If Oswald Was an Intelligence Agent of Some Sort, How Was He Manipulated Into Being a Patsy?

[Thomas Graves]

Hi Tommy, sorry not to have responded earlier but I only check in here periodically and missed your question.

If you have SWHT I got into considerable detail on this in Chapter 12, the good news is that we have an extensive

document trail on several areas of the exile efforts to buy guns in Dallas as well as the sting that was organized

against it, in particular Masen's efforts to find guns for them. The original informant on all this was George Nonte at

Fort Hood. He went to Army intel with Masen's efforts to get guns from Fort Hood and that report was circulated

within the 112th. Independently, We have the exact names of who Masen's potential Miami and Dallas customers were.

Independently, Ellesworth of ATF was targeting Masen, who had become known for his gun and explosives sales.

However initially Ellesworth did not know and was not told of the Army intel info, which was shared with the FBI but

not the ATF. That is most likely because the FBI had a particular interest in getting ahead of the Cuban exiles in

potential attacks on Cuba and they had some local office folks on that beat - unfortunately although we know about

that now, very few of the documents relating to their per-assassination inquiries have become available.

So, in a long winded answer, no I don't think the 112th was hearing from Oswald. On the other hand I think its very

possible that Oswald was being either directly or indirectly run against Cuban exiles in Dallas in regard to gun

dealing - not sure how we will ever prove that but its would be consistent with his activities in New Orleans. Now if there

was a surveillance team observing the comings and goings at the Harlandale house *as has been rumored), that might be

another story. If the Dallas FBI field office files still existed and we could get our hands on them....but since that

was all pre-assassination, they don't seemed to have been sucked up in the records collection and are most likely long gone.

Thanks, Larry.

Do you think there's any evidence that suggests that gun running (storage/transshipping) was taking place at the TSBD building?

Tommy

Edited March 6, 2013 by Thomas Graves

[Larry Hancock]

As far as the TSBD goes, at one time that idea did interest me but the more I think about it, the less sense it makes.

First off, the quantities of weapons being sought by the exiles were reasonably small, which makes sense given that

they had relatively small groups of fighters. And they were not really heavy arms, just light stuff. You could transport

it in a trunk or a U Haul trailer, no rail transport required (much like the trail Hall and Howard ran through Dallas). Even

the explosives that were brought down from Chicago to New Orleans for the aborted air strike on Cuba were carried

and stored in a trailer. A low profile compared to moving stuff into a warehouse in downtown Dallas.

So that pretty well speaks to the weapons that DRE and JURE were shopping for... Its pretty clear now that

the Army guys at Fort Hood were pulling Ellesworth's leg with stories about tanks being taking out the back

door of the base... What we really have are quantities like the take from the Armory break in, all of which were carried

on one or two car trunks.

As far as the sanctioned group, Artime's autonomous effort, they were getting major shipments of weapons, planes, boats

etc, but thanks to the work of researchers like Gary Murr, we now know the details of that it it wasn't going through Dallas -

although the CIA did maintain transhipment points, they were down in the coastal cities.

All in all the TSBD doesn't make much sense given what we know now about the actual mechanisms of supply for sanctioned

covert operations and it just wouldn't be necessary for the smaller independent buys.

-- Larry

[Thomas Graves]

As far as the TSBD goes, at one time that idea did interest me but the more I think about it, the less sense it makes.

First off, the quantities of weapons being sought by the exiles were reasonably small, which makes sense given that

they had relatively small groups of fighters. And they were not really heavy arms, just light stuff. You could transport

it in a trunk or a U Haul trailer, no rail transport required (much like the trail Hall and Howard ran through Dallas). Even

the explosives that were brought down from Chicago to New Orleans for the aborted air strike on Cuba were carried

and stored in a trailer. A low profile compared to moving stuff into a warehouse in downtown Dallas.

So that pretty well speaks to the weapons that DRE and JURE were shopping for... Its pretty clear now that

the Army guys at Fort Hood were pulling Ellesworth's leg with stories about tanks being taking out the back

door of the base... What we really have are quantities like the take from the Armory break in, all of which were carried

on one or two car trunks.

As far as the sanctioned group, Artime's autonomous effort, they were getting major shipments of weapons, planes, boats

etc, but thanks to the work of researchers like Gary Murr, we now know the details of that it it wasn't going through Dallas -

although the CIA did maintain transhipment points, they were down in the coastal cities.

All in all the TSBD doesn't make much sense given what we know now about the actual mechanisms of supply for sanctioned

covert operations and it just wouldn't be necessary for the smaller independent buys.

-- Larry

Thanks again, Larry.

Do you give any credence to the report (or rumor) that the three tramps were found in a boxcar that had some explosives in it?

--Tommy

[Lindsay Anderson]

Halfway through reading this thread and find it very interesting -

I have wanted to read The Man That Knew Too Much for sometime - what is SWHT though?

[Larry Hancock]

Tommy, after chasing tramp stories for years I find nothing to substantiate that and much to question it. What we do know from

the record is that Bowers held a train coming from downtown Dallas (after the had started clearing trains through the yards) based

on seeing a single tramp in a hopper car. We have no word at all from him on seeing that tramp taken into custody much less

three tramps out of a box car. But we do know the train was coming from down town headed out across the overpass....which means

if the tramps were in a boxcar they would likely have gotten on somewhere downtown while train traffic was being held for the

motorcade...and they would have gotten on a train heading back through the Plaza (which if they were somehow participants in

a conspiracy makes as little sense as Oswald getting on a bus headed right back through the Plaza). They would already have been

well away from the crime scene, why go back. And why would explosives have been in that box car?

We also know that Bowers first day statement contains nothing about the arrest of three tramps...or even of the one he had reported to

police...seems like the other things he had seen like cars cruising the parking lot were more auspicious to him.

If we want to speculate about explosives in the Plaza, I'll save mine for a back up radio controlled car bomb up just beyond the access

ramp to the freeway. Or maybe somebody with a railroad squib (firecracker) behind the fence used as a sight/sound diversion.

-- Larry

[Larry Hancock]

Lindsay, Someone Would Have Talked (SWHT) is my "bottoms up" study of the conspiracy that killed the President and the cover up

which followed Actually it takes (and extends) a good deal of the information that you find in Dick Russell's The Man Who Knew to Much. I've spent a lot of

time reading Dick's book, researching and writing about Nagell.

-- Larry

[Lindsay Anderson]

Lindsay, Someone Would Have Talked (SWHT) is my "bottoms up" study of the conspiracy that killed the President and the cover up

which followed Actually it takes (and extends) a good deal of the information that you find in Dick Russell's The Man Who Knew to Much. I've spent a lot of

time reading Dick's book, researching and writing about Nagell.

-- Larry

Thanks Larry

[Thomas Graves]

Tommy, after chasing tramp stories for years I find nothing to substantiate that and much to question it. What we do know from

the record is that Bowers held a train coming from downtown Dallas (after the had started clearing trains through the yards) based

on seeing a single tramp in a hopper car. We have no word at all from him on seeing that tramp taken into custody much less

three tramps out of a box car. But we do know the train was coming from down town headed out across the overpass....which means

if the tramps were in a boxcar they would likely have gotten on somewhere downtown while train traffic was being held for the

motorcade...and they would have gotten on a train heading back through the Plaza (which if they were somehow participants in

a conspiracy makes as little sense as Oswald getting on a bus headed right back through the Plaza). They would already have been

well away from the crime scene, why go back. And why would explosives have been in that box car?

We also know that Bowers first day statement contains nothing about the arrest of three tramps...or even of the one he had reported to

police...seems like the other things he had seen like cars cruising the parking lot were more auspicious to him.

If we want to speculate about explosives in the Plaza, I'll save mine for a back up radio controlled car bomb up just beyond the access

ramp to the freeway. Or maybe somebody with a railroad squib (firecracker) behind the fence used as a sight/sound diversion.

-- Larry

Larry,

Maybe I'm confused, but if the three tramps were involved in the conspiracy, wouldn't they have gotten into a boxcar that was already in the railway yard behind the TSBD? And right after the assassination rather than before it? In other words, in an attempt to flee the crime scene rather than to come to it after the fact, by train?

