50 Years Since JFK Assassination Retrospective: Oswald's CIA Connection

According to Chapater VI of the Warren Commission Report, entitled "Investigation of Possible Conspiracy," former CIA Director John McCone and former CIA Deputy Director Richard Helms "testified before the commission that no one connected with the CIA had ever interviewed Oswald or communicated with him in any way." Yet according to a 1990s published book, a friend of Oswald prior to November 22, 1963--the late baron George de Mohrenschildt--was connected to the CIA. As The Man Who Knew Too Much by Dick Russell noted:

"The CIA is on record as having itself been utilizing de Mohrenschildt's services...Only a few hours before he died on March 29, 1977, the baron told the story to journalist Edward Jay Epstein. De Mohrenschildt related that, late in 1961, J. Walton Moore, in charge of the CIA's Domestic Contact Service [DCS] in Dallas, had taken him to lunch. Moore described an ex-Marine working at an electronics factory in Minsk, who was soon to return to the United States and in whom the CIA had `interest.'

"...In the Summer of 1962, de Mohrenschildt maintained that an `associate' of J. Walton Moore provided him Oswald's address in Fort Worth, suggesting the baron might want to meet him. De Mohrenschildt called Moore, noting that in exchange for his services with Oswald, the State Department might assist him with an oil exploration deal he was trying to make in Haiti.

"Moore, de Mohrenschildt said, then `encouraged' him to pursue an Oswald relationship..."

The Warren Commission Report also observed that former CIA Director McCone "stated unequivocally that Oswald was not an agent, employee or informant of the CIA." Yet, according to The Man Who Knew Too Much, de Mohrenschildt's wife, Jeanne de Mohrenschildt "said she knew that Oswald had been sent to the Soviet Union by the CIA."

According to Appendix XIII of the Warren Commission Report, entitled "Biography of Lee Harvey Oswald," after "Oswald first came into the office of the Texas employment commission" on October 9 [1962], he "was referred to Jaggars-Chiles-Stovall Col." on Oct. 11, 1962 "in response to a call from John Graef, head of the photographic department of the company, who had told the employment commission that he needed a photoprint trainee" and who "picked" Oswald "over several other applicants."

What the Warren Commission Report failed to mention, however, in its Biography Of Lee Harvey Oswald" appendix, according to The Man Who Knew Too Much, was that "By October 1962" the apparently CIA-connected de Mohrenschildt "also landed Oswald his job at JCS [Jaggars-Chiles-Stovall photo-lithograph firm]." In the same book, author Dick Russell also recalled that when he visited the de Mohrenschildts in Dallas in July 1976 and talked with Jeanne de Mohrenschildt about what actually happened on November 22, 1963, Jeanne de Mohrenschildt replied: "Of course the truth has not come out. We know it was a vast conspiracy and Oswald did not shoot the president."

(Downtown 4/28/93)

50 Years Since JFK Assassination Retrospective: Bush I And The JFK Assassination

Coincidentally, a few days after JFK was ambushed on November 22, 1963, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover sent a memorandum to the U.S. State Department regarding the JFK assassination. According to an article, "`George Bush' C.I.A. Operative" by Joseph McBride, which appeared in the July 16/23, 1988 issue of The Nation magazine, this November 29, 1963 FBI memorandum was "subject headed `Assassination of President John F. Kennedy Nov. 22, 1963" and "In it, Hoover reports that the bureau had briefed `Mr. George Bush of the Central Intelligence Agency' shortly after the assassination..."

The same Nation article also revealed that "a source with close connections to the intelligence community confirms that Bush started working for the agency in 1960 or 1961, using his oil business as a cover for clandestine activities." The Nation's intelligence community source had "worked with the agency in the late 1950s and through the 1960s" and he stated that Bush "was involved in the Caribbean" and "I know he was involved in the suppression of things after the Kennedy assassination.'"

