Why Did Everyone But Oswald Know to Call the Best Defense Attorney in Dallas?

[Michael Clark]

When Oswald was being moved for a lineup in the DPD headquarters he shouted out to the press that he wanted John Abt to represent him. That's how the press learned about it and tried to contact Abt.

Oswald: "I didn't shoot anyone. I want to get in touch with a lawyer, Mr. Abt, in New York City."

And according to Lou Nichols, head of the Dallas Bar Association, Oswald repeatedly asked for Abt to represent him.

Is that recorded, and available? I would certainly like to see some solid proof of that. I can’t imagine that multiple reporters could have missed that with cameras and recorders.

[Steve M. Galbraith]

What difference does it make and how could anyone know who Oswald might have ultimately decided to be his attorney had he gone to trial?  He likely wanted to start with Abt because Oswald viewed himself as some type of revolutionary figure and wanted to portray himself at trial as the victim of political persecution.  Oswald knew that Abt had represented such clients.  In all likelihood, attorneys would have come out of the woodwork to represent Oswald for the publicity.

The radical lawyer William Kunstler wrote in his book ("My Life as a Radical Lawyer") that he was getting ready on the Sunday morning after the assassination to fly to Dallas to offer representation to Oswald when Ruby shot him. Kunstler was working for the ACLU at the time and wrote that the ACLU's legal director, Melvin Wulff, asked him if he would represent Oswald. He agreed and was headed to Dallas before Oswald was killed.

The problem wasn't that there weren't people willing to represent Oswald; the problem was that Oswald only wanted people that satisfied him.

He wrote:

[Steve M. Galbraith]

Is that recorded, and available? I would certainly like to see some solid proof of that. I can’t imagine that multiple reporters could have missed that with cameras and recorders.

As I noted, it wasn't missed by the press. If was after this incident that they called Abt's office to try and contact him. He was, he said, on vacation at the time and didn't have a phone at his lodgings.

It's on Youtube. If you do a search, it'll come up. It's one of the tapes when Oswald was being moved from a office to a police lineup.

[Tom Scully]

As I noted, it wasn't missed by the press. If was after this incident that they called Abt's office to try and contact him. He was, he said, on vacation at the time and didn't have a phone at his lodgings.

It's on Youtube. If you do a search, it'll come up. It's one of the tapes when Oswald was being moved from a office to a police lineup.

How would Marsh, for example, react to your innocent mistake? IOW, I am comparing, after already posting the link, on this barely two pages long thread,
what you posted vs what the WC represented John Abt said.

…Mr. RANKIN - You have been informed, I am sure, that Lee Harvey Oswald, after his arrest, tried to reach you to request that you act as his counsel. I don't know how you were informed, but I have seen it in the newspapers. When did it first come to your attention?
Mr. ABT - May I tell you the story, Mr. Rankin? Perhaps that is the simplest way.
Mr. RANKIN - Yes.
Mr. ABT - On Friday evening, the 22d, my wife and I left the city to spend the weekend at a little cabin we have up in the Connecticut woods. Sometime on Saturday, several people phoned me to say that they had heard on the radio that Oswald had asked that I represent him, and then shortly after that the press--both the press, radio, and TV reporters began to call me up there. I may say we have a radio but we have no TV there. And in the interim I turned on the radio and heard the same report.
I informed them--and these calls kept on all day and night Saturday and again Sunday morning--I informed all of the reporters with whom I spoke that I had received no request either from Oswald or from anyone on his behalf to represent him, and hence I was in no position to give any definitive answer to any such proposal if, as and when it came. I told them, however, that if I were requested to represent him, I felt that it would probably be difficult, if not impossible, for me to do so because of my commitments to other clients. I never had any communication, either directly from Oswald or from anyone on his behalf, and all of my information about the whole matter to this day came from what the press told me in those telephone conversations and what I subsequently read in the newspapers. ..

John Abt testified that to his knowledge, Oswald never contacted his office. Abt said he learned from press reports by
Saturday that Oswald was seeking his legal representation. Abt testimony:
http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/russ/testimony/abt.htm
….

[John Iacoletti]

It's on Youtube. If you do a search, it'll come up. It's one of the tapes when Oswald was being moved from a office to a police lineup.

I know of no existing footage of Oswald making this alleged statement.

[Michael Clark]

As I noted, it wasn't missed by the press. If was after this incident that they called Abt's office to try and contact him. He was, he said, on vacation at the time and didn't have a phone at his lodgings.

It's on Youtube. If you do a search, it'll come up. It's one of the tapes when Oswald was being moved from a office to a police lineup.

Do you have any evidence that a newspaperman heard Ozzy say this? Can you point to one newsman who said he heard it come from LHO?

[Tom Scully]

I know of no existing footage of Oswald making this alleged statement.

OTOH.....

https://jfkassassinationdocumentaries.wordpress.com/
…1:07:15 to 1:08:57: Dallas Police H.Q. on Saturday evening
1:07:15: H. Louis Nichols of the Dallas Bar Association talking
1:07:31: Lawyer John Abt’s photo is seen
1:07:40: Back to Nichols
1:07:51: Henry Wade is talking about conducting the trial against Oswald
1:08:13: Curry is asked about security and threats against Oswald
1:08:35: Oswald back in the corridor
1:08:37: Possibly Ruby seen in the corridor from the back..
…1:09:34: Dallas, Sunday, November 24, 9:50AM. Preparing for Oswald transfer
.

Text of NY Times 24 November article : http://jfk.hood.edu/Collection/ (Top of Page 2)


....and Michael, I anticipate from reading your Ed Forum posts, you are reasonably considering the volume of uniform public statements
and testimony supporting those public statements (and contemporary press reports) you have to overcome to get to this.:

My musing is that Oswald never asked for Mr. Abt, but asked for Mr. Abbott, an alias for David Atlee Phillips. This may have got him killed.

[Paul May]

John Apt was chief counsel to Communism USA party.  Oswald no doubt knew that.