The Last Days of Lee Harvey Oswald: A Conversation with Ruth Paine

As part of the “Four Days in November” program series to commemorate the 56th anniversary of the Kennedy assassination, The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza presented an intimate conversation with Ruth Paine, moderated by Curator Stephen Fagin.

A housewife in Irving, Texas, Ruth Paine met Lee and Marina Oswald in February 1963 and became a central figure in the assassination story. Marina Oswald and her daughters were living with Paine on November 22, 1963, and Paine had previously helped get Lee Harvey Oswald a job at the Texas School Book Depository. Oswald had hidden his rifle in her garage. Paine actively cooperated with investigators following the assassination, and she testified at length to the Warren Commission in 1964.

This conversation was presented at the Museum on November 19, 2019, in partnership with the Irving Archives and Museum/Ruth Paine House Museum. In 2009, the City of Irving purchased Paine’s former home and restored it to its 1963 appearance, where it is now open to the public as a museum.

[dandavenport]

A remarkable, thoughtful, humble, and insightful person.

[fontainex]

Too many coincidences with this woman: wanted to speak Russian, got them to Dallas, got him to book depository.

[neriorus]

How come they didn’t ask her why her Tax Returns from those years are still classified as Secret by the federal government?

[chocolatetownforever]

15:55

A really odd moment to me. The host brings up that nobody would be at the museum had Ms. Paine not helped in getting Oswald a job at the School Book Depository, almost in an applauding type way.

Im not saying Ms. Paine did ANYTHING wrong, but what happened that day was a TRAGEDY, not something great that brought the audience together.

The host just doesnt seem to get that. He almost seems cheerful. Idk, struck me as weird, maybe youll think so too.

[moprimo]

why was she laughing and smiling so happy and loose in immediate aftermath of the events in the old Black and white interview clips, but 50 years later she is so emotional she needs a hug from the interviewer?

[terrioestreich]

Something about this woman makes me question every single thing she says, but after all these years, she still sticks to her story.

[michaeljohn]

Ruth still tells everyone marina taught her Russian but she knew full reading and writing Russian before she meets the Oswald’s.

[nataleehulingqhs]

if I had house guests that I didn't know very well that the fbi was keeping tabs on, I believe I wouldn't have house guests any more 😳🤷‍♀️

[pcatricksheridan]

Should have asked her about her relationship with de Mohrenschildt.

[BK-ufqr]

I’m just impressed she kept the same hairstyle for 60 years!

[Ronbo]

All I know is when the reporters in the Dallas PD HQ tell Oswald "You *HAVE* been charged" his face wasn't a look of resignation in being caught. It was pure anger at the set up. R.I.P L.H.O.

[notwatson]

Also - why did she need to "learn the language" - seems like she translates pretty effectively for Marina from English into Russian already - just saying....

[BudRob]

OMG she’s clearly lying, she is totally saying the commission was thorough 😅, yea ok CIA AGANT PAINE

[insertnamehere]

As a CIA agent and already spoke fluent Russian before meeting Oswald, her husband as well and her and her husband worked for CIA and Bell helicopters, she and her husband was sent by the CIA too spy on Oswald who just came back from Russia with a new wife who has ties to the KGB being Ruth Paine already spoke fluent Russian so she could totally ease drop on conversations in Russian, and not knowing that Oswald was allegedly involved with the assassination this time tells DPD officers, I've been waiting on you guy's, but she didn't know Oswald was involved so how can she be waiting for them expecting them unless she was tipped off or apart of it because of the CIA and totally involved in the plot of the assassination and I don't believe a word she says because evidence proves she's lying threw her teeth just go research and investigate her and come to your own conclusions and remember the CIA connection that will come into play.

[BlacKnightRising]

so what about this:


It was Ruth Paine who had arranged to drive Lee Harvey Oswald’s family from New Orleans to the Dallas area.

It was Ruth Paine who had timely managed Oswald to get a job in the Texas Book Depository Building which turned out to be situated on the Presidential motorcade route of November 22, 1963.


It was Ruth Paine who failed to advise Oswald that a better paying job was available to him than the one to which she had arranged to get for him at the Texas Book Depository Building.

It was in Ruth Paine’s garage where the rifle was supposedly stored that allegedly belonged to Oswald and was asserted to have been used by Oswald to kill Kennedy.


It was in Ruth Paine’s garage in which other incriminating evidence against Oswald was reported to have been stored.

It was the role of Ruth Paine and Michael Paine, both of whom purported to be committed to civil liberties, to join the authorities in designating Oswald as the assassin without his having had been offered even a suggestion of due process before he was conveniently killed while in police custody.


what about all that? how's this woman so front' n center in all of this, just seems weird, in so many ways actually....

[davecooke]

Funny how the police knew it was Oswald only an hour later .

[steveholland]

She was a CIA handler. Marina's handler. George DeMoreshield was a handler for Lee. May have misspelled George's name but you get the point

[danahsutton]

The tour of her home was very interesting. Like going back in time.

[TheHaratashi]

Interesting that she said she wanted to learn Russian from Marina - Ruth was already TEACHING Russian at the St. Mark's School by 1963. If you research Ruth Paine you will find that she was no ordinary housewife.

[urdude]

“A conversation with an older generation of CIA.”