The Real Ruth and Michael Paine

[James DiEugenio]

As most readers here will understand, I don't like posting on any thread with Paul Trejo. Since I think he is a zealot.

A zealot is a person who is so focused and obsessive on one goal that he loses sight of what the overall objective is.

For instance, winning in Vietnam became such an obsession for Johnson and Nixon, that they were willing to destroy the better part of three countries--Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam-- and kill over three million people in order to do so. Nixon connoted in this vein, when, by his own admission on tape and to others, he said he understood the war could not be won. This was in 1969.

Paul Trejo is so obsessed with CIA involvement with the murder of President Kennedy that he doesn't really weigh and measure evidence in a careful and proper way. Therefore, the work of say John Newman is wrong in Oswald and the CIA. Therefore the work of Dr. Phil Melanson is wrong in Spy Saga. The work of Lisa Pease is false about James Angleton. The work of Mark Lane is wrong in Plausible Denial. The fine book, Nexus, by Larry Hancock is faulty also. DA Jim Garrison was also up a tree. David Talbot, who just wrote a fine book on Allen Dulles, is also wrong, since far from being a possible conspirator or a cover up artist, Allen Dulles was actually a great American in Paul's view.

I could go on and on. But what does Paul say really happened? Edwin Walker was the real CEO of the Kennedy killing. Ernie Lazar has done some very fine work debunking Paul's latest Rube Goldberg contraption. And I will be doing some further work in analyzing a book on the subject. I predict none of this will even slow Paul down or even cause him to think a bit about his position. Because zealots don't do that kind of stuff. Or they would not be zealots.

But here I want to attend to an issue that Paul has made personal between himself, me and Greg Parker. And also someone who cannot defend herself, since she is not part of the research community anymore. The last time I talked to Carol Hewett she was shutting down her law practice after 30 years, and getting ready to move from Florida. She was not active in the research community anymore and had a hard time even locating her files.

Let me explain. In the midst of her milestone series on the Paines for Probe--in which she was assisted by Barbara Lamonica and Steve Jones--Carol was afflicted with cancer. She had to stop practicing law. She underwent chemotherapy treatment, which was extremely expensive, even with health insurance. The chemotherapy was so powerful that it even altered her appearance. To show what I mean: after this treatment, I saw her once at a conference. She was not presenting, but she approached me to congratulate me on a presentation I had given. In a truly embarrassing moment I had to ask who she was. When she said it was Carol, I don't recall if I turned crimson, but that is the feeling I recall. She looked that different in every way: her body and her face and her hair.

I really regret that happened to her, not just because of the personal and professional hardship it placed on her. But in a selfish way, because she was never as productive after that illness. When she first started writing for us, she was one of the most prolific writers we had. She was not just good on the Paines, but she was also quite interested in John Masen, George Nonte, James Hosty and in the firearms and ballistics evidence in general. In fact, she wrote an article about the sound waves produced by partially silenced rifles that was an absolute classic. How good of a researcher was she? She even got a manual on the subject that was produced by Mitch Werbell's company.

At that time, she was so productive and so immersed in the topic of the JFK case that she said she wanted to write an article for each issue. That would have meant six articles a year. I very much looked forward to this since her articles were both original, and insightful. And they were footnoted. Once she got cancer, that was largely dissipated. I feel we all got shortchanged. Because we did.

Carol's work directly caused Thomas Mallon to write his cover up book, Mrs. Paine's Garage. That is how worried the other side got about what she was digging up. Second, her work stopped Sixty Minutes from doing a special on Judith Baker. That is how pungent she was.

As I said, Carol is out of the business now. So I will do my best to show how valuable her work was. But let me say off the top, her work directly influenced Jim Douglass and what he wrote about the Paines in JFK and the Unspeakable. And that baton was picked up by me in Destiny Betrayed and Reclaiming Parkland, and will be continued by Greg Parker in Volume 3 of his series.

