dock  80 sec after the shots.  I wont call it the rear dock koz the Elm St dock (the Elm dock) is sometimes called the rear dock.  Baker & Truly entered the storage area at 80 sec.  Hence Baker & Truly didn’t see Adams & Styles.  In any case their sight-line would have been affected by stacks of books.  In any case 2 gals exiting that far doorway would not have worried them & would be forgettable.  And there were other workers on the first floor.  And Baker & Truly were hell bent on getting to the roof. 

It’s a mystery why Baker was at all worried by Oswald, ie on the lowly 2nd floor, the first level that they reached on the way up, with 6 more levels to go after the 2nd (the roof being level 8 ).  Had they used an elevator (ie Plan A) Baker would have happily gone straight up to the 7th floor. He wouldn’t have stopped at every floor & taken valuable time to check for snipers.  For sure he wouldn’t have stopped the elevator at the 2nd floor, even if he had seen Oswald.  The whole sorry saga reminds me of a Monty Python film where the knight slays everyone he meets on the way up a castle tower to save a damsel in distress.

So, where were we, we have Adams & Styles exiting at 80 sec & Baker & Truly entering at 80 sec.  There is no problem there at all.  That leaves us with one big problem.  Why did Oswald stop at the 2nd floor?   He was at least 10 sec ahead of Adams & Styles.  Had Oswald not stopped he would have been at the front door before Baker & Truly.  Hell, it could have been Oswald that volunteered to show Baker the stairs, ie doing a U-turn, & praps going all the way back up with Baker.  On the way up it would have been Oswald saying "that man works here".
Oswald had time.  But he dug in on the 2nd floor.  Why?

Nearly forgot. Praps i should have written this first.  Dorothy Garner followed Adams & Styles to the stairs.  I think that Garner belatedly decided to follow Adams & Styles down in the elevator.  And she saw that Adams & Styles had headed for the back stairs, so she praps decided to follow, instead of taking the front stairs.  Anyhow she didn’t go down the back stairs, she looked out the nearby western window (there is no western window in her office), & there sure was lots to see, bedlam, so she watched for we don’t know how long.

She said she saw Baker & Truly gallop past (they would have been 10 ft away).  But Baker & Truly make no mention of Garner, certainly Baker didn’t slay her, i mean stick his gun in her ribs.  And of course she didn’t see Oswald, or anyone else, Oswald was long gone.

Anyhow, Oswald got to the 2nd floor in 48 sec.  Baker & Truly got there in 100 sec.
Why did Oswald stop?
What did Oswald do for 52 sec?

[Marjan Rynkiewicz]

Oswald gets to the 2nd floor after 48 sec.  He stops.  What to do next? 
Should he continue down to the first floor? 
Should he go to the first floor via the front stairs? 
Should he lay low in the lunch room? 
His jacket is in the Domino Room.
Uh Oh -- He hears Adams & Styles klomping down the stairs in a real hurry on a mission.
Best to visit the coke machine & hope that whoever it is goes clean past.
They pass. He comes back out. What to do next?
He can't decide.  He will be less conspicuous if he takes the front stairs, but he would then have to walk back into & throo the storage area to get his jacket in the Domino Room.
He decides to continue down the back stairs.
He makes a start but then Truly hollers up the elevator shaft, so he goes back up.
Then he hears Baker & Truly galloping up the stairs, & he retreats to the coke machine a second time.
He walks slow & cool. 
He would have been better off diving into the lunchroom in a hurry, & laying low, he knows there is no-one in there, but he knows that if seen rushing (by Truly & Co) it will be a sure sign that he is guilty of something.
He nearly makes it, another couple of slow steps & he will be out of sight.
But damn, Baker spots a bit of him throo the glass of the door & says to come back.
Truly says that Oswald works here, & Baker & Truly gallop off.
They get to the 5th floor & take the east elevator to the 7th floor.
Oswald gets a coke to look less guilty & more cool if confronted again.  And assassinations go better with coke.
The back stairs are now dangerous.  He heads for the front stairs, either forgetting about his jacket or deciding that his jacket is a dead duck.
But just in case more dumb cops are entering along the corridor he goes via the office.
Damn, he meets Jeraldean Reid as she returns to her desk.  Mrs Hine is also in the office but she doesn't notice Oswald, or forgets.
Reid in 3 re-enactments took exactly 120 sec to get to her desk, which is about right (ie to meet Oswald).
She says something as they pass & he mumbles something back.  Its not a good look.  He has no business in the office, unless wanting change for the coke machine. Its not even a short cut to the stairs. Damn.  Anyhow no big deal.
He goes down the front stairs & mixes with the growing throng in the lobby near the front door without raising any suspicion.
Someone asks him about a phone.
Ok, things aint so bad, praps he can take a chance & get his jacket from the Domino Room anyhow.
Hmmm – he can get his jacket by going out the front door & down the steps & around & entering via the Houston dock (like he does each morning), & walking 16 paces to the jacket. 
Getting caught walking in shouldn’t result in getting bitten by a cop.
So, off he goes, but he gets a little ways up Houston & he sees Officer Barnett on sentry duty at the dock, & Barnett looks vicious.
So, a quick U-turn & back down Houston.  Buell Frazier sees him walking south along Houston.
No, the jacket is a dead duck.  He decides to get out of there asap, he crosses Houston & then crosses Elm.
Tippit is waiting.

