Oswald: a possible love story (not Marina)

[Greg Doudna]

A deeper dive on the McKeel Sportswear women rifle conveyance sighting

After the report came to the FBI's attention of a reported gun transfer in a parking lot behind the TSBD, the FBI investigated but there are several subtleties about that investigation easy to miss. A first point is that the McKeel women were not interviewed only once but in three separate rounds, on Nov 26 https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=10672#relPageId=279), again Dec 31 (https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=10673#relPageId=107), and again on Jan 8 (https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=10730#relPageId=129). 

And a second point is that it was not just the fact of a rifle sighting. Although the FBI reports do not ever say so explicitly, it is clear that what caused the women to be "frightened" and "reluctant to discuss the matter", "excited and confused" (in the report of Frances Hernandez, one of the McKeel women), was because at least one and possibly two of those women thought they recognized Oswald as the young slender man who had received a rifle out of a trunk of a car from an older, heavyset man.

The three women were in a car exiting the parking lot. Apparently it was a car pool and one of the women was driving, the other two passengers. As they attempt to exit they are stopped behind a 1955 or 1956 blue Buick momentarily blocking the exit, with an older heavyset man giving a rifle out of a trunk to a younger slender man who walked off with it. All the women said they were viewing both men only from the back and did not get a look at their faces. There was not much in the way of specific description of either of the men beyond younger and slim, and older and heavyset, without seeing a face, though there was a good description of the car, which the FBI tried to run down (more on that below). 

Ruby had nothing to do with this. Ruby comes into it only if one fixes on thinking Oswald was the younger man, then asking who the other might be, and speculating maybe unidentified older "heavyset man" might be Ruby who was a little heavyset and older. None of the three women gave any claim to have identified Ruby or reason to suppose the older man was Ruby other than secondarily if one conjectures from the Oswald starting point. Ruby is a red herring here.

But Oswald is not a red herring. The original hearsay was specific on details of how the women knew Oswald (at a lunch place, spoke Spanish with him), and that hearsay corresponds exactly to a time when Oswald was taking curtain materials for seamstress work needed to the location of his workplace, and these women were seamstresses who the hearsay said knew Oswald. 

Such that, the story underneath this story is that when those women after the assassination were scared, it may have been not only from seeing Oswald on television, but because one or more had actually met and knew him. And could have recognized him even from the back without seeing a face. At the time of recognition it would not mean much--Frances Hernandez said her first thought was these were simply hunters in hunting season like one of her own male coworkers who had just gone hunting, nothing unusual. 

But after the assassination, as might be imagined, if one of them had recognized Oswald or thought she did, it would be a devastating recent memory. 

Was pre-assassination knowledge of Oswald on the part of one or more of these women not disclosed in the reporting?

The reason for suspecting it was both true and that the FBI knew it was true that one or more of the McKeel women knew Oswald pre-assassination is because that was the issue, and the question "did you know Oswald?" is so routine of a question the FBI asked other witnesses. But the FBI agent, Pinkston, who did the first Nov 26 interviews of two of the three women, Frances Hernandez and Josephine Salinas (the third, Henrietta Vargas, was not interviewed on Nov 26), and the FBI agent responsible for the interviews and reporting of the McKeel women on Dec 31 and Jan 8, a William G. Brookhart of the Dallas FBI office (not Bookhout of the Oswald interrogations, different person), never reported whether those women knew Oswald pre-assassination. 

When an obvious question is not asked, or if it was asked there is no report of it asked or report of its answer, sometimes that is a signal of something going on.

Obviously Pinkston and/or Brookhart would have asked! Its not that neither one of them asked. Its that they didn't report that they asked, and didn't report the answer. That is what happened. Pinkston could have told Brookhart not to ask, but Pinkston would have asked, and if Brookhart was not instructed not to do so, Brookhart would have asked too.

First interviews of Nov 26, 1963 (by Pinkston)

These two interviews of Frances Hernandez and Josephine Salinas have practically identical wording in the report attributed separately to each of these two witnesses. Either Pinkston mixed combined interviews from both into one report and duplicated it to each one, or saved time in his paperwork by composing one and (if the two women had not disagreed on anything) simply copied the same thing to the other.

Either way, this identical sentence is attributed to both of those women: "She stated the younger man might have been Lee Harvey Oswald, but she is not able to say definitely it was Oswald". By having both women say that identically, if one was the true source it would be difficult to know which one it was.

