Lee Oswald Was One Weird Dude, Part 1

As you delve into the assassination of JFK and you start going down the various rabbit trails you begin to wonder if you will ever be able to understand it all. It gets so confusing and complicated that anything seems possible. The cover-up is systemic in our government and whatever went on is deeply buried. When Howard Baker asks Richard Nixon what he knows about the Kennedy assassination and Nixon replies, “You don’t want to know…” you have the sense that something out of the ordinary occurred, more than just a loser with a cheap rifle killing the president. Maybe something really far out. Whatever the truth is we have inklings of it in the strange life of one man, Lee Harvey Oswald.

With Lee Oswald no matter how deep you dig there is always another layer. His strange life and circumstances do not begin when he’s in the marines and his health records state he contracted gonorrhea in the line of duty and, “Not of his own fault.” (Or he is treated for tonsillitis though his childhood medical records say they were removed at the age of five.) Surprising as that statement is he could also have been tossed out of the Marine Corps for this infraction but was not. Far stranger things than this had already occurred years earlier when he was going to junior high school.

School Days, New York, 1953-54
It doesn’t really begin till Lee and mother Marguerite move to New York in 1953 for reasons that are not altogether clear. They first moved in her son John Pic, from her first marriage. He was married at this time with one child. Family tensions ensued and eventually they moved to their own apartment. Young Lee was enrolled in PS #44 in the 7th grade. He quickly became truant and eventually this came to the attention of the authorities. Lee was processed through juvenile court and sent to Youth House for troubled boys. He served a short time there before returning home to his mother and thereafter, they returned to New Orleans sometime in the late summer of 1954.

Lots of strangeness abounds here with this New York period. In his school records, he is listed at being 5’-4” and a half feet tall. But three psychiatrists and one probation officer describe Lee as being a short, skinny, underdeveloped child for his age. One psychiatrist estimated Lee’s height to be around 4’-6” to 4’-8”. This child gave conflicting testimony in regards to himself and his family. All agreed he was not a well-adjusted youth with noticeable emotional problems. They also agree that he was telling them inaccurate information about his life and troubles.

But it doesn’t end here. Other school records have appeared showing a Lee Harvey Oswald enrolled at PS #117. This Lee has a very good attendance record. This conflict is unresolved. Why are there two records for the same boy with different outcomes? Perhaps the beginning of his life as a body double?

Also, Marguerite Oswald when interviewed by the probation officer gave conflicting accounts of her life as well. She got at least five things wrong, from the number years she had been married (a total of 13 years from three marriages but she said 9) to getting Lee’s birth date wrong. At the age of 44 it seemed as if she did not know her own life story. Also as this time she was working menial jobs but owned a house in Ft. Worth, Texas, which apparently was empty. She could have leased it out to pay for the apartment rent in New York but did not. She eventually sold it to a nearby neighbor.

New Orleans, 1954-55
Arriving back in New Orleans Lee is enrolled in Beauregard Junior High. And here, things get more peculiar. All documentation available has Lee Oswald enrolled at Beauregard in the fall of 1954. However, in his Warren Commission testimony Lee’s brother Robert when asked of this time says that Lee is enrolled at Stripling junior high school in Ft. Worth, Texas. This is never followed up on. In the transcript you can see the lawyer quickly changing the subject. However, years later researcher John Armstrong digs into this and finds an assistant principle, Frank Kudlaty, who when asks does remember Lee Oswald attending Stripling in the fall of 1954. How was he so sure? Because his boss told him to show up at the school Saturday morning—the day after the assassination—to hand over all school records on Lee Harvey Oswald to the FBI! Which he proceeds to do. Though years earlier, Kudlaty does recall something odd about the records. One, the file included no grade transcripts from the previous school, and two, no forwarding school for the Stripling transcripts to go. Apparently this Lee Oswald only spent six weeks there. It appears he had to blow in and blow out because he probably couldn’t get the grade transcripts from New York. The Lee Oswald in New Orleans attending Beauregard was already using them and was listed in attendance at the same time the other Lee was doing his six-week stint in Stripling Junior High school. Researcher Armstrong also found one gym teacher that remembered Lee and several students from Stripling as well. (One note: This Lee Oswald and mother lives across the street from the school. At the time of the assassination his mother would be living in this very same apartment across the street from Stripling.)

And, the FBI apparently knew this very early on as they swooped down on this Ft. Worth school within 20 hours of the President being shot. Something is obviously not right here and “powers that be” had to silence it quick. Of course the Stripling school records have passed into oblivion.

