John Kowalski

Paul: Newspaper reported his 1965 arrest and it has a picture. https://archive.org/details/grossiarrest1965

Jim: Just contacted the poster and will let everyone know what his answer is. Not sure how knowledgeable he is about the Tippit call so I explained the event to him. He has posted on David's H&L thread on Deep Politics. If he agrees to go to Madison we can all make suggestions about which boxes and file folders to review. I can make a list for him that would include everyone's suggestions.

John B and Jim: There is a person on Deep Politics forum that lives about a one hour drive away from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Has anyone gone there to look at their papers, if not I can contact him and ask him if he would be interested in making copies of these letters. Had a look at the Blair papers finding aid, there is a lot of correspondence and a family history as well. A box and folder list should be made for anyone who plans to review the papers.

Jim and John B: Does New York state government keep records of students?

Paul: When I was researching my Osborne story who alias was John Howard Bowen, I did some research on career criminal John Caesar Grossi who worked with Oswald at Jaggers-Chiles-Stoval. Was interested in Grossi because one of his many aliases was John Bowen. Ordered a copy of his prison record from Leavenworth prison where he was doing time for auto theft. James Earl Ray did time at Leavenworth in the 1950s but am not sure if they were there at the same time and knew each other. His prison record indicated that he mailed a check to F. Ryder at 305 E Cason St. Irving Texas. The 1954 Irving City Directory shows that Homer Ryder lives at that address, and the the 1940 US census states that Homer had a daughter named Fleta and son named Dial. Looks like there is a connection between the bogus rifle work and Oswald's friend at JCS. I tracked down Grossi's son, John Bowen and interviewed him. He continues to use the Bowen name even though he knows his father's name was an alias. He did not have much contact with his father as he lived in Canada while Grossi remained in the US. One thing he did tell me was that Grossi, who was also a talented commercial artist, got the job at JCS through someone, whose name he does not know, who had tried to help Grossi abandon his criminal ways in his teens. 1940 United States Federal Census Name: Homer R Ryder Respondent: Yes Age: 43 Estimated Birth Year: abt 1897 Gender: Male Race: White Birthplace: Illinois Marital Status: Married Relation to Head of House: Head Home in 1940: German, Richland, Illinois Street: Claumont RFD 1 Farm: Yes Inferred Residence in 1935: Rural, Richland, Illinois Residence in 1935: Rural Richland Illinois Resident on farm in 1935: Yes Sheet Number: 8B Number of Household in Order of Visitation: 152 Occupation: Laborer House Owned or Rented: Rented Value of Home or Monthly Rental if Rented: 5 Attended School or College: No Highest Grade Completed: College, 1st year Hours Worked Week Prior to Census: 40 Class of Worker: Wage or salary worker in private work Weeks Worked in 1939: 16 Income: 370 Household Members: Name Age Homer R Ryder 43 Magdalena Ryder 38 Fleta Ryder 16 Issa Phene Ryder 13 Marcella Ryder 10 Mardella Ryder 5 Fern Ryder 3 Dial Ryder 2

Jim: No need for improvement.

Jim: Am not suspicious of Ramaz but John B suggested that Harvey may have attend this school and this is why I suggested locating their yearbooks or ask for a student list. You make a good point about the Gardos being communist would most likely not send their kid to a religious school but I sent them an email yesterday asking for this info anyways. If they refuse to provide info about their students they may provide guidelines for requesting this info from a school.

It he reviews these papers maybe they can be uploaded to this forum so we can review them. Correspondence can provide many new leads and names of people previously unknown.

John B: i agree. Began doing research just before the internet access was available. Would visit the local Mormon church and order documents from their microfilm records. Also wrote many letters that took so long to get a response. Like the computer much better and it has made genealogical and historical research so much easier.

John B: The Kellock-Taschereau Commission recommended that all people working for the Canadian government be required to have a security clearance. The government implemented this policy and everyone now has to have a security clearance done by CSIS.

I will contact them and ask general questions about student lists and yearbooks but will not mention Gardos.