Thanks,

--Tommy

Edited March 7, 2013 by Thomas Graves

[Paul Trejo]

Larry Hancock's recent book, Someone Would Have Talked (2010), is excellent. In this book Larry reviews the little-known story of John Martino, who spoke out about the JFK assassination in 1975. Martino's memoirs substantiated much of Jim Garrison's 1968 investigation of Guy Banister and David Ferrie in New Orleans in the summer of 1963, especially in their dealings with radical Cuban Exiles and gun-running operations.

This scenario is the environment in which Lee Harvey Oswald lived and moved when he was in New Orleans in the summer of 1963. Carlos Bringuier and Ed Butler were among the leaders of that movement, as was Antonio Veciana of Alpha 66, who operated inside the Lake Pontchartrain paramilitary training camp.

With this scenario we have a full 50% of the JFK assassination plot, IMHO. The other 50% we can only find in Dallas. So we rightly seek any members of the New Orleans crew who also be found in Dallas. We find them with Gerry Patrick Hemming, Loran Hall, Lawrence Howard and Lee Harvey Oswald -- to name a few. They seem to report to Guy Banister in New Orleans, and then to ex-General Edwin Walker in Dallas.

By the way, Harry Dean, who personally met with General Walker, Loran Hall and Lawrence Howard in Los Angeles in the early fall of 1963, and who heard these men name Lee Harvey Oswald as their pinko patsy, further remembers something about arms trafficking in that period.

Harry Dean was associating with the JURE group of Cuban Exiles at that time, and reporting his findings to the FBI in Los Angeles. (The LA FBI was worried about JURE in those days, and was harassing them ) The leader of JURE in Los Angeles was named "Martinez," and one day Martinez pulled Harry Dean aside and said, "We need a white person to buy a large amount of weapons for us from a local manufacturer. We have cash."

Harry conferred with the FBI about this, and the FBI encouraged Harry to play along and keep them apprised. Harry approached the arms manufacturer (the Golden State Arms Company) about the deal. Harry learned that -- white or not -- he would still have to file a report with the FBI for making such a large purchase of weapons. When Harry reported this fact back to Martinez, Martinez said, "Forget it, because my whole purpose was to stay below the radar of the FBI."

This fact also corresponds to the many interviews that Loran Hall gave to the Tattler and the National Enquirer around the time of Jim Garrison's investigation -- namely -- that one of his main activities was collecting weapons, medicines and cash and shipping them to Florida for continuing raids on Cuba. For example:

http://www.pet880.co...Enquirer_NB.pdf

http://www.pet880.co...ren_Hall_02.JPG

http://www.pet880.co...ren_Hall_03.JPG

Best regards,

--Paul Trejo

<edit typos>

Edited March 7, 2013 by Paul Trejo

[Paul Trejo]

If we never talk about the three tramps again it will be too soon.

I'm inclined to agree with Jim here. The nonsense that the tramps were E. Howard Hunt and Frank Sturgis got a lot of press in past decades, but that false identification fizzled out. (For one thing, Hunt was clearly taller than Sturgis, but with the tramps, the alleged 'Hunt' tramp was clearly shorter than the alleged 'Sturgis' tramp).

Also, referring to the main question of this thread, If Oswald Was an Intelligence Agent of Some Sort, How Was He Manipulated Into Being a Patsy? I would respond with two points:

(1) Oswald was only pre-intelligence -- he was a wannabe who was working as a part-time contractor for the CIA, but he was never their salaried employee. This is why he hung out with Gerry Patrick Hemming, Loran Hall, Larry Howard, Ed Butler and Carlos Bringuier. Like them, he was a small-time contractor, hoping to be hired by the CIA or the FBI in some fantasy future. He might actually have gotten hired if he cleaned up his act -- long odds.

(2) Oswald was easily manipulated into being a patsy on three counts: (i) as a part-time contractor, Oswald was a wannabe gopher; (ii) Oswald was a double-agent, which put him on the lowest rung of the ladder of spies, because they are so high-maintenance; and (iii) Oswald had boasted to the wrong person(s) that he was involved in the 10 April 1963 shooting at ex-General Edwin Walker. This put him on Guy Banister's xxxx-list.

