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

Here in a larger format is the FBI-written statement of Officer Marrion Baker, where even though Baker was talking and the Agent was writing, somehow, things got written that weren't said. 

It seems like a very simple, straight-forward process in which one person was talking, and the other person was writing it down, yet, extraneous stuff got added- who knows how. 

Yet, strange and inexplicable as it, it's typical for the world of the JFK assassination. Stuff like that happens here, and people don't even question it. It's as though the JFK assassination exists within its own universe, and strange, inexplicable behaviors go along with it. For instance, a lawyer wants to know who someone is in a photo, so instead of asking the guy, he tells him to draw an arrow to himself in the photo. How about: "See this guy? Who is he?" That's the way us folks on Earth would do it.

What's weird about the statement below is how short and terse it is. It doesn't seem like there would be room for error. The first paragraph was written by the FBI Agent. The second paragraph just identified Baker as a Dallas cop. The third paragraph just said that he heard shots, so he entered the building. The fourth paragraph just said that he entered the building to determine if the shots came from there. The fifth paragraph just said that on the second floor he saw a man standing alone in the lunch room. The sixth paragraph just said that he saw no one else in the vicinity of the lunch room at the time. 

That's it. And if that's what Baker said, what would have possessed the FBI agent to add the part about the Coke? This was Baker's statement, which meant that the Agent was to write down what Baker said and only what Baker said. So, where did the Agent come up with the Coke? 

  

So, which was it? Did Baker actually say those things and then change his mind, as many people believe? Did he actually decide, "Nah. I don't think I want to say that. Let's get rid of the Coke." Or did it come from the FBI Agent? 

I can't claim to know, but I'm strongly inclined to think it was the FBI agent. Why? It's because I presume that Baker cared how the statement looked. It was his statement, so if he was changing his mind about what he saw, I would think he would have had it rewritten. Why broadcast to the world that you were changing your story? And how exactly does someone recall seeing Oswald with a Coke one minute and then recall seeing him without a Coke a minute later? Either he had a Coke or he didn't.

But, if Baker never said it, he might not have thought about it because he wasn't changing his mind; he wasn't correcting himself; he was correcting the other guy. He had no apologies to make or any explanations to give. It was the other guy's mistake, not his. 

So, I go with that. I'm content that Baker never said it, and the FBI agent was just another manipulating FBI agent like Hosty and Bookhout and others. I can't claim certainty, but I am very confident about it. This was a statement from 9/23/64. So, it was 10 months after the assassination. But, Baker made a statement on the day of the assassination, and he said nothing about a Coke then either. 

Look at the description that he gave on November 22, 1963.

 He said the man he saw was a white man, approx 30 years old, 5'9", 165 pounds (a large overestimate) with dark hair and wearing a light brown shirt. Now, with all those details, don't you think that if the man was holding a Coke that Baker would have mentioned it.  And remember that Baker was a police officer, and police officers are trained to be observant, especially about people. I think that if he had seen him with a Coke, he would have said so. In fact, I think anybody would. "Who'd you see in there? Just some guy who had a Coke." Having the Coke would be THE distinguishing thing about the person. If it wasn't at the very top of the list of things you would say about him, it would be darn close.  

So no, I don't blame Marrion Baker for the narrative mistakes. I blame the FBI agent.  That is, I don't think Baker told Burnett anything about a Coke and then changed his mind. I think it came from the good FBI agent. But, how Burnett came to write it into the narrative, I haven't the foggiest. That kind of weird stuff only happens with the JFK assassination.