Michael Paine

Michael Ralph Paine (June 25, 1928 – March 1, 2018) was an American engineer who became notable after the assassination of U.S. President John F. Kennedy, as he was an acquaintance of Lee Harvey Oswald. His wife, Ruth Paine, housed Oswald's wife, Marina Oswald, in her home for several months until the day after the assassination. Supporters of the Warren Commission's analysis of the assassination have generally had a positive view of the Paines, but various conspiracy theorists have speculated that they may have had an ulterior motive.

Early life Paine was born in New York City. His father was Lyman Paine, an architect and activist. His mother was Ruth Forbes Young, financial backer of International Peace Academy and a member of the Cabot and Forbes families. He had one sibling, Cameron Paine.

Career After serving in the U.S. Army, Paine worked a few months for Griswold Manufacturing Co. and for about a year at the Bartol Research Foundation in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania. He then worked for his mother's third husband Arthur M. Young, the designer of the first commercial helicopter, making helicopter models. In 1959, they relocated from Pennsylvania to a house in Irving, Texas, a Dallas suburb,

On February 22, 1963, Ruth Paine attended a party at the home of her fellow madrigal singer, Everett Glover, who knew that she was learning to speak Russian and introduced her to Marina and Lee Harvey Oswald. Lee Oswald had defected to the USSR after serving in the Marine Corps, and Marina was Russian-born. They had recently returned to the United States with their young daughter.

Relationship with Lee Harvey Oswald

He met the Oswalds for the first time on April 2, 1963, when he drove them to Ruth Paine's house for dinner at her request. (They did not have a car.) He later told the Warren Commission that he took an immediate dislike to Lee Oswald, who barked orders at his wife Marina from the living room. He told writer Thomas Mallon that he pitied her for "having to take these whiplashes meekly and quietly and obediently." Over the next seven months, he told the Warren Commission, he was continually upset by the fact that Lee Oswald refused to let Marina learn English.

He did not tell the Warren Commission that Lee Oswald had also used that time to speak with him about his fervent political views and to proudly display a now-famous "backyard photograph", one of four known photos of Lee holding his rifle, wearing his pistol, and displaying two Marxist newspapers. In 1993, he told Gus Russo, author of Live by the Sword (1998) that Lee Oswald showed him the photograph that day, but he swore to the Warren Commission that he had "no idea" that Lee Oswald ever had a rifle. He also did not emphasize for the Warren Commission the several talks that he had with Oswald about the radical right wing and resigned General Edwin Walker, who had been making trouble for Kennedy since October 1962. He only said that he and Oswald "agreed" about Walker.

The Warren Commission was far more interested in the fact that Lee Harvey Oswald lived in a rented room in Dallas, but stored most of his possessions in the garage at Ruth Paine's garage. This is because Marina Oswald told Dallas Police that Lee Oswald kept an army rifle there, wrapped in a blanket. Michael Paine told the Warren Commission that he always thought it was camping equipment.

While Warren Commission supporters have been kind to the Paines, several assassination conspiracy theorists have questioned their testimony because they had links to government agencies. These included Michael Paine's work at Bell Helicopter, which linked him to intelligence agencies; family connections to the Cabot and Forbes families; and a mother on the FBI Security Index.

Later life and death In 1964, Paine testified that he was a member of the American Civil Liberties Union.

In media Paine and his wife were portrayed in Oliver Stone's JFK under the names "Bill and Janet Williams", presumably to avoid legal action. The 2022 documentary The Assassination & Mrs. Paine explores the Paines and their connections to the assassination.