Thomas Graves

Welcome, Dan. Just thought I'd let you know that being clinically paranoid (preferably with delusions) is a prerequisite to being a member of this, or any other, JFK assassination "forum." --Tommy PS It helps to believe in the genetically-engineered or separated-at-birth Harvey and Lee (and Henry) look-alikes, as well. LOL

[...] Word Twister Trejo wrote: "First, Tommy ... [P]lease stop reading my posts -- your comments are useless to me." Oh, but I shall indeed continue to read them, Word Twister. After all, I do need a good hard laugh from time to time! The way I see it, anyone who preaches on an internet forum that Oswald was materialistic (i.e., wanted lots of money and material possessions) simply because he claimed to be a Marxist (one who believes in the Hegel-and- Marx-based philosophy of dialectical materialism) is absolutely hilarious and really should go on tour as a stand up comedian. I must say that I rather look forward to your humor-filled posts and I get a little "blue" when they don't appear! If my comments are useless to you, it's because you refuse to be corrected! Word Twister Trejo then wrote: "Silvia Odio herself said that" Leopoldo" came to her with a fund-raising letter." Do please try to get it straight, Word Twister. Leopoldo and Angel (whom you seem to think were Loran Hall and Larry Howard) didn't go to Silvia Odio with a fund-raising letter. They visited her and asked her to write a fund-raising letter for them, to help them solicit funds for JURE activities. No matter how you "spin" it, Word Twister, asking someone to write a letter for you use in soliciting funds is not the same as asking the letter writer herself to give you money! D'oh! From Word Twister's original bad joke post: "...It was OK with Oswald that Loran Hall chose to stop for a half-hour at the apartment of Sylvia Odio to ask for money and favors ..." OK, now that I've corrected you on the "asking Odio for money" bit, I gotta ask you-- what could have possibly been the "favors" that you claim "Hall and Howard" asked of Silvia Odio, other than the writing of the fund-raising letter? To let them use her potty? To let them take a group shower? To wash their dirty undies for them? To let them catch a few winks in her living room? To let them use her telephone to call "Guy Baby" down in Mexico just to let him know they had Ozzie the Patsy with them and they were on the way? To scratch their hairy backs for them? To make them some yummy, yummy peanut butter and jelly sandwiches "for the road?" What "favors," Word Twister? Oh, I see. You only meant the favor of writing for them the aforementioned fund-raising letter! Please keep it up, Word Twister. The combination of eating an apple a day, reading your hilarious posts, and drinking a little prune juice is adding years to my life! --Tommy Word Twister Trejo is a perfect example of someone who has a little bit of poorly-remembered "knowledge," who loves to use half-truths and artistic license to further his brand of historical revisionism, and who just absolutely loves to talk, to pedantically "inform" the ignorant and the uneducated. Unfortunately, he's dangerous for the more naiive and gullible Forum members and guests who might read and uncritically accept his posts. One of Word Twister Trejo's biggest problems is that whenever he makes a factual error and it is brought to his attention, rather than admitting his mistake (no matter how small it might be), he invariably "digs in his heals" and throws as much self-serving "spin" into the conversation as he possibly can with his masterly use of word-twisting, trying to convince you that he was right all along and that he never ever makes factual errors. By doing this, he is only showing us how desperate he is to appear to be infallible and oh-so knowledgeable, and how afraid he is of losing what little credibility he has. But then again those are just his tactics. His ultimate strategy is to engage you in "dialog" and then just wear you down with the tactics, man, until you absolutely refuse to argue with him anymore, at which point he probably takes your silence as proof that he has finally convinced you to see things his way; another victory!. LOL edited and bumped

[...] Word Twister Trejo wrote: "First, Tommy ... [P]lease stop reading my posts -- your comments are useless to me." Oh, but I shall indeed continue to read them, Word Twister. I need a good laugh from time to time! The way I see it, anyone who preaches on an internet forum that Oswald was materialistic (i.e., wanted lots of money and material possessions) because he claimed to be a Marxist (one who believes in the Hegel-and-Marx-based philosophy of dialectical materialism) is absolutely hilarious and really should go on tour as a stand up comedian. I must say that I rather look forward to your humor-filled posts and I get a little "blue" when they don't appear! Word Twister Trejo then wrote: "Silvia Odio herself said that" Leopoldo" came to her with a fund-raising letter." Do please try to get it straight, Word Twister. Leopoldo and Angel (whom you call Loran Hall and Larry Howard) didn't go to her with a fund-raising letter. They asked her to write a fund-raising letter for them to use in soliciting funds for JURE activities. In your original post you said that Hall and Howard drove Oswald from New Orleans to Dallas and in Dallas asked Silvia Odio for money. Asking someone to write a fund-raising letter for you to send to other people is not the same as asking the letter writer herself to give you money! From Word Twister's original bad joke post: "...It was OK with Oswald that Loran Hall chose to stop for a half-hour at the apartment of Sylvia Odio to ask for money and favors ..." OK, now that I've corrected you on the "asking Odio for money" bit, I gotta ask you-- what could have possibly been the "favors" that you claim Hall and Howard asked of Silvia Odio, other than the writing of the fund-raising letter? To use her potty? To take a group shower? To wash their dirty undies in her washing machine? To catch a few winks in her living room? To use her telephone to call "Guy Baby" down in Mexico just to let him know they had Ozzie the Patsy with them and that they were on the way? To scratch their hairy backs? To make them some yummy, yummy peanut butter and jelly sandwiches "for the road?" What "favors," Word Twister? Oh, I see. You only meant the writing of the fund-raising letter... LOL --Tommy Word Twister Trejo is a perfect example of someone who has a little bit of poorly-remembered "knowledge," who loves to use artistic license to further his brand of historical revisionism, and who just loves to talk, to "inform." Unfortunately, he's dangerous for the more naiive and gullible readers who might read and uncritically accept his posts. One of Word Twister's big problems is that whenever he makes a factual error and it is brought to his attention, rather than admitting his mistake (no matter how small it might be), he invariably "digs in his heals" and throws as much self-serving "spin" into the conversation as he possibly can with his masterly use of word-twisting, trying to convince you that he was right all along and that he never ever makes factual errors. By doing this, he is only showing us how desperate he is to appear to be infallible and oh-so knowledgeable, and how afraid he is of losing what little credibility he has.