Note in this original report the focus and underlying question is whether there had been an Oswald sighting. That was the issue.

There are three minor differences in wordings reflecting in all cases editing for reading better, not alteration of meaning. Also, the interview of Frances Hernandez occurred in Dallas on Nov 26 whereas the one of Josephine Salinas occurred the same day in Farmers Branch, Texas.

Farmers Branch is where Josephine Salinas lived--her address is given in a later interview report and it is 13740 Birchlawn Drive, Farmers Branch, Texas.

Identification of one of the McKeel women: Josephine Salinas

One of the McKeel women can be identified: Josephine G Salinas aka Delfina G Salinas was born 11/2/26, was age 37 in Nov 1963, was married for a second time in 1966, unknown date of beginning and end of first marriage, and died Jan 12, 2013 at the age of 86. Here is a picture of her gravestone: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/236035623/josephine-salinas. 

A pre-Nov 22 knowledge of Oswald?

It is not clear which of the two, Frances Hernandez or Josephine Salinas, Pinkston interviewed first or second but he dictated both interviews later that same day and the one of Frances Hernandez was dictated first and the one of Josephine Salinas second. 

Here is Pinkston's report for Frances Hernandez in regular type, with the report for Josephine Salinas the same except for the variants in parentheses in italics:

"...while on their way home about 5:10 p.m. on November 19, 1963, and after leaving the parking lot near the Texas School Book Depository, observed two men with an automobile, about a 1956 Buick, color light blue. The older of the two men was observed to hand a rifle (--> "handed a rifle") to the younger man of the two (delete "of the two"), who then walked from the Buick toward a white car which was a compact (--> "a compact white car"), but she did not know the make of it. She stated the younger man might have been Lee Harvey Oswald, but she is not able to say definitely that it was Oswald. She stated she has no other information."

Josephine Salinas must have been the one of the three who lived the farthest away which means she will have been the driver of the three women, giving the other two rides home from work in some car-pool arrangement. 

A possible interpretation: one or both of these women were of interest to the FBI because they may have said they knew Oswald, and at least one of the two may have said she thought she may have recognized Oswald in the parking lot, based on knowing who he was pre-assassination. And from descriptions of fear described specifically to Frances Hernandez and not the other two, it may be that Frances was the one who thought the young man was Oswald (even if both Frances and Josephine may have known Oswald). 

Notice what is not said in the reports: why Frances Hernandez (or cc Josephine Salinas) thought the man might have been Oswald.

In other FBI reports it often is said explicitly, such-and-such witness saw pictures of Oswald in the newspaper or on TV and from that recognized the man they remembered seeing on some xyz earlier occasion ... but that is not said here. Taking these reports at face value, there is no sign that Pinkston had any curiosity in asking what was one of these women's grounds for thinking the man was Oswald. And yet it is certain Pinkston would have been curious. Pinkston simply is not reporting everything.

Why would the key detail, of the basis for Frances Hernandez thinking the man might have been Oswald, be left out?

Perhaps the original hearsay version tells why: because she had pre-Nov 22 knowledge of Oswald (the lunch place, the conversing in Spanish). But still, why prefer to not mention that in FBI reporting for the record? 

It is difficult to come up with an explanation or reason better than an Oswald curtains connection.

What if the FBI via Pinkston did catch a whiff that Oswald was known to one or more of those women at McKeel and--just possibly--that some of Oswald's curtain activity that week had included an inquiry at McKeel Sportswear, in the Dal-Tex building across the street from the TSBD, seeking a seamstress who could turn fabric and curtain rods into curtains that Oswald needed? 

These interviews occurred after the FBI and media all over America had already decided that Oswald's package from Irving the morning of Nov 22, of the exact size of curtain rods and which he told Buell Frazier was curtain rods, was really Oswald bringing in the Mannlicher-Carcano found on the 6th floor.

The curtain rods, in the FBI and later Warren Commission interpretation, never happened. Oswald made that all up. That was the accepted narrative. 

Could the FBI be relied upon to disclose information that potentially impeached that narrative? (I do not assume the answer is necessarily no, but I also do not assume the answer is necessarily yes.)  

Why did the FBI never ask the McKeel women, who were saying they were scared because they thought it might have been Oswald receiving that rifle in the parking lot, whether any of those women had previously seen or known Oswald from the building across the street?

Just to check off that question asked routinely of so many other witnesses?

Why not? Maybe there was a reason.

