What is known about Oswald's time in England?

[Mervyn Hagger]

1 hour ago, Jason Ward said:

I disagree.   

 

I didn't answer because the question is almost absurd.  The word 'right' as a direction is of course no longer relevant.  The term as established in the 18th century French parliament is in use by professional historians and political scientists with a widely accepted meaning.   

The left and right as a physical course or indication of physical whereabouts is only accurate in the original French Estates General where those who support the current or yesterday's arrangement of power sat on the Right, while those who wanted a new arrangement of power sat on the Left.   

Today the terms are useful because of their obvious suggestion of opposition, Left is opposite of Right.  

It seems you have a concern about nomenclature.

As you no doubt are aware, American English attaches "the" in many places where British English does not.  It is, however, meaningless, at least insofar as American English is used on this forum.   

Americans go to the hospital or the university; people in Britain go to hospital or university.  I'm sure you know this.  Likewise, Americans have the CIA while those in Britain omit "the" and simply have MI6.  If it's really bugging you, perhaps you can persuade yourself to simply overlook the word "the" in what is written on the forum?

Me (and Paul Trejo btw) are both working in US research universities and the right wing, the right, radical right and other such terms are very meaningful and hold some degree of precision in both history and political science.   If you find this term meaningless, again, perhaps you can overlook the term or substitute terms that work for you. The definitions of these terms are published and widely accepted in my work, so these are the terms I use.   I understand your point of course, and in mainstream media or the public mind, the Left and Right are drifting towards ambiguous.   If I was writing for People magazine or Facebook, I would perhaps not use these terms.

 

Jason

Jason, it is difficult enough living in the 'here and now' without employing terms from another age and another country. I am aware of the manner in which academia thinks and referring to "right wingers" outside of that time and place is somewhat misleading because it is immediately in need of interpretation.

I am well aware that academia can be a stifling environment because it is defined by peer groups who have agreed what is, and what is not. It is far from a forum for open-minded enquiry. (See foundthreads.com) Hence "right-wingers" as used in the context of the Sixties is a blind cover for Pre-millennial-ism. It is an elephant in the room totally ignored by factions within academia who prefer to study geo-political matters to the exclusion of theological influence. But Pre-millennial-ism is where theology enters the world of geo-politics and law.

However, aside from me harping on about Premillennial-ism and Walker, who else on this Forum has shone the light on this influential source of controlled belief and resulting actions?

[James DiEugenio]

Mervyn did not even know that Oswald left the USA from New Orleans?

He thought he left from Galveston? 

Where on earth did you get that one?

Those are the areas and connections I am investigating and until the last few days I had absolutely no idea that Lee Harvey Oswald had set foot in England. I just wasn't paying attention because until the last few months, the entire issue of JFK's assassination bored me to death.

The other thing that puzzles me is it does appear that either Ward or Hagger have read the George Michael Evica book on this subject.  In A Certain Arrogance, Evica spent 20 pages on this subject.  The idea that he was going to attend there for certain is anything but. 

Edited May 12, 2018 by James DiEugenio

[James DiEugenio]

From my cheesy web site and the review of Evica's book:

As mentioned elsewhere on this site, Oswald's association with Albert Schweitzer College is one of the most fascinating releases made by the Assassination Records Review Board. After a struggle with the FBI for a year, in December of 1995 the ARRB finally released a set of five documents concerning their search for Oswald in Switzerland – a place where he was never supposed to have been. This search was provoked by a request made long ago by Oswald's mother to the FBI. She told agent John Fain that she had mailed her son a series of letters in Russia in late 1959. Some enclosed money orders. She got no reply. She was worried he might be lost. She alerted the Bureau to the fact that she had received a letter from an official of Albert Schweitzer College in Switzerland. A man named Hans Casparis told her that Lee had been expected there in April of 1960. Casparis also said that Lee had sent them a deposit registering for the spring, 1960 session.

