How many wallets were found that were supposed to belong to LHO?

[Jim Hargrove]

Aw, hell, anyway you slice this thing, it is obviously a set-up. We're just examining the props. To me, by far the two strongest possibilities are that intel-connected Westbrook brought the wallet to 10th and Patton--OR--American-born LEE Oswald dropped it there after shooting Tippit as his final act of framing HARVEY Oswald.

If you want to throw up, read the WFAA web page where it breathlessly announces that the recent DISCOVERY that it was Oswald's wallet at 10th and Patton finally PROVES that Lee Harvey Oswald killed Officer Tippit. Both local and national media are either dumber than a sack of hammers or still on the payroll, and probably both.

[Albert Doyle]

Aw, hell, anyway you slice this thing, it is obviously a set-up. We're just examining the props. To me, by far the two strongest possibilities are that intel-connected Westbrook brought the wallet to 10th and Patton--OR--American-born LEE Oswald dropped it there after shooting Tippit as his final act of framing HARVEY Oswald.

Or Tippit was supposed to pick-up Oswald and when he showed up and saw the CIA framers instead he reacted to the change of game plan by trying to arrest one of them and they shot him and dropped the wallet.


- Or - Tippit was supposed to shoot Oswald and then the above happened instead.

[Drew Phipps]

Had this wallet come from the jacket discovered behind the Texaco station, why wouldn't a DPD report simply say so?

A wallet discovered (where?) in or near a discarded (when?) jacket (whose?) found a few blocks (how far?) from a murder scene wouldn't have near the evidentiary force that a wallet discovered at the scene of the murder, or in the suspect's possession when arrested. It would require some additional circumstantial evidence to give it any probative value. Oswald's or not, the closer it is to the scene of the crime or to/on his person makes it more probative.


My scenario was a "for instance" merely to illuminate the idea that the different wallet stories might be different stories about the same wallet, changed as needed by law enforcement, not as a theory of how the wallet came into DPD's possession. Or how many wallets there were. Or how many Oswalds might be required in Dallas dropping wallets for there to be reports of 5 wallets or so.


I agree that much of the evidence is suspect and untrustworthy. However, in my mind, you can't jump straight from that point, to declaring that it has been forged in advance by conspirators. There appear to be four fundamental things on which we can rely: A wallet was found, which is currently resides in the Archives; television footage shows that wallet in police possession on the day of the assassination; it's not Tippet's wallet (because Tippet's widow still has his); and, there are wildly conflicting accounts from "normally credible witnesses" concerning the discovery of the wallet.


As I have said before, an "After Conspiracy," whose purpose was to pin the tail on Oswald, might be completely unrelated, in goals, methods, or participants, to a "Before Conspiracy." I don't believe that any halfway competent "Before" group would screw up their own frame job by planting multiple wallets in different locations.

[Jim Hargrove]

Had this wallet come from the jacket discovered behind the Texaco station, why wouldn't a DPD report simply say so?

A wallet discovered (where?) in or near a discarded (when?) jacket (whose?) found a few blocks (how far?) from a murder scene wouldn't have near the evidentiary force that a wallet discovered at the scene of the murder, or in the suspect's possession when arrested. It would require some additional circumstantial evidence to give it any probative value. Oswald's or not, the closer it is to the scene of the crime or to/on his person makes it more probative.

But by the same token, a wallet discarded at some unknown time some distance from a murder scene might not lead hard-working, non-conspiratorial local law enforcement officials en masse to the Texas Theater to confront someone who may or may not have been seen entering without buying a ticket.

The Big Picture suggests something quite different. For the previous decade, Lee Harvey Oswald has been shown to be in two different places at once time after time after time. For the few months prior to the assassination, a Lee Harvey Oswald, obviously able to drive a car, has been seen by literally dozens of people in and around Dallas. During the weeks leading up to the assassination, someone "impersonating" Oswald has been making scenes at the Sports Drome Rifle range, seeing gun smiths, visiting tall buildings and asking about the view from the top, driving a car at a dealership saying he will soon come into money, etc. And on the day of the assassination, from the early morning until well after President Kennedy is dead, we have all kinds of evidence suggesting there were two Oswalds, even inside the Texas Theater as one was arrested and the other lead quietly out the back.

