Chapter 11: The Man In The Doorway
by David Wrone, synopsis by Ralph Cinque
28 July 2012
With Dr. Wrone's permission, I am providing this synopsis of Chapter 11 of his outstanding book, The Zapruder Film: Reframing JFK's Assassination. The chapter is entitled "The Man In The Doorway" which was the original name of the Altgens figure whom we refer to on this site as Doorman. The later designation arose simply out of the need for brevity. Dr. Wrone solved that problem a different way by referring to Doorman as MITD.
Dr. Wrone begins Chapter 11 by laying out the Doorman controversy as it arose after the assassination, which you are familiar with by now. But, here is an interesting tidbit provided by Dr. Wrone that I was unaware: it was found that the Altgens photo was taken simultaneously with frame 255 of the Zapruder film, which you can see at this link:
Dr. Wrone begins Chapter 11 by laying out the Doorman controversy as it arose after the assassination, which you are familiar with by now. But, here is an interesting tidbit provided by Dr. Wrone that I was unaware: it was found that the Altgens photo was taken simultaneously with frame 255 of the Zapruder film, which you can see at this link:
It was very interesting to read Dr. Wrone's treatment of the timeline for Oswald's encounter with Truly and Baker in the 2nd floor lunchroom after the assassination. I must admit that the good professor has an impressive way with words. Consider:
"The bogus reconstruction using a stand-in and timed by a stopwatch was unblushingly corrupt."
"The bogus reconstruction using a stand-in and timed by a stopwatch was unblushingly corrupt."
Unblushingly corrupt. Now that's an apt description. Oswald had to beat Baker to the lunchroom and get there after presumably hiding his rifle a long distance from the Sniper's Nest. Two attempts were made by an Oswald stand-in, and I have a hunch he was carefully chosen for speed. The first attempt took 1 minute, 14 seconds, while the second took 1 minute, 18 seconds. Dr. Wrone said that either was too long to enable Oswald to beat Baker to the lunchroom. However, what made it worse was that they skipped the part about Oswald hiding the rifle. Instead, they just had the stand-in conveniently hand it off to a police officer before rocketing down the stairs. But in fact, the rifle was well hidden within a stack of boxes that was high and deep. It would have taken some time to stash it away back there. Oswald would have had to climb over the wall of boxes- twice. In addition, Dr. Wrone says that there is evidence that the shooter spent time lingering at the window, wiping down the rifle to clean it of fingerprints, squeezing out of the tight Sniper's nest, and more. All of these considerations were ignored by the Warren Commission.
Furthermore, if Oswald had done all that, don't you think he would have been a little bit breathless? He wasn't.
Dr. Wrone: "To have the stand-in just pass off the rifle to simulate the hiding of it is a studied insult to the evidence but also the only method that would allow the re-enactors to get Oswald's stand-in to the second floor before Baker--which they still could not do."
Dr. Wrone wisely points out that if Oswald had done all that, then he surely would have left fingerprints all over the boxes. But, they never checked for that. Why? You know- the fear of not finding any.
The Warren Commission completely dismissed the testimony of Jack Dougherty who was working on the 5th floor near the stairs. Jack heard no one coming down those stairs. They also ignored the testimony of two 4th floor secretaries: Sylvia Styles and Vickie Adams, who were also close to the stairs. In fact, they both ran down the stairs themselves after the last shot. Guess who they never encountered there?
Looking at it from the other direction, Dr. Wrone determined that, based on the work of Harold Roffman, Baker could not have taken longer than 1 minute and 10 seconds after the last shot to reach the 2nd floor lunchroom. It may have been less, but it could not have been more. And that means that there is simply no way that Oswald- as the 6th floor gunman- could have beat him to it. Even the "artificial reconstruction" (as Dr. Wrone described the WC testing) was inadequate to get him there in time.
Now, here is something that is cute. We all know that Oswald passed the paraffin test- he had no nitrates on his cheek. The WC dismissed the results saying that "a positive reaction is valueless and unreliable". But, Dr. Wrone points out that this was not a positive reaction; it was a negative one. And as the good professor put it: "The absence of traces is exculpatory. Oswald's cheek had none. He had not fired a rifle."
