The Doubles Game

 

Did they get the right guy?

The last year of Oswald’s life is marked by a series of events that lead nowhere.  His stint as the chairman (listed under his alias, Alek Hidell) of the Fair Play For Cuba committee does nothing for Castro and he soon gives it up; his trip to Mexico to allegedly get visas to allow him to return to the Soviet Union hits a dead-end as he never files the proper paperwork.  In short, these are all futile attempts to achieve things that have a stated purpose but don’t fit into the general scheme of things, whatever the scheme was.  Perhaps they are all a series of ruses to build the character of Lee Oswald, the loser with delusions of grandeur. 

Substack

https://open.substack.com/pub/georgebailey/p/the-doubles-game

  

The Women In Lee Oswald’s Life

The mother, the cousin, the wife and the friend.  Updated at Substack.

https://open.substack.com/pub/georgebailey/p/the-women-in-lee-oswalds-life?r=1ytbzs&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true

Harvey Rode Into The Trailer Park

 Update to an earlier article which is not posted on Substack.

https://open.substack.com/pub/georgebailey/p/harvey-rode-into-the-trailer-park?r=1ytbzs&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web

It Runs In The Family!

 New post at Substack.  Was Oswald’s cousin Marilyn Murret a CIA operative?

https://georgebailey.substack.com/p/it-runs-in-the-family?sd=pf

Taking Care Of The Star Witness

Updated version of my of my original post regarding Marina Oswald's Tex-Italia film dealings. 

https://georgebailey.substack.com/p/taking-care-of-the-star-witness

Ancient Aliens & JFK by Mike Bara

 

Mike Bara may be knowledgable regarding NASA and Ancient Aliens but he doesn’t know Beans about the Kennedy assassination.

If you have ever watched Ancient Aliens on the History Channel you’ve seen Mike Bara along with other experts giving their opinions on how aliens arrived on earth in the far away past and advanced human evolution and technology.  It makes for entertaining television and the show makes it apparent that sometime in ancient human history there is evidence of what appears to be high technology and engineering being used at a time when civilization was supposed to be in a primitive state.  So the Star People came and gave us free advice on how to climb down from the trees and into the savanna.   

Bara is a retired engineer and has written numerous books on this subject and NASA space programs.  Most of his books bears the “Ancient Aliens” title (here, there and everywhere!).  He hosts a 6 day a week channel on Youtube and is a conspiratorialist with some reservations.  For example he is a supporter of the Apollo Moon landings but he swerves into the John Kennedy Jr. conspiracy that he faked his death to escape being murdered by the Deep State (a popular theory among the Q followers).  To someday reappear like the Second Coming of Jesus.  And do what precisely?  So Bara is reasonable and then sometimes not.

Mike Bara’s main thesis in this work is that President Kennedy had knowledge of contact with Aliens and was planning to share this knowledge with the Soviets as a peace entreaty.  This in turn sent the President on a collation course with the Deep State and ended his life.  Farfetched to say the least.

It is interesting that while Bara does conclude there was a conspiracy in the death of JFK and resorts to using the same old tired arguments of the Lone Nut crowd. Which in turn, harkens from the easily discredited Warren Commission Report. Bara follows the well trodden path of Oswald being a good marksman to the Magic Bullet Theory. I shall explore this in greater detail below and show why he is wrong on all of these matters.

MJ-12 Documents

One of the controversial issues in UFO research is the release of alleged documents about the MJ-12 group.  One day in 1984 a UFO researcher Jaimie Shandera checked the mail and found a package containing a set of microfilm documents from an anonymous source.  The Majestic 12 legend was born and launched thousands of arguments both pro and con.  Now that the dust has settled down a bit, the MJ-12 docs are considered a hoax. (For more on this you can check out Seamas Coogan’s Magnus Opus, JFK and the Majestic Papers: The History of a Hoax.  LINK)

Mike Bara seems reluctant to let it go.  As he said on page 38, “I am less concerned with the question of authenticity than I am with the content.”  He should be!  He ponders what if the documents have traces of truth in them (the 12 members were real men at least) and then precedes thru the chapter to discuss connections to the documents as if they were real.  Such as he does on page 42 when he suggests that JFK knew of aliens. “But if Kennedy was taken out of the loop on what MJ-12 knew, how then was he even aware of an alien presence?”  Bara wants to believe, regardless.  Most of chapter 2 flows like this and the rest of the book will feature similar confusing episodes.  

