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

So, Carolyn Arnold's 1978 revisionism is completely nonsensical because Oswald definitely ate lunch downstairs and not on the 2nd floor. Whoever she saw eating or sitting in a booth with the remnants of his lunch in front of him was not Oswald. 

And, he wasn't drinking a Coke either because she said nothing about a Coke, and we know Oswald got a Coke after his encounter with Truly and Baker. They both said he had no Coke, but then Mrs. Reid saw him with a "full" Coke. And Oswald himself did admit to getting one. So, if he got a Coke at 12:32, which he did, we can't assume he also got one at 12:25. Not even the worst Coke fiend in the world is going to drink them down at that pace. 

So, if Oswald did not go to the 2nd floor lunch to eat or drink at 12:25, and he didn't, there is no reason to assume or believe that he went there at all at that time. 

He went from the Domino room to the doorway to the 2nd floor lunch room.  Period. That's the order; that's the sequence. 

So, what happened to Carolyn Arnold? I'll tell you what I think. I think she cracked up from the pressure. 

When she told investigators on November 26 that she saw Oswald between the double doors, that is, at the doorway, it was devastating to the official story. Even though they listed the time as 1:15 and not 1:25, it was still devastating. Oswald had a lot to do. He had to go up there and retrieve the rifle. He had to assemble it. And since no screwdriver was found, the presumption is that he used a dime as a screwdriver. That could not have been very fast or efficient. He also had to adjust the scope and install the ammunition clip. He also had to set up the Sniper's nest with boxes of books.   

That's a lot to do. So, even if she saw him at 12:15, it looks rotten for the official story.  

So, what do you think happened to her after that? I suspect she was visited by FBI agents who informed her that she was mistaken, that she didn't see Oswald between the double doors at 12:15 and certainly not at 12:25, that it must have been someone else she saw. 

And, I dare say that they affected her because 4 months later, in March 1964, she gave another statement to the FBI, and this time she said nothing about seeing Oswald between the double doors or anywhere else. But, she repeated her original story otherwise, except that she moved the time to 12:25. And this time, they let her get away with it because she had taken Oswald out of the story, and therefore, it didn't matter that she said 12:25.

But, even after that, they may have kept tabs on her to make sure she wasn't saying anything to anyone about seeing Oswald at 12:25 just inside the doorway. And that may have done a number on her mind. Remember she was young, just 19 at the time of the assassination, and 20 when she made her second statement to the FBI in March 1964. 

So, how did she come up with the idea that she saw Oswald sitting at booth in the 2nd floor lunch room in front of food at 12:25? I don't know. How did Buell Frazier come up with the idea that Oswald told him that he was bringing back curtain rods? Oswald could not have told him that. That is, if you know full well that Oswald didn't kill Kennedy and didn't bring a rifle to work, then there is no basis for him to have said anything to Frazier about curtain rods. That was supposedly his excuse for carrying a large bag containing a rifle, but if he didn't have a large bag containing a rifle, then he didn't need an excuse. People don't lie for no reason.

Oswald denied ever saying that to Frazier, and he insisted that all he brought with him to work was his lunch. And, if you believe Oswald was innocent, you really have to believe him about this because you have no reason not to. So, where did Frazier get the idea about curtain rods?

Again, I don't know. But, he, like Carolyn Arnold, was only 19 years old. The pressure on him was enormous. The walls were closing in on him. I don't know if he invented it or if someone else planted the idea in his head, but one way or another, it got implanted and then fixed in his brain.

But, Carolyn's original statement had to be her own. NOBODY would have planted that idea in her head, that she saw Oswald just inside the doorway at 12:15 or 12:25. And there is no reason to think that she invented it either. She didn't dream it up. It must have happened. To me, it is a very important piece of evidence, and it merges and conforms with Oswald's statement about being "out with Bill Shelley in front."