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

OK, I have pretty much completed the new article. I just need to polish it. In copying it here, the images didn't transfer, but that's OK. You've seen them all before. After some final editing, I'll start installing it on the OIC website. 

“Out with Bill Shelley in front”: Oswald’s alibi

On November 20, 1997, the Assassination Record Review Board (ARRB) announced that the person left in charge of the papers of the late Captain Will Fritz had donated his handwritten interrogation notes to them. It was 13 years after his death in 1984.

Officially, Fritz denied taking any notes during the 12  hours of interrogations with Oswald.  But, there was a clue that he did, for in Holmes’ report, he stated that when Fritz asked Oswald, again, about the Hidell identity, Oswald said, sarcastically,

“I am not saying any more about that. You’ve been taking notes, so why don’t you read them and refresh your memory?”

I maintain that it is untenable that Fritz didn’t take the notes during the interrogations for the following reasons:

1) There was reportedly no stenographer or tape recorder in use, and the idea that Fritz would expect he could to keep every detail in his head is preposterous. The notes contain details such as street addresses, dates, times, names, places, a cab fare, etc. It would have taken an encyclopedic memory to retain it all.

2) What’s worse is that Fritz did not say that he transferred his mental contents onto paper at the end of each day. He actually maintained that he wrote nothing down- at all- until days after Oswald was dead; then he got started. That is NOT tenable.

3) The Fritz Notes look like they were written hurriedly in cryptic shorthand, and that defies the idea that he wrote them at his leisure days later.

4) We know that Fritz lied to the Warren Commission. He told them that Oswald told him that he was “eating lunch with other employees” at the time of the assassination.  It’s amazing that he didn’t name those employees, since he was citing them as Oswald’s alibi. And, it’s even more amazing that Warren Commission lawyer Joseph Ball didn’t ask him to name them.  Did I mention that Joseph Ball was a lawyer who knew the importance and significance of a defendant’s alibi? We know from the Fritz Notes that Oswald said he ate his lunch in the 1^st floor lunch room at a time that James Jarman and Harold Norman were milling around- which was well before the assassination since they wound up watching the motorcade from the 5^th floor window, where they were photographed. Bonnie Ray Williams joined them.

    

5) Oswald’s reference to Fritz taking notes, as reported by Postal Inspector Harry Holmes, has tremendous credibility.

So, we can safely dismiss Will Fritz’ claim of not taking interrogation notes during the interrogations.  Chalk it up as another lie.

But, (and this is probably the most important point) since the notes were taken during the interrogations- which is a very hurried situation for writing- and since Fritz was taking them only for himself, with no intention of revealing them to anyone or even admitting their existence to anyone, there is no reason to think that he lied. First, one doesn’t lie to oneself, at least not in that manner; not on paper. And second, there was no time to lie. Oswald was talking; he was writing; and they quickly went on to something else. There was barely enough time to write down what Oswald said- never mind recraft it into something else.  That’s what makes the Fritz Notes so valuable, the fact that they were spontaneous, extemporaneous, and quick.

This article concerns only the first page which contains “out with Bill Shelley in front.” That line was Oswald’s alibi for the shooting, and it is the single most important piece of evidence to be discovered in the JFK assassination since November 22, 1963. 

The Fritz Notes from the first interrogation contains the following lines in this order:

Claims 2^nd floor Coke when Off(icer) came in

To 1^st floor had lunch

Out with Bill Shelley in front

Left work opinion nothing be done that day

Those lines are, obviously, not chronologically correct because Oswald certainly did not eat his lunch after the assassination. That is impossible. As he later explained, he ate his lunch before the assassination in the domino room when Jarman and Norman were there. That was definitely before. But, in addition, there was no time for him to eat it afterwards.  He boarded the bus at 11:44, so how could he possibly eat lunch after the assassination and after his encounter with Truly and Baker?

And that is more proof that the notes were made during the interrogation because an interrogation can easily jump around. It ‘s a conversation between two or more people, and shifts in conversation can easily happen. But, if it was just Fritz writing down the notes by himself, from memory, it would be much more organized and continuous, as presumably his thinking was.

