When was Oswald first ID'd as a government informant?

[Steve Thomas]

1 hour ago, Gayle Nix Jackson said:

Dear GOD Steve!

I so agree with everything you're saying and it fits in nicely with my "pet theory" that the DRE was the key to the Odio visit...as you remember, when Annie first answered the door, they asked for Sarita.  As I mention in my book, Sarita was a member of the DRE and from all the interviews I did with people who knew her (including Father Machann's sister), she was the political one of the family.  Now, Silvia is affiliated with JURE, not the DRE, and it is my contention (though I cannot prove it) that Silvia was protecting her sister and her sister's politics from these strangers at the door.  Silvia, by all accounts, was very bright and knew Hemming as well. Her uncle, Augustin Guitart, her friend/intimate Father Machann; her cousin Marcella Insua....all these people were aware of her political leanings as well as her sister Sarita's.  I have heard rumor that Silvia also knew Oswald before the visit, but I cannot confirm that.  I interviewed Kiki Masferrer's son and he had nothing positive to say about the Odio family, nor could he confirm or deny the rumor about Oswald.  Father Machann and his sister are just the opposite in regards to the Odio sisters.  I agree with your contention about the DRE getting ahead of the story.  It was the DRE that shared the missile pictures as well.   Dreamspell huh?  WOW!

 

Gayle

Gayle,

 

You wrote, "It is my contention (though I cannot prove it) that Silvia was protecting her sister and her sister's politics from these strangers at the door."

You also wrote, "I have heard rumor that Silvia also knew Oswald before the visit, but I cannot confirm that."

That is why I have been so focused on the picnic at White Rock Lake, where Oswald was supposedly seen. If my hunch is correct, it took place on September 7th - the same day day Veciana says he saw Oswald in the company of David Atlee Phillips.

 

I personally believe Sylvia's story goes deeper than just trying to protect her sister (although that is one element). I believe that people have been so focused on the strangers at Odio's door, and whether or not one of them might have been Oswald, that they have overlooked other aspects of Sylvia's WC testimony. To whit:

 

Commission Document 946 - SS Aragon Report of 5 May 1964 re: Sylvia Odio, Rogelio Cisneros Diaz page 3

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=11342&search=%22Juan_Martin%22#relPageId=4&tab=page

 

On May 4, 1964 in an interview in his home with SS Agent Ernest I. Aragon, Rogelio Cisneros told Aragon that:

 

Rogelio Cisneros, a JURE member in Miami, went to Dallas alone, by plane in June, 1963 for the specific purpose of contacting Sylvia Odio who was supposed to introduce Cisneros to a Uruguayan named Juan Martin, who was interested in selling small arms to JURE. “He further identified himself as Rogelio Cisneros Diaz, an officer of JURE, at Miami,Florida, and added that the name “Eugenio” is his designated “war name””.

 

The JURE office in Dallas was already in operation, having been established in May, 1963. He only contacted Sylvia Odio once. When they went to her house, Cisneros was accompanied by Jorge Rodriguez (Alvarada) (Alvereda?), their Dallas delegate, and no one else.

 

My question is, why would Rogelio Cisneros fly from Miami, FL. to Dallas, TX. alone, in a plane for the specific purpose of contacting Sylvia Odio in order to meet a gun runner who he had never met before?

Why her?

 

http://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=95676#relPageId=46&tab=page

 

Johnny Martin 9923 Carnegie Dr. Dallas, Texas

 

Father Walter J. McHann (Mary Ferrell's database spells it Machann)

CE 2943 p. 402.

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=1142#relPageId=438&tab=page

 

Letter from James Rowley of the Secret Service to J. Lee Rankin dated May 5, 1964. McHann interviewed by SS Inspector Kelly on April 30, 1964.

McHann was chaplain to the Cuban Catholic Committee of Dallas. They organized religious and social activities for the Cuban refugees. Did they organize the picnic?

