(1)
Buell
Wesley Frazier, interviewed by Joseph Ball before the Warren
Commission (24th July, 1964)
Joseph Ball: When
did you first hear of Lee Harvey Oswald, first hear the name?
Buell Wesley
Frazier: I first heard, I never really did know his name, we just
called him Lee around there. But the first time I ever saw him was
the first day he come to work.
Joseph Ball:
Had you heard he was coming to work before he came to work?
Buell Wesley
Frazier: I will say, you know, talking back and forth with the bossman
all the time and from being around and getting along real fine and
so he told me, I assume the day after he hired him that he was going
to have him come in on Monday and he asked me had I ever seen him
and I told him then no; I had never seen him.
Joseph Ball:
Had your sister told you that this fellow Lee was coming to work?
Buell Wesley
Frazier: Yes; she did. She said one afternoon when I went home she
told me she found out from one of the neighbors(Ruth Paine) there
he came over for that interview with Mr. Truly and Mr. Truly had
hired him.
Joseph Ball:
You heard that from your sister?
Buell Wesley
Frazier: Yes.
Joseph Ball:
Before you saw him?
Buell Wesley
Frazier: Right, before I saw him.
Joseph Ball:
When you first saw him was it a Monday morning?
Buell Wesley
Frazier: Yes; it was.
Joseph Ball:
Do you have any idea of the date itself, do you have any memory
of the date when you first saw him?
Buell Wesley
Frazier: No, sir; I don't.
Joseph Ball:
Was it sometime around the middle of October, do you think, would
that be close to it?
Buell Wesley
Frazier: It could have been because it was sometime in October because
I remember I went to work there on the 13th and I had been working
there, 4 or 5 weeks and then he come there.
(2)
Buell
Wesley Frazier, interviewed by Joseph Ball before the Warren
Commission (24th July, 1964)
Joseph Ball: On
the way back and forth did you talk very much to each other?
Buell Wesley
Frazier: No. sir: not very much... probably in your line of business
you have probably seen a lot of guys who talk a lot and some don't
and he was one of these types that just didn't talk. And I have
seen, you know, I am not very old but I have seen a lot of guys
in my time, just going to school, different boys and girls, some
talk a lot and some don't, so I didn't think anything strange about
that. About the only time you could get anything out of the talking
was about babies, you know, he had one and he was expecting another,
that was one way he had him get that job because his wife was pregnant
and I would always get something out of it when I asked him about
the babies because it seemed he was very fond of children because
when I asked him he chuckled and told me about what he was doing
about the babies over the weekend and sometimes we would talk about
the weather, and sometimes he would go to work and it would be cloudy
in the morning and it would come out that afternoon after work,
sometimes during the day and it would turn to be just one of the
prettiest days you would want anywhere, and he would say some comment
about that, but not very much.
(3)
Buell
Wesley Frazier, interviewed by Joseph Ball before the Warren
Commission (24th July, 1964)
Joseph Ball:
When you got in the car
did you say anything to him or did he say anything to you?
Buell Wesley
Frazier: Let's see, when I got in the car I have a kind of habit
of glancing over my shoulder and so at that time I noticed there
was a package laying on the back seat, I didn't pay too much attention
and I said, "What's the package, Lee?" And he said, "Curtain
rods," and I said, "Oh, yes, you told me you was going
to bring some today." That is the reason, the main reason he
was going over there that Thursday afternoon when he was to bring
back some curtain rods, so I didn't think any more about it when
he told me that.
Joseph Ball:
What did the package look like?
Buell Wesley
Frazier: Well, I will be frank with you, I would just, it is right
as you get out of the grocery store, just more or less out of a
package, you have seen some of these brown paper sacks you can obtain
from any, most of the stores, some varieties, but it was a package
just roughly about two feet long.
Joseph Ball:
It was, what part of the back seat was it in?
Buell Wesley
Frazier: It was in his side over on his side in the far back.
Joseph Ball:
How much of that back seat, how much space did it take up?
Buell Wesley
Frazier: I would say roughly around 2 feet of the seat.
Joseph Ball:
From the side of the seat over to the center, is that the way you
would measure it?
Buell Wesley
Frazier: If, if
you were going to measure it that way from the end of the seat over
toward the center, right. But I say like I said I just roughly estimate
and that would be around two feet, give and take a few inches.
