DAVID VON PEIN SAID:
The above one-hour interview with JFK assassination witness Buell Wesley Frazier took place on November 22, 2021, at the Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza. It is one of several interviews and public appearances that Mr. Frazier has done in the last few years. (Others can be found at my Buell Frazier webpage below.)
I've always been very fond of Buell Wesley Frazier. I've enjoyed listening to him tell his story over the years about how he and his 1963 co-worker, Lee Harvey Oswald, would ride to work together to the Texas School Book Depository in Dallas.
And despite the fact that Buell has added a few hard-to-believe chapters to his assassination story in the last 20 years or so (such as the episodes talked about here and here and here), I must admit, I am still quite fond of Mr. Buell Wesley Frazier. That doesn't mean that I accept as fact all of the things that Buell has tacked on to his story since about 2002. Not at all. In fact, I think he's done a bit of—shall we say—"embellishing" (or "enhancing") of his story during these last twenty years.
Frazier's latest embellishment/enhancement, which was added for the first time to his account of the events of 11/22/63 in the pages of Buell's new 2021 book, "Steering Truth: My Eternal Connection To JFK And Lee Harvey Oswald", is a tale about how Buell allegedly encountered a man with a rifle on the Elm Street extension road just outside the Book Depository Building within minutes of the shooting of President Kennedy.
This impeccably-dressed rifleman, wearing clothes and shoes that apparently (per Frazier) only a "professional" could afford, threw his weapon into the trunk of his car and then drove off, never to be seen or heard from again.
I could be wrong, but Buell's new late-arriving tale about a dapper gun-toting assassin (?), who was evidently displaying his rifle out in the open in front of the Depository for everybody to potentially see, is very likely an addendum to Mr. Frazier's story that even most hardened conspiracy theorists will have a hard time swallowing.
The above 2021 interview with Mr. Frazier prompted me to create this post, but not mainly for the purpose of scoffing at the latest addition to his November 22nd story (although scoff I must), but instead I wanted to take the opportunity to ask Buell Wesley Frazier a few questions (on paper only) that I do not think have ever been asked of him during any of the several interviews he has participated in since the assassination occurred in 1963. I'm very curious as to what Buell's reactions and responses might be if he were to ever be confronted with questions put to him in the following manner....
#1. Buell, you do realize, don't you, that the rifle that was found on the sixth floor of the Depository on 11/22/63 was a rifle that was proven by the totality of the evidence in this case to have been owned and possessed by Lee Harvey Oswald?
#1a. And you also realize that that exact rifle was proven to have been the weapon that murdered President Kennedy, don't you?
#2. And you also realize, don't you, that the empty brown paper bag that was found near the Sniper's Nest on the sixth floor had the fingerprints of Lee Oswald on it?
#2a. Plus, that same paper bag had fibers inside of it that generally matched fibers from the blanket in Ruth Paine's garage, which is a blanket that was known to have been the place where Oswald's rifle was kept in storage in the weeks just before the assassination. You know that fact too, don't you Buell?
#3. Don't you ever wonder, Buell, why Lee Oswald told you that big fat lie about the "curtain rods"? And he twice told that lie to you—once on Thursday morning (November 21st) and then again on the morning of November 22nd when you and he got into your car at your sister's house.
We know now that Lee's "curtain rods" story was definitely a lie. We know this because....
....No curtain rods were ever found inside the Book Depository after the assassination.
....No curtain rods were found among Oswald's possessions at his roominghouse at 1026 North Beckley Avenue in Oak Cliff.
....No curtain rods were found on the bus or in the taxicab that Oswald rode in on 11/22/63.
....And no curtain rods were found on Oswald himself after the assassination.
#3a. So, why do you think Lee would feel the need to tell such a lie about "curtain rods"? And if the item that was inside Oswald's package on 11/22/63 had really been curtain rods, then where did those rods disappear to? Did Lee ditch them in a trash dumpster on Elm Street after he left the Depository?
Those questions about the "rods" are very important ones, wouldn't you agree Buell?
#4. And what about the murder of policeman J.D. Tippit? Do you think Lee was innocent of killing Officer Tippit too? I don't think any interviewer has ever asked you that question, have they?
