The Taking of Marina Oswald: 1, 2, 3
by Ralph C. Cinque
Do you doubt that Law Enforcement knew, before the jail transfer, that Oswald was going to die that Sunday morning? Well, I can prove to you that they knew. Not only did the Dallas Police and the FBI know, but the Secret Service knew too.
What proves it is that they started to take control and custody of Marina Oswald on Friday evening. You recall how furious Oswald got when he found out that the FBI had gone out to Irving to talk to Marina. So, how would he have reacted if he knew that they took possession of her?
And remember that we have “spousal privilege” in this country, where the wife of a defendant doesn’t have to answer questions about what her husband said and cannot be forced to testify against him. Marina was NOT under suspicion for any criminality herself. And law enforcement could not grab her so long as Oswald was alive- and they knew it.
So, what they did, instead of grabbing her, is have LIFE magazine reporters grab her and wrest her away from Ruth Paine- and while Oswald was still alive.
It started on Friday evening when reporter Tommy Thompson and photographer Allen Grant went to the Paine house in Irving and were allowed in. That’s amazing in itself because we were told that right away Dallas Police were guarding the Paine house, which they guarded all night. So, how were strangers able to waltz up to the front door?
But, Michael Paine graciously let them in, and they all talked. Then, Thompson and Grant offered to take Marina to the DPD to visit Oswald. Keep in mind that she had just gotten back from the DPD where she signed an affidavit (which someone typed in English, which she couldn’t read, but she signed it anyway) and she answered questions, and supposedly, she identified the Carcano rifle as belonging to Oswald. So, why didn’t she demand to see her husband then?
Thompson and Grant offered to take Marina back to the DPD that very night, but she said it was too late, and it would be better to go the next day.
So, they showed up the next morning to get her, and also her children and Marguerite. And what they did was take them to their hotel downtown, the Adolphus Hotel, where many of the press were staying. I think they ordered food for them. Then Robert Oswald showed up. Then, they had phone contact with Fritz, and he told them where to go and what time they could visit Oswald. Then, they went and had their visit with Oswald, but there are varying reports about what time it occurred. And then, Thompson and Allen took them back to the Adolphus Hotel.
And that’s where it got downright freaky because Allen said, in his narrative, that it was decided that the Adolphus Hotel was so crowded with reporters that it would be better if they took them to a hotel on the outskirts of town.
WHAT THE MOTHER-FOLK????? WHY NOT JUST TAKE MARINA HOME? She had a home. She lived with Ruth Paine. Who picks someone up from their home for some outing and then, without a word, takes them to a hotel? And how does someone narrate it without explaining why he didn’t just take Marina home? And how is it that the whole country just accepted his narrative, as if there was nothing wrong with him picking her up from home and then planting her in a hotel?
So, the Oswalds spent the night at the Executive Inn, but not Thompson and Grant. After getting the Oswalds settled, they said goodbye to them and left. But, what were they thinking? What was supposed to happen the next morning? Marina didn’t have a car. How was she supposed to get back home to Ruth Paine’s house in Irving?
Blank out. No answer. No explanation. What happened is that the Secret Service guarded the hotel the whole night and then just took over the next morning. And I mean early the next morning, before Oswald was shot, and long before he was declared dead. So, they showed up, and they got the Oswalds some food, and then they took them to Chief Burry’s house. The only thing that was said about Ruth Paine’s house is that Marina needed some articles and belongings from there, so someone went and got them.
When exactly was Oswald shot in the midst of this? That’s hazy. Marina said one thing. Marguerite said something else. And the Secret Service agents had their versions. Marina’s account was that on the way to Chief Burry’s house, a Secret Service agent informed her that Oswald had been shot. This is from her WC testimony:
“I remember that in route, in the car, Mike Howard or Charley Kunkel said that Lee had been shot. At first he said that it wasn’t serious–perhaps just not to frighten me. I was told that he had been taken to a hospital, and then I was told that he had been seriously wounded. Then they had to telephone somewhere. They stopped at the house of the Chief of Police, Curry. From there, I telephone Ruth to tell her that I wanted to take several things which I needed with me, and asked her to prepare them. And that there was a wallet with money and Lee’s ring. Soon after that–Robert was no longer with me, but Gregory was there, and the mother, and the Secret Service agents. They said that Lee had died. After that, we went to the Motel Inn, the Six Flags Inn, where I stayed for several days–perhaps two weeks–I don’t know.”
They were threading a needle because without Oswald being dead, it’s outrageous what they did- kidnapping his wife. So, they tried to make it look like they didn’t cross the line until after he was at least shot, if not dead. But, that’s a lie because they had her in their clutches the night before Oswald was shot. She was totally in their clutches at the Executive Inn. And they never intended to return her to Ruth Paine’s house. She was done with that. She was completely under their control long before Oswald was shot.
But, the point is that they knew he was going to be shot. If you try to deny it, then what was the point of putting her up at the Executive Inn? That puts us back to wondering why the Thompson and Grant didn’t just take her home to Irving.
Henry Luce, the owner of LIFE magazine, had very close ties to the CIA. At Yale, he was in Skull and Bones. He and Allen Dulles were close personal friends. It’s apparent that someone at the CIA, perhaps Dulles, went to Luce and requested help from him to facilitate the taking of Marina Oswald prior to Oswald’s death. And I’m not saying he informed him that they were going to kill Oswald. They did it in a three-step process. First, a LIFE reporter and photo-journalist extracted Marina from Ruth Paine’s house and set her up in a hotel before the Secret Service took over. The Secret Service taking control of her was Step 2. Then planting her at the Inn of the Six Flags was Step 3.
But, what matters to me is that this confirms that they knew, very well, that Oswald was soon going to die. And that can only mean that they were going to kill him.
Remember that the official story was that Ruby, like Oswald, was a lone gunman with no conspirators. So, how could the Secret Service know he was going to do it? They couldn’t. But, they sure as hell knew that Oswald was going to die, which means that Ruby didn’t kill Oswald. Law enforcement killed him: the Dallas Police, the FBI, and even the Secret Service was in on it, not only by kidnapping Marina Oswald the night before, but having SS agent Forest Sorrel mind Ruby while the Spectacle went down. You recall I said that the Dallas Police had Ruby in custody upstairs BEFORE the televised spectacle went down. But, the detectives who pounced on Ruby in advance of it were needed for the Spectacle. So, SS Agent Sorrels minded Ruby while they went off to do it.
No one can deny that the Secret Service nabbed Marina Oswald before Oswald was killed, which proves that they knew he was going to be killed. And that means that they had to be involved in killing him. And, it means that Jack Ruby was innocent.
Now that you have read this, you should read Allen Grant’s account of what he and Tommy Thompson did. In light of what I’ve told you, I’m sure you’ll find it chilling.