Post by Rob Caprio on Nov 4, 2018 22:48:19 GMT -5
All portions are ©️ Robert Caprio 2006-2024
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One of the top witnesses for the Warren Commission (WC) against Lee Harvey Oswald (LHO) was Ruth Paine. Next to the wife of LHO --Marina Oswald --she gave the most damning evidence against LHO. Her testimony is very long so I will look at parts of it in different posts in this series. This first one will be a snapshot of some of the topics she was asked about.
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The Paines always said they did not meet the Oswalds until early 1963, and that Ruth Paine met them at a dinner party not attended by her husband: "That was on the 22d of February looking back at my calendar." Is the truth or did she know of Oswald before this? An endnote in James DiEugenio's "Destiny Betrayed" teases us with the possibility, "...researcher Michael Levy has unearthed a Navy Department document which reports that Ruth Paine was requesting information about the family of Lee Harvey Oswald in 1957." (DiEugenio, Destiny Betrayed, p. 343, n. 22.) This area definitely needs to be researched more.
Ruth Paine's father had worked for the Agency for International Development, an organization with "extensive" ties to the CIA, according to researcher Philip Melanson. (Melanson, Spy Saga, p. 80. Melanson cites HSCA volume XII, p. 61, and Garrison, Heritage of Stone, p. 80.) Michael Paine's brother also worked for AID. George DeMohrenschildt, alleged to have been Oswald's intelligence "handler," and also once worked for AID. (Melanson, Spy Saga, p. 80.)
Conveniently, at least to me, the Paines separated in time to have Marina move in with Ruth. The two would "reconcile" after the assassination for some years. Ruth was even kind enough to stop in New Orleans to pick up Marina and bring her to Dallas to live with her. Of course we all know she was responsible for getting LHO the job at the Texas School Book Depository (TSBD).
The Calendar
Ruth Paine had a pocket calendar for 1963, and it wound up being Commission Exhibit 401. For the month of March, there is, in the margin, a note saying "Oct. 23," followed by a star, and the words "LHO purchase of rifle". The note is in Ruth Paine's handwriting, which Ruth Paine readily acknowledged.
When Ruth Paine testified before the Warren Commission she brought her calendar upon which she had written many notations. Ruth Paine placed a star on her calendar in the box for "March 20." She placed another star in the upper left corner of the page and wrote, "Oct 23-LHO purchase of rifle." Ruth Paine had no explanation for this entry, but tried to tell the Commission that she had mistakenly written "October 23" instead of November 23, the day after the assassination. Here is that part of her testimony.
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.
So she is saying on November 23, 1963, she heard on the television that LHO purchased a rifle on March 20, 1963. Since the FBI did NOT learn of this alleged rifle order until the afternoon of that day, how could she have heard of it so fast?
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.
This is all so convoluted. So she would note on November 23, 1963 that LHO supposedly did something on March 20, 1963? Why NOT simply note it on March 20, 1963 instead? What is with the reference notations? Also, it would seem inconceivable to me that Ruth Paine could have mistakenly written "Oct 23" instead of "Nov 23," the day after one of the most memorable days of her life. Who else would confuse October 23 for November 23, 1963? Did something big happen on October 22?
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. (Vol. IX, pp. 358-9)
This notation begs the question, how did Ruth Paine know so fast that a rifle was ordered by LHO ***the day after the assassination?*** She said she heard it on the television, but that would have said an order had been shipped to a “A.J. Hidell”, NOT LHO. Again, how did Ruth Paine somehow know that Klein's shipped a rifle to A.J. Hidell on March 20th, 1963? And in turn, know that this meant that Klein's had shipped a rifle to LHO on March 20? How could she know the Dallas Police Department (DPD) would claim they were one in the same man so fast? As we saw in earlier posts in this series the DPD ONLY listed one alias for LHO when he was arrested—O.H. Lee—and they did NOT mention any other alias the entire first day (11/22/63).
What we do know is the day after the assassination only a few FBI officials had access to the Klein's microfilm and no one in the DPD knew about March 20th until that evening, so how could Ruth Paine know this to mark on her calendar? Even if Ruth Paine mistakenly wrote "Oct 23" instead of "Nov 23" on her calendar; it does not explain how she knew, the day after the assassination, that Klein's shipped LHO a rifle on March 20, 1963 so fast. Here is the calendar notation in question.
historymatters.com/archive/jfk/wc/wcvols/wh17/pages/WH_Vol17_0041b.jpg
We know the FBI did NOT receive a list of mail-order transactions until November 23, 1963 because William Waldman told us so in his WC testimony.
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.
At 5:00 am on November 23 the FBI obtained microfilm from Klein's Sporting Goods in Chicago that allegedly contained copies of documents relating to a rifle ordered by LHO via the alleged alias “A.J. Hidell.” This film was not seen again until Klein's Vice President William Waldman testified before the Warren Commission on May, 20, 1964. The film allegedly contained an order form that showed Klein's shipped a rifle to A.J. Hidell on ***March 20, 1963.*** The first known FBI document which identifies this date was written by SA's Dolan, Toedt, and Mahan on ***November 26, 1963.***
Mr. BELIN. Is there a date of shipment which appears on this microfilm record?
Mr. WALDMAN. Yes; the date of shipment was March 20, 1963.
This calls into question Ruth Paine’s notation regarding the order of the rifle. Notice he said it SHIPPED on March 20, 1963, NOT that it was ordered then. My experience is that it is rare for things to ship the day they are ordered UNLESS you pay premium money for that service. IF this was LHO ordering the rifle he did NOT.
Mr. BELIN. Does it show by what means it was shipped?
Mr. WALDMAN. It was shipped by parcel post as indicated by this circle around the letters "PP."
