To add to my previous reply to Mitch Todd, let's examine for a minute the hypocrisy of his position.
In his last post he wrote;
And there's one more thing to consider:
Adams testified that she saw Lovelady and Shelley on the first floor. She was allowed to review her testimony in print, and she literally signed off on it with not objections as to her testimony as to Lovelady and Shelley's presence in the first floor.
Although what he said is true, in as much as that it says that in her testimony and she did indeed sign the document, which btw happened several days after her testimony when somebody showed up at her workplace and asked her to sign it, after she initially waived signing it.
Todd's hypocrisy is nevertheless on full display, because in the same testimony, Adams also says;
Mr. BELIN - Sometime after the third shot, and I don't want to get into the actual period of time yet, you went back into the stockroom which would be to the north of where your offices are located on the fourth floor, is that correct?
Miss ADAMS - Yes, sir; that's correct.
Mr. BELIN - When you got into the stockroom, where did you go?
Miss ADAMS - I went to the back stairs.and
Mr. BELIN - How long do you think it was between the time the shots were fired and the time you left the window to start toward the stairway?
Miss ADAMS - Between 15 and 30 seconds, estimated, approximately.
Mr. BELIN - How long do you think it was, or do you think it took you to get from the window to the top of the fourth floor stairs?
Miss ADAMS - I don't think I can answer that question accurately, because the time approximation, without a stopwatch, would be difficult.
Mr. BELIN - How long do you think it took you. to get from the window to the bottom of the stairs on the first floor?
Miss ADAMS - I would say no longer than a minute at the most.
Mr. BELIN - So you think that from the time you left the window on the fourth floor until the time you got to the stairs at the bottom of the first floor, was approximately 1 minute?
Miss ADAMS - Yes, approximately.yet Todd completely ignores that and dismisses it, while at the same time attaching great importance to the Shelley/Lovelady remark.
It is obvious there is a great discrepancy between the two remarks, as the Shelley/Lovelady remark implies that Adams and Styles left the 4th floor much later than Adams testified she did. When there are two contradicting statements from a witness, the best way to determine which one is the correct statement is to look for corroboration.
Sow, let's see what Adams told the investigators prior to her testimony;
On 11/24/63 FBI agents Hardin and Scott wrote in their FD 302 report that Adams had said;
"She and her friend then ran immediately to the back of the building to where the stairs were located and ran down the stairs"
On 02/17/64 she told Jim Leavelle;
"After the third shot I went out the back door" and "The elevator was not running and there was no one on the stairs"
and on 03/23/64 she told the FBI
"After the third shot I observed the car carrying President Kennedy speed away. Sandra Styles and I then ran out of the building via the stairs"
In all these statements, Adams is perfectly consistent in saying that she and Styles ran to the stairs
after the third shotAnd Sandra Styles backs her up. In her statement to the FBI of 03/23/64 she said;
"I heard shots but thought at the time that they were fireworks. I was unaware of the place the shots came from. I saw people running and others lie down on the ground and realized something was happening but did not know exactly what was happening. Victoria Adams and I left the office at this time, went down the back stairs and left the building at the back door.
And then of course there is Dorothy Garner who, according to Martha Stroud, said she saw Baker and Truly come up after the girls (Adams and Styles) had gone down. Garner explained to Barry Ernest that she did not actually see the girls go down, but she could hear them on the noise stairs.
All these statements sufficiently corroborate Adams testimony - I am paraphrasing - that she and Styles left their position at the window and went to the stairs at the back of the building within seconds after the third shot.
Now let's examine what corroboration there is for the Shelley/Lovelady remark.
To say that there isn't any would be a misrepresentation of the facts, because Jim Leavelle wrote in his report of 02/17/64 that Adams said;
"I saw Mr. Shelley and another employee named Bill"
But that's about it.
Note that Adams did not say when and where she saw Shelley and Lovelady. That bit of information was only added on during her testimony on 04/07/64. It should also be noted that Adams was not included in the re-enactment of the events on 03/20/64, so before she even testified the WC lawyers were already not interested in what she had to say about what actually happened on 11/22/63.
Also note that Shelley, Lovelady and Sandra Styles did not confirm the alleged encounter on the first floor at the TSBD and that closer examination of Shelley's and Lovelady's actions after the shot show that both men were in the railway yard next to the TSBD until 12:35, which means there is no physical way Adams could have seen both men on the first floor if she came down the stairs immediately after the third shot. On the other hand, it is indeed possible that Adams saw Shelley and Lovelady in the railway yard as she passed the men on her way to the front entrance.
And finally it should be noted that on 04/04/64 WC assistant counsel Leon Hubert wrote a remarkable memo in which he refered to a recent staff meeting in which he had objected to what he called "editing of the transcripts of depositions". In the same memo he also complains about the practice of waiving signatures by the witnesses and advocates to have witnesses read and sign the transcript even if it contains errors, which according to him can later be rectified.
Now, isn't it just remarkable that Victoria Adams initially waived signing her testimony, as that would save her from having to return to sign it, only to be confronted by somebody at work a few days later who insisted she would sign after all. And isn't it just as remarkable that Victoria Adams told Barry Ernest that she never testified that she saw Shelley and Lovelady on the first floor?
