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

This is Part III and the finale of my analysis of how they got Buell Frazier to say the things he did: that Oswald brought a large package to work, carried beneath his armpit, which he said was curtain rods.  

There are some strange things about Frazier's actions on 11/22. I already mentioned his claim of remaining in the car to run the engine to recharge the battery. I have driven from Irving to Dallas; quite a few times, because Irving is where I stay when I go to Dealey Plaza. And, I can tell you that it's a 30 minute freeway drive. So, that would have been plenty enough high rpm driving to recharge the battery. Plus, how did this issue of a low battery arise? Because: he didn't mention it as an issue the day before. So, did something happen overnight? Such as, did he leave his lights on all night? Well, if so, he would have said so, right? Then, he parked in the distant employee parking lot on Houston Street, rather than the close one next to the TSBD.  Another issue concerns the distance behind Oswald that Frazier walked as they traversed the 4 blocks to the building. At various times Frazier reported it as 10 feet, 50 feet, 100 feet, and by implication, much longer than that.  And then, he claimed that after the motorcade and the shooting he went to eat lunch in the basement. But, why did he wait to eat lunch? He, like everyone else, got off at 11:45, which was 15 minutes early, precisely to allow enough time to eat before the President arrived. So, that allowed 45 minutes, so what was he doing that he didn't eat during that time? Everyone else that we know of ate BEFORE the motorcade, so why didn't Frazier? And what really puts it in a bad light is that, supposedly, the President was going to pass the building, and then, they were all going to go back to work. The assassination wasn't expected, right? You see him, you wave, and that's it; it's back to work.  Therefore, why would Frazier think he was going to have time to eat lunch after the motorcade? 

And, I will go off on a slight tangent to say that the same applies to Oswald. Will Fritz claimed that Oswald said that he was eating lunch (with other employees) at the time of the motorcade. That's bull, but even theoretically, why would he put off eating when he expected they would all have to return to work right after the motorcade? So, that was a lie on Fritz' part. Fritz knew very well that Oswald said he was "out with Bill Shelley in front" during the motorcade. He just didn't want to admit it. Oswald ate lunch early in lunch break, not at the time of the motorcade. 

But, getting back to Frazier, he said that after eating lunch, he left work sometime between 1 and 2 o'clock. OIC Chairman Larry Rivera pointed out that that is a very big window of time. Doesn't it seem like he could have narrowed it down more than that? 

And then Buell Frazier seemed to disappear. The Dallas Police were looking for him. They had several men searching for him. Once they realized that Frazier drove Oswald to work, suspicions about him (Frazier) being Oswald's accomplice went through the roof. They finally caught up with him at a nursing home where his step-father was convalescing. Frazier was taken into custody (arrested) at 6:45. Look how late that is. 

So, Frazier was brought to the police station, charged, fingerprinted, and interrogated like a suspect. This is what he said about it.

“I was interrogated and questioned for many, many hours,” Frazier said. “Interrogators would rotate.”

Interrogators would rotate? What does that mean? The only DPD guy who interrogated anyone was Fritz. So, if there were multiple interrogators, it means that FBI agents and possibly SS agents must have interrogated Frazier. And, the "rotate" part sounds like they did it one-on-one, that they took turns interrogating him: alone. They certainly didn't do that with Oswald. 

And it must have gone badly for Frazier because a confession was produced which they asked him to sign. He refused to sign it. According to Frazier, Fritz threatened to hit him, and Frazier made like a tough-guy, saying, "If you do that, even though there are cops outside, I'll get a few licks in." Frazier likes telling that story.  

But, Frazier ended up writing a multi-page affidavit, which contains the famous references to Oswald saying that he was bringing back curtain rods and then showing up with a large bag, which he carried beneath his armpit. 

