John; thank you for your thorough response. I do agree that the scenarios you present are possibilities. However I do not fully share all your views. I will debate some of the opposing views here.
Also thanks to "McGoo" and to Ian Griggs for contributing their views.
1. Who was LHO's CIA and mob contact? DeMohrenschildt? Ruby? Phillips?
This statement concerning David A. Phillips is what primarily causes me to consider Phillips' involvement at least to the extent stated here:
David Atlee Phillips died of cancer on 7th July, 1988. He left behind an unpublished manuscript. The novel is about a CIA officer who lived in Mexico City. In the novel the character states: "I was one of those officers who handled Lee Harvey Oswald... We gave him the mission of killing Fidel Castro in Cuba... I don't know why he killed Kennedy. But I do know he used precisely the plan we had devised against Castro. Thus the CIA did not anticipate the president's assassination, but it was responsible for it. I share that guilt."
As to Marina Oswald Porter. I do think that she has been honest in her depositions she has given to both the Warren commission and the HSCA, at least when it comes to the photos, the Walker incident and LHO's possessing a rifle. In any case at least since the 90's she has claimed that her former husband is innocent and she would love to do whatever she can to prove him innocent. As far as I know she is still alive and well, living in Flower Mound TX, a "suburb" of Irving or Dallas TX. I recall that she has two phone numbers under her name Marina Porter in Flower Mound TX. I could be mistaken, but I believe it's her in FM. Maybe she's ready for a lie detector test or hypnosis or something so we could establish whether she is speaking the truth. Is anyone down there willing to approach her?
Although she could certainly have lied both to the WC as well as the HSCA, I doubt it. At the HSCA time she was already remarried to another American, spoke the language, meaning she had a better support system and that she was less scared. Also I think she was ready for the truth to come out by the time of the HSCA hearing.
I'm betting on DeMohrenschildt, Ruby and the Cubans as having been LHO's contacts.
2. Who put LHO up to shooting at General E. Walker? DeMohrenschildt?
Excerpt from G. DeMohrenschildt's deposition for the Warner Commission:
Mr. De MOHRENSCHILDT: And I think Oswald and I were standing near the window looking outside and I was asking him "How is your job" or "Are you making any money? Are you happy," some question of that type. All of a sudden Jeanne who was with Marina in the other room told me "Look, George, they have a gun here." And Marina opened the closet and showed it to Jeanne, a gun that belonged obviously to Oswald.
Mr. JENNER. This was a weapon? Did you go in and look?
Mr. De MOHRENSCHILDT. No; I didn't look at the gun. I was still standing. The closet was open. Jeanne was looking at it, at the gun, and I think she asked Marina "what is that" you see. That was the sight on the gun. "What is that? That looks like a telescopic sight." And Marina said "That crazy idiot is target shooting all the time." So frankly I thought it was ridiculous to shoot target shooting in Dallas, you see, right in town. I asked him "Why do you do that?"
Mr. JENNER. What did he say?
Mr. De MOHRENSCHILDT. He said "I go out and do target shooting. I like target shooting." So out of the pure, really jokingly I told him "Are you then the guy who took a pot shot at General Walker?" And he smiled to that, because just a few days before there was an attempt at General Walker's life, and it was very highly publicized in the papers, and I knew that Oswald disliked General Walker, you see. So I took a chance and I asked him this question, you see, and I can clearly see his face, you know.
He sort of shriveled, you see, when I asked this question.
Mr. JENNER. He became tense?
Mr. De MOHRENSCHILDT. Became tense, you see, and didn't answer anything, smiled, you know, made a sarcastic--not sarcastic, made a peculiar face.
Mr. JENNER. The expression on his face?
Mr. De MOHRENSCHILDT. That is right, changed the expression on his face.
Mr. JENNER. You saw that your remark to him----
Mr. De MOHRENSCHILDT. Yes.
Mr. JENNER. Had an effect on him.
Mr. De MOHRENSCHILDT. Had an effect on him. But naturally he did not say yes or no, but that was it. That is the whole incident. I remember after we were leaving, Marina went in the garden and picked up a large bouquet of roses for us. They have nice roses downstairs and gave us the roses to thank for the gift of the rabbit.
