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

The Saga of Ruth Paine and Marina Oswald

I know that Ruth Paine is like the last woman standing. And she may be the last person standing who was involved in the JFK assassination. Of course, Marina Oswald is still alive, but she is a recluse. You don't hear a peep out of her. From the Assisted Living place in Santa Rosa CA that she lives, Ruth Paine has mouthed off quite a bit.

I know a lot of people think that Ruth Paine framed Oswald. She was definitely helpful to the plotters. But, I don't think the plotters ever told her that they were killing Kennedy. I think that, through her husband Michael Paine, they manipulated her to help them without telling her what they were doing. Ruth and Michael were separated at the time, and she depended entirely on him for money. The Oswalds were not paying rent, and I don't think they were paying for food either. And that means that Michael Paine was supporting them. He was paying for everything. Now, why would he do that? The answer is: I don't think he did.. That piddly money came out of the production budget.

So, I think that Ruth Paine was a marrionette whose strings were being pulled. And eventually, it became self-perpetuating. It's not as though she required coaching all these decades. She got firmly convicted.

But, here's something worth pondering about Ruth Paine: Why did she and Marina have a falling out? But first, do you know the bizarre story of how Marina was extricated from Ruth Paine's house? LIFE reporters showed up at the Paine house on Friday evening, and they offered to take Marina to see Oswald. It was decided that they would do it the next, day, Saturday. And they did. BUT AFTERWARDS, INSTEAD OF RETURNING HER HOME, THEY CHECKED MARINA INTO A HOTEL, THE EXECUTIVE INN.

That development is mind-boggling. Who the hell does that: takes someone on an outing and then presumes she doesn't want to go home, to the house in which she lived? That is one of the weirdest incongruities of the JFK assassination, and it makes my blood boil. Only in JFK-land does such weird shit happen.

And then Secret Service took over from the LIFE reporters. AND IT WAS BEFORE OSWALD WAS KILLED!!!!!!!!!!!! Those moe-foes had to know that Oswald was going to be killed. They took possession of his wife before he was killed. But, you can't prosecute a man for murder while possessing his wife. You know about "spousal privilege?" But, they knew that spousal privilete was not going to be a problem because they knew that Oswald was going to die imminently. Still, I think it was stupid of them to take possession of her before he died.

And then, he was killed, and so they took her to the Six Flags Inn, and her months long "protective custody" began. It had nothing to do with protecting her. It had everything to do with prepping her for the WC testimony. And that required some serious brainwashing.

And that brainwashing began by severing every social connection that Marina had with people in her pre-assassination life, including Ruth Paine. Ruth wasn't going to say nice things about Oswald. But, on the other hand, they needed to turn Oswald into a monster, and Ruth Paine would not be able to help with that. The intelligence agencies needed Marina's mind to go where they wanted to take it, and the real past (which Ruth was a part of) had to be severed. And that meant that Ruth had to go.

So, there was no contact between Ruth and Marina ever again. Ruth tried to write to her. I don't know if her letters got through, but I doubt it. But, Marina never responded, and Ruth said so.

And eventually, Marina's "protective custody" ended, and she was let go. They probably kept close tabs on her for quite a long time. But, I suspect that eventually that ended too. I doubt that anyone monitors her today. But still, there has been no contact between Marina and Ruth, even though Ruth was the friend who housed her and fed her and drove to New Orleans to get her, etc. It's a weird thing but I think it's correct to say that both Ruth and Marina were subjected to mind control. It wasn't done to the same extent or duration. For Marina, it was full-scale MK-ULTRA, where she was immersed in an "Oswald as monster" world. You could say an Oswald as monster cult. And I'm sure they told her that she was traumatized and that her mind was playing tricks on her by suppressing memories. But, they were going to help her retrieve those memories. So, lo and behold, even though when first asked about Oswald's rifle, she said that he used to have one (in Russia) but it got sold, she eventually remembered a long tale about his rifle. And even though when first asked, she knew nothing about Oswald going to Mexico City, she later remembered that he went there. (He did NOT actually go there, and he said he didn't, and Mark Lane figured that out by December 7, 1963.) He told me.

Marina got a lot of phony stuff in her head about her life with Oswald. Did she believe it? Certainly not the way a healthy person believes something. I have never met her. But, I suspect that she was damaged by what they did to her. And what they did was a process, and they knew, from the start, that the Marina and Ruth friendship had to end for the process to work. So, under their guidance and insistence, the friendship ended.