Billy Nolan Lovelady was
born in Myrtle Springs, Texas, on 19th February, 1937. He worked as
a farm labourer until finding employment in the Texas School Book
Depository in December, 1961.
On
22nd November, 1963, Lovelady was working on the 6th Floor of the
Texas School Book Depository. He was sitting on the steps outside
the building when President John F. Kennedy
and his motorcade went past. He told
the Warren
Commission that the shooting
came from "that concrete little deal on that knoll". Afterwards,
Lovelady and his friends ran towards the Grassy
Knoll but they went sent back by the police
in that area.
Later
it was discovered that Lovelady appeared in a photograph taken by
J. W. Altgens at the time the shooting took place. Some researchers
have claimed that the photograph was of Lee
Harvey Oswald
rather
than Lovelady. This issue was looked at by the House
Select Committee on Assassinations.
They claimed that the man in the photograph was Lovelady and not Oswald.
Billy Nolan Lovelady died
in January, 1979, during the HSCA hearings.
The
J. W. Altgens
photograph of the doorway of the TSBD
Photograph
of Billy Lovelady taken by the FBI after the assassination.
(1)
Billy Lovelady, testimony before the Warren
Commission (1964)
Joseph Ball: You ate your
lunch on the steps?
Billy Lovelady: Yes, sir.
Joseph Ball: Who was with
you?
Billy Lovelady: Bill Shelley
and Sarah Stanton....
Joseph Ball: Were you there
when the President's motorcade went by?
Billy Lovelady: Right.
Joseph Ball: Did you hear
anything?
Billy Lovelady: Yes, sir:
sure did.
Joseph Ball: What did you
hear?
Billy Lovelady: I thought
it was firecrackers or somebody celebrating the arrival of the President.
It didn't occur to me at first what had happened until this Gloria
came running up to us and told us the President had been shot.
Joseph Ball: Who was this
girl?
Billy Lovelady: Gloria
Calvary...
Joseph Ball: Where was
the direction of the sound?
Billy Lovelady: Right there
around that concrete little deal on that knoll.
Joseph Ball: That's where
it sounded to you?
Billy Lovelady: Yes, sir;
to my right. I was standing as you are going down the steps, I was
standing on the right, sounded like it was in that area.
Joseph Ball: From the underpass
area?
Billy Lovelady: Between
the underpass and the building right on the knoll.
(2)
House
Select Committee on Assassinations
(1979)
A widely publicized photograph
taken by Associated Press photographer James W. Altgens within a few
seconds after President Kennedy was first shot shows a spectator who
bears a strong physical resemblance to Lee Harvey Oswald standing
at the west end of the Texas School Book Depository entranceway. Altgens
has stated that he took the picture of the presidential limousine,
with the Texas School Book Depository entranceway in the background,
just after he heard a noise "which sounded like the popping of
a firecracker."
In evaluating the evidence
that Oswald was in the sixth floor, southeast corner window of the
Texas School Book Depository at the time of the shooting, the Warren
Commission considered the allegation that the man shown in the doorway
in the Altgens photograph was Oswald. The Commission concluded that
the spectator was not Oswald, but rather another Texas School Book
Depository employee, Billy Nolan Lovelady. This conclusion was based
upon Lovelady's identification of himself in the Altgens photograph
and upon statements of other persons who were present in the Texas
School Book Depository entranceway at the same time.
Warren Commission critics
have charged that there was insufficient basis for this conclusion,
and have faulted the Commission for presenting " no supporting
visual evidence by which one can appraise the resemblance between
Lovelady and the man in the doorway, or Lovelady and Oswald, although
nothing less hangs on the accurate identification of the doorway man
than Oswald's possible total innocence of the assassination".
This issue has also persisted
because of reported discrepancies in connection with the clothing
worn by the Altgens figure and Billy Lovelady on November 22, 1963.
In media prints of the Altgens photograph, the man appears to be wearing
a long-sleeved shirt similar to the one in which Oswald was arrested.
According to a memo written by FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover to the
Warren Commission after Lovelady had been interviewed and photographed
in 1964 by FBI agents, Lovelady was reported to have been wearing
a short-sleeved red and white, vertically striped shirt. Lovelady
later explained that when he was interviewed and photographed by the
FBI, he had not been told to wear the same shirt he had worn on the
day of the assassination and that, in fact, he had been wearing a
long-sleeved, plaid shirt when he was standing in the Texas School
Book Depository doorway.