We see LHO, or the person ordering for him, did NOT pay premium for the next day delivery. Also, we see this testimony from Waldman.
Mr. BELIN. Now, I see the extreme top of this microfilm, the date, March 13, 1963; to what does that refer?
Mr. WALDMAN. This is an imprint made by our cash register indicating that the remittance received from the customer was passed through our register on that date.
Mr. BELIN. And to the right of that, I see $21.45. Is that correct?
Mr. WALDMAN. That's correct. (VII, pp. 364-366)
This shows us they received payment a FULL WEEK before Ruth Paine’s notation regarding the “purchase of the rifle!” This shows LHO, or the person ordering for him, had to have placed the order before March 20, so why did she note the purchase for that date? Clearly, the information she got via the news, IF that is how she knew, was wrong or she was wrong and just made a date up.
There is no indication that Mrs. Paine was ever questioned or told about the rifle or the Klein's order at any time. Her explanation that she mistakenly wrote the date "Oct 23-LHO purchase of rifle" on her calendar is ridiculous. The only way Ruth Paine could have known on November 23 that Klein's shipped a rifle to LHO on March 20, 1963, is if she was told by a person or persons unknown or ***if she had knowledge of the shipment before the assassination.***
Shipment, as we have seen, is the OPERATIVE word—NOT purchase as her calendar states.
Assassination researcher Jerry Rose had an interesting speculation on Ruth Paine's calendar note, in an article published in The Third Decade:
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[Mrs. Paine] says that, on the day after the assassination...she went back and made this notation in her calendar, with no explanation of her motive for doing so. Thinking she might need to explain the notation, she then dated it as of the date she was making the notation; she just happened to make a one-month "mistake" by writing October 23 rather than November 23. This does not seem to be a mistake that a woman of Ruth Paine's orderly habits would make. My guess is that it is just about as likely that, for whatever reason, Mrs. Paine became aware of the rifle's purchase at the time she dated this note, October 23. (Perhaps she found a March 20 shipping document from Klein's among Oswald's papers stored in her garage.) It may have been a vital part of the plan to set up Oswald as "the assassin" to know that Oswald had a rifle that could be passed off as the assassination weapon and that it was a mail-ordered weapon that could easily be traced to Oswald. If Ruth Paine had this information as early as October 23, she clearly could have made it available to the conspirators...an alternative interpretation of the October 23 notation...[is] that, as a pacifist, Ruth Paine was involved with Oswald in undercover work on behalf of efforts to legislate against the mail order sale of weapons. (Rose, "We've Been Expecting You: the Searches of Oswald Residences," The Third Decade, January 1990.)
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Did Michael and Ruth Paine know more about the assassination than they ever dared tell? One can only wonder. The FBI may have wondered about the Paines, too, because they put a tap on the their phone, (Presumably, the official reason for tapping the Paine telephone was that the feds were keeping an eye on former defector Lee Oswald, whose wife was then living with Ruth Paine in Irving.) and on the afternoon of November 23, 1963, heard an extraordinary exchange. As Anthony Summers relates:
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"... a telephone call was intercepted in Dallas in which a "male voice was heard to say that he felt sure Lee Harvey Oswald had killed the President but did not feel Oswald was responsible, and further stated, `We both know who is responsible.' " ... the tapped telephone numbers were those of Michael Paine and his wife, Ruth Paine, the woman who was playing host to Marina Oswald at the time of the assassination." (Summers, Conspiracy, p. 103 (Chapter 7, "A Sphinx for Texas.") Summers cites Warren Commission Document 206, p. 66, which he says was declassified in 1976.)
www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=10673#relPageId=71&tab=page
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Although he fails to state it involved an FBI phone tap--not an inconsequential fact--WC attorney Liebeler asked Michael Paine about this phone call during his testimony on March18, 1964.
Mr. Liebeler. Now, there has been a report that on November 23, 1963, there was a telephone call between a man and a woman, between the numbers of your residence and the number of your office, in which the man was reported to have said in words or substance, "We both know who is responsible for the assassination." Have you been asked about this before?
Mr. Paine. I had heard that--I didn't know it was associated with our numbers. I had heard a report that some telephone operator had listened in on a conversation somewhere, I don't know where it was. I thought it was some other part of the country.
Mr. Liebeler. Did you talked to your wife on the telephone at any time during Saturday, November 23, on the telephone?
Mr. Paine. I was in the police station again, and I think I called her from there.
Mr. Liebeler. Did you make any remark to the effect that you knew who was responsible?
Mr. Paine. And I don't know who the assassin is or was; no, so I did not.
Mr. Liebeler. You are positive in your recollection that you made no such remark?
Mr. Paine. Yes. (II, p. 428)
The Searches
The Paines have also come under suspicion because of circumstances surrounding police searches of their house on the afternoon of the assassination. Ruth Paine testified that when the cops came to her home that afternoon, "I said nothing. I think I just dropped my jaw." That wasn't quite how the police remembered it. Guy F. Rose, a homicide detective with the Dallas Police Department, told Warren Commission attorney Joseph Ball about his arrival at the Paine home that day.
Mr. Rose. ...just as soon as we walked up on the porch, Ruth Paine came to the door. She apparently recognized us--she said, "I've been expecting you all," and we identified ourselves, and she said, "Well, I've been expecting you to come out. Come right on in."
Mr. Ball. Did she say why she had been expecting you?
Mr. Rose. She said, "Just as soon as I heard where the shooting happened, I knew there would be someone out." (Vol. VII, p. 229)
If Ruth Paine "knew," as soon as she heard where the assassination occurred, that the police would be visiting her home, then something doesn't add up. At that point, according to her own testimony, she thought LHO was working at a second TSBD building--not the one at 411 Elm Street, where the Warren Commission ultimately placed LHO and his rifle, but one that was located several blocks from Dealey Plaza (DP).
