donald willis
2017-08-04 01:21:59 UTC
4) Not your grandmother's "sixth floor"
"We have found empty rifle hulls on the fifth floor...." Inspector Sawyer,
1:12pm [Sawyer Exh B p400]) This is perhaps Henslee's most ingenious
"correction" of the radio logs. There was much confusion that day re the
numbering of depository floors:
Counsel: "You signed an affidavit... where you stated that you saw a man
at the window on the fifth floor...."
Robert Edwards: "It was the sixth floor, though....I went with [the FBI]
and I showed them the window, and I didn't count the bottom floor."
(v6p204)
The fifth-for-sixth confusion is explicit in Edwards' testimony; it's
implicit in Henslee's rendition of Sawyer's radio call. All devotees of
depository lore automatically read "sixth" for "fifth" in such cases.
Sawyer, in his testimony, endorses Henslee's "correction" when he reads a
print-out of the transcription: "We have found empty rifle hulls on the
fifth floor...." (v6) Cut-and-dried--sender and transcriber are in
perfect agreement.
Ultimately, Sawyer and Henslee's touching unanimity comes to seem more like
collusion. Bowles again nails Henslee and, collaterally, Sawyer:
"9 [Sawyer] : "on the third floor of this book company down here, we found
empty rifle hulls....1:12pm." (Bowles transcription, CE 705 p78)
Is there, maybe, an impartial third party who can corroborate Bowles?
Yes, as it happens. there are actually a third and a foourth. "On the
third floor of this book company... we found empty rifle hulls..." (FBI
transcription, CE 1974 p176) And Richard Trask, in "Pictures of the
Pain": "Inspector J.H. Sawyer... called in to radio dispatch...: 'On the
third [sic] floor of this book company down here, we found empty rifle
hulls'...." (p523) This from Trask's own transcription (pp557-8).
Bowles, the FBI, and Trask, then, rectify Sawyer, who actually radioed
"third floor", not "fifth". In Henslee's transcription, the
"fifth-for-sixth" confusion tacitly redirects the discovery of the hulls
to the sixth floor. And if Sawyer made a simple transmitting error,
colluding with Henslee was not the way to put things right.
Furthermore, "third floor" may not have been an error. Patrolman Hill's
"second window" and Inspector Sawyer's "third floor" can be seen to
intersect. The only open "second window" in the depository's "upper right
hand corner", at 12:30pm, on November 22nd, was on the "third floor" *from
the top of the building*, or the fifth floor. Subsequent photographic and
witness testimony, however, seemed to rule out any hint of suspicious
activity on that floor or at that window.
dcw
"We have found empty rifle hulls on the fifth floor...." Inspector Sawyer,
1:12pm [Sawyer Exh B p400]) This is perhaps Henslee's most ingenious
"correction" of the radio logs. There was much confusion that day re the
numbering of depository floors:
Counsel: "You signed an affidavit... where you stated that you saw a man
at the window on the fifth floor...."
Robert Edwards: "It was the sixth floor, though....I went with [the FBI]
and I showed them the window, and I didn't count the bottom floor."
(v6p204)
The fifth-for-sixth confusion is explicit in Edwards' testimony; it's
implicit in Henslee's rendition of Sawyer's radio call. All devotees of
depository lore automatically read "sixth" for "fifth" in such cases.
Sawyer, in his testimony, endorses Henslee's "correction" when he reads a
print-out of the transcription: "We have found empty rifle hulls on the
fifth floor...." (v6) Cut-and-dried--sender and transcriber are in
perfect agreement.
Ultimately, Sawyer and Henslee's touching unanimity comes to seem more like
collusion. Bowles again nails Henslee and, collaterally, Sawyer:
"9 [Sawyer] : "on the third floor of this book company down here, we found
empty rifle hulls....1:12pm." (Bowles transcription, CE 705 p78)
Is there, maybe, an impartial third party who can corroborate Bowles?
Yes, as it happens. there are actually a third and a foourth. "On the
third floor of this book company... we found empty rifle hulls..." (FBI
transcription, CE 1974 p176) And Richard Trask, in "Pictures of the
Pain": "Inspector J.H. Sawyer... called in to radio dispatch...: 'On the
third [sic] floor of this book company down here, we found empty rifle
hulls'...." (p523) This from Trask's own transcription (pp557-8).
Bowles, the FBI, and Trask, then, rectify Sawyer, who actually radioed
"third floor", not "fifth". In Henslee's transcription, the
"fifth-for-sixth" confusion tacitly redirects the discovery of the hulls
to the sixth floor. And if Sawyer made a simple transmitting error,
colluding with Henslee was not the way to put things right.
Furthermore, "third floor" may not have been an error. Patrolman Hill's
"second window" and Inspector Sawyer's "third floor" can be seen to
intersect. The only open "second window" in the depository's "upper right
hand corner", at 12:30pm, on November 22nd, was on the "third floor" *from
the top of the building*, or the fifth floor. Subsequent photographic and
witness testimony, however, seemed to rule out any hint of suspicious
activity on that floor or at that window.
dcw