The Anonymous Phone Call to the Tippits of Connecticut

[Geo Kozma]

On 3/7/2024 at 4:43 AM, Sandy Larsen said:

 

Hi Geo,

So your research on the Oswald name is NOT relevant to our discussion of the boy.

 

 

Thnkx Sandy I edited out my stuff on the Oswald name and the family links too.

[Jim Hargrove]

Geo –

All that editing work really wasn’t necessary, but the info you gave us on Corvina is much appreciated. 

Sandy –

Thanks for tracking down the Louisiana info on Bentley.  From the New York Times archive:

----------------

NYT 12/4/1963: Elizabeth Bentley is Dead at 55; Soviet Spy Later Aided U.S.

“For the last five years she taught English at the Long Lane School for Girls, a state correctional institution at Middletown.“  Toward the end of the article is this:

“In the early ninteen-fifties Miss Bentley frequently lectured on Communism and related subjects, but in recent years she drifted into obscurity, teaching at schools in Grand Coteau, La., and in Hartford before taking the post in Middletown.”

-----------------

Her funeral was held at a church in Middletown, CT.

In all likelihood Bentley’s Louisiana sojourn had nothing to do with LHO, but it still seems kind of odd considering she otherwise spent virtually her entire life in New England and thereabouts.

[John Kowalski]

7 hours ago, Jim Hargrove said:

In all likelihood Bentley’s Louisiana sojourn had nothing to do with LHO, but it still seems kind of odd considering she otherwise spent virtually her entire life in New England and thereabouts.

Jim:

Could be interesting to know why she was teaching there  and when she was there. Maybe her teaching position was a  cover job for an INS or FBI gave her assignment.

Edited March 21 by John Kowalski

[Matt Cloud]

The following might be useful in considering whether Elizabeth Bentley in Louisiana circa 1953-55 (?) was merely coincidental to the fact that it was at the same time of Oswald being in school there.

 

Unfortunately for many here, however, we need some more Cold War history, and the possibility as mentioned before that Bentley was part of an operation to incite the Red Scare and to get Angleton and counterintelligence tied up in the involvement.

 

From The Mighty Wurlitzer by Wilford (p. 47): 

"When [in 1953] McCarthy then tried going after other CIA officers, he was foiled by an ingenious deception operation devised by counterintelligence specialist James Angleton."

 

What was that operation, you ask?  Well, according to Mark Stout, in The Pond: Running Agents for State, War, and the CIA The Hazards of Private Spy Operations (Studies in Intelligence Vol. 48 No. 3 (2004), at p. 16, here: https://www.cia.gov/resources/csi/static/the-pond.pdf: 

 

"During the McCarthy-CIA fight, Dulles organized a group to keep tabs on McCarthy's activities and to feed the senator disinformation. James Angleton and James McCargar, who by this time was out of government, were lunching one day, when Angleton mentioned that he knew of the other's work with "the Pond" in Hungary. [The Pond had been the Army's counterpart to the OSS.]  Angleton described his concerns about Grombach and asked McCargar to meet with Grombach from time to time and report back. [[John (or Jean] Grombach had been liaison between Army and OSS you might say.] But Angleton wanted something more. He arranged to provide McCargar with false information, supposedly acquired in France, which would appear derogatory to CIA. Angleton hoped Grombach would pass the materials to McCarthy, who would use them. They could then be discredited, embarrassing the senator and hopefully throwing him off the CIA. In order to provide a pretext for giving this information to Grombach, McCargar was to hint that he wanted back in the intelligence game."

 

This operation ran until at least July 1954, the same month that Robert Kennedy resigned from McCarthy's committee staff.

 

From The Old Boys: The American Elite and The Origins of The CIA, by  Burton Hersh here, at p. 415 of the pdf, ttp://treefarmbooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/TheOldBoys.pdf :

"Grombach became “quite close” to Senator McCarthy when he was running wildest, and passed McCarthy’s subcommittee investigators whatever paperwork looked damaging in hopes of undermining the damnable Agency. This thickened the file with which J. Edgar Hoover’s agents were already cramming the subcommittee’s maw. Pushed, Dulles dredged up a Pond veteran still close enough to Grombach to elicit his confidence, and organized a double game. Allern arranged for his intermediary to kick back copies of everything McCarthy was looking at; then Dulles brought Angleton in, who produced the typewriter on which a lot of the more compromising material was written up; with Ray Rocca’s assistance the CI forgers introduced into the flow of documents going up to the Senate such quantities of misleading and diverting sludge as to throw the McCarthyite investigators completely off track. Before long the Senator himself lost interest, and turned his siege guns against the U.S. Army."

