Paul Jolliffe

John, It wasn't Robert Oswald's wife who had Hungarian ancestry, it was John Edward Pic's wife, Margaret Dorothy Fuhrman. For some unexplained reason, Albert Jenner was very interested in her parents. Jenner targeted John Pic's knowledge of their background with his very first questions . . . Why? https://history-matters.com/archive/jfk/wc/wcvols/wh11/pdf/WH11_Pic.pdf

All true Gil, but note that Nicholas Katzenbach (the acting Attorney General in RFK's immediate absence) wrote out this infamous memo in his own hand on a yellow legal pad during the afternoon of Sunday, November 24, 1963. It was then typed up by his secretaries the next morning and distributed. So, as soon as Katzenbach was sure that "Oswald" was dead (around 2:17 pm, Washington D.C. time), Katzenbach got to work, pinning it all on "Oswald" and "Oswald" alone. Exactly why Katzenbach wrote this on Sunday afternoon is a still unsolved mystery, but we now know he was "encouraged" by Eugene Rostow, the dean of Yale's Law School in conjunction with unnamed others . . . Here is the typed version of the Katzenbach memo, the absolute proof that the fix was in right from the start: https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=62268#relPageId=29

Which, of course, Ekdahl had to know when he "married" Marguerite on May 5, 1945. So, why did he do it? By then, Marguerite was a 38-year-old, twice married woman with three sons, including a six-year old who bore a distinct resemblance to another little boy in NYC. Whether there was ever any fleeting romantic interest between Ekdahl and Marguerite is irrelevant. The real question is whether that "marriage" was in any way and to any degree at all an intelligence assignment, based on the boys' physical similarities. I don't know, but I can't think of any other plausible reason why Ekdahl would risk a bigamy charge in Texas, unless he knew he had protection from such a charge.

No, not yet. I have only made it to July, 1948 in her life so far.

John, Since not even the Warren Commission and the FBI could produce a divorce record for Rasmina and Edwin Ekdahl, I suspect it is highly likely that they never officially divorced. Your research here indicates that as of the spring of 1942 (at least), they were not yet divorced. Apparently he started with EBASCO in 1943 and somehow met Marguerite thereafter. I've been hinting that their "courtship" was not necessarily romantic - that (maybe) he was enlisted in some kind assignment, based on the physical similarity between Marguerite's youngest son and a mysterious little refugee boy in NYC. In any event, I think it is highly likely that the "other woman" with whom Ekdahl was living in 1947 (according to statements dug up by Armstrong) was in fact his "former" wife, Rasmina. If so, then the bizarre wording on both of their obituaries becomes much more understandable - they really were husband and wife all along.

Matt, Mary "Meg" Ekdahl was Dewey Ekdahl's ex-wife.

Thanks, John. Of course, Nyak was where she and Edwin and their son, Dewey were living together in 1940, and apparently where she remained for the rest of her life. Can you find a divorce record for Edwin and Rasmina? I can't. Mighty curious that both Edwin Ekdahl's 1953 obituary and Rasmina Ekdahl's 1961 obituary mention spouses - hers specifically references him! - even though (supposedly) they divorced roughly twenty years before and he (mysteriously) remarried Marguerite in 1945 and then (supposedly) died a twice-divorced man . . . Again, exactly with whom was 52 year old Edwin fooling around when he was caught by Marguerite and her boys in 1947?

Jim, Thanks for the clarification about Orangetown Township and Nyack, NY. Either way, Ekdahl, his longtime wife Rosmina (Rasmina?) and their son Dewey lived within 20 miles or so of NYC in 1940. Close enough. I don't know of any connection to a"Ruth Ekdahl", but I doubt she was a close relative, if anything at all. Edwin Ekdahl's sister was Elvira Ekdahl (Mrs. Julius E. Larsen) of Newton Center, Massachusetts, although her obituary leaves open the possibility of another sister, Anna Larsen. (Did Edwin Ekdahl have two sisters, and did both of them marry brothers named Larsen? Maybe. But no sign of a "Ruth".) By 1946, we know Edwin Ekdahl was living with his wife (?) Marguerite in Texas. What role, if any, was played in their courtship (?) by Ekdahl's sister Elvira remains unknown (but intriguing.) We do know that by 1947, Ekdahl had no interest in Marguerite, having taken up with some other (unknown?) woman.

Jim, Edwin Ekdahl, his (then?) wife Rosmina and their son Dewey lived at 207 North Broadway, in Orangetown in Rockland County, New York, just northwest of New York City according to the 1940 census. https://www.ancestry.com/1940-census/usa/New-York/Edwin-A-Ekdahl_639qv https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orangetown,_New_York Close enough, I'd say. Note that his 1953 obituary claims that he "leaves his wife and son." (I cannot find a divorce record from Rosmina. Nor could the FBI, apparently. Rosmina seemingly vanished.) "Wife". Hmm. Gotta wonder with whom Ekdahl was fooling around when Marguerite found him with another woman in 1947 . . .

Also, at the very bottom of this page there is a really tantalizing handwritten note by some CIA analyst which is very faded, but seems to read thus: "(2) OSWALD was using the name "Alek" --------------- (really hard to read - very probably "frequently" then missing/deleted/partially erased/redacted word ? before resuming) "his stay in the USSR, but this is the only indication of its use in documentary form." Did somebody later sort of erase or white out the missing word "before" in that sentence before it was released to the public? If so, think what it would mean if the CIA had concluded that our "Oswald" was using the name "Alek" before he went to the Soviet Union! https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=96527#relPageId=213

Thanks, Sandy. Found it. Interesting - clearly the name "Alek" or "Alik" or "Alex" or "Aleksey" or some variation thereof had some special significance to our man "Oswald " for years before November of 1963. https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=96527#relPageId=213

Jim, FWIW, you may recall that John Butler discovered four years ago that Blair's use of "Fred" was a nickname - his birth name was "Carroll", which caused John some confusion until he realized the mistake. I have no idea if Blair ever legally changed his first name to "Fred" or just used it as a suitable alternative to the ambiguous "Carroll". Anyway, I doubt that Blair was ever listed in a phone book. If he did spend time in NYC in the mid-1940's, he probably temporarily stayed/visited his sister Grace and her communist husband Emil Gardos, their son John (and maybe . . . our little "Oswald"?) at 217 E. 86th Street in Yorkville. Also, can you check these directories for Louis Weinstock? (Slight variation: can you check NYC directories to see if Edwin Ekdahl had any NYC addresses at any time in the 1940's?) Thanks.

Sandy, Can you give a little more precise citation from Bill Simpich for this? I can't get a link for the Oswald's "complete" 201 CIA file. The Warren Commission's Volume XXIV (24) has nothing to do with "Oswald's" use of the names "Alec" or "Alik" either. Where did Simpich get this? Thanks.

Jim, According to his obituary in the NYT, Louis Weinstock was the longtime business manager for "The Daily Worker." https://www.nytimes.com/1994/11/29/obituaries/louis-weinstock-91-a-top-communist-and-a-union-leader.html According to the FBI's "SOLO" files, "In conversation with Grace Gardos, a former American who is now residing in Budapest, Hungary, which was held in Prague, Czechoslovakia, during March, 1966, she remarked that no one in Hungary has "any use" for Louis Weinstock. She stated that Weinstock is making himself a real nuisance and is constantly bothering the Hungarian Socialist Workers Party, as well as JANOS KADAR, the party's First Secretary. She also noted that Weinstock has been traveling throughout the socialist countries and . . . former Americans in the countries to which he has been have developed considerable animosity toward him." https://archive.org/stream/FBI-Operation-Solo/100-HQ-428091-Serial5580-5626_djvu.txt I don't know (yet) if Bentley and Weinstock ever met in any context.

Jim, Thanks for the info on Louis Weinstock. If someone can get a look at those papers (have they been digitized?) then they would probably give us a clue as to why (Bentley) dropped his name in her call to the Tippit's. As to Elizabeth Bentley herself, while I hope to have a much more definitive answer in a few weeks, for now I believe she was exactly what the narrative has said she was: a genuine communist in the 1930's who then turned into an FBI informant in 1945. At present, I have no reason to suspect she was an American intelligence asset in the 1930's. I anticipate elaborating on this in April.