Reporters beat FBI to the Oswald family

[Michael Hogan]

These stories have probably appeared on this Forum before. They are the gripping accounts of reporters

trying to get a scoop on Oswald's family before the FBI and Secret Service ultimately took control

Alan Grant was a LIFE Magazine photographer who flew to Dallas and along with correspondent Tommy Thompson

managed to locate the Paine house, where Marina and Marguerite were staying. This is the story of how they found

the Paines and the Oswalds and how they came back the next day to take Lee Oswald's wife and mother to their

room at the Adolphus hotel in order to visit Lee Oswald in jail.

The encounter with agent Bardwell Odum is fascinating. Even at that early point, Oswald's mother and brother

would not let Marina be taken to the FBI office for questioning until the Oswalds obtained legal representation.

The pictures that Grant took of the Oswald family were not published by LIFE magazine. They were first published

three years later by a German magazine.

Grant's account is very interesting on several levels.

http://www.allangrant.com/oswaldstory.htm

Grant's photos:

http://www.allangrant.com/newsevents7.htm

Like Grant, reporter Bob Schieffer winds up giving Marguerite Oswald a ride that weekend, this time

to the Dallas Police Station. In this interview Schieffer "reflects on his experience covering the assassination

of President Kennedy as a reporter for the Forth Worth Star-Telegram newspaper in Texas."

Excerpts:

".....So when she said, 'My son is the one I think that they've arrested,' I forgot that part about not being a taxi service, and I said, 'Where do you live?' And so, another reporter and I, Bill Foster, went to her home on the west side of Fort Worth and we drove her over to the Dallas Police Station that afternoon.

It was a very interesting ride. I sat in the back seat. The other reporter, Bill Foster, drove. And she was making these outrageous statements -- statements that were so outrageous that I didn't include some of them in the, in the story I wrote the next morning for the Star-Telegram. The reason being that I thought she was just under such emotional stress, I couldn't believe.

I mean, she would say things like, 'Everyone will feel sorry for his wife, but they won't feel sorry for me and his wife will get a lot of money and I won't get any and I'll starve to death.'

And I learned a great lesson. What I learned was that you have to be very careful about censoring yourself. I think probably had I put some of those quotes in the paper people might have had a better understanding of what kind of person she was and, and through that, might have had a better understanding of what kind of person Lee Harvey Oswald was."

and

"We all went into this holding room off the jail. And I'm thinking, 'My God, they're going to bring him down and I'm going to have this big exclusive. If I don't get to interview him, at least I'll get to hear what he and his mother has to say.' And finally, for the first time -- and mind you, we'd been in the police station for hours -- for the first time, someone said, 'Who are you? Who are you with?' And it turned out it was an FBI agent, and I said, 'Well, who are you?' And he said, 'Are you a newspaper reporter?' And I said, 'Well, aren't you?'

So, I tell the story, at that point, I think, I received the first legitimate death threat of my life, because he said, 'I'm going to kill you if I ever see you again.' I guess he was overstating it, but he might not have been, because he was pretty mad. Anyway, I excused myself, and so I never actually got to interview Oswald. But what an adventure. And it just underlines how different things were in those days.

In those days, if you looked like you belonged someplace -- we didn't have all these security gates and press passes and all of that stuff -- if you looked like you belonged, you usually got in."

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/white_house.../schieffer.html

[Jack White]

These stories have probably appeared on this Forum before. They are the gripping accounts of reporters

trying to get a scoop on Oswald's family before the FBI and Secret Service ultimately took control

Alan Grant was a LIFE Magazine photographer who flew to Dallas and along with correspondent Tommy Thompson

managed to locate the Paine house, where Marina and Marguerite were staying. This is the story of how they found

the Paines and the Oswalds and how they came back the next day to take Lee Oswald's wife and mother to their

room at the Adolphus hotel in order to visit Lee Oswald in jail.

The encounter with agent Bardwell Odum is fascinating. Even at that early point, Oswald's mother and brother

would not let Marina be taken to the FBI office for questioning until the Oswalds obtained legal representation.

The pictures that Grant took of the Oswald family were not published by LIFE magazine. They were first published

three years later by a German magazine.

Grant's account is very interesting on several levels.

http://www.allangrant.com/oswaldstory.htm

Grant's photos:

http://www.allangrant.com/newsevents7.htm

Like Grant, reporter Bob Schieffer winds up giving Marguerite Oswald a ride that weekend, this time

to the Dallas Police Station. In this interview Schieffer "reflects on his experience covering the assassination

of President Kennedy as a reporter for the Forth Worth Star-Telegram newspaper in Texas."