But wait…it gets even stranger! By the spring of 1955 Lee Oswald is still attending Beauregard. His attendance record is perfect with no absences. The Warren Commission insists that Lee had a part time job at Dolly Shoe, where his mother worked as a cashier. She talked her boss into hiring Lee as a stock boy. However, things don’t add up. The tax and employee payment records show that Lee Oswald was employed full time. He cannot do that going to school full time with no absences! School got out at 4:30 PM and the shoe store closed at 5:30 PM. There was not enough time to be considering part time employed. Also, the former owner, Maury Goodman and two employees remember seeing Lee working there during the weekdays. Goodman had to fill out forms with the Louisiana employment commission to allow a child under 18 years old to work there. It’s a strange gig, but the records and witnesses pile up on this one.

All of Lee’s records both school, work, and for taxes, as well as his mother’s state they lived at 126 Exchange Place at this time. However, Julian and Myrtle Evans told the Warren Commission that they were leasing an apartment to Marguerite Oswald at 1452 St. Mary St. from early 1954 till May of 1955. All kinds of evidence survives that the Oswald’s were living and using the 126 Exchange address from utility statements to letters Marguerite wrote. Oddly, Marguerite did list the St. Mary address for a job she had in 1954. But when Lee was injured in an accident at school, his homeroom teacher Myrna Darouse drove him home. The street she took him to was the one at 126 Exchange. Even Ed Voebel, Lee’s best friend at this time only visited him at the residence at Exchange Street. Interestingly, he never knew that Lee had a job at the time. Neither did the Evans couple. One way to resolve this conflict is to suggest that somebody was fabricating records in the archives. That works till you get to the witness testimony of seeing these characters at locations they are not supposed to be at. And this happens a lot.

Lee Oswald only lasted about 2 months at Dolly Shoe. He was fired for not doing his job. Not long afterwards his mother was fired as well for refusing to get herself bonded. She gave no clear reason for the refusal. Her employer wanted her bonded because of the money she was handling during the course of the day. Marguerite Oswald spent a great deal of her life working off the books, cash only jobs, such as home nursing. There is probably a lot of income she never reported on her tax returns. It appears she didn’t want to be bonded as it would reveal things about herself she didn’t want known. Most importantly, getting bonded creates a record. Would a bond application bring conflict with another Marguerite? It is also interesting that her tax returns from this time (1956-62) are still classified top secret.

More Conflicts
Things get even hazier. Robert Oswald states in his book, Lee, that he visited the family in July of 1955 and Lee was working at Gerald Tujague, Inc., an export company. Robert also stated this at his WC testimony. He is supposed to be a full time employee here. The snag here, he is supposed to be a full time student at Warren Easton high school in September and October of that year. The Warren Commission absolves this problem by using hand-written employment records, written by the owner himself, showing Oswald being hired on November 10. However, this contradicts numerous witness testimony by people that new Oswald while he was there working full time in July of 1955 through the summer of 1956. That includes his brother and his aunt Lillian Murrant, Apparently, this Lee Oswald never went to school. Also, he is described as being a big kid, around 5’10” tall. A far cry from the little, scrawny, under five foot tall boy of just three month’s earlier at the Dolly Shoe store. Did Lee Oswald grow almost a foot in height in three months?

More inconsistencies abound. Even if the WC is correct in their timing of Oswald’s activities at this point, this export company has to apply for a permit to have an under-age employee. This paperwork has never been found. Also, under federal law all employees of export firms must validated by U.S. Customs. This includes an interview, the filling out of forms, and a photograph among other things. None of this documentation on Oswald is available. If this was not done this company is in trouble with state and federal law. But nothing comes of it.

Apparently, a lot of clean up went on with this phase of Oswald’s life. One employee recalls Gerald Tujague asking him to find all of Oswald’s payroll checks. He says there were dozens of them, implying more than a few months worth. These were handed over to the FBI when they arrived shortly after the assassination, never to be seen again like the school records from Stripling Junior High. Oddly, the FBI appeared at J. R. Michels, another export firm wanting records they didn’t even know they had. Researching, Nick Mazza found one check made out to Oswald and endorsed by him in 1/20/56 for the amount of $34.20. (The FBI produced a W-2 and W-4 forms for the WC that Mazza said he never found or gave them.) Of course he was, by all witness accounts working at Tujague at this time. Unlike the other places the FBI went to, the manager there made a copy of the check. The original went to the FBI agent never to be seen again. So here we have more evidence of contradictory events going on with Oswald and the FBI having prior knowledge of his actions.