To this day, there are people who try to claim that the notes are chronological- despite the rock-solid argument why they aren’t.  But, desperate people will claim desperate things- out of desperation.

So, the first line: Claims 2^nd floor Coke when Officer came in; that isn’t quite right either. We know for sure that Oswald did NOT have a Coke when the Officer came in. The Officer Marrion Baker said he didn’t, and so did the Superintendent Roy Truly. They didn’t know each other, and it’s foolish to think that they conspired to lie about this. And, it was physically impossible for Oswald to have had a Coke in his hand because he was just reaching the lunch room when Baker saw him. Oswald hadn’t been in it yet. So, how could he possibly have bought a Coke. Oswald went through the vestibule from the office hallway into the lunch room, and Baker followed him by going through the door from the stairwell. They had their encounter in the lunch room. Then Baker and Truly went on their way, and that is when Oswald must have bought a Coke.

The next line: To 1^st floor had lunch; that is what Oswald did after he got off work for lunch at 11:45, and it was definitely before the assassination. As explained, there is NO CHANCE that he did that after the assassination.  

Then comes “out with Bill Shelley in front” which was a reference to the doorway, which was Oswald’s alibi for where he was during the shooting. And, we have two images of him in the doorway during the shooting, one from the Altgens photo, and the other from the Wiegman film.

  

It’s crucial to realize that “out with Bill Shelley in front” must have referred to Oswald’s alibi.

Oswald was being accused of killing the President, which he denied doing. As soon as he denied it, the very next question would have been: “Then, where were you at the time of the shots?” Fritz would have asked that, and if he hadn’t (though he must have, if the interrogation took place in this universe) Oswald would have volunteered it. An innocent suspect always does.

“What?? I didn’t kill him. I couldn’t have. I was at xxx doing yyy at the time. Just ask zzz.”

An innocent defendant will volunteer his alibi even if he isn’t asked. So, for that reason alone, “out with Bill Shelley in front” must refer to Oswald’s whereabouts during the shooting.”

But, in addition to that, the fact is that it must have referred to that because Shelley wasn’t out in front after the assassination. He left quite immediately with Billy Lovelady. They went to the railroad tracks to look around; they were among the throng of people who did. Shelley testified to it. Lovelady testified to it. And even Frazier said they left right away, although he did not. And, from a distance, they saw Baker climbing the steps. Lovelady put it that he walked 20 to 25 steps and then turned around and saw Baker and Truly climbing the steps. And when they were finished looking around the railway area, they returned to the building by going around to the back. They reentered through the back door. Therefore, there is NO CHANCE that Shelley was still out front when Oswald left the building to depart for home at 12:34.

Shelley, himself, said that the last time he saw Oswald before the assassination was downstairs at 11:50, and the first time he saw him after the assassination was at the Dallas PD when Oswald was led in. Shelley denied seeing Oswald out in front after the assassination.

It’s also fair to point out that Shelley also denied seeing Oswald during the assassination, which undoubtedly was a lie. However, it doesn’t change the fact that Oswald cited Shelley because he expected Shelley to confirm that he, Oswald, was there in the doorway at the time.  By citing Shelley, Oswald, in effect, was saying, “Just ask Shelley; he’ll vouch for me.”

Of course, Shelley did not vouch for him, but there is ample evidence that Bill Shelley was part of the conspiracy- the part that involved framing Oswald.

I am not going to go into the whole case against Shelley at this time, but journalist Elsie Glaze did a protracted series of interviews with Shelley in the 1970s  in which Shelley admitted to Glaze that he was briefly arrested after the assassination.

But, the point for this discussion is that, by his own testimony, Shelley was not milling around out in front after the assassination; he left immediately, never to return. So, he could not possibly have been out front when Oswald left for home. Therefore, “out with Bill Shelley in front” must refer to Oswald’s whereabouts DURING the assassination, rather than after.

