Saturday, December 27, 2014

Lee H. Oswald’s Name Missing From SSDI




As pointed out to me by researcher John Armstrong, after doing a search, found that Lee H. Oswald’s name is not listed in the Social Security Death Index. The index is the public list of deceased persons who have been removed from the SSA records and their numbers retired. Yet the man accused of murdering the president of the United States is not listed.  Why? 

It’s another long list of anomalies associated with this man so I guess I shouldn’t be surprised.  It reminds me of when his widow Marina applied for her survivor’s benefits and the SSA only acknowledged two years, 1962-1963.  Yes, Oswald had worked part time jobs from a teenager, put three years in the Marines, and was employed over two years in the Soviet Union.  All ignored.  

Oswald’s birth certificate has never been released either.  Not the real one.  The “Declaration of Birth” released by the FBI in the late 1970’s is a fraud.  That type only issued by the state of Louisiana for people born at home, without an attending physician.  Oswald was born in a city hospital attended to by a Dr. Mancuso.  His mother sold her house to him.  I would say that birth certificate is a fraud.

Never the less, you can try it out for yourself HERE.

Thursday, December 11, 2014

Double Vision


I’ve written often on the theory that Lee Oswald was impersonated. At first, I thought this was a fringe element of JFK assassination research. Really wacky. However, some many phases and events in Oswald’s life are so perplexing and in some circumstances, downright weird, that two Oswalds can be the only explanation to suss out the high strangeness of Oswald’s life.

It’s quite evident that there is a coverup in the JFK assassination from documents that remain sealed to the odd disappearances and deaths of witnesses. As at least one researcher has told me, the doppelgängers present a good reason for a coverup. The government had little problem telling the public that Abraham Lincoln was killed as a direct result of a conspiracy. Why this president?

There is no way to maintain order in a civil society if a government admits that a national leader has been slain and the accused assassin has a double on the loose. On the other hand, what a great way to run such an operation. Have one man develop a legend–making appearances in public places to create a personality type, especially an unlikable, undesirable one. In the meantime, set up his double to take the fall. And the arrested Oswald said such a thing before he was silenced–"I’m just the patsy.

It all looks like fringe research till you read the June, 1960 memo that FBI Director Hoover sent the Department of State asking for more information regarding Lee Oswald possibly being impersonated. You can rest assured that Hoover sensed something wasn’t right with a former Marine defecting to the Soviet Union and he was developing leads on him early on. Ultimately, he knew the most about Oswald outside of the traditional rings of power and the intelligence agencies. (That memo also shows that Hoover lied immediately following the assassination of JFK when he said for the public record that Lee Oswald was somebody the FBI knew little about. And the FBI agents were showing up everywhere Oswald had worked or went to school in less than 24 hours collecting documents on him. Didn’t take them long did it? And many of those records quickly disappeared.)

There are many instances of Lee Oswald possibly being impersonated but what follows is a few of the many examples of a likely doppelgänger in play.

Arrival in New Orleans, 1963
Lee Oswald arrives in New Orleans supposedly in search of work but as will develop over that summer, he will pursue marxist political operations which will land him in jail resulting in a TV interview and a radio debate which will further build the public legend of a leftwing agitator, one of the forerunners of many more to follow in the decade of the 1960’s.

When Oswald turns up on April 24, he stays with his aunt and uncle, Lillian and Charles Murret. Lillian is his mother’s younger sister. 

Lee starts doing something peculiar. He starts researching Oswalds in the phone directory seeking to get in touch with his father’s brothers. He’s particularly interested in Harvey, the source of his middle name. He eventually makes contact with Hazel Oswald, the widow of William, one of his father’s other brothers. She informs him that all of his uncles are deceased. He then travels to meet her and she gives him a large, framed picture of his father, Robert Sr.

There are several odd things about this story. First, why doesn’t Lee know his uncles are all gone? All he has to do is ask his aunt Lillian. She’s a life-long resident of New Orleans and would probably know if any of the Oswalds were alive since her sister married into the Oswald family. It’s a common thing most people know, regarding families, both blood and by marriage. If anything, he could have called his mother to find out. Even his brothers, Robert and John Pic, might have known.

Apparently, Lee didn’t want anybody in his family to know that he was looking up Oswald family members that by all counts, he should have known were dead.

Maybe because this is the wrongLee, an impostor arriving in New Orleans with a sketchy history of the Oswald family. If he asked anybody in the know, for example his mother or his aunt, he may have been met with, “You don’t know that your uncles are all gone?” Although one would assume that in an operation utilizing doubles, they would both be well briefed in family matters such as this. It’s reminiscent of Marguerite Oswald giving a host of wrong answers when questioned by probation officer John Caro in 1953 regarding Lee being truant from school in New York.

Eventually, he meets up with Hazel Oswald who gives him a large, framed picture of their father, Robert Sr. It should be noted that this picture is not found in Oswald’s possessions after the assassination. Robert Oswald ends up with it. Interesting, because Robert maintains that he never had any contact with Lee after the 1962 Thanksgiving gathering (see below) until the day of the assassination. So how did he get it?

Here’s a bit of trivia. William Oswald had a son, also named William. Researcher John Armstrong discovered that William was working as a salesman at the Reilly Coffee company at the very same time Lee was working there (p. 554). It’s unknown what interaction Lee had with this cousin or if William helped Lee get the job there. He is supposed to have seen an ad for a job, applied, interviewed, hired, and went to work the following day. This would be his only job in New Orleans. At least for this version of Lee Oswald.

Thanksgiving Day, 1962
This was the last time all three brothers were together.  They met at Robert and Vada’s home and all of the   brothers had their wives and children present.  Home movies were made which can be easily found online.  Oddly, their mother Marguerite was not invited.  Robert later said in his Warren Commission testimony that her name never came up during the course of the gathering, although John Pic said she was mentioned by Lee.  Some family huh?

