To warn against the imminent danger of communism infecting the United States, former general Edwin Walker teamed up in 1963 with tele-evangelist Billy James Hargis on “Operation Blue Ride,” a cross country speaking tour of 26 cities in 17 states. Hargis would use his famous “bawl and jump” style to proclaim himself “for Christ and against communism.” Walker would attack President Kennedy for not sending the 82nd Airborne to eliminate Cuban communism which he said menaced the entire Western Hemisphere. The tour began in Miami on 27 February and ended in Los Angeles on 3 April. *
Knowing that Walker was on tour out of town, Lee Harvey Oswald felt safe in conducting a reconnaissance of Walker’s Dallas home at 4011 Turtle Creek Boulevard on Sunday, 10 March - 60 years ago today. He saved four photographs from this outing; one of the alley behind Walker’s home, one of some railroad tracks about a half mile away, and two of the rear of the house (one of which is below).
Based on his reconnaissance, Oswald decided that the .38 pistol he had ordered on 27 January was insufficient to kill Walker. On 12 March, he ordered a Mannlicher-Carcano rifle with a sniper scope from a mail-order catalogue, paying $21.45. As he did with the pistol, Oswald demonstrated the good clandestine tradecraft he had been taught in Minsk by having the rifle shipped to his alias Alek James Hidell, care of Dallas Post Office Box #2915.
Eight months later, Oswald used this sniper rifle to murder President Kennedy.
*In 1974, Hargis’ influence waned after he was accused of having sex with young followers, both male and female. In 1976, Walker was convicted of public lewdness for making sexual advances to an undercover Dallas police officer in a public men’s room.
60 Years Ago Today - Oswald Stalks Walker
Maybe it isn't so much that we are doomed to repeat history if we don't learn from it, but, rather, history repeats itself because there is something in human kind that just never changes (or the change is over millennia rather than years...). I am struck by how many of the themes in your excellent Oswald series seem current...sigh.