Oswald’s finances during the summer of 1963

George Bailey raises questions about Oswald’s Finances During the Summer of 1963.

“From July 22 till October 14, 1963, Oswald, under the official history, was unemployed during this time. His only source of income was several months of unemployment checks, which amounted to $336. Cash on-hand at time at the time he was fired from the Reily Coffee Company $202.75. With this meager amount of money, the Oswalds are expected to pay rent and utilities, buy groceries, and then finance all of Lee’s pursuits such as printing FPFC pamphlets, pay one person to help hand them out, pay court costs after his arrest, finance a round trip ticket to Mexico City and five nights at a hotel, and finally, pay the hospital and doctor bills for the birth of his second daughter Rachel. ”

via Oswald’s Mother: Oswald’s Finances During the Summer of 1963.

42 thoughts on “Oswald’s finances during the summer of 1963”

  1. What should’ve happened in this case is that the media should not have taken any government investigation at face value, especially once the anomalies in the case started to pile up and public opinion about a possible conspiracy reached a tipping point.

    By the early 70s at the latest the major newspapers in the country should’ve combined all resources, including AP, and investigated the case from scratch. Not start with the Warren Commission but investigate the case and every credible lead.

    They should’ve aligned themselves with the spirit of Jefferson’s famous quote: “If I had to choose between government without newspapers, and newspapers without government, I wouldn’t hesitate to choose the latter.”

  2. In relation to this thread topic… I thought I read (again) but don’t know where that Oswald’s IRS tax records for 63 were still being withheld. Does anyone else know if this is true and if so why?

    1. Ronnie Wayne His IRS records are still secret but one clue LHO got $58.00 refund from 62 taxes payed. What perplexes me is the money he recieved from Russian Red Cross and cost of 9 day cruise from Amsterdam to NYC. The air force DR. who gave Marina her Medical in Moscow {forgot his name) maybe the key to Red Cross money as his Father was US RC Dr. in Czarist time and his mother a White Russian.

      1. Thanks gerald. The why part bothers me. Like the cia records Jeff seeks. What’s to hide, a pay stub from Bannister, Phillips or Joannides, the New Orleans Trade Mart? Since they won’t release them one can only speculate. Then again are they still there? The irs is a part of the treasury department, like the secret service. Who disposed of many documents just before the ARRB became active, I think I’ve read.

  3. Thanks Jean. I was also hoping someone would post this. I think the operative word here is ‘attempted’. The WC was not able to account for all of Oswald’s income. It’s inability to do so is a major reason why some of us question where his income came from and who was actually employing him.

    It’s also another reason why we would like to see Oswald’s last tax return released to the public.

    1. H.P. Albarelli Jr.

      Thanks, Jean. Was hoping somebody would post this. Of course, there may be a Hollywood film out there somewhere that somehow contradicts this.

    2. It is true that Oswald was operating on a shoe string, all the better for his handlers to manipulate him. LHO complained bitterly that FBI was costing him jobs. He was allso bitter that they got $200 from his brother to fly them home, he knew that Goverment would have payed for the trip.
      His first official handler who started tracking LHO and his Familey in March 1960, by luck or design was an expert on unemployment insurance and Secret Service via his good freind Secretary of the Treasury Bob Anderson http://jfkassassination.net/russ/testimony/fain.htm
      Oswald did all the drama in NO and Mexico city within the 10 weeks he was drawing $33.00 per week. Funny thing when UI was finnished he got a job at TSBD.

    3. It certainly reinforces the assumptions that either Oswald was living above his means or had “other” sources of income between the summer and fall of 63′

      1. Was it ever established how Oswald afforded passage to Moscow with a $203 bank account in September 1959? Staying at 4-star hotels in Finland while en route.

  4. This is a very good question that was never adequately investigated. His unemployment added up to squat.
    During previous unemployment in the spring he had enough money to pay back a $200 loan to his brother Robert. During the late summer of 63 Marina was taken care of by Ruth and Michael Paine (he gave her $500 during Ruth’s vacation to Langley and pickup of Marina in New Orleans (with a gun never noticed in the loading / unloading of possessions).
    Lee still had to live, was he pan handling for a bus ticket to Mexico?

  5. Forgot to add that I realize he didn’t have a driver’s permit and that Ruth Paine was giving him driving lessons . Still I remember reading about this.

    1. Yes you do. “On November 9, 1963 a man identifying himself as Lee Oswald walked into a Lincoln – Mercury showroom in Dallas and expressed interest in buying a new car”. Pg. 107, Spy Saga, Philip Melanson. To summarize, he took a salesman on an 85 mph ride on “crowded” Stemmons Freeway. “Three witnesses vouched”
      When financing came up he didn’t have the down payment at the moment but would be coming in to “a lot of money in the next two or three weeks”. He then stated he Mmight just return to the Soviet Union, ‘where they treat workers kije men,”. “Supposedly”, the real LHO didn’t know how to drive.
      LHO was supposedly with Marina in Irving that weekend, I think verified by none other than Ruth Paine.