Of all the brother’s there, John Pic, the son from Marguerite’s first marriage, noticed the most changes in Lee.  John found Lee to look different than the 10 year old boy he had last seen (actually, in his WC testimony he got Lee’s age off by 2 years).  Seeing a difference would be understandable given that length of time, but there were other more adult features John did not see.  For example, their cousin Marilyn Murret had told him that Lee had developed a bull neck since joining the Marines.  The bull neck Lee can be seen from his Marine pictures.  John did not notice Lee’s neck being any bigger.  When questioned by Commission attorney Jenner, John testified Lee's eyes looked different, sunken in.  When shown the picture of Lee at the Bronx zoo in 1953, John said that it wasn’t Lee in the picture.  And lastly, he was upset that Lee referred to him as a “half-brother,” which of course he was, but Lee had never alluded to him in such a manner in the past or ever introduced him to anybody as a half-brother.

One thing researcher John Armstrong once told me that he had interviewed Rachael Oswald.  He asked her about what interaction she had over the years with her uncle Robert.  None, she said.  Perhaps Oswald’s daughters are fathered by an impostor?  In his actions and statements Robert seems to know more than he ever let on.  He is not approachable by researchers so we can never know for certain what he really knows. 

The Mexico City Trip
I don’t intend to take a trip down that confusing rabbit trail.  But it’s a path littered with references to Oswald being impersonated, and that’s long before he actually gets to Mexico City and is impersonated on the phone calls to the Russian Embassy and the Cuban Consulate  office there.

One instance is when Oswald arrives back in Dallas after his Magical Mystery Tour to Mexico, which was on October 3, 1963.  Simultaneously, four library books he allegedly checked out on September 19, in New Orleans, are returned to the library that day of October 3rd.  Those books were, Goldfinger and Moonraker, by Ian Fleming; Age and Essence and New World by Aldous Huxley.  It’s likely that he did not take the books with him on the Mexico City trip as Oswald would have to make a side trip to New Orleans after his return from Mexico, to deliver the borrowed books.  The apartment on 4905 Magazine Street, as stated by the manager, was cleared out leaving nothing behind.  Did Oswald know somebody in New Orleans to deliver the books to the Library?  And why on October 3rd, the very day that he arrives in Dallas?  Basically, Oswald couldn’t have done it.  Somebody else did.  And who? (p. 597)

There is the famous Sylvia Odio incident where she claims two Hispanic men and one gringo showed up at her sister’s apartment in Dallas either on September 26 or 27 seeking financial help from her father, imprisoned in Cuba, for running operations against Castro (i.e., assassination of the Cuban leader).  The gringo identified himself as Leon Oswald.  But on the day of the assassination, after Oswald’s arrest, Odio identified Lee Oswald as the “Leon Oswald” at her door.  (Her sister also identified Lee Oswald as well, although she was never interviewed by the FBI.) However, Oswald was on the bus in Mexico at this time.  Her testimony was discounted by the Warren Commission, using two ne'er-do-wells who later recanted their statements that they were ever at the apartment.

Then there is Antonio Veciana of Alpha 66, the anti-Castro group financed by the CIA.  Veciana’s story is famous in JFK lore as it accounts for a witness sighting of Lee Oswald with a major intel operative.  Veciana was in Dallas for the purpose of meeting with his CIA case officer Maurice Bishop (i.e., David Atlee Phillips as ID’d by E. Howard Hunt) in Dallas.  Before he gets there, he see’s Bishop/Phillips chatting with a young man of whom he is not introduced to.  Later, he’ll see this young man on the news charged with the death of a president and a police officer.  This sighting occurred in late summer/early fall, at a time when Oswald was supposed to be nowhere near Dallas.  In fact, not in Dallas anytime in the entire month of September.  But there are many witnesses who can account for Oswald in Dallas/Irving throughout the summer of 1963 such as Cliff Shasteen, the barber that saw Lee Oswald come to shop in Irving numerous times that summer. 

Other Sightings
Oswald, or Oswald #2, or even a #3 was leaving tracks all over the place.  In John Armstrong’s Harvey and Lee, he makes mention of an undercover agent, Roy Frankhauser.  Frankhauser claims to have met Michael and Ruth Paine in 1960 as all three were allegedly infiltrating The Socialist Workers Party.  He claims to have met Lee Oswald in New York city during the week of September 16th, as he and Ruth escorted Lee to an exposition hosted by David Rockefeller (p. 597).  He also claimed that Ruth Paine was Oswald’s “babysitter.”

Also on September 16, somebody in Hubertus, Wisconsin, left a Lee Harvey Oswald signature in a restaurant registry.  Then on the 24th somebody left an Oswald signature at a nightclub 30 miles outside of Milwaukee.  That day, President Kennedy spoke in Ashland, Wisconsin.  Was this to promote a legend of Oswald stalking Kennedy?  If so, this fiction was not used later (p. 595).

Even earlier that summer, on July 26, a Lee Oswald signed the guest ledger at the Atomic Energy Museum at Oak Ridge, Tennessee (p. 551).  This Oswald left dual addresses of Dallas and USSR.  How’s that for a cheap plant?

As you can see, the operators run threads all over the place from New York, Wisconsin, Tennessee, and back to Texas again.  They run a line of alternate scenarios that might be used later, or not, as the situation develops.  Most likely these are not actual physical impersonators at work, but instead, operatives trained in how to replicate Oswald’s signature.  Then send them out marking up guest books, building the legend.  The only real fault with this method is that it leaves a trail; Oswald signatures in diverse places where they should not be, at the wrong dates, making little sense, adding a flare of mystery to the whole shebang.  Meanwhile, Lee Oswald is being monitored and used in ways he probably had no knowledge of.

The poor rube.


Sources

All page numbers relate to John Armstrong’s Harvey and Lee.

Friday, November 21, 2014

Lee and Marina Chronology - 1962 to 1963

Lee and Marina Oswald Timeline - June 1962 thru November 1963

June 14, 1962: The Oswalds arrive in Fort Worth, where they move in with Robert.

July 14, 1962: The Oswalds move in with Marguerite at 1501 W. 7th Street in Fort Worth.

August 10, 1962: The Oswalds move to 2703 Mercedes St. in Fort Worth.  Marina claims abuse at this point.

