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
Three Depository employees shown in the picture taken by Dillard were
on the fifth floor of the building when the shots were fired: James
Jarman, Jr., age 34, a wrapper in the shipping department; Bonnie Ray
Williams, age 20, a warehouseman temporarily assigned to laying a
plywood floor on the sixth floor; and Harold Norman, age 26, an “order
filler.” Norman and Jarman decided to watch the parade during the lunch
hour from the fifth-floor windows.[C3-40] From the ground floor they
took the west elevator, which operates with push-button controls, to
the fifth floor.[C3-41] Meanwhile, Williams had gone up to the sixth
floor where he had been working and ate his lunch on the south side of
that floor. Since he saw no one around when he finished his lunch, he
started down on the east elevator, looking for company. He left behind
his paper lunch sack, chicken bones and an empty pop bottle.[C3-42]
Williams went down to the fifth floor, where he joined Norman and
Jarman at approximately 12:20 pm.[C3-43]
Harold Norman was in the fifth-floor window in the southeast corner,
directly under the window where witnesses saw the rifle. (See
Commission Exhibit No. 485, p. 69.) He could see light through the
ceiling cracks between the fifth and sixth floors.[C3-44] As the
motorcade went by, Norman thought that the President was saluting with
his right arm,
[Illustration: COMMISSION EXHIBIT NO. 485 Positions occupied by
Depository employees on fifth floor on November 22, 1963.]
* * * and I can’t remember what the exact time was but I know I
heard a shot, and then after I heard the shot, well, it seems
as though the President, you know, slumped or something, and
then another shot and I believe Jarman or someone told me,
he said, “I believe someone is shooting at the President,”
and I think I made a statement “It is someone shooting at the
President, and I believe it came from up above us.”
Well, I couldn’t see at all during the time but I know I heard
a third shot fired, and I could also hear something sounded
like the shell hulls hitting the floor and the ejecting of the
rifle * * *.[C3-45]
Williams said that he “really did not pay any attention” to the first
shot--
* * * because I did not know what was happening. The second
shot, it sounded like it was right in the building, the second
and third shot. And it sounded--it even shook the building, the
side we were on. Cement fell on my head.
Q. You say cement fell on your head?
A. Cement, gravel, dirt, or something, from the old building,
because it shook the windows and everything. Harold was sitting
next to me, and he said it came right from over our head.[C3-46]
Williams testified Norman said “I can even hear the shell being ejected
from the gun hitting the floor.”[C3-47]
When Jarman heard the first sound, he thought that it was either a
backfire--
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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