Creative Speculation

And debunked long ago.

The Herald Tribune was not some supermarket tabloid, but rather a widely respected newspaper. Further, the "Oswald figure" had been noticed and investigated even before the article appeared, so the Commission devoted considerable attention to the claim. They quickly identified Billy Nolan Lovelady as the man in the doorway, and questioned several people about the whereabouts of themselves and Lovelady as the motorcade passed. William Shelley (6H328, CE 1381 pp. 84), Sarah Stanton (CE 1381 pp. 89), Wesley Frazier (2H233-4, 22H 647), Billy Lovelady (6H338-9, CE 1381 pp. 62), and Danny Arce (6H365, 367) all testified and/or signed an affidavit stating Lovelady was standing outside the Depository doors as the motorcade passed (1). Harold Norman (3H189) and James Jarman, Jr. (3H202) testified they saw Lovelady in the doorway minutes before the motorcade passed and they left to watch from the fifth floor of the Depository. Frazier (2H242), Arce (3H367), and Mrs. Donald Baker (7H515) all identified Lovelady as the "Oswald" look-alike in the photograph. Lovelady, of course, identified himself (6H339, Commission Document 457 pp. 2, 4-5). Frazier states that he does not see himself in the photo because he was farther back than Lovelady and thus in the black area of the photograph (2H242). The other people with whom Lovelady was standing, Shelley and Stanton, were also farther back than him and so are also not shown in the picture. This is why Lovelady appears to be standing alone.

On the basis of all this evidence, the Commission concluded that the man was Lovelady, not Oswald (WCR, pp. 147-149). This should have settled the issue forever, but alas in this case issues are rarely ever "settled." The issue was revived, not due to some research done by conspiracists, but rather because of an FBI mistake.

In a report to the Warren Commission on the man in the doorway, the FBI stated:

On February 29, 1964, Billy Nolan Lovelady was photographed by Special Agents of the FBI at Dallas, Texas. On this occasion, Lovelady advised that on the day of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, November 22, 1963, at the time of the assassination, and shortly before, he was standing in the doorway of the front entrance to the TSBD where he is employed. He stated he was wearing a red and white vertical striped shirt and blue-jeans (CD 457, pp. 4-5).

http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/oswald_doorway.htm