Re-Constructing The Steps Of A Presidential Assassin
David Von Pein
Marrion Baker For The Warren Commission In 1964 Were In Perfect
Alignment With The Purported Movements Of Both Officer Baker And
Accused Assassin Lee Harvey Oswald On November 22nd, 1963......
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Many JFK conspiracy theorists over the years seem to have fallen in
love with the general idea that President Kennedy's assassin (Lee
Harvey Oswald) could not have possibly shot Kennedy from a southeast
corner window on the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository
Building and then travelled across the length of that 6th Floor, hiding
the rifle along the way, and then travelled down four flights of stairs
in time to be seen by Dallas policeman Marrion L. Baker (who saw Oswald
in the Depository's 2nd-Floor lunchroom approximately 90 seconds after
the last of Oswald's three shots was fired at the President).
Conspiracy buffs like to occasionally drag the above argument out of
their stale "CT" closet in order to buttress the theory that has Oswald
being totally innocent of any wrong-doing on November 22nd, 1963 (the
day of President Kennedy's assassination).
Unfortunately for the CTers who embrace the silly notion that Oswald's
trip from the sixth to the second floor was "impossible" to accomplish
in the allotted timeframe, the verifiable evidence proves that those
conspiracy believers are 100% wrong when it comes to this aspect of the
assassination timeline. Because it was easily a doable trek for Oswald,
or anybody else with two legs who wasn't walking on crutches.
Here's why......
A.) Multiple re-creations were performed by the Warren Commission
during its nearly ten-month investigation into JFK's murder which
verify the fact that a trip from the "Sniper's Nest" window on the 6th
Floor of the Book Depository to the building's 2nd-Floor lunchroom
could be accomplished in less than 80 seconds (and without the person
doing the re-creation being the slightest bit out of breath upon
reaching his second-floor destination).
John J. Howlett, a Secret Service Agent, twice re-enacted Lee Oswald's
probable post-shooting movements. It took Howlett 78 seconds on his
first attempt and 74 seconds on his second (which was done at a
slightly quicker pace, but not a "running" pace).
These re-enactments also included taking the time for Howlett to hide a
rifle near the sixth-floor stairwell (which is where Oswald's rifle was
found less than an hour after the shooting on 11/22/63). And Agent
Howlett was not out of breath upon reaching the 2nd Floor on either of
the re-constructions. ... "Howlett was not short-winded at the end of
either test run." -- Quote from the Warren Report (Page 152).
Hence......
B.) Lee Harvey Oswald (whose legs were not in plaster casts on 11/22/63
the last time I checked on that) could most certainly have traversed
the necessary distance in approximately that same amount of time.
Plus (and I think this is rather important too, but rarely, if ever,
talked about)......
The Warren Commission did re-creations of Oswald's probable (alleged)
movements AND Officer Baker's known 11/22 movements.
Now...let's put these two "re-created" scenarios together......
1.) SSA Howlett was able to ditch a rifle and then travel the required
distance in an average of 76 seconds based on his two separate
"run-throughs".
2.) Officer Baker was able to re-trace his steps from Elm Street to the
second floor (where he saw Oswald) in an average of 82.5 seconds
(covering two runs).
The difference in this "average" is 6.5 seconds. And it's in favor of
Oswald getting to the second-floor lunchroom FIRST, which is also
important -- because that's exactly what DID happen for real on
11/22/63 (based on the totality of the "best" evidence concerning the
events of that day).
When put together, those 4 re-creations perfectly match the scenario
which has Oswald on the 6th Floor at 12:30 PM, but in the 2nd-Floor
lunchroom by approximately 12:31:30 PM.
The re-creations perfectly "line up" with one another...with Howlett
(Oswald) getting to the lunchroom just SECONDS prior to Baker -- just
exactly what would have happened if Oswald had shot President Kennedy
and then scurried down those stairs to the lunchroom right after
performing the murderous deed.
