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Oswald's signature at the Atomic Energy Museum: Solved?

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Lance Payette:

--- Quote from: Michael T. Griffith on August 26, 2025, 05:08:52 PM ---This makes no sense to me at all. First off, you have no evidence that there was a blank line in the visitor register for July 26 or that the entry was made after the assassination. You don't want to admit there was a concerted effort to impersonate and frame Oswald before the assassination.

Two, why oh why oh why would anyone have wanted to create a fake Oswald entry in the Oak Ridge visitor register after the assassination? Why? How would that be a "prank"?

Three, you glaze over the fact that the entry's handwriting is close to Oswald's handwriting and that the entry duplicates how Oswald usually wrote his name when his middle name was not requested. Figure the odds that a "prankster" would "just happen" to get that right.

--- End quote ---

Well, let's turn your Conspiracy Logic back on you: If the conspirators were interested in "impersonating and framing Oswald" before the JFKA, precisely HOW would adding his signature to the obscure visitor register at the obscure Atomic Energy Museum in Tennessee on July 26, 1963 - a place he could not physically have been on that date - and then leaving the signature to be discovered by some Texas housewife, by pure happenstance, eight months later have furthered that objective?

Hmmmm?

If the conspirators were interested in "impersonating and framing Oswald," why would they have written a road, city and state where he was not actually living on July 26, 1963 Why would they have entered "USSR" beside his name - does this seem like something the actual Oswald would have done on a visit to a museum?

Hmmmm?

Even by the lenient standards of Conspiracy Logic, this makes no sense at all. The conspirators would have to have been drooling morons.

"Look, men, we need to impersonate and frame this Oswald patsy before the assassination. Bugsy, get over to the Atomic Energy Museum in Tennessee and write his name and address on the visitor register. No, I don't know where he's living now. Who the hell cares? Just make something up. Just so they know who we're impersonating and framing, add something about Russia if there's room."

"How will that impersonate and frame him, Big Louie? I don't get it."

"That's why I'm the brains of this outfit, Bugsy. Just do as you're told."

Here in the real world, we attempt to make reasonable inferences from the available evidence. I have noted (i) the fact that the Oswald entry is the last 7-26 entry; (ii) the dissimilarity in handwriting between the date on the Oswald entry and the remainder of the entry; (iii) the similarity in handwriting between the date on the Oswald entry and the 7-27 entry immediately below it; (iv) the fact that Oswald had done precisely nothing in the year since his return from the USSR to put him in the forefront of anyone's mind on 7-26; (v) the fact that on 7-26 Oswald was living in New Orleans, not Dallas, and had not been living in Dallas for more than two months; (vi) the fact that "Dallas, Rd" suggests an error by whomever made the entry and that, even the intent was to refer to Dallas Road, this is a very short residential street that has no connection whatsoever with Oswald; (vii) the connection between Oswald and both "Dallas" and "USSR" was far more prominent after the JFKA than on 7-26; and (viii) the way "USSR" was added next to the name and underlined pretty much screams "PRANK!" and not a serious effort at "impersonating and framing."

Ergo, a post-JFKA prank is a pretty reasonable inference - and far more reasonable, certainly, than your Conspiracy Logic.

I cheerfully noted that "Lee H. Oswald" is how Oswald typically signed his name and that the signature is at least not absurdly dissimilar to his. Would samples have been in the public domain by early 1964? I don't know - possibly. Or perhaps this is just pure coincidence. In my Big Louie and Bugsy scenario, they would have had to know these things - but not where he was living. Not only was he not in Dallas, they didn't even have an actual address for when he had been living in Dallas earlier in the year (hence "Dallas, Rd"). Is that plausible? If you theory is that this was not Big Louie and Bugsy but an actual Oswald impersonator - perhaps the Harvey & Lee thing? - the same objections apply: The impersonator knows how to more-or-less fake Oswald's signature, but he has no clue where he's living and no clue that it would be physically impossible for him to be at the museum on 7-26; he just flits around the country adding Oswald's signature to obscure museums in Oak Ridge, Tennessee and obscure restaurants in Hubertus, Wisconsin because this will somehow "impersonate and frame Oswald."

Ya think? This all makes sense to you?

My guess would be, this was a prank for the self-amusement of no one but the goof who did it and perhaps someone who was with him or her at the time ("Watch this, Shirley! Hee hee hee."). That's why my guess would be someone affiliated with the museum. There was surely no expectation that it would be discovered by Mrs. Awalt eight months later and became a JFKA Mystery in the fertile (i.e., well-fertilized) minds of CTers.

Be sure to get back to us if you have something to say that Actually Makes Sense.

(FWIW, your intrepid researcher has determined that the signature on the line below Oswald is that of the Turners of 3020 Canal Ave., Groves, Texas. This is an exceedingly humble home in a rather tiny town on the far east side of Texas, 4+ hours south of Dallas. There are lots of Turners in Groves. The most recent obituary at that address is Randy, but he was too young to be visiting the museum in 1963. I can't quite make out the name on the register. The Turners seem to be humble, blue-collar folks, which is all the more reason to suspect they either plotted the JFKA or were at least traversing the country impersonating Oswald.)

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