Nevertheless, Bara’s reasoning that JFK was aware of aliens wanting to share this with a Cold War enemy ultimately set in motion his death, is totally absurd.  Kennedy had a multitude of enemies that hated him worse than speculating about flying saucers.

  

The Magic Bullet Theory one more time…

Also known as the “Magic Bullshit Theory” was developed when the Warren Commission discovered they had more bullets flying in Dealey Plaza than Oswald could have fired.  So their lawyers created the fiction of one bullet wounding two men.  The problem was the shooter was firing from a high elevation while Kennedy’s wounds were low to high for the single bullet to allegedly traverse his body and hit Governor Connelly, besides the trajectory angles being incorrect.  It was a political solution to the problem.  There could only be one gunman.

But there is much wrong with it and too much to go into here and Bara’s response to it is no different than what a standard Warren Report defender would say.  Probably the most complete rebuttal comes from the testimony collected by the Assassination Records Review Board (ARRB) in 1996.  Namely the testimony under oath of four autopsy witnesses.  They were FBI special agents James Sibert and Francis O’Neill, and autopsy technicians James Jenner and Paul O’Conner.  All four men testify witnessing at the autopsy the sounding probe (flexible aluminum rod—used to trace bullets through bodies) inserted into Kennedy’s back.  The probe went a few inches in and downward.  It was not a pass-through.  So there is no exiting bullet through Kennedy’s throat.  Bara has shown in his sloppy research that he knows nothing about this and does great disservice to his readers by ignoring this important fact. 

Likewise for his handling for the CE-399 the so called “pristine” bullet found on Connelly’s stretcher and was alleged to have passed through two men breaking bones along the way.  Of course it is not pristine and shows marked flattening on one side.  Bara believes this bullet could have done all the damage it did, especially to Connelly breaking three ribs and fracturing the radial bone in the wrist and still remain largely undeformed.    

As I stated in one of my posts regarding this issue:  “The Warren Commission in 1964 tasked ballistic experts doctors Dolce and Light to conduct tests on cadavers using Oswald’s rifle at the U. S. Army Edgewood Arsenal.  As Dr. Dolce stated in an interview in 1986, each of the ten test fired bullets were in his words, “markably deformed.”  Dr. Dolce was not called to give testimony to the Warren Commission and his findings were buried in a report, published in March of 1965, that was classified “confidential” for 8 years before being placed in the NARA.”

Mostly likely CD-399 was a low velocity bullet with not enough grains in the shell hence the shallow impact.  It’s the one that fell out. Bara while writing of the magical properties of CD-399, failed to mention the numerous bullet fragments found in Governor Connelly’s body and also in the interior of the limousine.  One fragment he carried in his left thigh for the rest of his life.  As can be plainly seen, CD-399 is not fragmented.

Officer Tippit as Badge Man

This has to be the most unfortunate part of the book.  In my study of the Tippet killing I have never found anything that suggests he was the grassy knoll shooter.  Bara hangs his theory on the scant evidence of a Jack White digital reinterpretation of the Mary Moorman photo.  The famous Badge Man image cloaked in shadows on the grassy knoll.  There are various versions of this online and they all have one thing in common.  They are blurry.  Yet somehow Mike Bara finds enough data in the image to confidently state it was Tippit there and he was firing the fatal shot.

Due to Tippit’s movements and behavior that day, Tippit did not have the time to arrive in Dealey Plaza in order to assassinate the President.  He would need to be there early, at least by noon.  The President was killed at 12:30.  At noon Tippit was called to Hodge’s SuperMart to arrest a woman for shoplifting.  He was 7 miles away from Dealey Plaza at that point.  He would need to drive the woman back to headquarters to be booked, wasting valuable time if he was going to be an assassin.  No witnesses saw him in the Dealey Plaza location.

Some have suggested that Tippit may have been involved in the outer edges of the conspiracy.  His actions on the 22nd were peculiar as documented by Myers, Armstrong, McBride etc.  Tippit that morning was racing here and there.  At one point he rushed into the Tiptop record store and made a frantic call to someone who never picked up.  Whatever it was he did not display the actions of a normal police officer on patrol.  He was acting nervous and agitated.  Was his job to meet up with Oswald and take him out?  That seems far more plausible than looking at a blurry Photoshopped image and coming to a conclusion.

