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

In Case Closed, the shrewd, crafty Gerald Posner tried to give Oswald the time and opportunity to assemble the rifle and build Sniper's Nest by relying heavily on the testimony of Charles Givens. I'm here to tell you that that testimony is bogus. 

And, I am going to lay out the case why Givens' testimony is NOT credible and should not be believed. And it's a very strong case. 

So, what did Givens claim? Givens claimed that he came down the elevator with the others, and they saw Oswald waiting for the elevator on the 5th floor, but they didn't stop for him because they were in a race. This was when the lunch break at 11:45.  

But, when he got downstairs, Given realized that he left his cigarettes in his jacket, which was still up on the 6th floor. So, alone, he went back up to the 6th floor and found Oswald there, alone, and in the vicinity of the Sniper's Nest. They exchanged a few words, and then Givens went back down alone, with Oswald remaining up there and not indicating when he was going to come down.  

So, what's wrong with it? First, Givens didn't say anything about it on November 22 in his affidavit. It says he worked until about 11:30 and then he came down. He said nothing about going back up to the 6th floor. He just said he took his lunch period. 

Don't you think it was important enough to mention that he saw Oswald at the scene of the crime half an hour before it happened? 

Second, Given's story, which was given on April 8, 1964, conflicts directly with the testimony Bill Shelley, who said that he saw Oswald on the first floor by the pay phone at 11:50. 

Mr. BALL. On November 22, 1963, the day the President was shot, when is the last time you saw Oswald? 
Mr. SHELLEY. It was 10 or 15 minutes before 12.
Mr. BALL. Where?
Mr. SHELLEY. On the first floor over near the telephone.
Mr. BALL. Did you ever see him again?
Mr. SHELLEY. At the police station when they brought him in. 

Keep in mind that I am certain that Shelley lied about not seeing Oswald after 11:50.  That's because Shelley was in the doorway at the same time as Oswald, and Oswald said so himself. He used Shelley as his alibi.  But, I have no reason to think that Shelley lied about seeing Oswald at 11:50. 

Then, there is the testimony of Eddie Piper:

Eddie Piper:

Mr. BALL. Was that the last time you saw him (Oswald)?
Mr. PIPER. Just at 12 o'clock.
Mr. BALL. Where were you at 12 o'clock?
Mr. PIPER. Down on the first floor. 

But, the strongest indication of all that Givens was lying through his teeth- that he was put up to tell that bogus story- comes from Lee Harvey Oswald himself. Multiple witnesses, including Billy Lovelady, stated that they passed Oswald when going down in the elevator, and he somehow communicated, by word or gesture, that he wanted them to stop the elevator and let him get on. But, they didn't do it, reportedly, because they were in a race with the guys going down in the other elevator. 

Now, just stop and think for a minute: Oswald indicated his readiness, willingness, and desire to go downstairs at that time. And, no one can claim that he changed his mind afterwards. It's not as though he left cigarettes in his jacket. That's the kind of thing you might forget. But, if your intention for the last few days has been to kill Kennedy, and you came to work that morning with a rifle with which to do it, there's no way THAT could have been forgotten. There's no way it could have slipped his mind. It's not as though after the elevator passed by, Oswald thought:

"Wait a second! What's wrong with me? I'm not ready to go down yet. I have to go up to the 6th floor and assemble the rifle and arrange the Sniper's Nest. Silly me. How did I forget about that?"

You see, it doesn't work for that.  When the thing you're doing is killing the President, you're not going to forget. You can forget a lot of things, but you can't forget that.  

So, if it was true that Oswald knew he was going to kill Kennedy and there were things he had to do on the 6th floor in preparation, he would have waved that elevator by. He would have shaken his head or his hand and said "no." He would have waved them on by. The fact that he sought to get on that elevator with them tells you that he had no intention of killing anybody from the 6th floor. 

And, there's another persuasive argument, and in my opinion it is VERY persuasive. However, it depends on knowing and acknowledging that Oswald didn't kill Kennedy. And of course, he didn't because he was standing in the doorway at the time of the shots, which we have more than proven. 

