Oswald: a possible love story (not Marina)

[Greg Doudna]

A narrative

Oswald has a need for new curtains

Let us suppose Oswald by accident busted the long curtain rod over the three windows in his tiny room on N. Beckley. We don't need to suppose this since there are photos of it, though owner Mrs. Johnson was uncertain how it happened, alternatively blaming news people or police on Fri Nov 22 for causing it. Mrs. Johnson was photographed by photographer Gene Daniels on Nov 23 hammering the long curtain rod back in.

Let us assume what happened was Lee realized he had broken it, and Lee is the one who took it down.

Let us imagine Lee has no plans to leave right away and would like that fixed for practical reasons--privacy because his north-facing windows look right into the side of another house and its windows--and because he wants to fix what he broke. Rather than tell the Johnsons he decides to fix it himself. The fix: instead of one super-long curtain rod and one super-wide set of curtains covering all three windows, he will install instead individual curtains and curtain rods on those windows. He will do the fix himself rather than report to the Johnsons that he damaged their property without having solved it first.

We know curtains and curtain rods were on Lee's mind, in addition to the concrete evidence of the photos of Nov 23, 1963 showing the long curtain rod in his room had been busted. 

We know that for two reasons: what he told Ralph Yates when he hitchhiked a ride from him Thu morning Nov 21; and what he told Buell Wesley Frazier when he got his ride from him on Thu Nov 21. 

Oswald as the Yates hitchhiker who said he was carrying curtains

Ralph Yates was a refrigeration mechanic who picked up a hitchhiker at the N. Beckley entrance to the R.L. Thornton Expressway--about a mile north of Oswald's rooming house--at about 10:30 am on the morning of Thu Nov 21.

The case for the Yates hitchhiker being Oswald is: first, Yates positively identified Oswald as his hitchhiker from seeing Oswald on TV. Second, the hitchhiker was dropped off by Yates in Dealey Plaza on Houston just next to Oswald's workplace the TSBD, and Yates last saw the man walk with his package crossing Elm Street in the direction of the TSBD, Oswald's workplace.

And third, the timing of when Yates picked him up at the N. Beckley entrance of the R.L. Thornton Expressway: at about 10:30 am Thu Nov 21. That was about 30 minutes after Oswald was independently witnessed at the Dobbs House Restaurant on N. Beckley near the rooming house eating breakfast at about 10:00 am according to the waitress who served him.

Never mind that Oswald is supposed to be at work at the TSBD at those hours. The evidence just cited says he wasn't that particular morning.

Yates said Oswald was carrying a package, estimated by Yates to be about 3-4 feet long. Yates said Oswald told him the package had curtains in it. That's what he says Oswald told him.

Forget the part about Oswald asking about Jack Ruby on that ride. Yates later told the FBI that did not happen, correcting his earlier FBI report. Forget the part about Oswald showing Yates a backyard photo and asking Yates if someone could shoot the president like that. Yates also told the FBI that didn't happen that way, correcting that part of his report. Forget the part about Oswald doing anything incriminating in that ride with Yates, no matter how spooked Yates was and how tragic the outcome was on Yates in the aftermath of the assassination.

During that ride with Oswald, there was a discussion of the president's arrival, and discussion of the possibility that he could be shot from a window, probably some mention of the Adlai Stevenson reception several weeks earlier. Everybody in Dallas was talking and wondering about that, that was not an unusual conversation. Yates took part in that conversation and Yates was no assassin. It only became unusual retrospectively after the assassination when Oswald was believed to have done it. Similar conversations must have occurred a thousand times among ordinary people in Dallas the same morning of that nature. Yates remembers Oswald asking if he knew if there had been any last-minute change of route of the parade. Again, that is the most innocent of question and only takes on sinister meaning in retrospect post-assassination.

Imagine for purposes of this narrative that Oswald actually is innocent, that the Yates' hitchhiker really was Oswald; and there was nothing sinister about what happened on that ride beyond Oswald wanting to get himself and a package of fabric for curtains from Point A to Point B at a certain time of day and hitchhiking as his means of doing so. 

After the assassination, everyone has considered that either Yates imagined it was Oswald with a package, or if it was a package it either was the rifle or intended to look like it was. Imagine that is all wrong. Imagine the package had in it what Oswald told Yates it did: curtains.

Going to Irving for curtain rods

That morning, Thu Nov 21, Oswald--after his arrival in the vicinity of the TSBD with a package of curtains--entered the TSBD late and got to work. Almost immediately Lee asked Buell Frazier if he could catch a ride to Irving at the end of that day. Frazier said sure, asked why. Oswald said he wanted to get some curtain rods. 

Oswald goes to Irving Thu evening, unexpected because unannounced, has a rather ordinary evening playing with his daughter and the neighborhood kids, tries unsuccessfully to talk Marina into moving to an apartment that weekend, promises to buy her a washing machine, anything she needs--Marina declines, postpones, brushes him off, says maybe after the holidays. Lee goes to bed early, gets up, goes to work the next day. No drama, no secret prolonged goodby. Nothing unusual at all in behavior other than one detail: he leaves his wedding ring there. Everyone thinks that means they broke up, or he was anticipating shooting Kennedy, or anticipating leaving Dallas. This narrative will propose another possible interpretation of that with the wedding ring, none of the preceding, but wait till later for that.

The next morning Lee in the car with Buell Frazier for the return trip to Dallas has a package with him of exact dimensions of curtain rods which Lee tells Buell is curtain rods, just as he told Buell the previous day he intended to get.

There have been three possibilities argued for what Lee was really carrying in that package: the rifle, his lunch, or curtain rods.

Let us imagine here that the correct answer is it was curtain rods, which has in its support the strong lifelong testimony of Buell Frazier on the length issue, ca. 27", too short to carry the rifle, but in exact agreement with the length of curtain rods in Ruth Paine's garage which measure 27".

After parking near the TSBD, Buell sees Lee walk ahead of him with the package under his arm that looks in length and appearance like it is curtain rods, which Lee has told him is curtain rods. Buell sees Lee walk up the steps to the loading dock on the north side of TSBD, goes into a door. There is another door to enter the main floor area of the TSBD itself and Oswald is seen entering that "empty", no package. Therefore, assume Lee left his curtain rods unobtrusively on that loading dock somewhere out of the way for the moment. 

Where did Lee get the curtain rods?

Intrigued by the chapter on the curtain rods issue on Pat Speer's website, I studied the curtain rods issue and determined to my satisfaction that Ruth and Michael Paine started out with four sets of curtain rods at their house, not two as Ruth thought. Michael remembered it was either two or four. The windows and rooms in the house make better sense with four. With four original, Lee takes two, leaving two which is what were found in Ruth's garage when she and Michael and the Secret Service and Warren Commission checked. 

The curtain rods in the garage were not being used, were accessible to Oswald. There is no other place he could have got them than there. Imagine he took two of them, assume two was either all he could find or all he needed. He knows they were there from having seen them before, but only now did he have a need for them. He takes them, doesn't tell either Ruth or Marina that detail.

Now the reader may ask, why wouldn't he tell or ask Marina or Ruth? (The reason we think he didn't is because both of them said he didn't--that's the reason for that.)

Hold on to that, because there will be proposed an unexpected explanation for that, just as for why he left the wedding ring.

Imagine Lee is not taking those curtain rods in order to provide an excuse to Frazier. Imagine also that of course curtain rods was not his only reason for going to Irving--seeing Marina and his kids was the main reason, but imagine the curtain rods were not invented either, it was in the mix of tasks accomplished by going there.

Imagine that the curtain rods from Irving taken to work at TSBD are related to his curtains in the 3-4' package taken to work at TSBD hitchhiking Thursday morning Nov 21, just before he asked Frazier for the ride to Irving to go get curtain rods.

