Gochenaur on Hosty

[Tom Gram]

In Jim Gochenaur’s recent interview with Robbie Robertson, he mentions a conversation he had with James Hosty. Gochenaur claims that Hosty told him he was specifically interested in Marina because he was aware of Marina’s correspondence with the Russian embassy, and that the guy Marina was talking to was a handler for Russian sleeper agents. The bit about Hosty starts around 1:29:30:

However, as far as I know, there is zero evidence that any of Marina’s embassy correspondence was shared with the Dallas Field Office pre-assassination, let alone with Hosty himself. I think the official story is that the embassy intercepts were segregated in the WFO and possibly FBI HQ until Nov. 22nd since it was such a sensitive source.

All of Marina’s embassy letters from Dec. ‘62 through April ‘63 list P.O. Box 2915 as her address, and the official story is that Hosty didn’t find out about that P.O. Box until June 27th when the New York Field Office finally sent Oswald’s April ‘63 FPCC letter to Dallas. Hosty alleged ignorance of that mailing address is the sole reason for his inexplicable failure to track the Oswalds to New Orleans, and there’s a bunch of suspicious evidence surrounding this issue - so if this intercept thing is actually true it’s a pretty big deal. 

Does Hosty say anything about embassy intercepts in his book? Is there any evidence Hosty saw those intercepts when he reactivated the Oswald case in March ‘63? There were earlier letters that listed Mercedes St., and later ones that listed Magazine St. and the New Orleans P.O. Box, but if Hosty saw any one of about half a dozen embassy letters dated from (I think) 12/31/62 to 4/13/63 prior to his infamous “check with the Postmaster” memo to Gordon Shanklin on 5/28/63, it would prove Hosty lied and completely destroy the official story of the pre-assassination Oswald investigation. 

[Jean Ceulemans]

deleted

Edited November 9, 2023 by Jean Ceulemans

[Jean Ceulemans]

On Marina being a sleeper agent, Hosty writes about that, but he has nothing.  Fain asked him to get her INS file, how she did/did-not fit the typical immigrant profile, how he had been on in-service training in Washington where he had learned about Soviet techniques using young immigrants... etc. 

Hosty claims that in July 1962 he thought Marina perfectly fitted the criteria for a Soviet espionage agent... 

The book is kinda : I knew it !  Nobody tells me anything !  

 

Edited November 2, 2023 by Jean Ceulemans

[Tom Gram]

57 minutes ago, Jean Ceulemans said:

Interesting. He doesn’t mention Marina’s contacts with the embassy, and that’s not even accurate. Hosty knew that Oswald was in contact with CPUSA and the FPCC prior to the assassination. 

The embassy intercepts were highly sensitive stuff - I’m curious what the official procedure was for coordinating information like that with security cases, etc. The WFO ran the intercepts, but I’ve never found any pre-assassination files on how that information was handled by the FBI. The post-assassination list of Marina’s intercepts says they were translated on 11/30/63. Wouldn’t the WFO have had a mechanism for translating intercepts on collection to look for relevant info?

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=10407#relPageId=358

I assume the intercepts were stored in a file somewhere, but was there just a master intercept file or individual WFO files for each embassy correspondent? If the intercepts were shared with HQ, how exactly was the info transmitted? How was the transmitted info filed at HQ? Is this the type of thing that would be stored in a 65- espionage file? 

These are important questions, IMO. Like was it really standard procedure to keep investigating field offices and agents in the dark if the subject of an open case was in contact with the Soviet Embassy? If so, how the heck did the FBI investigate leads generated from intercepts if the correspondent was in a different state? 

Edited November 2, 2023 by Tom Gram

[Jean Ceulemans]

Perhaps interesting, when writing a report (pre 11/22)  he decided to look into the old (= Fain period) file on Oswald, it contained a memo from NY that said Oswald had taken a subscription on the Daily Worker.  That subscription started just after Fain had closed the file. Hosty says the memo had been initialed by Fain in late Oct '62 (after Fain had retired).  When the memo came into Dallas Office the relief supervisor mistakenly forwarded it to Fain iso him.  And that someone had forged Fain's iniitials on the memo (!).

But he did see the memo indeed, so he knew about that

When he got the file re-opened he suspected that Howe preferred not having to deal with Oswald himself.

Now, in May 1963, some six weeks after the file was re-opened (...), he couldn't find the Oswalds,  but he was confident he would find them soon!

