The Bottle

During my Lancer 2023 presentation (at 51:21) I brought up the find of a bottle that stood closely to where Prayer Man (aka Lee Harvey Oswald) was standing. This bit gets very little mention in my book Prayer Man More Than a Fuzzy Picture. It is something I had started to look into years ago already while studying the Prayer Man footage in the Darnell and Wiegman films.

I based my initial find of a bottle on some still and moving frames of the Dave Wiegman film where we can see Prayer Man is moving an object that is partially illuminated, with his right hand only, closer to his face. Not many objects can be illuminated like that, but I know one thing that does and that is glass. For those that are not too familiar about this whole matter; Oswald got a coke for his lunch!

Wiegman close-up frames of Prayer Man drinking in slow motion by Stan Dane.

After the assassination there is a find of a bottle that stood in the westerly corner of the TSBD steps and that was captured by William Allen of the Dallas Times Herald in a few of his photos of the front of the TSBD as shown below. To the best of my estimation these pix were taken between 13:00 and 14:30 that day. The DPD did not cordon the building off until 20-25 minutes after the assassination.

In the William Allen contact strips below in the green sectioned area it shows that frames nos 11-13 show many people standing on and in front of the TSBD front steps, these people are gone in the subsequent image, with the very first frame (no 14) showing the sighting of the bottle. This is the first photograph of the gallery of four images above.

William Allen photos. Click to enlarge.

In the photos below the front of the TSBD is managed by the DPD and TSBD employees can only be seen behind the glass front inside or when leaving the building. All photos by William Allen – Dallas Times Herald. These images come from The Portal to Texas History.

At the Education Forum Chris Scally jumped on to this specific bit of my presentation and posted a William Allen photograph of Herbert Sawyer of the DPD, holding a Dr. Pepper bottle while standing on the Texas School Book Depository’s steps. Sawyer had setup his command post right there and was seen interviewing Howard Brennan inside a patrol car right in front of the Texas School Book Depository’s front steps shortly before. Scally did not base his ‘find’ on anything substantial other than to assume that Sawyer had littered his bottle on those steps. Something for me hard to accept for being plausible in those days.

Herbert Sawyer on the left, Marvin Wise to the right. Photo: William Allen/DTH. From The Portal to Texas History. Click pic. to enlarge.

I managed to pinpoint roughly when the image was taken (just before 13:00 hrs) by getting hold of some of Allen’s contact sheets with thanks to Dennis Morissette. Check out the green marked image and you can see that the tramps, escorted by Marvin Wise are his next shots. Then in the following frames on the strip below we can see Gerald Hill shouting from the sixth floor before his departure to the Tippit murder and Oswald’s subsequent arrest at the Texas Theatre. Finally at the end of the bottom strip is Larry Florer’s arrest. That arrest of Larry Florer (image 17), whose arrest happened at about 12:50 – 13:00.

The decisive part for me is that Oswald’s lunch bag rolled up and jammed between the bottle and the step from a close-up seen below. The bottle that Sawyer is holding has Dr Pepper stamped on, it is not a label of some sort.

If only they had tested that bottle and sack for fingerprints………