The Patsy.

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 "Unfortunately for the conspirators, Oswald was taken alive, despite all their efforts, making it necessary for someone to force Jack Ruby into killing him two days later."

 

What about Lee Harvey Oswald, our main character? Where does he fit in and why was he chosen? It certainly was not a case of just his being in the wrong place at the wrong time. The motorcade was brought to him, on purpose, so that he could take the fall. The shooting otherwise could have taken place elsewhere, and perhaps then, some other poor soul would have been heard to say, "I'm just a patsy".

Choosing the Correct Patsy

Lee Harvey Oswald, ex-Marine, loner, trained intelligence operative and provocateur was the perfect choice for a patsy. That is not to say that he was the only choice, just the only one we know of because he was the one used.

From the beginning it was imperative to the cover-up that LHO's intelligence background and ties to various federal agencies be hidden. Over the years this part of the "story" has had a number of large holes punched in it:

While stationed in Japan with the Marine Corps, LHO was treated for venereal disease, an offense that is frowned upon, heavily, by the Corps. Yet, LHO's records state that he acquired the disease "in the line of duty" and no punishment was handed down. How could a mere "radar operator" acquire VD "in the line of duty"? (CE Donabedian Ex 1)

During the HSCA investigation, former CIA Finance Officer James Wilcott testified that he had learned that LHO was paid by the CIA while stationed in Japan. Additionally it was learned that the CIA had a "201" file on Oswald. A "201" file is a personnel file.

He was tested for his "self-taught" skills in the Russian language by the military's language school at Monterey, California. Such skills were of no use to a "radar operator" enlisted man. Why then, was he tested ?

The ability to be self-taught in Russian is very rare because the language uses its own alphabet. No one can remember LHO learning anything Russian, they simply remember him reading Russian. There are several instances however, where he was missing from his unit for significant periods of time, under strange and unverified circumstances. Its probable that he was receiving intelligence and/or language training during these periods. WC General Counsel J Lee Rankin let slip in an executive session that Oswald's training at Monterey was being looked into.

His trip to Moscow to defect cost four times the money he had. How did he do it?

If he were a true traitor, the State Department would have never allowed him to return, much less paid his way, or they would have had him arrested, or at least detained for debriefing when he did. Neither took place.

His job later, during the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, at Jaggar-Chiles-Stovall, while not necessarily giving him access to classified materials, was for a company that did classified work for the Army. Rather strange that a one-time defector with a dishonorable discharge could have passed a background check for such a company.

His "Fair Play For Cuba Committee" flyers were stamped with the address of the same building, in New Orleans, that ex-Naval Intelligence and FBI man Guy Bannister and CIA contract agent David Ferrie used to train and equip anti-Castro Cubans. One would think that, if LHO were truly pro-Castro, some type of altercation or vandalism, requiring the police, would have taken place at some time, in that building, given the fervor and hot tempers of the exiles, and the proximity, on the same floor, of the antagonists. His only altercation came out on the street while handing out his leaflets in public. The responding police officer believed that it had been staged.

The Internal Revenue Service claimed that he filed no tax return for 1962, yet there was evidence that he cashed an IRS refund check. Perhaps I'm stupid, but I think that the IRS only sends out refunds when you file a return. Why "lose" his return unless you don't want anyone to see his complete sources and amounts of income? How many tax returns do you figure the IRS has ever really lost?

In his book, DEEP POLITICS AND THE DEATH OF JFK, Peter Dale Scott makes an observation (I have not been able to independently verify it) that it is possible that LHO purchased the Mannlicher-Carcano while working as an operative, through the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) (hence the Treasury Department, also parent organization of the Secret Service) as part of the Dodd Committee. That Congressional committee was investigating the ease of purchasing firearms through the mail. The rifle purchase did take place during the committee's investigation, and by purchasing it as Hidell, it could have been used as valid evidence of the need for stricter regulations. Of course, after Kennedy's assassination was tied to that gun, mail firearm sales were eliminated entirely. If Scott is correct, it is possible that Oswald never took possession of the rifle, and members of the Secret Service or FBI could have. It might also help account for why so much of the normally meaningless documentation for the obscure purchase survived.

On November 21, 1999 the Associated Press reported that recent released documents show that, not only did the FBI know over the assassination weekend that someone, for reasons unknown, was impersonating Oswald in Mexico City in September 1963, but that FBI agents had actually listened to the tapes of calls to the Soviet Embassy that were allegedly of Oswald. These FBI agents determined that the voice on the tapes was NOT that of the man shot by Jack Ruby in Dallas on November 24, 1963. This is a major development for a great number of reasons:

**Why would anyone be impersonating Oswald to the Soviet Embassy (or anywhere)?

**Why did J Edgar Hoover lie to the Warren Commission and state that Oswald was overheard calling the Soviet Embassy when he knew it to be untrue?

**Why did the CIA lie about the recordings by saying that they had been "routinely destroyed" before the assassination (something hardly possible IF the FBI listened to them AFTER it)?

