Jim Hargrove

You’re kidding, right? The infamous Ralph Leon Yates hitch-hiking incident involving a second Oswald occurred on November 20, capping off several weeks of a second Oswald involved in setting up the patsy. John makes an excellent case that Lee Oswald was involved in setting up Harvey on the day of the assassination. What I’ve read of SS so far seems excellent… beautifully written and researched. But some of the conclusions mystify me. First of all, I don’t see an “uncanny” similarity at all between Oswald and Webster. Second, I don’t think the evidence shows at all that Oswald was just “a spy in his own mind.” We can discuss that much more if you’d like to. Third, although SS states that “Oswald’s documented weight for the last seven years of his life varied between 131-140 pounds,” we have to ask why his final USMC paperwork, including a medical report under the heading “MEASUREMENTS AND OTHER FINDINGS” indicates his weight was 150 lbs. and his height was 71” (5’11”). His discharge paperwork indicates the same thing. In fact, if you averaged out the various reports of Oswald’s height, almost always either 5’9” or 5’11” in the last years of his life, you would get 5’10”, the same height as Webster. And at 150 lbs, Oswald would be only 15 lbs lighter than Webster, hardly a massive difference. These don’t strike me as very strong markers. And what about that infamous 10/10/63 CIA memo indicating that Lee Henry Oswald is “FIVE FEET TEN INCHES, ONE HUNDRED SIXTY FIVE POUNDS, LIGHT BROWN WAVY HAIR, BLUE EYES”? Is this really to make us think of Webster instead of Oswald? More important to me in this document is that it gives Lee H. Oswald a clean bill of political health, indicating that Russia had a "maturing effect" on Oswald. Is it just a coincidence that the FBI cancelled the Wanted Notice on Oswald within hours of the same time as the CIA memo? This is the setup of the designated patsy by American Intel, clearing the way for the Dallas assassination. I sincerely doubt it was nothing more than a mole hunt.

Thank you for the link above, Mathias. It's the first time I've seen anything that might directly relate to what type of material could have been in the exam Oswald took. I assume you haven't found a similar link for a writing test, correct? It would be fascinating to see that.

Sandy, The fact that there were two separate DPD reports indicating “Lee Harvey Oswald” was arrested in the balcony of the Texas Theatre is pretty hard to ignore—or explain. That’s a pretty strange mistake to make. Butch Burroughs told author James Douglass that he saw two arrests in the theater, including that of an Oswald “lookalike” in the balcony, but we have to ask why on earth would he wait nearly half a century to let us know that significant detail. Douglass says he asked Burroughs directly if he had seen any other arrests in the theater that day, and Burroughs said he had never been asked that question before. The fact is, though, that Burroughs told the Warren Commission that he thought Oswald must have immediately gone up to the balcony. Whatever we conclude about Burroughs’ tardy revelation, it is pretty undeniable that he was there and we weren’t. Deputy Sheriff Bill Courson was “reasonably satisfied” that he met Lee Harvey Oswald coming down the balcony stairs. Lt. Cunningham and Detective J.B. Toney began questioning the young man on the staircase. John wrote that at this point, “an unknown person, who identified himself as the ‘manager on duty,’ said the young man had been in the theater since 12:05 PM. The unidentified ‘manager on duty’ may have been an accomplice who provided [LEE] Oswald with a much needed alibi, as theater manager John Callaghan left the theater before the police arrived (Julia Postal, Butch Burroughs, and the projectionist were the only employees left in the theater). The young man was released. Sgt. Stringer, standing below in the alley, asked Hill if the suspect had been arrested. Hill looked back into the balcony area and said, "No, we haven't got him." Bernard Haire then saw the young man being led out the back door of the theater, and he thought for decades he had witnessed the arrest of Lee Harvey Oswald. To me, this all suggests that LEE Oswald’s actions were designed to lead police to the Texas Theater, where Harvey was waiting with those half dollar bills to meet a contact that never materialized. I’m not sure that John is convinced of this. I can only speculate why a driver’s license for Lee Harvey Oswald was returned to the Texas DPS. It seems far more interesting to ask why there was one in the first place.

Michael, Who is Mark Henceroth?

