Reclaiming History Page 35
Also called a GSR, the gun residue test involves heating paraffin, a wax substance, to about 130 degrees. It’s then brushed onto the suspect’s hands and reinforced with alternating layers of bandage gauze. As the wax cools, it extracts from the skin particles of nitrates (acid elements in gunpowder residue that are deposited on the skin by the gases from a fired bullet), and these nitrates become embedded in the wax casts. The casts are then cut from the hands and sent to the crime lab for testing. There, technicians apply one of two chemicals to the casts to determine the presence of nitrates. A positive result will show up as a pattern of blue or violet dots.841
Barnes has been known to get exceptionally good paraffin casts, much better than some of the other detectives in his division. He once quipped, “The other detectives don’t get the paraffin hot enough. They are afraid they’ll burn the suspect, but I don’t mind if I burn the bad guys a little in order to get a good cast.”842
Contrary to myth, the paraffin test is not conclusive for the simple reason that the two chemicals used by laboratories to test for nitrates—diphenylamine and diphenylbenzidine—will react to most oxidizing agents, including urine, tobacco, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, soil, fertilizer, and many others. The list is so large that a positive nitrate result doesn’t preclude the possibility that the cause might be due to something other than gunpowder residue.843 Moreover, the mere handling of a weapon may leave nitrates on the skin, even without firing it.844 Because of their unreliability, paraffin tests have fallen into increased disfavor by law enforcement agencies in the United States.
As Barnes steps inside Captain Fritz’s office, Fritz tells him that in addition to Oswald’s hands, he wants Barnes to make a cast of Oswald’s right cheek. Barnes knows immediately how unusual a request it is. Since 1956, when he started doing paraffin tests, this is the only time anyone had ever requested a paraffin test of a suspect’s cheek. In fact, common sense tells a man of Barnes’s experience that anyone firing a rifle has got very little chance of getting powder residue on his cheek. The reason is that the cartridge is sealed into the chamber by the bolt of the rifle being closed behind it. Upon firing, the cartridge case expands even farther inside the chamber, completely filling it up and preventing the nitrate gases from escaping onto the face. Barnes doesn’t question Fritz’s judgment though. He has an order, and that’s good enough for him.845
The crime-lab sergeant begins unpacking his equipment as Oswald sits nearby, watching.846
“I know why you’re doing this,” Oswald says boastfully.
“Why?” Barnes replies, in his right-to-the-point style.
“You want to find out if I fired a gun,” Oswald replies.
“I’m not trying to prove anything,” the sergeant replies, as the wax begins to heat up. “We have the test to make and the people at the lab will determine the rest.”
“Yeah, well you’re wasting your time,” Oswald says in a self-assured manner. “I don’t know anything about these shootings.”847
As soon as he’s done, Barnes places the paraffin casts from Oswald’s right cheek and two hands into three separate manila envelopes. A couple of patrolmen assist Barnes in wending his way through the news media to get to the elevators that’ll take him to the fourth-floor Identification Bureau. A storm of questions are thrown at him as he snakes through the press: “What have you got in that sack? You owe it to the news media to tell us! What have you got there?” Barnes refuses to reply to the boisterous horde.848 Arriving at the Identification Bureau, Sergeant Barnes initials the casts, seals them, and locks them in the evidence room. They’ll be delivered to the county crime lab at Parkland Hospital in the morning for testing.849*
Barnes immediately returns to Captain Fritz’s office, and with the assistance of Detective Hicks, takes Oswald’s finger and palm prints.850 Oswald says nothing. When they finish, Barnes asks Oswald to sign the fingerprint card on the line that says “prisoner’s signature.”
“I’m not signing anything until I talk to an attorney,” Oswald replies.
“That’s all right with me,” Barnes says, and gathers up the identification kit.851
In New York City, the city that never sleeps, the streets are deserted, Broadway theaters are closed, Radio City is closed, and the only nightclub that is not deserted is the famed Stork Club, “but the people there,” ABC’s Barbara Walters observed, “are like the people there on Christmas Eve, people with no home, no place to go.”852†
9:00 p.m.
