Oswald’s widow thinks grave may be empty

Press, 8 September 1980, Page 7

Oswald’s widow thinks grave may be empty

NZPA-Reuter Dallas _ - \ ’ / «' < ■■' The widow-of Lee Harvey Oswald, the alleged killer of President John Kennedy, says she wants her husband’s grave opened to find out if it is empty. Marina Oswald Porter.', revealed this in a prepared statement presented to a judge who is to decide if Oswald’s body will be exhumed. . .:

A British author, Michael Eddowes, contends that a Soviet secret agent’s body is in the grave. Robert Oswald, Lee Harvey’s older has sued Mr Eddowes and the cemetery to prevent exhumation. Mr Oswald last week told the judge that he saw his brother’s body for about 10 minutes on the day it was buried and had absolutely no doubt that it was his brother.

Mrs Porter . said that a commotion occurred at her husband’s fulifetal' and that she later heard a story that the body had been stolen. She said she signed the. exhumation request to settle the issue h t -i; < : . « “It was a very hard decision to make! It wasn’t made for publicity- or financial gain,” Mrs Porter told reporters. • She came from the Soviet Union to. the, United States with her husband a year before President Kennedy was killed in Dallas- in 1963. Her husband was\ killed soon after while in police custody by a nightclub owner, Jack Ruby. •. - Mrs Porter refiised to say unequivocally that she believes the body is that, of Lee Harvey Oswald, but she said she is certain the person buried thgre was her husband.

“I -met' a • gentleman .In Russia by the name of Lee Harvey Oswald. This is the same man that is buried there . . . the person T was married to.” Oswald went to the Soviet Union in the late 1950 s after serving as a United Marine. Eddowes contends that an imposter took Oswald’s identity .while he was in Russia. Mrs- Porter' said; that she was not certain whether any body was in the grave. “I strongly believe in uie..possibility of a body riot being there,” she said. ~ It was then that she remarked that a commotion occurred aL.tbe funeral and she heard a rumour that the body -had been stolen. ' Several months later she gave her consent ’to “someone” who wanted to place an electronic device on the grave to detect disturbances, she said.