chapter VIII. She did not then know Oswald’s address in Dallas.[C6-367]
Chapter VIII. She did not then know Oswald’s address in Dallas.[C6-367] This chapter examines what Mrs. Ruth Paine knew about Lee Harvey Oswald prior to the assassination of President Kennedy and did not share with the FBI, details the Commission’s thorough investigation into the backgrounds of Ruth and Michael Paine, and surveys Oswald’s political contacts and activities after his return from the Soviet Union, including his dealings with the Communist Party, U.S.A., the Socialist Workers Party, the Socialist Labor Party, and the Fair Play for Cuba Committee.
Mrs. Paine’s Withheld Information
Mrs. Paine’s Withheld Information When contacted by the FBI in early November 1963, Mrs. Paine informed the agent that Oswald made periodic weekend visits and was employed at the Texas School Book Depository Building, providing enough information to locate him at his job. She did not, however, volunteer Oswald’s Dallas telephone number, which she did know, nor his Dallas address, because she was not asked.[C6-368][C6-369]
Oswald’s Letter to the Soviet Embassy
Oswald’s Letter to the Soviet Embassy On November 10, Ruth Paine discovered a draft of a letter Oswald had written the day before to the Soviet Embassy in Washington, in which he claimed to have conferred with “comrade Kostine” at the Soviet Embassy in Mexico City.[C6-370] Although the Paines initially assumed the letter was Oswald’s invention, it caused Mrs. Paine considerable misgivings.[C6-371] She made an unknown copy of the draft intending to deliver it to the FBI if agents returned, but they did not return before the assassination.[C6-372][C6-373] On November 19, Mrs. Paine learned Oswald was living in a Dallas roominghouse under an assumed name but did not report this because she had no occasion to see the agents and did not think it important enough to call.[C6-374][C6-375]
Background of the Paines
Background of the Paines The Commission thoroughly investigated both Paines.[C6-376] Mrs. Paine was born Ruth Hyde in New York City on September 3, 1932. Her parents moved to Columbus, Ohio, in the late 1930s and divorced in 1961.[C6-377] She graduated from Antioch College in 1955.[C6-378]
Ruth Paine’s Quaker Activities and Russian Interest
Ruth Paine’s Quaker Activities and Russian Interest Mrs. Paine first became interested in Quaker activities in high school and became a Quaker in 1951.[C6-379] In 1952, after her sophomore year at Antioch, she was a delegate to two Friends conferences in England.[C6-380] In 1955, when the Paines met, Mrs. Paine was active in the Young Friends Committee of North America, which worked with the State Department to ease U.S.–Soviet tensions through cultural exchanges and pen-pal correspondence.[C6-381] During this period she became interested in the Russian language,[C6-382] participated in a Russian-American student exchange,[C6-383] and corresponded with a Russian schoolteacher.[C6-384] Though her active East-West work ceased with her December 1957 marriage, she has continued to hold to Quaker tenets.[C6-385]
Michael Paine’s Background and Politics
Michael Paine’s Background and Politics Michael Paine is the son of George Lyman Paine and Ruth Forbes Paine (now Ruth Forbes Young, wife of Arthur Young of Philadelphia); his parents divorced when he was four.[C6-386][C6-387] He testified that during his late grammar and early high school years his father was active in the Trotskyite faction of the U.S. Communist movement and that he attended some of those meetings, but his father has not influenced his political thinking and their later visits did not touch on communism.[C6-388][C6-389] Since moving to Irving, Texas, in 1959, Michael has worked as a research engineer for Bell Helicopter Co. in Fort Worth, where he holds security clearance.[C6-390][C6-391] A longtime ACLU member, though unsympathetic to rightist aims he attended a few Dallas far-right meetings to learn about them and to encourage left-right communication.[C6-392][C6-393]
Paines’ Finances and Loyalty Assessment
Paines’ Finances and Loyalty Assessment The Commission’s investigation of the Paines’ finances found their income came from legitimate, traceable sources and expenditures were consistent with their income.[C6-394] Though they assumed roughly $500 in food and transportation costs for the Oswalds during their relationship, they made no direct payments to and received no money or valuables from the Oswalds.[C6-394] The Commission found nothing in the Paines’ background, activities, or finances suggesting disloyalty to the United States, and concluded that Ruth and Michael Paine were not involved in any way with the assassination of President Kennedy.[C6-402]
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