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

This is an interesting courtroom questioning of (former) Officer Marrion Baker. It was during the mock trial of LHO in 1984. Bugliosi for the prosecution goes first, followed by Spence for the defense. 

I am going to give you the link to it, but let me make some comments first. First, amazingly, Baker was unfamiliar with the Altgens photo and the Man in the Doorway. Apparently, he didn't recognize it, and he didn't know anything about it. Spence asked him if he recognized the man, and Baker said that he looked like Oswald. But, Baker didn't realize at the time that it was taken during the assassination. Spence put up a larger version of it to show him that JFK was in the picture reacting to being shot. 

So, the point is that here you've got Marrion Baker knowing nothing about the Altgens photo and the controversy surrounding it who, based on looks alone, identified the Man in the Doorway as Oswald. He said he looked like Oswald, which was about as strong a statement as he could make under the circumstances. 

Second, he explained with the help of a diagram where he was when he saw Oswald, and he was on the landing in the corner next to the doorway to the 2nd floor lunch room. I don't think there is any good reason to doubt it. Why think that Marrion Baker was a bold-faced liar? You think he was part of the conspiracy? He was just a motorcycle cop. 

Finally, I want to point out that Bugliosi asked Baker if he recalled how Oswald was dressed, and Baker said "No, Sir" and I'll admit that that bothers me a lot.  To remember seeing Oswald at all involves a visual memory. In other words, there has got to be something that he "sees" in his mind. And I'm pretty sure he didn't see Oswald naked in his mind. Therefore, he had to have some sense about what Oswald was wearing. And, Baker described Oswald's clothes in his WC testimony, saying that he wore a "light brown jacket" with a white shirt underneath it. 

Mr. BELIN - Did you notice what clothes the man was wearing as he came up to you?
Mr. BAKER - At that particular time I was looking at his face, and it seemed to me like he had a light brown jacket on and maybe some kind of white-looking shirt.

He was describing the same clothes that Oswald wore in the doorway and which he also was wearing at the time of his arrest except that he referred to Oswald's shirt as a jacket. It's not that surprising because it had the lay of a jacket. 

Doesn't that look more like a jacket than a shirt? So, that's the "light brown jacket" and the "white-looking" shirt underneath was his t-shirt. 

Here is Baker's testimony at the mock trial:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ccICgvkEQio