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

The first words out of Oswald's mouth at the Midnight Press Conference were, "I positively know nothing about this situation." Hmm. I wonder why that doesn't give people like Richard Hooke pause in claiming that Oswald was deep up to his neck in the assassination plot? But then, Oswald went immediately to his being denied legal representation, He stated it twice, and then he asked for someone to come forward to give him legal assistance. So, that's 3x in little more than a minute of speaking.

The U.S. Supreme Court declared that there was a Constitutional right to legal counsel before Oswald's arrest, so it was in effect at the time of Oswald's arrest. However, it was just a little before. The exact date was March 18, 1963. That's not much before, but imagine how fresh that decision from the case of Gideon vs. Wainright was on the mind's of participants in the legal system. So why, when Oswald was brought before a judge, in which he protested his lack of legal representation, did the judge say, "You can call any lawyer you want."?

The claim that Oswald had a P..O. box is something that nobody sought to question until I did recently. And, what I am wondering now is: why did it take me so long to question it?

In this case, we are dealing with the claim that Oswald was holding out for Attorney John Abt, and it vaguely includes the idea that he turned down other legal representation. But, how can that be true when Oswald adamantly and earnestly requested legal representation and complained about Dallas Police denying it to him?

So, what I am suggesting now is that, just like the P.O.Box story is bogus, so is the Abt story.

My first action to determine that was to check the Fritz Notes. But first, I will point out that it is commonly claimed that Fritz' handwritten notes were made days later, but that is most certainly a lie. And that's because there are too many details in them for Fritz to have remembered them all. For example, Oswald's address in New Orleans: 4706 Magazine Street, Apt. 4. You think Will Fritz remembered that? There is Wm B. Reilly Coffee Company. You think Fritz remembered that? The middle initial? B? Days later?

How smart a guy do you think Fritz was? He wrote "wrighting" for "writing." I don't think he was smart at all.
Here's an interesting little ditty which I doubt anyone noticed before. It says: From Apt 4 wked Wm B Riley Co."
I presume "wked" was shorthand for "walked."
So, he walked to work. No big deal. But, there is a commonly repeated story that he and Judyth Baker rode the bus to work every morning, sitting on the bus holding hands. Here is Danaker retelling it:
- She lived and worked in New Orleans in the spring and summer of 1963. Both she and Oswald arrived in New Orleans by bus in April and left New Orleans in September. Both she and Oswald moved into apartments the same week, within walking distance of each other. Both she and Oswald rode the same bus to and from the same workplace daily for eleven weeks, with only one bus stop between them.- 
So, we have Oswald contradicting that, saying that he didn't ride the bus; he walked to work.

But, on page 4, he wrote, "Desires to talk to Mr. Abt. I asked who (he was). Says (he was) Smith Act attorney."

But, notice that it doesn't say, "Desires Mr. Abt to be his attorney." Did Oswald say something like "I want to talk to Mr. Abt about being my attorney."???? If he did, then the important thing was the desire to be represented by Mr. Abt, not the talking to him.
The crucial thing would have been Oswald's hope and intention to get Abt to be his attorney. And again, this was post-Gideon, in which the right to an attorney, to the point of states having to provide lawyers to indigent defendants, was already established by the Supreme Court. March comes before November on the calendar, right?
Dallas County did not establish a public defender office until the 1980s. But, prior to that, judges had a list of criminal defense lawyers in the area, and they would assign one to represent an indigent defendant. Local lawyers had to do their fair share. I'm sure they got compensated by the state, but it was much less than they usually made.
My point is that the only objective evidence we have of Oswald saying anything about Abt is that statement, and I don't think anyone has the right to interpret "Desires to talk to Mr. Abt" as adamance on his part that he wants Abt and only Abt to be his attorney and won't accept anyone else.
And where Oswald showed adamance was in complaining about his being denied an attorney. Plus, he asked "for someone to come forward to give him legal assistance." That is NOT consistent with him holding out for Abt.
So, I have to think that Oswald mentioned Abt, and then they spun it into his unwillingness to talk to or consider anyone else.
I have to think that Will Fritz, and really the whole Dallas Police Department, became puppets of the FBI, and right from the start. Remember that two FBI agents were in attendance at the first interrogation, Bookhout and Hosty. And Bookhout went on to attend all the others. So, was the need to keep Oswald away from a lawyer something that Bookhout planted in Fritz? Was it justified because of "national security"? I wouldn't be surprised.

. .