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

 I am going to tell you now who I think shot Oswald. It wasn't Jack Ruby, and it wasn't James Bookhout either, because only a blank was fired in the garage. Oswald was shot in the Jail Office afterwards. They were not going to shoot him in that garage. It was too dangerous, and it might have gone wrong. Oswald needed to be shot under controlled conditions. Accuracy was extremely important. The bullet had to be placed to cause the most bleeding possible, so that he would surely bleed-out before doctors got to him. 

I've pointed out that the ambulance turned left on Commerce and went all the way down to the Pearl Expressway, and then came back to Harwood on Main, when they could have just turned right on Harwood, and it would have been a straight shot to Parkland Hospital.  

Only one person could fire the bullet into Oswald, but who? Just about anyone they picked would have been an arbitrary choice. But, there was  one and only one exception: Officer RC Nelson, who was JD Tippit's partner. 

If they had Nelson do it, it would seem more like a righteous execution, rather than cold-blooded murder. I preume they really believed that Oswald shot Tippit. Of course, he didn't. 

Nelson was the one and only guy who could shoot Oswald and leave them all with a clear conscience. 

The first question is: was Nelson there?  And the answer is: yes, he was. But, why should he have been there? He wasn't one of Fritz' men. And he didn't work at the police station; he worked on the street. He was a patrol officer. So, the very fact that he was there raises suspicion. Remember: it was supposed to be just a 45 foot walk to a car before Oswald was driven away. 

And how is it that Nelson was never filmed or photographed? We have the films, we don't see Nelson in any of them. The only uniformed officer I see in the scuffle is Sergeant Patrick Dean. Take a look at Nelson again. He was young; just 26 years old. He would have stood out just for being so young. 

And Nelson's presence there was hushed. There was no talk of it at the time. He wasn't questioned by the Warren Commission. He refused all interviews, including paid ones. He didn't attend any forums, retrospectives, or mock trials. He just vanished into thin air. 

So, how did we find out he was there? He surfaced 50 years later. In 2013, the 50th anniversary, that's when he finally emerged. He talked about the daily pain he had for 50 years mourning Tippit. And he tallked about his certainty that Oswald did it: killed his partner and and the President. He said he couldn't stomach conspiracy theories. And he said that Oswald killed Tippit "because he wanted to get caught. Oswald had not had his glory." 

And he talked about the day Oswald died. He said he was there in the garage when Ruby shot him. He said he was involved in the skuffle to subdue Ruby. And he said he was the one who put the handcuffs on Ruby. How could the Warren Commission not interview the guy who put the handcuffs on Ruby?

I just checked again, and you don't see him. He was definitely not one of the Penguins. 

And as far as him handcuffing the Shooter, that's not what the record shows. According to the testimonies, it was Detective Thomas McMillon who handcuffed Ruby. It's in the testimony of Detective Don Ray Archer.

Mr. HUBERT. What happened next in that jail office area?
Mr. ARCHER. When we had the subject on the floor, I was reaching for my handcuffs. I reached back in this manner [indicating] to unhook my handcuffs off my belt, and Detective McMillon was astraddle and over him, over Ruby, and I believe I said, "Mac, do you need my cuffs?" He said: "No; I have got it now." And then he placed his cuffs on Ruby.

Nobody mentioned Officer RC Nelson in any context. 

So, what should we make of this? Who installed the handcuffs?

First, you have to realize that there were two scuffles and two "Rubys." The first scuffle involved the real Ruby, and he got there an hour before. He was handcuffed and taken up to the 5th floor jail and stipped to his underwear. The second scuffle was the televised one with Bookhout filling in for Ruby. And I doubt that he was handcuffed. He may have been just for show, but perhaps not. I know they turned him over to three detectives: Elmer Boyd, Richard Sims, and Warren Hall. They were previously Oswald's handlers. Or, you could say they were his escorts because they took him everywhere.  

We have a photo of the three detectives with Bookhout. It was taken on the 3rd floor about 2 minutes after the Oswald shooting. The four of them were hovering in the dark next to the elevator. An NBC photographer with a flash camera took their picture. 

That round-faced guy with the short neck was not Jack Ruby. It should be obvious to all. Here they are side by side. 

Ruby had a longer face, a longer forehead, and a longer neck. They are clearly different men. But, let's go back to the foursome:

Notice the Boyd's eyes, on the left, look sharp and photographic, and so do Hall's on the right, even though he is in shadow. But, "Ruby" has raccoon stripes instead of eyes. It doesn't make sense because if the photographic conditions enabled the clear capture of Boyd's and Hall's eyes, it should have been the same for the Shooter. That discrepancy is inexplicable. So, they got rid of his eyes, and they did a lot more than that. I'm sure they doctored his hair, his ear, and his eyebrows. But regardless, you can still tell that he is not Jack Ruby. And if he is handcuffed, it has to be in front. But, that's not what they claimed. In fact, we have an image:

That is supposed to be Ruby being taken upstairs for the first time. But, what happened to his jacket? They didn't remove it in the Jail Office. That wasn't his hair either. On the right is Ruby early on Saturday morning, and you can see how bald he was. And he didn't have a goiter neck either. 

But, this other guy, who was either cuffed in front or had his hands clasped in front. was not Ruby.

 He was FBI Agent James Bookhout, and RC Nelson had nothing to do with him. But, I think it's likely that Nelson was the one who handcuffed the real Ruby at the earlier scuffle. Why would Nelson make it up? And, he said that when he turned Ruby over, after handcuffing him, that he got flippant, saying "Hey guys, it's me; Jack Ruby." Others made similar claims, that Ruby got cocky, saying: "I did you all a favor. I hope the son of a bitch dies." But, Ruby denied getting that way, and he was upset that they said he cursed, which wasn't his nature. He admitted that during the scuffle he said, "What are you doing? You know me. I'm Jack Ruby." But, he didn't say it flippantly. He said it with exasperation and despair because he didn't know why they were attacking him. 

In fact, Ruby couldn't have said those things because he said that he didn't find out that he shot Oswald until they got him upstairs and told him. He had no memory of shooting Oswald and no thought to do it. So, why would he be bragging about it before he even found out about it? So, those cops lied. They lied through their teeth about everything, including what Ruby said. I tell you: they killed Oswald, and they framed Ruby for it.  

I'll leave you with one more disturbing fact: Detective Elmer Boyd denied being there. He said he wasn't working on Sunday. He said it was his day off. He said he spent the morning going to church with his wife and her parents. Then, they went to his in-laws' house, and they all enjoyed a nice brunch. And it was while they were eating, that he saw Ruby shoot Oswald on television. But, the image of him above proves that that was a lie; that he was there. 

So, based on all this, I think Officer RC Nelson pulled the trigger on Oswald. He was the logical choice, and he was there. And I have no alternate. I have no reason to point to anyone else. Getting Nelson to do it was the best and only way to ease their conscience about committing cold-blooded murder with malice.