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Oswald's 52 seconds near the coke machine.

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Marjan Rynkiewicz:
Ok lets have another look at Adams & Styles great escape.
Adams said that after the shots they stood at the 4th floor window for 20 sec.  Styles said a bit longer. Adams said that they went to the back stairs.  Styles said that they went to the elevator first.  How long did they stand at the elevator (was the electricity off).  From there they would have walked throo the storage area to the back stairs via the door near the elevator, not the door from the office.  Anyhow the elevator detour adds a few seconds to their transit.  I reckon that they didn’t enter the storage area until 40 sec after the shots. 

After entering the storage area Adams & Styles would have taken about 48 sec to exit to the Houston dock, this route having the same overall distance & the same length of stairway & the same time as the Oswald re-enactment.  Actually, they were rushing, whilst in The 6th Floor Museum youtube re-enactment "Oswald" aint, so they would have exited in say 40 sec, making it a total of 80 sec (instead of Adam's claimed 60 sec).

In Secret Service re-enactments in the TSBD Oswald took 78 sec & 74 sec to get to the 2nd floor (after the last shot).  In a modern Sixth Floor Museum re-enactment in a similar warehouse Oswald took 48 seconds without rushing.  In the Secret Service re-enactment the Agent is mincing along nonchalant & smelling the flowers as he goes.  He must have been paid by the second.  In The 6th Floor Museum re-enactment "Oswald" was paid by the yard, but wasn’t rushing, & didn’t take any short cuts.

The critical thing is that Oswald had already quietly snuk around the say 8 paces from one leg of the stairs to the other leg well before Adams & Styles had entered the storage area.  Indeed he would have already reached the 2nd floor & exited the stairs if Adams & Styles took 48 sec to enter the storage area.

Even if Oswald did take say 8 paces on the 4th floor (to get from one leg of the stairs to the other leg) while Adams & Styles were already in the storage area then there is a possibility that they couldn’t easily see him.  The sight line from the door to the stairs is a long diagonal (they entered via the door near the elevator)(ie very near the Houston wall), there are concrete columns, there are high stacks of boxes, & possibly other infrastructure, & Adams & Styles & Oswald are not tall.  Photos of other floors in the TSBD show that it is nigh impossible to see very far on a diagonal if there are stacks of boxes.  And Oswald's 8 paces do not cross a window.  But we don’t need any of that stuff.  Oswald had already passed the 4th floor when Adams & Styles entered the storage area.

In Baker & Truly re-enactments Baker took 90 sec & 75 sec to get up to the 2nd floor after the first shot (equal to  100 sec or 85 sec if after the shots).  Baker said that he had been  slower than that there 90 sec, so lets call it 100 sec.  In which case Baker & Truly enter the storage area of the first floor at say 80 sec.  That allows 20 sec to gallop to the elevators, they are sitting at floor 5 & 6 say, the west elevator wont come down probly koz the gate has been left open. So, they then gallop to the stairs & up one floor to the 2nd floor (where they see Oswald).

Adams exited the TSBD to the Houston dock  80 sec after the shots.  I wont call it the rear dock koz the Elm St dock (the Elm dock) is sometimes called the rear dock.  Baker & Truly entered the storage area at 80 sec.  Hence Baker & Truly didn’t see Adams & Styles.  In any case their sight-line would have been affected by stacks of books.  In any case 2 gals exiting that far doorway would not have worried them & would be forgettable.  And there were other workers on the first floor.  And Baker & Truly were hell bent on getting to the roof. 

It’s a mystery why Baker was at all worried by Oswald, ie on the lowly 2nd floor, the first level that they reached on the way up, with 6 more levels to go after the 2nd (the roof being level 8 ).  Had they used an elevator (ie Plan A) Baker would have happily gone straight up to the 7th floor. He wouldn’t have stopped at every floor & taken valuable time to check for snipers.  For sure he wouldn’t have stopped the elevator at the 2nd floor, even if he had seen Oswald.  The whole sorry saga reminds me of a Monty Python film where the knight slays everyone he meets on the way up a castle tower to save a damsel in distress.

So, where were we, we have Adams & Styles exiting at 80 sec & Baker & Truly entering at 80 sec.  There is no problem there at all.  That leaves us with one big problem.  Why did Oswald stop at the 2nd floor?   He was at least 10 sec ahead of Adams & Styles.  Had Oswald not stopped he would have been at the front door before Baker & Truly.  Hell, it could have been Oswald that volunteered to show Baker the stairs, ie doing a U-turn, & praps going all the way back up with Baker.  On the way up it would have been Oswald saying "that man works here".
Oswald had time.  But he dug in on the 2nd floor.  Why?