Detectives Stovall and Rose lead Wesley Frazier, his sister, Linnie Mae Randle, and their pastor, Reverend Campble of the Irving Baptist Church, into the back room of Homicide and Robbery. Since being arrested an hour and a half ago, Frazier has been very cooperative with police, allowing officers to search his car and his home, where they confiscated a .303 caliber rifle, a full clip, and a partial box of ammunition.853
Captain Fritz comes back and questions both Wesley Frazier and his sister. Wesley tells him about Oswald’s placing a large bag in the backseat of Frazier’s car on the morning of the assassination and telling Frazier the bag contained curtain rods.854
Rose and Stovall begin taking affidavits from Frazier and his sister as Captain Fritz makes his way down the hall to the Forgery Bureau, where he asks Marina Oswald if she saw Oswald carrying anything when he left that morning, but she says she didn’t see him leave.855 He probes both Marina and Ruth Paine further. Had Oswald mentioned putting curtain rods in his room? Neither of them know anything about it.856
Captain Fritz ponders this latest piece of the assassination puzzle as he makes his way back to his office. Oswald’s curtain rod story is terribly suspicious to the homicide captain. If the rifle was in the package, and Fritz strongly suspects it was, then it must have been dismantled slightly to fit the bag Frazier described as twenty-six to twenty-seven inches long. At the moment, Fritz is hesitant to question Oswald about it until he finds out more.857 Were any curtain rods found at the Depository, or in Oswald’s room? Did his apartment need curtain rods? Fritz likes to play his cards close to the vest, then pounce once he is certain of the facts.
Marguerite and Robert Oswald are brought across the hall to the Forgery office, where Marina is being held. Marguerite breaks into tears and hugs her daughter-in-law. She hasn’t seen her or Lee in a year. Marina hands her baby, Rachel, to Mrs. Oswald. Neither Marguerite nor Robert had been told of the child’s birth. Before Robert has a chance to greet Marina, Ruth Paine bolts toward him.
“I’m Ruth Paine,” she says. “I’m a friend of Marina and Lee. I’m here because I speak Russian. I’m interpreting for Marina.” (But Mr. Ilya A. Mamantov, a local research geologist who is a native of Russia, has been employed by the Dallas Police Department to interpret for Marina during questioning by police, and has been doing so.)858
To Robert, Mrs. Paine comes across as a dominating, controlling woman. She seemed eager to tell anyone who would listen, almost boastfully, that both Lee and Marina had been to her house. Robert’s impression of her estranged husband, Michael, was equally unfavorable.859 Robert later recalled Mr. Paine’s eyes as having a cold distant look, as if he wasn’t really looking at you, and described his handshake as that of a “live fish.” He can’t quite put his finger on it, but Robert feels that the Paines are somehow involved in this affair.860
Ruth turns to Marguerite and says, “Oh, Mrs. Oswald, I am so glad to meet you.” Marina, she tells her, wanted to get in touch with her, especially when Rachel was born, but Lee didn’t want her to. The words are not very soothing to Marguerite, who takes an instant dislike to the woman.
“Mrs. Paine,” Marguerite snaps angrily, “you speak English. Why didn’t you contact me?”
