Report of the President's Commission on the Assassination of President John F. KennedyUnited States. Warren Commission
History
Report of the President's Commission on the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy
United States. Warren Commission
Kennedy, John F. (John Fitzgerald), 1917-1963 -- Assassination; Oswald, Lee Harvey
The minimum time required by Baker to park his motorcycle and reach
the second-floor lunchroom was within 3 seconds of the time needed to
walk from the southeast corner of the sixth floor down the stairway to
the lunchroom. The time actually required for Baker and Truly to reach
the second floor on November 22 was probably longer than in the test
runs. For example, Baker required 15 seconds after the simulated shot
to ride his motorcycle 180 to 200 feet, park it, and run 45 feet to the
building.[C4-363] No allowance was made for the special conditions
which existed on the day of the assassination--possible delayed
reaction to the shot, jostling with the crowd of people on the steps
and scanning the area along Elm Street and the parkway.[C4-364] Baker
said, “We simulated the shots and by the time we got there, we did
everything that I did that day, and this would be the minimum, because
I am sure that I, you know, it took me a little longer.”[C4-365] On
the basis of this time test, therefore, the Commission concluded that
Oswald could have fired the shots and still have been present in the
second-floor lunchroom when seen by Baker and Truly.
That Oswald descended by stairway from the sixth floor to the
second-floor lunchroom is consistent with the movements of the two
elevators, which would have provided the other possible means of
descent. When Truly, accompanied by Baker, ran to the rear of the
first floor, he was certain that both elevators, which occupy the same
shaft,[C4-366] were on the fifth floor.[C4-367] Baker, not realizing
that there were two elevators, thought that only one elevator was
in the shaft and that it was two or three floors above the second
floor.[C4-368] In the few seconds which elapsed while Baker and Truly
ran from the first to the second floor, neither of these slow elevators
could have descended from the fifth to the second floor. Furthermore,
no elevator was at the second floor when they arrived there.[C4-369]
Truly and Baker continued up the stairs after the encounter with Oswald
in the lunchroom. There was no elevator on the third or fourth floor.
The east elevator was on the fifth floor when they arrived; the west
elevator was not. They took the east elevator to the seventh floor
and ran up a stairway to the roof where they searched for several
minutes.[C4-370]
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