[Marjan Rynkiewicz]

Jack E Dougherty was a co-worker of Oswald's.
Dougherty didn’t go out to see JFK, he went back to work, getting stock from the 6th floor & 5th floor.
He didn’t hear Oswald's 2 shots, nor Hickey's shots.  And he didn’t see Oswald during those minutes or even during that hour.
He probly didn’t see Oswald koz Dougherty hadnt finished his lunch in the Domino Room untill a little after 12:30.
That’s why he didn’t hear any shots.  And that’s why he didn’t see Baker & Truly running up at 12:31.

Dougherty used the elevator, & he heard one shot while he was standing next to the elevators on the 5th floor.
The noise came from directly overhead.  That must have been the trapdoor to the roof slamming shut due to the wind, while Baker & Truly were on the roof, they had used a ladder.
Truly said that they reached the roof via the stairs, however Baker said that they used the ladder.
The trapdoor was directly above Dougherty, albeit with the 6th floor & the 7th floor planking tween Dougherty & the trapdoor.
And the slam would have been about 4 minutes after the shots.  A number of people on the tops of buildings near the Plaza heard a lone shot about 4 minutes after the other shots.
But i don’t think that Baker & Truly ever mentioned it.

Anyhow with Dougherty for some silly reason continuing to work, on the 5th & 6th floors, Oswald was lucky that Dougherty didn’t ever see him.
What i mean is that Dougherty intended to get up back to work at 12:30 sharp, but his watch was a few minutes out.

Aerials of the present TSBD roof show that the trapdoor is no longer there.  There is some kind of external ladder near the new elevator building.
Alltho there are now lots of rectangular gizmos that could easily be trapdoors.

[Marjan Rynkiewicz]

So, what is your take on Tippit picking up (or intercepting) Oswald?

The timelines for the Oswald & Tippit saga sure look complicated. 
I have been reading some of the postings. I have always been interested in whether Oswald had an escape strategy.
I dont think that he had any help, but where was he going?
He probly needed to do a holdup for cash. And take a bus to mexico. He might have been walking to a bus depot.
U would think that he would have brought a bag of stuff with him so that he did not have to go back to the rooming house.
It was all in effect a suicidal plan. Almost no plan at all. Even if he had a car & lots of cash he had no future unless he had help, which he didn't.
Shooting Tippit was silly. He had no chance after that.
He could have just played cool, & hoped that Tippit didnt find his gun, & that Tippit & Co were not yet looking for a guy called LHO.
Shooting Tippit meant that Oswald had a good plan going, worth shooting for. What plan was that?
If he had no good plan then shooting Tippit doesnt compute.
Oswald did not know that JFK was dead.
Oswald knew that his first shot missed (ricochet off signal arm guy rod)(the west guy rod)(the west side of the west guy rod)(about 9" from the collar).
Oswald knew that his second shot hit (he was probly aiming for JFK)(but mightbe Connally)(likewise for the first shot).
Oswald knew that Hickey had accidentally blown JFK's head open (ok so he did know that JFK was dead).
Oswald could have fired his last bullet, but he didn't. He had decided not to fire even before he saw Hickey kill JFK.
This suggests that his aim was Connally, who was by then out of sight behind JFK (not important).
Oswald knew that Hickey had killed JFK, in which case Oswald was indeed later a patsy.
So why shoot Tippit? Now its murder. Why?  What kind of grand plan made shooting Tippit worthwhile, koz now its murder.