It is extremely exonerating that Oswald named Shelley because Shelley was one of the few people who were in the doorway. Oswald wouldn’t have guessed at that. Even if he assumed that Shelley must have been outside watching the motorcade, Shelley could have been anywhere outside as far as Oswald knew, if Oswald knew nothing. That is, Shelley could have been anywhere in Dealey Plaza. The accuracy of Oswald naming someone who was actually in that small space of the doorway proves that Oswald had to be there.

FBI agents James Hosty and James Bookhout were both present when Oswald said “out with Bill Shelley in front”.  Hosty didn’t say a word about it.  Bookhout mentioned it in the context of it happening after the assassination, which, as I explained, is impossible.

These are Hosty’s handwritten notes, which do not mention the Shelley alibij, although you’ll notice that he did write down that Oswald denied going to Mexico City.

Hosty mentioned nothing about Shelley in his Warren Commission testimony either.

Bookhout confirmed that Oswald denied going to Mexico City:

Mr. BOOKHOUT - Yes; I recall Hosty asking him if He had ever been in Mexico.
Mr. STERN - What did he say?
Mr. BOOKHOUT - He said he had not. I believe he mentioned he had been in Tijuana, Mexico, I believe, but I believe the question was whether he had ever been in Mexico City.

But, Bookhout didn’t say anything about the Shelley remark in his Warren Commission testimony either.

It was in Bookhout’s revised account of the first interrogation, which he did not write until after Oswald’s death, that he wrote the following:

“OSWALD stated that he took this Coke down to the first floor and stood around and had lunch in the employees’ lunch room. He thereafter went outside and stood around for five or ten minutes with foreman BILL SHELLEY, and thereafter went home.”

That is preposterous! Oswald did not eat his lunch in the employee’s lunch room after the assassination, and he never said he did. Furthermore, if he had, and then he went outside and stood around for 5 or 10 more minutes chewing the fat with Bill Shelley, how could he possibly board a bus at 11:44 that was 7 blocks away? It was impossible, timewise, even if Shelley had been outside at that time, but Shelley most certainly was not. Shelley walked to the railroad tracks with Lovelady, then he went around to the back door, then he came back inside, then he was guarding the freight elevators by order of Roy  Truly. Shelley was nowhere near the front of the building when Oswald left for home.

It is not the least bit surprising that the dis-info Ops try to spin “out with Bill Shelley in front” away from what it is: Oswald’s alibi for the shooting.  But, that is what it is, and it can’t be anything else, especially since Shelley wasn’t out there after the shooting. SHELLEY LEFT RIGHT AWAY, and that is an undisputed fact. Shelley was not out front when Oswald left for home at 12:34. So, Oswald must have been referring to during the motorcade.

This would be powerful evidence if it existed by itself because, again: Oswald cited someone who was in the doorway which he could only have known from being there himself.

But, the fact is, that it does NOT exist by itself. It exists in conjunction with the double photographic evidence of Oswald being captured in the doorway in the Altgens photo and the Wiegman film.

But, there is even more than that. There is also the evidence of Officer Marrion Baker, who said that he saw Oswald entering the vestibule of the lunch room from the office side. It means that Oswald did not use the stairs that Baker and Truly used, which were the real stairs. It means Oswald used the front stairs, which only went up one flight, from 1^st floor to 2^nd. Here is a picture of them:

And those stairs were right next to the doorway.

That he chose to use those front stairs proves that Oswald was in the vicinity of the front of the building when he accessed them. Well, there was only one place there for him to have been: the doorway.

And I’ll point out that that the fact that he used those stairs proves that there was NO WAY he could have come down from the 6^th floor. If he had wings like a birdie he couldn’t have done it.

So, when you put it all together: the images of Oswald in the doorway, the statement of Oswald that he was in the doorway, and the statement of Baker proving that Oswald used the front stairs which were next to the doorway, it means powerfully, irrefutably, and absolutely that Lee Harvey Oswald was standing in the doorway when John F. Kennedy got shot.

“Out with Bill Shelley in front.” It's Oswald’s alibi. It is the most famous and memorable thing he ever said. And it, along with the images of him standing there, cements him in the doorway for all time- like Samson.