LEE HARVEY OSWALD NEVER BOUGHT A MAIL-ORDER RIFLE: Steven Gaal Explains

 THIS ESSAY BY STEVEN GAAL REVEALS HOW LEE OSWALD WAS FRAMED AS THE 'OWNER' OF A RIFLE HE NEVER ORDERED

(As posted at The Education Forum in rebuttal to Warren Commission defenders)
Purchasing the Rifle
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It has long been held that a key piece of evidence in the guilt of Lee Oswald is documentation that he bought a Mannlicher-Carcano rifle and the .38

YES, '7.65 mm MAUSER' HAS BEEN STAMPED on some Mausers!

pistol. In his possessions was a found a receipt dated March 12, for the money order he allegedly used to purchase the rifle (no receipts were ever found for the pistol in his belongings). The purchase amount was $21.45. This was for one rifle with a four power scope, but no clip or bullets. The letter had a postmark of 10:30 AM. So, Oswald had a window of 8:30 AM to 10:30 AM to purchase the money order and mail it off.

One important fact to remember is Oswald’s post office box was authorized for his name only. He ordered everything under his alias, A. Hidell. Any piece of mail coming to his box with the alias would be marked “addressee unknown, return to sender.” Keep this in mind for as we shall see later, the box plays an important role in Oswald’s acquiring of the weapons.

NO 'HIDELL' ON LEE'S P O BOX IN DALLAS

Another hitch is that Oswald’s work records show he was employed that morning at Jaggars-Chiles-Stovell with no absences. The nearest post office was 11 blocks away. A long walk back and forth for a man with no car. Even more curious is the postmark date has zone 12 listed on it. Zone 12 was roughly two miles away in downtown Dallas. Since it was established that the money order was purchased in zone 3, who would buy a money order at one office and then travel two miles to another one to mail it? Plus, Oswald didn’t have the time even if he had a friend to drive him there and back.
The order arrives at Klein’s Sporting Goods in Chicago the next morning [sent via Airmail: the Warren Commission was told that an overnight train could accomplish this, without mentioning that the order was posted TOO LATE to be collected, sorted and placed on the train that came early enough to make that possible. JVB].   Very good for pre-FedEx days! Kline’s reportedly deposited the money order in its bank account on March 13. However, under closer inspection the money order is missing many of the bank routing stamps which would show its path through the banking system. Only the endorsement stamp of Klein’s is there; it’s missing the stamps from the First National Bank of Chicago, the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, and finally, the Federal Postal Money Order Center in Kansas City. None of those three routing stamps are on the back of the money order. The stamps have to be there to show that each bank pays only once, if not you have a mess on your hands. Other money orders that Oswald bought, such as the ones he used to pay off his State Dept. loan, all have these routing stamps. So this is most unusual and never investigated by the Warren Commission, the FBI, or any other agency. It certainly gives weight to the idea that Oswald’s payment never made it through the banking system.
One problem with the case and which is largely ignored, was in the spring of 1963 Klein’s was only selling the 36” model of the Mannlicher-Carcano.  This is clearly shown in ads they had running in various sporting magazines.  The rifle found on the sixth floor near the sniper’s nest was the 40” model.  Kline’s was not selling that model in March of 1963.
Adding to that, the FBI went through Klein’s microfilm records and found no sale of a Mannlicher-Carcano with a serial number of C2766 for March of 1963 or any month in that year.  They went back a year and never found one sold with that matching serial number in 1962 either.  It seems to have disappeared from the inventory.
However, there are several accounting records with the amount of $21.45 listed.  One entry is for March, 1963, but another for February 15th.  One is listed under the heading, “checks.”  But checks are a different type of financial instrument than a money order and should not be listed under that heading.  There is also a listing for “other banks” but what banks are those?  There is no serial numbers identified for the amount of $21.45.  It could be C2766 or somebody else’s order.  It should be noted that Klein’s went out of business in 1973 and its remaining financial records were destroyed.  Also, many accounting records on microfilm disappeared while in FBI custody (Armstrong, p.475).
What is known is Klein’s received a shipment of rifles (carton #3766) and Mannlicher-Carcano, C2766, in that shipment.  Also, it was stated by Louis Feldsott, President of Crescent Firearms (wholesaler) in a sworn affidavit to the Warren Commission that he found a record of a sale of a Mannlicher-Carcano, C2766 to Klein’s Sporting Goods, Inc., for June 18, 1962.

