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

 I chastened Will Ruha for claiming that Oswald was eating during the assassination. Like all the TSBD employees, Oswald was let off work 15 minutes early; 11:45 instead of Noon, just so that they could eat and drink and then place themselves to watch the motorcade. Oswald certainly knew about it. He discussed JFK's visit the night before with his wife Marina, and she expressed to him her wish that she could lay eyes on the President and First Lady.

Will Ruha claims to believe that Oswald was innocent, but he also thinks that Oswald was a liar; that he lied to police. I say that because Oswald told police that he ate lunch in the 1st floor lunch room and then went outside to watch the motorcade, and two of them wrote it down. That's Captain Will Fritz and FBI Agent James Hosty. I showed Ruha Hosty's handwritten note, but it didn't phase him. He still insists that Oswald was eating during the assassination.

So, let me ask you, the reader: if you knew that JFK and Jackie were going to be passing your building, would you go outside and watch them, or would you put off eating for 45 minutes (even though you had nothing else to do) so that you could eat alone in the dank lunch room and miss the motorcade? That is what Ruha is claiming Oswald did.

There is good reason to believe that Oswald would want to watch the motorcade. He liked President Kennedy. He spoke well of him to Marina's family in Russia. He started reading James Bond novels when he found out that JFK liked them. And he and Marina lived through the Cuban Missile Crisis which almost led to war between the US and USSR, and would have, if not for John F. Kennedy.

Oswald brought lunch which he fixed at Ruth Paine's house: cheese sandwiches and an apple. Fritz wrote that down too. And as he always did, he put it on the window counter in the domino room on the 1st floor. He did not eat breakfast that morning, and that's according to Ruth Paine. So, it's reasonable to think that he would have been ready to eat when they broke for lunch at 11:45.

So, upon ceasing work, he went into the 1st floor lunch room. which was called the domino room because there were dominos in there that some of the workers played. That room also had a daily newsapper, and it was Oswald's habit to browse through it as he ate. The theory goes that that's how he learned about the motorcade route, although there is no evidence that his eyes and his mind ever landed on that. You know how people browse a newspaper; it's hit or miss.

Oswald definitely ate in the 1st floor lunch room, as he ALWAYS did. He NEVER ate in the 2nd floor lunch room, which was for the office workers. He wasn't an office worker; he was an "order-filler" which was considered a warehouse worker. Office workers worked at desks doing office work.

Now, this is what Ruha the Bruha said to me: "WTFU, moron. If Oswald was "long done" eating, then why was he confronted IN the lunchroom directly after the assassination by his supervisor and a DPD officer?"

First, the confrontation was between Officer Marrion Baker and Oswald. Truly showed up afterwards. It was only seconds afterwards, but still, that's important.

So, Truly was ahead of Baker climbing the stairs, and Truly had already passed through the second floor landing and was on his way to the 3rd floor. As Baker crossed the landing, he spotted someone moving through the vestibule of the lunch room. The vestibule, or anteroom, was a small room, adjacent to the lunch room, that was a passsageway. It was a small room with 3 doors. One door gave access from the office side of the second floor. Another door gave access from the landing side, which is where Baker was. And that door had a glass pane through which Baker saw Oswald. And the third door gave access to the lunch room proper, and that door was spring-operated, and it was propped open.

Now, I want you to dwell on how small this room was. It was just a passageway. So, from the office side, Oswald had gone through the first door, and almost instantly he was at the threshold of the door to the lunch room, which he didn't even have to open. And Baker saw all this from the landing, which is to say that he glimpsed Oswald as he was passing through the tiny room.

Now, Ruha the Bruha can't dispute that because he claims to believe that Oswald was innocent. And if Oswald was innocent, it means he could not have come down from the 6th floor. There is really no chance that he did that because if so, he would have had to use the same door through which Baker was looking, which means that that door would have sitll been open. Baker's view would have been very different. He would have plainly seen Oswald using the door on his side. But, Baker said that his door was closed; stationary. So, Oswald had to have used the other door; the one on the office side; the office side.

So, the fact is that Baker saw Oswald just getting to the lunch room at 12:31. He saw Oswald IN MOTION just getting there; just arrviing. And since he was just getting there at 12:31, it means that he was somewhere else at 12:30, from which he came.

Furthermore, it involved no eating. Baker first saw Oswald passing through the anteroom. Then, he, Baker, entered the anteroom and stopped at the threshold of the lunch room. By then, Oswald was 20 feet into the lunch room; walking. So, Baker drew his gun and ordered Oswald to stop. Oswald did stop, and he turned around and walked to Baker. Nothing was said, according to Baker. Then Truly arrived, and Baker spoke to him. He asked Truly, "Do you know this man?" And Truly said, "Yes. He works for me." And he must have said it in a very reassurring way since it completely dissipated Baker's suspicion of Oswald, and he and Truly left.

And by the way, it also involved no Coke. Both Baker and Truly were adamant that Oswald had no Coke. But, how could he have one when he just got there? It takes time. You have to go to the machine; take out a dime; put it in the slot; pull down the crank; retrieve the bottle; then open the bottle. All that takes time, and Oswald was just walking when Baker saw him.

So, Oswald was NOT in the 2nd floor lunch room during the assassination because he didn't reach the 2nd floor lunch room until over a minute after the assassination.

How did Oswald get there? He took the stairs from the first floor. The famous stairs that Baker and Truly used were the back stairs. They were located in the northwest corner of that large building, and they were bare-bones. They were wooden plank stairs. But, there were other stairs in the southeast corner of the building that were elegant. However, they only went one flight: from the 1st floor to the 2nd floor.

What I have just laid out for you proves that Oswald did not come down from the 6th flooor, but rather, he came up from the 1st floor, using the stairs that were very close to the entrance, where he was. also known as the doorway.

I am attaching a diagram which has it all laid out in a simple but clear way.

So, reject forever the bogus claim that Oswald was eating in the 2nd floor lunch room during the assassination. He was not. He was standing in the doorway, and it is him that we see in the Altgens photo.