How Did LHO's Teenage Broken Tooth Reform?

[Steven Tomlinson]

1. LIFE magazine showed a picture of LHO as a teenager, with a broken tooth.

2. The body exhumed, supposedly of the same LHO, did not show a broken tooth.

Is it possible for these to have been the same person?...How?

Edited June 1, 2006 by Steven Tomlinson

[Ron Ecker]

Oswald's former 8th grade homeroom teacher Myra DaRouse told John Armstrong that the boy in the 9th grade photo was not the small, scrawny Harvey Oswald. She also knew for a fact that Harvey did not have a missing tooth, as the boy in the photo appeared to have.

Armstrong's explanation is simple: the boy in the photo is not Harvey but Lee, the Oswald who had a tooth knocked out according to the WC testimony of Oswald's childhood friend Ed Voebel, the person who took the photo of Lee in the classroom. (The body exhumed with no missing tooth was that of Harvey.)

Source: Harvey and Lee, pp. 91-93.

[Blair Dobson]

FWIW:

In 1963 (before full tooth plugs were in use, the type that actually get plugged into the jaw) to replace a lost adult tooth,

one would either have a partial (a clip in denture that is removable) or what is known as a bridge.

A bridge is where a wire harness supports the false tooth from the adjacent teeth and it is not removable.

Neither of these were present in the exhumation photos so whomever was in there had all the "ivories on his piano" as they say.

Also, I don't remember ever once in anything I have read about Oswald, anyone mentioning a denture or false tooth.

In a complete aside, I have also always thought it possible that "Oswald" could have been as much of a "character" in a play and after his death scene, decided to bugger off into the sunset with some reconstructive surgery and a witness protection stipend.

Not probable but not impossible.

Cheers guys

Dobson.

(oh, btw, my mother was a dental assistant in 1963 and I asked her if full tooth plug style replacements were available and according to her they didnt exist at that point in time.)

Edited June 2, 2006 by Blair Dobson

[Steven Tomlinson]

Oswald's former 8th grade homeroom teacher Myra DaRouse told John Armstrong that the boy in the 9th grade photo was not the small, scrawny Harvey Oswald. She also knew for a fact that Harvey did not have a missing tooth, as the boy in the photo appeared to have.

Armstrong's explanation is simple: the boy in the photo is not Harvey but Lee, the Oswald who had a tooth knocked out according to the WC testimony of Oswald's childhood friend Ed Voebel, the person who took the photo of Lee in the classroom. (The body exhumed with no missing tooth was that of Harvey.)

Source: Harvey and Lee, pp. 91-93.

Do you know if these two photographs are generally accepted as authentic or just to Mr Armstrong plus a relative few?

ST

[Ron Ecker]

Although there may have been two Oswalds, I believe we're only talking about one photo, taken of one Oswald in his 9th grade English class. I don't know of anyone who has questioned the photo's authenticity.

[Robert Howard]

Although there may have been two Oswalds, I believe we're only talking about one photo, taken of one Oswald in his 9th grade English class. I don't know of anyone who has questioned the photo's authenticity.

Being familiar with the issue, I once read that a tooth has the capacity to regenerate itself, although I don't recall the information source, it was not the New England Journal of Medicine, having said that, and also due to the fact that I don't have any experience in the field of dentistry, I am just as perplexed about the matter as anyone else. I don't have much to offer, other than to mention that, either teeth do regenerate or, John Armstrong might have an excellent point in this regard. BTW, the whole Armstrong pro or con issue does ostensibly have a middle ground where a modus vivendi can be reached in the sense that while obviously, the two Oswald's aspect is very controverial, even those who poo-poo the idea, would seemingly have to concede that there sure were a hell of a lot of Oswald sighting's at places where Lee Oswald was supposedly somewhere else.

[J. Raymond Carroll]

I believe we're only talking about one photo, taken of one Oswald in his 9th grade English class.

Can anyone post this photo, or point us to a link?

[Michael Hogan]

I believe we're only talking about one photo, taken of one Oswald in his 9th grade English class.

Can anyone post this photo, or point us to a link?

http://home.wi.rr.com/harveyandlee/Tooth/Tooth.htm

[J. Raymond Carroll]

http://home.wi.rr.com/harveyandlee/Tooth/Tooth.htm

Thank you, Mr. Hogan.

Mr. VOEBEL. Yes; I think he even lost a tooth from that. I think he was cut on the lip, and a tooth was knocked out.

Mr. Voebel does not sound too certain in his recollections, and who could blame him after so many years. I can't tell a thing about Lee Oswald's teeth from this photo. Unless someone can produce a plausible scientific opinion, with supporting data, then I submit that my guess that there is no broken tooth deserves to be considered as good as anyone else's.

