The Doppelgänger Comes From On High

The subject of Lee Oswald being impersonated has been an ongoing subject of this blog.  The idea of Oswald having a double in play, as part of an intelligence operation, is a valid model, despite the fringe nature of the subject.   It calls into question what we can find believable about the events surrounding the assassination of John Kennedy and furthermore, how such an operation could have been withheld from the public for so long.

While the late Vincent Buglosi may bemoan Oswald being impersonated as a wacky conspiracy theory, ironically, the first notion that Oswald was being impersonated originates in the government itself.

The Smoking Memo
At some point in time FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover discovered from a source that a possibility existed that Lee H. Oswald may have been impersonated.  He directed a memo to Department of State officials, dated June of 1960, inquiring about this issue.  It is important to note that the memo was sent to the State Department officials in the American Embassy in Moscow–not the officials in Washington, DC.  From this, we see Hoover’s early interest in Lee Oswald's defection and living in the USSR.  

What response Hoover got back in return is unknown.

The researcher that uncovered this document, Jones Harris, once told me that this memo should never have been released.  It reveals too much about what is going on behind the scenes with the important and powerful people such as Hoover, and what they were thinking about regarding Lee Oswald, who at this point was a Person of Interest.  It also gives us a hint that something else is going on with the young Marine defector.  It exposes that Hoover lied when he stated at the time of the assassination that the FBI knew little regarding Lee Oswald, when in effect, Hoover had taken a keen interest in him early on.  Most likely as early as 1959, the year Oswald defected to the Soviet Union. 

Senator Richard Russell
Another victim of Lyndon Johnson’s arm-twisting, the senior senator from Georgia was a reluctant member of the Warren Commission.  He would shortly after joining be the second member of the government to learn of Oswald being impersonated. Sen. Russell would become the Commission member with the lowest attendance at Commission hearings.  He was a powerful and influential member of the Senate and was obviously a very busy man. 

However, it may also be understood that the Commission was nothing more than a dog and pony show for public consumption.  The Commission’s work was time limited and they were dependent on evidence being supplied by various agencies of the government, many not that forthcoming.  As Commission member John Jay McCloy once told researcher Jones Harris, the Commission suffered from not having full disclosure (and Earl Warren would say as much to the New York Times in 1964).

Despite Sen. Russell’s lack of attendance at Commission hearings he launched his own behind the scenes investigation, which was largely centered on Oswald. For this effort he contacted Colonel Philip Corso, of military intelligence.  (Yes, that same Colonel Corso of Roswell crash fame.)

Col. Corso knew people.  One person he knew well was William Sullivan of the FBI’s Domestic Intelligence Division.  Sullivan reported back to Corso that there were two birth certificates for Lee Harvey Oswald.  This explains why Oswald’s birth certificate has never been officially released.  There is more than one!

Corso’s next source was Francis Knight of the U.S. Passport Office.  There, he learned from Knight that there were two passports issued to Lee H. Oswald and two different people had used them both.

From this we have two more important government officials that knew of Oswald being impersonated.  Or else something really unusual was going on regarding this young man, a fellow billed as a loser and malcontent.  Deep in the Federal bureaucracy there was a special interest in this man and paperwork, real or fabricated, was being created for his background.  It was the crafting of a Legend.

It is unknown what Sen. Russell’s reaction was to learning of Oswald’s two birth certificates and the two passports being issued under Oswald’s name. He apparently shared none of this information with the Commission at large.  He most likely knew for certain that the Warren Commission was never going to get to the truth with these issues.

In an interview conducted by researcher Jones Harris, Sen. Russell told Harris his belief that there was a conspiracy in the assassination of John F. Kennedy (Sen. Cooper said this as well in a separate interview).  Apparently the Georgia Senator’s conspiratorial views may have stemmed from what he learned from Col. Corso.

So the first opposition to the Warren Report was from within the Commission itself.

And the suspicion that Lee Oswald was being impersonated originates in the government by people notconsidered to be “Conspiracy Theorists.”


Sources

Col. Philip Corso’s conversation with John Armstrong.
John Armstrong, Harvey and Lee, p. 362

Interviews conducted by Jones Harris were told to the author of this article.

The Hoover Memo
http://digitalcollections.baylor.edu/cdm/compoundobject/collection/po-arm/id/41952/rec/8

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.

Doppelgängers Are Real

Not sisters,  Sylvie Gagnon and Caroline Dhavernas, from Montreal.  © by Francois Brunelle/Rex Features

Once you start studying the Oswald Doubles connection, probably the hardest part is understanding how two people could look so much alike and yet not share a family connection.  It would at first seem an impossible task if one is trying to create an intelligence operation using look-alikes that aren’t siblings.  

