Larry Hancock

When Oswald was first looking for jobs in Dallas he focused on making use of his Russian skills for translation. Oswald obtained the name of two Russian speaking petroleum geologists in the Fort Forth area and he himself approached the elder Gregory (who taught Russian classes at a local Fort Worth library), he was impressed with Oswald's language ability and gave him a written recommendation. The association developed further with the elder Gregory making introductions for Oswald in the area Russian community and Gregory's son taking Russian language lessons from Marina... For details on Lee and Marina's earliest months in the US you should find this helpful: https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=56967#relPageId=6&search="the_CPUSA" and oswald

Sandy is taking this the right direction, I've recently been revisiting Oswald in 62/63 and this connection among others has been of real interest, even to how Oswald connected to Gregory in the first place (based on Oswald's own initiative and his interest in getting a job as a translator) - by the way, Gregory tested Oswald's Russian skills and even wrote him a letter of recommendation. Very little contemporary information from 1962 or the testimony taken immediately after the assassination supports what appears to be in the book - sounds more like an old guy profiting by taking a sensational story to a publisher or just getting linked up with an editor who shaped it that way....of course sensation is the way to get publishers and books these days. Its even possible that Oswald pushed back on the short "friendships" over basics disagreements on politics or even because one of the two were "hitting" on Marina, something Oswald had been sensitive to even in Russia. There certainly are indications that Marina was a flirt and that some of the reported fights with Lee may have been about more than smoking or house cleaning. Probably won't find that in the book though... I do encourage everyone to really dig into the transcripts as Sandy has done and I think you will find they really undermine the factual and historical thrust of this new book.

Joe, I'm afraid you are a bit off on both Kathy and Olsen - its a shame that some of the great research done over the years seems to fade into the past. I suggest you check out Ian Grigg's article for the actual details: http://massinjustice.org/Kennedy 4 22 Search Stripper Kathy K.pdf

Jean Paul, I explore some details that you may not be aware of in regard to Olsen, his "guard" duty and a couple of his friends associates also involved - including one motorcycle officer assigned to the motorcade - in the last section of Tipping Point. Its a free read on MFF so you might want to take a look given your interest.

My take would be as you describe, Sforza using the network from within the US. For that matter we also have documentation showing that both Morales (probably related to possible boat exfiltration) and Phillips in Mexico (aircraft exfiltration) were both read into the attempt to extract Castro's sister....which aborted in 1963 but did happen later. As I said in another post, some of the early Sparticus material has become a bit dated in terms of what we have learned in more recent years.

Also in 1963 Sforza was well out of Cuba and running the operation of WAVE Cuban Intelligence Service / Counter Intelligence group - the AMOTS. AMOTs were used in Miami and elsewhere including on penetration missions against the Cuban embassy in Mexico city. The AMOT group monitored the Cuban communities in the US for unsanctioned military activities as well as to detect Cuban intelligence penetrations of the US.

.....I've developed as much detail on that question as we could find; its all given in chronological sequence in Tipping Point, up and though the formation of Commando Mambesis in the summer of 1963 - and the competition between it (a creation of JMWAVE) and AMWORLD (a creation of RFK and SAS). The best I can do is refer you to that as its far more extensive than any post here could be. If you want the exact details on the attempts at infiltration before and during the initial Cuba Project those come largely from the Taylor Commission report, the CIA's IG and historians reports on that project and some of my own research and you would it covered in my book In Denial. We have documents showing that the Castro assassination project restarted under Harvey was ongoing and funded through 1963, there are documents showing operational meetings (involving Harvey, Roselli and either Moore or Morales or both) and calls on the project through April of that year. In April a boat trip was made by Harvey and others down to the boat ops base in the Keys. As to sources, Ayers mentions briefly observing a very special and compartmentalized shooting team base was operating under Morales and Robertson when he arrived at WAVE in 1963. Roselli referred to sniper teams that were sent into Cuba in 1963 in information circulated in Washington DC circa 1967 but he later gave no details on that in his first testimony to the Church Committee. In those remarks he stopped at the poison plots; when he was called back to be asked about 62/63 and shooting teams he never made it, being murdered before that could happen. I will leave it to David to respond to your questions about chain of command for such missions in 1963 and he is far more deeply into the organization structure at WAVE and how it evolved over the years.

Gerry, again we go though all the details on this including when Felix was infiltrated and how and in turn how that aborted in the Wheaton leads....but to answer your question the sniper attacks in question at the beach were most definitely in 1961, in the same time frame as the poison plots against Castro. Both desperation moves to take him out prior to the Brigade landings. As to 1963, we have strictly anecdotal information that a rifle team may have remained in play for attacks on Castro, but noting specific to suggest an actual effort was made in that year. Its not impossible but it it had been done it would have occurred under Moore and Robertson's operational oversight.

