Report of the President's Commission on the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy

Actions During and After Shooting

During his first interrogation, Oswald told Fritz that at the time of the shooting he ate lunch in the first-floor lunchroom, went to the second floor for a Coke, encountered a police officer, then went outside and talked with Foreman Bill Shelley for 5 to 10 minutes before leaving for home. He said he left because Shelley told him no more work would be done that day. Shelley denied seeing Oswald after noon or at any time after the shooting. The next day, Oswald added that he had been having lunch with “Junior” at the time of the shooting. The only Depository employee named “Junior” was James Jarman, Jr., who testified that he ate lunch alone on the first floor around 11:55 a.m. and neither ate lunch with nor saw Oswald. Jarman did recall a brief morning conversation in which Oswald asked about people gathering on the corner, the President passing through Dallas, and the motorcade route, to which Oswald responded, “Oh, I see.”

The Attempt on the Life of Maj. Gen. Edwin A. Walker

On the evening of April 10, 1963, Major General Edwin A. Walker, a controversial figure since his 1961 resignation from the U.S. Army, narrowly escaped death in Dallas when a rifle bullet fired from outside his home passed near his head while he sat at his desk. There were no eyewitnesses, though a 14-year-old neighbor claimed to have seen two men in separate cars drive from a church parking lot adjacent to Walker’s home immediately after the shooting. A friend testified that two nights before, he had seen two men peering in Walker’s windows, and Walker had given this information to police before the shooting. The bullet was recovered from Walker’s house, but without a weapon, it was of little investigatory value. Walker hired two investigators, but the case remained unsolved until December 3, 1963. The Commission evaluated four categories of evidence to determine whether Oswald fired the shot: (1) a note Oswald left for his wife, (2) photographs found among his possessions, (3) firearms identification of the bullet, and (4) admissions and other statements Oswald made to Marina.

Note Left by Oswald

On December 2, 1963, Mrs. Ruth Paine turned over to police a Russian volume entitled “Book of Useful Advice” belonging to the Oswalds. Inside was an undated note in Russian, translated as an eleven-point set of instructions concerning a mailbox key, contacting the Soviet Embassy, paying rent and utilities, managing money, disposing of clothing, locating documents, and instructions in case Oswald was taken prisoner. The note’s appearance suggested it was the work of a man expecting to be killed, imprisoned, or to disappear. FBI handwriting expert James C. Cadigan testified that the note was written by Lee Harvey Oswald. Marina testified that on the night of the Walker shooting, her husband left their Neely Street apartment shortly after dinner, and when he returned very late he was very pale and told her he had shot at General Walker and to ask no questions. He later expressed regret that he had missed Walker. Internal evidence—including references to house rent, water and gas payments, the post office on Ervay Street, and the phrase “you and the baby”—established that the note was written while the Oswalds lived on Neely Street in Dallas before moving to New Orleans, most likely on April 2 or 3, 1963, shortly before the shooting. Oswald had apparently mistaken the county jail for the city jail, as the Beckley bus route from Neely Street passed through the Commerce Street viaduct and Triple Underpass into downtown Dallas.

Walker Shooting Photographs

Marina Oswald testified that three days after the Walker shooting, Oswald showed her a notebook containing photographs of General Walker’s home and a map of the area, though Oswald later destroyed the notebook. Three photographs found among Oswald’s possessions after the assassination of President Kennedy were identified by Marina as photographs of Walker’s house. Two were taken from the rear of the house, and the Commission confirmed by comparison with other photographs that they depicted the rear of Walker’s home. An examination of the rear window, the wall the bullet passed through, and the fence behind the house indicated the bullet was fired from a position near where one of the photographs was taken. The third photograph showed the entrance to Walker’s driveway from a back alley, including the fence on which the assailant apparently rested the rifle. Construction work visible in the background dated this photograph to between March 8 and 12, 1963, most likely March 9 or 10, shortly before Oswald purchased the rifle money order on March 12 and the rifle was shipped on March 20. An FBI photography expert determined this photograph was taken with the Imperial Reflex camera owned by Oswald. A fourth photograph of railroad tracks was identified by Marina as taken by her husband in connection with the Walker shooting; investigation placed it approximately seven-tenths of a mile from Walker’s house. A fifth, unidentified photograph of railroad tracks was taken from a point slightly less than half a mile from Walker’s house. Marina testified that when she asked Oswald what he had done with the rifle, he said he had buried it or hidden it in bushes near railroad tracks, and several days later he recovered the rifle and brought it back to their apartment.