# Why was Oswald a suspect so soon after the shooting? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 18, 2014, 6:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-oswald-a-suspect-so-soon-after-the-shooting/701661 "2014-10-18T06:03:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2014, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-oswald-a-suspect-so-soon-after-the-shooting/701661/41 "2014-10-20T19:18:33Z")
Oswald didn’t have a driver’s license, and I don’t believe he was ever known to drive a car. Plus you can’t rely on finding a car sitting around with the keys in it when you want one. Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2014, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-oswald-a-suspect-so-soon-after-the-shooting/701661/42 "2014-10-20T19:28:08Z")
> [@BobLibDem](#): > > I guess if I was Oswald I would have found a car to steal right after the shooting. One wonders what his plan was- what did he plan to do when the movie was over? I think it’s been established, if only inferentially, that he didn’t have a plan. He certainly didn’t follow anything like a course of action that would have kept him from being identified and found pretty quickly. So, exercise for the non-CT student: Given all known points and the reality of 11/63, what coverup/escape plan could our lone nut have made that might have kept him from being identified as the assassin and arrested? Even running to Mexico and Cuba and perhaps the USSR again might not have been enough, had he been identified. The US would have used all means to get him back. ---
**Author:** ![Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a587f6/32.png) [@Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freddy_the_Pig)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2014, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-oswald-a-suspect-so-soon-after-the-shooting/701661/43 "2014-10-20T19:31:07Z")
> [@nevadaexile](#): > > Oswald was stopped on the stairs by a Dallas police officer but he was cleared by his supervisor. He then left the building shortly before it was locked own. When a headcount was performed after it was surmised that the Texas Book Depository was the probable sniping location, the only employee missing was Lee Harvey Oswald. > [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#): > > There were not many employees… I want to say a dozen, it might have been two. In fact there were 70 employees at work that day. But, when superintendent Truly told the police that Oswald was missing, he didn’t mean that he had accounted for all of the other 69. He meant only that Oswald was the only employee that he _knew_ had been present at the time of the shooting and then left. He knew and remembered that Oswald has been in the building, because Truly and a police officer had encountered Oswald on the stairs when first searching the building within two minutes of the assassination. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2014, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-oswald-a-suspect-so-soon-after-the-shooting/701661/44 "2014-10-20T20:13:07Z")
> [@RivkahChaya](#): > > Jim Garrison couldn’t seem to figure out that gay people in the 1960s might have an underground culture because, you know, gay, in the early 1960s, and when he found one, he somehow jumped to the conclusion that it must be some kind of criminal conspiracy, and since Oswald had been in New Orleans trying to set up his Fair Play for Cuba group (unsuccessfully), well, that must be what the gay underground was for, and therefore, there was a whole conspiracy to kill the president that originated in New Orleans long before Oswald moved to Dallas-- which, OMG! he did specifically to assassinate Kennedy! Yeah! that makes total sense! > > I think Garrison could have used a little Thorazine. > > Yes, I actually slogged through his awful book. I wonder why Oliver Stone’s movie didn’t include Garrison’s appearance with Johnny Carson on _ **Tonight** _. It would have been hilarious! ---
**Author:** ![PSXer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/48db29/32.png) [@PSXer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PSXer)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2014, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-oswald-a-suspect-so-soon-after-the-shooting/701661/45 "2014-10-20T20:47:23Z")
he was taking driving lessons from Ruth Paine in 1963 before the shooting maybe he was plotting his getaway ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2014, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-oswald-a-suspect-so-soon-after-the-shooting/701661/46 "2014-10-20T22:18:17Z")
> [@Dizzlaxia](#): > > His girlfreind was shot with a gun through a door that he confessed to and no one else was in that facinity For a drive-by poster he/she put a lot of thought into making a Stuff-of-Legends username / first post combo. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2014, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-oswald-a-suspect-so-soon-after-the-shooting/701661/47 "2014-10-20T22:22:46Z")
Pretending to be an innocent Bookstore Depository employee wouldn’t have worked for very long. The cops would have quickly discovered his history of defecting to the Russians and his support of Castro. He would have been their prime suspect. Talking off right after the shooting just made him the prime suspect even quicker. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2014, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-oswald-a-suspect-so-soon-after-the-shooting/701661/48 "2014-10-20T23:08:35Z")
> [@Freddy\_the\_Pig](#): > > In fact there were 70 employees at work that day. But, when superintendent Truly told the police that Oswald was missing, he didn’t mean that he had accounted for all of the other 69. He meant only that Oswald was the only employee that he _knew_ had been present at the time of the shooting and then left. He knew and remembered that Oswald has been in the building, because Truly and a police officer had encountered Oswald on the stairs when first searching the building within two minutes of the assassination. In just the short time he’d been working there I’d wager he was on the minds of the employees and managers there as soon they heard there’d been a gunman in the building. The FBI was certainly aware that he was in Dallas, and they would have been after him in a short time anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Moriarty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moriarty/32/49_2.png) [@Moriarty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moriarty)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2014, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-oswald-a-suspect-so-soon-after-the-shooting/701661/49 "2014-10-21T00:38:56Z")
> [@PSXer](#): > > he was taking driving lessons from Ruth Paine in 1963 before the shooting > > maybe he was plotting his getaway If you believe [this](http://jfkassassination.net/russ/testimony/bogard.htm) guy, then he also test drove a car a few weeks prior to the shooting. But, Oswald left the bulk of his money with Marina, his wife, on the morning of the assassination. He had a little less than $14 on him when arrested. So, I think it’s clear that he didn’t have any elaborate escape plan in place. At best, maybe he was hoping to get a bus ticket out of town. I suspect he knew he wasn’t going to get away, but anticipated a huge trial that would make him famous. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2014, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-oswald-a-suspect-so-soon-after-the-shooting/701661/50 "2014-10-21T01:26:52Z")