And yet is does happen to a remarkable degree as discovered by Canadian photographer Francois Brunelle when he started photographing two acquaintances who resembled each other yet were not related.  Brunelle’s photography project is called, I'm not a look-alike!  The photographer has a goal of photographing 200 couples in North America.  They cannot be related but must resemble each other.  

Go HERE for the link to see the stunning samples.

Then ask yourself, how hard is it to believe that this young man below could possibly be doubled by another guy that is not his brother?

Allen Dulles And The Doppelgängers

Allen Dulles, former Director of the CIA

As told me by longtime JFK researcher Jones Harris, it was known around Washington that CIA Director Allen Dulles had an interest in utilizing doubles for intelligence work.  The first opportunity, the story went, came when Dulles was at a party and met a young man at a party that was fresh out of college and spoke fluently in both Russian and Chinese.  Dulles reportedly learned that this young man also had a twin brother who was also fluent in both languages.  Dulles is  said to have remarked, “I must have this pair.”  

If true, this is an interesting confirmation to bolster the doppelgänger theory which has been explored on this blog and by others, such as John Armstrong in his book, Harvey and Lee.  It shows that Dulles knew more about the assassination than anybody else on the Commission and probably, as Jones Harris told me, knew the most about what really happened regarding the assassination of John Kennedy.

It is not unheard of for intelligence agencies to employ identical twins in operations.  Fidel Castro did when he utilized the DeLaGuardia twins.  The famous spy Mata Hari had a double that danced for her while she was doing espionage work for the Germans during World War I.  Hence, is it not unknown for intelligence agencies to use doubles.  One man can be out on operations and if plans go unfavorably, then there is an alibi; just make sure the double is seen in a public place such as work, restaurant, a party, and so on.  When it comes to “plausible deniability,” the CIA are experts at it.

Another indication occurred during the Warren Commission hearings when Lee’s older brother, Robert Oswald was giving testimony and when it came to the summer of 1947, Dulles abruptly broke in and called for a break.  When the testimony continued, they picked up from the summer of 1948, which surprisingly, Robert Oswald went along with.  Was he coached to go along with this ignoring of the timeline?  Some researchers think so.  Regardless, his older brother John Pic, in earlier testimony, stated the Oswald family was living in Fort Worth, Texas, when other evidence points to an Oswald residence in the town of Benbrook, which was 18 miles west of Fort Worth.  Was Allen Dulles concerned about Robert mentioning the Fort Worth address as well?  Is Dulles familiar with two Oswald’s being involved in intelligence operations?  

This is murky area of the Kennedy assassination and deserves further research.

Sources

Books:

Armstrong, John, Harvey and Lee;  Douglass, James, JFK and the Unspeakable

Who Was Marguerite Oswald?

Marguerite Oswald, Christmas, 1947

(Update from an earlier article.)

As I stated in my four-part series, Lee Oswald Was A Weird Dude, I have some issues with Lee Oswald doppelganger theory.  You start out with the general strangeness of the concept followed by other mysteries that can never be fully resolved.  Such as, what happens to the other Oswald after the assassination?  Is he killed by the conspirators?  Does he get his face rearranged and sent on other covert missions?  Is he set up in a witness protection program?  If he is being impersonated it starts out as a teenager, at the age of 14 (various sources, mainly multiple educational records and witness interaction).  That would mean there needs to be two mothers being impersonated as well.  And they have to resemble each other.  So now you have two moms and two sons.  As Hunter S. Thomson once said, “When the going gets weird the weird turn pro.”  No doubt this is the case here.  If Oswald-as-double is wacky, give them each a mother and off we go into the outer fringe sustainability.    

The Records and the Witnesses 

The witness testimony forms two different, though consistent portraits of Marguerite Oswald.  One group has her a tall, attractive woman with a pleasing personality.  The other group describes her as short, overweight, poorly dressed, with a thoroughly unpleasant personality.  Many people having known Marguerite just a few years before the assassination were surprised with her looks after her picture was splashed through the press.  When one witness who knew the short, heavy Marguerite is shown a picture of the tall, thin, attractive one they often can’t recognize the Marguerite they knew.  Just note of the pictures above (online only).  The Marguerite from 1945 is tall, slim and trim.  The Marguerite from 1963 is short and heavy-set.

Marguerite Oswald lived a nickel to dime existence for most of her life.  Of her three marriages, two ended in divorce and one by death (Lee and Robert’s dad).  Most of her jobs were in retail sales or home nursing.  She apparently did a lot of “off the books” employment.  She never stayed at an employer for very long.  Despite a life teetering near poverty she never had a problem buying a house and bought and sold many.  The questioning of finances is one issue but the things she does with the houses are another.  In her brief time living with Lee in New York she worked menial jobs while at the same time owning a house in Ft. Worth, Texas.  She apparently did not consider renting it out and using those funds to finance living in New York.  She eventually sold it to a neighbor after inquiring if the house was for sale.  In 1950 when she wrote to her son from her first marriage, John Pic, telling him she was two months behind in rent when she had bought a house in 1948.  Why rent another place when she owns a house?  Or for that matter, have the income to do such a thing?

