When the press briefly had the opportunity to talk to Lee Harvey Oswald on the night of the assassination, he said he didn’t know what his arrest was all about. He denied shooting President Kennedy. He said he worked in the building (from which at least most of the shots originated) and had naturally been in the building for that reason. He also said, “I’m just a patsy.” It wasn’t a confession. It wasn’t a well-concocted cover story. But it also quite likely was at least highly misleading if not an outright lie. He definitely knew more than he was letting on, but how do I know that?
The answer is the alleged murder weapon. It’s not in dispute that a World War Two-era Italian 6.5 Mannlicher-Carcano bolt-action rifle was recovered in the “Sniper’s Nest” on the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository. The rifle had Oswald’s palm print on it, according to the FBI, and it was purchased by mail order from a Chicago sporting goods company. The purchaser was A. Hiddell, a known alias of Oswald’s.
The name of “Alek James Hidell” was on a Selective Service notice of classification and a Marine Corps certificate of service, both found in Oswald’s wallet when he was arrested, according to the Warren Commission, which investigated the assassination. On the Selective Service card was Oswald’s photograph, with the signature “Alek J. Hidell” in what the commission said was his writing.
The rifle with which the commission says President Kennedy was shot was ordered and shipped by mail in the name of “A. Hidell,” of Dallas. Oswald’s New Orleans post‐office box listed “A. J. Hidell” as entitled to receive mail. In Oswald’s Dallas effects was a vaccination certificate signed by “Dr. A. J. Hideel,” a variation the commission said was an Oswald forgery…
…Oswald’s wife. Marina, testified that he had compelled her to write the name “Hidell” as chapter president on membership cards of a fictitious Fair Play for Cuba Committee in New Orleans, ostensibly favoring the cause of Premier Fidel Castro. She called this “foolishness,’” and suggested “Hidell is merely an altered Fidel.” – New York Times, November 1, 1964
One could easily go down a rabbit hole trying to figure out why Oswald was using an alias, but here is what I want you to consider, because it’s been bothering me. If Oswald were the assassin he really could not have thought he’d get away with the crime. After all, he left the murder weapon at the scene. Now, admittedly, there wasn’t much alternative. He couldn’t have strolled unnoticed out of the building carrying a rifle. But it was a simple matter to trace the weapon back to him, and he would have known that. The fact that he was carrying papers linking him to the alias used to purchase the weapon just made this task that much easier, but his P.O. Box was all the evidence the FBI needed.
Here’s what Oswald did immediately after Kennedy was shot at 12:30 pm. He walked down to the second floor where he was confronted at gunpoint by a police man. Informed that Oswald was an employee, the police man continued up to the higher floors. Oswald got a soda from the break room and left the building at 12:33. He initially got on a bus before disembarking and hailing a cab. He went to his rooming house, got some things, and then allegedly shot and killed a Dallas police officer J.D. Tippit on the street before heading to a movie theater where he was arrested.
It’s a strange tale, and it really makes little sense.
Even aside from the fatal confrontation with the Officer Tippit, Oswald seemed to be making efforts to avoid capture. He fled the scene, switched from a bus to a cab, and the cab dropped him off several blocks from his rooming house. But he didn’t really have a plan to get out of Dodge. Was his trip to the movie theater part of a pre-planned rendezvous (was he double-crossed) or a desperate improvisation after the unexpected incident with Tippit?
It’s no wonder that a million conspiracies bloomed in the wake of this story. Most of those conspiracies fail to take into account all the facts. If Oswald was set up to take the fall for the killing of the president, he was at least a witting participant to some plot, even if he didn’t know the true purpose. His gun was left at the scene and we know he was on that floor that day. If he brought the gun at someone else’s behest, what did he think it was for?
Theories like this lack surface plausibility, but then so does the idea that he could simply walk away from the crime with his gun sitting there and somehow insist on his innocence. If he had a plan to permanently evade capture, why is there no evidence for it? Where was he going to go? Was he just going to abandon his wife and child?
His behavior when arrested seems like genuine confusion, like he really didn’t know why he was a suspect. He comment about being a patsy suggests, however, that he knew he’d been set up. But how?
The evidence that Oswald was the lone shooter is suspect at best, but it’s virtually conclusive that he was the Book Depository shooter. The problem is that no one has explained what his plan was for after the shooting. If the gun were untraceable and he’d wiped the palm print off of it, he could have just remained in the building with the other employees. But if he knew he needed to escape, he must have had a place in mind where he’d go. And if he was put up to the assassination by someone else, maybe he was supposed to meet up with them so they could help him leave Dallas.
There are dozens of books that look at these questions in much greater detail than I’ve attempted here, but I haven’t really seen anything that satisfies my curiosity about Oswald’s post-assassination behavior. I want to know what he meant when he said he was a patsy. Was it just bullshit or did he mean it?
I’ve always had the nagging suspicion that it was a little of both. But he was gunned down before he could give us any better clues.
