Mr. Smith, as promised earlier within this thread, had an opportunity to secure my research notes, thus earlier response before next week.
Following Deputy-Sheriff John Wiseman's discovery that access to the roof was locked from the inside, he was wise (pun intended) enough to comprehend that as long as access to the roof was locked he had no other alternative but to retrace his steps
There seems to be some confusion here. Officer Wiseman said "the door to the roof was locked on the inside
with a gate type hook latch". This does NOT mean he----or anyone else----could not open the door if they wished to. Rather he concluded that no one could have gone up to the roof and locked the door behind them------as it was closed
on the inside. Hence his decision to make his way back downstairs.
The question is: WHEN did Officer Wiseman see the locked door? It cannot have been while Mr Truly and Officer Baker were on the roof (unless some third party had locked them up there from the inside).
and work his way back downward on the backstairs, stopping here and there to do what any what any dutiful man of the law would do, stopping long enough along each floor to examine any evidence of unusual movement, etc.
Now, following the wisdom of Deputy-Sheriff Wiseman, some 23-25 minutes later a Dallas Fire Department truck was summoned to the corner of 501 Elm & Houston. A request had been put in for a ladder, flashlights, etc. Once there, two firemen--Leslie Warnock, Jr. & Harry Coombs--went up the stairs to assist with whatever five agents awaiting them up there needed for them to do to make access to that otherwise locked roof possible.
No (see above!)
According to Mr. Warnock's version of the events what happened next was after they reached the area upstairs, the agents--upon hearing a noise atop the area where the roof was locked (turns out another agent travelling ahead of them had found a ladder laying nearby and had climbed up to get a much closer look at that roof door latch locked from the inside). According to Mr. Warnock, once the other agents--thinking they had an assassin corned--ready their sub-machine guns & pointed the flashlights into the opening to head upwards to pursue him--he and Mr. Coombs did the sensible thing, they immediately ran away and took cover.
Turns out--good thing--the agent hearing his fellow agents readying their submachine guns yelled out to them as they closed in, quote, "DON'T SHOOT!, DON'T SHOOT", unquote, my apologies for big caps but wanted to capture the essence of how emphatic the agent shared his experience.
Brb...to be continued...
Continuing onward now, Whew! what a close call. The foregoing was to set the stage for the most important elements about that otherwise locked roof from the inside that the lying rooftop tandem said they magically overcame...
(1) The agent--his words, his experience--not mine said he encountered dirty grime & dust so much to the point he inhaled so much of it it rendered him to offset choking by repeatedly coughing to clear his throat/airway (we have to ask ourselves, given this agent's experience--Why didn't the lying rooftop tandem need flashlights and/or further assistance from the local Fire Department IF they had indeed actually made an attempt to go atop the roof?)...
(2) Now, here comes the most revealing info: that same agent--his words/his experience--not mine encountered the following ---->
On the following link scan down to the entry "Notify 9" that we have information...
https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=11126#relPageId=109&search=search_ladder%20and%20roof
(3) Now ask yourself--be honest--How did the lying rooftop tandem manage to crawl through sheet metal in that small concealed space?
The linked document doesn't suggest that such would have been necessary. There was some sheet metal, under which someone could have been concealing themselves.
In the image on the right we see the man looking into the opening---------
Again, as I asked earlier, The question here now becomes Why?
did the lying rooftop tandem lie about exploits atop an otherwise locked roof from the inside...
Again, the question IMO is one of
timing not physical logistics
