Was it really just a MOLE HUNT about "Oswald?"

[Jim Hargrove]

As Stripling principal Ricardo Galindo told John Armstrong back in the 1990s, it was “common knowledge” that LHO attended Stripling School.  In large part because the FBI suppressed all the school’s records for LHO, there was confusion about the actual year of his attendance at Stripling.  

It is easy, though, to show that the newspaper reports were not all based on Robert Oswald’s recollection.  Here’s an excerpt of Robert’s WC testimony:

Mr. JENNER. And, at that time, I take it your brother Lee was attending Arlington Heights High School? That would be 1952?
Mr. OSWALD. Just a minute, please.
In 1952 Lee was 13 years old. He would be attending W. C. Stripling Junior High School then.
Mr. JENNER. I see. For the school year 1951-52?
Mr. OSWALD. Yes, sir. Junior high school there was from the seventh to the ninth grades. And as soon as he was through with his sixth year, he started attending W. C. Stripling Junior High School.
Mr. JENNER. As soon as he finished the sixth year at Ridglea Elementary School, he entered W. C. Stripling High School, as a seventh grader?
Mr. OSWALD. Yes, sir--junior high school.
Mr. JENNER. Now, the condition that you described as to Lee shifting for himself during the daytime, when your mother was away working and you were away working, and your brother John was in the Coast Guard, continued, I take it, when he began attendance and while he was attending W. C. Stripling Junior High School?
Mr. OSWALD. Yes, sir.

Robert was probably wrong about the dates his “brother” attended Stripling,which is easy enough to understand since he was intimately involved in the Oswald Project—I think for entirely patriotic reasons—and had to juggle his recollections of two LHOs, trying to remember which of the two young men was supposed to be in the public record at what time.  Not an easy task.  

On the other hand, the May 11, 2002 Fort Worth Star-Telegram article included the sentence: “Yet a 1956 student would become the school’s best known.”  This date was closer to the truth, and obviously was not based on Robert’s recollection.

[Sandy Larsen]

 

Quote

Quote

Look specifically at #3,  which says that "if Kudlaty was wrong." If Kudlaty was wrong about Stripling then there is no reason to conclude there were two Oswalds. Well everyone agrees with that. But what evidence is there that Kudlaty was wrong?

Sandy,

I've got to disagree with you about your point in red above. 

 

No, we don't disagree Jim. I just didn't make my statement clear enough. I will restate it here with editing in bold:

Look specifically at #3,  which says that "if Kudlaty was wrong." If Kudlaty was wrong about Stripling then there is no reason to conclude from his testimony that there were two Oswalds.

Well everyone agrees with that. But what evidence is there that Kudlaty was wrong?

In the first paragraph I was just restating what Jeremy had written. In the second paragraph I was stating the obvious, that nobody would conclude from Kudlaty's testimony that there were two Oswald's if his testimony was wrong. And then I asked what testimony there was indicating that Kudlaty was wrong.

 

Edited June 21, 2020 by Sandy Larsen

[Jim Hargrove]

Thanks, Sandy, and I agree, though we should probably call it Mr. Kudlaty's statement in the video John A. recorded, since it wasn't testimony in a court of law.

[Sandy Larsen]

53 minutes ago, W. Tracy Parnell said:

1 hour ago, Jim Hargrove said:

What John Armstrong DID

What ]Armstrong] did was to find individuals and coach them to say what he wanted.

 

What's your evidence for that, Tracy? What's you evidence that Armstrong coached Kudlaty? Jeez, the guy had impeccable credentials. Why would an outstanding individual like that lie?

 

[Jim Hargrove]

For anyone who finds it hard to believe that the FBI would destroy the original school records of Lee Harvey Oswald at Stripling School, the example of the New York City school records should prove illuminating.

As a general note: Within hours of the assassination, the school and early work records for “Lee Harvey Oswald” were collected by the FBI and promptly lost, replaced by b&w photostatic copies.  The confiscation of documents was usually done before there was even time to determine if there were other co-conspirators or if other government officials were targeted for assassination.  It is utterly amazing how quickly Hoover's agents swept into schools and offices to collect original documents about the teenaged LHO.