I'd like to try to merge Nagell's and Martino's claims along with those of Harry Dean and see where it leads. For example: (1.0) If Oswald was already aware that these two guys in NOLA (offering him a JFK Kill plot at Washington DC) were not true Castro agents, but Anti-Castro agents pretending to be Castro agents (as Nagell and Martino both claimed), this lets us infer much. (1.1) Oswald possibly knew that Fidel Castro didn't want to kill JFK (because the next US President would have been worse). Therefore, these two allegedly Pro-Castro Agents were bogus, because they pretended that Fidel wanted to kill JFK. (1.2) Besides, Oswald had bigger fish to fry -- he was working for Guy Banister and Clay Shaw, and was making spending cash for his efforts, which were loads of fun, e.g. he was getting his name in the newspaper, plus an appearance on a Radio show, plus an appearance on TV. Also, if he played ball with Guy Banister, he could hope to get a full-time job in the CIA. (2.0) If Oswald was in contact with Anti-Castro Cuban Exiles in Dallas, Texas as well, then what can we infer from this? Larry, you wonder if Oswald was a dangle to Anti-Castro Gun Runners, but without any guess about the precise scenario. Martino thought Oswald was still in touch with those two guys from NOLA, but also perhaps others more normal in Dallas. So you wonder, Larry, whether Oswald was planning on meeting someone the Texas Theater -- possibly a Cuban Exile -- but without any guess about the precise scenario. (3.0) At this point I would raise the scenario posed by Harry Dean, and my own theory, to see where it might fit. I'd start with this background: Oswald wasn't thinking about a JFK assassination in 1963 -- he was thinking about a Fidel Castro assassination. David Atlee Philips was probably involved in NOLA -- hoping that these guys might finally assassinate Fidel Castro -- so he also pretended to Oswald that the CIA would give Oswald a job. Therefore, Oswald might spy on those two guys in NOLA -- but otherwise he wasn't really interested in them. (3.1) In mid-September Loran Hall and Larry Howard drove to Louisiana to offer Oswald $500 to accompany them to Mexico City and meet their Big Guy there. What a coincidence, because Guy Banister also wanted Oswald to go to Mexico City to fulfill his NOLA contract -- i.e. to trick his way into Cuba and join the Fidel Kill Team in Havana. Now, out of the blue, Oswald would receive a free car ride to Mexico City PLUS a $500 cash bonus just for making the trip (where $500 in 1963 was like $5,000 in 2015). (3.2) So, Oswald was still working for Guy Banister and Clay Shaw at NOLA, and he went to Mexico City with a folder full of newspaper clippings, fake FPCC credentials and a fake Communist Party card (all available in the Lopez Report). At the end of the line, after Fidel Castro was dead, Oswald (probably) expected to get $100,000 in cash and a full-time job in the CIA -- and possibly a parade in New York City, and a chance to run for US President. He would do this thing. (3.3) So, the ride with Loran Hall and Larry Howard and the extra $500 were just gravy. It was OK with Oswald that Loran Hall chose to stop for a half-hour at the apartment of Sylvia Odio to ask for money and favors, and to introduce "Leon Oswald" (where "Leon" is the Spanish equivalent of "Lee"). (3.4) In Mexico City, as everybody knows, Oswald made a complete fool of himself. Guy Banister, Clay Shaw and the top NOLA Team knew that Oswald could never get into Cuba with those fake credentials -- but their real purpose was complete -- Oswald was now FRAMED as a Communist. That was their payoff. (3.5) At this point, the NOLA Team was finished with Oswald. Oswald was a big failure in Mexico City. He was turned down flat -- even after his theatrics at the Soviet Consulate (the loaded pistol, which must remind us of his slashed wrists in the USSR in 1959). (3.6) According to Harry Dean, however, our luckless Oswald finally met Hall and Howard's pal in Mexico City -- Guy Gabaldon, founder of DACA (Drive Against Communist Aggression), and received his $500. (3.7) Dean says that Gabaldon pretended to be in the CIA (much like the NOLA guys) and gave Oswald some new instructions: return to Dallas; go undercover; take a room; find a job; get life somewhat back to normal and wait for a "CIA" contact with further instructions. Oswald did exactly that. (4.0) If Oswald was in contact with Anti-Castro Cuban Exiles in Dallas, Texas as well, then here's a plausible scenario: Mrs. Lucille Connell remembered it this way (for better or worse): the Odio sisters in Dallas remained members of JURE, a special group of Anti-Castro Cuban Exiles, and would attend various political meetings there. Members of DRE would show up at these. So would Ex-General Edwin Walker, said Connell. So would Carlos Bringuier. As Lucille Connell remembered it, Lee Harvey Oswald was also one of the speakers at these political meetings of Anti-Castro Cuban Exiles, and one or more of the Odio sisters was very impressed with his presentation about the need to defeat Castro. However, some Cuban Exiles from NOLA telephoned the Odio sisters in Dallas to warn them that Lee Harvey Oswald was probably a double-agent, and could not be trusted (cf. Gaeton Fonzi). (5.0) Aside from a scenario like this, the only other contact that Oswald received from the likes of Gabaldon, Hall and Howard was from Gerry Patrick Hemming (as he told A.J. Weberman) who called Oswald on 11/21/1963 and told him that he would pay Oswald double the market price for his Manlicher-Carcano rifle, if only Oswald would take it to the TSBD and hide it on the 6th floor so that his underground contact could secretly pick it up. Oswald agreed to Hemming's cool deal and carried it out. That was the final act of Oswald's freedom. That very afternoon Oswald would be running for his life. Regards, --Paul Trejo Word Twister, You accused Larry twice in your pedantic 2 point zero point of not having a "guess" about a "precise scenario" (why not use the more civil word "idea," instead?), but then you use your evidently God-given artistic license in saying (guessing?) that Hall and Howard asked Silvia Odio for money. So with you the devil is in the details, isn't it. You should feel flattered that I read your posts. --Tommy

