20 False Assertions About Lee Harvey Oswald

David Von Pein is a Warren Commission apologist who says he believes Lee Harvey Oswald killed JFK and acted alone when doing so. On his website, DVP's JFK Archive, he posted twenty assertions about Oswald's supposed guilt. While his assertions are clearly false, they do make a great platform from which we will rebut them.


1.) Lee Harvey Oswald owned the rifle found on the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository on Friday afternoon, November 22, 1963.

Dave, even a first year law student could easily prove Oswald could not have purchased the rifle the Warren Commission alleged he used to kill JFK.

According to the Warren Commission report, Lee Harvey Oswald left his job at Jaggers-Chiles-Stovall during the morning of March 12, 1963, walked 11 blocks to the downtown post office, purchased a postal money order, and then mailed his order for the rifle to Klein's Sporting Goods in Chicago before returning to work.

But the letter was postmarked 10:30 am, and company time records show Oswald never left his job. He worked continuously from 8:00 am through 12:15 pm on 9 different printing jobs.


Oswald time card
That alone would be enough to show that Oswald could not have purchased the rifle. (article)

But wait... there's more!


The Warren Commission never pointed out that the envelope, time stamped 10:30 am, was not mailed from the downtown post office where the money order was purchased. It was stamped and mailed in "zone 12," which was several miles west of the downtown post office and across the Trinity River.

Oswald map

In order for that letter to have reached Chicago the following day, it would have to have been picked up by a mail carrier sometime after 10:30 am, delivered to the Industrial Station post office in zone 7, and then sorted and bagged into an airmail pouch. And the airmail pouch would have to have been delivered by another mail carrier to Love field and then placed aboard an aircraft prior to it's 12 o'clock noon departure.

With the time records showing Oswald had been at work that day and had worked on 9 different print jobs from 8:00 am to 12:15 pm, just how would it have been possible for Oswald to have done everything attributed to him, especially considering the fact that he didn't own an automobile?

But wait... there's even more!

The money order Oswald allegedly used to pay for the rifle (shown below) was NEVER deposited or cashed!!

Oswald Money Order
When deposited or cashed at a bank or financial institution, US Postal money orders are date stamped, endorsed by the bank, routed thru a Federal Reserve bank where they are endorsed and date stamped a second time, and then sent to the postal money order center in either Kansas City or Arlington, VA. where they are endorsed and date stamped for a third time and placed in storage.

But the $21.45 money order that was allegedly used to pay for the rifle did not have a single bank endorsement or date stamp by any bank or by a postal money order center--this $21.45 money order was most certainly never deposited to a bank or any financial institution.

For more information on this topic, read this article.



2.) Oswald owned the handgun that was shown to have been used in the murder of Dallas Police Officer J.D. Tippit.

Dave, there is plenty of evidence that shows Oswald didn't purchase the 38 revolver the Warren Commission said he used to murder Officer J.D. Tippit. (article)

But even if he had, that revolver could not have fired the bullets that killed Officer J.D. Tippit.

Officer Jerry Hill took custody of a revolver at the Texas Theater where Oswald was arrested. The Warren Commission later admitted that it could not match the bullets fired at Tippit to the revolver. The only case for matching the gun to the Tippit's murder rested on the shells found at the scene.

 
But what really threw a monkey wrench into the Warren Commission's case was that Officer Jerry Hill made a radio call at 1:40 pm on November 22, 1963, reporting that "the shell at the scene indicates that the suspect is armed with an automatic 38 caliber, rather than a pistol."

Bullets designed for a 38 Automatic CANNOT be fired in a 38 Special. The 38 Auto is a semi-rimmed cartridge whereas the 38 Special is a rimmed cartridge.


Oswald ammo

Shells for the 38 Special and 38 Auto are both clearly identified on their base and because 38 Special bullets were used extensively by the Dallas police, Hill’s misidentification cannot be passed off as a simple mistake. (see comparison below)

Oswald ammo

When Hill testified before the Warren Commission, he threw gasoline on the fire. In the face of a very carefully phrased question by Commission Attorney David Belin, Hill denied under oath that he made the radio call about the finding of 38 automatic shells at 1:40 pm. Hill claimed he wasn’t using his call number “550-2” as much as another officer, and that it was wrong to think that he made the call.