Also of interest is Marguerite Oswald’s employment at the Dolly Shoe Company in the spring of 1955.  She was known for being unfriendly, a constant complainer, and never smiled.  This was the short, heavy woman the world would meet after the assassination.  She talked her boss into hiring Lee as well.  Being the cashier, eventually her boss required her to be bonded.  He handed her the forms to fill out, which she never did.  Nor would she give a straight answer as to why not.  Eventually she was fired.  Of course, filling out the forms would leave a paper trail.  It would also require Marguerite to give background information and references on herself, revealing things she might not want known.  Would a bond application create a conflict with another Marguerite/Margaret?

In 1960, two women that were good friends with Marguerite Oswald, Mrs. Logan Magruder and Mrs. Oris Duane both reported meeting her in New Orleans.  (This was the tall, attractive version.) Both women spoke to her at the time.  Mrs. Magruder saw and chatted with her while working in Kreiger’s Department store and Mrs. Duane saw and spoke to her in Goldring’s Department store selling dresses.  A conflict arises here as the Warren Commission states that Marguerite was supposed to have moved out of New Orleans in June of 1956 to Ft. Worth, Texas never to return.  In September of 1960 she moved to Boyd Texas, north of Ft. Worth opened a small variety shop on Main street and opened a bank account at the Continental State Bank. Yet, here are two women who had been friends with Marguerite since the 1940’s who say they saw and spoke to her where she should not have been.  Apparently the FBI never investigated this lead in Louisiana.

Peculiarities Abound

Marguerite Oswald, in every interview either with government authorities to newspaper reporters often gave conflicting testimony about her life and related events. When interviewed by a New York probation officer in relation to Lee being truant, she gave conflicting accounts of her life.  She got at least five things wrong, from the number of years she had been married (a total of 13 years from three marriages but she said 9) to getting Lee’s birth date wrong.  What mother does not know her own child’s birthday?  At the age of 44 it seemed as if she did not know her own life story on many different levels.  Perhaps that is because this “Marguerite” was an impostor with too much to remember? 

Marguerite’s Warren Commission testimony is likewise filled with contradictions and misstatements that are, for the most part, ignored by her questioners.  To read the transcript of her testimony is to see a woman with an annoying character, a babbler, constantly rambling off-point, always in need of being herded back in the right direction.  Once again, she made numerous comments that were false.  At one point she misled the Commission when she was asked if any FBI agents had spoken to her before the assassination.  She said no.  This was not true.  She was visited in regards to her son’s defection to the USSR once in 1960, and twice in 1961.  An odd thing to lie about as it is so easily proven.  But it didn’t end there.  She for some reason couldn’t remember her married sister's surname.  At another instance, she mentioned property the family owned in a city in Texas there never existed.  This could have been the misstatements of an impostor not knowing or remembering pertinent facts.  Otherwise, it’s unknown why she would leave such a false trail or be so mentally befuddled. d.

By the time she got around to telling the Commission she thought her son Lee was a spy, the Commissioners had written her off as a kook.  At this point she had discredited herself in their eyes with her meandering testimony and oddball theories.  As one of the Commission member’s said–we can see how the son turned out with a mother like this.

What Happens Afterward?

One of my main conflicts with the Oswald doppelgänger theory as I stated earlier in their piece, is what happens to the other Oswald after the assassination. Even John Armstrong who wrote the definitive book on Oswald being a doppelgänger in Harvey and Lee, doesn’t deal with these troubling issues.  Armstrong has nothing to say in regards to what happens to the other “Marguerite” afterward either, other than she disappears from the scene.  She was reportedly spoken to by long-term friends who spotted her working in department stores in New Orleans.  But by 1956, under the official history she had left never to return.  If this is a CIA run operation it seems inconceivable that they would hire such a batty woman as Marguerite Oswald to be an operative.  On the other hand, her IRS returns are sealed from 1956-1962.  Marked “referred...postponed in full...” for reasons only the government knows we are not allowed to see these records.  Why? Opening those files to public access might explain a lot–or else create more mysteries.  Is this a cover for an operation?   Ironic that while this is concealed from the public, we are allowed to see Jack Ruby’s mother’s dental records. 

It is also of note that John and Minnie Smith have their returns from this same period also sealed and marked, “referred...postponed in full.”  Getting access to this couple’s tax returns might blow open a few lids.  Were John and Minnie Smith aliases for the other Marguerite and Lee? In fact, I find this to be one of the most peculiar and obscure mysteries of the Kennedy assassination and not well investigated.  I only read about it in Armstrong’s Harvey and Lee and no place else in the thirty-odd books I have on the assassination. (And while on the subject of tax returns, Lee Oswald’s returns from the years 1957, 1960, and 1961 have never been released, along with his certificate of birth.)