 

Also note, regarding the interpretation of Bentley's material as well as the VENONA decryptions and espionage allegations more generally, we have from Svetlana Lokhova, famous for her having been part of the kick-off of the 2016 Russiagate scandal, from her 2018 book, The Spy Who Changed History p. 12 of the pdf):

 

"The study of Soviet intelligence has been shaped predominantly by the reliance on a few Western primary sources or accounts by journalists and Soviet defectors. Little regard has been given to the inherent bias in this material. For example, the first-hand accounts from former Soviet collaborators-turned-informers such as Harry Gold, Elizabeth Bentley and Boris Morros were unreliable, self-serving and hence problematic. The National Security Agency’s Venona Project that decoded intercepts of Soviet telegrams was considered unreliable as a sole source of identification as long ago as May 1950. The FBI itself recognised how hard it is to identify agents categorically. Even when Soviet sources became widely available after the collapse of the USSR the new material was used only to support established narratives, and documents that did not fit have been largely ignored."

 

Some things to keep in mind perhaps ...

 

More on The Pond, here, by Jim Root:

 

(Note his observations on the U-2, too.)

 

Edited March 22 by Matt Cloud

[Jim Hargrove]

4 hours ago, Matt Cloud said:

The following might be useful in considering whether Elizabeth Bentley in Louisiana circa 1953-55 (?) was merely coincidental to the fact that it was at the same time of Oswald being in school there.

According to Google AI:

Elizabeth Bentley began teaching political science at the College of the Sacred Heart in Grand Coteau, Louisiana in February 1953….  until she was fired in the summer of 1957.

During the early months of 1953, Russian-speaking Lee HARVEY Oswald was truanting school in NYC, serving a brief sentence in Youth House, and then probably was relocated to North Dakota to avoid the NYC judicial system, and, by late summer 1953 was being eased into the New Orleans public school system by taking just two classes for a semester. He stayed in New Orleans until mid-1954. After a brief period in Fort Worth, TX, he was back in New Orleans, at least until late 1955.

Throughout 1953, American-born LEE Harvey Oswald was living in the Bronx, NYC and attending school regularly.  In early 1954, LEE moved to New Orleans, staying for most of the year at 1454 St. Mary’s, Apt. 6, and then at 126 Exchange until mid-1956.

If you’d like to indulge in some wild speculation (and who wouldn't?), Elizabeth Bentley may have been sent to New Orleans to help pave the way for the relocation there of both LHOs.  During these years, probably for entirely patriotic reasons, the Oswald Project was in full swing.  In order to give a Russian-speaking youth an American identity, both kids needed to have similar experiences and histories.  New Orleans was pivotal.  LEE Oswald was born there.  HARVEY Oswald wasn’t.
 

[Matt Cloud]

1 hour ago, Jim Hargrove said:

According to Google AI:

Elizabeth Bentley began teaching political science at the College of the Sacred Heart in Grand Coteau, Louisiana in February 1953….  until she was fired in the summer of 1957.

During the early months of 1953, Russian-speaking Lee HARVEY Oswald was truanting school in NYC, serving a brief sentence in Youth House, and then probably was relocated to North Dakota to avoid the NYC judicial system, and, by late summer 1953 was being eased into the New Orleans public school system by taking just two classes for a semester. He stayed in New Orleans until mid-1954. After a brief period in Fort Worth, TX, he was back in New Orleans, at least until late 1955.

Throughout 1953, American-born LEE Harvey Oswald was living in the Bronx, NYC and attending school regularly.  In early 1954, LEE moved to New Orleans, staying for most of the year at 1454 St. Mary’s, Apt. 6, and then at 126 Exchange until mid-1956.

