Witness Accounts of Sixth Floor Window Occupants
Several witnesses outside the building claimed to have seen a person in the southeast corner sixth-floor window. Howard L. Brennan made a positive identification of Oswald, while other witnesses offered varying descriptions. Although the witnesses differed in their ability to describe the person, none testified to seeing more than one person in the window.
Arnold Rowland’s Sixth Floor Testimony
Arnold Rowland, an 18-year-old witness standing on the east side of Houston Street with his wife, testified in detail about seeing a man holding a rifle standing back from the southwest corner sixth-floor window. He described the man as slender, light-complexioned, with dark hair. Rowland initially believed the man was likely Secret Service. In his post-assassination affidavit, Rowland reported seeing this man but could not identify him. When testifying before the Commission on March 10, 1964, Rowland claimed for the first time to have also seen an elderly Negro man in the southeast corner window, describing him as very thin, 50 to 60 years old, 5’8“ to 5’10“, with fairly dark complexion and balding. Rowland said the man remained until 5 to 6 minutes before the motorcade. He claimed to have told FBI agents about the man on the weekend after the assassination, but no such statement appears in FBI reports. Mrs. Rowland testified that her husband never told her about the second man, that she did not hear him mention it during the FBI interview (though she acknowledged not hearing everything), and that she herself saw no one in the sixth-floor windows. She also stated her husband is “prone to exaggerate.” An FBI investigation found that Rowland made numerous false statements about verifiable matters including school subjects, grades, high school graduation, and college admission. The Commission rejected Rowland’s testimony about the elderly Negro man due to his delayed reporting, lack of corroboration, and credibility issues.
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