Gun dealer in Irving
Maggsy
rifle to have it mounted with a telescopic sight yet the gun that Oswald
purchased had a sight already attached. Who was the gun dealer and did
Oswald have a second gun or is it another guy called Oswald? Was this a
common name at this time?
Greg Jaynes
Dial Ryder. I talked to him one time. I believe I posted info on the
encounter here.
Respectfully,
Greg Jaynes
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Warren Commission Report ch 6 p.315
Ownership of a second rifle.--The Commission has investigated a report
that, during the first 2 weeks of November 1963, Oswald had a telescopic
sight mounted and sighted on a rifle at a sporting goods store in Irving,
Tex. The main evidence that Oswald had such work performed for him is an
undated repair tag bearing the name "Oswald" from the Irving Sports Shop
in Irving, Tex. On November 25, 1963, Dial D. Ryder, an employee of the
Irving Sports Shop, presented this tag to agents of the FBI, claiming that
the tag was in his handwriting. The undated tag indicated that three holes
had been drilled in an unspecified type of rifle and a telescopic sight
had been mounted on the rifle and boresighted.627
As discussed in chapter IV, the telescopic sight on the C2766
Mannlicher-Carcano rifle was already mounted when shipped to Oswald, and
both Ryder and his employer, Charles W. Greener, feel certain that they
never did any work on this rifle.628 If the repair tag actually
represented a transaction involving Lee Harvey Oswald, therefore, it would
mean that Oswald owned another rifle. Although this would not alter the
evidence which establishes Oswald's ownership of the rifle used to
assassinate President Kennedy, the possession of a second rifle warranted
investigation because it would indicate that a possibly important part of
Oswald's life had not been uncovered.
Since all of Oswald's known transactions in connection with firearms after
his return to the United States were undertaken under an assumed name,629
it seems unlikely that if he did have repairs made at the sports shop he
would have used his real name Investigation has revealed that the
authenticity of the repair tag bearing Oswald's name is indeed subject to
grave doubts. Ryder testified that he found the repair tag while cleaning
his workbench on November 23, 1963.630 However, Ryder spoke with Greener
repeatedly during the period be between November 22-28 and, sometime prior
to November 25, he discussed with him the possibility that Oswald had been
in the store. Neither he nor Greener could remember that he had been. But
despite these conversations with Greener, it is significant that Ryder
never
Page 316
called the repair tag to his employer's attention. Greener did not learn
about the tag until November 28, when he was called by TV reporters after
the story had appeared in the Dallas Times-Herald.631 The peculiarity of
Ryder's silence is compounded by the fact that, when speaking to the FBI
on November 25, Ryder fixed the period during which the tag had been
issued as November 1-14, 1963, yet, from his later testimony, it appears
that he did so on the basis that it must have occurred when Greener was on
vacation since Greener did not remember the transaction.632 Moreover, the
FBI had been directed to the Irving Sports Shop by anonymous telephone
calls received by its Dallas office and by a local television station. The
anonymous male who telephoned the Bureau attributed his information to an
unidentified sack boy at a specified supermarket in Irving, but
investigation has failed to verify this source.633
Neither Ryder nor Greener claimed that Lee Harvey Oswald had ever been a
customer in the Irving Sports Shop. Neither has any recollection of either
Oswald or his Mannlicher-Carcano rifle, nor does either recall the
transaction allegedly represented by the repair tag or the person for whom
the repair was supposedly made. 634 Although Ryder stated to the FBI that
he was "quite sure" that he had seen Oswald and that Oswald may have been
in the store at one time, when shown a photograph of Oswald during his
deposition, Ryder testified he knew the picture to be of Oswald, "as the
pictures in the paper, but as far as seeing the guy personally, I don't
think I ever have." 635
Subsequent events also reflect on Ryder's credibility. In his deposition,
Ryder emphatically denied that he talked to any reporters about this
matter prior to the time a story about it appeared in the November 28,
1963, edition of the Dallas Times-Herald.636 Earlier, however, he told an
agent of the U.S. Secret Service that the newspaper had misquoted him.637
Moreover, a reporter for the Dallas Times-Herald has testified that on
November 28, 1963, he called Ryder at his home and obtained from him all
of the details of the alleged transaction, and his story is supported by
the testimony of a second reporter who overheard one end of the telephone
conversation.638 No other person by the name of Oswald in the Dallas-Fort
Worth area has been found who had a rifle repaired at the Irving Sports
Shop.639