Officer J. D. Tippit as Badge Man is another poorly researched area of Bara’s book and a huge insult to the Tippit family.  All Bara has is a blurry picture.  Even the minimal facts I have presented here are not in Bara’s book.  Whatever Tippit’s involvement was that fateful day, he does not deserve this.

Conclusion

Overall, the Kennedy assassination chapters in Ancient Aliens & JFK are flawed.  The rest, including the secret space program, moon landings, etc, are competently researched and presented.  Sometimes as a researcher you can get into fire fighter mode.  So much incorrect information flows around the subject you are researching that the need arises to stamp it out.  It’s a constant process of reeducating and setting the record straight.  Mike Bara’s book is an example of that.  Obviously, this is not a serious look into who JFK’s killer was or other aspects of the assassination. The absurd notion that JFK had inside info on Aliens and what they are doing on earth is a joke. Bara is trading on the Ancient Aliens TV show name for traction.  It’s a pot boiler.  Reader beware.

Notes

p.100, Oswald was court martialed twice in the Marines.  Not three times as Bara wrote.

p.103, James Jesus Angleton was Associate Deputy Director of Operations for Counterintelligence.  Not the Deputy Director of the CIA as Bara states.  This error implies Angleton was #2 at the CIA.  He was not.

p.107, Bara calls Oswald a good marksman.  He was starting out but faded.  His first marksman test was excellent.  His score was lowered in the second test and barely qualified in the third test.  After the Marines during the Russia phase, when Oswald went hunting with friends he was loaned the shotgun—for obvious reasons. 

A reviewer on Amazon S. Harris, charged that some pages and at least one whole chapter of Ancient Aliens & JFK, are cut and pasted from Bara’s other books such as Dark Mission and Who Mourns For Apollo.  As Harris said  “Self-plagiarism is no crime…” yes, just the habit of a lazy writer.  As I said previously, a pot boiler. (Highly recommended you read the review on Amazon.  The reviewer points to other factual errors not mentioned in my review.)

Researcher Jones Harris once told me his theory that the grassy knoll shooter was Roscoe White.  Roscoe was former military intelligence.  He was seen walking around Dealey Plaza wearing a Dallas police officers uniform but not wearing the required hat.  But he wasn’t officially a police officer.  He wouldn’t attend police training till early December of 1963.  He was working for them as a clerk at this time.  As told to me by Harris, only those people that had completed training would be allowed to wear the uniform of the Dallas police department.  Could Roscoe White be Badge Man?  I suppose it makes for a better story to pin the crime on a more well known man rather than one who is not.

Sources

Why Officer Tippit Stopped His Killer by Jack Myers.  A very detailed and accurate account on the Tippit murder and Tippit’s movements the day of the assassination.

https://kennedysandking.com/john-f-kennedy-articles/why-officer-tippit-stopped-his-killer

John Armstrong’s detailed account of the movements of J. D. Tippit on 11/22/63.

https://kennedysandking.com/john-f-kennedy-articles/harvey-lee-and-tippit-a-new-look-at-the-tippit-shooting

JFK and the Majestic Papers: The History of a Hoax, Introduction by Seamas Coogan.  All nine articles are listed on this page.

https://kennedysandking.com/john-f-kennedy-articles/jfk-and-the-majestic-papers-the-history-of-a-hoax-introduction

Briefer account here by Philip Coppens:

https://www.eyeofthepsychic.com/majestic12/

Book.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1939149991/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

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

OSWALD & THE KGB IN MEXICO

OSWALD & THE KGB IN MEXICO is an article by retired KGB Lt. Gen. Nikolai Leonov who met Lee H. Oswald (or someone posing as him) at the Soviet consulate office in 1963. His impression was of a highly nervous individual.  Quite a contrast from the cool Oswald arrested the day of the assassination. Posted by Mark Hackard at the Espionage History Archive site.

