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

If you had been Will Fritz, how would you have conducted your first interview of Oswald? 

Oswald was taken into custody at 1:45, and he got to the PD at 2:00. But, Fritz didn't start interviewing him until 3:15, and presumably, by then, they had a "case" built up against Oswald for Kennedy and Tippit.  Here is my conjecture of how the interview went down: 

Fritz: Mr. Oswald, I am Captain Will Fritz, and I will be conducting this interview today. The first thing I want to know is, why did you bring a loaded gun into the movie theater?

Oswald: No particular reason. I certainly intended no harm against anyone there.

Fritz: Well, if you say there was no particular reason, I'll tell you that I consider that an evasive answer. Officer MacDonald claims that you tried to shoot him with that pistol. Is that true?

Oswald: No, it is not. I did not try to shoot him. I'd have to be crazy to do that, and I am not crazy. 

Fritz: Why were you resisting arrest? You did take a swing at him, didn't you?  And don't  try to tell me you didn't.

Oswald: Yes, I did swing at him. But, he grabbed at me, and it startled me, and it was a natural reaction. It just happened. I wish I hadn't done it, but I did. 

Fritz: We have evidence that suggests that the gun that was used to kill a police officer half an hour before, JD Tippit, was your gun. Did you shoot and kill Officer Tippit? 

Oswald: No, I did not. I don't know anything about that. Where was he shot? At what location?

Fritz: 10th and Patton, which was about 7 blocks from the theater. 

Oswald: Well, I was never at 10th and Patton. I had no reason to be. I went directly from my room to the theater, and I did not go by way of 10th and Patton.

Fritz: We have witnesses who described the assailant, and those descriptions are a good match to you. 

Oswald: Well, those witnesses are wrong; it wasn't me. I don't know who it was, but it definitely wasn't me. Like I said: I was never at 10th and Patton.

Fritz: Why did you break into the theater?

Oswald: I didn't. I bought a ticket. 

Fritz: Why did you go to the theater? 

Oswald: I was supposed to meet someone there.

Fritz: Who?

Oswald: I don't know. It was not anyone I know or have met before. I was told by someone else that he would be able to help me.

Fritz: Help you how?

Oswald: Help me stay out of trouble. I defected to the Soviet Union in 1959. With the President killed, we thought that someone might think that I did it, that I might be on some kind of subversives list.

Fritz: Did you kill the President?

Oswald: No. Of course not.

Fritz: Where were you at the time?

Oswald: I was out in front of the Texas Book Depository with my supervisor Bill Shelley. He and I and others were standing in the doorway of the building. There are some steps there and then a landing. I was on the landing.

Fritz: So, you are saying that you were on the landing of the doorway of the Book Depository when the President rode by? 

Oswald: Yes. That is correct. Right outside the door. 

Fritz: So, you watched him being shot?

Oswald: Well, it wasn't like that. I heard some noises, but I didn't know what they were. I really didn't see anything except that the limo slowed down a lot. Then, I left to go to the lunch room because Bill Shelley told me to. 

Fritz: Why did he tell you to do that?

Oswald: I don't know. He told me to wait there until he got there, that he had something for me to do. He's my boss.    

Fritz: And then you had an encounter with a police officer there?

Oswald: Yes, he came in. I was facing the other way. He ordered me to stop. I turned around and I saw that he was holding a gun that was pointed at me. Then, Mr. Truly came in and told him that I worked there. And then they left.

Fritz: Then what.

Oswald; Then, I got a Coke and I went back downstairs by way of the offices. I gave some guy directions to the pay phone. And then I left. 

Fritz: What about your rifle? Do you own a Carcano carbine?

Oswald: No, I don't own any kind of rifle.

Fritz: We traced the rifle back to you having ordered it from Klein Hardware in Chicago. 

Oswald: That is a mistake. I never did that. It's not my rifle.

Fritz: You didn't hide that rifle on the 6th floor?

Oswald: No. Of course not. I told you; I don't own any rifle.

Fritz: Well, we found that rifle hidden on the 6th floor, and we believe it is the weapon that was used to kill President Kennedy. We also have evidence that it is your rifle. So, I'm asking you again: Is it your rifle, and did you kill the President with it?

Oswald: And I'm telling you again, the answer is no. It's not my rifle. I don't know anything about it. And I didn't kill the President or anyone else. I was standing in the doorway during the motorcade, and I don't know anything more than that.

OK, I'll stop there because that already covered the basics. But, when you look at the Fritz Notes:

  
So, assuming he wrote from left to right as most people do, he started with talking about the rifle which Oswald denied owning. Then, they talked about Oswald going home, then it was Russia, then the Marines, and the FPFC. What? That had nothing to do with Tippit's murder and that was what Oswald was arrested for. Then it moved to his lunch room encounter with Baker. Then it was the famous "out with Bill Shelley in front". Then, it was about his work routine. The fact that he spoke Russian. Then, he was asked about the OH Lee alias, which Oswald denied, saying that his landlady got confused. And that was it.

What I think we can conclude conclusively is that they had to have talked about more than what those notes indicate. They talked for a whole hour, from 3:15 to 4:15. So, there had to have been more to it. So, why didn't Fritz write down more? I do not know. It is inconceivable that he would be lazy at a time like that. The incompleteness of the Fritz Notes is part of the record, and we shall never get an answer for it because he is long dead.