Twenty-two years later, in 1986, Hill admitted to researcher Dale Myers that he had made the call. When he was asked how he determined that the shells were 38 caliber, Hill said, “Thirty-eight’s stamped on the bottom of it. I looked on the bottom.” (article)


Additionally, when the Dallas coroner conducted an autopsy on Tippit's body, he removed four bullets. Three were copper-coated and were manufactured by the Winchester Western company. The fourth, however, was a lead bullet made by the Remington-Peters company.The discovery of two different makes of bullets in Tippit's body indicates two different gunmen likely did the shooting, which is consistent with the eyewitness testimony of Acquilla Clemons and Mr. and Mrs. Wright, who all said they saw two shooters. (article)
 


3.) Oswald was positively identified by witness Howard L. Brennan as the person firing a rifle at JFK on 11/22/63. ....
 
Howard Brennan was not a reliable witness and several other witnesses who were ignored by the Warren Commission reported seeing someone who did not match Oswald's description on the 6th floor of the TSBD just prior to the assassination.

* Brennan claimed that the man (Oswald) was standing up when aiming the rifle. But that would not have been possible as the sash window found on the 6th floor of the TBSD was only open to about waist height as was seen in a frame from Hughes film (below left) which was taken seconds before the shooting began.

6th floor Texas School Book Depository Inside view 6th floor window TSBD

* Brennan claimed “I was looking at the man in this window at the time of the last explosion”, but later explicitly denied that he had seen the man fire the gun.

* Brennan claimed on the afternoon of the assassination that “I believe that I could identify this man if I ever saw him again”, but he was unable to pick out Oswald at an identification line-up a few hours later, despite having seen Oswald’s photograph on television in the meantime.

Five of the six witnesses who saw a man on the sixth floor of the TSBD around the time of the assassination were able to describe his clothing. All of them said that he was wearing light–colored clothes:

Howard Brennan: “He had on light colored clothing”; “Light colored clothes, more of a khaki color”.

Arnold Rowland: “He had on a light shirt, a very light–colored shirt, white or a light blue or a color such as that. This was open at the collar. I think it was unbuttoned about halfway, and then he had a regular T–shirt, a polo shirt under this”.

Carolyn Walther: “a white shirt”.

Ronald Fischer: “light in color; probably white … it was open–neck and light in color”.

Robert Edwards: “light colored shirt, short sleeve and open neck”.

Sheriff Deputy Roger Craig spotted Oswald leaving the TSBD shortly after the assassination and reported that he was wearing faded blue trousers and a long sleeved work shirt made of some type of grainy material.

When arrested 45 minutes later, Oswald was wearing the shirt shown below which matches the description made by Deputy Roger Craig, but obviously does not match the description given by Brennan and the others.

Oswald shirt

And Dave, if that's not enough to prove it wasn't Oswald who was seen on the 6th floor of the TSBD, former Dallas Police Chief Jesse Curry later told reporters "We don't have any proof that Oswald fired the rifle, and never did. Nobody's yet been able to put him in that building with a gun in his hand." (article)



4.) Marina Oswald admits to having taken pictures of Lee with these weapons on his person, which (all by itself) validates the "Backyard Photographs".

Dave, the photo of Oswald holding the rifle was faked. Oswald's face was placed on someone else's body. (article)

Further, Marina revealed that she stood under threat of being sent back to the Soviet Union. She changed her story so often that even the Warren Commission was forced to state that her testimony was unreliable, yet they continued quoting her whenever it implicated Oswald.

 
Oswald with rifle Oswald two chins
Compare the chin and cheekbones in the photos above. The photo on the left is taken from photo where Oswald is allegedly holding the rifle and the photo on the right is his mug shot, taken at the time of his arrest.

Now compare the two photos below. The person on the left is Roscoe White, whose son Ricky found evidence that connected his father to the assassination. Many researchers believe it is Roscoe White's chin and body in the photo holding the rifle. (video)


 

5.) Buell Wesley Frazier observed Oswald take a package into the Book Depository Building on the morning of November 22nd, 1963. .... Frazier said (via his 11/22/63 affidavit): "I saw him go in the back door at the Loading Dock of the building that we work in, and he still had the package under his arm."

According to the Warren Commission, Oswald carried the Mannlicher-Carcanno rifle into the TSBD wrapped in a brown paper bag, with one end tucked into his arm pit and the other end cupped in the palm of his hand.

