December 10, 1963 - Interview with Ruth Paine, friend of Marina Oswald, Lee Harvey Oswald's wife
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Published 2024-06-21
Ruth Paine answered more than 5,000 questions for the Warren Commission. There were over 500 witnesses for the Warren Commission, and the average number of questions asked for each witness was less than 300. Furthermore, Ruth Paine has given more interviews than any other Warren Commission witness, always consistent with her Warren Commission testimony.
Background
Paine was born Ruth Avery Hyde in New York City, to William A. and Carol E. Hyde.[ She went to Antioch College in Ohio and became a Quaker. Through her interest in folk dancing and music she met her future husband Michael Paine. Though not a Quaker himself, Michael attended meetings with Ruth. They married on December 28, 1957.
In 1959 Michael Paine got a job with Bell Helicopter in Fort Worth, Texas,[6] 30 miles from Dallas, and the Paines moved into a house in the suburb of Irving (Michael Paine's step-father, Arthur M. Young, designed the first Bell Helicopter). As liberals in Dallas, the Paines were isolated, and Ruth Paine was quite lonely.
Ruth Paine had been studying Russian since 1957. In the late 1950s she participated in Quaker pen pal programs and the East-West Contact Committee, which sponsored visits by three Soviets to the US. In 1963 she signed up to teach a summer class in Russian at St. Mark's School in Dallas, but only one student signed up (William Hootkins, who became an actor and had a minor role in the movie Star Wars as X-wing pilot Jek Porkins).
Ruth Paine met the Oswalds through her interest in the Russian language. She had learned to read Russian, but she had difficulty with conversational Russian. Also, she and Michael Paine were separated at this time. A mutual friend from their Madrigal singing group, Everett Glover, invited her to a party at his apartment on February 22, 1963, because he thought she would be interested in meeting two interesting people who spoke Russian.
The attendance of the couple, Lee and Marina Oswald, was arranged by Oswald's friend, 51-year-old White Russian émigré aristocrat George de Mohrenschildt] a well-educated petroleum geologist with intelligence connections.
John F. Kennedy assassination
Involvement with Oswald family
Ruth Paine drove Marina Oswald to New Orleans when the Oswalds moved there in May 1963 and back to Dallas when they moved again in September 1963. When the Oswalds resettled in the Dallas area, Marina and her child with Lee, June, moved in with Ruth Paine in the suburb of Irving, Texas, while Lee stayed in a boarding house under the name O.H. Lee. The second Oswald child was born after Marina moved in. Marina helped with the housework and Ruth's Russian studies while Lee visited on weekends. Michael and Ruth had long been separated, but remained on good terms. Michael was a frequent visitor and cared for his children deeply. At the suggestion of a neighbor, Linnie Mae Randle, Ruth Paine told Lee Oswald about a job opportunity at the Texas School Book Depository.
Lee Harvey Oswald stayed at the Paine home with Marina and his children unannounced on Thursday night, November 21, 1963—the night before President Kennedy was assassinated. When Oswald left for work on the morning of November 22, he brought a large package that he had kept in the Paine's garage with him to work at the Texas School Book Depository. Oswald's coworker and friend, Wesley Frazier testified that Oswald told him the bag contained curtain rods The Warren Commission later concluded that the package actually contained the rifle used by Oswald in the assassination.
Eight days after the assassination of President Kennedy, on November 30, 1963, Ruth Paine inadvertently discovered evidence possibly linking him to an attempted assassination of General Edwin Walker. Among the letters that Ruth Paine reportedly sent to Marina was a thick book of household advice in Russian. The book contained an undated note left by Lee for Marina on April 10, 1963 (the day of the Walker assassination attempt) that Marina later testified she had concealed. Before the Kennedy assassination, Dallas police had no suspects in the Walker shooting.
Ruth Paine testified before the Warren Commission and has been interviewed by a number of authors, including Priscilla Johnson McMillan, William Manchester, Thomas Mallon, and Gerald Posner. She has appeared in numerous documentaries and even a mock trial of Lee Harvey Oswald. She also testified in Jim Garrison's trial of Clay Shaw. Paine was not called to testify before the House Select Committee on Assassinations.
All Comments (21)
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She meets with Allen Dulles on a private Island in the summer of 1963, and then immediately travels to New Orleans and is "introduced" to the Oswald's by a "friend" at a party. Within 2 weeks she has invited Marina to move in with her in Dallas, where Oswald will store his rifle for over 6 months even before the General Walker murder attempt, and then Ruth Paine acquires a job for Oswald at the Book Depository which just happens to be owned by one of LBJ's closest friends and the founder of the Civil Air Patrol that Oswald and David Ferrie met at years earlier. This new job happens one month before the Motorcade. "Photographic layout work" That is an interesting description Ruth Paine used for the top secret work that the company that Oswald worked for which would be IMPOSSIBLE if you had defected to the Soviet Union.
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with friends like these you don't need enemies.
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she played a key role in setting up Lee as the patsy!! horrible!!
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What all of these people did to Jack Kennedy, his wife and young children was DESPICABLE. Not a shred of humanity. Cold blooded
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Amazing that Mrs. Paine, now 91 years old, is still alive. She is one of the last living links to this tragedy. Thank you for the upload.
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I wish Mrs. Paine would have left the Oswalds alone.
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I wonder if she will make a deathbed confession of her involvement ? I guess if she has kept up the pretense for 60 odd years, she will take it to her grave.
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Thanks, good upload !!! I was proud to read that the American public started sending donations to Marina and her children when her situation was revealed. Enough that she was able to have a decent home and get the resources she needed as a young immigrant widow with two small children. It would have been understandable for her to have been mistreated over this but it made me very proud to see how my elder countrymen treated her with kindness.
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Coincidence....Speaks Fluent Russian in Deep Texas just across the Street from Maria Oswald who speaks no English who's Husband Lee needs a Job which She Coincidentally gets him a job at Texas School Book Depository where Coincidentally JFK Motorcade passes by...... Coincidence!
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If only she had done something... besides get Oswald hired at the Book Depository in October 1963 and lie about him afterward.... She didn't know Oswald had been to Russia! Didn't know that was where he met Marina...She knew, she knew.
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She's as pretty as she is honest.
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So cold, calm and rational.
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The last among the conspirators still alive ! Wow !
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I hope she'll tell whole truth before she died.
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She confirms the assassination saying on this early date that he “ must have done”. Why the emphatic statement of guilt ?
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Her taxes are still top secret. Her husband worked for general Dornberger at Bell helicopter in Ft. Worth.
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He was not "judged quickly and hanged". He was murdered in Police custody with no chance of ever defending himself. Which is of course what the real people behind this crime wanted.
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Perfect crime committed in broad daylight
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Marina's lesbian lover and KGB contact.
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Security clearance? Interesting choice of words