And note that the testing revealed that the Mannlicher-Carcano rifle tended to "deposit heavy residues" on the cheeks.
Dr. Wrone named 6 witnesses who saw Oswald on the first floor close to the time of the shooting: Junior Jarman, Harold Norman, Carolyn Arnold, Robert MacNeil, Pierce Allman, and Terry Ford. The last sighting was that of Carolyn Arnold at 12:25. But, her testimony was corrupted by the FBI (they tried to change it to 12:15), and in the end, the Warren Report did not mention Carolyn Arnold- at all. The Commision's 26 volumes never mention her testimony, even though she did testify.
Next, Dr. Wrone dives into the Altgens photo. He starts by charging the WC with three derelictions of duty:
1) they should have obtained large close-up photos of Oswald and Lovelady to compare to Doorman- but they didn't.
2) they should have asked everybody at the TSBD about Doorman's identity, but they didn't. They only asked three people: Bill Shelley, Billy Lovelady, and Buell Frazier, all of whose testimony was "delayed, confused, and tainted" according to Dr. Wrone.
3) they should have utilized Oswald's shirt to prove identification.
Dr. Wrone addresses the controversy about Lovelady's various shirt claims. He provides a quote from Lovelady in which Billy said that he wore a "red and white striped sport shirt buttoned near the neck." Buttoned? Did he say buttoned? Excuse me, but Doorman was majorly unbuttoned. Of course, we know about that striped shirt, and we have posted pictures of that striped shirt. And in addition to everything else, it was short-sleeved.
Next, Dr. Wrone addresses the so-called "Martin post-assassination footage" of Lovelady milling around outside the TSBD after the assassination. Dr. Wrone reveals that the Martin film left Martin's hands almost immediately. He sold it to Life magazine. And then on December 17, the FBI "borrowed" it from Life magazine. Eventually, a local Dallas group was allowed to include part of the Martin film in a documentary that was a hodge-podge of 18 films. That part was the 6 second clip of Lovelady milling around outside the TSBD after the assassination, and as you know, we believe that he was an imposter. However, this information from Dr. Wrone about the handling of the Martin film tells us that there was indeed time and opportunity to corrupt that film. Note also that Billy Lovelady's own testimony of his actions after the assassination rule out any possibility that he was milling around out in front of the TSBD after the shooting, as he left for the railroad tracks immediately with Bill Shelley, and upon returning, they re-entered the building through the back door. Both Lovelady and Shelley said that. And, as we demonstrated on the Lovelady page, anatomically, Gorilla Man could not have been Lovelady.
But, I especially appreciate this line by Dr. Wrone: "Notably, neither the striped shirt nor the check shirt resembled the shirt on the Man in the Doorway." So, it turns out they had a phony guy wearing a phony shirt making a phony movie. The most you can say is that the shirt they used was closer to Doorman's than the short-sleeved striped shirt that Lovelady actually wore. But, it wasn't close enough- not by a longshot. It was not the same shirt.
Dr. Wrone weighs in that even the notorious shirt pattern was a better match to Oswald's than to Lovelady's- even granting the check one as the one he wore. Dr. Wrone said that Oswald's shirt had a "grass leaf pattern, essentially brown, with gold flecks through it." Lovelady's check shirt had "two-inch dark blue (almost black) and red squares or checks, separated by thin white lines." We have pointed out that if you focus on the upper right side of Doorman's shirt, you can see that it was a perfect match to Oswald's.
Then, Dr. Wrone pointed out that in comparing Doorman's shirt to Lovelady's, "the collars of the two shirts "furl" differently. Furl. I never thought of using that word, but it's a good one. What Dr. Wrone calls a furl, I called a pseudo-lapel. "Finally, Oswald's shirt is loose and baggy (like that of the Man in the Doorway), whereas Lovelady's has a more tailored fit." That's well put too.
