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 Commission has analyzed Oswald’s movements between the time of
the assassination and the shooting of Patrolman Tippit to determine
whether there is any evidence that Oswald had assistance in his flight
from the building. Oswald’s activities during this period have been
traced through the testimony of seven witnesses and discussed in detail
in chapter IV.[C6-80] (See Commission Exhibit No. 1119-A, p. 158
and Commission Exhibit No. 1118, p. 150.) Patrolman M. L. Baker and
Depository superintendent Roy Truly saw him within 2 minutes of the
assassination on the second floor of the building. Mrs. R. A. Reid saw
him less than 1 minute later walking through the second-floor offices
toward the front of the building. A busdriver, Cecil J. McWatters,
and Oswald’s former landlady, Mrs. Mary Bledsoe, saw him board a bus
at approximately 12:40 p.m., and get off about 4 minutes later. A
cabdriver, William W. Whaley, drove Oswald from a cabstand located a
few blocks from where Oswald left the bus to a point in Oak Cliff about
four blocks from his roominghouse; and Earlene Roberts, the housekeeper
at Oswald’s roominghouse, saw him enter the roominghouse at about 1
p.m. and leave a few minutes later. When seen by these seven witnesses
Oswald was always alone.
Particular attention has been directed to Oswald’s departure from
the Depository Building in order to determine whether he could have
left the building within approximately 3 minutes of the assassination
without assistance. As discussed more fully in chapter IV, the building
was probably first sealed off no earlier than 12:37 by Inspector
Herbert Sawyer.[C6-81] The shortest estimate of the time taken to seal
off the building comes from Police Officer W. E. Barnett, one of the
officers assigned to the corner of Elm and Houston Streets for the
Presidential motorcade, who estimated that approximately 3 minutes
elapsed between the time he heard the last of the shots and the time he
started guarding the front door.[C6-82] According to Barnett, “there
were people going in and out” during this period.[C6-83] The evidence
discussed in chapter IV shows that 3 minutes would have been sufficient
time for Oswald to have descended from the sixth floor and left the
building without assistance.[C6-84]
One witness, James R. Worrell, Jr., claims to have seen a man running
from the rear of the building shortly after the assassination, but in
testimony before the Commission he stated that he could not see his
face.[C6-85] Two other witnesses who watched the rear of the building
during the first 5 minutes after the shooting saw no one leave.[C6-86]
The claim of Deputy Sheriff Roger Craig that he saw Oswald leave the
Depository Building approximately 15 minutes after the assassination
has been discussed in chapter IV.[C6-87] Although Craig may have seen
someone enter a station wagon 15 minutes after the assassination, the
person he saw was not Lee Harvey Oswald, who was far removed from the
building at that time.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account