Steve Thomas

Chris, Hosty said that he stopped in Irving on his way back from Fort Worth. Has he ever said what he was actually doing in Fort Worth? Isn't that where George DeMohrenschildt, George Bouhe and Max Clark all lived? Max Clark who first approached Oswald on his return from Russia, George DeMohrenschildt who shepherded Marina around everywhere, and George Bouhe who had "files on everybody"? Steve Thomas

Chris, page 1 of CE 830 says that there was a "pretext" interview of Ruth Paine on October 29th. You can see it here: https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=1134#relPageId=802&tab=page It doesn't say who conducted the interview, and the fact that it says it's a Report by Special Agent Fain dated September 10, 1963 has me scratching my head. Steve Thomas

Mark, I guess you're right. I find her testimony confusing at times. Steve Thomas

Thomas, This part has always confused me. It implies that his original visa was in a fake name. Has a visa ever turned up for Oswald in a fake name, and what was the name he used? Would he have had fake documents to prove who he said he was? Steve Thomas

Ruth Paine testified that LHO didn't come to her house in Irving the weekend of the 12th because she was having a birthday party. LHO stayed in Dallas. He supposedly told Marina that he had gone to the license bureau on Saturday morning to take a driver's test, but they closed at noon and he didn't have time to wait around. The bureau closed at noon and didn't open on Monday the 11th. He supposedly filled out an application, but the application wasn't dated. It's CE 426 So, if the letter was mailed from Irivng on the 12th, Lee didn't mail it. If the letter is dated the 9th, supposedly LHO wasn't at the Paine's to type it. Paine said that she wasn't familiar enough with Oswald's "printing", to definitively say that the printing on the driver's license application was his. Are you familiar sufficiently with the handwriting or handprinting of Lee Harvey Oswald to be able to tell us whether the writing and handprinting on that document is or is not Lee Harvey Oswald's? Mrs. PAINE - I am not sufficiently familiar. I can simply compare it with m only other thing I have seen in his printing which is what he wrote down in my diary. Does this cover his hand "writing" as well? Steve Thomas

For the de-classified CIA report, you can go here: http://nsarchive.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB493/docs/intell_ebb_026.PDF Steve Thomas

Chris, Thank you. I had just been wondering about the telegram idea. To me, a telegram, as opposed to a diplomatic cable, implies a sense of urgency. It would also be sent "in the clear" as opposed to encrypted right? Surely the Russians knew that their mail and telegrams were being read - that's just common tradecraft. So, why would the Russians accommodate Oswald? Who's playing who here? Steve Thomas

Chris, Thank you, but I meant the actual telegram that the cable refers to. Steve Thomas

Has anyone ever seen the telegram that this cable references? Steve Thomas

Does the name Frank Worth mean anything to anybody? He was apparently from Dallas and carried on a "considerable" amount of correspondence with Robert DePugh of the Minutemen. See p. 9 of this File: https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=141569#relPageId=9&tab=page This is a very interesting document from April, 1964, by the way. Reports of thousands of machine guns and explosive powder for bazookas... I don't know what kind of intelligence the FBI had received, or from where, but if you go to the Mary Ferrell Foundation web site and look at the FBI Subject files for Minutemen and read the files for January, 1964, alerts went out to just about every major city in the U.S., to be on the lookout for, and lean on any sources they had, for information about a possible plot to overthrow the government. Who knows? *shrugs* Steve Thomas

We don need no stinkin Indians, but the Japs are okay. " I don't know a Cuban from a Spanish or a Spanish from a Mexican." " I don't rent to dark Spanish people or Mexicans or Indians. I always rented to light-colored people my own race." " It would be unusual for you to rent to someone who was Spanish or Latin American or of Cuban background? " "No, it wouldn't be unusual, because I had rented to people from Mexico at the Beachcomber, very nice people. "... and I had rented to people from, not China, but the Japs. Bertha Cheek

