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

claviger

One prolific CT has repeatedly accused Marina Oswald of making up the
Walker shooting incident as a bargain with the FBI to stay in the US and
not be forced back to the USSR.  There are some fundamental problems with
this absurd allegation.

First and foremost, Marguerite and Robert Oswald had knowledge of this
incident before the FBI.  The fact they already knew would be the reason
why her attorney advised her to share this info with the FBI before it
came from some another source.

The note LHO left for her in case he was captured or killed was among the
papers confiscated by the police and would eventually turn up and cause
more questions about Marina's part in all this.  If she was just an
innocent wife then she had nothing to fear.

The other big problem is six letters by Marina to the USSR Consulate in
Washington D.C. pleading for financial assistance to pay airfare for she
and her children back to Russia.  This is overwheleming evidence Marina
was not terrified of going back to her native country.

Ralph Cinque: My good God, do you bend and weave and distort. I bet you're great at doing the limbo. 

First of all, why would anyone assume Marina made up the story? That is ridiculous. Marina was trying to cooperate with authorities. That meant saying what they wanted her to say. So, they talked; she listened; and then she repeated it as needed, and hopefully got it straight. That's how it went. To think that Marina Oswald wrote a major element of the assassination script herself is preposterous. It was THEIR story; not hers. The plot was theirs; she had nothing to do with it. She was their actress; not their writer. 

So, who is this "prolific CT" you're talking about? He's probably working for your side. Your side DOES work both sides, you know. 

Next, you claim as a confirming piece of evidence that both Marina Oswald and Robert Oswald had prior knowledge of the Walker incident. But, that's not a separate piece of evidence; it's all part of the same claim; the same story; the same narrative. If Marina had written a letter to, say, Ruth Paine, saying that Lee had tried to kill Walker- that would be a confirming piece of evidence. But, you don't have that or anything like it. So, that argument of yours was purely circular- if only you were smart enough to realize it. 

Then you refer to Oswald's note, and you just help yourself to the assumption that it's authentic. That has NOT established. But regardless, there is NOTHING incriminating about the note. It does NOT reference the Walker incident. So, you've got nothing with that either.

Here is Marina's letter to her aunt and uncle written mere days after the Walker shooting incident. Any signs here that she had been through such a traumatic experience and facing the prospect now of being married to a homicidal maniac?

April 27, 1963

Hello dear aunt Valya and uncle Ilya:

It was a while ago that I got your letter and I was glad to receive it.  But I got held up replying because of all sorts of domestic concerns.  Forgive me.

Right now I am living with our little daughter at our acquaintances in Irving, near Dallas.  Alek has gone away to New Orleans.  This is because he has no work, and there seem to be no prospects here.  So we have decided to move over closer to the sea.  Maybe he will be luckier in his birth place.  We have money for about two months so all this is not terrible so far.  In that time something should be found.  Alka took all the things with him so it will be easier for me and Marinka to leave here on the bus.  It is ten hours away.  Probably we, that is, I and Marinka, Ruth, and the children will go by car.  Ruth is great.  She is an American woman.  She is studying Russian at the university and is very glad I am living with her and able to help her learn Russian better.  She divorced her husband and lives with her children but she is lonely alone at home. 

The husband comes twice a week to see the children.  They in fact just do not live together, but officially they are not divorced.  He finances the house where she lives and pays the bills.  He is also happy that Ruth is not as lonely with me.  We are thinking to go to New Orleans in a while.  She was never there and would like to take a vacation.

Alka left just two days ago.  There is no letter yet, but he will write right away how it is there.  We may leave soon so write to us at our Dallas postal box -- the letter will be forwarded on.  I do not know what our postal box number will be in New Orleans.  Box 2915, Dallas, Texas, USA.

Everything is fine.  Our daughter is growing up healthy and she is a good girl.  We and Alka love her very much and Alka looks after her.  If she starts crying... you know, he is crazy.  He gives you and uncle Ilya his regards and told me to write you after he leaves and I have more time. 

The weather is very good.  There are rains and it is not too hot.  I have been wearing little shorts and we all had time to get tanned.  But it will be a little lonely here when Ruth leaves with her children for three days for the holidays in San Antonio.  And Alka will not be here.  I will watch television.  Just the other day there was a broadcast from London of Princess Alexandra's wedding.  It was very festive and beautiful.  It was held in a big ancient cathedral and the ceremony was very traditional.  It was so interesting -- I got goose-bumps.

I am beginning to speak English a little and Ruth helps me too.  I understand a lot but still need to systematically study.  Which is what I do.

We at last got Ogonek and Soviet Belorussia so we know what is happening in Minsk and everything in the Union.  I have Russian books.  Alka buys them for me in New York.  That is, they send them from there:  Tolstoy, Chekhov, Pushkin.  When we have more dough we will see; I will buy some more.  I do not have complete collections.

