AN UNKNOWN PERSON SAID:
Dave,
I spent some time reading your section about Ruth Paine. Very thorough. Although CTers love to portray her [as] a sinister and shadowy figure who was somehow guiding Oswald's hand (perhaps brainwashing him with her folk music?), your portrayal of her is much more accurate. She was highly intelligent, very candid, a woman of great faith and high moral standards, and painfully honest in her statements.
That candor and honesty probably cost her the friendship that she had developed with Marina, according to Priscilla Johnson McMillan.
[...]
Your blog referenced the book "Ruth Paine's Garage" [sic] by Thomas Mallon, so I assume you've read it.
[DVP Interjection (11/27/14) -- Actually, my blog never mentions that book at all. But perhaps I did reference it in circa 2010, but I've since edited out the reference to it; although I can't imagine why I'd do any such editing of that sort. ~shrug~]
I thought it was an excellent book, although somewhat overly sentimental. I would have liked more information about the physical layout of the actual garage.
Since the "Oswald was Innocent" CTers claim that his rifle was stolen from the Paine's garage in a Watergate-like burglary and later placed in the TSBD building by others, I have spent a great deal of time researching that aspect of the case.
What I discovered was that the garage had one of those old hinge-type doors that opened upward and outward from the bottom. Since Mrs. Paine normally parked in the driveway close to the garage door, it would have been difficult for burglars to enter through the front of the garage. The only other access was through the kitchen.
However, I did come across a photograph showing Ruth Paine holding her young son Christopher in front of the garage, circa 1963. The garage door is open, and you can clearly see that there is a row of windows along the outer wall. This might have made a burglary somewhat easier, although still highly improbable.
DAVID VON PEIN SAID:
Hi,
Good observations. Thanks for sharing them with me.
I've never read "Mrs. Paine's Garage".
BTW, the author of that book, Thomas Mallon, was one of the first people to review Vincent Bugliosi's masterpiece, "Reclaiming History", in 2007. Mallon's positive review of Bugliosi's book made the conspiracists turn on him like a pack of wolves. So, naturally, they also tried to trash his own book, "Garage".
In January 2002, Mallon made a public appearance to promote his new book. C-Span covered the event. Here's the video of it, which you might like to see.
I definitely know about the picture you mentioned, with Ruth standing in front of her garage. It's this photo:
The Paine garage is also viewable in David Wolper's film "Four Days In November" [see the screen captures below].
David Von Pein
February 2, 2010