Edited June 3, 2006 by J. Raymond Carroll

[Steven Tomlinson]

http://home.wi.rr.com/harveyandlee/Tooth/Tooth.htm

Thank you, Mr. Hogan.

Mr. VOEBEL. Yes; I think he even lost a tooth from that. I think he was cut on the lip, and a tooth was knocked out.

Mr. Voebel does not sound too certain in his recollections, and who could blame him after so many years. I can't tell a thing about Lee Oswald's teeth from this photo. Unless someone can produce a plausible scientific opinion, with supporting data, then I submit that my guess that there is no broken tooth deserves to be considered as good as anyone else's.

When you write, "I can't tell a thing about Lee Oswald's teeth from this photo", what you actually mean, and intend to mean is, "I can't tell a thing 'for certain' about Lee Oswald's teeth from this photo."

Imagine the prize was £1,000,000 and the question was, "Does the person in this photo appear to be missing a tooth?" You, I and most people with a modicum of common sense would answer "Yes!"

It doesn't mean he 'was' missing a tooth, but it does appear (view) as such.

It would seem fair to say it 'appears' that he was missing a tooth or 'possibly' (it doesn't appear, but could if people came forward to say so) that he was larking around with something dark over his front tooth and that is also the reason for his exaggerated comedic posture to the camera.

ST

[Jack White]

The missing tooth in Life magazine.

Jack

[Shanet Clark]

The missing tooth in Life magazine.

Jack

Jack and members:

I just had a graduate level Human Anthropology seminar

and when

an adolescent of this age loses a tooth like the

young man in this picture has-

IT DON"T JUST GROW BACK

best wishes

shanet

Edited June 3, 2006 by Shanet Clark

[Steven Tomlinson]

Although there may have been two Oswalds, I believe we're only talking about one photo, taken of one Oswald in his 9th grade English class. I don't know of anyone who has questioned the photo's authenticity.

Being familiar with the issue, I once read that a tooth has the capacity to regenerate itself, although I don't recall the information source, it was not the New England Journal of Medicine, having said that, and also due to the fact that I don't have any experience in the field of dentistry, I am just as perplexed about the matter as anyone else. I don't have much to offer, other than to mention that, either teeth do regenerate or, John Armstrong might have an excellent point in this regard. BTW, the whole Armstrong pro or con issue does ostensibly have a middle ground where a modus vivendi can be reached in the sense that while obviously, the two Oswald's aspect is very controverial, even those who poo-poo the idea, would seemingly have to concede that there sure were a hell of a lot of Oswald sighting's at places where Lee Oswald was supposedly somewhere else.

The question of Oswald sightings leading up to the assassination should be held separate to the photograph and apparent evidence of his youth. Although both issues create doubt, there's no necessity for them to be about the same individual. The youth aspect only provides a 'beginning' (with useful bits) to the alleged assassin's life. The sightings provide supposed evidence of 'intentions' and 'leanings'.

My spider senses are telling me the suggestion of three separate Oswald issues; 1 dead Oswald, 1 teenage Oswald photo and 1+ Oswalds via sightings will bring to the opportunist mind the desired freedom to operate ridicule. It may be wrong, but the idea or possibility is not ridiculous.

ST

[Shanet Clark]

I would like to see more photos of Lee and Harvey Oswald smiling,

to compare them with the exhumed XRAY on the related thread

Edited June 3, 2006 by Shanet Clark

[Michael Hogan]

Ron Ecker wrote:

Oswald's former 8th grade homeroom teacher Myra DaRouse told John Armstrong that the boy in the 9th grade photo was not the small, scrawny Harvey Oswald. She also knew for a fact that Harvey did not have a missing tooth, as the boy in the photo appeared to have.

Here is an account that appears in John Armstrong's Harvey and Lee (pps 83-85)

After attending Beauregard Junior High as a part-time student in the fall of 1953, Lee Harvey Oswald began attending full time and was assigned to Myra DaRouse's homeroom in the school cafeteria in the basement. I first learned about Myra DaRouse after reading a very short FBI report of an interview with her on April 2, 1964.

In 1995 I contacted Myra at her home in New Orleans and asked her if she remembered being interviewed by an FBI agent. Myra said that she clearly remembered the interview, which took place on Monday, November 25, following the assassination. Myra said that when the FBI agent arrived he presented his identification, then asked her to lock the door to her small office, which she did. The agent then interviewed Myra for over two hours about her former homeroom student, Lee Harvey Oswald. At the end of the interview Myra asked the agent if he thought they would ever know who killed President Kennedy. The agent replied, "Not in our lifetime."