Due to the above efforts, the toothpaste is out of the tube on the Paines. It won't go back in.

Edited December 31, 2015 by James DiEugenio

[James DiEugenio]

Let us start with a video segment that some of you have seen, but many have not since it was produced at the fiftieth. And many of you have joined up since.

I did some segments, and consulted on others, of the excellent Fifty Reasons for Fifty Years series by Len Osanic and Jeff Carter.

This one got some really live feedback, and I owe most of the info to the Hewett, Jones, LaMonica series. Plus Len and Jeff did a nice job producing it.

As good and as info filled as it is, it could easily have been twice as long.

[James DiEugenio]

Prior to the Hewett-Jones-LaMonica work in Probe, there really had not been any systematic or categoric overview of the Paines in the JFK literature.

There had only been certain hints or glimmers of what these two people were really all about and who they actually were.

I can name Peter Scott and Tony Summers in that regard. But as I said this was just small scale stuff.

What Carol did, assisted by Barbara and Steve, was to show that the picture of the Paines as drawn by the Warren Commission was completely foreshortened. In fact, it was foreshortened almost as much with them as it was with Oswald.

Now, who was the only man on the WC who understood this? Who else? Richard Russell. He commented to the effect that, Ruth and Michael must be the Good Samaritans to end all Good Samaritans. In other words, their intense interest in the Oswalds seemed to be a bit beyond the pale. As noted above, Ruth was already teaching Russian, and if she needed to brush up on it, I mean, were the Paines not in the middle of the White Russian community?

As I also noted above, what kind of new acquaintance to a married couple tried to get that couple to split up by having the wife move in with her? This is not the stuff of William Penn is it? Yet, as Carol noted, this is what Ruth tried to do, within about three weeks of meeting the Oswalds. So, to some, this appears to have been her objective. Which, as we know, she succeeded at. As noted above, she told her relatives on her quasi cross country trip that she would return Marina to live with her once she picked her up in New Orleans. As noted, if this was her goal, she succeeded in achieving it. As we shall see, the effects of that on Lee Oswald were disastrous.

Edited December 31, 2015 by James DiEugenio

[James DiEugenio]

But before we get to that end game, let us add in something that Jim Douglass so beautifully portrayed in his fine volume JFK and the Unspeakable. (In his autographed copy to me, he wrote that he went to school for his book by reading Probe. Therefore what he wrote there about the Paines he must owe to Carol.)

In addition to predicting that she would pick up Marina and bring her to live with her in the fall of 1963, Ruth did something else to put Oswald in a pretty bad predicament that fall.

Let me quote from DB 2, p. 163: "The Warren Report states that Ruth Paine heard through a friend that there was a job opening at the Texas School Book Depository. Ruth called supervisor Roy Truly at the Depository to arrange a meeting for Oswald. She then told Oswald about this arrangement that day, October 14. Lee interviewed on the 15th, and started work on the 16th. The Report tells us that the Oswalds were elated with his new job. What the report does not say is that an offer of a better paying job came in before Oswald started work at the Depository.

When Oswald returned form Mexico, he visited the Texas Employment Commission. In reply to that visit, Robert Adams phoned the Paine residence on October 15 with a better job offer for Oswald than the one he took. Adams said he spoke with someone there about a permanent position as cargo handler at Trans Texas Airport, a job that paid about 100 dollars more per month than the Depository. Adams said that he was told Oswald was not at home. He left a message that Oswald should call him about the job. Adams called again the next morning. This time he was told that Oswald had taken a different job. Adams therefore crossed him off his list.

When Ruth Paine was asked about this phone call from Adams, she first said she did not recall it, but she eventually did. Yet she said she heard of it through Lee Oswald. Oswald informed her that he had high hopes for it but it had "fallen through". This does not coincide with what Adams said. He tried to notify Oswald twice, since the job was still available. The job offer from Adams paid about 30 per cent more than what Oswald earned at the Depository. Therefore if Oswald had known about it, why would he not have taken it? Especially since Marina testified that Lee was not satisfied with the Depository job. He was searching through the newspapers for something better. Needless to say, if whoever had talked to Adams had told Oswald about the offer, he very likely would not have been on the motorcade route one month later."

