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

This is Part 4 of my analysis of Marina Oswald's testimony to the Warren Commission. And from having taken it as far as I have, I can tell you that if I could pose one and only one question to Marina Oswald, it would be:
What did they do to you during the 2+ months that you were held in captivity?

So, Marina let Ruth Paine drive her down to New Orleans to be with Lee after he found a job and an apartment.

But, Rankin interrupted that train of thought to ask about Lee's dealings with the FBI. Marina said that two agents visited their home in August 1962 and spent 2 hours with him out in the car. She said dinner got cold, so she got a little upset.

But, if Oswald knew that the FBI was watching him, keeping tabs on him, why didn't that discourage him from shooting at Walker? It makes it all the more brazen.  

Here's some important testimony:

Mr. RANKIN. After you had discussed with your husband your going to Russia, was anything done about that?
Mrs. OSWALD. Yes, I wrote a letter to the Soviet Embassy with a request to be permitted to return. And then it seems to me after I was already in New Orleans, I wrote another letter in which I told the Embassy that my husband wants to return with me.
Mr. RANKIN. Do you recall the date of the first letter that you just referred to?
Mrs. OSWALD. No. But that is easily determined.
Mr. RANKIN. Were you asking for a visa to return to Russia?
Mrs. OSWALD. Yes.
Mr. RANKIN. Did you discuss with your husband his returning with you before you wrote the second letter that you have described?
Mrs. OSWALD. I didn't ask him. He asked me to do so one day when he was extremely upset. He appeared to be very unhappy and he said that nothing keeps him here, and that he would not lose anything if he returned to the Soviet Union, and that he wants to be with me.
Mr. RANKIN. Was this a change in his attitude?
Mrs. OSWALD. Towards me or towards Russia?
Mr. RANKIN. Towards going to Russia.
Mrs. OSWALD. I don't think that he was too fond of Russia, but simply that he knew that he would have work assured him there, because he had---after all, he had to think about his family.


So, it was back to the idea of them all going back to Russia- not just her. If you recall, she cited the discussion about returning to Russia as the provocation for Oswald beating her. Beating; with all that that entails. 

And again, we have testimony that the rifle was definitely in New Orleans, and Lee must have brought it because how could she "first notice" something that she brought? 

Mr. RANKIN. When did you first notice the rifle at New Orleans?
Mrs. OSWALD. As soon as I arrived in New Orleans.
Mr. RANKIN. Where was it kept there?
Mrs. OSWALD. He again had a closet-like room with his things in it. He had his clothes hanging there, all his other belongings.
Mr. RANKIN. Was the rifle in a cover there?
Mrs OSWALD. No.
Mr. RANKIN. Did you notice him take it away from your home there in New Orleans at any time?
Mrs. OSWALD. No. I know for sure that he didn't. But I know that we had a kind of a porch with a---screened-in porch, and I know that sometimes evenings after dark he would sit there with his rifle. I don't know what he did with it. I came there by chance once and saw him just sitting there with his rifle. I thought he is merely sitting there and resting. Of course I didn't like these kind of little jokes.
Mr. RANKIN. Can you give us an idea of how often this happened that you recall?
Mrs. OSWALD. It began to happen quite frequently.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, he had a real fetish for that rifle. But, I still have to wonder how he brought it down with him on the bus, even in 1963.  

She said that she would see him on the back porch practicing with the telescopic lens. But, if you're not firing, how can you practice? If you're not shooting and seeing the results, how can you know if you're using the scope right?

Next came the claim that Oswald wanted to go to Cuba by way of hijacking an airplane. He wanted to do it, and he wanted her to help him. Perhaps he was going to arm June with a box-cutter. 

But, despite all that, during this period, they "got along pretty well." Excuse me for laughing. 

That Oswald thought that he and his pregnant wife could hijack an airplane, with their little daughter in tow, evinces not only a criminal mind but a very insane mind. It sounds insane now, but it was just as insane then. So, you heap that on top of the Walker shooting and the Nixon near-shooting, how does she go on living with him on any basis? And how does she subject her daughter to it? 

