Oswald: No power lunch

[John Iacoletti]

As for you, I keep noticing that you like to unilaterally declare yourself the victor. This habit says far more about you than it does those you like to pretend you've vanquished. And it implies that there's a large delta between where you put yourself in this world versus the place you really occupy.

Says the guy who just unilaterally declared that a single word written on a page of a transcript "matches" a signature on another page and that this is just automatically correct unless somebody proves that it doesn't.  A common LN tactic.

[Martin Weidmann]

Sawyer says that he remembered a transmission on channel 2 saying that a gunman was seen in a TSBD window, but his memory is vague about the exact transmission. That would mark the latest time he was still in his car listening to the radio. The first such transmission  on channel two is Haygood's at 12:35 (not 12:34):

Haygood: I just talked to a guy up here who was standing close to it and the best he could tell it came from the Texas School Book Depository Building here with that Hertz Renting sign on top.

Dispatcher: 10-4. Get his name, address, telephone number there - all the information that you can from him. 12:35 p.m.

The next is Harkness' transmission at 12:36:

Dispatcher:  Attention all emergency equipment, do no use Industrial Boulevard......12:36
Harkness: I have a witness that says that it came from the 5th floor of the Texas Book Depository Store.

In the Martin film, you can see Amos Euins riding on the back of Harkness' three-wheeler eastwards from behind the pergola. They're headed towards Houston on Old Elm. In the background, in front of the TSBD entrance, a car pulls in to park. That car looks like the one that you think is Sawyer's. Harkness remembered the sequence like this:

Mr. HARKNESS - I found a little colored boy, Amos Euins, who told me he saw the shots come from that building.
Mr. BELIN - Now you just picked out a little small book, one of those little pocket notebooks?
Mr. HARKNESS - Yes, sir.
Mr. BELIN - Or a notepad from your pocket here. Is that the original notation that you made?
Mr. HARKNESS - Yes, sir.
Mr. BELIN - When did you make that notation?
Mr. HARKNESS - Immediately after the shooting.
Mr. BELIN - Is that your own record that you have kept in your possession since then?
Mr. HARKNESS - Yes, sir. I turned.
Mr. BELIN - You turned what?
Mr. HARKNESS - After I took his name and address and put this information on the radio, I then took him on the back of my three-wheel motorcycle and put him in Inspector Sawyer's car.

So if Harkness made his 12:36 transmission before he put Euins on the motorcyle, and the car in the Martin film belongs to Sawyer, then Sawyer could not have parked in front of the Depository before 12:36


BTW, this is the best online version of the Martin film I can find. Euins and Harkness (+subsequent paleophotobomb) appear about 0:50 in:

None of this matters much if the women in the photograph are indeed Styles and Adams. Even if Sawyer parked his car at 12:36 instead of 12:34, the photo shows the women were already at the front of the building when that happened, which in turn means that your theory of them having stayed on the 4th floor until 12:36 is utterly debunked.

[Dan O'meara]

Sawyer says that he remembered a transmission on channel 2 saying that a gunman was seen in a TSBD window, but his memory is vague about the exact transmission. That would mark the latest time he was still in his car listening to the radio. The first such transmission  on channel two is Haygood's at 12:35 (not 12:34):

Haygood: I just talked to a guy up here who was standing close to it and the best he could tell it came from the Texas School Book Depository Building here with that Hertz Renting sign on top.

Dispatcher: 10-4. Get his name, address, telephone number there - all the information that you can from him. 12:35 p.m.

The next is Harkness' transmission at 12:36:

Dispatcher:  Attention all emergency equipment, do no use Industrial Boulevard......12:36
Harkness: I have a witness that says that it came from the 5th floor of the Texas Book Depository Store.

In the Martin film, you can see Amos Euins riding on the back of Harkness' three-wheeler eastwards from behind the pergola. They're headed towards Houston on Old Elm. In the background, in front of the TSBD entrance, a car pulls in to park. That car looks like the one that you think is Sawyer's. Harkness remembered the sequence like this:

Mr. HARKNESS - I found a little colored boy, Amos Euins, who told me he saw the shots come from that building.
Mr. BELIN - Now you just picked out a little small book, one of those little pocket notebooks?
Mr. HARKNESS - Yes, sir.
Mr. BELIN - Or a notepad from your pocket here. Is that the original notation that you made?
Mr. HARKNESS - Yes, sir.
Mr. BELIN - When did you make that notation?
Mr. HARKNESS - Immediately after the shooting.
Mr. BELIN - Is that your own record that you have kept in your possession since then?
Mr. HARKNESS - Yes, sir. I turned.
Mr. BELIN - You turned what?
Mr. HARKNESS - After I took his name and address and put this information on the radio, I then took him on the back of my three-wheel motorcycle and put him in Inspector Sawyer's car.