What was Lee up to with curtains and curtain rods in both cases taken to his place of work at the TSBD?

We have now traced witness testimonies attesting that Lee in two separate conveyances brought what he said were curtains and curtain rods--two distinct curtains-related conveyances--to the location of the TSBD, on the same day, Thu Nov 21 and Thu-Fri Nov 21-22. There is no evidence either the fabric or the curtain rods actually ever were taken inside the TSBD by Lee. But they were there somewhere in the vicinity of the building.

And why was Oswald doing all of this?

Well, it is the obvious reason why: he was going to have curtains made for his room so he could have his windows properly covered for privacy, because he had busted the curtain that came with the room. 

Imagine it is not more complicated than that.

But--the astute reader is asking--why does he go about it in this odd way--of bringing these items to his workplace, TSBD (even if not necessarily actually inside the building)? Why does he--apparently--not tell Marina? Why does he deny it to Captain Fritz under questioning, even though he had told Buell Frazier himself that was why? And why did he leave his wedding ring in Irving that morning before going into work at TSBD on Fri Nov 22?

Imagine none of these things have anything to do with the assassination.

Imagine all the assassination related theories and reasons and explanations for these things are all retrospective interpretation of these everyday mundane events in daily life, all mistaken explanations.

Was Lee thinking of another woman?

Imagine the one thing that has never been considered an an explanation for all of this: that a woman had flirted a little with Lee, and Lee was intrigued enough to notice her and be interested.

Remember the incident of the Japanese woman Lee met at a party and was smitten with her, with Marina jealous, and de Mohrenschildt thinking good for Lee, serves Marina right for the way she treated him? That would be the pattern hypothesized here.

Not sought out by Lee, but if a pretty woman showed some attention he would not mind that. Imagine that is what is going on as a subtext here. Nothing came of it. The assassination interrupted. Imagine it never was more than a woman smiling and catching his attention, Lee noticing she was pretty and maybe joking or smiling back, a lift in spirits in a dreary TSBD workday, he thinking about her...

The possible woman who caught Lee's eye

Imagine the woman was ... a seamstress, who sewed for her job, along with other young women fellow employees, working for a company in the Dal-Tex building across the street from the TSBD.

Imagine she was Spanish-speaking, and she and fellow Spanish-speaking seamstresses had by accident noticed Lee by himself eating lunch in some location nearby. Lee knew a little Spanish, enough to say some words in Spanish to them. Imagine their pleasant surprise at that, maybe some giggling, some banter, maybe a couple more times at the same lunch place, who knows, casual conversation, he finds out where they work and vice versa. Maybe there is one in particular that has caught his eye.

Now imagine Lee has an opportunity come up to do business with these women. He has this unplanned but real need for curtains. They are in the seamstress business. He will get his curtains from them, pay them to make them up for him. And he doesn't mind the interactions with the pretty women who are friendly to him as a fringe benefit. 

Lee and the women at McKeel Sportswear in the Dal-Tex building

"Mrs. Evelyn Harris ... stated that on November 30, 1963, she had been visiting an aunt in Van, Texas, and while there met a woman who lives across the street from her aunt. She stated this woman is known as Lucy Lopez, a white woman who is married to a Mexican and had given the following story.

"Mrs. Lopez had just come from Dallas where she had been babysitting for her daughter. She stated her daughter works at a sewing room across from the Texas School Book Depository Building. She stated her daughter and some of the other girls knew Lee Harvey Oswald who apparently spoke Spanish well and ate with them at a nearby restaurant." (https://www.maryferrell.org/archive/docs/095/95674/images/img_95674_70_300.png)

The FBI investigated this for other reasons and I have spent quite a bit of time sorting through this story, the results of which I report here. The part quoted about the Spanish-speaking knowing Oswald was not investigated. What was investigated was a report that three Spanish-speaking women who worked at the McKeel Sportswear company in the Dal-Tex building (misspelled "McKell" in the FBI reports), walking together out to their cars after work on the afternoon of Tue Nov 19, had encountered two cars and two men conveying a rifle. The woman speculated one of the men might have been Ruby and the other possibly Oswald, though they had not gotten a good look at the men enough to identify anyone.

Since there were no identifications of either the persons or cars reported, and since it was just as hunting season had started and rifles were being borrowed or returned from being borrowed, and since sheriff's department deputies used that parking lot who could have been seen with firearms out of their cars, in the end nothing came of it.

The original report quoted above reflects errors in hearsay which direct interviews by the FBI sorted out. Specifically, Lucy Lopez's daughter was a Mrs. Velez, a young woman. Mrs. Velez did not work at McKeel nor was she a seamstress. But she knew a man named Conrad Galvan who had picked up the Nov 19 parking lot story from a friend of his named David Torres, whose sister was one of the seamstresses at McKeel. (Incidentally, the date of the parking lot story is securely Tue Nov 19 as the women remembered, confirmed by the women remembering it was raining that day and Nov 19 it rained in Dallas. This detail on the security of the date ruled out that this incident was related to the Castor rifles in the TSBD which was the next day Wed Nov 20.)

The three women at McKeel of the parking lot sighting were Mrs. Frances Hernandez, Mrs. Henrietta Vargas, and Mrs. Josephine Salinas. It is not clear whether David Torres' sister who worked at McKeel was one of those three or a fourth, and if she was one of those three, it is not known which one.

But long story short, the FBI never investigated and did not establish that those three or four McKeel Sportswear women did not know Oswald. None of those women were asked or denied that directly in the FBI reports. The closest to a statement reported by the FBI that might read as suggesting the women did not know Oswald is a report that David Torres said of the "two or three girls of Spanish descent" who had seen the parking lot men with the rifle, "they do not know Lee Oswald to his knowledge".

That is the only item given by the FBI on whether those women were acquainted with Oswald, and it is not a denial. It is certainly not a denial obtained by the FBI from any of the women themselves. In Torres' case it is simply a statement that he did not know. The FBI must have asked him that question, and that was his spontaneous answer. Yet though the FBI asked him, the FBI reports do not tell of having asked any of the women themselves that question, though they interviewed those women.

And although other mistakes in the original hearsay story of Mrs. Evelyn Harris quoted above can be traced through understandable mechanisms for the mistakes, there is nothing in the actual truth of the stories brought out by the FBI that explain the origin of "some of the other girls knew Lee Harvey Oswald who apparently spoke Spanish well and ate with them at a nearby restaurant." 

That element of originally reported hearsay may well be some independent fragment of what was told and conveyed by hearsay that could well be truthful--there is no evidence contradicting it--even thought it was never followed up by the FBI (which was interested solely in the parking lot gun sighting report).

On the strength of that unrebutted hearsay report, that "some of the other girls knew Lee Harvey Oswald who apparently spoke Spanish well and ate with them at a nearby restaurant", imagine that is true.

Oswald and the Spanish-speaking women of the McKeel Sportswear company.

Putting it together

Imagine that Lee, hardworking family man that he was, living in Oak Cliff apart from his wife and children on weekdays, enjoyed some banter or low-level flirting in a lunch place with these fetching Spanish-speaking lasses working as seamstresses in the building across the street. Yes, they are married, and so is he, but he enjoys the attention.

So, he takes the opportunity of his real emergency need for replacement curtains as an occasion to do business with them and have an excuse for more interaction with their smiles and laughter. 

Back to the curtains need, imagine that actually is urgent. Those windows look out directly into another house. Lee's room with the bed is next to those windows such that he is like a fishbowl. There are still louvres or slats of some kind in the photos of his room from that weekend, but perhaps they do not provide complete privacy with the superlarge single curtain set covering all three windows gone, in a pile maybe in a closet or on the floor out of the way in his room. Let us suppose Oswald may have broken the super-long curtain rod on say maybe Wednesday afternoon or night.

