“In deciding whether Oswald carried a rifle to work in a long paper bag on November 22, the Commission gave weight to the fact that Oswald gave a false reason for returning home on November 21, and which provided an excuse for the carrying of a bulky package the following morning.” ( Report pg. 130 )
The Commission SPECULATED that because Oswald had told the kid he rode to work with, 19-year-old Buell Wesley Frazier, a false reason for his going to Irving on Thursday evening, that was proof that he brought the rifle to work on November 22nd.
In reading his testimony, it becomes obvious that Frazier was a nosy kid who had to know the reason why for everything.
If Oswald was reluctant to tell Frazier the truth, it may not have been for some nefarious reason, but rather, a personal reason that was none of Frazier’s business.
And the evidence indicates that that’s exactly what it was.
The fictitious name
On the weekend before the assassination, November 15-17, Oswald didn’t go to Irving.
During her testimony, Marina Oswald told the Commission that on the weekend before the assassination Oswald, “did not come on Saturday and Sunday because we had a quarrel–that incident with the fictitious name.” ( 1 H 54 )
Marina was angry because she had called his roominghouse on November 10th and asked for him by name, but he had been registered under an alias, O.H. Lee. She was told that no one by the name of Oswald lived there.
When Oswald called her the following day, she told him not to come that weekend ( the weekend of 15-17 ) because it was not “convenient” for Ruth Paine for the whole Oswald family to be there. ( 1 H 63 )
Ruth Paine had a problem with Oswald coming there every weekend.
In fact, she told the Warren Commission that, “I would have been happy had he never come out, indeed happier had he not come out on weekends”. ( 3 H 130 )
When that weekend rolled around ( Nov. 15-17 ), nosy kid Frazier had to know WHY Oswald was not coming home with him on Friday.
Rather than tell him about Ruth Paine’s problem with him showing up every weekend, Oswald used the excuse that he was going to go for the written test for his driver’s license. ( 2 H 218 )
What this shows is that Oswald had a propensity for keeping his personal life to himself and that he wasn’t going to discuss his problems or the reasons for them with Frazier.
Oswald showed good judgment in this matter, because when they got to Frazier’s house on the 21st, Frazier’s sister, Linnie Mae Randle, wanted to know why Oswald was with him. ( 2 H 224 )
If Oswald had told Frazier the REAL reason why he was going to Irving on the 21st, it would have been all over the neighborhood in short order.
Therefore, any reason he told Frazier for going or not going to Irving after the 11th of November must be considered within the context of these circumstances.
An argument over the phone
Marina testified that on Sunday, November 17, she and Oswald had gotten in an argument over the phone about his use of an alias at his roominghouse.
If true, her testimony that he tried to call her back but she hung up on him and wouldn’t talk to him would have left him with no other choice to fix this mess but to go to Irving in person.
Oswald’s trips to Irving required the permission in advance of Ruth Paine. ( 3 H 57 )
Since he couldn’t get that permission to go there, he would have had to have shown up unannounced.
Which is exactly what he did.
But in order to do that, he would have to have an excuse to satisfy the ever-inquiring mind of young Buell Frazier.
The “curtain rod” story
In another part of this website, I’ve addressed the possibility that Oswald DID, in fact, need curtain rods for his room.
But whether he did or didn’t becomes a moot point if the “curtain rod story” was just an excuse to hide from nosy neighbors the REAL reason Oswald went to Irving on the 21st.
To patch up things with his wife.
Marina testified that when he showed up Thursday evening unannounced, he told her, “he was lonely that he hadn’t come the preceding ( November 15-17) weekend and he wanted to make his peace with me.”
He also expressed a desire to move Marina and the girls out of Ruth Paine’s house and in with him, in an apartment in Dallas. ( 1 H 66 )
Marina testified that Oswald, “didn’t want me to remain with Ruth any longer.” ( ibid. )
The guy wanted to spend time with his family without the restrictions placed on him by Ruth Paine.
This evidence, that Oswald was making plans involving his family for the future casts doubt on his guilt for two murders less than 24 hours later.
If the “curtain rod” story was just that, a “little white lie” to satisfy the nosy neighbors, Oswald was playing it to the hilt, for on the morning of November 22nd, he showed up for his ride to work carrying what witnesses described as a package that was between 27 and 28 1/2 inches long.
The package the witnesses saw
Only two witnesses saw the package, Frazier and his sister Randle, but their estimations of the length of the package were so precise, that they can’t be considered as being in error.
