I'm not so sure Martin.
The Altgens 6 pic is a good example. This picture, which showed the front steps of the TSBD, appeared on the front page of multiple newspapers (hhttp://kennedy-photos.blogspot.com/2013/03/kennedy-gallery-307.htmlours after the assassination)
There was a moment when many people believed this picture actually showed Oswald on the front steps and, as this pic had been seen by thousands of people, it would have exonerated him if it hadn't been Lovelady instead. "They" (whoever they are) would not have been able to contain it.
True, they might not have been able to contain it, but, if "they" controlled the cover up, they could have spinned it, by making public that closer examination of the original picture had revealed that it wasn't Oswald after all. Don't forget that it wasn't instantly that people started to believe Oswald could be seen in the picture. That only came up later and when the HSCA actually examined the picture they just claimed it was Lovelady and not Oswald. That was all it took for most people to accept that it wasn't Oswald.
If (and it's a big if) Oswald was being manipulated it is hardly a great stretch to imagine he was being told what to do to some extent. A simple order of "stay out of sight" and some bogus excuse should suffice.
True, although it could be more subtle like "wait by the telephone at 12:30"
It is a very interesting fact that many of Oswald's co-workers tell blatant falsehoods between their various statements - Shelley, Lovelady, Williams, Norman and Dougherty (Givens and Jarman to a lesser extent).
If they were just innocent bystanders there would be no need for this "collective" deception. Of course some facts might get mixed up when recounting events, that's human nature, but this goes way beyond a few mix ups.
I'm not so sure that there was any collective deception. It can be very difficult to get the whole and correct information out of people. Take, for example, the statement by Victoria Adams about meeting Lovelady and Shelley after coming down the stairs. I am sure that happened, but not at the bottom of the stairs, as the WC claimed. The reconstruction I did a while back showed that she could only have seen Shelley and Lovelady after she left the building and ran towards the railroad tracks. Victoria was probably 100% correct that they were the first two men she knew that she saw, she just left out to explain exactly where that was. Another example is that I have frequently gone into meetings in past knowing in my mind exactly what I was going to say, only to come out of such a meeting realizing that I had forgotten some of the things I wanted to say. Getting actual factual 100% correct statements from people is nearly impossible.
