hsienzant
Hank offered a caveat that allows him time to check on his facts. At some point he can offer an apology or a citation.
You made a statement of fact with neither.
You both have a burden of proof. But one of you has a track record of making good on this thread and doesn't this pointing out to him.
No. As I said, I expect him to make good on his.
Alas your own statement has burdens of its own.
When I said
On the day of the assassination, Ellsworth was in Dealey Plaza as a civilian, as I recall.
I was thinking of James Powell, a military intelligence officer who was also in Dealey Plaza that day and who took the day off from work to observe the motorcade.
According to Dick Russell, in the
MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH (p.568), Ellsworth was at his normal office job (at the ATF office in Dallas, "not far from Dealey Plaza"), he said, when he heard of the shooting over the radio. He had no assigned duties relating to the President's visit, thus, anything he did that day relative to the search was off-duty from his regular job.
Dick Russell says Ellsworth said, "...(I) got there the same time [Dallas Police Chief] Will Fritz did. He motioned me to follow him into the book depository. To my knowledge, I was the only federal officer in the building." (p.568).
Ellsworth also amazingly took credit for finding the sniper's nest: "I happened to be the individual who found where Oswald had done the shooting. There were a number of boxes over by the sixth-floor window, which appeared to have been the sniper's nest", according to the same book. (p 569), a claim by Ellsworth that is uncorroborated in the official record. Of course, there were boxes all about the sixth floor, which was used as a storage area by the Depository. Ellsworth isn't quoted as stating what indicated to him that the shooting had occurred at that window. He doesn't mention any shells he saw, or a rifle in that corner, for instance.
His recollection of being the person to find the sniper's nest is in conflict with the contemporaneous record, which indicates Luke Mooney found the sniper's nest, and bears all the earmarks of a false recollection.
Mooney:
http://jfkassassination.net/russ/testimony/mooney.htm
Of course, not only are memory issues common, so is inflating one's own importance in the story. We see that in both Ellsworth's claim of finding the sniper's nest, but also of possibly being the only federal officer in the building. According to Russell, "Frank Ellsworth was not the only federal official inside the TSBD. An Army Intelligence officer, special agent James Powell, was found trapped inside the TSBD after the building had been sealed." (p.569) (Ellsworth qualifies his claim with "to my knowledge").
Moreover, Ellsworth qualified his claims in his 1992 interview with Russell.
Russell quotes him as sounding unsure:
"If I recollect right, there was an elevator shaft or stairwell back in the northwest corner [it is, of course, a stairwell in that corner - Hank]. The gun was over near that, just south of it behind some boxes. I think the rifle was on the fourth floor. I have a vague recollection that the position it was in, and where it was found, led to the conjecture that as Oswald came down the stairs, he probably pitched it over behind these boxes."
Ellsworth never comes out and says he saw the rifle on the fourth or fifth floor to Russell either. He credits the discovery to others and never says he witnessed it:
"The gun was not found on the same floor, but on a lower floor by a couple of city detectives."
Hardly something I would want to stake my position on, but apparently Robert is perfectly okay with this 'evidence'. And utilizing to overturn the hard evidence like Oswald's rifle being found on the sixth floor.
Robert, simple question time: Can you establish there were boxes on the fourth floor (Ellsworth's best guess as to the floor), and that it was a wide-open storage space like the sixth floor, where the contemporaneous record puts the discovery of the rifle? If the rifle was found on the fourth floor as Ellsworth recalls, there would have to be boxes there, if you want to salvage Ellsworth's three-decade after the fact recollection.
Hank