If you’d like to indulge in some wild speculation (and who wouldn't?), Elizabeth Bentley may have been sent to New Orleans to help pave the way for the relocation there of both LHOs.  During these years, probably for entirely patriotic reasons, the Oswald Project was in full swing.  In order to give a Russian-speaking youth an American identity, both kids needed to have similar experiences and histories.  New Orleans was pivotal.  LEE Oswald was born there.  HARVEY Oswald wasn’t.
 

The issue to this thread, fundamentally, is whether the information Bentley conveyed in the phone call was bona fide or whether it was a provocation, and if the latter, whether Bentley herself was witting or unwitting in her participation of the provocation.  

 

We seem far afield from any discussion of those questions.  Now evidently the chronologies of the two Oswalds (is it possible there were others?) is alleged to be established somehow but seems not to tie into to any of the details of the Bentley call.  One minute it was imperative to scrounge the phone books for 1948 looking for Fred Blair but that now seems to be irrelevant.  Likewise the details of Emil Gardos, and certainly the fact, as relayed in the FBI's internal memo, of him evidently going into Moscow from Hungary in November 1959, at precisely the same time as Oswald was attempting to defect.  He had a son of almost identical age to Oswald studying physics.  Same goes for Weinstock, whom Bentley also mentioned, and who, by other FBI reports, may be privy to U-2 information from the Powers' trial in Moscow in 1960, and is evidently relaying that information to Soviet and Czech embassies in Washington right before the 1960 election.

 

What was all that about?  It's now 20 pages into this thread and apparently there is no longer any use for the information that the thread is purported to discuss. 

 

Very strange.

 

 

 

 

Edited March 23 by Matt Cloud

[John Kowalski]

On 3/19/2024 at 6:20 PM, John Kowalski said:

Bentley's left everything to her cousin Edwin Burdick or his descendants.

Jim:

Found some info on Edwin Burdick on Ancestry. Edwin died in 1976 and his wife died in 1991. They had a daughter named Gail who died in Tuscon, Pima Arizona in 1998. Not sure what the chances are of getting info on Bentley from people mentioned in her will. You can add it to the list for future reference.

Do you know how Margaret Fuhrman met John Pic or anything about her Hungarian background? They had a son born in 1966, he may be able to shed some light on their relationship.

Do you know when Edwin Ekdahl divorced Marguerite Oswald?

NYPL is still processing my order. 

 

[Jim Hargrove]

12 hours ago, John Kowalski said:

Jim:

Found some info on Edwin Burdick on Ancestry. Edwin died in 1976 and his wife died in 1991. They had a daughter named Gail who died in Tuscon, Pima Arizona in 1998. Not sure what the chances are of getting info on Bentley from people mentioned in her will. You can add it to the list for future reference.

Do you know how Margaret Fuhrman met John Pic or anything about her Hungarian background? They had a son born in 1966, he may be able to shed some light on their relationship.

Do you know when Edwin Ekdahl divorced Marguerite Oswald?

NYPL is still processing my order. 

John,

Can’t help much with your questions other than quote what is in John A’s book, which you probably already know, but just in case.....

On Marguerite’s  divorce from Ekdahl….

From H&L, p. 33:

After a 2-day jury trial on June 15th and 16th [1948], Ekdahl was granted a divorce. Marguerite received a settlement of $1500 and $250 attorneys fees from Ekdahl. This was her last marriage.98  Marguerite told John Pic that she had received a settlement of about $1200, and said that most of the money was used to pay her attorney. 99

98 WC Exhibit 1960-A;Tarrant County court records, 17th Dist Court, divorce petition 15537-D.
99 WC testimony of John Edward Pic, 11 H 29

On Margaret Fuhrman….

From H&L. pp. 38-39

In October [1950], John Pic took a 20-day leave from the Coast Guard and visited his family in Fort Worth. When his leave was over, John returned to New York and spent the Christmas holidays with his new girlfriend, Margaret Fuhrman, and her family. After the holidays, John was assigned to the US Coast Guard Training Station at Groton, CN.

From H&L , pp. 39-40:

On August 18, [1951]19-year-old John Pic married his 17 -year-old girlfriend, Margaret Dorothy Fuhrman, at the Emmanuel Lutheran Church in New York City.