If Oswald was that criminal, that twisted, that violent, and that insane, how was it that not one bit of that part of him got revealed to any of the people he knew in Russia?

I've been saying all along that they didn't have a motive for Oswald to kill Kennedy, and that's why they had to go with insanity. But, how credible is that story? And how credible is it from the standpoint of Marina's behavior in continuing to live with a maniac? 

Next comes Mexico City. Note that both Hosty and Bookhout reported that Oswald denied ever going to Mexico City. Marina said he went there to get a visa to go to Cuba, and if that failed, to get the Russian Embassy to weigh on the Cubans to let him in. She denied that he wanted to go to Russia at that time. But, she cited and provided absolutely nothing to substantiate that he ever went to Mexico City. 

Here's something interesting about their social life in N.O.
Mr. RANKIN. Outside of the Murrets, were there some people from New Orleans that visited you at your home in New Orleans?
Mrs. OSWALD. Once or twice a woman visited who was a friend of Ruth Paine's. Ruth Paine has written her. She had written to Ruth Paine to find out whether she knew any Russians there. And once or twice this woman visited us. But other than that, no one.
Mr. RANKIN. What was the name of this woman?
Mrs. OSWALD. I don't remember. I only remember that her first name is also Ruth.
Mr. RANKIN. Did your husband have friends of his that visited you there at New Orleans?
Mrs. OSWALD. No, never.

There's a lot of testimony about his Fair Play for Cuba work but nothing riveting. Just exactly as it is always depicted. 

And then we're done with New Orleans. It's late September, and she is heading back to Dallas with Ruth Paine.

Mr. RANKIN. Did you move your household goods in her station wagon at that time?
Mrs. OSWALD. Yes.
Mr. RANKIN. Do you know whether or not the rifle was carried in the station wagon?
Mrs. OSWALD. Yes, it was.
Mr. RANKIN. Did you have anything to do with loading it in there?
Mrs. OSWALD. No. Lee was loading everything on because I was pregnant at the time. But I know that Lee loaded the rifle on.

So, she claimed the rifle went back with her and Ruth. Now, that strikes me as strange, after she described him sitting with it at night, petting it. Wasn't he gong to miss it? Furthermore, since he carried it with him when he moved to New Orleans, why didn't he return with it the same way? 

Mr. RANKIN. Was the rifle carried in some kind of a case when you went back with Mrs. Paine?
Mrs. OSWALD. After we arrived (back in Irving), I tried to put the bed, the child's crib together, the metallic parts, and I looked for a certain part, and I came upon something wrapped in a blanket. I thought that was part of the bed, but it turned out to be the rifle.

Hmm. That is hard to imagine. Mrs. Paine drove down in her station wagon with her own two kids, and then there was 8 month pregnant Marina, and June. And she got all their belongings into the vehicle, plus whatever travel miscellany that Ruth had to bring with her. And it included a crib? A crib is a piece of furniture. How could they possibly get all that into the car? 

Mr. RANKIN. Was the rifle carried in some kind of a case when you went back with Mrs. Paine?
Mrs. OSWALD. After we arrived, I tried to put the bed, the child's crib together, the metallic parts, and I looked for a certain part, and I came upon something wrapped in a blanket. I thought that was part of the bed, but it turned out to be the rifle.

Wait a second! She's making it sound like she didn't know that the rifle came back with them, that she only found out about it when she was assembling the crib and she came across it. But, that would mean that Oswald put his beloved rifle into the car without telling either of them. That he just snuck it in. That he just sent it on its merry way with no understanding with anybody about its disposition. Would a guy who was that attached to his rifle do that?

Mr. RANKIN. Before you went back to Mrs. Paine's house, did you discuss whether you would be paying her anything for board and room?

Mrs. OSWALD. She proposed that I again live with her on the same conditions as before. Because this was more advantageous for her than to pay a (Russian language) school. She received better instruction that way. In any case, she didn't spend any extra money for me she didn't spend any more than she usually spent.

