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

These are tent poles. You know, for camping?

They make them very light because people often hike into the woods with all their gear on their back, including their tent; so the lighter the better.

This is a disassembled Mannlicher-Carcano rifle:

Michael Paine said that he moved, as in relocated, Oswald's rifle in his wife's garage not once but several times. So, he picked it up, carried it, felt the weight of it, and felt the shape of it, several times. And he said that he thought it was tent poles, part of the Oswald's camping gear.

I find that to be completely and totally unbelievable, as in: I don't believe him; I think he's lying; I think he's making it up. 

Oswald never told Ruth Paine anything about storing a rifle in her garage, and he certainly never told her anything about storing any camping equipment there. So, what reason did Michael Paine have to assume any such thing? Did the Oswalds ever say anything to him about their love of camping? And they were so poor that they were relying on him and his estranged wife for their basic needs- their survival. They were destitute. Where does camping equipment fit into that?

But how could a heavy, irregular, coarse, jagged, unassembled rifle feel like tent poles to him?

What if we did an experiment in which we wrapped a disassembled Mannlicher-Carcano rifle up in a blanket, and we asked 100 people to pick it up and move it somewhere. Then they had to say what they think it was. How many do you think would say tent poles?

What if 0 out of 100 said tent poles? What do you think we should do then? How about if we makes a citizen's arrest of Michael Paine for complicity in the murder of President John F. Kennedy?