Was Oswald an Intelligence Agent?

[Stephen Roy]

As for Oliver Stone -- I don't know if he included Ron's ideas anywhere in his story -- except to speak about the large bulk of weapons stored at Guy Banister's office. Ron Lewis claims to have seen it, and even to have hauled some of it.

--Paul Trejo

There's an example right there: Banister was only known to have stored weapons in his office one time, and it wasn't when Oswald was in New Orleans, it was two years earlier. And Lewis didn't haul any of those weapons.

Now, you'll ask if I can be certain that Banister didn't have weapons one other time, something he kept secret from others. No, I can't be certain, but I don't think so.

[Paul Brancato]

Steven - how certain are you? I know you have interviewed many people first hand about Ferrie, Banister, NO in general. Do you recall the incident when he did store weapons, and shed light on why you think that was the only time?

[Paul Trejo]

As for Oliver Stone -- I don't know if he included Ron's ideas anywhere in his story -- except to speak about the large bulk of weapons stored at Guy Banister's office. Ron Lewis claims to have seen it, and even to have hauled some of it.

--Paul Trejo

There's an example right there: Banister was only known to have stored weapons in his office one time, and it wasn't when Oswald was in New Orleans, it was two years earlier. And Lewis didn't haul any of those weapons.

Now, you'll ask if I can be certain that Banister didn't have weapons one other time, something he kept secret from others. No, I can't be certain, but I don't think so.

Fair enough, Stephen, I'd like to explore this further.

You're almost certainly speaking about the 'Schlumberger' weapons robberies in 1961.

In that specific case, we have official reports that some of those weapons were stored in Banister's office-storeroom early in 1961. This was even before the Bay of Pigs.

The implication from Ron Lewis is that even in 1963 this was going on.

You question that, as you find no documentation on it. I respect that position.

It might turn out, once again, that Ron Lewis was exaggerating in this particular case. He has been known to exaggerate in the past.

However, we can't conclude on the basis of a LACK of evidence -- we can only doubt.

In other words, here's the scenario. Perhaps we can agree that Gerry Patrick Hemming, Loran Hall and Larry Howard were interacting with Guy Banister and David Ferrie in the Lake Pontcharttrain Paramilitary Training Camp outside New Orleans.

Where did they get their training weapons? Loran Hall's history tells us -- he was a courier for John Birch Society supplies from wealthy donors in Southern California. He and Larry Howard would run guns and drugs from Southern California to Dallas, New Orleans and Florida -- and Gerry Patrick Hemming was one of their beneficiaries. So was the Lake Pontchartrain camp.

Now -- if Guy Banister's office (and David Ferrie's apartment) had been used as storage for contraband weapons in 1961 -- what is there to prevent them from using those same sites in 1963?

Loran Hall admitted to making these gun runs. That's aside from Harry Dean's confessions about those same gun runs. Also, Loran Hall was "busted" in Dallas with some of these supplies at one point -- so there are police records of his payload. THIS WAS IN 1963.

It's not impossible. I need to see more data myself.

Regards,

--Paul Trejo

[Jon G. Tidd]

I just listened to a Ron Lewis interview on YouTube.

Ron wants you the listener to believe him.

[Stephen Roy]

Steven - how certain are you? I know you have interviewed many people first hand about Ferrie, Banister, NO in general. Do you recall the incident when he did store weapons, and shed light on why you think that was the only time?

This is one of those cases where, due to my inability to simply state what I've found, I am faced with publishing a detailed piece of research here, rather than in my book. First, Banister's active period in anti-Castro affairs was shorter than people realize. His activities dropped off significantly when two of his associates stopped working with the movement. All of the sightings of arms in Banister's office refer to the same event, the Houma heist in August 1961. I can't find any evidence of any other arms activity (outside of a conversation Banister had with some anti-Castro Cubans, but that conversation also occurred in the same period. See also my response to Paul T.

[Stephen Roy]

As for Oliver Stone -- I don't know if he included Ron's ideas anywhere in his story -- except to speak about the large bulk of weapons stored at Guy Banister's office. Ron Lewis claims to have seen it, and even to have hauled some of it.

--Paul Trejo

There's an example right there: Banister was only known to have stored weapons in his office one time, and it wasn't when Oswald was in New Orleans, it was two years earlier. And Lewis didn't haul any of those weapons.

