Link to Part 2
ROBERT J MORRIS TIMELINE PART 3: 1954-1959
Jan, 1954
Lee Harvey Oswald and mother, Marguerite move to New Orleans where they stay initially with the Murrets.(1)
Apr & Jun, 1954
Subcommittee To Investigate Juvenile Delinquency in the United States holds open hearings in New York. The focus of these hearings is comic books, in particular, horror and war comics, and their potential to influence youth behavior. Concerns raised include the possible effect war comics may have on those approaching draft age.(2) It should be noted here that initial investigations began "many months" prior to the hearings, and that the hearings themselves commenced only 5 months after the Oswald case was discharged in the Family Court. Those initial investigations included contact with all agencies and courts dealing with troubled children. It could also be noted that one of the reasons found for Oswald's truancy was his preference for staying at home to read magazines (i.e. comics) and watching TV(3) - the latter the next target of the subcommittee. Lastly, in John Carro's contemporaneous report on Oswald, he notes that a chronological sheet is missing from Oswald's file when it was returned from the Court Clinic.(4)
1954
Advisor U. S. Senate Rules Committee 1954.(5)
1954-1956
Justice Municipal Court New York City 1954-1956.(6)
This appointment was a reward for his work on the Jenner Committee.(7) His partner in running the student spy ring, Saul Moskoff, was made a judge in the Family Court the same year.(8)
1954
Herman Liveright is promoted at WDSU-TV from director to program director. Prior to moving to New Orleans in 1953, he had been an associate director at ABC in New York.(9) In New York, he and wife, Betty, lived at 117 E 89th St, about a 7 or 8 minute walk from Oswald's at 325 E 92nd.(10) Betty had been born into a conservative Christian Science family in Chicago, while Herman was raised in a middle-class Jewish New York environment.(11) Herman however, was laid to rest in a Unitarian-Universalist Church.(12)
1954-1955
Oswald attends CAP meetings at Lakefront and Moisant. Meets David Ferrie.(13)
October, 1955
Lee attempts to join Marines. Marguerite is convinced he is studying the Marine Manual and Communism simultaneously at the behest of a Marine Reserve Recruitment Officer who came to her home. She also believes that Lee's determination to join up was a result of his attendance at CAP. Recruitment Officer indicates to Marguerite that Lee can join, despite not being of age. Margurite argues that they may send him overseas. Recruitment officer replies that they have less delinquency in Japan than in the US. Attempt to join up fails.(14)
1956-1958
Chief counsel to the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Internal Security.(15)
Sent to New Orleans during this period to investigate the Liverights and Jack O'Dell, among others for the hearings to be held in that city.
Herman Liveright subpoenaed in March 1956 to appear before the committee. Liveright does not plead the 5th, as many others had done, but relied instead on 1st Amendment rights. He was fired by WDSU the next day. At the same time, Betty was also fired from a TV show called Tulane Closeup.(16)
O'Dell, using the alias, Hunter Pitts was working as a waiter when he was called before the committee in April, 1956. In 1962, O'Dell was director of voter registration for the southern states. As a result of past membership in the CPUSA, he became a target of the FBI who organised a smear campaign in the press. In June 1963, JFK put pressure on Martin Luther King to fire O'Dell. King very publicly obliged, only to quietly rehire him in September as director of the New York office.
Mar, 1956
As a result of the Morris/SISS Liveright investigation, Mayor Chep Morrison ordered a probe of subversive activities within New Orleans. Morrison contacted the SISS and asked for all their relevant files, appointing Guy Banister, then Assistant Police Superintendent, to head the investigation.(17)
Jul-Sep, 1956
After dropping out of school and working in a series of courier/office boy jobs, Oswald is taken to Fort Worth where he re-enrols in school, only to drop out again within a month.
Oct 3, 1956
Oswald writes a letter to the Socialist Party in New York requesting information on their "Youth League", known as the YPSL.(18) By 1956, the SP had turned to the right and was vehemently anti-Communist. This had also been the party of perrenial Presential Candidate Norman Thomas. Thomas was much admired by the Ruth Paine Hyde's family during her youth in New York.(19)
Oct 24, 1956
Lee Harvey Oswald succeeds in enlisting in the USMC. His military file notes his mastoidectomy scar and a self-reported history of ear, nose and throat trouble, and running ears, with the physician noting "no problem with ears since". However, his
medical, school, court and Youth House records all showed he suffered from a hearing loss in his left ear. Moreover, he needed treatment for otitis media in Marines on Jan 5, 1957, and on March 30, 1961, he was admitted to hospital in Minsk where he was diagnosed with "chronic otitis media purulenta at the right side, complicated by granulations and cholesteatoma." Additionally he was suffering from ascariasis. As part of his treatment, he underwent an adenotomy on April 1st.(20) What all this adds up to is that he almost certainly did not have "no problem with ears" at the time of his enlistment. Waivers to enlist in the USMC with a hearing loss can only be granted if the person has the skills and qualifications in positions which are hard to fill, and the hearing loss itself has no bearing on the work to be performed.(21) Since Oswald's condition was not recorded as current, no waiver was required in his case.
May 3, 1957
Oswald sent to Keesler Air Force Base where he is trained as a radar operator despite scoring below average in aptitude tests, and despite his civilian skill base being recorded as office-boy/courier.
1958
Candidate for the Republican Senate nomination for New Jersey.(22)
Morris stressed his subcommittee work as his main qualification during this unsuccesful run.
