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

[Gerry Down]

When Truly introduces himself to Baker he has already decided they are going to the roof (in his testimony he describes it as an almost psychic-like moment when he just knows where Baker needs to go). Truly takes control and leads the way. They get to the elevators and Truly can't call the west one down (or he only pretends to try) and the shouts to whoever is on the upper floors the equivalent of "I'm here with the police boys, It's showtime". Truly races up the stairs with Baker trailing behind.
Even though they are racing towards a shooter, civilian Truly leads the way, in front of a policeman with a drawn revolver.

This has always been odd. Why would Truly run head-long into the path of a fleeing shooter ahead of Baker? And why would Baker let him do that?

[Dan O'meara]

Maybe! Or maybe Mr Williams did spend a v. short time eating his lunch up there on his own, awaiting the expected arrival of his workmates, before being ordered off the floor by... someone.

Initially he tried to hide any visit to the sixth floor. Then he gave a series of garbled versions of the truth.

They never believed anything of the sort! And most likely it was Mr Williams himself who did the encouraging on the score of backing up his story.

I'm not arguing that it was Mr Piper, just that he fits Mr Rowland's description much better than Mr Williams does.

If not Mr Piper, then a member of the assassination team.

 

How very annoying this particular area of study is.
"Of course it's not Piper," I thought. But best to check it out.
Piper watches the parade through the first floor window. Except there aren't first floor windows. Its those thick, distorted glass blocks and a concrete 'lattice-work'. Piper did not watch the parade through these.
So what puts him on the first floor at the time of the assassination? Troy Eugene West is at his wrapping station, as he always is, facing the very 'windows' Piper says he is at:

Mr. BELIN - Did you see anyone else on the first floor while you were eating your lunch? Anyone else at all did you see on the first floor?
Mr. WEST - It wasn't anybody. I didn't see anybody around at that time.

The only other person to put him on the first floor is Dougherty and his fantasy BS about coming down after hearing a shot.
There's nothing that puts Piper on the first floor. His claims that the window vibrated because of the shots (shots West never heard) now seems really suspect. He also claims that he and Truly had a shouted exchange concerning the elevators. This seems suspect as well as Baker has zero recollection of it.
I can't see anything that prevents Piper being spotted in the snipers nest by Rowland.

It's so annoying 

[Colin Crow]

How very annoying this particular area of study is.
"Of course it's not Piper," I thought. But best to check it out.
Piper watches the parade through the first floor window. Except there aren't first floor windows. Its those thick, distorted glass blocks and a concrete 'lattice-work'. Piper did not watch the parade through these.
So what puts him on the first floor at the time of the assassination? Troy Eugene West is at his wrapping station, as he always is, facing the very 'windows' Piper says he is at:

Mr. BELIN - Did you see anyone else on the first floor while you were eating your lunch? Anyone else at all did you see on the first floor?
Mr. WEST - It wasn't anybody. I didn't see anybody around at that time.

The only other person to put him on the first floor is Dougherty and his fantasy BS about coming down after hearing a shot.
There's nothing that puts Piper on the first floor. His claims that the window vibrated because of the shots (shots West never heard) now seems really suspect. He also claims that he and Truly had a shouted exchange concerning the elevators. This seems suspect as well as Baker has zero recollection of it.
I can't see anything that prevents Piper being spotted in the snipers nest by Rowland.

It's so annoying 

Do you think Piper was munching Williams' chicken in the SN or was it Williams? I think we can agree that Rowland saw a black man in the SN before the shots. Amazing that he could predict A black man would be in the position the remnants of Williams lunch would be originally found in.

[Alan Ford]

As you are probably aware I agree with most of what you have written above. Likely that Rowland simply tried to provide information but was mistaken on finer detail. He described what happened on the 6th floor in essence.

I think we can all agree that analysis of all the assembled statements leads one to believe the Warren Report description of events on the 6th floor just prior to the shooting are unsupported. The investigation largely failed to explain the significant changes in events described before the WC from statements assembled in the months previous.

Yes, Mr Crow, we do agree on a lot! 

Another thought to throw into the mix here-------------

The conspirators' plan is for the sixth floor to be used to shoot from (or to stage a shooting from). This plan will surely not leave itself open to the contingency of perhaps multiple employees innocently deciding to watch the motorcade from that floor. Such a contingency will be factored in and addressed in advance. But how? Easy: (someone posing as?) a law enforcement/security detail person will be on hand to keep any pesky employees off the floor.