Hosty also writes  that it wasn't as if the Oswalds were his only, or even major, concern, as he was heavily involved in investigating.... Walker... yep...

 

 

Edited November 2, 2023 by Jean Ceulemans

[Joe Bauer]

If it's true and documented that Oswald did indeed ask the N.O. police to have an F.B.I. agent visit him in the jail there...what has been the generally accepted research community reason he did so?

That action on Oswald's part begs incredibly suspicious questions.

What percentage of arrested persons in America ever make that kind of specific request?  "Maybe" one in a million?

James Hosty.

The man who destroyed his own agency's Lee Harvey Oswald file ( or even part of the file ) by flushing it down a toilet after his boss AIC James Gordon Shanklin ordered him to "get rid of it" the day after Oswald was taken out by Jack Ruby right inside the Dallas PD building.

Hosty keeps this mind-blowing evidence destruction fact from the Warren Commission throughout his entire testimony.

Testimony prefaced by an oath Hosty took that he swore to...

"Tell the truth, the WHOLE TRUTH, and NOTHING BUT THE TRUTH, so help me God."

Hosty willingly and knowingly violated that sacred oath to the Commission, the American people who entrusted the commission to find the truth and even to God himself! And Hosty was a practicing Catholic!

The "whole truth" would have included his telling the Commission about his Oswald file evidence destruction and his boss ordering him to do so.

That was a truth that had bomb shell ramifications and importance.

Hosty put his employer's self-interests and protection loyalty "first" above his "whole truth" sworn WC testimony oath and the American people who expected such, especially from a member of our own highest level government crime investigating agency who also take a "so help me God" oath to support and defend the constitution of the United States in their official duties.

When Hosty years later finally revealed his Oswald file evidence destruction withholding truth in his Warren Commission testimony he did so with a chuckle!

He smugly smiled as if his monumentally important Oswald evidence destruction was no big deal! No more worthy of sharing with the Warren Commission than a good ole boys club insider joke!

Hosty put his employer and even his own job and pension security first above the American people and their inviolate trust, desire and need for the full truth regarding the JFKA.

 

Edited November 3, 2023 by Joe Bauer

[Gerry Down]

Not only did Carver Gayton open up to Jim Gochenaur about Hosty, but also to Robbyn Swan (research partner to Anthony Summers) and also to the Church Committee itself. 

Does anyone have a link to Carver Gaytons statement to the Church Committee? 

SOURCE: "Not In Your Lifetime" 2013

[Jean Ceulemans]

There was another interview in 1977 

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=99787#relPageId=2&search=Affidavit_of Carver Gayton

[Gerry Down]

9 minutes ago, Jean Ceulemans said:

There was another interview in 1977 

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=99787#relPageId=2&search=Affidavit_of Carver Gayton

Thanks, I have that one. The reason I am interested in the Church Committee statement is that apparently Carver Gayton told the Church Committee the same thing he told Jim Gochenaur. Then his old FBI colleagues must have got to him and told him to keep quiet. As a result, when Carver Gayton appears before the HSCA he then changes his story about Hosty and tries to make Gochenaur out to be a wacko. 

As a result, Carver Gaytons Church Committee affidavit might be a truer reflection of reality regarding Hosty.

Is the only way to access RIF: 157-10002-10267 is by physically going to NARA and asking to see that document?

[Tom Gram]

1 minute ago, Gerry Down said:

Is the only way to access RIF: 157-10002-10267 is by physically going to NARA and asking to see that document?

If it’s not online anywhere you could request a reproduction. Maybe check the Malcolm Blunt archive? He has quite a few Church Committee records that aren’t online anywhere else. 

Gochenaur’s actual Church Committee testimony is missing, but I recall seeing some internal memos on him from Wallach et al. that basically said they thought he wasn’t credible. I forget where I saw those though, it might have been in the Blunt Archive. I could be remembering wrong though. 

[Gerry Down]

13 minutes ago, Tom Gram said:

If it’s not online anywhere you could request a reproduction. Maybe check the Malcolm Blunt archive? He has quite a few Church Committee records that aren’t online anywhere else. 

Gochenaur’s actual Church Committee testimony is missing, but I recall seeing some internal memos on him from Wallach et al. that basically said they thought he wasn’t credible. I forget where I saw those though, it might have been in the Blunt Archive. I could be remembering wrong though. 

How would I go about requesting a reproduction? Would they mail such a reproduction out to me?