Early October: Marina and June move in with Gary and Alexandra Taylor at 3519 Fairmont (Apt #12), Dallas, for 4 days.  Alexandra is George De Mohrenschildt’s daughter. 

October 7, 1962: Marina and June move in with Mrs. Elena Hall at 4760 Trail Lake Drive, Ft. Worth, while LHO looks for work in Dallas.

October 15, 1962: LHO moves into the YMCA.  (Lee’s whereabouts unknown from 10/9 thru 10/14)

November 4, 1962: The Oswalds are reunited at 604 Elsbeth St. in Dallas, where LHO had found an apartment.

November 5, 1962: The Oswald’s have a violent argument, and Marina and June move in with their friends, Teofil and Anna Meller.  They live at 5930 LaVista Drive, Dallas.

November 10, 1962: Marina and June move to the apartment of Declan and Katya Ford, at 14057 Brookcrest, Dallas

November 17, 1962: Marina and June spend the day at the home of Mrs. Frank (Valentina) Ray. LHO calls and asks to visit Marina, who agrees to return to him. They return to the Elsbeth St. address that night.

March 2, 1963: The Oswalds move to an apartment on 214 West Neely Street, Dallas

April 24, 1963: LHO arrives in New Orleans and stays with his aunt Lillian Murret. 

April 29, 1963: Marina and June move in with Ruth Paine in Paine’s residence at 2515 W. 5th St, Irving, TX

May 11, 1963: LHO starts work (R. Coffee) and he, Marina and June move into their apartment at 4905 Magazine St., New Orleans.

September 23, 1963: Ruth with Marina and June leave for Irving and arrive on the 24th.

September 26, 1963 begins LHO’s trip to Mexico City.

October 4, 1963: LHO arrives in Dallas and stays with Marina and June at the Paine’s residence in Irving.

October 14, 1963: Ruth drives LHO to Dallas, where he later registers as O.H. Lee at a rooming house on 1026 North Beckley.

THE END


Tuesday, November 18, 2014

Oswald and Paine Weekend Timeline, October-November, 1963


You can learn a lot from studying timelines in a case, any case. It allows for a linear approach to events that’s similar to standing on the highest mountain and looking down. Everything regarding unfolding events is made clearer.

So what follows is the timeline of Lee Oswald’s weekends at Ruth Paine’s home from October to the last weekend before the assassination. It was chosen as there were so many sightings of Oswald at various locations, mainly the shooting range, on the weekends when Ruth Paine is maintaining that Lee was at her house on those days except for the last weekend before the assassination when he stayed at the rooming house. Perhaps she was not lying at all, if there is an impersonator in play. Warren Commission lawyers knew there were problems in Ruth’s testimony as so many people were seeing Lee at the Sports Drome Rifle Range when he wasn’t supposed to have been there. Eventually, they just had to let it all be.

Please note that on those days or weekends that Ruth Paine maintains that Lee was at her house, he is not supposed to be seen anywhere else, especially at night. Yet witnesses reported seeing Oswald at various locations from Dallas to New Orleans.

October 6 - Sunday (p. 713)
At Ruth Paine’s home all day Sunday. Spent the nights of the 4th, 5th and 6th at the Paine home. (According to her Testimony.)

Activities for Saturday unknown but he did write a letter to The Worker stating he had attended an ACLU meeting the evening of the 5th. 

Mrs. Lovell Penn reports seeing men shoot in her pasture. She is worried about her cows getting shot. She warns them and gets a nasty reply from one of the men. She threatens to call the police if they do not stop shooting. Later, Mrs. Penn ID’s Lee Oswald as the man that was rude to her in her pasture.

October 12-13 - Saturday and Sunday (p. 722-723)
At Ruth Paine’s home.

Oswald spent the weekend at Paine’s home. Not seen elsewhere.

October 18-19-20 - Friday, Saturday and Sunday (p. 730)
At Ruth Paine’s home. (According to her Testimony.)

October 18. According to Wesley Frasier, drove Lee Oswald to Paine's home for his birthday that evening.

October 19. Doorman for The Count of Two Sisters Restaurant in New Orleans, Leander D’Avy, reports seeing Lee Oswald, David Ferrie, his boss Gene Davis, and four other unidentified men in the storeroom, converted to an apartment. NOTE:Gene Davis is an FBI informant starting in October of 1961.

October 20. At the Paine home. Not seen elsewhere. Daughter Rachael was born at 10:41 PM that night. He was not present at the hospital for the birth.

October 26-27 - Saturday and Sunday (p. 736)
At Ruth Paine’s home both days. (According to her Testimony.)

First known trip by Lee Oswald to the Sports Drome Rifle Range. Arrives at dusk and seen by employe Malcom Price. Seen driving himself to the range. Also noticed by the owner, Floyd Davis.

October 27. Seen at the Paine home in the yard by a neighbor.

November 2-3 - Saturday and Sunday (p. 744)
At Ruth Paine’s home. (According to her Testimony.)

Lee Oswald is seen test driving a red Mercury at the Downtown Lincoln-Mercury Dealership. Later that day seen at Morgan’s Gun Shop in Fort Worth.

Spent Sunday, November 3, at the Paine Home. Not seen elsewhere.

November 9-10 - Saturday and Sunday (p. 758-763)
At Ruth Paine’s home, both days. (According to her Testimony.)

Saturday seen shooting a rifle at the Sports Drome Rifle Range.

Sunday, test fired rifle at the Sports Drome Rifle Range and seen by Malcom Price and Garland Slack. Later, witnessed by Harvey Wade at the Carousel Club at 11 PM that night. Oswald was seen with two unidentified men.

November 16-17 - Saturday and Sunday (p. 770-773)
Lee Oswald spent the last weekend before the assassination at the rooming house on Beckley street in Dallas. Oswald was not seen anywhere on Saturday.

November 17, Sunday. Seen at the Sports Drome Rifle Range, noticed by Dr. Homer Wood and teenage son, Sterling. Later, Garland Slack complains to the owner that Oswald shot at his target. Afterward, seen at Jack’s Bar in Dallas by witness Vern Davis.

