JFK Assassination Forum

Via a "Lone Assassin" scenario, every single thing Lee Harvey Oswald did after President Kennedy was shot makes perfect sense. Such as the following laundry list of things telling us the President's murder was the act of one lone killer, firing from his sixth-floor perch:

1.) Lee Oswald couldn't drive (not very well at any rate; he had a few lessons from Ruth Paine, and was not impressive behind the wheel according to Mrs. Paine). Therefore, he's left to his own resources after shooting the President, and forced to rely on other modes of transportation for his getaway.

2.) Even if he COULD drive, Oswald had no vehicle to take him from Point A (Dealey Plaza) to Point B (anyplace else) after the shooting. And in a "Lone Nut" scenario, it's highly doubtful that he's going to go up to Wesley Frazier (who gave him a lift that morning) and ask: "Hey Wes, can you give me a ride home Friday? I'm gonna plug the Chief Executive around lunchtime and need a getaway driver. OK with you?"

3.) LHO is not the least bit surprised when having Marrion Baker's gun pointed at him just minutes after the assassination. Lee is quite calm and cool. This calm reaction is an odd one if he were completely innocent of the shooting and had no idea of what just happened out on Elm Street.

IMO, Lee Oswald wasn't surprised by Baker's confronting him for one simple reason -- he expected the police to be entering the building quickly; and he had no reason to say to the officer, "What the heck is going on here?! Why am I being stopped?!" -- because he KNEW what was going on, because HE himself caused it. Any innocent bystander in that same situation is going to get scared, and at the very least ask "What's going on? What did I do?"; but not Oswald; he never uttered a word.

4.) LHO departs work quickly (within 3 minutes of the shooting), not caring in the least about all the turmoil and police activity going on outside the building.

5.) Oswald takes the only transportation available to him, in his flight from the scene -- a public bus. When the bus gets clogged in traffic, he changes to a taxi cab (highly unusual for the penny-pinching Mr. Oswald; in fact, a researcher might be searching forever if he were to try and verify a single other occasion when Lee Oswald spent money on a cab ride within the United States).

6.) Lee has the taxi driver take him NOT to the front door of 1026 N. Beckley (his residence) -- but instead to a point three blocks BEYOND his home. He actually passes his house first in the cab, which, IMO, is an obvious attempt to see if any cops are waiting for him there yet, and so that the cab driver (William Whaley) won't know exactly where his passenger lives.

7.) Oswald then grabs a handgun at his home, puts on a jacket (to conceal the weapon more easily), and hustles out of the roominghouse, not saying a word to housekeeper Earlene Roberts (who noted his hurried behavior).

8.) Upon encountering Officer J.D. Tippit on 10th Street within 15 minutes of leaving his roominghouse, Oswald shoots and kills the officer almost immediately (after very little conversation).

And to the many CTers who think it was impossible for LHO to have made it to 10th & Patton in time to kill Tippit, I'm wondering how those CTers explain the fact that Oswald DID make it to that same area of 10th & Patton in time to be seen (and positively identified) by witnesses like Ted Callaway, Sam Guinyard, Barbara Davis, and Virginia Davis (among others)? I guess most conspiracists want to believe that all of those witnesses were dead wrong and they really saw only an "Oswald Imposter" leaving the murder scene just a matter of seconds after Officer Tippit was shot. (Crazy.)

9.) Oswald knows he's got really big troubles now (as if killing JFK weren't enough already). He knows multiple witnesses saw him kill Tippit, but he's only got so much ammunition with him (he cannot eliminate ALL these witnesses). So he'll save his last bullets for when it really counts -- on more cops. Which is EXACTLY what he attempted to do once he was cornered in the Texas Theater at approx. 1:50 PM on 11/22.

10.) In the theater, Oswald tries to kill police officer Nick McDonald with the same gun he used on Tippit a half-hour earlier. But, luckily, McDonald and other officers are able to wrest the gun away from their suspect before it can be successfully fired, saving Oswald from yet another possible murder charge that day.