This is off topic but the Kellock-Tashereau Commission was created after Soviet cipher-clerk, Igor Gouzenko, who was employed at the Soviet embassy in Ottawa defected in 1945. He left the embassy with 109 documents that proved that there was a Soviet spy ring operating in Canada, the US and Great Britain. Many arrests followed his defection. There is info about him on the web and I also wrote a story about him that was published in a community newspaper in Ottawa where Gouzenko was living with his wife and child when he defected. Contacted the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, which is Canada's CIA, many years ago and asked if I could see the documents and as I recall they either said no or denied having them, but I had to try. Link to my story is below. There was a film made about Gouzenko's defection called The Iron Curtain. https://archive.org/details/gouzenko

Did you know that many libraries and archives have free ancestry subscriptions? I access it for free at Library and Archives Canada and it includes the whole database.

Thanks Bart.

Jake: Interesting comment about his accent. I posted about Marguerite's accent, citing Jean Stafford who interviewed Marguerite for a book. She said that she sounded like she had taken elocution lessons that suggests that she was trying to change how she spoke. What we need is a linguistic profiler to listen to both Harvey's and Marguerite's voices because a profiler may be able to determine where they are from. Netflix has a series called Manhunt: Unabomber that tells the story of the FBI's hunt for the Unabomber. One of the things they did was to bring in a linguistic profiler who analyzed the language he used in his manifesto to see if they can find out where he came from. It was really fascinating to see what they could learn about him just by reading what he wrote. The FBI finally caught him by publishing his manifesto that Ted Kacyynski's brother recognized as his brother's writings.

David: Eckdahl's company, Ebasco did a report on the Coast Guard in 1948. Study of the United States Coast Guard, New York, Ebasco Services 1948: managing a federal agency the hidden stimulus, Louis K. Bradgaw. Another possible Navy-ONI-Oswald connection.

Bart: Have been having difficulties uploading pictures so I have been uploading links instead. Can you show me how to upload a picture to my post.

Does Ramaz have a yearbook that would be available for public viewing? Yearbooks have pictures and names of students who went there.

Has anyone done any research on the Pitcairn family? Greg Parker claims that Marguerite Oswald worked for Pittsburgh Glass, which is one of their companies, and that they were fascists.

Saw a documentary about Hoffa's life and disappearance. It does not agree with Sheerhan's account. It mentions his book and states that he released it without his claim about his role in Hoffa's demise and it didn't do so well so he released again and added his alleged role in Hoffa's disappearance and this helped book sales. The title is: WDIV’s Steve Garagiola investigates the notorious labor leader’s disappearance and was shown on WDIV Detroit https://www.clickondetroit.com/features/2019/12/04/watch-local-4-hoffa-primetime-special-tonight-at-10-pm/

John B: In the absence of conclusive evidence regarding the beginning of the project, I am interested in knowing what theories they may have about it's origins. More arguments is not what I am looking for either, just more research on where Harvey came from and Marguerite's family history. Have been doing my own research and about their origins but have not been able to find any new leads.

Jim: I should have realized that the significance of the call was relevant to posters on this thread. Am very interested in the origins of the Oswald project. No date has been established but 1947 has been the earliest date suggested. Can you clarify something for me; you stated that it may have begun prior to 1947 because "...the caller suggests that the child may have been using the name 'Lee Harvey Oswald'..." Why do you think that this statement suggests an earlier start date? Do you or John have any theories about the when the project began?

You make a good point about what the FBI knew. They probably knew more than they let on in the documents they have released tot he public. The fact that they had been tracking them for years and then not seeming to know anything about them is suspicious.

Jim and Vince: you are welcome. Bart: thanks for uploading the pics, been having problems doing that so have been posting links instead.

Below are links to pictures of Clay Shaw and General Thrasher together. Pictures were taken by Therese Bonney and are archived at the Bancroft Library, UC Berkeley. http://content.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/k6qn6f6t/?docId=k6qn6f6t&brand=calisphere&layout=printable-details http://content.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/k63t9qn7/?docId=k63t9qn7&brand=calisphere&layout=printable-details