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

Vinnie Tieto Nice post, Ralph--I really enjoyed the reason and logic you applied here to punch holes in Judyth's story. It's the same approach I would've taken. What I find ironic, though, is that the same degree of rational thinking is not applied across the board to question other factors. For example, if Oswald was an innocent patsy, why would the conspirators, who are powerful people and presumably reasonably intelligent, leave Oswald to wander openly during the shooting, free to establish an ironclad alibi? He could've been clearly filmed or photographed, or could've interacted with any number of people who who later serve to exonerate him. No conspirator with half a brain would allow this to happen. Of course, lucky for them, no such alibi emerged, and Oswald's attempts to supply one were meager. To me, it's as silly as the notion that Oswald threw firecrackers out the second floor window.

Ralph Cinque:

Well, Vinnie, as you can imagine, that is a question I have pondered myself. Why would they let Oswald wander around freely in the 45 minutes before the shooting? Wouldn't it have been much better for them to tell him to lay low somewhere? To stay out of sight? To hide? 

Yes, it would have been much better for them if he had done that. However, what reason could they have given him to do it? If I'm right that Oswald didn't know anything (and I am) then how would it have worked if they told him, 

"Listen, Lee, we need you to stay out of sight during the lunch break and during the motorcade. We don't want anyone to see you. So, go on up to the 3rd floor and wait there." 

What's he going to say? Isn't he going to ask, "Why?" And knowing that he could be arrested afterwards and vigorously questioned by police, what if he told police, "Mr. X told me to go hide during the lunch break." Wouldn't police want to talk to Mr. X? So, my thinking is that they watched him constantly during the lunch break, and they had people in the doorway (particularly Bill Shelley) to make sure that if he didn't advance beyond the landing if he went out. But, that's it. Otherwise, they took their chances on people seeing him. And I think they figured that they could always intimidate those witnesses and, if necessary, marginalize them. The important thing was to not tip Oswald off about what was really going on. They could not empower their patsy with knowledge that he could use against them when in police custody.