 

McHann said he had been introduced to John Martin aka Juan Martin; and that one night, John Martin came to Sylvia's while he was there. McHann described John Martin as a Latin, but not a Cuban. Martin had a house in Dallas, but did not live there. He lived in a different city with his family. Sylvia seemed to know John Martin quite well.

 

 

McHann said he had no recollection of Manuel Rodriguez, George Parrel, or any of the officers of SNFE.

 

At the request of Inspector Kelly, McHann telephoned Sylvia Odio. In that phone call Sylvia told McHann that “John Martin was a Uruguayan who was supplying arms purchased in some South American countries to some Cuban groups.”

 

McHann told Kelly that in the phone call, she told McHann that the second man (not Leopoldo) who had come to visit her was Eugenio Cisneros.

 

Rogelio Cisneros was interviewed in Miami by Ernest Aragon of the SS on May 4, 1964. Rogelio told Aragon that he used the name Eugenio as a war name.

CE 2986 p. 349

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=1142#relPageId=385&tab=page

(This is also page 3 of CD 946)

 

 

Sylvia would later on tell the WC that McHann had mis-understood her about Eugenio in the phone call .

 

Lucille Connell also said she had been introduced to John Martin – a Uruguayan who was trying to obtain guns for the Cuban people in their efforts to overthrow Castro. She said she was suspicious of Martin because he claimed to be an “airplane engineer”, although Sylvia Odio stated he owned a washeteria.

FBI interview of Lucille Connell on November 29, 1963.

CD 205 p. 640

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=10672#relPageId=643&tab=page

 

TESTIMONY OF SYLVIA ODIO

The testimony of Sylvia Odio was taken at 9 a.m., on July 22, 1964

http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/russ/testimony/odio.htm

 

Mr. LIEBELER. So that you have been in Dallas since March of 1963, is that correct?
Mrs. ODIO. That's right.

 

Mrs. ODIO. Well, I had been having little groups of Cubans coming to my house who have been asking me to help them in JURE. They were going to open a revolutionary paper here in Dallas. And I told them at the time I was very busy with my four children, and I would help, in other things like selling bonds to help buy arms for Cuba. And I said I would help as much as I could.

 

This man, the other one, the second Cuban, took out a letter written in Spanish, and the content was something like we represent the revolutionary counsel, and we are making a big movement to buy arms for Cuba and to help overthrow the dictator Castro, and we want you to translate this letter and write it in English and send a whole lot of them to different industries to see if we can get some results.

 

Mrs. ODIO. No. I have told you I moved several times, and it is because of reasons of my work, and because my children at the time were in Puerto Rico, I and I went down to get them in Puerto Rico June 29th.
That was exactly the day that I saw Ray again. We had been trying to establish a contact in Dallas with Mr. Johnny Martin, who is from Uruguay. He is from there, and he had heard that I was involved in this movement. And he said that he had a lot of contacts in Latin America to buy arms, particularly in Brazil, and that if he were in contact with one of our chief leaders of the underground, he would be able to sell him second-hand arms that we could use in our revolution.

 

There was something about selling bonds - it came up in the testimony of Carlos Bringuer, I think. Something about it being illegal to ask for cash directly, but you could sell bonds. I'll have to go look it up.

 

Steve Thomas

[Jim Hargrove]

4 hours ago, Steve Thomas said:

It was my contention that, by doing so, the DRE got ahead of the story and killed two birds with one stone. They not only undercut LHO by portraying him as a "rat bastard, Castro-loving commie"; but they also undercut the CIA. I think they were whispering behind the scenes that not only was LHO was a commie, but also that he was an informant for the government. I think the exiles has been compiling a dossier on Oswald from a long time back. Every time an "Oswald" was around, their plans were foiled.

April, 1963 a planned raid in Cuba is waylaid (Alpha 66)

July, 1963 a training camp in Lake Ponchtrain is raided (MDC)

August, 1963 Carlos Bringuer voices suspicion that Oswald is an informant (DRE)

September, 1963 a "Cuban associate" of Sylvia Odio is told to stay away from Oswald (JURE)

November, 1963 the Miller/Whitter/Jhn Thomas Masen gun deal goes bad (Alpha 66)

Didn't Gerry Partick Hemming say that Oswald had contacted him and offered to help and Hemming told him to get lost?

After a while, you have to believe that people are putting two and two together.

I think this partially explains the CIA's post 11/22 panic over the Mexico City affair. The January 22, 1964 WC Executive Session analysis is spot on.

The DRE was initially formed as a propaganda arm. In this case, I think they out-Hunted Hunt and Phillips.

 

Fascinating!!  Van Burns claimed his friend introduced LEE Oswald and David Ferrie to him at his booth at the Pontchartrain Beach amusement park in late June or early July 1963.  The "Miller/Whitter/Jhn Thomas Masen gun deal" you mention isn't quite registering with my tired old brain cells.  Was an Oswald associated with that?  Love the DRE/AMSPELL coincidence! Thank you for all of this!

[Steve Thomas]

8 hours ago, Jim Hargrove said:

 The "Miller/Whitter/Jhn Thomas Masen gun deal" you mention isn't quite registering with my tired old brain cells.  Was an Oswald associated with that?  Love the DRE/AMSPELL coincidence! Thank you for all of this!

Jim,

 

ATF Agent Frank Ellsworth sets up a sting operation involving John Thomas Masen.

Masen gets some of his guns from thefts from National Guard armories.

Manuel Rodriguez and George Parrel have approached Masen about buying arms. Masen has told Ellsworth that Rodriguez and Parrel have tried to buy bazookas, machine guns, and other heavy equipment from him, had previously made purchases from him, and that they had a large cashe of arms in the Dallas area.

Oswald has been seen entering and leaving a house at 1026 Harlendale St. in Dallas that Orcarberro is renting.

Just as he is about to bust Masen, the FBI and local police swoop in and arrest Miller and Whitter on November 18, 1963.

Ellsworth is forced to prematuely arrest Masen on November 20th

 

Marina Oswald Porter writes a letter to John Tunheim of the ARRB on 19th April, 1996.

I believe she sent her letter following the publication of Oswald Talked by the LaFonataines.

 

1. “The Dallas field office and headquarters FBI reports on the arrests of Donnell D. Whitter and Lawrence R. Miller in Dallas on November 18, 1963 with a carload of stolen US army weapons. I believe that Lee Oswald was the FBI informant who made these arrests possible. I would also like to know what your board has done to obtain the reports of the US Marshal and the US Army on the same arrests, and the burglary these men were suspected of.”

To the best of my knowledge, the transcripts of that trial are still sealed.

You can read her full letter in an August 16, 2005 Education Forum post by John Simkin here:

http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/topic/4710-questions-for-marina-oswald/

 

Steve Thomas

[Steve Thomas]

12 hours ago, Ron Bulman said:

Steve, in light of the way you've laid these occurrences out..  Is it conceivable that Oswald's cover was blown regarding infiltrating say DRE and Alpha 66 and his handler(s) realized this so he was by then useless in that respect, but, he could be useful and expendable as a fall guy or "patsy" in another operation?  I know, just speculation.  But reasonable?

Ron,

 

This is just idle speculation on my part.

The publicity surrounding his return from Russia in June, 1962 made him useless for any kind of Soviet counter intelligence work. He was on the front pages of several newspapers for heaven's sake. At that point, I think he was lent out to the FBI for anti Cuban-exile counter intelligence. He starts attempting to infiltrate various Cuban exile groups, but his approach is so heavy handed, and transparent that his usefulness there is coming to an end by the end of 1963. I read once that somebody described him as a "useful idiot." Another guy in the Cuban exile community (John Martino maybe?) said, "Poor Oswald, he didn't know who was running him". So, the answer to your question is:

 

Yes.

 

Steve Thomas

[Steve Thomas]

13 hours ago, Gayle Nix Jackson said:

it fits in nicely with my "pet theory" that the DRE was the key to the Odio visit.

 

Gayle,

 

In your work studying the DRE, I thought you might be interested in this:

Cryptonym: AMHINT-2 by Bill Simpich

https://www.maryferrell.org/php/cryptdb.php?id=AMHINT-2

 

180-10142-10306: 180-10142-10306

see page 4

23 Aug 1963, (Richard) Cain reported he had been approached by representative of DRE and they attempted to recruit him to be trained in Central Am. The person who contacted him spoke on the phone in his presence to someone in Miami named...Salvat (AMHINT-2) and asked if his group is sponsored by the CIA. Salvat said the group is sponsored by "the Pentagon, which is in competition with CIA, and, therefore, all activities of the Directory must be kept secret."

 

Steve Thomas

[Jim Hargrove]

6 hours ago, Steve Thomas said:

Oswald has been seen entering and leaving a house at 1026 Harlendale St. in Dallas that Orcarberro is renting.

Just as he is about to bust Masen, the FBI and local police swoop in and arrest Miller and Whitter on November 18, 1963.

Ellsworth is forced to prematuely arrest Masen on November 20th

 

Thanks for elaborating on this, Steve.

Do you think Buddy Walthers was talking about the same house on Harlendale, which he said was located at "3128 Harlendale"?  In H&L, John indicated that Walthers really meant 3126 Harlendale, giving us no fewer than three different addresses for what appears to be the same place.  Assuming Phillips was Orcaberro's (Alpha 66's) "Bishop," how could Phillips not have known all about this?

 

[Jim Hargrove]

5 hours ago, Steve Thomas said:

This is just idle speculation on my part.

The publicity surrounding his return from Russia in June, 1962 made him useless for any kind of Soviet counter intelligence work. He was on the front pages of several newspapers for heaven's sake. At that point, I think he was lent out to the FBI for anti Cuban-exile counter intelligence. He starts attempting to infiltrate various Cuban exile groups, but his approach is so heavy handed, and transparent that his usefulness there is coming to an end by the end of 1963. I read once that somebody described him as a "useful idiot." Another guy in the Cuban exile community (John Martino maybe?) said, "Poor Oswald, he didn't know who was running him". So, the answer to your question is:

 

Steve,

Don't forget though that Oswald, with a laughably bad mug shot, was in newspapers at the start of the 1959 "defection" as well, portrayed as a confused leftist.  If American Intel considered him worthless for Soviet infiltration, why on earth was he issued (or instructed to get) a new passport in 1963, while the old one was still valid for several years?  Could that new passport, issued in summer of '63, have been part of the assassination set-up?  That seems to have been when his sheep-dipping started.

This is speculation on my part also, but I think Oswald knew exactly who was running him.
 

[Steve Thomas]

1 hour ago, Jim Hargrove said:

Thanks for elaborating on this, Steve.

Do you think Buddy Walthers was talking about the same house on Harlendale, which he said was located at "3128 Harlendale"?  In H&L, John indicated that Walthers really meant 3126 Harlendale, giving us no fewer than three different addresses for what appears to be the same place.  Assuming Phillips was Orcaberro's (Alpha 66's) "Bishop," how could Phillips not have known all about this.

Jim,

 

I had to grin at myself. 1026 was the Beckley St. address wasn't it? Guess I must have been sleepy.

Yes, Walthers' address of 3128 was a typo.

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=11481&search=Heitman_May+25%2C+1964#relPageId=222&tab=page

see page 4 of Heitman's Report, page 222 of CD 1085.

On May 20, 1964, Manuel Rodriguez voluntarily appeared at the Dallas FBI offices and spoke to Wallace Heitman. He told Heitman that the members of SNFE met at bi-weekly meetings at 3126 Harlandale. (Although in his Report, Heitman spelled it Hollandale.)

On page 220 of CD 1085 (p.2 of Heitman's 5/26/64 memo)

“Rodriguez registered as an alien of Dallas, Texas on September 6, 1963, at which time his address was reflected as 1208 Hudspeth Street”. His last prior address was 5310 Columbia Street, Dallas.”

Page 3. On February 10, 1964, Rodriguez told Heitman that in June, 1963 Andrés Nazario Sargén wrote Orcarberro a letter and asking him to establish a chapter of Alpha 66 in Dallas. He moved to Dallas in September, 1963.

 

I misspoke when I said Orcarberro was renting the Harlandale address. They were just meeting there. The home was owned by Jorge Salazar.

 

I'm not sure what you are trying to says vis a vis Orcarberro and Phillips. Did you mean to say that Phillips was Veciana's Bishop?

Orcarberro was sent to Dallas to establish a Chapter of Alpha 66 there. He arrived in September, I believe. Veciana allegedly was there in September as well.

 

As far as your question about Oswald getting a new passport... I just happened to be reading a speech by Fidel Castro in the immediate aftermath of JFK's assassination and he asked that very question as well.  Personally, after his speech to the Jesuit College in Alabama in July, and his radio debate in New Orleans in August, I don't see any way the Soviet Union would have allowed him back in their country. To me, that seems like a fool's errand. Your question seems to be getting into the whole Mexico City trip, and I don't know anything about that, and am not qualified to speak intelligently.

 

Steve Thomas

[David Josephs]

Jim... there's a 2nd page to that report in John's file

3114 Harlendale?

 

[Jim Hargrove]

1 hour ago, Steve Thomas said:

I had to grin at myself. 1026 was the Beckley St. address wasn't it? Guess I must have been sleepy.

Yes, Walthers' address of 3128 was a typo.

Yeah, that was the Beckley St. boarding house.  So, for a few short minutes we had one little mystery solved, at least until DJ chimed in with 3114 Harlandale.  Now I’m confused again.  Are we to believe there was a miniature Cold War front between 3114 Harlandale (FPCC) and 3126 Harlandale (Alpha 66)?  If these had been two addresses in Miami, maybe.  But this kind of coincidence in Dallas?  Sheesh!

1 hour ago, Steve Thomas said:

I'm not sure what you are trying to says vis a vis Orcarberro and Phillips. Did you mean to say that Phillips was Veciana's Bishop?

 

Well, if Orcarberro headed the local Alpha 66 chapter, and Phillips--aka Bishop--was the CIA “contact” for Alpha 66, Phillips should have known about activities at the house, although I was assuming two hour ago that Orcarberro leased the house. 

Your big point, though, that the exiles were wise to “Oswald’s” true status is intriguing.  There is another side to all this, though,  involving how desperate some CIA brass were to provoke a post-Bay-of- Pigs invasion of Castro’s Cuba.  David Phillips, post-assassination, fabricated all kinds of stuff trying to link Oswald to Castro, most of it involving Mexico City bs.

1 hour ago, Steve Thomas said:

As far as your question about Oswald getting a new passport... I just happened to be reading a speech by Fidel Castro in the immediate aftermath of JFK's assassination and he asked that very question as well.  Personally, after his speech to the Jesuit College in Alabama in July, and his radio debate in New Orleans in August, I don't see any way the Soviet Union would have allowed him back in their country. To me, that seems like a fool's errand. Your question seems to be getting into the whole Mexico City trip, and I don't know anything about that, and am not qualified to speak intelligently.

But the Soviets didn’t want our boy in the USSR in the first place.  Oswald had to slit his wrist to keep from being booted out of Russia right from the start.  He was really quite dedicated to his craft! That second passport, including State’s approval process, was just weird.   It smells like some sort of Intel operation to me.
 

[Jim Hargrove]

1 hour ago, David Josephs said:

Jim... there's a 2nd page to that report in John's file

3114 Harlendale?

The second page is only at Baylor, though, and not on the CD.  John apparently didn’t draw much of a connection, but it does seem strange!