According to this there were 4 people present when this discussion/incident occurred. I doubt that 3 of them (Mr. and Mrs. DeM and Marina) where in on a conspiracy to incriminate LHO, although possible.
Actually I think George DeM. could have been one of the men driving one of the cars that night.
I'm saying is Lee and probably two other people were in on the Walker shooting (due to witness testimony referring to at least two people leaving in two separate cars). I think Lee was the shooter, though.
As we know he missed, possibly on purpose.
3. Why did LHO agree to bring in the Mannlicher Carcano to work?
I believe Wes Frazier is telling the truth, so is his sister. Of course they can't claim that they (or we) know for sure what was inside the paper bag, but since no one from the Irving residence remembers LHO talking about any curtain rods that he was supposed to take to Dallas, I think it probably did contain the weapon. Let's remember that Wes Frazier described the package as being:
From WC testimony:
Mr. BALL - What did the package look like?
Mr. FRAZIER - Well, I will be frank with you, I would just, it is right as you get out of the grocery store, just more or less out of a package, you have seen some of these brown paper sacks you can obtain from any, most of the stores, some varieties, but it was a package just roughly about two feet long.
Mr. BALL - It was, what part of the back seat was it in?
Mr. FRAZIER - It was in his side over on his side in the far back.
Mr. BALL - How much of that back seat, how much space did it take up?
Mr. FRAZIER - I would say roughly around 2 feet of the seat.
Mr. BALL - From the side of the seat over to the center, is that the way you would measure it?
Mr. FRAZIER - If, if you were going to measure it that way from the end of the seat over toward the center, right. But I say like I said I just roughly estimate and that would be around two feet, give and take a few inches.
In case Frazier was told to make up this story, he probably would have discussed the size of the bag in detail with whoever would have put him up to it.
Additionally, both Marina and Mrs. Paine were asked about the curtain rods.
This is from the Shaw trial, questioning by Mr. Diamond. Marina gave the same answers to the WC.
Q: Now, had you purchased any curtain rods for him?
A: No, sir.
Q: Had he asked you to purchase any curtain rods for him?
A: No, sir.
Q: Did he mention that he had come home to get any curtain rods?
A: No.
Q: Did you ever see any curtain rods in his possession on that night?
A: No.
Q: Did he ever mention to you that he was decorating his apartment in Dallas?
A: No, sir.
Q: To your knowledge, did Mrs. Paine give him any curtain rods on that night?
A: No, sir.
This is Jenner questioning Mrs. Ruth H. Paine for the WC:
Mr. JENNER - Now, that morning--if I may, Mr. Chairman, because of the entry of the police, that is a good cutoff point, I would like to go back to the morning for the moment, or the evening before. Mrs. Paine, did you then have what might be called some curtain rods in your garage?
Mrs. PAINE - I believe there were.
Mr. JENNER - Do you have a recollection?
Mrs. PAINE - Yes; they were stored in the garage, wrapped in loose brown paper.
Mr. JENNER - Is it the brown paper of the nature and character you described yesterday that you get at the market and have in a roll?
Mrs. PAINE - Yes.
Mr. JENNER - Had you wrapped that package yourself?
Mrs. PAINE - Yes.
Mr. JENNER - Now, curtain rods can be of various types. One type of curtain rod, as I remember, is a solid brass rod. Others are hollow. Some are shaped. Would you describe these curtain rods, please?
Mrs. PAINE - They were a light weight.
Mr. JENNER - Excuse me; do you still have them?
Mrs. PAINE - I still have them.
Mr. JENNER - All right
I happen to believe in Wes Frazier's statements, although the conspirators probably did get to a number of witnesses, I doubt they asked Wes Frazier to make up this story. Why Dougherty hadn't seen Oswald with the bag, I don't know. Maybe Oswald had placed/hidden it somewhere inside the building before Dougherty actually saw him.
Since Lee sometimes spent time in the garage, he probably saw Mrs. Paine's bag of curtain rods in the garage and thought that might be a good explanation when he needed to take the rifle to work.
