The Assassination & Mrs. Paine (2022) User Reviews

Objective, Well-Done, and Surprising After 60+ Years!

[TheJonesBones · 8/10 · 2 July 2022]

I'm not a fanatical follower of this terrible event in American history, but I have been paying attention over the years. My father always said we would only get a small taste of the truth when all the principle players start dying. Now they're all in their 80-90's (or dead), so tongues are perhaps loosening, fears lessening - or maybe the victors are just that confident about their positions by now.

This is the story of Ruth Paine, the lady who hosted Marina Oswald (and their children) at her home during the assassination of President Kennedy. While she has always been an interesting - and central - character in this drama, you will be deeply surprised to hear the revelations about her and he family as presented in this excellent film.

After sixty years of interest, i didn't know: 1) her husband was a member of the wealthy and influential Forbes family, 2) they rubbed elbows with the elite of America's conservative establishment at the time (although she ostensibly harbors deeply liberal ideations), 3) her family vacationed with Allen Dulles that very summer (1963), 4) her best friend was Dulles' mistress, 5) on the way home from that vacation, she stopped by New Orleans to transport Marina and her children to her extremely modest home in Irving (a Dallas suburb where she was living at the time of the murder), 6) she later interacted with Nicuraguan Sandinistas in a role very similar to the one that brought her into the circle of Russian ex-patriots in Dallas (that is as an apparent information-gathering asset for the US government), 7) her husband and his family were instrumental in the development of Bell Helicopter (think Vietnam war profits), and 8) multiple members of her family including her sister - and Mrs. Paine heself - have documentad ties to the CIA.

Very strange. Viewed from a certain perspective then, she couild easily appear to be a well placed disinformation agent tasked with perpetrating and affirming the "lone gunman theory". So very, very strange....

Ruth Paine: Highly Suspcious!

[lavatch · 7/10 · 20 June 2022]

"The Assassination & Mrs. Paine" is a well-crafted documentary about a figure who has not received enough attention of students of the JFK assassination: Ruth Hyde Paine. The evidence in the film suggests that while not a conspirator, Ruth Paine was likely an unwitting collaborator as a baby sitter for Lee Harvey Oswald in the month leading up to the assassination. In this regard, Paine's role was not insignificant in the framing of Oswald as the patsy.

Marina Oswald and her baby June moved in with Ruth in her home in Irving, Texas, and Lee listed the Paine address and phone number on his job applications. It is correctly pointed out in the film that it was Ruth Paine who conveniently provided the lead for Oswald's job at the Texas School Book Depository building overlooking the upcoming parade route for Kennedy in Dallas. However, the filmmakers could have probed deeper into this key moment.

Inexplicably, Oswald was hired at the Texas School Book Depository building without a substantial check of his background that would have disclosed that he had defected to the Soviet Union in 1959. One of the local employment counselors had worked for years with the TSDB personnel and was shocked that Oswald had been hired. She recalled the following:

"They check.... If in past years, when I had been sending them applicants, I had sent them anyone who was not a 100% red-blooded, true-blue, American, I would have heard about it, plenty!....I only knew that they were terribly finicky about the people they hired."

Why was Oswald an apparent exception to the "finicky" hiring standards of the TSBD? He submitted his application on October 15 and was apparently on the job the very next day.

The filmmakers clearly wanted to present the Ruth Paine narrative objectively, enlisting a balance of Warren Commission apologists in opposition to those who firmly believe in conspiracy. But in so doing, there is the impression that viewers can make up their own minds about a topic in which we will likely never know the truth. The best segment of the film was the closing section where Ruth is confronted with tough questions and key pieces of evidence, which she casually brushed off.

It is the preponderance of evidence gathered over the years by the researchers appearing in this program that points to Ruth Paine, her husband Michael, and other family members working within the intelligence network at the height of the Cold War. A careful study of the actions of Ruth Paine inevitably arrives at the conclusion that her involvement in crafting the legend of Lee Harvey Oswald is highly suspicious!