Ruth tries to explain that Marina didn’t know how to contact Marguerite. Also, because the couple were separated—Lee living in Dallas, Marina in Irving—Ruth didn’t want to interfere.861
Within five minutes of the introductions, preparations are made to leave the police station. Rob
ert Oswald says that he is going to remain there, where he hopes to talk with Captain Fritz, and will see them tomorrow. Mrs. Paine says she will take Marina and the babies back to her house for the night.862 Marguerite expresses her desire to stay in Dallas so that she can be close to Lee and help as much as possible.863 When Mrs. Paine offers to put Marguerite up for the night, Robert says something about not wanting to inconvenience her and Mr. Paine. Ruth immediately shoots back, “Mr. Paine and I aren’t living together,” adding, “It’s a long story.” Michael Paine shrinks behind his domineering wife, as they head out the office door.864
Dallas police officers attempt to clear the way as reporters descend upon the group in the corridor. Flashbulbs snap and cameras whirl as they face a barrage of questions, none of which are answered, while Marguerite pleads to the cameras about Lee, “He’s really a good boy.”865
Remaining behind, Robert Oswald takes a seat and soon strikes up a relaxed conversation with Lieutenant E. I. Cunningham, who was present at Lee’s arrest. Cunningham explains the circumstances surrounding Oswald’s apprehension in a calm, sympathetic tone. Robert realizes that there are police officers in Dallas with some genuine compassion. He also realizes, for the first time, just how strong a circumstantial case the police have against his brother for the shooting of Officer Tippit. Equally disturbing to Robert is the thought that it is difficult to explain Tippit’s death unless it was an attempt to escape arrest for the assassination of the president.866
In the Homicide and Robbery office down the hall, Captain Fritz walks over to Assistant DA Bill Alexander, Jim Allen, the former assistant DA now in private practice, and Secret Service agent Forrest Sorrels. “We need to talk about the case we’ve developed so far,” Fritz says to Alexander, who suggests they find a quieter place.
The four men push their way through the mob of reporters, walk out of City Hall, and stroll north on Harwood to the Majestic Steak House, an eatery in Dallas’s theater district favored by Dallas law enforcement officials. Ordering steaks and coffee, the men marvel over the day’s events, then get down to business.867
“Have you got enough to file on him, Captain?” Alexander asks.
Fritz reviews what they have so far. They can place Oswald on the sixth floor of the Depository a few minutes before the shooting—the same floor where they found the hulls, the rifle, and the paper bag in which the rifle was apparently carried into the building. His wife says he owned a rifle, and it is missing from the storage area where he kept it. She says the rifle they found looks like his, but she can’t be sure. The crime lab has lifted good latent prints from the boxes and the bag and hope to get some from the rifle. If they turn out to be Oswald’s, they’ll have him. Fritz notes that Oswald is the only employee who left the Book Depository after the shooting and didn’t return. More important, all of the evidence points to Oswald as being the killer of Officer Tippit.
“All in all, that’s a lot of good evidence,” Fritz says. “But, I’d like to wait until we develop the firearm and fingerprint evidence before proceeding with any charges in the assassination.”
They decide to hold off for an hour or so before filing against Oswald in the Kennedy case.868
9:40 p.m.
Ruth Paine’s home in Irving is a relief after the circus at City Hall. After police drop them off, Ruth sends Michael out to get hamburgers at a drive-in so she won’t have to cook. Marina feeds her two small children, then sits down to eat in front of the television, which is rerunning all of the day’s events. Marina even catches a glimpse of Lee being led through the third-floor corridor at police headquarters.869
Marguerite begins to complain to everyone present that if they were prominent people, three of the best lawyers would be at the city jail right now defending her son. But, because they are “small” people, they won’t get the same kind of attention. Ruth Paine tries to tell her that this is not a small case and will get the most careful attention possible, but she is unable to penetrate the years of self-pity that Marguerite has wrapped herself in.870
“Don’t worry,” Ruth finally says. “I’m a member of the Civil Liberties Union and Lee will have an attorney, I can assure you.” Marguerite can’t help but wonder why Mrs. Paine hasn’t already called for an attorney.871
The doorbell rings and two men from Life magazine appear unannounced, reporter Tommy Thompson and photographer Allen Grant, two of nine Life correspondents and photographers who had flown into Dallas that day from around the country. (Considering the day’s events, Ruth is surprised that not more newsmen have been able to locate them by now.)* She lets them in and flips on an extra light in the dimly lit room. Thompson, of course, realizing the difficulty of speaking to Marina through Mrs. Paine, immediately begins questioning Mrs. Paine, while his partner pulls out a camera and begins snapping photographs.872
“Mrs. Paine, tell me, are Marina and Lee separated, since Lee lives in Dallas?”
