Well!
We have two statements, each attributed to Mr. Ochus Campbell, that Mr. Oswald was seen in a
storage room on the first floor shortly after the assassination.
Exhibit #1! Dallas Morning News, 11/23/63 (by Mr. Kent Biffle):
Exhibit #2! New York Herald Tribune, 11/23/63:
Note that the DMN article gives an indirect quote, whereas the NYHT one provides a direct quote.
And there are not one but two eyebrow-raising details in that direct quote from Mr. Campbell:
---------1. "We saw him (Oswald) in a small storage room on the ground floor"
---------2. "he did not have permission to leave the building"
Well, if no. 2 here is referring to the time when Mr. Truly and Officer Baker have just run into the buidling, then Mr. Campbell's statement is most odd. All employees,
at that time, had permission to leave the building. Why, most of the building's employees had left the building to view the P. Parade! There was no prohibition on employees leaving the building when on their lunch hour-----------we know, for instance, that a catering truck came by for anyone who wished to buy lunch.
This indicates that Mr. Campbell is talking about somewhat later timeframe: several minutes later,
when the building was locked down.
So..................... how could Mr. Biffle have gotten the wrong end of the stick?
Here's what I think may have happened:
----------------Mr. Biffle heard,
early on, that Mr. Truly & an officer had run into a 'worker' inside the building just after the assassination, and the officer had challenged this man at gunpoint, before releasing him on the word of the building manager. What Mr. Biffle did NOT hear was any NAME for this employee, nor the all-important detail: this 'worker' was caught by the rear stairway several floors up the building (as would be reflected in Officer Baker's affidavit later that day).
----------------Mr. Biffle
also heard,
at a considerably later point, when the word 'Oswald' was on everyone's lips, Mr. Campbell say what the NYHT reporter heard him say, i.e. that this Oswald was seen in a small storage room on the ground floor shortly after the shooting. Mr. Biffle
understandably but erroneously put two and two together, and came out with five: this Oswald guy must have been the worker Mr. Truly had vouched for to the gun-toting cop. And so Mr. Biffle conflated the two sightings.
All of which would leave us with Mr. Oswald spotted in or by one of the two small storage rooms on the first floor several minutes after the shooting.
On the scenario I have been exploring in recent posts on this thread,
----------Mr. Oswald went outside to watch the P. Parade (just as he claimed)
----------then, when shots rang out, he ran down off the steps, with Mr. Bill Shelley in front
----------they both heard from Ms. Gloria Calvery that Pres. Kennedy had been shot
----------they both headed west to the edge of the railroad yards, where they stood around for a little while watching all the excitement
----------they both re-entered the building, via the west door
----------Mr. Oswald was spotted by the storage room on the first floor (perhaps by several people, including Mr. Ochus Campbell [remember: the direct quote has him say "
We saw him"])
----------At some point after this, Mr. Oswald went to the front entrance to leave: by this time, an officer (Lt. Kaminski) was posted there: he stopped Mr. Oswald, and only let him go after Mr. Truly vouched for him
Mr. Oswald related all this to Captain Fritz in that first interrogation, and his claims were ruthlessly distorted in the official interrogation reports. Meanwhile, important work was undertaken------------through the addition of a magic shadow (down Mr. Lovelady's side) in Wiegman, and the creation of a 'post-Cronkite' version of the Altgens photograph----------- to erase visual evidence of Mr. Oswald's presence in the doorway at the time of the shooting