LINK

Oswald’s Finances During the Summer of 1963

In my study of the case, one particular thing that started to grab my attention was how Lee Oswald and his wife and child lived during the summer of and early fall of 1963.  From July 22 till October 14, Oswald, under the official history, was unemployed during this time.  His only source of income was several months of unemployment checks, which amounted to $336.  Cash on-hand at the time he was fired from the Reily Coffee Company $202.75.  With this meager amount of money, the Oswalds are expected to pay rent and utilities, buy groceries, and then finance all of Lee’s pursuits such as printing FPFC pamphlets, pay one person to help hand them out, pay court costs after his arrest, finance a round trip ticket to Mexico City and five nights at a hotel, and finally, pay the hospital and doctor bills for the birth of his second daughter Rachel.

Oddly, when the Warren Commission compiled this listing of Oswald’s income and expenses they totally ignored the birth of the second daughter Rachel, born on the night of October 10, 1963.  That would  probably have been their biggest expense with doctor and hospital bills.  Yet it is completely ignored.  Who paid those bills?  Did Oswald have enough money left over from the Mexico trip to afford it?  The Warren Report accounting has Oswald with $129.76 after the trip and he received his last unemployment payment of $39.00 in early October before the baby’s birth for a total of $168.76.  Was that enough?  Did Ruth Paine offer to pay the bills, or at least chip in?  George de Mohrenschildt would be a good source but he and his wife left for Haiti in June of 1963 so they most likely would not have been involved.  Brother Robert was gainfully employed, did he provide help?  I have never read any other source regarding the medical bills for the birth of that child how they were paid.

Oswald’s tax returns are a spotty record. His income tax returns for 1956, 1958, 1959, 1962, and 1963 were released by the HSCA in 1978 (180-10110-10130). His tax return from 1957 has never been released and incredibly, the IRS told the Warren Commission that it could not be found.

Oswald filed no tax returns for the years of 1960 and 1961 while in the USSR.  This would have been against the law today, since all American citizens living and working abroad must file a return but only since 1962.  Oswald claimed during this period to have renounced his U.S. citizenship but that was just a ruse; he didn’t file the proper paperwork (with all things government related, one has to fill out a form, which he failed to do) and his PassPort file at the State Department was not flagged.  Records show that upon his return to the U.S. in June of 1962 he and his wife were virtually penniless.  He required a State Department loan to pay for the trip home and got a loan of $200 from his brother Robert and $10 from his mother.  While in the USSR his income was greater than the factory manager in Minsk.  Where did that money go?  Was the exchange rate between the Ruble and the Dollar great enough to devalue his Russian earnings?

It appears the Commission decided to focus solely on the 1962-63 time period, including the summer of 1963, a time in Oswald’s life when he was the least employed.  Perhaps it was the easiest accounting method of Oswald’s financial dealings.  Or perhaps it was because the Commission was solely dependent upon the FBI, CIA and so on, for evidence and had no independent investigators assigned to the investigation. They could only deal with what they were provided and then there was much they were not provided with.

Remarkably, when his widow Marina went to apply for survivor’s benefits from the Social Security Administration, she was only allowed two years–1962 and 1963.  Curiously, all of his other working years from the teenage years through his three years in the Marines were ignored.  What is being covered up here?  An interesting thing to ponder as we search Oswald’s background.  Another circumstantial fact in a possible career as an operative?

The accounting does not include Oswald buying any bullets.  He’ll need a clip as well.  Nothing of this is documented.  

All of the accounting for Oswald’s trip to Mexico City was estimated.  Odd considering the FBI down there investigating the matter.  It may have been that the Commission didn’t have that information at the time of publication.  Director Hoover was annoyed with the Commission‘s work and often delayed handing over documents. 

Nevertheless, it appears Oswald was doing things that he may not have had the money for.  If so, what was the other source?  The Commission debated stories of Oswald being an FBI informant. Perhaps that was a source of his finances, one we are not allowed to know. 

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.

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

What Did Robert Oswald Know?

(Updated on my SubStack site:  https://georgebailey.substack.com/p/what-did-robert-oswald-know)

A number of researchers have wondered if Lee Oswald's brother Robert knew more than he ever admitted to.  Indeed, his half brother John Pic told the FBI that Robert knew more that he was letting on.  As one researcher told me, Robert wasn't going to be doing any talking from early on to this day.  Robert did publish a book in 1967 regarding his relationship with his brother (Lee: A Portrait of Lee Harvey Oswald by His Brother) and did appear in several documentaries.  Publicly, he has always stood by the official story and kept a low profile over the years.  

