Oswald's Jail Phone Calls:
the return of the phantom call
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the return of the phantom call
One reason I don’t ask for subscription fee is that I would then feel obliged to churn out articles on a regular basis. At the point that this happens, it becomes content filler, produced under “contractual obligations”.
That’s not me.
I have a chaotic life. I work at a chaotic desk. My research materials are in a chaotic state. I write these articles when the time, the mood, and the right story cross paths.
Which is all by way of explaining why you might not see anything from me for a month or two, and then suddenly, two articles in two days.
So, this article comes about because, as the name says, the Phantom Phone Call has reared its misconstrued head again, here and at the deliriously self-flatulating* JFK Education Forum.
I am not going to do a review of what has been written, or name names. Despite regularly criticizing this person’s work, I do actually like and admire him. It’s just his penchant for weaving conspiracy into every nook and cranny of the case while ignoring simple explanations that drives me nuts.
What follows is simply what the records reflect, and my own conclusions from those facts.
Saturday at around 1:40pm, Oswald tries unsuccessfully to contact Abt. (per jailer Eaves)
Oswald makes a local call straight after the above failed attempt (per jailer Beddingfield)
Oswald makes another unsuccessful attempt to reach Abt at around 4:22pm, and upon request, is given a scrap of paper and pencil to write down the contact numbers for future attempts
Oswald makes another call at about 8pm. This was connected and lasted about a half an hour.
From the testimony of Ruth Paine
Mrs. PAINE – Always. Then about 3:30 or 4 I got a telephone call.
Mr. JENNER – The phone rang?
Mrs. PAINE – The phone rang; I answered it.
Mr. JENNER – Did you recognize the voice?
Mrs. PAINE – I recognized the voice but I don’t recall what he said?
Mr. JENNER – What did the voice say?
Mrs. PAINE – The voice said: “This is Lee.”—
Mrs. PAINE – I really call the first two one, but it was twice dialed.
Mr. JENNER – Fix the time, please.
Mrs. PAINE – It was around 9:30 in the evening.Mrs. PAINE – I said, “Well, Hi.” And he said he wanted to ask me to call Mr. John Abt in New York for him after 6 p.m. He gave me a telephone number of an office in New York and a residence in New York.
Mr. JENNER – Two telephone numbers he gave you?
Mrs. PAINE – Yes.
Mr. JENNER – One office and one residence of Mr. John Abt. Did he say who Mr. John Abt was?
Mrs. PAINE – He said he was an attorney he wanted to have—
Mrs. PAINE – I really call the first two one, but it was twice dialed.
Mr. JENNER – Fix the time, please.
Mrs. PAINE – It was around 9:30 in the evening.
So… according to Ruth, she got two calls from Oswald – the first around 4pm and the second at 9:30pm.
Yet according to Beddingfield, Oswald made a local call before 2pm after his 1:40 attempt to get Abt. Beddingfield has to be mistaken. Oswald got Abt’s contact numbers to pass on to Ruth after the 4:22pm attempt to get Abt.
Now, on the face of it, we have a mystery call at 8pm and an undocumented call to Ruth at 9:30pm.
This is how false mysteries are created – by accepting all evidence as equal and as accurate.
The first clue is that there is zero indication that this 8pm call was a collect call to another state. Someone was simply mistaken in their timing – either Ruth Paine by claiming 9:30 – or Lt Lord who said he started the ball rolling at 8pm for another call, and jailer Popplewell who confirmed Lord. On balance, it looks like Ruth was out in her timing. Either way, there was no call to NY at 8:00 pm – the number for the Communist paper was just another option to get to Abt.
Note that Popplewell states at the end of his affidavit that “The telephone sheet is used for writing names of prisoners who use the phone, but due to the large volume of prisoners that weekend, it was possible I forgot to write Oswald’s name down on the record sheet, I have been unable to locate a sheet with his name on it.
Imagine that? a full-to-the-brim jail and only the phone record of the main guy is missing. Make of that what you will. My best guess is it was “souvenired”. Scraps of alleged Oswald detritus – mainly just scraps of paper bearing his name were being either pocketed from trash bins and kept, or sold like a semi-valuable baseball card. And some of that was faked!
I will reveal why he wanted Abt in the rewrite of my book.
*Back at the start, I described the Education Forum as “deliriously self-flatulating”.
The Urban Dictionary gives the following definition of “self-flatulating”
The act of farting in bed and pulling the covers over your head to see if you can gag yourself. A form of self-mutilation but limited to nasal passages.
That is the essence of the Education Forum experience. It is not for first-time gaggers.
Hey Greg, good post. I noticed on the jail card snapshot you provided Oswald’s address is given as “1026 No Beckley.” If I remember from the ROKC Forum correctly you believe Lee didn’t actually live there, though; it was an H. Lee in room 0. Why do you think the Dallas police put that on the card then? Who gave them that address if it wasn’t Oswald?
The daughter of the owners of the boarding house had a photography shop across the road from the TT. She witnessed the arrest and thought she recognised the arrestee as one of the house guests. She phoned a family friend who happened to be a Lt in the police reserves. If she recalled the guy’s name at all, it would have been “Lee”.
Fritz later testified
Mr. FRITZ. When I started to talk to this prisoner or maybe just before I started to talk to him, some officer told me outside of my office that he had a room on Beckley, I don’t know who that officer was, I think we can find out, I have since I have talked to you this morning I have talked to Lieutenant Baker and he says I know maybe who that officer was, but I am not sure yet.
Of course, he never got back to them with a name – meanwhile the Johnson’s who eventually knew they were mistaking Leon Lee for Oswald, would start telling everyone that the police found the address on Oswald. They also destroyed their books.
No one could afford the lie to be exposed.
ADDENDUM TO THE MAIN ARTICLE
The 8pm call to Ruth Paine was the last call by Oswald. He would not have called her at 9:30 as she claimed because she was an early to bed type. There are no other notes on his jail card about any calls after 8. The so-called Raileigh call later that night was by a drunk who had made similar calls in big cases. But that does not suit the Giant Conspiracy Modulator. so it is dismissed. It’s like some people think Lee had carte blanche use of the friggin phone to call anyone, anytime. No. He was given use of if to secure a lawyer, That’s it And every call, except the 8 pm one trying to find Marina, was for that singular purpose. The Dallas Police were happy for him to chase a NY Commie lawyer, It suited their narrative. And there may have been someone in that building who knew it wouldn’t happened (Prof Chuck Webster who had ties to the Communist Party – most likely of the FBI kind). Webster was there advising on federal laws. It was the attempt to get Abt that mattered, not actually getting him.
Where was LHO living instead of Beckley? And where did the DPD acquire all those belongings of his they said they found in “his” alleged Beckley rooming house room? We’re they actually from the Paine house? I know you determined he didn’t actually live there, it was O.H. Lee… but don’t know the rest of the story. Not questioning your research on that. Was he actually living at Paine House ? The YMCA? The Neches address? (BTW… sometime when you have time, what do you think was going on with that address & the pkg to that address?!) Thanks!
Oops…Were not we’re…
He gave everyone, including the cops, the Paine address as where he lived. There is a witness who has him there one Wednesday. Frazier was also allegedly asked on Friday morning by another worker from the2nd warehouse where he parked, “Where’s your rider?” Why ask that on a Friday morning if he didn’t ride to work with him every morning? If he was getting a bus from Beckley, why was there no interview with the driver or regular passengers? He may have got on the bus and tell people how great communism was – or he may have displayed unusual behaviors – any information at all from people who rode that bus might have been very helpful. But no investigation whatsoever.
As for the evidence out of the room – I have to agree with Ed leDoux’s theory, but I am not sure if he made it public so I am not going to spell it out here in case it’s something he wants under wraps. Let me just say though, that it makes perfect sense and accounts for every anomaly. Put another way – that issue – in fact no issues around any of this have been ignored. They are ALL covered.
Thanks, Greg! Great point about the Houston warehouse worker on that Fri yelling out “Where’s your rider” – had he not normally been seen riding with him on Friday and everyday. And excellent point about the Beckley Bus driver & passengers not being interviewed! Really looking fwd to hearing Ed’s theory about Oswald’s alleged “Beckley” belongings! 🙂 If he’s not writing a book, would be great if he’d go on That’s Enough Outta You or Rob Clark’s podcast etc, to talk about it.
I guess if you had the time you could explain away why the single bullet theory or the autopsy results aren’t complete bullshit.
And Ruth Paine is a CIA stooge. Just what the Warren commission was focused on for their “report” which was actually only a public relations exercise. Or more accurately described as bullshit.
Just like you might figure out if you have the time, that not everything that is said or written on this case is bullshit, just like not everything that is said or written about is is factual. That holds for all sides of the debate.
I have no interest in the SBT, nor the expertise to develop any interest in it, Furthermore, it is an argument that has not led anywhere. It has become a matter of faith for warring cults – LN vs CT. I’m not part of that shitty, phony war.
I would not argue that the WCR was a public relations exercise. If you think I am some kind of WC apologist just because I tore down the argument about an alleged call to the CPUSA newspaper, you’re dead wrong. I tear down bullshit arguments no matter which side they came from. Again – not part of a cult that feels obliged to accept all anti government/anti WC arguments.
As for Ruth Paine – few have done the work I have done on her and her family background. Unfortunately, she was never asked the right questions by the WC, FBI or by any researcher or author, and it is now too late.
Lastly, if you had read my book, you would know that I was the one who discovered EEXACTLY what her sister did for the CIA.
The truth is there is no debate. There is no way whatsoever one person did it. How come there are HOURS missing from the Air Force One tapes? That’s a fact. If the government officially investigates the Air Force One tapes, they will have to be accountable to that fact.
No. That’s just you declaring yourself the winner of the debate based on your opinions of the case. To deny there is a debate is to deny reality.
If you had said the debate from the lone nut side has no merit, I wouldn’t disagree.
Again though, I’m not personally interested in the air force tapes, even though it may be a worthwhile pursuit. The case is too big for one person to chase down every single item.
If you want to pursue it, suggest you get in touch with Bill Kelly.
Check out Ed Primeau’s forensic breakdown of the tapes.
Lone Nut Buffs are the one’s denying reality. Or they are the Establishment’s whore – Litwin and Posner are perfect examples.
You can have the last word and declare yourself the winner.