Myra cannot remember the name of the FBI agent who interviewed her, but it was likely either SA James Royce or SA John M. McCarthy, who interviewed most of the Beauregard faculty. Whoever interviewed Myra would have written and forwarded their report to FBI headquarters in Washington. Unfortunately, the FBI report of Myra's 2-hour interview on November 25 disappeared.

The only known FBI report of an interview with Myra DaRouse is a half-page report, dated April 2, 1964, by SA Donald C. Steinmeyer. The report stated that Myra was interviewed at 3116 Prytania, Apt 29, and not behind a locked door in her office at the basement of Beauregard. When I told Myra about the half-page report she laughed and said, "I was never interviewed in my apartment. I talked to that FBI man in my office for two hours about Oswald, and everything I said about Oswald was good. The things in this report are not what I told that agent." I ended my conversation with Myra by asking if I could interview her in New Orleans, and she agreed.

My interview with Myra

When I met Myra at her home in 1995 she was 73 years old, in near perfect health, and looked remarkablly similar to photos taken of her at Beauregard 40 years earlier that I found in school archives.

When Myra began talking about "Lee Harvey Oswald" I was surprised by both her description and the name she used to refer to Oswald. Myra spoke continuously about her relationship with Harvey Oswald for about ten minutes, always calling him Harvey....Harvey....Harvey. Finally I interrupted and asked, "Myra, why do you always call him "Harvey,' you never call him 'Lee,' only 'Harvey.'

Myra explained, "Well, the first day he came into my homeroom he handed me his file. When I read that his name was Lee Harvey Oswald, I said to him, 'How do you want to be called,' and he told me to call him Harvey, so I always called him Harvey...I knew him only as Harvey."

Note: This was the second time that Lee Harvey Oswald had referred to himself as "Harvey" (The first time was six months earlier in Stanley, North Dakota.)

Myra described Oswald as, "A little fellow, scrawny, skinny, and quiet." At this point I wanted to remember how "little" Oswald was and asked Myra how tall she was in 1954. Myra said that she was 5-foot-4 when she met Harvey.....

When I asked Myra how tall Harvey was, she put her hand in the middle of her chest and said, "He came to about here (indicating the middle of her chest).....he was about 4-foot-6, maybe 4-foot-8." When I told Myra that New York school health records had recorded Oswald's height at 5-foot-4 only 3 months earlier (September 1953), she said, "Then those records are wrong....5-foot-4 would have been as tall as me and I know for certain that Harvey was no taller than the middle of my chest."

In early 1954, when Myra met Harvey Oswald, he appears to have been at least 9 inches shorter than Lee Oswald, who was measured at 5-foot-4 only three months earlier in New York. (September, 1953),

Photographs of Oswald

I asked Myra if she would like to see my collection of Oswald photographs and she said, "I certainly would." As she studied the photographs Myra began to stare at the "classroom photograph," published on page 72 of Life Magazine on February 21, 1964.

Myra instantly recognized the teacher standing in the back of the classroom as Helen DuFour. She also recognized many of the students in the classroom and called them out by name, "The girl at the blackboard is Myralynn Smith, the blond girl with the glasses in the upper left is Anola Springer, the girl on the right side of the picture, with the ponytail tied with a scarf, is Judith Dobbins, the girl with the leg brace is Lynn Reidlinger."

Myra studied the "classroom" photograph for five minutes without saying a word, while I visited with her husband. Finally I turned my attention to Myra, who was resting her chin on her right hand, and still staring at the photo. Myra pointed to the photo with her left index finger, raised her eyes toward me and said quietly, "That's not Harvey. That's not the boy from my homeroom." I said, "Are you sure." Myra replied, "Yes, I'm positive. Look at the boy sitting at this desk - he is not scrawny and small like Harvey - he is a large, husky boy. He is strong and healthy.....look at the size of his neck! He looks like a football player and Harvey was a little, scrawny fellow." It was obvious the student identified in the classroom photo as Lee Harvey Oswald was not the boy from Myra's homeroom.

Myra said that during the first half of 1954 she saw Harvey nearly every morning before school, waiting on the front steps for school to open. She saw him in her homeroom class, she saw him in the school hallways walking to and from classes, and after school she saw him riding his bicycle with Ed Voebel. On rainy days she saw him reading in the school library. I asked Myra if she ever heard Harvey talk about communism, as he had on one previous occasion in North Dakota, and she said, "No, he never did."

(There is much more about Myra DaRouse and Harvey Oswald in Armstrong's book)

Edited June 3, 2006 by Michael Hogan