The evidence - Where is CSI when you need them?

Perhaps the greatest knock against the Warren Commission was the way it handled the evidence and the conclusions it drew from that evidence. Still there is enough blame to go around, the conspiracy theorists have not done much better either. We shall look at a number of Warren Commission exhibits and examine some of the conclusions drawn by the commissioners based on the evidence before them. I hope to show some of the flaws in the commission's conclusions and the theorists too. I hope we can approach the evidence with an open mind and reexamine it and gain some insight into what really happened in Dealey Plaza November 22nd 1963.

Who were the Warren Commission and what was there mandate? In the chaotic wake of events on November 22nd 1963 the secret service bundled the Presidents body our of Parkland hospital and onto Air force 1 to get the dead President and the Vice President out of harm's way. According to Texas state law they were removing evidence. Murder is a state offense. The case should have been handled by Texas officials. Hindsight is 20/20 but who can judge the decision to get everyone on the plane when the whole world seemed to be going crazy. Within two hours Dallas police had a suspect in custody and was gathering evidence. Within the first 24 hours a case was being built against the defendant, though he had not even been charged yet. No need for the Warren commission. Then came Sunday November 24th. In a move that would later seem foolish Dallas police led Oswald through a basement garage for his transfer to the county jail. Suddenly Jack Ruby appears in the glare of the television camera lights. He shoves a colt cobra .38 revolver into Oswald's ribs and pulls the trigger, once. Oswald's face is a mask of pain and within minutes he is dead. No trial, no defense attorney, no evidence, no need. The suspect was dead. Dead is not good enough. A trial would have helped to answer the questions of the American people. Who had done this? Why? Are they done or is this whole thing part of a bigger plot? Enter Chief Justice of the Supreme Court Earl Warren. In the wake of Oswald's killing the world was waiting for a re conning. A re conning that would never come. Something had to be done. There were questions to be answered. Were the Russians or Cubans involved? Oswald had been to Russia, was he a foreign agent? The President was a powerful man, he had powerful enemies. Who had really done this? On November 29th 1963 only one week after the late President's death, the new President, Lyndon Johnson signed executive order number 11130

which called for the formation of the commission. The document states " Pursuant to the authority wested in me as President of the United States, I hereby appoint a Commission to ascertain, evaluate and report upon the facts relating to the assassination of the President John F. Kennedy and the subsequent violent death of the man charged with the assassination."The Commission consisted of Chief Justice of the Supreme court Earl Warren,Senator Richard Russell(Georgia) Senator John Sherman Cooper (Kentucky) Congressman Hale Boggs (Louisiana) Congressman Gerald Ford (Michigan) Allen Dulles and John McCloy. There can be little doubt that the purpose of the commission was largely political. There had to be a clear resolution of who was to be blamed so as not to fuel public speculation that could create instability. That does not mean that the commission did not largely meet the mandate that Johnson set for them. In several key areas, however the commission and those who handled the gathering and processing of some of the evidence failed the American people and have since created the speculation that the commission was set up to avoid. The most controversial aspects of the commission and the investigation were the so called "magic bullet theory" and commission exhibit 399 and the handling of the autopsy. I will deal with these issues each in there own chapters. Lord knows that entire books have been written on the subjects.

Meanwhile we shall deal with some of the other evidence, every bit as crucial but slightly less problematic.

The Rifle CE1303

The gun found on the sixth floor of the TSBD on November 22nd was a Manlicher-Carcano M91/38. I know that this will be excruciatingly dull for some but the gun has been a source of some controversy and this is an area of some importance. It is also an area in which I am quite knowledgeable. For years I was a collector of military firearms and I have owned and fired a number of Carcanos including the 91/38.

The rifle has many detractors and is much maligned. It does have some problems. But in no way does it deserve the reputation that has been heaped on it. In Oliver Stone's entertaining but unjournalistic movie JFK one character calls it "The world's worst shoulder weapon." This is patently untrue. Thee are many things I would not do with the Carcano, but it was designed to kill people and it is more than capable of that.

history In the late 19th century the European powers were adapting their arsenals to the industrial revolution and a couple of key developments; the metal cartridge and smokeless gunpowder. The metallic cartridge offered improvements in the feeding and handling of ammunition. It made the magazine possible allowing for repeating rifles. Smokeless powder allowed for smaller, lighter weapons with smaller bores that allowed for easier handling and greater accuracy at longer ranges. The rifles became easier to load and the training necessary to become proficient was less so the gun could be used by anyone with only a minimal amount of training. A Lt. Colonel named Salvatore Carcano developed this rifle in 1891 at the Turin Arms Works. The mechanism is based on two other systems the bolt and safety are similar to the Mauser action and the magazine is entirely borrowed from the Austrian Mannlicher rifle. The magazine is a charger type metal clip formed of one piece of stamped metal is filled with six rounds of ammunition and is inserted into the receiver where it em gages a sear which holds the clip in place by means of a spring. When the ammunition is expended the magazine drops out of the receiver, allowing another full clip to be loaded. Only full clips can be loaded and without the charger the gun can only be fired as single shot.

These photos show what a loaded clip of 6.5mm Carcano ammunition looked like, how it was loaded and how the empty magazine was ejected from the rifle.

The Carcano rifle formed the backbone of the Italian arsenal through the First and Second World Wars. It was decommissioned in 1945 after nearly 54 years of service. It was used in all theatres of operation in both wars and saw service in desert heat and extreme cold in the alpine corps. It handled mud, ice, sand and other operational challenges and performed reasonably well. The Italians produced other weapons during this time yet kept the Carcano in service. It had more than 10 variations. The 91/38 was known as "Fucle Corto" or short rifle and was a carbine version of the weapon. Carbines were used wherever weight and size was critical, by cavalry, by men who had other duties such as artillery or service personnel.

