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

 Dee McFarlane found another gem, which is SS Agent Mike Howard waxing on about his handling of Marina Oswald and taking her to the hospital. Before I tell you what he said, I am going to tell you that guys like him and Jim Leavelle, they were telling and repeating their lies so many times over not just years but decades, that, on some level, they may have come to believe what they were saying. It's almost like a conversion, a religious conversion.

But, this was very revealing. First, Howard claimed that Marina got to speak to Oswald on Friday night. That is not part of the story. The story goes that she got to see him on Saturday. But, Howard claimed that he took her up to see Oswald, and he observed their conversation. He claimed that Oswald balled her out for speaking Russian, that he said, you're in America now, so you have to speak English. Now, I ask you, at a time like that, when he was being accused of murdering two men, do you think he would fuss about her speaking Russian? Plus, there are other claims that he preferred that they communicate in Russian. Mary Bledsoe said that when Oswald was staying with her that every night he spoke to his wife on the phone in Russian. And just think of the advantage of him and Marina conversing in Russian at the pd; it gave them privacy. So, should we believe a word of what Howard said? No.

So, what I'm saying is that this is an example of made-up story that was told and retold to colorize, and by that point, Howard was probably incapable of distinguishing lies from truth, which was also true of Leavelle.

Howard said that he got the order on Friday evening to place Marina in "protective custody" and that it came from LBJ. Of course, he repeated the story that she was in danger, and they were protecting her. But, there is no evidence that she was in danger. They made it up. But, there was an important legal issue, and that is that they were charging and prosecuting Oswald for double murder, and Henry Wade announced on Friday evening that he would pursue the death penalty. Well, you cannot confiscate a man's wife when you're doing that. She is, by law, his witness. It's presumed that she will be his witness, and she cannot be asked to divulge any communications between them. It's called spousal privilege. How dare they confiscate the man's wife, and without even asking him or telling him?

So, Howard said he got the order from Sorrels to pick up Marina. But, this was after she left on Friday evening. And since Dallas Police drove her to the PD on Friday, I presume they returned her to Irving. And then, Howard just glibly said that "we found out on Saturday that some reporters had set her up at the Executive Inn on the outskirts of town." How could anyone just say that? Why were reporters relocating her? And how did he find out about it? Did the reporters call him afterwards? How could they possibly have done that? So, this is an example of a glib story that is just tossed out even though it lacks any explanation. It's completely apart from anything tangible.

Anyway, after finding out about the Executive Inn, he said that he and another agent went out there, and they spent the night, taking turns guarding the rooms. Then, early the next morning, Sunday, they got them and took them out for some food. And then, they started driving to the Inn of the Six Flags. Well, that isn't the reported story either. The reported story is that they took them to Chief Currie's house, where she called Ruth Paine and asked her to pack her stuff. But, in this telling, Howard left that out completely.

Then, he said that they heard on the police radio that Oswald was shot. Well, Oswald was shot at 11:20, and he wasn't declared dead until about 1:00. He said Marina said she wanted to go see him. But, if that were true, they would have gotten there when Oswald was still alive. But, that isn't part of the story either.

So then, Howard said that he took Marina and Marguerite to Parkland hospital, and they went in the same entrance that JFK did. That can't be true. We have the photo, including the one of Marguerite hugging the pretzel cannister, and they are obviously not at the entrance of Parkland Hospital as per Kennedy.

And then he said that when they saw the body, that she wanted to know about his swollen eye, not anything else. But wait. That doesn't make sense. According to him, she saw Oswald both on Friday evening and on Saturday, and she talked to him. So, she already knew about the swollen eye because he had it then. If she was curious about that, she would have asked him about it. So, how could she act surprised to see it on Sunday, especially with what had just happened to him? By that point, wasn't the swollen eye like ancient history? Yet, according to Howard, that's all Marina wanted to ask about.

Here's the link. His part about Marina starts at 1:24:40.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2wvG6Yi71Y

Howard claimed that he attended an Oswald interrogation on Friday evening, but the only SS agent reported to have attended any was Forrest Sorrels. And every Oswald interrogation was led by Captain Will Fritz. It was a police interrogation, not a Secret Service interrogation. What Howard said here was all horse shit that he was spewing glibly because he had been doing it for so long.

"We found these people (Marina and Marguerite). The News media had them in a room at the Executive Inn..."

How the mother-flook could he just say that as if it was coherent? It was not coherent. And how can people be so stupid as to hear him glibly say it and be content with it, as if there's nothing missing, as if it makes complete sense? It doesn't make any sense.