by Barry Ernest
And on questioning some police officer, they said they had witnesses to the fact that he was in the Dallas Morning News at the time. And I don’t know whether that is relevant or what.5
Apparently that was not important to Belin, because seconds later he ended the session.
Comparing what Miss Adams said in her testimony with what had been written about her in the Warren Report, I found the government’s version to be logical. Oswald fired the shots from the sixth floor and ran down the back stairs. Certainly the government had proven that. There was no other avenue of escape for him, no other way he could have arrived in the second-floor lunchroom in less than ninety seconds after the assassination for his encounter with police there.
If Miss Adams was accurate with what she remembered and she went down those stairs when she said she did, she would have seen Oswald or at least heard his mad dash on the steps. It couldn’t have been avoided. And yet, she saw and heard no one.
Therefore, she must have come down later than she thought. She must have made a mistake about her timing. In the excitement of it all, she had made a human error. That would explain everything.
And let’s not forget Shelley and Lovelady. They said they had been outside the building for several minutes after the shooting. If Miss Adams saw them on the first floor when she arrived there, that alone proved she was on the stairs later than she figured. It seemed so simple.
Maybe it was the aftereffects of what once occupied the now-empty hamburger wrappers and fries tubs I noticed lying on the floor. Maybe it was because the clock read 4 A.M. I couldn’t put my finger on it yet, but something about this young girl still didn’t seem quite right.
CHAPTER 4
February 1967
Victoria Adams’ testimony had taken only thirty minutes. During it, Belin had handed her a diagram of the first floor of the Depository—Commission Exhibit (CE) 496. According to the transcript, she had indicated on that exhibit the spot where she saw Shelley and Lovelady. When I looked up CE 496 in the twenty-six volumes, however, I found that document to be a copy of the application Oswald filled out for his job at the Depository.1 Curiously, I could not find the diagram Belin had introduced anywhere in the Commission’s published exhibits.
The transcript mentioned Sandra Styles, the woman who accompanied Miss Adams. The Commission never questioned her. Nor did it bother with the two others who were with Miss Adams at the window, Elsie Dorman and Dorothy Garner. If the Warren Report wanted to establish when Miss Adams went down the stairs, why hadn’t any of them been examined?
Miss Adams seemed adamant that she left her office immediately after the shooting. How then could she have encountered Shelley and Lovelady?
The questions just kept coming.
William Shelley was a manager at the Depository. He was also Oswald’s immediate supervisor. Like Oswald, Billy Lovelady filled book orders. Photographs reveal he also bore a strong resemblance to Oswald: both were nearly the same height and weight, both had dark, thinning hair with a wide forehead, and they each wore the same style of clothing. From a distance, it was difficult to tell them apart, and employees often kidded each about the similarities.
Shelley and Lovelady provided testimony about one hour after Miss Adams’ appearance. Commission counsel Joseph Ball, Belin’s partner in this phase of the investigation, did the questioning. Both witnesses went through lengthy explanations of how they observed the shooting from the front steps of the Depository. Each said they next went toward the railroad yards to see what the commotion was about. Then they returned to the building, entering the first floor a couple of minutes later. Did they see Victoria Adams?
Ball: When you came into the shipping room did you see anybody?
Shelley: I saw Eddie Piper.2
Ball: What was he doing?
Shelley: He was coming back from where he was watching the motorcade in the southwest corner of the shipping room.
Ball: Of the first floor of the building?
Shelley: Yes.
Ball: Who else did you see?
Shelley: That’s all we saw immediately.
Ball: Did you ever see Vickie Adams?
Shelley: I saw her that day but I don’t remember where I saw her.
Ball: You don’t remember whether you saw her when you came back?
Shelley: It was after we entered the building.
Ball: You think you did see her after you entered the building?
Shelley: Yes, sir; I thought it was on the fourth floor awhile after that.3
Like Belin, Ball must have been aware of the timing difficulties inherent in Miss Adams’ testimony. Shelley had to be more precise with when and where he saw her.
