Oswald in the doorway: the blog of the Oswald Innocence Campaign, by Ralph Cinque

Robert Harris

I haven't been following this issue of Oswald as Prayer Man too much, and I suspect this has been mentioned before. If so, please consider it as another reminder that Mr. Oswald disagreed with folks who think he was outside during the shooting. 

LEE HARVEY OSWALD: I don’t know what this is all about. 
1st REPORTER: Did you kill the president? 
LEE HARVEY OSWALD: No, sir, I didn’t. People keep— [crosstalk ] Sir? 
1st REPORTER: Did you shoot the president? 
LEE HARVEY OSWALD: I work in that building. 
1st REPORTER: Were you in the building at the time? 
LEE HARVEY OSWALD: Naturally, if I work in that building, yes, sir. 

Ralph Cinque:

We have been through this before. First, nobody's lip-flapping- not even Oswald's- can overrule the fact that we can see him outside- in both the Altgens photo and the Wiegman film. If you saw an image of Richard Nixon outside would you say it wasn't him because of that exchange?

Second, if you've ever been to that doorway, it's like a cave. Oswald was surrounded by the building on 5 sides: above, below, left, right, and back. And to the front it was like a cave, a deep cave. If you were in a deep cave, would you describe yourself as being "outside"?
 
Third, the issue was framed by the reporter, not by Oswald. What if the reporter had asked, "Were you outside with the others at the time?" What would Oswald have said? I don't know, and neither does anyone else.

Fourth, the importance of distinguishing between being inside or outside those double doors hinges on the existence of the Altgens photo, and the fact that Oswald was captured in that photograph. But, Oswald didn't know that.

Fifth, the progression doesn't even make logical sense:

Reporter: Did you shoot the President?
Oswald: I work in that building.

Questions were being hurled at him from all directions. Don't you think it's likely that Oswald was responding to someone else who asked a different question?

I want to say for the record that I think Robert Harris is being childish and irrational in thinking that parsing those words in any way negates the evidence of the photographs where we can see that not Prayer Man but Doorway Man is wearing Oswald's distinctive clothing, has Oswald's build, has Oswald's facial features, and is assuming Oswald's stance of crossing his hands in front, left over right. It is outrageous to deny all that.