Affidavit of Louis Feldsott, President of Crescent Firearms.
June of 1962 is an important date.  It’s the same month Oswald, his wife and child, traveled back to the USA from the Soviet Union.  His DOD ID card expires that year (sidebar–his mother’s tax returns are sealed from 1956, ending in 1962.).  Apparently, one must conclude that somebody created false paperwork to connect Oswald to the

back of money order

rifle, from Klein’s Sporting Goods accounting to bogus money order missing it routing track.
(It should be noted the original money order was found in the National Archives by one of the employees there, Robert Jackson.  Jackson was never interviewed by the FBI in regards to how he found it.  How it made it there is unknown.  Oswald’s receipt was found in his personal possessions but that is suspect because of the all the difficulties already mentioned.)
The Controversy With Post Office Delivery
It’s been implied by some researchers, such as John Armstrong (Harvey and Lee) that Oswald’s P. O. Box was authorized for his name only and any mail arriving with another name, in this case his Hidell alias would result in a return to sender.  This makes getting his gun shipment to him problematic to say the least.  The Warren Commission knew this and simply stated in the final report that, “It is not known whether the application for post office box 2915 listed ‘A. Hidell’ was a person entitled to receive mail at this box.”  They had the original application, published in evidence volume 19, page 286.  While it lists Lee Oswald as the applicant there is no authorization for mail under his name only.
There are other issues at play to further complicate this besides the mail box.  [NOTE by JVB: the Warren Commission was told by Holmes, the Postal Inspector, that a note --that there was a package in Lee Oswald's box -- could have been possible, so Oswqald could ask for the rifle, but it would have been illegal to hand over a RIFLE for "Hidell" to Lee Oswald, who could presumably take the rifle for himself.  That fact makes this excuse by the postmaster absurd.].
      One of the postal regulations at the time required that anybody purchasing a firearm had to fill out and sign a 2162 form.  Not only the buyer but the seller as well.  This form was to be kept on file for four years.  This form was never found on either end, from buyer or shipper.  The FBI never requested it and Klein’s never volunteered a copy.  Dallas Postal Inspector Harry Holmes told the Warren Commission that it basically didn’t matter than Oswald could have received the rifle under his alias.  Interestingly, Holmes had been monitoring Oswald’s mail for up to a year since he was receiving subversive materials in the mail (i.e., FPCC and other communist literature) but couldn’t tell the Warren Commission that Oswald had received a package with a gun in it. 
      Why didn’t he know?  Oswald’s box was basically flagged.  Oddly, Holmes apparently never mentioned that Oswald would have to have filled out the aforementioned 2162 form if that were the case.
      All indications are that Oswald did not pick up the rifle package at the Post Office in Dallas.  There is no paperwork to prove it and no witnesses to the fact.
The Smith & Wesson Pistol
If the weirdness with rifle is not enough, enter the .38 caliber pistol that Oswald allegedly used to kill Dallas police officer J. D. Tippet. Sold from Seaport Traders, Oswald [supposedly] took order of a snub nosed Smith &Wesson .38. Before he could order it he would be required under Texas law to get a “certificate of good character” from either the Justice of the Peace or a District Court Judge. This would be hard to do since he was ordering the pistol under his Alek Hidell alias. Imagine applying for a certificate verifying your character using a phony name! Apparently, he never did. The certificate would have to have been shown to the shipper before the firearm was released to the buyer.
Like the Mannlicher-Carcano, there is not a lot of solid documentary proof that Oswald bought the pistol. There is one invoice (#70638) saying the gun was shipped COD via Railway Express Agency to a A. J. Hidell. This particular invoice is a copy--the original was never obtained by the FBI. It also states that it was shipped to his post office box address, which of course can’t be done and was shipped to the REA office for pick-up. The FBI could have checked the bank records of both Seaport Traders and REA but never did.  [Holmes, the Postal Inspector, insinuated that the rifle and the revolver came to the same P.O. Box--JVB]
When a shipment would arrive at REA it was common procedure to send a postcard alerting the buyer the gun had arrived. Once again, since Oswald had a post office box authorized in his name only, he would never have seen the postcard. It would have been marked “returned to sender” like his rifle should have been. Researcher John Armstrong looked into this in great detail and found that a phone call would determine if an order arrived at REA. No ID was required to show up and pay the COD charge and retrieve the package. Anybody could have appeared at the office and paid for the pistol.
There are no receipts of any kind that were found in Oswald’s personal belongings. No invoices, no postcard alerting the arrival of the shipment, no receipt for paying of COD charges...nothing. Oswald obtained a leather holster and bullets for it but no receipts for any of those items either.
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In Summary
Here are the major points covered:
•Post office box address only authorized for his name Lee Oswald. Anything sent with another name (as the rifle allegedly was) would be marked return to sender.
•Money Order not marked with proper routing stamps proving his path through the banking system.
•Work records at Jaggars-Chiles-Stovell show Oswald was employed at the time the MO was allegedly purchased and mailed.
•No finger prints found on the MO or the order coupon.
•MO eventually found in the National Archives in Washington, DC rather than the final resting place in Kansas City, MO.
•No 2162 form ever found from the buyer or the shipper.
•Oswald ordered the 36” model but apparently possessed the 40” model not for sale at Klein’s Sporting Goods at the time of sale.
•Klein's financial records did not list a sale of a rifle with C2766 in March of 1963 but instead, June of 1962–when Oswald could not possibility have ordered it and spent part of that month out of the country.
•No “certificate of good character” acquired for use in receiving the .38 handgun.
•Both the rifle and pistol are different models than the ones he ordered.
How do we resolve all of this?  Evidently, somebody else bought the guns and fabricated a false paper trial linking it all to Oswald.  The missing routing stamps on the back of money order indicate that it was most likely never deposited in Klein’s bank account and even the VP of the company could not verify it was deposited.  Oswald’s work records show he never left work the morning of March 12 when he is supposed to have mailed the order to Klein’s for the rifle.  When means he couldn’t have done it.  In regards to the .38 revolver, that is even more murky and nearly undocumented.  Only one receipt is in existence and it is a copy.  Oswald himself may not have been aware of the set up that was going on behind his back.  If he did he never told a soul.  The guilty man has been framed once again.
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Sources: Newman, John, Oswald and the CIA; Armstrong, John, Harvey and Lee; McKnight, Gerald, Breach of Trust; Warren Commission Report; Douglass, James, JFK and the Unspeakable; www.ctka.net (Probe Magazine article archive); www.history-matters.com [slightly edited for spelling by JVB]  