Second interviews of Dec 31, 1963 (by Brookhart)

This time all three McKeel women of the parking lot sighting were interviewed. Frances Hernandez is said to have been "re-interviewed" (note word). The other two (including Pinkston's report of Salinas) are said to have been "interviewed" (note word). And Pinkston is no longer interviewing on this case any more; Brookhart is from here on out.

In these interviews, no longer is there any attention called to a claim of recognition of Oswald as the original issue. At face reading it now is worded to sound as if it was the gun itself that aroused suspicion (irrespective of any claimed identification sighting). On face reading both Oswald and Ruby are raised as equally possible identities which in both cases had no basis, neither Oswald nor Ruby being any more at issue than the other.

In the individual reports, the third woman, Henrietta Vargas, is interviewed for a first time. Vargas explicitly denies she saw the faces of either man ("did not see the face of the young man ... did not see the face of the older man ... did not see their faces").

Josephine Salinas denies she saw the face of the older man but does not deny that in the case of the younger man ("she did not see the face of the older man ... the younger man who was of slender build walked away from the Buick carrying the rifle, but she did not see where he went, or whether he got into an automobile").

Frances Hernandez, like Salinas, denied seeing the front of the older man, but does not deny having seen the face of the younger man. Frances Hernandez:

"[S]he only saw the back of the older man's head and can only say the younger man was rather slim. She cannot describe either of these two men as being identical to Lee Harvey Oswald or Jack Ruby; and thought of the above incident only after the President was assassinated. She said she and her friends were frightened and reluctant to become involved and were very excited and confused for some time, but now that she has had time to think about this, she is certain of the above facts."

Frances Hernandez sounds like a good candidate for having been the first and perhaps only one of the women, after the assassination, to claim a possible Oswald identification for the younger man the three women had seen with the rifle, and Frances told the others.

Neither Salinas nor Vargas are said in their reports to have been frightened; Hernandez is the one who says she was "frightened".

The wording in Frances Hernandez's report makes it sound like Hernandez is backtracking on something though the report does not make clear what. Maybe it was an earlier opinion expressed that she thought the young man might have been Oswald?

Frances Hernandez may be the originator of the belief that she held and shared with her two coworkers that they had seen something truly scary, not just a random gun and random men, but Oswald whom they knew with a rifle. Frances Hernandez, the specific one of the three who speaks of fright. Frances Hernandez, the one of the three with language implying she is almost retracting something from before, without the reader of the reports being clear what. Frances Hernandez, who must have been asked but whose answer is not disclosed, whether she knew Oswald before the assassination.

Date of the incident

A minor point, which the FBI did not resolve but which we can, for whatever it is worth, is establishing the date of this incident with 100 percent certainty as Tue Nov 19, not any other day.

In the earliest Nov 26 reports, the identically-worded reports of Hernandez and Salinas, both have those two women each saying the date was Tue Nov 19. However by the time of the Dec 31 reports some of the witnesses' memory seem to degrade slightly on the matter of the date. In the Dec 31 reports:

• Hernandez: it was the day before JFK arrived [i.e. Thu Nov 21] and it was raining
• Vargas: cannot recall whether it was Tuesday or Thursday but does recall that it was raining
• Salinas: it was the day before JFK arrived, it was raining, she remembers thinking of JFK arriving the next day

But it was not Thu Nov 21. It was as Hernandez's and Salinas's original interviews said, Tue Nov 19, and here is the proof: all three of the women remember that it was raining. Weather history for Dallas shows it was raining on Tuesday Nov 19, but did not rain at all on Wed Nov 20 or Thu Nov 21. And on Tue Nov 19 it was raining 3-5 pm, the time of the 5:10 pm parking lot sighting incident when all three women remembered it was raining when that happened.

Even the FBI Gaemberling report on the JFK assassination of 1/22/64 was unaware of the correct secure date for the incident. That report refers in its title of the section dealing with this investigation as the incident having occurred "a day or so before the assassination of President John F. Kennedy". That is not accurate: it was Tue Nov 19. 

https://weatherspark.com/h/m/8813/1963/11/Historical-Weather-in-November-1963-in-Dallas-Texas-United-States#google_vignette

https://weatherspark.com/h/d/8813/1963/11/19/Historical-Weather-on-Tuesday-November-19-1963-in-Dallas-Texas-United-States#Figures-PrecipitationProbability 

Was it Oswald?