As ARRB staffer Joe Freeman discovered decades later, “all the school and employment records I looked at in the Warren Commission Exhibit files at Archives II were copies, not originals.”

 Here, from Harvey and Lee, is John Armstrong's description of what happened to the New York City school records for “Lee Harvey Oswald.”  Documents are below the book excerpt.  (My apologies for any scan errors):

After realizing the court and school records contained numerous contradictions,
I began assembling and sorting through all of the New York records I could find. The
Warren Commission published a complete set of Oswald's elementary school records
from Fort Worth, including grade cards, enrollment forms, cumulative records, atten­-
dance records, and interviews with many students, neighbors, and teachers. The War­-
ren Commission also published numerous photographs of Oswald in grade school as well
as a class photograph.

As I searched the Warren Volumes looking for New York records and photo­-
graphs I was surprised to find that there were no grade cards, no enrollment forms, and
no transcripts from his previous school in Ft Worth (Ridglea West Elementary). I noticed
there were conflicting attendance records, no school photographs, no interviews of
Oswald's classmates, and only one interview of a teacher.

When I visited the National Archives in Adelphi, Maryland, I learned, as did the
Assassination Records Review Board in 1995, that there were no original school records
whatsoever-only copies of records. When original records disappear, and only copies re­-
main, there is a distinct possibility that the original records were altered and then de­-
stroyed. I decided to see if I could determine what happened to Oswald's original New
York school records.

The WC requested Oswald's original New York school records

As I began sorting through New York school and court records, I realized that
the Warren Commission may also have been aware of conflicting records. They asked
the FBI to obtain Oswald's original school and court records, but the Bureau did not
comply. The Commission then wrote to New York Mayor Robert Wagner and asked his
office for help in .obtaining Oswald's original school records.

Mayor Wagner's office responded to the Commission's request by enclosing
copies of Oswald's New York school records and advising that the original court records
had been turned over to SA John Malone personally by Judge Florence Kelley.
53-09

It appeared the original records disappeared while in SA Malone's custody, so I decided
to place all available documentation and correspondence in chronological order to see
if my thoughts were correct.

Oswald's school records disappeared while in FBI custody
Judge Florence Kelley was the Administrative Judge of the Family Court of the
State of New York in 1963, and the Oswald case file (#23979) was under her supervision.
After the assassination she conferred with superior court judges and together they de­-
cided the Oswald file would be given to the Special Agent in charge of the FBI's New
York office, John Malone.

On November 27, 1963 Judge Kelley allowed SAIC Malone to review the
Oswald file in her chambers and in her presence. She permitted him to take notes of
pertinent portions, but would not permit the file to be removed from her office or cop­-
ied. A few days later she conferred with the Presiding Justice of the Appellate Division,
Bernard Botein, and with his approval agreed to turn over all original court records in
possession of the Family Court to SAIC Malone.

On December 2, 1963 Judge Kelley personally gave the Oswald file to Malone
with the condition that it be transmitted immediately to the Warren Commission. Three
days later, on December 5, 1963, FBI SA Michael O'Rourke advised the Secret Service
the file had been sent to the WaTTen Commission. On December 10, eight days after Judge
Kelley turned her court file over to the FBI, an internal FBI memo relating to the Files
of Domestic Relations Court states, "rec'd by Assist Dir. John Malone 11/27-12/2." From
this memo and Judge Kelley's statement, it is clear that Judge Kelley gave the original
court file to SAIC Malone.

In preparation for the testimony of Marguerite Oswald in February 1964, the
Warren Commission requested Oswald's original New York school and court records
from Mayor Wagner of New York City. On February 4, Miss Bernice McCrae of the
Mayors office spoke with Judge Kelley, who advised that she had given the original
records to SAIC John Malone.

Miss McCrae then telephoned the FBI's New York Office. She asked if the
original records in the Oswald file had, in fact, been turned over to the Warren Commis­-
sion. Miss McCrae never received an answer. Later that afternoon she wrote a letter on
behalf of Mayor Wagner to Mr. Rankin of Warren Commission which stated, "I am at­-
taching to this letter copies of the school records .... Judge Florence Kelley informed me
she turned over all original records in the possession of the Family Court dealing with
the case of Lee Harvey Oswald to John F. Malone, Assistant Director in Charge of the
New York City office of the FBI."42 There is no evidence or documentation whatsoever that
Malone turned the original court file over to the Warren Commission.

