Why did Oswald go get his revolver?

[Lance Payette]

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.

[John Corbett]

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.

Anytime we ask ourselves what Oswald was thinking at any given time, we are speculating because he was the only one who knew and he took those secrets to his grave. If you believe in a hereafter and you go to the hot place, maybe you can ask him.

Obviously his decision to kill JFK was not done on the spur of the moment. That took planning and preparation. He made the bag for concealing the gun on Thursday at the latest. His traveling to Irving on a Thursday rather than his normal weekend trip is an indication he went there to fetch his rifle. Had the case gone to trial, those facts would have been used to establish premeditation.

His actions post assassination are another matter. We have no idea what he was thinking from that point on. He probably knew he would be the subject of a manhunt and his decision to get his gun might well have been to arm himself against a cop(s). The fact he killed the first cop who encountered him and tried to kill the second is a strong indication he didn't intend to be taken alive. The cops would have been legally justified in killing him in the theater but chose instead to act with restraint. Did he have a destination in mind? Who knows but with only $13 in his pocket, he wasn't likely to get far. Maybe he would have held up a bank or a liquor store to get more cash. Who knows but it's fun to speculate about, just as it is fun to speculate about his motive for killing JFK.

[Lance Payette]

Anytime we ask ourselves what Oswald was thinking at any given time, we are speculating because he was the only one who knew and he took those secrets to his grave. If you believe in a hereafter and you go to the hot place, maybe you can ask him.

Obviously his decision to kill JFK was not done on the spur of the moment. That took planning and preparation. He made the bag for concealing the gun on Thursday at the latest. His traveling to Irving on a Thursday rather than his normal weekend trip is an indication he went there to fetch his rifle.

His actions post assassination are another matter. We have no idea what he was thinking from that point on. He probably knew he would be the subject of a manhunt and his decision to get his gun might well have been to arm himself against a cop(s). The fact he killed the first cop who encountered him and tried to kill the second is a strong indication he didn't intend to be taken alive. The cops would have been legally justified in killing him in the theater but chose instead to act with restraint.

At least in my view, any explanation - LN or CT - is more plausible if one can articulate a rationale that at least makes sense. As I've stated repeatedly, this is the problem with most CT theories - they simply do not make real-world sense; quite the opposite in fact. Many LNers, on the other hand, posit an Oswald who was almost a madman - something that I believe to be far from true. Or alternatively a madman and an inexplicable riddle (e.g., at Irving the night before). Or alternatively they take the position that "It doesn't matter why he did it or what he was thinking - HE DID IT!" Well ...

"He made the bag for concealing the gun on Thursday at the latest." This is pure speculation. There is evidence that what Oswald was carrying on the morning of the 22nd was not the bag found in the TSBD at all. This is surely one of the weakest links in the LN narrative.

"His traveling to Irving on a Thursday rather than his normal weekend trip is an indication he went there to fetch his rifle." But then you bump up against the behavior that suggests something quite different.

If I thought it was all as cut-and-dried as hardcore LNers make it, I'd have a hard time explaining to myself why I was wasting time at a forum such as this. Perhaps the LN narrative is some folks' version of a fundamentalist religion, and anyone who dares to raise questions is an infidel?

[Zeon Mason]

Oswald’s other most ridiculous mistakes include:

1. Ordering a rifle by using a fake name that he had used in letters sent home while he was living in the USSR.

2. Listing that same fake name as an alternate to receive mail  at his own Oswald named P.O. Box.

3. Carrying the same fake ID on his person after leaving the boarding house carrying a revolver linked to the MC rifle mail order receipt.

4. Continuing to carry the revolver on his person after shooting Tippit and even while sitting down in the theater right up to pulling it out as the police officer McDonald approached.

5. Leaving his MC rifle unsecured in the Paines garage while Oswald lived 5 days a week at the boarding house. So how could he be able to practice shooting targets if he didn’t do so when he was visiting at the Paines residence on the weekends?

6. Getting his wife to take pictures of him holding an MC rifle and a revolver on his person while displaying  2 pro Marxist magazines.

7. Not using gloves while making the bag, transporting the rifle in the bag, moving boxes at the SN.

8. Having no plan how to dispose of the rifle so it would never have been found after the shooting.

9. If all the other mistakes above had not been made, it was still a huge mistake for Oswald to leave the TSBD so quickly thereby being absent when all other the TSBD employees remained and were rounded up eventually for roll call.

So even if Oswald had avoided that horrible ( and totally unnecessary.) choice to shoot Tippit execution style , all the OTHER stupid choices virtually guaranteed that he woukd be a prime suspect.