The blanket that Marina pointed to in the garage was empty. Or did Marina also plant an empty blanket in the garage to incriminate her husband even more?
Lee's behavior on November 21st and 22nd 1963:
In my view Lee was to play a part in some event that was supposed to take place on Nov. 22nd 1963, why else would he have behaved so differently on Nov. 21st and Nov. 22nd compared to any other week that he had worked for the TSBD? I don't buy the explanation of a birthday party on the week-end as the only reason for coming during the week.
Whether Lee knew of the assassination of the President itself I can't say. I do want to believe the theorists who claim that he was supposed to interfere with the assassination attempt and make sure it would never take place.
Shortly after the shots were fired Lee left the building, went home, changed clothes quickly, took a hand gun and walked to the movie theater were he was arrested. Let's not go into whether or not he shot Tippit. Why did he need a gun, if he was going to the movie theater to watch a show?
He was on the run. Something went really wrong at the TSBD and Dealy Plaza, Lee was now afraid he would be arrested for shooting at the President. After all he did bring a rifle to the building that day...
4. Why did LHO ask his wife to take the infamous backyard photos?
What puzzles me is that since Marina seems cooperative and seems willing to do whatever she reasonably can, why can't the JFK researchers physically closer to her establish what she knows for sure by the means mentioned earlier. It would end a number of puzzling questions.
I do think that the photos are real. I think since the Dallas police was the first to get their hands on them, right after the deed on Nov. 22nd 1963, they were authentic. I doubt that anyone had a chance to enter false evidence into the Paine garage before that time. Had the FBI or CIA gotten there first, I would doubt their authenticity.
The only thing about the photos that makes me somewhat unsure about my claim is why Marina has trouble remembering (HSCA) exactly what she did with one of these photos was it right after? The police had been to the Paine residence the first time. Since she burned one copy, I would think that she would remember that the rest of her life.
In my view Lee agreed on having the photos made on the same grounds that he agreed to give out Free Cuba leaflets in New Orleans, take part in political debates/interviews on the radio and "defect" to Russia etc. Too bad he didn't know what damage they would do to him later.
5. In case LHO knew what was going to go down, how did he expect to interfere and then escape unharmed?
In my view Lee was to play a part in some event that was supposed to take place on Nov. 22nd 1963, why else would he have behaved so differently on Nov. 21st and Nov. 22nd compared to any other week that he had worked for the TSBD?
Whether Lee knew of the assassination of the President itself I don't know. I do want to believe the theorists who claim that he was supposed to interfere with the assassination attempt and make sure it would never take place.
There are just too many events and coincidences occurring on those days which are not favorable to Oswald's total unawareness of at least some of the events which unfolded.
6. Isn't it funny that a "high-society" man in his fifties is the best friend of LHO, who is 24 and unemployed or a laborer?
We agree, weird combination of individuals being friends.... something fishy there!
I have read the police reports of the Palm Beach county Police, regarding DeMohrenschildt's "suicide". It really seems like he did commit suicide, he was under a lot of pressure towards his last years of his life. I have asked Epstein via e-mail (through his website) whether he believes DeM actually committed suicide, no reply yet.
Furthermore, I would like to state that I seriously doubt that the Dallas PD was involved in the conspiracy to a large extent. I think they would have done a good job in solving most of the case if their work hadn't been interfered with. They were getting too close, so the FBI took over.
Any further comments?
As to Mr. Griggs' comment on the Hotels and Helsinki; thank you for your kind comments on my home town!
Yes, it is a little weird that he would choose those particular ones, although they are both relatively centrally located and not far from the Russian Embassy. I remember reading that Oswald had saved his military salary (probably for such a trip) and that the amount was somewhat large (at least compared to the money Oswald normally had available). He may have thought that once he got to Russia, they would receive him with open arms and provide him with the essentials for no cost and also provide him with housing and work if he so desired. After all he had decided to defect to Russia, he wouldn't need western money anymore, so why not blow it on a nice hotel??!!!! Right??!?!