On February 7, at 3:37 pm, FBI Inspector J. R. Malley telephoned the FBI's
New York office and spoke to the Assistant Special Agent in Charge, W. M. Alexander,
about the original court records. Malley advised that FBI headquarters in Washington
had no information that indicated the original documents had been received from New
York and he asked Alexander to check further.

At 3:45 pm Alexander telephoned Malley and advised that SAIC Malone. his
supervisor. had photographed the entire file and that copies of the file had been sent to
FBI headquarters in Washington. Alexander said there was no record that photographs
were sent to FBI headquarters, but that additional photographs of the file were available.
Malley then asked that two copies of the photographs be sent immediately to his atten­-
tion at FBI Headquarters in Washington.

There is no indication that Inspector Malley made any additional inquiries into
the fate of the original court files, which were last seen by Judge Kelley when she per­-
sonally handed them to SAIC John Malone. Whenever original records are destroyed and only
copies or photographs remain, it is probable that the original documents were altered and then
photocopied. [Harvey and Lee, pp. 62-63]

Here are some of the documents John studied to do the write-up above.

 

 

 

[Sandy Larsen]

23 minutes ago, Jim Hargrove said:

Thanks, Sandy, and I agree, though we should probably call it Mr. Kudlaty's statement in the video John A. recorded, since it wasn't testimony in a court of law.

 

Sure, if you want to. Just be aware that one definition of "testimony" is a statement of fact given by someone. That's the way I use the word.

 

[Jeremy Bojczuk]

As much as I admire Sandy's expertise in dentistry and photographic analysis, I don't find his excursion into philosophy very convincing. I've explained why the circular reasoning he claimed to see was a figment of his imagination. As for all the other "logical fallacies" he claims to see, Armstrong alone knows where he got those from.

If anyone other than Sandy really gives a [insert rude word here] about any of this, they can examine the evidence for themselves by following these handy links, where Jim will find his Stripling allegations dealt with:

- https://reopenkennedycase.forumotion.net/t2209-dear-jim
- https://reopenkennedycase.forumotion.net/t2208-dear-sandy

Jim writes:

Quote

We can expect lots more from Mr. Bojczuk about how terrible I am ... Mr. Bojczuk bloviates again and again about everything that is wrong with me

Do I detect a hint of paranoia here?

I've got nothing against Jim as a person, and I'm sure he's a fine, upstanding citizen who frequently rescues cats stranded up trees, and always takes his library books back on time, and never goes one mile per hour above the speed limit. As Al Pacino said, it's nothing personal.

But Jim is Chief Evangelist for one of the nuttiest (yet most actively promoted) and cult-like theories associated with the JFK assassination, and he deserves to be criticised for that. If the general public were to associate questioning of the lone-nut theory with the speculative 'Harvey and Lee' nonsense, even rational critics are liable to be dismissed as crackpots, and the case will never be treated seriously.

The problems I raised with Jim were twofold:

Firstly, he made a substantial claim for which he has provided absolutely no evidence, namely that the FBI "altered a document or two" regarding the mastoidectomy that was carried out on the one and only, real-life, historical Lee Harvey Oswald. Jim hasn't even been able to tell us which documents he was referring to, let alone demonstrate that they were altered. He gives the impression that he simply made it all up, and he deserves to be put on the spot about this.

Secondly, he has repeatedly been unable to refute the evidence that his guru, John Armstrong (praise his name!), deliberately concealed from his readers an important fact that proved Armstrong's theory to be false.

So let's see if Jim can come up with some answers this time:

What is your evidence that the FBI "altered a document or two" concerning Oswald's mastoidectomy? If you can't produce any such evidence, will you admit that you made the whole thing up?

Armstrong, co-inventor of the 'Harvey and Lee' nonsense along with Jack "no planes hit the World Trade Center" White, was behaving like a slippery, dishonest snake-oil salesman, wasn't he?