Edited by Steven Gaal, 26 May 2015 - 11:52 PM.

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LEE HARVEY OSWALD: HE WASN'T A DEADBEAT!

This is what 4905 Magazine St. looked like in 1963. It is the small apartment with overhead sunscreens and the fenced-ij front yard, set back from the road. At the front it is gated, and you can see the white mailbox there for 4905. The big part of the house to which it is attached held 4907 (to the right--note the big white mailbox) and 4909 to the left. Behind it was 4911.
   All four addresses had their own mailboxes (even though Lee used 4907 for mail, he did so to protect his Russian-born wife and child... my critics try to say that Lee had no mailbox of his own. This was not true, though he did not place that address on his correspondence. 4907 was EMPTY until mid-July, when Mr. and Mrs. Eric Rogers moved in. Mrs. Rogers was ill and could do very little. Lee paid Mr. Rogers' utility bill, which went up about 30% after Mr. and Mrs. Rogers moved in. Prior to that, lee used 4907 as a kind of office, as it was vacant (*I have that reference from the Polk Directory).
When Lee left in September, the Rogers' utility bill went in the red by mid-month, and Lee was later accused by the Warren Commission of being a deadbeat for not paying it, even though we know from the Rogers' testimony that they continued to live in the apartment and were still there in 1964 when they were interviewed by the Commission. They obviously had to start paying that utility bill themselves. My critics try to say that Lee never paid the utility bill for thje Rogers and that I have blackened the Rogers' name. Rogers did not get a job until the end of September, when he began working for Meal-a-Minute.
Lee did not use the address of 4907 publicly until he began handing out FPCC Hands Off Cuba flyers at the Trade Mart, as I recall. He was not about to put 4905 on them, where his wife and child lived in that set-back apartment that was all safely fenced in. But from the beginning -- even when vacant-- all mail to the Oswalds came to 4907. This was at the height of the Cold War, and mail from the USSR, The Daily Worker, etc. was coming to that vacant apartment and was not connected in the postman's mind to 4907. Then the Rogers moved in. However, Lee still kept his mail coming to 4907, but obviously, the Rogers needed to have some incentive to keep receiving such mail. Their utility bill got paid and they allowed the mail to come to their address.
This simple arrangement is not believed by my critics. According to them, for some reason unknown to normal people, they insist that all mail to 4905 AND 4907 went ONLY to 4907, the vacant apartment, . When the Warren Commission asked Mr. Rogers about this mail problem. Rogers had this to say: Mr. Liebeler.
You lived right next door to Oswald?
Mr. Rogers.
My apartment was in the front and my window was fight next--near his apartment.
Mr. Liebeler.
You met Oswald and came to know him? Did you ever meet him?
Mr. Rogers.
No; I never met him. He didn't bid the time to anyone.
Mr. Liebeler.
Did you talk to him or anything?
Mr. Rogers.
No; never did.
Mr. Liebeler.
Did you know what his name was?
Mr. Rogers.
Just by mail coming in the box on the front.
Mr. Liebeler.
Did you ever talk to his wife?
Mr. Rogers.
She spoke Russian. She did bid the time of day, that's all, but he didn't. He wouldn't bid the time to no one.
Mr. Liebeler.

