LEE HARVEY OSWALD'S STATEMENTS WHILE IN CUSTODY: EXAMINING OSWALD'S MANY LIES
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JFK assassination researcher Mae Brussell, who passed away in 1988,
compiled a fairly comprehensive list of the oral statements made
between November 22nd and November 24th, 1963, by President
Kennedy's assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald.
Here's a link to those statements:
"THE LAST WORDS OF LEE HARVEY OSWALD"
A couple of very interesting things stood out to this writer while
reading through Brussell's compilation of Oswald's utterances:
One of those interesting things being the fact that Lee Oswald,
himself, admitted to authorities (on November 24, 1963, shortly before
he was murdered by Jack Ruby) that he had, indeed, made a trip to
Mexico City, in an attempt to return to Russia by way of Cuba.
The Mexico City admission by Oswald is also intriguing because of the
fact that just two days earlier LHO had flatly denied he had ever been
to Mexico City. .....
"I was never in Mexico City." -- LHO; 11/22/63
"I went to the Mexican Consulate in Mexico City. I went to the Russian
Embassy to go to Russia by way of Cuba. They told me to come back in
thirty days." -- LHO; 11/24/63
Now, regardless of exactly what MONTH or YEAR the latter statement
refers to -- Oswald has obviously been caught in a lie of some
sort....because BOTH of the above statements regarding Mexico City
certainly cannot be truthful.
Another thing that struck me as interesting via Mae Brussell's
compilation is the number of POSITIVELY VERIFIED Oswald quotes that do
not show up on Brussell's list....including Lee Harvey's most famous
verbal comment of them all....which was this remark made by Oswald in
front of a live television audience while LHO was being moved through
the DPD hallways:
"They've taken me in because of the fact that I lived in the Soviet
Union. I'm just a patsy!"
The above quote doesn't appear anywhere within Brussell's "Last Words"
article. Very odd. Brussell does mention the word "patsy" one time in the
article when she says: "Seth Kantor, reporter, heard Oswald yell, "I am
only a patsy"." But the complete quote I talked about above isn't included
by Brussell.
And another of Oswald's many live-on-TV DPD hallway declarations that is
also conspicuous by its absence in Brussell's work is this one:
"I don't know what press dispatches you people have been given, but I emphatically deny these charges!"
It's very strange that such verifiable "Live On TV" quotes by Lee
Oswald would be omitted from what otherwise appears to be a very
complete record of all the verbal statements made by Oswald from
November 22 to 24.
Brussell also misquotes Oswald at one point during the "Midnight Press
Conference". Oswald didn't say "A cop hit me", as claimed in the
above-linked article. LHO's words were "A policeman hit me".
Other alleged statements attributed to Oswald by members of the Dallas
Police Department are also missing from Brussell's chronicle, including
LHO telling the DPD he had eaten lunch with "Junior" (Jarman) on
November 22nd at the Book Depository, and Oswald saying he had talked
with Bill Shelley after the shooting had occurred, with Shelley telling
Oswald he could go home (per what LHO told the police).
So, given these omissions and other errors, I would say it would be
wise to examine Brussell's article with a grain of salt by your side.
(Yes, I have a grain of salt by my own side too -- regarding the
"Mexico City" quotes mentioned earlier.)
Now, with that salt firmly by our sides, let's just have a look at the
falsehoods that were uttered by Lee Harvey Oswald from November 22 to
November 24, 1963, via Brussell's article as written (and the number of
lies spoken by Mr. Oswald is a good-sized number, to be sure). Also,
according to Mae Brussell, not every quote is a "verbatim" LHO
utterance:
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A LIST OF OSWALD'S LIES:
1.) "The only thing I have done is carry a pistol into a movie."
2.) "I didn't kill anybody."
3.) "I haven't shot anybody."
4.) "A police officer has been killed?"
5.) "All I did was carry a gun."
6.) "I was never in Mexico City."
7.) "I never owned a rifle."
8.) "Because of all the confusion, I figured there would be no work
performed that afternoon so I decided to go home."
9.) "I carried a pistol with me to the movie because I felt like it,
for no other reason."
10.) "I didn't shoot President John F. Kennedy or Officer J.D. Tippit."
11.) "My landlady didn't understand my name correctly, so it was her
idea to call me O.H. Lee."
12.) "The only package I brought to work was my lunch."
13.) "I bought a pistol in Fort Worth several months ago."
14.) "I never ordered any guns."
15.) "I didn't shoot anyone; I never killed anybody."
16.) "I didn't tell Buell Wesley Frazier anything about bringing back
some curtain rods."
17.) "I did carry a package to the Texas School Book Depository. I
carried my lunch, a sandwich and fruit, which I made at Paine's house."
18.) "It's a mistake; I'm not guilty."
19.) "I don't know what is going on. I just don't know what they are
talking about. Don't believe all the so-called evidence."
20.) "That picture is not mine, but the face is mine. The picture has
been made by superimposing my face. The other part of the picture is
not me at all, and I have never seen this picture before. ... The small
picture was reduced from the larger one, made by some persons unknown
to me."
21.) "I never kept a rifle at Mrs. Paine's garage."
22.) "I have never ordered any guns."
23.) "I do not own a rifle, never possessed a rifle."
24.) "After all this commotion started, I just went downstairs and
started to see what it was all about."
25.) "If you ask me about the shooting of Tippit, I don't know what you
are talking about."
26.) "The only thing I am here for is because I popped a policeman in
the nose in the theater, which I readily admit I did, because I was
protecting myself."
27.) "I visited my wife Thursday night, November 21, whereas I normally
visited her over the weekend, because Mrs. Paine was giving a party for
the children on the weekend."
28.) "I don't recall the shape, it may have been a small sack, or a
large sack; you don't always find one that just fits your sandwiches."
29.) "The sack was in the car, beside me, on my lap, as it always is."
30.) "It was not on the back seat. Mr. Frazier must have been mistaken
or else thinking about the other time when he picked me up."
31.) "I never ordered a rifle under the name of Hidell, Oswald, or any
other name."
32.) "I never ordered any rifle by mail order or bought any money order
for the purpose of paying for such a rifle."
33.) "I didn't own any rifle."
34.) "I have not practiced or shot with a rifle."
35.) "I told you I haven't shot a rifle since the Marines, possibly a
small bore, maybe a .22, but not anything larger since I have left the
Marine Corps."
36.) "I never received a package sent to me through the mailbox in
Dallas, Box No. 2915, under the name of Alek Hidell, absolutely not."
37.) "American people will soon forget the President was shot, but I
didn't shoot him."
38.) "I never lived on Neely Street. These people are mistaken about
visiting there, because I never lived there."
39.) "I did not kill President Kennedy or Officer Tippit."
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Does an innocent "patsy" really need to lie this much?
David Von Pein
January 2007