The evidence against Oswald in the Tippit shooting couldn't be any more powerful and concrete (as my next question clearly illustrates).
#5. If you are of the opinion that Lee Oswald did not kill J.D. Tippit, then how can you explain the fact that Lee was arrested in the Texas Theater with the Tippit murder weapon in his very own hands just 35 minutes after Officer Tippit was gunned down nearby?
Given this fact concerning the Tippit murder weapon, about the only way for Lee Harvey Oswald to be innocent is to believe silliness like this.
#6. And if Lee Oswald was innocent of shooting both John Kennedy and J.D. Tippit, then why did Lee pull a gun on a police officer in the Texas Theater on 11/22/63?
And why did Lee fight like a wild man with Dallas Patrolman M.N. McDonald in the theater?
Are those the actions of a person who had done nothing wrong on November 22, 1963?
#7. And then there's the attempted murder of General Edwin Walker on April 10, 1963. Do you think Lee Oswald took that shot at General Walker, Buell? If not, then how do you explain what Lee wrote to his wife, Marina, in Warren Commission Exhibit No. 1 (which is in Oswald's own handwriting)?
#7a. And if you do accept the fact that Lee took that shot at Walker (and the evidence clearly indicates that he did), then wouldn't you agree with me that Lee Harvey Oswald definitely had murder running through his veins just seven months before President Kennedy went to Dallas? And wouldn't you agree with me that if a person is willing to take a gun and shoot at another human being in April, then it's quite possible that that same person (namely Lee Oswald) might have a similar desire to aim that same gun at another political figure in November?
#8. With all of the above individual facts piled up against the door (plus these additional pieces of evidence), which are facts that are just dying to be strung together to form a cohesive whole known as "The Totality Of Evidence In The JFK Murder Case", can you, Buell Wesley Frazier, possibly still cling to the notion that Lee Harvey Oswald, merely because he was kind to you and the children who lived near you in Irving, was innocent of killing President John F. Kennedy?
I truly wonder if Mr. Frazier has ever once examined the evidence against Oswald in an objective way in which his friendship with the accused assassin was set aside in order to let the evidence speak for itself. I doubt that he has.
David Von Pein
January 12, 2022
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RELATED DISCUSSION....
RICHARD SMITH SAID:
Frazier is...certainly not an expert on the evidence against Oswald.
DAVID VON PEIN SAID:
I think you're right. He's not an expert. And it could be that Buell has deliberately avoided becoming well-schooled on the evidence so that he can continue to maintain a (false) rosy picture of his friend and co-worker Lee Oswald for as long as he lives.
But I really have no idea as to how much Buell knows about the details of the JFK case. As I asked above, I'm wondering if Frazier even believes Oswald shot and killed J.D. Tippit. I have a feeling he doesn't believe Lee took a shot at anyone in 1963---including Walker.
But for that matter, is Buell even aware of the Walker shooting at all? You'd never know by looking at any of his interviews. That topic never comes up. Nor does the topic of Tippit's murder. It's as if those things never even happened -- which is one of the reasons I wanted to write out the above list of questions for Buell Frazier. If he were ever to study those questions, perhaps he would be inclined to accept the fact that Lee Harvey wasn't always the perfect co-worker after all.
DAVID VON PEIN ALSO MADE
THE FOLLOWING COMMENTS:
What I wonder is this: Is Buell Wesley Frazier's opinion a truly informed opinion? Is Buell even fully aware of all the evidence against Oswald? I wonder. And it's evidence which proves for all time that Lee Harvey Oswald was a double-murderer.
The Paper Bag Facts....
1. Lee Oswald carried one large-ish brown paper bag into the TSBD on 11/22/63.
2. One large-ish EMPTY brown paper bag was found on the 6th floor of the TSBD after the assassination (in the precise location where an assassin was located). And that bag has LHO's prints on it.
3. No other large-ish paper bag was located anywhere in the TSBD.
4. So, if Buell Frazier and Linnie Randle were right about the length of Oswald's package, then the question needs to be asked: What happened to the shorter 27-inch bag that Frazier and Randle said Oswald had with him on Nov. 22nd? Did that bag (plus its contents, whatever the contents might have been) just disappear into a puff of smoke?