Mr. Liebeler.
Now do you remember anybody else that visited Oswald at his apartment?
Mr. Rogers.
Probably at the time they had this--you know--Fair Play for Cuba, something like that. I think they were radio interviewers, I think. Looked like local people. Didn't look like--heard him saying something about wanting to play on radio. That's all."
NOTE THAT ERIC ROGERS KNEW ABOUT "FAIR PLAY FOR CUBA." HOW? At one point Lee plastered some signs all over his porch and Mrs. Garner told him to take them down. But he uses 'radio interviewers' -- plural-- when only one person ever admitted coming to Lee's apartment. He had to ask at Eric Rogers' home, because the only address he had was for 4907.
Later in the same testimony, Eric Rogers says that a mailman 'brought a big package in" for Lee Oswald-- He says it this way:
Mr. Liebeler. Did you ever see any rifle or firearms of any type in his possession at that time?
Mr. Rogers. No; I never. We did see one time some the mailman brought a big package in. I wouldn't say what it was, of course. I guess they checked that through the mail.
Mr. Liebeler. When was that?
Mr. Rogers. It was in the summer, some time before he left, somewhere around that time.
The words "Brought a big package in" sounds like a delivery to the door of the Oswald's, having to go through the fenced-in yard straight to their apartment. Rogers guesses that "they checked that through the mail."
Mr. Rogers accidentally shows that he knows a lot about Lee getting ready to move, for he says this:
Mr. Rogers. He left that following evening. I figured he was moving. I don't know. If he was moving, he was supposed to tell the landlord.
Mr. Liebeler. Did he talk to the landlord about it?
Mr. Rogers.
No; but she knew about it. He didn't talk to her. He didn't talk to nobody. He would give you the money and wouldn't say nothing. He was quiet himself, that's all.
HOW DID MR. ROGERS KNOW THAT LEE DIDN'T TALK TO THE LANDLORD, BUT SHE 'KNEW ABOUT IT'? Any comments?
Marina and Ruth Paine used the 4907 address to writ to each other. All Russian materials came to 4907. The flyers said 4907. Yet it is certain that lee lived at 4905. I contend that he could have had his mail directed to 4905 but did not do so to protect his family. This is also why he placed "4907 Magazine Street" on the Hands Off Cuba flyers..
My critics try to say that all mail came to 4907 anyway and that the utility bill paid for 4907 was really for 4905.
I was there and I hope that common sense will guide you as to the real reason that the utility bill went into the red by the end of September when Lee left. The bill was NOT for BOTH 4907 AND 4905 as these people try to tell you. Lee paid the bill because he was using the vacant apartment as an office. By having the Rogers move in, Lee was able to place '4907' on the flyers without having to use 4905 instead. Lee paid the utility bill at 4907 in May, June, July, August and part of September, even though Eric Rogers said this:
Mr. Liebeler.
When did you move there?
Mr. Rogers.
It was around in the in July, around July.
These people have to prove that the Rogers paid their utility bill for 4907 for at least 2 weeks in July, for all of August, and of course for all of September all the way to July 21, 1964 when Eric Rogers stated that he was still living at 4907. Instead, they insist that Lee Oswald paid on 4905 by paying for the 4907 utility bill. It seems that "anything goes" no matter how absurd, if only it can be used to discredit me. SEE THE ATTACHED STATEMENT THAT LEE OSWALD WAS RESPONSIB LE FOR THE UTILITY BILL AT 4907, EVEN THOUGH THE ROGERS WERE LIVING THERE, AND THAT HE LEFT THE BILL AT 4907 UNPAID IN SEPTEMBER, AND THEREFORE WAS A DEADBEAT, below...
For objecting to this false statement, I am attacked on Facebook and online with posts defending poor old Mr. Rogers as a truth-teller. Sure he was. Just as Kerry Thornley was. Just as Marina Oswald was. Just as Ruth Paine was..
I won't be here forever to defend the truth. Share this. Pass it on! It matters! This is an example pof how facts that prove who lee Oswald really was are being twisted right before our eyes, today, by armchair 'researchers' who basically object to everything I say, but who themselves do nothing to to exonerate that innocent man. They are obstructing justice for our fallen president, and with my last breath, i come against that.
To those of you who read this: SAVE IT, SHARE IT, AND SHOW TO INTELLIGENT PEOPLE.
thank you for whatever you do to spread the truth.
JVB

Comments

Reuel Smith also, what about the statement "he would give you the money.."?

Judyth Baker yes... Lee said he gave the Rogers money for watching out for Marina and his little girl, in that people came to THEM inquiring for Lee, due to THEIR address being printed on the HANDS OFF CUBA flyers. See this: