CIA Memo? When LHO "Allegedly" Visited the MC Soviet Embassy

[Michael Crane]

2 hours ago, Leslie Sharp said:

Right.

I can copy paste into a message if you you're not able to open the link I shared.

I'm surprised it's so difficult to access. There was a time when it was high on the algorithm. 

Oh,that would be wonderful.

IIRC) One witness had Bernard Baker as the Secret Service agent that was behind the wooden fence?

Please.

[Leslie Sharp]

1 hour ago, Michael Crane said:

Oh,that would be wonderful.

IIRC) One witness had Bernard Baker as the Secret Service agent that was behind the wooden fence?

Please.

It's lengthy.  I'll see how much I can include in a single comment here.


Byrds, Planes, and an Automobile 

One of the men with whom the truth may lie, concerning the JFK 
assassination's links to the University of Texas, was one of UT's most 
ardent supporters who happened to own the building that has become 
synonymous with the assassination. His ties to UT are well known. His 
numerous ties to the assassination are lesser known. One of his least 
known ties, it appears, is to the UT Rambler. 

Somewhat like the plot to assassinate Trotsky and most unlike the 
failed assassination conspiracy against Hitler in which Allen Dulles 
and Mary Bancroft participated, the plot to assassinate President 
Kennedy seems to have been sophisticated, intricate, and meticulously 
planned. It can be presumed therefore that, as researcher William 
Weston has written, "One of the most critical elements of this plot 
was the Texas School Book Depository." In addition to both the 
circumstances of Oswald's employment at the TSBD, and the routing of 
the motorcade by the building, Weston points out that there would have 
been a need for a team of plotters to make detailed plans inside the 
building well in advance of November 22, including firing angles, 
planting of false evidence, and getaway plans. This could have been 
done, Weston says, by six TSBD employees assigned to lay new flooring 
on the fifth and sixth floors from late October until November 22.298 
It is a plausible argument, which brings up the concern that any long- 
term improvement to the property such as a flooring project would have 
to have been of interest to, if not directly initiated and contracted 
by, the building's owner. 

Roy Truly, the "superintendent" who hired Oswald was "a building 
manager."299 In a story published the day after the assassination, 
Dallas Morning News reporter Kent Biffle referred to Roy Truly as 
"Superintendent of the textbook building...."300 The floor crew was 
supervised directly by William Shelly, "the assistant manager who was 
in charge of the floor laying project."301 These titles imply that 
they were building managers more closely associated with the landlord 
than with the private textbook brokerage firm which leased the 
building.302 The employment of these individuals would seem to be a 
relatively easy fact for researchers verify. 

Weston writes, "The electrical power for the whole building and even 
the telephone stopped working about five minutes prior to the 
assassination.303 How two such entirely different systems as the 
electricity and the phones could go out simultaneously is beyond 
explanation, unless one can assume that the interruption was 
deliberate."304 Although this claim is currently in dispute, it cannot 
be denied that the conspiracy to assassinate President Kennedy would 
have involved intimate knowledge of the TSBD building. Truly and 
Shelly were possibly employed to some extent by the building's 
landlord, David Harold Byrd. 

Dallas oilman David Harold Byrd, born April 24, 1900, was the cousin 
of Admiral Richard E. Byrd and his brother, Senator Harry F. Byrd, 
"the leader of conservative opinion in the United States."305 D.H. 
Byrd owned the Texas School Book Depository building from the 1930s to 
the 1970s. In May 1964, he had the "Oswald window" removed and kept it 
as part of his estate.306 In 1972, after Byrd sold the building to Mr. 
Aubrey Mayhew, an arsonist set it on fire. It was saved, however. 
Shortly thereafter Mayhew defaulted on his payments to Republic 
National Bank of Dallas307 and the property reverted to the Byrd 
family.308 In 1975 Byrd sold it again.309 