“No, they are a happy family,” Ruth says, explaining that Lee works in Dallas and has no transportation to get back and forth from Irving every day. Marguerite is fuming, partly because she doesn’t think her son needs this kind of publicity but more importantly because she’s beginning to realize that Life magazine is going to do a “life story” segment and she wants to be paid. In her paranoid mind, Marguerite is beginning to suspect that Ruth Paine invited Life magazine to come over and that she and Marina, while speaking in Russian, have conspired to sell Lee’s life story without her.873
After a few more questions about Oswald’s family life, Thompson asks how Lee got the money to return to the United States.
“He saved the money,” Ruth replies. Marguerite finally hits the roof.
“Now, Mrs. Paine, I’m sorry,” Mrs. Oswald interrupts, “I appreciate that I am a guest in your home but I will not be having you make statements that I know are wrong. To begin with, I do not approve of this publicity. But if we’re going to have a story in Life magazine I would like to get paid. After all, we’re going to have to pay for lawyers to defend my son.”874
Suddenly there are angry words between Marguerite and Ruth, who defends Marina’s right to have her story told to the reporters.
“I’m his mother,” Marguerite shrieks. “I’m the one who’s going to speak!” Ruth translates for Marina as Marguerite tries to explain to Marina that neither of them should speak to the reporters without getting paid. Marina, confused by the whole scene, nonetheless understands one thing quite clearly. It’s all about money.875
Thompson says he will telephone his office and see what he can do about her request, then withdraws to another room to make the call. Meanwhile, the photographer follows Marina into the bedroom, snapping photographs of her as she undresses her daughter June and puts her to bed. Marguerite hovers nearby until Thompson comes back and tells her that Life will not pay them for the story, but will pay their food and hotel accommodations while they stay in Dallas. The picture taking continues until Marguerite becomes indignant.
“I have had it,” she complains loudly. “You’re taking my picture without my consent! Now go find out what accommodations you can make for my daughter-in-law and I so that we can be in Dallas to help my son, and let me know in the morning!”876
Thompson and Grant leave the house, but not the area. They sit in their rented car on the dark street in front of the house. Twirling the keys to the car on his index finger as he watches the house, Thompson says, “This, my friend, is probably going to be the scoop of my career. I will kill the first newsman that approaches that house.” Grant, with slightly different priorities, says, “Let’s go. I want to get this film off to New York.” “We’re not leaving here,” Thompson says, “until those lights go out.”877
9:50 p.m.
After talking with Lieutenant Cunningham for nearly an hour, Robert Oswald gives up any hope of speaking with Captain Fritz. He leaves the ruckus of City Hall and walks back to his car seven blocks away. The reporters don’t have any idea who he is, so his stroll thr
ough the cool night air is free of pesky newsmen. Getting in his car, Robert starts driving. He has no particular destination in mind. He only wants to still the turmoil in his mind. If anyone were to ask him what he feels, he would say “unspeakable horror.”
Some people are already speculating that the killing of the president was not the isolated act of one man, but the result of a great conspiracy. Robert wonders if it could be true. Is it possible that Marina could have played a role in some plot? What about the Paines? Whom could Lee have possibly become involved with? As the miles click by, he tries to assemble his thoughts and fears into some coherent order, but to no avail. Robert soon finds himself out on Highway 80, approaching the western outskirts of Fort Worth, and suddenly realizes how far he has already driven. He stops for gas, turns around, and heads back to Dallas.878
10:00 p.m.
No sooner than Fritz and Alexander get back to City Hall from dinner than the telephone rings in the Homicide and Robbery office of Dallas police headquarters and Alexander takes the call. It’s Joe Goulden, a former reporter for the Dallas Morning News who is now on the city desk of the Philadelphia Inquirer.
“What’s going on down there? We’re not getting anything straight. It’s all garbled. Is Oswald going to be charged with killing the president?” the reporter asks.
“Yeah, we’re getting ready to file on the Communist son of a bitch,” Alexander tells him. When Goulden asks Alexander why he called Oswald a Communist, Alexander tells him about all the Communist literature and correspondence they found at Oswald’s Beckley address. “We have the killer,” Alexander says, “but we’re not sure what his connections are.”