The Girl on the Stairs

by Barry Ernest

  Three weeks later, I received a reply.

  “We searched our collection and exhibits database for the stenographer’s tape, but were unable to locate the item.”11

  Remarks like that no longer surprise me.

  In order for the Commission to sustain its scenario of how Oswald escaped from the sixth floor, it had to use the sighting of Shelley and Lovelady as a means of discrediting Miss Adams (which it ended up doing); say that Miss Adams was wrong about when she came down the stairs (which it did); ignore Sandra Styles and Mrs. Garner (which it did); suppress the Stroud letter (which it did); enhance the meaning of Lovelady’s words (which it did); and neglect to conduct any tests that conceivably could have proven destructive to that scenario (which it also did).

  As time passed and related documents surfaced, were more extreme steps necessary to support it as well?

  “I am more convinced now that Belin or someone put those questions and answers in my testimony,” Miss Adams replied after digesting a copy of the Stroud letter I had sent for her reaction. “Guess it takes a lot of creativity to build a case for a lone gunman and take the heat off the government.”

  And finally we reach my fourth conclusion from my investigation of Miss Adams. The truth about her has now provided a critical clue as to whether or not Oswald was on the sixth floor at the time of the assassination.

  What evidence was used to put him there in the first place? The testimony of Howard Brennan, a fickle witness who could not pick him from a police lineup and gave a description that failed to match Oswald’s appearance? The statements of others who merely saw “a man” there? His fingerprints on boxes he routinely handled during his job? His clipboard found on a floor he routinely visited in the course of that job?12 His secreted rifle? The paper bag? His “escape”?

  Someone was on the sixth floor during those fateful moments. And scientific evidence from the HSCA indicates that a shot or shots came from or near that location. But who pulled the trigger?

  What, then, can be used to preclude Oswald’s presence there? The innocent demeanor of a man confronted by a gun-toting policeman in the brief moments following the assassination? The possibility he may have arrived in the lunchroom by way of the first floor and not the sixth? His comment under questioning that he was eating lunch on the first floor when the shots were fired and that he walked upstairs to get a drink shortly after, a drink he said he was holding when confronted by police? His claim of innocence—of being a patsy—under the glare of television cameras? The fact that no one saw him on the sixth floor, including the man who ate his lunch there only minutes before the murder? The fact that three men standing on the fifth floor and in a position to see or hear someone on the back stairs saw and heard no one coming down from the sixth floor immediately after the shooting? The fact that two women on those stairs at the same time as Oswald would have been also saw and heard no one?

  The fact that the government dealt the way it did with that last fact?

  If nothing else convinces me that something here is wrong, it is the way the Warren Commission handled what turned out to be right.

  What puts Oswald in a place other than the sixth floor is indeed circumstantial. Yet it is no more circumstantial than everything that has been used to put him on the sixth floor.

  But Miss Adams told the truth, didn’t she? The government chose not to believe her, for whatever reason. In fact, it went to great lengths to prove her wrong, for whatever reason.

  But the bottom line is this: Victoria Adams told the truth. And that is what counts here. Isn’t it?

  I have done what Weisberg asked me to do. I have completed for the historical record what turned out to be his final assignment. The days have become slower now. People have reappeared around me and the air is fresh again. My work is over and I have survived in a guise most would describe as “one piece.” I am no longer weighed down and oh so much wiser.

  I started this journey a thousand or so years ago, unaware of its trials and its costs, its burdens and its blessings. It was taken deliberately, without regret, its goal only to find answers to who shot my president. In the end, I found Victoria Elizabeth Adams.

  And in the end, I also found myself.

  “We are not afraid to entrust the American people with unpleasant facts. . . . For a nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people.”

  John F. Kennedy

  October 27, 1963,

  twenty-six days before his death

  APPENDIX 1

  Testimony of Miss Victoria Elizabeth Adams

  The testimony of Miss Victoria Elizabeth Adams was taken at 2:15 P.M. on April 7, 1964, in the office of the U.S. attorney, 301 Post Office Building, Bryan and Ervay streets, Dallas, Texas, by Mr. David W. Belin, assistant counsel of the President’s Commission.

  Belin: Do you want to stand and raise your right hand, please. Do you solemnly swear that the testimony you are about to give before the President’s Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy shall be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God?

  Miss Adams: I do.

  Belin: All right. Would you please state your name?

  Miss Adams: Victoria Elizabeth Adams.

  Belin: Are you known as Vickie Adams?

  Miss Adams: That’s correct.

  Belin: Where do you live?

  Miss Adams: 4906 Wenonah, Dallas, Tex.

  Belin: What is your occupation?

  Miss Adams: I am employed as an office survey representative.

  Belin: By whom?

  Miss Adams: Scott Foresman Co.

  Belin: Where do you work?

  Miss Adams: On the fourth floor of the Texas School Book Depository.

  Belin: Where?

  Miss Adams: 411 Elm.

  Belin: That is at the corner of Elm and Houston?

  Miss Adams: That is correct.

  Belin: I might ask how old are you?

  Miss Adams: Twenty-three.

