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

 So, those LIFE reporters went about moving Marina out of Ruth Paine's house, and not only did they not admit it, but no one acknowledged it- ever. It remained unspoken! It was like an episode of the Twilight Zone where something is going on that everyone ignores.

Allan Grant flew out from L.A., ostensibly, to find and photograph the Oswald family for LIFE magazine. Wow, what a gargantuan task. How lucky was it that he succeeded? But, LIFE used none of his photos. There was just one photo of Marina in the 11/29 LIFE, which was taken at the PD. Allan didn't go with them to the PD; so, that was taken by somebody else. Grant's wife said that Allan's photos were not published until an obscure German magazine published them years later. So, why didn't LIFE publish Allan's photos?

I told you that Allan claimed in his narrative that the last thing he did was give Marina 10 twenty dollar bills, which was equivalent in purchasing power to over $2000 today. That's a lot of cash. But, I want you to think about something: he must have come prepared to do that. Why else would he have 10 twenty dollar bills on him? In my 73 years, I have never once randomly and spontaneously wound up with 10 twenty dollar bills.

Perhaps you think he brought all that cash for his own travel expenses? But, if so, how could he give it to her? Compare these two statements;

"I then handed Marguerite ten twenty dollar bills which she slipped into her pocket. 'Be sure to buy the shoes for June,' I said. She thanked me for all the help and hoped that the photographs would turn out good."

Mrs. OSWALD. The night from the 23d to the 24th I spent at a hotel in Dallas, together with the mother. She wanted to make sure that the LIFE reporters who had taken this room would pay for it, as they had promised. But they disappeared. Then she telephoned Robert, it seems to me, and Gregory--no, Mr. Gregory. And I know that he came with Robert, and Robert paid for the room. And, after that, after we left the hotel, we met with the Secret Service agents. I wanted to see Lee, and we were supposed to go to the police station to see him. Mr. RANKIN. That was on November 24th, on Sunday? Mrs. OSWALD. Yes. Mr. RANKIN. And then what happened? Mrs. OSWALD. I don't remember whether we went to Ruth to take my things or perhaps--in general, I remember that en route, in the car, Mike Howard or Charley Kunkel said that Lee had been shot today.

RC: So, Marina denied getting the 10 twentys from Grant? So, who are you going to believe? And don't hotels require you to pay in advance? That's how it's been all my life.

And what about Robert Oswald's involvement in all this? Allan Grant inserted him into the story differently. You recall that before taking Marina and Marguerite to the PD to visit Lee, they took them to their (Allan's and Tommy's) hotel suite at the Adophilus. It was more than a room. It was like an apartment. FBI agent Bardwell Odum showed up while they were there, and he demanded that Marina go with him. They argued about that. But then:

"Robert Oswald, Lee's brother, entered the room and told Odum he was sorry but there would be no questioning until he got an attorney for Lee and Marina."

How did Robert Oswald show up there? He wasn't at the Paine house. So, how did he wind up at the Adophilus Hotel?

Repeatedly, Grant said that the appointment for Marina and Marguerite to visit Lee was 2:30. However, John McAdams' timeline shows this:

1:10 PM: Marina and Marguerite visit LHO.

1:40 PM: LHO tries unsuccessfully to contact Attorney John Abt.

2:15 PM: LHO appears in another lineup.

2:45 PM: Fingernail scrapings and hair samples are obtained from LHO with his

permission.

3:30 PM: Robert visits LHO.

So, was it 1:10 or 2:30?

But, why would Robert Oswald get involved in going to the Executive Inn? He was married and had kids. So, wouldn't he go home to his family? Why did he need to go to a hotel?

But wait! There is another version of the story. In another telling of it, Allan placed Robert at the Paine house when the whole thing began.

It's actually from Allan Grant's obituary in the L.A. Times. I'm unable to grab the text, so I'll just post it as an image. So, it put Robert out in Irving.

Everything about this story has a "dog ate my homework" quality to it. But, the bottom line for me is that the real assignment of the LIFE reporters was to move Marina out of the Paine house as the first step in putting her in federal custody, all before Oswald was killed. They, the feds, knew that he was going to be killed.