Fun to watch, but to what use

[KatoC · 6/10 · 8 November 2022]

I guess this is an interesting vantage point for an US-audience, since its part in the national history. I know many younger Germans like to watch documentaries about Hitler, with it having been recorded so extensevely and all. In both cases, nothing new is being revealed. Hitler didn't defect to South America, nor did Elvis get abducted by aliens (as I presume). As with JFK the same old information is presented in a slightly different light. They're milking these stories for as long as humanly possible, but - hey, as long as it is fun to watch, by all means, onward and upward with it. Nothing new or revealing here.

Interesting topic

[amyschuchman-50306 · 10/10 · 18 June 2022]

I really enjoyed watching this film. There are so many layers to this mystery. It was like watching an onion getting peeled later by layer. The film was personal and engaging. I will definitely be watching it more than once!

A compelling and we'll balanced account

[angusflood-41169 · 9/10 · 4 September 2023]

As an intelligent person, hard to not come to the conclusion that the Paines were at least, very useful pawns in a bigger game. It is beyond coincidence that Mr Paine's mother was in a relationship with the head of the CIA, Alan Dulles and, despite the fact that her husband had a trust fund as one of the Forbes family and they holidayed on the Forbes private island that year, with Dulles, they chose to live in a working class neighbourhood of Dallas. There may be coincidences that don't always add up, but underneath the facade, it is clear that there is more to this couple than meet the eye. Oliver Stone did not invent the conspiracy theory, nor did Jim Garrison.

The Greatest Trick the Devil Ever Played

[kgehebe · 10/10 · 21 August 2022]

The story of Ruth and Michael Paine, a couple who befriended and took in Lee and Marina Oswald in the months leading up to the assassination of John F. Kennedy in 1963. On the surface, they are a charitable, religious couple; Ruth a Quaker, Michael a Unitarian. But there is way more to this couple than meets the eye.

The Paines move from the East coast to the working class neighborhood of Irving, TX a suburb of Dallas because of Michael's job with Bell Helicopter. At some point they separate and Michael moves out. Ruth is lonely and out of her element and eventually meets Marina Oswald at the home of George de Mohrenschildt, a white russian anti communist and CIA informant. After this brief introduction, Ruth decides to open her home to Marina. The summer before the assassination, Ruth drives Marina, her children and all her worldly belongings from New Orleans to Dallas out of the goodness of her heart. After the assassination, Ruth discovers Lee Harvey Oswald had been hiding a gun in her tiny garage as well as various other letters and damning evidence given to the Warren Commission. Ruth's testimony is instrumental in painting Oswald as a lone nut who wanted attention, glory and credit for killing the most powerful man in the world. She is asked more questions (5,000 to be exact) than any other witness before the commission. (It's curious, however, that Oswald didn't seem to want any credit and publicly insisted he was a patsy before being gunned down by Jack Ruby 2 days later.)

The problem with the Paines is that there are too many head spinning coincidences to be believable. Such as:

The Paines come from wealthy, elite, east coast families. Ruth Paine's lineage dates back to the Mayflower. Michael Paine is a member of the Forbes family. His mother was very close friends with a woman named Mary Bancroft. Bancroft is the mistress of, wait for it, ALLEN DULLES. Yes, THAT ALLEN DULLES. The Director of the CIA who Jack Kennedy fired after the Bay of Pigs fiasco. The ALLEN DULLES who was the central figure in the Warren Commission (Deep State, anyone?) The Paines, even though they were separated, vacationed together in the summer of 1963 on Naushon Island, a private retreat off Martha's Vineyard owned by the Forbes family for 150 years. The same summer that Ruth drove all the way back to New Orleans to pick up Marina, then back to Irving. All happening 2 months before the killing of the President.

Michael Paine's step father was the designer of the Huey, a helicopter that became an icon of the Vietnam War which made a fortune during that war.