Margret Emma Keating (1892-1972)

There Is a Second Margret–The First Wife

Robert Oswald’s first wife was Margret Keating (1892-1972).  They were married 13 years and divorced in 1933.  Keating never remarried and lived in the same house she shared earlier with Robert Oswald for many years.  One peculiar thing was the 1956 telephone directory in New Orleans lists her as Margret Oswald, at the correct street address.  This is a name she had not used in 23 years, since the court awarded her maiden name back to her in the 1933 divorce.  Notice the year as well–1956.  The same year Marguerite’s tax returns were withheld.  It could have been a typo but certainly an odd occurrence. 

I’ll leave this one out there for the reader to ponder...

Finally

If it was some sort of intelligence operation it was done on the fly, make it up as you go along.  For example if I let one Lee Oswald go to the barbershop, I would have him go on the weekends, not during a week day when his employment records indicate he was filling out orders in the school book depository building at the same time.  The same exact thing occurs with his mother, working in department stores in New Orleans when she is supposed to be living and working in Texas.  There is a large witness trail here, far too large to be a fluke, if this is a fringe topic.

There are still millions of files that are sealed in this case.  Of course, many files have been destroyed but every so often a little known memo surfaces.  So at some future date we may learn more, a lot more of what really went on here.  Whatever the future brings, the doppelgänger issue may be the biggest secret of the Kennedy assassination and why the cover up is so systemic in our government. 

Sources:  Armstrong, John, Harvey and Lee;  Marrs, Jim, Crossfire; Douglass, James, JFK and the Unspeakable

Warren Commission Transcripts: www.history-matters.com and www.marryferrell.org

Author/Researcher John Armstrong interviewed on Black Op Radio

Len Osanic interviews noted JFK researcher John Armstrong, author of Harvey and Lee: How the CIA Framed Oswald.  Armstrong  is the leading proponent of Lee Oswald being impersonated.  Over an hour long and available for free MP3 download.

A complete seven hour interview is available for $10, via MP3 download from the web site. 

Link -- Show #604

http://www.blackopradio.com/archives2012.html

Book Review: Harvey and Lee - How the CIA framed Oswald by John Armstrong

"We do know Oswald had intelligence connections. Everywhere you look with him, there are fingerprints of intelligence." -Republican Senator Richard Schweiker, member of the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (Village Voice: 12/15/75)

Book Review:  Harvey and Lee - How the CIA framed Oswald by John Armstrong

For a long time I considered the idea of Lee Oswald having a double to be out there in Fringe Land.  I’m still wondering if it could really be true that he was being impersonated.  The book, “Harvey and Lee - How the CIA framed Oswald” by John Armstrong is the definitive book on the subject.  Armstrong’s research is solid and exhaustive in detail since he made his fortune in the oil business and  thereafter had the means and time to the pursue the research.  If you don’t agree with the book’s main theme, that Lee Oswald was impersonated from the age of 14 on and was used as a CIA project, it remains a tremendous source book for JFK researchers.  There are facts in this book you will not find anyplace else.  I have over 30 JFK books in my ever growing collection and not a single one of them mentions the second paper bag, the issues with the money order used to purchase the rifle, or Marina Oswald’s suspicious financial dealings with Tex-Italia Films, or any number of obscure facts on the case that point towards conspiracy.  Facts that many in the pro-conspiracy JFK community could and should use in their books and presentations and for whatever reason, do not.  

Coming in at 983 pages, Harvey and Lee is almost as heavy of tome as Vince Bugliosi’s Reclaiming History (over 1600 pages).  But unlike that book, it’s more manageable to hold and read.  It includes a CD full of photos and declassified documents and is well sourced with chapter notes and index.  Unlike Bugliosi’s work, it’s hard to find for a book that is not out of print and prices can be as high as $100 or more.  I paid $77 for mine and consider myself lucky!  

The Tangled Web

Untangling the tangled web of Lee Oswald’s life is a bewildering task. Do not think you can sally forth and easily figure this guy out.  And it all starts early on in his life.  His ways are mysterious but if one filters his actions through Cold War espionage one gets a glimpse of who he was and what his mission was.   I can see why the Warren Commission chose early on to downplay that part of the investigation and quickly come to a conclusion of a lone shooter not affiliated with anybody in a plot.  If they dug too deeply they knew they would blow open a hornet’s nest of behind the scene government and military operations (see Breach of Trust, Gerald McKnight).