5. Final conclusion: Linnie Mae Randle and Buell Wesley Frazier were simply mistaken about the length of the package they each saw Lee Harvey Oswald carrying on 11/22/63.
But instead of logically adding up #1 thru #4 above and accepting the obvious truth about the discrepancy concerning the length of Oswald's paper bag, many conspiracy theorists here in the 21st century have decided to abandon their previous "The Bag Was Too Short To Hold The Rifle" argument (which most CTers have embraced to their bosoms for decades) and have decided it would be a good idea to come out and call Frazier and Randle bald-faced liars, with those 21st-century conspiracy fantasists inventing the fantastically idiotic theory that has BOTH Frazier and Randle getting together and just making up a story about Oswald carrying a large-ish paper bag on the morning of the assassination.
These new 21st-century conspiracy innovators couldn't care less, of course, about the fact that they haven't produced a single shred of solid evidence or proof to show that their goofy "There Was No Bag At All" theory is true.
As is usually the case with most Internet CTers, their motto is: The More Liars, The Better. And their Liars List now includes 19-year-old TSBD order filler Buell Wesley Frazier and Irving, Texas, housewife Linnie Mae Randle. It doesn't get much more pathetic (and desperate) than that for these 21st-century conspiracy mongers.
Buell Frazier has, indeed, been very consistent when he has made the claim that Oswald carried the bag cupped in his right hand with the other end of the package under Oswald's right armpit.
But....
Mr. Frazier is also on record as having said the following at the 1986 Oswald Mock Trial in London, England:
VINCENT T. BUGLIOSI -- "Mr. Frazier, is it true that you paid hardly any attention to this bag?"
BUELL WESLEY FRAZIER -- "That is true."
MR. BUGLIOSI -- "So the bag could have been protruding out in front of his body, and you wouldn't have been able to see it, is that correct?"
MR. FRAZIER -- "That is true."
BTW -- Mrs. Linnie Mae Randle told FBI agent James Bookhout on the day of the assassination itself that the package she saw Lee Oswald carrying that same day was "approximately 3 feet" (36 inches) in length (see this 11/22/63 FBI Report).
So it would appear as if Linnie Mae's bag-length estimate got smaller over a period of time. The reason for this change can never be fully known, of course. But the fact remains (per Bookhout's Nov. 22 report above) that Linnie, in her very first attempt at estimating the size of Oswald's paper bag, said the bag was "approximately three feet" long. And that is just 2 inches away from the actual size of the 38-inch bag that was found in the Sniper's Nest.
[BTW #2 / FYI / FWIW --- In the 1964 David Wolper motion picture "Four Days In November", Linnie Mae Randle said the bag was "approximately two-and-a-half feet long" (30 inches). See video below.]
Re: How Many Police Officers Saw The Paper Bag On The Sixth Floor On 11/22/63?....
Some conspiracy theorists have said to me that only a "couple" of policemen said they saw the bag. But it's more than just a couple. It's at least double that number, and possibly as many as 5 or 6 officers said they saw the empty paper bag on the sixth floor. Here's a list of the four DPD officers that I usually cite whenever this topic comes up:
J.C. Day [4 H 267]
L.D. Montgomery [7 H 97]
Robert Studebaker [7 H 143-144]
Marvin Johnson [7 H 103]
Here's something I said about the paper bag back in 2007:
"I wonder what the odds are of Lee Oswald having carried a DIFFERENT brown bag into work from the one WITH HIS TWO IDENTIFIABLE PRINTS ON IT that was found by the cops in the Sniper's Nest on the 6th Floor?
Care to guess at what those odds might be? They must be close to "O.J. DNA" type numbers (in favor of the empty brown bag that was found by the police on the 6th Floor of the Book Depository being the very same bag that Buell Wesley Frazier and Linnie Mae Randle saw in Lee Harvey Oswald's hands on the morning of November 22, 1963).