The length of curtain rods were established in testimony when Secret Service agent John Joe Howlett measured the Paine rods and measured them at 27 1/2 inches. ( 9 H 425 )
On December 1, 1963 the FBI measured where the package was in the back seat of Frazier’s car and determined it was, “27 inches from the inside of the right rear door, indicating that Frazier estimates that as the length of the package.” ( CE 2009, 24 H 409 )
It also interviewed Randle, showed her the original bag ( CE 142 ) and folded the top of the bag until they achieved the length of the package she saw.
It reported that, “when the proper length of the sack was reached according to Mrs. Randle’s estimate, it was measured and found to be 27 inches long.” ( CE 2009, 24 H 408 )
The witnesses’ estimations of the length of the package were so precise that they were within an inch of the established length of the Paine rods.
And as a result, the witnesses’ estimations of the length of the package they saw was entirely consistent with the package containing curtain rods and far too short to have contained the rifle, even broken down, which was 34.8 inches. ( Report, pg. 133 )
Evidence Oswald entered the building without the package
Buell Frazier never testified that he saw the package enter the building. He testified that Oswald was carrying the package with one end in his armpit and the other cupped in his hand while he was walking to the building, a physical impossibility had the bag contained the broken down rifle.
As I demonstrated back in 2010.
But the evidence indicates that Frazier was distracted and never saw if Oswald had put down the package before he entered the building.
He testified that, “I was walking along there looking at the railroad cars and watching the men on the diesel switch them cars…” ( 2 H 229 )
Frazier testified that he saw Oswald, “standing right in here somewhere at the door. ( ibid. )
The fact that Oswald was standing and not walking is significant. The fact that Frazier located Oswald “somewhere” means he couldn’t see him entirely.
It was obvious that his attention was somewhere else because he admitted, “I just happened to glance up and see him going through the door there and shut the door.” ( ibid. )
The Commission never asked Frazier if he saw the package enter the building.
That question may have been answered by another witness, who testified that he saw Oswald enter the building without any package.
Jack Edwin Dougherty was a book Depository employee who opened the building every morning at 7:00 am. ( 6 H 375 )
He was present and saw Oswald come in the back door at 8:00 am. ( ibid., pg. 376 )
At first he said he couldn’t see anything in Oswald’s hands when he entered the building. ( ibid. )
But on further examination, Dougherty testified that he, “would say positively he (Oswald) had nothing in his hands.”
The Commission ignored this fact and instead published in its Report that Dougherty, “does not remember that Oswald had anything in his hands as he entered the door.” ( Report, pg. 133 )
Another example where the Commission flat-out lied in its Report.
Evidence Oswald didn’t tell Frazier that he wasn’t going home with him Friday until Friday morning.
Frazier testified that Oswald told him on Thursday, when Oswald asked him for a ride, that he would not be going home with him on Friday evening… ( 2 H 237 )
But when Frazier was asked if he discussed it with Oswald on Friday morning to see if Oswald had changed his mind, Frazier said he, “I am not sure.” ( ibid. )
But he was sure on December 1st when he told the FBI that Oswald told him on the way to work on the morning of the 22nd, that he wouldn’t be going to Irving that weekend.
When exactly Oswald told Frazier he would not be going home with him on Friday evening is crucial.
If he told Frazier on Friday morning, he may have left Irving with the feeling that he had not patched things up with his wife and would have explained why he left his wedding ring along with the cash on top of her dresser.
In its Report, the Commission ignored the FBI report of December 1st and published instead Frazier’s testimony that Oswald had told him on Thursday.
Oswald’s lack of knowledge of the motorcade route as of the morning of the 22nd
More evidence that Oswald didn’t go to Irving to get his rifle is the evidence says that Oswald didn’t even know that the President was coming through Dealey Plaza that day and didn’t find out until between 9:30 and 10:00 am when he spoke to James Jarman. ( 3 H 200 )
Jarman described that conversation for the Warren Commission.
How could he possibly go to Irving with the intent of retrieving his rifle to kill the President on Thursday, when he didn’t find out the President was coming by his building until Friday morning AFTER he was at work ?
The REAL reason for the trip to Irving was NOT to retrieve a rifle
The Warren Commission said that Oswald went to Irving on the evening of the 21st of November to retrieve his rifle from the Paine garage.
