1

00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:02,000

 Just let me know.

2

00:00:14,320 --> 00:00:17,199

 Right about here, in Dallas, Texas,

3

00:00:17,199 --> 00:00:23,519

 American President John F. Kennedy was assassinated on November 22, 1963.

4

00:00:23,519 --> 00:00:26,800

 The accused assassin was a man named Lee Harvey Oswald.

5

00:00:26,800 --> 00:00:29,679

 After being held in custody for less than two days,

6

00:00:29,679 --> 00:00:32,399

 Oswald himself would meet a violent end.

7

00:00:36,640 --> 00:00:38,719

 According to a subsequent investigation,

8

00:00:38,719 --> 00:00:42,799

 Oswald had fired three rounds from the Texas school book depot story,

9

00:00:42,799 --> 00:00:44,799

 police recovered three shell casings,

10

00:00:44,799 --> 00:00:48,000

 and a bolt-action rifle from the sixth floor of the building.

11

00:00:49,120 --> 00:00:53,200

 But the shooting of Oswald sparked immediate suspicions of conspiracy.

12

00:00:53,200 --> 00:00:56,879

 Suspicions that persist to this day and have driven most Americans

13

00:00:56,880 --> 00:01:00,080

 to reject the government's conclusion that Oswald acted alone.

14

00:01:00,960 --> 00:01:05,760

 The arguments for and against conspiracy take many shapes and forms.

15

00:01:05,760 --> 00:01:09,280

 Far too many, in fact, to do them all justice in a single video.

16

00:01:09,280 --> 00:01:15,120

 Instead, in this video, I want to zoom in and focus on a very narrow slice of this case.

17

00:01:15,120 --> 00:01:18,800

 Specifically, the events surrounding the Texas school book depot story.

18

00:01:19,359 --> 00:01:21,920

 What exactly happened inside this building

19

00:01:21,920 --> 00:01:26,960

 from where the shots that killed the president are believed to have been fired?

20

00:01:42,719 --> 00:01:46,400

 In September of 1963, a young man named Wesley Frazier

21

00:01:46,400 --> 00:01:48,320

 received a call from an employment agency.

22

00:01:48,319 --> 00:01:51,839

 There was a potential job opening at the Texas school book depot story.

23

00:01:52,959 --> 00:01:56,479

 On September the 13th, Frazier made his way from Irving, Texas...

24

00:01:59,039 --> 00:02:00,239

...down to central Dallas.

25

00:02:04,239 --> 00:02:09,120

 He met with Roy Truly, the superintendent of the building, and was hired on the spot.

26

00:02:09,120 --> 00:02:15,439

 Back in Irving, Frazier lived with his older sister, Leni Randall.

27

00:02:18,240 --> 00:02:21,200

 A few houses down the street lived a woman named Ruth Payne.

28

00:02:23,599 --> 00:02:28,800

 On October the 14th, both Randall and Payne had a cup of coffee at the house of a neighbor.

29

00:02:28,800 --> 00:02:34,800

 Payne brought along a friend and Russian immigrant named Marina Oswald, the wife of Lee Oswald.

30

00:02:34,800 --> 00:02:36,960

 Marina could barely speak any English.

31

00:02:36,960 --> 00:02:41,200

 She had been staying with Payne for a few weeks, partly due to her husband's unemployment.

32

00:02:41,760 --> 00:02:46,080

 The subject of Lee looking for work and that he hadn't found work for a week

33

00:02:46,080 --> 00:02:47,840

 came up while we were having coffee.

34

00:02:47,840 --> 00:02:51,200

 And Mrs. Randall mentioned that her younger brother, Wesley Frazier,

35

00:02:51,200 --> 00:02:55,200

 thought they needed another person at the Texas school book depository where Wesley worked.

36

00:02:56,159 --> 00:02:59,840

 Payne and Marina returned home, spoke with Roy Truly over the phone,

37

00:02:59,840 --> 00:03:02,560

 and secured a job interview on behalf of Lee Oswald.

38

00:03:02,560 --> 00:03:07,840

 The following morning, he went down to the book depository and began his first day of work on October the 16th.

39

00:03:11,520 --> 00:03:15,280

 So, an acquaintance with whom Oswald's wife was currently staying

40

00:03:15,280 --> 00:03:17,920

 had a casual conversation with a neighbor.