Sandy, In the summer of 1963, while Lee HARVEY Oswald was in New Orleans getting himself sheep-dipped as a Commie in preparation for his role of patsy in the assassination of JFK, LEE Harvey Oswald was in the Dallas area, driving what sure sounds like Ruth Paine’s car week after week to Cliff Shasteen’s barber shop. Mr. JENNER. You have a distinct recollection that on occasions when this man came into your shop for a haircut, he drove an automobile up to your shop? Mr. SHASTEEN. He drove that there 1955, I think it's a 1955, I'm sure it's a 1955 Chevrolet station wagon. It's either blue and white or green and white it's two-toned--I know that. Now, why I say--why I take it for granted that Mrs. Paine was with him when he come to the grocery store--I do remember he wasn't driving when they would come to the grocery store, there would be a lady driving and I'm assuming that that was Mrs. Paine, because like I say, I have been--I have never been close enough to her and knew it, to speak to her, but she trades at the service station where I do and I saw her in there and I never did pay any attention to her and I saw her passing, met her in the road in the car and those things. (WC X, 317) In July, while Harvey was working at the Reilly Coffee Company in New Orleans, Marshall Hicks, an employee of Western Union, delivered several telegrams to Lee Harvey Oswald at 1501 W. 7th, in Fort Worth. Dorothy Marcum, who dated Jack Ruby in mid-1963, was sure that Oswald worked for Ruby in June and July of 1963, while Harvey was still in New Orleans. Harvey Oswald famously possessed a Texas automobile driver learner’s permit, but Lee Oswald appears to have had a valid license, which he needed to drive, for example, to Shasteen’s barber shop and to do errands for Ruby. When Jack Ruby's Oldsmobile needed work, mechanic Robert Roy said it was Lee Oswald who delivered and picked up the car, not once, but several times.

Oswald’s 1956 tax return is remarkable in that it failed to include income from his then current employer, the United States Marine Corps. It didn’t contain that information because the Department of the Navy didn’t release Oswald’s military pay records until September 15, 1964, well after the document was forged by the FBI. Here are three 1956 W-2 forms that are in perfect agreement with the forged 1956 tax return. These documents were allegedly found among Oswald’s possessions, but instead they were really planted by the FBI, to hide true employment dates that would have shown that two young men named “Oswald” had been working and living in New Orleans in 1956. On November 22nd and 23rd, 1963, the Dallas Police conducted a search of Oswald's rooming house at 1026 N. Beckley and Ruth Paine's house in Irving, TX. According to Gus Rose, he and R. S. Stovall and John P. Adamcik spent hours initialing every item they found at Ruth Paine's garage and Oswald's rooming house at 1026 N. Beckley. The Dallas Police then made a handwritten list of all the items found. The handwritten list was then typed at Dallas Police Headquarters and eventually became the following Warren Commission exhibits: Stovall A--a typed version of the handwritten list from Nov. 22; Stovall B--a typed version of the handwritten list from Nov. 23; Turner Exhibit 1—a typed list of items found at 1026 N. Beckley. None of the W-2 forms shown above appear in the original Dallas Police lists of Oswald’s possessions. There are no initials from Gus Rose, R.S. Stovall, or John Adamcik on any of the forms. So where did they come from? Answer: The W-2 forms only appeared among Oswald’s so-called possessions after the items confiscated by Dallas Police had been secretly transferred to FBI headquarters in the wee hours of the night of November 22/23 and then secretly returned to Dallas three days later, on November 26. We know this because FBI specialist James Cadigan inadvertently referred to the secret transfer in his sworn testimony, which then had to be altered by the Warren Commission. The FBI and the WC would like us to believe that 16-year-old “Lee Harvey Oswald” kept the J.R. Michels, Tujague's, and Pfisterer W-2 forms for the next 7 years, from 1956 to 1963, yet lost or never received a W-2 form from the Marine Corps while on active duty. What a hoot! There is much more evidence showing how these documents were forged, and I can provide more later.

Now that Sandy and I have done our civic duties to suggest that Karl be careful, I’d like to address his larger point. If we were to believe that Oswald did fill out a 1956 tax return on Feb. 27, 1957, we would note that at the time he signed the form, Classic Oswald® was not yet 17 and a half years old. On several occasions in the past John asked me if I filled out tax forms when I was 17. It’s been so long that I honestly don’t remember, but I’ll bet most 17-year-olds kind of let this responsibility slip. All the more amazing that our Oswald provided all the info on all his jobs except the Big One: with the United States Marine Corps. Can you imagine sitting in a Marine Corps uniform, sitting at a desk or table and filling out a Form 1040, including information from three previous employers, but not including your current employer, the USMC. Seems unimaginable.

