Here are some of my miscellaneous thoughts concerning assassin Lee
Harvey Oswald's "Lone Killer" status in association with the murders
of both President John F. Kennedy and Dallas policeman J.D. Tippit in
Dallas, Texas, on the 22nd day of November in the year of 1963.....
Regarding Oswald's quick descent from the 6th Floor to the 2nd Floor
of the Texas School Book Depository Building just after the gunshots
were fired; and Oswald's "breathing" status at 12:32 PM; and the
reasons why two Depository employees didn't bump into or hear LHO on
the stairs:
No one was on the stairs at the exact same time as Oswald. Via the
overall weight of the witness testimony given to the Warren Commission
in 1964, it's very probable that the two employees in question
(Victoria Adams and Sandra Styles) didn't even start down the stairs
until a few minutes AFTER the shooting. Those two ladies did not
encounter anyone (or hear anyone) on the stairs, including Marrion
Baker and Roy Truly, who were positively running up those same stairs
within approx. 60 to 70 seconds of the last shot being fired.
Given these facts -- Oswald, Baker, and Truly must certainly have been
on those stairs PRIOR to the time that Adams and Styles descended that
same staircase. But the conspiracy advocates, incorrectly, insist that
Oswald and the two women HAD to be on the stairs at the exact same
time (and such an unsupportable scenario was also re-created by Oliver
Stone in his 1991 motion picture, "JFK").
But that "Everybody's Using The Stairs At Once" version of the event
simply cannot be accurate, and is not at all necessary to accommodate
the available evidence concerning this issue.
As for being out of breath -- Short of being 5-feet-1 and 299 pounds,
I'm guessing that just about anybody could quickly travel down four
flights of stairs and NOT be "out of breath". It must be remembered
that Oswald was going DOWN the stairs, not UP.
Gliding down stairs certainly wouldn't necessarily make somebody
winded at all. I've never felt the need to go on oxygen after going
DOWN just a few steps. Plus: Oswald was NOT physically unfit
either (5-feet-9; slender build; approx. 150 pounds).
Also: The Warren Commission re-enacted Oswald's trip to the 2nd Floor
-- and it was easily accomplished multiple times in less than 80
seconds (Oswald was seen by policeman Baker approx. 90 seconds after
the shooting). The re-enactments also included taking the time to hide
the rifle in the place where Oswald hid it (near the stairwell).
Secret Service Agent John J. Howlett performed two separate "re-creations"
of Oswald's probable post-shooting movements, taking 78 seconds on
his first try and 74 seconds on the second. And Howlett was not out of
breath upon reaching the second-floor lunchroom at the completion of
either one of the test runs, which were conducted at a regular walking
pace and a "fast walk", respectively.
Conspiracists who continue to believe that Oswald's 90-second, 4-flight
trip to the second floor was a virtual impossibility are simply wrong. It
was easily a doable trek for Oswald, or for anybody else with two legs
who wasn't in a wheelchair.
----------------------
Regarding the subject of why Oswald was left "hung out to dry" (via
the less-popular conspiracy-flavored scenario which has Oswald
actively involved in the assassination plot in some fashion, but NOT
being set up as a "Patsy" by a group of unknown conspirators):
In such a case, why in the world would Oswald's other "teammates" who
are "in" on the plan just leave Oswald hanging out to dry after the
shots were fired?
In such a large plot involving Oswald (or in just a smaller two-man or
three-man plot), it would seem logical that one of the other plotters
would have provided their co-conspirator (Oswald) with some
transportation away from the murder scene.
But, instead, Oswald is left to hoof it on his own -- then take a city
bus, then a taxi to his roominghouse -- running the risk of being
spotted by other bus passengers (which, in fact, he was; a former
landlady of Oswald's, Mary Bledsoe, incredibly, was on the very same
Marsalis Street bus that Oswald boarded minutes after the
assassination; she later positively identified Oswald as having been
on the bus).
Then Oswald is left completely alone to fend for himself yet again --
travelling on foot from his Beckley Avenue residence to the scene of
the J.D. Tippit killing (and if the Tippit murder isn't an indication
that Oswald was involved in the JFK shooting, then nothing is, IMO).
Then he walks to a movie theater, a perfect place to "lay low" without
running a huge risk of being spotted in the nearly empty and dark
theater.
ALL of the above signifies one thing for sure --- Oswald had NO
ACCOMPLICES on November 22, 1963. For if he had, all of these walking
and public transportation methods of locomotion would certainly have
been avoided.
----------------------
But, in a total "Lone Nut" scenario, every single thing Lee Harvey
Oswald did after the President was shot makes perfect sense. Such as
the following laundry list of things telling us the President's murder was
the act of one lone killer, firing from his sixth-floor perch:
1.) Lee Oswald couldn't drive (not very well at any rate; he had a few
lessons from Ruth Paine, and was not impressive behind the wheel
according to Mrs. Paine). Therefore, he's left to his own resources
after shooting the President, and forced to rely on other modes of
transportation for his getaway.
2.) Even if he COULD drive, Oswald had no vehicle to take him from
Point A (Dealey Plaza) to Point B (anyplace else) after the shooting.