A crucial question often asked by theorists is why the Carcano? Of all the firearms on the market in 1963 why did Oswald choose this weapon? Oswald had some experience with firearms in the marine corps. He had used shotguns to hunt in Russia. He would have known several facts, bolt action rifles are more accurate than semi automatic weapons, smaller caliber rifles have less recoil and can be more quickly re aimed for a second or third shot and rifles with a telescopic sight greatly improve the accuracy of the weapon. Oswald's test results in the military had been average for accuracy. This with a much heavier and higher powered weapon. Many of the critics of the Warren Commission point out the shortcomings of the Mannlicher-Carcano without understanding what they mean or who made them or why they were leveled against the rifle. Let's take a look at some of the principle shortcomings of the weapon then some of its' strengths.

Shortcomings of the Manlicher-Carcano weapon system

It lacks power-The Carcano was built around the 6.5mmx52mm Carcano cartridge. This cartridge uses a bullet that is .265 inch in diameter with a cartridge length of 3.02 inches. It has a muzzle velocity 2296 FPS which is not fast but is comparable to other military 6.5mms of the period. It uses a 160 grain metal jacketed cartridge. At the very short ranges of the November 22nd assassination the gun was plenty fast enough. Its' 160 grain cartridge was capable of horrific damage at such short range. The wounds to Kennedy and Connally prove this.

Accuracy-Accuracy has always been a chafing point for conspiracy theorists they feel the Carcano was not accurate enough to do the job. The Carcano rifle has a number of versions and were produced for fifty years so they exist in a wide variety of different conditions. Many collectors have criticized earlier models for their rifling. They were produces with inferior rifling which produced poor ballistic results. Testing of Oswald's 91/38 and my own testing of the Carcanos that I have owned did not produce these results. I have found these weapons to be of average accuracy. In the shooting of surplus military fire arms the most important three factors are: Condition, condition, condition. Like the people at Antiques Roadshow, I cannot stress this enough. These are ex military service weapons, the conditions under which they served, their duration of service and the care and attention spent on them during their lifetimes are critical. I have seen weapons that looked like they were made yesterday and some that looked like the came out of an archaeological dig. You can only tell by examining them and by shooting them. There are some indications that Oswald did fire the weapon before the Walker attempt and that he frequently worked the bolt and "Dry fired" the weapon to practice its' use. There is certainly no doubt that the Manlicher-Carcano rifle model 91/38 was accurate enough and powerful enough to do the job. Any shooter who has fired one could verify that.

The safety is awkward- Yes, it is. In a sporting weapon this would be a major flaw. To operate the safety you depress a lug on the bolt and turn. the bolt spring is strong and it takes quite a bit of effort to engage and disengage the safety. Something that probably did not bother Oswald in the least. I doubt he used the safety on November 22nd at all.

It's a cheap weapon- Yes it is. The countries of Europe in the first half of the twentieth century were forced to spend millions equipping vast armies in their defense. All expense was spared. No frills here. No brass mounts or fancy turnings. This is a plain Jane working man's weapon. The surfaces may be a bit rough, the stocks less than perfect. It did meet the specifications of the designers. It was made well enough to last and to handles diverse and adverse conditions. Its parts performed well when tighter tolerances may not have. The gun with scope and freight cost Oswald $21.45 as the money order he bought to purchase it proves. Doesn't seem like much does it? He bought the weapon out of an ad in American Rifleman magazine, February 1963 edition. He could have chosen others, there were plenty advertised. So why the Carcano? In many ways the Carcano ideally suited Oswald's purposes, we have spoken at some length of the weaknesses of the Carcano let's look at some of the rifles strengths (from an assassins point of view).

Strengths of the Manlicher-Carcano 91/38 CE1303

Lack of power- Most of the criticisms of the Manlicher-Carcano rifle were levelled against the weapon by sportsmen and gun collectors. They don't like the weapon because it is not easily"sporterized" a word coined by gun enthusiasts who take stock military rifles and modify them for sporting use. Usually they cut down the stocks modify the sights refinish the barrels and sometimes re chamber the weapons to handle other ammunition or different loads of ammunition of the same caliber. The weapons then are used for sporting rifles for hunting game. This is a popular hobby and often collectors will spend more than the gun is worth to "sporterize" the weapon. The Carcano is not easily s"sporterized" and this is the source of much of the criticism of the weapon. In its' military configuration many of the "problems" are non-existent. The lack of power and lack of a strong mechanism means that the gun cannot easily be re chambered for higher power rounds. The 6.5mm cartridge is a relatively low powered round by some standards. This means, however that the rifle has less recoil than would a higher power rifle. Higher powered rifles were available in the same magazine that Oswald ordered CE1303 from. There are advantages to a gun with less recoil. Oswald was not a big man at 5' 9" and weighing about 165 lbs. A higher powered rifle would be harder to shoot, would have produced much more recoil and would have made a second shot harder if not impossible. When a shooter is setting up a shot he/she forms what is called a sight picture. Whether using a scope or open sights a shooter sets the target area in relation to the sights or cross hairs. When the target is in the correct position one squeezes the trigger. The recoil of the rifle and the cycling of the action will cause the sight picture to move and so the shooter must bring the target back into position to get the next shot off. The greater the recoil the more difficult this becomes and the longer it will take. Hence one of the Carcano's shortcomings becomes a plus to an assassin.







It is a cheap weapon- Yes it is. Oswald was on a budget. He made only a few thousand dollars in 1963. It's funny but the conspiracy theorists make a lot of the fact that the Carcano is cheap and crude, but had Oswald owned a shiny new Winchester they would be crying conspiracy even louder because how could he afford that?. Had he access to a bigger budget, if say, he was part of some huge conspiracy, he would probably have had a special rifle built like the character from "Day of the Jackal". Being that he was poor he bought an inexpensive rifle that met his needs. Maybe had Oswald bought a howitzer and rolled it up to the sixth floor window and used it to kill JFK we might not be still debating the capabilities of his $20 rifle.




