Oswald in the doorway: the blog of the Oswald Innocence Campaign, by Ralph Cinque

There is something else we should talk about. What if Oswald hadn't gone to Irving on Thursday night? How would the official story have been pieced together? Would they have claimed that he kept the rifle in his room on Beckley? Have you seen that room? It was more like a closet.

If he hadn't gone to Irving on Thursday night, were they going to say that he kept the rifle in that little room? Without his landlady knowing? That seems untenable to me. 

And then on Friday morning, he presumably would have gone to work the usual way. What way was that? Well, it must have been the bus. What else? He certainly didn't take a cab every morning- not on his salary. I'm sure he didn't walk. We can't assume that an imaginary friend picked him up- the way Backes does. So, that leaves the bus. Oswald must have ridden the bus to work- routinely. So, were they going to say that he rode the bus with that big bag containing that big gun? And it went unnoticed? How could that big thing go unnoticed?

Do you realize what it means? It means that the conspirators desperately NEEDED Oswald to make that trip to Irving on Thursday night. So, did they just cross their fingers and get lucky? I tell you honestly: I don't think they left ANYTHING to luck in the whole operation. So, how about the possibility that Oswald was coaxed to make the Thursday night trip?

We're in the realm of speculation now. I don't have anything solid to go on. But, that's not to say that something solid won't crop up eventually. 

We know that Oswald left $170 with Marina on that overnight trip. He also left his wedding ring. But, where did he get the money? He only made $1.25 an hour. And remember, he had to live on it. He had to pay his own living expenses, and presumably, he was providing some support to Marina and his children. My understanding is that Ruth Paine didn't charge Marina rent, but I presume Lee was giving her money for food and other necessities. 

I did this calculation on the Dollar Times website:

  $170.00 in 1963 had the same buying power as $1,303.23 in 2014.

As an order filler, Lee had about the lowest level job there is. I am not putting him down. He was a bright guy. But, that is considered an unskilled labor job. How many unskilled laborers are there today who have $1300 lying around in cash? 

So, where did Lee get the cash? Don't tell me he saved it out of his pay at the Depository. How about: somebody gave it to him. 

And why did he leave his wedding ring? I don't take it as a sign that he was skipping out on Marina. On the contrary, it's been reported that that very Thursday night he asked her to move into an apartment with him in Dallas. So, it doesn't sound to me that he was trying to break up with her. So, why leave the ring? 

I don't know, but this is what I think: Somebody gave him the money, somebody with whom he was connected in his intelligence work. And he may have been told that he would be needed that weekend for something. And it was a lot of money, especially in cash. Again: how many low-wage workers today have $1300 in cash on their person? So, I'm thinking that whoever gave it to him (presumably for past or future work) suggested that he might want to get it to his wife before the weekend since they would be busy that weekend.   

I'm certainly open to the possibility that Oswald thought that something bad could happen in connection with Kennedy's visit. Someone named "Lee" called the Chicago Secret Service to warn them of the Chicago plot to kill Kennedy. Kennedy's trip was cancelled because of it, and JFK got a one-month extension on his rendezvous with death. That extra month may have been a gift from Lee Harvey Oswald. 

So, I can't claim to know what Oswald was thinking, but he may have had an ominous feeling about the whole thing and thought it best to leave the valuables with Marina. It certainly was not because he intended to kill Kennedy. That is just preposterous. 

But, I think we should be very open to the idea of a guiding and controlling influence of the conspirators in Oswald's sudden and unexpected sojurn to Irving the evening of November 21. I think that sourcing $170 in cash is a good place to start looking.  And the idea that the conspirators just got lucky that he decided to do this sudden trip should be the last consideration in our minds.