This would explain the curious detail I keep coming back to: Mr Williams' recollection that a number of employees had agreed to meet up at the sixth floor to watch the motorcade together. Yet, as events would transpire, not a single one of them ended up there at 12.30pm. Kind of convenient for whoever was up there at 12.30pm, no?

No way would this have been left to chance!

[Alan Ford]

How very annoying this particular area of study is.
"Of course it's not Piper," I thought. But best to check it out.
Piper watches the parade through the first floor window. Except there aren't first floor windows. Its those thick, distorted glass blocks and a concrete 'lattice-work'. Piper did not watch the parade through these.
So what puts him on the first floor at the time of the assassination? Troy Eugene West is at his wrapping station, as he always is, facing the very 'windows' Piper says he is at:

Mr. BELIN - Did you see anyone else on the first floor while you were eating your lunch? Anyone else at all did you see on the first floor?
Mr. WEST - It wasn't anybody. I didn't see anybody around at that time.

The only other person to put him on the first floor is Dougherty and his fantasy BS about coming down after hearing a shot.
There's nothing that puts Piper on the first floor. His claims that the window vibrated because of the shots (shots West never heard) now seems really suspect. He also claims that he and Truly had a shouted exchange concerning the elevators. This seems suspect as well as Baker has zero recollection of it.
I can't see anything that prevents Piper being spotted in the snipers nest by Rowland.

It's so annoying 

It certainly is! 

If that was Mr Piper, then his steadfast refusal to admit to a) having owned a plaid shirt, b) having looked out the SN window some 15 minutes before the motorcade must have been incredibly annoying for the 'investigating' authorities. An admission from him wouldn't have solved all problems, but it would have helped a lot...

If that wasn't Mr Piper, then his steadfast refusal to admit to being the man just meant he had the guts not to help the authorities explain away a witness's sighting of a non-employee up there.

Whatever the case, Mr Piper is clearly lying about his motorcade-time whereabouts. One need only point to the deal-breaker fact that the first-floor front window from which he claims to have viewed the motorcade gave no view. The damn glass is opaque!

[Alan Ford]

Do you think Piper was munching Williams' chicken in the SN or was it Williams? I think we can agree that Rowland saw a black man in the SN before the shots. Amazing that he could predict A black man would be in the position the remnants of Williams lunch would be originally found in.

Mr Williams describes the oddest culinary confection: a sandwich containing chicken-on-the-bone. I reckon this weird mongrel of Regular Chicken Sandwich and Chicken Bones is the product of Mr Williams' trying to tell the WC what he thinks they need to hear!

 

[Dan O'meara]

Mr Williams describes the oddest culinary confection: a sandwich containing chicken-on-the-bone. I reckon this weird mongrel of Regular Chicken Sandwich and Chicken Bones is the product of Mr Williams' trying to tell the WC what he thinks they need to hear!

 

I couldn't agree more - a sandwich with bones in it? These Texas boys sure are tough.
For me, the most interesting part of 'Chickengate' is the testimony of Deputy Sheriff Luke Mooney, the first person in the sniper's nest after the assassination. In his report given the day after the assassination he describes going into the Nest and states:
 "Inside this cubby hole affair was three more boxes so arranged as to provide what appeared to be a rest for a rifle. On one of these cartons was a half-eaten piece of chicken."
In his WC he displays a great eye for detail and does not waiver from seeing a "partially eaten piece of fried chicken" even though Ball is constantly steering him to say it was just a chicken bone (imo).
This is interesting for two reasons:

It places William's lunch in the sniper's nest
It strongly indicates Williams was interrupted while having his lunch. Something that IMO makes perfect sense.

Speculation Time 
We know from Norman's testimony that he and Jarman don't get up to the fifth floor until minutes before the motorcade arrives. Somewhere around 12:25, possibly later. Williams is up on 6 in the sniper's nest having his lunch when he hears movement downstairs, he abandons his lunch and goes down to 5 to investigate (why else would he just dump his lunch and not take it down. He's worked up an appetite laying flooring all morning). Norman and Jarman should not be there and now have to be controlled.
Afterwards Williams tries to make it sound like he was never on 6 but he has stupidly left the remains of his half eaten lunch up there. If it wasn't for that he would have got away with it (is this starting to sound like Scooby Doo?) After being caught out in a lie on his affidavit (something never mentioned during his WCT) he constantly tries to minimise the time he was up on 6 (3,5 10,15 and 20 minutes). But he doesn't go down to 5 until seconds before the motorcade arrives and there's a couple of clues to back this up:
In his original affidavit he states that just as he arrived on the fifth floor "we saw the President coming around the corner on Houston from Main Street."
In his WCT he describes what he saw of the motorcade:

