Crossfire: The Plot That Killed Kennedy (111 page)

After the assassination, literally hundreds of people claimed to have
seen Oswald in the days preceding the tragedy. This outpouring of sightings is normal in a case of this magnitude.

In every significant crime, police hear from many people who claim to
have knowledge of it. Many of these are disturbed people seeking to
insinuate themselves in a major news event. Others are honest citizens
simply mistaken as to identities or activities. While this phenomenon is to
be expected, there were many reputable people who encountered a Lee
Harvey Oswald at a time when Oswald was reported elsewhere and whose
stories cannot be easily dismissed.

However, the Warren Commission found it easy enough to dismiss these
people. The Commission's rationale was simple: If someone saw Oswald
at a time when the Commission had determined him to be elsewhere, then
the observer was mistaken in his identification.

Consider a few instances.

One such encounter with a bogus Oswald is especially intriguing since it
occurred long before Oswald reportedly arrived back in the United States
from his sojourn in Russia. Oscar Deslatte, manager of a Ford dealership
in New Orleans, contacted the FBI immediately after the assassination. He
told the Bureau that a man identifying himself as "Joseph Moore" had
tried to buy ten trucks on January 10, 1961. He said the man was
accompanied by a Cuban and had said he wanted Deslatte to "give a good
price because we're doing this for the good of the country. "

Deslatte said "Moore" asked that the name "Oswald" be placed on the
purchase estimate sheet. The man said "Oswald" would be paying for the
trucks on behalf of an anti-Castro Cuban organization.

In 1979, the FBI released a copy of Deslatte's estimate sheet and it
showed the anti-Castro organization involved was "Friends of Democratic
Cuba," which just happened to have been the anti-Castro group that
included in its membership ex-FBI agent Guy Banister. Banister, of course,
was the fervent anti-Castro agent who was connected to Oswald in the
summer of 1963 at 544 Camp Street.

At this time the CIA and its Cuban allies were preparing for the April 17
Bay of Pigs Invasion of Cuba.

Was Oswald or someone using his name involved in the Bay of Pigs
activity?

Another story involves testimony heard by the Senate Intelligence Com mittee from a former immigration inspector in New Orleans. While keeping the man's identity secret, the Committee reported:

.. . he is absolutely certain that he interviewed Lee Harvey Oswald in a
New Orleans jail cell sometime shortly before April 1, 1963. Although
the inspector is not now certain whether Oswald was using that particular name at that time, he is certain that Oswald was claiming to be a
Cuban alien. He quickly ascertained that Oswald was not a Cuban alien,
at which point he left Oswald in his jail cell.

According to the Warren Commission, Oswald did not arrive in New
Orleans until the end of April, nearly a month after the inspector's meeting
with the jailed "Oswald."

During his time in New Orleans, Oswald was seen in many and varying
situations. He was handing out pro-Castro literature on New Orleans
streets, while at the same time approaching anti-Castro Cuban leaders with
proposals to help train their followers.

He was reported seen in Clinton, Louisiana, during a civil-rights voter
registration drive.

Some of the people who encountered Oswald in New Orleans described
him as a clean and well-kept, courteous young man, while others said he
was dirty and disheveled and a swearing hard-drinker. It is difficult to
believe these people were talking about the same individual.

As the assassination drew closer, the strange reports of second Oswalds
began to increase.

On September 25, 1963, Mrs. Lee Dannelly, an official with the
Selective Service system in Austin, Texas, reported that a young man
came to her office for help. He said his name was Harvey Oswald and that
he wished to get his military discharge with "other than honorable conditions" changed to an honorable discharge. The man said he was living in
Fort Worth. Mrs. Dannelly said she could find no such person in her files
and she told the man to check with Selective Service in Fort Worth. She
next saw Oswald on television after the assassination and promptly reported her experience. Oswald did have a dishonorable discharge and he
had lived in Fort Worth, but on September 25, he was on his way to
Mexico City, according to the Warren Commission.