Although Lee normally was punctual with work, he was not above simply showing up late if necessary. Maybe he hoped it wouldn't be noticed, or if it was he would just roll with whatever reprimand may come of it--but he did need curtains. 

He spends Wednesday night Nov 20 until after midnight in a nearby laundromat. And on Thursday morning he does not go to the TSBD as early as normal and on time, for the first time ever.

A fellow roomer at the N. Beckley rooming house, Jack Cody, said that on "Wednesday or Thursday, the week Kennedy was assassinated", at about 7 am while he took a bus to work, Oswald came out of the rooming house and got on the same bus, "carrying a package, a newspaper-wrapped package. It was about six inches thick and a foot wide and about two foot long" (Russo, Live by the Sword, 268).

Lets call that Thursday morning Nov 21 and trace through that morning.

Oswald is leaving with a package. Imagine that package is related to his need for curtains. We don't know exactly what it was--maybe it is something that will give size or length measurements for customizing the curtains. 

There is an Oswald breakfast at the Dobbs House Restaurant near his rooming house in here somewhere this morning at which time Oswald ate a full breakfast but complained about how his eggs were cooked. Witnesses differ as to the time of day that he was there for that breakfast. Oswald's waitress, Mary Dowling, said the hour was around 10 am and she would probably know best, but a cook who remembered the same incident said it was early in agreement with Oswald's normal early time when he would come in for coffee before going to the TSBD. Actually the earlier time for Oswald there might make better sense. Let us imagine a main task of Oswald that morning was to purchase fabric for the curtains. We might imagine he may even have paid for a breakfast at the Dobbs House to "kill time" until stores would open. When the stores open he buys some fabric suitable for his curtains. He intends to ask the women at McKeel Sportswear to cut and sew and fix up curtains from that fabric to the right size for him, for which he will pay them. 

He buys the fabric, and that becomes the 3-4' package that Yates says Oswald carried with him when Yates picked him up hitchhiking that morning at around 10:30 am.

Yates drove Oswald to where he requested, dropped Oswald off at Dealey Plaza right next to the TSBD, with that package.

Oswald does not take the package to the women at McKeel yet. He stashes the package somewhere. (Where? unknown, but let us imagine he found somewhere where it could be safely stored overnight.) 

Then he gets to work at the TSBD with that late arrival, and at the end of that workday goes out to Irving, tries unsuccessfully to invite Marina to get  an apartment with him that weekend.

Unknown to Marina, he is returning to Dallas the next morning with a couple of curtain rods.

Why did Lee leave his wedding ring?

There has been much mystery surrounding why Lee left his wedding ring in Marina's room that morning, Nov 22, 1963. Some think it was a symbol of a marital breakup, or Lee's response to Marina's refusal to move into an apartment with him right then.

But against that is: Ruth Paine said she saw no sign of distress or serious argument or a fight or sobbing or tears, none of that. Nor did Marina tell of any of that kind of drama happening.

Some think he left the wedding ring because he was planning to assassinate JFK, or was going to leave Dallas.

In this narrative we are imagining, Lee was not involved in assassinating JFK, even though unknown to him the rifle he with Marina's assistance had repaired and sold on Nov 11, unknown to him was on that 6th floor of the TSBD ready to be found and to frame him for the assassination being carried out by others.

Here is a more mundane reason for leaving the wedding ring: because Lee was planning to take his fabric material and curtain rods to McKeel Sportswear that afternoon and he preferred not to be wearing a wedding ring then, when he drops in to see one of the women there.

And that is why he did not tell Marina about the curtain rods or the curtains. He told Buell Frazier Marina was helping fix his curtains, but while the curtains and curtain rods part was true, the part about Marina assisting wasn't. That was just what he told Frazier. He did not tell Frazier he intended to have that work done by the seamstresses at McKeel Sportswear. 

Possibly one of those women at McKeel Sportswear had begun to be a little more to Lee than simply light flirting or banter.

Some men take off their wedding rings when they do not want women to know they are married. Imagine that was the reason Lee took off his ring that morning.

As for why he would leave it in Marina's room, that is logical on strictly practical safety grounds. Lee kept the family's money with Marina, all in cash, not with himself or in his room on N. Beckley (where it would be more vulnerable to loss or theft). About the only safe place to have his wedding ring if he was not wearing it was in Marina's room in Irving, just as with their money. 

However Lee hid it on Marina's dresser in a way in which it is not clear he wanted her to see it or to know he had left it. And is it necessarily obvious Marina would have noticed if it had not been for the assassination and police searches? Maybe the reason he hid it that way was for the most mundane reason of all--he was hoping she would not notice.

Did Oswald have in mind a possible date the weekend of Nov 23-24, 1963? 

Suspend disbelief please until hearing this out.

David Wood III, Assassination chronology: 

7:30 AM (Nov. 22, 1963) J.W. "Dub" Stark, owner of the Top Ten Record Shop at 338 W. Jefferson Blvd. in Oak Cliff says that LHO is waiting at his store when Stark arrives at about this time. Stark says that LHO buys a ticket to the Dick Clark Show and leaves by bus. 

That date cannot be correct; at 7:30 am on Nov 22 Oswald was in Irving. Therefore imagine Dub Stark has the date wrong by one day and it really was the morning of Thu Nov 21, the morning Oswald does not go to work at the TSBD on time but takes care of other things that morning in Oak Cliff, before his late arrival to the TSBD that morning.

From the information in this article by Bill Drenas the identification of Oswald as the one who bought that Dick Clark Show ticket looks sound (https://www.jfk-assassination.net/top10.htm). Not only did owner Dub Stark know Lee and Marina from having been in his store some times (when they both lived in Oak Cliff), according to his daughter Wanda, but a note from an Earl Golz interview in 1981 of Dub Stark had Dub telling this of his employee, Louis Cortinas, 

Stark had young employee 11/22/63 “curious story” that employee left store to go to theatre and said same guy earlier that morning purchased ticket to Dick Clark Show, cancelled after assassination.

Louis Cortinas in interviews definitely confirmed he was at the Texas Theatre and witnessed Oswald being brought out under arrest.

And then--get this!-- Oswald was reported to have returned to the Top Ten Record Store again that same morning to buy another ticket 

"On 12/3/63, Mr. John D. Whitten, Telephonically advised that he heard, Lee Harvey Oswald was in the Top Ten Record Shop on Jefferson, on the morning of 11/22/63. Oswald bought a ticket of some kind and left. Then some time later, Oswald returned to the record shop and wanted to buy another ticket ... Oswald then left the record shop for the second time. It is not known whether or not Oswald bought another ticket." (https://www.jfk-assassination.net/lho-top10.gif)

Therefore Oswald bought at least one, and maybe two, tickets to the Dick Clark Show which was playing in Dallas that weekend.

This was highly unlike Oswald to buy even a single ticket to an event like that. When did Oswald do something like that on any other occasion?

And yet the identification, that that was Oswald, is credible.

And returning to buy a second ticket to the same event? When he is going to be in Oak Cliff but alone that weekend?

Oswald was not returning to Irving that weekend. He told Buell Frazier that.

He is by himself that weekend, with two tickets to a music event?

How else is this to be interpreted?

It looks like Oswald was planning on maybe going out, or inviting someone to go out, on a date!

Maybe there is some other reason why Oswald, who had never had a history of patronizing music events in Dallas before, alone in Oak Cliff, would buy two tickets to a Dick Clark Show music event to occur that weekend. 

But it is difficult to come up with some other explanation that makes sense. And it sure does make sense as a possible date.

And the timing--if he bought that Thu morning Nov 21, that would be when he was preparing to have his curtains made at McKeel Sportswear, where he will see the women there, and perhaps one in particular.

And just maybe, just maybe, he hoped to be able to say to her, he had these two tickets to the Dick Clark Show, and there was a sudden cancellation or something, and he doesn't want the ticket to go to waste, and, you know, would you maybe be interested in seeing that show with me? 

