Oswald in the doorway: the blog of the Oswald Innocence Campaign, by Ralph Cinque

Oswald told Fritz that he was out with Bill Shelley in front, and for numerous reasons, he must have meant during the motorcade. So, why didn't Fritz go to Shelley and tell him what Oswald said? How many episodes of Law and Order do you have to watch? - before you realize that that is what police do; they try to confirm or refute a suspect's alibi. 

But, they never went to Shelley with that. And when I say never, I mean never. They didn't go to him at the time, and they didn't go to him afterwards. As far as we know, they NEVER went to Shelley and said: "Oswald said he was with YOU out front. So, was he?"

And don't tell me they asked him indirectly. They never made him aware that Oswald used him as his alibi. They never put him on the spot about it. They asked when was the last time he saw Oswald, and he said it was at ten to noon when they broke for lunch. Then, he said that he didn't see him again until at the PD. So, why didn't they corner him about this? 

"Oswald said, not just that he saw you, but that he was WITH you out in front of the TSBD. But, you're telling us that you saw him inside the TSBD close to noon and then at the police station later in the afternoon. So, is it your position that he is lying about that? And keep in mind that we are going to go back to him and tell him what you said. So, for the record, Mr. Shelley, and assume you are under oath, did you, or did you not, see Oswald out in front of the TSBD at any time?" 

But, the big question is: why didn't Will Fritz do it? Why didn't he go to Bill Shelley to confirm or refute what Oswald said? And even if you foolishly think Oswald was talking about afterwards when he was going home, why wouldn't Fritz confirm that with Shelley? You say because it didn't really matter who Oswald saw when he was leaving for home? That's what I have been telling you.

But, the one on trial here right now is Will Fritz. Why didn't he seek to confirm or refute Oswald's alibi? He was a police captain, right? They say he was one of the best criminal investigators in the country. So, why didn't he go talk to Shelley?

We can only speculate about that. But, before we do, that is not the only thing that Fritz overlooked. When they told Oswald that Frazier said he walked in with a large bag (the only employee to make that claim in a company of 75 employees)  Oswald's response was to say that the only bag he carried in was the one containing his lunch, which consisted of a cheese sandwich and an apple. So, why didn't Fritz go look for that bag? Again: to either confirm or refute. Oswald told them where he ate: in the 1st floor lunch room, which was commonly called the domino room. So, you in there, you sift through the trash, and you look for the bag that he supposedly discarded, along with scraps of breadcrust, wax paper, and an apple core.  You find the remnants of the lunch he said he brought. And then, if you didn't find it, you could back to him and say, "Lee, we went to the lunch room, and there was no such bag in the trash, and there were no remnants of the lunch you said you brought and ate. So, do you want to take back what you said and tell us the truth?"  

But, Fritz didn't do that either. 

So, why didn't Fritz try to confirm the things that Oswald was telling him? 

And regarding the Tippit murder, we don't know anything about what they said to or asked of Oswald. Did they solicit an alibi from him? He had to know that he was being charged with it. They put him in a lineup for it, didn't they? They arraigned him for it, didn't they? So, he had to know that he was being charged with it. So, what did he say? What did he tell them? We know he said he didn't do it because he said that in the hall, that he didn't shoot anyone. We can hear that ourselves. But, in an interrogation, he wouldn't just say that. He would listen to the basis for why they think he did it, and he would destroy that basis. He would provide a true counter-story to the false story, the false paradigm that they were assuming. 

So, did that conversation take place? You would never know it from the testimonies and the interrogation reports. To this day, in the year of Our Lord 2018, we don't know what Oswald gave as his alibi for the Tippit murder. And that is an outrage. 

But, getting back to Fritz, why did he perform so badly as the lead investigator in this case? Here's what I think:

First, realize that Fritz was hounded to find for Oswald's guilt and shut down the investigation BEFORE he ever laid eyes on Oswald or heard a word from him. LBJ's henchmen, Cliff Carter and Bill Moyers, were hounding Fritz on the phone BEFORE he saw Oswald, telling him that he "got his man" and needed to close the investigation. Close it before he saw him. Close it before he saw him. And the thing is: Bill Moyers is still alive. Why isn't someone hounding him to shut the fuck up with the philosophizing and just tell the naked truth about what happened the third weekend of November in 1963?

So, Moyers and Carter were hounding Fritz to close the investigation- before it started. And what did they tell him exactly? I'm sure they told him that they were speaking for the President, the new President, that New President Johnson wanted him to shut down the investigation and declare the case solved. They probably said things like "do it for the sake of the country" and "the country is in peril and this will put it back on solid ground." Maybe they even threw in things that were later used to pressure others, such as, "this has to be done or else we risk nuclear war and the deaths of 100 million people." That's what Johnson told Earl Warren, so maybe the line was already written and they used it on Fritz. 

So, Moyers and Carter are the first reason why Fritz stopped being a good police investigator. But, the second reason also consists of two people: Hosty and Bookhout. They were there at the first interrogation. They heard all the things that Fritz heard. And I'm sure that the presumption that Oswald was guilty and it was a foregone conclusion oozed out of them and filled the office like an ether. 

And note that Bookhout definitely heard the reference to Shelley because he put in his notes that Oswald said that he was out with Shelley afterwards, when he was going home. Bookhout put in his report that Oswald said that he chatted with Shelley out front for 5 or 10 minutes, and then, based on remarks Shelley made, he got the idea that no work was going to be done that afternoon, so he went home. The report wasn't filed until November 25, the day after Oswald died. But, if Oswald really said that, then why didn't Bookhout, who was an FBI lawyer who interrogated people all the time, not go to Shelley and ask him about it? 

Read this sack of lies by Bookhout, in which he claimed that Oswald claimed that he ate lunch in the 1st floor lunch room AFTER the assassination. 

https://history-matters.com/archive/jfk/wc/wr/html/WCReport_0322a.htm

It states that Oswald said that after his encounter with Truly and Baker in the second floor lunch room, he went down to the first floor lunch room and "stood around and ate lunch." And then he stood around another 5 or 10 minutes with Shelley outside before going home? But, he was home by 1:00, so how could he have done all that? But, according to Fritz, Oswald said he ate his lunch during the assassination with other employees. So, there you have a direct contradiction between Fritz and Bookhout. Which are you going to believe? Do yourself a favor, and don't believe either.

Fritz was pulled and pressured from the start and before the start. It was NEVER a normal police investigation. Between LBJ's men and the FBI agents, Fritz didn't stand a chance. 

Fritz was given the word on 11/22 that men in very high places, meaning the President of the United States and the Director of the FBI did NOT want him poking around at anything that might exonerate Oswald, that this was NOT a normal investigation, that the future of the country depended on holding Oswald responsible for this, and don't even think about an alternative. And that's why Shelley was NEVER confronted, put on the spot, about the things Oswald said about him.