The weather was cool and dry when Lee Harvey Oswald boarded the Liberte off the coast of LeHavre, France. (1) The ship was en-route from NY to Southhampton and Oswald had booked passage for
what was to be a relatively short trip across the busy water of the English Channel.
The great ship chugged its way slowly across the narrow straight separating Britain
and France, arriving at "Cowes Roads" (deep water outside the mouth of the harbor)
in the mid afternoon of the 9th of October. If a vessel was particularly large with
only a few passengers to trans-fer, it was often considered uneconomical to waste valuable
time negotiating South-ampton Water to dock at the port itself. Instead, as was
the case this day, the ship would anchor offshore in the Cowes Roads and small tugs
would be sent out to collect passengers and any small items of freight. Oswald arrived
on the British mainland at either 7:50 P.M. (the Red Funnel Tug/Tender Calshot) or
8:40 P.M. (the Alexandra Towing Company's Tug/ Tender Romsey) depending upon which
tug he took when he disembarked the Liberte. (2) At the port, all passengers passed through customs and most joined a British Railway
train to Waterloo Station in London. This is presumably what Oswald did, arriving
in Central London late in the evening of October 9th. (3)
From this point on, Lee Oswald's move-ments have been the subject of contro-versy
for over30 years. The alleged assassin's passport contains a stamp verifying 10
October 1959 as his depart-ure date from England. The passport is also stamped with
the same date for entry into Helsinki Airport in Finland. (4) There was only one flight direct from London Airport (now Heathrow) to Helsinki
on that date. This was a FinnAir flight which de-parted London at 14:20 and arrived
in Helsinki at 23:35 local time. It has been established by the Warren Commission
that it would have been impossible for Oswald to have cleared customs and arrive at the Hotel
Torni in downtown Helsinki before midnight. Herein lies the controversy: the hotel
register states that Oswald checked in before midnight on October 10th. (5) Various authors (Marrs, Groden/Livingstone, Melanson, Epstein), have either raised
this question or sug-gested, and in some cases, stated cate-gorically, that Oswald
may have had military or intelligence assistance in completing this leg of his journey.
My research into this matter has led me to conclude that it was not only possible
to have made the flight in the specified time frame, it was extremely likely. I have been able to find no military flights leaving London Airport on the 10th
but there were three commercial routes available to Helsinki on that day (BEA/Finn
Air being the only carrier for that destination). As well as the direct route, which
even the Warren Commission indicated was hardly feasible, there was a choice of two other
flights: one via Copenhagen (08:05 from London) and the other via Stockholm (08:50).
Either of these could have been utilized by Oswald, and both would have been offered if he had arrived in the early hours of October 10th trying to book a flight. These
flights would have arrived in Helsinki at 17:05 and 17:35 respectively, thus giving
Oswald ample time to reach the Hotel Torni before midnight. As we have seen, the
hotel register indicated that he did. (6)
Passenger lists for these flights have long since been destroyed, but (and this
is a real shame) they would have been readily available to the Commission in 1964
had anyone taken the trouble to look for them.
a) Why take this route at all?
NOTES:
1. Author's telephone conversation -- Met office, Bracknell Herts, August 25, 1994.
Used by permission . Electronic or other reproduction is prohibited. All rights reserved.
It is possible that the ship did not leave the LeHavre harbor until the early hours
of October 9, 1959. Although Oswald's passport shows an embarkation date of 8 October,
he may well have checked in through customs late on the night of the eighth, but
not departed for several hours. This was the beginning of Oswald's so-called defection
to the Soviet Union. He had left New Orleans on the SS Marion Lykes bound for LeHavre. From here, he would make his way through France
and England to Moscow where he would attempt to renounce his American citizenship.
In conclusion, it would seem that is more likely than not that Oswald took an ordinary
commercial flight from London to Helsinki. The real questions that need to be answered
seem to be:
b) How was this trip financed?
Theories surrounding these questions abound, but as yet no hard proof has emerged
to answer them.
2. Letter and docking records for October 7-9, 1959 to author from Mr. R.C. Hancock,
Marine Administration manager, Associated British ports, Southampton, England. August
30, 1994.
3) Ibid.
4) Warren Commission Exhibit 946,
18 H 160-171
5) Warren Commission Exhibit 2677,
26 H 32
6)Letter and flight timetable for October 1959 to author from Fred Huntley MBE, Consultant
Archivist, British Heathrow Airways Archives and Museum Collection, Heathrow Airport,
Hounslow, England.
