Sheriff Eugene Boone's very interesting thoughts on Ruth Paine

[Vince Palamara]

Very interesting excerpt (page 313) of The Lone Star Speaks: Untold Texas Stories About the JFK Assassination by Sara Peterson and K.W. Zachry (2020)

[Paul Brancato]

I doubt that’s why Ruth took Marina in. 

[Vince Palamara]

18 minutes ago, Paul Brancato said:

I doubt that’s why Ruth took Marina in. 

It does seem odd. I agree.

[Vince Palamara]

 

[Paul Brancato]

I remember the very first news coverage mentioning a motorcycle cop making a beeline up the incline towards the overpass or the picket fence presumably because they thought that’s where shots originated.

[Benjamin Cole]

4 hours ago, Paul Brancato said:

I remember the very first news coverage mentioning a motorcycle cop making a beeline up the incline towards the overpass or the picket fence presumably because they thought that’s where shots originated.

For sure, there was a bang-bang-and-smoke show near the Grassy Knoll, picket fence, or the end of the colonnade.

Whether it was a diversion (my pet theory), or actual shots fired in earnest, the conclusion is the same: At least two shooters on 11/22. 

 

[Cory Santos]

Odd is not the right word.  How did she know de Mohrenschildt?   How long had she known him?

[Allen Lowe]

I agree that Paine was in this up to her ears, but the whole “learning Russian” thing is not the least bit surprising or suspicious in the context of the times and her professed Quaker beliefs. You guys may be too young, but this was exactly the time when things were just starting to thaw out in the Cold War, when there were Peace delegations going to Russia, and people on the left were making attempts to bridge the gap between the US and USSR. There was a lot of talk of peaceful  co-existence, and the Quakers were very much a part of that. My parents were classic liberals, and my brother, who had just started to take Russian in school, had  subscribed to a Soviet magazine in English called Soviet Life (which came every month in a brown wrapper that had been opened and obviously searched). There was a lot of this at the time, these mutual friendship organizations (and Benny Goodman went to Russia in 1962), though I am not, once again, arguing that Ruth wasn’t involved in the JFK thing, only that her actions we’re not the least bit peculiar. Even if she was teaching Russian, a chance to live with a native speaker would certainly be a plausible temptation. 

Edited September 3, 2022 by Allen Lowe

[Greg Doudna]

4 hours ago, Allen Lowe said:

I agree that Paine was in this up to her ears, but the whole “learning Russian” thing is not the least bit surprising or suspicious in the context of the times and her professed Quaker beliefs. You guys may be too young, but this was exactly the time when things were just starting to thaw out in the Cold War, when there were Peace delegations going to Russia, and people on the left were making attempts to bridge the gap between the US and USSR. There was a lot of talk of peaceful  co-existence, and the Quakers were very much a part of that. My parents were classic liberals, and my brother, who had just started to take Russian in school, had  subscribed to a Soviet magazine in English called Soviet Life (which came every month in a brown wrapper that had been opened and obviously searched). There was a lot of this at the time, these mutual friendship organizations (and Benny Goodman went to Russia in 1962), though I am not, once again, arguing that Ruth wasn’t involved in the JFK thing, only that her actions we’re not the least bit peculiar. Even if she was teaching Russian, a chance to live with a native speaker would certainly be a plausible temptation. 

I am glad you brought this out Allen. For what you speak of is true from my experience in Friends. I personally knew as friends (small "f") as well as fellow Friends, in my hometown of Akron, Ohio, a couple who hosted a visiting delegation of Russians, set up speaking engagements for them in area churches, etc. to increase understanding between peoples who traditionally distrusted each other. They and other members of the Akron Friends Meeting, on their own interest, were taking Russian lessons taught by a Soviet Jewish woman immigrant (not a Friend but friendly to Friends). These were just average people, homegrown Americans with regular jobs, not ideologically communist, but as you describe "classic liberals", who made the effort to go one evening a week to try to learn Russian for its own sake, no college credit involved.