Larry Hancock's JFKA Blog

[John Corbett]

JM--

LHO may have considered himself a patsy, in the sense he was "hung out to dry," or left "holding the bag."

That is, LHO participated in the JFKA, and was promised a getaway ride, and then perhaps a trip to Cuba or offshore. Perhaps a lump sum of money too.

Instead, there was no post-JFKA ride, and LHO's erstwhile confederates had vamoosed.

If LHO had been working for Bruce Solie (as theorized by some)...one can see why US authorities would have conducted a very ginger investigation into LHO's confederates.

Or maybe LHO just lied his ass off.

[Michael Capasse]

"They've taken me in because of the fact that I lived in the Soviet Union. I'm just a patsy".

JohnM

So how does that make him any less of a patsy in the killing of the President?

[John Mytton]

JM--

LHO may have considered himself a patsy, in the sense he was "hung out to dry," or left "holding the bag."

That is, LHO participated in the JFKA, and was promised a getaway ride, and then perhaps a trip to Cuba or offshore. Perhaps a lump sum of money too.

Instead, there was no post-JFKA ride, and LHO's erstwhile confederates had vamoosed.

If LHO had been working for Bruce Solie (as theorized by some)...one can see why US authorities would have conducted a very ginger investigation into LHO's confederates.

That sounds like a real bad idea, after Oswald was screwed by his fellow conspirators, they then allow the pissed off Oswald to be captured and potentially rat them all out, makes zero sense!
If Oswald had associates, they wouldn't want Oswald to leave the building alive and perhaps they would kill Oswald with his own rifle and make it look like a suicide, and plant an appropriate suicide note.

JohnM

[Benjamin Cole]

JM--

Maybe so.

But if the pair of G2'ers had met LHO and used false identities, or possibly even disguises, then even if LHO eventually spilled the beans, he could give nothing except a physical description of a pair of bearded Cubans.

In addition, possibly LHO met only one Cuban, the other being the GK smoke-and-bang show perp.

Two Cubans, post-JFKA, back in Cuba by 11/23. And freshly shaved.

Besides that, not all plans are perfect, and the JFKA CT may have been hatched on the run. They were taking some chances. Or maybe they planned to murder LHO post-JFKA, but plans went awry.

Beyond all that, some political zealots regard accomplishing the act as more important than getting away with it.

Only nine years before the JFKA---

On March 1, 1954, four Puerto Rican nationalists, seeking to promote Puerto Rican independence from the United States, attacked the United States Capitol. They fired 30 rounds from semi-automatic pistols onto the legislative floor from the Ladies' Gallery (a balcony for visitors) of the House of Representatives chamber within the United States Capitol.

The four PR nationalists did not have escape in mind.

...

Two lower-level G2'ers, conspiring with LHO, may have regarded the trying a revenge assassination attempt (payback for JFK's attempts to have Castro assassinated) as more important than getting away with it.

Not everyone is rational by standards you have, or I have.

Someone participating in a presidential assassination may indeed be a bent fellow.

[John Corbett]

I have one question for everyone who is fretting about whether LHO was acting on behalf of the Cubans, Soviets, CIA, Mafia, etc. How did any of these entities know in advance that Oswald would end up working in a building overlooking a motorcade route that had not even been planned when he was hired. If you can't answer that simple question, I have no idea why any of you would want to go down any of those rabbit holes.

[Benjamin Cole]

JC--

I think the US right-wing largely went down the LN theory-rabbit-hole with the release of the WC report in 1964. In the right-wing of that era, there was a near-reflexive reverence for authority, and the WC represented authority.

The WC in 1964 struck exactly the tone the right-wing wanted to hear: a soured Marxist leftie loser lone-nut perped the horrid JFKA, but not on instructions from Havana of Moscow. No nuke war needed.

The modern-day right-wing is a different animal, and sometimes reflexively rejects authority, and so you get a different reaction to official JFKA theorizing, with just as much justification.

The agenda write the narrative.

Keep in mind you have former CIA Director James Woolsey's book, Operation Dragon: Inside the Kremlin's Secret War on America, presenting the view that LHO was a Russian operative. Woolsey was a CIA director, and a right-winger. Woolsey is a deeply knowledgable fellow when it comes to spy work. You and I are admitted hobbyists next to Woolsey.