Ball: Did you see Vickie Adams after you came into the building and did you see her on the first floor?
Shelley: I sure don’t remember.
Ball: You don’t.
Shelley: No.4
I flipped back to the Warren Report. It indeed said nothing about Shelley seeing Miss Adams on the first floor. The Report, however, did say Lovelady “saw a girl on the first floor who he believes was Victoria Adams.”
But that wasn’t exactly what Lovelady said in his testimony.
Ball: You came in through the first floor?
Lovelady: Right.
Ball: Who did you see in the first floor?
Lovelady: I saw a girl but I wouldn’t swear to it it’s Vickie.5
I nearly jumped from my chair. Did he just say her name? Where had that come from?
Lovelady’s sudden reference to “Vickie“ was certainly strange. Up to that utterance in Lovelady’s testimony, Ball had not mentioned a single word about Victoria Adams or any derivation of her name. What brought forth this unsolicited and impromptu reference to Miss Adams? How did Lovelady know what Ball was leading up to?
Ball: Who is Vickie?
Lovelady: The girl that works for Scott, Foresman.
Ball: What is her full name?
Lovelady: I wouldn’t know.
Ball: Vickie Adams?
Lovelady: I believe so.
Ball: Would you say it was Vickie you saw?
Lovelady: I couldn’t swear.
Ball: Where was the girl?
Lovelady: I don’t remember what place she was but I remember seeing a girl and she was talking to Bill or saw Bill or something, then I went over and asked one of the guys what time it was and to see if we should continue working or what.6
If “Bill” was William Shelley, as it most surely must have been, then why didn’t Shelley remember talking with Miss Adams?
There were just too many questions.
I quickly learned that the twenty-six massive volumes of Commission evidence represent a researcher’s nightmare. They are all un-indexed, and that fact alone forces the curious to leaf through hundreds and hundreds of pages, searching document by document until, with no small degree of luck, whatever is being sought is located.
During one of my forays late at night, I discovered CE 1381. It was a collection of statements made to the FBI by the seventy-three people at work in the Texas School Book Depository on November 22. Alphabetically, Miss Adams was first. Her statement was made March 23, 1964, two weeks prior to her Commission testimony.
“I am a Caucasian female, born February 8, 1941 at San Francisco, California and I presently reside at 4906 Wenonah, Dallas, Texas. I am employed as an Office Service Representative by Scott, Foresman and Company, Room 401, Texas School Book Depository Building, 411 Elm Street, Dallas, Texas, and was so employed on November 22, 1963, the day President John F. Kennedy was assassinated.
“On November 22, 1963 at about 12:20 P.M. I was in my office and I went to the sixth window from the left to watch the Presidential Motorcade. Also viewing the parade with me were Elsie Dorman, Sandra Styles and Dorothy Garner, all employees of the Scott, Foresman and Company. I recall that at about 12:30 P.M., just after the car carrying President Kennedy had passed on the street below, I heard three loud reports which
I first thought were firecrackers. But, when I saw all of the confusion on the street below I knew they must have been shots. 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 and went in the direction of the railroad where we had observed other people running. We had not gone far when a Police officer stopped us and instructed us to return to the building, which we did.
“I never knew Lee Harvey Oswald, but I believe I did see him on one occasion in the Depository Building about two weeks before President Kennedy’s assassination. I did not see him on the day President Kennedy was assassinated, nor did I observe any strangers in the Texas School Book Depository Building on the morning of November 22, 1963.
“I believe I left the Texas School Book Depository Building between 2:00 PM and 2:30 PM on November 22, 1963 and I went home.”7
Except for maybe forgetting about her encounter with Shelley and Lovelady on the first floor, her statement was consistent with what she would later say before the Commission.