Mr. Jenner. I heard you mention the Texas School Depository warehouse. Did you think the warehouse was at 411 Elm?
Mrs. Paine. No... [some material deleted]* ...the first I realized that there was a building on Elm was when I heard on the television on the morning of the 22d of November that a shot had been fired from such a building.
Mr. Jenner. For the purpose of this record then I would like to emphasize you were under the impression then, were you, that Lee Harvey Oswald was employed?
Mrs. Paine. At the warehouse.
Mr. Jenner. Other than at 411, a place at 411 Elm?
Mrs. Paine. I thought he worked at the warehouse. I had in fact, pointed out the building to my children going into Dallas later after he had gained employment.
Mr. Jenner. Did you ever discuss with Lee Harvey Oswald where he actually was employed, that is the location of the building?
Mrs. Paine. No; I didn't.
Mr. Jenner. Did he ever mention it?
Mrs. Paine. No. (III, p. 36)
* NOTE--Omitted testimony - I had seen a sign on a building as I went along one of the limited access highways that leads into Dallas, saying "Texas School Book Depository Warehouse" and there was the only building that had registered on my consciousness as being Texas School Book Depository. I was not aware, hadn't taken in the idea of there being two buildings and that there was one on Elm, though, I copied the address from the telephone book, and could well have made that notation in my mind but I didn't.
This shows she did NOT even think he worked at the location on Elm Street so why would she be "expecting the police" UNLESS she knew LHO was the patsy as he claimed?
Joseph Ball asked Richard S. Stovall, another DPD Homicide Detective, about their arrival at the Paine home.
Mr. Ball. Now, when you first went in, did Ruth Paine say anything to you about expecting you, or something of that sort?
Mr. Stovall. Yes, sir; when we first came to the door and knocked on the door, she came to the door and she says, and we identified ourselves, she said, "I have been expecting you. You are here about this mess that's on television," and the "mess that's on television" at the time she was talking about was when they were talking about the President's murder. (Vol. VII, p.191)
Detective Stovall also told the Commission about Ruth Paine's attitude toward a police search of her home: "We explained to her that we did not have a search warrant but if she wanted us to get one we would, and she said, `That won't be necessary'--for us to come right on in, so we went on in the house and started to search out the house." (VII, p. 188)
After the search was complete and the detectives were leaving, a lady drove by in her car and said that her brother worked in the same building as LHO and had taken him to work that morning. The lady, Linnie Mae Randle, also told the detectives that LHO was carrying something wrapped in brown paper which he took to work. She told the detectives that she heard LHO say the package contained "curtain rods." But Linnie Mae Randle told the WC that ***she never spoke with LHO on the morning of November 22, 1963.*** If Mrs. Randle never spoke with LHO, then how did she know the package contained curtain rods?
Mr. BALL. About that time, while you were there, did a Mrs. Linnie Randle come over to you?
Mr. ROSE. She might have come up to the yard and I didn't talk with her--I saw her out in the yard--I didn't talk to her.
Mr. BALL. You didn't talk to her at all?
Mr. ROSE. At that time I didn't--I did later.
Mr. BALL. And you also talked to Linnie Randle that night?
Mr. ROSE. Yes; I brought her in, too. (VII, p. 230)
It seems Stovall has more information on this than Rose.
Mr. BALL. Did a Mrs. Randle come in the house also?
Mr. STOVALL. No. sir; she didn't. While we were loading this stuff into our car and into the sheriff's deputy's car, we were on the outside, and you know, going in and out, and she had stopped Adamcik and was talking to him and he came over and talked to me and went on back and talked to her and she said that her brother had taken Oswald to work that morning and she said that she had seen him put some kind of a package in the back seat of her brother's car. She told us it could have been a rifle is what she said. She said it was either in a brown paper box or wrapped in brown paper. (VII, p. 191)
Here is what Det. Adamcik had to say about the issue.
Mr. BELIN. All right, did you have a search warrant when you went out there?
Mr. ADAMCIK. No, sir; we did not.
Mr. BELIN. Any particular reason why you didn't?
Mr. ADAMCIK. Well, at the time, we didn't know what we would find. We didn't have any idea what this address meant to us, and we were mainly going over to see who was there. We decided if we were not allowed in the house, invited in, that we could get a search warrant later to go in, whereas at the time we didn't have any idea that that address actually had any connection with these people or with Oswald.
Mr. BELIN. Who did you go with?
Mr. ADAMCIK. I went with Detectives Rose and Stovall, and we were met by three county officers there at the scene before we went up, because being out of the city limits of Dallas, we had three county officers go along with us, because it was in their jurisdiction.
Mr. BELIN. What did Mrs. Paine do?
Mr. ADAMCIK. She didn't object at all. They were really very cooperative. (VII, p. 204)
Notice how he says they did NOT bother with a search warrant because they did “NOT know what they would find”. This can be taken to mean they did NOT think LHO was the real killer and that they did NOT have probable cause to get one. Thanks to the cooperation of Ruth Paine they were able to look around with NO warrant and find probable cause. Of course, it could be that a shocked Ruth Paine was simply trying to be as cooperative as possible during a difficult time, but her comments to Rose and Stovall belie this. This UNWARRANTED search proved to be a pivotal search, the one in which police were told by Marina Oswald, with Ruth Paine interpreting, that LHO owned a rifle and that it was stashed in the Paine garage. When the officers were lead to the rifle's hiding place, they found only the empty blanket in which it was allegedly wrapped.
