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
Bonnie Ray Williams, who was also working with the floor-laying crew,
returned to the sixth floor at about noon to eat his lunch and watch
the motorcade.[C6-51] He looked out on Elm Street from a position
in the area of the third or fourth set of windows from the east
wall.[C6-52] At this point he was approximately 20-30 feet away from
the southeast corner window. He remained for about “5, 10, maybe 12
minutes” eating his lunch which consisted of chicken and a bottle of
soda pop.[C6-53] Williams saw no one on the sixth floor during this
period, although the stacks of books prevented his seeing the east side
of the building.[C6-54] After finishing his lunch Williams took the
elevator down because no one had joined him on the sixth floor to watch
the motorcade.[C6-55] He stopped at the fifth floor where he joined
Harold Norman and James Jarman, Jr., who watched the motorcade with
him from a position on the fifth floor directly below the point from
which the shots were fired. Williams left the remains of his lunch,
including chicken bones and a bottle of soda, near the window where he
was eating.[C6-56]
Several witnesses outside the building claim to have seen a person in
the southeast corner window of the sixth floor. As has already been
indicated, some were able to offer better descriptions than others and
one, Howard L. Brennan, made a positive identification of Oswald as
being the person at the window.[C6-57] Although there are differences
among these witnesses with regard to their ability to describe the
person they saw, none of these witnesses testified to seeing more than
one person in the window.[C6-58]
One witness, however, offered testimony which, if accurate, would
create the possibility of an accomplice at the window at the time of
the assassination. The witness was 18-year-old Arnold Rowland, who
testified in great detail concerning his activities and observations
on November 22, 1963. He and his wife were awaiting the motorcade,
standing on the east side of Houston Street between Maine and
Elm,[C6-59] when he looked toward the Depository Building and noticed
a man holding a rifle standing back from the southwest corner window
on the sixth floor. The man was rather slender in proportion to his
size and of light complexion with dark hair.[C6-60] Rowland said that
his wife was looking elsewhere at the time and when they looked back
to the window the man “was gone from our vision.”[C6-61] They thought
the man was most likely someone protecting the President. After the
assassination Rowland signed an affidavit in which he told of seeing
this man, although Rowland was unable to identify him.[C6-62]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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