Oswald's Brother: "Lee did not fire the shots that killed the President."

Robert Oswald – If he didn’t practice then Lee didn’t take the shots

Because a shot that missed had been taken at Gen. Edwin Walker on April 10, 1963 the Dallas Police, FBI and Secret Service knew they had an unidentified political sniper in the vicinity and that must have been considered a serious threat to the President when he came there.

Lee Harvey Oswald’s brother Robert, a former U.S. Marine sergeant who knew him best said, “….I believe the real reason Walker’s life was spared was that Lee Had not yet become accustomed to the new rifle, and had never before used a telescopic sight.”

“I am certain about this,” Robert Oswald wrote in his book Lee – A Portrait of Lee Harvey Oswald:

“We talked a great deal about rifles and hunting whenever we had time together, because he knew that this was one of my hobbies. When I last saw Lee in November, 1962, I’m sure he would have told me if he had been learning to use a telescopic sight or if he had been doing any hunting or practice shooting. I t would have been a natural subject of conversation for us. Someone who is accustomed to using rifles without scopes does not find it easy to adjust to the use of a scope. Riflemen making the change often fail to allow for the recoil, and some have suffered severe injuries as a result – some have even had their eyes cut open.”

“The contrast between Lee’s failure to kill General Walker and his tragic success on November 22 cannot be accounted for unless we assume that he spent a considerable amount of time practicing with the Mannlicher-Carcano during the intervening months, growing accustomed to the weapon and its telescopic sight.”

“That is why I find it hard to understand the Commission’s refusal to take seriously the testimony of the witnesses who helped account for the difference in the results of the two assassination attempts.”

The Warren Commission had reports and interviewed six witnesses to Oswald practicing with the scope at a rifle range, but discounted their testimony when it concluded, “Although the testimony of these [six] witnesses was partially corroborated by other witnesses, there was other evidence which prevented the Commission from reaching the conclusion that Lee Harvey Oswald was the person these witnesses saw.”

Robert Oswald found this explanation baffling, “The Commission itself does not challenge them,” writes Oswald. “It does not contend that they joined in a conspiracy to deceive the Commission. It simply ignores what they have to say. It concludes that “there is no other evidence which indicates that he took the rifle or a package which might have contained the rifle out of the Paine’s garage, where it was stored, prior to that date.”

Which makes Robert conclude: “If Lee did not spend a considerable amount of time practicing with that rifle in the weeks and months before the assassination, then I would say that Lee did not fire the shots that killed the President and wounded Governor Connally.”

“How did Lee get to a rifle range or out into open country for his firing sessions? If he had depended on public transportation, people would have noticed him carrying a weapon aboard a bus, streetcar or train, however carefully he tried to conceal it. I know of no witness who recalled seeing him traveling on public transportation with a rifle. That’s why I find it difficult to understand the Commission’s eagerness to dismiss the one group of witnesses who give us a clear idea of when and where and how Lee learned to use his new rifle with the precisions he displayed on November 22.”

“I find it easier to believe that Lee spent some time practicing with the Mannlicher-Carcano between April and November than to accept the Commission’s conclusion that the rifle was stored away during most of that time – particularly for several weeks before the assassination.”

“Without a considerable amount of practice with that weapon, I do not understand how Lee could have fired it with any accuracy that some of the best riflemen in the United States found it difficult to match.”

“It would have taken hours of practice for Lee to become acquainted with the characteristics of the rifle, its recoil, and specially the use of the scope. He had to know, for example whether the scope was zeroed in for one hundred yards or one hundred and fifty yards or two hundred yards. Unless he knew that, he could have overshot any target.”

“If Lee did not spend a considerable amount of time practicing with that rifle in the weeks and months before the assassination, then I would say that Lee did not fire the shots that killed the President and wounded Governor Connally.”