Jane Roman and Jean Souetre: What She Said vs. What She was Asked

[Leslie Sharp]

@Ron Bulman asked recently to confirm that author Peter Kross, "JFK: The French Connection" is cited in Albarelli's "Coup in Dallas." The answer is yes; and one of Hank's researchers was in direct communication with PK prior to publication.

A number of seasoned researchers have long discounted the SAC source who Kross relies on to argue that Souetre was in the US in 1963. However, other than ad hominem attacks on the SAC in general, I've yet to read anything in the form of actual proof to impugn his specific claims.  

And, as argued previously, to insist Hungarian Lajos Marton and Laszlo Varga were behind bars — in what is obviously a country club prison environment — is naive at best, particularly in the political climate of early '60s France with a former Vichy official and QJ/WIN spotter at the helm of INTERPOL ensconced in Paris.  

Now that we know SW INS Commissioner Harlon Carter was a long time friend of sharpshooter Boots Askins identified by Pierre Lafitte in the lead up to Dealey, we have another piece of the puzzle at the Mexican border.

Can anyone produce documents to confirm Souetre's own claims that he was in Spain on November 22? Is a suspect's "word" sufficient to discontinue the investigation? Has anyone read the affidavits of his alleged witnesses, one of whom was an OAS General?

Perhaps if HSCA had been less obsessed with Oswald and opted to also track down a known assassin or assassins alleged to have been in Dallas on November 22, we might have known more much sooner.  By definition, their approach confirms just how perfect Oswald was as the patsy.

Kross is also among the few, if not the first to identify Jane Roman in context of Jean Souetre. Why has his revelation been ignored for a decade?

During their interview with Jane Roman, in addition to the focus on Oswald in Mexico City, did the HSCA also interrogate her about Souetre? Had they availed of the independent research handed over generously by Gary Shaw and Bud Fensterwald and pursued their leads to Souetre et al, we might have known more much sooner.  

It is my understanding the Shaw/Fensterwald files are buried in a storage garage in the DC area as I write.

Further to Jane Roman and what she said, vs. what she was asked: did Jeff Morley inquire about Souetre, or just Oswald? Did the Warren Commission consider Roman's role in dissemination of the 1963 reports on Souetre — known to the CIA for his attempts on de Gaulle's life in an attack not entirely dissimilar to Dealey — and his appeal to "continue" receiving support from the agency" in the spring?  From there, they might have unearthed Roman's knowledge of Ilse Skorzeny in and out of the US since 1957, but I digress.

Jane Roman surfaced in the March 9, 1964 Souetre-related document which was initially partially redacted.  It's possible I've overlooked instances, but to my knowledge no one, including those on this forum who argue we should accept Souetre's own words as evidence he wasn't in Dallas, who has tracked the confusion surrounding Soutre/ Roux/ Mertz on behalf of the French intelligence has actually pursued the potential significance — until now.

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=83405#relPageId=1

Edited June 28, 2023 by Leslie Sharp

[Ron Bulman]

I was astounded when I first read Jeff Morley and John Newmans Interview of Jane Roman 15 years ago.  In that day and time I printed a copy for my own reference I still have.  Didn't want it to disappear.  Never knew Soutre's file was kept with Oswald's 201 file, by Angleton. 

Finishing up Coup, finally.  I also never knew Jane's husband Howard was a ghost writer of Dulles "Craft of Intelligence", or that they were close friends and lunched together often.

[Michael Griffith]

17 hours ago, Leslie Sharp said:

And, as argued previously, to insist Hungarian Lajos Marton and Laszlo Varga were behind bars — in what is obviously a country club prison environment — is naive at best, particularly in the political climate of early '60s France with a former Vichy official and QJ/WIN spotter at the helm of INTERPOL ensconced in Paris. 
 

Huh, interesting. If they had been secretly let out of prison and then returned after they had done their dirty work, they would have had a seemingly ironclad alibi.

[Leslie Sharp]

6 hours ago, Michael Griffith said:

Huh, interesting. If they had been secretly let out of prison and then returned after they had done their dirty work, they would have had a seemingly ironclad alibi.

A solid hypothesis, @Michael Griffith.

Marton was initially given a death sentence which was then commuted to twenty years of which he served only five. In  light of what is revealed in the following article published on the 60th anniversary of Petit Clamart, I wonder if those who vigorously defend Marton will be objective enough to contemplate the possibility a deal was made, or will they continue to rely on Marton's presumably uncorroborated word, similar to Jean Souetre?
 

Hungarian Involved in the De Gaulle Assassination Plot Speaks Out

Dániel Deme 2022.08.22 Hungary Today

. . . Marton has served five years in prison for his involvement in the attempt but has not changed his opinion ever since.

. . . “Of those who fired the shots, Gyula Sári and I are the only two still alive. We have passed the age of ninety, but we will continue in the direction we have taken for the rest of our lives,” said the 91-year-old man, who still lives near Paris.

. . . The 91-year-old also believes that the world is in the grip of American “superpowerism.”

. . . At Petit-Clamart, near Paris, Charles De Gaulle was driven in his convoy to a military airfield when shots rang out, including those fired from Lajos Marton’s American-made Thompson submachine gun . . .

. . . Marton later spent a year in hiding with the false papers they gave him.

 

Of particular interest is the closing paragraph.

. . . The Hungarian involvement in the French plot can be best explained by the fact that many of them had accused the West, and the United States in particular, of a complete betrayal of the Hungarian anti-Communist revolution in 1956. Their anti-Communist stance, but to an extent also their naivety, had led them to be recruited to this plot by the French secret service.

Doesn't this imply that not only did Marton et al consider de Gaulle a traitor to the Hungarian anti-Communist revolution, but the leader of "the West", President John Kennedy as well?  

Hungary Today refers to the "French secret service" as being responsible for the Petit Clamart plot; are those Marton's own words?

https://hungarytoday.hu/hungarian-involved-in-de-gaulle-assassination-plot-speaks-out/

 

 

 

 

[Ron Bulman]

On 6/28/2023 at 10:52 PM, Ron Bulman said:

I was astounded when I first read Jeff Morley and John Newmans Interview of Jane Roman 15 years ago.  In that day and time I printed a copy for my own reference I still have.  Didn't want it to disappear.  Never knew Soutre's file was kept with Oswald's 201 file, by Angleton. 

Finishing up Coup, finally.  I also never knew Jane's husband Howard was a ghost writer of Dulles "Craft of Intelligence", or that they were close friends and lunched together often.

There is more in Coup on Howard Roman.  He was "a CIA official, former OSS officer, very close friend to Allen Dulles."  Who reportedly resigned in 1962 to work on Craft of Intelligence.  He was a Harvard graduate with a doctorate in German.  It doesn't say this in Coup, but he was born in 1916, I.E, he likely would have been working on the doctorate at age 25 at the start of WWII in 1941.  A useful young man to Dulles in Switzerland.

Coup does go on to say, "Morley and others have noted . . . as Dulles research assistant on the book, "was with Dulles at the moment" on November 22.1963, "when Dulles heard of JFK's assassination."  I need to check the end notes on this.  I thought COI was out by then, didn't Dulles promote it in Dallas at the end of October?

I looked around on line for info on Howard, not much.  This is interesting.  Note a 1965 reunion in Switzerland with Howard, Dulles, Lemnitzer and others.

Howard Roman - Ghostwriter for Allen Dulles (google.com)

Along with this.  He was a collaborator on the writing of A Clockwork Orange??? See the last paragraph in each of these articles, while they are interesting in themselves.

CIA mind-control trials revealed as secret inspiration behind 'A Clockwork Orange' | The Independent | The Independent

 Anthony Burgess and the Top Secret Code in ‘A Clockwork Orange’ | Dangerous Minds 

[Leslie Sharp]

21 hours ago, Ron Bulman said:

There is more in Coup on Howard Roman.  He was "a CIA official, former OSS officer, very close friend to Allen Dulles."  Who reportedly resigned in 1962 to work on Craft of Intelligence.  He was a Harvard graduate with a doctorate in German.  It doesn't say this in Coup, but he was born in 1916, I.E, he likely would have been working on the doctorate at age 25 at the start of WWII in 1941.  A useful young man to Dulles in Switzerland.

Coup does go on to say, "Morley and others have noted . . . as Dulles research assistant on the book, "was with Dulles at the moment" on November 22.1963, "when Dulles heard of JFK's assassination."  I need to check the end notes on this.  I thought COI was out by then, didn't Dulles promote it in Dallas at the end of October?

I looked around on line for info on Howard, not much.  This is interesting.  Note a 1965 reunion in Switzerland with Howard, Dulles, Lemnitzer and others.

Howard Roman - Ghostwriter for Allen Dulles (google.com)

Along with this.  He was a collaborator on the writing of A Clockwork Orange??? See the last paragraph in each of these articles, while they are interesting in themselves.

CIA mind-control trials revealed as secret inspiration behind 'A Clockwork Orange' | The Independent | The Independent

 Anthony Burgess and the Top Secret Code in ‘A Clockwork Orange’ | Dangerous Minds 

@Ron Bulman I had forgotten Howard Roman worked on "A Clockwork Orange"...

High strangeness and synchronicity, Anthony Frewin was Kubrick's assistant for decades.  Under a pseudonym, he published an analysis of Clay Shaw's address book specific to those in British aristocracy, the arts, his lovers, etc. When I happened to mention the Shaw analysis, Hank said, "I know that guy well. Great guy!"

Frewin closes his monograph with a challenge (paraphrasing): this is about as far as I can go on the project. I challenge other researchers to pick up the slack.  I took him seriously and tracked Shaw's connections — in particular those in Ireland which included his lover Sir Peter Montgomery, a lover of Burgess.  Then I met Hank, he was working with Ganis, who has information about Skorzeny's time in Ireland (Lafitte references the Amb. to Ireland, Grant Stockdale), and the rest is history. I'll dust off my Shaw diary research and post it soon.

The Kubrick Series Uncut: Tony Frewin on Apple Podcasts

[Ron Bulman]

More on Roman and Souetre is discussed in Coup.  He was known to the CIA before the assassination, a file provided to the FBI earlier in 1963, by her.

[Ron Bulman]

I kind of wonder if Roman's reply to the FBI wasn't a warning to them.  We told you about Souetre  in June, 63', he was seeking support for another attempt on DE Gaulle.  That's all we got.  Him and Dallas, yoyo.  I.E., you don't want to go there.