Plausible Denial: Was The CIA Involved In The Assassination of JFK? by Mark Lane also noted that:

"There is evidence suggesting that [George] de Mohrenschildt served as a CIA control officer who directed Oswald's actions. De Mohrenschildt died from a gun shot just as he was about to be questioned by the House Select Committee on Assassinations. After his death, his personal telephone book was located. It contained this entry: `Bush, George H.W. (Poppy) 1412 W. Ohio also Zapata Petroleum Midland.'"

(Downtown 6/17/92)

50 Years Since JFK Assassination Retrospective: Who Authorized George De Mohrenschildt and George Bouhe To Help The Oswalds?

Prior to the JFK ambush, Oswald and his wife had received some financial assistance fom George De Mohrenschildt. In his April 23, 1964 testimony before Warren Commission Assistant Counsel Albert Jenner Jr., De Mohrenschildt noted that he and George Bouhe had checked with their FBI or CIA contacts prior to helping the Oswalds survive between Sept. 1962 and November 22, 1963:

Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT: May I say a few things here that I remember. As I told you before, we met the Oswalds through Bouhe, and then we talked about them to Max Clark, and again to Bouhe. And I asked Mr. Bouhe `Do you think it is safe for us to help Oswald?...'

MR. JENNER:...Why did you raise that question?

MR. DE MOHRENSCHILDT: I raised the question because he had been to Soviet Russia. He could be anything, you see. And he could be right there watched day and night by the FBI. I did not want to get involved, you see. And I distinctly remember, No. 1, that George Bouhe said that he had checked with the FBI...I have the impression to have talked--to have asked about Lee Oswald also Mr. Moore, Walter Moore.

MR. JENNER: Who is Walter Moore?

MR. DE MOHRENSCHILDT: Walter Moore is the man who interviewed me on behalf of the Government after I came back from Yugoslavia--G. Walter Moore. He is a Government man--either FBI or Central Intelligence...Many people consider him head of FBI in Dallas...We became quite friendly..."

(Downtown 4/29/92)

50 Years After JFK Assassination Retrospective: Mass Media Coverage Of JFK Assassination Probe-Related Deaths

The U.S. Establishment's mass media hasn't been too eager to do much investigative reporting in relation to the strange death of Sam Giancana in 1975. Yet according to The Kennedys: Dynasty and Disaster--1848-1983 by John Davis:

"Staff members of the Senate Committee on Intelligence arrived in Chicago on July 19, 1975, to arrange for Giancana to appear before the committee in Washington five days later. He was to testify about his role in the CIA-Mafia-Castro assassination plots. That same evening, around 10 p.m., Giancana was in the basement den of his Chicago home cooking sausage, escarole, and beans when the person who he was with shot him seven times...Giancana's daughter, Antoinette, was sure her father had been killed by `the same people responsible for killing the Kennedys,' who, she believed, was the CIA."

Another person involved in the JFK Assassination Case whose strange death the U.S. Establishment's mass media doesn't like to talk about too much was one of Lee Oswald's closest acquaintances in Dallas--George de Mohrenschildt. According to The Kennedys: Dynasty and Disaster, prior to his mysterious death in 1977, de Mohrenschildt wrote an unpublished book manuscript about Lee Oswald and the JFK Assassination, entitled I Am A Patsy! I Am A Patsy, which contained the following passage:

"He was a patsy, a patsy not involved in any revenge arising out of JFK's biggest and costliest mistake--the Bay of Pigs...The assassination was a devilishly clever act of revenge caused by the Bay of Pigs disaster."

Coincidentally, de Mohrenschildt's "apparent suicide occurred on the very day a member of the House Select Committee on Assassinations was going to question him about the Kennedy murder," according to The Kennedys: Dynasty and Disaster. In the same book, John Davis also raised the question "Did de Mohrenschildt really commit suicide?" and concluded that "the evidence that he did was purely circumstantial."

(Downtown 4/1/92)