The conflicting accounts of the wallets have to be considered in this context.

[Dawn Meredith]

Isn't it far more likely that there were fewer, or just 1, wallets and the DPD is just making up stories about their "provenance" as the investigation goes on? For instance, Westbrook finds Wallet A with a discarded white jacket, takes it to the Tippet murder scene and does a photo-bite to associate it with the Tippet murder (perhaps Westbrook is Croy's "unknown man?" {It is a long time and dishonorable police practice to treat certain information or evidence from a fellow officer as from an "anonymous" or "unidentified" source}. When it becomes apparent that LHO is the leading suspect in the Kennedy shooting, or even after the Warren Commission starts its work, Bentley is now the discoverer of the wallet. Either way, the wallet is safely in Fritz' hand when LHO arrives at the station. I think that it might be important to remember one bit of data from the news story there, according to the news anchor in 2013, the footage of Westbrook handling the wallet wasn't aired. The Warren Commission may not have known about this particular bit of evidentiary theatre, or figured it was irrelevant, if no one had seen it. (Remember the WC in mid-stream adds a third bullet to its theory of the assassination when it learns about the published bullet mark in the curb and televised account of James Teague's injuries)

I believe that Westbrook brought the wallet and planted it. I do not believe he simply "found" it. It was supplied to him with the alias to link it to the alleged purchase of the rifle.

Dawn

[Dawn Meredith]

Jim: The paper I delivered for John at COPA completely explains all of this. It is on my now defunct computer that is not hooked up at it is Windows XP. My new one with 7 is in the shop - forever now- so would you post that paper someplace. (Perhaps its own thread?) I would like to re-read it myself. I think it will clarify a lot for Drew as well. It certainly did for me.
Merci.
Dawn

[Tracy Riddle]

A good comment from Bill Simpich on the JFKFacts.org site:

A related issue to the wallet is how all of the contemporaneous reports on 11/22/63 are silent on the name of "Hidell".
Only on the 23rd did the "Hidell" name emerge in public, and it was only after the FBI allegedly discovered in the early morning hours of the 23rd that Hidell had mail-ordered the Mannlicher-Carcano and had the rifle delivered to Oswald's post office box address.
From the 23rd on, most of the witnesses who wrote reports on the 22nd gradually remembered that Hidell's ID was in Oswald's wallet.

Cops are trained to include all relevant data in their reports. It's hard to think of anything more relevant than the Hidell ID.
To my mind, either all these witnesses were given a secret order to not mention the Hidell name (unlikely) or the Hidell ID was only mentioned by Westbrook at the Tippit murder scene and then covered up until the right moment (more likely).
The Hidell story should be a follow-up article to the wallet story. Robert Charles-Dunne did a good round-up on this years ago at the Education Forum. Here it is:
So what did Bentley's report of the arrest say about the suspect's ID? "On the way to the city hall I removed the suspect's wallet and obtained the name…. I turned his identification over to Lt. Baker. I then went to Captain Westbrook's office to make a report of the arrest." The date of the report was December 3, or two weeks after the event, itself a rather disquieting delay in filing a report that itself stipulates he went to Westbrook's office to file a report immediately after the arrest. Perhaps he did write another report on 11/22/63 and nobody has been able to locate it in the past 42 years. Perhaps you will suggest that his memory was far sharper after 35 years than it was after 14 days? [I will attempt to upload the 2nd page of this report, which deals with the post-arrest trip downtown, so you can comb it for any mention of "Hidell" ID and let me know what you find.]

So, OK: Bentley failed to mention finding ID in Oswald's alias. But other officers did. Gerald Hill told the WC that Bentley had found the ID while en route to DPD HQ, but was uncertain about the name, recalling only that it was the same name that had been used to order the rifle. However, on the very day of the "Hidell" ID's discovery upon the suspect, mere hours after it occurred, here's what Gerry Hill told NBC TV:
HILL: The only way we found out what his name was was to remove his billforld and check it ourself; he wouldn't even tell us what his name was….
Q: What was the name on the billfold?
HILL: Lee H. Oswald. O-S-W-A-L-D.