Two Ozzies, Two Mommies

The Oswald-as-doppelganger theory has been around a long time.  Jim Mars made note of it in his book, Cross Fire.  Surprisingly, this is not an idea issued from kooky conspiracy buffs as the lone nut crowd may suggest, but directly from the government.  The first instance is a June, 1960 memo from FBI Director, J. Edgar Hoover to the Dept. of State warning them that somebody has accessed Oswald’s birth certificate and may be impersonating him.  Hoover, the King of the FBI, never states his sources or evidence for this.  But the ship is launched.

What John Armstrong brings to the table is his contention that Lee Oswald is being impersonated as young as 14 years old.  There is a lot he brings forth on this, but the most telling comes from the Warren Commission’s 26 volumes of collected evidence.  There are in those volumes, two sets of educational records from the fall of 1953.  One set has Oswald enrolled in PS #44 in New York. The other set has him enrolled in Beauregard Junior High in New Orleans also in the fall of 1953.    

Rapidly apparent is that obviously, Oswald can’t be in two places at the same time. He could be impersonated, or some of these records could be false.  Armstrong rarely raises the issue of these documents being forged as an explanation for this curious development.  Of course, that raises other questions as well, such as, if Oswald is just a lone gunman then why make up phony records to add to his perceived guilt?  This is supposed to be a clear-cut case, right? (I call this the “framing of the guilty man.”  A recurring theme if you watch for the pattern.)

Another factor to consider:  With Lee being  impersonated at this young age, there would need to be  a second mother as well for the other boy.  Things have suddenly gotten complicated and the theory is to the breaking point.  I can’t imagine a more difficult situation to work out if this is supposed to be part of a clandestine operation.  However, this doesn’t seem to concern the author in the slightest, and he makes no mention of how freaky this situation has become.  Basically, for this to work, one would need one woman and her son, another woman and her child and everybody has to resemble each other.  Amazing!  And don’t forget, one of the moms has two sons from a pervious marriage.  Imagine what a mess the holidays could become!  

Intertwined with this is how both pairs look and act.  According to various records, photographs, and witness accounts collected by Armstrong, some people experienced a tall Lee and a short Lee (who wanted to be called by his middle name, Harvey).  With the mothers some people knew a tall Marguerite and some knew a short Marguerite.  The resulting theme then is a tall son and mother and a short son and mother.  And it carries down to their personalities as well.  The tall pair are attractive, social, and well liked; the short pair are just the opposite.  All too convenient it seems and it’s the element of this story that is tidy.

Oswald Here, There, And Everywhere

Probably the most striking thing about John Armstrong’s research is the numerous sightings of Lee Oswald at times and places that he shouldn’t be.  The most striking account is that of Palmer McBride, who claims to have worked with Oswald at the Pfisterer Dental Lab.  More than just coworkers, they hung out at each other’s homes, double dated, and Oswald was a member the local astronomy club where he impressed everybody by touting the abilities of the communist system in the launch of the Sputnik.  McBride said he knew Lee Oswald during the years of  1957 through early 1958 when Oswald is supposed to have been stationed at the U2 base in Atsugi, Japan.  Conversely, his best friend in the Marines stationed with him there was Zack Stout.  Stout describes Oswald as regular guy that never discussed politics or had an interest in communism or the Russian language and didn’t mind having a beer with the boys.  

So in Armstrong’s narrative one Lee is in Japan the other Lee is in New Orleans.  Then, as the Lee in Japan boards a ship with his fellow Marines to head off to Taiwan, the Louisiana bound Lee travels to Japan to reside at the Atsugi base.  Armstrong bases this on medical records showing Oswald being treated for various infections at Atsugi.  This is a bit of stretch and Armstrong once again does not mention the possibility of false documents being rendered to provide a fabricated trail for enemies (or future investigators) to pursue. 

The main part of Harvey and Lee precedes along this theme of Oswald being two places, or more, at once.  There is such a huge selection of sightings and encounters it’s almost as if there is a whole clone army of Oswalds rummaging about the countryside.  It seems to build expansively towards the last few months leading up the assassination with Oswald encounters becoming almost frenetic in pace.  It gets to the point where Armstrong implies that both are together at the same place, such as both being in the same school (building) at the same time, both in the Marines simultaneously or both in the School Book Depository Building at the moment of the assassination.  And nobody is going to notice?  That's quite a stretch and I think Armstrong starts losing control of the narrative at these junctures. It adds a degree of kookiness to something that could otherwise be feasible. 

Another thing I take issue with is how the doubles are utilized.  Armstrong details over and over again that while one Lee is at work the other is out and about and in some situations, drawing attention to himself.  A case in point–the Dobbs House Restaurant incident on the morning of November 20, two days before the assassination (pg. 781).  This Oswald is having a hissy fit over his eggs not being cooked right and making such a fuss, that many there took note it.  This is supposed to have occurred at 10:00 A.M., the same time Oswald, according to his work records, is filling out book orders.  Shouldn’t the other Oswald be keeping a low profile?  Or maybe it’s the proper thing so as to create confusion and cover later on down the road, in the advent that someone raises the doppelgänger issue?  Then the investigator gets called a crackpot for daring to broach the subject.

