Report of the President's Commission on the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy

第八章 She did not then know Oswald’s address in Dallas.[C6-367]

Chapter VIII, drawn from the Warren Commission Report, addresses two distinct investigative matters. The first concerns the credibility of witness testimony regarding Lee Harvey Oswald’s activities, specifically challenges to grocery store owner Henry H. Hutchison’s account of Oswald attempting to cash a check, and an examination of a Western Union manager’s claim that Oswald sent telegrams and collected money orders before the assassination. The Commission concluded that both accounts were unreliable. The second and larger portion of the chapter turns to the possibility of a conspiracy involving Jack Ruby, who shot Oswald on November 24, 1963. It details Ruby’s movements and associations from November 21 through November 24, including his activities on the eve of the assassination, his time at the Dallas Morning News when the President was shot, the disputed claim that he visited Parkland Hospital, and his decision to close his nightclubs.

Doubts About Hutchison’s Testimony

The Commission closely examined the testimony of Henry H. Hutchison, a grocery store owner in Irving, Texas, who claimed that Oswald tried to cash a $189 personal check at his store shortly before the assassination. Multiple inconsistencies undermined Hutchison’s account: he placed Oswald in the store on a Wednesday evening with Marina Oswald and Marguerite Oswald, but Oswald was not known to have been in Irving on any Wednesday evening during that period; neither Marina nor Marguerite acknowledged ever visiting the store; and neither of the store’s two checkers recalled such a visit. Hutchison’s claim that Oswald regularly shopped at the store between 7:20 and 7:45 a.m. on weekday mornings purchasing cinnamon rolls and milk was contradicted by evidence that Oswald was usually in Irving only on weekends and that Buell Wesley Frazier, who drove Oswald, would have dropped him far from Hutchison’s store before 7:20 a.m. Hutchison’s testimony about Ruth Paine was likewise doubtful, as her appearance did not match his description and she disputed his claim. In light of these strong reasons for doubt and the absence of any other evidence that Oswald possessed such a check, the Commission concluded it could not establish that Oswald ever received one.