Broken down, the rifle would have been a minimum of 35 inches and this video shows that a package of that length would have been impossible for Oswald to carry tucked into his arm pit. (video)

 

6.) Oswald's claim of "curtain rods" within the package cannot be supported at all. His room needed no curtains, nor rods, and no such rods were ever found in the TSBD or at his residence at 1026 N. Beckley Avenue in Oak Cliff.
 
Oswald landlady hanging curtain rods Oswalds room in Dallas

Dave, a press photographer named Gene Daniel, of the Black Star Agency followed many of the events in Dallas the weekend of the assassination and on Saturday morning, November 23, he went to Oswald’s rooming house and photographed Oswald's landlady putting up curtain rods in his room. (above left). see page 85 of (article)

And while the Warren commission claimed Oswald used a large paper bag to transport the Carcano rifle into the depository on the morning of the assassination, no scratches were found on the bag and no oil from the gun's metal parts could be found on the paper bag, even though the gun was said to be well oiled. (article)



7.) Oswald was seen working on the Depository's sixth floor that morning. LHO even asked a co-worker (Charles Givens) to send an elevator back up to him on the sixth floor shortly before the assassination. This fact, of course, doesn't nearly prove Oswald was guilty of a crime; but what it does do is place him on the Death Floor (alone) a short time (approximately 35 minutes) before Kennedy's assassination.

Dave, you're right... Oswald did work in the TSBD, so his presence on the 6th floor 35 minutes before the assassination certainly does not prove that he was guilty. But what is far more important regarding the assassination timeline are the statements of Officer Marion Baker, a Dallas motorcycle patrolman, and Roy Truly, the TSBD superintendent, who both saw Oswald in the breakroom, on the 2nd floor, 90 seconds after the assassination, where they observed him calmly drinking a Coke. (video)
 

8.) Oswald's palmprint [Warren Commission Exhibit #637] is found on his Mannlicher-Carcano rifle after the assassination. .... But, of course, this print is really just a "bonus" for the DPD in linking LHO to the weapon. Because even without it, it's glaringly obvious that the weapon was Oswald's.

On the morning of November 23, 1963, the day after the assassination, the Mannlicher-Carcano rifle allegedly used to murder JFK was flown to Washington, D.C and examined by Sebastian Latona, a fingerprint expert at the FBI laboratory, who concluded there were no identifiable prints present on the rifle (Warren Commission Hearings, vol.4, p.21). The FBI returned the rifle to the Dallas police on November 24th .(article)

And then, in the early morning of Monday, November 25th, "agents" visited Paul Groody, the mortician who received Oswald's body after his autopsy, who says they asked to be alone with Oswald's body. And after the agents left, Groody had to remove fingerprinting ink from Oswald's hands and fingers. (video)

 

9.) Not ONE SPECK of any bullets/bullet fragments/bullet shells OTHER THAN THOSE COMING FROM OSWALD'S 6.5-MILLIMETER MANNLICHER-CARCANO RIFLE were discovered anywhere in Dealey Plaza, the limousine, the TSBD, Parkland Hospital, or in the victims.

– Witnesses reported that the first shot hit the pavement.

– A bullet mark was noted on the south curb of Elm Street across from the north pergola.

– There was a furrow in the grass near the manhole on the south curb of Elm Street just west of the north pergola.

– A bullet hit the south curb of Main Street near the Triple Underpass and wounded James Tague on the right cheek.

– There was a groove in the sidewalk on the north side of Elm Street that lines up with the west window of the Texas School Book Depository.

- The Stemmons Freeway sign was hit by a bullet and the sign was removed shortly after the assassination

– The Presidential limousine had an indentation in the chrome frame of the windshield to the left of the right visor.

– The Presidential limousine had a defect in the windshield just below the indentation in the frame.

– The back of the rear view mirror of the limousine had a dent just below the defect in the windshield.

– Governor Connally had a through and through bullet wound from his right armpit to his right nipple.

– Governor Connally had a shattered right wrist.

– Governor Connally had a bullet embedded in his left thigh.

– President Kennedy had a wound in his neck.

– President Kennedy had a shallow wound in his back.

– President Kennedy had a massive gunshot wound to the head.

– Witnesses reported a gunshot after the shot to Kennedy’s head.

(article)

 

10.) The majority of Dealey Plaza witnesses said shots came from behind the President, in the direction of the School Book Depository Building.

Over 40 witnesses to the assassination of President Kennedy claimed either to have heard gunshots from the infamous grassy knoll in the northwest corner of Dealey Plaza, or to have seen smoke or smelled gunpowder in that area.