As far as I know, the closest document on the Blunt Archive related to Carver Gaytons church committee affidavit is this document which is requesting he be interviewed on Jan 16th 1976:

[Steve Thomas]

Remember too about Dennis Ofstein:

Colin Crow:

http://www.jfkassassinationforum.com/index.php?topic=11247.25;wap2

“OFSTEIN said this statement aroused his suspicions and he asked Sgt. TOM CRIGLER, who is employed with the U. S. Army Recruiting Station, Dallas, and is a resident of the Oak Cliff area of Dallas, regarding this. He said he told CRIGLER he had run into a fellow at work who had spent some time in Russia and he wondered if the FBI should run a security check on him inasmuch as he, OFSTEIN, did not want to jeopardize his own status for any possible future security clearances in the event he ever returned to the U. S. Army."

The problem with the above is the fact that Sgt. Tom Crigler told the FBI that Ofstein contacted him in August, 1963. Five months AFTER Oswald had left Jaggars. Why would Ofstein suddenly want the FBI to run a check on Oswald in August, 1963 when he allegedly hadn't seen the guy in five months? Why would Ofstein be concerned about "future security clearances" a minimum of five months after Oswald had spoken to him about "microdots" and three months before the assassination? Why did Ofstein say it was the "microdot" conversation that pushed him into the Crigler meeting but fail to mention the meeting was in August?

Ofstein also states that Oswald gave him the details of his P.O. Box address in Dallas and that he sent a letter to it after Oswald had left the company asking (AGAIN) if Oswald and his wife wanted to visit his house for dinner.”

On December 6, 1963 Thomas Crigler was interviewed by the FBI. He said that he met Olfstein “accidentally” on the street.

See FBI interview of Crigler December 6, 1963:

CD 205 p. 478

https://maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=10672#relPageId=481&tab=page

 

Thomas H. Crigler, Jr., 1705 McAdams, advised he is currently a Staff Sergeant, U.S. Army Security Agency, Field Representative, assigned to U.S. Army Recruiting Station, Dallas. He advised that he and Dennis Ofstein were assigned to the same U.S. Army branch in Europe and that he knew Ofstein from about June, 1960 to December, 1960 purely as another person attached to the same unit with him. He said that he had never become socially or well acquainted with Ofstein at that time. He said the caption of their group was the 507^th USASA Group, Heilbron, West Germany.”

(This is actually spelled Heilbronn)

 

However, he said later in his FBI interview that about a week after meeting Ofstein in the street in August, Ofstein and his family came to Crigler's house, and that twice more he and his wife visited Ofstein at his (Ofstein's) house.

 

The 507^th US Army Security Agency Group was established on August 10, 1957/

 

In researching the 507^th UASA Group:

https://www.usarmygermany.com/Sont.htm?https&&&www.usarmygermany.com/Units/ASA Europe/USAREUR_ASAE.htm

 

In contrast to Vietnam where airborne COMINT was playing a significant role in the 1960s, there was no need for airborne COMINT assets in Europe where the ASA collected COMINT via a well-established network of fixed Field Stations.”

 

“Our mission was communications monitoring and intercept “

 

https://www.usarmygermany.com/Sont.htm?https&&&www.usarmygermany.com/Units/ASA Europe/USAREUR_ASAE.htm

In May 1951, HHC, 502nd Communications Reconnaissance (Comm Rcn) Group was activated at Ft. Devens, MA. The unit received orders to move to Germany in June 1952. Upon arrival in Europe, the Group was assigned to HQ ASA, Europe and ordered to Badenerhof Kaserne in Heilbronn. The 502nd was probably further attached to the Seventh Army and assigned the mission of providing signal intelligence and security support to the field army and its subordinate units. At this time, the 502d Group also assumed control of the 302d and 307th Communications Reconnaissance Battalions which were already in country.

On 15 October 1957, the 502nd ASA Gp was redesignated as 507th USASA Gp.

The 507^th reported directly to Headquarters USA Europe.

 

http://jfkassassination.net/russ/testimony/ofstein.htm

Mr. OFSTEIN Well, when I went in the service I was interested in radio--I was a disc jockey at the time, and the closest thing my recruiting sergeant said that I could get to radio would be possibly with the Army security agency, so I signed up, and after basic training I went to Fort Devens, Mass., and was held there on a temporary status while the agency determined what type training I should have, and I was given a language ability test and passed that and had a choice of three languages to take, and Russian was my first choice and I was sent to Monterey to study.