1959
Left subcommittee work for "political action" against Indonesia, Cuba and Africa, with the Congo being a high priority.(23)
Is in touch with Max Yergan who had been to an African Peoples Council meeting held in Ghana the previous year.(24) Yergan had been a victim of the Rapp-Coudert Committee for which Morris had worked, failing to be reappointed by CCNY after the committee heard evidence that his classes had been "liberal and progressive".(25) However, after being dismissed in 1948 from the Council on African Affairs (which he had co-founded with Paul Robeson), he became a vocal anti-Communist; a supporter of right-wing causes, and associated with CIA sponsored African policy organisations.(26) Although his testimony does not make it clear as to the exact year, George De Mohrenschildt spent some time in Ghana during the late '50s posing as a philatelist, whilst actually on oil business. Noted too, is Oswald's reference to Ghana during his New Orleans radio debate.
Spends some of this year writing speeches and dealing with the Policy Committee of the Republican Convention.(27)
Mar 19, 1959
Oswald sends an application to attend Albert Schweitzer College (ASC) in Switzerland.(28) ASC is owned and operated by the International Association for Religeous Freedom (IARF); itself a creation of the Unitarian Church. It is supported in the US by the Friends of Albert Schweitzer College. Percival Flack Brundage was Director of the Bureau of the Budget from 1956 to 1958, staying on a further 2 years after that as a consultant. From 1953 to 1958, he was President of the Friends of Albert Schweitzer College, and from 1952 to 1955 had been President of the IARF. As Director of the Bureau of the Budget, he was heavily involved in Project Vanguard, ostensibly a program to ensure "freedom of space", but in actuality had more to do with the ability to use and gather IMINT (image intelligence).(29)
Oct 16, 1959
Oswald arrives in Moscow.
Oct 31, 1959
Oswald has a meeting at the US Embassy with Richard Snyder and attempts to renounce his US citizenship. Meeting is witnessed by an exchange student studying at Leningrad by the name of Edward L Keenan.(30) Keenan is one of 13 US students studying in Leningrad at the time under the 1958 cultural exchange agreement between the two countries.(31) Exchange students were forbidden to travel alone, moreover, it was a Saturday and the Embassy was closed, so the question is how and why was Keenan there at all? After getting his Ph.D in '66, he would become a Director of the Center for Middle Eastern Studies, the Center for Russian Studies, Director of Dumbarton Oaks(32) and a Council for Foreign Relations member.(33) Was he in Snyder's office that day, wittingly or otherwise, specifically to observe the unfolding charade?
(1) Warren Commission Report ch 7 p 383.
(2) Comic Books and Juvenile Deliquency - Interim Report of the Committee on the Judiciary, March 14, 1955. Senator James Eastand is on this committee. Morris would later work with Eastland for SISS during its New Orleans investigations.
(3) Warren Commission Carro Exhibit No. 1
(4) Ibid.
(5) www.americandeception.com
(6) New York Times Obituary, Jan 2, 1997.
(7) "Next Exposė to be Torrid", Walla Walla Union-Bulletin, Feb 11, 1954
(8) Email from Jim Olmstead Dec 5, 2006.
(9) Associated Press Obituary, Jan 29, 2001.
(10)alt.assassination.jfk newsgroup post by Jim Olmstead, Jan 14, 2001
(11)"A Promise and a Way of Life: White Antiracist Activism" by Becky W Thompson, p395,396.
(12)Associated Press Obituary, Jan 29, 2001. This suggests a conversion to Unitarian-Universalism. For possible implications of this, see "A Certain Arrogance: US Intelligence's Manipulation of Religious Groups and Individuals in Two World Wars and the Cold War - and the Sacrificing of Lee Harvey Oswald" by George Michael Evica.
(13)HSCA Appendix to Hearings Vol 10 ch 12 David Ferrie p 109 et seq
(14)Warren Commission testimony of Marguerite Oswald, vol 1, p 197 et seq.
(15)New York Times Obituary, Jan 2, 1997.
(16)Associated Press Obituary, Jan 29, 2001.
(17)Times-Picayune New Orleans, Mar 21, 1956 and cited in article, "Banister, Eastland and the '56 SISS Hearings" by Jerry Shinley
(18)Warren Commission Exhibit 2240.
(19)Warren Commission testimony of Ruth Hyde Paine, vol 9, p 339.
(20)Warren Commission Exhibit 985.
(21)"Hearing Requirments for Military Service" by Col. David Chandler, Ph.D
(22)New York Times Obituary, Jan 2, 1997.
(23)Email from Jim Omstead, Jan 6, 2007.
(24)Ibid.
(25)"The Struggle for Free Speech at CCNY, 1931-1942", Virtual New York City website.
(26)Max Yergan biographical sketch found at www.sahistory.org.za
(27)Email from Jim Olmstead, Jan 6, 2007.
(28)Warren Commission Exhibit 228. This college application is key evidence that Oswald was part of an operation arising from the POW defector study (see Part 2). Oswald had created a legend as that of a potential defector. In this application, he lists 3 strong individualists as his favourite authors, emphasises moral values, membership in the YMCA and a student body movement aimed at controlling delinquency. Development of strong individualism and moral values, along with membership in organisations such as the YMCA and CAP were all recommendations made in the POW study to "defector-proof" future soldiers. All the flags were now raised: delinquent; marxist; attempt at fraudulent enlistment; fraudulent dependent discharge; evidence per Schweitzer application of "defector-proofing".
(29)For the intelligence connections of Percival Flack Brundage, see "A Certain Arrogance: US Intelligence's Manipulation of Religious Groups and Individuals in Two World Wars and the Cold War - and the Sacrificing of Lee Harvey Oswald" by George Michael Evica.
(30)"Marina and Lee" by Priscilla Johnson McMillan, p68.
(31)"Cathedral of Know-How", Time Magazine, Nov 30, 1959.
(32)Cyrillic Manuscript Heritage Newsletter, May, 2000
(33)CFR membership roster, 1985.