So, if he wasn't going to kill Kennedy (and he wasn't) what was the other purpose for which Oswald would have gone back up to the 6th floor? There had to be one if it really happened. I already mentioned that he didn't leave his cigarettes up there; he didn't smoke. And he didn't leave anything else up there either. What of Oswald's was found on the 6th floor? And before someone says: a rifle, a bag, bullets on the floor...  remember: I'm not allowing any of that for the purposes of this discussion because this line of thought is based on the recognition and awareness that Oswald was innocent.  

What possible reason could Oswald have had to be milling around the Sniper's Nest if he wasn't the sniper? There is no credible reason.

And if  anyone tries to tell me that he was such a diligent worker that he was trying to fill an order on his lunch break, looking for a book, etc.- my response is two words, and the second one is "you."    

Now, let's remember what Oswald said: He said that when they broke for lunch that he came downstairs and he went and ate his lunch in the domino room, and that was when Junior Jarman and Harold Norman were around; in view. And that timing checks out. 

Now, if Oswald had been doing something innocent and innocuous in the area of the Sniper's Nest shortly before 12, why wouldn't he have told the police? It wasn't a crime.  If Givens could go back up there without being considered a suspect, why couldn't Oswald? And if he had an encounter with Givens at that location, wouldn't he know that it was pointless to lie? But, there was no reason to lie anyway. Oswald reported his encounter with Truly and Baker, so if he had an encounter with Givens, don't you think he would have reported it?

And again: I am talking to the people who realize that he was innocent. To those who think he was guilty and therefore lying, just go pluck yourselves. 

So, in the scenario of an innocent Oswald, there is NO WAY to make the Givens account make sense. It contradicts Oswald- what he said; but more important, it contradicts his action, which was to try to get on that elevator going down. There is no way you can say he changed his mind and decided, at the last minute, to go upstairs and build the rifle and the Sniper's Nest. 

So, how did they get Charles Givens to tell that tall tale, which contradicted his own earlier statement and that of Shelley and Oswald and Piper and probably others? I don't know, but I wouldn't be surprised if money was involved. 

By the way, Givens said that he got to work that morning at 7:45 and was up on the 6th floor by 8:00. Oswald didn't walk through the back door until 8:05. And Givens didn't say that he was the first to arrive on the 6th floor, that he had to turn the lights. I think we can safely infer that there were other people up there already. And yet, somehow, Oswald made his way up there with the long bag and got it hidden, and nobody noticed him or it??????? 

Now, let's look at his actual story because we are probably going to find dead giveaways that it's bull shit.  

Mr. BELIN. Did you watch where he walked to?
Mr. GIVENS. Well, no, sir; I didn't pay much attention. I was getting ready on the elevator, and I say, "Boy, are you going downstairs?"
Mr. BELIN. What did he say to you?
Mr. GIVENS. I say, "It's near lunch time."

Wait a second! This was after everybody had already cleared out of this once busy place. This was after the incident in which Oswald sought to get on the elevator which was coming down from the 6th floor when he was on the 5th floor. So how, after all that, which Givens was part of, could he tell Oswald "it's near lunch time." NEAR??   Lunch time was already well underway. It doesn't make a lick of sense. 

Then, supposedly, Oswald asked him that when he got downstairs to close the gate to the other elevator because that would make it go back up automatically. 

Mr. GIVENS. He said, "No, sir. When you get downstairs, close the gate to the elevator." That meant the elevator on the west side, you can pull both gates down and it will come up by itself. 

 That makes no sense at all for Oswald. According to the official story, he ran down the stairs. But, even more important: if Oswald was up there to kill Kennedy, he wouldn't have wanted to belabor this contact with Givens. The less said, the better. Right? He wouldn't have asked him for any favor. In fact, Oswald was so terse; he wouldn't have asked that guy for squat. Surely, in that situation, he would have just wanted the conversation to end and the man to go. That would have been the only favor he wanted.

Givens said that the west elevator wasn't there on the first floor when he got down, so he couldn't fulfill Oswald's request. But, Oswald would have known that too- that it was unlikely to be there- so, why ask in the first place?

The bottom line is: Givens' story is bogus and not to believed. His close encounter with Oswald never happened, unless it happened earlier in the morning before the lunch break. And, it is contradicted by himself, Shelley, Oswald, Piper, and others. It's time to reject his story as being unsubstantiated and too riddled with incongruities and contradictions to be taken seriously. 

There is NO REASON to believe or accept that Oswald went back up the 6th floor.  It's just another JFK assassination lie.