Nearly forgot. Praps i should have written this first.  Dorothy Garner followed Adams & Styles to the stairs.  I think that Garner belatedly decided to follow Adams & Styles down in the elevator.  And she saw that Adams & Styles had headed for the back stairs, so she praps decided to follow, instead of taking the front stairs.  Anyhow she didn’t go down the back stairs, she looked out the nearby western window (there is no western window in her office), & there sure was lots to see, bedlam, so she watched for we don’t know how long.

She said she saw Baker & Truly gallop past (they would have been 10 ft away).  But Baker & Truly make no mention of Garner, certainly Baker didn’t slay her, i mean stick his gun in her ribs.  And of course she didn’t see Oswald, or anyone else, Oswald was long gone.

Anyhow, Oswald got to the 2nd floor in 48 sec.  Baker & Truly got there in 100 sec.
Why did Oswald stop?
What did Oswald do for 52 sec?

Marjan Rynkiewicz:
Oswald gets to the 2nd floor after 48 sec.  He stops.  What to do next? 
Should he continue down to the first floor? 
Should he go to the first floor via the front stairs? 
Should he lay low in the lunch room? 
His jacket is in the Domino Room.
Uh Oh -- He hears Adams & Styles klomping down the stairs in a real hurry on a mission.
Best to visit the coke machine & hope that whoever it is goes clean past.
They pass. He comes back out. What to do next?
He can't decide.  He will be less conspicuous if he takes the front stairs, but he would then have to walk back into & throo the storage area to get his jacket in the Domino Room.
He decides to continue down the back stairs.
He makes a start but then Truly hollers up the elevator shaft, so he goes back up.
Then he hears Baker & Truly galloping up the stairs, & he retreats to the coke machine a second time.
He walks slow & cool. 
He would have been better off diving into the lunchroom in a hurry, & laying low, he knows there is no-one in there, but he knows that if seen rushing (by Truly & Co) it will be a sure sign that he is guilty of something.
He nearly makes it, another couple of slow steps & he will be out of sight.
But damn, Baker spots a bit of him throo the glass of the door & says to come back.
Truly says that Oswald works here, & Baker & Truly gallop off.
They get to the 5th floor & take the east elevator to the 7th floor.
Oswald gets a coke to look less guilty & more cool if confronted again.  And assassinations go better with coke.
The back stairs are now dangerous.  He heads for the front stairs, either forgetting about his jacket or deciding that his jacket is a dead duck.
But just in case more dumb cops are entering along the corridor he goes via the office.
Damn, he meets Jeraldean Reid as she returns to her desk.  Mrs Hine is also in the office but she doesn't notice Oswald, or forgets.
Reid in 3 re-enactments took exactly 120 sec to get to her desk, which is about right (ie to meet Oswald).
She says something as they pass & he mumbles something back.  Its not a good look.  He has no business in the office, unless wanting change for the coke machine. Its not even a short cut to the stairs. Damn.  Anyhow no big deal.
He goes down the front stairs & mixes with the growing throng in the lobby near the front door without raising any suspicion.
Someone asks him about a phone.
Ok, things aint so bad, praps he can take a chance & get his jacket from the Domino Room anyhow.
Hmmm – he can get his jacket by going out the front door & down the steps & around & entering via the Houston dock (like he does each morning), & walking 16 paces to the jacket. 
Getting caught walking in shouldn’t result in getting bitten by a cop.
So, off he goes, but he gets a little ways up Houston & he sees Officer Barnett on sentry duty at the dock, & Barnett looks vicious.
So, a quick U-turn & back down Houston.  Buell Frazier sees him walking south along Houston.
No, the jacket is a dead duck.  He decides to get out of there asap, he crosses Houston & then crosses Elm.
Tippit is waiting.

Marjan Rynkiewicz:
Jack E Dougherty was a co-worker of Oswald's.
Dougherty didn’t go out to see JFK, he went back to work, getting stock from the 6th floor & 5th floor.
He didn’t hear Oswald's 2 shots, nor Hickey's shots.  And he didn’t see Oswald during those minutes or even during that hour.
He probly didn’t see Oswald koz Dougherty hadnt finished his lunch in the Domino Room untill a little after 12:30.
That’s why he didn’t hear any shots.  And that’s why he didn’t see Baker & Truly running up at 12:31.