Ruth's sister worked for the CIA along with her father who worked for USAID, a known CIA front. (Members of congress are today trying to reign in USAID) Her father was also under consideration for covert operations in Vietnam in 1957.

Ruth got Lee Harvey Oswald the job at the School Book Depository and was hired without a background check even though he had been a Soviet defector at the height of the Cold War (the Cuban Missile Crisis had taken place the year before) Ruth also failed to inform Oswald of another job offer that paid significantly higher than the one at the book depository.

Michael Paine got a security clearance for classified work at Bell Helicopter despite his father being a Trotskyite. (This was at a time of McCarthy blacklisting for suspected leftist affiliations)

Despite being a known defector, Ruth meets the wife of Lee Harvey Oswald, Marina, at the home of a white russian anti-communist (and known CIA informant)

Ruth claims her family is staunchly anti communist yet attends meetings of famed socialist Norman Thomas with her father?

Despite coming from families of vast wealth and power, the Paines live in a tiny ranch house in a working class suburb of Dallas. (And although not included in the documentary some internet sleuths claim the Paines owned other much larger houses but never took in charity cases like Marina, the wife of a Russian defector. The sleuths claim the Paines did not open their doors to the neighbors and were actually quite snobby to others not of their social station.)

It's simply implausible that so many coincidences exist around the Paines to be explained away by naivete and misplaced trust. It would make sense the CIA recruited families and friends from the same circle of elites rather than unknowns in the outside world. People with the same worldview and sense of entitlement. The blue bloods were probably greatly threatened by not only Kennedy's radical foreign policy departure but by his power itself. An Irish Catholic only a few generations removed from the potato famine was a far cry from the Brahmins. We'll probably never know exactly what role the Paines played in the assassination but they certainly weren't the heartwarming do gooders they've been portrayed as for almost 60 years. In all likelihood they were CIA babysitters and disinformation agents.

An excellent documentary and a must see for all patriots! What's past is prologue.

A film very relevant to what's going on today

[ken-46431 · 10/10 · 22 June 2022]

As our political and media elites express horror over the Jan. 6th "insurrection" let's not forget that the country has already been victimized by a coup that happened on November 22nd 1963. This was not executed by a bunch of yahoos many of whom mistook the event for Halloween. This was the president's head being blown off in broad daylight by serious people. The country has never really recovered. This excellent film bravely sheds light on this horrific event. Highly recommended!

great insight into allen dulles spy network of 60 years ago

[mgbowers · 10/10 · 12 July 2022]

They always use people close to the vest for such big operations as the jfk assassination. She has not changed her story all these years. They also lay out very well the psychological warefare game that the Paines laid with linking oswald to Kostikov ,and him possibly being a Russian agent. Then Johnson had to force the lone nut story because we cant risk nuclear war. We were forced to accept that for the good of the country. But we didn't.

Leads to even more questions

[rjcicijr · 10/10 · 16 June 2022]

Always interesting to see photos, films and people interviewed, I haven't seen before . Opposing Arguments are well represented. I learned about The connections the Paine's had ,. What I enjoyed the most about the whole movie, was Ruth & Michael Paine, ! After reading about them all these years.

another one bites...

[ops-52535 · 9/10 · 15 November 2022]

The dust, a queen once said, and this inclusion to the jfk assassination saga really doesnt blow away the fog of uncertainty whether it was an actual coup or a conspiracy made by the family of...., or just a mission accomplished by the one man only , lee harvey oswald.

Mrs paine seems to me as an awfully lovely elderly lady, that have had a very intelligent and structured life, merely based on her faith, and love to her country. I dont think shes more than a coinccidental prit on the map that elsewiise is covered with thousands of other coorporate and political culprits that has reigned the u.s. Society over the 12 past decades, so enjoy watching this documentary, its good storytelling, and continue to hope that the rest of the cia files will be rendered free as soon as posible, the grumpy old man will be looking forward to that.