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

Lee Harvey Oswald was unique; he was one of a kind as far as assassination patsies went. 

Of course, he was the first, but he was also the only one who was mentally competent. He was smart. He was intelligent. He was aware. And they learned a lesson from him- that they shouldn't be using such persons. 

Oswald, with the help of his lawyers, would have mounted a powerful legal defense which would have decimated the prosecution. That's why they had to kill him fast.

The first or second thing his lawyers would have asked him is: Where were you at the time of the shots? And he would have told them: the doorway. And then they would have showed him the Altgens photo, and he would have immediately identified the Doorway Man figure as himself. 

"Can't you see, it's my shirt, my undershirt. It's me!"

And he would have seen what they did, which was move over the top of Lovelady's head. Oswald figured out what they did with the Backyard photos, so why wouldn't he detect it with the Altgens photo?

And it wasn't just that. His lawyers would have asked him if he ever ordered a rifle, and he would have said no. They would have no trouble proving all the fraud involved in that. They would have gotten him to detail the events of the Thursday night in Irving, his every move that evening before retiring to bed with his wife at 9:00. They would have put Frazier on the stand, and they would have destroyed him; eviscerated him. Then, they would have put Lovelady on the stand, and Oh My God! He didn't even like talking about being Doorman in friendly circles never mind hostile ones.

And, what about Mexico City? Oswald would have told his lawyers he didn't go there, they would have had a field day. They'd have exposed the whole thing, including the Oswald doubles. 

They'd have turned the case into a circus, a farce, and before it was over, the FBI and the other agencies would have been on trial. Oswald would have been acquitted.   

So, the conspirators knew that, going forward, they couldn't keep using intelligent, competent patsies who had to be killed right away. Who was going to buy that? People would have started making jokes:

"I hope he's paid up on his life insurance."

"What's your best guess on his time left? Two days or three?"

"You hear him venting? He's about to get some venting- a different kind."   

That would have been no good. So, after Oswald, they decided that they were going to have to go with patsies WHO COULD WITHSTAND TRIAL and that meant getting mentally incompetent people. For instance, there was Sirhan Sirhan, who they put through MK-Ultra mind control program. It was the same for Mark David Chapman when they assassinated John Lennon. John Hinckley had the added benefit of a long history of mental illness. And I don't think James Earl Ray was competent either. The only really competent patsy was the first one, Lee Harvey Oswald. But, they learned from that mistake, and they never made it again. 

Even the very next time, with the murder of Mary Pinchot Meyer, they went with an incompetent patsy in Raymond Crump. But, they weren't counting on Dovey Roundtree coming along to defend him. Big mistake. One of these days, there is going to be a movie made of that, based on Peter Janney's brilliant book, Mary's Mosaic, and it shall be among the most riveting courtroom dramas of all time.