[Sample B: Approval/Signature Sheet] - George Mason University

threatened with prosecution” for surreptitiously recording the conversation apparently in
violation of federal law. 483
In general, Lane accused the Commission of accepting the testimony of witnesses
who supported its case against Oswald, and rejecting that of witnesses who did not. As
Lane put it, “testimony compatible with the theory of Oswald as the lone assassin was
accepted, even when incredible, while incompatible testimony, no matter how credible,
was rejected.” 484 The author also accused the Commission of tailoring the evidence to
suit its theory, instead of the other way around: the Commission’s “criteria for
investigating and accepting evidence,” he wrote, “were related less to the intrinsic value
of the information, I believe, than to its paramount need to ally fears of conspiracy” by
advancing the Oswald as lone-gunman theory. 485
Lane advanced his ideal of a double Oswald based on some of those witnesses
rejected by the Commission but judged reliable by the author. Lane outlined a series of
incidents in the weeks before the assassination suggesting that “an effort to frame Oswald
had been under way long before the assassination.” 486 Lane presented the testimony of
witnesses who testified that Oswald or his double brought a rifle to a sporting goods shop
in Irving, Texas, asking that a telescopic sight be mounted on it. A gun shop employee
named Dial D. Ryder said a man came into the shop several weeks before the
assassination and asked for the telescopic sight to be mounted on his rife. Ryder filled
483 Lane, 195.
484 Lane, 395.
485 Lane, 175.
486 Lane, 324.
216