Best regards,

--Paul Trejo

<edit typos>

Edited March 7, 2013 by Paul Trejo

[Thomas Graves]

If we never talk about the three tramps again it will be too soon.

[...]

The nonsense that the tramps were E. Howard Hunt and Frank Sturgis got a lot of press in past decades, but that false identification fizzled out. (For one thing, Hunt was clearly taller than Sturgis, but with the tramps, the alleged 'Hunt' tramp was clearly shorter than the alleged 'Sturgis' tramp).

[...]

Dear Paul,

Frank Sturgis? I didn't for a second think that the tall tramp was FranK Sturgis. (Sounds like you're referring to the book Coup de Etat in America.) I'm much more inclined to believe that the tall tramp was Charles V. Harrelson and that "Frenchy" was Charles Rogers.

Frank Sturgis?? LOL!

Warmest Regards,

--Tommy

[Larry Hancock]

I'd normally avoid bringing up the tramps up again myself but since Tommy asked me a direct, and good question, I need to reply...

"Maybe I'm confused, but if the three tramps were involved in the conspiracy, wouldn't they have gotten into a boxcar that was already in the railway yard behind the TSBD? And right after the assassination rather than before it? In other words, in an attempt to flee the crime scene rather than to come to it after the fact, by train?"

The answer us that you are absolutely not confused and once the details of the trains movements are examined it makes no sense that the tramps would have been in the plaza during the assassination as part of a conspiracy. The cars in question were on a train headed out of Dallas

going over the overpass and that train was coming from downtown - after Bowers had cleared train movements some time after the motorcade and the assassination. Unless you want to assume the tramps had successfully exfiltrated from the Plaza and were in the clear - but had no better escape plan than to hop a freight clearly going back towards the crime scene. For that matter even if they had been in the Plaza, jumping into a box car in the rail yard right behind it, one absolutely certain to be searched before any trains were allowed to move, would be pretty stupid.

In my view of things, the tactical team in the Plaza was well trained, experienced and did not do stupid things.

-- Larry

[Thomas Graves]

I'd normally avoid bringing up the tramps up again myself but since Tommy asked me a direct, and good question, I need to reply...

"Maybe I'm confused, but if the three tramps were involved in the conspiracy, wouldn't they have gotten into a boxcar that was already in the railway yard behind the TSBD? And right after the assassination rather than before it? In other words, in an attempt to flee the crime scene rather than to come to it after the fact, by train?"

The answer us that you are absolutely not confused and once the details of the trains movements are examined it makes no sense that the tramps would have been in the plaza during the assassination as part of a conspiracy. The cars in question were on a train headed out of Dallas

going over the overpass and that train was coming from downtown - after Bowers had cleared train movements some time after the motorcade and the assassination. Unless you want to assume the tramps had successfully exfiltrated from the Plaza and were in the clear - but had no better escape plan than to hop a freight clearly going back towards the crime scene. For that matter even if they had been in the Plaza, jumping into a box car in the rail yard right behind it, one absolutely certain to be searched before any trains were allowed to move, would be pretty stupid.

In my view of things, the tactical team in the Plaza was well trained, experienced and did not do stupid things.

-- Larry

Thanks Larry,

I guess I'm "paranoid" enough to think that they were already in the Dealey Plaza area when the assassination went down, that the may have changed clothes somewhere (perhaps in the boxcar), and actually wanted to be "detained" so they could "escort" at least one bad cop or fake cop out of the crime scene and so they themselves could spend a couple days in jail, out of sight.

The "Landsdale" character's passing between them and the chain link fence is also very interesting.

Thanks,

--Tommy

Edited March 7, 2013 by Thomas Graves

[Steven Gaal]

If Oswald Was an Intelligence Agent of Some Sort, How Was He Manipulated Into Being a Patsy?

ANSWER

BY 15 and a half there is something already off in SS# of LHO.