41

00:03:17,920 --> 00:03:23,199

 That neighbor happened to have a brother who recently got employed at the book depository.

42

00:03:23,199 --> 00:03:28,240

 This prompted his wife to ask the acquaintance to call the superintendent of the building

43

00:03:28,240 --> 00:03:29,840

 to inquire about any vacancies.

44

00:03:29,840 --> 00:03:34,960

 I told Mrs. Payne that to send Oswald down and I would talk to him,

45

00:03:34,960 --> 00:03:38,800

 that I didn't have anything in mind for him of a permanent nature,

46

00:03:38,800 --> 00:03:42,800

 but if he was suited, we could possibly use him for a brief time.

47

00:03:42,800 --> 00:03:47,840

 The position was not only temporary, but only existed due to a temporary shortage of staff.

48

00:03:47,840 --> 00:03:50,000

 It was the end of our fall rush.

49

00:03:50,000 --> 00:03:52,879

 If it hadn't existed a week or two weeks longer,

50

00:03:52,879 --> 00:03:56,159

 or if we had not been using some of our regular staff,

51

00:03:56,159 --> 00:04:01,919

 putting down this plywood floor, we would not have had any need for Lee Oswald at that time,

52

00:04:01,919 --> 00:04:04,560

 which is a tragic thing for me to think about.

53

00:04:05,199 --> 00:04:09,519

 But it gets even more tragic because Oswald was not the only one to apply for a job.

54

00:04:10,319 --> 00:04:14,479

 I might have sent Oswald to work in a warehouse two blocks away.

55

00:04:14,479 --> 00:04:18,079

 Oswald and another fellow reported for work on the same day,

56

00:04:18,079 --> 00:04:21,120

 and I needed one of them for the depository building.

57

00:04:21,120 --> 00:04:23,519

 I picked Oswald, and he was the one I sent.

58

00:04:23,519 --> 00:04:30,959

 If Oswald was somehow entangled in a conspiracy,

59

00:04:30,959 --> 00:04:35,039

 and the aim of that conspiracy was for him to become employed at the Book Depository,

60

00:04:35,040 --> 00:04:53,120

 this roundabout sequence of events is a very strange way to go about it.

61

00:04:53,120 --> 00:04:58,080

 As the name implies, the Texas School Book Depository was in the business of selling books.

62

00:04:58,080 --> 00:05:02,080

 For $1.25 an hour, Oswald's job was to prepare the books for shipping.

63

00:05:02,079 --> 00:05:05,919

 He did so by filling out forms and transporting cartons of books

64

00:05:05,919 --> 00:05:07,919

 between the upper floors and the first.

65

00:05:08,879 --> 00:05:13,359

 The building had three elevators, two staircases, and was seven stories tall.

66

00:05:14,159 --> 00:05:17,439

 In the northwest corner, one stairway and two freight elevators

67

00:05:17,439 --> 00:05:19,759

 provided access to all seven floors.

68

00:05:19,759 --> 00:05:23,439

 A small passenger elevator near the front entrance stopped at level four,

69

00:05:23,439 --> 00:05:26,639

 while stories one and two were connected by a second flight of stairs.

70

00:05:26,639 --> 00:05:30,159

 Lacking a driver's license, Oswald relied on Wesley Frazier

71

00:05:30,159 --> 00:05:34,959

 to carpool between Irving and Dallas every Friday evening and Monday morning.

72

00:05:34,959 --> 00:05:37,599

 He spent workdays at the rooming house in Dallas

73

00:05:37,599 --> 00:05:40,800

 while spending the weekends with his wife and daughters in Irving.

74

00:05:41,599 --> 00:05:46,159

 But on Thursday morning, November 21st, the day before the assassination,

75

00:05:46,159 --> 00:05:48,639

 Oswald decided to deviate from this routine.

76

00:05:50,319 --> 00:05:52,959

 I was standing there on the first floor getting the orders in,

77

00:05:52,959 --> 00:05:54,879

 and Lee said, could I ride with you?

78

00:05:54,879 --> 00:05:57,439

 And I said, sure, you know, like I told you,

79

00:05:57,439 --> 00:05:59,439

 you can go home with me anytime you want to.

80

00:05:59,439 --> 00:06:02,639

 Like I say, anytime you want to go see your wife, that is all right with me.

