Oswald’s descent

[Richard Smith]

He was angry and disturbed, and trained to use weapons,
As he said when he defected, he wanted to make the American people think.
He thought his destiny was to do something remarkable.

When he discovered that the Presidents motorcade was going to go right past his place of work, I think he thought this is it, and decided to throw a big rock in the pond.
It would have been interesting to hear his explanation for why he did it.
Maybe even he couldn’t exactly say why.

He was intelligent and self-radicalised.
He was sufficiently violent or aggressive enough to pull the trigger three times, to reload and re-aim.
He had time to fire three shots.
However I don’t think he had much of an exit plan.

It was a truly appalling act of violence.
He was expecting to get caught, otherwise he wouldn’t have left Marina all of his money and his wedding ring.

I believe he took he took the elevator down to the 2nd floor and had sufficient time to walk out of the building.
Perhaps he attracted the attention of Baker and Tippet by doing a sudden about turn when he saw them approach. Ultimately it was his own behaviour that attracted the attention of the Police.

Does everything fit? Maybe, maybe not.
I do wonder about the stories of people claiming to be secret service.
I wonder about Ruby’s role.
You wonder about all these single witnesses who each have an unrelated piece of the supposed jigsaw.
But I don’t think he was a patsy. That was his greatest line.

It was his gun. Only a limited number of people had access to the 6th floor.
And he wasn’t a team player.
I just cannot see him being chosen for any role within a planned conspiracy.

I’m not persuaded by the Jim Garrison / Mark Lane theories that he was living a lie and was really part of a right-wing plot / CIA plot.

I think he did go to Mexico, Not least because one of the witnesses on the bus was a Mr McFarland of Liverpool.
There is rather famous footballer from Liverpool called Roy McFarland 🐏 and I suspect it was one of his relatives. Next time I see him, I’ll ask him.

Rather than Plausible Deniability, the conspiracy theory has Plausible Believe-ability.
That’s why it is a compelling puzzle.
That’s why I’m interested in what others think.
But you guys aren’t exactly saying much.
Perhaps you’ve all been over this many times.

I agree with almost all of this with some minor exception like his having taken the elevator to the 2nd floor.  I don't believe this is much of a puzzle if you step back to the basic evidence and avoid losing sight of the forest for all the trees.  It becomes a very simple case in which almost no one would claim any doubt of Oswald's guilt has had the victim been anyone other than the president.  I'm 100% certain Oswald was the assassin based on the totality of evidence and circumstances.  I'm 99.9% certain that he acted alone.  Leaving a small chance because it is difficult to disprove the negative with certainty.  I've never seen a single credible piece of evidence that lends itself to Oswald working with anyone.   CTers often conflate a lot of bizarre acts by Oswald such as defecting to the USSR with proof of his being involved in some nefarious plot.