Byrd had a close relationship with both Lyndon Johnson and John 
Connally. Evidently not satisfied with being the cousin of a powerful 
and respected U.S. senator,310 for D.H. Byrd, "Another goal was to 
reach a rapport with the politicians who ran things, especially at the 
seat of state government in Austin....Sam Rayburn, Morrie Sheppard, 
John Connally, and Lyndon Johnson on the national scene were to become 
men I could go to any time that I wanted action, and so were a 
succession of Texas governors. Among the ablest was John 
Connally...who says he's in my debt for pleading his cause... 
with...Ida Nell (Nellie) Brill, Sweetheart of The University of Texas 
in 1940...."311 

Byrd probably also knew George de Mohrenschildt, David Atlee Phillips 
and George Bush through the Dallas Petroleum Club.312 In 1945, future 
club member de Mohrenschildt obtained a masters degree in petroleum 
engineering after eighteen months at the University of Texas at Austin. 
313 During that year he was investigated by the FBI and ONI. 

That same year he worked under Warren W. Smith, president of Pantipec 
Oil, owned by the parents of William F. Buckley, Jr. Smith and de 
Mohrenschildt soon quit and formed the Cuban-Venezuelan Oil Voting 
Trust Company. When Castro took over, this company forfeited oil 
leases covering about half of Cuba. Jack Crichton of Army Intelligence 
Reserve Service, mentioned earlier, had also worked under Warren Smith 
at Pantipec, which sells to Sun Oil.314 By 1957, George de 
Mohrenschildt had established himself in oil ventures ranging from 
wildcat drilling to aerial surveillance and had begun working for the 
CIA.315 

It is probable that Byrd knew David Ferrie and he definitely knew the 
very top Air Force brass through Civil Air Patrol (CAP). CAP Captain 
David Ferrie was CAP cadet Lee Harvey Oswald's trainer.316 

Byrd was a co-founder of Civil Air Patrol. Displayed in his office, at 
1110 Tower Petroleum Building in Dallas, were many pictures of himself 
in uniform with aviation dignitaries and Air Force Generals.317 He was 
an aviation buff but could not become a fighter pilot because his 
eyesight was bad.318 He co-founded CAP six days before Pearl Harbor. 
319 After World War II he spearheaded the establishment of the Cadet 
Program in CAP and contributed many scholarships to its cadets.320 In 
Dallas on May 24, 1963, the U.S. Air Force presented to Byrd its 
Scroll of Appreciation, which reads: 


For rendering meritorious service to the United States Air Force from 
Dec. 1941 to April, 1960. Motivated by a strong sense of patriotism, 
Mr. Byrd played a major part in the successful operation of the Texas 
Wing, Civil Air Patrol, throughout World War II. After the war he 
assisted in the incorporation of the Civil Air Patrol and its 
designation as an Auxiliary of the Air Force. Mr. Byrd helped initiate 
the International Air Cadet Exchange and worked closely with the Air 
Cadet League of Canada. The many scholarships established or supported 
by Mr. Byrd have aided countless cadets in the attainment of 
additional training and higher education. His contributions of 
material and personal aircraft to the use of Civil Air Patrol 
materially aided in the performance of its mission.. The distinctive 
accomplishments of Mr. Byrd have earned for him the sincere gratitude 
of the United States Air Force. 

(Signed) - Curtis E. Le May 
Chief of Staff 
(Signed) - Eugene M. Zuckert 
Secretary of the Air Force321 

D.H. Byrd counted among his close friends one of the most famous 
aviators, General Jimmy Doolittle.322 Byrd and Doolittle were hunting 
buddies. Of Doolittle he wrote, "Having a fondness for being Number 
One in all my undertakings, it doesn't come naturally for me to 
confess that Doolittle is the one man whom I would gladly serve in any 
venture as Number Two."323 On one intriguing trip without Doolittle, 
Byrd went hunting in central Africa in November and December 1963. It 
was his first such trip of five during his lifetime outside of the 
U.S., Mexico, and Canada.324 