The police came back on Saturday, November 23, 1963, now armed with a search warrant, to search the Paine home again. This time Ruth Paine let the police in, then left on a shopping expedition. Marina at this time was visiting her jailed husband. This search yielded further incriminating evidence against LHO, including the disputed photographs of the suspect holding the alleged assassination rifle, a pistol strapped about his hips, brandishing leftist literature.
The odd thing is that the DPD seemed to show one of the BACKYARD PHOTOS to Michael Paine on the night of the assassination BEFORE THEY WERE FOUND BY THE DPD supposedly.
Mr. LIEBELER - Did the FBI or any other investigatory agency of the Government ever show you a picture of the rifle that was supposed to have been used to assassinate the President?
Mr. PAINE - They asked me at first, the first night of the assassination if I could locate, identify the place where Lee was standing when he was holding this rifle and some, the picture on the cover of Life.
Mr. LIEBELER - Were you able to?
Mr. PAINE - I identified the place by the fine clapboard structure of the house.
Mr. LIEBELER - By the what?
Mr. PAINE - By the small clapboard structure, the house has an unusually small clapboard.
Mr. LIEBELER - What did you identify the place as being?
Mr. PAINE - The Neely Street address. He didn't drive a car, so to have them over for dinner I had to go over and pick them up.
How can that be when these photos were NOT found UNTIL the next day supposedly?
The Rambler
There was a mysterious getaway witnessed in Dealey Plaza on November 22. Dallas County Deputy Sheriff Roger Craig told the Warren Commission that he saw a man run from the TSBD about fifteen minutes after the assassination. The man jumped into a Nash Rambler station wagon on Elm Street, which was driven off by a second, dark-complected man.
A few hours later, Deputy Craig said he again saw the man who had fled the TSBD. This time the man was under arrest and in the office of DPD Captain Will Fritz. That man, Craig told the Warren Commission, was LHO.
Mr. Craig. ...Captain Fritz then asked him about the--uh--he said, "What about this station wagon?" And the suspect interrupted him and said, "That station wagon belongs to Mrs. Paine"--I believe is what he said. "Don't try to tie her into this. She had nothing to do with it." And--uh--Captain Fritz then told him, as close as I can remember, that "All we're trying to do is find out what happened, and this man saw you leave from the scene." And the suspect again interrupted Captain Fritz and said, "I told you people I did." (VI p. 270. Craig later stated that Captain Fritz had actually said, "What about this car,"
and that it was LHO who offered the detail about a station wagon.)
Craig's story is among the most bitterly disputed testimony in the assassination controversy, and not just because it implicates Ruth Paine--however indirectly. Obviously, if what Craig says is true, there is clear-cut evidence of conspiracy.
There is a witness whose testimony strongly supports Deputy Craig's assertions. Marvin C. Robinson told the FBI that shortly after the assassination, as he drove his car through the intersection at Elm and Houston, he saw a man walk from the TSBD to a waiting Rambler wagon on Elm. The vehicle then drove off in the direction of Oak Cliff—where Oswald's rooming house was. (Henry Hurt, Reasonable Doubt, pp. 119-20. Hurt cites CD 5, and adds that this portion of it "was omitted from
the twenty-six volumes of Warren Commission exhibits. It finally was discovered years later in documents housed in the National Archives.")
According to the WC, LHO was at this time riding on a city bus. No eyewitness can reliably place him there, however; a
transfer ticket from that bus, found in LHO's possession, is the strongest piece of evidence against him--and it isn't that strong. There is evidence in the twenty-six volumes that shows LHO CHANGED HIS SHIRT, and yet, we are led to believe he would put an EXPIRED transfer back into the pocket of the new shirt. Why?
As researcher William Weston wrote:
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It is a measure of the success of the conspiracy cover-up that the confused circumstances of the bus story became the official version, whereas the more credible Nash Rambler story was rejected. (Weston, "Marsalis Bus 1213," The Fourth Decade, March 1995)
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Did Ruth Paine own a Rambler? She said no, telling the WC that she owned a light green Chevrolet wagon. They seem to
have taken her at her word, and the matter was not pursued. Although he was a reputable public servant, once voted "Officer of the Year," Deputy Craig was written off as a liar.
A Small Favor
In what was probably the greatest hour of need in his entire life, LHO asked Ruth Paine for a favor. This was on Saturday,
November 23, when he was jailed in connection with the murders of JFK and Officer Tippit. He talked to her on the phone and asked her to call a certain lawyer for him, a man named John Abt of New York. Ruth Paine told the WC: "...he sounded to me almost as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened...I felt, but did not express, considerable irritation at his seeming to be so apart from the situation, so presuming of his innocence if you will...I was quite stunned that he called at all or that he thought he could ask anything of me, appalled, really." (Vol. III, pp. 85-6)
Ruth Paine said she tried without success to call Abt, but never told LHO that she couldn't reach him. Author Sylvia Meagher editorialized:
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Mrs. Paine's conscience did not remind her that the accused must be considered innocent until proved guilty in a court of law...and there is no precedent for Mrs. Paine's new principle: that the accused may not "presume" his own innocence...apparently she did not consider the possibility that he might be innocent or that he was straining to exercise control and stave off panic at his predicament...her failure to notify Oswald that she had been unable to reach Abt, so that he would realize the urgency of obtaining legal assistance elsewhere, is unforgivable." (Meagher, Accessories After the Fact, pp. 218-9)
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The same can be said of quite a few on this board in terms of the "innocent until proven guilty in a court of law" statement. As we saw in my John Abt post in this series--he said NO one representing LHO or LHO himself had ever tried to contact him.
We again see the claims the WC made are just NOT supported by their own evidence, thus, their conclusion is sunk again.