11.) Oswald's first words when cornered are also indicative of guilt -- "It's all over now!" and/or "This is it!" are the quotes that
have been attributed to LHO within the movie theater. (Can you imagine a totally INNOCENT person uttering either of the above declarations? I can't. Both comments scream "guilty conscience".)

12.) When questioned by the police, Oswald tells one lie after another regarding crucial information -- such as lying after being asked each of the following questions: "Do you own a rifle?", "Who is A.J. Hidell?", and "Did you bring a large package to work this morning?"

If Oswald had really been the "patsy" (as he shouted out to the press in the DPD hallways), then WHY didn't he reveal some names for the police to check out? Don't tell me Oswald was involved in this massive plan to assassinate the President and yet he had not one shred of an idea as to what any of his co-conspirators looked like or what any of their names (even fake names) might have been?!

In short -- The "Patsy" theory is simply pure out-and-out hogwash!

What do all of the above points add up to (in their totality)? -- In a certain sector of the "It Was A Conspiracy" world, these points (somehow) add up to a "Patsy" who not only didn't murder the President, but is also innocent of the even-more-provably-committed-by-Oswald murder of Officer Tippit.

In that same portion of the "CT" world, the above items also add up to a man (Oswald) who is apparently totally oblivious to the fact that he is being "used" by hired, professional assassins, and who hadn't the slightest idea that he would be used in this manner right up to the time of the actual shooting itself. Otherwise, Mr. Oswald would never have even shown up for work at the Depository on Friday morning (if he had possessed even the slightest notion, that is, of the covert "plot" that would be implicating HIM, and him alone, after 12:30 PM on November 22nd, 1963).

And only AFTER the assassination itself does Oswald "get smart" (evidently) and put the pieces together, and realize he's just
been "used" as the "Patsy" in this thing.

His "Patsy" remark has launched a mile-high pile of additional conspiracy theories -- and I do think it was smart of Oswald to announce to the TV cameras "I'm just a patsy!" for the world to hear. A very smart move indeed. Because it accomplished exactly what he had probably intended for it to accomplish -- i.e., it diverted some attention away from Oswald himself.

That ONE single word out of Oswald's mouth ("Patsy!") has sent conspiracists scrambling in all directions looking for "connections" to a plot -- any plot. None of which has been verified to this day to have the slightest bit of truth in them (among the theories placed on the table to date).

Zero pieces of credible, verifiable, provable information have been unearthed to date that tie Lee Harvey Oswald to any of the various proposed conspiracy theories.

The above "points", every single one, IMO, add up to the actions of one lone killer of President Kennedy and Officer Tippit. A man, on foot, who tries desperately to flee the scenes of his two crimes and avoid capture, even attempting to kill yet another person along the way (but failing in that attempt before being handcuffed).

No conspiracy theorist can possibly deny the fact that each of the points I've stressed above could certainly (at the very least) be easily reconciled within an "Oswald Did It And Did It By Himself" point-of-view.

If conspiracy promoters do choose to deny the fact that Lee Harvey Oswald's post-12:30 actions on November the 22nd could possibly be looked upon as the actions of ONE LONE KILLER, then I feel they are not being honest about what Oswald's actions truly reveal.

Also....

Here's a question that doesn't seem to come up in conversation very often:

If Lee Oswald was being "set up" to take the fall for the President's murder (as so many conspiracy theorists believe was the case), I'm wondering how in the world the plotters conveniently arranged Oswald's unusual Thursday night trip to Irving, Texas, to visit his wife at Ruth Paine's house on 11/21/63?

Did the conspirators somehow put Oswald under some kind of a spell, and then they told him to go to Irving on Thursday and tell a lie about wanting to retrieve curtain rods?

And there surely isn't a conspiracist on the planet who will try and say that Lee Oswald really DIDN'T go to Irving with Buell Wesley Frazier on November 21st, is there?

So, we know for a fact that Oswald did make an unusual trip to Ruth Paine's home on November 21st. And we also know that that location—Ruth Paine's house—is the place where Oswald's rifle was being stored in the garage.

And unless you are a person who is buried a mile deep in conspiracy nonsense, then another fact becomes crystal clear -- Lee Harvey Oswald LIED to Buell Frazier about the "curtain rods".

