Jane Roman and T-2

[Jim Root]

Pleas refer to:

ATTEMPTS TO OBTAIN PERMISSION TO DECLASSIFY PORTION OF UNIDENTIFIED FBI DOCUMENT

RIF#: 104-10005-10228 (10/21/64) CIA#: 201-289248

for this post located at:

http://www.maryferrell.org/mffweb/archive/...o?docSetId=1095

During the Testimony of James Patrick Hosty we find a reference to "T-2" as a source of information of Lee Harvery Oswald.

Mr. STERN. If you will look at page 2 of the report we have marked for identification No. 829

Mr. HOSTY. Yes, sir.

Mr. STERN. The last paragraph on that page relates--well, tell us what information that refers to.

Mr. HOSTY. It says, "On April 21, 1963, Dallas confidential informant T-2 advised that Lee H. Oswald of Dallas, Tex, was in contact with the Fair Play for Cuba Committee in New York City at which time he advised that he passed out pamphlets for the Fair Play for Cuba Committee. According to T-2, Oswald had a placard around his neck reading, 'Hands Off Cuba, Viva Fidel.'"Mr. STERN. Did you attempt to verify that information?

Mr. HOSTY. When I got it, it was approximately 6 or 7 weeks old, past the date it allegedly took place, and we had received no information to the effect that anyone had been in the downtown streets of Dallas or anywhere in Dallas with a sign around their neck saying "Hands Off Cuba, Viva Fidel." It appeared highly unlikely to me that such an occurrence could have happened in Dallas without having been brought to our attention. So by the time I got it, it was, you might say, stale information and we did not attempt to verify it.

Mr. STERN. When you record this as something that an informant advised about on April 21, that doesn't mean he advised you or the Dallas office on April 21?

Mr. HOSTY. That is right.

Mr. STERN. Did this information come from another part of the FBI?

Mr. HOSTY. Yes, sir; it came from the New York office of the FBI. They were advised on the 21st of April.

Mr. STERN. But the information didn't get to you until some time after?

Mr. HOSTY. In June, I believe.

Mr. STERN. Did you have any information apart from this that there was an organization active in the Dallas area called, "The Fair Play for Cuba Committee"?

Mr. HOSTY. No, sir; we had no information of any organization by that name.

Mr. STERN. Had you at this time ever heard of such an organization?

Mr. HOSTY. Yes, sir; I had.

Mr. STERN. In what connection?

Mr. HOSTY. The New York office had advised all offices of the FBI to be on the alert for the possible formation of chapters of this organization which was headquartered in New York.

Mr. STERN. Had you investigated the Dallas area in that connection?

Mr. HOSTY. We had checked our sources, I had and other agents assigned to the internal security division had checked sources. We were on the alert for it.

Mr. STERN. And you found what?

Mr. HOSTY. We found no evidence that there was any such organization in Dallas.

Eleven days after the assassination attempt on the life MAj. General Edwin Anderson Walker (April 10, 1963) an informant identifies Lee Harvey Oswald as having "advised that he passed out pamphlets for the Fair Play for Cuba Committee. According to T-2, Oswald had a placard around his neck reading, 'Hands Off Cuba, Viva Fidel."

From CIA#: 201-289248:

"On Friday, 9 October 1964, Jane Roman (office of Richard Helms) brought in to me a thermofax reproduction of one paragraph on page 10 of an FBI report which concerned the OSWALD case and which she said the Bureau vanted to have declassified because they had declassified their entire report in preparation for passing it to the Warren Commission. The informationin that paragraph was ours and was given by us to the Bureau in Miami. Jane wanted to know if it could be declassified."

This report goes on to outline the attempts to figure out how to present this information without giving away the CIA as the provider of the information.

At the conclusion we find these words:

As I gather, CIA will not appear in this report as the FBI's source. The information is source"...NY T-2 advised the Miami office of the FBI..."

MPHartman

Compared with:

"On April 21, 1963, Dallas confidential informant T-2 advised that Lee H. Oswald of Dallas, Tex, was in contact with the Fair Play for Cuba Committee in New York City at which time he advised that he passed out pamphlets for the Fair Play for Cuba Committee. According to T-2, Oswald had a placard around his neck reading, 'Hands Off Cuba, Viva Fidel."

Followed by:

"Mr. STERN. Did this information come from another part of the FBI?

Mr. HOSTY. Yes, sir; it came from the New York office of the FBI.

Seems that NY T-2 was really the CIA office of Richard Helms and that they seemed to know that Lee Harvey Oswald would be doing work for the Fair Play for Cuba Committee before he actually began doing work for the Fair Play for Cuba Committee. And imagine that this all took place just eleven days after Oswald had alledgedly taken a shot at Walker and 10 days after George DeMohrenschildt, brother of Demitri (who was a close associate of Whitney Shepardson, former head of SI and the founder of the Council on Foreign Relations) had guessed that Oswald had attempted to assassinate Oswald and asked, how could you miss.

I continue to speculate, just as Edwin Walker did, that people in very high places knew immediately that it had been Oswald that attempted to assassinate Walker. It is very possible that, if the above is true, these same people would have a complete psych profile on Oswald and would, according to the CIA (Bellin note) could have know that Oswald would assassinate the President if given the opportunity.