But, before I say any more about Frazier, let's consider his sister Linnie Mae. This is an FBI photo of the scene at her house:

First, I don't believe that Frazier, or anybody, would go to the trouble of backing the car into that spot. Why? What for? If the other car was there in the carport, I should think he would have just left the car in the driveway. But, if he couldn't do that, then I think most people would park on the street along the curb. Why go up on the dirt or grass? But, even if he did, turning the car around and backing it up? What was the advantage to doing that? How hard was it going to be to back up in the morning? I don't buy it. 

But, this is the view that Linnie Mae had of Oswald supposedly putting his long package in the back seat of Frazier's car.

So, through those slats, she, supposedly, saw what Oswald was doing on the far side of the car that was parked on the other side, outside the slats. Yeah, right. I think that Linnie Mae, like Frazier, was hammered that Oswald definitely had a long package, so she must have seen it. And I don't know if they had anything on her except the threat of railroading her brother, but that would have been enough to get her to say what they wanted her to say. In a word: she lied.

But, let's get back to Frazier. I want to point out that he was slow mentally. I'm not saying that to be cruel, but rather, because it is a very important element in the case. He's dim-witted. Supposedly, Oswald told him that his purpose in going to Irving that Thursday was to obtain curtain rods. So, the next morning, Frazier sees a long package, and asks what is it? Why didn't he ask, "Are those the curtain rods?" Did he forget that Lee had told him about curtain rods? Did it slip his mind? He was 19, not 91. 

In some of his tellings, Frazier makes it sound like Oswald was perplexed and annoyed. "They're the curtain rods, just like I told you." But, most of the time, including the first time, Frazier made it that he just matter-of-factly asked, "What's in the package, Lee?" like he had no idea what it was, and Oswald just matter-of-factly answered that it was curtain rods, like he never mentioned it before, making them both sound like idiots. 

As I've said, the whole curtain rod story is ridiculous. If Oswald was really going to equip his boarding room with curtains, he would need the curtains, the curtain rods, the hardware that goes with them, and the necessary tools. Oswald didn't have anything, so why make a special trip just for the rods? In some tellings, Frazier made it that Oswald said that Marina was making curtains for his room. Well, if she was making curtains for him, but they weren't ready yet, and he wasn't coming back with them on this trip, then why go just get the rods? He was making a special trip just to get the rods? If he had to go another time to get the curtains, then why not just wait until then and get the curtains and the rods at the same time in one trip? So, if Oswald had said that to him (of course, he didn't) why wouldn't Frazier point that out to him? "You're getting the curtain rods now, but then  you are going to go back another time to get the curtains?" 

But, it was a boarding room, not a house that Oswald owned. They weren't going to rent the room without curtains or blinds. It's not something the tenant has to deal with. "So, Lee, are you saying that you are currently living in the room without curtains? That there is nothing currently covering your windows?" In actuality, the room had blinds, which are even better than curtains. 

The Oswalds were always renters, and there is no reason to think they would have owned curtain rods. They didn't bring any back from Russia, did they? The whole curtain rod story was untenable through and through. Why didn't Frazier realize it? Because he was dim-witted. 

So, here's what I think happened at the PD: Frazier was being hounded to admit that he was Oswald's accomplice, which he refused to do. He was pressured to sign a confession, which he refused to do. But, imagine what the police could have said to him after that: 

"Wesley, we don't need your confession. We can charge you as an accessory to murder without one. Most of the time, that's what we do. And that is what we are going to do now, unless you start helping us; unless you start cooperating. Now, Oswald came to work with a long package. That we know beyond a shadow of a doubt. So, you must have seen it. It must have been in your car. It would have been a long, brown paper bag. And we know that because we found the bag; we have the bag. So, those are facts, and unless you start telling us that you saw the bag, we are going to assume that you were involved with him."

In other words: Either give us Oswald, or go down with him. 