[Mark Stevens]

Honestly, I don't follow the H&L discussions because I don't buy it and I more or less skim these topics at this point.

But, I believe at least one valid point has been presented and I haven't seen any real discussion on this point, if there has been some discussion feel free to point me towards it. The point would be Robert Oswald's multiple statements that LHO went to Stripling. As I follow the debate, the crux of the matter seems to be whether this school was actually attended. Even if Kudlaty is negated, what negates Roberts multiple statements in this regard? He seems clear in his recollections, and if we give face value trust to most other statements of Robert, why would this one be dismissed? Or have I somehow missed other information on this topic?

[W. Tracy Parnell]

13 hours ago, Sandy Larsen said:

What's your evidence for that, Tracy? What's you evidence that Armstrong coached Kudlaty? Jeez, the guy had impeccable credentials. Why would an outstanding individual like that lie?

People will say the most amazing things-even people with a great background. Professional investigators don't just take a statement from someone with a good reputation at face value. They collaborate it. But in the H&L world, these sort of facts don't matter.

It was probably more Jack White that did the coaching. It is all explained at Parker's site so no need to reinvent the wheel. And I have already explained that it is not "lying" in the usual sense. An individual can be persuaded to believe they are a part of "history" and they are intoxicated by that concept. The same thing happened with Palmer McBride. In McBride's case, there was the additional incentive of being told by Armstrong that he was right after all. But when Lifton approached him  in an objective manner and explained the evidence, he agreed that he was mistaken.

[W. Tracy Parnell]

1 hour ago, Mark Stevens said:

Honestly, I don't follow the H&L discussions because I don't buy it and I more or less skim these topics at this point.

But, I believe at least one valid point has been presented and I haven't seen any real discussion on this point, if there has been some discussion feel free to point me towards it. The point would be Robert Oswald's multiple statements that LHO went to Stripling. As I follow the debate, the crux of the matter seems to be whether this school was actually attended. Even if Kudlaty is negated, what negates Roberts multiple statements in this regard? He seems clear in his recollections, and if we give face value trust to most other statements of Robert, why would this one be dismissed? Or have I somehow missed other information on this topic?

Check out this article:

http://wtracyparnell.blogspot.com/2017/04/robert-oswald-and-stripling.html

It really doesn't matter how many times Robert said LHO was at Stripling. He was in the Marine Corp by that time and had no first-hand knowledge. He was not referring to any records during his WC testimony, just making a reasonable assumption about where he believed LHO would have attended school at that time. But he was wrong. If you read Robert and John Pic's testimony, they add much to the historical record, but they were not right about everything and could not be expected to be 100 percent accurate. Nobody is always right. Here is another area where Robert was wrong and the H&L people predictably use it to promote more nonsense:

http://wtracyparnell.blogspot.com/2017/03/the-hunter-photo.html

Another thing the H&L fans avoid-where are the yearbook photos of LHO at Stripling? Did the CIA buy all of those and destroy them?

[Mark Stevens]

46 minutes ago, W. Tracy Parnell said:

Check out this article:

http://wtracyparnell.blogspot.com/2017/04/robert-oswald-and-stripling.html

It really doesn't matter how many times Robert said LHO was at Stripling. He was in the Marine Corp by that time and had no first-hand knowledge. He was not referring to any records during his WC testimony, just making a reasonable assumption about where he believed LHO would have attended school at that time. But he was wrong. If you read Robert and John Pic's testimony, they add much to the historical record, but they were not right about everything and could not be expected to be 100 percent accurate. Nobody is always right. Here is another area where Robert was wrong and the H&L people predictably use it to promote more nonsense:

http://wtracyparnell.blogspot.com/2017/03/the-hunter-photo.html

Another thing the H&L fans avoid-where are the yearbook photos of LHO at Stripling? Did the CIA buy all of those and destroy them?

Thanks for the clarification Tracy. I do agree that people can confuse timelines, especially 12 years after the fact.

I do believe, based on later testimony from Robert, that he was mistaken about this school.