Byrd prepared well for the trip: Temco, Inc. was an aircraft company 
founded by D.H. Byrd and which later merged with his friend James 
Ling's electronics company (1960), and aircraft manufacturer Chance 
Vought Corporation (1961) to form Ling-Temco-Vought (LTV). Byrd became 
a director325 of LTV and bought, along with Ling, 132,000 shares of 
LTV in November 1963.326 Byrd then left the country to go on his two- 
month safari in central Africa. He returned in January to find his 
good friend Lyndon Johnson president of the United States, his 
building famous, and a large defense contract awarded to LTV to build 
fighter planes -- to be paid for out of the 1965 budget which had not 
yet been approved by Congress.327 

Mac Wallace, who received a five-year suspended sentence in the 
shooting death of John Douglas Kiner in Austin on October 22, 1951, 
went to work for Temco, Inc. of Garland, Texas five months after his 
trial. He remained in that position until February 1961, four months 
before Henry Marshall's mysterious death on June 3, 1961, when he 
transferred to the Anaheim, California offices of LTV.328 

The transfer required a background check by the Navy. "The most 
intriguing part of the Wallace case was how a convicted murderer was 
able to get a job with defense contractors. Better yet, how was he 
able to get a security clearance? Clinton Peoples [the Texas Ranger 
Captain who investigated the Marshall and Kiner murders]329 reported 
that when the original security clearance was granted, he asked the 
Naval intelligence officer handling the case how such a person could 
get the clearance. `Politics,' the man replied. When Peoples asked who 
would have that much power, the simple answer was, `the vice 
president,' who at the time was Lyndon Johnson. Years later, after the 
story broke [of Billie Sol Estes' March 20, 1984 testimony that 
implicated Lyndon Johnson, Malcom Wallace, and Clifton Carter in the 
death of Henry Marshall], that investigator could not recall the 
conversation with Peoples but he did say no one forced him to write a 
favorable report. He also added that he wasn't the one that made the 
decision to grant the clearance. The whole matter might have been 
solved with a peek at that original report but unfortunately, when the 
files were checked, that particular report was suspiciously missing. 
It has never been seen since."330 

Wallace was transferred and given clearance in February 1961. "In 
January 1961, the very month Johnson was sworn in as vice president, 
and the month Henry Marshall was in Dallas discussing how to combat 
Estes-like scams, Billie Sol Estes learned through his contacts that 
the USDA was investigating the allotment scheme and that Henry 
Marshall might end up testifying. The situation was supposedly 
discussed by Estes, Johnson, and Carter in the backyard of LBJ's 
Washington home. Johnson was, according to Estes, alarmed that if 
Marshall started talking it might result in an investigation that 
would implicate the vice president. At first it was decided to have 
Marshall transferred to Washington, but when told Marshall had already 
refused such a relocation, LBJ, according to Estes, said simply, `Then 
we'll have to get rid of him.'"331 

According to Craig Zirbel, author of The Texas Connection, in May 
1962, "...Johnson flew to Dallas aboard a military jet to privately 
meet with Estes and his lawyers on a plane parked away from the 
terminal....This incident would probably have remained secret except 
that LBJ's plane suffered a mishap in landing at Dallas. When 
investigative reporters attempted to obtain the tower records for the 
flight mishap the records were "sealed by government order."332 

Still more LTV intrigues were revealed by Peter Dale Scott: "A fellow- 
director of [Jack Alston] Crichton's333 firm of Dorchester Gas 
Producing was D.H. Byrd, an oil associate of Sid Richardson and Clint 
Murchison, and the LTV director who teamed up with James Ling to buy 
132,000 shares of LTV in November 1963. While waiting to be sworn in 
as President in Dallas on November 22, Johnson spoke by telephone with 
J.W. Bullion, a member of the Dallas law firm (Thompson, Wright, 
Knight, and Simmons) which had the legal account for Dorchester Gas 
Producing and was represented on its board. The senior partner of the 
law firm, Dwight L. Simmons, had until 1960 sat on the board of Chance 
Vought Aircraft, a predecessor of Ling-Temco-Vought. One week after 
the assassination, Johnson named Bullion, who has been described as 
his `business friend and lawyer,' to be one of the two trustees 
handling the affairs of the former LBJ Co. while its owner was 
President."334 

[Leslie Sharp]

@Michael Crane I think I should send this to you directly since it takes up space and might be a distraction from @Benjamin Cole's topic.