Larry, Richard Cain and Bill Bright come to mind as people who might have known the LIENVOY / DNS "ins and outs" well enough to be able to orchestrate the September 28 impersonations. --Tommy

Thanks for the feedback, Larry. I guess you're saying that although the taping of the September 28 call could have been done from any of several places around Mexico City, the "Duran" and the overly-inquisitive, Spanish-understanding "Oswald" impostors (or better yet a third unnamed Spanish-understanding person who had asked about Raul Aparicio's home phone number!) made the call from Silvia Duran's phone inside the Cuban Consulate on a day when the Consulate was supposed to be closed. Or are you saying that the call itself could have been made from somewhere else? It's interesting that three languages -- Spanish (fluently by "Duran"), English (brokenly? fluently? by "Oswald" and fluently? by a Russian), and Russian (brokenly by "Oswald" and fluently? by a Russian) -- were spoken during that one phone call. A transcriber's nightmare. I wonder if Spanish-speaking Bill Bright (who had monitored Oswald in Russia for SR/6 and who had made sure that John Fain's Webster-like biometrics for Oswald were incorporated in the CIA computerized Registry in 1960) checked to see whether or not the Spanish transcription by the DNS was "accurate"? Thanks, --Tommy

I'm not sure what Jon G. Tidd thinks about anything (except that Oswald was an "Odd Duck"), but I guess the rest of us are we're all pretty much agreed that Oswald was set up to be the JFK assassination "patsy." Questions: Was Oswald directed / encouraged by ex-FBI agent Banister, etc, to start a New Orleans FPCC chapter as part of the set up? In Mexico City did Oswald really go to the Cubans and Russians on September 27, 1963, and then back to the Russians (with his revolver) the next day, ostensibly trying to get a Cuban visa? If so, was he directed to do so as part of the set up? Was Ruth Paine's helping Oswald get work at the TSBD part of the set up? What did Oswald think he was doing at the TSBD on November 22, 1963? Is Larry Hancock right when he says Oswald was planning on walking out the back door at noontime and going to the Texas Theater to meet someone whom he thought was pro-Castro? etc, etc And now for something that's been bugging me recently: With whom was "Silvia Duran" speaking Spanish regarding the home phone number of "(Raul) Aparicio" -- in reality CIA agent Daniel Flores masquerading as a Cuban Cultural Attache -- while "Lee Oswald" was standing next to her, waiting to speak on the phone with someone in the Russian Embassy on Saturday, September 28, when the Cuban Consulate was supposed to be closed? Why would the impostors embellish the scenario by interjecting Aparicio's name and phone number like that? To let the CIA know that the "Aparicio" operation was blown? To make the Oswald impersonation somehow seem more "realistic" in spite of the fact that it happened on a day when the Cuban Consulate was supposed to be closed? Why were there three people in the Cuban Consulate when it was supposed to be closed? Was Silvia having another orgy? Or were there only two impostors there that Saturday -- "Duran" and a native Spanish-speaking "Oswald"? Were the Russians with whom "Duran" and "Oswald" spoke over the phone on that Saturday impostors, too? What was was going on? Were the Cubans or Russians running their own "mole hunt?" Was the CIA trying to fool itself? Was that part of the set up? --Tommy "Well, Tommy... Point 1.0..... Point 1.1..... Point 1.11..." ad nauseum edited and bumped

I'm not sure what Jon G. Tidd thinks about anything (except that Oswald was an "Odd Duck"), but I guess the rest of us are we're all pretty much agreed that Oswald was set up to be the JFK assassination "patsy." Questions: Was Oswald directed / encouraged by ex-FBI agent Banister, etc, to start a New Orleans FPCC chapter as part of the set up? In Mexico City did Oswald really go to the Cubans and Russians on September 27, 1963, and then back to the Russians (with his revolver) the next day, ostensibly trying to get a Cuban visa? If so, was he directed to do so as part of the set up? Was Ruth Paine's helping Oswald get work at the TSBD part of the set up? What did Oswald think he was doing at the TSBD on November 22, 1963? Is Larry Hancock right when he says Oswald was planning on walking out the back door at noontime and going to the Texas Theater to meet someone whom he thought was pro-Castro? etc, etc Something that's been bugging me: With whom was "Silvia Duran" speaking Spanish regarding the home phone number of "(Raul) Aparicio" -- in reality CIA agent Daniel Flores masquerading as a Cuban Cultural Attache -- while "Lee Oswald" was standing next to her, waiting to speak on the phone with someone in the Russian Embassy on Saturday, September 28, when the Cuban Consulate was supposed to be closed? Why would the impostors embellish the scenario by interjecting Aparicio's name and phone number like that? To let the CIA know that the "Aparicio" operation was blown? To make the Oswald impersonation somehow seem more "realistic" in spite of the fact that it happened on a day when the Cuban Consulate was supposed to be closed? Why were there three people in the Cuban Consulate when it was supposed to be closed? Was Silvia having another orgy? Or were there only two -- "Duran" and a native Spanish-speaking "Oswald"? Were the Russians with whom "Duran" and "Oswald" spoke over the phone on that Saturday impostors, too? What was was going on? Were the Cubans or Russians running their own "mole hunt?" Was the CIA trying to fool itself? Was that part of the set up? Etc, etc, etc. --Tommy "Well, Tommy... Point 1.0..... Point 1.1..... Point 1.11..." ad nauseum

