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

Lovelady NEVER said that he was Doorman. Right away, the FBI said he said he was Doorman. But, there’s a big difference between that and putting him in front of a sea of microphones to say it. Why did the FBI have to speak for him? Wasn’t this important enough for him to speak for himself?

Then, in February, the FBI photographed him wearing the striped short-sleeved shirt with the button undone. The reason he unbuttoned his shirt is because Doorman's shirt was unbuttoned, and he recreating Doorman.

You need to understand that they were trying to recreate Doorman in the Altgens photo, and it would have been pointless unless he was wearing Doorman's clothes.  And those were the clothes he told them he wore on 11/22.

But, what about the disconnect between Lovelady’s clothes and Doorman’s? Lovelady surely was aware of it, but he was just following orders. The two FBI agents who were in charge, and they just overlooked it. It just sailed right over their heads. Maybe they had something else on their mind. They surely weren't thinking.

Then came Lovelady's Warren Commission testimony. Wasn’t that the time for him to come clean and say that he was Doorman? But, he didn't, and Joseph Ball NEVER asked him directly. He never pointed to Doorman and asked, "Who is this?"

But, Ball did that with Frazier. He pointed to Doorman and asked, "Who is this?.  Here is the testimony.

Mr. BALL - We have got a picture taken the day of the parade and it shows the President's car going by. Now, take a look at that picture. Can you see your picture any place there?

Mr. FRAZIER - No, sir; I don't, because I was back up in this more or less black area here. Mr. BALL - I see.

Mr. FRAZIER - Because Billy, like I say, is two or three steps down in front of me.

Mr. BALL - Do you recognize this fellow?

Mr. FRAZIER - That is Billy, that is Billy Lovelady.

Mr. BALL - Billy?

Mr. FRAZIER – Right.

Mr. BALL - Let's take a marker and make an arrow down that way. That mark is Billy Lovelady? Mr. FRAZIER - Right.

There, Frazier said he was "back up in the black area." Then shortly afterwards, he said he was "one step down from the top of the steps." But, that's just one contradiction. First, he said that Billy was two or three steps down in front of himself. That means Billy could not have been Doorman because Doorman was standing on the top level.

Ball must have pointed to Doorman when he asked, "Do you recognize this fellow?" So, when Frazier said he was Lovelady, why didn't Ball come back with, "But, I thought you said Billy was 2 or 3 steps down on in front of you?"

But, Ball didn't reply that way. He was just trying to get what he needed from Frazier and probably realized he was, mentally, a basket case.

And why was Frazier in such bad condition mentally? I have to wonder if they were drugging him.

But, this certainly establishes that Ball asked Frazier directly who Doorman was. It's what he wanted to know, so he asked.

But, why didn't Ball do the same with Lovelady? He didn't.

Mr. BALL - I have got a picture here, Commission Exhibit 369. Are you on that picture?

Mr. LOVELADY - Yes, sir.

Mr. BALL - Take a pen or pencil and mark an arrow where you are.

Mr. LOVELADY - Where I thought the shots are?

Mr. BALL - No; you in the picture.

Mr. LOVELADY - Oh, here (indicating).

Mr. BALL - Draw an arrow down to that; do it in the dark. You got an arrow in the dark and one in the white pointing toward you. Where were you when the picture was taken?

Mr. LOVELADY - Right there at the entrance of the building standing on the step, would be here (indicating).

Mr. BALL - You were standing on which step?

Mr. LOVELADY - It would be your top level.

Mr. BALL - The top step you were standing there? Mr. LOVELADY - Right.

So, why didn't Ball do the same with Lovelady as he did with Frazier? Why didn't he point to Doorman and ask, "Who is this?" Or, he could have asked, "Is this you?" Or, he could have said, "Point to yourself in the photo." Any of those would have worked. But, Ball instead went the non-verbal route, asking Lovelady to draw an arrow to himself, WITHOUT SAYING IT.

Why not say it first, and then draw the arrow? Why skip verbal communication and go right to arrow-drawing?

IT'S BECAUSE BALL DIDN'T KNOW WHAT LOVELADY WAS GOING TO SAY. Apparently, he had been warned that Lovelady was balking about being Doorman. So, having him draw an arrow instead was a safety precaution.

And note that Ball told Lovelady to draw his arrow IN THE DARK.  Realize that "dark" was another word for "black" and the writing instrument was also black. So, it was black on black, which would have been barely visible at all.  Why did Ball do that? It's because he was scared of what Lovelady might do.

And, the fact is that Lovelady drew his arrow to Black Hole Man, the man who was visoring his eyes with his hands, though his head is missing. But fortunately, his arrow registered a little on the arm of Black Hole Man, so we can see it.  I’m attaching it.

So, the big arrow in this photo is Frazier's arrow, and that tiny little black mark on the forearm of Black Hole Man is the tail of Lovelady's arrow.

Fast forward to 1967 and the CBS JFK Special., They paid for Lovelady to return to Dallas from Colorado where he had moved with his family. Even though Lovelady had worked for $1.11/hr at the TSBD, and couldn't pay a $75 fine he owed in Maryland in January 1963, Lovelady had the money to start his own freight hauling company in Colorado. CBS had planned a big segment on Doorman, including an extensive interview of Lovelady. They did the interview. But, because of how it came out, they not only trashed the interview; they trashed the whole segment. Not a word was said about Doorman. It was all buried.

Fast forward to 1976 and the HSCA. The HSCA didn't want to talk to Lovelady either. The word was out about him. Instead they sent their lawyer Ken Brooten along with Robert Grodin to go talk to him in Colorado. Lovelady must have begged Brooten not to force him to go to Washington. Keep in mind that Brooten subpoenaed a great many people. But, in Lovelady's case, he not only didn't subpoena him, he quit his job as HSCA lawyer to become Lovelady's lawyer.

But, why did Lovelady need a lawyer? He wasn't under indictment for anything. He wasn't being accused of a crime. He wasn't being threatened with arrest. So, why did he need a lawyer? And why would Brooten quit his job to be his lawyer? Have you ever heard of anything so weird? For a government lawyer to quit his job to become the lawyer of a witness in the investigation he formerly was running?

But, that kept Lovelady from having to go to Washington to say that he was Doorman. And then, when the HSCA Final Report came out in January 1979, Lovelady conveniently died a few days before of a fatal first heart attack at the age of 41.

So, how many times, in total, did Lovelady say that he was Doorman? I don't mean someone else saying that he said it. That's what you call hearsay, and it's not even allowed in court. I mean where we can see and hear Lovelady saying that he was Doorman.

The answer is zero. It never happened. And the fact is that Lovelady spent the rest of his life running away from his Doorman nightmare.  

He died rich. His wife Patricia inherited not only the trucking business, but vast real estate holdings throughout Colorado. Yeah, he went far for a guy who was making $1.11 an hour at the TSBD,.  But, what a miserable life.  Even if he had as much money as Elon Musk, I'd still pity him. Lovelady did not want to lie about being Doorman, and it surely anguished him every day for the rest of his life.

Billy Nolan Lovelady was NOT Doorman. Lee Harvey Oswald was, and he told the police that he was  “out with Bill Shelley in front.” He could only have known that if he had been there himself, in the doorway.