Did Oswald smoke?

[Richard Smith]

I agree that Oswald would probably have been convicted, but only if the evidence presented against him was constrained to it being his rifle, and his having no one who could vouch for his whereabouts at the exact moment of the shooting.

If the prosecutor over-played his hand, and brought in stuff like the fibers supposedly found on the rifle, the palm print supposedly found on the rifle, the gsr found on Oswald's hands, and a reluctant eyewitness who later changed his mind, it could have collapsed, IMO.

Certain evidence might be deemed more persuasive than others but it all points to Oswald.  No one can argue with any credibility that Oswald would have walked out of a courtroom to be a free man with that evidence.  Certainly not based on any reasonable doubt as to his guilt in the murders of JFK and Tippit.  There is always the possibility that a guilty person escapes a conviction based on the presence of an unreasonable juror or mistrial but Oswald's goose was cooked with a normal 1960s Texas jury.  Not because they wouldn't provide him a fair trial but because they would and he was guilty. 

[Pat Speer]

Certain evidence might be deemed more persuasive than others but it all points to Oswald.  No one can argue with any credibility that Oswald would have walked out of a courtroom to be a free man with that evidence.  Certainly not based on any reasonable doubt as to his guilt in the murders of JFK and Tippit.  There is always the possibility that a guilty person escapes a conviction based on the presence of an unreasonable juror or mistrial but Oswald's goose was cooked with a normal 1960s Texas jury.  Not because they wouldn't provide him a fair trial but because they would and he was guilty.

Should Oswald have survived that weekend, there's every possibility bits like Brennan, the prints on Box A, and the palm print on the rifle never would have appeared.

As it stood, when he died, the only hard evidence against Oswald (beyond his ownership of the rifle and his almost certain involvement in the Tippit killing) was the fibers on the rifle, the print on Box D and the prints on the bag.

These were all problematic.

The fibers came from a shirt he had not been wearing, and are much more damaging to the DPD and FBI than Oswald.
The print on Box D was not photographed in situ, and was not properly documented. (I mean, to this day, no one knows who found it. Was it Studebaker, or Day?)
And the bag prints were found on a bag which was not photographed in situ, or at any time on the night of the shooting, and which the only people to see a bag in Oswald's possession on 11-22 said was not the bag they saw in Oswald's possession.

I mean, can you imagine, Buell Frazier being asked, on the stand, if that was the bag he saw in Oswald's possession and his saying "Nope."

A Texas jury may very well have smelled a rat, and convicted Oswald of killing Tippit, while acquitting him of killing Kennedy.

[Walt Cakebread]

Should Oswald have survived that weekend, there's every possibility bits like Brennan, the prints on Box A, and the palm print on the rifle never would have appeared.

As it stood, when he died, the only hard evidence against Oswald (beyond his ownership of the rifle and his almost certain involvement in the Tippit killing) was the fibers on the rifle, the print on Box D and the prints on the bag.

These were all problematic.

The fibers came from a shirt he had not been wearing, and are much more damaging to the DPD and FBI than Oswald.
The print on Box D was not photographed in situ, and was not properly documented. (I mean, to this day, no one knows who found it. Was it Studebaker, or Day?)
And the bag prints were found on a bag which was not photographed in situ, or at any time on the night of the shooting, and which the only people to see a bag in Oswald's possession on 11-22 said was not the bag they saw in Oswald's possession.

I mean, can you imagine, Buell Frazier being asked, on the stand, if that was the bag he saw in Oswald's possession and his saying "Nope."

A Texas jury may very well have smelled a rat, and convicted Oswald of killing Tippit, while acquitting him of killing Kennedy.

Pat, I highly respect your conclusions in most cases....However, believe that you're flat wrong and I vehemently  disagree with your conclusion in regard to the murder of JD Tippit..... "his almost certain involvement in the Tippit killing"

There is NO  physical evidence that supports the contention that Lee Oswald was at the corner of 10th and Patton at anytime that afternoon.....  However there IS strong evidence that the gun that was used to kill Tippit was NOT a S&W revolver...... And it is alleged that Lee was carrying a S&W revolver when he was arrested in the Theater.   So if that is true the gun that he had in his possession is NOT the gun that was used to murder Tippit.