I'll try private message in a little while.

[Michael Crane]

Works for me.

thedropper@yahoo.com

Edited July 4, 2023 by Michael Crane

[Michael Crane]

I never seen a notification on here at the top of the page,so I didn't say thank you earlier.

Thank you Leslie.

Edited July 4, 2023 by Michael Crane

[Benjamin Cole]

2 hours ago, Michael Crane said:

I never seen a notification on here at the top of the page,so I didn't say thank you earlier.

Thank you Leslie.

Don't mind me! I think this is interesting. 

[Michael Crane]

Ben,

I think I read a version that was longer.

Hell of a game of connect the dots if you ask me.

[Joseph Backes]

On 7/3/2023 at 11:33 AM, Gene Kelly said:

Makes sense Joe ... Angleton was close to Dulles (see the photo from Allen Dulles funeral), and also kept the false defector Nosenko under wraps. I speculate that Russia knew what happened and sent Nosenko to distance them from the setup (and the Kostikov "virus balloon"). And it was the suspect mole Bruce Solie who "cleared" Nosenko.  Lots of intrigue here.

I am also puzzled by the Marvin Gheesling/Lambert Anderson who cancelled an FBI security flash on October 9th ... after two misleading CIA cables about Mexico City.  And only days later, Oswald is hired at the TSBD.  Bill Simpich concluded that the flash was removed because CIA/FBI were using Oswald in some kind of intelligence-related operation.  He is giving the benefit of the doubt to Gheesling and Anderson.  Gheesling was punished and transferred from HQ to a field office (and as Newman points out, 33 other agents were disciplined by Hoover).  It seems the "Kostikov Virus Balloon" effectively blackmailed the FBI into cover their reputation later.  What little I've read about Gheesling tells me he wasn't complicit, but rather used ... not so sure about Anderson. 

Gene

 

Yes, the cancelling of the FBI Security flash on Oswald was important and very odd, inexplicable if you're not involved in the conspiracy to kill JFK. If you're not, then why did you do this? 

But there was a key event before LHO went to MC that is crucial.  The CIA asked permission from the FBI about doing something targeting the FPCC and it had an international aspect to it as well.  They are a little vague about exactly what they're planning to do.  But, they get it. This is before LHO goes to MC.  And it is a big thing largely overlooked by people interested in MC.  MC would not have happened at all without this. I think this also involved Marvin Gheesling and Lambert Anderson.  This is mentioned in one of John Newman's books.  

Joe  

[Gene Kelly]

On 7/1/2023 at 7:52 PM, Benjamin Cole said:

JB--you sure know your stuff.

Ben

To build on what Joe shared, Jane Roman was interviewed by Jefferson Morely at her house on Newark Street in Cleveland Park on November 2, 1994. He was accompanied by a colleague, John Newman.  Here is a link to a summary of that interview from History Matters: "What Jane Roman Said: A Retired CIA Officer Speaks Candidly About Lee Harvey Oswald" by Jefferson Morley

https://www.history-matters.com/essays/frameup/WhatJaneRomanSaid/WhatJaneRomanSaid_2.htm

Some interesting observations and comments by Morley ...

Roman insisted I tell her how I had found her. I said, ridiculously, that I had my sources. She said she wanted to know or she didn’t see the need to go any further. I promptly folded. “I found the property records on your daughter’s condo,” I said. Roman nodded and seemed grimly satisfied. I pulled out my tape recorder and she balked again. Newman reassured her that taping was the best protection for all concerned. She relented.