Hi, Karl, Thanks for your post, but unless you had some specific exemption (tours in a combat zone for a full tax year, perhaps?), or there is a statute of limitations for this sort of thing that you have now satisfied, you might want to take some care about what you say on a public forum like this. Tax regulations are quite clear that military personnel are required to file tax returns, just like the rest of us. See, for example, IRS Form 3: Armed Forces' Tax Guide. Turbotax reports .... “Probably a good 80 percent or more of service members will file the 1040-EZ because they don’t own property or have very many investments,” said U.S. Army Reserves Maj. Monica Rigaud, a financial manager for the Department of Defense. These are current rules, of course, but soldiers were required to file income tax returns in the 1950s.

Nonsense. We know exactly why the 1956 tax return was fabricated. It was done to hide the fact that two teenage boys named “Oswald” (Harvey and Lee) were working and living in New Orleans in 1956. A full accounting of their actual employment histories would have shown that two different boys were involved. And so the employment dates had to be altered. For example.... The Warren Commission said LHO worked at Tujagues from November 10 , 1956 to January 13, 1957, a period of just two months and three days. John Armstrong met Frank DiBenedetto, Oswald's supervisor at Tujagues, in 1995. Frank said that Oswald worked for Tujague's "a year, maybe longer." Frank told the HSCA in 1978 that (LEE) Oswald worked at Tujague's "a year to a year and a half." Secretary Gloria Callaghan, who still worked at Tujague's in the mid-1990s, recalled, "I went on maternity leave in March, 1956 (her son was born March 15) and he (LEE Oswald) was still working for us at that time." Now, why do you suppose the lifetime earnings report of “Lee Harvey Oswald” from the Social Security Administration shows no income whatsoever from his employers in the 1950s? For the full story on the tax shenanigans, see: http://harveyandlee.net/1956/1956.html Of course, whoever fabricated that document at the FBI didn't have the information on LHOs Marine Corps income from 1956, and so there was no choice but to omit the information entirely and hope no one would notice.

Oh, brother! The ARRB followed in the proud tradition of the WC and the HSCA, proving that the Federal government is completely incapable of investigating its own culpability in the Kennedy assassination. But let’s talk about you, Mr. Parnell.... Is it your position that “Lee Harvey Oswald” planned to hide his employment by the U.S. Marine Corps from the IRS for some reason? Is that really the position you’re taking here?

Don't worry, Mr. Parnell.... ... I'm going to post LOTS more Harvey and Lee evidence. Do you really think LHO "forgot" to report his 1956 Marine Corps income while he was on active duty wearing a Marine Corps uniform? Are you going to say that with a straight face? Hah-hah-hah!

The FBI Fabricated LHO’s 1956 Tax Return According to the Warren Commission, “Lee Harvey Oswald” signed his IRS Form 1040 Income Tax Return for 1956 on February 27, 1957. But it can be easily shown that this document was forged in order to hide the true dates of employment at Pfisterer Dental Lab, Gerard Tujague, and J.R. Michels. Here is the forged document: How do we know the document was forged? There are a number of different ways to show it is falsified, but here is the quickest and the simplest. According to the Official Story®, “Lee Harvey Oswald” enlisted in the Marine Corps on October 24, 1956. He therefore should have reported more than two months of Marine Corps income on his 1956 tax return. But there is no Marine Corps income shown on the alleged return. Why would a Marine complete a tax return and not list his Marine Corp income on the return? The answer is simple: Oswald did not complete the 1956 tax return. Why is no USMC income shown? Because whoever forged the document (almost certainly in the FBI) didn’t have access to “Oswald’s” military payroll records at the time the document was fabricated. In fact, the Department of the Navy didn’t certify Oswald's pay records until September 15, 1964. John wrote this on our website: In mid-to-late January, 1957, employers mailed W-2 forms to their employees. The Defense Finance and Accounting Service (DFAS) mailed W-2 forms to military personnel. Oswald's address, listed in his military file, was 4936 Collinwood, Ft. Worth, TX. The Warren Commission would like us to believe that Oswald somehow received the J.R. Michels, Tujague's, and Pfisterer W-2 forms, but never received the W-2 form mailed by the DFAS. The WC would also like us to believe that Oswald kept the J.R. Michels, Tujague's, and Pfisterer W-2 forms for the next 7 years--from 1956 to 1963, yet lost or never received the W-2 form from the Marine Corps. If Oswald never received a W-2 from DFAS, he could easily have obtained payroll information through his company commander. Why would a Marine complete a tax return and not list his Marine Corp income on the return? The answer is simple: Oswald did not complete the 1956 tax return.