[Pat Speer]

Pat, I highly respect your conclusions in most cases....However, believe that you're flat wrong and I vehemently  disagree with your conclusion in regard to the murder of JD Tippit..... "his almost certain involvement in the Tippit killing"

There is NO  physical evidence that supports the contention that Lee Oswald was at the corner of 10th and Patton at anytime that afternoon.....  However there IS strong evidence that the gun that was used to kill Tippit was NOT a S&W revolver...... And it is alleged that Lee was carrying a S&W revolver when he was arrested in the Theater.   So if that is true the gun that he had in his possession is NOT the gun that was used to murder Tippit.

I am on the fence about the Tippit killing, but feel a Texas jury would not have been able to overlook Oswald's being found with the gun the police claimed killed Tippit, and several eyewitnesses placing him at the scene.

If you're found with a gun that fired the fatal shots, and some eyewitnesses--even weak ones--place you at the scene, well, that's usually all she wrote. I doubt you could find one case in U.S. history where someone walked away from that.

I will acknowledge, however, that a really smart lawyer like Mark Lane may have been able to use some of the problems with the evidence to convince a jury something was wrong, especially if the Kennedy and Tippit cases were tried at the same time, and with the same jury.

[Charles Collins]

According to one of Oswalds fellow employees at the Reilly Coffee Company, Mr . ARTURO MENDEZ RODRIGUEZ, Oswald used smoke. Here is the FBI report on him:

He stated that when the workers took a break, OSWALD always stayed by himself, sometimes he went to the driveway and smoked a cigarette and sometimes he just sat in a chair and appeared to stare into space.

LINK: https://www.history-matters.com/archive/jfk/wc/wcvols/wh23/pdf/WH23_CE_1898.pdf

This is the only instance I know of where Oswald smoked. In "Marina And Lee" Marina said that Oswald hated that Marina used smoke and once stubbed a cigarette out on her shoulder.

Something a miss here?

I just read something interesting and surprising in the actual notes that Hugh Aynesworth wrote in May of 1964 for The Dallas Morning News. This is when Hugh and John Flynn (photographer) visited LHO’s room at 1026 North Buckley. “The police officers had removed everything from the room except a box of matches, a Mexican ashtray and some banana peelings.”

It could only be that the landlady routinely kept an ashtray in that room for any tenant who rented the room and who smoked. Smoking was much more common back then than it is today (thank God). Or it could be that the ashtray was something that LHO brought back from Mexico with him and he used it. My guess is that the ashtray belonged to the homeowners and that LHO didn’t mind it being there. Aynesworth didn’t say that there were any cigarette butts in the ashtray.

[Walt Cakebread]

I just read something interesting and surprising in the actual notes that Hugh Aynesworth wrote in May of 1964 for The Dallas Morning News. This is when Hugh and John Flynn (photographer) visited LHO’s room at 1026 North Buckley. “The police officers had removed everything from the room except a box of matches, a Mexican ashtray and some banana peelings.”

It could only be that the landlady routinely kept an ashtray in that room for any tenant who rented the room and who smoked. Smoking was much more common back then than it is today (thank God). Or it could be that the ashtray was something that LHO brought back from Mexico with him and he used it. My guess is that the ashtray belonged to the homeowners and that LHO didn’t mind it being there. Aynesworth didn’t say that there were any cigarette butts in the ashtray.

Wow!....THIS is the clue we needed to crack the case!

[Charles Collins]

Wow!....THIS is the clue we needed to crack the case!

The case was solved on 11/22/63. You just refuse to accept it.

[Bill Chapman]

Should Oswald have survived that weekend, there's every possibility bits like Brennan, the prints on Box A, and the palm print on the rifle never would have appeared.

As it stood, when he died, the only hard evidence against Oswald (beyond his ownership of the rifle and his almost certain involvement in the Tippit killing) was the fibers on the rifle, the print on Box D and the prints on the bag.

These were all problematic.

The fibers came from a shirt he had not been wearing, and are much more damaging to the DPD and FBI than Oswald.
The print on Box D was not photographed in situ, and was not properly documented. (I mean, to this day, no one knows who found it. Was it Studebaker, or Day?)
And the bag prints were found on a bag which was not photographed in situ, or at any time on the night of the shooting, and which the only people to see a bag in Oswald's possession on 11-22 said was not the bag they saw in Oswald's possession.

I mean, can you imagine, Buell Frazier being asked, on the stand, if that was the bag he saw in Oswald's possession and his saying "Nope."

A Texas jury may very well have smelled a rat, and convicted Oswald of killing Tippit, while acquitting him of killing Kennedy.

Imagine Buell on the stand saying 'I wasn't really paying attention to the bag'

And let's see an Oswald motive for shooting Tippit if he hadn't also shot Kennedy.