Portions of this post are from an article by John Kelin.
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One of the top witnesses for the Warren Commission (WC) against Lee Harvey Oswald (LHO) was Ruth Paine. Next to the wife of LHO --Marina Oswald --she gave the most damning evidence against LHO. Her testimony is very long so I will look at parts of it in different posts in this series. This first one will be a snapshot of some of the topics she was asked about.
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The Paines always said they did not meet the Oswalds until early 1963, and that Ruth Paine met them at a dinner party not attended by her husband: "That was on the 22d of February looking back at my calendar." Is the truth or did she know of Oswald before this? An endnote in James DiEugenio's "Destiny Betrayed" teases us with the possibility, "...researcher Michael Levy has unearthed a Navy Department document which reports that Ruth Paine was requesting information about the family of Lee Harvey Oswald in 1957." (DiEugenio, Destiny Betrayed, p. 343, n. 22.) This area definitely needs to be researched more.
Ruth Paine's father had worked for the Agency for International Development, an organization with "extensive" ties to the CIA, according to researcher Philip Melanson. (Melanson, Spy Saga, p. 80. Melanson cites HSCA volume XII, p. 61, and Garrison, Heritage of Stone, p. 80.) Michael Paine's brother also worked for AID. George DeMohrenschildt, alleged to have been Oswald's intelligence "handler," and also once worked for AID. (Melanson, Spy Saga, p. 80.)
Conveniently, at least to me, the Paines separated in time to have Marina move in with Ruth. The two would "reconcile" after the assassination for some years. Ruth was even kind enough to stop in New Orleans to pick up Marina and bring her to Dallas to live with her. Of course we all know she was responsible for getting LHO the job at the Texas School Book Depository (TSBD).
The Calendar
Ruth Paine had a pocket calendar for 1963, and it wound up being Commission Exhibit 401. For the month of March, there is, in the margin, a note saying "Oct. 23," followed by a star, and the words "LHO purchase of rifle". The note is in Ruth Paine's handwriting, which Ruth Paine readily acknowledged.
When Ruth Paine testified before the Warren Commission she brought her calendar upon which she had written many notations. Ruth Paine placed a star on her calendar in the box for "March 20." She placed another star in the upper left corner of the page and wrote, "Oct 23-LHO purchase of rifle." Ruth Paine had no explanation for this entry, but tried to tell the Commission that she had mistakenly written "October 23" instead of November 23, the day after the assassination. Here is that part of her testimony.
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.
So she is saying on November 23, 1963, she heard on the television that LHO purchased a rifle on March 20, 1963. Since the FBI did NOT learn of this alleged rifle order until the afternoon of that day, how could she have heard of it so fast?
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.
This is all so convoluted. So she would note on November 23, 1963 that LHO supposedly did something on March 20, 1963? Why NOT simply note it on March 20, 1963 instead? What is with the reference notations? Also, it would seem inconceivable to me that Ruth Paine could have mistakenly written "Oct 23" instead of "Nov 23," the day after one of the most memorable days of her life. Who else would confuse October 23 for November 23, 1963? Did something big happen on October 22?
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. (Vol. IX, pp. 358-9)
This notation begs the question, how did Ruth Paine know so fast that a rifle was ordered by LHO ***the day after the assassination?*** She said she heard it on the television, but that would have said an order had been shipped to a “A.J. Hidell”, NOT LHO. Again, how did Ruth Paine somehow know that Klein's shipped a rifle to A.J. Hidell on March 20th, 1963? And in turn, know that this meant that Klein's had shipped a rifle to LHO on March 20? How could she know the Dallas Police Department (DPD) would claim they were one in the same man so fast? As we saw in earlier posts in this series the DPD ONLY listed one alias for LHO when he was arrested—O.H. Lee—and they did NOT mention any other alias the entire first day (11/22/63).
What we do know is the day after the assassination only a few FBI officials had access to the Klein's microfilm and no one in the DPD knew about March 20th until that evening, so how could Ruth Paine know this to mark on her calendar? Even if Ruth Paine mistakenly wrote "Oct 23" instead of "Nov 23" on her calendar; it does not explain how she knew, the day after the assassination, that Klein's shipped LHO a rifle on March 20, 1963 so fast. Here is the calendar notation in question.
historymatters.com/archive/jfk/wc/wcvols/wh17/pages/WH_Vol17_0041b.jpg
We know the FBI did NOT receive a list of mail-order transactions until November 23, 1963 because William Waldman told us so in his WC testimony.
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.
At 5:00 am on November 23 the FBI obtained microfilm from Klein's Sporting Goods in Chicago that allegedly contained copies of documents relating to a rifle ordered by LHO via the alleged alias “A.J. Hidell.” This film was not seen again until Klein's Vice President William Waldman testified before the Warren Commission on May, 20, 1964. The film allegedly contained an order form that showed Klein's shipped a rifle to A.J. Hidell on ***March 20, 1963.*** The first known FBI document which identifies this date was written by SA's Dolan, Toedt, and Mahan on ***November 26, 1963.***
Mr. BELIN. Is there a date of shipment which appears on this microfilm record?
Mr. WALDMAN. Yes; the date of shipment was March 20, 1963.
This calls into question Ruth Paine’s notation regarding the order of the rifle. Notice he said it SHIPPED on March 20, 1963, NOT that it was ordered then. My experience is that it is rare for things to ship the day they are ordered UNLESS you pay premium money for that service. IF this was LHO ordering the rifle he did NOT.
Mr. BELIN. Does it show by what means it was shipped?
Mr. WALDMAN. It was shipped by parcel post as indicated by this circle around the letters "PP."
