JEFFERSON MORLEY SAID:
Lee Harvey Oswald’s application to work at the Texas School Book Depository:
Take a look. See anything suspicious?....
[Click to enlarge...]
DAVID VON PEIN SAID:
Yeah, that copy is a complete forgery. Where did that version come from, Jeff? It’s certainly not the original TSBD application in LHO’s handwriting (which is CE496). Here’s what the real one filled out by Oswald looks like….
More here....
Lee Harvey Oswald's Book Depository Work Application
WILLY WHITTEN SAID:
Remarkably I find myself in agreement with David Von Pein here. It appears that this copy is a forgery. The handwriting is not the same as Oswald’s handwriting on the original. …. This document is a forgery – OR the first copy is.
How can that issue be resolved?
DAVID VON PEIN SAID:
I couldn’t find anything in the Warren Commission volumes to indicate that the “questioned documents” examiners who testified in front of the WC (James Cadigan and Alwyn Cole) examined Oswald’s TSBD work application (CE496). Perhaps they did or somebody else did and I just couldn’t find it.
But handwriting expert Joseph McNally did testify about CE496 for the HSCA (with the document becoming “JFK Exhibit F-503″ as far as the HSCA records are concerned), and McNally said that the writing on the application matched other documents known to have been written by Oswald. McNally did, however, qualify his statement about it being Oswald’s writing with these words (which apply to other documents as well, of course):
MR. McNALLY — “The conclusion of the panel was that the writing on all of these original documents was all done by the same individual. That also included a number of photographs and photo reproductions. We also concluded these were done by the same individual. However, a word of caution must be introduced here because there are four or five of these documents which were only photo reproductions or photographs examined and compared with the other writings. These photographs of course cannot be examined with the same detail that the original document can be, and there is always some possibility that there are some alterations or something on these particular photographs which cannot be determined because they are not the original document. There is only one document on which we jointly could not arrive at any specific conclusion, and that is the so-called note, JFK exhibit F-506. That particular document is a very fuzzy reproduction and that particular reproduction we could not make any definite determination as to whether or not it was the same writing as all the other writings examined and compared and determined to be from the same individual.”
MR. KLEIN — “Mr. Chairman, I should state for the record that in every case the staff attempted to get an original document for the panel, and only in those cases where no original existed or an original could not be located were photocopies used. Mr. McNally, is it the conclusion of the panel that in all cases where original documents were provided they were written by the same person?”
MR. McNALLY — “It is.”
http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/russ/jfkinfo2/jfk4/mcnally2.htm
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Also….
Oswald’s TSBD application was first entered into evidence by the Warren Commission during the testimony of Depository Superintendent Roy S. Truly. Truly, of course, was not a handwriting expert and couldn’t testify in an official capacity as to whether the writing seen in CE496 is the writing of Lee Harvey Oswald or not. Here’s what Mr. Truly had to say about it in 1964:
DAVID W. BELIN — “I hand you what has been marked Commission Exhibit No. 496, which appears to be a photostatic copy of a document, and I ask you to state if you know what that is.”
(The document referred to was marked Commission Exhibit No. 496 for identification.)
MR. TRULY — “This is a copy of the application blank that Oswald filled out. I am not familiar with his handwriting, because he didn’t do anything that we have records of. All the work that he ever did was put his number or something.”
MR. BELIN — “Well, my first question is this: Is this particular form a form of your company?”
MR. TRULY — “That is one form, yes. We changed it a little bit, and this might have been just one that I pulled out. I can’t recall whether it is the one we use now or the one we did use.”
MR. BELIN — “Well, was this a form that you were using at about the time he came for employment?”
MR. TRULY — “Yes.”
MR. BELIN — “Did you see him fill this out? Was it in your office or not?”
MR. TRULY — “Yes. He was sitting opposite me, and he filled it out on my desk.”
MR. BELIN — “He filled this Exhibit 496 out on your desk?”
MR. TRULY — “Yes.”
http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/russ/testimony/truly1.htm
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So we know that Roy Truly definitely did interview the real Lee Harvey Oswald in mid-October of 1963 and Truly did have Oswald fill out an application in his presence. And we also know that Oswald was hired by Mr. Truly on the date shown on the application (10/15/63).
So the existence of a “phony” copy of Oswald’s work application seems to have little significance or overall importance. But it is interesting that someone would want to create a duplicate verbatim version of the original application filled out by Oswald. For what reason was this done? I haven’t the foggiest. Perhaps it’s similar in nature to an odd thing concerning another “altered” document which I discovered in September of last year when re-watching the 1993 PBS documentary “Who Was Lee Harvey Oswald?”, in which somebody created a phony version of Oswald’s Klein’s order form. That's discussed HERE.
WILLY WHITTEN SAID:
I think Von Pein’s assessment of Oswald as a liar is excessive.
DAVID VON PEIN SAID:
But there’s no doubt that Oswald DID tell some lies when he filled out his TSBD application, as I mentioned in my article on the subject. Hence, Oswald was a “liar” (and provably so) when it comes to certain portions of his Texas School Book Depository application.
PAT SPEER SAID:
So where did this re-written copy come from? Is it in the government’s files?
And, if so, does this raise the question of how many other documents in the files have been re-written, and why?
I mean, since we know this “copy” isn’t an actual copy, does this leave open the possibility someone wrote this “copy” as a draft, and that someone then copied this draft in Oswald’s hand? And, if so, is it reasonable to wonder if there was something on the original job app that we weren’t supposed to know about? Did Oswald mention some company that was a CIA front?
I mean, we know the FBI had professional forgers on its staff who were tasked with forging letters in the hands of KGB agents, etc. Is it really so crazy to believe one or more of them was asked to whip up some evidence in Oswald’s hand?
DAVID VON PEIN SAID:
There’s no limit to the number of things a healthy imagination can contemplate. Right, Pat? :-)
DAVID VON PEIN LATER SAID:
I found this memo relating to the “Brian” copy of Oswald’s work application at the “Portal To Texas History” website (click to enlarge):
And HERE'S the “Brian” copy of the job application as seen on the “Texas History” site.
V.J. Brian, by the way, was a detective for the Dallas Police Department, and he did give testimony to the Warren Commission---but not with respect to this topic of the copy of the LHO job application.
David Von Pein
April 5-6, 2015
