Why did Oswald go get his revolver?

[John Corbett]

It seems to me that the only rational CT theories have to be along the lines of:

1. Oswald was a gunman in a conspiracy that had absolutely nothing resembling an escape plan. His odds of simply walking out of the TSBD were infinitesimal. If he bought into a conspiracy with the plan "Get your fanny out of there somehow, go home by public transportation and get your revolver, and meet us at the rendezvous point" - well, come on, Oswald was way smarter than that.

2. He was a patsy but knew his rifle was on the sixth floor and would be identified as the murder weapon, so he panicked instead of doing something rational like running to the nearest policeman. If he was a completely oblivious patsy, his post-JFKA actions make no sense.

No, wait a minute: In #2, his actions sort of would make sense. He realizes he's a patsy and that the only good patsy is a dead patsy. He figures they are going to kill him right then and there. So he hightails it out of the TSBD, has Whaley drop him off two blocks from the rooming house (because maybe they are waiting for him) and gets his revolver for protection. Not great, I'll admit, but better than #1.

Either of those is a tough sell.

If Oswald was a patsy, there would have been a car waiting for him near the TSBD that would have driven him to his death. I doubt they would have found his body.

[John Corbett]

Once again, contracting statements that you cherry pick from the record is far from  "overwhelming"

Representative BOGGS. And the witness has also certified that those are Oswald's prints?
Mr. LATONA. No; I cannot certify to that.

Mr. EISENBERG. Do you want to explain that?

Mr. LATONA. As I am not the one that fingerprinted Oswald, I cannot tell from my own personal knowledge that those
are actually the fingerprints of Lee Harvey Oswald.

Mr. EISENBERG. But you can certify that those prints are identical with the prints on the card which bears
the name of Lee Harvey Oswald which was furnished to you?

Mr. LATONA. That is right.

Mr. EISENBERG. We will get other evidence in the record at a subsequent time to show those were the prints of Oswald.
Mr. Latona, you were saying that you had worked over that rifle by applying a gray powder to it. Did you develop any fingerprints?

Mr. LATONA. I was not successful in developing any prints at all on the weapon.
I also had one of the firearms examiners dismantle the weapon and I processed the complete weapon, all parts, everything else.
And no latent prints of value were developed.

All Latona is saying is that since he was not the one that fingerprinted Oswald, he cannot say from his own knowledge that the prints on the bag were made by Oswald. All he can say is they prints on the bag matched the print on Oswald's fingerprint card which was taken by the DPD.

Latona did not find any identifiable prints on the rifle. That is because the palmprint on the underside of the barrel had been lifted off the rifle by Lt. Day of the DPD. The print was no longer on the rifle when the FBI received it from the DPD.

This was Latona's conclusion regarding the print that had been lifted off the rifle:

"On the basis of those points, the obvious conclusion to an experienced fingerprint man is simply that the same palm made both of these prints. Only one palm could have made it, and that palm is the one which is alleged to be of Lee Harvey Oswald, his right palm."

For the sake of brevity, I have posted only Latona's conclusion. His testimony regarding the palmprint from the rifle extends from page 22-27. If someone wants to read his entire testimony, it can be read here:

https://www.jfk-assassination.net/russ/testimony/latona.htm

I wouldn't bother looking for anything in  Latona's testimony which exonerates Oswald. It doesn't exist.

[Lance Payette]

If Oswald was a patsy, there would have been a car waiting for him near the TSBD that would have driven him to his death. I doubt they would have found his body.

Free your mind, dude! There WAS a car waiting. But when Oswald saw Vinny and Guido the Knife, instead of Shirley and Babs as he'd been promised, he smelled a rat. He realized no one would whack him on public transportation, so he hopped a bus and hailed a taxi. After making sure Big Louie wasn't parked in front of Beckley, he grabbed his revolver and started down the sidewalk. Yes, it falls apart just a bit at that "started down the sidewalk" part, but other than that it's rock-solid.

[Marjan Rynkiewicz]

Cool! No one will believe this, but I had an epiphany of sorts when I was only about 5 years old. I was fascinated by death, or perhaps "What is life?" I would hold little funerals for dead birds and lizards and whatnot and wonder "So what's the difference between this and what it was an hour ago?" Standing in my parents' gravel driveway, I had an epiphany out of nowhere: "Electricity! Life is fundamentally electrical, and what survives is electrical." 71 years later, and far more sophisticated in my thinking, I still think somewhat along those lines.

When I was maybe 55, I had a dream in which the name "Lynne McTaggert" kept appearing. I had no clue who LM was - she could have been an obscure WNBA basketball player for all I knew. So I Googled her name and discovered she is the author of The Field: The Quest for the Secret Force of the Universe, which is very much along the lines of my epiphany as a toddler!

Me myself i looked more closely into the jfk saga say 4 years ago, koz i needed a holiday from silly Einsteinian faux science.
I am glad that i did senior education. Koz nowadays it givs me much satisfaction being able to cross swords with ignorant Einsteinists.
I did my fair share of trout fishing, tennis, billiards, hang gliding, gliding, golf, etc.
Instead of applying for a newly created senior position made just for me, i resigned, & i mooved to a junior position in a different field.
Jobs should not dictate your life. Other things are more important in the long run. Life iz short.
Today i hav kangaroos & wallabies & echidnas & blue tongued lizards & a dozen kinds of birds around my house.
A few years ago there were 2 sightings of a Tasmanian Tiger in the bush behind my place.
8 years ago i had 3 horses 3 dogs & my wife, now all gone.
Nowadays every day iz a gift.

[John Corbett]

Free your mind, dude! There WAS a car waiting. But when Oswald saw Vinny and Guido the Knife, instead of Shirley and Babs as he'd been promised, he smelled a rat. He realized no one would whack him on public transportation, so he hopped a bus and hailed a taxi. After making sure Big Louie wasn't parked in front of Beckley, he grabbed his revolver and started down the sidewalk. Yes, it falls apart just a bit at that "started down the sidewalk" part, but other than that it's rock-solid.

It's fun seeing what one can come up with when one frees himself from what the evidence allows.

[Mark Wellhausen]

One solid theory: Oswald get his pistol so he could take another shot at General Edwin Walker. He had committed one murder and was already facing the death penalty. He knew he would probably be caught soon and wanted to use his time left to kill Walker. He didn't take the most direct to Walker's house, but he had enough cash to use the bus system to get there.

[Jarrett Smith]

Oswald’s one fatal mistake was going to Beckley to get his revolver. Had he not been carrying it, he probably could have talked his way out of the encounter with Tippit since he was rooming in the vicinity.

He could have carried it into the TSBD in a lunch sack on the morning of the 21st and had it waiting for him on the 22nd. I’ve seen it suggested at the Ed Forum that he was concerned about being frisked as he exited the TSBD on the 22nd.

I really don’t think that works. He obviously ran the risk of being frisked when he went to Beckley and got it. Indeed, that’s probably why he shot Tippit. Even if that were his thought process, he could have hidden it nearer the TSBD.

Why did he go get it? Without that move, he could’ve been long gone. Without that move, he would’ve had a much greater chance of talking his way out of any police encounter.

The fact that he didn’t have the revolver in the TSBD suggests to me what a truly last-minute, morning-of-the-22nd decision the JFKA was. My guess would be that he was completely surprised to find himself outside the TSBD and that going after the revolver was a panicked, knee-jerk reaction.

It’s hard for me to picture any CT scenario where going to Beckley and getting his revolver would have been part of the plan.

Unless something happened after the assassination we don't know about, and he got scared. His getaway ride never showed? Another mystery.