If Oswald Was The Assassin, Did He Plan His Escape From The TSBD Very Well?

[Charles Collins]

All kinds of problems here. First of all, Oswald could not have gotten from the sixth floor sniper's nest to the second floor lunchroom in time to be seen by Officer Baker. As historian David Wrone has often pointed out, the WC found it necessary to severely rig the reenactment of Oswald's alleged movements in order to appear to get him to the lunchroom in time to be seen by Baker. Wrone discusses this point in detail in this lecture:

Second, there were people on the stairs who would have seen Oswald if he had come down the stairs. We know he could not have used the elevator. He would have had to come down the stairs.

Third, a huge problem with WC's account is that if Oswald was only a foot past the foyer door when Baker spotted him, as Baker belatedly claimed, then Roy Truly, who was running ahead of Baker, surely would have seen Oswald either coming off the stairs, or walking across the landing toward the door, or opening the door. The Commission itself admitted that Oswald must have gone through the foyer door only "a second or two" before being spotted by Baker:

But the Commission never explained how Oswald could have done this. If Oswald had gone through the foyer door before Truly reached the top of the stairs, he would have been several feet beyond the door by the time Baker reached the landing, and thus would not have been visible to Baker through the window. And, if Oswald had entered the door "only a second or two" before Baker reached the top of the stairwell, then Truly could not have missed seeing him. Nor did the Commission explain how Baker could have been the least bit unsure about whether or not Oswald had gone through the foyer door if Baker spotted Oswald right next to the door and if the door was in any kind of motion at the time. I discuss this issue in detail in "The Baker-Oswald Encounter: Proof that Oswald Did Not Shoot JFK?":

https://miketgriffith.com/files/bakerlho.htm

About three months before the assassination, U.S. intelligence officer Richard Case Nagell warned Oswald that he was being set up as the patsy for Kennedy's murder, but Oswald dismissed his warning. This could explain why Oswald did nothing to prevent himself from being framed. Or, as some have suggested, he could have been led to believe that Kennedy was not the target but that Connally or LBJ was and that his role would be harmless or non-existent, or that the shooting would merely involve firing misses near the motorcade to alert Kennedy that his security arrangements were very lax.

Oswald was clearly supposed to meet someone at the Texas Theater. I suspect that it was only after he was arrested that he realized he had been set up. He might have realized this earlier, but if he did, I find it curious that still went to his meeting at the theater. In any case, once he was in police custody, he fully understood that he had been set up, which is why he uttered the famous and revealing statement "I'm just a patsy" after he was in police custody, and why he told his brother Robert not to believe the "so-called evidence" against him.

Finally, a voice stress analysis/psychological stress evaluator polygraph was performed on Oswald's statement that he didn't shoot anyone, and the results indicated he was telling the truth. David Scheim discusses this in his book Contract on America: The Mafia Murder of President John F. Kennedy. Here is George O'Toole's original article on the PSE test on Oswald's statement:

http://jfk.hood.edu/Collection/Weisberg%20Subject%20Index%20Files/O%20Disk/O%27Toole%20George/Item%2021.pdf

For more information about the voice stress analysis, “Malcontent - Lee Harvey Oswald’s confession by Conduct” by Sean R. DeGrilla (section 2) is a good read.

[Michael T. Griffith]

For more information about the voice stress analysis, “Malcontent - Lee Harvey Oswald’s confession by Conduct” by Sean R. DeGrilla (section 2) is a good read.

DeGrilla's book Malcontent is one of the worst, downright silliest works ever written on the assassination. To read his book, you would almost think he beamed into our decade from the late 1960s. Any post-ARRB book that defends the Warren Commission's version of events must ignore a mountain of compelling evidence of conspiracy and cover-up, and DeGrilla's book is the poster child for such unbelievable bias and omission.

[Charles Collins]

DeGrilla's book Malcontent is one of the worst, downright silliest works ever written on the assassination. To read his book, you would almost think he beamed into our decade from the late 1960s. Any post-ARRB book that defends the Warren Commission's version of events must ignore a mountain of compelling evidence of conspiracy and cover-up, and DeGrilla's book is the poster child for such unbelievable bias and omission.

It is obvious to me that you are the biased one.

[Gerry Down]

DeGrilla's book is the poster child for such unbelievable bias and omission.

What examples of this did he show in his book?

[Dan O'meara]

If Oswald was being set up how could he be allowed to wander around the TSBD during the shooting? How could those doing the setting up control the TSBD, making sure they get in/out unnoticed and have a floor to themselves?

[Martin Weidmann]

It is obvious to me that you are the biased one.

Says the guy who has proven himself to be as biased as they come.

[Richard Smith]

If Oswald was being set up how could he be allowed to wander around the TSBD during the shooting? How could those doing the setting up control the TSBD, making sure they get in/out unnoticed and have a floor to themselves?

Those are excellent questions.  Some CTers suggest there was a grand plan to frame Oswald but he was apparently allowed to roam about at the moment of the assassination and potentially have an alibi.  It's ridiculous.  And how did they get him to take an unusual trip to the Paine residence on Thursday where he kept his rifle and carry a long package to work the next morning?  How lucky could they get!? How did they know he would even go to work on Friday if he was heading to Paine residence on Thursday?  For all they would have known, he decided to take the day off. 

[Michael T. Griffith]

If Oswald was being set up how could he be allowed to wander around the TSBD during the shooting? How could those doing the setting up control the TSBD, making sure they get in/out unnoticed and have a floor to themselves?

The last place they wanted Oswald was on the sixth floor. Whatever theory you want to offer must address the evidence that Oswald simply could not have gotten from the sniper's nest to the second-floor lunchroom in time to be seen by Baker.

The sixth floor was mainly a storage area and people were up there sparingly and intermittently, and the plotters knew it would be lunchtime and that many people would be downstairs watching the motorcade. Plus, the elevator was locked/not working so no one could use it to come up to the sixth floor. Furthermore, and this is a point that is often overlooked, the power to the TSBD got cut off just before the shooting occurred. Several witnesses alluded to this strange fact in passing, and one of them specifically mentioned the power being cut off, but, of course, the commission's interviewers failed to pursue it. The main witness to this was Geneva Hine:

Mr. BALL. Were you alone then at this time?
Miss HINE. Yes.
Mr. BALL. Did you stay at your desk?
Miss HINE. Yes, sir: I was alone until the lights all went out and the phones became dead because the motorcade was coming near us and no one was calling so I got up and thought I could see it from the east window in our office.

This is supported by the Alyea film. The film shows a light on in the entrance to the TSBD at the 2:03 mark, but this light not on in the Altgens photo taken during the assassination.

In addition, there is credible evidence that there were at least two people on the sixth floor during the shooting. This evidence includes the fact that the HSCA's photographic evidence panel determined from photos of the sniper's nest that someone was moving boxes around within 2 minutes after the shooting: "There is an apparent rearranging of boxes within 2 minutes after the last shot was fired at President Kennedy" (6 HSCA 109). Obviously, Oswald could not have been the one moving the boxes around.