Here is the last paragraph of Chapter 11:
"Such persuasive evidence supports Oswald's location in the doorway of the TSBD viewing the motorcade at the moment the President was shot. Conceivably, Oswald, himself, tried to explain this and urged his captors to confirm his story by locating witnesses who would verify his location in the doorway and lunchroom, before and after. Just as likely, amid the chaos of his capture and incarceration, and in the face of official pressure to pin the assassin's badge on him, such protests of provable innocence were brushed aside as the rush to judgment gained momentum."
That applies to the Fritz notes in which Detective Will Fritz wrote down that Oswald told him that he was "out with Bill Shelley in front." And we know beyond all doubt that he was referring to DURING the assassination and not AFTER. Oswald could not have meant being "out with Bill Shelley in front" AFTER because Shelley wasn't out there after. There is no way that Oswald, as he was leaving, encountered Shelley outside because Shelley wasn't outside at that time. And there was no reason for Oswald to lie about that. He wasn't committing a crime in leaving, and he did not need an alibi for it.
And why would Fritz be more concerned about where Oswald was AFTER the assassination than DURING? If he was going to write something down, wouldn't it be DURING?
I want to thank Dr. Wrone for his advice and support, and I highly recommend his book: The Zapruder Film: Reframing JFK's Assassination.
Furthermore, if Oswald had done all that, don't you think he would have been a little bit breathless? He wasn't.
Dr. Wrone: "To have the stand-in just pass off the rifle to simulate the hiding of it is a studied insult to the evidence but also the only method that would allow the re-enactors to get Oswald's stand-in to the second floor before Baker--which they still could not do."
Dr. Wrone wisely points out that if Oswald had done all that, then he surely would have left fingerprints all over the boxes. But, they never checked for that. Why? You know- the fear of not finding any.
The Warren Commission completely dismissed the testimony of Jack Dougherty who was working on the 5th floor near the stairs. Jack heard no one coming down those stairs. They also ignored the testimony of two 4th floor secretaries: Sylvia Styles and Vickie Adams, who were also close to the stairs. In fact, they both ran down the stairs themselves after the last shot. Guess who they never encountered there?
Looking at it from the other direction, Dr. Wrone determined that, based on the work of Harold Roffman, Baker could not have taken longer than 1 minute and 10 seconds after the last shot to reach the 2nd floor lunchroom. It may have been less, but it could not have been more. And that means that there is simply no way that Oswald- as the 6th floor gunman- could have beat him to it. Even the "artificial reconstruction" (as Dr. Wrone described the WC testing) was inadequate to get him there in time.
Now, here is something that is cute. We all know that Oswald passed the paraffin test- he had no nitrates on his cheek. The WC dismissed the results saying that "a positive reaction is valueless and unreliable". But, Dr. Wrone points out that this was not a positive reaction; it was a negative one. And as the good professor put it: "The absence of traces is exculpatory. Oswald's cheek had none. He had not fired a rifle."
And note that the testing revealed that the Mannlicher-Carcano rifle tended to "deposit heavy residues" on the cheeks.
Dr. Wrone named 6 witnesses who saw Oswald on the first floor close to the time of the shooting: Junior Jarman, Harold Norman, Carolyn Arnold, Robert MacNeil, Pierce Allman, and Terry Ford. The last sighting was that of Carolyn Arnold at 12:25. But, her testimony was corrupted by the FBI (they tried to change it to 12:15), and in the end, the Warren Report did not mention Carolyn Arnold- at all. The Commision's 26 volumes never mention her testimony, even though she did testify.
Next, Dr. Wrone dives into the Altgens photo. He starts by charging the WC with three derelictions of duty:
1) they should have obtained large close-up photos of Oswald and Lovelady to compare to Doorman- but they didn't.
2) they should have asked everybody at the TSBD about Doorman's identity, but they didn't. They only asked three people: Bill Shelley, Billy Lovelady, and Buell Frazier, all of whose testimony was "delayed, confused, and tainted" according to Dr. Wrone.
3) they should have utilized Oswald's shirt to prove identification.