Bentley's failure to remember the "Hidell" incident must have been contagious. Hill caught it fast, though he recovered in time for his testimony. CT Walker, as noted earlier, failed to hear anything about Hidell while sitting right beside Oswald when the ID was allegedly found in Oswald's wallet. Nevertheless, he told the WC that when they got to the DPD HQ, Oswald "was handcuffed with his hands behind him. I sat down there, and I had his pistol, and he had a card in there with a picture of him and the name A.J. Hidell on it."
Please avail yourself of the reports filed by Walker, and K.E. Lyons, and Bob Carroll and let me know if any of the five arresting officers mention anything about finding "Hidell" ID on the day of the event. Perhaps you can also suggest why all five had instant amnesia. You might also explain how it came to be that having had his wallet removed by Bentley, who reported that he gave it to Lt. Baker, Oswald seems to have had his wallet returned to him, even though he was still hand-cuffed with his hands behind his back.
Richard Stovall testified that he and Gus Rose were talking with Oswald prior to Captain Fritz commencing the interrogation. Stovall said that he asked Oswald his name, and Oswald told him "Oswald." Stovall noted that the suspect had his billfold and it included "Hidell" ID. At that point, Fritz entered and sent Stovall and Rose out to Irving to check the Paine home.

Five days after Stovall testified to these facts, Rose was called and asked about this series of events. Rose said that when he and Stovall asked the suspect his name, he replied "Hidell." Rose claimed that he found ID in the billfold in both names. Needless to say, the WC didn't trouble itself to reconcile the diametrically opposed testimonies of Stovall and Rose regarding what the suspect told them. But then, the same WC staff didn't seem to question the absolute absence in the DPD reports of any indication that the word "Hidell" was ever uttered on that day.
Helpful, but problematic corroboration came from another detective, Walter Potts, who told the Commission that soon after 2 pm he was dispatched to "go out to Oswald's or Hidell's or Oswald's room…. On his person he must have had he did have identification with the name Alex Hidell and Oswald." Potts claimed that when he got to the Beckley boarding house, he and and his fellow officers which included Justice of the Peace David Johnston , who would preside over LHO's arraingments were told by housekeeper Earlene Roberts and the Johnsons, who owned the house, that none of them knew "a Lee Harvey Oswald or an Alex Hidell either one." When questioned, Roberts and the Johnsons admitted having been asked about an "Oswald" but made no mention of "Hidell."
Interestingly, JP David Johnston was involved with police all day long, and in his own report referred to an Oswald alias O.H. Lee under which he'd rented his boarding house room. Despite having been present when Potts, et al, asked after Oswald or Hidell, Johnston too suffered from the contagious amnesia regarding that name.

[Peter Lemkin]

Jim: The paper I delivered for John at COPA completely explains all of this. It is on my now defunct computer that is not hooked up at it is Windows XP. My new one with 7 is in the shop - forever now- so would you post that paper someplace. (Perhaps its own thread?) I would like to re-read it myself. I think it will clarify a lot for Drew as well. It certainly did for me.
Merci.
Dawn

From John's paper Dawn delivered: There were a total of five Oswald wallets: a black plastic wallet (CE 1798); a red billfold found at Ruth Paine's (CE 2003 #382); a brown billfold found at Ruth Paine's (CE 2003 #114); a billfold taken from LHO upon arrest--initialed by HMM (Henry Moore), wallet and contents inventoried and photographed; and the Westbrook wallet, which was not initialed by police, not listed in inventory, not photographed, not mentioned by a single witness to the WC, HSCA, ARRB, etc. and disappeared, but not before is was filmed by WFAA TV and seen by FBI agent Barrett.

[Drew Phipps]

Why would a Before conspiracy go thru the trouble to plant a disappearing wallet? Seems to me that would be like a "suicide note" written in disappearing ink. Especially to give it to a cop whose name will be known and eventually will be called to give an account of its discovery. The only mysterious wallet in this situation is the wallet whose "provenance" keeps changing, and that isn't an intrinsic property of the wallet, but instead is a property of the stories told of its discovery.


