Articles-The Second Oswald: the Case for a Conspiracy Theory

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all through its work. The Com- and most of the staff were en who had insufficient time to do their task. The Commission investigative staff of its own, few overworked lawyers in a short time had to interview and hundreds of witnesses. The Com- was inundated with so many sorts that no one person had master them all. The pressure quick report made careful delib- of the problems and issues al-possible. Finally, the Report written and rewritten and rewrit-aste, with evidence marshalled, esided manner, to make a law-riel for the "official" theory. We staff member, Liebeler, wrote my-six-page critique, showing in the holes in this case, holes did have given a lawyer for the a field day, and that have been ground for the critics.

it's account no longer allows reputation of the Commission take up for the deficiencies of art. After Epstein it will be believe the Commission served well. Instead of ending all wars, they set the stage for a more serious era of speculacy have damaged confidence selves and in any public body it undertake to examine facts abilities about the death of Kennedy.

e critics have still failed to set silence for a counter-theory inatie way. (Werberg does so radically.) Not course the single

tions, and affidavits eleven really bulky ones (around 90 pages apiece) contain documents and exhibits. The raw data appear in volumes XVI-XXVI. The documents are not properly indexed or identified. There is an index of witnesses who testified, of the names of documents (e.g. Staneyfelt 6. Commission Exhibit 1215) and where they are introduced in the testimony (and volumes XXII-XXVI contain material not introduced, including some of the most important raw data). The tables of contents are often not very helpful in finding things. And no index is given for the contents of the documents. Too often the documents are reproduced poorly, sometimes illegibly, sometimes incompletely, sometimes redundantly. There is a bewildering collection of junk, as well as the most thorough kind of research of some points, and a great many

sary to actually clean blood or tissue off of the bullet (3:428-29).

WHAT OTHER POSSIBILITY IS THERE? The Commission never seems to have considered the possibility that the bullet was planted. Yet in view of evidence concerning No. 399 it is an entirely reasonable hypothesis that the bullet had never been in a human body, and could have been placed on one of the stretchers. If this possibility had been considered, then the Commission might have realized that some of the evidence might be "take" and could have been deliberately faked. Bullet No. 399 plays a most important role in the case, since it firmly links Oswald's title with the assassination. At the time when the planting could have been done, it was not known if any other ballistics evidence survived the shoot-

ever saw the bag, Frazier and his sister, described a bag around 27-28 inches, whereas the found bag is 38 inches long. Both Frazier and his sister described it by referring to its position when Oswald carried it, its appearance, and where it was located in the car; all these gave results of around 27 inches. (The longest part of Oswald's title, when disassembled, is 34.8 inches.) Oswald is described as first carrying the bag with his arm down, and not dragging it on the ground; later he is said to have carried it cupped in his hand, and tucked in his armpit. Both descriptions are applicable only to a bag approximately 27 inches long. (If Oswald, who was five foot nine, had carried a 38-inch bag cupped in his hand, it would have extended above his shoulder to ear level, a length that Frazier might have been expected to remember.) Despite serious efforts to get Frazier and his sister to change their estimate of the bag's size, they stood fast; and when one of them made a bag for the Commission that was supposed to approximate the original, it turned out to be about 27 inches long (24:408). The Commission nonetheless decided Frazier and his sister were correct about seeing Oswald with the bag, but incorrect in their description of it.

A further fact is that on the night of the 22nd, when Frazier first described the bag and estimated its size (about 2 feet), he was given a lie detector test which showed "conclusively that Wesley Frazier was truthful, and the facts stated by Frazier in his affidavit were true" (24:293). When Oswald entered the building, no one saw him with the