Dec. 31, 2022
Ruth Paine befriended Lee and Marina Oswald in February 1963. From April 1963 until November 22, 1963 they lived with her at her suburban Dallas home.
She will be my guest on The San Francisco Experience next Thursday to share her memories and Warren Commission testimony.
She prepared dinner for Lee and Marina on November 21. The next morning, he retrieved his Mannlicher Carcano rifle from her garage and set off to work at the Texas School Book Depository, where Ruth helped him find work in October 1963.
Ruth was one of 552 witnesses and her testimony spanned 2 days and 181 pages. She was a key witness as the Commission tried to establish Oswald’s motive for killing JFK and to account for his movements in the weeks prior to the assassination.
Priscilla Johnson McMillan, a journalist who worked for JFK and interviewed LHO in Moscow was embedded with Marina in 1964 to write this definitive study of the troubled couple.
But Ruth Paine, the sincere, well intentioned Quaker who was studying Russian with a view to facilitating dialog with our Cold War adversaries took a pregnant Marina and baby June into her home .
The modest two bedroom ranch home is now a museum, carefully restored to its 1963 glory. Make sure to listen to my interview with Mrs. Paine on Thursday.
