The Warren Commission (WC) claimed that Lee Harvey Oswald (LHO) assassinated President John F. Kennedy (JFK) on November 22, 1963. They also claimed that he used an Italian Mannlicher-Carcano (M-C) to accomplish this deed.
They further claimed that the rifle had been ordered through the mail from a Chicago mail-order house by the name of Klein?s Sporting Goods (KSG). This topic has been covered in many ways in this series already, therefore, this post is going to focus on this topic from a different angle.
One of the main witnesses that the WC utilized to attempt to make LHO appear guilty was Ruth Paine. The purpose of this post is to look at the topic of the rifle order in conjunction with Ruth Paine.******************************************
Ruth Paine was a key witness for the WC as she provided them with a lot of testimony. She also provided them with a lot of evidence from her house and garage even though the Dallas Police Department (DPD) had searched those areas twice already.
The evidence that she ?found? after the DPD had thoroughly searched her house and garage is as follows:
1) The Imperial Reflex camera. This camera was allegedly found by her in early December 1963, but instead of giving it to the DPD she gave it to LHO?s brother Robert Oswald. He then felt no compulsion to turn it over to the DPD until February 1964. This camera was alleged to belong to LHO and was used by the WC to try and tie him to the assassination and the General Edwin A. Walker (EAW) shooting. How? They claimed that the only two times that it was used by LHO was to allegedly take the reconnaissance photographs of EAW?s house and the Backyard photographs (BYPs).
2) The alleged note that LHO supposedly left for Marina Oswald telling her what to do in an emergency. The WC said this was left because LHO was planning on, and did, shoot at EAW. The main problem with this claim (besides there being no supporting evidence) was that the note never mentions EAW.
3) A suitcase that was needed to try and tie LHO to a bus headed for Mexico City. The problem that the WC faced regarding the one Ruth Paine ?found? is that not one witness could be found to say that they saw LHO carrying it.
4) The other piece of evidence that the WC utilized with Ruth Paine was her personal calendar. This calendar was taken by the FBI and never returned to Ruth Paine. The WC was simply given a version that had been photographed and they designated this Commission Exhibit (CE) 401.CE 401:
http://www.historymatters.com/archive/jfk/wc/wcvols/wh17/html/WH_Vol17_0039a.htmWe have been told that LHO allegedly ordered the rifle on March 13, 1963, by the WC in their Report.Quote on
According to its microfilm records, Klein?s received an order for a rifle on March 13, 1963, on a coupon clipped from the February 1963 issue of the American Rifleman magazine. The order coupon was signed, in handprinting, ?A. Hidell, P.O. Box 2915, Dallas, Texas.? (WCR, p. 119)
http://www.historymatters.com/archive/jfk/wc/wr/html/WCReport_0072a.htmQuote off
If we go to Ruth Paine?s calendar for March 1963 we won?t find any notation regarding this alleged activity by LHO and rightly so. How would she know what he was doing then since Marina Oswald was not living with her at that time.CE 401/March:
http://www.historymatters.com/archive/jfk/wc/wcvols/wh17/html/WH_Vol17_0041b.htmWhat we do find however is something very confusing and very enlightening. There is a ?☆? on the box for March 20, 1963. In the upper right hand corner we see ?☆ ? LHO purchase of rifle?. To the left of this notation we see another notation that says ?Oct. 23?. Here is Ruth Paine?s testimony regarding these notations.Mr. JENNER - Now, I turn to March, and I direct your attention to the upper left-hand corner of that card, and
it appears to me that in the upper left-hand corner are October 23, then a star, then "LHO" followed by the words "purchase of rifle." Would you explain those entries?
Mrs. PAINE - Yes.
This was written after.Mr. JENNER - After?
Mrs. PAINE - This was
written indeed after the assassination.Mr. JENNER - All right.
Mrs. PAINE ?
I heard on the television that he had purchased a rifle.Mr. JENNER - When?
Mrs. PAINE ?
I heard it on November 23.Mr. JENNER - Yes.
Mrs. PAINE - And went back to the page for March,
put a little star on March 20 as being a small square, I couldn't fit in all I wanted to say. I just put in a star and then referring it to the corner of the calendar.
Mr. JENNER - That is to the entry I have read?
Mrs. PAINE - Put the star saying "LHO purchase of rifle." Then
I thought someone is going to wonder about that, I had better put down the date, and did, but it was a busy day, one of the most in my life and
I was off by a month as to what day it was.Mr. JENNER - That is you made the entry October?
Mrs. PAINE ?
October 23 instead of November.Mr. JENNER - It should have been November 23?
Mrs. PAINE ?
It should have been November 23.Mr. JENNER - And the entry of October 23, which should have been November 23, was an entry on your part indicating the date you wrote on the calendar the star followed by "LHO purchase of rifle" and likewise the date you made an entry?
Mrs. PAINE - On the 20th.
Mr. JENNER - This is the square having the date March 20
Mrs. PAINE - Yes.
Mr. JENNER - Is that correct?
Mrs. PAINE - I might point out that
I didn't know Lee had a middle name until I had occasion to fill out forms for Marina in Parkland Hospital.Mr. JENNER - That is when you learned that his middle name was Harvey and his initial was H?
Mrs. PAINE - Right.
Where to begin? So she said that she heard on television on November 23, 1963, that LHO purchased a rifle on March 20, 1963. If she did she was given incorrect information as we have seen the date the WC claimed that the KSG records showed was March 13, 1963.
Even if November 23, 1963, was the busiest day of her life as she says, how do you forget the date since the previous day was one where the President had been assassinated? November 22, 1963, is one of the most important days of our country?s history. It is up there with May 1, 1776, April 12, 1861, December 7, 1941, and September 11, 2001. But we are asked to believe that as she sat and watched television coverage of the president?s assassination, and DPD people were searching her house and garage she somehow thought that it was October? Really?
Then she makes the comment about ?someone wondering about this?. Why? Why would she think anyone would care about her calendar the day after the assassination? What did her calendar have to do with the assassination? Clearly the DPD had no interest in it since they did not seize it during their searches on November 22 and 23. So who was the ?someone? that she was worried about?
Another key question is when did she hear this on November 23? Since this supposed rifle order was in the name of ?A. Hidell? it wouldn?t have been until early evening that the media would have gotten word from the DPD that LHO was supposedly this person. If the media was so thorough in this area, why were they so poor in the alleged order date area?
What if she really did learn about the order on October 23, 1963, as her notation suggests? How could she have learned about the order before the assassination? One could say that LHO told her himself, but this is doubtful for several reasons. Firstly, he denied ever ordering or owning a rifle and the evidence that the WC provided us with supports his statement. Secondly, LHO and Ruth Paine had a cool relationship so it seems doubtful that he would share this kind of information with her. Thirdly, and most importantly, if she transported the rifle to New Orleans and back to Dallas as the WC claimed, why wouldn?t he have told her about the order sooner than October 23? To me it seems doubtful that LHO would have told her this kind of information due to their cool relationship and the fact that he never ordered CE 139 as claimed. If not LHO, then who could have told her about the alleged order?
Another question that has not been answered is the one about her comment regarding LHO?s middle name. She testified that she did not know his middle name until she filled out forms for Marina Oswald at Parkland Hospital (PH). The only time that she could have done this was following the shooting of LHO on November 24, 1963, as he was in the Dallas County jail the rest of his time of incarceration. Given this fact, how could she know that his middle initial was ?H? on November 23 to make the notation of ?LHO purchased rifle?? How could she know on November 23, or October 23 for that matter, that his monogram was L.H.O. if she didn?t know his middle name as she said in her testimony?
[Note: It was noted after I posted this on the old version of this board that perhaps Ruth Paine could have learned of Oswald's middle name during the birth of his second child. That is possible, but I still find it odd that she would use all three initials when it seems more normal to use "LO" on a personal calendar. The government is more known for using the middle initial. Was this part of her training?]
To me this is just another hint that her story is not truthful. Keep in mind that the FBI took this calendar and only provided the WC with a photographic copy for testimony. There is a possibility that things could have been added to the calendar while in their custody.
To me the incorrect date of the order is another possible hint as it is a week off, and it seems unlikely that this type of detailed information would have been transferred to the media that quickly. All the DPD had to say is that he owned the rifle. At most they could say that it was ordered in March, but there was no need for an exact date. Another important point was that the DPD had nothing to do with the ?discovery? of the rifle order. This was solely the work of the FBI and they were tightlipped about what they shared with the DPD.
KSG?s William Waldman testified that the FBI took the microfilm that supposedly contained the alleged order by LHO. Mr. BELIN. I'm handing you what has been marked as an FBI Exhibit D-77 and ask you if you know what this is.
Mr. WALDMAN. This is a microfilm record that---of mail order transactions for a given period of time.
It was turned over by us to the FBI.Mr. BELIN.
Do you know when it was turned over to the FBI?Mr. WALDMAN.
It was turned over to them on November 23, 1963.This was key evidence that the FBI took possession of wnen they had NO jurisdiction! There is serious doubt that Waldman ever saw this alleged order when it was ?found? on the morning of November 23, 1963. He wasn?t asked this important question by the WC when he testified, thus, that pretty much indicates that he wasn?t shown the alleged order by the FBI agents.
The other KSG employee present, Mitchell Scibor, wasn?t asked this question either when he testified. None of the three FBI agents were called by the WC. I wonder why? The rifle is the key piece of evidence as if you can?t put CE 139 in LHO?s hands, and they couldn?t, you have no case against LHO. Clearly, if the rifle order had been found in a legal and ethical manner then the WC would not have been so shy about this matter.
The evidence seen in this post again illustrates the lengths the authorities would go to in order to make LHO appear guilty of assassinating JFK. They also had some key witnesses like Ruth Paine ready and willing to help make LHO appear guilty.
Once again we see evidence that raises serious doubts about the WC?s claims and conclusion, thus, they are sunk.