    2. Albert Lee Bogard stated that he met Oswald in the showroom of the dealership on Saturday November 9th, 1963 and went on a test drive with him. Oswald was looking at a Mercury Comet Caliente. Ruth Paine testified that he was in her home at that time. Bogard later took a polygraph examination which showed nothing to indicate deception. He was found dead in February 1966 and his death was ruled a suicide.

    3. Sammy, that was one of the many Oswald impersonators. First, the guy drove like a maniac, though expertly, whereas the real LHO could barely make a right or left turn; he usually cut it too close or overshot it some. Second, LHO was working at the TSBD 11/2/63 when this incident took place mid-afternoon at the local Lincoln-Mercury dealership. James Douglass’ book JFK and the Unspeakable has a good index to find his great, simple explanations of about a dozen oswald impersonations.

      1. Oops, that’s right. 11/2/63 was a Saturday and LHO was at Ruth Paine’s house in Irving, not at work at TSBD.

    4. On November 9th 1963, the day the incident is supposed to have occurred, Ruth Paine took Oswald for a drivers license test in Oak Cliff near the showroom.

      So it seems Oswald knew how to drive well enough to take the driving test.

      Paine says Oswald was never out of her sight that day but she could’ve been mistaken.

      It seems plausible that the real Oswald showed up for a test drive.

      1. November 9th was also a Saturday. Maybe they did then but since I got my license in 72 the DPS is not open on Saturday’s for license tests (I had to take mine on a weekday between 8 or 9 and 5 or 6 if memory serves…

    5. Barber shop owner Cliff Shasteen, who knew both Ruth Paine and Lee Harvey Oswald by sight, recalled for the Warren Commission how Oswald drove up to his establishment for a haircut on perhaps a half-dozen occasions in a two-toned “blue and white or green and white” station wagon. Shasteen said that Paine, “said he never did drive her car. Again, I am going to disagree because I know that he did. He drove it up there and got a haircut.”
      http://www.maryferrell.org/mffweb/archive/viewer/showDoc.do?docId=44&relPageId=325

      An internal memo from the Dallas police notes that a reliable source “states that she was told by another person that a mechanic from a garage in the downtown area who regularly services Jack Ruby’s automobile, had stated that subject [Lee Harvey Oswald] had driven Ruby’s car several times prior to the assassination of President Kennedy.” A subsequent report added that Oswald “had been driving Jack Ruby’s automobile for approximately two months and that he [the mechanic] knew this because Oswald had brought Ruby’s car to his garage for repairs.”
      http://www.maryferrell.org/mffweb/archive/viewer/showDoc.do?absPageId=357853
      http://www.maryferrell.org/mffweb/archive/viewer/showDoc.do?absPageId=357942

      1. David Regan,
        Yea but… was this the real Oswald? Or did he have a true doppelganger?

        Have you ever seen the film, THE PRESTIGE?

        I know it seems ‘way out’, but it is not impossible.
        \\][//

  6. Does anyone remember a story circulating about Oswald being interested in buying a car sometime in 1963? I’m sorry I don’t have more information. I remember a car dealer claiming Lee had come in and inquired about buying a car and had taken at least one out on a test drive. After the assassination, the dealer said he threw Oswald’s paper work away, knowing he wouldn’t be coming back.

    1. Sylvia Meagher in her book “Accessories After The Fact” made a pretty convincing argument for why it was probably Oswald not an impersonator who attempted to buy a car from the dealership which was close to both the Book Depository and the DMV.

      The Warren Commisson dismissed the witness at the dealership who believed it was Oswald because Ruth Paine said he was never out of her sight on the date it was alleged to have occurred.

    2. That’s the Al Bogard story – the entire saga of the Lincoln-Mercury dealership near Dealey Plaza is one of the best double Oswald stories, a “great impersonation” if there ever was one. His story is well corroborated.

      Jack Lawrence worked there too – he’s a guy who was connected with some weird stuff at Dealey Plaza on 11/22. Many writers have told their stories, I’ve taken a turn at it. Google their names or look at the essays at Mary Ferrell Foundation.

      1. Bill is it possible that it was LHO that took the test drive? It perplexes me if he wanted to learn to drive he would have asked Frazier.

        1. Bill- i’m thinking Frazied let LHO drive on freeway on there way to work,Expecting money in few weeks – LEE looking for the bag man at Texas theater so he could pay for his escape via Red Bird airport and why the gun, so he could highjack same plane to Cuba. Too many if buts and maybees?

    3. Yes,that was Albert Bogard’s Lincoln Mercury dealership.He claimed that Oswald had come to his dealership and taken a test drive.

  7. Is there evidence that shows Oswald actively looking for work in New Orleans after he lost his job at Reilly Coffee?

    Seems like he wasn’t very interested in finding work until he returned to Dallas.

      1. Did you notice the book Oswald returned on July 18 in that doc? “Profiles” meaning “Profiles in Courage.”

        You hate JFK but you’re reading Profiles in Courage?

      2. Sorry for the multiple posts but this just gets weirder…

        The Great Impersonation is a mystery novel written by E. Phillips Oppenheim and published in 1920. German Leopold von Ragastein meets his doppelganger, Englishman Everard Dominey, in Africa, and plans to murder him and steal his identity in order to spy on English high society just prior to World War I.

        WTH.

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