Oswald's Motive

[Steve M. Galbraith]

Here is the late Vincent Salandria, one of the "deans" of the JFK conspiracy movement/cause. He was a Philadelphia attorney, a member of the ACLU; this was a serious person. Here he is on the Paines:

"If you wanted to have a conspiracy, you’ve got to complete the circle. In this case you’ve got to get the Oswalds into the Dallas area. You’ve got to get Oswald into the Texas Book Depository in time. People with a garage where the so-called murder weapon can be stored. Suppose it's a conspiracy that says we’ll just wait, somebody will get Oswald and his family into Dallas, we’ll just wait--maybe he’ll happen to find a job in the Texas Book Depository. Once you see a conspiracy, its over for the Paines. You can’t close the circle without the Paines! There’s no way they can be innocent! No way!

This was from the documentary that Tracy Parnell reviewed.

Here is a major piece on Salandria: https://www.phillymag.com/news/2014/02/27/vince-salandria-jfk-conspiracy-theorist/

And a obit: https://jfkfacts.org/rip-vincent-salandria-leading-warren-commission-critic/

From the above: "The writings of Vincent J Salandria on the assassination of President John F. Kennedy are historic, foundational, and essential to any serious scholar interested in understanding the real dynamics of the Kennedy murder and its place as a terrible and pivotal moment of the American Century. In his 1967 book Six Seconds in Dallas, Josiah Thompson notes that what he terms the “second generation” of assassination researchers—including Mark Lane, Edward J. Epstein, Harold Weisberg, Raymond Marcus, Léo Sauvage, Richard Popkin—owe “a deep debt to Salandria’s pioneering and largely unsung research.” Thompson is accurate, since Salandria is in the front rank of Warren Commission critics, and the prescience of his analysis is an instruction to all interested people."

[John Iacoletti]

Not to sidetrack this (but I will anyway <g>), if I'm framing Oswald and I have all of this power then I'm getting 10 people to say that he said he hated JFK.

Yet another example of “Conspirators that I just dreamed up in my head would never do something like that, therefore Oswald killed Kennedy”.

Supposedly all of these eyewitnesses were coached or ordered to frame Oswald. People like Marina, Robert Oswald, the DeMohrenschildts, Ruth Paine, Michael Paine.....

According to whom?

[John Iacoletti]

Strawmen argument? We had numerous posts here recently about, among other things, a documentary claiming that the Paines planted Oswald, i.e., got him the job, in the TSBD in order to frame him for the assassination. See Garrison's work. Salandria's work. DiEugenio's work. They all make the same claim.

  The Max Good documentary doesn’t claim anything of the kind. Besides, none of those people participate in this forum. Perhaps you’re pontificating in the wrong place.

If you want to dismiss all of these people as crackpots and oddballs, I'll agree. But if you want to say these claims are on the fringe, I won't.

Let’s say for the sake of argument that they are all crackpots and oddballs (whatever that means — I think it just means “disagrees with Galbraith”). Does that somehow prove that Oswald did it?

[Jon Banks]

Strawmen argument? We had numerous posts here recently about, among other things, a documentary claiming that the Paines planted Oswald, i.e., got him the job, in the TSBD in order to frame him for the assassination. See Garrison's work. Salandria's work. DiEugenio's work. They all make the same claim.

I think you need to visit the conspiracy sites a bit more. They are filled with claims that the Paines setup Oswald.

Try this: https://wtracyparnell.blogspot.com/search/label/The%20Assassination%20and%20Mrs.%20Paine

And this:  https://educationforum.ipbhost.com/topic/28210-ruth-paine-on-the-assassination-mrs-paine-film-well-done-but-powerfully-awful/#comment-473654

If you want to dismiss all of these people as crackpots and oddballs, I'll agree. But if you want to say these claims are on the fringe, I won't.

I watched the recent documentary on Ruth Paine by Max Good and I thought the film was fair and left it up to the viewers draw their own conclusions.

Some of the questions she gave the interviewer lead to more questions about her and based on her reactions I felt that she was aware or had an understanding of why some are suspicious of her.

She confirmed her family’s relationship with Allen Dulles but was evasive about her father and sister’s careers in US intelligence. Her father worked for USAID and her sister, who she visited in the summer of 63 before traveling to New Orleans, worked for the CIA.

The CIA isn’t supposed to operate domestically so I understand why they continue to be cagey about the extent of their spying on US citizens on US soil. But it seems plausible that DeMorenschildt and the Paines might have been informants for them.

I think Oswald, who had returned from Russia and had a Russian wife, was a legit target for US intelligence surveillance so I don’t think the fact that some people close to him may have been informants justifies leaping to the conclusion that they helped to frame him. But if the informant thing is confirmed to be true then it becomes harder to rule out potential manipulation of Oswald.

Most researchers that I follow avoid suggesting that the Paines framed Oswald and I think that’s the correct position unless some evidence surfaces to prove that they had a hand in manipulating and framing him.

[Bill Chapman]

Oswald may or may not have liked JFK. We’ll never know. What we do have a fairly good idea about is Oswald’s life and belief system. I don’t believe Oswald was shooting at JFK personally. I believe he was shooting at the POTUS and all that position represented to the world.

I believe he was shooting at the POTUS and all that position represented to the world.
_ Agreed. Myself, I have attempted to represent that position graphically. (See Dead Oswald Tour #337/338)
   (The tuxedo represents a kind of 'poke-in-the-eye' from Oswald).

[Mike Orr]

Oswald had no motive . He was set up as a Patsy . Ruby had a motive and he went through with it . Malcolm Wallace wanted more money and it cost him his life . Loy Factor did not shoot at anyone that day and neither did LHO . Wake up people . We were all taken for a ride and that ride continues to this day .

[Charles Collins]

Here’s a paragraph from Robert Oswald’s book “Lee” that I find significant:


I still remember how completely relaxed he seemed, as though all the frenzied activity there in the Dallas jail and all over the United States had nothing whatever to do with him. His voice was calm, and he talked matter-of-factly, without any sign of tension or strain, as though we were discussing a moderately interesting incident at his office or my office.


Marina also took note of his calm demeanor, she even stated something to the effect that this was one item that indicated to her that LHO was guilty. She thought that if he was innocent, that he would be raising holy hell.

And several of the law enforcement officers, investigators, etc have also expressed the opinion that LHO seemed too calm for the circumstances.


People have tried to draw various conclusions from his calm demeanor. Of course these can only be opinions. Personally, I think that it is significant that the calm demeanor stood out as an unexpected aspect, and made a lasting impression on both Robert and Marina, two people who knew LHO well. I think that LHO knew that it was over (he reportedly said so in the Texas Theater). However, I believe that he also knew that he had made his mark on the world, and that the end result would therefore mean that he would “go down in history.”  I believe that, to LHO’s troubled mind, the end result somehow justified the means. That’s how freaking sick I believe he was.