He buys two tickets to a Dick Clark show to occur on a weekend when he is not going to Irving to visit Marina. And he is doing a lot of activity around a curtain rod situation in his room at his rooming house that looks centered on the TSBD in location which looks a lot like it may be focused on the seamstresses at the McKeel Sportswear company in the Dal-Tex building, where there is an unrebutted hearsay FBI report that "some of the ... girls knew Lee Harvey Oswald who apparently spoke Spanish well and ate with them..."

And he appears ready to go there that afternoon, Nov 22, in a curtain rods project that he has not told his wife, and on a day when by coincidence he decided extraordinarily not to wear his wedding ring, the day he may be asking a woman there to accompany him to a Dick Clark concert.

There's a lot here that hangs together narratively.

Why did Lee deny the curtain rods to Captain Fritz?

Buell Frazier told the Dallas Police what Lee had said about going to Irving to pick up curtain rods, then returning the next morning with a package that looked like it contained curtain rods, which Lee said was carrying curtain rods.

Nevertheless, almost no one (Pat Speer excepted) has believed Lee actually was carrying what the size of the package he carried indicated he was carrying and which he told Buell Frazier he was carrying. 

Let us imagine that Lee did tell Buell that because that is what it was that morning, curtain rods. 

He was getting those curtain rods suitable for individual window frames because he needed replacement window curtains in individual windows for his room on N. Beckley. And he was going to ask the women at McKeel Sportswear that afternoon, Friday afternoon, if they would do that work for him for pay. 

Imagine Lee with no idea going in to the TSBD that morning of Fri Nov 22 that there would be an assassination, that his (former, as of Nov 11) rifle was on the 6th floor, or that before the day was out he would be arrested and accused of having assassinated President Kennedy.

Imagine he figured out after the shots that something was very wrong, and somehow realized (we don't know exactly how) that this was coming down on him, that he had been screwed, and he goes into high-tension evasive mode, calls for an emergency meeting at the Texas Theatre with someone, movements so as not to be followed, changing clothing appearance, picking up his revolver ... then he is arrested and in custody of the Dallas Police and questioned.

At some point in the questioning Fritz asks him what he brought to work. He says it was his lunch. What about the curtain rods that Frazier said he had said? Oswald denies, denies he brought in curtain rods and denies he told Frazier it was curtain rods.

But that was not true: he did tell Frazier that, and it was curtain rods.

People have not been able to imagine why Lee would lie about that, that actually would exculpate him if it could be proven true. 

Here are some thoughts toward a possible answer to that within this narrative.

He never intended his taking of two curtain rods from Ruth Paine to come out. When unexpectedly he found himself under arrest and in the glare of the spotlight, he tried to cover it up. 

That story, if he were to start telling it, could go to another woman, and perhaps that was why he was not telling that, so as not to bring her into it. Oswald otherwise seems to have sought--with Ruth Paine and Marina--not to draw innocent other people into trouble on his account. Maybe that is why he denied the curtain rods, the tip of an iceberg of a story that he regarded as personal. 

And yet it seems the seriousness of the charges Oswald was facing--of killing a president--should have overridden that, and surely would have in the hands of a good lawyer. But there is also this: did Oswald realize he was being accused of having brought a rifle to work that morning in his curtain rods package? For if no one informed him of that, the very thought might seem ludicrous, and not occur to him that that was what police could be suspecting. It matters whether it can be verified that he was told that that was one of the key points suspected against him. If he did not know that, then there might go any motive to embrace the curtain rods (truthful) story as his alibi. 

The world was being told a lot about Oswald over the news that we assume Oswald must have known too, but did he? Was Oswald ever informed a rifle had been found on the 6th floor, and that they were tracing it to him? 

Is it possible (as unbelievable as this sounds) that Oswald did not know he was being accused of some of these things, even though the whole world did, and not knowing, he would have no calculus in his mind or reasoning that he would have need of the curtain rods as an alibi?

Is it possible Lee actually did suppose as he told a reporter, "they're taking me in because I was in Russia"? (or however his exact wording was) Not because he was being flippant, but because he honestly did not know and was guessing? He had been told he was accused of shooting a police officer but his reaction, according to witnesses to his interrogation, was that was ridiculous and he strenuously denied it--maybe he at first did think it could not be serious and was a mistake?

Is it possible Lee was lying on some things early on because he did not realize there were charges on him that would stick? That he was blowing off his interrogators with in some cases false answers not because he was guilty but because he thought some things were none of their business and he would soon be released?

It may not ever become fully clear why Lee dissembled concerning his taking of curtain rods from Irving that morning. 

But let us consider a different interpretation of these curtain rods, in which no matter what he may have told Fritz, it really was curtain rods and he had told Buell Frazier they were because they were.

And it makes excellent sense that he would be carrying curtain rods in the light of this larger context of getting curtains fixed for his room, as outlined in this narrative.

What became of the fabric and curtain rods that Oswald brought to Dealey Plaza?

It is unlikely Oswald ever was able to take his fabric (the package he carried while hitchhiking with Yates on Nov 21) and curtain rods (that he brought from Irving Nov 22) to the McKeel Sportswear company or the women or woman of his possible acquaintance there. The assassination changed all that.

Let us imagine Lee had the fabric of Nov 21 stored somewhere safe--it could be a paid storage locker, who knows, maybe not, but somewhere external to the TSBD building--and he never got back to it Nov 22. Someone would find it and if it was not traceable it would be disposed of and that would be the end of that.

Imagine Lee set the 27" curtain rods bag upon his arrival to TSBD on Nov 22 somewhere out of the way on that loading dock outside the rear north entrance of the TSBD, thinking he would pick them up on his way to retrieve his fabric and go to McKeel Sportswear in the Dal-Tex building later that day. But with the assassination, he never picked up the curtain rods.

Under this scenario the curtain rods never would have been inside the TSBD. However they would have been immediately outside in some crevice or cranny of the loading dock, and would have been found, the only variable being when, depending on how hidden they were. If they were not hidden were they tossed unthinkingly with other trash on Nov 22 before police learned late that night from Buell Frazier that curtain rods might be of interest? 

Did a Spanish-speaking woman at McKeel Sportswear ever know Oswald was interested in her?

In all likelihood, no. We might imagine she lived out the rest of her days--conceivably could still be alive in her 80s today, maybe somewhere in Dallas now, who knows--never realizing that Lee Harvey Oswald, the man believed to have assassinated the president, had been so struck by her youthful vivaciousness and kindness to him so long ago, that he had, unknown to her, bought a Dick Clark Show ticket for her that weekend, hoping she might go with him there. 

And if the chemistry had been right, and she saw a heart that she liked, she might have listened as he at first hesitantly and haltingly, and then it might come pouring out, his telling her of his frustrating marriage, his hopes and dreams and sorrows ... 

And who knows. 

Edited January 19 by Greg Doudna

[Tom Gram]

Interesting theory Greg. Like you said it works really well narratively, but some of the evidentiary puzzle pieces stretch the imagination a bit. I hope you can find some more support for this. 

Do we know for sure that the McNeely women were never asked about meeting Oswald? Also, I noticed that the original report says the women claimed to have seen Ruby conveying a pistol, not a rifle, to Oswald in DP. Do you have links to the interview reports of the women? When did it change into a rifle? Could this tie in somehow to your research on Crafard? 

 

[Paul Brancato]

I like the theory too. Gotta wonder if someone somewhere has those dick Clark show tickets 

[Joe Bauer]

Oswald did like the ladies more than reported.

I do believe that if a woman other than Marina that Oswald found attractive showed him a little interest ( flirting?) he was capable of returning that interest.

In this regards the part of Judyth Vary Baker's story of their first post office googly-eyed contact spark encounter doesn't seem totally incredible imo.