David, Well, it's nice to see that you and Mr. Tidd agree on something. --Tommy

Nobody can answer the "WHY?" part of your question, Jon. All we can do is guess. And I think the best guess is that Oswald probably killed JFK because he felt that by murdering the leader of the United States (i.e., Fidel Castro's bitter enemy in the early 1960s, particularly following the Cuban Missile Crisis), he would be aiding a person he admired greatly (Castro) and a cause he wanted very much to defend (Castro's Cuban Revolution). But I also think Oswald's mind was very muddled on November 21st, 1963, the day before he took his rifle to work to shoot at the President. I think it's quite clear from Marina Oswald's testimony that Lee very much wanted to make his peace with Marina after the two of them had quarrelled on the telephone earlier in the week (a quarrel brought on by Lee's using another "alias" at his roominghouse, which Marina did not like and thought was silly). And I think Marina's account of the events at Ruth Paine's house on the night of November 21st indicates that Lee would have likely been happy to go out and search for a new apartment "tomorrow" (the word Marina said Lee used on 11/21/63) had Marina agreed to get back together with Lee right away (he asked her three times to do so on the night of the 21st, but she steadfastly refused, saying she would rather stay with Ruth until "the holidays"). So unless Lee was just putting on a little "act" for Marina's benefit (or to throw people off), it would seem as if Lee Harvey Oswald, as of the night of November 21st, had every intention of hunting for lodgings for himself and his family on November 22nd rather than take his rifle to work and shoot the President. And I doubt he could have been silly enough to think he could have done BOTH of those tasks on 11/22/63. Lee H. Oswald was a very strange character with a twisted mind, yes, but I doubt very much that even his warped mind could have possessed the following thoughts in tandem with each other --- I'll shoot at Kennedy at around noontime; I'll then leave the building and go search for that apartment, just as I promised Marina I would do last night. I doubt I'll be missed at work because of all the commotion that will follow the assassination attempt that I am also planning for tomorrow. I think Oswald definitely had a MOTIVE--whatever that might have been--for shooting President Kennedy PRIOR to ever visiting Marina on Thursday night, November 21st. (That's obvious to me because of the "curtain rod" lie he told to Buell Wesley Frazier on Thursday morning.) But his plans to shoot at the President were not fixed in stone as of Thursday night--not until after he talked to Marina. That scenario might sound way too simplistic (and, frankly, crazy) to many conspiracy theorists (especially those who don't think Oswald ever fired a shot at JFK), but it's what I think is the truth nonetheless. Can I prove any of the above? No, of course I can't. But, conversely, no conspiracist can prove that Lee Oswald had NO MOTIVE at all for wanting to shoot John F. Kennedy either. The "motive" vs. "no motive" argument is endless--and it goes nowhere. The only one who could possibly answer the "What was his motive?" question is Lee Harvey Oswald. And he can't say very much now. As for the "HOW?" part of your question, Jon -- That's not very difficult.... ....Lee Oswald had ready access to a weapon (Carcano Rifle #C2766) that he knew was being stored in Ruth Paine's garage. (Hence, the reason for making up the "bookend" set of "I'm getting curtain rods" lies to Buell Frazier on both Thursday and Friday.) ....Lee had ample firearms training in the U.S. military, reaching the grade of Sharpshooter in 1956. (But, for some reason, some conspiracy believers think the United States Marine Corps was in the habit of dishing out "Sharpshooter" ratings to Marines who were rotten shooters. Go figure that logic. I can't.) ....Marina testified in her 1978 HSCA session that Lee, on more than one occasion, would take his rifle out to "target practice" in New Orleans during the summer of 1963: Mr. McDONALD. Did he ever take it out, outside the apartment, to practice with it, to do anything with it? Mrs. PORTER. Yes, he did. Mr. McDONALD. And what did he do? Mrs. PORTER. He will, like before it gets very dark outside, he would leave apartment dressed with the dark raincoat, even though it was a hot summer night, pretty hot weather anyway, and he would be wearing this, and he would be hiding the rifle underneath his raincoat. He said he is going to target practice or something like that. Mr. McDONALD. This was one occasion you are talking about with the raincoat? Mrs. PORTER. It is several occasions, maybe more than once. Mr. McDONALD. He did the same thing on several occasions, put the raincoat on? Mrs. PORTER. Yes. Mr. McDONALD. And the rifle under the raincoat? Mrs. PORTER. Yes. Mr. McDONALD. And how long would he be gone? Mrs. PORTER. A few hours. So the conspiracy theorists who continue to insist that there is no evidence or testimony whatsoever to indicate that Lee Oswald ever practiced with his Carcano rifle in the months leading up to the assassination are just flat-out ignoring the above testimony by Marina Oswald, which can be found at 2 HSCA 231. ....Lee Oswald had complete access to all seven floors of the Texas School Book Depository Building on November 22, 1963, including the sixth floor, which is the floor where incriminating evidence against Oswald was found by the police, including the discovery of Lee's very own Mannlicher-Carcano rifle, plus the three spent bullet shells under the window from where witnesses Howard Brennan, Amos Euins, Robert Jackson, and Mal Couch saw a rifle during the time when President Kennedy was being shot. ....Oswald left the Depository Building within just a few minutes of JFK's assassination. Many conspiracists say "So he left--so what?" But his quickly leaving the scene of the Presidential murder, coupled with the fact HIS RIFLE was the murder weapon, plus the additional evidence which indicates--beyond all possible reasonable doubt--that Oswald killed Dallas policeman J.D. Tippit 45 minutes later, all add up to solid circumstantial evidence of his guilt. Such facts certainly don't lead to a determination of TOTAL INNOCENCE, as many conspiracy theorists seem to suggest. And there are, of course, lots of additional things that point to Oswald's guilt in both the Kennedy and Tippit murders. I outline many of those things here.... http://Oswald-Is-Guilty.blogspot.com Too late. What's wrong with providing links to emphasize and flesh out the facts and a person's opinions anyway? It saves me (or anyone) from having to tediously type out every single point over and over again. Links are our friends....not our enemies. (Most of the time anyway.) David, Do you think Oswald was ever a U.S. Intelligence agent? Thank you, --Tommy

Jon Tidd, The topic of this thread is the identity of the (possibly two) Blond Oswalds in Mexico City, as described by Sylvia Duran and Eusebio Azque -- and possibly identifiable in CIA photographs as Ernesto Lehfeld Miller and Nikolai Leonov. Not the question of whether or not Oswald was a CIA agent. But now that I'm thinking about it (LOL) ... Do you think that your "Odd Duck Oswald" was intending to discredit the FPCC as well as he did, or did it just happen to turn out that odd-duckish kind of way? As to whether or not the CIA believed Oswald had been in Mexico City, you might want to read this Russell Holmes' CIA-based compilation of information and Intelligence documents. The juicy stuff starts around page 17. http://www.maryferrell.org/mffweb/archive/viewer/showDoc.do?docId=7613&relPageId=1 ( FYI: "[Russell] Holmes was the CIA liaison for all inquiries on the assassination after the end of the HSCA investigation until his retirement." http://www.archives.gov/research/jfk/finding-aids/holmes-papers.html ) --Tommy NOW A QUESTION FOR BILL SIMPICH: In Chapter 6 of State Secret you wrote-- "I believe that the deepest reason Whitten was taken off the [PBFLOOR] case can be found in a Whitten memo, DIR 89366 - this is a priority memo to Mexico City dated 12/16/63, seeking an immediate response. Whitten asked “For our analysis of this case, can MEXI shed light on who Aparicio is, whether he has that number (author’s note: The phone number 14-12-99, quoted by Duran in a passing reference to Aparicio at the beginning of the 9/28 call), and what this might have to do with our case...please have monitors make every effort to identify voices of various Soviets to whom Oswald spoke on the telephone or who dealt with his case with Sylvia Duran". Whitten took pains to write that his request was being made pursuant to "direction of Helms”. Whitten labeled it as a priority memo. We saw in Chapter 3 Aparicio’s fascinating history as the case officer for double agent AMKNOB-1. I believe that Raul Aparicio was not only the Cuban embassy’s cultural attache and main press contact, but he was also a double agent working on behalf of the United States. The reference to Aparicio in the September 28 call was not only a signal to the Mexico City station that LIENVOY was compromised. It was also a signal that the operation with Aparicio was compromised." Question: Assuming that the September 28 phone call was made by impostors, are you saying that they wanted Mexico City CIA station to know the operation with Aparicio was compromised? Regardless, how would "Duran's" mentioning of the Cuban Cultural Attache Aparicio's name and home phone number, in Spanish, to someone next to her in the "Cuban Consulate" indicate to Mexico City station that the Aparicio Operation was compromised? Wouldn't it tend to suggest instead that the person next to her in the (theoretically closed) "Cuban Consulate" was a native Spanish-speaking accomplice, or the native Spanish-speaking Oswald impersonator, himself? Thanks, --Tommy

Bill, So Ernesto Lehfeld Miller used to borrow Sylvia Duran's husband's car. I wonder if Sylvia had driven it to work that day, and Miller went to the Embassy / Consulate to borrow it? Ernesto Lehfeld Miller, Nikolai Leonov, Yuri Moskalev. It seems that the CIA in Mexico City took photographs of just about everybody except Lee Harvey Oswald. --Tommy PS Regarding the possibility that the "6 foot, athletic build" Mexico City Mystery Man was Moskalev, I understand that he could have been wearing a subtle disguise the days he was photographed in M.C., but I'm wondering why he would have been trying to hide his identity. Was he known for wearing disguises? Also, I read in a CIA document recently that he was only 5' 8".

There are lots of photos of Nikolai Leonov on the internet. Here's one showing Leonov interpreting for Castro and Khrushchev in Moscow. http://manchiviri.blogspot.com/2013/12/por-que-fracasaran-las-reformas-de-raul.html Same ears. Mystery solved. --Tommy Regarding another blond guy photographed in Mexico City whom some researchers think was Claude Capehart, according to Bill Simpich this guy was probably the Mexican graphic designer Ernesto Lehfeld Miller. As it turns out, there is an Ernesto Lehfeld (whose mother was Doris Miller) on ancestry.com. Maybe there are some photos of him there... http://records.ancestry.com/ernesto_lehfeld_records.ashx?pid=187823779 The following 11/20/63 CIA document about Claude Barnes Capehart says he was 6'1", 220 lbs and that he was born in Okemah, Oklahoma, on October 15, 1924, making him 40 years of age at the time of the assassination. So evidently Capehart wasn't the short, thin, Mexico City "blond Oswald". https://www.maryferrell.org/mffweb/archive/viewer/showDoc.do?docId=14179&relPageId=2 [...] bumped

