Oswald was NOT in the 2nd floor lunch room during the motorcade, and there are multiple proofs for it, which I will lay out. But first, I want to point out that it was a diversionary tactic from the start. It wasn’t until 1978 that anyone claimed that Oswald was there. It was during the HSCA, and a Dallas reporter, Earl Golz, was contacted by a woman who claimed to be Carolyn Arnold, and he went and interviewed her.
Carolyn Arnold is the one who told the FBI on November 26, 1963 that she saw Oswald standing at the doorway a few minutes before the motorcade arrived. She was standing on the sidewalk in front of the doorway, and she said she turned around and saw him peering through the glass of the entrance. Recall that the whole entrance was clear glass. So, he was just inside the glass looking out when she saw him about 12:25.
But, the FBI didn’t like that claim. The agent who took her statement designated the time as 12:15 when she saw him, thinking that 15 minutes was enough time to leave for him to get upstairs to the 6th floor. But, smarter heads than him at the FBI realized that it was no damn good if Oswald was hanging around the doorway at 12:15.
So, they went back there in March 1964, and they read her the riot act. They got her to sign a statement stating that she didn’t see Oswald at all that day. And, they let her claim the real time she got outside which was 12:25. But, I have a hunch they also instructed the Warren Commission not to call her in, and they didn’t. So, Carolyn Arnold never testified to the Warren Commission.
And that’s how it stood until 1978 when the Dallas Morning News published an article by Earl Golz about his meeting with Carolyn Arnold. As I said, the HSCA was going on, and Oswald in the doorway was back on the front burner again. So, by getting this new sighting of Oswald in the 2nd floor lunch room during the motorcade, it dissipated some of the focus on Oswald in the doorway.
But, Oswald couldn’t have been in the 2nd floor lunchroom during the motorcade. For one thing, Oswald said he was “out with Bill Shelley in front.” And Shelley was in front, and Oswald could only have known that if he was there himself.
But, there’s a very solid proof that relates to another witness: Officer Marrion Baker. Baker said that as he went up the northwest staircase that on the landing, he saw Oswald moving from the anteroom to the lunch room. The anteroom was a little passageway room that had 3 doors. It had a door from the office side; one from the stairwell side where Baker was; and then internally, it had a door to the lunch room. The door to the stairwell had a glass pane, and it was through that glass pane that Baker saw Oswald moving into the lunch room. Of course, he didn’t know at the time that the man was Oswald. But, he soon found out.
But, the important thing here is that the time was 12:31 and 30 seconds, and OSWALD WAS JUST GETTING TO THE LUNCH ROOM. That is so important, I am going to say it again: OSWALD DIDN’T GET TO THE LUNCH ROOM UNTIL AFTER THE SHOOTING. And since he didn’t get there until after the shooting, he couldn’t have been there during the shooting.
But then, there is the behavioral side of it. Oswald knew about the motorcade. He didn’t know it would be passing the building before he got to work, but he found out that morning at work. And the evening before, he and Marina talked about it, and she expressed how much she wished she could lay eyes on the President and Jackie. Remember that JFK, singlehandedly, prevented nuclear war with the Soviet Union. His generals wanted him to get into the bunker beneath the White House, so that they could start bombing Cuba, but he said no. And he found a way to peace. He agreed to remove U.S. missiles from Turkey in exchange for the USSR removing their missiles from Cuba. Imagine how catastrophic it would have been for the Oswalds if there was war between the US and USSR, when all her family and most of their friends were in the USSR. So, I’m sure they felt tremendous gratitude to JFK.
So, why wouldn’t Oswald want to step outside and watch the motorcade? Why would he prefer to sit in a dank lunch room when it turned out to be a very nice day, and it was a once in a lifetime opportunity to see the President? And what did he have to do in the lunch room? The answer is: nothing. That’s because he ate his lunch early in the lunchbreak in the 1st floor lunch room. That’s what he said. That’s what he told his interrogators. Now, I don’t care who you are reading this: but, if you EVER call Oswald a liar, don’t you dare claim to be his defender. You are NOT his defender if you call him a liar; you are his accuser.
So, since Oswald had already eaten his lunch, what did he have to do in the lunch room? Nothing. And don’t tell me get a Coke because he didn’t get a Coke until after Truly and Baker left. It’s a lie that Oswald had a Coke when he was first seen. As I told you, he was walking when he was first seen. He hadn’t even reached the lunchroom yet. And both Baker and Truly said, adamantly, that he did not have a Coke when they saw him.
So, you don’t have Oswald eating or drinking in the 2nd floor lunchroom. You don’t have him writing a love letter to Marina or to Judyth Baker, whichever you prefer. You don’t have him doing anything there. And he wasn’t there. He was standing outside in the doorway, and he went from the doorway to the 2nd floor lunch room and reached it slightly ahead of Marrion Baker, with them having taken different routes. Baker when across the first floor and went up the rear stairs. Oswald used the elegant stairs that were right next to the front entrance in the southeast corner of the building. Then, he walked across the great expanse of the 2nd floor to get to the lunchroom, and he got there slightly ahead of Baker.
And that Oswald claimed to eat his lunch in the 1st floor lunch room early in the lunchbreak was in the Fritz Notes, the Bookhout Notes, and the Hosty Notes.
I am attaching a frame from the Wiegman film which shows Oswald in the doorway and Carolyn Arnold in front of the doorway, and that’s where she turned around and saw him before he came out, when he was still inside the glass.