Victoria Adams, who worked on the fourth floor of the Depository Building, claimed that within about 1 minute following the shots she ran from a window on the south side of the fourth floor,[C4-378] down the rear stairs to the first floor, where she encountered two Depository employees--William Shelley and Billy Lovelady.[C4-379] If her estimate of time is correct, she reached the bottom of the stairs before Truly and Baker started up, and she must have run down the stairs ahead of Oswald and would probably have seen or heard him. Actually she noticed no one on the back stairs. If she descended from the fourth to the first floor as fast as she claimed in her testimony, she would have seen Baker or Truly on the first floor or on the stairs, unless they were already in the second-floor lunchroom talking to Oswald. When she reached the first floor, she actually saw Shelley and Lovelady slightly east of the east elevator.
Shelley and Lovelady, however, have testified that they were watching the parade from the top step of the building entrance when Gloria Calverly, who works in the Depository Building, ran up and said that the President had been shot.[C4-380] Lovelady and Shelley moved out into the street.[C4-381] About this time Shelley saw Truly and Patrolman Baker go into the building.[C4-382] Shelley and Lovelady, at a fast walk or trot, turned west into the railroad yards and then to the west side of the Depository Building. They reentered the building by the rear door several minutes after Baker and Truly rushed through the front entrance.[C4-383] On entering, Lovelady saw a girl on the first floor who he believes was Victoria Adams.[C4-384] If Miss Adams accurately recalled meeting Shelley and Lovelady when she reached the bottom of the stairs, then her estimate of the time when she descended from the fourth floor is incorrect, and she actually came down the stairs several minutes after Oswald and after Truly and Baker as well.
_Oswald’s departure from building._--Within a minute after Baker and Truly left Oswald in the lunchroom, Mrs. R. A. Reid, clerical supervisor for the Texas School Book Depository, saw him walk through the clerical office on the second floor toward the door leading to the front stairway. Mrs. Reid had watched the parade from the sidewalk in front of the building with Truly and Mr. O. V. Campbell, vice president of the Depository.[C4-385] She testified that she heard three shots which she thought came from the building.[C4-386] She ran inside and up the front stairs into the large open office reserved for clerical employees. As she approached her desk, she saw Oswald.[C4-387] He was walking into the office from the back hallway, carrying a full bottle of Coca-Cola in his hand,[C4-388] presumably purchased after the encounter with Baker and Truly. As Oswald passed Mrs. Reid she said, “Oh, the President has been shot, but maybe they didn’t hit him.”[C4-389] Oswald mumbled something and walked by.[C4-390] She paid no more attention to him. The only exit from the office in the direction Oswald was moving was through the door to the front stairway.[C4-391] (See Commission Exhibit 1118, p. 150.) Mrs. Reid testified that when she saw Oswald, he was wearing a T-shirt and no jacket.[C4-392] When he left home that morning, Marina Oswald, who was still in bed, suggested that he wear a jacket.[C4-393] A blue jacket, later identified by Marina Oswald as her husband’s,[C4-394] was subsequently found in the building,[C4-395] apparently left behind by Oswald.