(Also intriguing with this incident is Dallas police officer J. D. Tippet is in the restaurant the same time Oswald is noticing the fuss taking place. Was he there to observe Oswald?  Who knows...)

Despite my misgivings, there is enough interesting stuff here to certainly make a strong case for Lee Oswald being a impersonated. There is a huge amount of witness testimony that does makes sense.  Not everybody can be lying or mistaken.  One can also see the hand of the authorities (i.e., FBI, CIA, WC) to manage this testimony so the truth does not air.

A case in point is the famous Silvia Odio incident (pg. 623).  In brief, a Cuban immigrant was staying with her sister when three men came to the door–two hispanic men and one caucasian, who was introduced as Leon Oswald.  They were seeking financial help to fund a take-down of Castro as they knew her father was once a wealthy Cuban businessman.  Suspicious, she turned them away and a few months later recognized Lee Oswald, the accused assassin, as the same man who had appeared at her door as “Leon.”  Her story was fluffed off by the Warren Commission but later accepted by the House Select Committee on Assassinations in the late 1970s.  Her account of meeting Oswald is widely accepted among researchers, even some lone nut supporters.  (It should be pointed out that Odio is not the only witness to seeing Oswald–so was her sister Annie who first answered the knock at the door and overheard the conversation.  She was never interviewed by FBI or the Warren Commission.)

However, at the time Oswald appears at the Odio apartment in late September of 1963 he is also supposed to be on the bus in Mexico in route to Mexico City.  Oops!  And interestingly, I've seen few researchers, even pro-conspiracy ones, point this fact out.  I can partially see why, as it leads one to some rough patches on the rabbit trail.  Not everybody wants to deal with it.  Armstrong documents this, and many other instances of reliable and multiple witness encounters with Oswald at places and times only an impostor could appear at.  

Where Does Everybody Go?

It's the main unfinished business of Harvey and Lee.  We know what happens the real Lee Oswald, but what happens to his double, if he has one?  Or for that matter, his doppelgänger mother?  Armstrong simply doesn't tell us.  The trail has grown cold and he seems not to care.  I would think this is an important thing to resolve, but to be fair, I don't know how this part of the story could be resolved.  There are few witnesses to Oswald impersonators after the assassination and basically no records of any kind that have been released on the subject. 

There has been a book published in recent years called, “Flight from Dallas: New Evidence of CIA Involvement in the Murder of President John F. Kennedy”.  It relates the story of an Air Force Sergeant, Robert G. Vinson and his flight home on the day of the assassination.  He claims the transport plane he took that day makes an unannounced stop at an airstrip outside of Dallas and two men emplane in yellow coveralls and one of the men resembles Oswald.  You can see this man's account told on YouTube.  The final designation is the airbase at Roswell, New Mexico where the yellow clad Oswald departs never to be seen again.  An interesting story but we still don’t know what happens to this other Oswald providing this account is even true.

Conclusion

Harvey and Lee stands as probably the most meticulously detailed account of Lee Oswald's life written to date.  Not even Norman Mailer's Oswald's Tale comes close to John Armstrong's research and pales in comparison.  I have sympathy for any future biographer of Lee Oswald because he or she will have to wade through all of this doppelganger business with the many conflicting witnesses and documents and the "fingerprints of intelligence" as Senator Schweiker remarked, ever present.  It'll be interesting to see if they will want to go this deep into it.  I bet many won't.  

Whether this is a conspiracy or not, the JFK assassination is loaded with cover-ups.  Perhaps Oswald being impersonated is the biggest cover-up of them all, possibly bigger than a conspiracy for a presidential assassination.  As a result, Oswald appears even more of a mysterious figure.  We still don't get close to who he was or why he would be a part of this, or if he even knew he was a part of something this huge.  He was most likely played and he seems far too intelligent and self-aware for that kind of game.  He remains a true International Man of Mystery who passed his secrets on to no one.  Oh, what a fascinating trial this would have made!  

Even if you don't go for the doppelganger theory in Harvey and Lee, there is a tremendous amount of facts on the Kennedy assassination that you won't find anywhere else.  I peruse this book often and find something new every time.  It makes a great source book for JFK researchers.  

Endnotes

Although John Armstrong is meticulous in his research he does err in some places.  One place is the Carro Report, which was issued by Lee Oswald’s probation officer John Carro. It was written because of Lee going truant at PS #44 in 1953 during his New York phase and consists entirely of an interview with Lee’s mother Marguerite. In the interview Marguerite gets just about every fact regarding her life and family background wrong.  For example she lists her marriage to Lee’s father, Robert Sr. as the first marriage for both.  She is wrong– it’s the second marriage for both.  She gets Lee’s birthday off by a day; gets Robert’s age at time of death wrong; had the wrong number of years they were married; states that all three songs come from this marriage–not true, oldest son John Pic from the first marriage; lists the wrong church that Lee was baptized in and so on.  