“The preponderance of the evidence supports the conclusion that Lee Harvey Oswald told the curtain rod story to Frazier to explain both the return to Irving on a Thursday and the obvious bulk of the package of which he intended to bring to work the next day.” ( Report, pg. 137 )
As it did with much of the circumstances in this case, the Commission got it all wrong.
Oswald went to Irving on the 21st to patch things up with his wife, with whom he had had an argument with over the phone and wasn’t talking to him.
Marina knew it and Ruth Paine knew it.
Marina Oswald testified that later that evening she had a conversation with Ruth Paine about WHY he came to Irving unannounced and without permission.
Ruth Paine told the Commission that Marina, “suggested he was making up the quarrel they had because of her attempt to reach him ( at his roominghouse ) by phone, and I agreed, concurred with that judgment of it.” ( 3 H 66 )
This wasn’t just Marina’s opinion. She testified that Oswald told her that. ( 1 H 54 )
If Oswald brought a package with him to work on the morning of the 22nd, the length of that package was not consistent with it having contained the broken down C2766 rifle, which was 34.8 inches long. ( Report, pg. 133 )
The established length of curtain rods in the Paine garage as measured by Secret Service agent John Joe Howlett was 27 1/2 inches. ( 9 H 425 )
The two witnesses who saw the Commission’s “the long and bulky package” both estimated it to be 27-28 1/2 inches in length, precisely the length of curtain rods.
Another witness, Jack Dougherty, saw Oswald enter the Book Depository building and testified that he, “would say positively that he had nothing in his hands.” ( 6 H 377 )
Oswald didn’t go to Irving on 11.21.63 to retrieve his rifle.
The evidence indicates that Oswald went to Irving on the 21st to make up with his wife after a quarrel over the phone caused her to stop talking to him.
It also indicates that IF he brought a package to work that morning, it wasn’t a rifle.
And finally, the evidence indicates that he never brought a package into the building that morning.
And all of the Warren Commission’s circular reasoning isn’t going to change that.
Final Comment
I don’t have a problem with Oswald using a 27 inch paper bag for his lunch if that was the only size bag available from the Paine home. They went shopping. Had little kids. They bought lots of groceries. Personally, I don’t find anything extraordinary about them having large bags at the house.
In fact, Frazier described the bag he saw as a “large department store paper bag”.
Large department store bags aren’t put together with tape.
Certain facts remain:
That no witness ever saw Oswald bring a 38 inch package to work that day.
The FBI could not identify the three loose fibers they found in the “gunsack” as coming from the blanket in the Paine garage. ( 4 H 88 )
That the FBI could find no evidence that the rifle was ever in the “gunsack”. ( 4 H 97 )
That’s just a few.
Add to that the fact that Frazier told the FBI that he, “does not feel he is in a position to state that the original ( CE 142 ) is or is not the sack” that Oswald brought to work that morning. ( CE 2009, 24 H 410 )
As a result, Commission counsel never presented Frazier with CE 142 and asked him to identify it under oath.
Why not ?
Because Frazier was the witness who got the best look at the bag and he knew damned well that wasn’t the bag. He knew the bag he saw didn’t have tape on it.
It WAS shown to his sister during her testimony ( 2 H 249 ) and she was asked to identify it.
She never did positively identify it.
So here you have two witnesses whose estimations on the length of the bag are consistent with the length of curtain rods and who never positively identified CE142 as the bag they saw.
Not only that, their estimations are so precise they corroborate each other, leaving one to believe that either they coordinated the length between them or that they are telling the truth.
In other words, there’s no way these witnesses could be wrong about the length of the package they claimed to see.
You’re talking about almost a foot. IMO, there’s no way they could be that far off.
And besides, the evidence indicates that CE 142 was not the bag they saw on 11/22/63.
My guess is that Oswald left the package outside the building on the loading dock.
The Warren Commission ordered the FBI to go to the TSBD and ESTABLISH THAT no curtain rods had been found.
A curious choice of words. Not to “ascertain if”, but to ESTABLISH THAT.
That message was passed on to the Dallas FBI.
In other words, “go to the TSBD and tell Roy Truly that nobody ever found any curtain rods”.
In order to achieve that end, the FBI interviewed Roy Truly, who told them that no curtain rods had been found in the building and that it would “be customary for any discovery of curtain rods to immediately be called to his attention.”
I never realized that the TSBD had customary rules regarding the finding of curtain rods.
But there it is.
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