Hosty's missing third note provided this opportunity. From the Hosty testimony:

Mr. STERN. Now, tell us in detail of your interview with Mrs. Paine starting from the time you rang the doorbell.

Mr. HOSTY. All right. As I say, when I entered the house I immediately identified myself. I showed her my credentials, identified myself as a special agent of the FBI, and requested to talk to her. She invited me into the house.

Mr. STERN. Did she seemed surprised at your visit?

Mr. HOSTY. No, she didn't. She was quite friendly and invited me in, said this is the first time she had ever met an FBI agent. Very cordial As I say, it is my recollection I sat here on the couch and she sat across the room from me.

I then told her the purpose of my visit, that I was interested in locating the whereabouts of Lee Oswald.

She readily admitted that Mrs. Marina Oswald and Lee Oswald's two children were staying with her. She said that Lee Oswald was living somewhere in Dallas. She didn't know where. She said it was in the Oak Cliff area but she didn't have his address. I asked her if she knew where he worked. After a moment's hesitation, she told me that he worked at the Texas School Book Depository near the downtown area of Dallas. She didn't have the exact address, and it is my recollection that we went to the phone book and looked it up, found it to be 411 Elm Street.

....Mr. DULLES. Did you clear or notify the Dallas office either before or after?

Mr. HOSTY. You mean after I determined this?

Mr. DULLES. Yes.

Mr. HOSTY. Oh, yes, sir. This occurred on the 1st. This was a Friday. I returned to the Dallas office. I covered a couple of other leads on the way back. I got in shortly after 5 o'clock and all our stenos had gone home. This information has to go registered mail, and it could not go then until Monday morning.Monday morning---shall I continue?

Mr. STERN. Yes.

Mr. HOSTY. On Monday morning, I made a pretext telephone call to the Texas School Book Depository, I called up and asked for the personnel department, asked if a Lee Oswald was employed there. They said yes, he was. I said what address does he show? They said 2515 West Fifth Street, Irving, Tex., which I knew not to be his correct address.

I then sent a communication, airmail communication to the New Orleans office advising them--and to the headquarters of the FBI advising them--and then instructing the New Orleans office to make the Dallas office the office of origin. We were now assuming control, because he had now been verified in our division.

The procedure followed by Hosty for this note sent on November 4. 1963 was the same procedure followed for his previous two notes that made it to the office of Richard Helms via the same Jane Roman mentioned above.

A logical explanation for the above sequence, suggests that the office of Richard Helms (himself a former SI man who worked with Whitney Spepardson) decides to initiate surveilance of Lee Harvey Oswald within days of the assassination attempt on the life of General Walker. This surveilance is initiated 10 days after George DeMohrenschildt (brother of Whitney Spepardson's close associate Demitri) guesses that Oswlad had attempted to kill Walker. Knowledge of the assassination attempt on the life of Walker would provide anyone with access to an Oswald psych file with enough information to predict that Oswald would kill the President (according to a CIA report). When it is finally learned where Oswald is working these same people would have that information prior to the fianalization of the motorcade route (which would be decided in Washington). It was then decided that the last building passed before the motorcade route would enter the expressway onramp would be the same Texas School Book Depository where a man (Oswald) was working that the same people who had all the above information could have guessed would kill the President.

Jim Root

[James Richards]

Jim,

Am I correct in assuming that Dallas T-2 was Harry Holmes?

James

[Robin Unger]

Thanks Jim.

Interesting read.

[Royce Bierma]

Jim,

Am I correct in assuming that Dallas T-2 was Harry Holmes?

James

James, yes, Harry Holmes was Dallas informant T-2.

Roy Bierma

[James Richards]

Thanks, Roy.

Curious character indeed.

I remember seeing an FBI file on Holmes that had been requested by the HSCA. The whole thing had been redacted.

It does make on wonder.

James

[Jim Root]

The post is designed to show that the T-2 designation, at least in the case of a later document, went through Jane Roman in the office of Richard Helms.

Hosty seems to be clear that the event involving Oswald and the Fair Play for Cuba distribution did not take place in Dallas although the memo is passed via NY T-2 as the pretext to having the FBI begin to monitor Lee Harvey Oswald. Oswald then, when he goes to New Orleans becomes involved in the Fair Play for Cuba activities.

We have the interesting suggestion that someone, perhaps in the office of Richard Helms, was aware of an activity that Oswald would involve himself in before Oswald involved himself is actually involved in it. And, for my story, the FBI observation of Oswald neatly follows the attempted murder of General Walker.

According to Gerry Hemming, T-2 was also a designation givern to Edwin Walker in a case that Hemming was involved with in court. Hemming was able to share that the T-2 designation did not represent any one person but was used in an organizational manner. Would have to dig up that particular Hemming correspondance to see it for sure.

For me the new tie between Demetri and George DeMohrenschildt seems worth pursuing. My interest in Demetri has come about because of a hunch which led to the discovery of a cache of documents that I believe to be relevent information about people involved in the assassination story. One thing is for certain, all the people which I mentioned at the end of the above post are all tied to Richard Helms......and the use of the T-2 designation for an informant in the Oswald case can be tied to Helms as well.

Jim Root