We see LHO, or the person ordering for him, did NOT pay premium for the next day delivery. Also, we see this testimony from Waldman.
Mr. BELIN. Now, I see the extreme top of this microfilm, the date, March 13, 1963; to what does that refer?
Mr. WALDMAN. This is an imprint made by our cash register indicating that the remittance received from the customer was passed through our register on that date.
Mr. BELIN. And to the right of that, I see $21.45. Is that correct?
Mr. WALDMAN. That's correct. (VII, pp. 364-366)
This shows us they received payment a FULL WEEK before Ruth Paine’s notation regarding the “purchase of the rifle!” This shows LHO, or the person ordering for him, had to have placed the order before March 20, so why did she note the purchase for that date? Clearly, the information she got via the news, IF that is how she knew, was wrong or she was wrong and just made a date up.
There is no indication that Mrs. Paine was ever questioned or told about the rifle or the Klein's order at any time. Her explanation that she mistakenly wrote the date "Oct 23-LHO purchase of rifle" on her calendar is ridiculous. The only way Ruth Paine could have known on November 23 that Klein's shipped a rifle to LHO on March 20, 1963, is if she was told by a person or persons unknown or ***if she had knowledge of the shipment before the assassination.***
Shipment, as we have seen, is the OPERATIVE word—NOT purchase as her calendar states.
Assassination researcher Jerry Rose had an interesting speculation on Ruth Paine's calendar note, in an article published in The Third Decade:
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[Mrs. Paine] says that, on the day after the assassination...she went back and made this notation in her calendar, with no explanation of her motive for doing so. Thinking she might need to explain the notation, she then dated it as of the date she was making the notation; she just happened to make a one-month "mistake" by writing October 23 rather than November 23. This does not seem to be a mistake that a woman of Ruth Paine's orderly habits would make. My guess is that it is just about as likely that, for whatever reason, Mrs. Paine became aware of the rifle's purchase at the time she dated this note, October 23. (Perhaps she found a March 20 shipping document from Klein's among Oswald's papers stored in her garage.) It may have been a vital part of the plan to set up Oswald as "the assassin" to know that Oswald had a rifle that could be passed off as the assassination weapon and that it was a mail-ordered weapon that could easily be traced to Oswald. If Ruth Paine had this information as early as October 23, she clearly could have made it available to the conspirators...an alternative interpretation of the October 23 notation...[is] that, as a pacifist, Ruth Paine was involved with Oswald in undercover work on behalf of efforts to legislate against the mail order sale of weapons. (Rose, "We've Been Expecting You: the Searches of Oswald Residences," The Third Decade, January 1990.)
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Did Michael and Ruth Paine know more about the assassination than they ever dared tell? One can only wonder. The FBI may have wondered about the Paines, too, because they put a tap on the their phone, (Presumably, the official reason for tapping the Paine telephone was that the feds were keeping an eye on former defector Lee Oswald, whose wife was then living with Ruth Paine in Irving.) and on the afternoon of November 23, 1963, heard an extraordinary exchange. As Anthony Summers relates:
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"... a telephone call was intercepted in Dallas in which a "male voice was heard to say that he felt sure Lee Harvey Oswald had killed the President but did not feel Oswald was responsible, and further stated, `We both know who is responsible.' " ... the tapped telephone numbers were those of Michael Paine and his wife, Ruth Paine, the woman who was playing host to Marina Oswald at the time of the assassination." (Summers, Conspiracy, p. 103 (Chapter 7, "A Sphinx for Texas.") Summers cites Warren Commission Document 206, p. 66, which he says was declassified in 1976.)
www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=10673#relPageId=71&tab=page
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Although he fails to state it involved an FBI phone tap--not an inconsequential fact--WC attorney Liebeler asked Michael Paine about this phone call during his testimony on March18, 1964.
Mr. Liebeler. Now, there has been a report that on November 23, 1963, there was a telephone call between a man and a woman, between the numbers of your residence and the number of your office, in which the man was reported to have said in words or substance, "We both know who is responsible for the assassination." Have you been asked about this before?
Mr. Paine. I had heard that--I didn't know it was associated with our numbers. I had heard a report that some telephone operator had listened in on a conversation somewhere, I don't know where it was. I thought it was some other part of the country.
Mr. Liebeler. Did you talked to your wife on the telephone at any time during Saturday, November 23, on the telephone?
Mr. Paine. I was in the police station again, and I think I called her from there.
Mr. Liebeler. Did you make any remark to the effect that you knew who was responsible?
Mr. Paine. And I don't know who the assassin is or was; no, so I did not.
Mr. Liebeler. You are positive in your recollection that you made no such remark?
Mr. Paine. Yes. (II, p. 428)
The Searches
The Paines have also come under suspicion because of circumstances surrounding police searches of their house on the afternoon of the assassination. Ruth Paine testified that when the cops came to her home that afternoon, "I said nothing. I think I just dropped my jaw." That wasn't quite how the police remembered it. Guy F. Rose, a homicide detective with the Dallas Police Department, told Warren Commission attorney Joseph Ball about his arrival at the Paine home that day.
Mr. Rose. ...just as soon as we walked up on the porch, Ruth Paine came to the door. She apparently recognized us--she said, "I've been expecting you all," and we identified ourselves, and she said, "Well, I've been expecting you to come out. Come right on in."
Mr. Ball. Did she say why she had been expecting you?
Mr. Rose. She said, "Just as soon as I heard where the shooting happened, I knew there would be someone out." (Vol. VII, p. 229)
If Ruth Paine "knew," as soon as she heard where the assassination occurred, that the police would be visiting her home, then something doesn't add up. At that point, according to her own testimony, she thought LHO was working at a second TSBD building--not the one at 411 Elm Street, where the Warren Commission ultimately placed LHO and his rifle, but one that was located several blocks from Dealey Plaza (DP).
