O. H. LEE

[Steve M. Galbraith]

Naah. The Warren Commission covered this item in detail back in 1964. Page 314-315 says this:
https://www.archives.gov/research/jfk/warren-commission-report/chapter-6.html#investigations

== quote ==
Oswald also used incorrect names other than Hidell, but these too appear unconnected with any form of conspiracy. Oswald's last name appears as "Lee" in three places in connection with his trip to Mexico City, discussed above. His tourist card was typed by the Mexican consulate in New Orleans, "Lee, Harvey Oswald."  However, the comma seems to have been a clerical error, since Oswald signed both the application and the card itself, "Lee H. Oswald." Moreover, Oswald seems originally to have also printed his name, evenly spaced, as "Lee H Oswald," but, noting that the form instructed him to "Print full name. No initials," printed the remainder of his middle name after the "H." The clerk who typed the card thus saw a space after "Lee," followed by "Harvey Oswald" crowded together, and probably assumed that "Lee" was the applicant's last name. (See Commission Exhibit 2481, p. 800.) The clerk who prepared Oswald's bus reservation for his return trip wrote "H. O. Lee." He stated that he did not remember the occasion, although he was sure from the handwriting and from other facts that he had dealt with Oswald. He surmised that he probably made out the reservation directly from the tourist card, since Oswald spoke no Spanish, and, seeing the comma, wrote the name "H. O. Lee."  Oswald himself signed the register at the hotel in Mexico City as "Lee, Harvey Oswald,"  but since the error is identical to that on the tourist card and since he revealed the remainder of his name, "Harvey Oswald," it is possible that Oswald inserted the comma to conform to the tourist card, or that the earlier mistake suggested a new pseudonym to Oswald which he decided to continue.

In any event, Oswald used his correct name in making reservations for the trip to Mexico City, in introducing himself to passengers on the bus, and in his dealings with the Cuban and Soviet Embassies. When registering at the Beckley Avenue house in mid-October, Oswald perpetuated the pseudonym by giving his name as "O. H. Lee," though he had given his correct name to the owner of the previous roominghouse where he had rented a room after his return from Mexico City.  Investigations of the Commission have been conducted with regard to persons using the name "Lee," and no evidence

Page 315

has been found that Oswald used this alias for the purpose of making any type of secret contacts.
== UNQUOTE ==

[Here's the tourist card prepared by Oswald: https://www.history-matters.com/archive/jfk/wc/wcvols/wh25/html/WC_Vol25_0354a.htm - Hank]

[Here's where Oswald signed the hotel register as "Lee, Harvey Oswald" (right side of page): https://www.history-matters.com/archive/jfk/wc/wcvols/wh25/html/WC_Vol25_0353b.htm - Hank]

And it's important to remember that Oswald himself also signed the roominghouse register O.H.Lee. The landlady did not misunderstand him. Page 182:

== QUOTE ==
When asked why he lived at his roominghouse under the name O. H. Lee, Oswald responded that the landlady simply made a mistake, because he told her that his name was Lee, meaning his first name, An examination of the roominghouse register revealed that Oswald actually signed the name O. H. Lee.
== UNQUOTE ==

https://www.archives.gov/research/jfk/warren-commission-report/chapter-4.html#aliases

Here's the link to the rooming house register where Oswald wrote "O.H.Lee".
https://www.history-matters.com/archive/jfk/wc/wcvols/wh20/html/WH_Vol20_0148b.htm

Also, one needs to further remember than Marina asked Mrs. Paine to call Oswald at the rooming house, and Mrs Paine asked for "Mr. Oswald", and was told there was no one registered there by that name. Marina said this led to a fight between her and her husband.
Mrs. Paine's testimony:

http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/russ/testimony/paine_r2.htm

