Typed manuscript entitled “Evidence,” signed “Marguerite Oswald,” 10 pages, 8.5 x 11, no date. Oswald explains inconsistencies in the evidence used to accuse her son of the assassination, with a main focus on the rifle. In part: “My son, Lee, was accused of a terrible crime, murdered before he had a chance to defend himself in a court of law, and deprived in death of what he had been denied in life…a lawyer who could examine the evidence against him and clear his name. My son declared his innocence. Millions of Americans watching television heard HIM say, ‘I did not kill President Kennedy,…I did not kill anyone…I don’t know what this is all about…’ HE WAS TELLING THE TRUTH! He said he knew nothing of ‘A. Hidell.’ But even if he were A. Hidell, and had ordered a 6.5 Italian Carbine from Klein’s Sporting Goods by answering their February, 1963, advertisement in the American Rifleman…That advertisement offered a 36 inch 5 1/2 pound model 6.5 Italian Carbine. The rifle described by FBI Firearms Identification Expert Robert A. Frazier…with an overall length of 40.2 inches, weighing 8 pounds with scope and sling, is the model of Italian Carbine offered by Klein’s in the advertisement from the Nov. 1963, issue of Field & Stream, which is for a 40 inch rifle weighing 7 pounds without scope and sling.” In very good condition, with overall creases and scattered staining, edge tears to the last page, and show-through from various unrelated ballpoint notations to reverse of final page. Accompanied by an unsigned eight-page typescript entitled “Aftermath of an Execution: The Burial and Final Rites of Lee Harvey Oswald, As Told by His Mother Marguerite,” and an unsigned typescript, 13 pages, consisting of a transcript of a radio interview with Lee Harvey Oswald recorded three months before the assassination, as well as a few other related articles. Also accompanied by a letter of provenance from the original recipient, stating that the documents were given to her “by Marguerite C. Oswald, when I was her nurse at Harris Methodist Hospital, during her last days.”
Driven by the belief that her son spoke the truth when he declared his innocence, and hurt by what she considered the misrepresentation of her parenting and the Oswald family in the Warren Commission Report, Marguerite Oswald became an advocate for her slain son. In her own investigation, one of her key pieces of evidence supporting his innocence was the controversy over the rifle. At the time of his arrest, Oswald had a fake Selective Service System card under the name ‘Alek James Hidell,’ the name used on both envelope and order slip to buy the alleged murder weapon, as well as the New Orleans post office box that he rented that June. In this manuscript, Marguerite concedes that “even if he were A. Hidell, and had ordered a 6.5 Italian Carbine from Klein’s Sporting Goods” (which her son denied), the rifle described by the FBI Firearms Identification Expert did not match that gun. A fascinating mix of grief and an impressive attention to factual details, this is an extraordinary piece from the grieving mother-turned-investigator. RR Auction COA.
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