Dr. Wilfred Overholser

[Greg Parker]

One of the overlooked characters you can find in Lee Harvey Oswald's Cold War. Overholser was a psychiatrist.

Overholser testified at an inquiry into the Korean POW turncoats on behalf of Frank Schwable who was one of those who had confessed to the US using germ warfare. Overholser recommended that more be done to inoculate troops against brainwashing. Schwable's fate? He escaped possible execution as a turncoat and was instead, awarded a Legion of Merit and given a job at the Pentagon.

Meanwhile Overholser assisted the Defense Advisory Committee on Prisoner's of War devise a Code of Conduct which outlined obligations and rights of prisoners. It was implemented in 1956 - the same year Oswald joined the military and it included among other things, instruction on resisting interrogation and escape and evasion techniques.

Prior to that, Overholser began work on a "truth drug" for the OSS in 1942. The following year, George White took the Southern Military Base Mary Jane Truth Drug Lonely Hearts Club Tour using the Roosevelt Hotel in New Orleans as home base. Another guest at the time was Edwin Ekdahl. Five minutes away working at the Algiers Naval Station was another Lonely Heart, Marguerite Oswald.

Overholser was a Unitarian and active member of the Unitarian Service Committee (USC) -- a popular cover for intelligence work. Under the USC, Overholser had worked with Percival Brundage on European refugee projects. Brundage - who had been Ike's head of the Bureau of the Budget, was also head of the American Friends of Albert Schweitzer College - another Unitarian project. Brundage escaped any scrutiny at all post-assassination.

Lastly, Overholser was secretly employed by the Warren Commission as a consultant on the lives of Oswald and Ruby.

Overholser died of natural causes 9 days after the release of the Warren Commission Report.

[Robert Howard]

Chicago Tribune (IL) - October 07, 1964

Deceased Name: Dr. Winfred Overholser

Dr. Winfred Overholser , 72, psychiatrist and retired superintendent of St. Elizabeth's hospital in Washington, a federal institution for the mentally ill,

who pioneered in the use of group therapy, tranquilizing drugs, and many therapeutic agents in the treatment of mental disease; of a heart ailment, in Washington.