William Gaudet

[Stephen Roy]

How do we know that Gaudet knew Oswald?

[David Josephs]

How do we know that Gaudet knew Oswald?

He tells us he did. He sees Oswald and Banister together...

It's all in his HSCA testimony and summary report from 1/18/78... in the GAUDET notebook at JA's Baylor archive

Harold Leap and Robert Buras wrote the report

[David Josephs]

I'd like to add a few things about Oswald's Mexican tourist Visa application and the actual visa itself.

What is offered in the WCR are two images of the application... one with only the top and one with the bottom... I've over laid them to show what each of these images is missing of the whole application:

http://www.history-matters.com/archive/jfk/wc/wcvols/wh25/html/WC_Vol25_0354a.htm CE2481

The signature is cut of the first imatge while the #24085 and his name is cut off the 2nd.

Not really a major thing until we notice that the 15 day FM-8 he was given was a result of his applying for an FM-5 180-day visa...

In my work on Mexico I came to find that this "original" document was also provided by the same man who provided most of the other fraudulent evidence, the Lawyer OCHOA.

The only things which corroborate Oswald having #24085 is this application for a different Visa type and the visa itself with "Valida por 15 diaz" typed on it.

Since I am of the opinion that Oswald never did travel to Mexico City, I am also of the opinion that this Visa was also created after the fact - stamps and all

(On pages 19 of http://www.ctka.net/2015/Part%203_Section%20B.pdf I do an analysis of the stamps on this visa and how they do not match the stubs related to them... nor do they have the name of the men they are supposed to have on them)

My point being that either Gaudet having the previous number is a complete coincidence, or Gaudet may have helped create this application document so it coincides with the created Visa which was used to promote the false travel story...

In either case, the problems with the FM-5 and FM-8 switch is strange since the Mexico Oswald is quoted as saying he HAD to leave due to his Visa expiring - which was also false even if it was a 15 day visa... the 15 days starts when the person arrives in the country, not on the day it was purchased. A minor slip up in the story yet a slip up none the less. If the story was created after the fact as I suspect, not being aware of this minor date issue becomes more of an indicator of this fraud than anything else.

D-52, the FBI # for this visa application is described in WCD735 p77 as "XEROX copy of application to visit Mexico" FBI and xerox copies... the easiest way to fabricate any end result document you want - at least according to the FBI and the HSCA handwriting experts in their reports.

Gaudet knows Bannister, knows Oswald, witnesses the ITM leafletting and had done extensive work for the CIA (the Gaudet notebook at Baylor has docs from the mid 50's praising Gaudet - and are heavily redacted see below) He went to Mexico for a single day, by airplance, on Sept 19th... One day after Alvarado's original dates for the Oswald sighting...

Alvarado was a proven CIA asset... seems to me the connections are there - albeit a bit hazy

DJ

bump

[Stephen Roy]

I'm still looking for the Poage/JA reference, but the HSCA treatment says only that Gaudet may have observed Oswald's leafletting, and that he may have seen him with Banister. Nothing about knowing him.

Not to nitpick, but the Gaudet evidence is more significant it he knew Oswald than if he didn't know him.

[Sandy Larsen]

Here's a 1976 newspaper article on William Gaudet. Unfortunately it is truncated. Note that there are errors introduced by the optical character reader that was used to digitized the article.

 

WASHINGTON, D.C., THURSDAY, JANUARY 15, 1976 

Another JFK Slaying Riddle

Oswald, CIA Trails Crossed; 
Shadowy Figure Emerges 

By Norman Kempster 
Washington Star Staff Writer 

Senate investigators are trying to 
untangle a perplexing coincidence 
that links Lee Harvey Oswald with a 
long-time CIA agent who published a 
Latin American newsletter as a 
“cover” for his intelligence work. 

The former agent, William George 
Gaudet, received a Mexican tourist 
permit with the serial number just 
preceding that of one issued to Oswald 
on Sept. 17, 1963, about two months 
before the assassination of President 
John F. Kennedy. 

In a telephone interview this week. 
Gaudet, who is now living in retire- 
ment in Waveland. Miss., said he 
knew Oswald by sight at the time, al- 
though he cannot recall if Oswald 
was with him in the Mexican consu- 
late in New Orleans. 

Asked if he was sent by the CIA to 
the consulate to keep track of Os- 
wald, Gaudet responded, "I was 
not.” 

