Lee Harvey Oswald's Penis

Despite my long interest in Oswald the question as to whether he was circumcized or uncircumcized had never ocurred to me. Over at alt.assassination.jfk Davie Reitzes relays an email from Oswald's alleged mistress Judyth Vary Baker that touches on this sensitive point. I correct a few typos.

Chapman called me shortly after Debra Conway and i had met, and said, "Debra tells me you said Oswald was not circumcized." Debra Conway had told me she had received a photo of Lee entirely nude, and that she and Chapman had decided to show it at the Lancer conference, with that area covered. We did not discuss circumcision-- I did make a comment that Lee was 'well endowed.'

It's important to know that when Chapman called me and said Debra had told him that I said Lee was not circumcized, AND THAT THE PHOTO SHE HAD SHOWN AT LANCER CONFIRMED THIS, that many things ran through my mind. Someone had sent her a bogus or altered photo, then, because Lee WAS circumcized! Fortnately, her reputation was still OK because she had told me that area had been covered with a black square when shown publically. Poor Debra! She had been given a bogus photo! And accepted it as genuine, even though the autopsy report said clearly that Lee was circumcized!

Update: This post was originally dated May 4, 2009. A current thread on John Simkin's JFK forum brings us back to LHO's penis . A poster reproduces part of an earlier Judyth Vary Baker email:

Subj: Re: test
Date: 10/6/00 3:49:50 AM Eastern Daylight Time
From: Americanwebworks
To: Dreitzes
CC: Howpl

(.........................)

i am not interested in maing any money or peddling a book. I got an agent hoping to get the book i wrote--which put everything down in detail before i talked to anybody, and then had a professor keep a truncated version of it in caseanything happened to me--that shows i have never deviated from my account from the first. however, if people ask me something, i will add information. For exakple, Debra Conway
asked me intimate questions about Lee, since she knew information from things i never knew existed. Example: was lee circumcized? (no). The pointnis that whatever i might not have thought to put down, if somebody asked, i emailed them .....
(.......)

God bless you,Dave,
Judyth V. Baker

This certainly appears to show that Judyth had first said that Oswald was not circumcized only to have to back-pedal upon learning that he was. I have earlier said that Judyth is probably telling the truth but I must admit that this has shaken that opinion. Judyth and her defenders will be given every opportunity to clear this matter up.

Update: Judyth responds

Dear Gary:
Thank you for giving me an opportunity to respond to this.
1) In October, 2000, Conway and I were not friends. I would not have used Conway as an example to Mr. Reitzes. I am not in the habit of bringing up private matters as "examples."
2) Note that only Howard Platzman is cc'd. However, I always cc'd Martin Shackelford as well.
3) Reitzes has written large, complex website attacks against me, employing stolen emails, emails with quotes taken out of contex entirely, and so on. We have seen "quotes" where he has posted "emails" supposedly from me but replete with so many typos that they were hardly legible. The email he cites is poorly written--does it really sound like me, Gary?
4) with all he above, you might still wonder if the email could be a legitimate one in its entirety--it is true that I did write Reitzes several times, after all--but ask yourself why this 'gem' is NOT MENTIONED IN ANY OF HIS WEBSIES ATTACKING ME? It might be added to one of his atack sites NOW, but until now, it wasn't to be seen anywhere? WHY?
Answer: it has been altered, oh-so-conveniently, Gary. I NEVER bring up private matters such as this about Lee. To Mr. Chapman, in response to his statement that I had AGREED WITH DEBRA CONWAY--this was ten months earlier, mind you--that Lee had not been circumcized (and of course, I'd read the autopsy, so how could I have made such an 'error' even if I were not telling the truth? The subject is too important!)--was worried about Debra AT THAT TIME, -- for she had told me how important Lancer was to her--she had formerly been a merchandising agent (1994) and Lancer at this time was only 5 years old--she was building her reputation, she old me. Was going to move from California and "take Mary ferrell's place." She confided to me that she helped David Lifton for two years writing his biography on Oswald. I did not know who Chapman was. I had to worry that he might be trying to destroy her reputation, for she had told me she had received autopsy photos of Lee and had shown them recently, with a black patch over the private area. What if she had received fakes??? I have always stated such, Gary. Yes, that was my thought, and to protect her, I refused to tell Chapman a single detail except what I had said to Debra--that he was 'well-endowed.' Even THAT --'his' very size--seems now to be altered in photos from the original. Dr. Fetzer agreed with me when I did recently decribe Lee in the very same terms--"well endowed." He expressed his concern because he'd seen an altered full-body autopsy photo of Lee recently.
Now, Gary, you will not find any such statement as Mr. Reitzes pretends I made residing with Dr. Platzman, Martin Shackelford, or anyone else who is reputable. However, if you believe Mr. Reitzes to be reputable -- he once wrote some good stuff, yes--but then 'turned'--interestingly, in an email to ME he said McAdams was paying for his website. Just think to yourself: Reitzes threw everything at me but the kitchen sink on his websites. For years.
Except for this.
I do hope you will consider that.
If you read his "Judyth saniizes her story" you wll see some of the malice Mr. Reitzes has. He faults me for removing some information from my high school website. But understand -- I had used up ALL the room there, and to update it, had to remove some things. I removed items rather at random to make room for an update. THIS he called 'sanitizing' my story! He took great pains to try to 'prove' how terrible that was, when I did it without much thought. After all, this was to my high school friends.
Please write to me at emaildeleted@yahoo.com and I will answer all questions. I would prefer that you erase my email address, though, from common view.
I urge you to consider that it took ten years for Mr. Reitzes to come up with this one.

best regards always--JVB

My response:

Judyth Baker maintains that the email in question was either invented or altered by Dave Reitzes. I would certainly urge Mr. Reitzes to release the entire unedited email. It is true that Dave Reitzes is a Lone Nutter affiliated with John McAdams. I do find it difficult to believe that he would simply invent an email from Judyth, who admits to having sent him emails in the past.

Judyth writes, "We have seen "quotes" where he has posted "emails" supposedly from me but replete with so many typos that they were hardly legible. The email he cites is poorly written--does it really sound like me, Gary?" Yes, I am afraid it does. Judyth Baker is an intelligent and educated woman but most of her emails appear to be hurriedly written and contain numerous typos. She has also suffered from eye and other health problems.

Her strongest point is that even if she were faking it would not make sense for her to simply guess as to whether LHO was circumsized or not, especially since that information was in the autopsy record.