Michael Ralph Paine (June 25, 1928 – March 1, 2018) was an American engineer who became notable after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, as he was an acquaintance of Lee Harvey Oswald.
[2] In 1959, they relocated to 2525 West Fifth Street in Irving, Texas, a Dallas suburb,[2] when Paine began work at a Bell Helicopter facility in Fort Worth.
[5] Everett invited many of his engineer friends in Dallas to attend, including George de Mohrenschildt, Volkmar Schmidt, Michael Paine, and many others.
During these debates, Michael took the role of a Castro advocate, bragging about being familiar with an actual communist, “an ex-Marine who had recently returned to the States with a Russian wife,” referencing Oswald.
From the start (Michael told the Warren Commission) he took an immediate dislike toward Lee Oswald, who continually barked orders at his wife, Marina, from the living room, without lifting a finger to help her.
Lee's demeaning words directed at his wife offended Michael, who told author Thomas Mallon that he pitied Marina for "having to take these whiplashes meekly and quietly and obediently."
In 1993, however, Michael Paine told Gus Russo, author of 'Live by the Sword' (1998) that Lee Oswald showed him this famous Backyard Photograph at their first meeting on April 2, 1963.
Over the next seven months, Michael told the Warren Commission, he was continually upset by the fact that Lee Oswald refused to let Marina learn to read, speak, or write in English.
[7] Michael did not emphasize for the Warren Commission the several talks that he had with Lee Oswald about the radical right wing and resigned General Edwin Walker, who had been making trouble for JFK since October 1962.
[citation needed] 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 Paine's garage.
Paine and his wife were portrayed in Oliver Stone's JFK as characters called "Bill and Janet Williams," presumably to avoid legal action.