THE GAUDET matter is under 
study by Sen. Richard Schweiker. R- 
Pa., a member of a two-man sub- 
committee of the Senate Intelligence 
Committee, which is investigating 
the relationship between the Warren; 
Commission and the CIA and FBI. 

The commission, headed by the! 
late Chief Justice Earl Warren, con- 1 
eluded that Oswald, acting alone, 
murdered Kennedy on Nov. 22, 1963. 
Oswald was killed by Jack Ruby two 
days later. 

Schweiker has said the 
assassination investigation 
.should be reopened because 
of new evidence that has 
been discovered since the 
Warren Commission pub- 
lished its report. He said his 
own investigation has found 
curious "intelligence fin- 
gerprints” on the case. 

The Gaudet matter 
seems to be one more of the 
puzzles that have added to 
the controversy that sur- 
rounds the Kennedy assas- 
sination. The Warren Com- 
mission was told that 
Oswald went to Mexico City 
in October 1963. While there 
he contacted the Cuban and 
Soviet embassies in an 
apparent effort to obtain 
permission to go to Cuba. 

There is evidence that the 
CIA had Oswald under sur- 
veillance while he was in 
Mexico, although many of 
the details of his trip' are 
still being disputed. 

DESPITE GAUDET’S in- 
sistance that his trip to 
Mexico had nothing to do 
with Oswald’s, the coinci- 
dence of numbers raises 
questions that the commis- 
sion apparently did not ask. 

Evidence supplied to the 
commission concerning 
Gaudet is confusing unless 
several widely separated 
reports are brought togeth- 
er. It is impossible to tell 
from the face of the docu- 
ments whether the FBI, 
which served as the investi- 
gative arm of the commis- 
sion, made the necessary 
connections. 

Schweiker has complain- 
ed that the FBI often sub- 
mitted documents to the 
commission without helping 
the members determine the 
significance of the papers. 

The commission appar- 
ently was informed that 
Gaudet had received the 
tourist card issued iust be- 
fore Oswald’s. But the pub- 
lished report gives no indi- 
cation that the information 
was given more than pass- 
ing consideration. Working 
only from the originally 
published materials, it was 
impossible to learn of the 
coincidence in serial num- 
bers. 

GAUDET'S newsletter 
operation was headquarter- 
ed in New Orleans. He said 
he frequently had seen Os- 
wald distributing handbills 
of the "Fair Play for Cuba 
Committee,” a pro-Castro 
group, outside of his office. 
Gaudet said he knew Os- 
wald by name and by sight 
although they had never 
met. 

Gaudet also expressed 
some opinions about the 
Kennedy assassination that 
coincide with the views of 
some of the critics of the 
Warren Commission. 

Despite Oswald's rhetori- 
cal support for Cuban 
Premier Fidel Castro, Gau- 
det said he believes Oswald 
actually was involved with 
a group of anti-Castro 
Cubans. 

Gaudet was asked if he 
had formed an opinion 
about why Kennedy was 
killed. 

“The only possible idea 
that I could have would be 
the anti-Castro Cubans 
(conspired to kill him) be- 
cause of the fiasco at the 
Bay of Pigs,’' Gaudet re- 
sponded. "If I was an anti- 
Castro Cuban, there is no 
question I would have been 
very bitter about what hap- 
pened at the Bay of Pigs." 

Gaudet said he had no 
way of knowing if Oswald 
had contacts with the CIA 
because “my work with the 
CIA did not involve any- 
thing within the United 
States " 

THE REPORT included 
the full text of a letter from 
the Mexican government 
listing the names, ad- 
dresses and as much other 
information as possible 
about the people who re- 
ceived cards numbered 
824082, 824083, 824086 and 
824087. Oswald received 
card numbered 824085. No 
mention was made of 
824084. 

An FBI report submitted 
to the commission but not 
made public until later said 
"no record of 824084 locat- 
ed." 

But a recently declas- 
sed document lists Gaudet 
as the holder of card num- 
ber 824084, something that 
Gaudet readily confirmed. 

Another FBI report made 
public earlier said Gaudet 
received a tourist card on 
the same day as Oswald, 
but it made no mention of 
the similarity in serial 
numbers. That document 
said Gaudet “indicated that 
he has in the past been an 
employee of the CIA." 

