This at least gives me pause about the LN narrative

[Steve M. Galbraith]

Marina said that when Oswald had made other life-altering decisions - the return to the US from the USSR, the attempt on Walker, the attempted defection to Cuba in Mexico City - that he had carefully planned everything out. And that during that planning she saw him being very stressed, he would yell and strike her, and that he had these strange anxiety attacks in his sleep. It's odd for me that throughout her marriage she said Oswald would have paralyzing anxiety attacks in his sleep where he would he violently shake and sweat.



But before the assassination she saw none of these signs. No stressful behavior, no quick to anger, no nighttime panic attacks. That indicates to me that the decision was sudden, last second, not planned out. Although she really wasn't with him much those last 10-14 days or so to see any stressful behavior.

[John Corbett]

LP--

OK, operating within the confines of your original post....

LHO was not entirely sane, and his behavior erratic, spotty.

LHO may have thought he would survive the JFKA, and would write his memoirs either on the lam, or in prison.

LHO may have in fact written memoirs or manifesto, and handed same over to a G2'er, for release at the right time. The G2 never released it.

Oswald was legally sane even though he had toys in his attic.

I doubt Oswald thought he would survive. It would not surprise me if he was trying to commit suicide by cop when he drew his weapon in the theater. Oswald was nuts but that doesn't mean he was stupid. I think he expected to be convicted and sentenced to death. He couldn't have anticipate the US would have a de facto moratorium on executions a few years later or the SCOTUS would strike down existing death penalty statures in 1972.

Your third point is pure fantasy.

[Tom Graves]

Marina said that when Oswald had made other life-altering decisions - the return to the US from the USSR, the attempt on Walker, the attempted defection to Cuba in Mexico City - that he had carefully planned everything out. And that during that planning she saw him being very stressed, he would yell and strike her, and that he had these strange anxiety attacks in his sleep. It's odd for me that throughout her marriage she said Oswald would have paralyzing anxiety attacks in his sleep where he would he violently shake and sweat.



But before the assassination she saw none of these signs. No stressful behavior, no quick to anger, no nighttime panic attacks. That indicates to me that the decision was sudden, last second, not planned out. Although she really wasn't with him much those last 10-14 days or so to see any stressful behavior.

Marina?

Marina Oswald?

You mean the former KGB "swallow" in Leningrad whom true defector KGB Major Pyotr Deriabin wrote a day or two after the assassination had to be at the very least a low-level KGB informant to be allowed to marry her Handsome Prince Charming and leave The Worker's Paradise with him?

That Marina?

[John Mytton]

As stated, I find Oswald the man the most interesting aspect of the JFKA. I’ve read everything there is about him, and my sister-in-law and her husband worked in the Minsk factory at the same time. I think I “know” him about as well as he can be known.

I’m a provisional Lone Nutter but troubled by several aspects of the narrative, including the one I’ll describe here. The standard LN response is, “The evidence says he did it. It doesn’t matter who he was, why he did it, or what was going on inside his head.” Well ...

When he took a shot at Walker (we’ll assume he did), he left behind a detailed note, and Marina said he arrived home in a state of considerable agitation. Compare the JFKA.

1. I’m puzzled by his behavior at the Paine home the evening before the JFKA. He begs Marina to join him in Dallas, makes promises, and gives absolutely no clue he is contemplating the JFKA. He leaves no note.

2. He has long been convinced he is destined for a place in history and has written fairly extensively about his views, but he leaves no explanation or manifesto concerning the JFKA. There is nothing like this in his room on Beckley.

3. He shoots JFK, stashes the rifle, scurries down the stairs, hears Baker and Truly coming up – but then is utterly calm and collected when Baker confronts him and sticks a gun in his stomach.

4. He exits the TSBD, boards a bus, leaves the bus and hails a taxi – but then offers the taxi to an older woman who approaches.

5. He is grilled by Fritz, who is a legend for wheedling confessions out of suspects – but he is so cocky and unflappable that Fritz not only fails to break him but emerges speculating that he has been trained to avoid interrogation.

6. In custody, he tells his brother Robert, “Don’t believe the so-called evidence.”

7. In custody for more than 36 hours, and despite the seemingly compelling evidence against him, he never cracks or gives anything other than flat denials of his involvement in the JFKA and Tippit shooting.

I at least find this all bizarre enough to contemplate that “something more” than the LN narrative may have been going on. It seems to me inadequate to say, "The evidence says he did it and nothing else matters." Yes, Oswald was a massive liar even when lying served no purpose, but all of the above is extremely odd and gives me pause about Oswald as a Lone Nut who just snapped. The problem is, I have no real theory as to what the “something more” might be that would explain his behavior. "He was a wholly innocent patsy" would do it, of course, but that just doesn't fit the evidence unless one postulates a conspiracy so elaborate as to be comical.

Fascinating.

1. Where Marina was when Oswald shot at Walker was very different, the Walker note was a list of instructions on what to do after his arrest because she was alone but this time Marina had Ruth. I've previously thought that if Oswald did in fact leave a note, Marina wouldn't want it to be found, obviously, so like one of the backyard photos, I think she would have destroyed the note as well?