Listening to the tape of the 75-minute interview that ensued, I am struck by several things. Above all, the tone is professional. Newman and Roman spoke as colleagues in the intelligence business. They understood what the other one was saying. Newman was assertive, well prepared, self-possessed. Roman was circumspect, thoughtful and concise. Right from the start, Roman and Newman parried with revealing results.

Gene

 

[Gene Kelly]

9 minutes ago, Joseph Backes said:

 

Yes, the cancelling of the FBI Security flash on Oswald was important and very odd, inexplicable if you're not involved in the conspiracy to kill JFK. If you're not, then why did you do this? 

But there was a key event before LHO went to MC that is crucial.  The CIA asked permission from the FBI about doing something targeting the FPCC and it had an international aspect to it as well.  They are a little vague about exactly what they're planning to do.  But, they get it. This is before LHO goes to MC.  And it is a big thing largely overlooked by people interested in MC.  MC would not have happened at all without this. I think this also involved Marvin Gheesling and Lambert Anderson.  This is mentioned in one of John Newman's books.  

Joe  

Joe

I tried to dig into Gheesling a little, but there's not much out there.  I tend to think that he was duped, and just doing his job.  He retired (after being banished to a field office as punishment) and died in 1982 (buried in a Catholic ceremony).  There does however exist some doubt about Lambert Anderson, who may've convinced Gheesling to remove the FBI flash.

Lambert Anderson was one of the two agents at FBI headquarters who had been specifically charged with handling the Oswald file. He was also involved in running a joint FBI-CIA operation targeting the pro-Castro Fair Play for Cuba Committee for disruption. In the second half of 1963, Lambert Anderson held down the Cuban desk for the FBI’s Nationalities Intelligence division.  Simpich labels Anderson as "an intriguing character", as he was with Nationalities Intelligence, had the FPCC file, and he was "the new guy" at the Cuban desk. He answered to Branigan and Robert Lenihan, who were the case supervisors of the Domestic Intelligence Division.  He only served with the Cuban section for a short period of time, a few months in 1963.  Anderson was “fairly new" and "not considered to be an expert on Cuba.”

Bill Simpich believes that a more likely reason (for removing the FBI security flash) is that "Anderson got wind of a tip that Oswald was of some use to the FBI".  Simpich raises a question of whether Gheesling and Anderson took Oswald off the security watch list based solely on the report about Oswald's cooperation with the FBI, or whether they had also been tipped off that a molehunt was about to begin with Oswald's file. He concludes that "the timing would suggest that both factors were in play". Anderson was also 'censured for not putting Oswald on the security index, as well as CIA Soviet Section Chief Bill Branigan for his overall responsibility.  But Simpich makes it clear that "the record is unequivocal that Gheesling was the man most severely punished – and his punishment was specifically based, at least in part, for cancelling the flash on Oswald". Gheesling was a 33-year veteran of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and worked for the Michigan office as a specialist in espionage cases until his retirement in 1976.

Ann Egerter is a person of interest here ... she was interviewed by HSCA investigators on 3/31/78 and asked to use an alias. Egerter complained to the CIA after her deposition was over that she had not done well, citing her problem with the “Lee Henry” handwriting on documents, among a host of other issues. Her deposition of 5/17/78 remains one of the only depositions - if not the only deposition - still classified more than thirty years later.

Gene

[Benjamin Cole]

5 hours ago, Gene Kelly said:

Ben

To build on what Joe shared, Jane Roman was interviewed by Jefferson Morely at her house on Newark Street in Cleveland Park on November 2, 1994. He was accompanied by a colleague, John Newman.  Here is a link to a summary of that interview from History Matters: "What Jane Roman Said: A Retired CIA Officer Speaks Candidly About Lee Harvey Oswald" by Jefferson Morley

https://www.history-matters.com/essays/frameup/WhatJaneRomanSaid/WhatJaneRomanSaid_2.htm

Some interesting observations and comments by Morley ...