So I defer to Woolsey or you? 

As for LHO being in the TSBD, that was luck or circumstance, as was the decision to have the JFK limo make a hairpin turn in front of the TSBD. You are making the obviously baseless assumption that a JFKA CT required the knowing placement of LHO in the TSBD in preparation for the motorcade. Rather, LHO was there by chance, and G2 or KGB took advantage of that situation.

Keep in mind, at anytime in the 1960s, the KGB and G2 had hundreds of assets, plants, double-agents, agents, and informants in the US. It is legend how thoroughly Castro had infiltrated the Cuban exile community.

LHO appears to have been one of those G2-KGB assets, and he had a job in the TSBD. So he was utilized.

[Lance Payette]

I have one question for everyone who is fretting about whether LHO was acting on behalf of the Cubans, Soviets, CIA, Mafia, etc. How did any of these entities know in advance that Oswald would end up working in a building overlooking a motorcade route that had not even been planned when he was hired. If you can't answer that simple question, I have no idea why any of you would want to go down any of those rabbit holes.

I agree that the timing of events makes it almost impossible to envision Dealey Plaza as a conspiracy. It’s also near-impossible for me to envision any plausible conspiracy that has Oswald and his rifle on the sixth floor of the TSBD as the lone gunman or even one of the participants. It just makes no sense. Oswald as a patsy “works” only if his Russian background, Marxist sympathies and open support for Castro would have pointed away from the conspirators. This works nicely for the Mafia, which had the motive and means in spades – but here, as you say, we bump up against the timing problem for starters. And why would any conspiracy that had Oswald as either a participant or patsy run all the risks associated with him catching a ride to Irving with Frazier the evening before and sneaking his rifle into the TSBD? It just makes no sense. With Oswald, the Soviets or Cubans would have been choosing a participant or patsy who would have pretty much pointed the finger of suspicion directly at them – and what sense would that have made? The Mafia, Soviets and Cubans would all surely have been capable of pulling off the assassination of JFKA in circumstances less preposterously risky than Dealey Plaza and with no need for a cluck like Oswald in any capacity. I’ve voiced mild support for LN+, by which I mean possible “What if?”-type conversations between Oswald and anti-Castro types (as their patsy) or pro-Castro types (as their tool if he was dumb enough to try it) that might technically have qualified as a conspiracy, but it’s hard to picture these as official conversations of any sort or as involving planning of the actual events in Dealey Plaza (due to the timing problem).

The problem for CTers - always always always - is that they are stuck with Oswald and Dealey Plaza. Those are two HUGE hurdles to overcome when trying to formulate a plausible conspiracy theory.

Try as I might, I can never envision any conspiracy that takes us plausibly from A to Z. I can envision lots of them that sound superficially plausible until you try to puzzle out how they actually would have worked. I can envision ones that work at steps A-D and U-Z, but not at E-T. I'm reminded of the old "And then a miracle occurs" cartoon, which is how conspiracy theorizing often seems to work.

Keep in mind, at anytime in the 1960s, the KGB and G2 had hundreds of assets, plants, double-agents, agents, and informants in the US. It is legend how thoroughly Castro had infiltrated the Cuban exile community.

So why would they need Oswald, who would point the finger of suspicion right at them?

LHO appears to have been one of those G2-KGB assets, and he had a job in the TSBD. So he was utilized.

Easy to say, but how would this have worked? How would they have "utilized" Oswald in the tight window between the announcement of the motorcade route and the JFKA? What evidence is there that anything unusual happened in Oswald's life during this window? If this were true, why would they have accepted all the risks that Oswald's trip to Irving and return trip to the TSBD would have entailed? Why would they have trusted to the sixth floor being empty and Oswald being able to accomplish his mission, and why would they have not provided a foolproof means of escape? When we start trying to fill in the blanks, it seems to me that it falls apart very quickly. Woolsey notwithstanding, what evidence is there in Oswald's pathetic, poverty-stricken life after his return to the U.S. that he was anyone's asset?