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The
State of the Evidence, The Evidence of the State (page
3)
by
Edward Jay Epstein
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Use
Marina Oswald testified to the Warren
Commission that when Oswald left their house on April 10,1963,
he left her dramatic instructions in Russian about what she
should if he were arrested, killed or had to go into hiding,
and when he returned late that evening, he explained to her
that he had just attempted to kill General Edwin Walker with
his rifle. Her testimony is corroborated by three elements
of evidence.
First, the Russian handwriting in
the note has been unequivocally identified as that of Oswald
by the questioned documents experts of both the Warren Commission
and the House Select Committee. The note, which contains details
that date it, confirms that Oswald expected to be killed,
arrested or a fugitive the week of April 10th 1963.
Second, photographs of Walker's house
taken from the position were the sniper fired at Walker were
found among Oswald's possessions after the Kennedy assassination.
Photographic experts established these photographs were taken
with Oswald's imperial reflex camera. By referring to construction
work in the background, the FBI was able to determine that
the photographs were taken on March 9th or 10th (which was
just about the date Oswald ordered the Mannlicher Carcano).
Such photographs show that Oswald had reconnoitered Walker's
house.
Third, the previously-discussed Neutron
Activation Analysis done in 1977 exactly matched the metallic
elements found in the bullet that was recovered in Walker's
home to the batch of Mannlicher-Carcano ammunition used in
Oswald's rifle in the assassination of Kennedy.
So we know the murder weapon was purchased,
delivered and shown off in an inscribed photograph, and used
in a prior attempted assassination by Oswald.
5. Was Oswald at the sniper's window
on the sixth floor of the depository where the murder weapon
was found.
The best evidence here is three palm
prints (which are as uniquely identifiable as fingerprints)
found on the boxes stacked in front of the window to support
the rifle and the nearby paper sack which was long enough
to accommodate the Mannlicher Carcano. FBI experts matched
them to Oswald hands. ( A fourth palm print, found on one
box, belonged to an unidentified individual). The House Select
Committee's fingerprint panel unanimously confirmed this evidence.
Since the "freshness" of palm prints is of limited duration,
it was further determined that Oswald had handled those boxes
and paper sack either the day of the assassination or the
preceding day. Moreover, two witnesses testified he carried
the paper sack into the depository that morning. So we know
Oswald arranged the boxes used by the sniper and handled the
paper sack within 24 hours of the assassination and, if the
witnesses are correct, brought the sack to the sniper's window
the morning of the assassination.
6. Was Oswald framed?
Whereas there is no doubt that Oswald's
rifle was used to shoot President Kennedy, the possibility
exists it was used by another party to frame Oswald. If Oswald
was totally innocent, his activities after the assassination
would reflect his lack of knowledge and involvement in the
event. Instead, the evidence is persuasive that he fled the
building after the assassination, changed his clothing, armed
himself, fatally shot a policeman resisted arrest by attempting
to shoot another policeman, and, after his arrest, lied repeatedly
to his interrogators about owning the rifle, appearing in
the backyard photograph with the rifle, and using the alias
"Hidell" (which he purchased both the rifle and pistol).
The best evidence that he shot the
policeman, J.D. Tippit, is that the cartridge cases found
at the murder scene matched the firing pin of the revolver
taken out of Oswald's hand when he was arrested. The FBI determined
no all other weapon could have ejected these cartridges--
and these conclusions were reaffirmed by the Select Committee's
firearms panel. Oswald admission that he had decided only
on the spur of the moment to fetch this weapon effectively
rules out the possibility he was framed since no one but Oswald
could have known he would be carrying it.
In addition, five witnesses identified
Oswald from the police line up as either the person who shot
Tippit or the person who fled from the scene with a gun in
hand. The House Select Committee produced an additional witness
who testified he saw Oswald stand over the downed policeman
and fire a bullet into his head.
His post-arrest actions, especially
his mendacity in consistently denying ownership of the rifle
to representatives of the FBI, Secret Service, Post Office,
and district attorney, further indicate consciousness of guilt
about owning the rifle. This would not be consistent with
the behavior of a framed and innocent man -- who believed
his rifle was still wrapped in a blanket in a friend's garage.
While none of this evidence is unimpeachable--
no evidence is-- and none of it proves that Oswald was the
only person involved in the shooting of Kennedy, Tippit or
General Walker, it convinces me that he was involved in the
assassination.
The Conspiracy Question
One question, perhaps the only one
that still matters, cannot be answered by the state's evidence:
was Oswald part of a conspiracy? As we have seen, the re-investigations
of the assassination have left unresolved the issue of whether
or two shooters were involved but, even if they had definitively
established, as the Warren Commission attempted to do, that
a lone gunman had fired all the shots on November 22nd 1963,
it would not logically diminish the possibility that the assassination
resulted from a conspiracy.
Conspiracies do not necessarily require
more than one rifleman to accomplish their purpose. In many
cases, such as the highly-sophisticated Rightist conspiracy
in France to assassinate President Charles De Gaulle, a single
"Jackal" rifleman was employed. One accurate rifleman might
be preferable to a conspiracy when it is expected that the
intended victim could be protected by his bodyguard immediately
after the first shot is fired, because each additional snipers
would increase the chances of detection, both before and after
the act, but not necessarily increase the probability of success.
Moreover, if multiple gunmen are captured (or killed), it
would be difficult to divert the investigation away from the
conspiracy, whereas a lone gunman, especially if killed himself,
can be dismissed as a lone lunatic.
The larger issue then is: was Oswald,
whether firing alone or in tandem, acting at the behest of
others.
Oswald was not, to be sure, the sort
of well-adjusted individual with whom most people would want
to associate. He was wantonly self-destructive (e.g. his suicide
attempt in Moscow); militantly hostile towards symbols of
authority (e.g. the threat he made to blow up the FBI headquarters
in Dallas); contemptuous of legal restraints (e.g. his plan
to hijack an airliner to get to Cuba) and homicidal (e.g.
his brutal murder of Tippit). As early as 1960, he expressed
a cold-blooded willingness to commit political murder in a
letter he presciently wrote his brother from Moscow: "What
I say now I do not say lightly or unknowingly ... I would
kill any American who put a uniform on in defense of the American
Government, Any American". The one position that such unrestrained
aggression would not exclude a person for employment would
be a political assassin.
In this context, the bullet Oswald
coolly fired at General Walker was, whether he meant it to
be or not, an advertisement of his willingness to kill or
be killed for a political cause. Less than a week before he
went out to assassinate Walker he distributed an inscribed
photograph of himself to De Mohrenschildt (and perhaps others).
It showed him dressed in black, armed to kill with a rifle
and telescopic sight, and holding in his hand the radical
newspaper, The Militant. When he went to Mexico to offer himself
to the Cubans, he brought with him the tell-tale photographs
of Walker's house to establish his bona fides as a revolutionary.
Was his have gun, will kill message picked up of any antennae
that summer? Just as De Mohrenschildt and Marina learned of
his assassination attempt, so may have others in pro-Castro,
anti-Castro and other fringe groups he was active with in
the summer of 1963 (not to mention the various intelligence
and police agencies monitoring his movements).
There couldn't be that many potential
assassins hanging around the militant peripheries of the Cold
War with Oswald's perverse virtues: a convenient defector
background, military training, complete disregard for human
life, including his own, and possession of a rifle he was
more than ready to use. Here was as assassin awaiting a mission.
Did anyone pick him up as a shooter-- or, lacking a sponsor
but finding an opportunity, did he act alone?
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