And Lee really got his mojo turned on once by a cute ( and intriguing background ) little Japanese girl who was present at a Dallas White Russian gathering Christmas/New Years Eve party he and Marina attended with the De Mohrenschildts in 1962. ( mistakenly reported as 1963 below. )

Jeanne De Mohrenschildt Warren Commission Testimony:

"Mr. JENNER. Did you bring Lee and Marina to the party?
Mrs. De MOHRENSCHILDT. I don't believe so. I think somebody else got them, because I think we had people, out of town guests, and in fact we came in very late, I think. We arrived quite late that day.
Mr. JENNER. You arrived at the party late?
Mrs. De MOHRENSCHILDT. Yes; once we were late. I forgot which showing it was. We had a couple of people out of town. We invited them for dinner, and then we brought them over.
Mr. JENNER. That was the only purpose of the meeting that you have indicated?
Mrs. De MOHRENSCHILDT. The only purpose of?
Mr. JENNER. The meeting, the only purpose was the one you have indicated?
Mrs. De MOHRENSCHILDT. Oh, yes.
Mr. JENNER. Did you attend a combination Christmas and New Year's party in December of 1963 at the Fords?
Mrs. De MOHRENSCHILDT. I don't know the date.
Mr. JENNER. 1963.
Mrs. De MOHRENSCHILDT. I don't know the date, but there was a party, and we attended it.
Mr. JENNER. Please, when you say you don't know the dates, was it in December? Was it in the holiday period?
Mrs. De MOHRENSCHILDT. It was in the holiday period, but was it December or was it early January, I don't remember.
Mr. JENNER. And who was at that party?
 

>>> Mrs. De MOHRENSCHILDT. There were quite a lot of people from this Russian colony and among them there was a little Japanese girl. Do you know about Yaeko? <<<

Mr. JENNER. Y-a-e-k-o?
Mrs. De MOHRENSCHILDT. That is right.
Mr. JENNER. Did you know Yaeko before?
Mrs. De MOHRENSCHILDT. Yes; we knew Yaeko before.
Mr. JENNER. What was her last name?
Mrs. De MOHRENSCHILDT. I don't remember her last name because we always called her Yaeko.
Mr. JENNER. Where was she working?
Mrs. De MOHRENSCHILDT. I don't know whether she was working at the time or not, but she was imported by some American family. She came with the family. She is supposed to be from a very fine Japanese family. She was wealthy. It was strange she worked almost as a servant in some family. I know she had only one day off, because I remember when we wanted to invite her it was only one day, Thursday, that we could invite her. Then she did some work with Neiman Marcus.
Mr. JENNER. Neiman Marcus?
Mrs. De MOHRENSCHILDT. Then she was a musician. She played the Japanese special long, long instrument, and she was playing with the Dallas Symphony, and she was also playing at exhibits, Neiman Marcus gives exhibits, you know, oriental exhibits, whatever it was, that fall, and she was participating in it. That is what we know about Yaeko. But then we heard that she was in New York.
 

>>> To tell you frankly I never trusted Yaeko. I thought there was something fishy, maybe because I was brought up with Japanese, you know, and I knew what treachery it is, you know. I just somehow--she was very pleasant, but was very strange to me the way she was floating around, you know, and everything. There is another strange thing happened, too, with that Yaeko. <<<

>>> Mr. JENNER. Involving the Oswalds?
Mrs. De MOHRENSCHILDT. Yes.
Mr. JENNER. Tell us. <<<

Mrs. De MOHRENSCHILDT. That was very funny because they practically spent all evening together at that party, and Marina was furious, of course, about it. And the party that brought Yaeko to the party was furious about it, too, and I don't blame him for it.

 

>>> And from what I understand, Marina told me THAT OSWALD SAW YAEKO AFTER ( !!! ) , which was very unusual, because I don't think Oswald wanted to see anyone, let's put it that way. <<<

 

He would rather just sit by himself and--locked, in a house, not to see anyone. And, in fact, Marina was jealous of it, from Yaeko. She was the only person we know that Oswald really liked.
Mr. JENNER. Can you recall the names of the family with whom Yaeko---by whom Yaeko was employed?
Mrs. De MOHRENSCHILDT. No; but I can find out very easily.
Mr. JENNER. How?
Mrs. De MOHRENSCHILDT. Through Dallas. They know the people that actually introduced Yaeko. It will be Henry Rogatz who knows Yaeko very well.
Mr. JENNER. Spell that, please.
Mrs. De MOHRENSCHILDT. Two people who can give you everything about Yoico because they have been carrying on helping her all the time. Henry Rogatz, also in----
Mr. JENNER. Henry Rogatz, R-o-g-a-t-z, and Lev Aronson, A-r-o-n-s-o-n?
Mrs. De MOHRENSCHILDT. Yes; and I believe I have Lev's address in my phone book, if I need it. I can phone you. I don't know if we have Henry's address now. They are both very nice people, charming people.
Mr. JENNER. Would you do this. Call my hotel, The Madison?
Mrs. De MOHRENSCHILDT. Call later on?
Mr. JENNER. And leave a message at my hotel as to Mr. Aronson's address and telephone number, if you have it?
Mrs. De MOHRENSCHILDT. Yes; and maybe we have Henry's address. Maybe somebody sent it to us because we asked. We didn't have it with us when we left. We just moved. Voshinin liked Yaeko.
Mr. JENNER. Voshinin?
Mrs. De MOHRENSCHILDT. Yes; but I think Henry can tell you much more than anybody.
Mr. JENNER. How, otherwise, did Oswald act at this Christmas party. He paid a great deal of attention, apparently, to----
Mrs. De MOHRENSCHILDT. Yes; they talk, talk, talk, talk, talk.
Mr. JENNER. To the Japanese girl?
Mrs. De MOHRENSCHILDT. Yes; what did they talk about, I don't have slightest idea. But everybody remarked and we were laughing about it. We were teasing Marina how he had a little Japanese girl now, you now. That was just as fun, of course, you know.

>>> But evidently they not only talked because she ( Marina ) said HE ( LEE ) SAW HER LATER .. and he liked her. That is what she told me. He really liked Yaeko." <<<

 

Does anyone think single, ladies loving Oswald remained celibate during all his time stationed in Japan?

That he didn't ever visit the off-base girl clubs from time to time to have some real fun?

His experience in that way, may explain why he instantly felt flashback turn on feelings upon seeing the apparently quite beautiful Japanese girl ( unattended ) at this party?

And their instantaneous flirty connection conversation went on to the point that Marina was apparently so fuming with jealousy she was ready to do a high flying Cossack dance kick into Lee's groin to end it.

Fascinating true story which proved Lee was capable of expressing interests in other women besides Marina...imo anyways.

 

Edited January 18 by Joe Bauer

[Greg Doudna]

Update

A problem: when Oswald was arrested he only had $13.87 in his pocket, and no money found in his room at N. Beckley. About $180 in cash was with Marina in her room in Irving. That was their bank. As I have previously reconstructed it Oswald would take all the cash from his biweekly cash payments at TSBD (paid in cash: https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=1139#relPageId=724) to Marina each weekend, leave all but $15.00 of it with her, and return with $15.00 for the days in between until his next visit, which would be $8.00 paid out for his weekly room rent payable on Mondays, and leaving $7.00 for food until he returned the next weekend. The $13.87 found on Oswald's person at the time of his arrest fits this reconstruction (https://educationforum.ipbhost.com/topic/29963-finish-the-sentence-re-tippit/page/5/).

Would Lee have money to pay the seamstresses at McKeel Sportswear to fix his curtains, if that was his intent?

So ... modify that narrative?

Possible modified narrative: the Dick Clark tickets as gratuity not for a date

Assume Lee knows the women at the lunch place. He knows them well enough to ask about his curtains need.

