Do you know this tidbit about Lee Harvey Oswald?

[manxman]

No never heard that.

Another bit of american revisionist history maybe??.

 

[Fnord]

I, for one, welcome our new revisionist masters.

 

[GrouchoMarxist]

I'd kill for a doughnut!

Jack Ruby

 

[I Ratant]

...
The tidbit is, in April 1963, Lee Harvey Oswald tried to assassinate another public figure, General Edwin Walker.

.
It's been a closely kept secret, first revealed in the Warren Commission Report, 1964, page 13.

 

[Elizabeth I]

I didn't know about the detail in the OP. Hm.

Yes, I knew about the attempt on Walker. This is going to sound really, really heartless and awful, but from a purely pragmatic point of view, I wonder if on the whole it would have been better (or at least, had a lesser impact on history) if Oswald's first attempt at assassination had in fact succeeded.

Interesting - my husband also didn't know about Walker, but when I told him, he said almost exactly the same thing as Stellafane.

I didn't know that. My excuse is being 30.

Get off my lawn!

 

[Foolmewunz]

Aside from JFK CT devotees, I believe this is an age thing. If you lived through it, you sucked up everything on the topic through '63 and '64, and it was certainly covered in news stories.

Add to my age the fact that I was a half-hearted JFK CT supporter in my teens, and that I'd read the popular press edition of the WCR (looking desperately for loopholes like today's 911 CTers, and just like them, not finding anything that was borne out by time or further investigation).

But I'd be really surprised if anyone who was more than 10 years old (that means anyone born earlier than '53, had not heard of his attempt on the general. And, typically, we all had a great time interpreting it however we could. (Oliver Stone would've been proud!)
[CT] Wow! That proves it, man! The guy was a Manchurian Candidate - a killing machine. The shot at the general was supposed to miss. They just did it to test his will power for what they really had him conditioned to do.[/CT]
[Rational] Well, the guy made one (known) attempt to shoot a political figure. Obviously, he had the psycho make-up. Doesn't prove anything, but sure lends credence.[/Rational]

 

[davefoc]

I think ksbluesfan hits the key which differentiates the knows from the know nots. Generally speaking, those who've delved into the matter or watched documentaries about it on TV seem to be in the know. Those of us who just never got into the minutia were unaware of this particular tidbit - and probably many other facts that those who are JFK assassination fans consider "common knowledge".

I'm an exception to both of the attempts at generalization in this thread about who knew and who didn't know.

Old people know generalization:
I'm 60 and I didn't know.

People who have delved into the subject know generalization:
I've seen several documentaries and have done some reading on the subject including an article in Skeptic magazine several years ago and I didn't know.

Of course the explanation for my being an exception to both of the who knew hypotheses put forth here might be that I'm just not all that bright.

As an aside, the article in Skeptic magazine (as I recall) suggested that the case that Oswald had acted alone was not convincing. It might be interesting to look at that article and see if they mentioned the assassination attempt by Oswald. If they didn't it might be reasonable to question whether the author was being careful to fairly deal with evidence that didn't support his theory.

 

[Noztradamus]

I read about this years ago. Some of the "Oswald was a patsy" CT crowd claim this supports their theory. The police report on the shooting initialy identified the recovered slug as a probable 30-06, rather than a 6.5mm.

Oswald couln't have shot either Walker or JFK because he never owned a rifle at all. The rifle found in the Book Depository was planted there, never fired, and later substituted in the police evidence lockup by the Mannlicher-Carcano used on the roof of the Dal-Tex building. Because the Book Depository building wasn't on Dealy Plaza, in fact it wasn't in Dallas at all. (I'll stop now)

 

[Accidental Martyr]

Yes. The only reason is because I used to read a lot of the JFK assassination books when I was younger. As others have said, if you haven't read/watched a lot of the stuff related to the JFK assassination, you might not be familiar with that part of the story.

 

[timhau]

Oswald couln't have shot either Walker or JFK because he never owned a rifle at all. The rifle found in the Book Depository was planted there, never fired, and later substituted in the police evidence lockup by the Mannlicher-Carcano used on the roof of the Dal-Tex building. Because the Book Depository building wasn't on Dealy Plaza, in fact it wasn't in Dallas at all. (I'll stop now)

Not only that, but Dallas was in fact founded by the NWO with the sole purpose of framing Oswald 107 years later.