The Doppelganger
Never been a fan of the Oswald-as-doppelganger theory but when you look at all of this contradictory documentation and witness testimony it seems as if that just might be the case. Of course you have the main problem of, what happens to the double after the assassination? He vanishes from the face of the earth. He becomes as big a phantom as the grassy knoll shooter. Also, if Oswald is being impersonated, starting out as a youth, then his mother has to be impersonated as well. What happens to her? So, two Lee’s and two Marguerite’s are at play here. That is hard to fathom.

Let it be noted that there is a declassified memo to J. Edgar Hoover dated June of 1960 informing him that somebody was impersonating a Lee Oswald. If the FBI knows who Oswald is that far back, that puts a whole new light on the situation. One wonders why Hoover was hell-bent to establish Oswald as the lone gunman within 24 hours of the assassination and how heavy handed he was towards the Warren commission that it reach a similar conclusion—which it did. We can see an inkling of why this came about with that memo. Not to mention all the pry knowledge they apparently had to descend upon Stripling or the various businesses Oswald worked for so rapidly after the assassination.

Conversely, intelligence agencies have used twins in operations--the good twin and the bad twin. Castro did with the De La Gardia brothers. The good twin is positioned to have witnesses while the bad twin does the dirty work. If he gets caught or things go awry, the good twin has an alibi. It has also been known that spy agencies cultivate some agents from childhood. Could Lee Oswald have been such a project?

As Richard Nixon once said, “You don’t want to know.”

COMING IN PART 2: Oswald in the Marines and all over the place.

Resources:
Newman, John, Oswald and the CIA; Armstrong, John, Harvey and Lee; McKnight, Gerald, Breach of Trust; Warren Commission Report

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A Conspiratorialist’s Guide to JFK Assassination Books

Actually, you do not have to be a conspiratorialist to read the books mentioned here. Of course, I have not read the hundreds of books published on this subject, so I will be leaving a few out here, as information gets cross-referenced to death. Here is a list to get you started whether you are a novice or a seasoned researcher.

Cross Fire
The Jim Marrs classic that served as a guide for Oliver Stone’s JFK movie. A good beginner’s book, Marrs simply lays down the facts and doesn’t get too conspiratorial or far out, allowing the reader to ponder the information and draw their own conclusions. It was published in the late 80’s and so far hasn’t been updated. It should be as a lot of new information has been released since.

Rush To Judgment
The book that started it all. The classic critique of the Warren Commission and the first best selling book on the subject published in 1966 by Mark Lane and Hugh Trevor-Roper. The government considered the publication of this book so dangerous that it sent the second highest in command at the FBI to beg the publisher not to publish it. No other book helped to sow the seeds of doubt in the public’s mind over the official story of JFK’s death than this tome.

Breach of Trust
Gerald McKnight’s brilliant examination of the Warren Commission, the underlying politics, behind the scene intrigues, and turf battles with the FBI and CIA. Here is the genesis of the controversy. McKnight demonstrates that the Warren Commission wasn’t a true investigation but a politicized rubber-stamping of the FBI’s initial investigation. Hoover’s shadow looms large over the process insuring one conclusion—Oswald acted alone—now move on! One of my favorite books on the assassination and highly recommended. Well sourced and contains information you won’t find anywhere else.

The Last Investigation
Gaeton Fonzie, one of the lead investigators for the HSCA, writes one of the best books ever on the Kennedy Assassination. Finally, back in print. He goes into the political infighting of the HSCA and showcases the high points, and low points of the investigation and how everything was hamstrung by political restraints, lawyers, and CIA deceptions. An excellent book for the students of the HSCA side of things and as aptly titled, the last official government investigation of the death of John Kennedy.

Our Man in Mexico
Jeff Morley’s excellent book on CIA station chief in Mexico City, Win Scott, and the CIA’s surveillance of Oswald’s trip to Mexico City in late September 1963. What they knew, when they knew it, and how the CIA lied to the Warren Commission, and everybody else about it since. Morley shows how the CIA still has information on Oswald classified to this day (such as Win Scott’s memoirs) and how they kept their station chief in the dark about Oswald’s true purpose in Mexico, whatever that was. A good showcase on how spooky the CIA really is.

Witness to History
Apparently a lot witnesses slipped through the cracks and William Law tracks them down. Some people in this book give their witness testimony for the first time. Some excellent interviews with personal closely associated with Bethesda Naval Hospital and the autopsy of JFK. Mostly all demonstrate that there was most likely other shooters in Dealey Plaza. Of particular note is autopsy techs, O’Conner and Jenkins who bear witness to seeing Kennedy’s back wound probed with a metal rod that only went 2-3 inches at downward angle, showing no pass through. You can see why some of these people were not asked to testify, as they did not support the government’s theory of the lone gunman.