Suppose he broke or rather bent into unusability the super-long curtain rod in his room on Tuesday night. On Wednesday he asks the women of McKeel if they could fix up some new individual window curtains for him and asked how much it would cost.

Imagine one of the women says they don't really do that work at McKeel Sportswear but she will do it for him for free at home on her own sewing machine or else at McKeel's after hours.

The seamstress explains what she needs from Lee: fabric, curtain rods, and measurements. She tells him she will be glad to do that for him, and he can pick it up from her in the Dal-Tex building after she has it completed and ready for him.

Oswald is touched by that kindness. This is the solution to his curtains problem.  

The Dick Clark Show tickets that he buys early the next morning, Thu Nov 21, then, might not be for a date of Oswald with her.

Instead it might be his payment or gesture of appreciation to her for her kindness in fixing his curtains for free.

Somehow Oswald, who has no interest in Dick Clark music himself, may have learned from her, something that she said, that she likes Dick Clark.

Oswald goes to the Top Ten Records Thu Nov 21, buys first one ticket for her. (Every penny matters to Lee.) Then (per the Jefferson Street retail store hearsay) he was said to have returned back to the store a second time and bought a second ticket. The buying the second ticket could be so she could go with her husband or with a girlfriend, or was it Oswald hoping to attend with her?

The Dick Clark show, early 1960's rock n' roll and popular, was not Oswald's known taste in music, which was Russian opera and classical. 

The wedding ring again

If Oswald met the Spanish-speaking women of McKeel's in a lunch place on previous occasions they would have noticed his wedding ring.

Therefore, Oswald coming in to work to the TSBD on Fri Nov 22 without wearing a wedding ring does not seem it can have been for purpose of concealment to those woman that he was married.

The wedding ring left in Marina's room in this narrative would be not because he was going to kill Kennedy or was saying goodby because he was leaving Dallas, but maybe because Lee had decided he no longer wanted to be seen publicly as married.

We only have Marina's version of her turndown of Oswald Thu night Nov 21 to what she described as his three times earnest appeals that they find an apartment together that weekend.

Marina's objection, "no, maybe after the holidays!" ... could be Marina language for "no", she was happy in Irving for the time being with another woman for support with a small child and baby and had no intention of moving into an apartment with Lee into a situation of isolation and poverty ... even though that was the supposed game-plan and supposed to be the denouement of their temporary living apart for financial reasons. Imagine that is how Lee understand that from Marina.

It was not an explosive argument. Ruth told of seeing nothing really unusual that evening, just an ordinary visit of Lee to see Marina and his kids, like always. Ruth did tell of a visit of Lee into the garage which was interpreted by the Warren Commission as Lee getting the rifle. But Lee had already disposed of the rifle Nov 11 and by Nov 21 there was no rifle any longer in the garage. That was Lee getting the curtain rods.

But back to Lee and Marina. Maybe this time was some internal tipping point.

He decided he was not going to wear the wedding ring. Some men just decide to quit wearing a wedding ring at some point.

In this narrative the assassination that day indeed was coincidence with Oswald leaving his wedding ring in Irving. But his intended visit to the Spanish-speaking woman at McKeel Sportswear who had offered to help him, with his gathered curtain supplies and the curtain rods, Fri afternoon Nov 22, and his no longer wearing his wedding ring, may not have been coincidence.

 

Edited January 19 by Greg Doudna

[Tom Gram]

1 hour ago, Greg Doudna said:

The $13.87 found on Oswald's person at the time of his arrest fits this reconstruction (https://educationforum.ipbhost.com/topic/29963-finish-the-sentence-re-tippit/page/5/).

So where was the money Lee would intend to pay the seamstresses at McKeel Sportswear to fix his curtains, if that was his intent? He had no money to pay them with if they had done that work!

$13.87 in 1963 is like $130 today. Wouldn’t that have been plenty for a pair of curtains? 

[Greg Doudna]

23 minutes ago, Tom Gram said:

$13.87 in 1963 is like $130 today. Wouldn’t that have been plenty for a pair of curtains? 

Well there’s $8.00 weekly room rent at Beckley due Monday Nov 25, and he has to buy lunch meat and milk for his room, sandwiches and cokes at work … unless we knew the dates he was paid in cash from TSBD, biweekly in cash (at @1.25hr that would be ca $100 cash minus taxes) … but I have searched on MFF and cannot find the pay dates (can you?).

If he knew the charge was going to be nominal like $1.00 or so, maybe, but it would seem he would bring more cash as a cushion if he anticipated paying for anything unusual in the next week or so. One thing to consider is it’s not like us if we run short just go to the cash machine or pull out a credit card. Oswald had no bank account, it was all cash, and their savings (all cash) were in Marina’s room in Irving. If Oswald were to run out of cash he would be stuck until his next TSBD biweekly pay or trip to Irving whichever came first. 

[David Von Pein]

2 hours ago, Greg Doudna said:

If Oswald were to run out of cash he would be stuck until his next TSBD biweekly pay or trip to Irving... 

But if we're to believe many of the conspiracy theorists, Oswald had a nice big wad of $6500 in his hands in early October of '63. So he'd probably have at least a few bucks left on Nov. 21-22 to get some curtains and/or rods. (Or was it supposedly an "Oswald Imposter" who got the $6500 from the red-haired Cuban in Mex. City? I can never keep all of the make-believe "Oswalds" straight in this case.)

 

Edited January 19 by David Von Pein

[Greg Doudna]

More on the Dick Clark show possible date

Still thinking ... frugal Oswald did not have a track record of giving gratuities. He did not offer Buell Frazier gas money. Cab driver Whaley was miffed at Oswald's stingy tip of only a nickel on a $0.95 fare. There is no known gift he gave Ruth Paine for her hospitality in hosting him in his visits those weekends. 

Therefore the notion of the seamstress offering to prepare his curtains for free and he on his own giving two tickets as a gift for her and her husband does not quite work in terms of Oswald's track record.

But suppose the seamstress offered to do it for free, which might happen if she hoped to get to know him better. In this narrative what might she have seen in him to want to get to know him better? Was it that he spoke Spanish, which could prompt asking him how many languages he knew, and being impressed that he knew Russian and had been to Russia? Or had been to Japan? Or that he had just taken a trip in Mexico and told a couple sights he had seen? Could be anything.

So that could account for Lee not bringing additional funds from Irving with him to pay for curtains which all of his other activity showed gathering curtain materials in the vicinity of Lee's TSBD workplace for a true curtains need of Lee. 

Then on the Dick Clark Show tickets, because it is not such a common thing (as in, no known example) for Oswald to on his own initiative buy gifts at financial cost to give as gratuities or thank-yous to others ... and yet Oswald did buy tickets to a popular music event happening that weekend not of the kind of music of Oswald's taste ... that returns to the possibility that Oswald did buy those tickets with the possibility of a date in mind with her.

And the cost of the tickets came out of his money Thursday morning Nov 21 before he went to Irving Thursday evening. If on Friday afternoon he suggested she see the Dick Clark show with him on Saturday and perchance she said yes, he would probably be looking at some additional expense for coffee or ice cream afterward but that need not be much.

The FBI reports list the three women of McKeel's of the parking lot sighting with all of their names being "Mrs." Of course whether those were exactly the same Spanish-speaking women from McKeel's that Oswald was said in the unrebutted hearsay to have known at the lunch place is not known. Maybe there was another seamstress of McKeel's at the lunch place who was not married and it was she who offered to fix Lee's curtains, and there was no husband issue of Lee inviting her to see the Dick Clark show. Or alternatively, conceivably one of the married women by name was separated and Lee knew that, whatever. 