I would actually be inclined to say yes except it makes no sense to me that Oswald would be receiving a rifle out of a trunk of a car on Nov 19. He was no hunter. He isn't going to take it back to his room in Oak Cliff so he can look at it. If it was Oswald, then one would be looking at he is either doing some gunrunning of some kind, or else some new angle related to the assassination or a weapon into the TSBD building or something. 

I believe it is certain Oswald prepared his rifle on Nov 11 for a sale or dispossession of it, and I believe it likely (simply because it makes sense, even if lacking direct confirmation) that he did sell or dispose of that rifle prior to Nov 22. 

Therefore it makes no sense that Oswald would receive another rifle, or the same one back again, on Tue Nov 19.

That it makes no sense says to me the young man seen by the women was not Oswald. 

Yet the plausibility that one or more of the McKeel women knew Oswald raises the question of would such a woman who knew Oswald, whoever she was, have been mistaken?

If one takes out of the picture that any of those three women knew Oswald--but were solely reacting to the news of the assassination post-Nov 22--then that swings the weight heavily, overwhelmingly, toward assumption of simple mistaken identification, not further complicated. (And the notion that there was an identification of Oswald to begin with in that story is itself reconstruction and inference, not directly confirmed in the FBI reports though it is difficult to read those reports without suspecting that underlies those reports.)

But in the present narrative at least one of the McKeel women, a seamstress, did know Oswald, and on that rainy afternoon of Tue Nov 19 from inside Josephine Salinas's car all three saw a young man ahead that reminded her of Oswald. Everyone has probably had the experience of being in a strange place and suddenly seeing some stranger from a certain angle and momentarily thinking that is someone we know, or a family member, maybe even a loved one who has died, before they turn and we get a better look and see it is a different person. 

That is what in this narrative may have happened here. She knew Oswald, and when she saw the young man receiving the rifle she did not have a good look at the man but mistakenly thought it was he (which at the time would not mean anything amiss because it would be assumed he was a hunter in hunting season). Then Oswald the next day inquires of her about curtains, tells her he will bring everything in to her on Friday. On Friday there is the assassination, Oswald's picture is in the news, and she thinks with horror back to the man she thought could have been Oswald on Tue Nov 19, and that rifle in his hands now took on a sinister light in her memory. 

In all likelihood it was not really Oswald, though she thought it might have been, and that does not argue that she did not know Oswald personally, only that she did not get a sufficiently good look to know it was someone else.

January 8 interviews

These interviews, also by FBI agent Brookhart, expanded to track down how the story of the three McKeel women spread to its endpoint in the hearsay that was initially reported to the FBI that started the investigation.

An interview of Jan 8 with a Mrs. Conrad Galvin tells what happened. David Torres was the brother of a woman who worked at McKeel's and he knew the story from his sister. Whether that sister of David Torres was one of the three women of the parking lot incident, and if so which one, is not known. Mrs. Galvin's husband heard from David Torres the story of what these women at his sister's workplace had seen. A Mr. and Mrs. Velez were present in the Galvin home when David Torres told them of it.

"Everyone there urged Torres to get in touch with these people to furnish this information to the FBI; however, they understood that the women were frightened and reluctant to discuss this matter."

Mrs. Velez was interviewed on Jan 8. She confirmed she had heard the incident in the home of Mrs. Galvin. She claimed (either falsely or mistakenly) that she did not repeat the story to anyone. But she did; she told her mother who was visiting her, and her mother then returned home to her city and told a lady who told that lady's visiting niece who reported it to the FBI which launched the investigation back in Dallas. 

Mrs. Velez said she too with the others had urged Torres to attempt to influence the McKeel women to contact the FBI. "Mrs. Velez advised that she does not know Lee Harvey Oswald...", reads the report of her interview. But Mrs. Velez was never at issue with knowing Oswald. Yet this item gets reported for her, and not for the women for whom the question is relevant, the three McKeel women of the sighting.

Possible identification of the heavy-set man

In a Jan 8 interview Frances Hernandez and Josephine Salinas walked with Brookhart to the parking lot--this was at Frances Hernandez's initiative again hinting that maybe Frances Hernandez is the source of a claim to have recognized Oswald--and showed Brookhart exactly where the car and men were when they saw them. It turned out to be where there was a dirt service road along side of the Dallas Count Sheriff's office parking lot.

In this interview Frances Hernandez updated her car description to the color being dark blue or dark green, not light blue as earlier. She says she was not sure it was a Buick as originally reported of her, says she got that from Josephine Salinas.