In fact, this "combined" bit of re-created "piecing together" of
people's known and alleged movements further enhances the likelihood
that the Warren Commission's version of Oswald's trip to the 2nd Floor
is the truth. For, the Commission didn't just "make up" these
re-created times.*
* = Or do some CTers think that Howlett's and Baker's re-created
timelines are merely lies being spun by the WC? Many conspiracists
think the entire 888-page Warren Report is full of nothing but lies and
misrepresentations, so they probably also are of the unsupportable
opinion that these re-creations are inaccurate as well.
But, IMO, there's no good enough reason to believe that the WC
deliberately skewed any of the facts in their final report. Most CTers
would laugh right in my face at having uttered that last pro-WC
comment. But, my response to such laughter would be to say with glee:
To Hell With The CT-Kooks!
I, myself, think it's about time for the assorted JFK Conspiracy Nuts
to either "cook or get off the stove"! That is to say -- the kooks who
cry "conspiracy" at the drop of a hat need to come up with a
verifiable, logical, workable, believable, reasonable, and (above all)
COHERENT conspiracy-slanted scenario to show once and for all --
shot-by-shot -- how John F. Kennedy was assassinated by more than one
gunman in Dealey Plaza on November the 22nd, 1963.
Then the CT-Kooks need to accomplish the daunting task of telling the
world (again in a believable, reasonable, and non-laughable fashion)
just how in the heck those amazing "plotters" who cooked up such a
multi-shooter assassination scheme were able to somehow get rid of
every last scrap of "non-Oswald" (i.e., non-Rifle #C2766) bullet
evidence so that only bullets and fragments and spent cartridges from
Lee Harvey Oswald's weapons were found and placed into the official
record of JFK's murder case (including the J.D. Tippit murder as well).
Yes, sometimes it is indeed kind of difficult to separate "fact" from
mere "theory" -- which is a big reason (IMO) why some of the crazy
things purported in Oliver Stone's theory-riddled motion picture
("JFK") have seemingly sprouted legs since that movie burst onto the
national scene in late 1991.
Many conspiracy theorists seem to possess the following attitude ----
Well, you can't PROVE that Oswald didn't have some accomplices on
11/22/63, so I (as a conspiracy believer) get to believe any theory I
please, no matter how stupid it is -- such as the Oliver Stone
"3-Shooter, 6-Shot, 1-Patsy" theory, which has a trio of gunmen firing
at John Kennedy while at the SAME time these idiot plotters were
attempting to frame a LONE PATSY named Oswald for the death of the
President.
Can theories GET more lamebrained than that one? If so, please tell me
how?
The silliness of the widely-accepted "MULTI-GUN / ONE-PATSY" conspiracy
plot is something I've been harping on for years. But since it's been
shown to have likely happened by way of Oliver Stone's movie camera, I
guess a lot of people feel they should just simply roll over and bury
their common sense and accept such a wild theory as being the absolute
truth.
Well, no thanks. Such unverifiable speculation is not for me. I'm not
going to blindly accept the Stone/Garrison Patsy fantasy as fact.
And here are a whole bunch of additional reasons why I won't......
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AN "LN" WRAP-UP......
The Lone-Assassin (Oswald) scenario makes infinitely more coherent
sense than any of the piecemeal, scattershot conspiracy theories that
have been splashed up against the wall in random, unconnected fashion
since 1963 -- including Oliver Stone's absurd theories that somehow
made it to the movie screen (with Mr. Stone getting a little added
help, of course, from the theories being placed on the Conspiracy Table
by Jim Garrison, Jim Marrs, and Robert Groden).
Conspiracy buffs can moan all they want about the Warren Commission's
lone-gunman conclusion, but those same conspiracists haven't yet come
up with any kind of verifiable multi-assassin "replacement" scenario
that comes even remotely close to undermining the WC's original 1964
conclusions. (Especially when it comes to "replacing" the WC's
fully-acceptable and almost-certain-to-be-accurate "Single-Bullet
Theory".)
In recent years, after seeing nothing from CTers that advances the
notion of conspiracy (other than mere unsupportable guesswork), I am
now firmly rooted in my opinion that all conspiracy theories relating
to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy should be flushed
down the nearest porcelain bowl.
David Von Pein
September 2006