Robert's initial statement (which I believe is just being taken out of context by H&L supporters at this point):

Mr. JENNER. And, at that time, I take it your brother Lee was attending Arlington Heights High School? That would be 1952?
Mr. OSWALD. Just a minute, please.
In 1952 Lee was 13 years old. He would be attending W. C. Stripling Junior High School then.
Mr. JENNER. I see. For the school year 1951-52?
Mr. OSWALD. Yes, sir. Junior high school there was from the seventh to the ninth grades. And as soon as he was through with his sixth year, he started attending W. C. Stripling Junior High School.
Mr. JENNER. As soon as he finished the sixth year at Ridglea Elementary School, he entered W. C. Stripling High School, as a seventh grader?
Mr. OSWALD. Yes, sir--junior high school.
Mr. JENNER. Now, the condition that you described as to Lee shifting for himself during the daytime, when your mother was away working and you were away working, and your brother John was in the Coast Guard, continued, I take it, when he began attendance and while he was attending W. C. Stripling Junior High School?

A few pages later Robert states:

Mr. JENNER. During that 3-year period, what contact did you have with the members of your family, and with particular reference, if you can give that first, with your brother Lee his writing you, you writing him?
Mr. OSWALD. Yes, sir; we were corresponding infrequently, I would say--not very many letters between I and Lee direct when I was in the service, especially the first part of my tour in the service.
In 1952, after traveling from Camp Pendleton, Calif., to Jacksonville, Fla. I did have a 10-day leave. They were in New York City at that time.
Mr. JENNER. This was then some time in 1953, I take it?
Mr. OSWALD. No, sir--1952.
Mr. JENNER. 1952?
Mr. OSWALD. Yes, sir. This was----
Mr. JENNER. You mean your mother and Lee that is the period of time they were in New York City?
Mr. OSWALD. That's correct.
Mr. JENNER. Living there.
Mr. OSWALD. Yes, sir.
Mr. JENNER. Did you see them?
Mr. OSWALD. No, sir; not at that time. I spent my leave in Fort Worth, because I did not feel I had enough time to travel to New York and down to Jacksonville, Fla. After completing metalsmith school at Millington, Tenn., I took a 10-day leave.
Mr. JENNER. Fix the time.
Mr. OSWALD. This was July or August of 1953. I had my orders to go to Miami, Fla. I took a 10-day leave and left Millington, Tenn., by car and came to New York City and spent 10 days in New York with Lee, mother, John, and his family.
Mr. JENNER. Where did you stay?
Mr. OSWALD. At mother's apartment, with Lee, in the Bronx some place I do not recall the address.
Mr. JENNER. What, if anything, did you learn at that time regarding Lee's attendance or nonattendance in school?
Mr. OSWALD. Nothing on that, sir. This was in the summer time. Lee, of course, was home and not supposed to be in school. And I do not think anything was brought up that I recall about whether or not Lee had been attending school regularly or not.
Mr. McKENZIE. Can we go off the record?
Mr. JENNER. Yes.

 

What I take from this is a huge misunderstanding of what Robert said and also taking those comments out of context.

My take is this:

In 1951-1952 LHO was 12 and attended 6th grade at Ridgelea. (turned 12 in Oct. '51)

In 1952 LHO would have turned 13 and would have entered into the 7th grade at Stripling for the 1952-53 school year had the family continued to reside in Ft. Worth. So while Robert does state "In 1952 Lee was 13 years old. He would be attending W. C. Stripling Junior High School then." he is referencing a hypothetical. Oswald did not turn 13 until October of 1952, by that point they were already in NYC. So while LHO was "13 in 1952," it was only for 2.5 months.

My fairly basic understanding of the school records seems to show LHO entering into the 7th grade in 1952, which would have put him at Stripling had they continued to reside in Ft. Worth. Since they moved, he enrolled in a different school, at or before the beginning of the school year.

If you look at Robert's comments in context, his "mistake" becomes clear as do all of comments and what they truly mean as well as the timeline.

 

Edited June 22, 2020 by Mark Stevens

[Jim Hargrove]

As I said before, it’s pretty clear that Robert Oswald got the year wrong regarding when LHO attended Stripling School, which is hardly surprising.  He remembered LHO going to Stripling before the NYC residency rather than after it, which is when it surely occurred.

In a November 15, 1959 Fort Worth Star-Telegram story entitled “My Values Different, Defector Told Mother,” Marguerite is quoted as saying: "He quit school at 14 …. he quit in the eighth grade ….. but was so set on getting an education, he quit and returned three times."

But the Warren Commission records show no such attendance problems or evidence of quitting even once, much less three times during that period.  These records show him successfully completing the 8th and 9th grades at Beauregard JHS, in New Orleans.

John A. summarized what really happened:

The "Marguerite Oswald" imposter accurately described to reporter Les Strother in 1959
how Harvey Oswald quit and returned to school on 3 separate occasions. The most likely
reason for Harvey's changing from one school to another was his inability to provide
transcripts from the previous schools. We can now see that her innocent sounding, but very
revealing statement, about Harvey was correct.

* The 1st school Harvey returned to was Stripling Junior High in Fort Worth
(1954) where he dropped out after two months.
* The 2nd school Harvey returned to was Warren Easton High School in New
Orleans (1955) where he dropped out after a month.
* The 3rd school Harvey returned to was Arlington Heights High School in Fort
Worth (1956) where he dropped out after a month to join the Marines. [H&L, p 89]

Several people, as well as at least one FWST newspaper report, have indicated that it was common knowledge that LHO attended Stripling School.  John did most of his research into Stripling in 1994 and made extensive notes, which he typed up and ultimately allowed to be put up on the Baylor University JFK/John Armstrong online collection.

Those notes are shown below.  As you can see, John was unable to contact quite a few leads, and some people did not remember LHO at Stripling, but, among those who knew about his attendance were assistant principal Frank Kudlaty (who indicated there was no copy machine at the school and that he did not receive a receipt for the records when he gave them to the FBI agents).  Gym teacher Mark Summers taught Robert Oswald but also remembered LHO, who he described as “timid.”  Student JD (Doug) Gann remembered shooting baskets with LHO and recalled that he lived across the street from the school.  Mrs. Earl Tubbs (Fran Schubert) also recalled watching LHO walk to his home just across the street.  

Edited June 22, 2020 by Jim Hargrove

[Mark Stevens]

1 hour ago, Jim Hargrove said:

....

Those notes are shown below.  As you can see, many people did not remember LHO at Stripling, but, among those who knew about his attendance were assistant principal Frank Kudlaty (who indicated there was no copy machine at the school and that he did not receive a receipt for the records when he gave them to the FBI agents).  Gym teacher Mark Summers taught Robert Oswald but also remembered LHO, who he described as “timid.”  Student JD (Doug) Gann remembered shooting baskets with LHO and recalled that he lived across the street from the school.  Mrs. Earl Tubbs (Fran Schubert) also recalled watching LHO walk to his home just across the street.  

Jim,

I'm pretty confused by what point your post is supposed to have.

You also continue to post facts which go against the basic premise of your argument. I'm not sure if you are aware of this, or are just ignoring it.

Examples...

Kudlaty: "did not know or remember Oswald; thought Oswald attended 9th grade..."

This isn't the argument that you are presenting; that Kudlaty is adamant LHO attended in the 52-53 school year. (unless I'm mistaken about what exactly your argument is)

Summers: "had Oswald as a student-thinks it was 7th grade"

This whole operation is true because 30 years later some guy thinks Oswald was a student of his? No documents, photos, or even a tangible belief from Summers, just thinks?

Gann: "does not remember LHO at Arlington Heights remembers Oswald(?), believes it was 9th grade, remembers Oswald shooting baskets....;..-gave me the following names of classmates who knew Oswald: ....knew nothing.....knew nothing..."