Been reading abt 11/22 sin vs Aug89. Basically it’s unsolvable unless all USG files and information is released. I lean towards a semi-authorized fake assassination attempt Ozzy was read-in on and believed would be connected to a pro-Castro person/people. Ozzy was definitely involved in JMWAVE anti-Castro dangles. This was hijacked into an actual double murder.
CIA, DOD including industrial complex, secret service, and mafia put together the “attempt” while some of same turned it into murder. Probably less than 5-6 people knew of the entire act. Why an ” attempt “? The blob. Why kill JFK? Same answer.
Ruby killing Ozzy, while he earlier on 11/22 told an acquaintance (undercover agent) he was going to watch “the fireworks” as he described the parade through town (Fireworks were actually expected to be used along with an actual shot of two in the “fake” attempt which Ruby had knowledge of in however he was involved with minor details) was to save his own skin. I think on 11/23 Ruby got word to kill Ozzy or he’ll be fingered in JFK killing.
Coverup, autopsy, mockingbird, were all secondary to the killing. LBJ knew or was told if truth was pursued inevitable pressure would lead to “WWIII” scenario. This was used as national security excuse to ensure no one ever spoke of it – including Bethesda personnel. All DOD members – who follow orders. Ozzy was likely to be killed by DPD after one of their own is killed. Plus a few eye witnesses died mysteriously as a few years went by. Most anyone with something to say knew to shut up.
As to Ozzy actually shooting, Dallas PD Chief was quoted as saying “we could not put Ozzy in the window with a rifle” based upon what Ozzy said and others testified.
I could be completely wrong and likely am to some degree. Best recommendation on interesting reading is Inside the AARB by Douglas Horne.
Re: Ozzy to be killed by DPD, this was to happen in Dallas Theater. For whatever reason, he wasn’t. He was quoted as saying “I’m not resisting arrest” which is a trick spooks use when apprehended since its the most likely reason to be shot quickly at the scene.
As to Ozzys Patsy comment – he understood the fake attempt would have a patsy assigned to it. But then he realized he in fact was the patsy. I believe he knew he could prove he didn’t kill JFK but could be the patsy in the what he believed was the fake act.
I suspect I’m the only ex-felon (burglary) who’ll comment on this, so let me say that imagining that murderers make plans is sweetly naive. I was in jail with a guy who had killed an elderly woman and then cut off her fingers to get her rings. Did he have a plan? Nope. While in that jail (South Lake Tahoe – four stars on Yelp) this guy (who looked like young Richard Dreyfus) tried to escape by digging through a concrete block wall with a steel bar. It was snowing outside. We were all wearing the kind of slippers you get in the hospital. So, what was his plan? I asked him. No plan. Did he have anyone who’d pick him up, hide him? Nope. His plan was just get outside and. . . run through the trees in an orange onesie and flip flops.
I was also in (earlier jail, Contra Costa County – 2 stars) with a guy who at one point appealed to the guards that he couldn’t be in ‘no cell with brothers.’ Why this aversion to sharing a cell with Black people? Turned out he had a swastika tattoo on his chest that spread from nipple to nipple. What was this genius’s plan when he got that tatt?
Criminals are not, as a rule, thoughtful people who make careful plans. Or any plans at all. Conspiracy theories predicated on the notion that Oswald was some deep thinker are ridiculous.
Well, one thing about Oswald that we know for sure is that he was always scheming and planning. He may have been bad at it, but he was a dreamer and he wasn’t just sitting around. One day, he’s a pro-Castro demonstrator and the next day he’s an anti-Castro demonstrator, he defects and then repatriates, he’s writing letters to the State Dept., the Russian embassy, he’s hanging around with Russians in Dallas, maybe he’s down in Mexico trying to slip into Cuba. So, he’s perhaps not brilliant but he’s not spontaneous either, and he tries to think things through.
He wouldn’t try to escape prison in flip-flops during a snow storm.
Doesn’t that erratic behavior suggest that while he may have “planned” things, he was incredibly mercurial or unstable? He looks to have a plan to leave the shooting site, but then the shooting of the police officer led him to adjust plans…which he wasn’t very good at, as suggested by Michael.
Well, the thing is that there was a plan to leave the Book Depository, but nothing that made any sense beyond that, at least that we know about. He went to a rooming house he was renting under a lame alias, O.H. Lee, and he grabbed his gun and a jacket, and then he started walking in broad daylight.
All criminals scheme. All criminals have imaginary plans for crimes. It’s not that they don’t think they have plans, it’s that they plan on the level of Badger and Skinny Pete on Breaking Bad. Where a five point plan is required you’ll get a one point plan. Maybe a point and a half. I think @hawesg below has it right. What we’re seeing is not planning, it’s mental instability. I think Oswald’s ‘plan’ was to shoot JFK and. . . It was an underpants gnome plot: Phase 1 collect underpants, Phase 3: Profit. And phase 2? Um. . .