Tommy, I believe that Bill Simpich's book, "State Secret" (2014) answers the questions about the large blonde Russian guy whose photograph appears in Lee Oswald's CIA 401 file. According to Bill Simpich... He wasn't impersonating Lee Oswald -- the CIA high-command chose to start a "mole-hunt" to find out which "mole" had impersonated Lee Harvey Oswald, ostensibly to link his name with KGB Agent Valery Kostikov. The CIA high-command deliberately altered Lee Oswald's 401 file in many ways, including (1) replacing the photo with a stranger; (2) changing Oswald's middle name to "Henry," (3) slightly changing the names of his parents; (4) slightly changing some date information. Sadly, when the JFK assassination occurred, and the Warren Commission demanded the CIA files on Lee Harvey Oswald, the CIA handed over the tampered-with files. That's all that anybody knew at the lower levels of the CIA. Regards, --Paul Trejo Paul, We're talking about two different people. You're talking about the guy Bill Simpich identified as Yuri Moskalev, a Russian scientist / GRU or KGB agent who just happened to be photographed outside the Mexico City Russian Embassy on October 2, 1963 but whom Goodpasture lied about date-wise because she desperately needed (for the LIENVOY-penetrator mole hunt -- and wanted to keep the three-year-old Oswald-Webster "marked card" alive in the process), a photograph of an American-looking male, any thirty-ish, white, American-looking male, entering the Russian Embassy on or around October 1, and since this guy (Moskalev?) looked a Robert-Webster thirty-ish and was wearing American-style clothing and was approximately the same size as Robert Webster, Goodpasture lied in her cable to CIA HQS when she said that this guy (Moskalev?) was photographed on October 1 instead of October 2. Goodpasture said October 1 because that was the day that an "Oswald" impostor was on record, literally and figuratively, as having made a phone call, from the to the Russian Embassy, in which he mentioned having met previously with Russian vice consul Valery Kostikov, whom some in the CIA believed was in charge of KGB assassinations and sabotage in the Western Hemisphere. Here's the guy you're talking about: And here's a troubling Russ Holmes HSCA CIA document from 1977 which speculates that the Mexico City Mystery Man might have been Moskalev: http://history-matters.com/archive/jfk/cia/russholmes/104-10413/104-10413-10055/html/104-10413-10055_0002a.htm A handwritten note on this 1971 document says Moskalev was in the U.S. in October, 1963. https://www.maryferrell.org/mffweb/archive/viewer/showDoc.do?docId=6532&relPageId=2 The "blond Oswald" I'm talking about is not this Moskalev-looking dude. I'm talking about the mysterious "blond, dark blond Oswald" whom Cuban consul Eusebio Azcue remembered coming to the Cuban Consulate on September 27, trying to get a visa to Cuba, and with whom Azcue got into an argument. The description of the "Oswald" he encountered conflicts significantly with that provided by Sylvia Duran. According to Azcue, the "Oswald" he encountered had "blond, dark blond hair," was "over thirty," "very thin, very thin faced," and was wearing not a sweater vest but a "suit or coat" that was "blue, with some reddish" and which had "a pattern of crossed lines." When asked if the "Oswald" he had encountered was the same Oswald that was shot by Jack Ruby, Azcue said "No" because the Oswald that Ruby shot was "considerably younger and had a fuller face" than the "Oswald" he'd dealt with in the Cuban Consulate on September 27, 1963. http://jfkassassination.net/russ/jfkinfo/hscaascu.htm Two things that have always troubled me about Sylvia Duran's testimony is that she claimed Oswald was short, about 5' 5", and that he was dressed "cheaply." The real Oswald was about four inches taller than her and was wearing a nice vest sweater and tie in the passport photos he had just had taken of him about an hour earlier! Scroll down on this link to see his Cuban Visa application photograph: http://history-matters.com/essays/frameup/MoreMexicoMysteries/MoreMexicoMysteries_1.htm Would Eusebio Azcue or Sylvia Duran lie about what "Oswald" looked like? Did Duran and Azcue deal with different Oswald impostors? Is Duran lying or is Azcue lying, or are they both lying? I'm starting to think that the real Oswald didn't even go to Mexico City, and that something really, really "fishy" was going on down there. LOL I hope this helps you understand what I was talking about in the earlier post. --Tommy FWIW, here's a photo of the blond-haired Robert E. Webster in Russia. No, I'm not saying that Robert Webster was in Mexico City. I'm saying that the "blond, dark blond" M.C. Oswald impersonator that Azcue encountered may have "inherited" Webster's hair color through the CIA's Oswald-Webster "marked card" process. Sorry the photo is so large. Edited and bumped.

Jon Tidd, It only took Oswald two days to get his Russian tourist visa from the Russian Consulate in Helsinki. Before he arrived in Helsinki, the average waiting time to get a Russian tourist visa there was one to two weeks. Yes, I know that the Russian consul there had recently shown a profound weakness for CIA-provided Finnish girls, booze, and Leonard Bernstein concerts. Why would the Ruskies have given a tourist visa as quickly as two days to you or I in 1959? Because they would have appreciated us for the wonderful people we secretly are and would have wanted us to get into Russia as soon as possible to spread some good cheer and enlightenment around? Or would they have been more interested in big bucks you (definitely not I) might be planning to spend in Russia? More to my original point, everything I've read indicates that Oswald chose to apply for a Russian tourist visa in the city it which it was the easiest to get it quickly -- Helsinki -- and that although diplomats knew that Helsinki was the easiest place to get it quickly, it was not common knowledge among the general tourist population. --Tommy

Paul, It's called Oswald and the Hunt for Popov's Mole. The easiest way to find it is to go to Simpich's State Secret, Chapter 1: The Double Dangle which you can find a link to near the bottom of the Mary Ferrell Foundation home page. http://www.maryferrell.org/wiki/index.php/Main_Page Click on that link and then scroll down in The Double Dangle until you, see, right before the "Notes" begin, a small reproduction of a page from P.D. Scott's article, Oswald and the Hunt for Popov's Mole from the publication The Fourth Decade. Click on that small page reproduction or on the highlighted word "snapshot" in Simpich's text to the right, and wall-law, you've got it. Of course if everything else fails, you can always click on this link: http://www.maryferrell.org/mffweb/archive/viewer/showDoc.do?absPageId=519798 --Tommy

Tommy, I believe that Bill Simpich's book, "State Secret" (2014) answers the questions about the large blonde Russian guy whose photograph appears in Lee Oswald's CIA 401 file. According to Bill Simpich... He wasn't impersonating Lee Oswald -- the CIA high-command chose to start a "mole-hunt" to find out which "mole" had impersonated Lee Harvey Oswald, ostensibly to link his name with KGB Agent Valery Kostikov. The CIA high-command deliberately altered Lee Oswald's 401 file in many ways, including (1) replacing the photo with a stranger; (2) changing Oswald's middle name to "Henry," (3) slightly changing the names of his parents; (4) slightly changing some date information. Sadly, when the JFK assassination occurred, and the Warren Commission demanded the CIA files on Lee Harvey Oswald, the CIA handed over the tampered-with files. That's all that anybody knew at the lower levels of the CIA. Regards, --Paul Trejo Paul, We're talking about two different people. You're talking about the guy Bill Simpich identified as Yuri Moskalev, a Russian scientist / KGB agent who just happened to be photographed outside the Cuban Consulate on October 2, 1963 but whom Goodpasture lied about date-wise because she desperately needed (for the LIENVOY-penetrator mole hunt -- and wanted to keep the Oswald-Webster three-year-old "marked card" alive in the process), a photograph of an American-looking male, any thirty-ish, white, American-looking male, entering the Cuban Consulate on or around October 1, and since this guy looked a Robert-Webster thirty-ish and was wearing American-style clothing and was approximately the same size as Robert Webster, Goodpasture lied in her cable to CIA HQS when she said that this man (Moskalev) was photographed on October 1 instead of October 2. Goodpasture said October 1 because that was the day that an "Oswald" impostor was on record, literally and figuratively, as having made a phone call, from the Cuban Consulate to the Russian Embassy, in which he mentioned having met previously with Russian vice consul Valery Kostikov, whom some in the CIA believed was in charge of KGB assassinations and sabotage in the Western Hemisphere. The "blond Oswald" I'm talking about is not Moskalev, who was first photographed on October 2 (and who wasn't particularly blond, anyway), but the mysterious "dark blond Oswald" whom Cuban consul Eusebio Azcue remembered coming to the Cuban Consulate on September 27, trying to get a visa to Cuba, and with whom Azcue got into an argument. The description of the "Oswald" he encountered conflicts significantly with that provided by Silvia Duran. According to Azcue, the "Oswald" he encountered had "blond, dark blond hair," was "over thirty," "very thin, very thin faced," and was wearing not a sweater vest but a "suit or coat" that was "blue, with some reddish" and which had "a pattern of crossed lines." When asked if the "Oswald" he had encountered was the same Oswald that was shot by Jack Ruby, Azcue said "No" because the Oswald that Ruby shot was "considerably younger and had a fuller face" than the "Oswald" he'd dealt with in the Cuban Consulate on September 27, 1963. http://jfkassassination.net/russ/jfkinfo/hscaascu.htm Two things that have always troubled me about Silvia Duran's testimony is her saying that Oswald was short, about 5' 5", and that he was dressed "cheaply." The real Oswald was about four inches taller than her and was wearing a nice vest sweater and tie in the passport photos he had just had taken of him about an hour earlier! Scroll down on this link to see his Cuban Visa application photograph: http://history-matters.com/essays/frameup/MoreMexicoMysteries/MoreMexicoMysteries_1.htm Would Eusebio Azcue or Silvia Duran lie about what "Oswald" looked like? Did Duran and Azcue deal with different Oswald impostors? Is Duran lying or is Azcue lying, or are they both lying? I'm starting to think that the real Oswald didn't even go to Mexico City, and that something really, really, really "fishy" was going on down there. LOL I hope this helps you understand what I was talking about in the earlier post. --Tommy FWIW, here's a photo of the blond-haired Robert E. Webster in Russia. No, I'm not saying that Robert Webster was in Mexico City. I'm saying that the "blond, dark blond" M.C. Oswald impersonator that Azcue encountered in the Cuban Consulate on September 27, 1963, may have "inherited" (i.e. chosen for) his blond hair through the CIA's Oswald-Webster "marked card" process.