This contradiction was
partially resolved by photo-optical work performed by Robert Groden,
a Warren Commission critic and photographic consultant to the committee.
During his work with the committee Groden made photographically enhanced
enlargements of the original 35 millimeter black and white Altgens
negative and frames of the Bell, Martin, and Hughes color motion picture
films, which also showed the spectator in the doorway, and detected
a pattern of lines that correspond in pattern and color more closely
to Lovelady's plaid shirt than to Oswald's tweed-patterned shirt.
Even so, in an effort to
resolve the issue even more definitively, the photographic evidence
panel's board of forensic anthropologists were requested to study
the photograph of the spectator shown standing in the doorway.
Is it possible to identify
positively as either Lee Harvey Oswald or Billy Lovelady, the man,
shown in the Altgens photograph standing by the doorway entrance to
the Texas School Book Depository at the time of the President's assassination.
In order to produce the
clearest possible photographic images of the spectator in question,
the Photographic Evidence Panel had black and white prints made from
the original Altgens 35 millimeter negative at various contrasts,
density levels and enlargements. They included various enlargements
of the spectator's face such as that shown in the photograph. The
anthropologists were furnished with a number of these prints.
A series of photographs
of Lee Harvey Oswald, ranging from the time of his ILS. Marine Corps
enlistment in 1956 to his arrest in Dallas in 1963, were provided
to the anthropologists. While all were examined, those taken on the
day of Oswald's arrest in Dallas received the closest scrutiny.
Photographs of Lovelady
were furnished which varied in date from 1959 to 1977. Of most interest
were those taken near the time of the assassination.
Due to the blurred quality
of the enlargements of the spectator's image in the Altgens photograph,
it was not possible either to identify or exclude positively Lovelady,
or Oswald. Based on a subjective assessment of the facial features
of the spectator, however, it was determined that the man in the doorway
bears a much stronger resemblance to Lovelady than to Oswald. Thus,
assuming it is either Oswald or Lovelady, and not a third party, it
appears highly improbable that the spectator is Oswald and highly
probable that he is Lovelady.
In comparing the photographs of Oswald and Lovelady, the general similarities
in facial configuration between the two men were initially noted.
Closer examination of the photographs revealed significant differences
in the two men's facial proportions:
(a) Facial length.- Relative
to facial breadth across the cheekbones, Lovelady's face is longer
than Oswald's.
(b) Lower jaw breadth.-
Relative to facial breadth, measured across the cheekbones, Lovelady's
lower jaw is narrower than Oswald's.
(c) Chin length.- Relative
to facial length, Lovelady has a somewhat longer chin than Oswald.
(d) Forehead breadth -
Relative to the breadth of the face measured across the cheekbones,
Lovelady's is broader than Oswald's.
(e) Nasal breadth.- Relative
to nose length, Lovelady's nose is broader than Oswald's.
(f) Nasal tip - Oswald's
nasal tip is somewhat, small and sharply contoured, whereas that of
Lovelady is rounder and more bulbous.
(g) Forehead height - Due
to hairline recession, Lovelady has relatively higher forehead than
Oswald.
(h) Hairline contour -
Photographs of Lovelady and Oswald taken at a time close to the assassination
indicate that, overall Lovelady's central hairline had receded more
than Oswald's, resulting in Lovelady's higher forehead, as noted above;
in addition, the recession on both sides of Lovelady's temple is more
sharply advanced than Oswald's. Lovelady's recession was not uniform,
and he has a downward projection in the hairline about one inch to
the right of the center of his forehead. This eccentrically placed
"widow's peak" was not observed in any of Oswald's photographs.
In summary, Lovelady's
face is relatively longer than Oswald's its length accentuated, in
part, by more advanced balding and also by his narrower lower jaw
and deeper chin. The asymmetry in his hairline is also a distinctive
trait.
The enlargements of the
spectator's face are not of sufficient quality to permit accurate
measurements. However, several features corresponding to Lovelady's
traits can be discerned and subjectively assessed:
(a) A relatively broad,
high forehead;
(b) Advanced recession
of the hairline on each side of his head;
(e) Interruption of the
central hairline by a downward extension located slightly to the right
of the center of the forehead;
(d) A relatively long face
with narrow jaws and a deep chin: and
(e) A rather bulbous nasal
tip.
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