First, what exactly does "does not remember Oswald...remembers Oswald mean? Again, 9th grade, which is not the 52-53 school year you are making a spectacle about (unless again, I am mistaken about what exactly your argument is). As far as shooting baskets, is there some extra context to this statement? Did he recall it during 3rd period gym class? Did he recall seeing LHO on a court shooting baskets during school hours? Was this court inside or outside of the school? I spent my youth playing basketball on courts at schools, many of which I attended and many of which I didn't. Without some context, this comment is pretty pointless. Gann then goes on to give a list of names and not one recalls Oswald, I would stop using that as evidence in my case, it isn't helping to further your cause. I should add that 2 of the 4 names of classmates given were in fact not classmates but faculty. The classmates "knew nothing" and there is no indication of what the faculty may have known, but since it isn't "I taught LHO in my class at Stripling in 1952" then I'm going to go out on a limb and say what they had to say was nothing of any substance.

Schubert/Tubbs: "says teacher (Mr. Connor) thinks that LHO may have gone to jr high at Dagget... -knew Oswald; remembers him well; says he lived across street from Stripling in a white house with a porch; says LHO attended 9th grade at Stripling;....one friend of Oswalds was a musician, plays harmonica, sometimes with Willie Nelson - Delbert McClinton;...says she has a directory of students at Stripling she believes that that Oswald signed that directory"

First, living across the street from a school and walking to and from that school in no manner indicates attendance at said school. As a bus rider, and as a father with boys who ride the bus, I and they have had, and do walk to one school which a bus is boarded to another school. My 17 year old walks to a Jr. high school about a block away and boards a bus to his high school which is about 2 miles away. Are you telling me that because you have seen my 17 year old walk to and from this school, your contention is that he attends it? Before we moved both my boys walked to an elementary school 2 blocks away and one boarded a bus to his Jr. high school and the other boarded a different bus to his high school. This practice has been the norm since I was riding buses in elementary through high school and was the same in all cities I lived in as a child and all cities my children have lived in. As far as McClinton goes, from a biography of Arlington Heights High School...

"Arlington Heights High School was established in 1922 and hosted 715 students in its inaugural year. The current building was built in 1937. Originally, students from this area attended Stripling High School in the 1920s, which is now a feeder middle school.

At that time, students at Heights were referred to as "tea-sippers," a nickname Texas A&M Aggies used to call Texas Longhorns because UT students were more likely to be doctors and lawyers, while Aggies were more likely to go into ranching and related fields. Heights was generally wealthy and white until the late 1960s, hosting many children of notable Fort Worthians such as the Belknaps and Dickeys, as well as Governor Connally's children. Other notables such as John Denver, Betty Buckley, Delbert McClinton, Lee Harvey Oswald, Bill Paxton and more recently Blake Brokermeyer, James Rowland Murphy, III, ("Jim") as well as former Steeplechase President William Ratliff also attended Arlington Heights. African American students attended Como High School, which no longer exists and was merged with Arlington Heights at its closing. Students at Arlington Heights referred to their school as 'the hill' because it sat up higher than the surrounding area at the time."

So, while Tubbs may have saw LHO with friends, they were not friends who attended Stripling. Then she believes she has a directory LHO signed. Where is this directory. Surely it's been produced by now.

Unless I'm misunderstanding your basic premise, which I understand to be that one LHO attended school in TX for the 52-53 school year at Stripling, and another attended in NYC at the same time, these "facts" you've presented do not bolster your position, but instead actually erode it.

Edited June 22, 2020 by Mark Stevens
grammar, unnecessary verbiage

[James Norwood]

1 hour ago, Mark Stevens said:

Unless I'm misunderstanding your basic premise, which I understand to be that one LHO attended school in TX for the 52-53 school year at Stripling, and another attended in NYC at the same time, these "facts" you've presented do not bolster your position, but instead actually erode it.

Mark,

I have studied the same documents as Jim Hargrove and Sandy Larsen, and I have come to the same conclusions as they have.  In your critique above, you are not looking carefully enough at what the eyewitnesses stated in recalling the young Oswald (and not Robert) who was in attendance at Stripling.  It is clear that we are missing key pieces of documentary evidence, especially in the disappearance of the school records.  But that is the case for almost any aspect of the JFK case.  In this instance, I believe the evidence supports two essential points:  [1] Oswald attended Stripling Junior High School and [2] the time he was enrolled in the school was fall 1954.  The inescapable conclusion is that this student was not the same Lee Harvey Oswald concurrently attending school in New Orleans for which we do have documentary evidence.  Here is a summary of Stripling that I have written.  Please let me know if you believe that I have misread or mistated any of the evidence.  