Co-worker Elsie Dorman made no mention of Miss Adams in her FBI statement, other than to say both women were together at the window. Interesting was her admission she was filming the event with her husband’s camera.8 I made a note about this.
Dorothy Ann Garner, who was beside the other women at the window, also said nothing about when Miss Adams left.9
The tagalong, Sandra Styles, was questioned March 19, 1964.
“I am a white female, born February 6, 1940, at Dallas, Texas and reside at 2102 W. Grauwyler, Irving, Texas. I am employed as Office Service Representative at Scott, Foresman and Company located at room 401 in the Texas School Book Depository Building, 411 Elm Street, Dallas, Texas.
“On November 22, 1963 I was in my office at a window facing Elm Street watching the Presidential motorcade at the time President Kennedy was shot. Also present at this window with me were Dorothy Garner, Elsie Dorman, and Victoria Adams all of whom are employed at Scott, Foresman and Company.
“I never knew Lee Harvey Oswald, not even by sight as an employee at the building, and did not see him at the time the President was shot. I do not recall seeing any strangers in the building on the morning of November 22, 1963.
“I recall that on the afternoon of November 22, 1963, while watching the motorcade at sometime between 12:15 PM and 12:30 PM, possibly about 12:20 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. We then went around to the side of the building where we saw a policeman talking to someone whom I did not recognize. I was told by a policeman to go around to the front of the building and out of that area. I then re-entered the building through the front door, took the elevator to the fourth floor and returned to my office. I did not see any strangers or Lee Harvey Oswald between the time I left my office and returned to it inside the building, however I saw many persons milling around outside the building and did not recognize any particular person.
“I believe I left the Texas School Book Depository Building at approximately 2:00 PM on November 22, 1963.”10
“Victoria Adams and I left the office at this time. . . .” Did Sandra Styles just corroborate Miss Adams’ statement? Did both leave the window right after the final shot after all? Wouldn’t that have put them on the stairs when Oswald was there? Why wasn’t Miss Styles called as a Commission witness?
In the same group of statements were those made by Shelley and Lovelady. On March 18, Shelley told the FBI, “Immediately following the shooting, Billy N. Lovelady and I accompanied some uniformed police officers to the railroad yards just west of the building and returned through the west side door of the building about ten minutes later.”11
On March 19, Lovelady said, “I recall that following the shooting, I ran toward the spot where President Kennedy’s car had stopped. William Shelley and myself stayed in that area for approximately five minutes when we then re-entered the Depository building by the side door located on the west side of the building.”12
If their estimates of time—Lovelady at five minutes, Shelley at ten—were anywhere near correct, then Miss Adams was very wrong. She would have had to descend the stairs considerably later than she said, if she saw both men on the first floor.
Deep in the twenty-six volumes one night, I discovered even more discrepancies. I found the original affidavits of both Shelley and Lovelady, sworn to on the day of the assassination. They had been taken by the Dallas County Sheriff’s Department. In his, Shelley said:
The President’s car was about half-way from Houston Street to the Triple Underpass when I heard what sounded like three shots. I couldn’t tell where they were coming from. I ran across the street to the corner of the park and ran into a girl crying and she said the President had been shot. This girl’s name is Gloria Calvery who is an employee of this same building. I went back to the building and went inside and called my wife and told her what happened. I was on the first floor then and I stayed at the elevator and was told not to let anyone out of the elevator.13
Lovelady said:
After he [Kennedy] had passed and was about 50 yards past us I heard three shots. There was a slight pause after the first shot then the next two was right close together. I could not tell where the shots come from but sounded like they were across the street from us. However, that could have been caused by the echo. After it was over we went back into the building and I took some police officers up to search the building.14
What happened to their journey through the railroad yards? How quickly did Shelley go “back to the building” and call his wife? What exactly did Lovelady mean when he said he reentered the Depository “after it was over”?
