Edward Epstein: The Critic Who Flipped

[Robert Morrow]

43 minutes ago, Gerry Down said:

Oswald was playing the part of a tourist right from the moment he left New Orleans and crossed the border from Helsinki into USSR. Even inside the USSR he was playing the part of a tourist and had a tourist guide. It was only then he revealed to his tourist guide he was actually a communist. 

Therefore LHO would not have given any indication while on the boat to his cabin mate that he was a communist. Otherwise his cabin mate could have informed authorities that he was a communist and blocked him from making his way into Russia.

There is one aspect that I agree with you. In his life Oswald publicly LIED about who he was and played a character role ... to hide his actual role of a CIA --controlled fake defector to the USSR. And when Oswald got back to the USA, he again LIED about being a "pro Castro Marxist" as he worked for people connected to the CIA and the FBI.

Remember Oswald loved and adored hard right anti-communist FBI informer Herbert Philbrick. It is who Oswald wanted to be and he watch the TV show "I Led Three Lives" hundreds of times. That show was all about destroying communist rights and Oswald wanted to be just like his two brothers who in the 1950s were in the U.S. military which was a very, very "anti-communist" place to be.

Robert Oswald said that his brother Lee Harvey Oswald’s favorite TV show was I Led Three Lives about an FBI informant Herbert Philbrick who pretended to be a Communist. I wonder if this is what inspired completely innocent CIA Oswald to go into counterintelligence for the U.S. government?

A key page from Robert Oswald’s book – https://twitter.com/CONELRAD6401240/status/1259856311585583109/photo/1

QUOTE

          The center of Lee’s fantasy world shifted from radio to television when Mother bought a television set in 1948. When it was new, all of us spent far too much time watching variety shows, dramas and old movies. Lee, particularly, was fascinated. One of his favorite programs was I Led Three Lives, the story of Herbert Philbrick, the FBI informant who posed as a Communist spy. In the early 1950’s, Lee watched that show every week without fail. When I left home to join the Marines, he was still watching the reruns.

UNQUOTE

[Robert Oswald, Lee: Portrait of Lee Harvey Oswald by His Brother, p. 47]

I Led Three Lives starring with Richard Carlson, ran on TV from 1953 to 1956.

Note: Oswald was born on Oct. 18, 1939: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee_Harvey_Oswald

The TV drama I Led Three Lives ran from Oct. 1, 1953 to Jan. 1, 1956. Oswald would have been age 13-16 during this time period: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Led_3_Lives

[Gerry Down]

3 minutes ago, Robert Morrow said:

There is one aspect that I agree with you. In his life Oswald publicly LIED about who he was and played a character role ... to hide his actual role of a CIA --controlled fake defector to the USSR. And when Oswald got back to the USA, he again LIED about being a "pro Castro Marxist" as he worked for people connected to the CIA and the FBI.

Remember Oswald loved and adored hard right anti-communist FBI informer Herbert Philbrick. It is who Oswald wanted to be and he watch the TV show "I Led Three Lives" hundreds of times. That show was all about destroying communist rights and Oswald wanted to be just like his two brothers who in the 1950s were in the U.S. military which was a very, very "anti-communist" place to be.

Robert Oswald said that his brother Lee Harvey Oswald’s favorite TV show was I Led Three Lives about an FBI informant Herbert Philbrick who pretended to be a Communist. I wonder if this is what inspired completely innocent CIA Oswald to go into counterintelligence for the U.S. government?

A key page from Robert Oswald’s book – https://twitter.com/CONELRAD6401240/status/1259856311585583109/photo/1

QUOTE

          The center of Lee’s fantasy world shifted from radio to television when Mother bought a television set in 1948. When it was new, all of us spent far too much time watching variety shows, dramas and old movies. Lee, particularly, was fascinated. One of his favorite programs was I Led Three Lives, the story of Herbert Philbrick, the FBI informant who posed as a Communist spy. In the early 1950’s, Lee watched that show every week without fail. When I left home to join the Marines, he was still watching the reruns.

UNQUOTE

[Robert Oswald, Lee: Portrait of Lee Harvey Oswald by His Brother, p. 47]

I Led Three Lives starring with Richard Carlson, ran on TV from 1953 to 1956.

Note: Oswald was born on Oct. 18, 1939: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee_Harvey_Oswald

The TV drama I Led Three Lives ran from Oct. 1, 1953 to Jan. 1, 1956. Oswald would have been age 13-16 during this time period: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Led_3_Lives

Oswald only turned communist around 16 or 17 years of age after he had picked up a Rosenberg leaflet and later became disillusioned with what he saw the US military doing as a marine. So what tv show he watched as a child is irrelevant.

