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

Listen to Oswald at the Midnight Press Conference. When asked if he killed the President, he said that he wasn't charged with that and nobody has said that to him yet. By nobody, he meant no police or interrogator said it to him because he went on to say that a reporter in the hall asked him that question.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ctOxFxGfQKE

So, what this tells me is that Oswald, up to this point,  was never asked if he killed Kennedy and never told that he was the prime and only suspect. So, at the first interrogation that afternoon, Fritz and Hosty and Bookhout never asked Oswald if he shot Kennedy. Fritz must have asked Oswald where he was during the motorcade, but without ever revealing that he suspected him of shooting Kennedy. 

It's all very strange because the Fritz Notes don't reveal anything about Oswald being told he was suspected of killing JFK or Tippit. But, the Bookhout/Hosty joint report of November 23 ended with the statement that Oswald "frantically" denied shooting Tippit or Kennedy. Well, if he frantically denied it, then he must have known that they suspected him, right? But, in that case, how could Oswald say, "Nobody has said that to me yet" in reference to police accusing him of killing Kennedy? 

The point is that there is a contradiction between what Oswald said transpired at the interrogations and what his interrogators said transpired.  So, who are you going to believe? Are you going to believe Oswald or the FBI agents? 

I hope you know whom I believe. 

But, let's look at this logically and realistically. Let's imagine that YOU are sitting in a theater and police come in and drag you out and take you to the PD. Now, we'll put aside the issue of Oswald striking Officer Nick McDonald because he was never charged with that. So, for whatever reason, Oswald wasn't charged with that, so it was not a legal issue for him. 

Alright, so they drag him out of the theater and take him to the police station. And you're going to imagine that it's you. Then, he had to wait until Fritz got there, which wasn't until after 3 pm, since Fritz was busy gathering evidence on the 6th floor. And, as far as we know, nobody said anything to Oswald until Fritz did.  

So then, Fritz gets there, and the interview begins. Now, what's going to be the first words out of Oswald's mouth? I presume it was something like: 

"Why have I been brought here? What is it that you think I did?"

That's what I'd say in that circumstance. What would you say? And then what would Fritz say? Wouldn't he have to say something like, "You are under suspicion for having killed a police officer and also the President of the United States." 

And if Fritz didn't say that, he wasn't being straight-forward. Do you agree?  So, if that is what Fritz said, then Oswald should have known from the beginning that they suspected him of both murders. But apparently, Fritz didn't say that.  Apparently, he did say about the police officer because that night, at the press conference, Oswald told the world that he knows he is being accused of killing a police officer; "I know nothing more than that." 

Alright, so let's assume that Fritz admitted their suspicion of Oswald as being Tippit's killer. 

But, in that case, why didn't the whole interrogation go in that direction, and why don't the notes reflect that?  For example, did they ask Oswald if he was at 10th and Patton? Did they ask him how he got to the theater? They would have had to, right? Because: if Oswald denied being at 10th and Patton, and of course he did if he was asked, then the very next question should have been, "Alright, so you say you weren't at 10th and Patton; therefore, tell us how you got from your boarding room to the theater?"

Do you realize that that is the most important question they could have asked him concerning the Tippit murder? That's because if he denied doing it and denied being there (which surely he did) then the logic goes to that: "So, take us back to your room. You changed your pants. Now, tell us about the pistol. Was that in your room, or did you get it from elsewhere? And how did you get from your room to the theater?"

There is really no other way the questioning could have gone if they were plumbing the Tippit murder, and Oswald was denying it. Yet, it is completely missing from the interrogation notes and reports. And that makes the interrogation of Lee Harvey Oswald the weirdest police interrogation there ever was. 

I hate to say this, but it appears that I am the only person in 54 years who has noticed that Oswald's alibi for the Tippit murder is completely missing from the public record. And believe me, if I find out that I am wrong about that, and someone else has noted it, I will be delighted. I would very much like to think that somebody did. 

And keep in mind that as soon as police accuse someone of a crime, his or her mind immediately goes to his or her alibi. 

"What??? You think I did it????  When did it happen?  6 PM? I was nowhere near that place at 6 PM. At 6 PM,  I was at DaVinci's Italian restaurant with my friend Sally. She'll confirm it. So will the waiter."

So, we had  a situation where an innocent person (Oswald) was being accused of at least one murder (Tippit's) in which his alibi would have been spontaneously generated, and yet, after more than half a century, we still don't know what his alibi for the Tippit murder was.

Now, does that bother you? It should bother you. It bothers me.

So, what did Oswald say? I suspect he said that he was in the Texas Theater at 1:15 when the Tippit murder occurred. So, what's the next logical question? It's: how'd you get there?

They had him at his room. He changed his pants. He wore grey pants that morning, and he was wearing black pants when he was arrested. So, he definitely went to his room and changed his pants. And there is no reason to doubt that he got there the way he said he did, by bus and by cab.  So, how did he get from his boarding room to the Texas Theater, a distance of almost exactly one mile?

Well, if we put aside Butch Burroughs claiming to see Oswald in the theater at 1:07, one can walk a mile in 15 minutes. But, John Armstrong has cited good reasons to doubt that Oswald did that. First, although you can walk a mile in 15 minutes, when you're walking on cityscape, there are red lights, stop signs, and at every intersection, even if there is no light, a pedestrian has to wait until traffic has cleared and it's safe to cross. So, even if one is walking at 4 mph pace (which is brisk) it doesn't mean that you will actually get to your destination at that speed. Second, somebody would have seen him. It was a gorgeous afternoon in terms of weather. Obviously, Kennedy's death put a pall over everything, but nonetheless, there were people out and about, as well as automotive traffic. Look at how many witnesses there were to Tippit's murder. So, if Oswald had walked a mile in broad daylight, it's likely that somebody would have remembered seeing him.  

And then, when you put Butch Burroughs claim about seeing Oswald at 1:07 to Jim Douglass back in (which is one of the most important interviews to occur in the whole JFK assassination saga) there is compelling reason to believe that Oswald was driven to the theater. Who drove him? It's all speculation. Was it a police officer? Was it Tippit himself? The timing allows for it. Again, it's all speculation. But, if Oswald said he was driven to the Texas Theater by a police officer, I can imagine why none of his interrogators wrote it down, and why all became mum about what Oswald said about it. Whatever Oswald said about how he got to the theater, it must have been extremely exonerating. Because: why else wouldn't they mention it? It makes no sense for it to be missing.

So, that's the reality of the situation- a gaping hole in the record. And it's very existence is very disturbing. What were they hiding? What did Oswald tell them about how he got to the theater? You can't say they forgot to ask him. Whatever it is, they did not want to tell us. Bookhout and Hosty posted their joint report on November 23 when Oswald was still alive, and they didn't say a word about Oswald's odyssey.  It's probably because they didn't want the gaping hole to stick out.