Robert Oswald told attorney Albert  Jenner that “junior high school there was from the seventh to the ninth grades.  And as soon as he was through with his sixth year, he started attending W. C. Stripling Junior High School.”  Robert was confused about the timeline, apparently forgetting the period his younger brother had spent in the New York public school system and at Beauregard Junior High School in New Orleans.  But other eyewitnesses have established beyond doubt that Robert was correct in identifying one of the schools attended by Harvey Oswald in Fort Worth in junior high school.  In fall 1954, Harvey attended part of the ninth grade at Stripling at a time when Lee Oswald was a student at Beauregard Junior High School in New Orleans. 

Harvey’s enrollment at Stripling followed his completion of the eighth grade at Beauregard in New Orleans the previous spring, where he was remembered by his homeroom teacher Myra DaRouse.  If the Warren Commission had carefully followed through in interviewing the Stripling students, Robert Oswald’s testimony could have potentially exposed the two Oswald boys who were attending two different schools in two different cities in fall 1954.  In addition to the testimony of Robert Oswald, a total of six eyewitnesses (Frank Kudlaty, Fran Schubert, Richard Galindo, Mark Summers, Bobby Pitts, and Douglas Gann) clearly recalled Oswald attending Stripling Junior High School.  In a videotaped interview, student Fran Schubert told John Armstrong that she recalled Oswald attending Stripling in fall 1954, and she noted that he resided with his mother across the street from the school.

Shortly after the assassination, Stripling assistant principal Frank Kudlati was instructed by his supervisor, Weldon Lucas, to meet with two FBI agents, who requested the academic records for Oswald.  Kudlati dutifully surrendered the transcripts after perusing them himself.  The records collected by the FBI agents disappeared and were never seen by the Warren Commission or the American public.  In the aftermath of the assassination, the FBI should have been investigating the murder of the thirty-fifth president of the United States.  Instead, the valuable time of the FBI agents was being spent in rounding up Oswald’s employment and school records, which, at face value, had no bearing on either the guilt or innocence of a suspect who had been shot to death on live television.  But it had everything to do with concealing for posterity the identities of the two Oswald boys.  A testimonial on behalf of Kudlaty comes from historian James DiEugenio, who writes the following in the second edition of his book Destiny Betrayed:  JFK, Cuba, and the Garrison Case: 

Kudlaty’s credentials are beyond reproach.  After leaving Stripling, he became Superintendent of Schools in Waco, Texas.  He stayed there until his retirement in 1987.  When the State Department selected a group of school administrators to advise the Chinese government on education, he was one of those chosen to attend….One of the most disturbing aspects of Kudlaty’s testimony is that the FBI had to have known Oswald attended Stripling ten years previous.  Or else how could they have called Weldon Lucas the morning after the assassination. [3]

Robert Oswald also attended Stripling, but there was no way that he could have been confused with his much younger brother, given the brothers’ age difference and the fact that multiple witnesses attending the school in fall 1954 remembered Harvey Oswald long after Robert had graduated.

NOTES:

[1] Warren Commission Hearings, Vol. 1, 299.

[2] Baylor University, Taped Interviews by John Armstrong Related to Lee Harvey Oswald, Francetta Schubert: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IVxa1B2wJjA&t=30s
[3] James DiEugenio, Destiny Betrayed:  JFK, Cuba, and the Garrison Case, second edition (New York:  Skyhorse Publishing, 2012), 124.

 

Edited June 22, 2020 by James Norwood

[Jonathan Cohen]

1 hour ago, Jim Hargrove said:

John A. summarized what really happened:

The "Marguerite Oswald" imposter accurately described to reporter Les Strother in 1959
how Harvey Oswald quit and returned to school on 3 separate occasions. The most likely
reason for Harvey's changing from one school to another was his inability to provide
transcripts from the previous schools. We can now see that her innocent sounding, but very
revealing statement, about Harvey was correct.

 

Why on earth would whoever was running this imaginary double Oswald project allow the "Marguerite Oswald" imposter to give interviews to local journalists??