For once, Michael, I agree with you, at least with the paragraph above. LHO's "defection" had nothing to do with JFK's assassination, though. You know that, right?

Many of the details of Harvey and Lee are discovered from evidence the U.S. Government, primarily Hoover’s FBI, neglected to alter or suppress. It isn’t easy making an entire life disappear from the public record, and the FBI, despite the talent of its director and its massive manpower in 1963 and 1964, wasn’t able to do it. We can learn much about the two Oswalds from the FBI’s mistakes in covering up, for example, medical and military records, and more from eyewitnesses who were intimately involved with them… and a few who were casual observers. Since Mr. Laverick and apparently other H&L critics want us to believe that “the whole H&L LN story is built on observations by casual observers,” it’s quite obvious that I need to demonstrate just how wrong he is. Mr. Parnell wants us to believe that Greg Parker has debunked everything, but that we can’t see those so-called debunkings here so that can we debate them here. I want to see Mr. Parnell say that again and again, because he currently has no other real arguments against the most direct and simple elements of the Harvey and Lee evidence. I’ll be making my future write-ups as brief as possible to avoid wasting our host’s bandwidth. I’m already bringing in all the images of medical and military documents, for example, from other servers, most from a server I pay for myself. There is no rush, but I can assure you that this will continue. You will call my most detailed posts “data dumps,” of course, but they are really just EVIDENCE!

No, Bernie, a lot of the H&L CIA-did-it story is based on official documents that show, for example.... “Oswald” simultaneously attended PS 44 in NYC and Beauregard JHS in New Orleans; he sailed the high seas and was stationed in Taiwan while simultaneously being treated for VD in Japan; that he both did and didn’t have a valid Texas driver’s license; that he both did and didn't shoot himself in the arm in the Marines; that his own half-brother told the WC photos of him weren't of his brother, and so on. Obviously, I'm going to have to work at reposting some of this information, since you clearly missed it. Hold on....

Sandy Larsen and I were having a conversation about trying to determine the true level of Oswald's Russian language abilities as they were measured by the U.S. Army exam. I sent the basics of our discussion to Prof. Norwood and got back this reply, Jim, This is a good discussion among the various group members. My take is as follows: (a) The fact that Oswald took the Russian proficiency exam in the first place supports the thesis that he was a native speaker. Even without speculating on what level of achievement (e.g., nine-year-old, etc.) his score may suggest, the main point is that Oswald took this extremely specialized exam. That act demonstrates his competency. As we know virtually beyond doubt that he had no formal training in school and there is no evidence of self-study, the conclusion is that he was a native speaker. (b) The most important point made in your notes below is when you write that "As I see it, one of the problems we face is that we know so little about the Army language exam itself." Indeed, this is the main problem in attempting to derive conclusions from an exam that is presently an unknown quantity. If this topic is important to members, then the next step is to research the Department of Army's foreign language tests to learn more about the actual exam that was administered to Oswald in 1959. I do not think that the nine-year-old estimate diminishes Oswald's language competency; I just don't believe we have enough data to draw such a conclusion, based on an exam that no one yet fully understand. To interpret the exam score, we need more substantial support than merely the word of Mathias. For me, the radio code exam is an important benchmark. It is clear that Oswald flunked the radio code test. But from that exam score, can we conclude that he had no skills whatsoever in radio code? (c) We do not know Oswald's state of mind at the time he took the Russian exam. He may have been tired from the large batch of tests. Again, his test-taking skills may have adversely affected the exam results. Another topic that would make for good discussion is to debate the question of why Oswald took this exam in the first place. The timing is relevant, as this is the moment when Oswald is outwardly proclaiming his interest in Russian language, culture, and Marxist ideology. Again, the point about why he would take this exam is crucial, and the obvious implication (to my way of thinking) is that the exam was part of Oswald's preparation for the phony defection later in the year. Perhaps you could revise point #2, underscoring the fact that Oswald's attempt at this exam in Russian indicates that he was competent in the language and the scores may point to the ability of a nine-year-old native Russian speaker, at the least. But more work needs to be done to ascertain the true nature of the exam that was administered to him in 1959. Please feel free to copy this response to the other members. All the best, James I'd like to repost a revised version of my list of our common beliefs about Oswald's Russian language abilities, but I was hoping to get reactions from a few people first, particularly Mathias and Sandy.

Michael, Why was "Oswald" 5' 11" (71 inches) on his military discharge... and 5' 11" (71 inches) on his DoD ID card... but only 5' 9" (69 inches) on the slab in the Dallas morgue? It would be one thing if these height discrepancies were indicated by casual observers, but they're not. They are medical measurements.

Mr. Laverick ignores the central point of the “Comparison of Oswald photos” study linked above. In the examination, a Texas attorney used a series of computer-assisted measurements common in facial recognition studies to analyze more than a dozen photographs of “Lee Harvey Oswald.” The attorney concluded that, despite some clear limitations to his study, “… there is some evidence that there is more than one individual here.” He goes on to suggest that five photos appear to be of one individual and seven appear to be of another. That is what the study summarized above lead the attorney to conclude. Anything else Mr. Laverick has to say is irrelevant spin.

Frank Sturgis on two Oswalds

Pixel Counting Biometric Comparison of Oswald photos H&L critics on this forum do go on and on with their attacks, but they sure don't have much luck explaining how “Lee Harvey Oswald” went to school in New York City and New Orleans at the same time, or New York City and Fort Worth at the same time, or how he happened to be aboard the USS Skagit and in Taiwan at the same time he was being treated for VD in Japan, or how he visited the Bolton Ford dealership in New Orleans while he was in Minsk. The sheer amount of evidence supporting John Armstrong’s work is just overwhelming. As one example, a couple of years ago on another forum, a Dallas attorney named Drew Phipps, familiar with facial recognition techniques, did a detailed series of posts he titled: “Pixel Counting Biometric Comparison of Oswald photos.” Mr. Phipps measured, in various pictures of “Oswald,” the ratios of the distances between a number of different facials features in photos. He described his analytical method as follows: The ratios I will use are: “pupil-to-pupil / width of eye” (called P/W hereafter), “pupil-to-pupil / length of nose” (called P/N hereafter), “pupil-to-pupil / nose-to-top-lip” (called P/L hereafter) and “pupil-to-pupil / earlobe-to-earlobe” (called P/E hereafter). The use of ratios (instead of actual measurements) will make it unnecessary to know more about the distance from lens to face, or the type of camera, etc., since the proportions of the face of the same person should stay the same regardless of those other factors. In his series of posts, Mr. Phipps went into considerable detail about the photos he was using and how he made and interpreted his measurements. I think you have to be a member of the forum to be able to see the actual graphics but the written descriptions of his work, and his conclusions, are visible to non-members. At any rate, here are Mr. Phipps’ final conclusions. Visual Conclusions: Unless there is something terribly wrong with my methodology, (or my spreadsheet skills), or the photos are simply too low resolution for a significant biometric comparison, there is some evidence that there is more than one individual here. If I had to clump the photos in two different piles, it looks to me like photos 1, 2, 3, 9 and 13 are the same individual, and photos 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 11, and 12 are the same individual. I realize this is not the same narrative as "Harvey and Lee". It is still my opinion that it is far more likely that the paper trail of discrepancies surrounding Oswald is the result of deliberate tampering with his records (in an attempt to catch a mole, or deceive a communist spy organization). But the biometric discrepancies are starting to make me wonder. CLICK HERE to see Mr. Phipps’ study.

The H&L critics, of course, continue to heap scorn on the two Oswald concept, and, as always, seem unwilling or unable to discuss the actual evidence for two Oswalds. For example, “Oswald” simultaneously attended PS 44 in NYC and Beauregard JHS in New Orleans; and the year before he simultaneously attended school in New York and Stripling school in Fort Worth; his own half brother told the WC pictures of “Oswald” did not appear to be his brother; he both did and didn’t shoot himself in the arm while in the Marines; he sailed the high seas and was stationed in Taiwan while simultaneously being treated for VD in Japan; he appeared at a truck dealership in New Orleans while he was living in Russia; he associated with Marita Lorenz and other anti-Castro Cubans in Florida while living in the USSR; as an adult he changed height nearly daily from 5’ 9” tall to 5’ 11” tall; he both did and didn’t have a valid Texas driver’s license; he associated frequently in Dallas with Jack Ruby while simultaneously living in New Orleans; he appeared at least four times at the Sports Drome rifle range while demonstrably somewhere else; he appeared at places such as the Irving Furniture Mart while working at the TSBD—and on and on. None of the H&L critic want to debate the above evidence here. They just pretend Greg Parker can explain everything—but not here where we can actually debate it.