Gene, Kind of reminds me of what Harry Weatherford is supposed to have said to someone when asked if he fired a shot from the roof of the County Records Building. A researcher once asks him if he shot JFK. Weatherford replied, “You little son of a bitch, I shoot lots of people.” Steve Thomas

Paul, I've noted that Oswald went from the YMCA in downtown Dallas to the north part of Oak Cliff twice. Once in late October, 1962 when he "disappears" between October 19th to November 3rd. Gary Taylor went looking for Oswald on the north side of Beckley in Oak Cliff. The second time on his "return" from Mexico City in October of 1963. In her WC testimony, Bertha Cheek said that she owned a 32 unit apartment complex in Oak Cliff, but she didn't identify where that was. Any connection? I was just wondering if Syvia Odio was involved in more than just "translating a letter". These three guys had to travel from New Orleans to Dallas to get a letter translated? I don't think so. "Mrs. ODIO. Well, I had been having little groups of Cubans coming to my house who have been asking me to help them in JURE. They were going to open a revolutionary paper here in Dallas. And I told them at the time I was very busy with my four children, and I would help, in other things like selling bonus to help buy arms for Cuba. And I said I would help as much as I could." "This man, the other one, the second Cuban, took out a letter written in Spanish, and the content was something like we represent the revolutionary counsel, and we are making a big movement to buy arms for Cuba and to help overthrow the dictator Castro, and we want you to translate this letter and write it in English and send a whole lot of them to different industries to see if we can get some results." "my children at the time were in Puerto Rico, I and I went down to get them in Puerto Rico June 29th. That was exactly the day that I saw Ray again. We had been trying to establish a contact in Dallas with Mr. Johnny Martin, who is from Uruguay. He is from there, and he had heard that I was involved in this movement. And he said that he had a lot of contacts in Latin America to buy arms, particularly in Brazil, and that if he were in contact with one of our chief leaders of the underground, he would be able to sell him second-hand arms that we could use in our revolution." Steve Thomas

Larry, I don't have the paperback edition of SWHT, so I can't refer to it. But, a couple of things come to mind: 1) I read somewhere that Ellsworth was convinced that Dallas had become a major storage site? ( is that the right term?) for arms. I guess these were being stockpiled for that invasion of Cuba that was being planned - by some people - for November of 1963. I get the impression that this planned invasion was going to be staged out of Nicaragua. When you start cross referencing documents about the Minutemen, you are talking about a lot of arms and ammunition. Thousands and thousands of rounds of ammunition, machine guns, grenades, C-4 explosive, etc. That's a lot of stuff. Had the FBI crackdown on exile activities in the Spring of 1963 forced the exile and right-wing activity out of Miami westward to Dallas and New Orleans? That trailer full of weapons that Loren Hall was transporting, what was the ultimate destination? Why did he stop in Dallas? 2) I was puzzled by the fact that the Thunderbird that Miller and Whitter were arrested in was a stolen vehicle. I couldn't see the logic in that. Why transport stolen arms in a stolen vehicle? That's like a double whammy. But then I got to thinking about the handwritten Anderton memo in Box 2, Folder# 6, Item# 9 of the DPD Archives http://jfk.ci.dallas.tx.us/box2.htm where Borschgardt was talking about a stolen car/gun running scheme that Ruby was running down to Mexico. The cars were stolen in Chicago. Were the arms heading south being transported in stolen vehicles? Was the Thunderbird part of that operation? Where was it stolen from? 3) A lot of damage was done to the United States by the failure of the Treasury Department and the FBI to talk to each other. I've read other accounts of the FBI's frustration with the Secret Service not sharing information. When we were talking about the OSI the other day and I looked at that Bartimo letter in CD 852. I was reading through the division of efforts between the ONI, OSI, INTC and the FBI in counterintelligence efforts, I was struck by the fact that the Secret Service was not part of the equation. I realize that the Secret Service did not have a counterintelligence role, but I think the country suffered as a result of them being kept out of the loop. Did that gap in intelligence sharing include the ATTU as well? Steve Thomas

There is more on this Whitter document in this Fourth Decade article: https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=48687&search="Donnell_Whitter"#relPageId=3&tab=page Steve Thomas

Larry, Thanks. I had a copy of SWHT from many years ago that I looked at. From what I could glean, I agree that the Terrell theft was on a different track. Lot of things I'll need to think about. Steve Thomas PS: Masen was little xxxxx wasn't he?