LHO subject to photographic homosexual blackmail. Its the early 1950s......put yourself into that time frame and think how/what would you respond as a teenager to such pressure.

###############################################################

To Jake Rubenstein, c/o The Carousel Club

William Weston

October 2001

On October 31, 1976, a government agent greeted a gray-haired gentleman who, on his own initiative, came into the FBI office in Memphis, Tennessee. He had a secret about the Kennedy assassination, he said, and he wanted to disclose it. [1]

The distinguished-looking visitor did not appear to be the type who would know something about the world of spies, pimps, drug dealers, con artists, and other disreputable denizens inhabiting the murky milieu of assassination intrigue. Daniel T. McGown, by anyone's standards, was a pillar of the community, a successful businessman with an honorable career in a prestigious profession. Born in 1908 in Brownwood, Texas, his family moved to Memphis prior to his graduation from high school. After receiving a degree from the School of Architecture at Georgia Tech, he went to work for Schulz & Norton, an architectural and engineering firm in Memphis. In 1941, he married Irma Lee Beasley, a daughter from one of Tennesee's more respectable families. During the course of their marriage, the couple had two children. In 1948, he started his own architectural firm, which over the years grew and prospered. He became president of the local chapter of the American Institute of Architects and was a member of the Calvary Episcopal Church. [2] Family man, businessman, church member, community server, Mr. McGown lived a life that was largely indistinguishable from thousands of other men of his class who lived around the country. However, in that fateful year of 1963, a strange twist of fate had placed within his hands a hitherto unknown secret regarding a connection between Lee Harvey Oswald and Jack Ruby.

The incident occurred during a business trip to Texas in March 1963. McGown had flown to Austin, in order to check over the plans for a new building that was to be constructed on the campus of the University of Texas. When he had completed his survey, he rented a car and drove north to the city of Brownwood, where he spent a day with some relatives. He then drove to Fort Worth, where he visited his first cousin, a prominent attorney in that city. Late in the evening, he used his cousin's telephone to call his wife Irma. He wished her a happy birthday and said that he would see her the next day, when his plane arrived in Memphis. Irma's birthday was March 28.

McGown left his cousin's house and drove east to Dallas. It was almost midnight when he checked in at the Adolphus Hotel on Commerce Street. After getting settled into his room, he felt like having a nightcap before going to bed. He left his room, went down the elevator to the lobby, and went outside. The brightly lit sign of the Carousel Club beckoned from across the street. He walked over to the club entrance door and opened it. Behind the door was a staircase, leading up to the second floor. When he reached the top of the stairs, he was stopped by a heavy-set man. The club was closing up, the man said, who then complained about city regulations that prevented him from keeping the place open after midnight. [3] Rebuffed by the manager of the club, McGown went back to his room.

The following morning, McGown decided to do a little sightseeing, since he had a few hours to kill before his plane departed from Dallas. As he was walking down Commerce Street, he paused at the Carousel Club. Near the entrance was a showcase display featuring pictures of female performers. As he was gazing at the pictures, another man who was walking down the street crowded into the entryway to look at them too. It was an awkward moment for McGown as he tried to make room for the other man while at the same time trying to keep a favorable point of view for himself. Presently, the other man turned to leave. As he did so, he brushed by an overstuffed mailbox that hung on the entrance door. A few large pieces of mail, two magazines, and three letters spilled on the ground. The man continued on his way without stopping.

McGown proceeded to pick up the envelopes and magazines and stuff them back into the box. He noticed that the three letters were written by women and were addressed to "Jake Rubenstein, c/o The Carousel Club." Rubenstein must have been the heavy-set man whom McGown met the previous night. He was probably also the one who hired women to be performers in the club. Perhaps the senders of the three letters were prospective applicants for employment. McGown looked at the envelopes again. Two of the women lived in Fort Worth, and one lived in Dallas. The name on the Dallas letter caught his attention, for he happened to have a friend who had the same last name. [4] After making a mental note of the address, he put the letters back in the box with the rest of the mail. The woman he was planning to visit was "Lee Oswald."