In a telephone interview. 
Gaudet was bitter about 
that FBI report, which he 
said should never have Been 
declassified. He said he 
only reluctantly told the 
FBI about his CIA back- 
ground after the bureau 
had agreed to protect his 
cover. 

"IF THE CIA needed me 
to do a job, now that my 
cover’s been revealed, I 
couldn’t be of any help to 
them, even if I wanted to." 
Gaudet said. “I’m useless 
to them. I couldn’t go back 
to Cent ral Am erica.” 

At 67, Gaudet is unlikely 
to be called out of retire- 
ment. He now talks freely 
about an intelligence career 
that he said spanned 25 
years beginning during 
World War - II, when he 
served in a special Latin 
American unit headed by 
now Vice President Nelson 
Rockefeller. 

He said he joined the CIA 
shortly after the agency 
was created in 1947, and 
continued until 1969. 

Throughout his career 
with the CIA, Gaudet lived 
a double life as a spy and as 
a journalist who specialized 
in Latin American affairs. 
He said he provided some 
information to the planners 
of the Bay of Pigs invasion 
of Cuba. 

Gaudet was publisher of 
Latin American Report, a 
newsletter that sold for $15 
a week to clients with an 
interest in the region. He 
also wrote free-lance dis- 
patches for several U.S. 
publications, including the 
Miami Herald. His CIA 
connections apparently 
were not revealed to publi- 
cations that purchased his 
articles. 

Chase Manhattan Bank, 
First National City Bank of 
New York, Standard Oil Co. 
of New Jersey (now Exxon) 
and other businesses. 

Gaudet declined to go 
into detail about his other 
financial arrangements 
with the CIA. But he said he 
spied for patriotic reasons 
and not for the money that 
he received. 

During the years Gaudet 
said he was working for the 
CIA, the agency frequently 
provided journalistic cover 
jobs for its agents. CIA 
Director William E.‘ Colby 
has said that since 1973 the 
agency has not employed as 
agents full-time staff mem- 
bers of major U.S. publica- 
tions or broadcast net- 
works. But he refused to 
rule out the use of employees 
of small specialized news- 
letters or of foreign publi- 
cations. 

GAUDET SAID the two 
biggest customers for the 
newsletter — purchasing 
more than 20 subscriptions 
each — were the CIA and 
the Soviet intelligence serv- 
ice, the KGB. 

Although the CIA and the 
KGB each were paying 
more than $15,000 annually 
for subscriptions, Gaudet 
denied that the money 
amounted to a subsidy of 
his efforts. He said both 
agencies bought the letter 
for the information it con- 
tained. 

Other clients included the 
United Fruit Company,...

 

 

[Sandy Larsen]

I didn't read the whole article. But I did notice this important tidbit:

Gaudet said he knew Oswald by name and by sight
although they had never met.

 

[Sandy Larsen]

Gaudet was making good money on his Latin American newsletter. The CIA and KGB had 20 subscriptions each, and were paying $15,000 annually each. That amounts to about $240,000 total in today's dollars.

 

[Mathias Baumann]

Some thoughts and speculation:

Doing business in Latin America I can well imagine Clay Shaw being a subscriber to Gaudet's newsletter. Do we know if the two men knew each other apart from the fact that Gaudet had an office in the Trade Mart?

We should also not forget the incident that took place when Oswald (or a look-a-like?) visited the Mexican Consulate in New Orleans and asked if he could bring a gun to Mexico. That sounds very fishy to me, I think it's desinformation.

Which leads me to another thought: we know that David Attlee Phillips was well connected to the world of journalism. Is it possible that Gaudet might have been one of Phillips's assets? Maybe it was through him that Phillips learned about this weird guy handing out Pro-Castro leaflets? And then Phillips digs deeper and discovers that Oswald has been to Russia? And decides to set him up and stage a phony radio debatte as part of his ongoing fight against the Fairplay for Cuba Committee?

And when he learns (again through Gaudet) about Oswald's plan to go to Mexico he sets up another trap involving an impostor?

 

[Sandy Larsen]

On 6/26/2017 at 11:03 PM, Sandy Larsen said:

I didn't read the whole article. But I did notice this important tidbit:

Gaudet said he knew Oswald by name and by sight
although they had never met.

 

Though it should be kept in mind that Gaudet said he saw Oswald handing out leaflets near his office.