Larry, Thank you. I will look. Steve

Paul, In her WC testimony, Sylvia says several times that when the two men came to visit her, she was in the process of moving from the Crestwood Apartments to Oak Cliff. Do you know where in Oak Cliff she was moving. I don't think it indicates that in her testimony. Steve Thomas

So, Was George Nonte a good guy, or a bad guy? Was he working with Frank Ellsworth on an arms theft sting, or was he helping criminals steal arms from the Armory? Steve Thomas

There is also the statement that Jack Ruby met with Colonel Sam Baker of the Terrell National Guard Armory on November 19, 1963. That was the day after Whitter and Miller had been arrested on November 18th. Does anyone know anything about the Ruby/Baker meeting? Or what connection Ruby had with Baker? I read in another place that this meeting took place at the Carousel. Ruby also met with his attorney that day. Steve Thomas

In a letter from Carol Hewett to the ARRB in 1994, she wrote that a 14 page statement from Donnell Whitter to the HSCA had been "withdrawn" by the NSA. I'm assuming this stands for the National Security Agency. https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=145534&search="Donnell_Whitter"#relPageId=45&tab=page Is that 14 page statement still classified? There is something else on that page cited above that was pretty surprising. She wrote that Lawrence Miller died in an apartment of Bertha Cheek's. I know that Bertha Cheek owned a lot of apartments on Gaston, and I know that Ruby used a Texaco station where Donnell Whitter (I've also seen his name spelled as Whittier) was employed, but I didn't know that Miller had a connection to Bertha Cheek. Steve Thomas

I don't know if it means much of anything, but as the owner of 2703 Mercedes St. in Fort Worth during the summer and fall of 1962, Chester Riggs told the FBI that he didn't issue rent receipts, that he didn't keep rental records by individual unit, and grouped all the rent receipts together as a group for income tax purposes. http://jfk.hood.edu/Collection/FBI Records Files/105-82555/105-82555 Section 016/105-16c.pdf So, there's another one. Steve Thomas

Gene, No, carelessness had nothing to do with it. Anyone capable of planning a fake airplane hijacking, blowing up a ship in Havana harbor, or sinking a boatload of Cuban refugees as per the Northwoods document was capable of anything. The instances you cited were child's play. Steve Thomas

Gene, I think that Oswald was part of the FBI's nation-wide COINTEL effort to discredit the FPCC. A persona was created to open a local chapter in New Orleans (which the national FPCC office warned him against doing), work as an agent provocateur ala Carlos Bringuer, and get into street scuffles - bringing media attention to bear highlighting the FPCC as agitators. Whether he was used wittingly, or unwittingly, I don't know. I think someone came along and co-opted this ongoing effort, and used the Hidell cover to order the rifle that would ultimately be used to track back to this Hidell character in an effort to paint the assassination as a communist conspiracy and justify a move to invade Cuba. That's what I think. Steve Thomas

On page 629 of Appendix XI, Thomas Kelley wrote that during the Nov. 24th interrogation of Oswald, Oswald said that he had received a letter from the Fair Play for Cuba Committee Headquarters in New York signed by an Alex Hidell. Does anyone know if there is such a letter? Is it one of the WC Exhibits? I just got to wondering if the whole Hidell thing was part of the effort to discredit the FPCC and not Oswald per se. Steve Thomas