Did somebody screw up?

[Ron Ecker]

Ron,

Are you saying that Oswald may have intentionally gotten himself arrested?

No, I'm saying that his arrest was another screw-up, requiring a new scenario (lone nut). They had to forget about however they had planned to use Oswald (e.g., he dies in a plane crash while en route to Cuba) to blame it on Castro.

[David Andrews]

Maybe two set-ups, two screw-ups:

1) Kill on sight in the TSBD or Plaza (evaded that)

2) Kill on arrest at appointed "escape" rendezvous at Texas Theater (botched?)

He had a pistol at the theater, fought back, and gave every provocation. Close combat in the theater seating, and also hollering "Police brutality!" and "I am not resisting arrest!" probably saved him.

Fighting and hollering at the theater strongly suggest that Oswald expected to be killed by police there.

Do we really know for certain that he didn't also have a pistol at the TSBD, or are we dependent on Will Fritz's after-the-fact "interrogation notes" for this? (I suppose that if he actually got a jacket at North Beckley Street, it argues for getting the pistol there and camouflaging it. But maybe he got the jacket and extra shells because he was planning on leaving town one way or another, and had capture or kill worries.)

It's possible that the cop with a "throw-down" pistol to justify Oswald's killing in Dealey didn't find him.

If anyone was monitoring recent history, they would know that Oswald called for his FBI contact after the Carlos Bringiuer arrest, and so had to be eliminated quickly after capture. The plot may not have had (or needed) that much sophistication, though.

If he can't talk - he's a Castro agent.

If he disavowed responsibility - he's a lone nut. So nuts that he thought he could get away with it.

If, from among the morass of conflicting testimony and "testimony," we can correctly evaluate his behavior and movements between the TSBD and the Texas Theater arrest, we can infer correctly that Oswald had some foreknowledge of the assassination, including knowledge of an "escape" rendezvous. Still, we'll never know if he was able to make a pay phone call or have any other verbal exchange with an advisor after the shooting.

But I ask, seriously: If you knew Kennedy might be killed and you might have to leave town, or be arrested, wouldn't you try to get a shower in before work? The one he demanded at the police station? Maybe Allen Dulles was right, and everything transpired through miraculous coincidences, such as Oswald getting up too late, or not having bath towel privileges at the Paine house. I doubt it was a case of, "It's OK, honey - I'll grab a shower in jail."

Edited March 11, 2016 by David Andrews