The ARRB has stated that they, despite all their efforts, were unable to uncover the tapes.

In that same group of documents, Hoover states that the FBI had opened and resealed a letter from Oswald to the Soviet Embassy in Washington earlier in 1963. This also raises grave and perplexing questions:

** It seems more than reasonable to now believe that Oswald had to have been on some type of an FBI watch list. Postal Inspectors regularly "assisted" the FBI in this type activity. If that is true, then it also seems reasonable to believe that they would have been privy to the receipt, at Oswald's Post Office Box, of the rifle addressed to "A. Hidell" and reported it to the FBI, something they have always denied. This NEW but old evidence punches a large hole in that stance.

** If the FBI was privy to the weapon, it would appear that they would have insisted that Postal Regulations be strictly enforced and the rifle returned to Klein's or at minimum, obtained the signature slip that would have been required for whomever to take possession of the weapon. It is obvious that the package itself could not have fit into the box...an "oversize package" slip would have been placed in the box. This in turn would have needed to be redeemed at the counter and said package undoubtedly signed for by whomever picked it up.

Such evidence allegedly does not exist.

Researcher John Armstrong has done detailed research into the man known as Lee Harvey Oswald. His conclusions are that, for a long period of time, predating even his "defection", there were multiple Oswalds. I have read what Armstrong has written and I have seen most of the documentation he uses to back his claim (some of which are included in this work). While it is not conclusive, it is very persuasive. Armstrong uncovered multiple situations, prior to and including the period immediately before the assassination (and in one case after it) which has Oswald in two places at one time. He also points out that physical descriptions of him differ in significant areas, such as his height...it goes from 5'8" on entry into the Marine Corps to 5'11" on his discharge, back to 5'9" again at his autopsy. He also tracked two different schooling scenarios, including being enrolled in NYC and Ft Worth, Texas at the same time (with the FBI taking and never returning his Ft Worth records immediately after the assassination). More telling, and less subject to interpretation, is a missing front tooth and surgically removed tonsils which "reappeared" and a mastoid operation scar that "disappeared". Armstrong also uncovered evidence from the IRS that the W-2 forms used by the Warren Commission as proof on Oswald's employment from at least 2 places appear to have been phonies, with the company tax ID numbers being "created" in January, 1964...not 1956 and 1957!!

ARRB researcher Doug Horne believed that Armstrong had found something, but was later convinced by members of the IRS that the dates were merely deductions (no pun intended) on the part of the personnel who handled the inquiries and were likely the result of the IRS making computer changes in early 1964. Horne is now convinced that these are coincidental anomalies.

However, Armstrong has since pointed out that the "death claim" placed for benefits through the Social Security Administration, lists all the income registered under Oswald's social security number...and those figures match to the penny all of money listed on Oswald's W-2's NOT COUNTING THE QUESTIONABLE W-2'S.!!!

It therefore appears quite obvious that, due to some type of intelligence work, his background was both shadowy and confusing. These factors were used by the conspirators. Creating a pre-defection cover, while in the Marines, made him appear pro-communist. So did his Fair Play for Cuba membership and all the attempts by the CIA in Mexico City, to make it appear Oswald was again seeking to "defect".

Yet, there is not even one documented case of LHO so much as even being seen with a true communist, either before or after his Russian trip and there is not one piece of unchallenged evidence placing the Jack Ruby victim in Mexico City!

In fact, the trip to Mexico City, initially one of the major reasons why so many within the government were so cowered, appears to be a creation of the CIA, plain and simple...a creation designed to make it appear that Oswald was working hand-in-hand with Soviet intelligence...designed to affect the judgement of many within the government, especially Earl Warren.

That entire scenario, which cables show was first "discussed" between the Mexico City station (headed at that time by David Atlee Phillips) and CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia in October, well prior to Kennedy's Texas trip, started out with the CIA claiming that they had:

* photographs of Oswald entering and leaving the Mexico City Soviet embassy,

* voice recordings of Oswald contacting a known KGB agent at the Russian embassy and

* eyewitness testimony from a clerk at the Cuban embassy that Oswald was there, seeking an entrance visa.

However, those items have fallen completely apart over the years...some of it even before the Warren Commission finished its business.

Now, through documents released under FOIA litigation, there is firm documentation which shows:

* the CIA photographed someone other than Oswald,

* that the recordings are of someone other than the Oswald shot by Jack Ruby although whomever did place the call stated his name was Lee Oswald,

* that the clerk's "identification" of Oswald was faked and/or coerced,

* that the recordings were not "routinely destroyed" prior to the assassination as the CIA and FBI Director Hoover alleged and were actually listened to by WC counsels, and finally,

* that the travel visa to Mexico issued immediately BEFORE the one bearing Oswald's name, and "lost" for many years, was obtained by a CIA operative!!