Interesting post, Mr. Tidd. Do you think Angleton was interested in finding out who had been manipulating Oswald in a classical CIA vs. KGB counter-intelligence or espionage sort of way, or who was manipulating Oswald into becoming the perfect patsy for the assassination, or both? Regarding the former, let's not forget Angleton's search for "Popov's Mole" which began at the same time that Oswald arrived in Moscow, or the fact that Oswald, while still in Russia, was given Robert Webster's biometrics by Dallas FBI agent John Fain (in apparent collusion with CI/SIG's Ann Ergerter and SR/CE's Bill Bright -- who soon had them incorporated into some of Oswald's CIA files). As regard's the manipulating of Oswald or Oswald's files into his becoming the perfect patsy, let's not forget the telephonic impersonation (by an apparent SAS or Staff D insider) and the physical impersonation by a "blond Oswald" in Mexico City. Which gives me an idea: Why didn't the blond "Oswald" in Mexico City dye his hair brown to look more like Oswald? The fact that he didn't suggests that the plotters or his handlers either didn't know what Oswald looked like or thought that Oswald was blond, like the 5'10", 166 lb. Robert Webster, or didn't care and chose to impersonate Oswald in a manner consistent with what was already in his Intelligence files. It looks like the plotters still thought that (5'9", 131 lb.) Oswald was a Webster-like 5'10" and 165 lbs. on 11/22/63 because that was the assassin's description as broadcast over police radio, fifteen minutes after the assassination, by Dallas Police Inspector J. Herbert Sawyer. --Tommy Question: Why do you say that it's "easy to point fingers at the CIA, FBI, and ONI" in this case?

OK, Jon. You're right. Oswald wasn't an intelligence operative. He was just a nineteen-year-old "Odd Duck" marine smart enough to have acquired a radar and U-2 background who knew how to get into Russia quickly and who, after attempting to renounce his citizenship and threatening inside the U.S embassy in Moscow to commit espionage against the U.S. (but never charged), was not given a "dishonorable" discharge by the Marine Corps but a less serious "undesirable" one, and later given his passport back and allowed to return to the U.S. with a Russian wife whose uncle was an officer in the MKVD, and who, despite his above-mentioned background and the fact that he was starting a chapter of the Fair Play for Cuba Committee in New Orleans, was not only given a new U.S. passport, but was given it quickly. It's no wonder that he, at some point, came to the attention of the assassination plotters. LOL --Tommy

Dawn, You wouldn't expect him to make a coffee table out of it, would you? LOL --Tommy PS When you say "Robert is no relation to Harvey Oswald," are you coming from a legalistic point of view, or a "Lee and Harvey" John Armstrong point of view?

Jon Tidd, One of the many possible missions for a false defector to Russia (who by definition either had a means of getting sensitive information to the U.S., or who planned to re-defect to the U.S. some day) might have been to gather "soviet realities" intelligence as mundane as where post offices were located, what time they turned the street lights on, and what the passenger train schedules were. The CIA had a special section for collecting this kind of intelligence in Russia: SR/6. In his "Historic Diary," Oswald wrote extensively about the radio factory he worked in. I believe I've read that this information ended up in a special file at CIA. Knowing that Oswald had been trained in certain aspects of electronics by the Marine Corps, the CIA could have reasonably expected that the Russians would put him to work in an electronics-oriented factory. Oswald himself said he hoped the Russians would let him go to school. If the Russians had sent him to an electronics school, he might have "picked up" a lot of information on Russian electronic devices, the locations of different electronics factories, and the status of different electronics projects. --Tommy

