Paul Jolliffe Posted March 11 Share Posted March 11 2 hours ago, Jim Hargrove said: From the 1946 Manhattan phone book: A single entry for Ekdahl, which was, Edkahl, Ruth A 125 WdswrthAv Quite a few listings for Blair. Here they are starting with Blair C and going through Blair F. I too think its a long shot that Fred Blair or Carroll Blair or whatever his name was ever had his own residence in NYC. It was expensive even back then. There is an entry for Louis Weinstock, but he appears to be an MD. I’ll take a look at another directory this evening or tomorrow, perhaps skipping to 1948. Jim, Edwin Ekdahl, his (then?) wife Rosmina and their son Dewey lived at 207 North Broadway, in Orangetown in Rockland County, New York, just northwest of New York City according to the 1940 census. https://www.ancestry.com/1940-census/usa/New-York/Edwin-A-Ekdahl_639qv https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orangetown,_New_York Close enough, I'd say. Note that his 1953 obituary claims that he "leaves his wife and son." (I cannot find a divorce record from Rosmina. Nor could the FBI, apparently. Rosmina seemingly vanished.) "Wife". Hmm. Gotta wonder with whom Ekdahl was fooling around when Marguerite found him with another woman in 1947 . . . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Cloud Posted March 11 Share Posted March 11 Fred Blair is going to be pretty much Wisconsin centered, the state perhaps not incidentally of Senator Joe McCarthy. See references here, as well as to Gardos in Hungary (albeit unnamed). https://www.google.com/books/edition/Footsoldier_for_Peace_and_Justice/RsU1mTipFKUC?hl=en&gbpv=1&bsq=fred blair Blair "went underground" from 1950-'58. When the day came that he re-emerged, it was said he would be an FBI agent, too. His bookshop would later, in the '60s, be good for Hoover to get angry at. https://www.jsonline.com/story/life/green-sheet/2017/01/17/milwaukee-bookstore-made-fbi-chief-see-red/96611154/ In 1977 it was also reported that Hoover wanted to pin a drunk-driving rap on him. He didn't drive. