A Bunch of Primary Source FBI Docs on George DeMohrenschildt

[Matthew Phelan]

I am not sure why this happened yesterday, but prodigious FOIA pack-rat Michael Best uploaded a pretty heavy 1981 FOIA release by the FBI of all the George DeMohrenschildt material that the bureau felt was safe for public consumption at the time. It's a 2249-page .pdf file and you can download it here. It had been freed up, back in the day, by the late, great Harold Weisberg.

My best guess from this Weisberg papers finding aid is that this was not uploaded by Michael Best to archive.org last year in the monolithic bundle before. I could be wrong about that.

Regardless, if anyone catches something interesting in this specific FOIA release, feel free to share it below and I will do the same

Edited July 19, 2016 by Matthew Phelan

[Chris Bennett]

I have to say it's a good read so far. I was not aware that GDM had been sent to Yugoslavia in 1957 by a CIA front company.

Nice job for a guy whose FBI file is full of Internal Security reports of him being a Communist.

[Matthew Phelan]

For people looking into this Yugoslavia episode, it's mentioned on pgs. 30/2249, 117/2249, and elsewhere. Our Guy and a George E. Mitchell of Dallas were both selected by the International Cooperation Administration for this oil consulting trip.

Fun Facts from Spooks and Secret Agenda author Jim Hougan on The International Cooperation Administration (ICA): An acknowledged cover for CIA officers and contract-spooks such as Watergate’s E. Howard Hunt and the JFK assassination’s George de Mohrenschildt, the ICA would become infamous during the 1960s, funding the construction of tiger-cages in Vietnam, and training foreign police forces in the theory and practice of torture.

Some subjective personal notes on this FOIA so far:

1.) I am sorry to admit that this is the first I am hearing about de Mohrenschildt's alternate names.

2.) I was surprised to see this 1942 letter (signed by J Edgar Hoover himself) about George de Mohrenschildt. (pg 33/2249) I think everyone who has heard about de Mohrenschildt thinks of him as a "White Russian emigre," but this letter really makes him out to be something of a wartime Nazi sympathizer too (or maybe some kind of weird decoy to flush out same):

It was alleged that while in Corpus Christi, Texas, Von Mohrenschildt claimed to be a cousin of George Farenthold a real estate and oil operator but that this claim had no foundation. At a tavern in Corpus Christi, Texas, Von Mohrenschildt reportedly stated that Germany had not used one hundredth of her strength; that Germany would undoubtedly win and that Hitler is taking care of the French people who are not starving as they did in the last war. It is also reported that at this time, Von Mohrenschildt stated that his father was German and that his father's estates in Poland had been protected by the Germans. He allegedly stated that the present war can end only in one of two ways; by compromise or by a German victory and that America would never be able to defeat Germany, even if the South American Republics, which are not friendly to the United States, assisted. (pg 35/2249)

Anyway.

This guy sounds like he fits right in; a natural friend to any ole lonely, young family of Marxists recently arrived in Texas from the U.S.S.R.

Edited July 20, 2016 by Matthew Phelan