It is small and easily hidden- the Carcano is only 40.2 inches in overall length and weighs only 7.5 lbs. Broken down, in the form that Oswald smuggled the gun into the TSBD on November 22md the rifle is only about 34" long. He knew he would have to smuggle the weapon into the building so he constructed an envelope from materials in the TSBD mailing room (brown paper and paper tape). At some point on the night of the 21st November 1963 Oswald disassembled the rifle and put it in the brown paper sack, telling his driver that the package contained curtain rods. The package was found later on the sixth floor of the TSBD no curtain rods were ever found but his rifle which was found on the sixth floor as well was missing from the Paine garage. The rifle was relatively simple to, no doubt Oswald had done so before, probably on the occasion of the Walker attempt and he would be reasonably proficient at doing so. Having disassembled the Carcano a number of times myself, I know it only requires a dime and takes only a couple of minutes. The FBI had an agent take the Carcano apart and it took six minutes and less time than that to put it back together using only a dime as a tool. Most weapons can be taken down with a cartridge case, the Carcano cartridge is rimless so this will not work. The dime trick is well known among gun fanciers and was no doubt what Oswald used. The rifle's size and weight would have been a definite advantage to Oswald and could have been a factor in his choice of the rifle over other models. When Oswald ordered the rifle from Klein's the advertisement actually said the the rifle shipped would be a 36" 5 lb Italian carbine. This would have been the Rocca model which is smaller and lighter than the version shipped to A. Hidell at the Oswald mail box. It is possible that Oswald thought he was ordering the smaller weapon. The supply of Carcanos was huge but the weapons were arriving in lots as this was the only way the Crescent, the importer could afford them. It was some time before Klein's changed their ad to read 40" rifle weighing 7lbs (the dimensions of the Oswald rifle CE1303). Having ordered many dozens of firearms from surplus suppliers I will say that the accuracy of the ads leaves a lot to be desired, but the value of the weapons delivered is usually consistant.




The action is fast- The Carcano is one of the fastest bolt action rifles in cycling a round of ammunition. Some detractors have called the action "Loose", it does however make the rifle one of the fastest I have ever loaded and fired and reloaded. Here is a quote from an article called "The Italian 6.5x52mm Mannlicher-Carcano Rifle" by noted collector and sportsman Chuck Hawks "The one real virtue of the M91 is that it is fast to operate. Perhaps this was partly because the action was not real tight, and partly due to the Mannlicher design. But for whatever reason, the bolt slid very easily and very fast in its' recess. A buddy of mine owned an M91 carbine, and I remember it as being the fastest bolt action military rifle I ever cycled. Practically anyone with a minimum of practice, could shoot a Mannlicher-Carcano rifle quickly." Remember Marina's testimony the Oswald would practice "Dry Firing" the rifle. He was building up his proficiency at cycling the weapon. This would prove very important on November 22nd and would surprise the experts when the timing of the shots was placed under the microscope. The commission provided the weapon to experts to fire to test the speed and accuracy of the weapon. They were given the weapon for only a few minutes. Oswald practiced this for hours, he knew that as important as accuracy was, the time frame he would have to fire at the limousine was limited. To get in the last shot he would have to be fast. He needed a fast weapon. The add in Amerrican Rifleman called the rifle "fast loading". More recent analysis of the Zapruder film has widened the window of time that the three shots could have been fired to as much as 8.4 seconds, which would make the results that Oswald achieved much more understandable.

Accuracy- The assassin shooting with a rifle, from cover, would require a telescopic sight. Much of the criticism of the Carcano for inaccuracy had to do with the standard issue open sights which the rifle was issued. Oswald chose the Carcano, one supposes, due in part to the fact that it came with telescopic sights. Given the relatively short distances involved, a good shooter would not have needed telescopic sights. Oswald was at least an average shooter in the Marines and may have had some practice after he left the service (there is some debate on this). However, given the short distances involved in the three shots from the TSBD they certainly would have been very easy with the telescopic sight fitted to CE1303. It would have been relatively easy.


A few other points about the rifle before we put this one to rest. In the confusion of the hours after the assassination the rifle was misidentified as a Mauser. This matter has persisted and many conspiracists still cling to the "second rifle" theory in spite of all evidence to the contrary. The rifle was discovered on the sixth floor of the TSBD on Novermber 22nd by Deputy Sheriff Eugene Boone. Deputiy Luke Mooney and Deputy Constable Seymour Weitzman were also present and Deputy Roger Craig overheard the conversation and saw the weapon. The men described the weapon as a 7.65 German Mauser. This information went out over the press wires along with a whole host of other incorrect information in the first hours of the investigation. Following the discovery of the weapon it was collected by Lt. C. Day and was taken to Dallas police headquarters and logged as a 6.5Mannlicher-Carcano Italian Carbine Serial No. C2766. When pressed by the Warren Commision Boone and Mooney admitted they could have been mistaken. Roger Craig never changed his testimony, though he had less contact with the weapon. Moonety would later change his testimony once again, making even more fervent claims which can be viewed on youtube. WillFitz who was in charge of the Dallas police investigation also never wavered in his identification of the weapon as a Carcano and is vehemnet about the gun's identity and caliber. He had possession of the cartridge casings until the FBI took two for fingerprinting then the Warren Commosion took the third. It seems highly doubtful that there was ever a second rifle that magicaly disappeared. It seems much more likely that the deputies were mistaken about the identity of the weapon. The deputies described the sling and later recognized it as the same. They had no doubt about the scope either. It is very likely that they mistook the rifle for a Mauser with which they had some familiarity. The Carcano was at the time of the assassination a very uncommon weapon which not too many people would recognize especially in the carbine form. The Carcano does bear a superficial resmblance to the Mauser and no where on the weapon does it say the words Carcano or Mannlicher. I am not certain how much time the men had to handle the weapon as it had not been fingerprinted and they were not supposed to touch the finished surfaces. Some conspiracy theorists have described Weitzman and Mooney as snipers which would seem to make them firearms experts. Far from it. Most snipers would be familiar with modern, civilian weapons. The Carcano is an obscure weapon which is scarcely recognizable to collectors of military firearms. Testimony about who held the gun and for how long varies by the one telling the story. The concedud seems to be that Weizman was asked for his opinion because he was an "expert" and he seems to be the one who pronounced the gun a "7.65 Mauser" the gun does resemble a Mauser but not particularly the 7.65 carbines, which are longer, heftier and generlly better made. They mostly predate the Carcano. The gun does resemble a Mauser suffciently to fool many people. The problem with the eyewitnesses is the problem with most eyewitness testimony, it is unreliable. The witnesses have, over the years changed their stories many times and have, odlly enough, claimed more detail and become more emphatic with time, which renders there testimony suspect. In my opinion, the witnesses were scrambling to identify the weapon so as not to look foolish in front of the International media. The National media was already, quite literally on their doorstep at the TSBD. Ther first reports of the rifle were broadcast at 1:26 pm only minutes after the rifle was discovered. Had the investigators been silent until they had a positive identification they could have avoided havbing egg on their faces. By sticking fiercely to a false I.D. they regain respect in the eyes ofa public that is 70% convinced of a conspiracy. I believe that the officers were stumped and took their collective "best guess" leaving history to clean up the mess. It is interesting that when under oath they were not so certain. The fact that they have become more certain with time weakens their claims, in my opinion. In any case, in the absence of solid testimony we must go with the physical evidence, we do have a Mannlicher-Carcano rifle, ordered by A.Hidell a known alaias of LHO and delivery to his Dallas mail box. The rifle is photographically the same as the one in the "backyard photo". Oswald's palm printis on the weapon and his fingerprints are on the bag. He was seen carrying the bag into the TSBD. He never had any curtain rods in the Paaine garage. His room in Dallas had curtains and a curtain rod. He had not asked his landlady about changing or replacing the curtains or rods. The package appeared to be too heavy to be curtain rods. No curtain rods have ever been discovered at the TSBD even though LHO had nothing in his hands when he left the building. The only bullet fragments recovered from the vehicle and Parkland and the bodies all match the ammunition of Ce1303. Ladies and gentlemen, it walks like a duck, it talks like a duck...

Motive - The pathological are seldom logical

To convict someone of murder it is not necessary to establish a motive, you only have to prove the facts of the murder and the accused role in it, without reasonable doubt. Having said that there are few district attorneys or crown attorneys that would go to court without at least attempting to establish a motive. The reason that the law allows for this is that the law recognizes that it may not always be possible to get inside of a killers thoughts and understand why they commit ed the crime. The law allows that there are even circumstances when it is permissible or excusable to take a human life.: war, self defense or when the killer meets the legal definition of insanity. The insane have, it is recognized, diminished capacity to differentiate between right and wrong. The law recognizes also that a person can have a different outlook on the reasons for killing a person but still be culpable for the murder. Such is the case with sociopaths and psychopaths. They have a different view of killing than do normal adults but they still understand that what they do is wrong and that there are consequences to there actions when they get caught.
It is my contention that Lee Harvey Oswald fits into this category. He fully understood that killing Kennedy was wrong but for his own reasons he still went ahead and did commit murder. If he had lived to stand trial I am sure that his lawyers would have argued diminished capacity just as I am sure that no jury in the United States would have found him not guilty by reason of insanity. We can never say with certainty what went through Oswald's mind in the time leading up to the assassination, but we can follow the chain of events that lead up to November 22nd and we can make some inferences and judgements of our own based on the best indicator of future behaviour and its motives, part behaviour. Even had Oswald lived it is doubtful that anything he may have said would ever have been much help in understanding why he did it. His psyche was so flawed and his judgement and reasoning so skewed that he was incapable of explaining his own actions as he and normal people do not share a common frame of reference. In essence we don't speak the same moral and ethical language as did Oswald so we could not understand his reasons nor he our contempt for his actions.
One trait that is common among sociopath killers is a lack of empathy. They are unable to relate to their victims and how the loss will affect others. Oswald showed many signs of having a lack of empathy, throughout his life. Many childhood acquaintances regarded him as cold and aloof. He formed few friendships and spent many hours alone. Employers, landlords, coworkers all noted this about him. None of them felt they knew him on a deep personal level. His conversation was distant, not engaging and many found they would lose interest and drift out of the conversation. Oswald's lack of empathy is evident in his comment after shooting Constable Tippit, "Poor dumb cop" or "Poor damn Cop" . Arresting officers noted how calm and cool he seemed when arrested. Conspiracy theorists would claim this is a sure sign of innocence yet even an innocent man would be panicked by the events. It is however, a sure sign of the sociopath who has no real attachment to the events he has caused.

People have often remarked about the shots fired that day and how the last shot was the most accurate of the bunch. They reason logically that with the panic and adrenaline flowing they feel that there is no way that the shots would get more accurate. As a former gun collector and target shooter I can tell you that the second and third shots are almost always more accurate as you mentally make the small adjustments for windage and idiosyncrasies of the weapon and scope. They who feel that he should have been less accurate use their framework of understanding. They think "if I was shooting at another human being especially the president of the United States I would be nervous and I would get more nervous as I proceeded." What they ignore is that Oswald was a sociopath, he did not have the same sensations, the same thoughts were not passing through his mind, he was dispassionate, removed almost like watching himself do the deed. His accuracy like mine when shooting paper targets would get better with each shot. We must be careful when trying to put thoughts into Oswald's mind that we remember, the pathological are seldom logical. They have reasons for their actions, they are not however the reasons a normal person would have.