Mr. Jenner. I heard you mention the Texas School Depository warehouse. Did you think the warehouse was at 411 Elm?
Mrs. Paine. No... [some material deleted]* ...the first I realized that there was a building on Elm was when I heard on the television on the morning of the 22d of November that a shot had been fired from such a building.
Mr. Jenner. For the purpose of this record then I would like to emphasize you were under the impression then, were you, that Lee Harvey Oswald was employed?
Mrs. Paine. At the warehouse.
Mr. Jenner. Other than at 411, a place at 411 Elm?
Mrs. Paine. I thought he worked at the warehouse. I had in fact, pointed out the building to my children going into Dallas later after he had gained employment.
Mr. Jenner. Did you ever discuss with Lee Harvey Oswald where he actually was employed, that is the location of the building?
Mrs. Paine. No; I didn't.
Mr. Jenner. Did he ever mention it?
Mrs. Paine. No. (III, p. 36)
* NOTE--Omitted testimony - I had seen a sign on a building as I went along one of the limited access highways that leads into Dallas, saying "Texas School Book Depository Warehouse" and there was the only building that had registered on my consciousness as being Texas School Book Depository. I was not aware, hadn't taken in the idea of there being two buildings and that there was one on Elm, though, I copied the address from the telephone book, and could well have made that notation in my mind but I didn't.
This shows she did NOT even think he worked at the location on Elm Street so why would she be "expecting the police" UNLESS she knew LHO was the patsy as he claimed?
Joseph Ball asked Richard S. Stovall, another DPD Homicide Detective, about their arrival at the Paine home.
Mr. Ball. Now, when you first went in, did Ruth Paine say anything to you about expecting you, or something of that sort?
Mr. Stovall. Yes, sir; when we first came to the door and knocked on the door, she came to the door and she says, and we identified ourselves, she said, "I have been expecting you. You are here about this mess that's on television," and the "mess that's on television" at the time she was talking about was when they were talking about the President's murder. (Vol. VII, p.191)
Detective Stovall also told the Commission about Ruth Paine's attitude toward a police search of her home: "We explained to her that we did not have a search warrant but if she wanted us to get one we would, and she said, `That won't be necessary'--for us to come right on in, so we went on in the house and started to search out the house." (VII, p. 188)
After the search was complete and the detectives were leaving, a lady drove by in her car and said that her brother worked in the same building as LHO and had taken him to work that morning. The lady, Linnie Mae Randle, also told the detectives that LHO was carrying something wrapped in brown paper which he took to work. She told the detectives that she heard LHO say the package contained "curtain rods." But Linnie Mae Randle told the WC that ***she never spoke with LHO on the morning of November 22, 1963.*** If Mrs. Randle never spoke with LHO, then how did she know the package contained curtain rods?
Mr. BALL. About that time, while you were there, did a Mrs. Linnie Randle come over to you?
Mr. ROSE. She might have come up to the yard and I didn't talk with her--I saw her out in the yard--I didn't talk to her.
Mr. BALL. You didn't talk to her at all?
Mr. ROSE. At that time I didn't--I did later.
Mr. BALL. And you also talked to Linnie Randle that night?
Mr. ROSE. Yes; I brought her in, too. (VII, p. 230)
It seems Stovall has more information on this than Rose.
Mr. BALL. Did a Mrs. Randle come in the house also?
Mr. STOVALL. No. sir; she didn't. While we were loading this stuff into our car and into the sheriff's deputy's car, we were on the outside, and you know, going in and out, and she had stopped Adamcik and was talking to him and he came over and talked to me and went on back and talked to her and she said that her brother had taken Oswald to work that morning and she said that she had seen him put some kind of a package in the back seat of her brother's car. She told us it could have been a rifle is what she said. She said it was either in a brown paper box or wrapped in brown paper. (VII, p. 191)
Here is what Det. Adamcik had to say about the issue.
Mr. BELIN. All right, did you have a search warrant when you went out there?
Mr. ADAMCIK. No, sir; we did not.
Mr. BELIN. Any particular reason why you didn't?
Mr. ADAMCIK. Well, at the time, we didn't know what we would find. We didn't have any idea what this address meant to us, and we were mainly going over to see who was there. We decided if we were not allowed in the house, invited in, that we could get a search warrant later to go in, whereas at the time we didn't have any idea that that address actually had any connection with these people or with Oswald.
Mr. BELIN. Who did you go with?
Mr. ADAMCIK. I went with Detectives Rose and Stovall, and we were met by three county officers there at the scene before we went up, because being out of the city limits of Dallas, we had three county officers go along with us, because it was in their jurisdiction.
Mr. BELIN. What did Mrs. Paine do?
Mr. ADAMCIK. She didn't object at all. They were really very cooperative. (VII, p. 204)
Notice how he says they did NOT bother with a search warrant because they did “NOT know what they would find”. This can be taken to mean they did NOT think LHO was the real killer and that they did NOT have probable cause to get one. Thanks to the cooperation of Ruth Paine they were able to look around with NO warrant and find probable cause. Of course, it could be that a shocked Ruth Paine was simply trying to be as cooperative as possible during a difficult time, but her comments to Rose and Stovall belie this. This UNWARRANTED search proved to be a pivotal search, the one in which police were told by Marina Oswald, with Ruth Paine interpreting, that LHO owned a rifle and that it was stashed in the Paine garage. When the officers were lead to the rifle's hiding place, they found only the empty blanket in which it was allegedly wrapped.