Returns to the Paine home on Thursday, the 21st, for the final night. 

Sources
Harvey and Lee by John Armstrong. All page numbers referenced are from his book.



Ruth Paine Warren Commission testimony HERE.

Monday, November 3, 2014

Book Review: 11/22/63 by Stephen King

Popular author Stephen King wades into the JFK Assassination.  

Paperback: 880 pages
Publisher: Gallery Books; d edition (July 24, 2012)
ISBN-10: 1451627297
ISBN-13: 978-1451627299

It took me a few years to get around to Stephen King’s 11/22/63 novel on the Kennedy assassination because he had said one of his sources was Gerald Posner’s dreadful book, Case Closed.  This book is so bad that conspiratorialist mugger Vincent Bugliosi took Posner to task for errors in Bugliosi’s equally dreadful book, Reclaiming History.  I had heard early on that King was going to portray Oswald as the Lone Gunman.  I was disappointed in this but judging from King’s reading on the subject (he lists what books he read in the novel’s Afterword), he clearly did not read very many conspiracy oriented books.  No Six Seconds in Dallas, Rush to Judgement, Accessories to the Fact, or the excellent books published in the last fifteen years; no delving into the released files from the ARRB or for that matter, the Warren Commission’s 26 volumes.  No mention of the Warren Report either.  A pity.  

King of course is a master of popular horror fiction though he has had success in other genres such as fantasy and non-supernatural novels and short stories.  Despite being famous for unsatisfying endings, King no doubt writes compelling tales with believable characters.  It matters little if some of his stories are far out, his major talent is for making them believable, such as Tolkien or Rowling do in their fantasy stories.

The lead character, Jake Epping, is shown a time travel portal from a dying hamburger joint owner who dreams of preventing the assassination of JFK, but fears not living long enough to survive the stay, since the portal always lands the visitor in 1958 and to prevent the assassination of JFK, one has to live in this bygone world till November 22, 1963 in order to get the job done.

King does a great job and presenting this time period.  Quite a contrast compared to our world with our relatively advanced technology that makes some things easier, but in some instances can make life more complicated.  Over fifty years ago, everything is cheaper.  It’s easy to buy a gun–no background checks.  People seem more friendly and trusting.  Cars are made heavy-duty and have great, get-up-and-go, power under the hood with those magnificent V-8’s.  Things taste better such as when Jake stops at a little shop for a root beer and King describes in glorious detail how full of flavor and satisfying a root beer used to taste before it was polluted with artificial flavoring.  Oh, you poor people of the future!  You lost some good stuff along the way.

The quest to disrupt the assassination is a long and convoluted one so it will not be covered here as it involves changing the lives of other characters.  The way King describes certain figures and ignores others is of more interest.  Obviously, as all fiction writer’s have to do, he has to simplify things and cut corners or else a story would grind to a halt.  Think about it–in the Shire who were Frodo’s siblings?  We are never told and it doesn’t matter anyway.  If Tolkien got involved with those people Frodo would not have made it to Mount Doom.  A conspiracy would complicate the narrative as much as multiple Oswald impersonators would have.  So would having Guy Banister, David Ferrie, Ruth Paine and Clay Shaw show up for their cameos.  George De Mohrenschildt makes an appearance as if he is Oswald’s only outside acquaintance.  FBI agent James Hosty appears towards the end and that’s it with notable historical figures.  Instead, King leaves the reader with Lee Oswald, his mother, his brother Robert, Marina and daughter June.  It’s an odd cast lineup if one is familiar with the particulars of the assassination and its lore.  On the other hand, I can see King not wanting to get bogged down as the JFK saga has an endless cast of regulars.

King wants the reader to hate Lee Oswald as much as he does.  This Oswald is the Bugliosi caricature of the sniveling, wife beating, gutter rat that deserves his gut-shot from Jack Ruby’s .38.  This is the loathsome little man that haunts the pages of Reclaiming History or Norman Mailer’s Oswald’s Tale, and the minds of most lone nut believers.  King has one scene where Lee physically abuses Marina in public, out on the street, an event that never occurred that I know of.  You want to despise a man who does such a thing.  There are allegations of abuse but there are no other witnesses other than Marina.  It could have happened, or could be part of the legend building that an unlucky deadman cannot refute.

A pity that King did not chose to explore conspiracy in his story.  He could have had Jake Epping get involved in a plot so he could screw it up in some way to prevent the assassination.  Instead, his hero races up the stairs to the sixth floor to confront Oswald, a surprised lone gunman with a junky rifle in hand.  But what if there is a conspiracy and hence other shooters?  Stopping Oswald settles nothing and Kennedy’s handsome head remains in danger.  But of course, there are no other shooters in this alternate reality version of the story, which in a way, does not many any sense.  There is always a path clear for another shooter from wherever, take your pick.  Grassy knoll or the Dal-Tex building.  Maybe Roscoe White with his long barreled pistol in the parking lot.  Or find a new spot.

Ultimately, King decides changing the past has repercussions for the future and not good ones at that.  So ultimately, preventing JFK’s death is a not a good thing at all, casting a darker future for everybody.  Not exactly a new idea but that is the way King chose to play it.  Let Johnny take his bullets so a confluence of events does not overwhelm us, bringing on the apocalypse. Under that view, time and its marked events are like pearls on a string, take one out and you muck up the rest down the line.  Nobody can ever know for sure what changing past events can portend for the future, not at least, until somebody does it.  We do get a glimpse of it in quantum mechanics where the observer can change the outcome of an experiment simply by observing.  If only one could do that on a grander scale.

Too bad Stephen King could not have made a better go of the Kennedy assassination in 11/22/63. Away from that, an enjoyable read especially the parts involving the 1950’s when our big talk, our big cars, our big guns, and our big balls set the world’s agenda.  Now we are just Romans in sad decline dreaming of greater days, awash in failed leadership and greedy partakers that have taken the largest pieces of the pie for themselves.  

I really long for a mug of that 1958 root beer though.