The way I see it he really was a communist. Though I know alot of people would disagree with me on that.

[James DiEugenio]

Ben:

Just remember, 2 million budget back then.

Today, that is about ten million.

For a JFK assassination book?

[Robert Morrow]

2 hours ago, Gerry Down said:

Oswald only turned communist around 16 or 17 years of age after he had picked up a Rosenberg leaflet and later became disillusioned with what he saw the US military doing as a marine. So what tv show he watched as a child is irrelevant.

The way I see it he really was a communist. Though I know alot of people would disagree with me on that.

We will have to "agree to disagree" on this one. My estimate is that there is a ZERO percent chance that Lee Harvey Oswald was a Marxist, a communist, or pro-Castro (after 1960). It is extremely important that the teen Oswald was obsessed with being Herbert Philbrick, the ANTI-COMMUNIST FBI operative on TV during Oswald's formative years.

When I was kid, around 1970, at age 6 I was utterly fascinated with Batman as played by Adam West. Every lunch time, after being returning home from kindergarten, I would sit down 5 feet in front of the TV set and eat a grilled cheese sandwich while I wore a Batman cape.

Later when I grew up and then had an athletic build (a long time ago ...), I absolutely continued my interest in Batman as modeled by Adam West. I did not want to grow up to be the Joker or the Penguin. I was full on Batman from age 6.

I really don't think Oswald at age 14, 15, 16 in the early 1950s as he was watching the TV show "I Led Three Lives" for hundreds of episodes really secretly wanted to be a communist/Marxist. Oswald as a teen wanted to fight communism as an undercover operative just like Herbert Philbrick; as a kid I wanted to be Batman.

Picture of me and some friends below: 1990s.

 

Edited January 30 by Robert Morrow

[Benjamin Cole]

8 hours ago, Robert Morrow said:

I don't know the answers to your questions. But my *guess* is that while bunking with Oswald for a couple of weeks Oswald was not touting the benefits of Marxism or saying stuff like my whole life changed when I was handed a flier in NYC a few years ago about the innocence of the Rosenbergs. Maybe Oswald was talking about how proud he was to be a Marine and wanted to kill communists or undermine communism. Maybe Oswald was singing the praises of John Wayne. 

I guess is nothing at all about "Marxism" radiated off of Oswald and looking back years later Lord concluded there is absolutely no way Oswald was a legit Marxist defector to the USSR in 1959.

Then the Dallas FBI Agent John Fain interviewed Robert and Marguerite Oswald in 1960 neither of them had any idea about Lee Oswald's supposed turn to Marxism and communism. https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=95569#relPageId=139 (Start on page 139)

 

 

Thanks for your reply.

It is disappointing we don't know more about Lord. 

As pointed out by many, the WC would interview certain witnesses in detailed length, such as Kerry Thornley, and others just disappeared off the map. 

[Steve Thomas]

SS Protective Research Report by Kenneth J. Weisman of an interview with Billy Joe Lord, who traveled to Europe with Oswald aboard the SS Marion Lykes. Lord constantly refers to “Harvey Lee Oswald” whom he found to be “unfriendly, standoffish, and that the two of them “didn't hit off”. (p. 38.)

The Report was written by Weisman on February 28, 1964 and approved by a Jose (?)(Benavides?)(sic?) on March 2, 1964.

The name, Harvey Lee Oswald is used seven times in the same document.

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=10898#relPageId=37&search=Billy_Joe%20Lord

CD 498 pp. 37-39.

 

I don't know if it was Billy Joe Lord using the name Harvey Lee Oswald, or if it was Kenneth Weisman recording it that way, but I can remember thinking at the time that this is not a simple typo. This is muscle memory. The Report is headed: Harvey Lee Oswald.

Steve Thomas

Edited January 30 by Steve Thomas

[Benjamin Cole]

21 hours ago, James DiEugenio said:

Ben:

Just remember, 2 million budget back then.

Today, that is about ten million.

For a JFK assassination book?

JD-

Op Mock in spades, likely. 

 

[Nick Bartetzko]

On 1/29/2024 at 2:45 PM, Robert Morrow said:

The value of the letter from Billy Lord is that someone who spent a great deal of time in close quarters (as a cabin mate on a ship) with Lee Harvey Oswald in 1959 thought he was CIA handled fake defector to Russia and was not buying the "Oswald is a commie" narrative. And, furthermore, this witness came under surveillance and intimidation in the 1970s (presumably by the government) and had has home telephone tapped years after the JFK assassination.