I'd be interested in replies from the H&L critics

Wow, Mr. B., I only read a few lines, but that must have been a lot of work! Can we discuss some evidence now? Why don't some of you folks explain why a 5' 9" Oswald was carrying a DoD ID card of a 5' 11" Oswald with what appears to be a Russian passport picture of "Oswald" pasted over the original mug shot. Why would that be? What was wrong with the original picture? Here's a post with all the details.

Tracy Parnell claims Stripling School assistant principal Frank Kudlaty was lying when he recalled giving LHO’s records to the FBI, as was Oswald’s Stripling classmate Francetta Schubert when she recalled Oswald’s presence at the school, and that Robert Oswald was mistaken when he testified to the Warren Commission that his “brother” attended Stripling, and when he was quoted in local newspapers twice before the assassination saying his brother attended the school, and that either John Armstrong or Ricardo Galindo, Stripling School principal in the late 1990s or both are lying because John reported that Mr. Galindo said it was “common knowledge” that Oswald attended Stripling. Why? Because all the school records published by the Warren Commission give no time for him to have attended the Fort Worth school. According Warren Commission documents, Oswald was attending school in New York City and not Stripling School in Fort Worth in the fall semester of 1952. Frank Kudlaty was told by his principal to meet the FBI at Stripling School immediately after the assassination. Mr. Kudlaty turned over the school records to the FBI, but they all disappeared. Here’s Part 1 of a three part interview with Mr. Kudlaty: In 1959, at the time LHO began his assignment as a secret agent in Russia, Robert Oswald told reporters that his brother had attended Stripling School. Robert also told the Warren Commission that his brother attended Stripling: Mr. Jenner: And, at that time, I take it your brother Lee was attending Arling­- ton Heights High School? That would be 1952? Mr. Oswald: Just a minute please. In 1952 Lee was 13 years old. He would be attending W.C. Stripling Junior High School then. Mr. Jenner: I see. For the school year 1951-52? Mr. Oswald: Yes, sir. Junior high school there was from the seventh to the ninth grades. And as soon as he finished the sixth year at Ridglea Elementary School, he started attending W.C. Stripling Junior High school. Mr. Jenner: As soon as he finished the sixth year at Ridglea Elementary School, he entered W.C. Stripling High School as a seventh grader? Mr. Oswald: Yes, sir--junior high school. Oswald’s Stripling classmate Fran Schubert recalled watching Oswald walk home from Stripling School to 2220 Thomas Place, where “Marguerite Oswald” lived at various times, including at the time of the assassination. There are other witnesses to Oswald’s attendance at Stripling as well, but, of course, they’re all lying too, at least according to Mr. Parnell. As is Stripling School principal Ricardo Galindo, who told John in the late 1990s that it was “common knowledge” that Oswald attended the school. John spoke to several other students and teachers at Stripling who recalled Oswald there but, of course, according to Mr. Parnell, John is lying about that too. The other possibility, to put it charitably, is that Mr. Parnell is wrong or even, uh....

The Texas Monthly article by Joe Patoski ends with these two paragraphs: I tracked down Kudlaty in Waco, where he now lives in retirement after a lengthy career as a school administrator in several Texas cities. He related the incident that turned out to be his brush with infamy. The day after the assassination, Mr. Wylie, Stripling’s principal, asked him to pull Oswald’s records and hand them over to FBI agents. Kudlaty recalled those events and briefly examined the records before handing them over. “I do recall the grades were not good,” he told me. That has bothered him ever since. “A person of that mind could teach himself Russian and pass himself as Russian? I don’t think so,” Kudlaty said. The Hoover memo and that short conversation with Kudlaty put more doubt in my mind than the two days I spent with Armstrong and his blizzard of documents. Is there a good explanation for what happened to those records? Was Kudlaty wrong? And what was Hoover talking about in that memo, and what’s the story behind it? I don’t know the answers and I’m not going to devote my life to finding out. But here was one undeniable, strange, and tantalizing fact in the memo and the personal testimony of a man I knew and respected, and that almost had me going. It was enough to let me understand why a man like Armstrong has fallen under the spell of the Two Oswalds.