After having watched hundreds of hours of arrest videos, I believe I can tell you exactly how a cop can discover a wallet which subsequently "magically" reappears in the suspect's pocket. Once a suspect is under control, (i.e. cuffed in most cases) an arresting officer will normally stuff everything that isn't contraband or a weapon back into the suspect's clothing, so that the suspect and his possessions arrive in one piece back at the station, where the suspect is more thoroughly searched and his possessions are systematically inventoried. Is it really harder to believe a) that an officer would look into Oswald's wallet briefly and then cram it back into his pants, or b) that an officer would bring a ready-made fake Oswald wallet complete with incriminating evidence to inspect at the scene of the crime and then make disappear before the suspect arrives at the station?


In fact, the stuff you'd want to plant as a Before conspirator is not actually a full wallet (in case you eventually wind up with too many wallets), but just the fake ID(s) with Oswald's photo and the Hidell name. If you are a member of the "After" team, it is far easier to lie about where something was discovered than it is to slip a new bit of evidence into the existing pile of evidence. I suggest that there were other wallets or billfolds that the cops subsequently found at Ruth Paine's that contained the Hidell ID with Oswald's picture. (Oswald did have access to photographic gear at Jagger-Styles (sp?) earlier in his career, and used the Hidell name in New Orleans.) Or just leave it laying around the house without a wallet. The easiest way for our "Before" conspirators to plant evidence is NOT handing it to a cop anonymously, as you'd run the risk of being recognized, or identified later. Nor would it be dropping it at the scene of the crime after the crime is committed (and you have to make a getaway) without any of your fingerprints on it or being seen. The easiest way is to plant the incriminating evidence beforehand, i.e. shells at the "snipers nest", a fake ID, or the Oswald/rifle photos at the Ruth Paine house (to which you must have had access if you stole a gun from there) and let the cops find it in a routine execution of a search warrant or a consent search. You could then "count on" the cops to exaggerate the strength of their high profile case, and make the most of their discovery.


I find it particularly telling that initial police reports don't mention the Hidell ID. DPD could not have "officially" known the significance of the Hidell name until after the FBI traces the weapon back to Klein's, amazingly excellent police work, (early Saturday AM if memory serves), and then altruistically discloses that fact to DPD. Perhaps someone has the memo where, and when, the FBI generously shares this tidbit with DPD.


However, if you've read Posner or watched the History Channel, or even the Internet site "Oswald's last words" (I think), you know that Cap'n Fritz' very first questions to LHO (on Friday) were about establishing which name was his "real" identity. Of course, nobody official bothered to make a written or audio recording of the prime suspect's interviews, in the single most high-profile killing in the century (a "fact" that still astounds me as more unbelievable than most any other "fact" in the case). It is far easier for me to believe that all this mysterious stuff is actually the cops inventing inconsistent lies about its discovery, than there actually be magical or pre-planted disappearing fake wallets.


Lastly, we know there were "multiple" Oswald's for certain because the FBI investigated an "identity theft" case (where Oswald is the "victim") that occurred when Oswald was in Russia, and J. Edgar himself ordered the FBI to investigate it. We know that Oswald used the Hidell name (but not a Hidell ID) in New Orleans. We know Oswald used a different alias, to get a new Dallas boarding room, at the least. I'm not certain what to make of the Harvey/Lee business past that point.

[Dawn Meredith]

A good comment from Bill Simpich on the JFKFacts.org site:

A related issue to the wallet is how all of the contemporaneous reports on 11/22/63 are silent on the name of "Hidell".
Only on the 23rd did the "Hidell" name emerge in public, and it was only after the FBI allegedly discovered in the early morning hours of the 23rd that Hidell had mail-ordered the Mannlicher-Carcano and had the rifle delivered to Oswald's post office box address.
From the 23rd on, most of the witnesses who wrote reports on the 22nd gradually remembered that Hidell's ID was in Oswald's wallet.

Cops are trained to include all relevant data in their reports. It's hard to think of anything more relevant than the Hidell ID.
To my mind, either all these witnesses were given a secret order to not mention the Hidell name (unlikely) or the Hidell ID was only mentioned by Westbrook at the Tippit murder scene and then covered up until the right moment (more likely).
The Hidell story should be a follow-up article to the wallet story. Robert Charles-Dunne did a good round-up on this years ago at the Education Forum. Here it is:
So what did Bentley's report of the arrest say about the suspect's ID? "On the way to the city hall I removed the suspect's wallet and obtained the name…. I turned his identification over to Lt. Baker. I then went to Captain Westbrook's office to make a report of the arrest." The date of the report was December 3, or two weeks after the event, itself a rather disquieting delay in filing a report that itself stipulates he went to Westbrook's office to file a report immediately after the arrest. Perhaps he did write another report on 11/22/63 and nobody has been able to locate it in the past 42 years. Perhaps you will suggest that his memory was far sharper after 35 years than it was after 14 days? [I will attempt to upload the 2nd page of this report, which deals with the post-arrest trip downtown, so you can comb it for any mention of "Hidell" ID and let me know what you find.]