To understand the motive we must understand some of the evidence. Consider the backyard photo and the other photos in the notebook Oswald kept while planning the Walker killing. Who would have such photos taken? Especially if you were about to kill a right wing General? The photo shows Oswald with the rifle and pistol and copies of two different communist newspapers. It neatly sums up the whole case against him. The conspiracy theorists would argue that it was a clever fake made up by the CIA or FBI or Castro or Kruschev or somebody. The only problem is that Marina took the photo with their cheap camera. The negatives are accounted for (for some of the photos not all) and Oswald himself gave George DeMohrenschildt a copy of the photo (with Marina's writing on the back, the "Hunter of Fascists" photo. There is absolutely no doubt of the authenticity of the photos. Oswald had the photos taken to establish himself as a legitimate communist and the type of person that the Soviets or Cubans would want to have as a citizen. Oswald left the photos behind after the Walker attempt in order to establish his place in history should he be caught and killed. Had he succeeded he would have taken the photos to the Cuban or Soviet embassies as proof of his commitment to the cause. In his twisted mind he saw this as a badge of accomplishment. The thought that killing a high ranking anti-communist would give him refugee status in the communist world. The first defection had not gone well, he was treated with suspicion and once his net worth had been established he was sent into virtual exile as a threat, not an asset. He had little or nothing to offer the Soviets in terms of intelligence (in either sense of the word). he had wanted to go to university in Moscow. He felt that doing this thing would assure him of an honoured place in Soviet society. Had he succeeded in killing Walker I doubt very much if the Soviets would have even allowed him to enter their borders he would have been way to hot to handle.

Oswald had always sought to belong to something. He was a classic wanna be. His childhood friend William Wulf said "...he seemed to me a boy that was looking for something to belong to. I don't think anybody was looking for him to belong to them."If Oswald had escaped capture he must have thought that he could write his ticket in the communist world. Oswald's conversion to Communism is an interesting expression of his character in itself. According to Oswald he became a communist early perhaps at the age of fifteen. People who do not fit in often take this to extremes and do things that make them even more separate from others. An example of this would be the young killers at Columbine High school who took to wearing trench coats to make them more separate from their peers. Since Oswald did not fit in he could do something that would explain isolation. If he became the one thing that would most isolate him in the United States, becoming a communist, he could then justify his isolation. He was no longer isolated because of any flaw in his character or any psychological problem, he was isolated because of his political beliefs. Although he read a number of the most famous works of communism, acquaintances from his days in the USSR would comment that his understanding of communism was limited. He himself would call the Soviet system flawed and that it was not a true representation of communism. During his time there he did not fit in either. His charade pf being a communist only worked when it was abstract, when it became concrete the same old social problems reared there head and he was isolated even further because of his poor knowledge of the Russian language.

Oswald saw the killing of Kennedy or Walker or Nixon or anyone else in a position of authority in the U.S. as his ticket out of obscurity and isolation. He did not want to be caught, he wanted to be free but to be able to make substantiated claim to the act that he had done. He needed to have the time to get away, hence the alias and the fake ID. Stll, he needed to be able to prove his success as a "Hunter of Fascists". To most of us his actions seem illogical. Why have the photo taken, why rent a mailbox that could so easily be tied to his real identity? He knew he would have to leave the rifle behind and he knew that it would eventually be linked to him but I am sure he never dreamed how fast events would move after he pulled the trigger.

One of the things that convinces me the most of Oswald's guilt is one of the most esoteric. take a close look at the booking photo I used in the first chapter. The one showing a bruised Oswald. Is this the patsy of the conspiracy theorists? Does he look scared? Some conspiracy theorists would have us believe that Oswald was totally innocent and knew nothing even of the plot. Look at this face! Had he been shaved and not showing a scar from his brief scuffle with authorities in the Texas theatre I would say that this was a college graduation photo. He looks smug, smiling like he just accomplished some achievement of monumental proportions. Watch the clips of his police station interviews. He is cool, calm and in control. He does not have the appearance of an innocent man who would be baffled, wondering what was happening, scared to the core. He is not sweating, nor is he rambling or incoherent as he would be if he were insane. He behaves just as you would expect a person to behave who was a sociopath, cool, detached and of course he is smiling, other than being caught everything else is going according to plan. If you do get to see the interview watch carefully his reaction when he is told he is being charged with the Kennedy assassination. He visibly gulps, to that moment he thought he was charged only with the Tippit killing he now knows that there is no hope of bail or of escaping. Briefly his demeanour slips and he shows a flicker of concern. He never showed any sign of emotion when killing Tippit but he does have a reaction when things go badly for him. These judgements are, of course subjective, but they are telling. They further lend credence to Oswald's guilt. One more link in the chain.

Next chapter - the evidence, the Warren commission drops the ball.

Blueprint of murder - The Plot Sickens

Edwin Walker

In one sense to say that Oswald had a plan for the assassination of JFK would be to give a lot more credit to the plan than it was warranted. Oswald had a generic plan which he used on several occasions. He ordered a cheap gun with a scope from a mail order catalogue

Much has been made of his choice of rifles and we will deal more with that in a future chapter. He also obtained a handgun and had these weapons shipped to a post office box under the alias A. Hidell. The mailbox was rented by Lee H. Oswald demonstrating that Oswald was no Einstein. It took the FBI only a few hours to connect both guns to Oswald. Oswald's plan was to kill Kennedy, what to do after he killed the most powerful man on Earth was somewhat less elaborate. We can see the plan in action the first time he used the plan . What many people don't know is that Lee Harvey Oswald had already attempted at least once to assassinate an American leader. In the late dusk hours of April 10, 1963 Oswald crept into a Dallas alley behind the home of retired Major General Edwin A. Walker. He was carrying his recently received Manlicher Carcano rifle. He rested it on a fence to steady his shot and waited. When the chance presented itself, he missed. The bullet smacked into the wall and Oswald fled.