The Warren Commission Report
Read the report that started it all. Then you’ll see what a dog and pony show the Warren Commission was and how inept the alleged investigation was. You’ll see by reading some of the other books here first, all of the witnesses and evidence that was ignored or distorted in order for the lone nut theory to work. Actually, the 26 volumes of collected evidence make for a better read of what happened and you can find them at history-matters.com.

Ultimate Sacrifice
The Mob did it! Lamar Waldron and Thom Hartman explore organized crime’s desire to kill Kennedy. Very plausible scenario and their theories help explain many unsolved mysteries in the case. Could have been the Mob though in this case everybody has a motive. Except of course, the man charged with the crime.

Blood, Guns and Money
LBJ did it! Barr McClellan, former law partner in the firm that took care of Lyndon Johnson tells the tale of conspiracy involving LBJ and his attorney Edward Clark to assassinate the president of the United States. Seems far-fetched, but some bits are plausible. Ultimately, he reverts to theory to explain what all happened, including having Johnson crony Mac Wallace on the sixth floor of the schoolbook depository building with Oswald, as if that were possible. Unnamed extra shooters were on the grassy knoll. Let’s have a Texas shoot out boys! The head Yankee is coming to town!

Someone Would Have Talked
The Cubans did it! Larry Hancock weaves a tale of Cuban involvement though he cites no clear theory as to what happened and hence, no real conclusion. Highly regarded in JFK research circles, though I am not a fan. However, it does feature a good timeline on LBJ in the assassination’s aftermath, suggesting he knew more than he ever told. Book includes a very bad index—look up Silvia Odio and see if you can find her. Photos are icky, rough, low-res scans.

A Farewell to Justice
The CIA did it! Joan Mellen investigates Jim Garrison’s prosecution of Clay Shaw and the surrounding circus of obstruction from the media, CIA/FBI, and Kennedy henchmen. Like big Jim said, for the Feds, this was like shooting fish in a barrel. Only it was just more than the Feds at work here. This is quite a story and takes on a life of its own. She does fumble a bit and references people that not even Jim Garrison took seriously. Overall a fascinating read into the New Orleans side of the case with a huge assortment of characters.

Reclaiming History
The lone nut did it! Vince Buglosi’s spirited defense of the decaying Warren Commission Report. If you have the upper body strength to pick up this massive tome, a willingness to suffer though Bugliosi’s obnoxious insulting personality, and his over zealous attitude against anything conspiratorial, you are in for an interesting read. Ironically, Bugliosi promises up front not to knowingly omit or distort any important facts and then proceeds to do just that through hundreds of pages of text. He has to or else he’ll have more dilemmas than he can ever resolve. Just beware of Bugliosi’s straw man arguments and his cherry picking of the evidence. Sometimes I wonder if Bugliosi believes this stuff. It comes off reasonable till you do your own research and find out the esteemed former prosecutor has no clothes. This book does provide detailed background material so it makes an excellent source book. Ever wanted to know what brand boxers JFK was wearing on that fateful day? You’ll find it here. If you buy it used make sure it comes with the CD-ROM, which offers another thousand pages of notes to examine on disc. And also make sure you read James DiEugenio’s excellent and devastating rebuttal of this book at www.ctka.net.

Harvey and Lee
The doppelganger did it! John Armstrong’s remarkable research into the Oswald doppelganger theory and builds a strong case with documentation and eye witness testimony. Armstrong keeps the two separate by naming one Harvey and the other Lee. Over 900 pages of fascinating reading on the life of Oswald no matter how many of them there actually were. Also features lots of weird and obscure trivia on the Kennedy assassination as well. Armstrong really did his legwork on this massive work. Regardless of what you believe about this subject, this book makes for a great source volume on the life of Lee Harvey Oswald. Hard to find and out of print though published in 2003. Be prepared to pay top dollar for a used copy, if you can find one. Some go for as much as $200. Well sourced and referenced with scanned documents and photos on CD-ROM.

The Assassinations
Lisa Pease and James Dieguenio assemble the better articles from the now defunct Probe magazine. A wealth of material here on all of the murders of the major political figures in the 1960’s—JFK, RFK, MLK, and Malcolm X. Great background material on all sorts of issues with JFK assassination.

No Case to Answer
Former UK policeman Ian Griggs does some very nice investigative work into the assassination. This book’s chapters are basically essays so feel free to skip around and read what you want. Of particular interest is Griggs’ breakdown of the rifle Oswald allegedly used showing that it couldn’t be reassembled with a dime, as reported to the Warren Commission by the FBI. And it does not disassemble in two parts, but about a dozen.