Excerpts:

".....So when she said, 'My son is the one I think that they've arrested,' I forgot that part about not being a taxi service, and I said, 'Where do you live?' And so, another reporter and I, Bill Foster, went to her home on the west side of Fort Worth and we drove her over to the Dallas Police Station that afternoon.

It was a very interesting ride. I sat in the back seat. The other reporter, Bill Foster, drove. And she was making these outrageous statements -- statements that were so outrageous that I didn't include some of them in the, in the story I wrote the next morning for the Star-Telegram. The reason being that I thought she was just under such emotional stress, I couldn't believe.

I mean, she would say things like, 'Everyone will feel sorry for his wife, but they won't feel sorry for me and his wife will get a lot of money and I won't get any and I'll starve to death.'

And I learned a great lesson. What I learned was that you have to be very careful about censoring yourself. I think probably had I put some of those quotes in the paper people might have had a better understanding of what kind of person she was and, and through that, might have had a better understanding of what kind of person Lee Harvey Oswald was."

and

"We all went into this holding room off the jail. And I'm thinking, 'My God, they're going to bring him down and I'm going to have this big exclusive. If I don't get to interview him, at least I'll get to hear what he and his mother has to say.' And finally, for the first time -- and mind you, we'd been in the police station for hours -- for the first time, someone said, 'Who are you? Who are you with?' And it turned out it was an FBI agent, and I said, 'Well, who are you?' And he said, 'Are you a newspaper reporter?' And I said, 'Well, aren't you?'

So, I tell the story, at that point, I think, I received the first legitimate death threat of my life, because he said, 'I'm going to kill you if I ever see you again.' I guess he was overstating it, but he might not have been, because he was pretty mad. Anyway, I excused myself, and so I never actually got to interview Oswald. But what an adventure. And it just underlines how different things were in those days.

In those days, if you looked like you belonged someplace -- we didn't have all these security gates and press passes and all of that stuff -- if you looked like you belonged, you usually got in."

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/white_house.../schieffer.html

ALAN Grant should not be confused with CLINT Grant of the Dallas Morning News.

Jack

[Michael Hogan]

These stories have probably appeared on this Forum before. They are the gripping accounts of reporters

trying to get a scoop on Oswald's family before the FBI and Secret Service ultimately took control

Alan Grant was a LIFE Magazine photographer who flew to Dallas and along with correspondent Tommy Thompson

managed to locate the Paine house, where Marina and Marguerite were staying. This is the story of how they found

the Paines and the Oswalds and how they came back the next day to take Lee Oswald's wife and mother to their

room at the Adolphus hotel in order to visit Lee Oswald in jail.

The encounter with agent Bardwell Odum is fascinating. Even at that early point, Oswald's mother and brother

would not let Marina be taken to the FBI office for questioning until the Oswalds obtained legal representation.

The pictures that Grant took of the Oswald family were not published by LIFE magazine. They were first published

three years later by a German magazine.

Grant's account is very interesting on several levels.

http://www.allangrant.com/oswaldstory.htm

Grant's photos:

http://www.allangrant.com/newsevents7.htm

Like Grant, reporter Bob Schieffer winds up giving Marguerite Oswald a ride that weekend, this time

to the Dallas Police Station. In this interview Schieffer "reflects on his experience covering the assassination

of President Kennedy as a reporter for the Forth Worth Star-Telegram newspaper in Texas."

Excerpts:

".....So when she said, 'My son is the one I think that they've arrested,' I forgot that part about not being a taxi service, and I said, 'Where do you live?' And so, another reporter and I, Bill Foster, went to her home on the west side of Fort Worth and we drove her over to the Dallas Police Station that afternoon.

It was a very interesting ride. I sat in the back seat. The other reporter, Bill Foster, drove. And she was making these outrageous statements -- statements that were so outrageous that I didn't include some of them in the, in the story I wrote the next morning for the Star-Telegram. The reason being that I thought she was just under such emotional stress, I couldn't believe.

I mean, she would say things like, 'Everyone will feel sorry for his wife, but they won't feel sorry for me and his wife will get a lot of money and I won't get any and I'll starve to death.'

And I learned a great lesson. What I learned was that you have to be very careful about censoring yourself. I think probably had I put some of those quotes in the paper people might have had a better understanding of what kind of person she was and, and through that, might have had a better understanding of what kind of person Lee Harvey Oswald was."

and

"We all went into this holding room off the jail. And I'm thinking, 'My God, they're going to bring him down and I'm going to have this big exclusive. If I don't get to interview him, at least I'll get to hear what he and his mother has to say.' And finally, for the first time -- and mind you, we'd been in the police station for hours -- for the first time, someone said, 'Who are you? Who are you with?' And it turned out it was an FBI agent, and I said, 'Well, who are you?' And he said, 'Are you a newspaper reporter?' And I said, 'Well, aren't you?'