After the assassination, Leonard Hutchinson came forward to say that he
had been asked to cash a check for Oswald earlier in November. Hutchinson, who owned Hutch's Market in Irving, Texas, said the man asked him
to cash a two-party check made out to "Harvey Oswald" for $189. He
refused to accept the check, but said he saw the man in his store several
more times. He said on one occasion the man and a young woman spoke
in some foreign language. Hutchinson said he recognized both Oswald and
Marina when their photographs were broadcast over television after the
assassination. Near Hutchinson's store was a barbershop where a man identified as Oswald came for haircuts. The barber also said he saw the
same man entering Hutchinson's store. Despite all this, the Warren Commission concluded: "Oswald is not known to have received a check for
this amount from any source. . . . Examination of Hutchinson's testimony
indicates a more likely explanation is that Oswald was not in his store at
all."

Next is the well-documented story of Oswald's wild car ride weeks
before the assassination. Albert G. Bogard, a salesman for Downtown
Lincoln-Mercury-located just west of the Triple Underpass in Dealey
Plaza-told the Warren Commission that before the assassination-"ninth
day of November, I think it was, to be exact"-a man came into the
dealership and introduced himself as "Lee Oswald." Bogard told the
Commission:

I show him a car on the showroom floor, and take him for a ride out
Stemmons Expressway and back, and he was driving at 60 to 70 miles
an hour and came back to the showroom. And, I made some figures and
he told me he wasn't ready to buy, that he would be in a couple or three
weeks, that he had some money coming in. And when he finally started
to leave I got his name and wrote it on the back of one of my business
cards, and never heard from the man any more.

Bogard said on the day of the assassination, he heard Oswald had been
arrested and threw the business card with Oswald's name on it away,
saying: "He won't be a prospect any more because he is going to jail."
His story was supported by two other dealership employees, Eugene Wilson
and Frank Pizzo.

However, the Warren Commission concluded:

Several persons who knew Oswald have testified that he was unable to
drive, although Mrs. Paine, who was giving Oswald driving lessons,
stated that Oswald was showing some improvement by November.
Moreover, Oswald's whereabouts on November 9, as testified to by
Marina Oswald and Ruth Paine, would have made it impossible for him
to have visited the automobile showrooms as Mr. Bogard claims.

In a 1977 Dallas Morning News story, Wilson said the FBI and the
Warren Commission dismissed the story of Oswald's drive because they
had it occurring on November 9.

Wilson told the newspaper the man was Oswald and that he did know
how to drive and that the incident actually occurred on November 2, a
more plausible date. He also said he recalled that when Oswald was turned
down for a credit purchase, he said: "Maybe I'm going to have to go back
to Russia to buy a car." Wilson said he could pinpoint the date because
later the day of Oswald's drive, he used the same car to carry his wife and some friends home after a meeting of the Lone Star Bulldog Club. Wilson
said the next day at a Dallas dog show, he won some ribbons that carried
the date.

The Warren Commission indeed published a copy of an unsigned application for a Texas driver's license in the name of Lee Harvey Oswald.

If the car buyer was Oswald, he was expecting to come into money at
the exact time of the assassination. If it wasn't Oswald, it was someone
impersonating him.

Another incident involved the night manager of Western Union in
Dallas. C. A. Hamblen told Bob Fenley, a reporter for the Dallas Times
Herald that Oswald had collected money orders in small sums during the
early part of November. Hamblen said he remembered Oswald because he
"would give the girls [Western Union employees] a hard time. He was a
cantankerous individual." These statements appeared in the Dallas newspaper
on November 30.

Another Western Union employee, Aubrey Lee Lewis, said he recalled
the man resembling Oswald as a "feminine, very slender-built fellow"
who sent a small money order to the Dallas YMCA and was accompanied
by a "man of Spanish descent." The man used a "little Navy ID release
card" and a library card for identification.

This story of Oswald receiving money just before the assassination
caused a minor uproar within both the Warren Commission and Western
Union. Western Union's officials were quick to remind employees that
they were not to discuss customers, their money orders, or amounts.