However, his testimony to the Warren Commission, conducted in 1964, reveals Robert's contradictory accounting of events.  A careful reading of the transcript makes it apparent that Robert is not being forthright regarding many issues and this opens up other unexpected mysteries.

The Oswald Trust

Early on, much attention is given to a trust fund set up to accommodate donations given to Marina Oswald, Lee's widow after his death.  The amount was $25,000, supposedly donated from people around the country.  Robert was one of the signatories to the trust.  However, this was not the only amount of money Marina received.  Before she was called to give testimony,  in February of 1964, Marina signed a contract with Tex-Italia Films and Cinema International Productions, to appear in a movie about her life.  She was paid a flat fee of $132,350.  Soon after signing the contract, the Tex-Italia Film company shut their doors in Hollywood, never to be heard from again.  No movie about Marina was ever made.  How's that for taking care of the star witness in the case?

However,  it's unlikely that Robert would not have known something about the details of this transaction as close as he was to Marina. He was, in fact, with her when she was working out the details of the contract.  In fact, it's hard to see how the Commission lawyers didn't know about it either.  FBI Director Hoover must have known as he told lead counsel, J. Lee Rankin, that the FBI was not going to be investigating any of Marina Oswald's financial dealings.  Rankin must have breathed a sigh of relief!  So the kibosh was put on this from the beginning and was never to be mentioned again.   

It's unknown what Marina Oswald did with this large amount of money or for that matter, where the mysterious men of Tex-Italia Films acquired the funds. 

Marina Speaking English

Robert told the Warren Commission that his sister in law Marina had "limited knowledge" of English and he would communicate with her via hand signals.  As we shall see in the section, this is not true–Marina was a very good English speaker and before he spoke to the Commission, Robert Oswald actually admitted to it.

In December of 1963 Robert gave the FBI S.A. Barnwell Odom a 15-page statement and in it he notes meeting with Marina to discuss a management contract she was about to sign with Jim Martin (who briefly became her lover).  There was a discrepancy in the contract that Marina noted–since she could read English–and discussed this issue in English with Robert with no translator present.   He'll deny her language skills later.  It should be noted that Jim Martin told the HSCA in 1978 that Marina could understand English quite well (Armstrong p. 340-341). 

And there are other sources regarding Marina and her English speaking.  Robert’s mother Marguerite Oswald said in her Commission testimony that Marina could speak English.  Lee wrote Marina letters in English while in the Soviet Union (Armstrong, p. 339). The so-called "other defector" Robert Webster (who I might add is the spitting image of Lee) said he met Marina while in Moscow in 1959-60 and she spoke in English to him (she denies knowing him).  Also, Marina’s stenographic notebook (CE100) that was found by the Dallas Police is written in English.  They also found other notebooks with her English writing that are now in the National Archives (Armstrong p. 340-341).

So why is Robert Oswald obviously covering for Marina?  He's speaking under oath and perjuring himself in the process.  And no one on the Warren Commission or their staff attorneys outs him on this.  Marina meanwhile, requires the use of an interpreter to answer questions from the Commission during her testimony.  Many researchers consider Marina to be a KGB agent and speaking English too well would be a dead giveaway to the CIA.  Conversely, Lee spoke excellent Russian yet rarely spoke it in Russia.  Likewise, that would give him away to the KGB if he were operating as an agent.  

Basically, Marina had excellent English language skills and was allowed to pull the wool over everybody's eyes.  Robert helped facilitate this charade.   

The  Strange 1947 to 1948 Jump

During the Robert Oswald's questioning by assistant counsel Albert E. Jenner, Jr., the following happens:

Mr. Oswald.  No, sir. I would say at no time it was. In moving up perhaps there to the time of the divorce and everything, I don't remember when Mr. Ekdahl moved out of the house. At that time we were living on Eighth Avenue in Fort Worth. This was during a summer period there. And I think this was the summer after the second year that we attended there this would be the summer of 1947.

Mr. Dulles.  If it is agreeable, I think we will adjourn for just a minute. It is now 11 o'clock.

