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

It have been reminded that some people don't believe that Oswald went to the 2nd floor lunch room and had an encounter with Baker and Truly after the assassination. They think it's a fabrication. They think something else happened, such as that Oswald hid in the broom closet. But, I am going to provide multiple reasons to believe that the 2nd floor lunch room encounter did happen. 

1. It is in the Fritz Notes that Oswald said that he encountered a police officer in the 2nd floor lunch room. So, Oswald said it, and there is no reason to think that he lied. 

2. Officer Marrion Baker is an unassailable witness. He was just a lowly motorcycle cop, and there is absolutely no reason to believe that he was involved in the conspiracy. 

3. However, there is every reason to believe that Roy Truly was involved in the conspiracy. He worked high up at the TSBD, a CIA front company, whose very move to 411 Elm was predicated by the coming assassination. And you know Truly was dirty because when he saw Oswald in the lunch room with Baker, he brushed him off, saying, "he works for me," but shortly afterwards, he reports Oswald to the police as a suspect for not being present at a company roll call.  So, Truly I don't trust at all. However, there is no evidence that Truly and Baker knew each other beforehand, and even afterwards, they referred to each other as "police officer" and "building manager" and there is no reason to believe they could have conspired to lie together.  It takes a hell of a lot of trust and familiarity to do that, which they did not have. 

4. Geraldean Reid confirmed Oswald's presence on the 2nd floor, and carrying a Coke, which he said he got, and that was right after he left the lunch room and was proceeding back down the way he came up, though the office area. And note that Oswald got the Coke AFTER his encounter with Truly and Baker. Both of them said that Oswald's hands were empty when they saw him, and again: they did not know each other and could not have conspired to lie together. And there is no doubt about this because Baker saw Oswald BEFORE he even entered the lunch room, and Oswald would not have had time to get a Coke in the few seconds it took Baker to follow him there. So, the Coke had to come after the encounter. 

5. We are talking about the interval between these two images, and they are both of Oswald in the doorway. One took place during the shooting, several seconds before the fatal head shot, and the other took place several minutes after the assassination, as Oswald was leaving the building for home. So, say 12:34. I realize that most people say that that photo was taken at 2:00, but I say they are wrong. 

The match to Oswald is too good. So, I believe that is Oswald on the right because his person and his clothes are an excellent match. and I believe he is talking to Police inspector J. Herbert Sawyer. 

After conversing with Sawyer briefly, Oswald proceeded to go home, walking down Elm St., boarding a bus briefly, and then taking a cab. So, the question is: where was he and what was he doing from 12:30 to 12:34?  So, from being in the doorway to being back in the doorway, where was Oswald and what was he doing? And the answer is that he went to the 2nd floor lunch room, had an encounter with Baker and Truly, then he got himself a Coke, then he passed Mrs. Reid, and then he was photographed again in the doorway conversing with Sawyer. It works; it fits; the timing for it is perfect. And most important, THERE IS NO ALTERNATIVE. Oswald most certainly did not remain in the doorway that whole time. And the only other scenario that I have heard is that he was hiding in a broom closet, which is ridiculous. So, there is no alternative to Oswald making the trek to the lunch room- and back. 

Now, I realize that there is a first affidavit by Baker on the 22nd which makes no mention of a lunch room and speaks of an encounter on the "third or fourth floor". I don't have an explanation for it, and it is baffling. But, the very next day, Saturday Nov 23, Truly gave his affidavit and he described the lunch room encounter, and he could not have been lying. Why? BECAUSE OSWALD WAS STILL ALIVE. If it hadn't happened, he would have known that Oswald would have denied it, which would have put him in deep trouble. So, Truly would not have created a bogus encounter for Oswald so long as Oswald was alive. And even if you assume that Truly knew that, somehow, Oswald was going to be killed- no! You can't do it. And that's because until the man is dead, nobody knows. They thought they were going to get him killed in the theater, but that didn't work out. And I'm sure there were a lot of people who assumed the CIA would succeed at killing Castro, but you know, of course, that that never happened. So, I say that Truly would not have fabricated that story so long as Oswald was alive. 

So, we have to go by the weight of the evidence, and it is clearly in favor of the lunch room encounter having happened. And remember who we are: we are Oswald defenders. And that means we need to believe him. And he said that the encounter happened. It's in the Fritz Notes, right above "out with Bill Shelley in front" and we sure as hell believe that.

  
So, this is a judgment call, and I say that good judgment calls for accepting that the 2nd floor lunch room encounter happened. I'm sure Occom would.