If he hadnt shot Tippit would Ruby still have shot Oswald. I suppose that the answer is yes.
Except of course that the Ruby saga had so many what-ifs that could have changed in a drastic way by a butterfly in Brazil.
So, forgetting the Ruby saga, Oswald would have had a trial. And it would have come out that Oswald fired 2 shots, & that he had not killed JFK.
And it would have come out that Hickey accidentally killed JFK.
Oswald would have gotten out of jail in say 1983 (ignoring the Ruby saga), & he would have written a book.
And Hickey would have written a book.
And Tippit would have written a book.
Oswald would today be 81 yrs old, & he could be posting on this forum, about how Tippit was lucky to have arrested him.
But he shot Tippit.
If Ruby hadn't shot Oswald then Oswald would have got the chair, for shooting Tippit.
Dumb patsy.


Actually, if Oswald had not shot Tippit (& if Oswald had shot Tippit), & if Ruby had not shot Oswald, then there would be no assassination forums, they would be accidental homicide forums.
However there might still be conspiracy theory forums.

[Marjan Rynkiewicz]

A few pix of the Domino Room.  That aint Frankie Kaiser pointing to where he found Oswald's jacket, koz Kaiser when he saw the photo said that the hand was pointing to the wrong place, hence the correct place is left or right of that point.  There was some confusion as to whether Kaiser found the jacket a few days after or a few weeks after.

[Marjan Rynkiewicz]

From the WCR.
................Three employees-- James Jarman, Jr., Harold Norman, and Bonnie Ray Williams--were watching the parade from the fifth floor, directly below the window from which the shots were fired. They rushed to the west windows after the shots were fired and remained there until after they saw Patrolman Baker's white helmet on the fifth floor moving toward the elevator.
374 While they were at the west windows their view of the stairwell was completely blocked by shelves and boxes.
375 This is the period during which Oswald would have descended the stairs................

http://www.patspeer.com/chapter4b%3A%22theso-calledevidence%22

A 12-7-63 Secret Service report on Jarman relates: "He went with Williams and Norman to the west side of the building where they looked out those windows for a few minutes and then went down the back stairway to the first floor. He did not see any police officer on the stairway, but says that
he did see a woman looking out a window on the west side of the fourth floor as they went down...
Jarman estimated that they remained on the fifth floor for about five minutes after the shots, before they started down the stairway." (CD87 p785) And a 12-4-63 affidavit by Harold Norman confirms that after they (Jarman, Norman, and Williams) reached the west side of the building, "We discussed the shots, and where they had come from, and decided we better go down stairs. We walked down the stairs to the first floor and did not see anyone else on the stairway as we went down. From the time of the shots until we started downstairs was about five minutes." (CD7, p783)

The woman looking out the western window would have been Dorothy Garner, who saw Adams & Styles go down the stairs, & saw Baker & Truly go up the stairs shortly after.

[Marjan Rynkiewicz]

Employee Franklin (Frankie) Kaiser found Oswald's blue jacket a few weeks after the shooting.