LHO apparently didn’t think too much about what happens after the trigger pull. Unless his idea really was simply to become famous at trial and maybe persuade America to love Cuba through the compelling force of his testimony. My question / hijack is whether any other Presidential attackers, successful or otherwise, seem to have had much of a plan to escape? Or did they all view it as LHO seems to have: effectively a suicide mission, pretty much guaranteed to end in their death or capture within a few days followed by life imprisonment? Clearly anybody who takes on the task of assassinating a President has to realize that he/she is up against some fairly serious security. And that if they’re successful, or even make a good attempt (e.g. Hinckley & Reagan, etc.) there’s going to be a lot of resources put into the manhunt. Yeah they’re nuts, but not 100% divorced from reality or they wouldn’t get as far as they did. ---
**Author:** ![Lucas\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lucas_jackson/32/303_2.png) [@Lucas\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucas_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2014, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-oswald-a-suspect-so-soon-after-the-shooting/701661/51 "2014-10-21T01:50:04Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > My question / hijack is whether any other Presidential attackers, successful or otherwise, seem to have had much of a plan to escape? Or did they all view it as LHO seems to have: effectively a suicide mission, pretty much guaranteed to end in their death or capture within a few days followed by life imprisonment? > > Clearly anybody who takes on the task of assassinating a President has to realize that he/she is up against some fairly serious security. And that if they’re successful, or even make a good attempt (e.g. Hinckley & Reagan, etc.) there’s going to be a lot of resources put into the manhunt. Yeah they’re nuts, but not 100% divorced from reality or they wouldn’t get as far as they did. I think that’s only true because to actually go through with the attempt you have to be a kook. An intelligent person could probably make a good run of it. I’ve never thought about killing anyone, much less a president, but if I did I wouldn’t brag/tell anyone about it. Not being a known nut, I could probably pull off a getaway after a long range attempt. Sure they’d be on it, but I could probably make a good run if I planned it right. But then, I’m smart enough to know I shouldn’t even think it - much less try it. ---
**Author:** ![Duke\_of\_York](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f6c823/32.png) [@Duke\_of\_York](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duke_of_York)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2014, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-oswald-a-suspect-so-soon-after-the-shooting/701661/52 "2014-10-21T02:23:46Z")
What did he do with the clothes he was wearing at the time of the shooting? Was there GSR on them? Were they tested? A positive result would convince any doubters,… or possibly not. ---
**Author:** ![Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a587f6/32.png) [@Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freddy_the_Pig)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2014, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-oswald-a-suspect-so-soon-after-the-shooting/701661/53 "2014-10-21T02:26:30Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > My question / hijack is whether any other Presidential attackers, successful or otherwise, seem to have had much of a plan to escape? Or did they all view it as LHO seems to have: effectively a suicide mission, pretty much guaranteed to end in their death or capture within a few days followed by life imprisonment? Booth had a plan of escape, and succeeded at least in the short run. The Garfield, McKinley, Ford, and Reagan shooters all shot with handguns in crowds where escape was not even worth thinking about. ---
**Author:** ![desertmonk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/898d66/32.png) [@desertmonk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/desertmonk)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2014, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-oswald-a-suspect-so-soon-after-the-shooting/701661/54 "2014-10-21T03:52:10Z")
LHO would have been executed (assuming conviction), right? ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2014, 9:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-oswald-a-suspect-so-soon-after-the-shooting/701661/55 "2014-10-21T09:36:38Z")
> [@desertmonk](#): > > LHO would have been executed (assuming conviction), right? Undoubtedly. Killing a president was not a federal crime as of November 1963, so Oswald would have been tried under Texas state law in Dallas county on the charge of murder and the state would almost certainly have sought the death penalty. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2014, 12:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-oswald-a-suspect-so-soon-after-the-shooting/701661/56 "2014-10-21T12:59:55Z")
That’s always bugged me. There was no applicable federal murder rap, at all? ---
**Author:** ![dba\_Fred](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c37758/32.png) [@dba\_Fred](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dba_Fred)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2014, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-oswald-a-suspect-so-soon-after-the-shooting/701661/57 "2014-10-21T13:41:19Z")
> [@Dizzlaxia](#): > > His girlfreind was shot with a gun through a door that he confessed to and no one else was in that facinity _**And no one heard at all Not even the chair.**_ ---
**Author:** ![Drunky\_Smurf](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drunky_smurf/32/449_2.png) [@Drunky\_Smurf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drunky_Smurf)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2014, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-oswald-a-suspect-so-soon-after-the-shooting/701661/58 "2014-10-21T16:39:16Z")
> [@Dizzlaxia](#): > > His girlfreind was shot with a gun through a door that he confessed to and no one else was in that facinity You’re thinking of Oscar Pistorius ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2014, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-oswald-a-suspect-so-soon-after-the-shooting/701661/59 "2014-10-21T16:45:41Z")
Oscar Pistorius shot JFK? Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![42fish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/4/b487fb/32.png) [@42fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/42fish)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2014, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-oswald-a-suspect-so-soon-after-the-shooting/701661/60 "2014-10-21T19:21:14Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > Oscar Pistorius shot JFK? Of course. After the shooting, he took off the artificial legs, hid them in one box, and hid himself inside another box in the Book Depository until the coast was clear. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-oswald-a-suspect-so-soon-after-the-shooting/701661.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-oswald-a-suspect-so-soon-after-the-shooting/701661.md?page=4)