One thing that the Warren Commission got right was its' understanding of the importance of the attack on General Walker. Some have called it the "Rosetta Stone" of the assassination and I don't think this is an overstatement. Understanding the events of late March and early April of 1963 make the events of November 22nd a lot clearer. As the Commission noted "...there are differences between the two events as far as Oswald's actions and planning are concerned, there are also similarities that should be considered." Only when we fully understand how and why Oswald tried to kill Walker can we understand how and why he tried to kill Kennedy. The events are links in the same chain. Are there other links? Did Oswald try to kill anyone else? Maybe like Richard Nixon? As bizarre as it seems this is he may have considered this too. You don't need to weave a web of fiction to find the bizarre, you have but to stick to the facts, truth is way stranger than fiction, believe me!

Oswald planned the assassination attempt on Walker for more than a month prior to the attempt. Marina Oswald testified before the commission that he kept a notebook with the plans in it and frequently read the notebook. He also studied bus routes as this was his method of traveling to and from the scene. Oswald left a note for Marina to read in the event his attempt on Walker was successful. The note tells her that the rent is paid and that she should check the mailbox for his last paycheck. It tells her to throw away all his clothes and to give his papers to the press. He had left the notebook and a series of photos for posterity. Clearly he had a vision of himself as a world famous assassin. He mentions that Marina should send newspaper clippings about Walker's assassination to the Soviet embassy to enlist their help. he was thinking ahead to his legacy. This for the killing of a virtually unknown right wing apologist.

The Walker assassination attempt proves a number of things. It shows that Oswald was capable of planning and executing (no pun intended) a plan that would involve the killing of another human being. It shows that he was thinking ahead of how he would be judged, by the public, if he was caught or killed in the process of committing such an act. When you examine the often inexplicable events leading up to April 10th a pattern emerges. Take the now infamous backyard photo of Oswald cradling the rifle, wearing the handgun and holing two communist newspapers, this photo was Oswald's gift to the reporters. he figured it would run on newspaper front pages after he had successfully killed General Walker (it in fact later ran in newspapers after he killed Kennedy). Conspiracy theorists will argue until the end of time that the photo is a fake but it clearly is not. He had Marina take the photo to prove what he was about to do. Oswald was laying the factual chain of events that would prove that he did this. The presence of the note, the fact that Oswald did not destroy the notebook full of plans and photos until after he was unsuccessful at killing Walker, these things clearly indicate that he had little interest in covering up his role in the attempted killing. I am not saying that Oswald wanted to be caught or killed. Obviously if he wanted to guarantee his guilt he never would have used an alias nor would he have destroyed the notebook. He wasn't trying to be caught, he was trying to establish his bona fides as a "Hunter of Fascists" (Marina had written this on a copy of the backyard photo which Lee had given to George De Mohrenschildt). Oswald still had illusions of returning to the Soviet Union, this time as a hero. In fact Oswald had visited the Soviet embassy in Mexico in September of 1963 and had been told his application for a visa might take three months. No doubt a famous freedom fighter who had struck a blow against fascism would get a warmer response.

Marina Oswald had testified before the Warren Commission in June of 1964 that Lee had, in late April of 1963 read an article about Richard Nixon in the Dallas newspaper and then put on a suit and took his handgun. When Marina asked him where he was going he said that Nixon was in town and he was going to meet him. Marina pleaded with him not to go and reminded him that he had promised her not to do this again after the Walker shooting. Oswald did not leave the house. The Commission notes that Nixon was not in town at the time specified, however a headline and article did appear on the front page of the Dallas Morning News Sunday April 21 which reads "NIXON CALLS FOR DECISION TO FORCE REDS OUT OF CUBA. Open US Support Of Rebels Urged". Marina claimed she felt that Oswald was testing or perhaps punishing her with these threats. The threat however hollow reinforces the behaviour and pattern of behaviour against persons of authority in the United States. Oswald seems fixated on killing someone famous, someone who represented the anti communist forces. Kennedy was a cold warrior and certainly fit the bill.

Oswald certainly had a plan for the Walker killing. He had planned the route he would take to and from the scene, he had planned a place to hide the rifle. He had taken photos of the scene and had planned where he would stand to offer the best shot and yet evade detection while committing the crime. He knew the whereabouts of his victim and that he would be in town at least at the time of the attempt. He had made plans for what would happen to Marina should he succeed. He had left his plans and the letter to Marina as well as the photo given to George De Mohrenschildt. He had practised with the rifle, on range and dry firing in his apartment.In fact had the bullet not hit a divider in the window and been redirected he might be known only as the assassin of General Edwin A. Walker, a mere footnote in history.

As far as the plan for the Kennedy assassination we can only judge it by the parts of the plan that he actually carried out. This time he left no notebooks full of photos, no note to Marina, nor did he spend any great amount of time discussing the plot with anyone. Marina and he were not speaking at the time of the assassination. She testified before the Warren Commission that on the night before the assassination

A. I was angry, of course. He was not angry he was upset. I was angry. He tried very hard to please me. He spent quite a bit of time putting away diapers and played with the children on the street.

Q. How did you indicate to him that you were angry with him?

A. By not talking to him.

It is not likely that he would have told Marina what he was about to do. If the threat to kill Nixon had been a test, Marina had failed. She had reacted by crying, by locking him in a bathroom and doing anything she could to keep him from leaving the house. Nixon was not even in town. Kennedy was coming. The very next day. Oswald spent the night with Marina, went to bed early, said nothing when she came to bed although she knew he was awake. Rose early, before anyone else, went to the garage took the rifle from a rolled up blanket, took it apart, put the two pieces in a paper sack he had previously made from materials from the mail room at the Texas School Book Depository and left for work. He told the neighbor who gave him a lift that the package was a curtain rod.