Now, you'll ask if I can be certain that Banister didn't have weapons one other time, something he kept secret from others. No, I can't be certain, but I don't think so.

Fair enough, Stephen, I'd like to explore this further.

You're almost certainly speaking about the 'Schlumberger' weapons robberies in 1961.

In that specific case, we have official reports that some of those weapons were stored in Banister's office-storeroom early in 1961. This was even before the Bay of Pigs.

The implication from Ron Lewis is that even in 1963 this was going on.

You question that, as you find no documentation on it. I respect that position.

It might turn out, once again, that Ron Lewis was exaggerating in this particular case. He has been known to exaggerate in the past.

However, we can't conclude on the basis of a LACK of evidence -- we can only doubt.

In other words, here's the scenario. Perhaps we can agree that Gerry Patrick Hemming, Loran Hall and Larry Howard were interacting with Guy Banister and David Ferrie in the Lake Pontcharttrain Paramilitary Training Camp outside New Orleans.

Where did they get their training weapons? Loran Hall's history tells us -- he was a courier for John Birch Society supplies from wealthy donors in Southern California. He and Larry Howard would run guns and drugs from Southern California to Dallas, New Orleans and Florida -- and Gerry Patrick Hemming was one of their beneficiaries. So was the Lake Pontchartrain camp.

Now -- if Guy Banister's office (and David Ferrie's apartment) had been used as storage for contraband weapons in 1961 -- what is there to prevent them from using those same sites in 1963?

Loran Hall admitted to making these gun runs. That's aside from Harry Dean's confessions about those same gun runs. Also, Loran Hall was "busted" in Dallas with some of these supplies at one point -- so there are police records of his payload. THIS WAS IN 1963.

It's not impossible. I need to see more data myself.

Regards,

--Paul Trejo

1) We don't have official reports about there being weapons in Banister's office in early 1961, before the Bay of Pigs - that's just the theories of writers. The actual Houma police report is in August 1961.

2) I have never seen any specific info that Hemming, Hall and Howard were working with Banister and Ferrie at any time, ever.

3) Banister and Ferrie were not associated with the 1963 "Lake Ponchartrain training camp," which was in fact one small training cabin and a nearby but separate trailer of arms. Hemming, Hall and Howard were not associated with the 1963 camp, either.

4) Nothing prevented Banister's office and Ferrie's apartment for being used for arms storage in 1963, but they simply weren't used that way in 1963. (I don't want to post too much of this here.)

The Houma weapons were picked up in August 1961, seen by several people in Banister's office and driven to Miami within about a month by Carlos Quiroga.

It is easy to misread books written by authors who, themselves, have misread the source material, but it is better to read the source material, rather than glom together unrelated things.

[Paul Trejo]

...It is easy to misread books written by authors who, themselves, have misread the source material, but it is better to read the source material, rather than glom together unrelated things.

Well, Stephen, you're contradicting a great many sources on this -- including John Newman, Gus Russo, A.J. Weberman and many others.

(i) At the "Hemming Panel" of the November in Dallas Conference (11/23/1996) Hemming publicly stated that Guy Banister offered him cash to assassinate JFK.

(ii) This matches information in the HSCA Volume 13, p. 491.

(iii) In his 1998 book, Live by the Sword on page 145, Gus Russo writes that: 'Hemming readily admits that he was one of the key organizers of training activity on Lake Pontchartrain.'

(iv) According to a CIA memo dated February 1, 1977, "the Lake Pontchartrain activity was run by Gerald Patrick Hemming."

It's well known that Hemming's Cuba Raid Group, "Interpen" (also known as Patrick's Raiders, Cuba Raiders and so on) once employed Loran Hall and Larry Howard. Larry Howard broke off to form his own group -- "La Sambra" -- but he still remained in contact with Hemming. Both Hemming and Hall admit to visiting Ex-General Edwin Walker at his home in Dallas in April 1963, and also later that year.

And didn't Hall and Howard (if they were indeed Leopoldo and Angelo) along with Lee Harvey Oswald tell Sylvia Duran that they had just driven to Dallas FROM NEW ORLEANS?

It seems to me I've read a lot of data about the New Orleans connection with Hemming, Hall and Howard.

Regards,

--Paul Trejo

Edited January 27, 2015 by Paul Trejo

[Stephen Roy]

I may be contradicting other writers, but I'm dealing in the raw evidence. Gerry Hemming said many things in his life, some of which were very controversial. I can find no HSCA volume 13; my set only goes up to 12. Hemming was involved in looking for a training site in the area in 1962, but he had nothing to do with the small camp in summer 1963.

As I said, Banister's limited activity gets glommed in with other info, and it gets "Linked" to things it is unconnected with. Banister was not involved in arms or a Ponchartrain camp in 1963. This creates doubt in my mind about Lewis, along with other things. Let me simplify this again: I have good experience at researching the New Orleans angles, and my judgement is that Ron Lewis's story is probably not true.

[Paul Trejo]

Paul - just so I understand ...you...use Lewis' recollection as support for your theory. I gather Lewis never suggested this himself...

...I just think you overstate your case...and you don't connect enough dots between these rogues and ex-military ex-FBI, and the folks at the top of those pyramids, like Hoover, Dulles, Angleton, Helms. Your explanation for the coverup doesn't add up for me...

Well, Paul B., you're right about one point; Ron Lewis never suggested that Edwin Walker was in charge of the JFK murder. That is my own, original speculation.

I'm piecing my theory together from a wide range of sources -- too many to count because the number keeps growing.

Ron Lewis, like Harry Dean, supplies only a few of the many elements in my formula. Also, I reserve the right to pick and choose between the various first-person observations, according to my own theory.

This is to be expected when the most important data -- the secret documents concealed by the US Government about the JFK murder -- continue to remain top secret.

We all search for CLUES, like a giant game of CLUE.

You, Paul B., want to suspect Hoover, Dulles, Angelton and Helms. Yet all of the evidence I see makes them guilty of the JFK Cover-up -- not of the JFK murder.

As I believe I've demonstrated with logical rigor -- the people who covered up the JFK murder were not the same people as those who murdered JFK. They are as far apart as the "Lone Nut theory" is away from the "FPCC Director theory" of Lee Harvey Oswald.

Regards,

--Paul Trejo

Edited January 27, 2015 by Paul Trejo

[Paul Trejo]

Jon,

Regardless of the status of Ron Lewis as a first-person observer of the events concerning Lee Harvey Oswald during the summer of 1963, the evidence, IMHO, seems to answer, "No," to your original question about Oswald being an Intelligence Agent.

Do you agree? It is admitted that Oswald was close to Intelligence Agencies, and that at least one of them (the CIA) considered interviewing him for a salaried position. It seems to some of us that Lee Oswald wanted to be a CIA Agent, while others remain on the fence about that question.

But the bottom line appears to be this -- that Lee Harvey Oswald, though he came close, never became an official, professional Intelligence Agent. Do you agree?

And if not, what is your opinion, in detail? You started this thread, and I'd like to know your own feelings on the topic.

Regards,

--Paul Trejo

Edited January 28, 2015 by Paul Trejo

[Paul Brancato]

Paul - what do you think of the possibility that Oswald was working for Robert Morris?

[Jon G. Tidd]

Paul Trejo,

As I look at what's been written about Marina's husband, I come to the conclusion he was not an agent of an intelligence service, so I agree to that extent.

"Oswald" may have been a source of information from time to time, but he certainly didn't make a living as a source. Unless he secretly saved what he was paid for information, which I consider unsupported by the record.

He was clearly on a lot of radar screens. But I believe that's because he led an unusual and provocative life.

And yet there are some unexplained things about "Oswald" that warrant explanation. For example: How did he learn to speak Russian as well as Marina said he spoke? Or was Marina lying about his speaking ability? And if Marina lied, why did she lie? If Oswald went to Mexico City, what proof is there of his trip? If he didn't go to Mexico City, where was he and what did he do during the time period in question? And so on.

[Paul Brancato]

And Jon, I would add that Oswald had access to money at times, and may have been paid for information occassionally by someone other than CIA

[Paul Trejo]

...If Oswald went to Mexico City, what proof is there of his trip? If he didn't go to Mexico City, where was he and what did he do during the time period in question? And so on.

Well, Jon, we're fortunate in the 21st century to have access to the "Lopez Report," which the CIA prevented 20th century readers from viewing.

This is the formerly "top secret" file of Lee Harvey Oswald in Mexico City by the Mexico City officials themselves.

Perhaps the most provocative item in the report is the full dossier of the material that Lee Harvey Oswald took to Mexico City, and presented to the Cuban Consulate there, as his "credentials" to be accepted for an "instant Visa" into Cuba -- no questions asked.

It was well-known to the FBI, CIA and Guy Banister, that Officers of the FPCC in the USA would obtain instant entry Visas into Cuba. This was evidently the strategy for Banister/Oswald (and perhaps DAP) to get Oswald into Cuba.

It is ludicrous to us today -- phony ID of every sort -- but perhaps a half-century ago it might have seemed plausible to Oswald and his handlers as a possible winner.

I personally believe that Guy Banister (and Ferrie and Shaw and Walker) knew that the effort was ludicrous, and privately laughed at Oswald for attempting to make it work.

In any case, it didn't work. According to the Lopez Report, Oswald shouted, cried and even produced a loaded pistol at the USSR Consulate. He was ushered out and told not to return.

What complicates the Mexico City episode is that after all these shenanigans, somebody in the CIA (probably David Morales and his crew) IMPERSONATED Lee Oswald and Sylvia Duran from the Cuban Consulate telephone calling the USSR Consulate telephone.

As Bill Simpich reports, this was the single most wire-tapped phone in Mexico City, if not in the world. Any calls on this wire had to be translated into English within 15 minutes, and the results placed on the CIA Director's desk, with a full dossier on both the caller and the callee.

The translators were world-class experts. They immediately realized that the caller was not Lee Harvey Oswald, and they said so. Therefore, the CIA Director was alarmed. The caller had tried to link the name of Lee Harvey Oswald to the name of KGB Agent Valerie Kostikov. Who? Why?

So, the CIA Director started a "mole-hunt" which went on for years, and was never solved within the decade. Part of that standard "mole-hunt" procedure was to falsify the CIA personal file on Lee Harvey Osald. Here's where it gets tricky for historians (and for the Warren Commission).

The official photo of Lee Harvey Oswald was replaced by a photo of some large Russian guy. Also, Oswald's middle name was changed to "Henry." The first names of Oswald's parents were changed.

Only the CIA high-command was to know about these changes -- so that if anybody with a lesser rank came up with the false data, then the CIA high-command would have a clue about the "mole" they were seeking.

Sadly, when the Warren Commission demanded the personal file of Lee Harvey Oswald, they got this "mole-hunt" tampered file, and researchers spent years trying to find out who this large Russian guy was!

In any case -- we are certain that Oswald was in Mexico City, and that he tried to bluff his way into Cuba, and that he failed miserably.

Regards,

--Paul Trejo

Edited January 28, 2015 by Paul Trejo

[Paul Trejo]

Paul - what do you think of the possibility that Oswald was working for Robert Morris?

Well, Paul B., I think the chances are very slim. Robert Morris was a close friend of Ex-General Edwin Walker -- and in fact Morris was one of two lawyers who got Walker acquitted by a Mississippi Grand Jury for his role in the deadly Ole Miss riots.

Morris was also a close friend of Larrie Schmidt. Larrie told me that he thought the world of Robert Morris. It was Robert Morris who first believed in Larrie Schmidt in Dallas, and gave Larrie his own small branch of the JBS in Dallas, as well as a chance to lead the YAF (Young Americans for Freedom) in Dallas, as well as a leading post on the NIC (National Indignation Convention).

Robert Morris was also active in getting Loran Hall out of jail after his arrest there in late 1963.

Lee Harvey Oswald had ruined his chances of any "relationship" with Edwin Walker or any of his friends when Lee Oswald befriended George De Mohrenschildt, who wanted that big oil exploration contract in Haiti, and so suddenly became very "liberal."

Walker would have nothing whatsoever to do with anybody who even TALKED about Marxism -- he was that dead-set against Marxism. So, there was no way that Walker would have befriended Oswald, IMHO.

Based on that, there is no way that Robert Morris would have befriended Oswald, either. Morris was a very straight-laced conservative. To give you an idea about how right-wing he was, here's a quote from the correspondence to William F. Buckley, Jr. (1969), in which Morris, an aide to Senator Joseph McCarthy, the right-wing extremist, is given credit for much of McCarthy's works. Whittaker Chambers wrote: "I would say that Bob Morris really accomplished much of what the Senator is credited with".

So, we're talking dedicated right-wing guys here. Lee Oswald would have been out of his element with people like this.

Regards,

--Paul Trejo

Edited January 28, 2015 by Paul Trejo