And I am sure Greg Parker can add some interesting stuff about this episode if he is not saving it for his book.

Stay tuned, there is reams more to come. The toothpste is all over the floor.

Edited December 31, 2015 by James DiEugenio

[James DiEugenio]

The scene is set: the Oswalds are separated so that the Paine home now serves as the repository for much of the evidence the WC and FBI will use to convict the defendant.

Now, Len Osanic has posted tomorrow's show already for BOR.

http://www.blackopradio.com/pod/black763a.mp3

Please listen to the segment from 11:48 until the 32:00 mark. Because this is a very good example of the evidence tampering that took place at the Paiine garage from the time Oswald was in detention until way after he was killed. Except this was an example of negating a piece of evidence. In this case, Hoover wanted to get rid of the MInox Camera Oswald owned. He understood just how important that was to revealing Oswald's true identity as an intel agent. But the police had fouled the nest by picking it up and putting it on their property list.

Therefore good ole J. Edgar told both Bardwell Odum and the Dallas SAC Gordon Shanklin to first, make Oswald's Minox, the one that the police had confiscated, disappear. And secondly, confuse that with another Minox camera that the Paines could produce.

Please listen carefully, and you will see how a little playlet was enacted after Oswald's murder so that the FBI could keep the cover story about Oswald intact. Hoover knew exactly who to go to for the actors in his playlet, in fact he literally told his troops to interview the Paines.

In my opinion, this was the best article Carol ever wrote.

Edited December 31, 2015 by James DiEugenio

[Ed LeDoux]

Marvelous posts Jim!

Minox found in a sea bag.
We don't even have these sea bags as evidence.
At least one sea bag would have markings on it had Oswald actually gone to Mexico City.
So the sea bags vanish from the garage.
One was said to be given to Robert. What did the DPD and FBI do with the other bag? Why not a single photo of these sea bags.
I think the sea bag was also supposed to be a rifle transport device, problem was a broken down MC rifle will not fit in it. Poof, baby blanket now is rifle transport device.

The Paine's garage not only produced evidence as needed it also consumed evidence.

Shasteen's Barber Shop will have some coverage in the next installment by Greg since new info has been uncovered by ROKC, and so will the barber shop kid. The Odum and Paine connection is an iceberg tip.

I will try and post more later.

[Gene Kelly]

Ed:

Here is what Oswald said while briefly in custody about the sea bags:

"The garage at the Paines' house has some sea bags that have a lot of my personal belongings. I left them after coming back from New Orleans in September. The name Alek Hidell was picked up while working in New Orleans in the Fair Play for Cuba organization. I did have a small rifle some years in the past. I had a shotgun in Russia and hunted some while there. I didn't bring the rifle from New Orleans. – Interrogation of Oswald by Capt. Fritz

[Gene Kelly]

Jim:

I appreciate the renewed interest in the Paines. I do think they are "clear beacons leading to the killers" as Vincent Salandria stated. I also strongly sense the hand of Allen Dulles... I think he used them in the same fashion that he used Noel Field. I find this quote by Marguerite Oswald to be telling:

"The proud and perfect Quaker ... I keep saying she is a fraud and xxxx; she is evil, and selfish and the cause of it all. I would wipe up the floor with her."

Gene

[David Andrews]

To state the obvious for the LNers: There is no irrefutable evidence that Oswald owned the Carcano, and all of the post-assassination testimony and photo evidence is, if not refutable, highly suspect due to circumstances and to the credibility of the witnesses. Suspect also is any witness claim to Oswald's involvement in the Walker shooting. If you accept these things as fact, you accept them on nearly the same basis that the Warren Commission did. Perhaps on the same basis if your motivation is identical.