== QUOTE ==
Mr. JENNER - You are. absolutely clear about that. All right. Now, state, you began to state the circumstances of the telephone call. Would you in your own words and your own chronology proceed with that, please?
Mrs. PAINE - Marina had said, "Let's call papa," in Russian and asked me to dial the number for her, knowing that I had a number that he had given us. I then dialed the number--
Mr. JENNER - Excuse me, did you dial the first or the second number?
Mrs. PAINE - The second number.
Mr. JENNER - And that number is?
Mrs. PAINE - WH 3-8993.
Mr. JENNER - When you dialed the number did someone answer?
Mrs. PAINE - Someone answered and I said, "Is Lee Oswald there?" And the person replied, "There is no Lee Oswald here," or something to that effect.
Mr. JENNER - Would it refresh your recollection if he said, "There is nobody by that name here"?
Mrs. PAINE - Or it may have been "nobody by that name" or "I don't know Lee Oswald." It could have been any of these.
Mr. JENNER - We want your best recollection.
Mrs. PAINE - My best recollection is that he repeated the name.
Mr. JENNER - He repeated the name?
Mrs. PAINE - But that is not a certain recollection.
Mr. JENNER - I take it then from the use of the pronoun that the person who answered was a man?
Mrs. PAINE - Was a man.
Mr. JENNER - And if you will just sit back and relax a little. I would like to have you restate, if you now will, in your own words, what occurred? You dialed the telephone, someone answered, a male voice?
Mrs. PAINE - Yes.
Mr. JENNER - What did he say and what did you say?
Mrs. PAINE - I said, "Is Lee Oswald there." He said, "There is no Lee Oswald living here." As best as I can recall. This is the substance of what he said. I said, "Is this a rooming house." He said "Yes." I said, "Is this WH 3-8993?" And he said "Yes." I thanked him and hung up.
Mr. JENNER - When you hung up then what did you next do or say?
Mrs. PAINE - I said to Marina, "They don't know of a Lee Oswald at that number."
Mr. JENNER - What did she say?
Mrs. PAINE - She didn't say anything.
Mr. JENNER - Just said nothing?
Mrs. PAINE - She looked surprised.
Mr. JENNER - Did she evidence any surprise?
Mrs. PAINE - Yes; she did, she looked surprised.
Mr. DULLES - You are quite sure you used the first name "Lee," did you, you did not say just "Mr. Oswald," or something of that kind?
Mrs. PAINE - I would not say "Mr. Oswald." It is contrary to Quaker practice, and I don't normally do it that way.
Mr. JENNER - Contrary to Quaker practice?
Mrs. PAINE - They seldom use "Mister."
Mr. JENNER - I see.
Mr. DULLES - And you wouldn't have said "Harvey Oswald," would you?
Mrs. PAINE - I knew he had a middle name but only because I filled out forms in Parkland Hospital. It was never used with him.
Mr. JENNER - You do recall definitely that you asked for Lee Oswald?
Mrs. PAINE - I cannot be that definite. But I believe I asked for him. Oh, yes; I recall definitely what I asked. I cannot be definite about the man's reply, whether he included the full name in his reply.
Mr. JENNER - But you did?
Mrs. PAINE - I asked for the full name, "Is Lee Oswald there."
== UNQUOTE ==

Marina testified to the same thing, that Oswald wasn't living at the rooming house under his real name:
http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/russ/testimony/oswald_m1.htm
== QUOTE ==
Mrs. OSWALD. No. After Lee returned from Mexico, I lived in Dallas, and Lee gave me his phone number and then when he changed his apartment--Lee lived in Dallas, and he gave me his phone number. And then when he moved, he left me another phone number.
And once when he did not come to visit during the weekend, I telephoned him and asked for him by name rather, Ruth telephoned him and it turned out there was no one there by that name. When he telephoned me again on Monday, I told him that we had telephoned him but he was unknown at that number.
Then he said that he had lived there under an assumed name. He asked me to remove the notation of the telephone number in Ruth's phone book, but I didn't want to do that. I asked him then, "Why did you give us a phone number, when we do call we cannot get you by name?"
He was very angry, and he repeated that I should remove the notation of the phone number from the phone book. And, of course, we had a quarrel. I told him that this was another of his foolishness, some more of his foolishness. I told Ruth Paine about this. It was incomprehensible to me why he was so secretive all the time.
Mr. RANKIN. Did he give you any explanation of why he was using an assumed name at that time?
Mrs. OSWALD. He said that he did not want his landlady to know his real name because she might read in the paper of the fact that he had been in Russia and that he had been questioned.
== UNQUOTE ==

It appears too many have been scared away from ever reading the Warren Report or the volumes by claims of how inaccurate it is by conspiracy theorist authors. It's not.

There is no mystery here.

Hank

This shows, to me, again how unstable and removed from reality Oswald was. He truly did believe that he was doing important work, "infiltrating" anti-Castro groups, working for his Marxist cause, and that he was being closely monitored by the "notorious FBI" (as he told the Soviet embassy/KGB officials he met in Mexico City). Hell, the FBI agent assigned to monitor him never met him. Some surveillance.

Marina said, "Lee was sick. He didn't know who he was." I'll leave the amateur psychoanalysis to others but these are not the acts of a stable person.

But to the conspiracy believers this is evidence not of an unstable person but a person being directed by the CIA or the FBI. We see a erratic person; they see dark forces. There's no way of reasoning with them on this. Whatever evidence we produce showing Oswald acted on his own is viewed by them as evidence he was being used or controlled. And so it goes.

[Hank Sienzant]

I found this posted on the EdFourm....                                                                                     David Josephs
http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/topic/25184-some-tidbits-about-mexico-city/?tab=comments#comment-385103



SuperLee either traveled around like a speeding bullet or someone was impersonating him and/or  forging his signature...WHY?

Another alternative suggests itself. When I sign a register of some sort, I often notice there are skipped lines that have been left blank.

It's not beyond the realm of possibility that these two cited occurrences were both filled in *after the assassination* by someone who fancies themselves a wit flipping back a few pages and finding a blank line and filling it in with Oswald's name. I'm NOT suggesting it was the same person who put the names down in both places. It's more likely it was two different people with time on their hands having a little fun.   

We can assume that simple explanation - that requires nothing beyond some people doing what people do - is what happened.

Or we can assume some conspiracy decided to have people, in advance of the assassination, go around and randomly sign various registers where we know Oswald could not have been, all to advance some unknown purpose of the conspiracy. Remember that Oswald's name appearing in either location does not help frame him for the assassination nor offer an alibi for one. So what's the point the conspiracy was hoping to establish?

None known, right?

Remember the Cardiff Giant?

Hank

[Hank Sienzant]

I?m sure there?s plenty she didn?t want to know about Lee and she couldn?t possibly know every person he interacted with when he wasn?t home. And Lee doesn?t strike me as the type of husband who shared everything on his mind with his wife.

She also wasn?t a useful witness on Oswald?s ownership of a rifle.

None of the people I mentioned believed there were any Shooters other than Oswald.

Johnson, RFK and others implied that Oswald was working with either the Soviets or the Cubans.

It seems notable that none of those folks with Insider knowledge of National Security looked at Oswald?s background and thought, ?there?s no way that guy could be part of a conspiracy?

Actually, the bolded is untrue.

When the police arrived at Mrs. Paine's home on the afternoon of the assassination, Ruth Paine originally said Oswald did NOT own a rifle. Marina corrected her, and said he did. She then led the police to the blanket in the garage, and pointed it out as where the rifle was stored. When a policeman lifted the blanket, it hung limp. It was empty. Because Oswald had brought it to the Depository that morning, where it was recovered.

Ruth Paine's testimony:
http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/russ/testimony/paine_r2.htm
== Quote ==
Mrs. PAINE - I said nothing. I think I just dropped my jaw. And the man in front said by way of explanation "We have Lee Oswald in custody. He is charged with shooting an officer." This is the first I had any idea that Lee might be in trouble with the police or in any way involved in the day's events. I asked them to come in. They said they wanted to search the house. I asked if they had a warrant. They said they didn't. They said they could get the sheriff out here right away with one if I insisted. And I said no, that was all right, they could be my guests.
They then did search the house. I directed them to the fact that most of the Oswald's things were in storage in my garage and showed where the garage was, and to the room where Marina and the baby had stayed where they would find the other things which belonged to the Oswalds. Marina and I went with two or three of these police officers to the garage.
Mr. JENNER - How many police officers were there?
Mrs. PAINE - There were six altogether, and they were busy in various parts of the house. The officer asked me in the garage did Lee Oswald have any weapons or guns. I said no, and translated the question to Marina, and she said yes; that she had seen a portion of it--had looked into--she indicated the blanket roll on the floor.
Mr. JENNER - Was the blanket roll on the floor at that time?
Mrs. PAINE - She indicated the blanket roll on the floor very close to where I was standing. As she told me about it I stepped onto the blanket roll.
Mr. JENNER - This might be helpful. You had shaped that up yesterday and I will just put it on the floor.
Mrs. PAINE - And she indicated to me that she had peered into this roll and saw a portion of what she took to be a gun she knew her husband to have, a rifle. And I then translated this to the officers that she knew that her husband had a gun that he had stored in here.
Mr. JENNER - Were you standing on the blanket when you advised--
Mrs. PAINE - When I translated. I then stepped off of it and the officer picked it up in the middle and it bent so.
Mr. JENNER - It hung limp just as it now hangs limp in your hand?
Mrs. PAINE - And at this moment I felt this man was in very deep trouble and may have done--
Mr. McCLOY - Were the strings still on it?
Mrs. PAINE - The strings were still on it. It looked exactly as it had at previous times I had seen it. It was at this point I say I made the connection with the assassination, thinking that possibly, knowing already that the shot had been made from the School Book Depository, and that this was a rifle that was missing, I wondered if he would not also be charged before the day was out with the assassination.
Mr. JENNER - Did you say anything?
Mrs. PAINE - No; I didn't say that.
== Unquote ==