  Belin: Where were you born originally? In Texas?

  Miss Adams: San Francisco, Calif.

  Belin: Did you go to school in San Francisco?

  Miss Adams: I attended part of my grammar school and high school in San Francisco.

  Belin: Were you graduated from high school?

  Miss Adams: In San Francisco, that’s correct.

  Belin: Then what did you do?

  Miss Adams: Following that I entered the Ursuline Order in St. Mary’s, Ohio, and I left there as a novice in 1961.

  Belin: Then what did you do from there?

  Miss Adams: I went to Atlanta, Ga. and taught school at the Immaculate Heart of Mary School. And following that I came to Dallas and was employed by the Holiday Inn Central during the summer months, and I obtained a teaching position at St. Monica’s School here.

  Belin: And you taught at St. Monica for some period of time?

  Miss Adams: Yes; for 1 year.

  Belin: Then you went to work for Scott Foresman?

  Miss Adams: I went to work for Scott Foresman.

  Belin: Were you at work on November 22, 1963?

  Miss Adams: That’s correct.

  Belin: Were you aware of the fact that the President’s motorcade was going to go right by your building?

  Miss Adams: Yes, sir.

  Belin: How did you learn of this information?

  Miss Adams: Through newspaper media and also conversation.

  Belin: Do you remember when you first read about it in the papers?

  Miss Adams: No, sir; I don’t.

  Belin: Would it have been before November 22nd?

  Miss Adams: Yes.

  Belin: Where were you when the motorcade passed?

  Miss Adams: I was at the—

  Belin: Were you inside or outside the building?

  Miss Adams: I was inside the building.

  Belin: What floor?

  Miss Adams: Fourth floor.
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br />   Belin: Did you watch the motorcade through a window?

  Miss Adams: Yes, sir.

  Belin: Sometimes that is kind of complicated to try and pick out which window if you are counting from the right or left, so I am going to count from the east side of the building to the west side of the building. Now the windows are separate windows, but they are kind of in pairs, so to speak. Were you standing on the first pair of windows, either one of those two windows?

  Miss Adams: No, sir.

  Belin: Counting from the east side, were you standing in the second pair of windows?

  Miss Adams: No, sir.

  Belin: From the east side, were you standing in the third pair, of either of those windows?

  Miss Adams: Yes, sir.

  Belin: Now, of that third pair, from the east side, would it have been the east window or the west window?

  Miss Adams: The west window.

  Belin: So another way, if you don’t count in pairs, but count in single units from the east side, you would have been in the sixth window from your left as you were facing out the window, is that correct?

  Miss Adams: That’s right.

  Belin: Were you standing with anyone?

  Miss Adams: Yes, sir.

  Belin: With whom?

  Miss Adams: I was standing with Sandra Styles, Elsie Dorman, and Dorothy May Garner.

  Belin: Will you state what you saw, what you did, and what you heard?

  Miss Adams: I watched the motorcade come down Main, as it turned from Main onto Houston, and watched it proceed around the corner on Elm, and apparently somebody in the crowd called to the late President, because he and his wife both turned abruptly and faced the building, so we had a very good view of both of them.

  Belin: Where was their car as you got this good view, had it come directly opposite your window? Had it come to that point on Elm, or not, if you can remember.

  Miss Adams: I believe it was prior, just a second or so prior to that.

  Belin: All right.

  Miss Adams: And from our vantage point we were able to see what the President’s wife was wearing, the roses in the car, and things that would attract women’s attention. Then we heard—then we were obstructed from the view.

  Belin: By what?

  Miss Adams: A tree, and we heard a shot, and it was a pause, and then a second shot, and then a third shot.

  It sounded like a firecracker or a cannon at a football game, it seemed as if it came from the right below rather than from the left above. Possibly because of the report. And after the third shot, following that, the third shot, I went to the back of the building down the back stairs, and encountered Bill Shelley and Bill Lovelady on the first floor on the way out to the Houston Street dock.

  Belin: When you say on the way out to the Houston Street dock, you mean now you were on the way out?

  Miss Adams: While I was on the way out.

  Belin: Was anyone going along with you?

  Miss Adams: Yes, sir; Sandra Styles.

  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.

  Belin: When you got into the stockroom, where did you go?

  Miss Adams: I went to the back stairs.

  Belin: Are there any other stairs that lead down from the fourth floor other than those back stairs in the rear of the stockroom?

  Miss Adams: No, sir.

  Belin: Those stairs would be in the northwest comer of the building, is that correct?

  Miss Adams: That’s correct.

  Belin: You took those stairs. Were you walking or running as you went down the stairs?

  Miss Adams: I was running. We were running.

  Belin: What kind of shoes did you have on?

  Miss Adams: Three-inch heels.

  Belin: You had heels. Now, as you were running down the stairs, did you encounter anyone?

  Miss Adams: Not during the actual running down the stairs; no, sir.

  Belin: After you left the Scott Foresman office and went into the stock-room, did you see anyone until you got to the stairs on the fourth floor other than the person you were with?

  Miss Adams: Outside of our office employees; no.

  Belin: Would these office employees that you might have seen, all be women?