It now appears almost certain that a story was created prior to the assassination, with Oswald appearing to be working in concert with the KGB, perhaps finalizing plans for Kennedy's assassination and then making arrangements to escape afterwards to Cuba. When this card was played to Chief Justice Warren, he acted in what he believed to be the best interests of the country, (and no doubt as his CIA psychological profile predicted he would)... avoiding war... and limited the investigation (and conclusions) to Oswald alone... a noble stance, except that all his fears were created by operatives of the CIA for their own ends, and had no basis in fact... something the FBI's Hoover knew, yet did nothing about. In fact, he, as we now know, helped perpetuate the lie.

It is hard therefore, to come up with anything alternative to some CIA foreknowledge, involvement and action in the planning of the assassination, based on the falsely documented September, 1963 Mexico trip as THEY presented it to Warren!!

On the other hand, it seems logical to believe that Oswald, probably under orders from his handlers (and thus, like any contract agent, believing that he was acting on behalf of the US government), which may have included Phillips and/or E. H. Hunt, was to keep track of, and infiltrate, a group of exiles who, he was told, were going to attempt to assassinate Kennedy. This kept him in touch with one of the "cover" groups and that association was also used to further incriminate him and confuse matters.

When he found out that the shooting had taken place, he possibly became uncomfortable, left the TSBD, went to his rooming house, all the time trying to figure out what had happened. Not knowing what else to do he then left to contact his handler at the Texas Theater (which , again coincidentally was owned by Howard Hughes, at that time the CIA's #1 domestic contractor and friend).

I personally feel that he got there before Tippit was shot. If that's true, then Tippit was probably murdered by one of the security group people, as a sacrifice, to inflame the Dallas Police so that, after they were again led to LHO by the guy who snuck into the theater (probably Tippit's actual killer), he would not be taken alive.

If Oswald did, in fact, shoot Tippit, he probably did so in self-defense, figuring rightly or wrongly, that Tippit was out to murder him.

The testimony of Officer M.N. McDonald, who arrested Oswald, states that an "unidentified" man, sitting near the front of the theater, told him where to find the man he was looking for. Who was that "unidentified" man and how would he have known who the police were looking for, unless he was there to point him out? That could have been answered had the Dallas Police used basic, normal, investigative procedures and sealed the theater to question all the patrons. They didn't (again!), and the man walked out, never to be seen nor heard from again.

Unfortunately for the conspirators, Oswald was taken alive, despite all their efforts, making it necessary for someone to force Jack Ruby into killing him two days later. That action was the basis for all the subsequent "scrambling".

 

What Went WRONG

In my opinion only one important item went wrong in the overall assassination plan :

The designated patsy, Lee Harvey Oswald, lived long enough to be taken into custody, forcing the conspirators to eliminate him in a way that made the country wonder what was going on, and creating the need for a fuller investigation than would have otherwise been necessary.

It was this investigation and its findings, or rather the questions about those findings, that focused nationwide attention on the minute details of that weekend that were supposed to have remained devoid of publicity. Think about it.

If Oswald had been shot and killed at the TSBD immediately after the assassination and then the physical evidence found, who would have questioned it or the autopsy?

If he had been killed resisting arrest at the Texas Theater, little notice of that action itself or the case for his guilt would have been taken. Much like Secret Service Agent Rufus Youngblood, commended for throwing his body over LBJ as the shots rained down in Dealey Plaza (a fact denied by Senator Ralph Yarborough who was also in the car), the man who killed Oswald while doing his duty, would have been a national hero.

It was the televised murder of LHO by Jack Ruby, necessary to silence Oswald, that set the wheels in motion. Without that, public attention would have been focused on the "heroes" who shot and killed the man who assassinated Kennedy, rather than on the flimsy case against Oswald.

I am of the opinion that Oswald was supposed to be shot at the TSBD before 1:00PM, "resisting arrest". There was testimony that someone flashed military intelligence credentials entering the Depository around 12:45PM (remember the MI unit was told to stand down... and we still do not know by whom or why). Someone on a federal level also re-emerges on the 6th floor before any federal officials are documented to be there, according to statements by Dallas Morning News photographer Tom Alyea, who filmed much of the search and "evidence" recovery over the objections of an unnamed and unidentified federal official. This man may have been the designated "hero". Obtaining such credentials, and bogus "Secret Service" ID's would have been no problem for the CIA contingent. By using these other agency credentials they, again, pointed investigators away from themselves and added to the confusion.

The assassination plan just never allowed for the speed with which Motorcycle Officer Marrion Baker got into the building (testimony from one witness said he entered within 10 seconds of the final shot), nor the possibility that he would confront Oswald and let him know what had happened.

Oswald, now aware that Kennedy had been shot, either sensed danger or feeling scared and confused by the turn of events, left the building, before the elimination could take place.

Had he been eliminated on November 22nd by anyone in law enforcement, no one, anywhere or anytime would have questioned that he shot Kennedy, after the autopsy and physical evidence were made public. There would have been little if any debate and no need for the Warren Commission or anything like it.

The Secret Service would have undoubtedly undergone some changes in its Presidential Security procedures (in fact, it did) but no one would have suspected anyone other than Oswald, alone, as the killer.

No one would have been the wiser and Oliver Stone would have had to make a movie about Area 51 instead.

 

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