The Paris News from Paris, Texas • Page 29

Aug. 19, ram Aug. 19, 19S1 Oswald pallbearers discount no-body theory 3C Ed's Note: Lee Harvey Oswald was buried, no one eke would do it so reporters served as his pallbearers. The author was one of (hem. By MIKE COCHRAN Associated Press Writer FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) A policeman assigned to guard the body of Lee Harvey Oswald in 1963 says the so-called Oswald casket controversy is "ridiculous." R.

W. "Rocky" Stone said he is certain the man identified nearly 18 years ago as President Kennedy's assassin was buried as reported in Rose Hill Cemetery. "There is no way in hell that his body can not be in there," Stone, 56, said in an interview. Former Fort Worth Police Chief Cato Hightower, now retired, confirmed much of Stone's recollections of the events of Nov. 25, 1963, and said: "We looked in the we could easily identify Oswald." Both Stone and Hightower said they seriously doubted the body buried in Oswald's grave could have been removed or replaced.

Oswald's widow, Marina, and her husband, Kenneth Porter, told newsmen earlier, this week they believe the Oswald casket is empty. "1 personally think, and my opinion is the same as Marina's, there's no body in there," said Porter. "There's just been too many small and large things that point to the fact that the body's been moved or destroyed or whatever." They vowed legal action in an effort to open the grave. "I'd like to find out if there's a body in there," said the Russian-born Marina, 39, from her home in Rockwall, north of Dallas. Oswald's brother Robert, who paid the $710 funeral cost, has successfully resisted attempts to have the body exhumed.

The casket controversy stems at least in part from the claim by a British author that the grave contains the body of a Soviet spy and Oswald look-alike named Alek James Heidell. Conspiracy buffs have spent years challenging the "lone assassin" theory rendered officially in 1964 by the Warren Commission. The Warren Report concluded that Oswald, acting alone, fired on the presidential motorcade from the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository. Two days later, Oswald was gunned down in the basement of Dallas police headquarters by nightclub operator Jack Ruby. Officer Stone said he was summoned from his home before dawn the next morning and sent to the Miller Funeral Home in Fort Worth, 30 miles west of Dallas.

Oswald once attended school in Fort Worth and his mother, the late Marguerite Oswald, lived there at the time of the assassination. 'I was in the funeral home when he got there and I never lost sight of him from the time they dressed him until we dropped him in the hole at Rose Hill," Stone said. In a minor footnote to history, Stone said he permitted several law enforcement officers to take unauthorized photographs of Oswald's nude body. "I think it's illegal for people to be in the room while the body is being prepared for burial," he said. Stone said he accompanied the body to the cemetery and stood guard in the tiny Rose Hill chapel until newsmen, recruited as pallbearers, carried the coffin to the gravesite.

Stone recalled that an "obnoxious" newsmen asked him each time he stepped from the chapel if he was certain the coffin contained a body. "I finally told him there wasn't any body. I told him they, took the body out and buried it somewhere else," Stone said with a chuckle. He 'said he last saw the reporter racing across the cemetery to find a telephone. Later, Stone said, Hightower, his boss, entered the chapel complaining that "some S.O.B.

started a rumor that there's no body in the casket." Fort Worth Star-Telegram reporters Jerry Flemmons and Jon McConal recalled the rumor circulating among the media, as did retired United Press International newsman Preston McGraw. The three were pallbearers. "We're not going to have any of that," McGraw recalled Hightower saying. The police chief and his top deputy ordered the casket opened. "We opened it up and, of course, he was lying there.

I knew damn good and was Oswald," Stone said. Hightower confirmed that he looked inside the coffin and "It was Oswald." He said he could not recall' specifics but that Stone's account was "probably, true." Hightower revealed that Oswald's mother also identified the body as that of her son. In fact, funeral home director Paul Groody said he opened the casket for Oswald's mother and his widow and his brother minutes before sealing the Sec OSWALD, Pg. 5C OSWALD ASSASSINATION Jack Ruby fires a bullet from point-blank range into Lee Harvey Oswald at the Dallas police station on Nov. 24, 1963, two days after the assassination of President John F.

Kennedy. Oswald died several hours later and his body was taken to Fort Worth for burial in Rose Hill Cemetery. Controversy has raged over accusations that the body interred was not Oswald's, but former Fort Wcrth police officer R. W. Stone is certain that it was.

(AP Laserphoto, Copyright 1963, the Dallas Times Herald and Bob Jackson) OSWALD IN CASKET This is the photograph the Associated Press just obtained purporting to show the body of accused presidential assassin Lee Harvey Oswald shortly before his burial on Nov. 25, 1963. The scratches on the print are on the original. The photo was obtained by Jim Marrs, a one-time Fort Worth Star-Telegram reporter. Marrs told the AP a Fort Worth police intelligence officer took the picture at the old Miller Funeral Home, which prepared the body for burial.