Using a city map as a guide, McGown drove toward Miss Oswald's place. As he was approaching her street, he looked at the houses in the neighborhood. Expecting to see lower class housing, he was surprised to find upper middle class or upper class residences. McGown wondered about this. Why would anyone living in such an area have any dealings with a strip joint?

When he arrived at his destination, he stopped the car and looked at it. It was a two-story apartment building, constructed in the cheap, boxy style that was becoming the prevailing fashion at that time. It had an outside stairway that led up to a balcony walk on the second floor. It was a new building, perhaps two or three years old at the most. For the convenience of the postman, there was a mailbox with individual compartments that stood facing the street next to the curb. In order to find the unit that Miss Oswald was renting, McGown got out of his car and looked over the names of the tenants posted on the compartment doors. When he found Oswald's name, he realized that he had made a mistake. The middle name of Lee Harvey Oswald showed that this person was not a woman. Without further ado, McGown got back into his car and drove away.

Eight months later, when the names of Lee Oswald and Jack Ruby were being broadcasted on radio and television, the details of this episode came vividly back to his memory. Should he tell the authorities what he knew, or should he not? His reputation might suffer if this embarrassing incident ever became widely known. He hoped that the authorities would find out about Oswald's connection to Jack Ruby without his help. When the Warren Report was published, he bought a copy and read it from cover to cover. There was nothing in it to indicate that the government knew what he knew. Furthermore he read that the commission could find no "credible evidence" of an association between Oswald and Ruby. After the death of Jack Ruby in January 1967, McGown wondered if he was the only one left who still had the "credible evidence" that eluded the Warren Commission. Finally, nine years later, he told his wife about it. She encouraged him to go to the FBI. After all, his story might make a difference in the new, upcoming investigation into the JFK assassination that Congress was preparing to launch. Such were the circumstances that led Daniel T. McGown to the local office of the FBI in 1976.

The FBI of course wanted to know where the apartment was. McGown could not remember its exact location, but he drew a diagram depicting the apartment in relation to the mailbox out front, as well as in relation to a nearby apartment that faced another street. He remembered that the address had four digits and sounded something like "Diceland." A Dallas city map showed that there were was no street with the name of "Diceland," but there were two with the name of "Diceman." One was Diceman Drive, and the other was Diceman Avenue.

Dallas FBI agent Robert Gemberling drove out to Diceman Drive to see if there were any apartments matching McGown's diagram and description. Diceman Drive had single-family houses but no apartments. A few inquiries among the residents showed that no apartment had ever existed on that street.

Next stop was Diceman Avenue. Gemberling looked from one end of the avenue to the other, and the only dwellings that he could see were single-family homes - with one exception. At the point where Diceman ran into Cedar Crest Boulevard was a two-story building made of brick. It was the Cedar Crest Heights Apartment. It had a second floor balcony walk with an iron railing just as McGown described it. Next to the curb was a large mailbox with sixteen key-locked compartments with tenant nametags. Adjacent to the building was another apartment facing Birdsong Street. The apartment at 1106 Diceman Avenue must be the place that McGown had visited in 1963. There was no other possibility. Still, Gemberling was not satisfied. He noticed that all the buildings in the neighborhood were rundown, dilapidated, and occupied entirely by lower-class blacks. This was not the upper class neighborhood that McGown claimed to have seen.

Gemberling looked for the manager. He found him at a nearby office at 2514 Birdsong Avenue. The manager told him that the apartment was owned by a company called General Rental. It was built around 1959 or 1960, and it was the only apartment that had ever been on that street. The mailbox seen out front had been there since the apartment was first constructed. So far these extra details provided additional confirmation for McGown's story. Gemberling wanted to see the tenant records for 1963, but the manager told them that they no longer existed. They were destroyed with all the other tenant records in a fire that occurred in April 1968. Gemberling asked the manager if he knew anything about Oswald living in the apartment in 1963. Although the manager acknowledged that he had only been working for General Rental since 1969, he was nevertheless positive that Oswald could not have lived in the apartment in 1963. In an all-black neighborhood, people would have certainly remembered Oswald as the only white man living among them, and such was not the case.