And in a "Lone Nut" scenario, it's highly doubtful that he's going to go
up to Wesley Frazier (who gave him a lift that morning) and ask: "Hey
Wes, can you give me a ride home Friday? I'm gonna plug the Chief
Executive around lunchtime and need a getaway driver. OK with you?"
3.) LHO is not the least bit surprised when having Marrion Baker's gun
pointed at him just minutes after the assassination. Lee is quite calm
and cool. This calm reaction is an odd one if he were completely
innocent of the shooting and had no idea of what just happened out on
Elm Street.
IMO, Lee Oswald wasn't surprised by Baker's confronting him for one
simple reason -- he expected the police to be entering the building
quickly; and he had no reason to say to the officer, "What the heck is
going on here?! Why am I being stopped?!" -- because he KNEW what
was going on, because HE himself caused it. Any innocent bystander
in that same situation is going to get scared, and at the very least ask
"What's going on? What did I do?"; but not Oswald; he never uttered a
word.
4.) LHO departs work quickly (within 3 minutes of the shooting), not
caring in the least about all the turmoil and police activity going on
outside the building.
5.) Oswald takes the only transportation available to him, in his
flight from the scene -- a public bus. When the bus gets clogged in
traffic, he changes to a taxi cab (highly unusual for the penny-
pinching Mr. Oswald; in fact, a researcher might be searching forever
if he were to try and verify a single other occasion when Lee Oswald
spent money on a cab ride within the United States).
6.) Lee has the taxi driver take him NOT to the front door of 1026 N.
Beckley (his residence) -- but instead to a point three blocks BEYOND
his home. He actually passes his house first in the cab, which, IMO,
is an obvious attempt to see if any cops are waiting for him there
yet, and so that the cab driver (William Whaley) won't know exactly
where his passenger lives.
7.) Oswald then grabs a handgun at his home, puts on a jacket (to
conceal the weapon more easily), and hustles out of the roominghouse,
not saying a word to housekeeper Earlene Roberts (who noted his
hurried behavior).
8.) Upon encountering Officer J.D. Tippit on 10th Street within 15
minutes of leaving his roominghouse, Oswald shoots and kills the
officer almost immediately (after very little conversation).
9.) Oswald knows he's got really big troubles now (as if killing JFK
weren't enough already). He knows multiple witnesses saw him kill
Tippit, but he's only got so much ammunition with him (he cannot
eliminate ALL these witnesses). So he'll save his last bullets for
when it really counts -- on more cops. Which is EXACTLY what he
attempted to do once he was cornered in the Texas Theater at approx.
1:50 PM on 11/22.
10.) In the theater, Oswald tries to kill police officer Nick McDonald
with the same gun he used on Tippit a half-hour earlier. But, luckily,
McDonald and other officers are able to wrest the gun away from their
suspect before it can be successfully fired, saving Oswald from yet
another possible murder charge that day.
11.) Oswald's first words when cornered are also indicative of guilt --
"It's all over now!" and/or "This is it!" are the quotes that
have been attributed to LHO within the movie theater.
12.) When questioned by the police, Oswald tells one lie after another
regarding crucial information -- such as lying after being asked each of
the following questions: "Do you own a rifle?", "Who is A.J. Hidell?",
and "Did you bring a large package to work this morning?"
If Oswald had really been the "patsy" (as he shouted out to the press
in the DPD hallways), then WHY didn't he reveal some names for the
police to check out? Don't tell me Oswald was involved in this massive
plan to assassinate the President and yet he had not one shred of an
idea as to what any of his co-conspirators looked like or what any of
their names (even fake names) might have been?!
In short -- The "Patsy" theory is simply pure out-and-out hogwash!
----------------------
What do all of the above points add up to (in their totality)? -- In a
certain sector of the "It Was A Conspiracy" world, these points
(somehow) add up to a "Patsy" who not only didn't murder the
President, but is also innocent of the even-more-provably-committed-by-
Oswald murder of Officer Tippit.
In that same portion of the "CT" world, the above items also add up to
a man (Oswald) who is apparently totally oblivious to the fact that he
is being "used" by hired, professional assassins, and who hadn't the
slightest idea that he would be used in this manner right up to the
time of the actual shooting itself. Otherwise, Mr. Oswald would never
have even shown up for work at the Depository on Friday morning (if he
had possessed even the slightest notion, that is, of the covert "plot"
that would be implicating HIM, and him alone, after 12:30 PM on
November 22nd, 1963).
And only AFTER the assassination itself does Oswald "get
smart" (evidently) and put the pieces together, and realize he's just
been "used" as the "Patsy" in this thing.
His "Patsy" remark has launched a mile-high pile of additional
conspiracy theories -- and I do think it was smart of Oswald to
announce to the TV cameras "I'm just a patsy!" for the world to hear.
A very smart move indeed. Because it accomplished exactly what he had
probably intended for it to accomplish -- i.e., it diverted some
attention away from Oswald himself.
That ONE single word out of Oswald's mouth ("Patsy!") has sent
conspiracists scrambling in all directions looking for "connections" to
a plot -- any plot. None of which has been verified to this day to have
the slightest bit of truth in them (among the theories placed on the
table to date).
Zero pieces of credible, verifiable, provable information have been
unearthed to date that tie Lee Harvey Oswald to any of the various
proposed conspiracy theories.
The above "points", every single one, IMO, add up to the actions of
one lone killer of President Kennedy and Officer Tippit. A man, on
foot, who tries desperately to flee the scenes of his two crimes and
avoid capture, even attempting to kill yet another person along the
way (but failing in that attempt before being handcuffed).
IN A NUTSHELL:
No conspiracy theorist can possibly deny the fact that each of the
points I've stressed above could certainly (at the very least) be
easily reconciled within an "Oswald Did It And Did It By Himself"
point-of-view.
If conspiracy promoters do choose to deny the fact that Lee Harvey
Oswald's post-12:30 actions on November the 22nd could possibly be
looked upon as the actions of ONE LONE KILLER, then I feel they are
not being honest about what Oswald's actions truly reveal.
----------------------
"While opinion polls can reveal cultural trends, they don't change
facts. In the final analysis, the truth doesn't require anyone's
belief." -- Dale Myers
----------------------
"There was no plot, no conspiracy. JFK wasn't murdered by anti-Castro
Cubans, the mob, or rogue CIA agents. There has not been one scintilla
of proof tying the assassination to anyone but Oswald. There have been
theories, but no evidence. Oswald had the motive, the opportunity, and
the skill to kill President Kennedy." -- Vincent Bugliosi
----------------------
"If Lee Harvey Oswald had nothing to do with President Kennedy's
assassination and was framed....this otherwise independent and defiant
would-be revolutionary, who disliked taking orders from anyone, turned
out to be the most willing and cooperative frame-ee in the history of
mankind!! Because the evidence of his guilt is so monumental, that he
could have just as well gone around with a large sign on his back
declaring in bold letters 'I Just Murdered President John
F. Kennedy'!!!" -- Vincent Bugliosi
----------------------
"Many of the conspiracy theories are appealing to the intellectual
palate at first glance, but they do violence to all notions of common
sense." -- Vincent Bugliosi
David Von Pein
March 2006
February 2007
================================
SOMETHING ELSE TO CONSIDER....
Here's a question that I don't recall ever being asked by anyone in the past:
If Lee Harvey Oswald was being "set up" to take the fall for JFK's murder (as so many conspiracy theorists believe was the case), I'm wondering how in the world the plotters conveniently arranged Oswald's unusual Thursday night trip to Irving, Texas, to visit his wife at Ruth Paine's house on 11/21/63?
Did the conspirators somehow put Oswald under some kind of a spell, and then they told him to go to Irving on Thursday and tell a lie about wanting to retrieve curtain rods?
And there surely isn't a conspiracist on the planet who will try and say that Lee Oswald really DIDN'T go to Irving with Buell Wesley Frazier on November 21st, is there?
So, we know for a fact that Oswald did make an unusual trip to Ruth Paine's home on November 21st. And we also know that that location—Ruth Paine's house—is the place where Oswald's rifle was being stored in the garage.
And unless you are a person who is buried a mile deep in conspiracy nonsense, then another fact becomes crystal clear -- Lee Harvey Oswald LIED to Wesley Frazier about the "curtain rods".
Now, via the scenario of Oswald being a totally innocent "patsy" regarding everything that happened in Dallas the following day (November 22, 1963), I'm just wondering how the conspiracy theorists can provide a series of reasonable and logical (and believable) answers to these questions:
1.) How did those amazing plotters get Oswald to go to Irving on 11/21/63?
2.) And how did those very efficient plotters get Oswald to tell the lie about the curtain rods? (Because all reasonable people know that LHO's "curtain rod" tale was, indeed, a lie....mainly due to the fact that no curtain rods were ever found in the Book Depository; plus the fact that if there had been any curtain rods at all, Oswald would have said so to the police; but, instead, he denied he ever mentioned anything about curtain rods to Buell Frazier.)
3.) And then how did those conspirators who were framing their patsy get Mr. Oswald to take a bulky brown package into the Depository on November 22nd? (Which is a package, as I just mentioned, that we know for a fact did NOT contain curtain rods.)
Those three questions are very important questions to answer in a reasonable manner if you're a conspiracist who truly thinks Oswald was just an unwitting patsy in the assassination of the President.
Because unless Oswald was trying to set himself up as a patsy, it's rather difficult to find any logical or reasonable answers to those three questions I just posed that would lead to a conclusion that Lee Oswald was completely innocent in the events that took place in Dallas on November 22nd. Particularly when those three questions are evaluated and assessed in conjunction with all of the OTHER things that incriminate Oswald in JFK's murder, e.g., the Carcano rifle, the shells, the paper bag on the sixth floor, LHO's prints being all over the place where Kennedy's killer was located, etc.
In short -- Oswald's OWN ACTIONS on November 21, 1963, provide some extremely powerful circumstantial evidence to indicate that Lee Harvey Oswald was anything but an innocent patsy when it comes to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
David Von Pein
September 2011