A debunking book on the Paines is long, long overdue, and if written should not ignore Michael Paine's downplayed association with Oswald, such as their attendance together at Walker meetings.

It is also important to determine definitively whether Ruth kept Cuba-related files, and what the size and arrangement of her collection was, as these have been called into dispute.

Are the Cuba-related documents the reason for a Minox camera and light meter in the Paine household?

Edited December 31, 2015 by David Andrews

[James DiEugenio]

Thanks, and I will get to Allen Dulles.

And also Ed, please join in, since I know ROKC has done some good work on the Paines.

As seen from the video clip above, the Paines were always obliging of going on TV and doing their bit to caricature Lee Oswald. If you have not seen that ersatz and completely bogus London production where Bugliosi called in Ruth, you should. Ruth is so convinced that Oswald is the lone gunman that it is almost metaphysical with her.

Now, in addition to the WC fairy tale, another writer that the Paines were utilized by was Priscilla Johnson. According to Peter Whitmey, Priscilla was Richard Helms' favorite author on the JFK case. Which follows quite naturally since, as John Newman revealed, the CIA considered her a willing asset of theirs. And also, as far as I know, there were still some pages classified on her when the ARRB disbanded.

Once Marina was detained at the Inn of the Six Flags, she was more or less cordoned off by the Secret Service. And she was worked on by them and the FBI to alter her story about several things e.g. the rifle, Mexico City, the cameras the Oswald family had. (This is an important point already touched on and we will return to it.)

A very interesting thing happened when the WC was winding down. Ruth Paine was eased out of the picture as Marina's escort, and Priscilla was moved in. If one reads the record of Marina's first Secret Service interview, which was filed officially on the 29th, you will see that she denied that Oswald ever went to Mexico City. In fact, this got so bad that she was almost taunting the Secret Service agents about this issue. She would bring it up even before they asked about it because she knew what they wanted to hear in that regard, and she would preempt them with a negative reply.

But some powerful force wanted Oswald in Mexico. On December 4th, the Secret Service visited Ruth Paine. And guess what? After at least two visits by the police for full house searches, Ruth was still producing articles of evidence that those Keystone Kops somehow overlooked. Even though the original DPD inventory reached into the hundreds of items.

But it was even worse than that. Because now, more than one week after the murder, she had the marvelous good fortune and the intuition to find articles of evidence that would counter Marina's denial of Oswald being in Mexico City. For she now produced a "rules for Betting" card used at a thoroughbred racetrack. Also a Spanish English Dictionary with a handwritten notation "watch Jai lai game". There was also six picture postcards with no writing or stamps but which depicted Mexican Tableaux. In the dictionary was written, among other things, "buy Silver Bracelet". Well, Ruth produced the bracelet also, with the name Marina produced on the name plate.

Even the WC admitted that the last was not relevant since it could have been bought anywhere at any time. Further Oswald never had the proper attire to attend the Jai Lai game. And although the FBI did an extensive inquiry, they could find no witnesses or evidence to place him at a horse race track. Also, why buy postcards from Mexico if you are not going to mail them? To look at the pictures?

Now, as John Newman so memorably revealed in his very important book Oswald and the CIA, on the day of the assassination, James Angleton's office released information that Oswald had not only been in Mexico City, but he had visited both the Cuban and Russian embassies.

Well what else did the dictionary have as a note written on it? You guessed it: "phone embassy."

Edited December 31, 2015 by James DiEugenio

[James DiEugenio]

Now, as most of us know, another problem that J. Edgar Hoover had with the whole CIA scenario of Oswald being in Mexico was how on earth did Oswald get there?

Officially of course, Oswald did not drive. But if someone actually drove for him, then that created a problem. It would mess up the whole image that the FBI and WC were creating: Oswald was a lonely sociopath, with almost no real friends or acquaintances. (Which, of course, we all know is BS today.)

