Can we be honest about Oswald's "patsy" statement?

[Tom Graves]

How & why would the Dallas police have knowledge of Oswald's travel to Russia ?

It had been in the newspapers.

D'oh

[John Mytton]

How & why would the Dallas police have knowledge of Oswald's travel to Russia ?

This information of Oswald leaving and returning from Russia was available from any number of newspapers since 1959.


New York Times 1959



JohnM

[Jim Hawthorn]

If he didn't know his rifle was in the TSBD, of course, panic makes no sense.

Not at all. If he'd been part of some plan, being manipulated by the conspirators, he could have been unaware that an assassination would be attempted that day!
When the shots rang out, seemingly (from some people) coming from the TSBD, he could have thought "WTF? This wasn't the plan!" or even that the shooting had nothing whatsoever to do with the plan that he thought he was part of.
Then he left to seek his contact(s) to find out what he hell was going on (perhaps also realising that he might have been set up).

[Lance Payette]

How & why would the Dallas police have knowledge of Oswald's travel to Russia ?

When the DPD arrested Oswald, I don't believe they did have the faintest idea who he was. Even with the newspaper coverage, it's highly unlikely that in the circumstances of his arrest anyone would have recalled "Hey, this is the guy who defected to Russia!" The likely scenario is that Oswald himself made some statement equivalent to his patsy statement ("You've only arrested me because ..."). By the time of Hosty's involvement, they obviously knew who he was. You appear to be the typical CTer who (1) can't deal with the actual facts, and (2) moves the goal post to avoid dealing with them. The actual fact is, he said NOTHING about being a patsy in any conspiracy. This is a Conspiracy Meme that has no basis in reality. He said he was a patsy, he said he was a patsy, he said he was a patsy ... of the arresting DPD officers.

[Lance Payette]

Not at all. If he'd been part of some plan, being manipulated by the conspirators, he could have been unaware that an assassination would be attempted that day!
When the shots rang out, seemingly (from some people) coming from the TSBD, he could have thought "WTF? This wasn't the plan!" or even that the shooting had nothing whatsoever to do with the plan that he thought he was part of.
Then he left to seek his contact(s) to find out what he hell was going on (perhaps also realising that he might have been set up).

You're going all ad hoc on us again. Why would he have immediately connected "the assassination" to "the plan" (to do what - toss water balloons out the window? wave protest signs?)? Why would he have played dumb in the lunchroom encounter and the encounter with Mrs. Reid? Why would he have hopped a bus, changed to a taxi, had Whaley drop him off past the rooming house, yada yada yada? This is your idea of how a patsy in some non-lethal plan "seeks out his contacts"? Why did he resist arrest, refuse to cooperate in the interrogation, give no clue to reporters or his family that his only involvement was in some non-lethal plan? If one thought one were involved in some non-lethal plan and had actually done nothing, would not the rational response in the face of a Presidential assassination be to remain in place and be fully cooperative? Your excuses for his actual conduct are entirely ad hoc and entirely lacking in plausibility.

[Watson Phillips]

He said he was a patsy, he said he was a patsy, he said he was a patsy ... of the arresting DPD officers.

The only person asking him completely irrelevant questions to the shooting, questions about, travel to Russia , Medals he received in the military, etc, etc,,,,,was FBI agent Hosty.
The DPD officer did not ask him one question about Russia .
Do you think Oswald thought the previous harassment he says he & Marina suffered from the FBI agent Hosty sitting in front of him  , harassment he slams his fist on the table about in anger  had anything to do with Russia ?
Why do you think the FBI was tracking him to begin with ?
Could it be Russia , Russia, Russia ?
You don't think Oswald knew that ?
Given how the FBI had dogged him & Marina over the past weeks in Dallas , and then having the same harassing FBI agent walk in the interrogation room , why would Oswald think anybody but the FBI was responsible for his being singled out for arrest ?
The DPD were just the delivery boys in Oswald's mind once Hosty entered the room and made clear who was in charge .

[Steve M. Galbraith]

You're going all ad hoc on us again. Why would he have immediately connected "the assassination" to "the plan" (to do what - toss water balloons out the window? wave protest signs?)? Why would he have played dumb in the lunchroom encounter and the encounter with Mrs. Reid? Why would he have hopped a bus, changed to a taxi, had Whaley drop him off past the rooming house, yada yada yada? This is your idea of how a patsy in some non-lethal plan "seeks out his contacts"? Why did he resist arrest, refuse to cooperate in the interrogation, give no clue to reporters or his family that his only involvement was in some non-lethal plan? If one thought one were involved in some non-lethal plan and had actually done nothing, would not the rational response in the face of a Presidential assassination be to remain in place and be fully cooperative? Your excuses for his actual conduct are entirely ad hoc and entirely lacking in plausibility.

If he was a patsy in what he thought was a non-lethal plan that turned lethal - that is, an innocent person caught up in something larger - then here is the opportunity (among others) to expose it. And clear his name. But instead of saving himself and becoming a hero by exposing the traitors, Oswald says: "I don't know what this is all about."

I'd still like to know how an innocent Oswald comes out of the building and immediately figures out what happened. It was chaos out there; nobody knew exactly what happened. Any explanation that has Oswald as some sort of innocent person - fully or in part - has to simply make things up, grab explanations out of thin air. It's the only way they work.