I suspect that taking Felix's own writing to literally would be a problem; he's a very bright guy, well trained in CIA practices including disinformation. He might tell us enough to convey his general career and exploits but at best we get clues and leads from him. As an example, he writes in some detail about the capture and killing of Che, however from documents we now know that he certainly was not the only CIA officer involved and that some of his personal remarks are not totally correct. I think I probably read and studied his book a dozen times over the years to extract what I thought was useful. One thing that is notable from it, including being impressed by his skills, is the lack of detail he provides about his movements and activities in 1963. His recruitment and involvement in AMWORLD would have been an interesting story - but its not one he decided to tell.

Gerry, the full details - as far as we know them now - about the Varadero Beach plan are in the Wheaton Leads papers that David and I published on the MFF site as well as in Tipping Point. https://www.maryferrell.org/pages/Essay_-_The_Wheaton_Lead.html And yes the chief figure was Felix Rodriquez although a second Cuban appears to have been involved. Felix himself confirmed his involvement in a sniper attack plan, although without giving any details. ....Looks like David posted at the same time I did...

As Jim notes, at one point in time I was given the impression, by someone who did routinely talk with Summers, that he was on the fence about conspiracy, then his second book - Not in Your Lifetime - came out, covering all the standard bases but with a bit of a slant to the Mafia and with no firm conclusion. He certainly did not reject a conspiracy, but he didn't present a definitive solution or assert a conclusion, so it struck me he had indeed ended up on the fence.

Greg, much of the information in those Spartacus bios is pretty old at this point and I have no idea where that came from...Jenkins was in the reserves in Louisiana at some point after WWII, that is part of the bio material on him Wheaton supplied to the ARRB. However Jenkins was a military guy, seconded to the CIA for paramilitary tasks on occasion, as were a number of Army and Marine officers. He was not a CIA officer himself. The remarks about Marcello and a recruitment of Oswald appear to me to be pure speculation with nothing to support them other than geographic propinquity. I don't know here the quote you referenced came from but I can say for sure that its in nothing that Wheaton submitted to the ARRB. I know others have taken it further but for myself I've never gone beyond what Wheaton did say to the ARRB, which was basically that he heard conversations in which both Quintero and Jenkins were being told or disusing the fact that certain of their associates and trainees during the era of the Cuba projects had been involved in the attack on JFK. I would stand by what David and I have written in the Wheaton lead monographs and in Tipping Point but anything beyond that is speculation.

Greg, I'm not sure where you got the part about recruiting Oswald, that is totally new to me. Everyone needs to go back to the original information Wheaton provided to the ARRB, which was nothing more than a lead to two men who might have information on the assassination based on what they would have heard from their associates and people they had trained in earlier years. Hopefully you have read our Wheaton lead papers which discuss what and what was not claimed in the contact with the ARRB.

To me this is one more are where recall can easily blur things like exact dates. Clearly AMWORLD as a project started in 1963 and was administratively and logistically underway by early Fall. Operationally it did not get underway until 1964. Its highly probable Jenkins got his assignment o the project before the end of 1963 and traveled back to the U.S. before he actually assumed his new day job with AMWORLD. Add a few decades of memory to those sorts of details and its easy to get minor variations in dates without it being particularly suspicious. I've gotten dates on my own resume wrong when I chose to rely strictly on memory.,..

Here is the current, updated, speaker list for the 2022 JFK Lancer virtual conference - which will streamed online Friday, November 18th, Saturday, November 19th and Sunday, November 20th. The format will be the same as the previous JFK Lancer virtual conferences - as will the prices. There will be student prices and students will have access to everything listed for the conference-only price. The conference only price is $64.99, the student price will be $34.99 and the full Conference and Digital Download fee is $119.99 The "Conference Only" price will give you access to the conference online, access to re watch the presentations until the 30th of November, and access to the conference Facebook group. For an additional fee, you will be able to do digital downloads of the entire conference. Speakers/Presenters include: Bill Simpich Larry Hancock Robert Groden Gil Jesus David Boylan Brent Holland Jim DiEugenio Monica Weisak Mike Chesser Larry Schnapf Johnny Cairns Rex Bradford I'd like to note that Rex Bradford will be reviewing enhancements to the Mary Ferrell Foundation web site as well as plans for restoring access to the extensive research and resources formerly available on the JFK Lancer web site. Please use the following link to register for the 2022 conference (we know it is the earlier 2021 conference page, but it is what we are using for 2022 as we still are not able to update the actual content on the page due to hosting problems). https://jfklancerpublications.com/?fbclid=IwAR0MYMd_B2oq_oRZRd0mLlXFa7txmrDJblVzitni8uEgyw4RCP4N0XYHlV0 If you have questions concerning registration please conduct Gabriella Glenn, the conference administrator, directly at her email: gab.glenn12@gmail.com .