(AP Laserphoto) AP obtains purported photo of Oswald body FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) The Associated Press has obtained a photograph purporting to show the body of accused presidential assassin Lee Harvey Oswald shortly before his burial in 1963. A Fort Worth police officer reportedly snapped the unauthorized photograph on Nov. 25, 1963, as Oswald's body lay in a coffin at a Fort Worth funeral home. Within hours, he was buried in Rose Hill cemetery here. Oswald allegedly killed President John F.

Kennedy on Nov. 22, and was himself slain two days later by night club operator Jack Ruby. The AP purchased the photo from Jim Marrs, a one-time Fort Worth Star-Telegram reporter who now is employed here by an advertising public relations firm. Marrs told the AP a Fort Worth police intelligence officer took the picture at the old Miller Funeral Home, which prepared the body for burial. Marrs said the police officer gave him the photo four or five years ago.

He said he made no previous attempt to publish the picture out of deference to Oswald's mother, Marguerite, who died earlier this year. The AP learned of the photograph while researching a story on the controversy surrounding Oswald's body. Oswald's widow, Marina, says she now believes the coffin to be empty and wants authorities to re-open it. Ban Roll-On Deodorant SAVE Assorted. (25c Off Lihil) Safeway Special! 1.5-iz.

Siviift Is iff rifilir labtl SAFEWAY Hair Care Hair Spray SAVE UP TO BOcEA. Safeway Special! 19 8-oz. Aerosol Extra Strength Bufferin 75-cl. Capsules Safeway Special! $029 YurBj IliClW UALITY VALUE! Right Guard Deodorant Solid AMl-perjplrint Off Libtl) Rmlar Safeway Special! $129 TO SCHOOL SAVE $1.00. 2.5-oz.' I Savings is off malar lahtl.

Soft Dri Deodorant Reach Filler Paperiroothbrushes Hi Mead 3-Hole Stock Up Now for School! Safeway Special' 200-ct. Pkg. Theme Book 44 Mud Silnl. 70-et. Safeway Special! Each I II 58 Soft'MidlKRi Safeway Special! SAVE 4U EKk 0 Asstrtri Safeway Special! 1 47 3-Subject 77 s.ir.iTk.ub^nJ I I KSSSSSS? Each! I Eraser-Mate 2 special! SAVE 42t Folders $1 Write Bros, Gillette iTrac I Safeway Special! 5) Milk PIUS 6 Shampoo Assortad Safeway Special! $169 8-OZ.

Boltli 1 SAFEWAY AND rgens $147 Phisoderaicieg I FrHkScwlSkHCIwwr. vw BH ft HEAVY DUTY Safeway Special! 111. SAVE 32t Eveready Batteries Gloves $149 iN-kMttTiUititr I 20-Ct. (Sivi Mel EKk I Haavy Daly or Size Safeway Special! (tmnt) Special!" Noxzema Skin Cream (30c Off Labal) 60e SafewaxSpecial! Geritol $069 MTapescno TikMi.VJtMli 40-Cl. I Guuni.MUMHiAlet.

IB 1 SlfftoHMt Btl. (SiniZze) Special! ElCkW D-Con $149 HI-MHqVllMlM 130-Cl. II I (tnt tot) Special! III. (SinHfle) Special! AjflUl 2-ct. Pkl.

67 0 Mr. Coffee FILTERS Fll MOSt SAVE iiiowllc ZOe CaffN mkirs $1 69 Pledge $129ifiQo I feW LmthirtrWNNi 30-el. I FinHiri Midi 7-az gl if Tj isaffraularlahtl. Special! I Safeway Special; mm Sivlifs is aff rafilar laid. DECANTER With Hd 10-cap Each ISI-W; when you want our best- look for this little ted ($1 Bttnl product! qatttf WtguirtniMlhayllpKtMyoij (V tat mtt rigid quality ipKifiuticm Etch erind It in qiMlny to Uw MIKKUI brand ol DM gtntntycatt roultti Safeway! tempting treats! Rtmtmbtt Bw ol Mcfwn on tukmg day rcnrwH TM frigrinu ol tht hot own cotton Inty cooHO WUk over to our baMry dvparlmtnt.

SMal a ftmefl. The goodoMi ol YMtroay tnth tuna la you, Don ratio umptauxi Safeway! tat every taste- delicatessen treats A louch of Chaatat. AI tha tpicai mnfmt ma Sauugat MaaU Braada. OWtaltonKl pouto Cola Maw Jucy. cntp ciKkan raadylotarvaalapany Toanjoy Sup irto our Slap imo Safeway! Knee Hi Socks Safaway Mlsus Pattari Safeway Special! $129 Piir I Ekco Eterna Salad Fork SAVE 20e SlilalwBaslilla or Clluic 1 With aaeh $3.00 39 0 lun.

Prices Effective Thurs. thru Aug. 20,21.22, 23.1981 In Paris, Texas Sales In Retail Quantities Only! 520 arksvi 351 2 Lamar SAFEWAY 3) rttMt MM. IMIWW WCWftUTII.