And in the aftermath, dozens of witnesses stormed up the grassy knoll looking for the shooter. (article)

 
 

11.) Oswald makes an unusual trip to Irving on Thursday, November 21, 1963, to retrieve his "curtain rods". His rifle is found missing from Ruth Paine's garage the following day.

Dave, since there's no proof Oswald purchased that rifle or that it was ever stored in Ruth Paine's garage, there is no basis for believing that Oswald's return to Irving was to obtain a rifle. (article)
 

12.) Oswald left behind, presumably for wife Marina, his wedding ring and just about every dime he had to his name ($170), on the morning of 11/22/63. Logic dictates that he felt he may not return.

In the video linked below, Judyth Vary Baker, who was Oswald's co-worker and mistress, talks about their work and their relationship, which can help you understand why Lee Harvey Oswald left his wedding ring and the $170, behind. (video)
 

13.) Oswald was the only Depository employee known to have been INSIDE the Depository Building at the time of the assassination to leave work prematurely on Friday, November 22nd.

Dave, that's simply not true!

In a statement made to the FBI, secretary Carolyn Arnold said, "I left the Texas School Book Depository Building at about 12:25 PM, November 22, 1963, and never returned to this building on that date.

And Charles Givens, a porter at the TSBD was reported missing at 1:46 pm, and an All-Points Bulletin (APB) was broadcast on channel 1 of the DPD radio by DPD inspector Herbert Sawyer.

Following is the APB broadcast concerning Givens.


“We have a man we would like to have you pass this up on to the CID to see if we can pick this man up. Charles Douglas Givens, G-I-V-E-N-S. He's a colored male, thirty-seven, six foot three, a hundred sixty-five pounds. He has an ID number in the Sheriff's Department, 37954. He's a porter that worked on this floor up here. He has a police record and he left.” (article)
 

14.) Oswald, in flight, shoots and kills Dallas patrolman J.D. Tippit on 10th Street in the Dallas suburb of Oak Cliff. Multiple witnesses confirm it was Oswald who shot Officer Tippit.

While the Warren Commission blamed Oswald for Tippit’s murder, this cannot be the case as was demonstrated in item 2, above. (article)
 

15.) WHY does Oswald kill Officer Tippit IF he's innocent of another crime just 45 minutes earlier in Dealey Plaza?

The evidence presented above, in items 1 & 2, clearly shows that Oswald didn't kill JFK or Officer J. D. Tippet.
 

16.) Oswald, just days after acquiring his Carcano weapon, attempts to murder retired General Edwin Walker in Dallas, on April 10, 1963. Marina Oswald herself testifies that "He [Lee]...told me that he had shot at General Walker."

Dave, you expect us to believe that Oswald was such a poor shot that he couldn't hit General Walker, who was sitting motionless in his living room, yet was such an amazing marksman that he was able to use a rifle that had a defective scope to hit JFK twice in 5.6 seconds, from a distance of approximately 270 feet, while on the 6th floor of the TSBD, and with JFK's vehicle moving away from him? Really??

There were no witnesses to the shooting itself, but one of General Walker’s neighbors was alerted by the gunshot and saw two men leaving the scene. Each man got into a car and drove away. The witness, Walter Kirk Coleman, gave detailed descriptions of the men and their cars (Warren Commission Hearings, vol.26, pp.437–441 [Commission Exhibit 2958]).

After the JFK assassination, Coleman was shown photographs of Oswald. He denied Oswald resembled either of the men he had seen.

Robert Surrey, an associate of General Walker, reported that he had seen two men acting suspiciously outside Walker’s house two days before the shooting. Neither man resembled Oswald (Warren Commission Hearings, vol.5, pp.446–9).


map from Ruth Paine's home to General Walker's home

Keep in mind, Oswald didn't own a car and couldn't drive. And because the Warren Commission insists there was no conspiracy, if Oswald actually did it, he likely have had to transport the rifle on foot, from Ruth Paine's house in Irving, to General Walker's home in Dallas, a distance of about 13 miles... EACH WAY!
 

17.) It was PROVEN, no matter what anybody wants to believe to the contrary, that three shots could be fired in the allotted timeframe from Oswald's rifle (and with good accuracy). The probability that Oswald had, in fact, approx. 8.4 seconds to accomplish the shooting further increases the likelihood that Lee could have performed the deed.