In his Warren Commission testimony taken on July 23, 1964, Hamblen
suddenly was unclear on many aspects of his story. He told the Commission:

Yes; I did tell [Reporter Fenley] that I had saw Oswald. I may have told
him that. I don't recall what all was said . . . we never discuss any
telegrams . . . [Hamblen was shown a copy of his signed statement of
December 2, 1963 telling of the Oswald encounter] Well, now, if I gave
Bob any information like that, I don't recall it now. I might have at the
time I wrote the statement. . . . I wouldn't say that it was Lee Oswald.
I would say it was someone that resembled him from the picture that I
had seen in the paper and on TV.

It is apparent that the Western Union employees were under pressure not
to tell more about the money order incidents. In fact, in his testimony to
the Warren Commission, Reporter Fenley said he sent the Times Herald
police reporter to talk to Hamblen and that he was told the same story.
Fenley added: ". . . I am still very curious about this . . . I don't mean
this for the record, but I frankly heard that [Hamblen] recanted the tale."

A check by Western Union failed to turn up any money orders in the
name of Lee Harvey Oswald. But if it was not the Marine Oswald using a Navy ID and library card to receive money orders, then who was it? The
Warren Commission apparently was unable to find out.

It is interesting to note the Western Union workers mentioned someone
they believed to be Oswald sending money orders to the Dallas YMCA.

According to the Warren Commission:

Oswald did not contact his wife immediately when he returned to Dallas
[supposedly from a trip to Mexico City in late September 19631. .. .
He spent the night at the [Dallas] YMCA, where he registered as a
serviceman in order to avoid paying the membership fee.

YMCA records showed an Oswald staying there on October 3 and 4.
The records also indicated that Oswald lived at the YMCA between
October 15 and 19, 1962.

The Dallas YMCA also had a member who frequented its health-club
facilities quite often during this time-Jack Ruby.

A man resembling Oswald was seen by Dallas police handing out
pro-Castro literature on downtown streets in the months preceding the
assassination. Was it really Oswald?

Then there are the strange incidents involving Oswald or someone
resembling Oswald using a foreign-made rifle in the weeks preceding the
assassination. On November 1, a "rude and impertinent" man bought rifle
ammunition in Morgan's Gunshop in nearby Fort Worth. Three persons
recalled this incident after the assassination and claimed the man was
Oswald. The Warren Commission however determined that Oswald was
elsewhere at the time.

After the assassination, a British reporter checked with gun shops in
Irving and discovered a furniture store where a gunsmith had earlier
conducted business. The manager of the store told of a man who looked
like Oswald visiting her store along with his wife and two small children.
The manager recalled that the man spoke a foreign language to his wife
and had asked about repairing a firing pin. Marina Oswald told the Warren
Commission she had never been in the furniture store. The man resembling
Oswald was directed to another nearby gun store-the Irving Sports Shop.

Dial Duwayne Ryder, the service manager at the Irving Sports Shop,
recalled working on a rifle but it was not an Italian weapon. He even gave
the FBI an undated check stub for six dollars that bore the name "Oswald."
The stub indicated that work done on the rifle was "drilling and tapping and
boresighting." Ryder said the work was probably done during the first two
weeks of November.

However, since there was a $1.50 charge for boresighting and the
drilling and tapping was $1.50 per hole, it indicated to Ryder that three
holes were drilled in the rifle for a telescopic sight.

The Mannlicher-Carcano identified as Oswald's rifle had only two holes
fbr the sight and the telescope sight came already fixed to the rifle. Furthermore, neither Ryder nor his boss could readily identify pictures of
Oswald as the man ordering the work. Thus it would appear that someone
using Oswald's name ordered work on a rifle which was not the Oswald
rifle.

The Warren Commission, never willing to admit the possibility that
someone might have been fabricating evidence against Oswald, hinted that
Ryder had made up the story about working on the rifle.

Again in early November, shooters at the Sports Drome Rifle Range
recalled a young man who was there sighting in a foreign-made rifle. One
of these shooters, Malcolm Price, helped adjust the rifle sight for the man
shooting and another, Garland Slack, argued with the man on another
occasion because the man was shooting at Slack's target. Both Dr. Homer
Wood and his son, Sterling Wood, recalled the man and both were shocked
to see his photograph on television in the days following the assassination.
They are still convinced the man was Lee Harvey Oswald.