The car Oswald drove was NOT Ruth Paine's 1955 Chevrolet Station Wagon

[Tony Krome]

All challengers to the above statement are welcome!

 

Mr. LEIBELER - Did she (Ruth Paine) say anything about his (Oswald's) ability to drive a car?

Mr. PAINE - She thought it was pretty crude. He was having trouble operating the clutch.

 

Remember, Michael Paine was working on VTOL engineering innovations at Bell Helicopter. To say he was mechanically minded is an understatement.

 

Mrs. PAINE - It was not power steering. But it has no clutch so that makes it a lot easier to drive. 
Mr. JENNER - It is an automatic transmission? 
Mrs. PAINE - It is an automatic transmission. 
Mr. JENNER - Describe your automobile, will you please? 
Mrs. PAINE - It is a 1955 Chevrolet station wagon, green, needing paint, which we bought secondhand. It is in my name. 
Mr. McCLOY - But automatic transmission? 
Mrs. PAINE - Automatic transmission; yes. 

 

GARRISON - Was he (Oswald) able to drive at all, or was he kind of primitive driver, non driver, or ... ?

RUTH PAINE - Primitive driver is a good description. He hadn't handled the steering wheel much.

GARRISON - But he had learned the elements of procedure, how to start it, he just had not had much experience in coordination? In driving around?

RUTH PAINE - Yes, He knew what my 7 year old would know, about what makes the car go, and where you turn the key, how to put the brakes on, and how to change the gear.

 

So which car, that required the clutch to manually change the gears, did Oswald drive?

[Jonathan Cohen]

Couldn't Michael's reference to a "clutch" here just be a catch-all for any means of shifting gears, whether the car is automatic or manual? In other words, even an automatic transmission requires manual manipulation to change from Park to Drive, Drive to Reverse, and etc.

[David Von Pein]

Uh-oh! A new conspiracy theory has just been born!

Chevy-gate!

 

[Tony Krome]

51 minutes ago, Jonathan Cohen said:

Couldn't Michael's reference to a "clutch" here just be a catch-all for any means of shifting gears, whether the car is automatic or manual? In other words, even an automatic transmission requires manual manipulation to change from Park to Drive, Drive to Reverse, and etc.

Oswald had experience in driving a car with automatic transmission. Oswald had knowledge of "manual manipulation" in an automatic car.

Here is Marilyn Murret referring to her brother John's 1960 Dodge;

Mr. LIEBELER. Did he (John Murret) ever tell you how well Oswald did? 
Miss MURRET. Well, it was a hydramatic and he could just steer it, and that was about all, and with subsequent lessons he would have been able to drive.

Here is John Murret;

Mr. LIEBELER - How did he seem to handle the car at that time? 
Mr. MURRET - Well, I had to stay next to him, tell you the truth. Evidently he could handle the car--I mean just steering-- because it was just regular gas and brake. That is all it is, you know. There is nothing to that.

Mr. MURRET - and I was just trying to tell him, you know, how to go into the parking lanes and also backing into the parking lanes

 

 

Edited November 24, 2023 by Tony Krome

[Jim Hargrove]

[Tony Krome]

Thanks Jim.

[James DiEugenio]

Boy is that interesting as is the apparent fact the Paines do not recall if the car was automatic or manual transmission.

Did they have more than one car?

[Tony Krome]

18 minutes ago, James DiEugenio said:

Boy is that interesting as is the apparent fact the Paines do not recall if the car was automatic or manual transmission.

Did they have more than one car?

Michael Paine bought an Oldsmobile while the Oswalds were there. Paid $200 for it, handed over two checks for $100 to the seller. That's what oddballs do. Anyway, the word is that he bought it for parts, then another different excuse. Last time I checked, Oldsmobile parts were not ideal for Citroens or Chevys, but I suppose, with his engineering know how, he could make them fit.

[Max Good]

That's a coincidence.  I was just looking at the document concerning the two $100 checks today.  I found it in Harold Weisberg's Paine collection on Archive.org.  Some other good stuff in there.

It was George Stephenson, a fellow Bell engineer, who sold Michael the 1955 Oldsmobile.  He was interviewed by the FBI (it appears to be Hosty) and said that Michael's explanation for the two $100 checks was to dodge the sales tax on the transaction.

https://archive.org/details/nsia-PaineMichaelRuth/nsia-PaineMichaelRuth/Paine Michael-Ruth 20/page/n1/mode/2up

 

[Ron Bulman]

43 minutes ago, Max Good said:

That's a coincidence.  I was just looking at the document concerning the two $100 checks today.  I found it in Harold Weisberg's Paine collection on Archive.org.  Some other good stuff in there.

It was George Stephenson, a fellow Bell engineer, who sold Michael the 1955 Oldsmobile.  He was interviewed by the FBI (it appears to be Hosty) and said that Michael's explanation for the two $100 checks was to dodge the sales tax on the transaction.

https://archive.org/details/nsia-PaineMichaelRuth/nsia-PaineMichaelRuth/Paine Michael-Ruth 20/page/n1/mode/2up

 

That's funny.  Avoiding taxes on $200, with his trust fund and his income from Bell Helicopter as a family employee.

[Joe Bauer]

4 hours ago, Ron Bulman said:

That's funny.  Avoiding taxes on $200, with his trust fund and his income from Bell Helicopter as a family employee.