I'm eagerly awaiting the logical and believable conspiracy-slanted explanation that will answer the question of why a 38-inch empty paper bag (which could house Oswald's 34.8-inch disassembled rifle), which was an empty bag with Oswald's fingerprints on it, was in the place where it was found after the assassination (the sixth-floor Sniper's Nest) and yet still NOT have Lee Oswald present at that sniper's window on 11/22/63.
I, for one, cannot think of a single "Oswald Is Innocent" explanation for that empty paper sack being where it was found after the assassination of John Kennedy....AND with Oswald's fingerprints on it." -- DVP; October 2007
Most Internet conspiracy theorists seem to have a difficult time with simple math. They can't seem to ever add 2 and 2 together. And I think they are failing to properly "add up" the sum total of the evidence when it comes to the topic of "The Paper Bag".
When a conspiracist tells me I'm not really "following the evidence to where it leads", I have to vigorously disagree. Because I think I'm doing precisely that very thing---following the evidence that exists in this case and applying simple logic and reasonable inferences from that evidence.
And to those conspiracy believers who think Oswald took a shorter (27-inch-long) package into the TSBD on November 22, I ask:
What did Oswald do with that 27-inch paper bag and its contents after entering the Depository on 11/22?
If Commission Exhibit 142 isn't the "Oswald bag", then what did Lee do with that other bag?
One thing's for sure --- whatever answer a conspiracy theorist dreams up to try and answer my above question is not going to be nearly as logical as my October 2007 comment I posted earlier.
More of my comments in this discussion, along with the posts of some conspiracy theorists who are in a fairly large state of denial regarding Lee Harvey Oswald's 38-inch-long paper gun sack, can be found here.
David Von Pein
January 13-15, 2022
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POSTSCRIPT....
DAVID VON PEIN SAID:
Today (June 27, 2023), I thought of another question that I would like to ask Buell Wesley Frazier (which I don't think any interviewer has ever asked him before). It's this question:
During the mid-morning hours on November 22, 1963, when you realized that President Kennedy's motorcade was going to pass right in front of the Book Depository that day, and after you had confirmed through your boss that the TSBD employees would be allowed to take a break and watch the Presidential parade pass by the building, did it ever cross your mind to approach Lee Harvey Oswald and ask him this?:
"Hey, Lee, I just found out that the President is coming right past this building at noontime today and we're going to be allowed to watch the parade. I'm going to watch it from the front steps of the Depository. Do you want to join me out there? What do you say?"
If such a question had been put to Lee Oswald on the morning of 11/22/63, I can't help but wonder what Lee's answer to Buell would have been.
I wonder if Oswald, wheels turning in his head as he made his assassination plans throughout that morning, would have accepted Frazier's invitation, but then just not show up on the front steps to join Frazier?
But, from Oswald's point-of-view that morning (given his murderous intentions), such an agreement to meet Mr. Frazier out on the steps (or anyplace else inside or outside the TSBD Building) might have been a risky thing for Lee to do, because Oswald might then have thought that Frazier just might come looking for him in the building during the minutes prior to JFK's motorcade arriving in Dealey Plaza. Would Lee want to take such a risk? Nobody now, of course, can ever answer such a question.
Or, perhaps, Oswald's answer to Frazier's invitation to watch the motorcade together might have been:
No thanks, Wesley. I'm not the slightest bit interested in seeing the President.
Or, LHO could have brushed Frazier off with this reply:
Thanks, Wes, but I'm just too busy filling my book orders to stop and watch a Presidential parade.
Or Lee could have used this wishy-washy response:
Well, Wesley, I might join you to watch the parade---but only if I get the time. I'm not making any promises. So maybe you should go on outside by yourself, and perhaps a little later I'll get out there too.
But regardless of what Oswald's answer might have been if such an "invitation" had been put in front of Lee Harvey Oswald for his consideration on 11/22/63 by Buell Wesley Frazier (or by anyone else, for that matter), it would have added yet another "Food For Thought" topic to the large mountain of such subjects relating to President John F. Kennedy's assassination.
It's kind of fun, though, to think about such "What If?" questions, isn't it?
David Von Pein
June 27, 2023
