Warren Commission (13 of 26): Hearings Vol. XIII (of 15)United States. Warren Commission
History
Warren Commission (13 of 26): Hearings Vol. XIII (of 15)
United States. Warren Commission
Kennedy, John F. (John Fitzgerald), 1917-1963 -- Assassination; Oswald, Lee Harvey
Mr. HUBERT. What is the custom with respect to locking or not locking
the door when they routinely perform the porter duties?
Mr. PIERCE. The normal custom is to unlock the door and take their
trash out, and their receptacle for the trash is immediately on the
other side of the door, and as a matter of habit and routine, while
they are--they take a garbage can out on four-wheel dollies and leave
the door open there until they can set the cans over in there, or as
close as from here to that door from the door they have just left open,
and they set the full cans off onto the dolly and pick up the four
clean cans and set them back on the dolly and push them back into the
building, and it is only for that period of time, but they relock it
when they come back in.
Mr. HUBERT. But, normally, it is an open door while they are
performing----
Mr. PIERCE. While they are performing their duties.
Mr. HUBERT. Do you know whether the Main Street entrance to the
municipal building was locked that day?
Mr. PIERCE. It was locked; yes, sir.
Mr. HUBERT. You tested it yourself?
Mr. PIERCE. And I inadvertently did. Not purposely, for any purpose,
but I did.
Mr. HUBERT. You say that you inadvertently did?
Mr. PIERCE. And I am glad it happened that way.
Mr. HUBERT. Well, tell us about that, briefly.
Mr. PIERCE. The Main Street door is comprised of a revolving door with
two little vestibule-type doors, one each--that is, one on each side
of the revolving door and the two vestibule doors and revolving door
are all locked, and I do know that they were locked, because for this
reason. In the crowd and milling of curiosity seekers and general
public that had gone up and down Main Street, as well as Commerce, and
in an attempt to get in and see what was going on, a couple--two women
looked through the glass of the doors there. And apparently thought,
well, if they could get in here they could see in, because I believe it
was a time--no, I wouldn’t even say I believe it was a time. It might
be they had tried the ramp area, and at any rate, they came up to the
door and tried to get in the revolving door as if to come in off of
Main Street, and apparently not knowing that the building was closed
for the weekend, they thought they could come right in city hall, and I
just waved my hand at them this way [indicating] and they had seen it
was locked, and I waved my hand at them as if to say, “I’m not going to
open it for you. City hall is closed.” We have to do that quite often,
because people come down and want to pay their water bills and we have
to say, “We are closed for the weekend.” And I know it was closed
because they were trying to see if they could get in. In fact, this
was the time when even I didn’t know all this other was going to take
place, but I figured, too, curiosity.
Mr. HUBERT. What about the Commerce Street----
Mr. PIERCE. No; it was locked.
Mr. HUBERT. Was it ever open in your presence?
Mr. PIERCE. I opened it myself one time.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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