This little exchange is almost a textbook lesson in Conspiracy Think.
First, let’s ask an epistemological question: What is the likelihood that Lee Harvey Oswald, after having been arrested at the Texas Theater and brought to the Dallas Police headquarters, would still have a wallet, loose ID cards or anything else on him?
Zero? Yes, that sounds about right.
Next, we note the following in Stovall’s Warren Commission testimony, just in the brief part where he is addressing his participation in the interrogation of Oswald:
“I don’t recall exactly …”
“as well as I remember …”
“as well as I remember …”
“I’m not positive on that …”
“I’m not sure …”
Hmmm. In Conspiracy Think, of course, a witness’s admission that he didn’t pay much attention or really doesn’t recall is irrelevant. He is forever locked into whatever he said.
When Rose testified to the Warren Commission, he did not say that he found Oswald’s wallet on him. He said Oswald “had already been searched” and “someone had his billfold.” He “wasn’t sure” whether it was “the patrolman who brought him in that had it or not.” He agreed the contents of Oswald’s wallet were “before him.”
The only confusing part is where Rose is asked, “And then you found two or three cards on him?” and answers, “Yes, we did.” This is immediately
before he is asked whether he searched Oswald and answers that Oswald had already been searched, that someone had his wallet, and that the contents of the wallet were before him.
Hmmm. We can either believe that (1) Rose simply misspoke or (2) Oswald still had an Oswald ID card and a Hidell ID card loose in his pocket.
Next, we note that Stovall, Rose and Adamcik completed a joint report of their activities on the day of the assassination. You can find it here, on page 27:
http://www.prayer-man.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Anatomy%20Of%20Oswalds%20Interrogations%20V3-WEB.pdfThe joint report said nothing about a wallet or finding ID cards in Oswald’s pocket. It merely stated, “We (Rose and Stovall) talked to him briefly, obtaining his ID and name, …”
Hmmm. “Obtaining.”
Lastly, Rose was the subject of an HSCA interview on April 13, 1978. You can find it at
http://www.prayer-man.com/dpd/gus-rose/#lightbox[group]/0/. Rose was quite clear as to what had occurred:
“And one of the officers handed me a wallet they had taken out of his pocket. And I asked the suspect what his name was.”
“And when he told me his name was Hidell I just flipped open his billfold and looked through his identification cards and I also found the name Lee Harvey Oswald. So I said here’s some identification for Oswald, is Hidell your real name?”
Here in the Real World, there is no mystery. Rose was given Oswald’s wallet, found the conflicting ID cards, and asked about them. As might well be expected here in the Real World, the recollections of Rose and Stovall did not mesh exactly.
In Conspiracy World, however, there is highly suspicious conflict, dispute and mystery. In Conspiracy World, there is ALWAYS highly suspicious conflict, dispute and mystery!
