motorcade go by from a closed third-floor
window but lost sight of the President when he "became obscured by some
trees which are on Elm Street." He further stated:
In a matter of ten seconds or less . . . I heard three shots . .. there was
a greater space of time between the second and third shots than between
the first and second. The three shots were fired within a matter of less
than five seconds. The shots sounded to me like rifle shots. At that
time, it seemed like the shots came from the west end of the building or
from the colonnade located on Elm Street across from the west end of
our building [the pergola on the Grassy Knoll]. The shots really did not
sound like they came from above me.
Mrs. Elsie Dorman, who worked for Scott-Foresman Co. in the Depository, was in her fourth-floor office filming the presidential motorcade as it
passed below. With her were fellow workers Dorothy Ann Garner, Victoria Adams, and Sandra Styles. Garner told the FBI: "I thought at the time
the shots or reports came from a point to the west of the building."
Adams told the Warren Commission:
... we heard a shot, and it was a pause, and then a second shot, and
then a third shot. It sounded like a firecracker or a cannon at a football
game, it seems as if it came from the right below [the area of the Grassy
Knoll] rather than from the left above [the sixth-floor window].
Styles told Bureau agents she could not tell where the shots came from,
but that she and Adams "left the office at this time, went down the back
stairs, and left the building at the back door." Neither she nor Adams
remarked about hearing anyone on the stairs moments after the shooting,
although it was these same stairs that Oswald would have had to descend
in time for his meeting with a Dallas policeman.
Wesley Frazier, who had driven Oswald to work that morning, was on
the front steps of the Depository. He told the Warren Commission of his
experience:
.. . right after he [Kennedy] went by . . . I heard a sound and if you
have ever been around motorcycles you know how they backfire, and so
I thought one of them motorcycles backfired because right before his car came down, now there were several of these motorcycle policemen, and
they took off down toward the underpass down there . . . I heard two
more of the same type, you know, sounds, and by that time people were
running everywhere and falling down and screaming . . . I figured it
was somebody shooting at President Kennedy . . . and from where I
was standing it sounded like it was coming from down [at the] railroad
tracks there. . . . So, we started back into the building and it wasn't but
just a few minutes that there were a lot of police officers and so forth all
over the building there.
Frazier said one of the Depository employees standing by him on the
steps of the building as Kennedy passed by was Billy Lovelady, who was
to become well-known to researchers as "the man in the doorway."
The Man In the Doorway
Associated Press photographer James Altgens snapped a picture seconds
after Kennedy was first struck by a bullet. In the background of this photo
a man can be seen standing in the west corner of the Texas School Book
Depository's front doorway.
Soon after the assassination, many people-including his mothersuggested the man in the doorway looked amazingly like Lee Harvey
Oswald. Obviously, if the man in the photo was Oswald, he could not
have been firing a rifle on the sixth floor.
The Warren Commission, based primarily on testimony from Depository
employees, concluded the man in the doorway was Billy Lovelady. After
being interviewed at length by the FBI, Lovelady identified the man in the
photo as himself.
Lovelady, who had worked at the Depository since 1961, was one of the
men assigned to lay plywood flooring on the sixth floor that day. He said
about 11:50 A.M. he and other employees stopped work so they could clean
up before taking their lunch break.
window but lost sight of the President when he "became obscured by some
trees which are on Elm Street." He further stated:
In a matter of ten seconds or less . . . I heard three shots . .. there was
a greater space of time between the second and third shots than between
the first and second. The three shots were fired within a matter of less
than five seconds. The shots sounded to me like rifle shots. At that
time, it seemed like the shots came from the west end of the building or
from the colonnade located on Elm Street across from the west end of
our building [the pergola on the Grassy Knoll]. The shots really did not
sound like they came from above me.
Mrs. Elsie Dorman, who worked for Scott-Foresman Co. in the Depository, was in her fourth-floor office filming the presidential motorcade as it
passed below. With her were fellow workers Dorothy Ann Garner, Victoria Adams, and Sandra Styles. Garner told the FBI: "I thought at the time
the shots or reports came from a point to the west of the building."
Adams told the Warren Commission:
... we heard a shot, and it was a pause, and then a second shot, and
then a third shot. It sounded like a firecracker or a cannon at a football
game, it seems as if it came from the right below [the area of the Grassy
Knoll] rather than from the left above [the sixth-floor window].
Styles told Bureau agents she could not tell where the shots came from,
but that she and Adams "left the office at this time, went down the back
stairs, and left the building at the back door." Neither she nor Adams
remarked about hearing anyone on the stairs moments after the shooting,
although it was these same stairs that Oswald would have had to descend
in time for his meeting with a Dallas policeman.
Wesley Frazier, who had driven Oswald to work that morning, was on
the front steps of the Depository. He told the Warren Commission of his
experience:
.. . right after he [Kennedy] went by . . . I heard a sound and if you
have ever been around motorcycles you know how they backfire, and so
I thought one of them motorcycles backfired because right before his car came down, now there were several of these motorcycle policemen, and
they took off down toward the underpass down there . . . I heard two
more of the same type, you know, sounds, and by that time people were
running everywhere and falling down and screaming . . . I figured it
was somebody shooting at President Kennedy . . . and from where I
was standing it sounded like it was coming from down [at the] railroad
tracks there. . . . So, we started back into the building and it wasn't but
just a few minutes that there were a lot of police officers and so forth all
over the building there.
Frazier said one of the Depository employees standing by him on the
steps of the building as Kennedy passed by was Billy Lovelady, who was
to become well-known to researchers as "the man in the doorway."
The Man In the Doorway
Associated Press photographer James Altgens snapped a picture seconds
after Kennedy was first struck by a bullet. In the background of this photo
a man can be seen standing in the west corner of the Texas School Book
Depository's front doorway.
Soon after the assassination, many people-including his mothersuggested the man in the doorway looked amazingly like Lee Harvey
Oswald. Obviously, if the man in the photo was Oswald, he could not
have been firing a rifle on the sixth floor.
The Warren Commission, based primarily on testimony from Depository
employees, concluded the man in the doorway was Billy Lovelady. After
being interviewed at length by the FBI, Lovelady identified the man in the
photo as himself.
Lovelady, who had worked at the Depository since 1961, was one of the
men assigned to lay plywood flooring on the sixth floor that day. He said
about 11:50 A.M. he and other employees stopped work so they could clean
up before taking their lunch break.
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