Well, you know what else was written as a note on the dictionary found at the Paine household 12 days later?

You guessed it: Get bus tickets.

But there was a huge problem with this. One that was almost insurmountable. There was virtually no physical evidence to put him on a bus to Mexico. Hoover's agents went almost crazy trying to find a ticket seller who sold him the tickets. They canvassed three cities in their almost half mad attempt to find someone, anyone who could identify Oswald as buying tickets to Mexico. Hoover must have been getting more and more frustrated as the results came back negative. And this is what I think drove him to write the marginalia saying that the CIA had sold him a bill of goods on Oswald going to Mexico.

But he had to come up with something, anything or else the results could overturn what he and the WC had already dreamed up.

Well a few weeks later, Ruth Paine tried to help. Again.

Edited December 31, 2015 by James DiEugenio

[James DiEugenio]

It seems that even though the Dallas police had the run of the house for a couple of days, they somehow kept on missing things. Although they did seize a cloth zipper bag [CE 126], it had no indications that it left the country.

But somehow, some way, Ruth kept on finding things that the FBI and/or WC needed. But the DPD had overlooked.

In this case, it was an olive colored canvas bag. This bag had remnants of a Trailways bus marker and a chalk mark on the side which said 9/26. Presto, Marina is wrong. Unbekownst to her, Oswald was in Mexico.

But Wesley Liebeler ran into a wee bit of trouble with this particular late arrival from Ruth. The WC said they had a witness who saw Oswald going to a bus station in New Orleans. Even though there was no evidence he purchased a ticket there, they went with this witness. The witness, Eric Rogers, said he thought Oswald had two bags. And he thought the cloth zipper bag, the one the DPD found, was one he had. But he did not at all recognize the olive colored canvas bag, the one Ruth produced. The one with the identifying markings.

It then got worse.

With Ruth's late arriving bag, the WC placed two bags in Oswald's hands upon leaving New Orleans. But the problem now became that first, according to the Mexican bus company Oswald only had one bag. This was a serious problem that David Slawson, for one fretted about. After all, he and Coleman had the task of getting Oswald to Mexico and back. (BTW, getting him back was even worse than getting him there.)

Second, when Oswald--or whoever was impersonating him-- arrived at the Hotel Del Comercio, he arrived with a BROWN zippered bag. This is now a third bag, and it does not match the other two.

Third, the FBI could never find any person or any record from the hotel that confirmed that Oswald ever had the olive colored bag with him. Same applies for the return home. No one and no record ever confirmed this olive bag with the markings on it. The one produced by Ruth.

Edited December 31, 2015 by James DiEugenio

[Ed LeDoux]

Thanks Jim, I'll quickly re-post some items about the Paine family from ROKC:

From Greg Parker on Naushon Island,

Most know that RP took a trip from Texas via Massachusetts to pick up Marina Oswald in New Orleans. We will take a look at three of the inhabitants of the 7 mile long island - a holiday haven owned by the Forbes for over 100 years. Ruth Paine, despite her separation from Michael, was still permitted to use his holiday home there.

Richard and Jenny Alberts come to us through an FBI investigation of all the people phoned by RP in Massachusetts along with all of those in her address book.

Richard was employed as a ferryman by the Forbes family company and the island house came with the job. It just happened to be the one next door to the Paine's. In regard to Michael, the FBI report has this to say: "Although friendly with Paine, they were not on the same social level and did not mix socially." It goes on to say that the family is "well-to-do", do not need to work and entertain often. http://www.maryferrell.org/mffweb/archive/viewer/showDoc.do?docId=10918&relPageId=9

Does the couple described here sound like the charitable quaker/unitarian hybrid who took in and gave succor to a couple below the Alberts in social standing?

The other person comes to us via a USSS commissioned investigation for the purpose of finding out how many homes on the island were rented out and who to. There doesn't seem to be much point to such an exercise unless the USSS suspected something. Did they have information they were acting on, or was this a fishing expedition?