Where  Armstrong errs is in listing issues which are not in the Carro Report.  Two examples are the claim that Marguerite lists family property in Corning Texas, a town that does not exist in the state and Marguerite not knowing what her married sister’s surname.  Neither of these issues is listed in the report.  I don’t know if Armstrong read a different report in the National Archives but does list in the chapter notes several interviews with John Carro in other publications.  Perhaps Carro stated those things in those interviews and did not include them in his report.  At any rate, Marguerite Oswald’s discrepancies are strange enough without adding to it and I fail to understand how Armstrong messed this up as his overall research is quite accurate.  

Carro Report:  http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/russ/jfkinfo3/exhibits/carro1.htm

Sources:

http://www.amazon.com  One copy of Harvey and Lee, currently priced at $195.00.

Flight from Dallas: New Evidence of CIA Involvement in the Murder of President John F. Kennedy by James P. Johnston and Jon Roe. 

http://www.amazon.com/Flight-Dallas-Evidence-Involvement-President/dp/1412072360/ref=pd_sim_b45

Also see:  W. Tracy Parnell’s lame attempt to debunk Armstrong’s work. (Which by the way does not reference the book, only Armstrong’s published reports.)

http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/parnell/h&lmain.htm

http://oswaldsmother.blogspot.com/2011/10/book-review-harvey-and-lee-how-cia.html

As Senator Richard Schweiker, a member of the Senate Intelligence committee once said, “Everywhere you look with him, there are fingerprints of intelligence.”  Indeed you can and it explains much, but we only have prints to go by.

Sources:
http://www.amazon.com. At this writing, one copy of Harvey and Lee priced at $195.00.

Flight from Dallas: New Evidence of CIA Involvement in the Murder of President John F. Kennedy by James P. Johnston and Jon Roe.

http://www.amazon.com/Flight-Dallas-Evidence-Involvement-President/dp/1412072360/ref=pd_sim_b45

Also see: W. Tracy Parnell’s lame attempt to debunk Armstrong’s work. (Which by the way does not reference the book, only Armstrong’s published reports.)

http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/parnell/h&lmain.htm

Will The Real Doppelganger Please Stand Up?

When I first started researching the Oswald-as-double I considered it to be the farthest out I was willing to go in the annuals of the Kennedy assassination. The are wilder theories out there such as Oswald being an MK-ULTRA mind control assassin. (Hmm...would a lone nut gunman also apply here?) The idea of multiple assassins resembling each other running loose remains a troubling issue and adds a strange aura to the tragic event. It is one area that only a hand full of JKF researchers wish to examine as it is viewed as a far-out topic, one worthy of a Moulder and Sculley investigation in the the X-Files.

However, one surprising fact is the actual genesis of Lee H. Oswald as a doppelganger starts out in the highest level of government and in the upper echelon of Federal criminal investigation. Namely, J. Edgar Hoover, Director of the FBI. It was Hoover, in his 1960 memo to the Office of Security, Department of State, that basically sent a warning that there existed a “possibility” that the ex-marine defector to the Soviet Union was being impersonated and someone was using his birth certificate to do so. He doesn’t state his evidence for this nor add any additional details in the memo. In those days, Hoover’s word was etched in stone. Later, in 1961, a State Dept. official will send a memo to another, warning that the next time Lee Oswald is issued a passport, make sure he gets it personally; that way the right Oswald gets the right passport as it was suspected he was being impersonated. Again, no qualifiers for this. Apparently, it was something that was known and treated with great seriousness, at this level. The word at this point, is making the rounds.

By the June of 1962 Lee Oswald and family are back in the United States. When he returns back to Dallas as his ill-fated trip to Mexico City (known as Oswald’s Magical Mystery Tour) in the September of 1963 the CIA is recording all telephonic traffic in and out of the Russian and Cuban embassies. CIA station chief Winston Scott believed that Oswald being impersonated after examining the tapes and kept a back-up copy in his private safe. Hoover had his agents, seven of them, review the tapes and they determined the man speaking on the telephone calls is not Oswald. This man is speaking broken Russian to the Russians, and speaking excellent Spanish to the Cubans. A total reversal of Oswald’s known language skills. Shortly after the assassination, Hoover related this information to Lyndon Johnson. The new President in turn, used this for the final arm twisting of Earl Warren to get him to serve on the Commission.

