Madeleine Reese

Madeleine Reese, employed by the MacMillan Company which housed on the third floor of the T.S.B.D. is captured in Altgens 6 as the lady who just about sticks out above the roof of the Secret Service follow-up car. She looks like a nurse wearing a white cap. yet this is, once again, a mistaken situation of a 3D setting being flattened in a 2D photograph. It is in fact Otis Williams’ belly.  Reese stood with Ruth Dean in the middle of the lower steps. While the shooting is going on and she is being captured in Altgens 6 and Wiegman and while this happens she holds her hand up to not being blinded by the sunlight. In Darnell she has resumed a somewhat normal posture about 15 seconds after the shooting.

Reese is later recognised in an aftermath photograph when several employees are leaving the building. She can be seen in the door opening. What is also apparent is that she is wearing a broche on her coat which later led Linda Giovanna Zambanini to find both Madeleine Reese and Ruth Dean in a bystanders photograph in front of the DalTex building. See the images below.

Madeleine Reese in Altgens 6. This is a blowup from a H.S.C.A. cropped print.

Madeleine Reese in the David Wiegman film. Click to enlarge.

Madeleine Reese in the James Darnell film. Click to enlarge.

TSBD employees leaving, Madeleine Reese at the back about to go through the door. Pic.; William Murray/DMN.

Ruth Dean (in black hat and jacket with chunky necklace and ear clips) & Madeleine Reese on the far right. Pic.: Jim Murray.

Reese is interviewed by the F.B.I. on Nov 24th and then also for the infamous F.B.I. doc created for the Warren Commission CE 1381 in which each T.S.B.D. employee had to answer a set of 5 questions which J Edgar Hoover had put forward.

In the Nov 24th affidavit Madeleine Reese is shown photos of Lee Oswald and cannot remember ever seeing him inside the T.S.B.D. At first she thought the shots had originated from the alcove near the benches, but after other people looking up towards the building she presumed they had come from the T.S.B.D.

In an affidavit for Pat Gannaway’s gang the Criminal Intelligence Division on Feb 17 1964 Reese is not of much help either. She re-affirms not knowing Oswald.

In CE 1381 she confirms that Ruth Dean was standing next to her. After the shooting she stayed on the stairs for about five minutes and then went to go to a bank to take care of some personal business. She then gets back in and is escorted alongside others to the third floor after which they stay for a while and then later to leave their details at the front door upon exiting the building.