Monday, October 27, 2014

Interview with Gayle Nix Jackson

An excellent interview with Gayle Nix Jackson, the granddaughter of Orville Nix, JFK assassination witness, regarding his life, his famous film, and his experiences in Dealey Plaza is up at Black Op Radio.

Her book, Orville Nix: The Missing JFK Assassination Film is widely available.  LINK

Her web site HERE.

All, highly recommended!


MP3 file, 99.6 MB. 
Show #691
Original airdate: July 31, 2014


My blog article: How CBS Screwed Orville Nix

New article on Jack Ruby

Researcher John Armstrong has a written a major piece on the life and background of Jack Ruby, the assassin of Lee Harvey Oswald.  It's long but worth the read.

LINK:  http://harveyandlee.net/Ruby/Ruby.html

Friday, May 16, 2014

Tuesday, April 1, 2014

John Hankey Video Reviewed at CTKA

Seamus Coogan has written an in-depth review of JFK 2: The Bush Connection, a John Hankey video.

In Coogan’s intro:

“Alex Jones is the perennial king of internet conspiracy mongering. He has views on innumerable events. Even those he knows little about. The Kennedy assassination is but one subject he knows little about. For instance, Jones has endorsed the very suspicious Barr McClellan and his book of ‘factio’ Blood, Money and Power. He has also chosen to endorse a video on the Kennedy case. This is called JFK 2: The Bush Connection. The original – which can still be found online – is a low-budget, poorly produced production by a self-proclaimed 30, 40 or 50 year researcher named John Hankey. Hankey has cobbled together footage from Oliver Stone's film JFK, the series The Men Who Killed Kennedy, the PBS program Nova, and other productions. The latest version – Dark Legacy – is more slickly done and has some newer information in it. But since the original has been around much longer and is available online, I will concentrate my critique on that.”


LINK:

http://www.ctka.net/2010/hanky.html

Saturday, March 15, 2014

The Women in Lee Oswald’s Life

From left: Marguerite Oswald, Marina Oswald Porter, Marilyn Murret, Ruth Paine

What impact did women have on the life of Lee Oswald?  There seems to be few studies completed on this subject.  Obviously there is no evidence of any woman being influential enough to push Lee along a path towards political assassination, that is if he were involved, or provide guidance for his political views.  Undeniably his mother plays the first and longest influential role, though one strained from a haphazard upbringing for not only Lee, but brother Robert and half brother John Pic.  Into adulthood, the three brothers would have little interaction with their mother.  Oswald’s only experience with a father figure was with Edwin Ekdahl, his mother’s third and final husband, and that didn’t last long.  Basically, most of the notable women in his life were family.

What follows is a look into four of the most important women in Lee Oswald’s life and a common thread that bonds them all together.  

The Mother
Now here is an odd bird.  Many of the Warren Commission members considered Marguerite Oswald to be a total kook, besides a rambling, annoying person.  She lived a life of multiple marriages, low paid jobs, moving here and yon, and a host of peculiar dealings.  For example after Lee went truant from school, Marguerite was interviewed by probation officer John Carro.  She could barely give any information that was correct.  She fumbled through names, death dates, marriages, and falsely claimed that her family owned property in Corning, Texas, a town that never existed in the state.  She couldn’t even get Lee’s birthday right, missing it by a day.  Some have suggested that this woman was not really Marguerite Oswald at all but instead, an impostor.  And what would be the purpose of that?She was peculiar but never gave evidence of being psychotic.  She was however, a habitual and lifelong liar, making numerous false statements from local to Federal authorities, all the way to the Warren Commission.  

She had a history of baffling business dealings as well. For example, she once bought a house and paid more than the asking price; she then sold it below its market value.  She neither paid a reasonable fee nor made a profit when she could have accomplished both.  A transaction only a nitwit would make.  She wanted the house quickly and needed for unknown reasons to unload it as swiftly.  In fact, she had a history of buying and selling houses often with no steady income to finance the mortgages and in some cases, requiring no mortgage at all.  

Whatever she did to raise her three sons (at one point placing John and Robert temporarily in an orphanage, keeping Lee with her; eventually Lee joined them), they grew up to have little to do with her.  In the now recorded home movie of the final family gathering at Thanksgiving of 1962 with the three brothers and their families, all were in attendance save for one...Marguerite.  And she lived in town.  Robert Oswald told the Warren Commission that she never knew of the gathering, was never invited and her name was never mentioned.  That was cold.  

She always maintained that her son Lee was some sort of government agent.  When asked, she never had any real proof.  It would have been a hard thing to prove anyway as no agency such as the CIA or the FBI would ever admit to it, especially after the assassination had taken place.  

But here is the oddest thing about this odd bird.  Her tax returns from 1956 to 1962 are classified.  Generally speaking, if your returns are classified, then it means the person was doing something classified for some agency of the government.  Your work history and living arrangements are listed in an IRS return.  If it lists “Department of Treasury” as an income source then you are working for the government in some capacity.  Her work history is one of menial jobs so perhaps this extra income would allow her to buy the many properties as she did.  Notice also this is within the time frame of Lee joining the Marines in 1956, defecting in 1959, and returning to the United States in 1962.  Senator Schwicker said there was a false defector program to the USSR.  If Lee is one of those defectors, then he is working for the government or the DOD.  Oswald’s tax returns of 1957, 1960 and 1961 have never been released.  When Marina applied for her Social Security survivor benefits she only got credit for two work years, 1962 and 1963.  All of Lee’s other income years were ignored.  Perhaps some of these returns would show a Department of Treasury income stream?

If Lee Oswald is a mystery then his mother remains another enigma. A researcher that interviewed her told me that she was languishing away for money, as in some sort of government pension, as if she were entitled to tax payer money for her son being involved in an enormous national tragedy.  She seems to be two totally different people to those that knew her.  Some people describe Marguerite as a tall, attractive, and pleasant woman.  Others knew a Marguerite that was short, poorly dressed, unlikable, and didn’t get along well with others.  It’s rare for people to have such a divergent impression of another person’s appearance and character.  Unless of course, she is being impersonated as John Armstrong suggests in his book, Harvey and Lee.  If Lee is an intelligence agent then most likely Marguerite is going to know to some degree.  Her sealed tax returns are a sign of deeper intrigue in the case than first imagined.  