Ofstein was interviewed by FBI Agent, Kenneth Jackson on December 2, 1963. Jackson wrote up his Report on December 3, 1963.

See CD 205 p. 472.

https://maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=10672#relPageId=475&tab=page

Ofstein told the FBI of his having sought out Thomas Crigler because he was suspicious of Oswald when Oswald told him (Ofstein) that microdots could be “hidden under postage stamps and used in espionage operations”.

 

Thomas H. Crigler was interviewed by FBI Agent Kenneth Jackson on December 6, 1963.

He told Jackson that he met Dennis Ofstein “accidentally on the street outside the U.S. Army Recruiting Station sometime in August, 1963, and that they then went into the office.

https://maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=10672#relPageId=481&tab=page

 

On 12/4/63 FBI Special Agent Anatole Boguslav obtained from Dennis Ofstein three Russian language publications which Ofstein claimed he had received from Lee Harvey Oswald. One was called “Soviet White Russia”, the other two were called, “The Agitator” and “The Crocodile.”

In August, 1963, Ofstein meets Crigler and tells him that he (Ofstein) knows a guy who speaks Russian and worries that he might be a security risk. Crigler couldn't remember if Ofstein mentioned Oswald's name.

Crigler said that about a week after meeting Ofstein in August, he (Ofstein) had visited Crigler in his home, and that twice more he (Crigler) had visited Ofstein in his (Ofstein’s) house.

Mr. JENNER. Looking at Commission Exhibit No. 427 again, would you identify the handwriting and block printing on this Exhibit 427, if you can?
There appears the word "terminated" with the date 4-6-63, which I assume is April 6, 1963?
Mr. GRAEF. Yes.

Ofstein's WC testimony was taken at 2 p.m., on March 30, 1964.

Mr. OFSTEIN. No, sir. After Oswald was released from employment, I did ask the recruiting sergeant for Army security here in town, who I was stationed with overseas, about the possibility of getting the FBI to run a routine check on him because of the fact that I have done security work, and the. fact that I also--this was just before I wrote the letter to Oswald inviting him and his wife over--due to the fact that I wanted to keep my record clean. Well, I didn't suspect him as being a spy or anything like that--I just wanted to make sure I was with the right company, and he told me that it was probably nothing.

 

So, Ofstein writes a letter to Oswald after meeting with the sergeant from the Army Security Agency.

 

Did Crigler follow up? Did he contact the FBI about Oswald in August, 1963?

 

Steve Thomas

Edited November 2, 2023 by Steve Thomas

[Tom Gram]

56 minutes ago, Gerry Down said:

How would I go about requesting a reproduction? Would they mail such a reproduction out to me?

As far as I know, the closest document on the Blunt Archive related to Carver Gaytons church committee affidavit is this document which is requesting he be interviewed on Jan 16th 1976:

Just send an email to archives2reference@nara.gov with the RIF, agency file number, and date of the records you want, and they’ll get back to you with a quote. They do digital reproductions and will send it to you in a Dropbox type thing, but you can also request paper copies. The fees are here: 

https://www.archives.gov/research/order/fees

I recommend requesting several records at a time just because it takes so damn long. Last one I did took over four months. Supposedly they are digitizing the entire collection to comply with Biden’s Dec. 2021 letter, but God knows when that’ll actually get done. 

[Tom Gram]

1 hour ago, Steve Thomas said:

Remember too about Dennis Ofstein:

Colin Crow:

http://www.jfkassassinationforum.com/index.php?topic=11247.25;wap2

“OFSTEIN said this statement aroused his suspicions and he asked Sgt. TOM CRIGLER, who is employed with the U. S. Army Recruiting Station, Dallas, and is a resident of the Oak Cliff area of Dallas, regarding this. He said he told CRIGLER he had run into a fellow at work who had spent some time in Russia and he wondered if the FBI should run a security check on him inasmuch as he, OFSTEIN, did not want to jeopardize his own status for any possible future security clearances in the event he ever returned to the U. S. Army."

The problem with the above is the fact that Sgt. Tom Crigler told the FBI that Ofstein contacted him in August, 1963. Five months AFTER Oswald had left Jaggars. Why would Ofstein suddenly want the FBI to run a check on Oswald in August, 1963 when he allegedly hadn't seen the guy in five months? Why would Ofstein be concerned about "future security clearances" a minimum of five months after Oswald had spoken to him about "microdots" and three months before the assassination? Why did Ofstein say it was the "microdot" conversation that pushed him into the Crigler meeting but fail to mention the meeting was in August?

