MARK THOMPSON SAID:
I was just viewing your JFK Archives [webpage] regarding Oswald's room at 1026 North Beckley [linked below].
JFK-Archives.blogspot.com/2010/06/in-lee-harvey-oswalds-room.html
Can't help but notice that the room has curtains. Was Oswald planning an extreme makeover?
DAVID VON PEIN SAID:
LOL.
MARK THOMPSON SAID:
What ever became of the "curtain rods" that he supposedly carried into the TSBD that morning?
DAVID VON PEIN SAID:
Well, since the curtain rods were a complete invention of LHO's to begin with--obviously no "rods" could have been found anywhere. And they weren't--except if you want to include the wrapped package of curtain rods stored in Ruth Paine's garage, which were still there weeks after November 22nd.
MARK THOMPSON SAID:
I posed this question to Robert Groden, the Soothsayer of Dealey Plaza, and he stated very matter-of-factly that they were recovered shortly after the shooting but later turned up missing (nod, nod, wink, wink).
What are your thoughts on the missing curtain rods?
DAVID VON PEIN SAID:
See above answer.
Plus: Groden probably wants to twist the facts regarding the rods. He likely wants people to think that Ruth Paine's curtain rods (which I talk about in more depth HERE) were really somehow Oswald's rods.
But you must also realize that Groden is a kook who thinks that up to 11 shots were fired in Dealey Plaza, and he also thinks it's likely that ZERO of those shots came from the window where the conspirators were framing their patsy from. (Talk about a plot designed by morons. I guess they WANTED to get caught.)
MARK THOMPSON SAID:
Dave,
I was just reading your Motive section [linked HERE], and I couldn't agree with you more.
It is interesting to note that when Oswald had ample time and opportunity, he was a meticulous planner. He told Priscilla Johnson McMillan that he had planned his defection to the Soviet Union for several years. He may have been embellishing a bit, but he had obviously been saving his money for some long-term goal.
His attempt on Major General Edwin Walker was very carefully planned out, with maps, photos, bus schedules, and detailed instructions for his wife in the event of capture.
Ironic that his carefully planned attempt on Walker failed, while his plan to shoot President Kennedy, which was thrown together hastily at the last possible moment, actually succeeded.
It must have really bothered Oswald that he was unable to retrieve his rifle until the night before the assassination. It had been sitting in that garage for weeks in cold weather, and he had no time to inspect it or test fire it. The fact that he was willing to take a chance like that shows just how desperate he had become by the Fall of 1963.
I have always believed that Oswald played his cards very close to the vest following his arrest because he was looking forward to being the centerpiece of his own international show trial, like the 1951 trial of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. He once claimed that as a youth skipping school and hanging out on the New York subway, someone handed him a leaflet about the Rosenbergs and that was what first opened his eyes to Marxism.
Based on the massive swarm of reporters who converged upon Dallas and hung on his every word, Oswald must surely have anticipated a huge trial that he would be able to turn into a public forum for his views on social injustice and the evils of capitalism. He must have dreamed of the day when he would get his big close-up and impress the world with his revolutionary vision.
In the end, all he was able to deliver was a weak clenched fist salute as he was being loaded into an ambulance.
The conspiracy buffs who continue to insist that Saint Oswald had no motive to kill the president conveniently overlook the fact that housepainter Richard Lawrence fired at Andrew Jackson because he believed Jackson was somehow preventing him from becoming the King of England or that saloonkeeper John Schrank shot Theodore Roosevelt on orders from William McKinley's ghost or that John Hinckley Jr shot Ronald Reagan in an effort to impress a lesbian. And don't even get me started on Arthur Bremer...
And for those who cling to the belief that Oswald was some kind of super-spy leading a double life in New Orleans and infiltrating rival groups, I refer to the statement of Marina Oswald, who said in essence that Oswald wanted to go to Cuba, and that all the rest was window dressing.
Your website is very thorough and well-researched, and I really enjoy reading it. Thank you for all of the time and effort you have put into it. I'm sure that as a "Lone Nutter" you must sometimes feel like Mr. Douglas on Green Acres. At times I think I'm the only person in Dallas who believes that Oswald was even remotely connected to the crime.
Respectfully,
Mark
DAVID VON PEIN SAID:
Thank you for your latest e-mail, Mark. Some very good observations in there, indeed.
And I enjoyed your quip about "Mr. Douglas" of Green Acres fame. That's the first time I've ever been linked to Oliver Wendell Douglas, in some fashion. (I always liked him, too. "Lisaaaaa!")
Maybe another analogy on this could be to use Dr. Richard Kimble of
The Fugitive (my all-time favorite drama television series). Of course, it would have to be a reverse analogy in Dr. Kimble's case, because he couldn't convince a jury that he was INNOCENT of murdering his wife. But innocent he was. And Lee Harvey Oswald is just as guilty as Dr. Richard Kimble was innocent.
Yes, Kimble's plight was only depicted on a fictional television program. But there are many times when it seems as though the conspiracy theorists have slipped into the world of total fiction as well. In fact, in my opinion, the conspiracists are immersed in fiction MOST of the time.
Hey, maybe the CTers should consult Dr. Kimble for some tips! Perhaps Kimble could convince Oliver Stone and Mark Lane that there was a one-armed man with a rifle seen running from the Grassy Knoll in Dealey Plaza right after JFK's murder.
Of course, just exactly how a one-armed individual was able to accurately fire a rifle at President Kennedy's head might be a tough scenario for the conspiracists to reconcile. But given their track record for believing in everyone's guilt--except Oswald's, of course--such a "one-armed" problem shouldn't be too difficult to overcome at all. :)
David Von Pein
June 9, 2011
