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

I regret to say that Richard Hooke is now promoting a theory of the assassination that is so abominable that further collaboration with him is impossible- for me. 

Richard now claims that Lee Harvey Oswald- the one we know- was part of the 6th floor hit team.  He was up on the 6th floor with Mac Wallace, Loy Factor, and Ruth Martinez, and he was perched in the Sniper's Nest with his Carcano rifle- according to Richard. But, shortly before the motorcade arrived, Oswald suddenly left with his rifle. 

It's strange that Richard could believe that because Loy Factor never said anything about it. Surely, if Oswald suddenly picked up and left, it would have been noticed by the others. It also seems likely that Mac Wallace would have said something or done something- and perhaps even physically stopped him. After all, if Oswald was suddenly bailing out, perhaps he was going to alert the authorities. Wouldn't Wallace have been concerned about that? Pursued him? Stopped him? And wouldn't Loy Factor have noticed it? But, it was entirely absent from Factor's account. 

But, according to Richard, Oswald did NOT alert authorities. He simply watched the slaughter from the doorway. And Richard feels Oswald deserves a Medal of Honor for that. Go figure. 

You know, if there is a 6 man firing squad all training their barrels on the heart of the condemned man, and say one of them doesn't show up because he has a cold, does it make any difference? Do you think the condemned man is going to wind up any less dead? Having 6 is just a formality, isn't it? 5 is every bit as good, isn't it? Did it really do JFK any good that Oswald decided to sit it out and just take in the slaughter as a spectator?

No, it couldn't make any difference to JFK or alter his fate. But, it may have made a difference to Jackie. That's because Oswald was a lousy shot who had NO experience at this kind of shooting- none whatsoever. He practically failed his last marksman exam in the Marines, which was in the Spring of 1959. One point less, and he would have failed. And following that, the only shooting he claimed to do was to go deer hunting with his buddies in Russia, where they used shotguns. It is outrageous to think that he was qualified to shoot from the 6th floor. None of his limited and sporadic experience had any bearing on the shooting task from the 6th floor. 

So, with Oswald's finger on the trigger, there was probably as much chance that he would hit Jackie as Jack. And that would have been a disaster for the conspirators. They very much wanted her alive and well so that she could stand next to LBJ at the swearing-in ceremony. Imagine if both President and Mrs. Kennedy had their brains blown out. How would that photo-op have looked without her?

But, according to Richard, the conspirators were willing to take that chance, that they were going to let Oswald fire a high-powered, scoped rifle, at a small moving target (a man's head) while traveling a curved, bumpy, descending roadway with compromised visibility under rapid-fire conditions- something he had never done before at any time in his life. And the very act at shooting at a human being is also something he had never done before. Remember that Oswald was not a combat Marine. 

But, getting back to the firing squad analogy, it made no difference if Oswald fired or not, and he was unlikely to hit Kennedy anyway even if he did fire. But, what would have made a difference is if, upon abandoning his post at the window, Oswald went outside and acted to save JFK's life.  

He could have grabbed the attention of a group of people and told them that he was a CIA agent and that he knew that Kennedy was about to be killed. He could have pointed to the location of the shooters. And then he could have asked them to stand out in the street with him, all with their arms raised and hands spread open to physically block the limousine from proceeding. 

I am sure that many wouldn't have, but I suspect that some would have. If Oswald communicated earnestly and soundly and cogently, which he was capable of doing, I believe that some people would have responded to him. 

And very likely, there would have been a chain reaction, meaning that if he and say one other person went out into the street, then others would have joined them as they became convinced, and it would have mushroomed from there.  

If a man is standing with his arms raised in the air and his fingers spread apart, how can any law enforcement officer shoot him? In all likelihood, they would probably think he was crazy. And they wouldn't shoot a crazy person who was not acting in a threatening manner. I don't doubt that they would train guns on him, in fact, I think it's a certainty, but I don't think they would fire. Who wants to be the one to shoot at a man with his arms held high in the air? It is the universal sign of a man surrendering.

But, even if there was a chance that such action would have resulted in Oswald being shot, or even killed, why wouldn't Oswald take the chance for Kennedy? In fact, I would rather say: how could he NOT take the chance for Kennedy? 

Fools will suggest that he was worried that his family would be killed. But, that is ridiculous. He would suddenly become world-famous for interrupting the Presidential motorcade, and there is no way the conspirators could have killed his family after that.

Besides, what good would it do them?  

But, if Oswald was on the side of good all along, then he had plenty of time to safeguard his family in advance. I mentioned that he could have taken them to the Soviet Embassy. The Soviets would surely have protected Marina and his daughters.  

Yet, even though Oswald did nothing to save Kennedy, even though he could have, Richard still thinks he deserves the Medal of Honor. Go figure. 

Then, according to Richard, after the assassination, Oswald rejoined the hit team. They apparently didn't mind that he bailed out on them. Although, who knows: maybe they chewed him out in the Nash Rambler. 

But apparently, there were no hard feelings, or at least they wore off quickly, because Wallace and Morales eventually turned the car over to Oswald- according to Richard. So, Oswald was driving around Dallas by himself; he stopped at the launderette, he made a phone call from the pay phone- speaking in Spanish- and then he proceeded to the theater by himself on foot- according to Richard.  

And then, after his arrest, Oswald fully protected the killers of JFK. He gave away no one. He lied in saying that he took the bus and cab. According to Richard, the conspirators told him to lie, so he lied. And the conspirators must have told him to lie in saying that he went to his room because he said that too, although according to Richard he didn't. 

And he said that he changed his pants. I wonder if the conspirators told him to throw that in. Again, according to Richard, he never went to his room. However, it seems that, somehow, his pants got changed because he wore grey pants to work, but the pants he had on when he was arrested were black. 

And then, after two days, Jack Ruby killed Oswald, but now, I have to wonder why. After all, Oswald knew everything- according to Richard. He was in on the plot. He was on the team. They were actually going to use him as a shooter- according to Richard. 

But since Oswald didn't rat on anyone, since he revealed nothing about the plot even though he knew all about it, or at least, more than enough, why was it so urgent to kill him? He was being faithful and loyal to the killers, and he was lying to the police for them. He withheld everything he knew about the plot to kill Kennedy. I can't imagine what more he could have done to abide the wishes and interests of the killers. 

Oswald was innocent. He was innocent of killing Kennedy, but he was also innocent of being involved in the plot to kill Kennedy.  He had no explicit knowledge of the assassination plan. And what he was told about it was: nothing. He was certainly not part of any hit team. 

The other Oswald, "Lee", was up on the 6th floor with the hit team. Both James Douglass and John Armstrong are united about that. 

What Richard Hooke is trying to do, with his vivid imagination, is reconcile the stories of Loy Factor and Judyth Baker. He also wants to deny the Two Oswalds thesis of John Armstrong. And the result is that he has turned Oswald into a participant in the assassination, a collaborator with the killers, and their protector after his arrest.

It is all utter and complete nonsense. Richard Hooke is now slandering Oswald as much as the official story slanders him. There really is no difference. Richard pegs Oswald as a defacto murderer. Remember that in the eyes of the law, you don't have to pull the trigger to be a murderer. If you aid and abet murderers, you are a murderer. 

I denounce all this in the strongest terms, and I urge everyone to do the same. Oswald was innocent, not just of killing Kennedy, but of having anything to do with killing Kennedy.