Marina's testimony:
http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/russ/testimony/oswald_m1.htm
== Quote ==
Mr. RANKIN. Did Mrs. Paine say anything about the possibility of your husband being involved?
Mrs. OSWALD. No, but she only said that "By the way, they fired from the building in which Lee is working."
My heart dropped. I then went to the garage to see whether the rifle was there, and I saw that the blanket was still there, and I said, "Thank God." I thought, "Can there really be such a stupid man in the world that could do something like that?" But I was already rather upset at that time--I don't know why. Perhaps my intuition. I didn't know what I was doing.
Mr. RANKIN. Did you look in the blanket to see if the rifle was there?
Mrs. OSWALD. I didn't unroll the blanket. It was in its usual position, and it appeared to have something inside.
Mr. RANKIN. Did you at any time open the blanket to see if the rifle was there?
Mrs. OSWALD. No, only once.
Mr. RANKIN. You have told us about that.
Mrs. OSWALD. Yes.
Mr. RANKIN. And what about Mrs. Paine? Did she look in the blanket to see if the rifle was there?
Mrs. OSWALD. She didn't know about the rifle. Perhaps she did know. But she never told me about it. I don't know.
Mr. RANKIN. When did you learn that the rifle was not in the blanket?
Mrs. OSWALD. When the police arrived and asked whether my husband had a rifle, and I said "Yes."
Mr. RANKIN. Then what happened?
Mrs. OSWALD. They began to search the apartment. When they came to the garage and took the blanket, I thought, "Well, now, they will find it." They opened the blanket but there was no rifle there.
Then, of course, I already knew that it was Lee. Because, before that, while I thought that the rifle was at home, I did not think that Lee had done that. I thought the police had simply come because he was always under suspicion.
== Unquote ==

Guy Rose's testimony (one of the officers who took part in the initial search:
http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/russ/testimony/rose_g.htm

== Quote ==
Mr. BALL. You took part in the search, didn't you?
Mr. ROSE. Yes; I did.
Mr. BALL. What part did you take?
Mr. ROSE. Well, I was the senior detective that was there, and so I was sort of the spokesman for the group, I suppose, and Stovall wen into the bedroom of Marina Oswald--Marina Oswald's bedroom, and I don't remember where Adamcik went first, but I talked with Ruth Paine a few minutes and she told me that Marina was there and that she was Lee Oswald's wife and that she was a citizen of Russia, and so I called Captain Fritz on the phone and told him what I had found out there and asked him if there was any special instructions, and he said, "Well, ask her about her husband, ask her if her husband has a rifle." I turned and asked Marina, but she didn't seem to understand. She said she couldn't understand, so Ruth Paine spoke in Russian to her and Ruth Paine also interpreted for me, and she said that Marina said--first she said Marina said "No," and then a minute Marina said, "Yes, he does have." So, then I talked to Captain Fritz for a moment and hung up the phone and I asked Marina if she would show me where his rifle was and Ruth Paine interpreted and Marina pointed to the garage and she took me to the garage and she pointed to a blanket that was rolled up and laying on the floor near the wall of the garage and Ruth Paine said, "Says that that's where his rifle is." Well, at the time I couldn't tell whether there was one in there or not. It appeared to be--it was in sort of an outline of a rifle.
Mr. BALL. You mean the blanket had the outline of a rifle?
Mr. ROSE. Yes; it did.
== Unquote ==

The testimony of these three people about Marina Oswald's initial reaction when asked if Oswald owned a rifle is consistent in the general facts. The police showed up, inquired if Oswald owned any weapons, and Marina led the police to the Paine garage and pointed out the blanket, where, she testified she had previously seen Oswald's rifle stored.  She didn't have time to think about it much. She wasn't in "protect her husband" mode and certainly hadn't been brow-beaten or threatened with being shipped back to the USSR if she didn't testify a certain way. The police asked a question, Ruth Paine said 'No', and Marina corrected her, pointing out the blanket in the garage and saying she had seen Oswald's rifle therein.