The motorcade route had been proposed November 18, and accepted and publicized in the local papers on the 19th. Oswald, a voracious reader of newspapers could not help but see it. His job at the TSBD (Texas School Book Depository) afforded him access to the first and sixth floors. The first floor would be near useless, but the sixth floor, with less traffic and deserted at the time of the assassination was perfect. Oswald hid the rifle and worked the morning sad usual.. While most people were busy he constructed the "sniper's nest" out of cartons that had been moved due to floor repairs. No one could see him at the sixth floor window including a fellow employee eating luncha short distance away. Oswald reassembled the rifle and waited for the motorcade.

Upon firing the last shot Oswald took an elevator to the second floor where he encountered Dallas motorcycle patrolman Marion Baker who was accompanied by Oswald's supervisor Roy Truly. Truly identified Oswald as an employee and Baker, with pistol drawn let Oswald pass. Oswald bought a coke from a vending machine and walked out the main entrance of the TSBD on Elm St. less than ten minutes after shooting Kennedy Oswald boarded a bus driven by Cecil McWatters by stopping the bus mid block. Oswald didn't drive and was comfortable riding the bus. This day though it must have seemed far too public for him. He got off the bus early and took a taxi to a point a few blocks past his boarding house. He doubled back and was spotted by cleaning woman Earlene Roberts who described him as moving very fast almost running. He recovered his revolver and a tan zippered jacket from the boarding house then crossed the street and waited at a bus stop. He still had the bus transfer in his pocket. He paced nervously a few moments then left on foot in the direction of the next bus stop. He was within a few blocks when he was stopped by Dallas patrolman J.D. Tippit. Tippit had heard the general description broadcast at 12:45 pm Oswald fit the description so presumably he wanted a word with the man who was hurrying down the street. Tippit pulled up to Oswald at the corner of Patton Ave and 10th st. As he approached Oswald he was hot four times. His service revolver lay unholstered under his body. He died instantly. Oswald Emptied the revolver and reloaded as he walked. Oswald said either,"poor dumb cop" or "poor damn cop" according to a taxi driver who witnessed the shooting.

Oswald then proceded toward Jefferson street ditching the jacket under a car in a parking lot, where it was later recovered. Oswald walked along Jefferson ducking into the doorway of a shoe store then sneaking into the Texas theatre without paying. The manager of the shoe store watched the suspicious, sweaty man and told the clerk at the ticket booth who called Dallas police. Oswald continued to act suspiciously changing seats several times. Dallas police descended on the theatre and entered the theatre turning on the house lights. Oswald yelled I am not resisting arrest when officer M.N. McDonald asked him to stand. Oswald punched McDonald and drew his revolver and pulled the trigger. McDonald had grabbed the pistol and the hammer came down on the webbing between his thumb and palm, the pistol did not discharge. other officers grabbed Oswald and led him from the theatre where a crowd had formed. The time was 1:50pm. John Fitzgerald Kennedy had been officially dead for less than an hour. Jacqueline's clothes were soaked in the still wet blood from her husbands head wound. She handed a piece of his brain to a member of the trauma team. She was stunned, too stunned to fully grip what had just happened to her husband, in front of her eyes.

If Oswald had an escape plan we will never know what it was. Likely he would have put as many miles as possible between himself and the crime. How he would have gotten very far with only $13.87 in his pockets is hard to figure. That he did not want to be captured is obvious. He was willing to kill at least two police officers to stay at large. McDonald was lucky, Tippit was not. Unlike the Walker assassination he left no detailed instructions. Like the Walker assassination he did leave the photos, he left behind the rifle which he had to know was going to be traceable within a few hours. Perhaps he only wanted a few hours. If I may speculate, he may have only wanted enough time to reach a Soviet or Cuban Embassy. Perhaps he thought that with his name made they would not refuse him asylum. In any event he could not have gotten far with only two sets of I.D. both of which would tie him to the weapons and the killing. In all likelihood he may not have thought through the whole scenario. He had to know that unlike the Walker attempt they would never let him rest.

In summary the plot was this:

• build an alias. This is useful to hide ownership of the murder weapon and possibly to evade capture.
• order a rifle and a pistol under the alias. The rifle for the actual assassination and the pistol to help evade capture.. (the Nixon threat seems to show that he would consider using the pistol in a face to face meeting to assassinate someone) That he was capable of face to face killing is clear from the Tippit murder.
• plan the actual shooting using resources available. In Walker killing he obviously scoped out the scene thoroughly including photos. In the Kennedy murder he knew the TSBD well and had picked out his snipers nest and his escape route from the building in advance.
• plan what will happen to his family after he has commit ed the crime. In the Walker affair he left the note with instructions on how she was to behave and where she would get money. In the Kennedy assassination he left her $170 and his wedding ring in a cup by there bed. He knew he could not trust her to be quiet (after the Nixon test) so no note this time just the cash and the knowledge of his prior instructions.
• an escape route of sorts from the building to his apartment then on to a bus, foiled by Tippit. From here we do not know what he planned.

That was the plan as we understand it. poorly conceived but well executed for the first half anyhow. The next thing we will look at is the motive. Why would Oswald do this? Of all the enigmas surrounding him this is by far the most puzzling.

coming soon WHY???????????

Foreign Ex-Change

Did you ever take a look at the change in you pockets? No, I mean really take a look at it? Pretty boring usually; pennies, dimes, quarters bur every once in a while there will be the unfamiliar feel of an American quarter or some other unusual coin. Ever wonder how it got there? I mean we lives thousands of kilometers from the nearest international borders. You wouldn't expect to find a lot of foreign coins would you? Yet... every once in a while something turns up.
My wife Lina and I run the Northern store in Tulita and were have collected some of the more interesting coins that have crossed our paths in the last few years I have put them together in a binder and the list of countries is pretty impressive. Our little collection includes; French and Belgian francs British pence, Euros, dimes from Mexico and Brazil Quarters from Netherlands and Trinidad, nickels from the Czech Republic and West Germany. There are pennies that aren't from heaven but close, Fiji (I love the look of that name Fiji all those dots, it dosen't look natural) and Australia. There are coins from sunny Barbados and Cayman Islands and chilly Russia and Sweden. There are also some unusual Canadian and American coins. There are U.S. Loonies and fifty cents pieces and numerous Canadian ones. Old silver dollars and a 1945 "V" for victory nickel and its' 2005 commemorative. There is a Terry fox dollar and a buffalo head nickel from the U.S. One real rarity is a Canadian dime which is only struck on one side, no Bluenose!
There are even coins that are not really coins at all, there are tokens from Arcades and Casinos and even a Circus. It really makes you wonder how these coins from all over the planet found their way into the pockets of someone in a small northern towns (my wife and I collected the coins in Ft Resolution NT, Old Crow YT and Tulita NT). Towns thousands, even tens of thousands of kilometers from where they started out.
There are even some coins that cannot identify because I cannot read the characters that are on the coins. Written in apparently Asian characters they even add to the mystery. So the next time you find a stranger in your change stop and give it some thought, just how did that dime get there all the way from Jamaica or Hong Kong...