Roman insisted I tell her how I had found her. I said, ridiculously, that I had my sources. She said she wanted to know or she didn’t see the need to go any further. I promptly folded. “I found the property records on your daughter’s condo,” I said. Roman nodded and seemed grimly satisfied. I pulled out my tape recorder and she balked again. Newman reassured her that taping was the best protection for all concerned. She relented.

Listening to the tape of the 75-minute interview that ensued, I am struck by several things. Above all, the tone is professional. Newman and Roman spoke as colleagues in the intelligence business. They understood what the other one was saying. Newman was assertive, well prepared, self-possessed. Roman was circumspect, thoughtful and concise. Right from the start, Roman and Newman parried with revealing results.

Gene

 

Gene--

Thanks. Great stuff. 

I suspect LHO was a CIA asset, of which there were literally thousands at the time in the US, due to the Cuba situation. 

[Michael Griffith]

On 6/30/2023 at 1:10 AM, Benjamin Cole said:

In the most recent docs non-release, was this memo linked to below. 

The title of the two-page memo below (possibly written in 1969) is still "withheld" and parts of the memo are still redacted. It seems like a CIA doc, but not sure. Maybe Tom Gram or Larry Hancock can decipher. An untitled HSCA doc? 

A curiosity is this sentence, bottom of page 1, "In 1963 when OSWALD allegedly visited the Soviet embassy, Scantling was the P/A for the limited basehouse and LIEMPTY-6 [then large redaction, several words] was the photo tech who took the pictures."

https://www.archives.gov/files/research/jfk/releases/2023/104-10065-10028.pdf

I know there is debate within the EF-JFKA whether LHO ever visited to the Soviet embassy, or even Mexico City. 

I think LHO did visit the Soviet Embassy, based partly in a Frontline interview with Kostikov and two comrades, who all said they in fact met the real LHO.  I suspect the CIA wanted the real LHO to meet Kostikov, and manipulated matters to make such a biography build happen. 

Nevertheless, part of JFKA research is to look at events from all sides. This mysterious memo refers to the "alleged" LHO visit.

A CIA officer was not sure LHO visited the Soviet Embassy? 

Perhaps the CIA officer's lack of certainty was related to the 11/23/63 phone conversation between LBJ and Hoover, released by the ARRB. During this conversation, the following exchange occurred:

          JOHNSON. Have you established any more about the [Oswald] visit to the Soviet
Embassy in Mexico in September?
          HOOVER. No, that's one angle that's very confusing for this reason. We have up here the tape and the photograph of the man who was at the Soviet Embassy, using Oswald's name. That picture and the tape do not correspond to this man's voice, nor to his appearance. In other words, it appears that there is a second person who was at the Soviet Embassy. 

Here is a segment from my section on Oswald's alleged activities in Mexico City from my online book Hasty Judgment:

          Posner claims that two employees at the Cuban Embassy, Silvia Duran and Alfredo Mirabel Diaz, positively identified Oswald as the man they had seen (6:188-191). Diaz, however, admitted he only saw the man briefly (14:349). And Silvia Duran said in 1978 that she was no longer certain that Oswald was the person who visited the embassy (14:350-351; 5:193-195). Also, Duran's initial identification of the visitor as Oswald was made under extreme duress (5:193-195; 43:58-60). Furthermore, the embassy consul at that time, Eusebio Azcue, told the HSCA that the troublesome visitor was blond and gaunt and about thirty-five years old (14:346-351). Duran, like Azcue, recalled that the visitor had blond hair.

          Posner points out that Azcue also told the Select Committee he would assume he had been imagining things if it turned out that the signatures on the visa application were verified as Oswald's (6:188 n). But did Azcue really believe this, or was he simply trying to avoid a confrontation with the Committee over the issue? Earlier in his testimony Azcue insisted that the man he saw "in no way resembled" Oswald. Azcue also noted that film of the real Oswald showed a young man with a youthful face. This, said Azcue, was "in radical contrast to the deeply lined face" of the man who came to obtain a visa. When Committee investigators showed Azcue photographs of Oswald, Azcue replied, "My belief is that this gentleman was not, is not, the person or the individual who went to the consulate."