A list of renters was obtained from David Forbes. On that list was Donald B. Straus, described in the report as President of American Arbitration Board in New York.http://www.maryferrell.org/mffweb/archive/viewer/showDoc.do?docId=11086&relPageId=2

So who was Straus? Donald was a cousin to Roger Straus, Jr. who in turn was the son of Roger Straus, Sr. Roger, Sr, was the president of the Lavenburg Foundation which built and financed Youth House and the housing apartments which were home to the Rosenbergs in the 1940s. Junior was a part owner of Howard Hunt's publisher, Farrar, Straus & Giroux (aslo the publisher of Jean Stafford's bio of Marguerite) and provided Hunt with a reference for "government service" (read: CIA). Members of the same family also owned the department store that employed the wife of George Hunter White.

Another family member, Nathan Staus III, kept close company with Leo Cherne from at least 1971 in a group they called "American Friends of a Free Haiti". Cherne was head of the International Rescue Committee - a CIA front.

AND FROM ROKC'er ANDY A.

David Talbot mentions in 'Devil's Chessboard' that Allen Dulles & Mary Bancroft received invites from Ruth Forbes Paine to Naushon Island. (Source: Talbot interview with Ruth Hyde Paine).

From HASAN!

Cameron Forbes Paine was the younger brother of Michael Ralph Paine. I haven't seen a great deal written about him. Paine told the FBI that he worked in the division of disability accounts, valuation and authorization section, social security administration in Baltimore, Maryland.

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=10665&search=Cameron_Paine+Baltimore+Maryland#relPageId=3&tab=page

During her testimony before the Warren Commission, Ruth Paine confirmed that the younger Paine worked in social security:

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=39&relPageId=12&search=Cameron_Paine%20Social%20Security

The following is from an FBI report which is "classified confidential in as much as unauthorized disclosure would be prejudicial to the defense interest of the United States." The following is also contained in the report:

"Will discreetly develop any background information on Cameron Paine, brother of the subject, as well as any information on George Lyman Paine, Jr., their father. who is reportedly a former member of the SWP."

http://jfk.hood.edu/Collection/FBI%20Records%20Files/105-82555/105-82555%20Section%20060/105-60b.pdf

From VINNY!

Paine Family Message Board.

http://web.onetel.net.uk/~jrpaine/archive4.htm

From Greg!

Ruth's petition for divorce stated she separated from Michael on September 1, 1962, and that for 6 months prior to separation, she had suffered a course of "unkind, cruel, harsh and tyrannical treatment and conduct" at the hands of her husband. [Warren Commission Document 849, p33]

So... was Ruth lying, or was Michael a monster in Unitarian clothing?

They did stay on friendly terms which suggests that he was not "unkind, cruel, harsh or tyrannical". But that means there was some other, undisclosed reason for the separation.

They separated in September, 1962. Tow other things happened in September 1962.

• The Oswald's met George Sergius DeMohrenschildt
• Mike Paine began attending meetings of the extreme right and left

Ruth Paine and WC defenders alike have tried to defend the wording of her divorce papers as being the "standard" text required in order to obtain a divorce. I have absolutely no issue with that. I know it is true. What I have an issue with is a Quaker who claims that integrity and honesty are at the core of their being, yet who has no trouble lying on a legal document.

If she was willing to lie to get a divorce, what else was she willing to lie about? And if he wasn't "cruel", what was the real reason for the separation... it seems to me, the probable answer is within the two other Sept occurrences...

[Ed LeDoux]

It seems that even though the Dallas police had the run of the house for a couple of days, they somehow kept on missing things. Although they did seize a cloth zipper bag [CE 126], it had no indications that it left the country.

But somehow, some way, Ruth kept on finding things that the FBI and/or WC needed. But the DPD had overlooked.

In this case, it was an olive colored canvas bag. This bag had remnants of a Trailways bus marker and a chalk mark on the side which said 9/26. Presto, Marina is wrong. Unbekownst to her, Oswald was in Mexico.