Apparently the manager's statement was enough to convince Gemberling that the 1106 Diceman lead was a dead end. No further inquiries were made, as far as the available records show. (There are however some "postponed in full" documents from the Memphis office of the FBI regarding a "Daniel McGowen" that are now in the National Archives.) To find out more about the apartment, I checked the 1963 Dallas criss-cross directory and found a former tenant by the name of Orlean Dorsey. I located Dorsey in Lufkin, Texas and called him up. Contrary to what the General Rental manager told Gemberling, Dorsey, who is black, said it was not an all-black apartment in 1963. Both white and black people lived there. Furthermore, the apartment was indeed located in a prestigious area. About a mile south of the apartment was the Lakeview Golf Course, where Dorsey worked as a landscape and maintenance man. Among the celebrities who played golf there were such baseball legends as Mickey Mantle and "Dizzy" Dean. At that time, the golf course was racially segregated. Whites played there during the day and blacks played at night.

Not just anyone could live at the Cedar Crest Apartment. A prospective tenant had to have a very good background and excellent references. Dorsey was able to get his unit because he knew the manager, a black named Denny Blair, who often played golf at Lakeview. Blair was an employee of Bailey Rental, a white-owned company that had title to the Diceman apartment. (Bailey Rental was later renamed General Rental.)

The Cedar Crest Apartment was an expensive place to live. It took all of Dorsey's wages to pay the rent. He was making $1.25 per hour and the rent was about $210 per month. The only way he could afford to live there was by working a lot of overtime on the weekends. By way of comparison, Oswald was making $1.35 per hour at Jaggers Chiles Stovall during the month of March 1963, and he was paying $72.68 a month for a one-bedroom flat at the Neely Street house. [5]

Dorsey and his family moved into the apartment in November 1962. Because of his long working hours and because he was going to plumbing school at the same time, he did not get to know the other tenants. His wife and children also did not do much socializing. Thus he was unable to confirm or deny whether Oswald lived there. Dorsey and his family moved to another apartment in October 1963.

The transition from an affluent, mainly white neighborhood to black lower class ghetto occurred during the mid-1960's, according to Dorsey who would come back to visit his former apartment from time to time. The quality of the building and the surrounding area deteriorated as a result of vandalism and neglect. When I called the General Rental office in 1995, I found out that the apartment was still owned by the Bailey family. I also learned that rent was only $50 per week - a real bargain for anyone brave enough to live there.

Did Oswald live at the Cedar Crest Apartment? Considering the high cost of rent in 1963, it is unlikely he would have chosen to live there. A more reasonable possibility is that he used the address simply to receive his mail. As a man astute in the ways of intelligence, he no doubt realized that a mailbox at the post office was under surveillance. A second mailbox in another area would be highly useful for receiving mail from more sensitive sources. This line of reasoning is supported by the fact that most of the units at 1106 Diceman were listed as "vacant" in the criss-cross directories of 1962 and 1963. In 1962 only five of the sixteen units available were occupied. This ratio dropped to only four occupied units the following year. An apartment manager with a 75% vacancy rate might let someone temporarily use an unused mailbox for a small fee.

It is interesting to note that on March 29, the day that McGown was at the Diceman apartment, Oswald was seen at a barbershop in Sparta, Wisconsin. Oswald told John Abbott, the barber, that he got his money by blackmailing a Texas nightclub operator, for whom he had previously worked. Each time he made a contact with this man, he would get fifty dollars. The money he obtained would be used to cover his travelling expenses. (He never gave the name of the nightclub operator.) Perhaps the Oswald letter that McGown saw was another demand for more money.

McGown's story lends credence to the story of a connection between Ruby and Oswald in the May 17 edition of the National Enquirer. It said: "After a sniper shot at but missed General Walker in Dallas, April 10, 1963, Dallas police suspected that Oswald was the sniper and Ruby was the payoff man. The cops were set to arrest the pair. But they never got the chance, because of heavy pressure brought to bear by the Justice Dept. and so Oswald and Ruby were to remain free." The article also said that a top secret document, signed by a high official of the Justice Dept., was sent in April 1963 to Dallas Police Chief Jesse Curry requesting the police not to arrest Oswald and Ruby. This document was reportedly in the hands of the Warren Commission.

