7/27/2019 Thoughts on the Murder of JFK by Bill Clarke

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Thoughts on the Murder of JFK

In the fifty years since the assassination of President John F. Kennedy only one fact hasbecome clear: IF there was a conspiracy, Ruth Hyde Paine hadto be in on it. Noconspiracy could possibly have succeeded without her actions.

Ruth Hyde Paine

Consider:

- Marina Oswald and her two daughters were living in Ruth Hyde Paine's house inIrving, TX in the weeks leading up to the assassination. Lee Harvey Oswaldvisited and stayed there frequently.

- Ruth Hyde Paine was the person who learned of a job opening at the Texas

School Book Depository, called there and learned the name of the person towhom application would need to be made for that opening and gave thisinformation to Lee Harvey Oswald who secured the position the next day.

- On the day of the assassination Lee Harvey Oswald went to work at the TexasSchool Book Depository from Ruth Hyde Paine's residence. He took with him apackage that undoubtedly contained his rifle.

- A note, ostensibly written by Lee Harvey Oswald in which he admits to theattempted assassination of General Edwin Walker, came to the attention ofauthorities because it was contained in a book that Ruth Hyde Paine sent toMarina Oswald after the assassination of President Kennedy.

Whether Oswald was a willing participant in such a conspiracy or was merely thepatsy he claimed to be, the conspirators needed certain things to happen that theycould not possibly leave to chance. Oswald needed a base of operation. Oswaldneeded to be on the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository when themotorcade drove by. Oswald needed to transport his rifle to the Texas School BookDepository. Authorities needed to be convinced that Oswald was capable of violenceand not averse to political assassination. Ruth Hyde Paine, directly and indirectly,

7/27/2019 Thoughts on the Murder of JFK by Bill Clarke

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accomplished all those things. If there was a conspiracy, Ruth Hyde Paine was aconspirator and is likely the only person about whom that can be said with certainty.

What is known about her? In fact, quite a bit she has been disarmingly truthful,self-deprecating, and consistent in interviews and testimony given over the last fiftyyears.

Ruth Hyde Paine was born in 1932, educated at Swarthmore College and became acommitted Quaker in 1951. Prior to moving to Texas, she was an active member ofthe American Civil Liberties Union.

Subsequent to the assassination, Ruth Hyde Paine became principal of a Quakerschool in Pennsylvania. She moved to St. Petersburg Florida, earned a mastersdegree in psychology from the university there and, after working for the schoolsystem in Franklin County in the Florida Panhandle, returned to St. Petersburg andworked for the Hillsborough County, Florida school system until her retirement. For atime, she worked for a Nicaraguan relief group in St. Petersburg, Florida and was a

peace activist.

She is active in Quaker and liberal charities and organizations and now lives inSanta Rosa, California. She is 80 years old.

In 1982, Ruth Hyde Paine began withholding 40% of her income tax as representingthe portion that goes toward military uses and war preparations. She did this eachyear for ten years and in each of those years included a letter in her tax returnadmitting to deliberately withholding taxes and explaining the reason. In the end, theIRS levied her bank accounts to get the tax money, plus penalties and interest. Shewas in very real danger of going to prison.

A lifelong committed pacifist who, for the last fifty years, has done nothing but putfeet to her faith in the Society of Friends ideals of peace, stewardship, integrity andsimplicity a faith that she first embraced when 19 years old. If Ruth Hyde Painewas a conspirator in the assassination of President John F. Kennedy then she isalso the greatest actor of all time having, never once in fifty years, stepped out ofcharacter in her portrayal of innocence.

Fifty years. Its a long time. Witnesses die off, photographs fade, memories blur andso called experts in ballistics, acoustics and pathology are replaced by newgenerations of experts to contradict the findings of their predecessors. But there isa human face to the conspiracy question, the face of Ruth Hyde Paine. And for fiftyyears she has demonstrated the character, values and personal integrity that weneeded to see to finally know the truth.

-Bill Clarke