[David Boylan]

22 hours ago, Steve Thomas said:

That is why I have been so focused on the picnic at White Rock Lake, where Oswald was supposedly seen. If my hunch is correct, it took place on September 7th - the same day day Veciana says he saw Oswald in the company of David Atlee Phillips.

Steve,

I'd recommend reading Gayle's book. (plug ) She goes into quite a bit of detail on the White Rock Lake picnic. She also interviews Larry Schmidt, Robert Surrey's children and Father Machann. 

This may be of interest. You have Sylvia Odio's friend Father Machann asking Sylvia Odio's Uncle Joaquin Insua to introduce John Martino at a JBS sponsored event. Also some discussion on changing a bumper sticker from "Kan the Kennedy Klan" to "Kill the Kennedy Klan." It also covers the crew at "Hollandale."

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=69111#relPageId=1&tab=page

Oswald giving speeches to anti-Castro Cubans - http://jfk.hood.edu/Collection/Weisberg Subject Index Files/O Disk/Odio Sylvia/Item 35.pdf

 

Edited March 29, 2018 by David Boylan

[Gayle Nix Jackson]

1 hour ago, David Boylan said:

Steve,

I'd recommend reading Gayle's book. (plug ) She goes into quite a bit of detail on the White Rock Lake picnic. She also interviews Larry Schmidt, Robert Surrey's children and Father Machann. 

This may be of interest. You have Sylvia Odio's friend Father Machann asking Sylvia Odio's Uncle Joaquin Insua to introduce John Martino at a JBS sponsored event. Also some discussion on changing a bumper sticker from "Kan the Kennedy Klan" to "Kill the Kennedy Klan." It also covers the crew at "Hollandale."

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=69111#relPageId=1&tab=page

Oswald giving speeches to anti-Castro Cubans - http://jfk.hood.edu/Collection/Weisberg Subject Index Files/O Disk/Odio Sylvia/Item 35.pdf

 

You are so awesome David!  Thanks for the plug and thanks for reading my book.  You know, when I asked him about John Martino, he had no recollection.  I'm hoping that changes as our communications continue!  Happy Easter and thanks again!

Gayle

[Steve Thomas]

2 hours ago, David Boylan said:

Steve,

I'd recommend reading Gayle's book. (plug ) She goes into quite a bit of detail on the White Rock Lake picnic. She also interviews Larry Schmidt, Robert Surrey's children and Father Machann. 

This may be of interest. You have Sylvia Odio's friend Father Machann asking Sylvia Odio's Uncle Joaquin Insua to introduce John Martino at a JBS sponsored event. Also some discussion on changing a bumper sticker from "Kan the Kennedy Klan" to "Kill the Kennedy Klan." It also covers the crew at "Hollandale."

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=69111#relPageId=1&tab=page

Oswald giving speeches to anti-Castro Cubans - http://jfk.hood.edu/Collection/Weisberg Subject Index Files/O Disk/Odio Sylvia/Item 35.pdf

 

David,

 

Thanks for the info on Gayle. I sent her a message. Thanks also for the reference on Heitman's 5/22/64 Report. I picked up a couple of details I hadn't had before.

 

REPORT: JUNTA REVOLUCIONARIA CUBANA; SEGUNDO FRENTE DE ESCAMBRAY (OPERATION ALPHA 66); DIRECTORIO REVOLUCIONARIO ESTUDIANTIL; MOVIMIENTO REVOLUCIONARIO 30 DE NOVIEMBRE; FAIR PLAY FOR CUBA COMMITTEE

NARA Record Number: 104-10320-10070

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=28726&relPageId=2

 

On pages 5 through 6 of that Report, Manuel Rodriguez Orcarberro furnished a list of the present officers of SNFE. Among that list of people on page 6 were Raul Castro and Juan Quintana.

 

Raul Castro and Juan Quintana were trained as crop dusters in Mexico. Quitana told Heitman that the training was obviously military in nature. I mused aloud one day about the possibility that some of these "crop dusters" were double agents sent over by Castro to infiltrate the cuban exile community. I have info on others.

Castro and Quitana had entered the United States by swimming across the Rio Grande at Brownsville, TX. They had married Mexican sisters.

Warrren Commission Document# 1085 is a June 11, 1964 letter from J. Edgar Hoover with attached memoranda and reports. Included in that letter is a heavily redacted April 29, 1964 report from Dallas SA Wallace Heitman.

CD 913 is a March 30, 1964 Report of Robert Gemberling. Included in this Report is information relative to the "Kill the Kennedy Klan" bumper sticker and persons receiving mail at an address in Garland.

http://www.maryferrell.org/mffweb/archive/...p;relPageId=174

However, Gemberling's report INCLUDES the names of the people. The mail being reported on dates from late December and early January, 1964.

The Rambler station wagon was owned by Castro. Quintana had put the bumper sticker on it. After the assassination, people were observed trying to scrape that bumper sticker off. I wish Roger Craig had been asked if the Rambler station wagon he saw had had bumper stickers on it.

I need to cross-reference the date of that JBS meeting with Michael Paine's WC testimony. It's possible, and I stress possible, that Lee Oswald was also at that meeting. There was one JBS meeting just prior to Adlai Stevenson's speech that was poorly attended because so many people were gearing up to "greet" Stevenson. The signs were stored at Edwin Walker's home.

 

Steve Thomas

 

[Paul Brancato]

17 hours ago, Steve Thomas said:

Jim,

 

ATF Agent Frank Ellsworth sets up a sting operation involving John Thomas Masen.

Masen gets some of his guns from thefts from National Guard armories.

Manuel Rodriguez and George Parrel have approached Masen about buying arms. Masen has told Ellsworth that Rodriguez and Parrel have tried to buy bazookas, machine guns, and other heavy equipment from him, had previously made purchases from him, and that they had a large cashe of arms in the Dallas area.

Oswald has been seen entering and leaving a house at 1026 Harlendale St. in Dallas that Orcarberro is renting.

Just as he is about to bust Masen, the FBI and local police swoop in and arrest Miller and Whitter on November 18, 1963.

Ellsworth is forced to prematuely arrest Masen on November 20th

 

Marina Oswald Porter writes a letter to John Tunheim of the ARRB on 19th April, 1996.

I believe she sent her letter following the publication of Oswald Talked by the LaFonataines.

 

1. “The Dallas field office and headquarters FBI reports on the arrests of Donnell D. Whitter and Lawrence R. Miller in Dallas on November 18, 1963 with a carload of stolen US army weapons. I believe that Lee Oswald was the FBI informant who made these arrests possible. I would also like to know what your board has done to obtain the reports of the US Marshal and the US Army on the same arrests, and the burglary these men were suspected of.”

To the best of my knowledge, the transcripts of that trial are still sealed.

You can read her full letter in an August 16, 2005 Education Forum post by John Simkin here:

http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/topic/4710-questions-for-marina-oswald/

 

Steve Thomas

I did my best a few years ago to study the armory theft and the case that Ellsworth was building. It is pretty clear that the local police bust was done to prevent deeper inquiry, to protect Mason and whoever he may have been working for, including the connection at the armory itself. Ellsworth was really pissed off, and if I recall correctly never bought into the WC conclusion of a lone gunman. But the Marina letter is new to me. Clearly she had no knowledge of this at the time, and the LaFontaines are surely behind her belief that Oswald was an FBI informant, at at least the FBI informant that precipitated the premature bust. Do we know, or can you recall if there were FBI agents actually participating in the bust? Or that the local FBI office was tipped off prior to the bust? Marina names Army Intelligence agent (here we go again) Ed J. Coyle in her letter to Tunheim. Wasn’t he with Ellsworth on the morning of the assassination? He is another possible source for a tip off leading to the bust.

Edited March 30, 2018 by Paul Brancato