So, OK: Bentley failed to mention finding ID in Oswald's alias. But other officers did. Gerald Hill told the WC that Bentley had found the ID while en route to DPD HQ, but was uncertain about the name, recalling only that it was the same name that had been used to order the rifle. However, on the very day of the "Hidell" ID's discovery upon the suspect, mere hours after it occurred, here's what Gerry Hill told NBC TV:
HILL: The only way we found out what his name was was to remove his billforld and check it ourself; he wouldn't even tell us what his name was….
Q: What was the name on the billfold?
HILL: Lee H. Oswald. O-S-W-A-L-D.

Bentley's failure to remember the "Hidell" incident must have been contagious. Hill caught it fast, though he recovered in time for his testimony. CT Walker, as noted earlier, failed to hear anything about Hidell while sitting right beside Oswald when the ID was allegedly found in Oswald's wallet. Nevertheless, he told the WC that when they got to the DPD HQ, Oswald "was handcuffed with his hands behind him. I sat down there, and I had his pistol, and he had a card in there with a picture of him and the name A.J. Hidell on it."
Please avail yourself of the reports filed by Walker, and K.E. Lyons, and Bob Carroll and let me know if any of the five arresting officers mention anything about finding "Hidell" ID on the day of the event. Perhaps you can also suggest why all five had instant amnesia. You might also explain how it came to be that having had his wallet removed by Bentley, who reported that he gave it to Lt. Baker, Oswald seems to have had his wallet returned to him, even though he was still hand-cuffed with his hands behind his back.
Richard Stovall testified that he and Gus Rose were talking with Oswald prior to Captain Fritz commencing the interrogation. Stovall said that he asked Oswald his name, and Oswald told him "Oswald." Stovall noted that the suspect had his billfold and it included "Hidell" ID. At that point, Fritz entered and sent Stovall and Rose out to Irving to check the Paine home.

Five days after Stovall testified to these facts, Rose was called and asked about this series of events. Rose said that when he and Stovall asked the suspect his name, he replied "Hidell." Rose claimed that he found ID in the billfold in both names. Needless to say, the WC didn't trouble itself to reconcile the diametrically opposed testimonies of Stovall and Rose regarding what the suspect told them. But then, the same WC staff didn't seem to question the absolute absence in the DPD reports of any indication that the word "Hidell" was ever uttered on that day.
Helpful, but problematic corroboration came from another detective, Walter Potts, who told the Commission that soon after 2 pm he was dispatched to "go out to Oswald's or Hidell's or Oswald's room…. On his person he must have had he did have identification with the name Alex Hidell and Oswald." Potts claimed that when he got to the Beckley boarding house, he and and his fellow officers which included Justice of the Peace David Johnston , who would preside over LHO's arraingments were told by housekeeper Earlene Roberts and the Johnsons, who owned the house, that none of them knew "a Lee Harvey Oswald or an Alex Hidell either one." When questioned, Roberts and the Johnsons admitted having been asked about an "Oswald" but made no mention of "Hidell."
Interestingly, JP David Johnston was involved with police all day long, and in his own report referred to an Oswald alias O.H. Lee under which he'd rented his boarding house room. Despite having been present when Potts, et al, asked after Oswald or Hidell, Johnston too suffered from the contagious amnesia regarding that name.

Thanks for this Tracy. Oh how I wish that the always brilliant and insightful Robert Charles-Dunne (RCD) posted here. The Hidell alias did not become "important" until the DPD learned that it was this name used to "purchase" the infamous rifle. I suspect there were more reports that were disappeared until needed. Just as I have never believed that no notes were taken of Harvey's interrogation. They were simply not released to anyone as such information would have made it far more difficult to frame the patsy.

Dawn