JAMES DiEUGENIO SAID:
Hidell's name is not on the form. Knowing it was from Klein's, the rifle should have been returned. .... The weight of the evidence says Oswald never picked up the rifle.
DAVID VON PEIN SAID:
But the rifle WASN'T returned to Klein's by the Dallas Post Office, was it? No, it wasn't. Therefore, SOMEBODY must have picked it up at the Dallas Post Office.
Let do some simple math here:
1.) We know for a fact that Klein's Sporting Goods in Chicago shipped Rifle #C2766 to "A. Hidell" at P.O. Box 2915 in Dallas, Texas, on March 20, 1963. Waldman Exhibit No. 7 proves this fact for all eternity. And I've yet to hear any conspiracy theorist make the allegation that Waldman #7 is a fake. Maybe James DiEugenio will be the first. [The video below also corroborates much of the information found in Waldman Exhibit No. 7.]
2.) Klein's NEVER GOT THAT RIFLE BACK after shipping it to P.O. Box 2915.
3.) There's no indication that the "Hidell" rifle package got lost in transit between Chicago and Dallas.
4.) The "Hidell" package isn't still sitting in a "dead letter" bin somewhere at the Dallas Post Office.
5.) Lee Harvey Oswald is "A. Hidell". We know that. It's a proven fact. Oswald used the alias "Hidell" many times throughout his adult life.
6.) Lee Harvey Oswald is the person who rented P.O. Box 2915 in Dallas. We know that. It's a proven fact. Therefore, Oswald had full and easy access to that P.O. Box anytime he needed it.
7.) A Mannlicher-Carcano rifle with the serial number C2766 on it (and with a palmprint of Lee Harvey Oswald's on it) was found on the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository on 11/22/63 and was connected via other ballistics evidence to the assassination of President Kennedy.
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So, given the above list of things to consider (and item #7 is really just a bonus when it comes to this particular discussion), is it more reasonable to come to the conclusion that Jim DiEugenio and other conspiracy theorists have come to -- i.e., Oswald never took possession of Carcano Rifle #C2766 at all?
Or is it more reasonable to conclude that Lee Harvey Oswald, in late March 1963, took a piece of paper that he found in P.O. Box 2915 to the front desk at the Post Office and was given a package that contained Mannlicher-Carcano Rifle #C2766?
Even if some postal regulations regarding the sale of firearms weren't followed to the letter by either the Dallas Post Office or Klein's Sporting Goods of Chicago (or both), the above list of items certainly suggests that Lee H. Oswald did, indeed, take possession of Rifle C2766 by picking up that gun at the Dallas Post Office. In fact, the above list pretty much PROVES that Oswald took possession of that rifle.
As far as I see it, the only avenue that people like Jim DiEugenio can travel down in their constant and fruitless efforts to try and take that rifle out of the hands of Lee Oswald is by pretending that somebody else gained access to Oswald's P.O. Box in Dallas, and that this "somebody else" was really the person who took possession of the rifle that was shipped by Klein's to Hidell.
What other REALISTIC choice does DiEugenio have here (when taking my above list into consideration [plus the backyard photographs showing Oswald holding the rifle, which could also be added to my list above])?
Does Jim want to pretend that every person involved in this Hidell rifle transaction at Klein's Sporting Goods was a liar?
Or does Jim want to pretend that the rifle was really NEVER SHIPPED AT ALL from Klein's in Chicago?
DiEugenio must want to pretend that Klein's never shipped it at all. Because since we know that the Klein's package sent to Hidell was NOT returned to Klein's in Chicago, it must mean that SOMEBODY picked up that gun at the Dallas Post Office.
And who is more likely to have picked up something at Oswald's P.O. Box -- some stranger who didn't have a key to the box, or Lee Harvey Oswald himself?
Or, as an alternative theory that kooks like Mr. DiEugenio could always utilize in their zeal to take the gun out of the hands of JFK's murderer, I suppose DiEugenio could pretend that the rifle really WAS sent back to Klein's (due to a lack of the proper firearms forms being attached to the package), but that Klein's lied by never admitting to the authorities that the rifle was sent back to them.
In the final analysis, no matter which alternative theory Jim DiEugenio chooses to endorse, that theory is going to be much sillier and highly improbable than the truth -- with that truth being:
Lee Harvey Oswald, using his alias "A. Hidell", took possession of Mannlicher-Carcano Rifle #C2766 by picking it up at the Dallas Post Office in late March of 1963.
Conspiracy theorists like James DiEugenio, of course, always have a hard time figuring out the simplest of truths. Heck, Jim can't even figure out that Lee Oswald shot and killed JFK and J.D. Tippit. DiEugenio, instead, prefers to pretend that Oswald didn't shoot anybody on November 22, 1963.
Silly, isn't it?
David Von Pein
July 11, 2010