There is the fact calling for explanation--Oswald bought either one or two tickets to a music event totally out of character for Oswald, for a weekend on which he was unusually on his own and not in Irving, the weekend following an intended Friday afternoon meeting with a Spanish-speaking seamstress at McKeel's who was going to fix up his curtains. (And on the one or two tickets, one ticket for Oswald to music not of his interest makes no sense; two tickets for a hoped-for date makes better sense.)

The seamstress would know Lee was married, because up to that point Lee had worn his wedding ring. All the Spanish-speaking women who knew Lee at the lunch place would have noticed the wedding ring.

We might imagine Lee anticipating possible resistance from the seamstress of his interest over that issue: "Oh Lee, that's very sweet of you but you're married and I don't go out with married men."

To which we might imagine Lee, anticipating that Friday afternoon encounter which was never to happen, not wearing his wedding ring, telling her that while it was true he was married, his wife had broken up with him (a certain spin of Lee's on Marina's refusing to reunite with him in getting the apartment). And hoping, just hoping, that she might reconsider, what harm in going to see Dick Clark (whose music she loved) ... 

And who knows.

But it was not to be. An assassination of a president got in the way of that narrative.

[Greg Doudna]

Tom G. I continue to think about this and how it might have worked. If Oswald had been quoted a low price at the time he checked to see if a seamstress at McKeel Sportswear could fix some curtains for him, and had left Irving on the morning of Nov 22 with $15.20 in his pocket, and the charge was not much, he could have afforded the charge out of the $7.20 remaining after allowing for paying the Monday room rent. Suppose he normally did cash transference and counting with Marina when he visited, and the usual thing Oswald did was take $15.00. Taking the same amount on Fri Nov 22 would be in keeping with the other indications that he was for some reason keeping the curtains work secret from Ruth and Marina. Ruth, because if Ruth knew it would get back to Marina. Marina, because of another woman in the picture. Lee does not keep it secret from Buell Wesley Frazier because Buell is not in contact with Ruth and Marina. Lee does not keep it secret from a ride picking him up hitchhiking. Marina is the object of the concealment.

What Lee did not tell Marina:

• that he needed and was getting curtains made because the curtains at his room had crashed and fallen down, and he had no curtains
• that he was having the curtains he needed, made up by a seamstress at McKeel Sportswear near his workplace (rather than telling his need to Marina or Ruth)
• that he bought tickets to a Dick Clark show to happen on the upcoming weekend that he had arranged (via going out to Irving Thursday night unexpectedly) to be in Oak Cliff by himself alone, the weekend of Nov 23-24--and those Dick Clark tickets were not for Marina
• that he had taken off his wedding ring, hidden it, and was no longer wearing it
• that he took two of Ruth's curtain rods out of Ruth's garage where Marina was living without permission (that would have been objectionable to Marina if she had known).

Especially since this occurs following turndowns by Marina to an unexpected request by Lee that Marina move in to an apartment with him that very weekend, perhaps interpreted by Lee as refusing to reunite as a family. Some men will provoke an argument or a breakup precipitously with one woman in order to be able to tell the new woman that the first woman is history, so that the second woman may be less reluctant to go out with him. Was something like that occurring here?

If Oswald was anticipating a small charge--and you are right, if the woman at McKeel had the fabric and the curtain rods and the measurements needed (all provided to her by Oswald) it could be done in a few minutes with a sewing machine, say on her own after work that day right there using a McKeel sewing machine if no one was noticing, for the small amount of cash she would earn for the few minutes--not a high charge?--with luck she could have that done by 5:30 pm Fri and Lee would have curtains on his windows by Friday night? Or if she offered to do that for him for free, either way, Oswald might not leave Irving with more than his usual $15.00 in bills to avoid appearing unusual to Marina or needing to come up with some other explanation to Marina of why he was taking more money than normal. Simpler for Lee to just keep it at $15.00 and not raise any question in the first place?

Put these two facts together:

• Lee tells Buell Wesley Frazier Marina is making him some new curtains
• Lee never told Marina anything about curtains

Then these:

• The need of Oswald for curtains was not fictitious but real, from Nov 23 photos showing landlord and landlady Mr. and Mrs. Johnson hammering what had been a crashed super-long curtain rod on the floor of Oswald's room, back up with nails and hammer. A photo showing Mr. Johnson standing on the bed, hammer in hand, nailing that visible bent curtain rod back up.
• 
• 
•  It was not up before that morning of Nov 23! And if Oswald was fixing it himself, which he was, without telling her or housekeeper Earlene what he was doing, no wonder Mrs. Johnson did not know why that bent curtain was inoperable, assumed mistakenly that either police or reporters had wrecked her curtain rod. But it doesn't matter what Mrs. Johnson's speculation was as to responsibility for the curtain rod being wrecked instead of nailed at the top of the windows. What matters is that that was the case, and the timing (that curtain rod had come down some time recently before the morning of Nov 23).
• the unrefuted (and uninvestigated) hearsay in an FBI report that some seamstresses at McKeel Sportswear in the Dal-Tex building knew Oswald, ate at the same lunch place with him and spoke Spanish with him.
• Oswald was separately reported bringing curtain materials to the location of his workplace, not any other destination, at the time that he needed curtain repair at his room on N. Beckley.
• Oswald's unusual spontaneous Thursday night trip to Irving, said to Buell Frazier to be for the purpose of picking up curtains Marina was making him (news to Marina).
• Oswald's unexplained buying of tickets to a Dick Clark rock n' roll show for the weekend of Nov 23-24, a kind of music and a way of spending money Lee never did before, a weekend when he was unusually in Oak Cliff on his own--and those tickets were not for Marina.
• Oswald's secrecy about all this to Marina.
• Oswald secretly taking off and no longer wearing his wedding ring when he went back in to Dallas to his workplace as of Fri morning Nov 22, unknown to Marina.
• Oswald taking 2 (or 3?) curtain rods out of Ruth's garage (leaving 2 remaining in the garage, none in use) without Ruth's knowledge or permission--this by Lee who was not otherwise a thief and over a minor item which in all likelihood Ruth would have freely given him if asked--Lee not saying a word to Marina or Ruth about it.

What does that look like? 

If Marina had known these things, what would any woman think?

Then juxtapose these two:

• no evidence Lee was told or knew that he was suspected of having brought a rifle to work that morning from Irving in the car with Buell Frazier
• Lee denied to Captain Fritz with the FBI et al looking on, when asked, that he had brought a package of curtain rods with him, and denied that he had told Buell Frazier that. Not just one, but both of those denials were untrue--he had brought curtain rods and he had told Buell Frazier that.

He covers it up with Fritz under interrogation not because the curtain rods were untrue but because he has no idea it is an issue in his case and it involves a possible private relationship with another woman (also conceivably: if Oswald knew the seamstress was doing the job for him for cash for herself on work time off the books, if Oswald told the truth he could get that woman in trouble with her employer).

When I was a kid I was riding with my father in a car and my father accidentally rear-ended a car in front of him, my father the driver at fault, the car in front innocent. No one was injured. Immediately the passenger door of the car in front opened and I and my father saw two young women run out of the car and disappear. After a few minutes the police arrived to make a report. We all overheard, I did too, I was standing there, the officer ask the driver of the car in front, a man, if there had been any passengers in the car with him at the time of the collision. The man said no, he had been alone in the car. My father did not contradict him, answered the questions the officer asked him, and the report was resolved otherwise routinely, with my father's insurance covering the claim for the damage.

That man driving the car in front, innocent in the collision, lied to that officer about being alone in his car. He denied and did not tell of the two women passengers who were actually in the car with him, who would have been named and gone into that police report if he had answered truthfully.

Something similar to Lee denying to Captain Fritz that he had taken curtain rods from Irving to his workplace the morning of Nov 22, I suspect. Another way to look at it than the interpretation of the Warren Commission and a majority of researchers.

Edited January 19 by Greg Doudna

[Greg Doudna]

The need to revisit how and when the rifle on the 6th floor of the TSBD got there, in light of accumulating reason to conclude Oswald did not bring a rifle from Irving to the TSBD on Friday morning, Nov 22, 1963.

The timeline of Oswald in three days of Nov 20-22, 1963, make excellent sense interpreted as an immediate response to an urgent priority situation--the curtain rod with curtains in his room had collapsed and and crashed to the floor and it was not simply out of the goodness of Oswald's heart that he wished to remedy or repair that, it may have been an issue of discomfort being in that room without closed curtains, something he wanted fixed now.

Wed eve Nov 20, it is independently known that Oswald was at a nearby laundromat until closing time, Sleight's Speed Wash, 1101 N. Beckley, witnessed reading magazines there, not getting back to his room in the rooming house that night until after midnight (https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=1142#relPageId=570).

Oswald probably was doing laundry, no reason to doubt that, but all night? Well maybe, it would be nice if we knew what needed washing, unknown. Or was he in addition to doing some laundry just hanging out there, caught up in reading something in a magazine, preferring to be there as long as he could until he was told it was closing and he had to go? Could there also be a factor that he did not enjoy being in his room at night without the curtains closed?

The curtain rod crashing issue was so urgent Oswald for the first time did not appear at work at the TSBD on time at 8:00 am on Thu Nov 21. It does not matter that his timesheet at TSBD shows him working the full day that day. (I believe his time sheet also showed he worked a full 8 hours on Fri Nov 22 which also was incorrect.) There was no time-clock and unless someone proactively brought to attention of the TSBD time-records man that someone was missing, their normal times would be written in. And a factor working in Oswald's favor is that he was otherwise extremely reliable and punctual such that that kind of behavior and track record develops trust.

I have heard baseball stories of umpires becoming so familiar with a certain major league hitter who never swung at a pitch thrown that was a "ball" that they would call a close one influenced by whether that hitter had swung or not, because of that track record. The point being, Oswald could well have been late on Thu Nov 21 and not noticed, or even if Shelley or someone remembered they did notice wondering where he was they would assume he was there somewhere because he always was. 

And the evidence Oswald did not go to work on time on Thu Nov 21 is substantial.

• a witness report from his waitress for breakfast at the Dobbs House Restaurant
• credible report that Oswald bought tickets to the Dick Clark Show at the Top Ten Record store on Jefferson in Oak Cliff on what must have been the morning of Thu Nov 21 (since the morning of Fri Nov 22 of the later memory/hearsay report is not possible as to the time, and human errors in memory of which calendar days are common in otherwise truthful witness accounts).
• a driver reported picking up Oswald hitchhiking on the Thornton Expressway from the N. Beckley entrance, driving him to Houston Street across from the TSBD in Dealey Plaza, letting him off carrying a 3-4 foot package that the driver was reported to have said Oswald said was "window shades". There certainly was a hitchhiker because Ralph Yates, the driver, told a coworker, Dempsey Jones, of picking up that hitchhiker before the assassination, as confirmed by that coworker. Ralph Yates identified the hitchhiker unequivocally as Oswald on the basis of photos. Although Yates himself was uncertain from his memory whether the hitchhiker was Wed Nov 20 or Thu Nov 21, in either case at ca. 10:30 AM pickup, the FBI found company records establishing that it was certainly Thursday Nov 21, not Wednesday, as to the date. And the timing and points of pickup and dropoff match Oswald. The "fantastic" elements in Yates' story of what was discussed by the hitchhiker are explicable in terms of Yates' disturbed mental condition and Yates' explicit clarifications retracting most of those elements in a following FBI interview, but the hitchhiker's existence itself and his identity as Oswald stands, without anything incriminating Oswald in the assassination in Oswald's actual conversation with driver Yates properly understood. Furthermore, Yates submitted voluntarily to a polygraph which found no intentional deception (though the polygraph administrator claimed the results showing no lying were useless as opposed to establishing truthfulness).

 From the FBI report of Dempsey Jones, Yates' coworker, whom Yates told about his hitchhiker before the assassination:

"Jones said Yates told him he had picked up a boy in Oak Cliff and took this boy to Houston and Elm in Dallas. Yates said this boy had a package not described at that time, but after the death of the President, Yates described the package as a 'long package' and then on telling the facts over again, Yates said this man told him it was some window shades he was carrying for the company he (the man) had made." (FBI, Nov 27, 1963, https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=10406#relPageId=425)

Then upon getting to and starting work at the TSBD late that morning, estimate somewhere in the 10:30 am to 11:00 am range the morning of Thu Nov 21, Oswald first opportunity finds Buell Frazier and lines up a ride to Irving that evening after work. (Buell Frazier said Oswald asked him that in the morning of that day.)

Oswald goes to Irving Thursday night, returns Fri morning Nov 22 to work at TSBD with Buell Frazier, with curtain rods, and intent to deliver both the fabric material and the curtain rods to the seamstress across the street in the Dal-Tex building that afternoon.

If Oswald's actions to get new curtains began immediately following the time of crashing of the curtain rod in his room to the floor, the following line up to show Oswald was minimizing time spent in his room in evenings until he could get new curtains installed:

• Wednesday night, Nov 20--Oswald spends the entire evening until midnight in a laundromat reading before forced to go home when it closed.
• Thursday night, Nov 21--Oswald is not in his room at N. Beckley at all, is in Irving
• Friday night, Nov 22--if the assassination had not interrupted things, there is every reason to suppose Oswald would have anticipated having his new curtains ready by the end of that day or perhaps a half-hour or hour later, ca. 5-6 pm, ready to be taken back with him by bus to Oak Cliff and he would be in his room with closed curtains again as preferred. 

And although the major objection to this scenario is the overwhelming juggernaut of belief that Oswald carried a rifle in from Irving the morning of Fri Nov 22, and not curtain rods, that belief becomes very equivocal in light of research I separately and newly showed in 2023 which establishes that Lee and Marina removed the rifle from the Ruth Paine garage on Mon Nov 11--eleven days before the assassination--and took it to where Lee repaired a damaged scope base installation in order to prepare that rifle for disposition. That study establishes that the rifle was in Ruth Paine's garage up to Mon Nov 11, but that there is no evidence that rifle was in Ruth Paine's garage, or in Oswald's possession, after Mon Nov 11 (https://www.scrollery.com/?page_id=1581).

Therefore, since there is evidence Oswald did take curtain rods from Irving with him to the location of his workplace on the morning of Fri Nov 22 for reasons discussed, and since there is no evidence of any direct kind that Oswald brought a rifle in from Irving on the morning of Fri Nov 22--the issue of when and how the rifle found on the 6th floor of the TSBD got there, and whether Oswald was involved in putting it there, must be revisited.

That is the modest conclusion here.

Edited January 19 by Greg Doudna

[Tony Krome]

3 hours ago, Greg Doudna said:

A photo showing Mrs. Johnson standing on the bed, hammer in hand, nailing that visible bent curtain rod back up.

I see Mr. Johnson with a hammer

[Greg Doudna]

3 hours ago, Tony Krome said:

I see Mr. Johnson with a hammer

You're right Tony, corrected, thanks.

Edited January 19 by Greg Doudna

[David Boylan]

Greg,

As noted here in Weisberg's letter to Howard Roffman, LHO was not averse to selling his rifle. Interesting comment by Roffman:

http://jfk.hood.edu/Collection/Weisberg Subject Index Files/O Disk/Oswald Lee Harvey Property/Item 01.pdf

 

[Greg Doudna]

On 1/19/2024 at 1:54 PM, David Boylan said:

As noted here in Weisberg's letter to Howard Roffman, LHO was not averse to selling his rifle. Interesting comment by Roffman:

http://jfk.hood.edu/Collection/Weisberg Subject Index Files/O Disk/Oswald Lee Harvey Property/Item 01.pdf

Thanks David.