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

 There is a longstanding denial that needs to be exposed, and I am referring to the denial that Oswald went to the 2nd floor lunch room. He most certainly did, and it is substantiated by direct evidence, and also by indirect evidence that is also very compelling.

The direct evidence is that Oswald told interrogators that he went to the 2nd floor lunch room when an officer came in. It is in the Fritz Notes. These are notes that were found in Fritz' possessions 10 years after his death. His Executor found them and turned them over to the ARRB.

It states in Fritz' handwriting that Oswald "Claims 2nd floor Coke when Officer came in." Now, Oswald didn't actually get the Coke until Baker and Truly left. Both Baker and Truly said that he had nothing in his hands when they saw him. And when Baker saw him in the lunch room, he was just walking through it. He didn't see Oswald fiddling for a dime or inserting it into the machine or anything pertaining to getting a Coke. And there is no evidence that Baker and Truly knew each other. For the longest time, neither described each other by name. Baker referred to Truly as the Superintendent, and Truly referred to Baker as the officer. Eventually, by the time it got to the mock trials, Baker referred to Truly by name. Truly, however, never participated in any of the mock trials, and I'm not surprised.

And the reason I'm not surprised is because Truly was dirty. He was in on it. He was CIA, and the TSBD was a CIA front company. But, Baker was NOT dirty. He was clean. He was an honest cop. It's not as though they tapped every single member of the Dallas police force on the shoulder and whispered, "Psst. We're killing Kennedy on Friday. You want in?" Baker definitely was not involved.

So, the idea that Baker and Truly collaborated in perjuring themselves is ridiculous. They didn't even know each other. And you don't propose such a thing to a stranger because the stranger can talk. He could tell authorities that Mr. Truly asked him to lie.

So, Truly never went to Baker saying, "Let's you and me lie and say that Oswald had no Coke." They both, independently, on different days, said it because it was true.

So, that's the direct evidence that the encounter happened, but what is the indreict evidence? The indirect evidence is that Oswald had to be somehwere. His time had to be accounted for. We know he left the TSBD several minutes after the shooting. The WC put it at 12:34. So, we have to account for where he was and what he was doing between 12:30 and 12:34.

So, at 12:30 Oswald was in the doorway watching the motorcade. We have ample photographic evidence for that, plus it's also in the Fritz Notes that Oswald said that he was "out with Bill Shelley in front." And Oswald could only have known that Shelley was there by being there himself. And then he began his trek to the lunch room. And there is no reason to think that he ran or even walked fast. It may have taken a minute or longer for him to get there.

So then, he had the encounter with Truly and Baker. Then, after they left, he got his Coke. Then, he walked back downstairs the same way he came up: which was through the office area. And there he had another enounter, which was with the secretary, Geraldine Reed. And she claimed in her Warren Commission testimony that she tried to talk with him, asking him if he knew that the President had been shot. She said that he gave no response.

But, something else happened: a reporter approached him and asked him where the pay phone was, and Oswald pointed him to it. That reporter was the Canadian Rober O'Neill, who went on to become the anchor for PBS News.

And then, Oswald went out the main entrance and was again photographed in the doorway, this time talking to a police inspectdor. I believe it was Police Inspecdtor J. Herbert Sawyer. And that got captured in one of the Three Tramps photos.

And that was it. Then Oswald left for home.

And unfortunately, the same people who deny the lunch encounter also deny bus and cab. They claim that Oswald was the one who got into the Nash Rambler. And they childishly think that it was Ruth Paine's Nash Rambler, as if Lyndon Johnson, Allen Dulles, and J. Edgar Hoover, in plotting the murder of John F. Kennedy, would have relied on Ruth Paine for transportation.

Oswald said that he took the bus and cab, and if you are an Oswald defender you cannot call him a liar. And the reason that you can't call him a liar is because he hadn't done anthing, and therefore, he had no reason to lie to the police- about anything. And Oswald was smart- smart enough to know that he shouldn't lie to the police when he was innocent.

You can't defend Oswald while also calling him a liar. There are no exceptoins to that.

So, I am calling on all real Oswald defenders to believe him.

I am reminded of a line in a great movie, which happens to be my movie, DOVEY'S PROMISE. In the scene, Dovey Roundtree has been questioning Raymond Crump for the first time, and from that meeting, she is so impassioned in believing in his innocnence that she offers to defend him for one dollar. He is being prosecuted for the murder of Mary Pinchot Meyer, the last mistress of JFK, who was murdered in a Georgetown park 11 months after he was.

So, she is trying to lift his spirits by telling him what she plans to do to marshal his defense, and then she asks him if he believe her. And Raymond leans forward and says, "If you say it, I believe it."

Well, if Oswald said it, you need to believe it, that is, if you are really an Oswald defender.