Jon Tidd, I'm working on it. It could take a few more years, so don't hold your breath. For now we'll go with your template -- That Oswald was just an Odd Duck (wannabe spy?, the first marine "hippie"?, just plain nuts?) who happened to attract the attention of the CIA and FBI, etc (but heaven knows- NOT the KGB because, well, he didn't have any radar or U-2 secrets to give them and they somehow already knew that he didn't have any), and that he (or was it "Harvey"?) was somehow manipulated into being the perfect JFK Assassination Patsy. As regards your question, Jon, Oswald's exact "mission" in Helsinki (yes I know Finland was a neutral country and not part of the U.S.S.R. but I thought I'd throw that in there) or Russia probably doesn't matter, anyway, as regards the JFK assassination, because the important thing is that so many "marked cards" (false bits of information about him) were intentionally placed in his CIA and FBI and MI files from late 1959 on, ostensibly for a "mole hunt," as to make him practically untraceable and easy to attach a useful "legend" to. On a philosophical level, I would imagine that it's almost impossible to "prove" any past intelligence mission which an Intelligence agency or agencies may have taken great efforts to hide and obsfuscate (because said "mission" somehow tied in with the assassination) through: prevarications, redactions, "lost" documents, more redactions, more "lost" documents, even more redactions, "eliminations," "routinely destroyed" documents, prevarications, and oh yes I almost forgot-- "withheld-in full-for-50-plus-years-in-the-interest-of-national-security" barriers. Now I have a few questions for you, Jon: Is it reasonable to assume that the U.S. had "false defector" programs into the U.S.S.R. during the Cold War? If so, is it possible that at least one of those false defectors might not have known the real reason he was sent and / or was sent precisely because he appeared to be an "Odd Duck" who just might know some military secrets? What do we know about the "missions" that any of the U.S. false defectors were on (if there were any U.S. false defectors)? Separate Question: Would you agree with former Senator Richard Schweiker of the Church Committee that "Oswald had the fingerprints of Intelligence all over him"? --Tommy PS I forgot one: Illegibility. It's hard to spot any possible "marked cards" in an illegible document, even when the illegibility is unintentional. Take this 1965 FBI document on soldier (with "secret" clearance) at U.S. Army 513th MI Group (Frankfurt, Germany) and apparent re-defector to "U.S.S.R." --Vladimir Sloboda --, for example. He defected to Russia on August 2, 1960, while Oswald was still in Minsk and Robert Webster was still in Leningrad. FWIW, The document says "Army records indicate Sloboda was an officer in Polish Intelligence prior to his defection to the West." https://www.maryferrell.org/mffweb/archive/viewer/showDoc.do?docId=91165&relPageId=2 I don't know if Oswald or Webster had any "connections" to Sloboda, but it sure would be nice to be able to read all of this document in order to determine whether or not any "marked cards" were put in it (and by the same token, whether or not any "marked cards" were put in the Intelligence documents any other U.S. "defectors," as well), with the goal of finding out if Oswald was the only "defector" whose CIA and FBI and MI documents were selectively laced with bits of misinformation.

Mark, Yes, indeed. Nice of them to do that. But I'm not so sure that they did. According to Newman in Oswald and the CIA, after Snyder finished typing some other documents, he and Oswald started talking and a few minutes later Snyder, noticing that Oswald's address had been scratched out in his passport, started stalling Oswald by telling him that in order for his Renunciation of Citizenship papers to be typed up, he'd first need to know some basic information like his address and the address of his closest living relative, which Oswald didn't want to give to Snyder. Then they did some verbal fencing for several more minutes until Oswald threatened to give the Russians some military secrets once he became a Soviet citizen, at which time Snyder told him that since it was now after 12 o'clock, the embassy, unfortunately, was closed and Oswald would have to come back another day to complete the process. Newman doesn't say anything about Snyder's advising Oswald to hold off on renouncing his citizenship until he'd received his Soviet citizenship, but I'm not surprised that the newspaper article claimed that he had. Of course, Oswald didn't go back. I'm thinking he didn't go back because he didn't want to renounce his citizenship in the first place and he was afraid he would be arrested, for having verbally threatened (for the benefit if the KGB listening devices) to commit espionage, if he did return. Interestingly, although Oswald was still a U.S. citizen, he left his passport with Snyder when he dramatically stormed out of the embassy. I'm thinking he did that to impress the Russians, too, and knew that he would get it back eventually. I'm inclined to think that Oswald scratched out his address in his passport and entered the embassy a little after 11:00 on a Saturday morning (Oswald later wrote, lamely and possibly for "plausible deniability," that it was 12:30) so that the above scenario could happen and so that he could return to the U.S. some day after completing whatever intelligence mission he was on. Supporting this theory is the fact that, instead of feeling frustrated at not being able to renounce his citizenship that Saturday morning, he is actually "elated" with the results of his "showdown" with Snyder and is, as he wrote a couple of years later in his Historic Diary, "sure [the] Russians will except [sic] me after this sign of my faith in them," . --Tommy

Paul, My bad. It's titled Oswald and the Hunt for Popov's Mole. I found a link to it in Simpich's State Secret, Chapter I: The Double Dangle. To read "Popov's Mole," click on "snapshot" The writer Peter Dale Scott offers us an early 1961 snapshot of this ex-Marine, just turned 21, identified as someone who might have been impersonated by J. Edgar Hoover himself: “(Oswald now had) a legend with an ambiguous U.S.-Soviet background, whose citizenship and whose ideological alignment were now both in question...The documentary record on Oswald, beginning with the UPI story on the weekend of his defection, was salted with references to his interest in going to Cuba...in 1963 the products of the Oswald (marked card) operation were used to double for a propaganda operation whose purpose was to neutralize the Fair Play for Cuba Committee."[ 28 ] That propaganda operation will eventually take us to Mexico City just two months before the assassination, where Oswald was impersonated when he tried once again to get an instant visa – this time, to go to Cuba as well as the Soviet Union. First, however, we should take a look at how Bill Harvey’s people tried to take over the Oswald case in 1961, before realizing that Egerter controlled the Oswald file. After that, they continued to monitor it. https://www.maryferrell.org/wiki/index.php/State_Secret_Chapter1#ftn10 Enjoy, --Tommy

Not necessarily in order of importance: 1. Were there two Oswalds -- Lee and Harvey? 2. Was the Z-film substantially altered? 3. Was "Doorman" Oswald? Was "Prayer Man" Oswald? 4. Was Oswald a witting accomplice in the assassination? 5. Was Oswald ever an Intelligence agent? 6. What were the nature of JFK's wounds? 6. Where was Oswald at the time of the assassination? 7. ? --Tommy