Josephine Salinas now says although she still thinks it was a Buick it could also have been a Chevrolet. She also updates her color memory, from earlier light blue to now medium blue.

The original Nov 26 car description of Hernandez and Salinas was a light blue 1956 Buick. 

On Dec 31, one Ed Cress, Chief Deputy of the Sheriff's office, said he didn't know, and he had checked with a few other employees and none of them knew either, of any of their people driving a 1955 or 1956 blue Buick.

On Jan 8 a Captain Frank Marion Buckalew, Supervisor, Uniform Patrol, Dallas County Sheriffs Office of that building, told Brookhart he owned a 1956 blue and white Buick, 2 door hardtop. The only photo I could find of Buckalew is this in an obituary from 2014 when he died at the age of 96 (https://kirbysmithrogers.com/tribute/details/28/Francis-Buckalew/obituary.htm). The photo shows him as a younger man when he was in uniform, perhaps not far from the age he was in 1963, appearing to be somewhat heavyset. His age in 1963 would have been 45. 

But there is a slight problem with Buckalew being the man and the car those women saw: Buckalew denied it was him, said he did not own a rifle, said he always went home at 3:30, and always was in uniform when he went home. 

In the end there was no identification either of the men or the car by the FBI. But there never was any evidence it had anything to do with the assassination. Handing over a rifle out of a trunk during peak activity time in a parking lot (5:10 pm after a workday) might be argued not to be how a secret conveyance would be done. Most likely, that rifle handover happened at that time because one or both of those men had just got off work just like others leaving the parking lot. And in a parking lot, it seems most likely both men arrived by car and will leave by car, with the reason for stopping blocking an exit momentarily being the a visiting car was stopping near the location of the man who had another car parked somewhere. (And Oswald had no car.) 

Reasons for a possible romantic interest of Oswald in one of the women at McKeel's Sportswear who was going to fix up Oswald's curtains

• Oswald was having curtains fixed or made in the vicinity of his workplace at the TSBD, which would involve a need for a seamstress.
• the original report to the FBI of the parking-lot sighting included hearsay that some of the McKeel Sportswear sewing women knew Oswald
• he left his wedding ring behind in Irving
• he was secretive about the curtains with Marina when there was no reason why he should be, unless there was another woman involved
• he bought unexplained tickets to a popular music event in Dallas for that weekend, and those tickets were not for Marina
• and possibly may be added here: he uncharacteristically wore a button-down dress shirt to work on Friday, the light maroon shirt of CE 151. (See Pat Speer's chapter on that; the matter of which shirt Oswald wore the morning of Fri Nov 22 is contested but the argument of Pat Speer is correct on that, as shown also in my jackets article.) Coworker James Jarman, when asked what kind of shirt Oswald wore Fri Nov 22: "Ivy Leagues, I believe". Why was Oswald uncharacteristically wearing a dress shirt to work? Dressing up for an assassination? Or dressing up for a lady? Which makes better sense?  

 

Edited January 23 by Greg Doudna

[Tom Gram]

4 hours ago, Greg Doudna said:

if anyone has access to a city directory of Dallas for 1963 I would be interested in a check of this address: 1917 Annex Avenue, Dallas, Frances Hernandez, or any other information that could assist in an identification of her.

Greg, Ancestry.com last I checked had a complete 1963 Dallas city directory available online, including the criss-cross. 

[Greg Doudna]

On 1/22/2024 at 5:20 AM, Tom Gram said:

Greg, Ancestry.com last I checked had a complete 1963 Dallas city directory available online, including the criss-cross. 

Thanks Tom. I signed up and have identified both of the other women! 

Henrietta A. Vargas, identified in a 1967 Dallas Polk's as occupation, "Smstrs McKell's Sports Wear". She was 11 years old in a 1940 census therefore about age 34 in 1963. The 1963 Polk's shows her at 3702 Cole Avenue as homeowner with 18 other persons of varying names and employments living there, suggesting she may have been renting rooms. I could not find an obituary for her but I found an obituary of her husband, Carlos M. Vargas, Jr., in 2021, and it refers to her death before his https://www.theangelusfuneralhome.com/obituary/carlos-vargas-jr.

Frances M. Hernandez, is listed in the 1963 Dallas Polk's as an "Indry wkr RUMC", that is, industrial worker McKeel Sportswear (I don't know what the RU means), home address 1219 N. Washington Ave. The Polk's listing shows her living at that address alone. The FBI interview of her of Dec 31, 1963 gives a different address which goes to a street address which according to the 1963 Dallas Polk's does not exist.