Joseph Ball:
How wide was the package.
Buell Wesley
Frazier: Well, I would say the package was about that wide.
Joseph Ball:
How wide would you say that would be?
Buell Wesley
Frazier: Oh, say, around 5 inches, something like that. 5, 6 inches
or there. I don't.
Joseph Ball:
The paper, was the color of the paper, that you would get in a grocery
store, is that it, a bag in a grocery store?
Buell Wesley
Frazier: Right. You have seen, not a real light color but you know
normally, the normal color about the same color, you have seen these
kinds of heavy duty bags you know like you obtain from the grocery
store, something like that, about the same color of that, paper
sack you get there...
Joseph
Ball: What did he do about the package in the back seat when he
got out of the car?
Buell Wesley
Frazier: Like I say, I was watching the gages and watched the car
for a few minutes before I cut it off.
Joseph Ball:
Yes.
Buell Wesley
Frazier: He got out of the car and he was wearing the jacket that
has the big sleeves in them and he put the package that he had,
you know, that he told me was curtain rods up under his arm, you
know, and so he walked down behind the car and standing over there
at the end of the cyclone fence waiting for me to get out of the
car, and so quick as I cut the engine off and started out of the
car, shut the door just as I was starting out just like getting
out of the car, he started walking off and so I followed him in.
(4)
Harold
Weisberg,
Whitewash: The Report on
the Warren Report (1966)
The only suggestion
of any connection between Oswald and the bag was through fingerprints.
Because Oswald worked where the bag was reported to have been found,
the presence of his fingerprints was totally meaningless. Sebastian
F. Latona, supervisor of the FBI's Latent Fingerprint Section, developed
a single fingerprint and a single palmprint he identified as Oswald's.
More significantly, "No other identifiable prints were found
on the bag".
After all
the handling of the bag attributed to Oswald, first in making it,
then in packing it, then taking it to Frazier's car, putting it
down in the car, picking it up and carrying it toward if not into
the building for two blocks, and then, at least by inference, through
the building, and when removing and assembling a rifle Marina testified
he kept oiled and cleaned, how is it to be explained that he left
only two prints? The only thing as strange is that the bag was also
handled by the police and was the only evidence they did not photograph,
according to their testimonies, where found. Yet the freshest prints,
those of the police, were not discovered.
(5)
Buell
Wesley Frazier, was cross-examined by Jim
Garrison
at the trial of Clay
Shaw (13th February, 1969)
Q: What,
if anything, did you do when you arrived at the Texas School Book
Depository?
A: I parked
the car, and as I was sitting there I looked at my watch and I had
a few minutes about eight or ten minutes, so I sat there and was
looking out over Stemmons Freeway, which you could see from the
parking lot, and I said I would charge my battery for a few minutes,
because I had been driving in tow and you could look at your gauge
and see the battery was not charging. I said to him, " I will
race the engine pretty fast and charge it up a little bit."
Q: What
did Lee Harvey Oswald do when you were charging your battery?
A: He got
out of the car, got the package and walked behind the picket fence
there and stayed there like he was waiting on me.
Q: Did you
catch up with him?
A: As soon
as I cut the engine off and got out and closed the door he started
walking off. I followed him but I didn't catch up with him because
at that time of the morning --
Q: Tell
me, how was Lee Harvey Oswald carrying this package you described
as he was walking in front of you?
A: Parallel
to his side, up and down. Like you stick it up under your armpit
and the other part cupped in his hand.
Q: Did you
determine whether it was in his armpit or were you close enough
to see that?
A: No, sir,
I was not close enough to see. I didn't pay attention to it particularly,
but as he was walking along in front of me naturally I looked in
his direction and that is what it appeared to be from what I saw.
(6)
Michael Kurtz, Crime of the Century
(1982)
Both Frazier
and Mrs. Randle swore that the bag found on the sixth floor was
much longer than the package Oswald was carrying. Buell Wesley Frazier
had previously worked in a department store and had handled curtain
rods as part of his duties. When Oswald told him that his package
contained curtain rods, Frazier saw nothing unusual about it.
The bag
found on the sixth floor was 38 inches long, and the disassembled
rifle was 34.8 inches long. Both Frazier and Mrs. Randle
swore that the bag Oswald carried was 27 or 28 inches long.
Their accuracy in estimating lengths was tested by both the
FBI and by the commission. Both times they accurately estimated
a measured length of 27 to 27.5 inches. Mrs. Randle testified
that when Oswald gripped the package at the top, with his arm
extended fully downward, "the bottom (of the package) almost
touched the ground." Frazier testified that Oswald held one
end of the package cupped in his hand, in the same way a soldier
would hold a rifle during military drill. The other end of the package,
according to Frazier, was tucked under Oswald's armpit. Clearly,
they were not describing a 36-inch-long package. The reader can
demonstrate this by taking a yardstick, which is the same length
as the package which the Warren Commission claimed Oswald held,
and hold one end of the yardstick cupped in the hand. He will see
that the other end will project beyond his shoulder. Yet Frazier
swore that it came only to Oswald's armpit. The only way that Oswald
could have carried the disassembled rifle and bag in the manner
described by Frazier and Randle would have been if his arms hung
down to his ankles.
When they
were shown the bag found on the sixth floor, Frazier and Randle
swore that it was "too long" to be the bag Oswald carried.
The commission distorted Mrs. Randle's testimony by quoting her
as saying that Oswald carried a "heavy brown bag." The
complete context of Mrs. Randle's testimony clearly demonstrates
that she was referring to the texture of the paper rather than the
weight of the package: "He was carrying a package in a sort
of heavy brown bag, heavier than a grocery bag it looked like to
me." The commission contended that this was the first time
Oswald had ever walked ahead of Frazier into the Depository building.
This carried the sinister implication that Oswald was trying to
sneak into the building so Frazier could not see him hide the rifle.
Frazier's actual testimony proved entirely different. He told the
commission that he parked the car and then left the engine running
in order to charge up his battery. Far from trying to sneak away,
Oswald, package in hand, volunteered to wait with him. Frazier,
however, told Oswald to go on alone.
(7)
Gus Russo, Live by the Sword (1998)
When interviewed
by the author in 1987, Frazier was firm in his belief that Oswald
did not bring the rifle to work with him on the morning of the assassination.
The package he carried was just too small. Frazier suggested, however,
"He could have brought the rifle in to work at an earlier date,
or in one piece at a time over several days."
(8)
Anthony
Summers, The
Kennedy Conspiracy (2002)
The Warren
Commission would dismiss the curtain rods factor as a fabrication,
quoting Oswald's landlady as saying his apartment needed neither
curtains nor rods and saying that no rods had been found at the
Depository. Yet photographs of curtain rods have turned up in the
Dallas police files on the assassination. And a press photographer.
Gene Daniels of the
Black Star agency, has recalled how Oswald's landlady asked him
not to take photos
in Oswald's room until she had "the curtains back up."
In fact, he took pictures as curtain rods were hammered into position
over the uncurtained windows. This was less than twenty-four hours
of the assassination.
The curtain
rods story, then, may not have been a total fiction. In custody,
however, Oswald denied having told Frazier he intended fetching
rods for his rented room - and even insisted that he had not carried
a long package, or placed it on the back seat of Frazier's car,
on the morning of the murder. Both denials are implausible, because
there is no reason to doubt the word of either Frazier or that of
his sister, who also saw Oswald with the long package. Ironically,
it was Frazier and his sister who created a slight doubt that Oswald
had, in fact, been carrying the murder weapon rather than his "curtain
rods." Both insisted Oswald's parcel was a good eight inches
shorter than the disassembled Mannlicher-Carcano. Frazier demonstrated
this by showing that Oswald could not physically have carried a
35-inch rifle tucked into his armpit with the base cupped in his
hand, as Frazier remembered. He could have done so only if the package
was shorter. Yet the Commission felt Frazier and his sister were
mistaken, and to bolster their theory that Oswald did carry the
rifle to the Depository, they had the 38-inch paper bag which had
been found by the window on the sixth floor. The bag was firmly
linked to Oswald by a fingerprint and a palm print, although it
was free from any scratches or oil from the metal parts of a rifle.
This is rather strange, because the Mannlicher-Carcano was oiled
when found. The Warren Commission - and the Assassinations Committee
in 1979 - concluded
that Oswald did carry the rifle to work. Certainly, he carried something
to work and was evasive about it when questioned.
