Larry Hancock

About all I can say its that its surely not unique to TrineDay, having worked with three small and two mid sized publishers they all have the same return policy problems, not just from Amazon but the storefront dealers that remain. About the only good news is eBook sales and that has its own unique problems. 

Sorry, you need to look under NEW, in the left hand menu, then under Chapter 12 photos, the second Mistaken Identify photo and you will find Oswald compared to Masen and a few others.   I don't have a sublink that works at that level.

As for a passing resemblance, well they are both white males but I find it hard to believe that other a considerable distance anyone would mistake one from the other.  That would be a real stretch...and I have said so to Dick in the past.

Whenever this comes up its always good to have a photo comparison of Mason and Oswald - and then ask yourself what in the world Dick was thinking...grin.

http://www.larry-hancock.com/documents/index.html

There are a number of other Wheaton documents on my leb site at the link below; they support Appendix H in SWHT which is my discussion of the overall Wheaton story.   Of course Malcolm did start the whole thing by sending me a handful; it has certainly grown from there.

http://www.larry-hancock.com/documents/index.html

Very interesting Anthony!   One of the things that has held my attention for some time is the chaos created by the various spy games being played against both the Russians and Cubans in Mexico City.  Certainly the CIA ran its own operations, on occasion using assets run out of either JMWAVE or using AMOTS deployed to Mexico City.  Bill Simpich and Stu Wexler have spent a lot of time on those over the years, collecting a great deal of research not all of which has been written up  yet, same for David Boylan. 

The FBI also ran its own projects - and sometimes the two shared information and ran joint efforts, especially if the Cubans or Russians were doing something that would cross the border one way or the other into the US.  Beyond that there is the question of what the Russians might have been doing in terms of gaming the US or even the Cubans in Mexico City.

Whether the Bakulin project ties directly to an Oswald impersonation or not, your paper is extremely educational in helping us understand how such counter intelligence projects worked.

What puzzles me equally, is if this much effort was put into Bakulin, what in the world did the FBI do about a known Russian agent who had been handed off to them by the CIA from activities in Europe and who was apparently in the American southwest, crossing back and forth into Mexico and actively conducting espionage (and possibly setting up sabotage networks). Such a target would appear to have drown a great amount of FBI attention but as far as I know the documents recovered to date are virtually non-existent once the CIA hands him over to the FBI.  We know names and crypts...but where is his story?  If someone has done some new work on Tumbleweed I would love to see it.  Certainly it should be equal to or greater than this Bakulin activity.

https://www.maryferrell.org/php/cryptdb.php?id=AEBURBLE

Actually funding came from within the CIA, from operational accounts designated to established projects.  The funding for the Castro poison plots under the Cuban Project came out of Bissell's Cuba Project; the expenses for the follow on for Mongoose came out of different accounts - Staff D operations/ZR RIFLE and supplies came out of Shackley's base budget.  One of the first things Morales did was to work on how to hide expenses within existing programs and projects. Its not off the books, its how to hide it within the books.

Just for reference, none of the orders to initiate the Castro assassination projects ever came out of the Special Group during the first Cuba Project or during Mongoose with Harvey,  They came from either the CIA Director or from the head of CIA plans/ops as with Richard Bissell.  And they got canceled the same way.  Helms actually signed off on the funding for 1963 and then "apparently" told Harvey to shut it down...its all verbal until somebody has to issue the money or sign an expense report.

You might want to contact the publisher directly and ask about the delay....given that there would likely be contractual and legal issues that might need to be addressed after his passing its even possible it might not be about the book itself. 

Robert, you have been sorely missed...!

In regard to manpower shortages, and Vince is well aware of it, this was not just a trip to Dallas, it was a trip to multiple cities in Dallas all in sequence as well as several major events and appearances that required security.  Plus the route through downtown Dallas did involve a considerable number of high rise buildings, certainly down Main Street. I know that Vince has commented on the huge manpower pull involved from what was a relatively small protective division - which had just been through the Miami and Tampa trips as well.

Probably also worth noting that if  you read the actual security reports from Dallas, the DPD was much more concerned about potential ground level protests and incidents (based on recent experiences even including Johnson being chased though downtown Dallas) and especially at perimeter and entry security at the Trade Center.

Nothing at all wrong with looking at documents....well nothing other than potential eye strain and spousal objections.  "New" is just a relative term, those things might be new to some of his potential readers, it would just be a stretch to claim that he was the first one to find and report on the items listed.  Another point might be that his sales were simply so low that he dropped out; depends on his publishing arrangement.  Someone entering this arena now and expecting massive sales had best have something truly new and pretty sensational...