She appears in a 1950 census listing as age 24, occupation "sewing machine operator, drs. mfg."; married to Albert Hernandez, with a 2-year old son George A. In 1963 she would have been about 37.

But husband Albert disappears from Dallas records whereas Frances remained in Dallas. Albert turns up in a 1998-2002 city directory in Hibbs, New Mexico. Albert died in 2017. Son George A. Hernandez died in 2019 with reference in his obituary having a brother named Hernandez who does not appear in Frances' obituary as a son of hers (https://www.echovita.com/us/obituaries/tx/dallas/george-a-hernandez-9528249). That suggests Albert remarried (hence the brother of George A. was really a half-brother from his father's new marriage, not a second child of Frances). Based on the 1963 Dallas Polk's with Frances living alone, the breakup of the marriage in the sense of Frances living separately seems to have occurred prior to Nov 1963. That Frances is named "Mrs." in her FBI interview reports probably means she was still legally married, not yet divorced, even though living separate from Albert. 

Frances Hernandez died in 2010 at age 84. In her obituary there is mention of her son but no mention of a present or past husband; evidently she never remarried. https://obits.dallasnews.com/us/obituaries/dallasmorningnews/name/frances-hernandez-obituary?id=10199367&_gl=1*rv9qnq*_gcl_au*MTk3MzM2NTAuMTcwNDQzNzAzNg..

The three McKeel Sportswear women are now all identified. All were mid-30s, none "young women" (as in early 20s). All three were married, though one appears to have been living separately from her husband even though still legally "Mrs." because not yet divorced.

Edited January 28 by Greg Doudna

[Greg Doudna]

ANOTHER POSSIBILITY ON WHAT BECAME OF OSWALD’S CURTAIN  RODS

A possibility is Oswald on Friday morning Nov 22 after arriving to the TSBD with two curtain rods obtained from Ruth Paine’s garage, momentarily set them inside the door Buell Frazier saw him enter at the rear loading dock, but outside the second door that enters the first floor area proper. He doesn’t hide them or anything, just sets them down and leans them openly against a wall there, because he is only going to be gone for a couple of minutes.

He enters to use the restroom, take a leak. (Could be that is why he didn’t wait for Buell but walked on ahead, as Buell described.) 

(Remember Lee started out with coffee in Irving that morning, which has a diuretic effect—easy to imagine Lee having a need for a bathroom upon arrival.) 

That mission accomplished and washing up, he returns out the back, retrieves the curtain rods and walks them over to the second floor of the Dal-Tex building, gives them to one of the women at McKeel who had already agreed to cut and sew the curtains and Lee had already given her fabric. 

Lee would logically do this at the start of the workday in order for her to have the maximum amount of time in order to have them done by 5:00 that day which may have been the idea. Lee then returns to work at the TSBD. 

This could be a possible answer to the question always asked: if Lee did bring curtain rods, what became of them? 

Of course this scenario requires the woman at McKeel not later to have told of it, but then none of the McKeel women ever were interviewed publicly. But suppose one of the women had curtain rods of Lee from the morning of Nov 22, then a few hours later there is the assassination of the president and by the end of the day Oswald has been arrested and accused of it. 

There already is testimony that the seamstresses at McKeel Sportswear were frightened to tell the police or FBI of the possible sighting of Lee receiving a rifle, and delayed doing so until the FBI found her and asked. 

Suppose one of the seamstresses did then tell of and hand over the curtain rods. However that does not go into written reports, at least the ones we know of. In this scenario it would be covered up, with the FBI doing the same as the routine and well-attested FBI request of witnesses in the case generally, of asking her not to talk about it.

It would be analogous to the citizen who turned in the find of the paper-bag revolver found early the morning of Sat Nov 23 which may have been the true Tippit murder weapon, ditched by Curtis Craford, killer of Tippit, tossed out a car window, before Craford precipitously fled Dallas hitchhiking to Michigan that morning. That paper-bag revolver was turned in to the Dallas Police which withheld telling press or the Warren Commission of that find and that find was promptly lost and disappeared, known with security to have existed only because FBI documents later came to light telling details of it. (And that citizen who found it retreated into obscurity and never talked publicly about it.)

The suggestion would be it is possible the same thing, or something like that, could have happened with any possible Oswald curtain rods belatedly turned in. 

Edited January 28 by Greg Doudna