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

I found something about the time that I think is very interesting. I mentioned previously that as they are wheeling Oswald out of the jail office to the garage, you hear WFAA reporter Bill Lords say, "It is now 11:24 here in Dallas." Well, the shooting reportedly occurred at 11:21. So, that's 3 minutes. And, it occurred to me that we can note the time in the WFAA film in which the shot occurs (a time that would correspond to 11:21) and then we can track the time until we heard Bill Lords say what he did. It should be the same length; about 3 minutes.

So, I did it. The shot occurs at 25:15 in the WFAA film, and when Bill Lord says what he does, it is 27:05. That is 1 minute and 50 seconds later. I'll give you the link if you wish to check it yourself.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L1sKHbr4hL8&t=1633s

Note that there is a break, where the screen goes black between the time the scuffle ends in the garage and the time that Jim Davidson is inside the jail office resuming filming, starting with the cops who are hovering around Oswald, presumably on the floor, whom we never see, and where every bit of that wild frantic-ness from the garage is completely and totally gone. We don't know how long a break that was, but regardless, that time still counts. Whatever it was, it has to be included. 11:24 amounts to a 3 minute lapse of time, and that was according to Bill Lords. But, according to Jim Davidson's camera, it was only 1 minute and 50 seconds. 

Now, what accounts for that difference of 1 minute and 10 seconds? Well, how about the lapse of time between the garage and the jail office? I already told you that there was a break, but this break entailed a polar difference in atmosphere, where it went from chaos and pandemonium to complete restoration of order and control and resolution of the chaos. And that doesn't happen instantly. Once they got Bookhout inside, I'm sure he was turned over to Boyd, Sims, and Hall, who were waiting for him, and they scurried away with him. I'm sure it was done in a matter of seconds, scant seconds. But these were seconds that Jim Davidson was not around filming. 

And let's consider one more thing: Lately, Amy Joyce and the Wizard and I have been discussing the possibility that the Garage Spectacle was NOT filmed live, that it was filmed beforehand; a little beforehand; and then said to be live. The NBC announcer made the switch to Dallas right before Oswald came out, and that was a volatile situation. So, did he just get lucky? To me, it seems awfully risky to have actually shown it live simply because the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry.

So, if it occurred earlier and was filmed earlier, say, a few minutes earlier, then that time would have to be tacked on to the calculation I just did. So, if it was done, say, 3 minutes earlier, that would make it 11:18. And that would mean that continuous, uninterrupted filming by Jim Davidson would have resulted in 6 minutes of footage before Bill Lords cites the time of 11:24- not less than 2 minutes, as was the case. 

And what this demonstrates to me is that there was a short period in which no one but cops were in that jail office: without reporters and without cameramen- not even Lords and Davidson. And why think otherwise when you realize that Lords mistook Ruby for Oswald when he walked by? There was at least a minute, and probably more, in which it was all cops in that jail office and no reporters or cameramen. And that's when they took care of everything they needed to take care of before the curtain rose again for the next act.