Without being negative I'd have to say that most of the things that he "discovered" in the documents are not terribly new and have been circulating in JFK literature for years, decades even.  In fact several of them go back to first generation researchers and their various books. I don't see anything there that was not known and being discussed when I first entered the fray back in the early 90's? 

Looks like his application in 1973 was to work as a crane operator for a CIA contractor....makes me think about the Glomar Explorer and the 1974 CIA contracted operation with Hughes to recover the K-129 Soviet Submarine - Project Arizonian.

Just a little comment on the name....us "southerners" (especially back then) do use two names,  both men and women.  Especially so when legal or employment documents are concerned - I have paperwork for Larry Hancock, Joe Hancock, and Larry Joe Hancock.  If Oswald went into the paybooks as Lee Harvey Oswald he likely got paid that way, as for myself yes I have often received paychecks in my full name as Larry Joe Hancock. 

The key would be to find how Oswald was listed on his employment form and in the pay books.

Actually we do know that and have documents for it.  I've written about it before but generally speaking it began with Garrison sending investigators to Miami to inquire into what was felt to be a mysterious, most likely Cuban, seen in NO photos with Oswald leafleting and reported by various people in Oswald's company.  When Garrison's investigators arrived in Miami they needed contacts to pursue the lead, contacted local police and in the end were referred to a long time detective agency - owned by DeTorres's brother - as a great source on all things Cuban.  And given that de Torres was serving as the intelligence officer for the reconstituted volunteer Brigade, who better to know all things Cuban in Miami.  The rest follows...if you wanted a gate keeper for the conspiracy in Miami nobody was in a better position than de Torres. 

I find this really fascinating.  As David and Jim D have pointed out the photo is a real ringer in the whole thing.  If it was an impersonation it was either impromptu or totally unplanned and way below CIA standards.  I have to belive the photo came out of a dossier rather than being from a MC visit...which likely means CIA or KGB.

To throw something else in the discussion (which Stu raised to me) we may be dealing with overlapping agendas.  Some sort of impersonations were clearly in play given the bogus phone calls. But after the fact, Phillips may have seized the day by literally trying to insert Oswald and a Cuban plot into the assassination - as with Alvarado.  It would be much like Phillips and he could have done it without HQ direction....he had been cited for similar scams in MC before, against the Soviets.

In a way its like the DRE and exile efforts following the assassination, with DRE and others rushing to insert Oswald in may ways including Martino's outreach to the FBI.   But all of them without any really solid proof.  If there was material put together to implicate Oswald in advance it seems to have been either pretty marginal or for some reason did not get introduced as per the plan.

Well I don't have any direct experience (despite a few claims...grin) but after studying the Agency as well as the overall intelligence community for a couple of decades its becoming more familiar.  Actually the crypt work of the last few years, with David, Bill, Stu, Carmine and others had really opened up new windows since now we can know what groups are involved in a communication, often specific groups or individuals who are mentioned and the routing information...which can really be key.  I found a CIA document the other day on the formation of Alpha 66 and it was  copied to DIA, FBI, INS, Army, Navy Air Force and Justice. The routing allows you to follow who and what office was involving who on certain topics - which is a useful baseline if the distributions can then be found to have become more restrictive.

Actually I was thinking of the Special Activities Staff.....as related to Des Fitzgerald's Cuba assignment circa 1963

As to CIA specialties, poison was always a favorite but on a number of occasions rifles were provided to surrogates for assassinations....during the period we normally discuss the CIA organized at least three and possibly more sniper attacks on Fidel Castro, using Cuban paramilitary volunteers.  Its probably wrong to think that only the professional military  has highly qualified rifle personnel,  in recent years we saw very skilled Kurdish men and women snipers fighting back against ISIS forces in urban combat.

Certainly the military does deploy specialty trained sniper teams but a rifle attack in DP would certainly not require that - its a relatively small venue for rifles and it was not the sort of combat situation where trained sniper teams have to operate under extreme concealment and at long range.

I've maintained for a long time that the attack in the plaza was conducted by a well trained paramilitary team but as far as those skills go you will find such individuals among the names David and I discuss in our Wheaton names research.  Felix Rodriquez would be one example, there are others - CIA personnel documents even comment on the shooting skills of certain of them.

