Someone asked this fall what a “patsy” is, having looked it up in a dictionary only to find a brief definition.

Here’s one meaning: “[perh. fr. It. pazzo fool] 1903 : a person who is easily victimized : PUSHOVER.”

Here’s another: “Slang. A person who is cheated, victimized, or made the butt of a joke. [Origin unknown.]”

Here’s another: A fall guy.

Is it a kind of citizen?

No, it has nothing to do with citizenship, or government. Lee Harvey Oswald was a patsy. So were James Earl Ray and Sirhan Sirhan.

Oswald, accused of assassinating President Kennedy in 1963, was murdered three days later after declaring his innocence on TV before millions of viewers while in Dallas in police custody. Ray was convicted of murdering Martin Luther King, Jr., in April 1968 and died in prison for it before being posthumously exonerated in a Memphis court in 2015. Sirhan, convicted of murdering Sen. Robert Kennedy June 1968, is in prison; he is currently being represented by William F. Pepper, Esq.,* who achieved Ray’s posthumous exoneration.

Oswald, Ray, and Sirhan were framed. What is “frame”?

Here’s a dual definition: “8. Slang. a. To rig evidence or events so as to incriminate (a person) falsely. b. To fix (a contest) to as to ensure a desired fraudulent outcome: frame a prize fight.”

Here is a three-part definition: “3 a : to devise falsely (as a criminal charge)  b : to contrive the evidence against (an innocent person) so that a verdict of guilty is assured  c : FIX [to influence actions, outcome, or effect of by improper or illegal methods <the race had been ~ed>]

It is highly likely that Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda were framed so as to ensure their guilt in the court of public opinion as sole perpetrators of the mass murder and mega-mayhem (which continues) of the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, known as “9/11.”

Elaborate framing of designated high-profile patsies requires years, hundreds of participants in government agencies and businesses, and considerable unaccounted-for money (slush funds).

To achieve the intended, perceived sole guilt of these patsies, the control of news organizations is essential, as are key assets in book publishing and distribution, entertainment, academia, organized religion, organized labor, activist groups, and politics.

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Pepper details his successful investigative and legal effort in The Plot to Kill King: The Truth Behind the Assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. (2016).