Given the potentially explosive implications of the above story, it is no wonder that the Warren Commission chose to discount all witnesses to a connection between Oswald and Ruby, including Wilburn Litchfield, Joe Franklin, and Bill DeMar. McGown's story is not only important in rehabilitating the credibility of these undeservedly maligned witnesses, but it also provides a glimpse into the covert ways by which Oswald and Ruby communicated with one another.

ENDNOTES

1. Sources for this article were FBI reports in Memphis and Dallas. Also referred to were ten pages of McGown's hand-written account that was photocopied by the FBI.

2. Engagement announcement, Sept. 14, 1941; wedding announcement, Dec. 3, 1941, and obituary of Daniel T. McGown, March 5, 1985, in the Memphis newspaper, The Commercial Appeal.

3. According to Jack Ruby's bartender, Andrew Armstrong, clean up started at midnight on weeknights and at 1:00 am on Saturday and Sunday. All bottles and glasses had to be cleared off the tables by 12:15. If a vice squad police officer saw anyone drinking after 12:15, he could slap a five-day suspension on the club (Vol. 13 of the Warren Commission Hearings and Exhibits, p. 325).

4. Actually the friend's surname had a slightly different spelling. Felix Oswalt, a member of the Board of Education in Memphis, was the friend McGown was talking about.

5. Warren Report, p. 743.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

A professional man is traveling alone and

sees an opportunity to meet strippers.

Eight months later, when the names of Lee Oswald and Jack Ruby were being broadcasted on radio and television, the details of this episode came vividly back to his memory. Should he tell the authorities what he knew, or should he not? His reputation might suffer if this embarrassing incident ever became widely known. He hoped that the authorities would find out about Oswald's connection to Jack Ruby without his help. When the Warren Report was published, he bought a copy and read it from cover to cover. There was nothing in it to indicate that the government knew what he knew. Furthermore he read that the commission could find no "credible evidence" of an association between Oswald and Ruby. After the death of Jack Ruby in January 1967, McGown wondered if he was the only one left who still had the "credible evidence" that eluded the Warren Commission. Finally, nine years later, he told his wife about it. She encouraged him to go to the FBI. After all, his story might make a difference in the new, upcoming investigation into the JFK assassination that Congress was preparing to launch. Such were the circumstances that led Daniel T. McGown to the local office of the FBI in 1976.

**********************************************

PAUSE AND REFLECT

PAUSE AND REFLECT

PAUSE AND REFLECT ...............

What would motivate a professional married man to contact the FBI and say he ," improperly looked at US Mail and wanted to 'hunt' down a stripper." ???? Would /could this not hurt his career ?? (YUP)

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Answer ZERO.

Edited March 7, 2013 by Steven Gaal

[Paul Trejo]

Dear Paul,

Frank Sturgis? I didn't for a second think that the tall tramp was FranK Sturgis. (Sounds like you're referring to the book Coup de Etat in America.) I'm much more inclined to believe that the tall tramp was Charles V. Harrelson and that "Frenchy" was Charles Rogers.

Frank Sturgis?? LOL!

Warmest Regards,

--Tommy

That's right, Tommy, I did have in mind the 1975 book by A.J. Weberman entitled, Coup d'Etat in America. That early book -- going on 40 years old -- was a painstaking exploration of the Dealey Plaza boxcar tramps, and an attempt to find the Watergate burglars in their lineup.

There is little worth repeating in that book -- although A.J. Weberman has since redeemed himself with some of the best interviews of Gerry Patrick Hemming that we possess today.

There is also something valuable in the tramp photographs that Weberman pointed out -- the police seem to be posing in these photographs, and not really on duty.

Additionally, the man in the suit with his back to the camera is very possibly US Army Major General Edward G. Lansdale, according to several who knew him well. His profile and his posture, along with his left-arm posture, was unique. What in the world was he doing there?

The quest for the tramps is long discredited -- but those photographs may still yield valuable treasures.

Best regards,

--Paul Trejo

Edited March 7, 2013 by Paul Trejo