The CT general view seems to be that Oswald  could not have been so stupid  as to make so many ridiculous mistakes. And that perhaps all these pieces of physical evidence were due to some other reason(s) related to any number of CT theories that have been proposed in hundreds of books over 60 years.

[John Corbett]

At least in my view, any explanation - LN or CT - is more plausible if one can articulate a rationale that at least makes sense. As I've stated repeatedly, this is the problem with most CT theories - they simply do not make real-world sense; quite the opposite in fact. Many LNers, on the other hand, posit an Oswald who was almost a madman - something that I believe to be far from true. Or alternatively a madman and an inexplicable riddle (e.g., at Irving the night before). Or alternatively they take the position that "It doesn't matter why he did it or what he was thinking - HE DID IT!" Well ...

I think it is a mistake to look for sensible reasons why a mentally unbalanced person like Oswald did the things he did. These kinds of people don't think like normal people. Why try to make sense of a senseless act? If he was willing to throw his life away by killing JFK, why would we expect him to act rationally.

"He made the bag for concealing the gun on Thursday at the latest." This is pure speculation. There is evidence that what Oswald was carrying on the morning of the 22nd was not the bag found in the TSBD at all. This is surely one of the weakest links in the LN narrative.

The evidence that the bag found by the sniper's nest was the same bag Oswald carried into the TSBD so outweighs the evidence to the contrary that I am surprised you would even consider the possibility.

"His traveling to Irving on a Thursday rather than his normal weekend trip is an indication he went there to fetch his rifle." But then you bump up against the behavior that suggests something quite different.

When you say we bump up against behavior that suggests something different, I'm guessing you are talking about his attempt to reconcile with Marina. Maybe if that had been successful, he wouldn't have carried out the assassination. We'll never know that. Two things can be true at the same time. He might have returned to Irving to try to patch things up with Marina and when that failed, he resorted to plan B, killing JFK. All speculation but speculation is all we have when we look for Oswald's motive. We don't need proof positive of what Oswald's motive is to know that he was the assassin. There is ample proof of that.

If I thought it was all as cut-and-dried as hardcore LNers make it, I'd have a hard time explaining to myself why I was wasting time at a forum such as this. Perhaps the LN narrative is some folks' version of a fundamentalist religion, and anyone who dares to raise questions is an infidel?

I have been convinced of Oswald's sole guilt for over 35 years and I still find the subject fascinating. There's no explaining why people are drawn to certain subjects. As with the question of Oswald's guilt, there is no need to answer the question of why.

[Michael Capasse]

The evidence that the bag found by the sniper's nest was the same bag Oswald carried into the TSBD so outweighs the evidence to the contrary that I am surprised you would even consider the possibility.

  Frazier refused to identify that bag as what he saw that morning.
That doesn't outweigh any bag evidence to the contrary

[John Corbett]

Oswald’s other most ridiculous mistakes include:

1. Ordering a rifle by using a fake name that he had used in letters sent home while he was living in the USSR.

2. Listing that same fake name as an alternate to receive mail  at his own Oswald named P.O. Box.

3. Carrying the same fake ID on his person after leaving the boarding house carrying a revolver linked to the MC rifle mail order receipt.

4. Continuing to carry the revolver on his person after shooting Tippit and even while sitting down in the theater right up to pulling it out as the police officer McDonald approached.

5. Leaving his MC rifle unsecured in the Paines garage while Oswald lived 5 days a week at the boarding house. So how could he be able to practice shooting targets if he didn’t do so when he was visiting at the Paines residence on the weekends?

6. Getting his wife to take pictures of him holding an MC rifle and a revolver on his person while displaying  2 pro Marxist magazines.

7. Not using gloves while making the bag, transporting the rifle in the bag, moving boxes at the SN.

8. Having no plan how to dispose of the rifle so it would never have been found after the shooting.

9. If all the other mistakes above had not been made, it was still a huge mistake for Oswald to leave the TSBD so quickly thereby being absent when all other the TSBD employees remained and were rounded up eventually for roll call.

So even if Oswald had avoided that horrible ( and totally unnecessary.) choice to shoot Tippit execution style , all the OTHER stupid choices virtually guaranteed that he woukd be a prime suspect.

The CT general view seems to be that Oswald  could not have been so stupid  as to make so many ridiculous mistakes. And that perhaps all these pieces of physical evidence were due to some other reason(s) related to any number of CT theories that have been proposed in hundreds of books over 60 years.

Your whole premise assumes Oswald was hoping to get away with the crime. I think he was perfectly willing to trade his life for JFK's. If that was his mindset, none of the above items could be classified as mistakes.