The blanket, however, was empty. And conveniently for the conspirators, Oswald decided to take a long package to work that day, leave that long package near the sniper's nest where his print was found on it, and leave his rifle on the sixth floor from where the shots were fired by an unknown assassin. Oswald also conveniently (perhaps at the behest of the conspirators who were framing him) dropped three shells at the sniper's nest window, travelled to Parkland Hospital and dropped off a nearly whole bullet traceable to his rifle to the exclusion of all other weapons in the world, and then somehow got close enough to the limo at Parkland to toss (unseen) two large fragments from his rifle to the exclusion of all other weapons in the world into the limo where they would later been found and used as evidence against him.

Or somebody else did this all to frame Oswald.

Or Oswald fired the shots that killed the President.

Your call.  I know which way is the simplest, and makes the most sense, and has the most evidence in support. And it doesn't involve a conspiracy.

Hank

[Hank Sienzant]

The FBI determined that he used the name H.O. Lee when he purchased a bus ticket back from Mexico City.

And his visa to Mexico, the one he used to go there and visit the Cuban and Soviet consulates, shows the name Lee, Harvey Oswald - or H.O. Lee on it. Although that appears to be a typographical mistake since he signed it Lee Harvey Oswald and not Harvey Oswald Lee.

The key point in this, for me, is why in the hell is this guying using fake names? What world does he think he's living in? Marina said, "Lee was sick...he didn't know who he was."

Yes! This is the document prepared by the Mexican authorities after Oswald squeezed in the "Harvey" between Lee and Oswald, making it look like Lee was his last name. That handwritten document prepared by Oswald was cited above. Here it is again:
https://www.history-matters.com/archive/jfk/wc/wcvols/wh25/html/WC_Vol25_0354a.htm

His name above appears as "Lee, Harvey Oswald" and the Warren Commission concluded this possibly suggested a new alias to Oswald ("O. H. Lee") that he used when renting a room at the Johnson's rooming house on North Beckley.

PS: This also strengthens the case that Lee Harvey Oswald was also in Mexico City.

(CT: Yeah, right! Maybe his handler told him to register at the rooming house under that alias!)

Hank

[Jerry Freeman]

Hi Jerry,  You've posted a link to Captain Fritz hand scribbled note.....I was referring to FBI agent James Hosty's notes.  And the first entry on Hosty's notes says 1026 N. Beckley     room
PS   Hosty's scribbled notes can be found in the photo section of Hosty's book "Assignment :   OSWALD "

My blind bad there



  Hosty's note...The same time written down as Fritz---- 3:15. The cops were there at Beckley around 2:30 according to the Johnsons. So how did they know where to go some 45 minutes earlier? Again..what room did they come to search? The name "Oswald"--- did not register with the staff. Oswald's room number was never mentioned in the Report [AFAIK]
 After the interview...it was moot. Note that page 2 says '4:05'?
Walt...did I ever mention the Hostys went to our church..I went to school with his children.
Did James Hosty know that Oswald lived over on Beckley? I really don't think so.

[Walt Cakebread]

My blind bad there



  Hosty's note...The same time written down as Fritz---- 3:15. The cops were there at Beckley around 2:30 according to the Johnsons. So how did they know where to go some 45 minutes earlier? Again..what room did they come to search? The name "Oswald"--- did not register with the staff. Oswald's room number was never mentioned in the Report [AFAIK]
 After the interview...it was moot. Note that page 2 says '4:05'?
Walt...did I ever mention the Hostys went to our church..I went to school with his children.
Did James Hosty know that Oswald lived over on Beckley? I really don't think so.

Did James Hosty know that Oswald lived over on Beckley? .

Well now this is an interesting question.....  Maybe Fritz didn't know that Lee had the room at 1026 N.Beckley...One would think that if he knew that he would have entered that info as the very first entry just as Hosty did....  Could it be that Hosty knew that Lee lived at 1026 N.Beckley and therefore simply jotted that down even though the question hadn't been asked?   You'll notice that Hosty jotted  ...."OH Lee is how he lives" ...commonsense would dictate that the address and this entry should be together.....   ?

[Jerry Freeman]

Another alternative suggests itself. When I sign a register of some sort, I often notice there are skipped lines that have been left blank.

It's not beyond the realm of possibility that these two cited occurrences were both filled in *after the assassination* by someone who fancies themselves a wit flipping back a few pages and finding a blank line and filling it in with Oswald's name.

That theory has been advanced before. But it doesn't seem likely that someone could/would sign Oswald's name so perfectly [just as a lark]   



Have another glance at the register--- all but a couple of entries are from Texas...compile the chances on that.
Odd is how the 'Oswald' date is entered...the writing doesn't really match does it?!