Now, via the scenario of Oswald being a totally innocent "patsy" regarding everything that happened in Dallas the following day (November 22, 1963), I'm just wondering how the conspiracy theorists can provide a series of reasonable and logical (and believable) answers to these questions:

1.) How did those amazing plotters get Oswald to go to Irving on 11/21/63?

2.) And how did those very efficient plotters get Oswald to tell the lie about the curtain rods? (Because all reasonable people know that LHO's "curtain rod" tale was, indeed, a lie....mainly due to the fact that no curtain rods were ever found in the Book Depository; plus the fact that if there had been any curtain rods at all, Oswald would have said so to the police; but, instead, he denied he ever mentioned anything about curtain rods to Buell Frazier.)

3.) And then how did those conspirators who were framing their patsy get Mr. Oswald to take a bulky brown package into the Depository on November 22nd? (Which is a package, as I just mentioned, that we know for a fact did NOT contain curtain rods.)

Those three questions are very important questions to answer in a reasonable manner if you're a conspiracist who truly thinks Oswald was just an unwitting patsy in the assassination of the President.

Because unless Oswald was trying to set himself up as a patsy, it's rather difficult to find any logical or reasonable answers to those three questions I just posed that would lead to a conclusion that Lee Oswald was completely innocent in the events that took place in Dallas on November 22nd. Particularly when those three questions are evaluated and assessed in conjunction with all of the OTHER things that incriminate Oswald in JFK's murder, e.g., the Carcano rifle, the shells, the paper bag on the sixth floor, LHO's prints being all over the place where Kennedy's killer was located, etc.

In short -- Oswald's OWN ACTIONS on November 21, 1963, provide some extremely powerful circumstantial evidence to indicate that Lee Harvey Oswald was anything but an innocent patsy when it comes to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

DVP

I’m going to keep an open mind about it until I can prove beyond doubt that it is as ludicrous as it appears to be or until Andrew proves it via
rigorous demonstration that 3/4ths of LNs agree with. 😬

A reasonable unbiased person looking objectively at the evidence realizes that the evidence against Oswald is very strong. It is really overwhelming.  There is also strong evidence that three shots were fired from the SN.  Several witnesses saw the rifle in the SN and three men on the floor below heard the three shots from above them. So it is easy to conclude from the evidence that Oswald was the sole assassin.

The problem is trying to reconcile the Zfilm with three shots from a bolt action rifle. Without the Zfilm there would likely not have been a need to invent the SBT.

LNs have been persuaded that Connally was reacting to being shot in the torso by z230.  I don’t know why that is.

When I first studied the issue I read the evidence of Connally and tried to match his evidence to the zfilm.  I had no difficulty seeing that, according to Connally’s evidence, JBC was reacting to the first shot at z230 by turning around just as he said he did after hearing the shot and realizing that an assassination was unfolding.  Further reading of the evidence of witnesses who described the shot spacing made it abundantly clear that there was only one shot by z230; that the second shot which was closer to z313 than to the first.  Then the zfilm started to make sense.

So after the midpoint between the first and last shots is where the evidence says to look for an indication of the second shot hitting JBC in the torso. The motion of JBC beginning at about z271-272 and immediately falling back as Greer turns around fits the evidence perfectly. The hair on the right side of JFK’s head flying up at z273 fits what George Hickey saw at the time he heard the second shot. There are several other indications all pointing to JBC being hit in those frames.

But it is hard to see if you are not willing to even consider it.

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?

All he had to do was wipe his Carcano down with his already-off shirt, hide it (the Carcano), put his shirt back on while going down the stairs, and get to the second-floor lunch room before anyone saw him -- maybe even with a pre-purchased bottle of Coke-Cola (Larry Hancock's expression) to use as a prop.

Regarding Fancy Pants Rants assertion that he couldn't have PERPED ("BC's" expression) the JFKA because he gave his taxicab to a woman, should he have kept it for himself and appeared to be in a big rush?

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.

Blissfully, TG is so far in my rearview mirror that I actually don't remember even starting this thread.

I've really, really missed you, Fancy Pants Rancid!