I don’t disagree with you at all on that. It’s a piece of a large puzzle the points to Ozzy not being a real defector. I just wish there was much more than just one letter from Mr Lord. 

[Pat Speer]

FWIW, I'm conflicted about Epstein's passing. His first book got a lot of attention, and shook up a lot of people. One of its key points was that the back wound was too low to support the single-bullet theory. He was right..'

It should be noted, moreover, that there was a pre-meditated effort to "flip" him that entailed having the doctors review the autopsy photos and announce that the back wound was in the location it is on the Rydberg drawings, and not where it is on the face sheet. This happened in November 1966. 

He may have fell for it. But it was a lie. 

Edited January 31 by Pat Speer

[James DiEugenio]

1 hour ago, Benjamin Cole said:

JD-

Op Mock in spades, likely. 

 

When people are opening doors for you at the FBI and the CIA.

And you have people like Allison and Bush in your corner.

I think so.

[James DiEugenio]

I still think the point I brought up about Epstein is a valid one.

That is, did he turn, or was he not kosher from the beginning?

I mean how do you go from being a Commission critic to cooperating with FBI informant Larry Schiller to blast the critics in less than a year?

And also calling someone like Lane a demonologist?

If he knew that Specter told the Commission that it was either the Magic Bullet or look for a second shooter, then that is not a kind of innocent explanation for negligence.

And why did he keep it secret for so long?

Edited January 31 by James DiEugenio

[Robert Morrow]

On 1/30/2024 at 10:14 AM, Steve Thomas said:

SS Protective Research Report by Kenneth J. Weisman of an interview with Billy Joe Lord, who traveled to Europe with Oswald aboard the SS Marion Lykes. Lord constantly refers to “Harvey Lee Oswald” whom he found to be “unfriendly, standoffish, and that the two of them “didn't hit off”. (p. 38.)

The Report was written by Weisman on February 28, 1964 and approved by a Jose (?)(Benavides?)(sic?) on March 2, 1964.

The name, Harvey Lee Oswald is used seven times in the same document.

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=10898#relPageId=37&search=Billy_Joe%20Lord

CD 498 pp. 37-39.

 

I don't know if it was Billy Joe Lord using the name Harvey Lee Oswald, or if it was Kenneth Weisman recording it that way, but I can remember thinking at the time that this is not a simple typo. This is muscle memory. The Report is headed: Harvey Lee Oswald.

Steve Thomas

Scroll down to the 11/26/1963 Agent Maurice Martineau memo on the investigation of ANTI-CASTRO CUBANS who a credible informant might be involved in the JFK assassination. This is 4 days after JFK's murder and that was on the table.

 

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=10898#relPageId=37&search=Billy_Joe%20Lord

[Tom Gram]

3 hours ago, Robert Morrow said:

Scroll down to the 11/26/1963 Agent Maurice Martineau memo on the investigation of ANTI-CASTRO CUBANS who a credible informant might be involved in the JFK assassination. This is 4 days after JFK's murder and that was on the table.

 

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=10898#relPageId=37&search=Billy_Joe%20Lord

That is an interesting memo. Do we know who informant 2-1-266 is? It says he recently provided credible information in a counterfeiting case. Martineau was the ASAIC in Chicago, and it says the results of his contact with the local FBI office would be the subject of a separate memorandum. That could be worth tracking down, along with whatever report was generated by the Chicago FBI Field Office. 

[David Boylan]

13 minutes ago, Tom Gram said:

That is an interesting memo. Do we know who informant 2-1-266 is? It says he recently provided credible information in a counterfeiting case. Martineau was the ASAIC in Chicago, and it says the results of his contact with the local FBI office would be the subject of a separate memorandum. That could be worth tracking down, along with whatever report was generated by the Chicago FBI Field Office. 

If I were to guess, it would be Mosley himself. 

[Ron Bulman]

On 1/29/2024 at 2:32 AM, James DiEugenio said:

On the passing of Edward Epstein, and his rather odd career in the JFK field.

How does anyone get a half million advance for a book on the JFK case?

And why and how can anyone switch positions as fast as Epstein did?  These and other mysteries are noted below.

https://www.kennedysandking.com/john-f-kennedy-articles/edward-epstein-the-critic-who-flipped

Great article.  I didn't know the title of Joseph McBride's book Political Truth originated in Inquest, maybe he mentions it and I missed it.

I found a copy of Inquest at a yard sale or used book store in the late 1990's or early 2000's for 50 cents or $1, the original price on the cover is 95 cents.  It seemed revelatory to me at the time.  This from 1966?  It was many years before I learned of his flip.