So I guess the only question the above comment raises is how Gaudet came to know Oswald's name.

 

[Linda Giovanna Zambanini]

 

On 6/10/2015 at 12:34 AM, Greg Parker said:

I think this is him. More pics at the bottom

http://www.mourning.com/obituaries/William-Gaudet-Sr-Usn-Ret/

Hi Greg! Been working on Gaudet's findagrave and the William Gerald Gaudet, Jr. you posted is not the Gaudet but his son (N.B. he has a different middle name - but nonetheless, it is Gaudet's son). Here is William George "Bill" Gaudet's  findagrave memorial on which i uploaded 2 photos of Gaudet, which i found on Linda Minor's site. I looked in the Tulane yearbooks for Gaudet's college photos but could only find his name listed ("William George Gaudet") but no photos. 

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/60685548?memorialUpdated=Yes

[Linda Giovanna Zambanini]

Just found a good color photo of William George "Bill" Gaudet which is probably ca '63. I went thru the voluminous photos posted on his son's obit page and there was a group photo with him, his son (William Gerald Gaudet, Jr), his daughter-in-law and grandkids when they were young. From their ages i'm guessing it is probably around '63.

Here's the group photo and a closeup of the elder Gaudet i cropped from it . Also including the two i uploaded on his findagrave (from Linda Minor's site) so you can look at all of them w/o having to go to findagrave. NB: Bill Gaudet has an odd little "fork" in his receding hairline bangs which can be seen in the color photo and the B&W photos, so that confirms it is him.: 

Well, turns out i can only upload 3 of them before the limits kick in so will post the 3 of them here and the final one in the following post.

 

[Linda Giovanna Zambanini]

Grrrr...these size limits!  Says i can only upload 122Kb because i've reached my limit. (Hope this is a daily limit and not a "forever" limit!) To see the other b&w photo go to his findagrave page: 

 https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/60685548/william-george-gaudet

Edited April 16, 2018 by Linda Giovanna Zambanini
Could not upload photos due to size limit

[David Josephs]

On ‎6‎/‎11‎/‎2015 at 6:42 PM, Stephen Roy said:

I'm still looking for the Poage/JA reference, but the HSCA treatment says only that Gaudet may have observed Oswald's leafletting, and that he may have seen him with Banister. Nothing about knowing him.

Not to nitpick, but the Gaudet evidence is more significant it he knew Oswald than if he didn't know him.

I have GAUDET's testimony as he tells of seeing Bannister speaking with Oswald about some task he was giving him...  His impression was they knew each other well...

There truly is no reason not to investigate GAUDET simply picking up and/or dropping off an app that's already filled out by an "Oswald"...  GAUDET was supposedly in and out of Mexico in a day...  If he brought the tourist Visa with him...  but that's just speculating....

 

 

There are in actuality a number of reports from the people who where at the Consulate that day...  and their stories don't jive with GAUDET's version...  If you read NORTH's report, he was there around 9:45 while the DE MEN's claim they didn't get their visas until Sept 19/20...

The FACT that Sept 16 was the day they decided to get started on the FPCC:  Hardaway Dec

On September 16, 1963, the CIA informed the FBI that it was considering action to counter the activities of the Fair Play for Cuba Committee (FFCC) in foreign countries.^^ In New Orleans, on September 17,1963, Oswald applied for, and received, a Mexican travel visa.^^

Followed by the FACT Phillips arrives in Mexico on Oct 7th with the first cable about Oswald going out the 8th...

I find it not to conclude that GAUDET had some hand in the creation of that document... and Oswald was never at the Mexican Consulate...

Other than GAUDET's, these are the applications from Sept 17th... provided by Ruben Gaxiola....

WCD75 p649

 

 

 

[Guest]

William George Gaudet.

Thanks to Malcolm Blunt, scans by me.

[Matt Allison]

 

A less redacted Gaudet doc was released earlier this month; always worth reading about him until we fully understand his role in the New Orleans/Mexi City saga:

https://www.archives.gov/files/research/jfk/releases/2023/180-10112-10390.pdf

 

A picture of Gaudet in 1967:

 

 

In an interview with Anthony Summers in 1978, Gaudet discusses his CIA employment, and his Mexi tourist visa:

 

 

 

And then his observation of Oswald and Bannister meeting in New Orleans: