The Book Depository as a Potemkin Village

[Dan O'meara]

Dan O'meara has asked me what makes me think Dougherty is taking the assassin(s) down in the elevator. It would be worth your while to read the 1st section, 4 pages, of my 2009 Elevator Escape Theory essay, "The Impossibility of Jack Dougherty's Assassination Aftermath Alibi." He recounted for the Dallas Police that after hearing a shot, he went down to the 1st floor and asked  janitor Eddie Piper if he'd heard anything.

Not only was Eddie Piper never asked about this interaction, nor did Piper mention it in his Nov. 23 Sheriff's affidavit-  once you check the speed of the freight elevators, you realize that Dougherty couldn't have started traveling downstairs until after Truly & Baker started traveling upstairs, that is until about 2 minutes after the shooting. So his alleged conversation with Piper wasn't a near-immediate reaction to the shots, as was portrayed in his alibi.

He continued to foster that impression, of a near-immediate reaction, in his Dec. 19th FBI statement. Only near the end of Dougherty's Warren Commission testimony does he reluctantly admit that he used the west elevator to go downstairs.

So, Dougherty cut short his lunch break, didn't join his co-workers to watch the motorcade, and obfuscated his movements after his lunch break. He had no good reason to be "getting stock" because he was part of the floor-laying crew. After lunch he went upstairs and then down to the 5th to get stock. The 7th floor was vacant. So he actually was on the 6th floor after his shortened lunch.

Melvin Eisenberg, a junior Warren Commission staff member, was suspicious enough of Dougherty to compose an eyes-only memo entitled "Identity of Assassin". Another junior staff member, Norman Redlich, followed that up with "The Mystery of the West Elevator". My 2015 Inside Job essay details some of their memos on pp. 12-18.

Photographic evidence of the strangers Dougherty took down from the 6th floor is on p. 22 of The Elevator Escape Theory.

Arnold Rowland's man in the 6th-floor west window had dark hair, and Dougherty's hair was blond. I believe Rowland's man was the same man captured in the 6th-floor west window in the Tom Dillard news photo.

I'm aware that Dougherty did not go down in the elevator immediately but that doesn't mean he was taking assassins down.
Dougherty wads not part of the floor-laying crew. You should know this.
How do you know Dougherty had blond hair?

[Jerry Freeman]

Richard - what purpose does the power outage serve? If it's to stop the elevators, what purpose does that serve?

What makes you think Dougherty is taking the assassin(s) down in the elevator?
Arnold Rowland describes seeing a man with a rifle on the 6th floor around 12:15. Is this man Dougherty?

Jack Daugherty could have been easily manipulated. Just reading his testimony could tell you that. Revisit ...
https://www.jfkassassinationforum.com/index.php/topic,1435.0.html

[Jerry Freeman]

How do you know Dougherty had blond hair?

....a photo of Jack Edwin Dougherty while attending Sunset High School in 1941. Jack is also possibly pictured in a photo with Mr. Decker in 1963 [slide the picture all the way to the right]--
 

[Walt Cakebread]

....a photo of Jack Edwin Dougherty while attending Sunset High School in 1941. Jack is also possibly pictured in a photo with Mr. Decker in 1963 [slide the picture all the way to the right]--
 

The photo of the "Farm Boy" has a deformed left ear......

[Walt Cakebread]

Says the guy spending his time arguing on a forum.

Iowa State dehorns the Long Horns......   

[Pat Speer]

FWIW, I dived into the statements and testimony of Oswald's co-workers a few years back, and came to a quite different conclusion.

My discussion of this evidence is presented on patspeer.com in Chapter 4: Pinning the Tale on the Oswald.

In short, the villains here were not Oswald's co-workers, but Warren Commission Counsel Joseph Ball and David Belin, who were determined to make it look as though Oswald was the assassin, and ignore or smear anyone, e.g. Eddie Piper and Vickie Adams, who presented a problem.

As far as Dougherty, it became quite clear to me that Dougherty went upstairs AFTER the shooting, and that the one sound he heard from above was not a shot fired from far to his east on the floor above, but Truly and Baker coming down from the roof, most logically slamming the hatch door near the elevator shaft.

This, of course, was a huge problem for Ball and Belin. They needed Dougherty to be the one bringing the elevator down as Baker and Truly ran up, or else they'd have to admit there was someone who'd escaped undetected. So THEY made a point of not asking any of Dougherty's co-workers if they saw him after the shooting.

Their most egregious "oversight" was Piper. Dougherty said he talked to Piper after returning to the first floor. It would have been a simple matter, then, of asking Piper the time he spoke to Dougherty. But Ball didn't ask Piper about this on the record.

So why put the quotes on "oversight"? Because I don't believe for one second Ball "forgot" to ask Piper about Dougherty, You see, some years back I discovered within Howard Willens' memos a memo from Ball to Liebeler--who was supposed ton perform the second interview of Piper--in which Ball told Liebeler he needed to ask Piper about Dougherty. But no, instead, Ball interviewed Piper himself, and failed to, at least officially, ask Piper about Dougherty.

As Vickie Adams, among others, complained about Ball's partner Belin's habit of running through the questions off the record, and then going on the record, and asking the same questions, with the exception of those to which he'd received unsatisfactory answers, it's clear to me that Ball asked Piper about Dougherty, and received the answer he was hoping he wouldn't receive--that Piper talked to Dougherty 10 minutes or so after the shooting--and that Ball then kept this from the transcript when he went back through the questions "on the record".

[Walt Cakebread]

FWIW, I dived into the statements and testimony of Oswald's co-workers a few years back, and came to a quite different conclusion.

My discussion of this evidence is presented on patspeer.com in Chapter 4: Pinning the Tale on the Oswald.

In short, the villains here were not Oswald's co-workers, but Warren Commission Counsel Joseph Ball and David Belin, who were determined to make it look as though Oswald was the assassin, and ignore or smear anyone, e.g. Eddie Piper and Vickie Adams, who presented a problem.

As far as Dougherty, it became quite clear to me that Dougherty went upstairs AFTER the shooting, and that the one sound he heard from above was not a shot fired from far to his east on the floor above, but Truly and Baker coming down from the roof, most logically slamming the hatch door near the elevator shaft.

This, of course, was a huge problem for Ball and Belin. They needed Dougherty to be the one bringing the elevator down as Baker and Truly ran up, or else they'd have to admit there was someone who'd escaped undetected. So THEY made a point of not asking any of Dougherty's co-workers if they saw him after the shooting.

Their most egregious "oversight" was Piper. Dougherty said he talked to Piper after returning to the first floor. It would have been a simple matter, then, of asking Piper the time he spoke to Dougherty. But Ball didn't ask Piper about this on the record.

So why put the quotes on "oversight"? Because I don't believe for one second Ball "forgot" to ask Piper about Dougherty, You see, some years back I discovered within Howard Willens' memos a memo from Ball to Liebeler--who was supposed ton perform the second interview of Piper--in which Ball told Liebeler he needed to ask Piper about Dougherty. But no, instead, Ball interviewed Piper himself, and failed to, at least officially, ask Piper about Dougherty.

As Vickie Adams, among others, complained about Ball's partner Belin's habit of running through the questions off the record, and then going on the record, and asking the same questions, with the exception of those to which he'd received unsatisfactory answers, it's clear to me that Ball asked Piper about Dougherty, and received the answer he was hoping he wouldn't receive--that Piper talked to Dougherty 10 minutes or so after the shooting--and that Ball then kept this from the transcript when he went back through the questions "on the record".

Hi Pat,..... I believe that you are one of the best researchers on the forum.   I  don't always agree with you but I respect your opinion.

In this case I'm a bit surprised that you would give any credibility to Jack Dougherty.    His testimony is such a confusing mess that I don't know how you can give solid credence to anything he said.    Particularly with regard to his location at the time the shots were fired....and his operation of the elevator.

[Dan O'meara]

For me, the most scandalous aspect of the WC testimonies is the questioning of Jack Dougherty. Charles Givens and Bonnie Ray Williams testify to being on the sixth floor before the shooting and both are grilled endlessly about what they saw and did whilst up there - question after question after question about even the most inane points until every detail has been squeezed out of them about their time on the sixth floor.
Dougherty testifies to being on the sixth floor just before and just after the shooting. Hear is the full extent of the questioning of this absolutely key witness:

"Mr. BALL - Did you see anybody on the sixth floor when you were there, before you went to the fifth floor?"

This single question is it. It's outrageous.
Dougherty goes into his Dumb and Dumber routine:

Mr. DOUGHERTY - Oh, yes; I did.
Mr. BALL - Who?
Mr. DOUGHERTY - Well, there was Bill Shelley, Billy Lovelady---
Mr. BALL - That was in the morning, wasn't it?
Mr. DOUGHERTY - Yes.
Mr. BALL - That wasn't after lunch, was it?
Mr. DOUGHERTY - No, sir.

Now that Ball has cleared this 'misunderstanding' up he should repeat his original question - Did you see anyone on the sixth floor when you were up there? But he doesn't:

Mr. BALL - After lunch, did you ever see them on the sixth floor?
Mr. DOUGHERTY - No, sir; I didn't.

Instead of asking Dougherty if he saw anyone suspicious on the sixth floor when he was up there, Ball asks if he'd seen Shelley, Lovealdy and co. after lunch. There is no reason to ask this question, nobody at any time had suggested they were up there and Dougherty has an easy out.
It's utter 
But that's not the worst of it - Dougherty's alibi is also utter  .
He says he was on the fifth floor at the time of the shooting but this is blown out of the water by the testimonies of Jarman, Norman and Williams. Jarman and Norman were out front then decided to watch the motorcade from the fifth floor minutes before it arrived. They go up to the fifth in the north-west elevators and cross the fifth floor towards the south-east of the building. They do not see Dougherty.
Williams comes down from the sixth floor to the fifth, he also uses the north-west elevators, he too crosses the length of the building towards the south-east corner and he too does not see Dougherty.
After the shooting all three men cross from the east to the west side of the building and at no time do they see Dougherty.
Dougherty has no alibi but this is never considered in the WC questioning.
One should conclude that Dougherty was on the sixth before, during and after the shooting.
I would go as far as to suggest Dougherty is Arnold Rowland's "man with the rifle"
I would go as far to suggest that Dougherty is the shooter and that the WC covered it up.