So while one might consider the doppelganger or impersonator to be a nutty idea, it’s apparently not considered that at all by various authorities within the government. Far from being fringe subject matter, it is accepted as fact in these inner circles. Oswald is being impersonated but by whom is not known, at least by Hoover. Or maybe Hoover did know, just kept it to himself. Sometimes methods and practices have to be concealed so those being surveilled do not become aware of the operations directed against them. Never the less, it was important enough for Hoover to leave a paper trail on this issue warning other departments as did others in the bureaucracy. The President himself knew. Earl Warren knew and made sure it was not a topic that would be investigated later.

Lee Oswald now becomes a far more important figure that first told. After all, who wants to impersonate a nobody?

The Lone Senator And The Lone Gunman
The Senator from Georgia, Richard Russell was the odd man out on the Warren Commission. He has the distinction of being the member with the fewest amount of appearances at Commission meetings. Many people have taken him to task for this but the fact of matter was, he discovered early on that this was not going to be an outfit that was going to get to the bottom of the Kennedy assassination. He knew it was going to be “investigation theater” from there on after reading the initial, and wholly inadequate, FBI report and seeing how Earl Warren was going to conduct the whole affair. He was so disgusted with the proceedings he wrote a letter of resignation, dated February 24, 1964, but never forwarded it to President Johnson.

Senator Russell’s most important act being on the Commission was not what he did there, which was not much, but in leading his own personal inquiry into what happened. He enlisted the expertise of Colonel Philip Corso, an expert in military intelligence to research the issue. (Those of you familiar with a certain late night radio talk program that deals in the paranormal and especially UFOs will be familiar with the name of Philip Corso!) He uncovered two things; one, that there were two different birth certificates for Lee Harvey Oswald and they had both been used by two different people. Secondly, there were two different passports issued to a Lee Harvey Oswald and both had been used by two different people.

Colonel Corso’s final conclusion was there was a conspiracy, the plot leading to directly to Lyndon Johnson, allied with rogue elements of the CIA and the anti-Castro Cubans. Remember, this is 1964; it’s startling how this idea, with this limited amount of inquiry except by one man, had been fully realized at this early date. Unfortunately, there is only circumstantial evidence for many of these conclusions but many other researchers have since come to this idea of rouge government agents in a plot to kill Kennedy, especially the CIA with Kennedy vowing to scatter them to the winds. The Cubans could be counted on as well, still smarting over Kennedy not committing air support for the Bay of Pigs invasion. Never the less, Senator Russell agreed with Corso’s conclusion knowing he could never convince the other members of the Commission for this scenario. His hunch that things were fishy here with the official story and there was more to it, proved out. Years later, he would become one of the Commission’s biggest critics along with fellow Warren Commission member Hale Bogs.

The Final Phase
As we have seen, the idea of Lee Oswald having a double comes not from conspiracy theorists, or “armchair investigators” as Gerald Ford put it, but from government insiders at the FBI, CIA, Department of State, and so on. And not only Federal but State documents also confirm this. Such as a form from the Texas Employment Commission which documents a series of aptitude tests Lee Oswald completed that starts in April of 1962. As stated earlier, he and his wife and daughter did not return to the United States till June of 1962. In April, he is known to still be in Russia working at the radio factory in Minsk. A lot of documents are missing but every so often a gem like that appears to add new dimensions to the Kennedy assassination and further our knowledge on Oswald and whoever he was.

With the publication of John Armstrong’s Harvey and Lee in 2003, a new layer is added to the matter. Namely, his research showing Lee Oswald being impersonated as young as 13 years old. He contends that this was a long running CIA project most likely operated through the CIA’s Counter Intelligence division under the direction of James Angleton. Adding more fuel to the fire is that if Oswald was being impersonated as a teen, then he has to have a mother that is an impostor as well. To make matters more complicated one of the mothers has two additional sons. It’s seems an impossible fit. If you are running this as a long term intelligence operation, how do you pull this off without the two sons, John Pic and Robert Jr. ever finding out about this?

Nevertheless, researcher Armstrong has documents and witness interviews to show plenty of discrepancies in the life of Lee and his mother Marguerite. High strangeness abounds and it could mean anything. Documents could be faked to make it look like Oswald is being doubled, or not. Ultimately, Armstrong leaves many issues unresolved such as what happens to both doubles, mother and son, in the long run. Also, Armstrong has the notion of both Oswalds being in the same place at the same time; same schools, same naval base, even both in the building the day of the assassination. That is too far out for my inquiry. You can have a pair of twins at school, but both with the same name? I doubt it. That would out to easily. But once again, when one returns to the witnesses and the documents a crazy winding path is laid.

Overall, the Lee Oswald doubles are one of the most problematic areas of investigation. There is a general hint of how things went but nothing can be resolved. Namely, who was Lee Oswald and what was he really up to?

Or for that matter, what has our government become and what are they up to?

Sources
McKnight, Gerald, Breach of Trust; Armstrong, John, Harvey and Lee; www.history-matters.org; www.ctka.net (Probe Magazine article archive)