So, I tell the story, at that point, I think, I received the first legitimate death threat of my life, because he said, 'I'm going to kill you if I ever see you again.' I guess he was overstating it, but he might not have been, because he was pretty mad. Anyway, I excused myself, and so I never actually got to interview Oswald. But what an adventure. And it just underlines how different things were in those days.

In those days, if you looked like you belonged someplace -- we didn't have all these security gates and press passes and all of that stuff -- if you looked like you belonged, you usually got in."

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/white_house.../schieffer.html

ALAN Grant should not be confused with CLINT Grant of the Dallas Morning News.

Jack

Anyone that takes the time to read the article (or read my introduction) will not make that mistake.

Edited February 5, 2010 by Michael Hogan

[Jack White]

These stories have probably appeared on this Forum before. They are the gripping accounts of reporters

trying to get a scoop on Oswald's family before the FBI and Secret Service ultimately took control

Alan Grant was a LIFE Magazine photographer who flew to Dallas and along with correspondent Tommy Thompson

managed to locate the Paine house, where Marina and Marguerite were staying. This is the story of how they found

the Paines and the Oswalds and how they came back the next day to take Lee Oswald's wife and mother to their

room at the Adolphus hotel in order to visit Lee Oswald in jail.

The encounter with agent Bardwell Odum is fascinating. Even at that early point, Oswald's mother and brother

would not let Marina be taken to the FBI office for questioning until the Oswalds obtained legal representation.

The pictures that Grant took of the Oswald family were not published by LIFE magazine. They were first published

three years later by a German magazine.

Grant's account is very interesting on several levels.

http://www.allangrant.com/oswaldstory.htm

Grant's photos:

http://www.allangrant.com/newsevents7.htm

Like Grant, reporter Bob Schieffer winds up giving Marguerite Oswald a ride that weekend, this time

to the Dallas Police Station. In this interview Schieffer "reflects on his experience covering the assassination

of President Kennedy as a reporter for the Forth Worth Star-Telegram newspaper in Texas."

Excerpts:

".....So when she said, 'My son is the one I think that they've arrested,' I forgot that part about not being a taxi service, and I said, 'Where do you live?' And so, another reporter and I, Bill Foster, went to her home on the west side of Fort Worth and we drove her over to the Dallas Police Station that afternoon.

It was a very interesting ride. I sat in the back seat. The other reporter, Bill Foster, drove. And she was making these outrageous statements -- statements that were so outrageous that I didn't include some of them in the, in the story I wrote the next morning for the Star-Telegram. The reason being that I thought she was just under such emotional stress, I couldn't believe.

I mean, she would say things like, 'Everyone will feel sorry for his wife, but they won't feel sorry for me and his wife will get a lot of money and I won't get any and I'll starve to death.'

And I learned a great lesson. What I learned was that you have to be very careful about censoring yourself. I think probably had I put some of those quotes in the paper people might have had a better understanding of what kind of person she was and, and through that, might have had a better understanding of what kind of person Lee Harvey Oswald was."

and

"We all went into this holding room off the jail. And I'm thinking, 'My God, they're going to bring him down and I'm going to have this big exclusive. If I don't get to interview him, at least I'll get to hear what he and his mother has to say.' And finally, for the first time -- and mind you, we'd been in the police station for hours -- for the first time, someone said, 'Who are you? Who are you with?' And it turned out it was an FBI agent, and I said, 'Well, who are you?' And he said, 'Are you a newspaper reporter?' And I said, 'Well, aren't you?'

So, I tell the story, at that point, I think, I received the first legitimate death threat of my life, because he said, 'I'm going to kill you if I ever see you again.' I guess he was overstating it, but he might not have been, because he was pretty mad. Anyway, I excused myself, and so I never actually got to interview Oswald. But what an adventure. And it just underlines how different things were in those days.

In those days, if you looked like you belonged someplace -- we didn't have all these security gates and press passes and all of that stuff -- if you looked like you belonged, you usually got in."

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/white_house.../schieffer.html

ALAN Grant should not be confused with CLINT Grant of the Dallas Morning News.

Jack

Anyone that takes the time to read the article (or read my introduction) will not make that mistake.

Thanks for the link to Grant's photos.