          What about the Oswald photos and the signatures on the visa application? Consul Azcue pointed out that the clerk could have allowed the visitor to take the visa application out of the embassy, thus providing an opportunity to obtain the real Oswald's signature. Or, the signatures could have been expertly faked. After the assassination, researchers found a photocopy of Oswald's Social Security card on which someone appears to have been practicing how to sign Oswald's signature (11:392). As for the Oswald pictures on the application, intensive research after the assassination revealed that they were not made at any of the local photo shops (14:349). If the imposter was allowed to take the application out of the embassy, he could have simply attached Oswald's pictures to it.

           Posner argues that the visitor must have been Oswald or else the clerk would have noticed that the photos did not match the applicant. But Consul Azcue said the clerk might not have checked the pictures against the individual who was applying, explaining that "occupied as she was, she most probably proceeded to place the photograph on the application without this check" (14:349). Fonzi raises the possibility that the pictures and the signed application were planted by the CIA agents who worked at the embassy (61:293-294). . . .

          The Oswald imposter issue becomes even more troubling in light of the fact that questions about Oswald's identity surfaced well before the assassination. In June 1960, FBI director J. Edgar Hoover asked the State Department for any current information it might receive on Oswald "since there is a possibility that an imposter is using Oswald's birth certificate" (5:539). In March 1961, the Passport Office informed the State Department, ". . . it has been stated that there is an imposter using Oswald's identification data and that no doubt the Soviets would love to get hold of his valid passport. . . ." (5:539). (LINK, pp. 96-98)

Edited July 5, 2023 by Michael Griffith

[Michael Crane]

Oh man,

 

[Steve Thomas]

Wasn't there an incident where somebody from the FBI wanted to share something with the CIA, and Hoover wrote at the bottom of the request, "OK, but you remember the funny business they played down in Mexico."?

Steve Thomas

Edited July 5, 2023 by Steve Thomas

[Leslie Sharp]

On 7/4/2023 at 12:29 PM, Joseph Backes said:

 

Yes, the cancelling of the FBI Security flash on Oswald was important and very odd, inexplicable if you're not involved in the conspiracy to kill JFK. If you're not, then why did you do this? 

But there was a key event before LHO went to MC that is crucial.  The CIA asked permission from the FBI about doing something targeting the FPCC and it had an international aspect to it as well.  They are a little vague about exactly what they're planning to do.  But, they get it. This is before LHO goes to MC.  And it is a big thing largely overlooked by people interested in MC.  MC would not have happened at all without this. I think this also involved Marvin Gheesling and Lambert Anderson.  This is mentioned in one of John Newman's books.  

Joe  

@Joseph Backes Of possible relevance, the following is an overlooked (and in at least one instance ignored) essay shared by H. P. Albarelli Jr. back in 2013 which pertains directly to August events in New Orleans. Note: I've shifted Hank's closing paragraph & notes to the forefront in the event the reader might question the relevance to your remarks.

 

Joannides & Lafitte in New Orleans, 1963

. . . Portions of Lafitte’s date books for his New Orleans years are revealing of his dealings with various CIA officials, including at least 3 apparent meetings with CIA Western Hemisphere Division employee, George Efythron Joannides. Interestingly, Lafitte’s second encounter with Joannides occurred the second week of August 1963, just days after Lee Harvey Oswald’s Friday, August 9 arrest for provoking a disturbance through leafleting for his Fair Play for Cuba Committee New Orleans chapter. Lafitte’s handwritten notations for Friday, August 16, 1963 read: “… at Antoines room— Martello, Joanides [sic] & Labadie. Quigly [sic] interview Oswald over street demonstration. Call Holdout.” Another notation, made 6 days later reads: “Talk Joanides Cuba—refer to K Organization in Mexico — similar setup now. [D]iscuss with King, ask George and Charles about Havana, Mexico trips…” 

 