But Wesley Liebeler ran into a wee bit of trouble with this particular late arrival from Ruth. The WC said they had a witness who saw Oswald going to a bus station in New Orleans. Even though there was no evidence he purchased a ticket there, they went with this witness. The witness, Eric Rogers, said he thought Oswald had two bags. And he thought the cloth zipper bag, the one the DPD found, was one he had. But he did not at all recognize the olive colored canvas bag, the one Ruth produced. The one with the identifying markings.

It then got worse.

With Ruth's late arriving bag, the WC placed two bags in Oswald's hands upon leaving New Orleans. But the problem now became that first, according to the Mexican bus company Oswald only had one bag. This was a serious problem that David Slawson, for one fretted about. After all, he and Coleman had the task of getting Oswald to Mexico and back. (BTW, getting him back was even worse than getting him there.)

Second, when Oswald--or whoever was impersonating him-- arrived at the Hotel Del Comercio, he arrived with a BROWN zippered bag. This is now a third bag, and it does not match the other two.

Third, the FBI could never find any person or any record from the hotel that confirmed that Oswald ever had the olive colored bag with him. Same applies for the return home. No one and no record ever confirmed this olive bag with the markings on it. The one produced by Ruth.

Bingo!

Now your getting to the gist of Ruth's garage.

[James DiEugenio]

As noted earlier, a very interesting transfer occurred after Marina was in detention at the Inn of the Six Flags.

Ruth Paine began to move off stage--that is as far as direct contact went. As we have seen, the indirect contact, as a conduit of evidence incriminating Oswald, Ruth was very active and would be for months to come.

But as far as personal contact went, the relationship began to dry up.

Who filled the vacuum? It looks to be Priscilla Johnson. (I have only met Marina twice. The first time I wanted to talk to her about PJM. No dice.)

By August of 1964, Priscilla was essentially co-habitating with Marina. The ostensible excuse was she wanted to write a book about the Oswald couple. Apparently, in doing research for this book--which would not materialize for well over a decade--Priscilla took up where Ruth left off.

Recall, this is August of 1964. Its over nine months after the assassination. The DPD has cased Oswald's personal belongings thoroughly. The SS and FBI have been in constant contact with Marina, this included showing her certain pieces of evidence, like cameras. If anything was left out, Ruth Paine had an uncanny ability to find it.

But there was something that apparently Ruth could not find. But Priscilla did.

Two Transportes del Norte bus tickets. Looking like they had just been purchased. This one even disturbed Wesley Liebeler. He complained that this would look highly irregular, this finding of key evidence on a controversial point almost ten months later, and just a few weeks before the WC would go to press.

Now, as I said, it appears that just as the CIA associated George DeMohrenschildt brought the Paines into contact with the Oswalds, as the Paines drifted out, PJM came into Marina's life. And kept her tied up with a book contract for something like 14 years. Just a coincidence of course that her book--a WC rerun--came out during the HSCA, right? At the same time that Angleton's acolyte, Ed Epstein's book, also fingering Oswald, came out.

As Newman discovered, the CIA felt very confident that PJM was in their pocket. They decided not to formally hire her, although she seems to have wanted that to be the case. (As John told me, "Jim, she was literally throwing herself at them.") But they did classify her as a witting asset.

Well, when Marina was called by Jim Garrison before his grand jury, his office wanted to explore the relationship and how it ended between her and Ruth. Marina told the grand jury she was advised by the Secret Service to stay away from Ruth. Because she was "Sympathizing with the CIA." She was then asked to elaborate on this point. The following is from the Douglass book, (p. 173)

MARINA: Seems like she had friends over there and it would be bad for me if people find out connection between me and Ruth and CIA.

QUESTION: In other words, you were left with the distinct impression that she was in some way connected with the CIA?

MARINA: Yes.

Edited December 31, 2015 by James DiEugenio