A Rare Interview With the Brother of an Assassin
May 25th, 2010
|
| Share |
There are many people who believe John F. Kennedy was killed as part of an elaborate conspiracy. Some polls indicate most Americans don’t buy the lone gunman theory. Many believe Lee Harvey Oswald had nothing to do with the assassination and was just picked as a fall guy. If there is anyone in the world who would benefit from such a conspiracy being true, it would be those closest to Oswald, who could hope to regain the good name and respect of Lee Harvey Oswald and restore the good family name. Nobody could possibly be more motivated to believe Lee Harvey is not guilty than his brother Robert Oswald.
Yet Robert Oswald, who knew his brother so well and who has had nearly half a century to consider the circumstances and investigate the facts can come to only one conclusion. He believes without doubt that his brother was the lone assassin.
Robert Oswald is still very much alive. He is a private person who rarely makes appearances in the media. In 1981 he fought to try to stop his brother Lee from being exhumed as part of an investigation by some who insisted that Oswald was replaced by a double from the Soviet Union. Other than that, Robert Oswald has avoided attention, only occasionally granting interviews or commenting on issues relating to his brother.
In this remarkable interview, Robert Oswald and a few others who knew Lee very well go on the record for the ABC documentary “Kennedy Assassination – Beyond Conspiracy.” If you have not seen the whole thing, I highly recommend it. It is an uncommonly rational, tasteful and thorough look at the events of November 22 1963. It includes priceless footage of interviews with many who were there and who knew Oswald, Jack Ruby and others involved. It’s a true example of television at its best.
If you can’t view the embedded video, click here for the full version
This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 25th, 2010 at 4:12 pm and is filed under Conspiracy Theories, History, Misc. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
View blog reactions
May 25th, 2010 at 8:07 pm
One forgets that there are others that must also shoulder the burdens of an action of a crime this magnitude.
Quote Comment
May 25th, 2010 at 9:23 pm
Oswald’s wife and his daughter both say he is innocent. Nobody takes seriously the ridiculous magic bullet theory and the idea that there was one gunman. The only question is whether Oswald was 100% innocent or involved in the plot. Chances are he was just a fall guy who was never really part of the plan, but he was silenced so we will never know.
Why on earth would his brother say he did it? I don’t know, but I can think of a few reasons. He may be paid by the government or the makers of this ridiculous video to read the script. Maybe he hates his brother and wants him to go down, because everyone knows some people don’t love their family members. Maybe he thinks it would be better for his brother to be a lone assassin than to admit he was stupid enough to be used like that.
I think there is another explanation. He is threatened. His life or his family are probably knowing that if they don’t say it is 100% true what the government says its their ass. He looks like he is trying to convince everyone he really believes it. He is trying so hard because he has a gun to his head. Just listen to it and see how he is overacting. It’s sick but I am sure he is either being paid to say this or threatened if he does not or probably both. He can’t be that deluded.
How do we even know this is really the bother of Lee Oswald? We do not.
Quote Comment
May 25th, 2010 at 9:47 pm
Adam said:
Oswald’s wife, Marine Oswald (later Marine Oswald Porter) initially was pretty much resigned to the fact that he was guilty. She was, of course, hounded by the media after the assassination and when that died down tried to avoid the media. The claims she made about him being inocent are much more recent. It seems she got involved with that whole conspiracy movement in the 1980’s to early 1990’s – the time it was getting big attention with a bunch of TV specials and the Oliver Stone movie.
She was, by this time, a relatively uneducated, elderly woman divorced and without much money or notoriety. It’s all but expected that she’d take what she could. Perhaps it was an attempt to make her late husband seem innocent or perhaps it was for money. I think it was probably both.
Oswald had two daughters. Neither of them was really old enough to have known him or have anything beyond vague memories. The oldest (June Oswald) was not even three years old when he died and the youngest (Audrey Oswald) was born just a little over a month before his death. Neither have been big in the media. Audrey has never, to my knowledge, done any major interviews or anything. June Oswald has done a couple where she said she believed there was a conspiracy. Really though, her opinion is no better than anyone else’s. She was a toddler when it happened.
