Friends, everytime I watch a video of Buell Wesley Frazier, I see a man carrying a very heavy emotional burden. I think Prayer Man is that burden.
Consider!
1.What Depository employee Edward Shields told the HSCA: on the morning of Nov 22 Frazier dropped LHO off at the Depository building and then went off to park his car.
2. These words from Frazier's HSCA interview:
FRAZIER: No, I didn't know that he'd been caught. But I will tell you this. I knew that he had the rifle.
MORIARTY: Hm-hmm.
FRAZIER: He did. And I said to myself, I said, 'Oh, my God.' That was the first thing right there on the [Depository] steps.
3. These words from Frazier's HSCA interview:
Frazier: (?) the shots was fired. Then the policemen run over.
Moriarty: Hm-hmm.
Frazier: You know, uh, the policemen go in the building, you know and, uh, they was all out there on that little side street right in front of the building and, you know that they was there 'cause they was - they seemed like they was everywhere. And you could actually say they - they knew the policemen that followed.
Moriarty: Hm-hmm.
Frazier: And then they all pointed out that he did it.
Moriarty: And that was after you had, uh - that you went to Irving.
Frazier: Hm-hmm.
Moriarty: This is after - you knew at that time - you knew that Oswald was being -
Frazier: Framed.
Moriarty: Did you suspect that they had that in mind?
Frazier: Uh, no. I didn't, uh - when I came home and all - we're all in - in the same room as I am sitting like this, you know? You know?
Moriarty: You asked what happened?
Frazier: I was, uh - I did knew that, uh, when it happened, you know, I was just sitting there. I was thinking that I would get fired for it. And, you know - they had the Bay of Pigs, you know? Where I think that if the Warren Commission - I think that if, uh... (TRANSCRIPT CUTS)
4. In 2015, researcher Larry Hancock asked Frazier about Prayer Man: "he has no direct recollection of anyone at all standing where PM appears to be located. He can?t make any identification from the photo"
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Here's what I think MAY have happened, and I must say it makes me feel great human sympathy for Frazier:
----------LHO is tricked into bringing the Carcano to work by someone offering to buy it (this 'sale' may have its origin in the scene Wed Nov 20 where Warren Caster was showing several men two rifles)
----------LHO openly tells Frazier about the rifle when they drive to work the morning of the assassination (i.e. it's in this package)
----------when the shots ring out later that day, LHO/PM and Frazier look at one another, sharing the same thought ("Oh my God, the rifle!")
----------after he leaves the Depository, Frazier goes into panic mode and seeks advice from his sister
----------He is arrested and threatened with being charged on conspiracy to shoot the President
----------Fritz bullies him into not going on the record about LHO on the steps (cf. Joe Molina?)
----------Frazier however does manage to distance himself from the rifle: curtain rods story, package too small to transport a rifle
----------this last will also remain, for decades, the pitiful best he can do under the circumstances to defend the memory of the man he knows for 100% sure did not shoot JFK.
It took many years before Frazier felt able to contradict his earlier statements and testimony and tell people about his sighting of LHO walking down Houston a few minutes after the assassination. One can only earnestly hope he can now find the even greater courage to identify Prayer Man as his old friend Lee.