So if Harkness made his 12:36 transmission before he put Euins on the motorcyle, and the car in the Martin film belongs to Sawyer, then Sawyer could not have parked in front of the Depository before 12:36


BTW, this is the best online version of the Martin film I can find. Euins and Harkness (+subsequent paleophotobomb) appear about 0:50 in:

Nice one Mitch.
I was totally unaware of this most important synchronism.
As you point out, Harkness testifies to making his transmission and then taking Euins to Sawyer's car.
The transmission is at 12:36 and the Martin film shows Sawyer arriving as Harkness makes his way towards Sawyer's car.
This has important ramifications for Sawyer's testimony.
He testifies that he arrived outside the TSBD, talked to various officers then went upstairs to check the 4th floor before coming back down about 3 minutes later.
He arrives at 12:36 pm (not 12:34 pm)
Goes into the TSBD around 12:37 pm.
Comes back down around 12:40 pm.
It is not until 12:40 pm that he orders the lock down of the front entrance of the TSBD.
This appears to be confirmed by the Dallas Police transcripts that has a transmission from Sawyer at 12:40 pm
"We need more manpower down at the Texas Book Depository there should be a bunch on Main if somebody can pick them up and bring them down here."

[Martin Weidmann]

Nice one Mitch.
I was totally unaware of this most important synchronism.
As you point out, Harkness testifies to making his transmission and then taking Euins to Sawyer's car.
The transmission is at 12:36 and the Martin film shows Sawyer arriving as Harkness makes his way towards Sawyer's car.
This has important ramifications for Sawyer's testimony.
He testifies that he arrived outside the TSBD, talked to various officers then went upstairs to check the 4th floor before coming back down about 3 minutes later.
He arrives at 12:36 pm (not 12:34 pm)
Goes into the TSBD around 12:37 pm.
Comes back down around 12:40 pm.
It is not until 12:40 pm that he orders the lock down of the front entrance of the TSBD.
This appears to be confirmed by the Dallas Police transcripts that has a transmission from Sawyer at 12:40 pm
"We need more manpower down at the Texas Book Depository there should be a bunch on Main if somebody can pick them up and bring them down here."

Let's not forget that J.C. Bowles, who was in charge of the DPD dispatchers, told the HSCA that the dispatchers were calling the times from non-synchronized "Simplex" clocks which indicated an incorrect time and that it was not uncommon for the time stamped on calls to be a minute to two ahead or behind the "official" time shown on the master clock. In other words, the time stamp of 12:36 may not be correct, which in turn means that it can not be used to determine the accuracy or inaccuracy of  Sawyer's estimate. 

[Martin Weidmann]

Mr. LIEBELER. So you thought you had picked out a particular building at the time when you heard shots?
Mr. WILLIS. Absolutely.
Mr. LIEBELER. What building was that?
Mr. WILLIS. The Texas School Book Depository Building.
Mr. LIEBELER. You were pretty sure?
Mr. WILLIS. I felt certain. I even looked for smoke, and I knew it came from high up.
Mr. LIEBELER. How did you know that?
Mr. WILLIS. I even observed the clock on top of the building, it was 12:33 when I looked up there.
Mr. LIEBELER. The clock on top of the School Book Depository?
Mr. WILLIS. There is a Hertz sign on top of the building, and it alternates the time of day and the temperature, and when I looked up, it was 12:33, and the temperature was 68 degrees, as shown in my slide on No. 12.

If Willis 12 was taken at 12:33, then when was Willis 8 taken?

Btw Willis 7 shows the press bus going down Elm.

[Mitch Todd]

Mr. LIEBELER. So you thought you had picked out a particular building at the time when you heard shots?
Mr. WILLIS. Absolutely.
Mr. LIEBELER. What building was that?
Mr. WILLIS. The Texas School Book Depository Building.
Mr. LIEBELER. You were pretty sure?
Mr. WILLIS. I felt certain. I even looked for smoke, and I knew it came from high up.
Mr. LIEBELER. How did you know that?
Mr. WILLIS. I even observed the clock on top of the building, it was 12:33 when I looked up there.
Mr. LIEBELER. The clock on top of the School Book Depository?
Mr. WILLIS. There is a Hertz sign on top of the building, and it alternates the time of day and the temperature, and when I looked up, it was 12:33, and the temperature was 68 degrees, as shown in my slide on No. 12.

If Willis 12 was taken at 12:33, then when was Willis 8 taken?

Btw Willis 7 shows the press bus going down Elm.

Willis 12 wasn't taken at 12:33. Look at the photo. There is no crowd along either side of Elm, nor on the Dealey Plaza infield, nor is there anyone standing in and around the entrance to the TSBD. Compare that to any of the films or photos of the are around the Depository at that time. For that matter, look at any of the earlier Willis slides.

Willis and Belin are talking about when he heard the shots, not when Wills 12 was taken. Willis just remembered (incorrectly, as the McIntire photo shows) that it occurred at 12:33. Or, at least, it was 12:33 when Willis first looked up at the clock after the assassination.

Willis may have been referring only to the temperature when he said "the temperature was 68 degrees, as shown in my slide on No. 12.

[Martin Weidmann]

Willis 12 wasn't taken at 12:33. Look at the photo. There is no crowd along either side of Elm, nor on the Dealey Plaza infield, nor is there anyone standing in and around the entrance to the TSBD. Compare that to any of the films or photos of the are around the Depository at that time. For that matter, look at any of the earlier Willis slides.

Willis and Belin are talking about when he heard the shots, not when Wills 12 was taken. Willis just remembered (incorrectly, as the McIntire photo shows) that it occurred at 12:33. Or, at least, it was 12:33 when Willis first looked up at the clock after the assassination.

Willis may have been referring only to the temperature when he said "the temperature was 68 degrees, as shown in my slide on No. 12.

Fair enough, but Willis 7 shows the press bus in the motorcade going down Elm street, which happened shortly after the shots. It's reasonable to conclude that Willis 8 was taken not long after that.