I knew a guy, White kid from a good family, IQ in the top half a percent. He jumped bail on a couple of burglary of a business beefs out of California. Know what his brilliant plan was? Neither do I, and I am that guy. My ‘plan’? 1) GTFO of California. 2) Dye hair and come up with an alias. I had a two point plan, cuz I’m so very clever. (It all turned out nicely for me after two decades on the run. I became wealthy and bought rich White man’s justice. Trouble all gone, but that was dumb luck not planning.)
Occam’s razor as applied to criminals favors stupidity as the simplest explanation.
I think the critical point is that he did not have to even plan the killing. The target came to him. All he had to do is remember to take his rifle to work. This crime fell into Oswald’s lap. Fitting that fact into a conspiracy theory is the challenge for anyone trying to show that anyone helped him.
Gotta agree with you on this. I was watching Werner Herzog’s “Into the Abyss” a few weeks ago and I was astounded that 1. these guys who were convicted were not dumb but 2. they had zero plans when they committed the crime.
But there’s a big difference between murdering a president and murdering some random old lady for her car. Maybe that’s why we attribute so much to Oswald. He can’t really have lacked such planning capacity, right?
It was bullshit. Period. End of story. There is zero doubt in my mind that Oswald, and Oswald alone, killed Kennedy. None. The evidence was, and is, overwhelming.
When did Lee Harvey Oswald ever plan anything? When did he ever make as good decision? My guess? He was a fucking loser who was tired of being a fucking loser. When he learned that the motorcade was going to pass by his window at work, he decided to kill Kennedy. My guess is that he expected to be arrested at the scene, tried, convicted and eventually executed. But he would be the center of attention for years before dying as an infamous man who changed the course of history instead of dying as a fucking loser.
When the cop at the book depository let him go, he had no plan because he never expected he would be able to walk away from the scene. He went and got his gun because he was toying with the idea of going out in a blaze of glory in a shootout. That is why he shot Tippet even though he gave Tippet no chance – because he was a coward at heart. He abandoned the idea of dying in a shootout and ducked into the movie theater because in the crowd he could surrender without being shot. That’s what happened. Once arrested, he reverted to the story he planned to tell if he had been arrested at the scene – which was to deny everything.
I think the main reason the conspiracy theories flourish on this case is that the idea that a fucking loser like Oswald could actually change the course of history is hard to accept, but there we have it. I think it is telling that – like the moon landing hoax theory – none of the conspiracy theories gained any real traction until decades after the fact.
Vincent Bugliosi’s book “Reclaiming History” is the book to read on the assassination. On the one hand he piles up the overwhelming evidence that shows Oswald working alone, and on the other he easily debunks every conspiracy theory ever advanced (prior to 2008) on the case.
A lot wrong with this comment, but especially the idea that conspiracies only gained currency decades later. The Garrison investigation was four years later and the HSCA investigation was in the mid-70’s. Whatever the findings or flaws of those investigations, they were responses to widespread doubts about the Warren Commission.
The Bugliosi book is required reading for anyone interested in the assassination, for sure, but it has major problems and does not resolve countless questions.
Having said that, your basic premise that Oswald acted alone and relatively spontaneously, with no thought for getting away with it, does present a possible explanation. It’s much harder to fit that into his other activities, however, including his Fair Play for Cuba stuff in New Orleans and his much-debated trip to Mexico City and the cover-up related to that.
Also, required reading is Oswald, the CIA, and Mexico City: The Lopez-Hardway Report. Also here.
We also have to contend with Antonio Veciana.
Sorry, screwed up the links and got big font instead.
Oswald, the CIA, and Mexico City: The Lopez-Hardway Report.
Also here.
The Garrison case had about as much credibility as the Durham enquiry. I can remember laughing about it at the time. I do not believe there were widespread doubts about the Warren Commission when it was released at the time. I rolled my eyes at the HSCA. I thought they were wasting money and pandering to the crazy fringe. A Benghazi. Most people – far more than, say, believe the 2020 election was fair – believed the simple and obvious story. It was much later that large number of people decided there was a convoluted plot. That is what I meant by gaining traction. Believing – knowing – that Oswald acted alone probably puts me in the minority today.
Is there any evidence that anything Oswald did in Mexico (or anywhere else) was related to the Kennedy assassination? Were great plans made? How?
How did the conspirators know that Oswald’s neighbor would get him the job at the book depository a few weeks before the murder? How did they know his supervisor would assign him to that building instead of the warehouse across town? How did they know that Kennedy would even be in Dallas? How did they know the motorcade route would go underneath Oswald’s window?
Oswald hatched his plot the day before the assassination when the motorcade route was published and Oswald realized he could easily do it. All he had to do is take his rifle to work. The alternative – that Oswald was in cahoots with a conspiracy, large or small – is impossible. If the assassination did not fall into Oswald’s lap, how on earth did the conspirators arrange it? They hired a guy to kill Kennedy and some weeks later Kennedy drives in front of his window? How lucky can you be?