Mr. WILLIAMS. Well, to the best of my ability, what I remember was first coming off of--I believe it was Main Street--well, two motorcycle policemen came around. I think it was two or maybe three. They came around first. And then I think the President's car followed. And I believe a car was behind it carrying the Vice President, as I remember. I am not sure about it. President Kennedy was sitting in the back seat. I believe his wife was in the back seat. I believe Governor Connally was sitting in the front seat of the car as it was going down the street--I believe

There is no mention of the lead car, probably because he didn't see it. It must be noted that Williams outright lies about finishing his lunch in his WCT.
My problem is that just before the assassination, on the sixth floor I have Williams, Piper, Dougherty, a man with a rifle (could be Dougherty) and lets throw in an assassin or two for good measure. What the heck, lets have Oswald getting the coffees for everyone.

[Colin Crow]

I couldn't agree more - a sandwich with bones in it? These Texas boys sure are tough.
For me, the most interesting part of 'Chickengate' is the testimony of Deputy Sheriff Luke Mooney, the first person in the sniper's nest after the assassination. In his report given the day after the assassination he describes going into the Nest and states:
 "Inside this cubby hole affair was three more boxes so arranged as to provide what appeared to be a rest for a rifle. On one of these cartons was a half-eaten piece of chicken."
In his WC he displays a great eye for detail and does not waiver from seeing a "partially eaten piece of fried chicken" even though Ball is constantly steering him to say it was just a chicken bone (imo).
This is interesting for two reasons:

It places William's lunch in the sniper's nest
It strongly indicates Williams was interrupted while having his lunch. Something that IMO makes perfect sense.

Speculation Time 
We know from Norman's testimony that he and Jarman don't get up to the fifth floor until minutes before the motorcade arrives. Somewhere around 12:25, possibly later. Williams is up on 6 in the sniper's nest having his lunch when he hears movement downstairs, he abandons his lunch and goes down to 5 to investigate (why else would he just dump his lunch and not take it down. He's worked up an appetite laying flooring all morning). Norman and Jarman should not be there and now have to be controlled.
Afterwards Williams tries to make it sound like he was never on 6 but he has stupidly left the remains of his half eaten lunch up there. If it wasn't for that he would have got away with it (is this starting to sound like Scooby Doo?) After being caught out in a lie on his affidavit (something never mentioned during his WCT) he constantly tries to minimise the time he was up on 6 (3,5 10,15 and 20 minutes). But he doesn't go down to 5 until seconds before the motorcade arrives and there's a couple of clues to back this up:
In his original affidavit he states that just as he arrived on the fifth floor "we saw the President coming around the corner on Houston from Main Street."
In his WCT he describes what he saw of the motorcade:

Mr. WILLIAMS. Well, to the best of my ability, what I remember was first coming off of--I believe it was Main Street--well, two motorcycle policemen came around. I think it was two or maybe three. They came around first. And then I think the President's car followed. And I believe a car was behind it carrying the Vice President, as I remember. I am not sure about it. President Kennedy was sitting in the back seat. I believe his wife was in the back seat. I believe Governor Connally was sitting in the front seat of the car as it was going down the street--I believe

There is no mention of the lead car, probably because he didn't see it. It must be noted that Williams outright lies about finishing his lunch in his WCT.
My problem is that just before the assassination, on the sixth floor I have Williams, Piper, Dougherty, a man with a rifle (could be Dougherty) and lets throw in an assassin or two for good measure. What the heck, lets have Oswald getting the coffees for everyone.

Dan, I have published for many years about the chicken lunch and the lies of Williams, Norman and Jarman regarding his movements. You will find there are about half a dozen police officers who described the remnants of chicken lunch in the SN before the arrival of Will Fritz. Gerry Hill was described in No More Silence by a reporter friend as yelling down to those on the street below about the lunch and holding it up.

The significance is that Rowland had already described a gunman in the SW window of the 6th floor to his wife at about 12.15. The owner of the lunch and a gunman were on the floor at the same time and in The southern corner windows of the 6th floor.

Williams initially tried to remove himself from that floor at lunchtime entirely in his statement. No doubt he realised the lunch was felt to be the assassin's. He would eventually have to own up but to his fortune the chicken was put in the bag and moved westward minutes after the shots, initially by Hill. By the time of his first interview Oswald was in custody. Within two days he was dead. By that time the lone Commie nut assassin story was taking shape nicely.

Jarman and Norman tried to claim Williams took the elevator up with them tight up until March when they testified. Suddenly there were only two on their way up to the fifth at about 12.20.