Ofstein also states that Oswald gave him the details of his P.O. Box address in Dallas and that he sent a letter to it after Oswald had left the company asking (AGAIN) if Oswald and his wife wanted to visit his house for dinner.”

On December 6, 1963 Thomas Crigler was interviewed by the FBI. He said that he met Olfstein “accidentally” on the street.

See FBI interview of Crigler December 6, 1963:

CD 205 p. 478

https://maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=10672#relPageId=481&tab=page

 

Thomas H. Crigler, Jr., 1705 McAdams, advised he is currently a Staff Sergeant, U.S. Army Security Agency, Field Representative, assigned to U.S. Army Recruiting Station, Dallas. He advised that he and Dennis Ofstein were assigned to the same U.S. Army branch in Europe and that he knew Ofstein from about June, 1960 to December, 1960 purely as another person attached to the same unit with him. He said that he had never become socially or well acquainted with Ofstein at that time. He said the caption of their group was the 507^th USASA Group, Heilbron, West Germany.”

(This is actually spelled Heilbronn)

 

However, he said later in his FBI interview that about a week after meeting Ofstein in the street in August, Ofstein and his family came to Crigler's house, and that twice more he and his wife visited Ofstein at his (Ofstein's) house.

 

The 507^th US Army Security Agency Group was established on August 10, 1957/

 

In researching the 507^th UASA Group:

https://www.usarmygermany.com/Sont.htm?https&&&www.usarmygermany.com/Units/ASA Europe/USAREUR_ASAE.htm

 

In contrast to Vietnam where airborne COMINT was playing a significant role in the 1960s, there was no need for airborne COMINT assets in Europe where the ASA collected COMINT via a well-established network of fixed Field Stations.”

 

“Our mission was communications monitoring and intercept “

 

https://www.usarmygermany.com/Sont.htm?https&&&www.usarmygermany.com/Units/ASA Europe/USAREUR_ASAE.htm

In May 1951, HHC, 502nd Communications Reconnaissance (Comm Rcn) Group was activated at Ft. Devens, MA. The unit received orders to move to Germany in June 1952. Upon arrival in Europe, the Group was assigned to HQ ASA, Europe and ordered to Badenerhof Kaserne in Heilbronn. The 502nd was probably further attached to the Seventh Army and assigned the mission of providing signal intelligence and security support to the field army and its subordinate units. At this time, the 502d Group also assumed control of the 302d and 307th Communications Reconnaissance Battalions which were already in country.

On 15 October 1957, the 502nd ASA Gp was redesignated as 507th USASA Gp.

The 507^th reported directly to Headquarters USA Europe.

 

http://jfkassassination.net/russ/testimony/ofstein.htm

Mr. OFSTEIN Well, when I went in the service I was interested in radio--I was a disc jockey at the time, and the closest thing my recruiting sergeant said that I could get to radio would be possibly with the Army security agency, so I signed up, and after basic training I went to Fort Devens, Mass., and was held there on a temporary status while the agency determined what type training I should have, and I was given a language ability test and passed that and had a choice of three languages to take, and Russian was my first choice and I was sent to Monterey to study.

Ofstein was interviewed by FBI Agent, Kenneth Jackson on December 2, 1963. Jackson wrote up his Report on December 3, 1963.

See CD 205 p. 472.

https://maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=10672#relPageId=475&tab=page

Ofstein told the FBI of his having sought out Thomas Crigler because he was suspicious of Oswald when Oswald told him (Ofstein) that microdots could be “hidden under postage stamps and used in espionage operations”.

 

Thomas H. Crigler was interviewed by FBI Agent Kenneth Jackson on December 6, 1963.

He told Jackson that he met Dennis Ofstein “accidentally on the street outside the U.S. Army Recruiting Station sometime in August, 1963, and that they then went into the office.

https://maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=10672#relPageId=481&tab=page

 

On 12/4/63 FBI Special Agent Anatole Boguslav obtained from Dennis Ofstein three Russian language publications which Ofstein claimed he had received from Lee Harvey Oswald. One was called “Soviet White Russia”, the other two were called, “The Agitator” and “The Crocodile.”