Coming back from the break, the Commission starts qualifying the exhibits.  When finished, they resume the testimony: 

Mr. Jenner.  At the recess, Mr. Oswald, we were dealing with excuse me. We were dealing with the period of time that you and your mother and your two brothers lived in Benbrook, Tex. This brought us through the summer of 1948, I believe. Am I correct?

Mr. Oswald.  That is correct, sir.

So, a year is lost from the summer of 1947 to the summer of 1948.  It’s odd that Robert is going along with this.  How could he not recall 1947, the year they left off at?  Or, could have it been a conflict of addresses?  Robert’s older brother, John Pic, in earlier testimony listed their address at this time as 1505 8th avenue in New Orleans.  But there is evidence to show that there was an Oswald family living at 101 San Saba at the same time, in the summer of 1947.  As noted by researcher Jones Harris, Allen Dulles was the most informed member about the assassination on the Warren Commission.  Harris pointed out to me that it was Dulles that called for the break.  Was Dulles trying to prevent a mishap here?  It was known in Washington circles that Dulles had an interest in doubles and had once met a young man at a party that was fresh out of college and spoke fluently in both Russian and Chinese.  Dulles learned that this young man also had a twin brother who was also fluent in both languages.  Dulles reportedly said, “I must have this pair.” So if the former CIA Director had this interest in doubles and Oswald was part of a doppelgänger scheme, then by ordering the break in testimony, Dulles averted a possible exposure of intelligence operations.  

And this flew over everybody’s heads.  

Stripling Junior High

Probably the most controversial part of Robert Oswald's testimony to the Commission.  While talking of Lee's early life, and school attendance, Robert mentions Lee attending W. C. Stripling in Irving, Texas.  However, under the official story, neither Lee nor his mother are supposed to be living there at that time and existing school records have him attending Beauregard Junior High in New Orleans in the fall of 1954.  And this is not the first time Robert makes a mention of Stripling.  In fact, he mentions it three times.  The first is in 1959 to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram upon Lee's defection to the Soviet Union; the second instance is to the Star-Telegram in 1962 upon Lee's return, and the final time in front of the Warren Commission.

In fact, it would have been difficult for any one to have known of this except for Robert mentioning it three times.  Researcher John Armstrong started digging into this and ran across Frank Kudlaty, the assistant principal at Stripling.  When asked, Kudlaty said he remembered Lee Oswald attending because he was called by the Principle to head to the school Saturday morning (the 23rd) and hand over all records pertaining to Lee Oswald to the FBI agents who were on their way.  This he did, but did not get a written receipt nor did he have the ability to make a photostat of the records.  Lee Oswald apparently was only there for about six weeks in the fall of 1954.  Kudlaty noticed an interesting fact–there was no letter stating where the records were sent upon Lee Oswald leaving.   Also, there was no loss of six weeks from his records at Beauregard in New Orleans during this time (Armstrong, p. 97-101).).

Frank Kudlaty wasn't the only witness either, faculty and former students remembered Lee Oswald attending Stripling.  He lived across the street from the school.  It's easy to remember the kid that gets to go home for lunch. 

It's quite surprising that the attorney  Albert Jenner allowed Robert to pass this by without correction.  The Commission and staff had the records and they knew the answers beforehand; that’s basic lawyering.  Robert was never corrected.  Nevertheless, it's not the only instance of Lee's school records contradicting.  His records from the fall of 1953 do as well.  One set has him in PS #44 in New York and the other set has him in Beauregard Junior high in New Orleans at the exact same time.

Evidence of Lee Oswald being doubled?

Thanksgiving 1962

This is also known as "family reunion" before the Big Event that occurs a year later, to the day.  It's also an example of odd family behavior.  Gathering for the holiday dinner are Robert, his wife Vada and kids, Lee and Marina and their child June, and half brother John Pic, his wife Margret, and their kids.  Robert would say in an interview years later that it was a "Typical Thanksgiving day for any family."  But there is one person missing.  Their mother, Marguerite.  As Robert stated to the Commission, their mother was not invited, never knew of the gathering, and according to him, her name was never mentioned at the gathering.

Imagine you have one living parent, she lives nearby and you never invite her to Thanksgiving day dinner, nor mention her name with your siblings.  This has the appearance of deeper levels of family intrigue.  