J. Edgar Hoover then began a search for Mr.Casparis and this college. This search occasioned the famous June 3, 1960 memo by FBI Director Hoover saying that there may be an imposter using Oswald's birth certificate. The FBI representatives in Paris had no idea where the place was, so they got in contact with the Swiss Police. It took them two months to locate the school. (See ProbeVol. 3 No. 3) So the obvious question is: How did Oswald know about this college? It is a question the Warren Commission never came close to answering. But Albert Schweitzer College fits into Evica's framework since it was founded by the Unitarian Church in 1953, as the Cold War was ratcheting up. Shortly after Kennedy's murder, in 1964, the college was closed down. The FBI visited the institution twice: once in 1960, and again in 1963. As Evica notes, this may be why most of the papers on Oswald from Albert Schweitzer are gone. (The author notes that the files on the college at its Providence headquarters, where most American applicant forms were sent, were also spirited away in December of 1963.)

Consider the facts above. Here you have an institution so obscure that the FBI in Paris never heard of it. So obscure that the Swiss Police took two months to locate it. An institution that actually closed down within months of JFK's murder – yet Oswald only applied there; he never attended. In fact, from what we know, he never set foot in the place. Why did they then close shop, after eleven years, approximately when the Warren Report was issued? Especially since that report mentions Albert Schweitzer only briefly and in passing? (Referring to his passport application in Santa Ana California, here is the entirety of that mention: "His application stated that he planned to leave the United States on September 21 to attend the Albert Schweitzer College ... ." (See Warren Report, p. 689) This is stunning in and of itself of course. Since, in any serious investigation, the mystery of how Oswald found out about Schweitzer would have been of some importance. Not to mention why he applied there, and why he did not show up. For as Evica notes, the college did not advertise in the Christian Register from 1948-59. (p. 65)

Evica's book tries to do at least some of the work the Warren Commission chose not to do. For instance, when he left the Marines, on his trip to Europe in 1959, Oswald mentioned attending a school in Switzerland on two occasions. (Evica, p. 17) But he did not. He proceeded to Russia. Yet the Swiss Police found out that he wrote Schweitzer from Moscow confirming that he still planned on attending the fall semester of 1959. ( Ibid, p. 18) What makes this episode even more interesting of course is that in this exact time frame Oswald is getting his so-called "hardship discharge" even though a) His mother had no real hardship, and b) There is no evidence he helped her through anything. Interestingly, he told his brother Robert that he was leaving for Europe from New Orleans where he planned to work for an export firm. When he got to New Orleans he booked passage on a freighter from an agency at Clay Shaw's International Trade Mart. (Of course, CIA agent Shaw's cover was that business.) In fact, on a form he filled out there Oswald listed his occupation as "shipping export agent". (p. 17) Further, he listed his stay abroad as being for only a couple of months. Yet, if he was attending Schweitzer it would have to have been at least a four-month stay.

One reason that the Commission ignored most of this may be that it did not want to draw attention to the holes in the paper trail. As I have noted above, some of it is missing – swept up in the wake of the FBI investigation. But even in what was left, Evica points out some tantalizing inconsistencies. For instance, Oswald sent a deposit to the school even though there is not a written record of his official acceptance. (p. 34) Yet, as the author notes, this was the official procedure as outlined by the college secretary, Erika Weibel: you were accepted first, then you sent the deposit. Further, there is no letter of introduction from Oswald to the college. In other words, there is no indication of how or why Oswald became interested in attending with his request for an application form. (p. 32) When Oswald did apply, he used the wrong form. He submitted an application form for the summer session, not the regular fall term. This short form was mailed before March 4, 1959. Yet the date on the form is March 19th. He also sent the longer, correct form on March 4th. But as Evica notes, since the college wrote Oswald that it got his incorrect form no later than March 28th " the college could not have sent out the longer, correct form to him any earlier than March 28th, 1959." (p. 33) So who got Oswald the longer, correct form before the college sent it out? And who told him that he sent out the wrong form in the first place? ( This is all reminiscent of Guy Banister correcting Oswald when he put his office address on his Fair Play for Cuba literature in New Orleans.)

 

[Mark Knight]

I think Mervyn and I are somewhat on the same page about Oswald and his travel to/time in England. It appears he was influenced by someone [person/persons or institution] during this period. While someone in the intelligence community comes to mind, we have no idea [and few clues] whether it was CIA, MI-5/6, military intel, or some other person(s)/entity(entities). 

He applies to and is accepted at some obscure college in Switzerland.  By all indications, he has intentions of attending said college in Switzerland. But when he arrives in France, he changes his direction of travel. When he enters England, he seems to still be intent on attending college in Switzerland. A day later, he's in Helsinki and talks no more of attending college in Switzerland.

Now, I have trouble believing that Oswald could hang onto a cover story for the entire period from his departure from America to his arrival in England if his actual intentions were to do something else. I don't think his brain was wired for that [personal opinion]. Odd that no one save British customs had contact with him between Southampton and Helsinki.

VERY odd.

[Mervyn Hagger]

1 hour ago, James DiEugenio said:

Mervyn did not even know that Oswald left the USA from New Orleans?

He thought he left from Galveston? 

Where on earth did you get that one?

Those are the areas and connections I am investigating and until the last few days I had absolutely no idea that Lee Harvey Oswald had set foot in England. I just wasn't paying attention because until the last few months, the entire issue of JFK's assassination bored me to death.

The other thing that puzzles me is it does appear that either Ward or Hagger have read the George Michael Evica book on this subject.  In A Certain Arrogance, Evica spent 20 pages on this subject.  The idea that he was going to attend there for certain is anything but. 

James, I came over here and joined this Forum because I thought that I would learn something of use to me about the events of 1963 involving Gordon McLendon.

I have now stated this so many times that it sounds like a broken record of old: for decades I lived next door to the grave of LHO and I drove over the spot where JFK lost part of his brains so many times I lost count. I found the entire subject very boring and as James Ward correctly observes, it is home to a lot of people with a lot of theories stretching back fifty years and yet what has been the result?

Nothing!

Maybe there was a conspiracy, maybe there wasn't. Both camps are hard at play and I do mean play.

But I am investigative journalist who came here because the subject I was investigating brought me here. So as for my comment about Galveston I think that I read that the freighter had docked in Galveston, and since none of this was of interest to me until I discovered that LHO had set foot in the UK, I made a mistake by stating that LHO had boarded the ship there. Now I know better because I have been informed about how and when he boarded the ship.

Mervyn

[Mervyn Hagger]

52 minutes ago, James DiEugenio said:

From my cheesy web site and the review of Evica's book:

As mentioned elsewhere on this site, Oswald's association with Albert Schweitzer College is one of the most fascinating releases made by the Assassination Records Review Board. After a struggle with the FBI for a year, in December of 1995 the ARRB finally released a set of five documents concerning their search for Oswald in Switzerland – a place where he was never supposed to have been. This search was provoked by a request made long ago by Oswald's mother to the FBI. She told agent John Fain that she had mailed her son a series of letters in Russia in late 1959. Some enclosed money orders. She got no reply. She was worried he might be lost. She alerted the Bureau to the fact that she had received a letter from an official of Albert Schweitzer College in Switzerland. A man named Hans Casparis told her that Lee had been expected there in April of 1960. Casparis also said that Lee had sent them a deposit registering for the spring, 1960 session.

J. Edgar Hoover then began a search for Mr.Casparis and this college. This search occasioned the famous June 3, 1960 memo by FBI Director Hoover saying that there may be an imposter using Oswald's birth certificate. The FBI representatives in Paris had no idea where the place was, so they got in contact with the Swiss Police. It took them two months to locate the school. (See ProbeVol. 3 No. 3) So the obvious question is: How did Oswald know about this college? It is a question the Warren Commission never came close to answering. But Albert Schweitzer College fits into Evica's framework since it was founded by the Unitarian Church in 1953, as the Cold War was ratcheting up. Shortly after Kennedy's murder, in 1964, the college was closed down. The FBI visited the institution twice: once in 1960, and again in 1963. As Evica notes, this may be why most of the papers on Oswald from Albert Schweitzer are gone. (The author notes that the files on the college at its Providence headquarters, where most American applicant forms were sent, were also spirited away in December of 1963.)

Consider the facts above. Here you have an institution so obscure that the FBI in Paris never heard of it. So obscure that the Swiss Police took two months to locate it. An institution that actually closed down within months of JFK's murder – yet Oswald only applied there; he never attended. In fact, from what we know, he never set foot in the place. Why did they then close shop, after eleven years, approximately when the Warren Report was issued? Especially since that report mentions Albert Schweitzer only briefly and in passing? (Referring to his passport application in Santa Ana California, here is the entirety of that mention: "His application stated that he planned to leave the United States on September 21 to attend the Albert Schweitzer College ... ." (See Warren Report, p. 689) This is stunning in and of itself of course. Since, in any serious investigation, the mystery of how Oswald found out about Schweitzer would have been of some importance. Not to mention why he applied there, and why he did not show up. For as Evica notes, the college did not advertise in the Christian Register from 1948-59. (p. 65)

Evica's book tries to do at least some of the work the Warren Commission chose not to do. For instance, when he left the Marines, on his trip to Europe in 1959, Oswald mentioned attending a school in Switzerland on two occasions. (Evica, p. 17) But he did not. He proceeded to Russia. Yet the Swiss Police found out that he wrote Schweitzer from Moscow confirming that he still planned on attending the fall semester of 1959. ( Ibid, p. 18) What makes this episode even more interesting of course is that in this exact time frame Oswald is getting his so-called "hardship discharge" even though a) His mother had no real hardship, and b) There is no evidence he helped her through anything. Interestingly, he told his brother Robert that he was leaving for Europe from New Orleans where he planned to work for an export firm. When he got to New Orleans he booked passage on a freighter from an agency at Clay Shaw's International Trade Mart. (Of course, CIA agent Shaw's cover was that business.) In fact, on a form he filled out there Oswald listed his occupation as "shipping export agent". (p. 17) Further, he listed his stay abroad as being for only a couple of months. Yet, if he was attending Schweitzer it would have to have been at least a four-month stay.

One reason that the Commission ignored most of this may be that it did not want to draw attention to the holes in the paper trail. As I have noted above, some of it is missing – swept up in the wake of the FBI investigation. But even in what was left, Evica points out some tantalizing inconsistencies. For instance, Oswald sent a deposit to the school even though there is not a written record of his official acceptance. (p. 34) Yet, as the author notes, this was the official procedure as outlined by the college secretary, Erika Weibel: you were accepted first, then you sent the deposit. Further, there is no letter of introduction from Oswald to the college. In other words, there is no indication of how or why Oswald became interested in attending with his request for an application form. (p. 32) When Oswald did apply, he used the wrong form. He submitted an application form for the summer session, not the regular fall term. This short form was mailed before March 4, 1959. Yet the date on the form is March 19th. He also sent the longer, correct form on March 4th. But as Evica notes, since the college wrote Oswald that it got his incorrect form no later than March 28th " the college could not have sent out the longer, correct form to him any earlier than March 28th, 1959." (p. 33) So who got Oswald the longer, correct form before the college sent it out? And who told him that he sent out the wrong form in the first place? ( This is all reminiscent of Guy Banister correcting Oswald when he put his office address on his Fair Play for Cuba literature in New Orleans.)

 

James, very interesting and very informative. However, it seems that a very prominent U.S. citizen was connected to the college and it also appears that news of one sort or another was published about the college. Since the college was tied to the Universalist-Unitarian faith, it is not surprising that more people have not heard of it. The Quakers are also a minority, but they also form a loose coalition with various pacifist oriented organizations. However, while all of that was going on, in the UK the huge Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament movement was under way featuring people like Bertrand Russell. Meanwhile the USA and UK were at loggerheads over many issues going back to Suez (1956) when a large anti-American movement sprang up. The UK had nothing to do with the Vietnam War and opposed it. First Eisenhower and then Kennedy tangled over Britain's own ballistic missile and nuclear arms program. In fact, James, the current affairs of both countries was poles apart and the CIA were trying to influence British academia, and destabilize the British Labour Party. Now unless you understand all of that, then you don't know what Lee Harvey Oswald walked into after he left UK Immigration in 1959.