 

[welshdean]

Oswald couln't have shot either Walker or JFK because he never owned a rifle at all. The rifle found in the Book Depository was planted there, <snip>

Woah man, there was no rifle found dude, it was a book on rifles that LHO had never even checked out. You need to open your eyes man, see the stuff they don't want you to see.

 

[Worm]

Yup, knew about it, probably from Norman Mailer's book on Oswald, which I think covered it pretty extensively.

 

[Brian-M]

This is going to sound really, really heartless and awful, but from a purely pragmatic point of view, I wonder if on the whole it would have been better (or at least, had a lesser impact on history) if Oswald's first attempt at assassination had in fact succeeded.

Not necessarily. Things might have been worse if JFK had lived long enough to fall from grace.

In fact, this is what really happened that day...

 

[Number Six]

Oswald couln't have shot either Walker or JFK because he never owned a rifle at all. The rifle found in the Book Depository was planted there, never fired, and later substituted in the police evidence lockup by the Mannlicher-Carcano used on the roof of the Dal-Tex building. Because the Book Depository building wasn't on Dealy Plaza, in fact it wasn't in Dallas at all. (I'll stop now)

I've yet to see convincing evidence that Kennedy or Oswald even existed.

 

[kookbreaker]

I've never even heard of that one... Does the claim have any credibility, or is it just Martina O. trying to cash in on her fringe fame?

She told the Warren Commission. It wasn't like Lee got a shot off at Nixon. He basically told his wife he was going to kill Nixon while he was in town (IIRC this was after his attempt on Walker). When he went to the bathroom she locked him in it until it was too late or he agreed to not kill Nixon- I forget the details. There's only her testimony that he was planning this but it was in character for Oswald.

 

[timhau]

She told the Warren Commission. It wasn't like Lee got a shot off at Nixon. He basically told his wife he was going to kill Nixon while he was in town (IIRC this was after his attempt on Walker). When he went to the bathroom she locked him in it until it was too late or he agreed to not kill Nixon- I forget the details. There's only her testimony that he was planning this but it was in character for Oswald.

Yeah, the idea doesn't sound far-fetched, but if that is all there is, saying that there was "an alleged attempt on Nixon" by Oswald is stretching it.

 

[TraneWreck]

Yeah, the idea doesn't sound far-fetched, but if that is all there is, saying that there was "an alleged attempt on Nixon" by Oswald is stretching it.

If we're calling that an "attempt," then there have been 50,004,786 attempts on Obama's life today.

 

[Skeptic Guy]

Never heard of this until today.

 

[bynmdsue]

If we're calling that an "attempt," then there have been 50,004,786 attempts on Obama's life today.

Wow,sorry for using the wrong word,I should have said "the time Oswald tried to leave the house with a pistol to murder Richard Nixon".

 

[angrysoba]

The tidbit is, in April 1963, Lee Harvey Oswald tried to assassinate another public figure, General Edwin Walker.

I didn't know about it until I read Voodoo Histories around this time last year.

BTW, I would think that knowing about the attempt on Walker would make people less likely to believe there was a conspiracy to kill JFK, assuming that is they believed that Oswald tried to kill Walker by himself. It kinds sets a precedent for Oswald trying to kill public figures by himself.

Well, really nothing at all would convince those who are adamant there was a conspiracy to kill Kennedy. About the best it could do is convince people that Oswald was part of it, but it won't stop those who believe there was another shooter from saying that he had been recruited by the CIA/Cuban exiles/Cuban Communists/KGB/Lyndon Johnson/the Jews/The Masons/The Knights of Malta/the Illuminati/The Butchers/The Bakers/The Candlestickmakers etc... etc...

What I find even more damning is the fact that Lee Harvey Oswald certainly killed Officer Tippit but there are plenty of conspiracy theorists who deny this also. These days, you don't even have to "trust the US government" to confirm that Oswald was behind it though as some of the most damning evidence can now be verified as true independently:

http://angrysoba.blogspot.com/2010/02/shadows-dispelled.html