 

[Jim Hargrove]

John,

John A. just forwarded to me an email from a fellow who has been reading this thread.  He included the following newspaper clip from New York Age, Jan. 6, 1945.  Near the end of the short piece it mentions “Mrs. Grace Gardos, of New York Committee of Russian War Relief.”

I’ll start looking into that committee asap!

[John Kowalski]

3 hours ago, Jim Hargrove said:

John A. just forwarded to me an email from a fellow who has been reading this thread.  He included the following newspaper clip from New York Age, Jan. 6, 1945.  Near the end of the short piece it mentions “Mrs. Grace Gardos, of New York Committee of Russian War Relief.”

Jim:

That is a very interesting lead. Her position on that committee could have put her in contact with refugees.

[Jim Hargrove]

19 hours ago, John Kowalski said:

Jim:

That is a very interesting lead. Her position on that committee could have put her in contact with refugees.

Wikipedia: Russian War Relief (RWR) (also known as the Russian War Relief Fund and The American Committee for Russian War Relief) was the largest American agency for foreign war relief. It had the "express and exclusive purpose of giving succor to the Russian people at a time of crisis."

According to the Feb. 8, 1945 edition of the Mount Vernon Argus (White Plains, New York—emphasis added):

The Mount Vernon Russian War Relief Committee held an executive board meeting this week at the home of the chairman, Mrs. Jacob Rabkin, 312 East Devonia Avenue.  Mrs. Grace Gardos, publicity director of the National Russian War Relief Society, announced that February is Russian War Relief “food month”…..

No mention is made in the article of refugees, war orphans, or immigrants, but near the end of the article it mentions that RWR sent aid of nearly $23,000,000 in 1944 to Czechoslovakia, Poland, and Russia, and possibly other nations.

A fellow has been sending me all kinds of news clippings about WWII refugees, especially involving the U.S. and organizations from the US.  So far, I haven’t seen RWR named, but personnel from that committee surely ran into organizations such as “Care of European Children” (see below).

From the Buffalo News of Feb. 11, 1947:

[John Kowalski]

5 hours ago, Jim Hargrove said:

A fellow has been sending me all kinds of news clippings about WWII refugees, especially involving the U.S. and organizations from the US.  So far, I haven’t seen RWR named, but personnel from that committee surely ran into organizations such as “Care of European Children” (see below).

That fellow is sending you very good leads. That committee must have received many inquiries regarding the adoption of refugee children. If their records are available they may have the names of people who adopted them and the names of children who were adopted and one of them maybe Harvey.

[John Kowalski]

Jim:

Vassar College told me that they do not have Bentley's papers.

[Jim Hargrove]

On 3/25/2024 at 11:33 AM, John Kowalski said:

That fellow is sending you very good leads. That committee must have received many inquiries regarding the adoption of refugee children. If their records are available they may have the names of people who adopted them and the names of children who were adopted and one of them maybe Harvey.

According to an AP story entitled “Refugee Children Learn Rapidly in the U.S.” from the 5/30/1948 edition of the Richmond-Times Dispatch, U.S. INS figures “show 28,789 displaced persons came to the United States between late December, 1945 and Nov. 30, 1947.  Ninety-eight percent were from Europe, among them Austrians, Czechs, Germans, Poles, Hungarians and Yugolslavs.”

The article goes on to name agencies active in bringing WWII era children to the U.S., which included Church World Service, United States Service for New Americans, Catholic Committee for Refugees, and United States Committee for the Care of European Children.  According to one organization's spokesman, “The speed with these youngsters become part of American life is amazing…. they fairly gulp the English language.”  And then the article summarized the situation for war orphans coming here:

[John Kowalski]

1 hour ago, Jim Hargrove said:

The article goes on to name agencies active in bringing WWII era children to the U.S., which included Church World Service, United States Service for New Americans, Catholic Committee for Refugees, and United States Committee for the Care of European Children.  According to one organization's spokesman, “The speed with these youngsters become part of American life is amazing…. they fairly gulp the English language.”  And then the article summarized the situation for war orphans coming here:

There are a lot of groups helping these children. This will provide us with a starting point for looking for Harvey.