I did find the Burris folder...amazingly....and am looking for specific documents, however my summary notes say that DeMohrenschildt and Clemard Charles met with Burris on April 26 - DeMohrenschildt was primarily doing an introduction for Charles who was pleading for US intervention in Haiti. Charles was also being worked as a source of intelligence on Haiti by Army Intelligence (Dorthy Matlock of the Army Chief of Staff office) and she was sharing the information they collected with the CIA. She continued contacts with Charles through at least May. I find nothing more on the meeting other than it being listed on a schedule; however it seems not to have made much of an impression because there is a summary report from Burris to Johnson in regard to national security issues as of April and while several countries - even Yemen - are listed, there is no mention of Haiti. Johnson was scheduled to fly out of DC that day and did so, which is why Burris was given the meeting as his national security aid. Whether Johnson stopped by to greet Charles is unclear but if he did it was brief as he did fly out of town that day. During that period of time DeMohrenschildt was heavily leveraging his contacts with Clemard Charles and clearly attempting to impress Charles with his own connections. I should also mention that virtually all the documents I have on the relationship between Burris and Johnson and Burris's work for him are from the LBJ Library files, not from NARA.

I wish I could give you a citation from memory but I can't ....what I do recall, because I was once intensely involved in studying Burris and collected a great number of documents on him, is that there was one which referenced his meeting with DeMohrenschildt in response to his communications with Johnson but there was no indication of Johnson's being in the meeting or even of his particular interest. At that point in time Johnson was letting Burris serve as his second in lots of meetings. If I can find my Burris file I'll take a look but those documents were collected by hand from NARA and I have no idea if they ever made it online. Most were from Johnson's files not from the JFK investigation....

If you factor in a little history and some context it becomes much clearer. Russia began implementing a strategy of energy warfare several years ago, shutting down the gas lines to Europe mid-winter. Europe really didn't push back, Russia proceeded with actions against the former Republics like Georgia and turned the gas back on after a sort time. It was pretty effective messaging. At this point the tide has turned and Europe is building all sorts of new infrastructure, much of it involving expanding and building new pipelines...including under water lines. Putin has just demonstrated that all that infrastructure is at risk. Its just an extension of his energy warfare / blackmail concept and was certainly anticipated by intelligence services, including ours. Hence the warnings.

I can confirm that that Monica Weisak will be presenting at the JFK Lancer virtual conference. Thanks Jim.

Denny, I don't have a full list of speakers from Garbiella (who is largely doing the recurring) so I can't say for sure but could you tell me who it is that has that information - it would help be check?

Jerry is definitely not doing tours any longer, just checked that with him recently. However Jerry referred anyone interested to Freda Dilliard who did tours with him and still does - I can recommend her as well. You should be able to reach her at: 214-676-1510

Indeed David, Oswald was an excellent role player - and "It was (almost) always him". Well said!

The JFK Lancer 2022 Virtual Conference will be held online Friday, November 18th, Saturday, November 19th and Sunday, November 20th. The format will be the same as the previous JFK Lancer virtual conferences - as will the prices. There will be astudent price and students will have access to everything listed for the conference-only price. The conference only price is $64.99, the student price will be $34.99 and the full Conference and Digital Download fee is $119.99 The "Conference Only" price will give you access to the conference online, access to re-watch the presentations until the 30th of November, and access to the conference Facebook group. For an additional fee, you will be able to do digital downloads of the entire conference. We are still finalizing the full speaker list and schedule but a partial list includes: Bill Simpich, David Boylan, Johnny Cairns, Mike Chesser, Jim DiEugenio, Larry Hancock, Robert Groden and Gil Jesus. I will post the registration page link and additional information as it becomes available, however Gabriella Glen is serving as the administrator and web operator again this year and you may contact her directly at her email with questions: gab.glenn12@gmail.com

Thanks for providing the Titovet's accent remarks Greg...

David, I leave the exploration you outlined to you; I was simply posting some contextual material for those interested - I always feel that is valuable. I will comment that Oswald certainly did find a dialog partner in Titovits while in Russia (even before Marina) but of course that is later than the dates you are pursuing.