Dave, Oswald simply could not have done the shooting attributed to him!

He barely qualified as Marksman, the lowest rating given by the Marines. Nelson Delgado, one of Oswald's fellow Marines, testified Oswald was indeed a poor shot, and in this video tells of being pressured by the FBI to change his statement. (video)

And keep in mind that the FBI had to add 3 metal shims under the telescopic sight of the rifle before the Army testing laboratory could determine the weapon's accuracy. The metal shims had to be added because the telescopic sight was way out of alignment, and so inexpertly attached, that it could not even be adjusted. (article)

But the most convincing evidence that Oswald didn't do the shooting attributed to him is the fact that two of the best combat snipers the U.S. military ever produced, Craig Roberts and Carlos Hathcock, both looked at the evidence against Oswald and said they couldn't have done the shooting, so they know Oswald couldn't have done it. (article)

 

18.) Try as the conspiracy kooks might, the Single-Bullet Theory [SBT] has still not been proven to be an impossibility. The Zapruder film shows that the SBT is more-than-likely the correct scenario of events that day.

To make the Single Bullet Theory even remotely plausible, Warren Commission member Gerald Ford (who later became our President) arbitrarily moved the location of JFK's back wound from it's true location, which was 5.5 inches below the collar, to the base of JFK's neck.

This was done despite the fact that the bullet holes in JFK's shirt and jacket clearly show that the bullet entered 5.5 inches below the collar.

For the SBT to work, the bullet had to enter JFK from and had to exit his throat.

The diagram below shows why the SBT simply isn't possible with the bullet entering where it actually did, 5.5 inches below JFK's collar.

 
JFK magic bullet path JFK shirt and jacket

In addition to this, we must also consider the pristine nature of the bullet (shown below) that allegedly caused seven wounds, two to JFK and five to Governor John Connally. Dubbed the "Magic Bullet", it was reportedly found on Connally's stretcher, yet showed no trace of blood or tissue, virtually no loss of lead, and suffered no deformity which is impossible since Connally's wrist, one of the densest bones in the human body, was shattered.
JFK magic bullet debuncted

19.) While viewing the Zapruder Film, I cannot see how anybody can say that the BACK of President Kennedy's head is blown away as a result of the head shot. It seems quite obvious while watching and freezing the film at various post-Z313 frames, that the entire rear portion of JFK's head remains intact throughout the shooting.

Dave, most people still don't realize that the Zapruder film has been altered.

Dino Brugioni, the CIA's leading photo analyst in 1963, worked on the Zapruder film the weekend of the assassination at the CIA's Secret plant in Rochester, New York. And he says he saw a piece of JFK's skull fly through the air and a mist of blood surrounding JFK's head that was much larger and lasted many more frames than is seen in the version of the Zapruder film the world has been shown. (video)

So tell me, if you can,... why in the world would the CIA be working on the Zapruder film the weekend of the assassination?


Regardless what is shown in the reworked Zapruder film, the back of JFK's head was not intact. Twenty six medical personnel at Parkland Hospital say that they saw a massive exit wound on the back of JFK's head. Their description of the wound they saw is represented in the image below. (article)
 
JFK Head Wound


20.) It was also proven that Oswald could have indeed travelled, in 90 seconds or less, the distance across the sixth floor of the TSBD and descended the four flights of stairs in time to have been seen by policeman Marion L. Baker on the building's second floor.

Dave, for this to be true, Oswald had to do all of the following:

- squeezed out of the sniper's nest

- run to the opposite end of the sixth floor which was cluttered with books

- wiped off the rifle so as to remove any fingerprints

- hid the rifle under and between some boxes

- run down four flights of stairs to the second floor

- gone through the foyer door

- made his way to the lunchroom

- found the correct change with which to purchase a Coke

- purchased the Coke and opened the bottle

- already started drinking the Coke

That's right, Dave... he would have do all these things, yet not appear the least bit winded or nervous when seen by Officer Marion Baker and manager Roy Truly, less than 90 seconds after he had just murdered the President of the United States.

Here's something else for you to consider: in 1978, the House Select Committee on Assassinations concluded that photos taken of the sixth-floor window showed that the boxes used to create the sniper's nest had been REARRANGED less than two minutes after the shooting. Obviously, Oswald didn't have time to do that, since he was seen in the breakroom on the 2nd floor, less than 90 seconds of the assassination, calmly drinking a Coke. (HSCA report)

 


 
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