Why are so many people who have lived a life of privilege and wealth obsessed with saving a nickel even if it means cheating the legal system?

Almost a billionaire Martha Stewart risked going to jail ( and did!) by cheating the Wall Street rules system to save a measly $250,000?

D.J. Trump has a new watch sent out of state and then back to him to avoid paying sales tax on it?

Michael Paine is a piece of work it appears.

Trust fund spoiled, arrogant about his academic background to the point of making fun of Lee Oswald as an uneducated loser who wasn't even aware of his true level of ignorance.

Why did the Paine's divorce after only 5 years together? I read that it was Ruth who wanted to end the marriage. Was Michael Paine cheating on her?

Ruth would rather live with young Marina Oswald than Michael?

"I love you Marina and I want to live with you."

 

 

[Joe Bauer]

Speaking of Ruth Paine actually giving Lee Oswald driving lessons, did she do this?

Did I once read erroneously or correctly that according to Ruth, Lee didn't do too well? That he loved hitting curbs and bushes while over or under turning the wheel?

That even in open parking lot areas she clung on for dear life as Lee drove like he was on one of those "bumper cars" amusement park rides?

"Okay Lee, give it a little gas, no-no not that much! HIT THE BRAKES ( both her and Lee violently thrown forward ) ... but not THAT hard!  Okay...now, slowly get going again ... but go easy this time...now turn the wheel left ... no, no, don't over-turn...watch out for that bush! OMG you just missed hitting that parked car! 

Stop the car...STOP THE CAR!  Just, just get out...I'm taking over."

No wonder she would never knowingly let Lee take her car out on his own.

There were three things Ruth was ferociously possessive and protective of in her home regards Lee Oswald ever touching them without her permission...her typewriter, her car and her record player.

Ruth testified under oath she was deeply offended and upset when she discovered Lee had used her typewriter without her permission.

[Joe Bauer]

There have been hundreds ( if not thousands ) of opinions and theories proposed considering Lee Harvey Oswald's psychological makeup.

I am curious about the part of that makeup that deals with Oswald's extreme difficulty in learning to drive a car.

I imagine Oswald was too poor to buy a car before he joined the Marines at 17 ?
And Lee was probably used to taking busses everywhere from a very young age.

People rode busses more in his time than they have in the last 5 decades.

And once in the Marines do you even need a car?

Then LHO travels to Russia and lives in Minsk for what...3 years?

I guess owning a car was not the norm there and in most of Russia at that time? Too expensive for their communist collective low wages? Sounds like most everyone there also took busses.

So Lee then brings Marina and baby June back here to the states. 

What a poor situation Lee immediately found himself in upon arriving here and trying to provide just the simple basic needs for his young family.

He has no decent chunk of money saved up to get his family into a place to stay on their own. 

Lee's family ( Robert and his mother ) have no means of providing that amount of funds although brother Robert helps in the very beginning with sharing his home and food costs until Lee can find a job and get at least a couple of paychecks saved to move out on his own.

Oswald's jobs are almost always low pay and manual labor ones. He doesn't stay too long on them before quitting ( or being fired ) for various reasons.

After leaving Robert's home he and Marina do the best they can. Living in a succession of lowest rent apartments.

Soon enough, through some social engagements with the White Russian community ( and Ruth Paine ) certain people in that group see how poor Lee and Marina are and start offering needed items to help them. Clothing, baby furniture, etc.

They offer rides to needed destinations like stores.

Ruth Paine and even the De Mohrenschildts help them move from place to place.

Marina's situation with Lee becomes more strained and Marina actually finds shelter in a couple of White Russian member's homes when things get real bad.

Eventually Ruth comes all the way to New Orleans to get Marina and baby June and their belongings ( including Lee's ) out of their cockroach infested apartment and drives them back to Irving to live with her.

They leave Lee to fend for himself in New Orleans. Lee collects miniscule unemployment checks during his time there before eventually taking a bus back to Dallas, with a vacation side trip to Mexico City.

I state this background story to set up the importance of the following questions:

Having a car in American towns of any decent size back in the early 1960's was an absolute necessity to providing one's young family with the most basic needs fulfillment.

Lee's young family really suffered by not having a car, by Lee's inability to even drive one and had to endure the humiliation of having to rely on the efforts of others to help them in their transportation needs even if it wasn't an everyday thing.

Lee and Marina and baby June walked to and fro for so many needed provisions and even outings and had to take busses as well.

Lee H. O. was intelligent. He was in air traffic control in his Atsugi assignment service time. He learned Russian in his spare time. He must have learned some mechanical skills working in a radio factory in Minsk. He worked for Jagger-Chiles-Stovall graphic arts company for a while. He even learned the skill of cleaning coffee machines at Reilly Coffee company in New Orleans!

What mental block, what emotional fear insecurity blocked Oswald from even trying to learn how to drive a car until the very end of his 24 year long life?

Is fear of driving a car a real psychological condition and one that is more common than we all know?

If LHO had learned this skill, if he had a car...clearly his life with Marina here in the states would have had a better chance at succeeding.

Lee tries to kill General Walker using a bus for transportation to and from his kill shot place.

He takes busses to and from his TXSBD job with a once-a- week reprieve via Wesley Frazier's generosity.

He supposedly defeats an army of presidential security in doing JFK...and once again simply catches a bus to get away?

What emotional/psychological affliction prevented LHO from learning to drive a car?

Edited December 7, 2023 by Joe Bauer