NOTES: “Antoines room” is thought to be Antoine’s, a well-known New Orleans restaurant that hosted meetings and gatherings in a number of private rooms. There are several references to Antoine’s in the date books.  “Martello” appears to be a reference to New Orleans Police Department officer, Lt. Francis L. Martello; not to be confused with Francis “Monk”  Martello. Lt. Martello interviewed Oswald in the New Orleans lockup on August 10, 1963. “Quigly” is perhaps a misspelling of the name Quigley. FBI SA John L. Quigley also interviewed Oswald in New Orleans jail. “Labadie” is a known alias, as in Jean Labadie, that Lafitte used often in New York City, but it is also the surname of Stephen J. Labadie, a special agent for the FBI. “Holdout” is unknown; perhaps it is a code-name for a program or confidential informer. “King” is most likely J.C. King, CIA Western Hemisphere director, but could possibly be William Harvey, as some CIA associated people occasionally and mockingly referred to Harvey as “King.” “George and Charlie” are believed to be FBN officials.

Copyright © 2013—H.P. Albarelli Jr. 

Over fifteen years ago, while beginning to research a book on the odd death of U.S. Army biochemist, Dr. Frank R. Olson, I became aware of the existence of an enigmatic character with the unlikely name Jean Pierre Lafitte. The origins of my awareness came from my perusal of the 1952 and 1953 diaries of Federal Bureau of Narcotics official George Hunter White; a September 20, 1977 article in the New York Times by investigative journalists John M. Crewdson and Jo Thomas; and the private notes and correspondence of James R. Phelan, an investigative journalist and writer, who, in the 1950s through the 1960s, was quite close to both Lafitte and White. 

 

Later, during the year 2000, my knowledge about Lafitte grew considerably greater after I was consulted on Frank Olson’s murder by investigators for New York City District Attorney Robert Morgenthau’s office. Spurred by these meetings, I made about a dozen trips to northern New England and southern Florida to interview several individuals who were close to Pierre Lafitte. 

 

About 18 months ago, while researching a forthcoming biography of George Hunter White, these interviews resulted in my gaining access to some of the personal writings of Lafitte, including his private date books, which stylistically are quite similar to those of FBN official and CIA consultant, George White. Suffice it to say, I became intrigued with the life and activities of the man known as Jean Pierre Lafitte, who beginning in 1952, through to about 1978, covertly work for the FBN, CIA, FBI, Secret Service, and INS. Lafitte also managed to carry out a number of major, international swindling schemes and operated a number of well-known restaurants. 

 

In June 1952, according to a letter by George White, the CIA officially recruited Lafitte as a “special employee” after he was summoned to Washington, D.C. to meet with CIA officials, Dr. Sidney Gottlieb and James Jesus Angleton. Wrote White: “Expecting to be at CIA only a day, Lafitte was held over for a few days. I hope to hell they know what they are in for. I suspect even to that crew that he’s one of a kind.” While at CIA headquarters, Lafitte also met Agency Security Chief, Sheffield Edwards, Frank Wisner, and Richard Helms. Subsequently, Lafitte undertook a number of covert domestic and international assignments for the CIA, including a trip to the Republic of the Congo in December 1960, which coincided with the January 1961 CIA-assisted assassination of Patrice Lumumba. Lafitte’s work for the CIA lasted until about 1978. 

 

While writing my book on Olson’s murder, A TERRIBLE MISTAKE: The Murder of Frank Olson and the CIA’s Secret Cold War Experiments [Trine Day, 2009], of which Lafitte played an integral and deadly role, I could not avoid learning about a number of provocative connections between Monsieur Lafitte and Lee Harvey Oswald and the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Not the least of these connections was that Lafitte, using an assumed named, throughout the 1960s lived in New Orleans. Indeed, in an incident that caused a flap at CIA headquarters in December 1969, the FBI arrested Lafitte in New Orleans. Briefly detained, he was released after a number of discrete phone calls from Capitol Hill were made to FBI headquarters. At the time of his arrest, Lafitte worked as the head chef at the Plimsoll Club, then part of the International Trade Mart.