There are other instances before and after showing Robert's aloofness for his mother.  For example in the summer of 1956 he was engaged to Vada.  He never introduced her to his mother or Lee before the wedding. Vada only met them a few years later.  When Robert was being interviewed in 1959 by Star-Telegram, he was asked where they could get in touch with his mother.  Robert was evasive saying that Marguerite was in seclusion and under a doctor's care.  This is not true and there is no evidence to support this.  The reporter eventually found her and she wasn't tucked away.  

Through these actions, Robert displays an apparent aversion to talking about his mother or associating with her.  It's as if he is ashamed of her.  Others who believe that Marguerite was being impersonated (along with Lee) believe Robert's aversion is to an impostor.  And it's not just his mother, in later years he will have nothing to do with Lee's two daughters either.  

Visiting Lee In Jail

Robert going to visit Lee in jail will be the first time he has seen him since the Thanksgiving gathering from the previous year.  Robert had also experienced more than one shock this day.  Other than seeing his brother arrested for the murder of a police officer and the President of the United States, he also was to learn that Marina had given birth to a second child, Rachel.  Robert never knew that Marina was pregnant, let alone had given birth to a new child.

Most striking is Robert's comments when he finally got to speak to Lee.  He noticed that Lee seems to speak in a "mechanical" way with little visible emotion.  That eerie calm that he possessed, that all around him noticed.  Robert did too.  Even more striking is Robert's observation, "I was not talking to the Lee I knew."  That Lee was long gone, replaced by another spirit.  Maybe even a different Lee altogether that wanted to be called Harvey.  And maybe it dawned on Robert at some point what had happened.

Lee Driving
Robert Oswald states in his testimony that he never saw Lee drive a car or even wanted to learn to drive.  Michael and Ruth Paine testified to the same, as did Marina.  However, researchers over the years have found numerous witnesses to Lee driving.  For example Cliff Shasteen, the barber who owned his own shop in (Irving, Texas) had cut Lee's hair numerous times and told the Warren Commission that he and the other barbers saw him driving up to the shop 6 or 7 times in the summer of 1963. Which it should be noted, was the time period of Oswald living in New Orleans, spending most of his time unemployed. Researcher John Armstrong reports at least 27 people saw Oswald driving a car and 3 others report seeing his driver's license.  In fact, more witnesses attest to Lee Oswald driving a car than not.  Only four, Michael and Ruth Paine, Marina Oswald, and of course, Robert Oswald, say Lee could not drive an automobile. 

So What Did Robert Know?

There are hints here and there which are never followed up on such as Robert admitting that he thought Jack Ruby knew Lee before he shot him on live TV.  An interesting line of thought never explored.  Odd things stick out.  Such as in his book on Lee, Robert stated that Lee came home on leave in February 1958 and they went hunting.  But his released Marine leave records show no such occurrence in February of that year.  It’s quite telling when Robert speaks of Lee seeming like a different person altogether.  The brother who he had grown up with, suffered hardships with, who had idolized him, following in his footsteps into the Marines and beyond, was now a totally different man sitting on a barbed-wire fence.

These brothers loved each other.  The drift probably started when Lee went to the Soviet Union, what Robert would later say with a grin as "sowing his oats."  As a former Marine, and no doubt a patriotic American, Robert should have been appalled at this event.  If he was, he's not telling us.  

So Robert Oswald remains a mystery in this affair.  If he has been charged with retaining secrets, along with the burden that must have been, he has done his job well.  Like a good soldier does.

Sources

Book:  Harvey and Lee by John Armstrong

Testimony pages:  The Oswald Trust, p.290; Marina speaking English, p.338; The 1947 to 1948 Jump, p.282 & 291; Stripling Junior High, p.299; Thanksgiving, 1962 p.388; Visiting Lee In Jail, p.455-456 & 462.

Testimony Sources:

http://www.acorn.net/jfkplace/00/oswald_r.html

http://www.history-matters.com/archive/jfk/wc/wcvols/wh1/html/WC_Vol1_0138b.htm

Hard Copy interview with Robert Oswald (11.26.90).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3DVQgFeUiuM

Robert Oswald's handwritten report to Bardwell Odum regarding Marina

https://digitalcollections-baylor.quartexcollections.com/Documents/Detail/fbi-bardwell-odum/680562