Adam said:
That is indeed his brother. His brother visited him just after his capture, fought to try to stop the exhumation of his body, appears in home movies and photos with him. There’s no doubt about that.
Now 90 years old, Robert Oswald lives a low profile life in a suburb in Texas.
I see his interview differently. I’m sure it’s all subject to interpretation, but based on this and his other actions and statements, it seems to me he feels deep sorrow for what his brother did and that it cost his brother his life. He may very well regret that he and other family members didn’t try to show more acceptance to Lee. I’m sure that the feelings from such things are complex and difficult – the bond to his younger brother, his regret for his loss and knowledge of what his brother did.
Quote Comment
May 25th, 2010 at 10:11 pm
The nut-bars like Adam here will never be convinced. Getting worked up over this or that conspiracy is the only thing that gives meaning to their pathetic little lives.
The true believers, (as opposed to the ones that pander to them to make a buck) are in in real life invariably nothings of the lowest order. Their conspiracy theories permit them the fantasy that they hold special knowledge, that they alone have figured out, there by elevating them above their intellectual betters.
It is sad, all the work these deluded small people put into their make-believe world, if turned on something of value, could improve their lot, but their flimsy egos need the conspiracies more.
Quote Comment
May 26th, 2010 at 4:38 am
There’s nothing magic about the “magic bullet”, it went in an almost perfectly straight line.
Quote Comment
May 26th, 2010 at 12:39 pm
Nutbar?
Most Americans believe that there was a conspiracy. A small and shrinking number still buy the lies of the Warren Commission report. There are many serious researchers and scientists who have dug into the facts and evidence and found some very clear indicators of the conspiracy. Even the congress was so apauled by the report they instituted a second investigation and it found that there probably was a conspiracy. It didn’t go far enough and was not able to find the truth completely because it didn’t have the power to go past the CIA or FBI.
Quote Comment
May 26th, 2010 at 2:49 pm
Adam said:
Facts and reality, whether they be historical or scientific are not a democracy. Majority does not decide them. THey simply are, whether you believe them or not
Quote Comment
May 26th, 2010 at 5:19 pm
That is an uncommonly good and factual segment.
I applaud Robert Oswald for having the courage to make these statements about what is obviously a terrible burden and subject for his family. It is important to get people like him, who can help bring us back to reality, to go on the record while we still have them with us. At some point there will be no more directly involved people left and then all we will have is their recordings and their written statements to document history.
I wish the conspiracy theorists would take a step back sometimes and look at those who are alive and still effected by this. They have a tendency to go after anyone who disagrees with them and claim they’re part of the plot or something. An old man like Robert Oswald, who never chose to be part of this, deserves to be given some level of respect for his privacy. Those who start yelling that he must have been part of the plot should be ashamed of themselves. Give him some peace and the same to anyone else involved these events.
Quote Comment
May 27th, 2010 at 2:18 am
I disagree because I believe the only respectful thing to do for the living and the dead too is to get the truth out as ugly as it might be. We should investigate these and put out all the facts, not only one side of the story from those who want to control things and let the chips fall where they may. The facts here might be ugly and we may need to admit the federal government was not being as nice as we like to tell ourselves it is. We may have to face up to the fact that the Bush family is not trustworthy even if we gave them the presidency twice. I think President Kennedy and his family and everyone else deserves the truth to be told. Mister Oswald who is supposed to be the brother of Lee Harvey is not entitled to any special treatment if he is lying about it because then he is the one disrespecting truth and history.
Quote Comment
May 29th, 2010 at 5:27 am
Do you know what is the worst thing in arguing with a conspiracy theorist nut?
You just can’t win because they keep changing the game.
Evidence against their theories? Faked by Them.
Proving that a star witness of theirs is a liar and cad? It’s obvious that They are out to discredit and slander.
Pointing out flaws in logic and consistincy? Well, that’s just what They want you to think.
And pointing out a book/ article/ tv show/ website that debunks their theories? The authors are just working for Them.
Not that you care, but you should really learn a little about how to present evidence properly. A little logic can’t hurt either. Until that unlikely day, you and your ilk will remain paranoid nuts.