Matt, we discussed this a bit on my blog....thing is that Leonov was third secretary and we don't know all his duties but we do know some of them actually involved political action to the extent of supporting Russian efforts working with communist revolutionary groups inside Mexico.  That was a really serious deal in the early sixties, they were quite militant, well armed and a significant threat although not much is written about it these days.  So his diplomatic profile might have been relatively low....and Duran would not have attended diplomatic events, not even sure Ascue would have attended anything were Russians were present.  As I noted, relations between Moscow and Castro were strained after the missile crisis and Castro was seriously moving against the communist parties inside Cuba.

Its a good point and it deserves investigation but that also means some deep digging into Soviet diplomatic/political action activities in Mexico at that point in time.

Steve, could you refresh me on how we know this was Army training at Fort Benning?  Perhaps David could help but I would have assumed it was CIA special training for SAS either at JMWAVE or at the farm/Langley?  

My thought is that JFK's grandson has the clearer (and less self serving) view....

https://www.cnn.com/2020/01/18/politics/jfk-grandson-pence-profiles-in-courage/index.html

Ron, if you have SWHT you will find a pretty detailed history on Morales, we do have most of his personnel records.  He joined the CIA from the military and while he maintained a military record as a backstop cover (at an enlisted rank no less) his career was strictly within the CIA from that point on....he also worked under US State Department cover and later in SE Asia under USAID cover.  After separation from the CIA he took a position as a counter insurgency staff advisor on the Joint Chiefs staff.

During his work on the Cuba Project he did maintain some intelligence/military contacts - primarily with the Navy, in particular with Navy intelligence officers at Guantanamo.

In 1963 he was CIA Chief of Operations at JMWAVE in Miami, still associated with the AMOT Cuban intelligence group under Tony Sforza and remained the military case officer for the DRE...he definitely worked a variety of projects and appears to have traveled to Mexico City on occasion in conjunction with the JMWAVE ancillary at the detached operation there, which included AMOT intelligence activities.

Anyway, if you have the book you will find more details and a chronology of his career there.

It goes a bit deeper than that in terms of Cuban affairs, Harvey consulted with Angleton on his assassination assignment..., was given introduction to British CI to discuss possible outsourcing and specifically knew it was targeting Castro as Angleton made arrangements to provide one of his own sources inside Cuba as support for Harvey and the effort.  Harvey's biographer also describes an especially close relationship not only with Angleton but also a very tight relationship between not just Harvey and Roselli but also with David Morales.  And Morales of course supported Harvey in the restart of the Castro assassination effort under Task Force W and Mongoose.

All this becomes especially important because prior to this relocation to Italy,  Harvey remained involved with CI activities (as Bill Simpich as illustrated) but with virtually nobody else to relate to at HQ after Task Force W was shut down, would had ample time for visits by Angleton...who would have kept him updated on a variety of things.....including the initial back channel Castro contacts for a dialog with JFK.

If anyone wants to know how Harvey felt about JFK and RFK you might find these remarks by his wife to be interesting:

https://jfkfacts.org/a-true-sounding-of-the-politics-around-kennedy-when-he-was-assassinated/

I think the best characterization of Oswald - from George D. - was that he was a proto hippie,  interested in a great many things and not at all willing to accept established practices (or orders in the Marines), wanting adventure, to try new things,  ready to start an argument with anyone appearing to be traditional or dogmatic.  Delgado described him as interested in the revolution against Batista but as much so for adventure as for social justice. But he did sour on the Russians, you see that in the manuscript, and hippies could be patriotic as well, some even enlisted.  In the end it might was likely his sense of adventure and willingness to play outside the box that made him useful....to people with quite different agendas.

If anything Oswald represented a great source of anti-Russian, anti-Communist propaganda.  Having essentially chosen the Soviet Union and spent time there, his unpublished monograph contains harsh remarks about Russia essentially using ideology strictly for their nationalist purposes.  It would have been great stuff...and Domestic Ops was fully aware of it.  For some reason the decision was made to defer on that, taking advantage of Oswald's interests in Cuba and Castro's socialist revolution - apparently with the hope of using him against the FPCC - a new target for both the FBI and the CIA in 1962/63.  The result in New Orleans was the production a major propaganda piece built around Oswald (including a record of his radio appearance), published by INCA, scheduled for wide scale distribution across Latin America  and failing in that purpose only by being subsumed in the assassination.

The fact that Kent himself had taken up office in New Orleans during that period suggests Oswald being a useful idiot against communism and Cuba and the FPCC...and the refusal to release CIA files related to Joinnedes and the DRE is another indication that CIA was using Oswald's connection with the DRE and subsequent events (very likely manipulated via DRE) as a propaganda tool.

  --- at least to me...