In August, 1963, Ofstein meets Crigler and tells him that he (Ofstein) knows a guy who speaks Russian and worries that he might be a security risk. Crigler couldn't remember if Ofstein mentioned Oswald's name.

Crigler said that about a week after meeting Ofstein in August, he (Ofstein) had visited Crigler in his home, and that twice more he (Crigler) had visited Ofstein in his (Ofstein’s) house.

Mr. JENNER. Looking at Commission Exhibit No. 427 again, would you identify the handwriting and block printing on this Exhibit 427, if you can?
There appears the word "terminated" with the date 4-6-63, which I assume is April 6, 1963?
Mr. GRAEF. Yes.

Ofstein's WC testimony was taken at 2 p.m., on March 30, 1964.

Mr. OFSTEIN. No, sir. After Oswald was released from employment, I did ask the recruiting sergeant for Army security here in town, who I was stationed with overseas, about the possibility of getting the FBI to run a routine check on him because of the fact that I have done security work, and the. fact that I also--this was just before I wrote the letter to Oswald inviting him and his wife over--due to the fact that I wanted to keep my record clean. Well, I didn't suspect him as being a spy or anything like that--I just wanted to make sure I was with the right company, and he told me that it was probably nothing.

 

So, Ofstein writes a letter to Oswald after meeting with the sergeant from the Army Security Agency.

 

Did Crigler follow up? Did he contact the FBI about Oswald in August, 1963?

 

Steve Thomas

Very interesting Steve. Not sure what to make of all this yet. I’ll dig through these links later when I have the time. It really does make zero sense that Ofstein would suddenly feel compelled to report on Oswald in August. 

Do we have any other information on this alleged letter that Ofstein sent to P.O. Box 2915? If that letter was really sent in August it would have been forwarded to New Orleans, so that envelope would be a pretty important piece of evidence if it was ever recovered. 

Do you suspect that Crigler was full of it and the meeting actually happened earlier? It seems very odd to me that Ofstein would send a letter inviting the Oswalds to dinner after not seeing or speaking to Lee for five months. 

Also, do you know what happened to the Russian publications that the FBI obtained from Ofstein? It seems like there should be a lab report, photos, etc. since Oswald’s handwriting was on one of them. 

[Steve Thomas]

21 minutes ago, Tom Gram said:

Do you suspect that Crigler was full of it and the meeting actually happened earlier? It seems very odd to me that Ofstein would send a letter inviting the Oswalds to dinner after not seeing or speaking to Lee for five months. 

Also, do you know what happened to the Russian publications that the FBI obtained from Ofstein? It seems like there should be a lab report, photos, etc. since Oswald’s handwriting was on one of them. 

Tom,

Crigler said that about a week after meeting Ofstein in August, he (Ofstein) had visited Crigler in his home, and that twice more he (Crigler) had visited Ofstein in his (Ofstein’s) house.

On 12/4/63 FBI Special Agent Anatole Boguslav obtained from Dennis Ofstein three Russian language publications which Ofstein claimed he had received from Lee Harvey Oswald. One was called “Soviet White Russia”, the other two were called, “The Agitator” and “The Crocodile.”

https://www.maryferr...eId=25&tab=page

The were given FBI Document Number D81 and Warren Commission Exhibits, Q478, Q479, and Q480.

Q478 is a magazine called “Agitator”, Issue# 6, March, 1963.

Q479 is a magazine called, “The Crocodile”, Issue# 4, February 10, 1963

Q480 is a newspaper called “Soviet White Russia”, issue date date Thursday, March 28, 1963

These are pro-communist publications, put out by the Soviet government.

Now, I don't want to put too fine a point on this, but Ofstein couldn't have seen a Russian newspaper called "White Soviet Russia" in "middle to late" February" that hadn't been published yet until March 28th. Were "The Agiator" and "The Crocodile" part of that "some Russian literature" that Ofstein mentioned that was over and above the "Soviet White Russia" newspaper?

In August, 1963, Ofstein meets Crigler and tells him that he (Ofstein) knows a guy who speaks Russian and worries that he might be a security risk. Crigler couldn't remember if Ofstein mentioned Oswald's name. If Ofstein was worried that he knew a Russian speaking guy, and knowing him might jeapordize his (Osfstein's future employment, why would Ofstein still have pro-communist Russian language publications in his possession in December of 1963  that had been published in February and March?

Steve Thomas

 

Edited November 2, 2023 by Steve Thomas