Quote Comment
May 30th, 2010 at 12:06 am
Those telephone poles never respond to polls about the lone gunman theory
Quote Comment
May 30th, 2010 at 4:27 pm
You don’t seriously believe the Warren Commission report, do you? Does anyone? It’s such pure easily seen fiction that it’s insulting! Seriously, if you believe that, and can look me in the eye and say its true with a straight face then I pity you for falling so badly for the government and your own need to think the government loves you.
I don’t think Robert Oswald could ever believe it himself. I don’t think even the people here do. That makes him a lair. I do not know why R. Oswald would lie so badly, but he is a dirty bold faced liar and we know what he says is false.
That he is lying so badly and trying so hard to convince us could be a path to the truth, actually. If the investigators actually wanted to know the reality of who was behind it, they should get a warrant to go into R. Oswald’s bank account and see where the money comes from. Trace it to who pays him and you’ll find who is behind the whole thing, only I think it would just prove what we already know if it turns out to just go back to the federal government, who will surely stop it all right there before you can dig deeper.
The truth is going to come out, at some point in the future, but probably not until everyone who could be responsible is long dead. The government knows it all and at some point the papers will leak out and we’ll know, but who knows how long? It could be a hundred years. Maybe it will be sooner and you pathetic fools will have to face the music.
Quote Comment
May 30th, 2010 at 6:11 pm
Tony Marshall said:
The only pathetic fool here is you.
One of the things about sceptics, as a group, is that we constantly struggle with important issues of what people do and should accept as probably true. In doing so we deal with not only specific issues, but the bigger question of process. It is on this point conspiracy theorists always fall. It is extreme foolishness to substitute one’s frail assessment of a complex subject for the consensus of opinion of non-experts. It’s not that as sceptics do we not understand there can be fraud or sloppy studies, but generally if the facts are all pointing toward one answer, we trust that research and its conclusions.
The problem with John F. Kennedy conspiracy theories, is that there are so many different ones, each with its own set of supporters, and their analysis is not complete, does not include all the available information, and makes leaps of reasoning that are not supported by facts. For example. you all take it as a given that everything that comes out of the US government is a lie. This is not an acceptable point of reasoning. This is why we reject those in favour of the standard explanation.
Quote Comment
May 30th, 2010 at 9:05 pm
Tony Marshall said:
You know, it’s smart asses like you who really piss me off by picking on someone like this. This is why people like this have to live in near seclusion. The man did not choose to be part of this. He never did anything wrong and he’s had to live with what his brother did and how it lead to his death for decades. Now some idiot like yourself comes out big and tough calling an old man a liar and demanding his finances be examined. What the hell do you know?
This is the same crap that 9/11 survivors are put through. There’s no concern for the fact that they lost loved ones and were put, through no choice of their own, into a situation that’s worse than your worst nightmares and then when they say something that opposes a conspiracy theory they’re all part of the plot?
I remember some of those CT bastards were heckling a widow who spoke to her husband on his cell phone in the plane that crashed in Pennsylvania. They were insisting she was lying or the whole thing was rigged because cell phones don’t work on planes (they’re wrong about that, by the way.) Did they care the pain caused this person who had done nothing wrong? No, of course not!
Show a little respect. These events have become part of all our collective history. They’ve shaped the society we live in. Robert Oswald did not have to go and talk to anyone about it, but hen did anyway. He won’t be with us forever, but we have his unique recollection of his brother on tape.
Consider that when you think you’re so smart to go after a holocaust survivor or a 9/11 survivor or someone like this. Let them live in peace. They’ve been through enough with out an idiot like you harassing them.
Quote Comment
May 30th, 2010 at 9:48 pm
A few questions for the wack-a-doodle conspiracy nutbags. Note, this is just a start:
1) If They wanted the assination to look like just one gunman, why not use just one location? Sticking one or more extra shooters all over the place is just asking for trouble.
2) If using multiple gunmen, why not have multiple patsys? If They are willing to kill as many people as the nutbags say they have, what’s one more body in a convenient location. If there was a Grassy Knoll shooter, why not have an FBI agent or Dallas PD detective there to shoot him when he’s done? According to the Cloudcoocoolanders, the FBI and Dallas PD were in on it anyway.
3) Why did They cheap out when buying Oswald a rifle? For $7 more at Klein’s Sporting Goods They could have bought him a SMLE. Another $77 was enough for a M-1 Garand semi-auto.
But really, who planned this thing? Rube Goldberg?
“Hey Clay, let’s just have one guy shoot the president.”
“No, Jack, that would be too easy. We’ll get like 25 guys shooting in some really obvious spots and then pretend it was only one person.”
“I don’t know, it seems to be missing something…”
“Ooo, I know, let’s have everybody act in a really, really suspicious manner right beforehand.”
“Why that’s Brilliant!”
Quote Comment
May 30th, 2010 at 11:01 pm
Tony Marshall said:
Overall, they did a pretty good job. It wasn’t perfect. Years later, after some more evidence was reviewed, a few minor errors were found. For example, the medical evidence was not as well documented as it could have been. A few witnesses could have been interviewed a bit better. All in all, it was very good though.
Mr. Blue said:
“Well, there’s more. The guy who is going to be the fall guy. We have to have him killed afterward. So we’re going to hire a loudmouthed strip club owner. Of course, he will be caught and go to jail for doing it, because it’s going to be on live television (did I mention that)? So anyway, yeah, he’s the hitman, and because he’s going to obviously be caught, we’re going to need to pay him a lot. He wants at least 50 grand to go to prison for the rest of his life…
Now, here’s how we’re going to kill him. He’s going to get shot with a handgun in the abdomen. We figure that is certain to be fatal. I mean, sure, most shots to that area aren’t fatal, but we figure he’ll be shot right square in a major blood vessel.”
“Now as for the guy shooting in front. We are going to put him right behind this little fence here. It’s right in plain view of a lot of witnesses and there’s only one way out of the parking lot, which goes right through a crowded area, but we figure he’ll be able to slip out anyway”
“We already figured there might be a guy with a movie camera standing about 20 feet away from our assassin. We’re pretty sure he won’t turn just a little too far to his right and ruin everything by capturing it on film”
“We also know that there will be people with cameras across the street. We’ll be find as long as the only camera that shoots this area is a Polaroid and does not have the dynamic range to see our guy clearly”
Quote Comment
May 31st, 2010 at 9:33 pm
Upon hindsight, the whole “let’s make everything as complicated as possible” thing does make a sort of sense. It’s probably part of the same compulsion that a villian has to explain his Master Plan to the hero before placing him in the Needlessly Complicated Yet Easily Escapable Deathtrap, and then leaving.
I mean, why send only one guy to do a job when you can send 11 left handed transgendered Albanian midget ninjas to make it look like one guy did everything.
And despite what every intelligence agency may say about “need to know”, a good conspiracy is like a can’t miss business opportunity- you want to get all your friends and family members involved.
Hell, sometimes I think that the conspiracy theorist are just jealous that they got left out.
Quote Comment
June 4th, 2010 at 12:19 am
No doubt in my mind this video is full of liars and the plot is thicker than you ever would imagine. I can’t believe the idiots here buy the governments magic bullet hoax hook line and sinker.
YOu think this is all a one gunman and a single event even? Do you realize how much **** happens that goes above your head. Everyone in power is a part of a big underground group and when they missbehave they get bumped off like kennedy. Their masters handle them and when they don’t do as they are told look what happends.
This is not one guy. In 1986 the president of Sweden was assassinated when he got in the way. Then this year, the president of Poland was and they made it look like a plane crash, which sometimes is how it is done to look like an accident. In the 60’s the president of Australia was gone missing when he went out for a little swim and they had the biggest search in the history of the country but did they fidn him? Seems suspicious, yes? Plus, the president of Israel was killed 1995. Why do you think these happen? Is it all just super genius crazy gunmen take down the biggest leaders in the world? Think for a second.
Quote Comment
June 4th, 2010 at 1:22 am
Aside from the other logical and historical errors, you’ve got a couple prime ministers in there that you call presidents, Mister X. I guess you could say they’re similar since both are head of state positions, but it doesn’t really make you sound informed or smart to mix up your titles, but I guess even if you had the right ones, it would not sound much better.
Quote Comment
June 4th, 2010 at 2:25 am
You know, I just learned something.
All politicians are magically exempt from all accidents, murders, and illnesses through natural happenstance. Only the Dread Conspiracies of Ancient Doom is able to break this voodoo.
Maybe that explains the Overly Elaborate and Needlessly Complex Death Plots: it’s just the necessary magic to break the Magical Energy Protective Shield of Leadership.
Quote Comment
June 4th, 2010 at 4:11 am
Mister X said:
Everyone in Australia knows Harold Holt was taken by a Russian Submarine.
Quote Comment
June 4th, 2010 at 9:07 pm
Curtains said:
Oh, you really think it’s that simple? Lets apply some conspiracy theorist logic and find what connections come up.
Harold Holt was lost in the surf. In the mid to late 1960’s, “Surf Rock” was popular. It was lead by the Beach Boys. But wait… where was the last place Holt was seen? A beach! Now we have two connections! Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys had hung out with Charlie Manson. Now we’ve got the Manson family and the record companies involved!
But there’s more. Holt – what does it mean? It’s German for “Wood.” Where does wood come from? Trees. Trees grow in forests. Forrest Gump was played by Tom Hanks! Tom Hanks was in Apollo 13. Now we’ve found a connection to NASA and the Apollo program.
But wait, there’s more. Tom Hanks was in the movie with Kevin Bacon! As we all know, all groups and individuals can be connected back to Kevin Bacon.
But there’s more. Bacon. Bacon comes from pigs. Jews won’t eat pigs!
But there’s more. Pig is a disrespectful term for police officer. It was coined by the Black Panthers. J. Edgar Hoover was very concerned about the black Panthers and monitored their activity. Now we’ve got the FBI involved.
But there’s more. Hoover. Hoover is one of the world’s largest manufacturers of vacuum cleaners. Space is a vacuum! Now we’re back to the space program! Amazing, these groups are linked every which way in a tangled web of conspiracy.
But there’s more… Lets go back to the start…
Harold Holt was the Prime Minister
Lets break this down further and find the connections.
Prime – it can mean first or it can mean the derivative of.
Minister – it can mean a preacher or religious leader.
But lets apply some basic logic here. If Holt means wood, then there’s a problem here. He wasn’t found floating on the water! Wood floats! How can we resolve this? We need to ask a basic question: When does wood not float. The answer to this is as shocking as it is obvious. Wood does not float when it is water logged.
Logged! LOG! Log is a type of function. The inverse square law is a logarithmic relationship. So now we need to go back to prime.
What is the first derivative of the log? We don’t know because we don’t know what the log is of. What is the number the function is applied to? I don’t know, but clearly there is a minister somewhere who does! We need to find that minister
Quote Comment
June 4th, 2010 at 9:45 pm
In keeping with Doc’s last post…
“How do you know she’s made of wood?”
“Build a bridge out of ‘er!”
Quote Comment
June 4th, 2010 at 9:50 pm
Ah, but can you not also build a bridge out of stone?
Quote Comment
June 5th, 2010 at 5:41 am
Getting back to the point, so you’re saying that if Holt weighed as much as a duck, then he was a witch, and somebody burned him.
Ah … it’s so simple. How could anybody not have seen it?
Quote Comment
June 5th, 2010 at 4:00 pm
BMS said:
Not just “somebody” but the Hoover Vacuum Cleaner company, NASA, the Freemasons and the government of Uzbekistan. Look at all the evidence. Start making connections! It makes so much sense, it’s insane!
Quote Comment
June 5th, 2010 at 6:15 pm
Doc must be a Discordian.
Quote Comment
June 15th, 2010 at 8:13 pm
[...] someone sent me an email asking me “Do you really believe Oswald killed Kennedy?” This is probably due to the recent post I made about the assassination. I have to admit that I’m not really an expert on the topic, but I have always been [...]
Quote Comment