Could they have been on the first floor when Miss Adams arrived after all? If so, did that mean their trip to the railroad yards was a story concocted simply to prove her wrong?15
CHAPTER 5
March-June 1967
“I’m going to trace Oswald’s movements from the day before the assassination up until the time he was arrested.”
Terry looked at me but said nothing. We were at one of what had become regular meetings in my dorm room. I had brought him up to date with my progress on the story of Victoria Adams.
“I’m curious about what the Report says Oswald did versus what the witnesses who saw him said.”
“Do you realize how much time that’s going to take?” Terry finally responded. “What about your schoolwork?”
“No problem.”
“By the way,” Terry added, “still believe the Warren Report?”
I smiled. “Catch you later.”
During the normal workweek, Lee Harvey Oswald stayed in a rooming house in Oak Cliff, a Dallas suburb only a few miles from the Depository. On Friday afternoons, he routinely caught a ride with fellow employee Buell Wesley Frazier to Irving, about fifteen miles from Dallas. Oswald’s wife, Marina, and their child (later children) stayed there with an accommodating friend, Ruth Paine. Oswald visited with his family during the weekends, returning to Dallas on Monday mornings.
Frazier, a neighbor of Mrs. Paine, lived with his sister, Linnie Mae Randle.
On the eve of the assassination, a Thursday, Oswald asked Frazier for a ride to Irving. The Warren Report thought the day-early trip suspicious, although evidence showed it may not have been unique.1
Oswald told Frazier that he wanted to pick up curtain rods for his rooming house. He planned on returning to Dallas the next morning.2
The Report concluded that the trip was for a more sinister purpose: to allow Oswald to retrieve his rifle. The rifle was stored in an old blanket on the floor of Mrs. Paine’s garage.3
On Friday morning, as Kennedy prepared for a breakfast speech at the Texas Hotel in Fort Wort
h, Oswald overslept.4 He had to be nudged awake by his wife ten minutes after the alarm went off. Once aroused, Oswald hastily dressed, gulped a cup of coffee, and walked the half-block to Frazier’s house. He carried a long, brown, handmade paper sack. Inside the sack, according to the Report, was his disassembled rifle.
In all probability, the paper and tape used to construct the bag was on Oswald when he rode home the previous evening. Kennedy’s visit was first announced in newspapers two days earlier, on Tuesday, November 19. Therefore, Oswald would have had no reason to take those materials to Irving otherwise. But Frazier testified he never saw those items on Oswald during the Thursday ride home.
Ball: On Thursday afternoon when you went home, drove on home, did he [Oswald] carry any package with him?
Frazier: No, sir; he didn’t.5
Based on the evidence, Oswald would have had to carry at least six feet of paper to construct the sack. The Report concluded that the paper and tape came from rolls used at the Depository to wrap and ship textbooks. Since Oswald had access to this material, the Report states he “took paper and tape from the wrapping bench of the Depository and fashioned a bag large enough to carry the disassembled rifle.”6
There was no evidence presented to support that claim, however. Plus, the Report ignored Troy E. West, an employee so dedicated to his job at the wrapping bench that he even ate his lunches there. He said he never once saw Oswald near that area.7
The Report also failed to explain when Oswald would have had the time to fashion the bag at Mrs. Paine’s residence. Both Marina Oswald8 and Mrs. Paine9 told the Commission they did not see any brown wrapping paper like that around the Paine residence Thursday evening. Nor could Mrs. Oswald10 or Mrs. Paine11 recall a period during that evening when Oswald had the undisturbed opportunity to make such a sack.
Nevertheless, Oswald did carry a long paper sack to Frazier’s car the next morning. Frazier’s sister, Linnie Randle, saw it from a kitchen window and thought the sack was “a little bit more” than two feet in length.12 Frazier described the package as taking up “around two feet, give and take a few inches,” of the backseat of his car, where Oswald placed it.13 That size was later verified when the FBI measured the area of the backseat pointed out by Frazier.14