81

00:06:03,519 --> 00:06:05,600

 Lee had never gone home in the middle of the week before,

82

00:06:05,600 --> 00:06:08,480

 so I asked him why, and he stated that he was going home

83

00:06:08,480 --> 00:06:10,399

 to get some curtain rods for his apartment.

84

00:06:10,399 --> 00:06:13,360

 I asked if he was going home on Friday as well, and he said no.

85

00:06:15,040 --> 00:06:17,120

 Frazier drove Oswald back to Irving,

86

00:06:17,120 --> 00:06:19,600

 where he arrived unannounced at the household of Ruth Payne.

87

00:06:20,159 --> 00:06:22,399

 Both Payne and Marina were surprised to see Oswald,

88

00:06:22,399 --> 00:06:26,159

 on a Thursday. They assumed he'd come to make amends with Marina

89

00:06:26,159 --> 00:06:28,239

 due to an argument they had had a few days before.

90

00:06:29,120 --> 00:06:32,560

 Did your husband give any reason for coming home on Thursday?

91

00:06:33,120 --> 00:06:37,279

 He said that he was lonely because he hadn't come the preceding weekend,

92

00:06:37,279 --> 00:06:39,519

 and he wanted to make his peace with me.

93

00:06:40,079 --> 00:06:42,319

 Was anything said about curtain rods,

94

00:06:42,319 --> 00:06:45,039

 or his taking curtain rods to town the following day?

95

00:06:45,679 --> 00:06:47,599

 No, I didn't have any.

96

00:06:47,599 --> 00:06:49,359

 He didn't say anything like that?

97

00:06:49,360 --> 00:06:51,840

 No.

98

00:06:51,840 --> 00:06:54,560

 The next day, Oswald said goodbye to his wife

99

00:06:54,560 --> 00:06:56,960

 and left the Payne residence about a quarter past seven.

100

00:06:58,000 --> 00:07:01,759

 Atop a dresser in the bedroom, he left behind his wedding ring.

101

00:07:03,280 --> 00:07:06,639

 Oswald was next seen walking down the street by Leni Randall,

102

00:07:06,639 --> 00:07:07,680

 carrying a package.

103

00:07:08,480 --> 00:07:10,080

 He was soon joined by Frazier,

104

00:07:10,080 --> 00:07:13,040

 and the two of them took a seat in his car to begin their commute.

105

00:07:14,639 --> 00:07:17,920

 When you got in the car, did you say anything to Oswald?

106

00:07:17,920 --> 00:07:21,520

 Did you say anything to Oswald, or did he say anything to you?

107

00:07:22,080 --> 00:07:24,480

 I noticed there was a package lying on the back seat.

108

00:07:24,480 --> 00:07:26,240

 I didn't pay too much attention, and I said,

109

00:07:26,240 --> 00:07:27,439

 what's the package, Lee?

110

00:07:27,439 --> 00:07:28,879

 And he said, curtain rods.

111

00:07:28,879 --> 00:07:31,360

 And I said, oh yes, you told me you were going to bring some today.

112

00:07:32,240 --> 00:07:34,400

 Not only was Oswald carrying a large package,

113

00:07:34,400 --> 00:07:36,400

 but he'd forgotten to bring a lunch bag.

114

00:07:36,960 --> 00:07:39,840

 When he rode with me, I say he always brought lunch,

115

00:07:39,840 --> 00:07:42,160

 except that one day on November 22nd.

116

00:07:42,160 --> 00:07:43,439

 He didn't bring his lunch that day.

117

00:07:44,080 --> 00:07:47,200

 Right when I got in the car, I asked him where was his lunch,

118

00:07:47,199 --> 00:07:49,039

 and he said he was going to buy his lunch that day.

119

00:07:50,800 --> 00:07:53,279

 They arrived in Dallas a few minutes before 8 o'clock.

120

00:07:53,839 --> 00:07:57,680

 Typically, they would walk together from the parking lot to the Book the Paw store.

121

00:07:58,479 --> 00:08:00,000

 But on this particular Friday,

122

00:08:00,000 --> 00:08:03,199

 Oswald grabbed his curtain rods and rushed ahead into the building.

123

00:08:10,959 --> 00:08:12,240

 Working on the ground floor,

124

00:08:12,240 --> 00:08:17,199

 in view of the rear entrance was their colleague, Jack Doherty.

125

00:08:28,079 --> 00:08:30,480

 Frazier and Doherty are the only two people