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

John Armstrong is right that Oswald did not order ANY rifle or own ANY rifle. There are a litany of reasons by which to know that that is true.

1. Oswald said he owned no rifle. Why would he lie? He didn't shoot anybody. If he owned a rifle that was 36 inches long, and they were accusing him of using a 40 inch rifle to shoot the President, he would have said, 

"Wait a second! I own a rifle, but it isn't that one. I've never seen that one before. It's 40 inches long.  My rifle is only 36 inches. And I can show it to you. It's at XXX. So, if you want to keep going with this, you're going to have to accuse me of ordering two rifles, which I didn't do. For Christ's sake, I make $1.11 an hour. How many rifles do you think I can afford? And why the hell would I need two rifles? I paid $12.78 which was the price for a rifle without a scope. That rifle has a scope. It's not mine."

Wouldn't it have been better for him to say that rather than lie and say he owned no rifle at all? If the rifle he bought was a different rifle, then it clearly would have exonerated him. He would have had every reason to declare it- in his own defense. 

2. If Oswald owned a rifle- any kind of rifle- what did he do with it when he moved to New Orleans in April? He couldn't hide it in Ruth Paine's garage because Marina wasn't living with Ruth Paine at the time. There is no evidence that he traveled to New Orleans riding on the bus with it. And when his wife followed him to New Orleans, there is no evidence that she brought it. Why would she? And when she returned to Dallas with Ruth Paine, you can't tell me that they brought it back. Remember: all her stuff had to fit into one station wagon that also contained two adult women, one of whom was seriously pregnant, plus three children: two of Ruth's and one of Marina's. Do you really think that a rifle got included and put in Ruth's garage without her even knowing? It's ridiculous. Why the hell would Marina bring HIS rifle back with her? What did she need it for? The whole idea is ridiculous. The whole idea that Oswald owned a rifle at all during that time is ridiculous.

3. If the rifle (any rifle) of Oswald's was supposedly ordered by A. Hidell, how could Oswald pick it up at the post office? The package would have been addressed to A. Hidell. It was too big to fit in a PO box. Oswald would have had to go to the counter to get it. And even if he showed an ID for Alec Hidell, it would have done him no good because the PO Box was in his name: Lee Harvey Oswald. You can't go to the post office and do business in somebody else's PO box. So, it was sent to the PO box of Lee Harvey Oswald but addressed to A. Hidell. So, how could Oswald possibly have gotten it? He couldn't say: 

"Alec is a friend of mine, and I agreed to let him use my PO box. And now I'm going to take him his rifle."

They would have said, in so many words:

"No, you're not, Asshole. Tell Hidell to come in himself and show us ID. Then, we'll give him his rifle. It goes from us to him- not to you. Get it?"

In fact, they might even have said:

"Fuck you. We're sending it back." 

The post office is the government. They've got rules. They've got laws. They weren't going to turn that rifle over to him. So, how did Oswald get any rifle that was sent to his PO Box but to another man's name?

Oswald never ordered any rifle. It was all part of the framing of him. 

They framed him for killing Kennedy. They framed him for killing Tippit. They framed him for going to Mexico. They framed him for ordering a rifle. They framed him for posing for the Backyard photos. But, they did NOT frame him for riding the bus and cab. That he actually did.