2. Oswald didn't have much time to plan, much less leave a detailed explanation, I figure that by his choice of defence, Abt, Oswald knew where this was going to go. A big court case where he was the sole focus and where he could finally be given a platform to espouse his political beliefs was finally going to happen, like his New Orleans attempt, well, till Ruby rained on his parade.

3. I never really understood this? All Oswald had to do was just stand there and say nothing, not that difficult. I may suggest that this atypical behaviour is a huge red flag, Oswald who was all about rights and if innocent would have been screaming that how dare a Police Officer shove a gun in his guts and what is this all about!

4. Whaley's 2nd day affidavit said that he told the lady that another cab was close behind and that Oswald may have repeated this.



5. Under normal circumstances and if Fritz had Oswald all alone he may have had a better opportunity to extract something but at the time it was a circus and there was a stack of people interfering in the interrogation room. When Oswald came back from Russia he set out in his mind how he would handle the reporters questions but no one was there to greet him but regardless, in Oswald's mind he played out many situations and how he was going to respond.

6. But we know the evidence was anything but made up or planted. Oswald owned the murder weapon, the backyard photos were authentic, Oswald owned the revolver that killed Tippit and Oswald tried to kill more Police when arrested. Under similar circumstances I can imagine anyone trying to put their brothers mind at ease.   

7. This isn't that unusual, there are many murderers that go to their graves without spilling the beans, Here in Australia we had a serial killer Ivan Milat who had a stack of evidence against him and even on his deathbed never confessed, and Martin Bryant who was one of the worst mass murderers of all time, plead innocence for 7 months and finally just before his trial and a helping hand from his mother, plead guilty.

JohnM

[Lance Payette]

To be clear, I'm not talking about Oswald's motive. I can articulate a plausible motive and have done so. As John Corbett suggests, it is a mixed motive. A life and marriage that was going nowhere, an exalted view of himself, his genuine pro-Castro sympathies, and Fate seemingly handing him a golden opportunity.

I'm talking about his behavior, which is quite astonishing for a guy who has just shot the POTUS and presumably knows there is a mountain of evidence against him. His preternatural composure in the encounter with Baker and Truly ... offering Whaley's cab to a stranger … yada yada as set forth in my original post - this is someone who has just shot the President? And again, contrast his behavior here with the Walker shooting - a detailed note for Marina and still agitated when he gets home.

Steve makes an interesting point, but wait: By the time Oswald bums the ride from Frazier and visits the Paine home, he has clearly formulated the JFKA - presumably the night before. Yet he shows none of the stress Marina had previously witnessed - nada, zilch. Ditto for the ride back to the TSBD with Frazier and his morning in the TSBD. (His weird question to Jarman as though he doesn't know JFK's motorcade will be passing in front of the TSBD - what was that all about?) Ditto for his post-arrest behavior. This is all part-and-parcel of the seemingly preternatural composure I'm talking about. How does he pull this off?

I really don’t have a good answer. He seems to know something that is outside the scope of the LN narrative, but I can’t put my finger on it. It’s as though he’s somehow been “programmed” to stay calm and admit absolutely nothing - whatever "programmed" may mean in this context. This is a different Oswald than we would have expected under the circumstances – indeed, different from what almost anyone would be like under the circumstances. Is he in some disociative state, perhaps?

Is there a CTer who has a better answer than “He was completely innocent and really had no idea what was going on?”

[Benjamin Cole]

Is there a CT'er who has a better answer than “He was completely innocent and really had no idea what was going on?”--Lp

Yes, LHO was part of a quickly formed, low-budget conspiracy, around the (bad) luck that the JFK motorcade (revealed publicly on Nov. 19) would make a hairpin turn right in front the TSBD, with its largely empty upper floors, and clear view to a kill.

A perfect set-up. The best place in Dallas to perp the JFKA, and LHO already "had an in."

LHO had a proclivity for shooting at major public figures---see the Walker shooting. He needed convincing?

In fact, LHO had worked out a reasonable escape plan from the immediate TSBD premises, and did escape from there. So good enough on that score.

As for longer-term LHO plans, everything is speculation. In my layman's view, LHO was mentally ill.

Perhaps G-2 had promised LHO passage to Cuba, but actually planned to wax LHO.

LHO was "left holding the bag." Maybe. LHO planned to write his manifesto in Cuba?

A post JFKA-ride was promised to LHO, but fell through---possibly.

The 1,800-mile border to Mexico was wide-open back then, and boats left for Cuba from Mexico daily.

Who knows?

[Lance Payette]

To argue against myself - "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds," as Ralph Waldo Emerson said - the two obvious outliers are the murder of Tippit and the supposed incident in the Texas Theater. This was not the preternaturally calm and collected Oswald. I have considerable doubt that the TT incident took place as the arresting officers described - it just doesn't make sense - but the murder of Tippit is a huge outlier. This seems more like the real Oswald. Perhaps he was backed into a corner, figuratively speaking, and felt he had no choice. All very weird.