"Received in bad condition at"...
Question! Would a package that had a non-existent address get stamped this way?
Remember what the report I posted in Reply #2 said about the function of the dead-letter office:
"The 'Nixie' section has been described as the section in which mail and parcels are placed when such mail and/or parcels contain a non-existent or unlocated address or when the mail or parcels have been damaged in transit."
This in turn gives rise to further questions..................
How in the heck did someone know to write "Irving, Texas" below the address label (crossing out "Dallas" on the label) and direct this parcel to the Irving post office?
Does it not look rather as though this parcel was not directed to the Irving post office (from the Dallas post office) but in fact arrived there originally------------in bad condition?
Now! According to an official report 16 Dec 1963, the postmark on the package--------------
reads "IRVING, TEX. 5 30 AM 1963" (date illegible). Interestingly, the report makes NO mention of the stamp, to the left of the postmark, bearing the important words "Received in bad condition at".
This all yields a simple but pretty startling circumstance: this package was
Received in bad condition at the post office in
Irving.
So..........................
We have a non-existent Dallas, Tex. address handwritten on a label that has been stuck on to the package, with "Irving, Texas" written directly on the parcel underneath. No Dallas postmark, only an Irving one. And the reason stated for consignment to the Irving Nixie section: NOT non-existent address BUT "Received in bad condition".
It would seem, then, that this package was originally addressed to "Lee Oswald" at an IRVING address, but did not reach him due to damage in transit (which WAS one regulation reason for consignment to a post office's Nixie section).
So the obvious question must be posed:
Was a non-existent Dallas address stuck over a real Irving address in order to change the ostensible reason why the package had ended up in this Nixie office in the first place?It's beginning to look that way..................