Mervyn

[Jason Ward]

11 hours ago, Mervyn Hagger said:

However, aside from me harping on about Premillennial-ism and Walker, who else on this Forum has shone the light on this influential source of controlled belief and resulting actions?

Hi Mervyn, 

I'm not sure what you mean here and am easily distracted in any case.   Would you like to get back to Oswald's European Tour?    I think we left it at agreeing he seems intent on school in Switzerland until Southampton and the night in the UK on 09OCT59.   

 

Jason

[Mervyn Hagger]

44 minutes ago, Jason Ward said:

Hi Mervyn, 

I'm not sure what you mean here and am easily distracted in any case.   Would you like to get back to Oswald's European Tour?    I think we left it at agreeing he seems intent on school in Switzerland until Southampton and the night in the UK on 09OCT59.   

 

Jason

Your comment is regarding a comment I made about Pre-Millennial-ism, which I made before this observation concerning the UK that LHO stepped into after emerging from UK Immigration at Southampton:

10 hours ago, Mervyn Hagger said:

....it seems that a very prominent U.S. citizen was connected to the college and it also appears that news of one sort or another was published about the college. Since the college was tied to the Universalist-Unitarian faith, it is not surprising that more people have not heard of it. The Quakers are also a minority, but they also form a loose coalition with various pacifist oriented organizations. However, while all of that was going on, in the UK the huge Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament movement was under way featuring people like Bertrand Russell. Meanwhile the USA and UK were at loggerheads over many issues going back to Suez (1956) when a large anti-American movement sprang up. The UK had nothing to do with the Vietnam War and opposed it. First Eisenhower and then Kennedy tangled over Britain's own ballistic missile and nuclear arms program. In fact, James, the current affairs of both countries was poles apart and the CIA were trying to influence British academia, and destabilize the British Labour Party. Now unless you understand all of that, then you don't know what Lee Harvey Oswald walked into after he left UK Immigration in 1959. 

Mervyn

No comments about Pre-Millennial-ism and no comments about current affairs in the UK circa. 1959, just as there were no comments about Weaver's book. It seems that this JFK Forum has narrowly defined its parameters. However, I did come across a promising thread relating to John Tower until I discovered that it was mainly the forum for someone who was writing scads of stuff about sci-fi and their own interpretations of life on this Planet and beyond. But back to LHO in the UK. It seemed as though the college issue was "done and dusted" by the end of 1959, until I ran across this:

http://www.aarclibrary.org/publib/jfk/wc/wcvols/wh16/pdf/WH16_CE_229.pdf

Note that this is written in 1960 to LHO from the college and it is address to LHO at his US Marines address in California, and then it is sent on to Fort Worth ...

Mervyn

 

[Jason Ward]

4 minutes ago, Mervyn Hagger said:

until I ran across this:

http://www.aarclibrary.org/publib/jfk/wc/wcvols/wh16/pdf/WH16_CE_229.pdf

Note that this is written in 1960 to LHO from the college and it is address to LHO at his US Marines address in California, and then it is sent on to Fort Worth

Hi Mervyn,

Yes, the letter is interesting.   I see many possible explanations but perhaps(?) one safe assumption: Albert Schweitzer College hoped or expected that LHO would be in attendance for the upcoming term.  I suppose it could be an administrative error and mean nothing.  What do you think about this letter?

 

Jason

[Mervyn Hagger]

27 minutes ago, Jason Ward said:

Hi Mervyn,

Yes, the letter is interesting.   I see many possible explanations but perhaps(?) one safe assumption: Albert Schweitzer College hoped or expected that LHO would be in attendance for the upcoming term.  I suppose it could be an administrative error and mean nothing.  What do you think about this letter?

