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

Marina Oswald, in statements to the FBI and Secret Service after the assassination and in December 1963 said that she never saw Oswald practice.

MARINA said she had never seen OSWALD practice with his rifle or any other firearm and he had never told her that he was going to practice.

She cannot recall that he [Oswald] ever practiced firing the rifle either in New Orleans or in Dallas. She does not think he did practice in New Orleans because as a rule he stayed home when he was not working. When he did go out, she did not see him take the rifle.

The reporting agent interviewed Marina Oswald as to whether she knew of any place or of a rifle range where her husband could do some practicing with a rifle, and whether she ever saw her husband taking the rifle out of the house. She said that she never saw Lee going out or coming in to the house with a rifle and that he never mentioned to her doing any practice with a rifle.

But, by February 1964, it was an entirely different tune:

Mr Rankin:

Did you ever see him clean the rifle?

Mrs Oswald:

Yes. I said before I had never seen it before. But I think you understand. I want to help you, and that is why there is no reason for concealing anything. I will not be charged with anything.

…

Mr Rankin:

Did you learn at any time that he had been practicing with the rifle?

Mrs Oswald:

I think he went once or twice. I didn’t actually see him take the rifle, but I knew he was practicing.

Mr Rankin:

Could you give us a little help on how you knew?

Mrs Oswald:

He told me. And he would mention that in passing … he would say, “Well, today I will take the rifle along for practice.”

"MARINA advised that OSWALD had told her after the Walker incident that he had practiced with his rifle in a field near Dallas. She said further that in the beginning of January, 1963, at the Neely Street address, he on one occasion was cleaning his rifle and he said he had been practicing that day. …"

January? According to the official story, Oswald didn't come home with the rifle for the first time until March 25. 

The FBI and Secret Service had just enough time to drill Marina in the stories she needed to tell. It was just like learning a script. 

What a disgrace. What an absolute disgrace that that spectacle of a show trial was presented as an honest investigation. From the first day, it as poison. It was poison like the strychnine that killed Jane Stanford.