Basically, what was she up to for 7 years that the government doesn’t want us to know?

The Cousin
Marilyn Murret was the daughter of Lillian Claverie Murret, Marguerite Oswald’s younger sister.  Lee stayed with the Murret’s several times during the course of his life.  His uncle Charles was a full-time steamship clerk, but also was a bookie on the side for Carlos Marcello.  Marilyn is an interesting character.  A school teacher by profession, she didn’t limit her educational skills to New Orleans and was quite the world traveler teaching in foreign countries.  The FBI investigated her background and found that Marilyn had traveled to Japan, Lebanon, Egypt, India, Iraq, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, and many other countries.  She was once detained in East Berlin for twelve hours for unknown reasons.  She would be called to give her testimony for the Warren Commission and later, in 1978, for the House Select Committee on Assassinations.  

Marilyn Murret’s Warren Commission testimony in April of 1964 makes for an incomplete read.  Staff attorney Liebeler unfortunately spends most of it asking leading questions or questions regarding unimportant events, and then omitting the questions he should have asked.  For example, regarding Marilyn’s overseas treks, he asks her about her employment in those countries (only three and then as a teacher) but rarely asks her about her employment in New Orleans or during Lee’s childhood.  Does Liebeler ask about why she was doing so much traveling in so many countries or how she financed the trips?  No.  One trip was a 3-week vacation to Europe.  What did she do in those countries she didn’t have employment in?  Also, during her testimony she reaffirms the myth that Marina could not speak English other than rudimentary sentences.

Was Marilyn Murret an operative?  There are hints that she was.  As stated above, she gave her sworn testimony to the HSCA and all 23 pages of her testimony were classified and never released.  Even before she spoke to them, the Committee had to seek permission from the CIA in order to talk to her.  If she had no prior relationship with the Agency then why go to that trouble?  

Researcher Jones Harris, who briefly worked with Jim Garrison during his criminal investigation of Clay Shaw, told me of the time they brought Marilyn Murret into Garrison’s office for questioning.  A tall, attractive woman arrived accompanied by a gaggle of lawyers.   She sat and said little while the lawyers did all the talking.  Nothing came of this encounter and she was never called to testify at the trial.  Apparently she came prepared to do battle if called to be a witness and wisely let others do her talking for her.  It worked.

Dick Russell has even more intriguing news on Marilyn in his book about intelligence agent Richard Case Nagell entitled, The Man Who Knew Too Much.  Russell was told by Houston Post reporter Lonnie Hudkins that a CIA source had told him that Marilyn Murret was a CIA agent assigned to Japan in the late 1950’s and helped facilitate Oswald’s trip to Russia.  She arrived in Japan in September of 1959 and started teaching at an all-English school.  Was she teaching the children of the military?  Or the children of diplomats and government agents stationed there?  While that is unknown, it should be pointed out that all three of the brothers, John, Robert, and Lee as part of their overseas military service, passed through Japan.  In fact, it was Marilyn that told John Pic while stationed in Japan in 1959 of Lee’s defection (in a minor squabble, John said it was Marilyn and Marilyn said it was John’s wife–I side with John Pic’s account).

Russell also reports that CIA officer William George Gaudet told his lawyer that Marilyn may have worked for the Agency in New Orleans (Russell, p.120)

Marilyn has been asked if she was ever connected with the Agency and she vehemently denied it.  Despite her denials, Marilyn Murret, with her numerous and unexplained world travels, employing old espionage tricks such as using false birth dates of her parents on her passport applications (Lee did as well), the HSCA requiring a CIA nod to interview her and then her testimony is sealed, and having a former CIA officer admit that she may have worked for the Agency, it is very likely that she was involved in intelligence work for the government of the United States.

The Wife
Of all the women here, Marina Prusakova is the one with the most dubious background.  She has long been suspected as being a KGB operative.  That largely comes from several different aspects of her life. First off, her upbringing in Russia which includes graduating from pharmacy school at the age of 17, traveling widely around Russia, and her time in Leningrad where she may have been part of a Honey Trap.  In her personal life she was known as a rounder.  Secondly, her first years in the United States where she led everyone to believe that she could not speak English, when she could.  And lastly,  the amount of lying she did as a witness in front of the Warren Commission.  

Lee’s courtship and marriage to Marina was a rapid affair.  They met at dance, knew each other for a few weeks, got married, and had their first child not long afterward.  It’s no secret that it would be very hard for a Russian woman marrying a foreigner to leave the USSR with her husband, as she would need state permission to marry.  If allowed to leave, they would be expected to operate as a mole for the KGB in their new husband’s country.  Marina was allowed to get permission for all of this with minimal bureaucratic obstruction leading one to believe such an arrangement was made.

While friends and family members saw them as being a happy young couple, their marriage was apparently a stormy one with spats, separations, and allegations of Lee being an abusive husband. 

One of Marina’s gambits is maintaining her image of an innocent in America.  To the world, this poor, petite waif could only understand a few words of English.  However, this was far from the truth.  There were many instances of Marina speaking and reading English competently.  

The first hint came from the other defector, Robert Webster, who said he met her in Russia and she spoke English well enough, though with an accent.  Marina denies meeting him.  While still in the USSR, Lee mailed her letters in English.  In the National Archives, researcher John Armstrong found Marina’s notebooks in her handwriting, in English.  Robert Oswald after the assassination wrote an 15-page report for the FBI and said that Marina understood English and detailed a chat about her business contract with no translator present.  A few months later, Robert would surprisingly deny her language skills in his 1964 WC testimony.  Her business manager James Martin in his testimony to the HSCA in 1978 said Marina understood everything said to her in English.  And after all of this, Marina needs a Russian language translator to give her testimony to the Warren Commission!  

For more on Marina’s background and English speaking abilities you can read my article, From Marina Prusakova, With Love.