Dougherty used the elevator, & he heard one shot while he was standing next to the elevators on the 5th floor.
The noise came from directly overhead.  That must have been the trapdoor to the roof slamming shut due to the wind, while Baker & Truly were on the roof, they had used a ladder.
Truly said that they reached the roof via the stairs, however Baker said that they used the ladder.
The trapdoor was directly above Dougherty, albeit with the 6th floor & the 7th floor planking tween Dougherty & the trapdoor.
And the slam would have been about 4 minutes after the shots.  A number of people on the tops of buildings near the Plaza heard a lone shot about 4 minutes after the other shots.
But i don’t think that Baker & Truly ever mentioned it.

Anyhow with Dougherty for some silly reason continuing to work, on the 5th & 6th floors, Oswald was lucky that Dougherty didn’t ever see him.
What i mean is that Dougherty intended to get up back to work at 12:30 sharp, but his watch was a few minutes out.

Aerials of the present TSBD roof show that the trapdoor is no longer there.  There is some kind of external ladder near the new elevator building.
Alltho there are now lots of rectangular gizmos that could easily be trapdoors.

Marjan Rynkiewicz:

--- Quote from: Otto Beck on May 25, 2021, 02:38:37 PM ---So, what is your take on Tippit picking up (or intercepting) Oswald?

--- End quote ---
The timelines for the Oswald & Tippit saga sure look complicated. 
I have been reading some of the postings. I have always been interested in whether Oswald had an escape strategy.
I dont think that he had any help, but where was he going?
He probly needed to do a holdup for cash. And take a bus to mexico. He might have been walking to a bus depot.
U would think that he would have brought a bag of stuff with him so that he did not have to go back to the rooming house.
It was all in effect a suicidal plan. Almost no plan at all. Even if he had a car & lots of cash he had no future unless he had help, which he didn't.
Shooting Tippit was silly. He had no chance after that.
He could have just played cool, & hoped that Tippit didnt find his gun, & that Tippit & Co were not yet looking for a guy called LHO.
Shooting Tippit meant that Oswald had a good plan going, worth shooting for. What plan was that?
If he had no good plan then shooting Tippit doesnt compute.
Oswald did not know that JFK was dead.
Oswald knew that his first shot missed (ricochet off signal arm guy rod)(the west guy rod)(the west side of the west guy rod)(about 9" from the collar).
Oswald knew that his second shot hit (he was probly aiming for JFK)(but mightbe Connally)(likewise for the first shot).
Oswald knew that Hickey had accidentally blown JFK's head open (ok so he did know that JFK was dead).
Oswald could have fired his last bullet, but he didn't. He had decided not to fire even before he saw Hickey kill JFK.
This suggests that his aim was Connally, who was by then out of sight behind JFK (not important).
Oswald knew that Hickey had killed JFK, in which case Oswald was indeed later a patsy.
So why shoot Tippit? Now its murder. Why?  What kind of grand plan made shooting Tippit worthwhile, koz now its murder.

If he hadnt shot Tippit would Ruby still have shot Oswald. I suppose that the answer is yes.
Except of course that the Ruby saga had so many what-ifs that could have changed in a drastic way by a butterfly in Brazil.
So, forgetting the Ruby saga, Oswald would have had a trial. And it would have come out that Oswald fired 2 shots, & that he had not killed JFK.
And it would have come out that Hickey accidentally killed JFK.
Oswald would have gotten out of jail in say 1983 (ignoring the Ruby saga), & he would have written a book.
And Hickey would have written a book.
And Tippit would have written a book.
Oswald would today be 81 yrs old, & he could be posting on this forum, about how Tippit was lucky to have arrested him.
But he shot Tippit.
If Ruby hadn't shot Oswald then Oswald would have got the chair, for shooting Tippit.
Dumb patsy.


Actually, if Oswald had not shot Tippit (& if Oswald had shot Tippit), & if Ruby had not shot Oswald, then there would be no assassination forums, they would be accidental homicide forums.
However there might still be conspiracy theory forums.

Marjan Rynkiewicz:
A few pix of the Domino Room.  That aint Frankie Kaiser pointing to where he found Oswald's jacket, koz Kaiser when he saw the photo said that the hand was pointing to the wrong place, hence the correct place is left or right of that point.  There was some confusion as to whether Kaiser found the jacket a few days after or a few weeks after.

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