 

Jason

Following your own line of reasoning, which I fully support, I take it at face value. It is what it is. Now if you are asking me to speculate what it means, well that is something that we are more or less agreed is the way to run off the track. So I won't do that. I will say that if taken at its face value (and why not?), then it means that there is a lot more to support a very consistent story told by LHO that he was going to school in Switzerland, and that his story was accepted as being true by the school in Switzerland. The school had credibility due to its relationship to Percival Flack Brundage. http://coverthistory.blogspot.co.uk/2005/07/oswald-and-albert-schweitzer-college.html 

One item taken from the blog reference: LHO also said that he would attend the University of Turku, Finland. That University is also known by location as Abo in Swedish, and it is the only Swedish college in Finland. Abo (Turku) also features in the story about the creation of the McLendon/Murchison ship station 'Radio Nord' which was anchored in the Baltic Sea within reach of Stockholm. A sister station called Skanes Radio Mercur broadcast to the south of Sweden off Malmo.

The rise and fall history of 'Radio Nord' parallels in time the trek by LHO to get to Russia, and his departure from Russia.

It has been suggested that 'Radio Nord' was transmitting messages via recorded music to people behind the Iron Curtain.

That of course would include LHO.

Mervyn

 

[Mervyn Hagger]

Well if that letter from Albert Schweitzer College in 1960 isn't enough to make you wonder what's going on here, how about this:

This is from the Berkshire Eagle (daily newspaper), Pittsfield, Massachusetts and dated Friday, September 21, 1956.

Remember that LHO got to France aboard a freighter, disembarked and boarded a liner for England. That ship was the ss Liberte ...

"Benjamin F. Barber, son of Mr. and Mrs. Phillip W. Barber of Stockbridge Road, left this week aboard the ss Liberte to attend the Albert Schweitzer College at Churwalden, Switzerland."

Now what can we learn from this?

Well in 1956 if you were in Massachusetts and wanted to attend the Albert Schweitzer College in Switzerland, you would find a way to board the ss Liberte.

Since the director of the college was also responsible for the Budget of the USA, I hardly think that this is an obscure institution.

Why did everyone pretend that it was?

Just because LHO had expressed his interest in attending during 1960?

More than ever I want to know what happened to LHO between Southampton and Heathrow in 1959.

It seems that the crowd-cuckoo conspirators are the ones who have to make up a bogus itinerary for LHO in order to explain away what became of him in England!

Oh, and there is much, much more where this came from about the college in the newspaper archives!

 

[Mervyn Hagger]

Here is an ad from a British newspaper ...

[Jason Ward]

15 minutes ago, Mervyn Hagger said:

Oh, and there is much, much more where this came from about the college in the newspaper archives!

I hope you can share here what more you may find.

16 minutes ago, Mervyn Hagger said:

More than ever I want to know what happened to LHO between Southampton and Heathrow in 1959.

Maybe there are some records in the UK as yet undiscovered.   Doesn't the UK have a FOIA type mechanism to make public old police, immigration, MI5/6 records?   Not much attention is given to Oswald in Britain so it could be a real breakthrough if records exist!

 

 

 

Jason

[Jason Ward]

4 minutes ago, Mervyn Hagger said:

Here is an ad from a British newspaper ...

New original research!

Great stuff!

This is the highest contribution anyone can make in a post IMO.   Thanks, please keep it up, Mervyn.

Jason

 

[Mervyn Hagger]

3 minutes ago, Jason Ward said:

New original research!

Great stuff!

This is the highest contribution anyone can make in a post IMO.   Thanks, please keep it up, Mervyn.

Jason

 

Under 'Albert Schweitzer College' there are 117,025 hits. I scanned down the list to see when they disintegrate into hits of for 'Albert', 'Schweitzer' or 'College', but on a quick skim down I did not run out of links for 'Albert Schweitzer College'. I will have to be selective in what I copy and upload since this is from a paid subscription so I can't just link the item, I have to copy and paste. Mervyn