Conspiracy Theories, the man on the grassy knoll

So who shot JFK anyway? If you read magazines or any one of the hundreds of books on the subject it was either the CIA the KGB the Mafia the military industrial complex or the Cubans. Everyone is a suspect except, of course the angry lone nut, AKA Lee Harvey Oswald. I may be a minority of one but I believe that Oswald and only Oswald shot JFK. There was no sniper on the grassy knoll, no hit team in the Dal-Tex building no signal from the "umbrella man". Just a confused, maladjusted young man with a cheap gun and a and a half baked plan.
I must admit that I too was once a conspiracy theorist. I read my first article in a tabloid magazine back in the early seventies and I was hooked. I then read Josiah Thompson's Book "Six Seconds in Dallas" where he goes through the Zapruder film frame by frame and makes incorrect assumptions about the assassination based on the film. I went on to read Mark Lane's early work "A Rush To Judgement" in which he skewers the Warren commission and all its' conclusions. I read voraciously and bought every video I could find about the assassination. I sent away for a copy of the Warren Commission report and combed it for details. The more I looked the less likely the conspiracy theories I cherished seemed. I had thought that I would find the smoking gun and put to rest forever the one true theory of the Kennedy killinmg. Instead I came to the following conclusions; Lee Harvey Oswald and only Lee Harvey Oswald shot JFK. The Warren Commission, in spite of its' undoubtedly political purpose, essentially got it right. Finally there was no conspiracy to cover up the events of November 22, 1963 because their was no need to. No major agencies were involved in planning the assassination so they didn't need to cover it up. That is not to say that agencies were not guilty of letting down the President and his family and that certain agencies bungled the investigation and handling of evidence, but more about that later.


I will not be able to deal with all these questions in a single, readable Blog, so I will break it out into a number of chapters. This will be a process and I invite your comments and thoughts. I am not one hundred percent sure where it will lead us but let's look at one thing at a time.





Chapter One- Lee Harvey Oswald... One insect, so much grain

We humans are creatures of logic. Big outcome, big input. JFK was; handsome,intelligent, charismatic, popular, young, outwardly vigorous (he was actually suffering from Chromes disease and the medication for it gave his skin a copper color making him appear tanned and healthy), and one of the most powerful men on earth. Lee Harvey Oswald was, undersized, pasty, unpopular, withdrawn and about the last person you would expect to do anything momentous. How could so much; shock, grieving and loss be caused by anyone so insignificant.?

In their song "Empty Garden, Hey,Hey Johnnie" about the assassination of John Lennon, Elton John and Bernie Taupin described Lennon's assassin as an insect. "Funny how one insect can damage so much grain." This was intentional, by leaving him unnamed, only as an insect, they do not make a celebrity of a murderer. I shall not even mention his name here for the same reason. Oswald must be mentioned although he deserves the same fate. Like Kennedy's death Lennon's death shocked us by its' senselessness, its brutality and vast loss of potential. So Much Grain! The heady days of Camelot were over with the crack of a rifle. Gone was the handsome prince. Gone was the promise that he represented. On one side of the equation is this huge number representing the hopes and dreams of a generation on the other side of the equal sign is a slight, balding young man with a cheap surplus gun. How can such a great event be caused by so humble a source? Logic dictates that there has to be more to it. Hence the conspiracy theory. Make Oswald seem bigger by adding, say the CIA and the whole equation becomes less lopsided. Too bad life doesn't always follow formulas. Lennon's death was an even greater tragedy because of how unfair the event was, so was Kennedy's. A nation lost a leader, a wife lost her husband and children lost their father and no one would ever face justice because Oswald died before he could be punished.

So Oswald was an unlikely assassin. So what? History is not cast like a Hollywood blockbuster. The starring role seldom falls to the perfect player. Oswald wanted to write his name large in history and he was failing at it miserably. Everything he had done to draw attention to himself and put himself on the front page had fizzled. He had defected to the USSR where he thought He would be a celebrity defector and would be much sought after by the Soviets and there espionage and intelligence community. Instead they sent him to a low paying factory job where he languished. The Soviets thought him to unstable to be of any use and quickly realized that in spite of his claims he really had no secrets to offer from his time in the m the Marine Corps where he had also achieved little and was only barely able to meet muster. Oswald had fancied himself a communist but his idea of communism differed drastically from the reality he met in the Soviet Union where he encountered the same class barriers that he had endured in the States. He was intellectually lazy and seldom thought through his actions. His marriage to Marina had not worked out either, they quarrelled constantly, usually about money which Lee was never very good at earning . When he failed to achieve fame by defecting he undefected and returned to the U.S. and got no press there either. The state department held its' nose and took him back.

Oswald then set about making connections in the U.S. joining the "Fair Play For Cuba" committee and appearing briefly on TV in this connection. He knew, though, that his next escapade would bring him instant fame. He set about hatching the plot to kill the most powerful man in the free world, the President of the United States of America, John Fitzgerald Kennedy!

next episode-The Plot.