Recently it was Easter and we went to a lake and Alka caught two big fish.  They were 450 grams.  On an ordinary hook.  There were many vacationers and fishermen too.  Everybody rushed with their rods to that spot but no more big fish were caught.  Alka laughed that their fishing rods were twenty-thirty dollars kind, not like ours that cost 15 cents.  We will be catching crabs and good fish in New Orleans.  It is a port there.  What will happen next I will write, but in the meantime I send you best wishes and to our acquaintances -- especially the Andrianovs.  Luda must be finishing -- I wonder where they will send her.  How are things?  No answers from work.  Innesa has been silent.  She must be busy.  I do not know who was born to Oleg.  On this I end. 

I kiss and embrace you,

Marina

   

You find anything there? No, huh? OK, then let's try the next letter sent from New Orleans less than a month later:

May 18, 1963

Hello my dear uncle Ilya and aunt Valya! I am hurrying to inform you that there is no reason to worry.  The whole family has moved to New Orleans.  Alka found the same kind of work he had in Dallas, ie, photography.  He like it very much and I am happy.  Now at least he knows what to look for specifically.  That is much better than when we arrived and he did not know where to turn -- what to look for.  This is not bad work -- at least a specialty.  He does not photograph people -- this is technical photography -- more specifically, commercial -- for magazines and print and newspapers.  We see his work and he brags that he works in newspapers.  At last fortune has smiled upon him.  By the way, I can brag that I was first who suggested he go to New Orleans.  Here Alka has relatives and in the end that is better than nothing.
By the way, aunt Lillian and her husband are very nice and simple people.  They have five grown children and they love kids in general.  They treat us very well.
We live on the same street that Alka works on.  He travels to work by trolley bus for about fifteen to twenty minutes.  Not far away is the Mississippi, about twenty-five minutes walk and on the other side of the city a big lake with a beautiful beach.  We have already gone swimming there.  Marinka was most happy.  She cried when we took her out of the water.  She is beginning to walk a little.  She is amusing and interesting for us.
The city is old -- the original settlers were French.  Many streets are name in French.  In the French Quarter there are many foreign tourists.  For the first time I saw how a barely clad girl -- if you can call a transparent material that -- dancing in a bar.  We and Alka were walking around there one evening and you could see many unexpected things through an open door.  I know about things like that but I was quite surprised anyway.  Indecent!
It is good that there are many fish here which I like very much.  On Saturday we will go to catch crabs.  We already bought some eels and crabs.  Alka handles them himself -- he does not trust anybody.  It is a very pleasant occupation preparing them, cleaning, and especially eating them.  If only you were here -- you would cook them up!  Soon pictures from the beach will be ready.  I will send them out.  How are things with you?  Alka sends his regards.
Dear aunt Valya.  This is only for you.  Now I know for sure that Alka loves me and this is very pleasing.  I am not the only one to come to this realization, but also Ruth who was here for a few days.  She could speak with him in English and Russian.  That is very good practice.  So I am very happy.  It is good that we are living together.  All kinds of things happen.
I kiss you tightly,
Marina

Holy Cow! Did you read it! What right does anybody have to assume that at that point in time Marina Oswald had any conception and perception of her husband as being a crazed, gun-toting, homicidal maniac? 

The fact is: there is no evidence that Marina ever said a word to anybody about Oswald being involved in the Walker shooting incident- prior to the assassination when she was immediately taken into custody and the brainwashing began. 

The whole claim is ridiculous. Much of what Marina said is ridiculous. She said she kept Oswald from going out to shoot Nixon in Dallas in April 1963 (Nixon wasn't even there then) by physically overcoming Oswald at the bathroom door. So, he was in the bathroom, and when he tried to come out, she held the outer doorknob and overpowered him. Originally, the story was that she locked him in the bathroom to keep him from leaving, but then they realized that you can't lock a bathroom from the outside because it's not a keyed entrance. But, even if it were, Oswald could still have unlocked it from the inside.  So, you can't really lock someone in the bathroom. But, originally it was that she locked him in there all day until night. So then, they made it that they just struggled at the door for a while- in a tug of war. But, for how long? Several minutes? Longer? You want to make it an hour? Knock yourself out. And then what? She let him out, and he said, 

"Well, you beat me fair and square, Honey. I no longer want to kill Nixon."

Look, people: the whole thing is ridiculous. It's preposterous. Oswald did NOT try to kill Walker. He would have had to be insane, and he wasn't.

The reason they came up with it is because the act of seeing a motorcade route in a newspaper on your lunch break at work and instantly deciding to forget about everything and everyone in your life and just kill the President instead is so insane that they figured they needed some preliminary stuff to build up to it, to make it seem plausible. Hence: the Walker incident, the Nixon incident. They needed to weave a vivid story of an insane Oswald spiraling out of control. It's all completely false; completely made up; but not by Marina. She just did what was she told. She just said what she was told to say. She tried very, very, very hard to please.