  Miss Adams: Yes, sir.

  Belin: Then you got to the stairs and you started going down the stairs. You went from the fourth floor to the third floor?

  Miss Adams: That’s correct.

  Belin: Anyone on the stairs then?

  Miss Adams: No, sir.

  Belin: Let me ask you this. As you got to the stairs on the fourth floor, did you notice whether or not the elevator was running?

  Miss Adams: The elevator was not moving.

  Belin: How do you know it was not moving on some other floor?

  Miss Adams: Because the cables move when the elevator is moved, and this is evidenced because of a wooden grate.

  Belin: By that you mean a wooden door with slats in it that you have to lift up to get on the elevator?

  Miss Adams: Yes.

  Belin: Did you look to see if the elevator was moving?

  Miss Adams: It was not; no, sir.

  Belin: It was not moving?

  Miss Adams: No.

  Belin: Did you happen to see where the elevator might have been located?

  Miss Adams: No, sir.

  Belin: As you got to the third floor, did you take a look at the elevator again at all, or not, if you remember?

  Miss Adams: I can’t recall.

  Belin: As you got off the stairs on the third floor, did you see anyone on the third floor?

  Miss Adams: No, sir.

  Belin: Then you immediately went to the stairs going down from the third to the second?

  Miss Adams: That’s correct.

  Belin: As you ran down the stairs, did you see anyone on the stairs?

  Miss Adams: No, sir.

  Belin: All right. You got down to the second floor. Did you see anyone by the second floor?

  Miss Adams: No, sir.

  Belin: Did you immediately turn and run and keep on running down the stairs towards the first floor?

  Miss Adams: Yes.

  Belin: When you got to the bottom of the first floor, did you see anyone there as you entered the first floor from the stairway?

  Miss Adams: Yes, sir.

  Belin: Who did you see?

  Miss Adams: Mr. Bill Shelley and Billy Lovelady.

  Belin: Where did you see them on the first floor?

  Miss Adams: Well, this is the stairs, and this is the Houston Street dock that I went out. They were approximately in this position here, so I don’t know how you would describe that.

  Belin: You are looking now at a first floor plan or diagram of the Texas School Book Depository, and you have pointed to a position where you encountered Bill Lovelady and Mr. Bill Shelley?

  Miss Adams: That’s correct.

  Belin: It would be slightly east of the front of the east elevator, and probably as far south as the length of the elevator, is that correct?

  Miss Adams: Yes, sir.

  Belin: I have a document here called Commission’s Exhibit No. 496, which includes a diagram of the first floor, and there is a No. 7 and a circle on it, and I have pointed to a place marked No. 7 on the diagram. Is that correct?

  Miss Adams: That is approximate.

  Belin: Between the time you got off the stairs and the time you got to this point when you say you encountered them, which was somewhat to the south and a little bit east of the front of the east elevator, did you see any other employees there?

  Miss Adams: No, sir.

  Belin: Any other people prior to the time you saw them?

  Miss Adams: No, sir.

  Belin: Now when you were running down the stairs on you
r trip down the stairs, did you hear anyone using the stairs?

  Miss Adams: No, sir.

  Belin: Did you hear anyone calling for an elevator?

  Miss Adams: No, sir.

  Belin: Did you see the foreman, Roy Truly? Did you see the superintendent of the warehouse, Roy S. Truly?

  Miss Adams: No, sir; I did not.

  Belin: What about any motorcycle police officers?

  Miss Adams: No, sir.

  Belin: Now what did you do after you encountered Mr. Shelley and Mr. Lovelady?

  Miss Adams: I said I believed the President was shot.

  Belin: Do you remember what they said?

  Miss Adams: Nothing.

  Belin: Then what did you do?

  Miss Adams: I proceeded out to the Houston Street dock.

  Belin: That would be on this same diagram? It is marked Houston Street dock, and you went through what would be the north door, which is towards the rear of the first floor, is that correct?

  And down some stairs towards the rear of the dock?

  Miss Adams: That’s correct.

  Belin: Where did you go from there?

  Miss Adams: I proceeded—which way is east and west?

  Belin: East is here. East is towards Houston, and west is towards the railroad tracks. You went east or west? Towards the railroad tracks or towards Houston Street?

  Miss Adams: I went west towards the tracks.

  Belin: How far west did you go?

  Miss Adams: I went approximately 2 yards within the tracks and there was an officer standing there, and he said, “Get back to the building.” And I said, “But I work here.”

  And he said, “That is tough, get back.” I said, “Well, was the President shot?” And he said, “I don’t know. Go back.” And I said, “All right.”

  Belin: Then what did you do?

  Miss Adams: I went back, only I went southwest.

  Belin: Well, did you come back by way of the street, or did you come back the same entrance you went out?

  Miss Adams: No, sir.

  Belin: You went back in through the front entrance, through the front of the building?

  Miss Adams: Well, I didn’t go back in right away.

  Belin: What did you do then? There is a street that would be a continuation of Elm Street that goes in front of the building, and Elm Street itself angles into the freeway. Did you go back either of those streets?