Lee Harvey Oswald in Pleasanton?

Historically Speaking



 

 

Hello, Atascosa County! I received a lot of positive feedback from last week’s article about Johnny Horton. I run into a lot of Rock ‘n’ Roll history and this may be a special topic I will highlight in the future. I prefer to write about Atascosa County history, but occasionally I will step out of the box, so to speak. This week, it’ll be about Pleasanton’s visit of someone who went on to commit a sinister act and become enemy No. 1 overnight.

On Nov. 22, 1963, President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas as he rode in a convertible vehicle during a parade. The motives behind the murder of a president and a police officer by Lee Harvey Oswald remain unknown. However, conspiracy theories have run rampant until the present day. The accused assassin, Oswald, was murdered the next day by a Dallas club owner Jack Rubenstein (Ruby). Therefore, whatever else Oswald had to say went with him to the grave.

A phenomenon that occurs after a shocking event is the public panic. Public panic causes people to believe that the involved parties or actors are somehow tied into the innocent realm of our lives. In the case of Lee Harvey Oswald, the sighting of his whereabouts prior to Nov. 22, 1963, have created a path to follow for the FBI in the days leading up to President Kennedy and Officer J.D. Tippit’s murders.

According to FBI interviews, Oswald traveled through several small towns seeking employment. Documented proof exists that places Oswald in Alice, Freer, Pleasanton, Corpus Christi and San Antonio in early October 1963.

KBOP Owner Dr. Ben Parker recalled that in early October, a man fitting the description of Oswald entered the radio station seeking employment. Dr. Parker described the man as being 5’7” or 5’8”, in his mid-20s, sandy hair and a dirty appearance. Dr. Parker did not look to see if the man was accompanied by anyone else but he advised the young man that he did not currently have a job for him. Mrs. Mona Parker (Ben’s wife) recalled receiving a call from the man before he stopped by the station.

Oswald’s second Pleasanton sighting was at a gas station where the attendant provided the same description and also added that the woman in the car spoke a foreign language. Let’s remember that Oswald’s wife was from the Soviet Union.

The sightings in Texas listed above, all matched in separate interviews and all descriptions detail Oswald as having sandy blonde hair and a dirty appearance. His job search is also a consistent occurrence throughout the South Texas Oswald sightings.

Can you imagine how different history would have been had Oswald found employment in one of these small towns?

Thank you for reading, until next time.

MARTIN GONZALES is the Atascosa County Historical Commission Chairman. If you have history to share, you may contact him at 830-480-2741.

3 responses to “Lee Harvey Oswald in Pleasanton?”

  1. Austin Teutsch says:

    Great story!! THAT’S the kind of story small town newspapers need to tell. Now, you need to look up those music stars who have playing in Atascosa County, most notably the old Oasis Club on highway 97. I heard in the 40’s and 50’s when major acts still toured small towns to promote a new record or an upcoming show in San Antonio, they’d play at the Oasis or at Dalton’s as a warm up. Now that would be a story many would like ot hear. Great writing.

    • Juan says:

      I was a 3rd grade schoolboy on my way to pick up the newspapers to sell throughout the streets of McAllen Texas when a man (that fits the description of Lee Harvey Oswald) in a black car called me to him and asked if I wanted to earn a dollar. I thought to myself, “A dollar is a lot of money for a 3rd grader in 1963” so I asked him what he wanted me to do. He said, “just distribute these papers (pamphlets/newspapers) throughout the town”. Sounded easy and I asked him how much to charge those that took the paper and he told me they were free. Seemed strange to me as I would charge 5 cents for the daily local newspaper and even the regular customers would automatically pay me when they saw me. I told them they were free. By the way, these papers had pictures printed on them of masses of people calling for some type of action. I didn’t pay much attention as I was only interested in getting the job done and the dollar he had already given me. He was following me in the black vehicle he was driving to make sure I was distributing the papers. It then dawned on me that I was going to be late for my paper route. At that point I hid from the man and ran through the streets and alleys wherein I dumped the papers at an empty lot and then continued running as fast as I could to pickup my newspapers(The Monitor). I never saw the man after that. I do believe that after I got home that I may have told my older brother about the incident and showed him the dollar. That’s all I have to say.

  2. LBJ top aide Horace Busby: Lyndon Johnson was acutely aware by Nov. 4, 1963 that the Kennedys had sent a SWAT team of over **FORTY** national reporters to Texas to utterly destroy him robertmorrowpoliticalresearchblog.blogspot.com/2020/07/lyndon-johnson-was-acutely-aware-by-nov.html

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