4 – Fake Evidence and Lies about Oswald
Such was the clamor to pin the assassination on Oswald that he has been linked with several deeds that he almost certainly did not commit. The murder attempt on General Edwin Walker is attributed to Oswald but only based on testimony given by his wife after the assassination of Kennedy. Marina was held by the FBI and Secret Service for two months after the death of the President. During that time, she made several claims against her husband. Given the fact her marriage with Oswald had fallen apart and that he physically abused her, she had the motive to make up stories placing her dead husband in a poor light.
She said that he left a note in Russian telling her what to do if he was caught trying to kill Walker. The offending note only came to light when Ruth Paine sent her a Russian-language book with the message inside. Not only was the note updated, but it also did not mention anything about Walker or any reason why he would be arrested. Experts believe the note is not authentic and it fit in line with Marina’s unreliable testimony.
Oswald was also accused of killing Patrolman Tippit. According to the Warren Report, Tippit was killed at approximately 1:15-1:16 p.m. on the day of Kennedy’s Assassination. Apparently, the police officer drove up alongside Oswald, presumably because he matched the description of the man seen by Howard Brennan at the Depository. When Tippit exited his car, Oswald allegedly fired four shots and killed the policeman.
However, three witnesses say the shooting occurred several minutes earlier. Although much of Helen Markham’s testimony is unreliable, her account of her daily timetable seems accurate. She was waiting for a bus that had not yet arrived; it was due at 1:12. Domingo Benevides was the second witness, and he saw the gunman walk away from the scene. For the sake of his own safety, he waited a few minutes and then unsuccessfully attempted to use the police car radio.
T.F. Bowley was the third witness. He said he drove up to the scene, noticed the officer’s body and looked at his watch which said 1.10. Rowley tried to help Tippit and took the radio from Benevides. The call was made between 1:15 and 1:16 pm. One version of the Dallas police log recorded two garbled messages from Tippit with the last at 1:08. We can draw the conclusion that Tippit died between 1:08 and 1:10. Since Oswald’s housekeeper saw him at 1:03 pm, there is no way he could have made it to the scene of the crime in time.
The brown paper bag that was found on the sixth floor of the Depository did not belong to Oswald. It was almost certainly created by the police and planted at the scene after the event. Three witnesses say that Oswald either had no bag or a much smaller brown paper bag. The rifle and paraffin tests undertaken by the alleged shooter showed no evidence that Oswald had fired a rifle that day.
The rifle and bullet shells found on the sixth floor seemed to suggest that Oswald was the killer. Perhaps the biggest indication of fake evidence is the Magic Bullet which was the Warren Commission’s Exhibit 399. It was apparently found on a stretcher outside the Parkland Hospital operating theater. The bullet was apparently of the same type as those found on the sixth floor of the Depository. It was supposedly fired from the rifle found at the scene. A hospital attendant insisted that the bullet was found on a stretcher unrelated to the shooting and the bullet produced in evidence wasn’t even the same as the one from the stretcher.
Finally, we must look at probable impersonations of Oswald in Mexico and Dallas. In the summer of 1963, Oswald lived in New Orleans and was trying to visit Mexico City to get a visa to visit Cuba. On September 25/26, 1963 a Leon Oswald visited Silvia Odio in New Orleans along with two other men. Odio later stated that the American man she met was Oswald after seeing him on television. However, he was also in Mexico City at the same time.
While Oswald did go to Mexico City a couple of days later and met with the Soviet Embassy and Cuban Consulate at least once each, it is probable that an imposter made several more visits to both. In two phone calls to the Soviets, a man claiming to be Oswald spoke terrible Russian; Oswald spoke the language reasonably well. The implication? It was easy to frame Oswald if you could paint him as an anti-American traitor with ties to the Soviet Union and Russia.