The police came back on Saturday, November 23, 1963, now armed with a search warrant, to search the Paine home again. This time Ruth Paine let the police in, then left on a shopping expedition. Marina at this time was visiting her jailed husband. This search yielded further incriminating evidence against LHO, including the disputed photographs of the suspect holding the alleged assassination rifle, a pistol strapped about his hips, brandishing leftist literature.
The odd thing is that the DPD seemed to show one of the BACKYARD PHOTOS to Michael Paine on the night of the assassination BEFORE THEY WERE FOUND BY THE DPD supposedly.
Mr. LIEBELER - Did the FBI or any other investigatory agency of the Government ever show you a picture of the rifle that was supposed to have been used to assassinate the President?
Mr. PAINE - They asked me at first, the first night of the assassination if I could locate, identify the place where Lee was standing when he was holding this rifle and some, the picture on the cover of Life.
Mr. LIEBELER - Were you able to?
Mr. PAINE - I identified the place by the fine clapboard structure of the house.
Mr. LIEBELER - By the what?
Mr. PAINE - By the small clapboard structure, the house has an unusually small clapboard.
Mr. LIEBELER - What did you identify the place as being?
Mr. PAINE - The Neely Street address. He didn't drive a car, so to have them over for dinner I had to go over and pick them up.
How can that be when these photos were NOT found UNTIL the next day supposedly?
The Rambler
There was a mysterious getaway witnessed in Dealey Plaza on November 22. Dallas County Deputy Sheriff Roger Craig told the Warren Commission that he saw a man run from the TSBD about fifteen minutes after the assassination. The man jumped into a Nash Rambler station wagon on Elm Street, which was driven off by a second, dark-complected man.
A few hours later, Deputy Craig said he again saw the man who had fled the TSBD. This time the man was under arrest and in the office of DPD Captain Will Fritz. That man, Craig told the Warren Commission, was LHO.
Mr. Craig. ...Captain Fritz then asked him about the--uh--he said, "What about this station wagon?" And the suspect interrupted him and said, "That station wagon belongs to Mrs. Paine"--I believe is what he said. "Don't try to tie her into this. She had nothing to do with it." And--uh--Captain Fritz then told him, as close as I can remember, that "All we're trying to do is find out what happened, and this man saw you leave from the scene." And the suspect again interrupted Captain Fritz and said, "I told you people I did." (VI p. 270. Craig later stated that Captain Fritz had actually said, "What about this car,"
and that it was LHO who offered the detail about a station wagon.)
Craig's story is among the most bitterly disputed testimony in the assassination controversy, and not just because it implicates Ruth Paine--however indirectly. Obviously, if what Craig says is true, there is clear-cut evidence of conspiracy.
There is a witness whose testimony strongly supports Deputy Craig's assertions. Marvin C. Robinson told the FBI that shortly after the assassination, as he drove his car through the intersection at Elm and Houston, he saw a man walk from the TSBD to a waiting Rambler wagon on Elm. The vehicle then drove off in the direction of Oak Cliff—where Oswald's rooming house was. (Henry Hurt, Reasonable Doubt, pp. 119-20. Hurt cites CD 5, and adds that this portion of it "was omitted from
the twenty-six volumes of Warren Commission exhibits. It finally was discovered years later in documents housed in the National Archives.")
According to the WC, LHO was at this time riding on a city bus. No eyewitness can reliably place him there, however; a
transfer ticket from that bus, found in LHO's possession, is the strongest piece of evidence against him--and it isn't that strong. There is evidence in the twenty-six volumes that shows LHO CHANGED HIS SHIRT, and yet, we are led to believe he would put an EXPIRED transfer back into the pocket of the new shirt. Why?
As researcher William Weston wrote:
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It is a measure of the success of the conspiracy cover-up that the confused circumstances of the bus story became the official version, whereas the more credible Nash Rambler story was rejected. (Weston, "Marsalis Bus 1213," The Fourth Decade, March 1995)
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Did Ruth Paine own a Rambler? She said no, telling the WC that she owned a light green Chevrolet wagon. They seem to
have taken her at her word, and the matter was not pursued. Although he was a reputable public servant, once voted "Officer of the Year," Deputy Craig was written off as a liar.
A Small Favor
In what was probably the greatest hour of need in his entire life, LHO asked Ruth Paine for a favor. This was on Saturday,
November 23, when he was jailed in connection with the murders of JFK and Officer Tippit. He talked to her on the phone and asked her to call a certain lawyer for him, a man named John Abt of New York. Ruth Paine told the WC: "...he sounded to me almost as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened...I felt, but did not express, considerable irritation at his seeming to be so apart from the situation, so presuming of his innocence if you will...I was quite stunned that he called at all or that he thought he could ask anything of me, appalled, really." (Vol. III, pp. 85-6)
Ruth Paine said she tried without success to call Abt, but never told LHO that she couldn't reach him. Author Sylvia Meagher editorialized:
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Mrs. Paine's conscience did not remind her that the accused must be considered innocent until proved guilty in a court of law...and there is no precedent for Mrs. Paine's new principle: that the accused may not "presume" his own innocence...apparently she did not consider the possibility that he might be innocent or that he was straining to exercise control and stave off panic at his predicament...her failure to notify Oswald that she had been unable to reach Abt, so that he would realize the urgency of obtaining legal assistance elsewhere, is unforgivable." (Meagher, Accessories After the Fact, pp. 218-9)
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The same can be said of quite a few on this board in terms of the "innocent until proven guilty in a court of law" statement. As we saw in my John Abt post in this series--he said NO one representing LHO or LHO himself had ever tried to contact him.
We again see the claims the WC made are just NOT supported by their own evidence, thus, their conclusion is sunk again.
Portions of this post are from an article by John Kelin.