Without Smoking Gun
In this thin little book, Kent Heiner explores the death of Lieutenant Commander William Pitzer who was seen filming the autopsy of JFK. Later he was found dead from suicide, his film disappeared too. This book also relates the story of Daniel Marvin who claims the CIA tried to hire him to do a hit on Lt. Cmdr. Pitzer. He declined. Like so many things with this case, all conjecture and circumstantial evidence, but it’s a good yarn. A book to fire the imagination of any conspiratorialist. Out of print, but available at Amazon Marketplace. A nested conspiracy that looms larger than the Kennedy assassination at times.

On My Highly Recommended List

I would place Breach of Trust, The Last Investigation, Our Man in Mexico, Reclaiming History, and Harvey and Lee as must have books to read to provide a broad understanding of the problems and issues of the Kennedy assassination. Other books such as Cross Fire, or Rush to Judgment offer good starting points.

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The Lopez Report And The Road To Mexico

"This group's purpose and interest in Oswald is detailed in another section of this final report dealing with whether or not Lee Oswald was an agent or asset of the Central Intelligence Agency."

Lopez Report, p. 142

One of the most overlooked documents that was born of the House Select Committee on Assassinations in the late 1970’s is the Lopez Report. That is mainly due to it being classified by National Security for almost 30 years. The product of two young lawyers, Ed Lopez and Dan Hardway were sent to Mexico City by one of the HSCA lead investigators Gaeton Fonzi, to investigate Oswald’s time there in the months before the assassination took place. Their declassified report, coined by Vince Bugliosi as a "giant dud" is hardly that—only a dud to the misinformed or in Bugliosi’s case, those who want to ignore the truth of one of the great crimes of the twentieth century.

Known as Oswald’s Mexico Mystery Tour, this phase of Kennedy assassination research is filled with cloak and danger deeds, odd happenings and coincidences, Oswald impersonators, missing tapes, straight out lying by top CIA officials, and Oswald’s own peculiar behavior. Like many areas of this investigation, none of it makes any sense at first glance, and becomes an exercise in bewilderment. Only until the circumstantial facts start piling up that Oswald was more than a long nut loser, and more of a man on a mission for clandestine services, do things begin to make a bit of sense. Though it is still a mysterious undertaking.

Oswald’s Mexico Mystery Tour
Suffice to say, Oswald’s trip to Mexico is a convoluted and complex issue. Better for the reader to go to James DiEugenio’s detailed account at CTKA.net, HERE.

As a summary, Lee Oswald in late September of 1963 boarded a bus for Mexico City. For unstated reasons he wanted back in the Soviet Union but assumed he would need to travel through Cuba first, so he proceeded to travel by bus to Mexico City to speak with the Soviets there at their consulate and obtain a visa. Upon arriving, he went to the Cuban embassy first and was told he needed the visa from the Soviets first. Proceeding there, he was told it would take weeks or months to obtain the visa. So, he returns to the Cubans and tells them he has it. Staff member Silvia Duran becomes suspicious, rings the Russians, and finds out the truth. Oswald had lied; not even basic paperwork had been filed. Being confronted with this, Oswald gets belligerent and is escorted out by security personnel. He hangs around in Mexico a few more days, allegedly calls both embassies inquiring about the visas before leaving.

However, this weird episode is not over here. The CIA had the Soviet and Cuban embassies wiretapped.

The person claiming to be Oswald uses broken Russian when talking to them. He uses excellent Spanish when talking to the Cubans. This is where the imposter claim appears and is most likely correct. FBI director Hoover believed it and told Lyndon Johnson that in a five-page memo (and a phone call). Oswald was an excellent Russian speaker, so good that his wife Mariana, upon meeting him, thought he was a local because of his Baltic accent. He was never known to speak Spanish to any degree. Also, FBI agents that were familiar with Oswald’s voice, upon listening to the tapes, state the caller was not Oswald. Another issue were the calls themselves. The speaker is asking questions about the visa process that Oswald would have known were finished, since he failed to fill out any forms and the visa process was dead.

Silvia Duran, mentioned above, describes the Oswald she spoke with as being short with blonde hair. (This description was omitted from the Warren Report.) Other witnesses describe meeting an Oswald with blonde hair as well. Nevertheless, a lot of phone calls were made that were of a suspicious nature and some were made on days when witnesses like Duran said she was not in the office. She is either lying or was impersonated as well as Oswald was. As a side note, one Oswald call was made in English. It was transcribed but the CIA has never released it.  

