Larry Hancock's JFKA Blog

[Lance Payette]

Just quick points:

1. I don't believe Oswald cared about escaping. I think he was completely astounded to find himself on the sidewalk outside the TSBD. I think he viewed this act as the end of his life, the big opportunity Fate had finally handed him. He would either be martyred for the Cuban cause or be taken into custody and have the opportunity to spout his political philosophy at a trial. If this had been a KGB or G2 operation, they darn well would have cared about the participants escaping if they had been so doltish as to use participants whose backgrounds screamed KGB or G2.

2. TSBD6 was a good location to shoot JFK; the roof of the Dal-Tex or County Records building would have been better by all I have read. In comparison to those, the TSBD6 was fantastically risky. Getting the weapon inside and assembling it when an entire floor-laying crew would be working all morning was risky enough. Betting the floor would be empty and no one would choose to watch the motorcade from that vantage point was fantastically risky. Betting Oswald could cleanly exit the floor and building and make his way to Wherever was likewide fantastically risky. Oswald did this for the reasons set forth in #1 above. No KGB or G2 organizer in his right mind would have chosen TSBD6. Oswald could have simply gone to lunch and found a preplanted rifle at a much, much safer location. If Oswald had cared about escapting, even he wouldn't have chosen TSBD6.

3. It's not a matter of thinking the "perps think as I do." It's a matter of thinking the perps at least think rationally. A JFKA by LN Oswald shooting from inside the TSBD makes sense for the reasons set forth in #1 above and because Oswald was Oswald and the JFKA was a last-minute, flying-by-the-seat-of-his-pants decision. Having the principal gunman fire from inside a building, with absolutely no control over what the circumstances would be at the time, just makes no sense unless the conspirators were the Three Stooges. What I think is going on here is pretty much what is always going on: You're stuck with Dealey Plaza and a JFKA in which Oswald was indeed firing from TSBD6 and this all has to be rationalized even though it's irrational in the context of any conspiracy. The conspirators needed a "diversion" from the TSBD6 on the GK when THERE WAS NO REASON TO HAVE A GUNMAN IN TSBD6 IN THE FIRST PLACE.

[John Corbett]

Just quick points:

1. I don't believe Oswald cared about escaping. I think he was completely astounded to find himself on the sidewalk outside the TSBD. I think he viewed this act as the end of his life, the big opportunity Fate had finally handed him. He would either be martyred for the Cuban cause or be taken into custody and have the opportunity to spout his political philosophy at a trial. If this had been a KGB or G2 operation, they darn well would have cared about the participants escaping if they had been so doltish as to use participants whose backgrounds screamed KGB or G2.

2. TSBD6 was a good location to shoot JFK; the roof of the Dal-Tex or County Records building would have been better by all I have read. In comparison to those, the TSBD6 was fantastically risky. Getting the weapon inside and assembling it when an entire floor-laying crew would be working all morning was risky enough. Betting the floor would be empty and no one would choose to watch the motorcade from that vantage point was fantastically risky. Betting Oswald could cleanly exit the floor and building and make his way to Wherever was likewide fantastically risky. Oswald did this for the reasons set forth in #1 above. No KGB or G2 organizer in his right mind would have chosen TSBD6. Oswald could have simply gone to lunch and found a preplanted rifle at a much, much safer location. If Oswald had cared about escapting, even he wouldn't have chosen TSBD6.

3. It's not a matter of thinking the "perps think as I do." It's a matter of thinking the perps at least think rationally. A JFKA by LN Oswald shooting from inside the TSBD makes sense for the reasons set forth in #1 above and because Oswald was Oswald and the JFKA was a last-minute, flying-by-the-seat-of-his-pants decision. Having the principal gunman fire from inside a building, with absolutely no control over what the circumstances would be at the time, just makes no sense unless the conspirators were the Three Stooges. What I think is going on here is pretty much what is always going on: You're stuck with Dealey Plaza and a JFKA in which Oswald was indeed firing from TSBD6 and this all has to be rationalized even though it's irrational in the context of any conspiracy. The conspirators needed a "diversion" from the TSBD6 on the GK when THERE WAS NO REASON TO HAVE A GUNMAN IN TSBD6 IN THE FIRST PLACE.

Why would a gunman need a diversion? Oswald's choice of the TSBD was the only choice available to him for from that standpoint it made sense. Oswald might very well have not known where he would fire from until the last few minutes. Who knows what he would have done had Bonnie Ray Williams decided to remain on the 6th floor. Maybe he takes the shots anyway. Maybe he goes up to the 7th floor to see if he would be alone there. As it turned out, the 6th floor turned out to be a perfect location. He had the floor to himself and a perfect line of fire down Elm St.

I'm not one to second guess Oswald's choices since he succeeded at what he was trying to do. It might have been the only thing he succeeded at in his whole miserable life. If only he could have been hit by a bus on 11/21/1963.