Mr. DULLES. Were they noisy elevators? The operation of the doors and
so forth?
Mr. WILLIAMS. Yes, sir. The elevator that I came up on to the sixth
floor, if you would listen--say you were listening for the boss, you
could hear, because you would be paying attention. The elevator is
worked by hand pedal. When you release the hand pedal it makes a noise.
It bangs--or maybe you can hear the old elevator when it is first
coming up. But at that time I did not hear anything.
(At this point, Representative Ford left the hearing room.)
Mr. BALL. I would like to point out over in the northwest corner there
is a stairwell. And the elevators are shown here. And the witness has
placed himself at point "Z" on Exhibit 487, which is near a pair of
west windows.
Now, you are oriented there, are you not?
Mr. WILLIAMS. Yes, sir.
Mr. BALL. All right. When you were at "Z" were you able to see the
stairwell?
Mr. WILLIAMS. No, sir.
Mr. BALL. Why?
Mr. WILLIAMS. You could not see the stairs from that point because this
other--this is the stairway, and it has some shelves made out of some
old wooden boxes. Those old wooden boxes come out to about right here.
And they come out maybe 5 feet, even more than that, past the stairway.
And that would block your view of the stairway from that point.
Mr. BALL. Mark it in there with your pencil.
Mr. WILLIAMS. These are the stairs. I would say the bookcase would come
out like that.
Mr. BALL. The shelf we will mark "WX", both ends of the shelf. How high
is the shelf?
Mr. WILLIAMS. Pretty high.
Mr. BALL. Does it go to the ceiling?
Mr. WILLIAMS. As I remember, they do not go exactly to the ceiling. But
I am 6 feet, and they are way over me, I think.
Mr. BALL. Now, could you see all of the elevators from there?