The CIA told the Warren Commission that they had no knowledge as to what Lee Oswald was up to prior to the assassination. This is blatantly a lie. The Soviet and Cuban embassies were thoroughly wiretapped and the CIA had a team of transcribers documenting every call. They knew every word Oswald, or his imposter, said. To make matters worse, top CIA officer David Phillips lied under oath and said that the tapes were destroyed before the assassination. They were not and can be easily proven so now such as CIA officer's Stanley Watson's testimony to the HSCA stating that the tapes were in existence after the assassination (and the 5-page memo from Hoover to LBJ saying his agents had listened to the tapes, 11/23/63). 

Plus, any American showing up at a communist embassy at the height of the cold war would be of operational interest as pointed out in the Lopez report. Oswald spoke to a Russian embassy official, Kostikov, who was also a top KGB agent, in charge of assassinations for the western hemisphere. Coupled with that, with Oswald being a former Soviet defector, and approaching a Soviet embassy, should have sent a bolt of electricity up the chain of command. We know from released CIA cables, this was not the case. Perhaps that was because Oswald was on a mission so no need to get excited? We know for example, as Lopez and Harden discovered, there were also false cables sent out as well to most likely cover up Oswald’s true reason for being in Mexico City. One had six agents signing it and they had to have known the information on it was false.

So who was the impostor? Jeff Morely in his excellent book, Our Man in Mexico, believes the impostor was a CIA agent. They did use operatives to investigate suspicious activities and did so on an American that had visited the Cuban embassy. The FBI arrested that man when he returned to Texas. Interestingly, there was no entrapment of Oswald going on like this and no one questioned him upon his return. And to think he was trying to travel to Cuba, which was and still is, against the law!

The Missing Section
Going back to the quote for the Lopez report above, it was mentioned that in another section of the report there was going to be information about Oswald’s relationship with the CIA. When the report was finally declassified that section was missing and is presumably still classified. Researcher James DiEugenio pointed this out personally to Ed Lopez, much to his agitation. As he said at the discovery, “They always hated that part…If I was them, I would have hated it too." The CIA hated anyone knowing how close they were with Oswald. And obviously, fashioned a cover up by deleting that section, just like they did with Mexico station chef Winston Scott’s memoir when they redacted his entire chapter on Oswald (and in fact, most of his memoir is classified also—see Morley). 

Questions Still Remain
What the Lopez Report documents is the tremendous amount of conniving going on with the CIA in regards to Oswald’s activities in Mexico City. Everything from phony cable traffic to top-level agents lying. It is known from document releases that Oswald’s SIG 201 file was under direct control of counter espionage chief James Angleton at his CI/SIG (counterintelligence/special investigation group) and had been since Oswald’s defection in 1959. It has been suggested that Angleton was running the false defector program to the Soviet Union. John Newman in Oswald and the CIA, believes Angleton was running Oswald on operations as an off the books agent and possibly using him to assassinate Kennedy. It was not an uncommon practice for Angleton to run ops around his own station chiefs without their prior knowledge—the “need to know” basis coming into play. James DiEugenio believes Angleton was running the show from HQ while David Philips was taking care of things from the field, in whatever exercise was going on here with Oswald. Both have been caught in numerous lies and you don’t do that unless you have something to hide. Hunter Leake, second in command of CIA station in New Orleans said in an obscure interview that Lee Oswald was used for low level currier work and that his purpose of moving to New Orleans was at the behest of the CIA for further operations. While you can’t prove anything substantial in the area of conspiracy in the Kennedy assassination, you can prove the cover-ups. They are all over the place and everybody is involved. 

One question that still remains is—what was Oswald really doing in Mexico City and what was his real purpose there? The whole deal is screwy and fraught with incompetence. It hardly seems like something an experienced intelligence agency would plan and execute. Somebody would have to know that to get a visa from the Soviet embassy would take a long time. Shouldn’t Oswald have been furnished with a phony one to present to the Cuban embassy officials? Or perhaps it was a last minute venture hastily thrown together. Maybe it was a ruse to draw out other operatives? Some have suggested that Oswald’s real intent was to go to Cuba to assassinate Castro and the trip to Russia was just a ruse to provide cover. 

We know one thing for certain—at this late date over forty years later, the CIA is still withholding information on this affair.


Sources

The Lopez Report 

http://www.history-matters.com/archive/contents/hsca/contents_hsca_lopezrpt_2003.htm 

Morely, Jeff, Our Man in Mexico; Newman, John, Oswald and the CIA; Fonzi, Gaeton, The Last Investigation.

