Lovelady said the workers took both of
the Depository's two elevators and were racing each other down to ground
level. He recalled hearing Oswald shout to them from the fifth floor to
wait or to send an elevator back for him.
After buying a soft drink, Lovelady told the Warren Commission, he
went out the main door and sat on the steps of the Depository to eat his
lunch with some co-workers. Lovelady said he remained there as the
motorcade passed by, then heard some noises: "I thought it was firecrackers or somebody celebrating the arrival of the President. It didn't occur to
me at first what had happened until this Gloria [Calvary] came running up
to us and told us the President had been shot."
Asked where he thought the shots came from, Lovelady replied: "Right
there around that concrete little deal on that knoll."
In fact, Lovelady, along with his supervisor, joined the throng of people
rushing toward the Grassy Knoll, but a short time later returned to the
Depository, entering though a back door unchallenged.
William Shelley, Depository manager and Oswald's immediate supervisor, acknowledged that Lovelady was on the steps of the building when
Kennedy passed by. He told the Warren Commission he heard "something
sounded like it was a firecracker and a slight pause and then two more a
little bit closer together." He said the shots sounded like they came from
west of the Depository.
Shelley said Gloria Calvary ran up after about a minute and told them
the President had been shot. Shelley and Lovelady both ran across a small
street in front of the Depository to the north curb of Elm, then trotted
down toward the railroad yards where police were converging. However,
after seeing nothing remarkable, Shelley returned to the Depository.
Additionally, Wesley Frazier and a Depository clerk, Sarah Stanton,
both signed statements averring they were with Shelley and Lovelady on
the Depository steps at the time of the shooting.
That should have been the end of questions concerning the identity of
the man in the doorway. However, on February 29, 1964, the FBI
interviewed Lovelady and photographed him wearing a short-sleeved shirt
with vertical stripes, totally unlike the dark, mottled long-sleeved shirt in
the Altgens picture.
Later Lovelady explained the discrepancies in the shirts by telling CBS
News: "Well, when the FBI took [my picture] in the shirt, I told them it
wasn't the same shirt."
The shirt Lovelady was wearing that day-and subsequently tried to sell
for a large sum of money-was a broad plaid, which he said was buttoned
at the neck. The man in the doorway photo appears to be wearing a dark
shirt open to the naval with a white T-shirt underneath, exactly what
Oswald had on when arrested less than an hour and a half later.
And even Dallas police chief Jesse Curry seemed to continue to question
the identity of the man in the doorway. In his 1969 book, Curry compared
photos of the doorway man with Oswald and wrote: "The Warren Commission attempted to prove that the man was Billy N. Lovelady who
worked at the depository."
The House Select Committee on Assassinations considered this issue in
depth. They had anthropologists study the features of the man in the
photograph and were given photographic analyses of the man's shirt. The
Committee concluded: ". . . that it is highly improbable that the man in
the doorway was Oswald and highly probable that he was Lovelady."
However, since Lovelady said he was sitting on the steps and the man in
the photo is standing, peering around the edge of the front door alcoveand since the FBI did such a dismal job of proving it was Lovelady, some
suspicion still lingers about the identity of the man in the doorway. Most
researchers today are ready to concede that the man may have been Lovelady.
But if the man in the doorway was not Oswald, then where was he'? Was
he on the sixth floor firing the Mannlicher-Carcano just as two federal
panels have
the Depository's two elevators and were racing each other down to ground
level. He recalled hearing Oswald shout to them from the fifth floor to
wait or to send an elevator back for him.
After buying a soft drink, Lovelady told the Warren Commission, he
went out the main door and sat on the steps of the Depository to eat his
lunch with some co-workers. Lovelady said he remained there as the
motorcade passed by, then heard some noises: "I thought it was firecrackers or somebody celebrating the arrival of the President. It didn't occur to
me at first what had happened until this Gloria [Calvary] came running up
to us and told us the President had been shot."
Asked where he thought the shots came from, Lovelady replied: "Right
there around that concrete little deal on that knoll."
In fact, Lovelady, along with his supervisor, joined the throng of people
rushing toward the Grassy Knoll, but a short time later returned to the
Depository, entering though a back door unchallenged.
William Shelley, Depository manager and Oswald's immediate supervisor, acknowledged that Lovelady was on the steps of the building when
Kennedy passed by. He told the Warren Commission he heard "something
sounded like it was a firecracker and a slight pause and then two more a
little bit closer together." He said the shots sounded like they came from
west of the Depository.
Shelley said Gloria Calvary ran up after about a minute and told them
the President had been shot. Shelley and Lovelady both ran across a small
street in front of the Depository to the north curb of Elm, then trotted
down toward the railroad yards where police were converging. However,
after seeing nothing remarkable, Shelley returned to the Depository.
Additionally, Wesley Frazier and a Depository clerk, Sarah Stanton,
both signed statements averring they were with Shelley and Lovelady on
the Depository steps at the time of the shooting.
That should have been the end of questions concerning the identity of
the man in the doorway. However, on February 29, 1964, the FBI
interviewed Lovelady and photographed him wearing a short-sleeved shirt
with vertical stripes, totally unlike the dark, mottled long-sleeved shirt in
the Altgens picture.
Later Lovelady explained the discrepancies in the shirts by telling CBS
News: "Well, when the FBI took [my picture] in the shirt, I told them it
wasn't the same shirt."
The shirt Lovelady was wearing that day-and subsequently tried to sell
for a large sum of money-was a broad plaid, which he said was buttoned
at the neck. The man in the doorway photo appears to be wearing a dark
shirt open to the naval with a white T-shirt underneath, exactly what
Oswald had on when arrested less than an hour and a half later.
And even Dallas police chief Jesse Curry seemed to continue to question
the identity of the man in the doorway. In his 1969 book, Curry compared
photos of the doorway man with Oswald and wrote: "The Warren Commission attempted to prove that the man was Billy N. Lovelady who
worked at the depository."
The House Select Committee on Assassinations considered this issue in
depth. They had anthropologists study the features of the man in the
photograph and were given photographic analyses of the man's shirt. The
Committee concluded: ". . . that it is highly improbable that the man in
the doorway was Oswald and highly probable that he was Lovelady."
However, since Lovelady said he was sitting on the steps and the man in
the photo is standing, peering around the edge of the front door alcoveand since the FBI did such a dismal job of proving it was Lovelady, some
suspicion still lingers about the identity of the man in the doorway. Most
researchers today are ready to concede that the man may have been Lovelady.
But if the man in the doorway was not Oswald, then where was he'? Was
he on the sixth floor firing the Mannlicher-Carcano just as two federal
panels have
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