THE MAGIC TOOTH
Mr. JENNER. But you do remember that you attempted to help him when he was struck in the mouth on that occasion; is that right?
Mr. VOEBEL. Yes; I think he even lost a tooth from that. I think he was cut on the lip, and a tooth was knocked out.
--Warren Commission: Vol. 8, Page 3
Ed Voebel's Warren Commission testimony that Lee Harvey Oswald lost a tooth while in the ninth grade at Beauregard Junior High School in New Orleans is pretty hard to refute, because in November 1954 Voebel snapped a photo of young Lee Harvey Oswald showing off his missing front tooth, a photo eventually purchased and published by the old Life magazine, and shown on page 804 of Vol. 16 of the Warren Commission's 26 volumes.
Life
magazine editors must have been thrilled to find a photo suggesting Oswald
was a hostile kid even in the ninth grade. But there is a serious problem
now.
Due to efforts of British writer Michael Eddowes, Oswald's body was exhumed at its Texas gravesite in 1981. Photos and x-rays were taken, including photographs of the cadaver's teeth.
Less than a half hour into his stunning 1997 talk at JFK Lancer's November in Dallas conference, researcher John Armstrong displayed Ed Voebel's WC testimony, and then he showed the Life magazine photo of Oswald displaying his missing tooth.
Ed Voebel told the Warren Commission he first met Lee Oswald when Oswald fought with Johnny Neumeyer. After the fight Voebel got some ice for Lee and attempted to patch him up. Voebel told the Warren Commission, Volume 8, page 3, "I think he was cut on the lip, and a tooth was knocked out ". Shortly after the fight, which occurred in November, 1954, Voebel took this LIFE Magazine photograph of Lee Oswald showing the missing front tooth. But in 1981, when Oswald's body was exhumed, autopsied, photographed and x-rayed there were no missing or chipped teeth.. The boy in the LIFE Magazine photo with the missing tooth was not the person killed by Jack Ruby and autopsied in 1991. When I showed the LIFE Magazine photo of Oswald to Myra, she said this was not Harvey Oswald. Myra was correct, the LIFE magazine photo was Lee Oswald.
Ed Voebel knew Harvey Oswald in the 8th grade and Lee Oswald in the 9th grade. The HSCA was quite interested in talking to Voebel. However, Voebel died a few years earlier at age 31 at the Oshner Clinic, in New Orleans.
-- John Armstrong, 1997
from "Harvey and Lee"
During his "Harvey and Lee" presentation, Mr. Armstrong showed a photograph of Oswald's teeth taken from the 1981 exhumation.
There was--clearly--no missing front tooth. Shown below is Lee Harvey Oswald's dental chart from his Marine Corps medical record, also indicating that no front teeth were missing.
How can this be explained? Had a 15-year old boy lost a baby tooth in a fight? Or were there two different Lee Harvey Oswalds, similar in appearance but not identical?
The Warren Commission, John Armstrong believes, combined the biographies of two different people to arrive at the classic legend of Lee Harvey Oswald. One was a Russian speaking youth, possibly the child of Hungarian parents. Armstrong notes that this boy preferred to be called "Harvey." The other was a taller but similar looking boy with a Southern U.S. accent, born as "Lee Harvey Oswald." Both may well have become entangled at an early age in an intelligence operation. It was "Harvey" who traveled to Russia and was shot dead by Jack Ruby. It was "Lee" who got into a fight in the ninth grade at Beauregard Junior High School and lost a tooth.
Ed Voebel met "Harvey" in the eighth grade and "Lee" in the ninth. Voebel might have made a fascinating witness for the House Select Committee on Assassinations....
The committee sought to locate Edward Voebel to take his testimony, but learned from his father, Sidney Voebel of New Orleans, that his son had died in 1971. (253) Sidney Voebel could not recall what his son had told him regarding his past contacts with Oswald and Ferrie.(254) While stating that he doesn't "have any proof," Voebel said he believed that the circumstances surrounding his son's death were "mysterious."(255) He had "died suddenly from a blood clot" at the age of 31 when he suffered an attack of pneumonia. (256)
-- House Select Committee on Assassinations: vol. 9, page 109