Transcript of Hoover and LBJ phone call.

http://www.maryferrell.org/mffweb/archive/viewer/showDoc.do?docId=807&relPageId=2

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James DiEugenio’s Take Down of Reclaiming History

At last, I’ve been waiting for a lengthy rebuttal of Vince Bugliosi’s Reclaiming History and it has arrived at last. Noted Kennedy assassination researcher and author James DiEugenio has published a seven-part piece at CTKA.net taking apart Bugliosi’s five-pound tome. I’ve long held that Bugliosi’s zealous defense of Warren Commission clouds his judgment of the case and James DiEugenio work bares that out. Masterfully done, DiEugenio dissects Bugliosi’s arguments piece by piece, striping them down to the bare bones and showing how wanting they are in substance. Bugliosi, who promises to never omit or distort any facts, and precedes to do just that through 1,600 pages and nearly a thousand pages more of end notes. Bugliosi’s hypocrisy is evident throughout, such as comparing conspiracy believers with people that believe that Elvis is still alive. Bugliosi is on the record for believing in a conspiracy in the death of Robert Kennedy but that is somehow more reasonable and doesn’t make him a conspiracy nut? What cheek!

DiEugenio pounds Reclaiming History hard through 7 web pages. Make no mistake; these are seven very long pages. It takes a long time to slog through it all but makes for fascinating reading. James DiEugenio’s presentation and analysis is quite impressive. He displays a keen mind and is in full possession of the minutia of facts of the sprawling Kennedy assassination case. He’s a gifted writer as well. I can find no better resarcher to tackle this subject and make a conclusive rebuttal to Reclaiming History.

I think more than anything else, DiEugenio shows that Bugliosi’s reasoning is steeped in a deep denial of the facts. He has to as he is presenting a nice, clean story as the Warren Commission did. Unfortunately the JFK assassination is anything but simple. Even in the most minor and ordinary of events strange and mysterious things abound. DiEugenio illustrates this well in the issue of Oswald buying a money order and mailing it. Sounds line a mundane detail, doesn’t it? It is not. Oswald has to get to the post office some 11 blocks away from work—one way. His work records show him not leaving the building the morning the March 12, 1963. Did he sneak out and get a friend such as Ruth Paine to drive him there? That is unknown how he got the post office that day but his handwriting is evident, using his Hidell alias on the envelope and money order. Postal records indicate Oswald had a window of between 8:30 to 10:30 AM to purchase the money order and mail it. Incredibility, the letter arrives at Kline’s Sporting Goods the very next day in Chicago. This is long before FedEx! Try to get a letter from Dallas to Chicago that fast today. Even odder is the money order is deposited in Kline’s bank account but with the wrong date on the deposit slip of February 12, instead of March 13. The money order has no internal bank stamping on the back from the First Bank of Chicago, as it should have had. Also, Oswald’s fingerprints were not recovered off of it either. Here we have a typical exercise in the mysterious nature of investigating this case. We see weird actions on Oswald’s end of things but it branches out into other areas as well.

Just the Warren Commission before him, Bugliosi ignores all of these details in order to tell his nice and simple narrative. And he just doesn’t do it here; he does it throughout his book. The denials turn into a parody of itself when Bugliosi tackles the more suspicious incidents. He pulls every lawyer trick out of his toolbox to the point of being intellectually dishonest. For example Bugliosi dismisses Oswald’s trip to register to vote in Clinton, Louisiana, in the company of Clay Shaw and Davie Ferrie, by asking where the witnesses are at and why didn’t the media report it? As if they would in a town that has no local newspaper! Here DiEugenio excels in showing Bugliosi as a lazy investigator who apparently never went to Clinton to talk to anybody. DiEugenio did and found a host of witnesses that still remember seeing the only white guy in line the day they had a huge turnout of African Americans for a CORE sponsored voter registration drive.

The only thing I take issue with is James DiEugenio’s treatment of Vince Bugliosi’s character. Maybe it has nothing to do with the work at hand and he chose not to mention it. DiEugenio says he admires Bugliosi perhaps for his good work in putting away Charles Manson and his followers for their heinous crimes. Probably best not to dirty one’s hands as Bugliosi does in his endless vitriol and insults he hurls when he compares conspiracy believers to be in the same league with Elvis worshipers and other general kooks.