Oswald's departure from building.--Within a minute after Baker and Truly left Oswald in the lunchroom, Mrs. R. A. Reid, clerical supervisor for the Texas School Book Depository, saw him walk through the clerical office on the second floor toward the door leading to the front stairway. Mrs. Reid had watched the parade from the sidewalk in front of the building with Truly and Mr. O. V. Campbell, vice president of the Depository. 385 She testified that she heard three shots which she thought came from the building. 386 She ran inside and up the front stairs into the large open office reserved for clerical employees. As she approached her desk, she saw Oswald. 387 He was walking into the office from the back hallway, carrying a full bottle of Coca-Cola in his hand, 388 presumably purchased after the encounter with Baker and Truly. As Oswald passed Mrs. Reid she said, "Oh, the President has been shot, but maybe they didn't hit him." 389 Oswald mumbled something and walked by. 390 She paid Page 155 no more attention to him. The only exit from the office in the direction Oswald was moving was through the door to the front stairway. 391 (See Commission Exhibit 1118, p. 150.) Mrs. Reid testified that when she saw Oswald, he was wearing a T-shirt and no jacket.

392 When he left home that morning, Marina Oswald, who was still in bed, suggested that he wear a jacket.
393 A blue jacket, later identified by Marina Oswald as her husband's, 394 was subsequently found in the building, 395 apparently left behind by Oswald.

Mrs. Reid believes that she returned to her desk from the street about 2 minutes after the shooting.
396 Reconstructing her movements, Mrs. Reid ran the distance three times and was timed in 2 minutes by stopwatch.
397 The reconstruction was the minimum time.
398 Accordingly, she probably met Oswald at about 12:32, approximately 30-45 seconds after Oswald's lunchroom encounter with Baker and Truly.
After leaving Mrs. Reid in the front office, Oswald could have gone down the stairs and out the front door by 12:33 p.m.
399--3 minutes after the shooting. At that time the building had not yet been sealed off by the police.


https://kennedysandking.com/john-f-kennedy-articles/the-mystery-of-ce163

The jacket was allegedly discovered on the first floor of the TSBD inside the Domino room by an employee named Franklin (Frankie) Kaiser. During her interview with the FBI on 4/1/64, Marina Oswald claimed that her husband owned two jackets "one a heavy jacket, blue in color, and another light jacket, gray in color."[1] Page 175 of the Warren report contains the following information:

"Marina Oswald stated that her husband owned only two jackets, one blue and the other gray. The blue jacket was found in the Texas School Book Depository and was identified by Marina Oswald as her husband's." [2]



Mr. BALL. Now, did you later find clothing?
Mr. KAISER. I just found the coat there---I didn't even know it was his until somebody told me it was. I thought they were kidding.
Mr. BALL. This is Commission Exhibit 163--do you recognize that blue jacket?
Mr. KAISER. That's the one I found.
Mr. BALL. Where did you find it--tell me first.
Mr. KAISER. It was in the window sill.
Mr. BALL. In what room?
Mr. KAISER. In the domino room.
Mr. BALL. Now, I show you a picture, No. 17, this is marked---does this show the window?
Mr. KAISER. Right down in here.
Mr. BALL. There is a Jacket showing in that window, is that where the jacket was found?
Mr. KAISER. Yes, sir; but it was laying behind this in the window.
Mr. BALL. It wasn't found in the position of the jacket shown in the picture?
Mr. KAISER. No; it sure wasn't.
Mr. BALL. But was it the same window?
Mr. KAISER. Yes.
Mr. BALL. And the window sill is shown there too?
Mr. KAISER. Yes; it is.
Mr. BALL. I show you a picture which is marked Exhibit 18, does this show the place where the jacket was found?
Mr. KAISER. Right over in here.
Mr. BALL. Where--put an "X" there---it's in the window sill?
Mr. KAISER. Right.
(Marked diagram with an "X". )
Mr. BALL. There is an Exhibit 17, which shows the corner of the domino room and the window and it is marked as Exhibit B and the picture marked No. 18, which shows the window sill, bearing an "X" placed there by the witness, and is marked as Exhibit "C". Will you initial that "C" please?
Mr. KAISER. ( Initialed instrument as requested. )

[Marjan Rynkiewicz]

http://www.patspeer.com/chapter4b%3A%22theso-calledevidence%22

6. What did Dougherty hear if it wasn't a shot?
ANSWER: Well, one possibility is that he heard a sound related to Baker and Truly's running around on the roof, and subsequent descent using the east elevator.
Was it the slamming of the door to the roof?