I assume I don't have to tell you that that was patently false because nobody lives for free. Everybody eats and drinks and bathes and requires transportation and all kinds of stuff. What about the responsibility? She was pregnant, about to give birth. Nobody challenged her on that?

Mr. RANKIN. When you found the rifle wrapped in the blanket, upon your return to Mrs. Paine's, where was it located?
Mrs. OSWALD. In the garage, where all the rest of the things were.
Mr. RANKIN. In what part of the garage?
Mrs. OSWALD. In that part which is closer to the street, because that garage is connected to the house. One door opens on the kitchen, and the other out in the street.
Mr. RANKIN. Was the rifle lying down or was it standing up on the butt end?
Mrs. OSWALD. No, it was lying down on the floor.

But, how did it get where it wound up? Didn't she have to put it there? Or did Ruth Paine bring it in, not realizing that it was a rifle? I know. It was Michael Paine. He brought it in without realizing it was a rifle. By the way, he was in the Army, but he was sick the day they took out the rifles. 

Back to Mexico City:

Mr. RANKIN When your husband talked about going to Mexico City, did he say where he was going to go there, who he would visit?
Mrs. OSWALD. Yes. He said that he would go to the Soviet Embassy and to the Cuban Embassy and would do everything he could in order to get to Cuba.
Mr. RANKIN. Did he tell you where he would stay in Mexico City?
Mrs. OSWALD. In a hotel.
Mr. RANKIN. Did he tell you the name?
Mrs. OSWALD. No, he didn't know where he would stop.
Mr. RANKIN. Was there any discussion about the expense of making the trip?
Mrs. OSWALD. Yes. But we always lived very modestly, and Lee always had some savings. Therefore, he had the money for it.
Mr. RANKIN. Did he say how much it would cost?
Mrs. OSWALD. He had a little over $100 and he said that that would be sufficient.
Mr. RANKIN. Did he talk about getting you a silver bracelet or any presents before he went?
Mrs. OSWALD. It is perhaps more truth to say that he asked me what I would like and I told him that I would like Mexican silver bracelets. But what he did buy me I didn't like at all. When he returned to Irving, from Mexico City, and I saw the bracelet, I was fairly sure that he had bought it in New Orleans and not in Mexico City, because I had seen bracelets like that for sale there. That is why I am not sure that the bracelet was purchased in Mexico.

How about he did buy the bracelet in New Orleans because he never went to Mexico City? It's just a thought.

Mr. RANKIN. Did he discuss other things that he planned to do in Mexico City, such as see the bullfights or jai alai games or anything of that kind?
Mrs. OSWALD. No, I was already questioned about this game by the FBI, but I never heard of it. But I had asked Lee to buy some Mexican records, but he did not do that.

Yes, him giving her something he could only have gotten in Mexico City would have been a nice touch. Too bad it didn't happen.

And while in Mexico, do as the Mexicans do:

Mr. RANKIN. Did you ask him what he did the rest of the time?
Mrs. OSWALD. Yes, I think he said that he visited a bull fight, that he spent most of his time in museums, and that he did some sightseeing in the city.

Now, I find that hard to believe. He goes down to Mexico, desperate to get into Cuba, so desperate he would even hijack a plane, but he figures while he's there, he might as well take in the local amenities?  A bull fight?  A slew of museums? Can't get enough of that mesoamerican art. Never saw a Mayan artifact he didn't like. 

Now, here is a biggie: With the FBI, Marina had at first refused to go along with the Mexico City story.

Mr. RANKIN. When you were asked before about the trip to Mexico, you did not say that you knew anything about it. Do you want to explain to the Commission how that happened?

Her answer was so wishy-washy, it's not even worth posting. My take on it is that it took them a while to drill that story into her head. 

So, Lee is back from, cough, cough, Mexico City, and he has rented himself a room in Dallas and is looking for work. Marina claims that she too was at the neighborhood ladies tea at which Ruth found out about the openings at the TSBD. 

That was the end of the first day's testimony, which was continued the very next day. And that's where we'll pick it up in Part 5.