But I think character matters. Shouldn’t it when a man promising to tell us the truth who has been sued for slander and lost? This is precisely what happened to Bugliosi when he stalked and slandered his milkman, Herb Weisel, who he thought was having an affair his wife. Bugliosi used his position of deputy district attorney to get their unlisted phone number and to locate Weisel’s place of employment. In 1973 Bugliosi settled for $12,500, cash, paid in increments of one hundred dollar bills. He also wanted numerous court documents including nine untranscribed depositions and all court reporter’s stenographer tapes. To say you settled, is tantamount to saying you won without having to admit anything. It’s a classic lawyer’s non-admission, admission of guilt. Only here, Bugliosi can only fake a win. The lawyer in the case, George V. Denny, charged that Bugliosi perjured himself abundantly in his deposition. He also called Bugliosi a “one man mini-Watergate” for covering up the ordeal by getting hold of the court records. Bugliosi also required as part of the settlement a $15,000 payment from all parties and attorneys who disclosed the terms of the agreement.

Okay, I’ll spare you the lurid details about an alleged assault on Virginia Cardwell, Bugliosi’s then pregnant girlfriend. Assault charges were filed and then dropped. You can read about that at the link below. Needless to say, both incidents portray an interesting portrait of the man who has bragged about writing the “book of the ages” on the Kennedy assassination. A man as flawed in character as the many people he casts such harsh judgment of in his book as if he has the God given right to do so.

Really Mr. Bugliosi…who put you up to this?

Sources:
http://www.ctka.net/2008/bugliosi_review.html; Bugliosi, Vincent, Reclaiming History; Pease and DiEugenio, The Assassinations.

Bugliosi character issues:
http://tatelabianca.blogspot.com/2006/06/bugging-installment-one.html

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Spooky Action at a Distance

The Kennedy assassination is a deep, dark secret buried in the bowels of our government. Or better, in the depths of the National Security State that we have lived under since 1947 when the Act was signed into law. Theories come and go and everybody has one. I am not a theorist; however, I have been contemplating for some time that those in authority to discern and investigate this tragedy had no idea what really happened. The FBI, CIA, Secret Service, and many others may not have seen it coming. This massive sucker punch left them with an event with no reasoning behind it. They didn’t want the issue to go out unresolved so they took the simplest and quickest route—to blame it on the one man they had in custody—Lee Oswald. Never mind that so many pieces to the puzzle don’t fit. Even FBI Director Hoover admitted to the newly sworn-in President Johnson that they didn’t have much of a case on Oswald. Hoover, with the FBI’s reputation at stake they could not proceed to tell the public that people shooting at the President of the United States got away with the misdeed. This started the big rush to judgment and then the big rush to move on.

Of course some of us didn’t move on. There are too many irregularities here. Though I am at times concerned with the idea that if there is a conspiracy then why are we not allowed to know? What would be the harm in us knowing the truth of this? A loss in government trust? The trust is long gone for that matter. It died in Dealey Plaza followed by the inept investigation, the screwy explanations that defy logic, and the squirrelly characters that to this day, pound the gavel and demand we believe the earth is flat when we have traced its contours. 

Perhaps this is the basis for the many cover-ups. You can’t convincingly prove any conspiracy theory but you can clearly see the misdirection ploys, the decoys and agent provocateurs at play. Such as when the CIA lied and said they had no foreknowledge of Lee Oswald’s actions in Mexico City just months before the assassination. They had both the Russian and Cuban embassy’s phones thoroughly wiretapped. Not to mention a red flag placed on any American showing up at a communist nation’s embassy. Not only that but we know through released documents that the Mexico CIA station chief, Win Scott was kept deliberately out of the information loop on Oswald. A need to know basis that excluded the station chief and his staff. Why? Apparently the CIA’s “need to know” concept is extended to all. 

All of these shenanigans, from the Feds disrupting Jim Garrison’s prosecution of Clay Shaw, to the Willis family getting back film that had undergone photographic tampering, to Orville Nix having his statements edited by CBS to support the official story, just adds to the legend of mistrust. They brought it on themselves. The hurried Warren Commission Report in time becomes a political document; devoid of as its true purpose, filtered through the politics of the day. Moving bullet wounds around didn’t give these men any sense of embarrassment. Only a few had regrets and they didn’t live long enough to wage a revolt. Even the men closest to the event know things are not right but only whisper their doubts amongst themselves.

So they probably did know what happened but stuck to their plan no matter what. When Bill and Gayle Newman tell the Dallas police that they were lying on the ground protecting their children because they heard shots flying over their heads from the grassy knoll—and the Warren Commission doesn’t take their sworn testimony—the door is shut on the truth. They tidied up the mess and hurried along. They were not going to dig any deeper. And why would that be? Further research is needed to find the cause of that. 

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