The exact nature of this door remains a bit of a mystery. But it appears it was some sort of trap door or hatch.

Mr. BELIN - Officer Baker, I am going to hand you what the court reporter, what the Commission reporter, has marked as Exhibit 507 which purports to be a diagram of the seventh floor of the Texas School Book Depository Building and on that diagram you will see at the top the marks of two elevators and then, what looks to be the south, a stairway marked "Ladder to the roof."
Mr. BAKER - Yes, sir.
Mr. BELIN - What is the fact as to whether or not this stairway marked "Ladder to the roof" is the stairway that you took to go to the roof?
Mr. BAKER - Yes, sir; it would be.
Mr. BELIN - All right.
Here is the top half of Exhibit 507.
 And here is a drawing prepared by Roy Rose in March 1964, that was the source for this exhibit. (Thanks to Gary Murr and Bart Kamp for bringing this to my attention.)
 
Note that the stairway to the roof was indeed blocked off, and that the only way up to the roof was a ladder with 21 risers. Such a ladder does not stop at a door, but at a hatch.
Something like this...
 
There is a photo of the roof on the Baylor University website, from its Jack White collection, that supports my "hatch" theory, moreover. (Mucho thanks to Robin Unger for bringing this to my attention.)
Here it is.
 
The County Records Building, sitting on the southeast corner of Houston and Elm, is in the background, on the right side of the photo.
The white building on the left side of the photo is a small building which in 1963 sat atop the elevator shaft. The small shack in front of it then would have to have covered the outlet to the roof from the "Ladder to Roof" on the seventh floor diagram.
There wasn't enough room to stand up in this shack. It appears from this, then, that the outlet onto the roof was in the form of a hatch...
that would have made a loud noise should it have been slammed shut.
It should be noted here, while we're at it, that at least one other Dealey Plaza witness heard a loud sound around the time Baker and Truly descended from the roof. This was J.C. Price, an employee of the General Services Administration. Price watched the motorcade from the roof of the U.S. Post Office Terminal Annex Building. This was on the south side of the Plaza, and Price's recollections reflect that he was viewing the motorcade from some distance. On the day of the shooting, he presented the Dallas County Sheriff's Department with a signed statement. He asserted: "I was on the roof of the Terminal Annex Bldg on the NE corner when the presidential motorcade came down Main to Houston, North on Houston and then West on Elm. The cars had proceeded west on Elm and was just a short distance from the Triple underpass, when I saw Gov. Connally slump over. I did not see the president as his car had gotten out of my view under the underpass.
There was a volley of shots, and then much later, maybe as much as five minutes later, another one."
Now ain't that something. The only witness who'd watched the motorcade from the roof of a building to make a statement was also the only witness to claim he'd heard a loud sound around the time Baker and Truly came down from the roof of the depository building. The Terminal Annex Building is directly across the Plaza from the school book depository. It's about the same height... It's near certain a loud sound on the roof of the depository would be heard across the way. And was...
In any event, it seems probable that the sound heard by Dougherty came from the roof of the building as Baker and Truly returned to the seventh floor to take the east elevator down.
The sound Dougherty heard, after all, came from above him, not from the southeast windows of the fifth floor, off to his side. These were open windows but a few feet below an open window through which a high-powered rifle had supposedly fired three shots. Should shots have been fired while he was on the fifth floor, he would have heard these shots from the sniper's nest through these windows. That only makes sense.
So, okay, there's another one. Why wasn't this point ever brought up by Ball? Or Belin? And why wasn't this tested?

The Police Officer on duty on the roof on a building on the other side of Houston St also reported hearing a lone shot about 4 minutes after the other shots.
It would have been the trapdoor/hatch (at the top of the ladder) slamming shut.
Or it might have been a door in that there triangular penthouse over the exit of the stairs. However i think there was no such door, it too was a hatch.
Truly said that Baker & Truly used the stairs.  Baker said they used the ladder. I think Truly meant the ladder.



There is a ramp at that there dock door. Shelly & Lovelady entered there.  They (one ovem) mentioned a ramp.