Dr. Wrone addresses the controversy about Lovelady's various shirt claims. He provides a quote from Lovelady in which Billy said that he wore a "red and white striped sport shirt buttoned near the neck." Buttoned? Did he say buttoned? Excuse me, but Doorman was majorly unbuttoned. Of course, we know about that striped shirt, and we have posted pictures of that striped shirt. And in addition to everything else, it was short-sleeved.
Next, Dr. Wrone addresses the so-called "Martin post-assassination footage" of Lovelady milling around outside the TSBD after the assassination. Dr. Wrone reveals that the Martin film left Martin's hands almost immediately. He sold it to Life magazine. And then on December 17, the FBI "borrowed" it from Life magazine. Eventually, a local Dallas group was allowed to include part of the Martin film in a documentary that was a hodge-podge of 18 films. That part was the 6 second clip of Lovelady milling around outside the TSBD after the assassination, and as you know, we believe that he was an imposter. However, this information from Dr. Wrone about the handling of the Martin film tells us that there was indeed time and opportunity to corrupt that film. Note also that Billy Lovelady's own testimony of his actions after the assassination rule out any possibility that he was milling around out in front of the TSBD after the shooting, as he left for the railroad tracks immediately with Bill Shelley, and upon returning, they re-entered the building through the back door. Both Lovelady and Shelley said that. And, as we demonstrated on the Lovelady page, anatomically, Gorilla Man could not have been Lovelady.
But, I especially appreciate this line by Dr. Wrone: "Notably, neither the striped shirt nor the check shirt resembled the shirt on the Man in the Doorway." So, it turns out they had a phony guy wearing a phony shirt making a phony movie. The most you can say is that the shirt they used was closer to Doorman's than the short-sleeved striped shirt that Lovelady actually wore. But, it wasn't close enough- not by a longshot. It was not the same shirt.
Dr. Wrone weighs in that even the notorious shirt pattern was a better match to Oswald's than to Lovelady's- even granting the check one as the one he wore. Dr. Wrone said that Oswald's shirt had a "grass leaf pattern, essentially brown, with gold flecks through it." Lovelady's check shirt had "two-inch dark blue (almost black) and red squares or checks, separated by thin white lines." We have pointed out that if you focus on the upper right side of Doorman's shirt, you can see that it was a perfect match to Oswald's.
Then, Dr. Wrone pointed out that in comparing Doorman's shirt to Lovelady's, "the collars of the two shirts "furl" differently. Furl. I never thought of using that word, but it's a good one. What Dr. Wrone calls a furl, I called a pseudo-lapel. "Finally, Oswald's shirt is loose and baggy (like that of the Man in the Doorway), whereas Lovelady's has a more tailored fit." That's well put too.
Here is the last paragraph of Chapter 11:
"Such persuasive evidence supports Oswald's location in the doorway of the TSBD viewing the motorcade at the moment the President was shot. Conceivably, Oswald, himself, tried to explain this and urged his captors to confirm his story by locating witnesses who would verify his location in the doorway and lunchroom, before and after. Just as likely, amid the chaos of his capture and incarceration, and in the face of official pressure to pin the assassin's badge on him, such protests of provable innocence were brushed aside as the rush to judgment gained momentum."
That applies to the Fritz notes in which Detective Will Fritz wrote down that Oswald told him that he was "out with Bill Shelley in front." And we know beyond all doubt that he was referring to DURING the assassination and not AFTER. Oswald could not have meant being "out with Bill Shelley in front" AFTER because Shelley wasn't out there after. There is no way that Oswald, as he was leaving, encountered Shelley outside because Shelley wasn't outside at that time. And there was no reason for Oswald to lie about that. He wasn't committing a crime in leaving, and he did not need an alibi for it.
And why would Fritz be more concerned about where Oswald was AFTER the assassination than DURING? If he was going to write something down, wouldn't it be DURING?
I want to thank Dr. Wrone for his advice and support, and I highly recommend his book: The Zapruder Film: Reframing JFK's Assassination.
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