Ruth Paine

Ruth Hyde Paine (born September 3, 1932) was a former friend of Marina Oswald, who was living with her at the time of the JFK assassination. According to official government investigations, including the Warren Commission, Lee Harvey Oswald stored the 6.5 mm caliber Carcano rifle used to shoot U.S. President John F. Kennedy in Ruth Paine's garage, unbeknownst to her and her husband, Michael Paine.

Ruth Paine answered more than 5,000 questions for the Warren Commission. There were over 500 witnesses for the Warren Commission, and the average number of questions asked for each witness was less than 300. Furthermore, Ruth Paine has given more interviews than any other Warren Commission witness, always consistent with her Warren Commission testimony.

Early life
Paine was born Ruth Avery Hyde in New York City, to William A. and Carol E. Hyde. She went to Antioch College in Ohio and became a Quaker. Through her interest in folk dancing and music she met her future husband Michael Paine. Though not a Quaker himself, Michael attended meetings with Ruth. They married on December 28, 1957.

In 1959 Michael Paine got a job with Bell Helicopter in Fort Worth, Texas, 30 miles from Dallas, and the Paines moved into a house in the suburb of Irving (Michael Paine's step-father, Arthur M. Young, designed the first Bell Helicopter). As liberals in Dallas, the Paines were isolated, and Ruth Paine was quite lonely.

Ruth Paine had been studying Russian since 1957. In the late 1950s she participated in Quaker pen pal programs and the East-West Contact Committee, which sponsored visits by three Soviets to the US. In 1963 she signed up to teach a summer class in Russian at St. Mark's School in Dallas, but only one student signed up (William Hootkins, who became an actor and had a minor role in the movie Star Wars as X-wing pilot Jek Porkins).

Ruth Paine met the Oswalds through her interest in the Russian language. She had learned to read Russian, but she had difficulty with conversational Russian. Also, she and Michael Paine were separated at this time. A mutual friend from their Madrigal singing group, Everett Glover, invited her to a party at his apartment on February 22, 1963, because he thought she would be interested in meeting two interesting people who spoke Russian.

The attendance of the couple, Lee and Marina Oswald, was arranged by Oswald's friend, 51-year-old White Russian émigré aristocrat George de Mohrenschildt, a well-educated petroleum geologist with intelligence connections.

Involvement with Oswald family
Ruth Paine drove Marina Oswald to New Orleans when the Oswalds moved there in May 1963 and back to Dallas when they moved again in September 1963. When the Oswalds resettled in the Dallas area, Marina and her child with Lee, June, moved in with Ruth Paine in the suburb of Irving, Texas, while Lee stayed in a boarding house under the name O.H. Lee. The second Oswald child was born after Marina moved in. Marina helped with the housework and Ruth's Russian studies while Lee visited on weekends. Michael and Ruth had long been separated, but remained on good terms. Michael was a frequent visitor and cared for his children deeply. At the suggestion of a neighbor, Linnie Mae Randle, Ruth Paine told Lee Oswald about a job opportunity at the Texas School Book Depository.

Lee Harvey Oswald stayed at the Paine home with Marina and his children unannounced on Thursday night, November 21, 1963—the night before President Kennedy was assassinated. When Oswald left for work on the morning of November 22, he brought a large package that he had kept in the Paine's garage with him to work at the Texas School Book Depository. Oswald's coworker and friend, Wesley Frazier testified that Oswald told him the bag contained curtain rods. The Warren Commission later concluded that the package actually contained the rifle used by Oswald in the assassination.

Eight days after the assassination of President Kennedy, on November 30, 1963, Ruth Paine inadvertently discovered evidence possibly linking him to an attempted assassination of General Edwin Walker. Among the letters that Ruth Paine reportedly sent to Marina was a thick book of household advice in Russian. The book contained an undated note left by Lee for Marina on April 10, 1963 (the day of the Walker assassination attempt) that Marina later testified she had concealed. Before the Kennedy assassination, Dallas police had no suspects in the Walker shooting.

Aftermath of assassination
Ruth Paine testified before the Warren Commission. She said she would not use the word "mister" as it was "contrary to Quaker practice" though she later called Guy Mamantov as "Mr. Mamantov". She described an "Impression of the Impression" routine, with Michael and Lee Oswald: "It has to be my impression of his impressions. I don't recall the evening too well, the evening of the second. I do recall we certainly had dinner together. I can't recall what the predominant language was. Lee and Michael, of course, talked in English. Not wanting to exclude her entirely from the conversation, I made opportunity to talk with her in Russian after the meal was over. She and I did the dishes and talked in Russian, and we were in the kitchen while Michael was talking to Lee in English in the living room, so I do not know what was said then between the two of them."

Paine has been interviewed by a number of authors, including Priscilla Johnson McMillan, William Manchester, Thomas Mallon, and Gerald Posner. She also testified in Jim Garrison's trial of Clay Shaw. Paine was not called to testify before the House Select Committee on Assassinations. She even testified at a 1986 mock trial of Lee Harvey Oswald.

After the assassination, Marina and Lee Oswald's mother Marguerite briefly stayed with Ruth Paine until Marina was taken into custody by the Secret Service. Marguerite and Lee's brother Robert did not like Ruth Paine, which may have influenced Marina Oswald. They thought Paine sought attention for herself, an opinion Marina would later express before the Warren Commission. When Marina testified in the Shaw trial, she said she had been "advised by the Secret Service not to be connected with (Ruth Paine)…She was sympathizing with the CIA." Ruth wrote to Marina incessantly, with letters that took an almost desperate tone, but received no response except for a Christmas card. They met briefly in 1964 but have not seen each other since. Paine heard news about Marina through author Priscilla Johnson McMillan until McMillan's relationship with Marina broke off in the early 1980s.

Ruth Paine returned to Pennsylvania and became principal of a Quaker school, the Greene Street Friends School located in Germantown. She soon moved to St. Petersburg, Florida and earned a master's degree in psychology from the University of South Florida. After working for the school system in Franklin County in the Florida Panhandle, she returned to St. Petersburg and worked for the Hillsborough County, Florida school system until her retirement. She is active in Quaker and liberal charities and organizations and lives in Santa Rosa, California.

The City of Irving bought the former Paine home on W. 5th St. in 2009 to restore it to its 1963 condition and turn into a museum in time for the 50th anniversary of the Kennedy assassination on November 22, 2013.

Author and researcher Sylvia Meagher wrote:

"Ruth Paine…is a complex personality, despite her rather passive façade…Some examples from her testimony show a predisposition against Oswald and a real or pretended friendliness toward the FBI and other Establishment institutions, which should not be overlooked in evaluating her role in the case…Mrs. Paine is sometimes a devious person, and her testimony must be evaluated in that light."

Paine has expressed her belief in the official conclusion that Oswald acted alone and has denied conspiracy theorists suggestions to connect her and Michael to their relatives and ancestors holding important government and business positions, such as her sister, Sylvia Hyde Hoke, being listed as an employee of CIA.

In Oliver Stone's JFK, the Paines are depicted as the highly suspect Bill and Janet Williams, played by Gary Carter and Gail Cronauer. While most names in the movie JFK were not changed, the Paines were renamed to avoid potential legal action. (The name Janet Williams was used again in the 1993 TV movie Fatal Deception: Mrs. Lee Harvey Oswald, in which the role was played by Quenby Bakke.) The 2022 documentary The Assassination & Mrs. Paine explores the Paines and their connections to the assassination.