Was Marina working for Russian authorities during the early years of residence in America and beyond?  The CIA suspected so and documented their beliefs in a 29-point report.  Marina’s story of her life is basically of her own making.  There was no way at the time to double-check her account of anything she reports.  Marina’s ruse of pretending not to speak English when she could is unnecessary and leads to the notion that she had something to hide, especially from American authorities such as the FBI and the US Secret Service.  Lee followed a similar strategy, rarely speaking in Russian while in the USSR even while he was a very good Russian speaker.  Their apartment in Minsk was bugged, and he most likely did not want to be suspected of being a spy and hence arrested.  Perhaps Marina had the same fear of being exposed.  

Marina must have not be cut out for the spy business as she was caught lying numerous times with everybody from the FBI to the Warren Commission.  At one point Senator Richard Russell accused her of lying on six different issues.  This brought Marina to tears.  Being the star witness, she signed a deal with Tex-Italia to produce a film on her life.  She was paid a six-figure sum before film makers disappeared and no film was ever made.  Nice, uh?  No one thought to question her about this deal at the time.  She did her best to incriminate her husband in the crime.  In recent years, without the pressure exerted on her, she’s turned around and no longer considers Lee guilty of killing President Kennedy. 

Lastly, their relationship can be summed up best by Marina’s wistful reflection:

“I had two husbands: Lee, the father of my children, an affectionate and kind man; and Harvey Oswald, the assassin of President Kennedy.”

The Friend
Ruth Paine, the gaunt Quaker will always be an integral part of the tragedy since it was she who arranged for Lee Oswald to get the job at the Texas School Book Depository while providing housing for Marina and her two children.  Her gaunt looks belay an intelligent but pinched looking character and many of her actions are indeed dubious and in principle, clearly deceptive.

The Paine’s met the Oswald’s in February 1963 at a gathering held at a friend’s apartment.  In attendance were George De Mohrenschildt, a Russian Ă©migrĂ© and well known in the White Russian community in Dallas.  In an odd pairing, De Mohrenschildt befriended the young couple and was impressed with Oswald’s ability to speak Russian and read Russian literature.  Eventually Marina would come to stay with Ruth and her two children after Ruth succeeded in helping Lee find a job in the TSBD.

The hints of intelligence were all around Michael and Ruth Paine.  Jim Garrison uncovered in his investigation of the couple that there were numerous files on them and family members that were classified, such as Michael’s sister and other relatives.  Ruth’s father and brother in-law were employed by the Agency for International Development, a known CIA front company.  After the assassination her husband Michael would be employed by them as well.  (Trivia: Barack Obama’s mother Stanley Ann Dunham would be employed by this same outfit in their Indonesian branch. Fellow travelers, all.)  Ruth’s sister is now known to be a former CIA agent.  

Similar to Marguerite Oswald, the Paine’s tax returns are classified as well, from 1956 to 1958.  In an affidavit of the Dallas Police Department, Michael listed his employment as a farmer and Ruth as a farmer’s wife during the 1958-59 period.  What reason is there to classify a farmer and his wife’s tax returns?  Obviously, the Paine’s were doing more than farming in the late 1950’s.  Quite a career leap then, to go from farming to mechanical engineering with Bell Helicopter, a major DOD contractor, upon moving to Texas.  

With evidence we have now, it’s apparent that Ruth Paine is lying under oath in both her Warren Commission testimony and later on during her New Orleans grand jury testimony.  Two of the things she lied about were Marina’s alleged inability to speak English and that Lee could not drive.  For example in page five of the grand jury testimony in New Orleans, she said Lee didn’t want her to learn English which Ruth thought was unjust.  Or maybe Ruth was just out of the loop on Marina’s language skills.  Whatever the case, she was a part of the myth making that started early on.

In her testimony to the Warren Commission, Ruth also backed up the story that Lee couldn’t drive as did her husband, Marina, and brother Robert.  They all testified to this and they all lied.  Ruth said she was supposedly giving Lee lessons in late November of 1963.  In her New Orleans grand jury statements she said Oswald was such a novice that he didn’t know how to turn the stearing wheel to make the wheels straight.  Researcher John Armstrong on his web site lists 29 people that saw Lee Oswald driving a car (32 listed–3 didn’t see him drive but claim to have seen a Texas driver’s license with Lee Oswald’s name on it–LINK).  

There is much more that could be related on Ruth and to a certain extent her husband Michael in regards to actions before and after the assassination but space does not permit.  Such things as a curious phone call between the two naming Lee as the assassin an hour before he was arrested for the crime.  Or Ruth turning over bits of evidence after a thorough FBI search of her home.  And what about that metal box filled with the names of Castro sympathizers that was found in the garage?  What happened to that?  

Now in her later years Ruth Paine has that weary look of someone maintaining a fable for too long.  When asked she defends the Warren Report saying they did a “...really excellent job.”  It must be a heavy burden to bear for an otherwise decent person committed to Quaker pacifist values to maintain a narrative that isn’t real.

The Common Thread 
So what do these women all have in common?  Besides the fact that all four are liars, they are all evidently doing work in some capacity for government agencies, both domestic and in Marina’s case, foreign. They are all hiding something here, something under deep cover,  and it must go beyond the assassination of a President.  If Oswald is being doubled, that could be part of the reason why their behavior and statements regarding Lee Oswald’s life all correlate.  Notice Marina’s statement about her husband being a Lee and a Harvey.   The common defense that people can’t keep secrets so a real conspiracy would air, is not true and certainly not with these women.  Whatever they are party to, they have kept it to themselves.

Sources

Lee Oswald driving

Marilyn Murret Warren Commission testimony

Books
The Man Who Knew Too Much, author, Dick Russell
Harvey and Lee, author, John Armstrong
On The Trail of the Assassins, author, Jim Garrison
A Heritage of Stone, author, Jim Garrison

Tuesday, March 11, 2014

Two Bullet Damage Report by Dr. Randolph H. Robertson, M.D.

For researchers.  Here is a link to the PDF of Dr. Randolph H. Robertson's report on his discovery of two shots to the President's head.  One from the back and one from the front.