We know that Oswald brought his lunch to work that day, lunch that was in a brown paper bag. So, Frazier started growing that bag, and he grew it, in his mind, as big as two feet. He went on to say that Oswald brought no lunch, that he told him he was going to buy his lunch from a vendor. But, we know that isn't true because Oswald said he brought a lunch from Mrs. Paine's house: a cheese sandwich and an apple. Even if Frazier didn't see it, it certainly rules out Oswald telling him he was going to buy lunch from a vendor. 

What I am suggesting and stating outright is that Buell Frazier was and is a confabulator. Here is how confabulation is defined on Wikipedia: 

"In Psychiatry, confabulation (verb: confabulate) is a disturbance of memory, defined as the production of fabricated, distorted, or misinterpreted memories about oneself or the world, without the conscious intention to deceive. People who confabulate present incorrect memories ranging from 'subtle alterations to bizarre fabrications', and are generally very confident about their recollections, despite contradictory evidence."

I am saying that Buell Frazier has a mental condition, a mental impairment, in which he cannot distinguish reality from the concoctions of his mind. Confabulation amounts to the uncanny ability to lie- even to oneself. 

It's that he is lying but without being burdened with the awareness that he's lying. 

I maintain that Buell Frazier was placed there at the TSBD because the plotters knew that he could be browbeaten into saying whatever they wanted and needed him to say.  I think they knew about his mental condition. Look how they paired Frazier and Oswald from the beginning. Frazier said that Bill Shelley instructed him to take the new guy, Oswald, under his wing, show him the ropes, guide him in becoming an "order filler." And from the beginning, Frazier offered to drive Oswald to Irving. I wonder if he received any coaxing in that too. 

Frazier has been coddled and protected his whole adult life. They got him into the military. He spent most of his adulthood in the military. And, it is only in the latter years that he has spoken out publicly about the assassination. For years, for decades, he remained inaccessible. Today he's got a cottage industry going as the "living witness," but it's so far separated in time from the event, that he can "remember" it any way he wants. 

As far as I know, it was during the making of Four Days In November, the slick David Wolper Stalin-ist propaganda film, that Frazier first made public statements about what he saw. That movie was made in 1964, but I don't know when (what month) Frazier did his stint. But, I think we should assume that after the assassination, Frazier received a lot of counseling, coaching, and guidance about his experience. In other words, under different circumstances, they did the same thing to him that they did to Marina, who got the full MK-ULTRA treatment during her confinement. Essentially, Buell did too, and he got to where he could spout the story about the package and the curtain rods as though they were real. They had plenty of time to reinforce the things they got him to say on 11/22.     

And, he likes to come across today as a friend of Oswald's. He speaks well of him as a person. He keeps saying over and over how much Oswald really liked children. Don't you think that, in truth, Oswald really liked his own kids, and not just kids in general? And Frazier doesn't think that Oswald brought a rifle to work. He harps on his 2 foot limit to the bag, realizing that it rules out a rifle, which had to be nearly a foot longer. But, why doesn't Frazier realize that even a 2 foot package poses an inexplicable problem for Oswald? And that's because it's just as certain that he didn't bring curtain rods to work as it is that he didn't bring a rifle to work. Therefore, what was in the 2 foot package, Buell? And if you don't know, how come you haven't wondered and expressed your wonderment? Why don't you realize that it is still a problem for Oswald? And why aren't you smart enough to realize that you can't claim that he brought a 2 foot package to work and also claim that you're his friend because the two are incompatible? You are still putting him in the hot seat.   

So, the bottom line for me is: Buell Frazier is, and always has been, mentally abnormal; mentally impaired; mentally compromised. His cognitive ability is impaired. His memories aren't real, but his mental impairment prevents him from realizing it. 

He was a slow-witted young man whom they placed at the Depository precisely because they knew he could be manipulated (frightened) into saying whatever they wanted and needed him to say. Did he come up with "curtain rods" himself? He may have, but he also may have gotten help. 

"Think, Wesley, think. He must have told you what was in the bag, but he surely didn't say it was a rifle. So, what did he say it was? Camping equipment? Curtain rods?"