This report was never allowed to be published in any medical journal.

LINK


Sunday, March 9, 2014

Alphabetical List

For researchers--a link to an alphabetical listing of people interviewed by the Warren Commission.

http://jfkassassination.net/russ/wit.htm#n

Thursday, February 27, 2014

Bill Simpich's Final Chapter Posted

From the Marry Ferrell web site:

“The concluding chapter of Bill Simpich's new book State Secret: Wiretapping in Mexico City, Double Agents, and the Framing of Lee Oswald is now available for reading online here at MFF.”

This is the 7th and final chapter in Bill Simpich's online book involving the Mexico City operations.  It’s a recommended and detailed accounting of this phase of Oswald’s life just before the assassination.

Link here:
http://www.maryferrell.org/wiki/index.php/State_Secret_Conclusion


You can start here at the beginning with the Preface to start reading all 7 chapters:
http://www.maryferrell.org/wiki/index.php/State_Secret_Preface

Tuesday, February 25, 2014

Some James Garrison Reading

James Garrison
I know full well that Jim Garrison is considered by many in the research community to be the Patron Saint of conspiracy research.  But dig a little deeper and one will see that he was as flawed as the rest of us.  Some of his investigation was spot on and sincere and some of it was utterly unethical. 

Long-time researcher Jones Harris worked with Garrison for a bit in the Clay Shaw investigation.  He told me right up from that in his view, Jim Garrison was a “charming charlatan.”  I was surprised to hear this at the time as I had never heard or read of anybody that worked with Garrison utter some an evaluation.  The main incident that Harris remembered was asking Garrison if Carlos Marcello was in the Mob and he was told that Marcello was no longer in organized crime and was now a New Orleans businessman.  Obviously this is not true, since Marcello was a career mob boss in New Orleans. 

Below is a link to a 1992 New Yorker article by Edward J. Epstein about Jim Garrison and some of the shenanigans he pulled in the case he prosecuted against Clay Shaw.  Recommended reading before you start to feel inclined to see a halo around Garrison’s head.


Link

Wednesday, February 12, 2014

Joseph McBride’s Rebuttal

Researcher Dale K. Myers

Joseph McBride, author of Into the Nightmare: My Search for the Killers of President John F. Kennedy and Officer J. D. Tippet, has written a rebuttal to Dale Myers’ (author, With Malice) recent critique on his blog entitled, The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: New and Updated Books about the JFK Assassination.  

Dale Myers, a researcher and Warren Commission supporter, published in 1998 a throughly researched book on the murder of J. D. Tippet, The Dallas policemen found murdered on the day of President Kennedy’s assassination.  It’s quite apparent from Myers’ numerous writings online that the Tippet murder is his private domain.  He stakes his claim every time somebody publishes an article on the subject and he goes after them.  This is his turf and no one had better tread upon it.  Joseph McBride is one such trespasser.  

In his review of JFK books published in 2013 and earlier, Myers sets forth the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.  He precedes to applaud the pro lone nut books and disses on the conspiracy viewpoint books.  This is not a surprise.  But he take a special and long aim at McBride’s Into the Nightmare and rambles on for 3,010 words.  It’s the only book listed in the “Ugly” section.  It must be a real nightmare for Myers as he resorts to person attacks of McBride’s character and sanity, as well as accusing him of plagiarism of his own book, With Malice.  In fact, it reminds me a lot of Bugliosi’s hate-filled rant towards the skeptical JFK esearch community in his book, Reclaiming History, sections of which were written by Myers until they had a falling out. (It should be noted that Myers lists Reclaiming History as one of the better books on the assassination in the Good section, never mentioning his involvement with its creation.  And he has no shame in listing his own book in the Good list either–how can this man’s skull contain his ego?)

To be fair, With Malice is an expertly researched book on the subject of officer Tippet’s death.  One just has to avoid conspiracy and controversy in the case as Myers does.  Never the less, Joseph McBride makes a spirited defense of himself and his work, pointing out flaws in Myers’ research, which must be an affront to him, considering what a lofty perch he envisions himself ensconced in.  

Addendum 2.13.14
Not to be outdone, Dale Myers has posted a rebuttal to the Joseph McBride's rebuttal on CTKA.net.  Let the fur fly!

http://jfkfiles.blogspot.com/2014/02/mcbrides-folly-how-conspirati-avoid.html

Addendum #2 - 3.10.14
Once again, Dale Myers must be feeling insecure about his place in the Tippet murder investigation because he’s got a new piece on his blog regarding the wallet.  It’s basically a huge cut’n’paste from an earlier article on his blog. Same old stuff but he makes an odd goof.  He says that researcher Jones Harris interviewed witness Kenneth H. Croy, the first police officer to come in contact with the wallet, in 2005.  

But Harris told me the he interviewed Croy in 1990, 8 years before Myers published With Malice.  I think this was intentional as Myers does this to establish some doubt about the credibility of Croy and old memories involving his acquiring the wallet.  Myers knows better but it's a trick of the trade for men like this.

NOTE:  Currently, the CTKA links do not work for Dale Myers various web sites.  Please follow my links below.


Links:
Joseph McBride’s rebuttal:
http://ctka.net/2014/mcbride_01.html

Dale Myers’ critique of, Into the Nightmare:
http://jfkfiles.blogspot.com/2013/11/the-good-bad-and-ugly-new-and-updated.html

My review of, With Malice:

http://oswaldsmother.blogspot.com/2013/10/book-review-with-malice-lee-harvey.html

Friday, January 24, 2014

From The Saturday Evening Post, 1967



The Kennedy Assassination.  An article by Richard J. Whalen of the Saturday Evening Post published in the January 14, 1967 issue.

As Whalen remarked in the piece, “Without surrendering to fantasy, there is still room for some doubt about the essential finding.”  Imagine any mainstream journalist making such a comment now.

A candid article discussing the controversies of the case and whether there should be a new investigation.  PDF of the article linked below.

http://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/wp-content/uploads/satevepost/9670114_kennedy_assassination.pdf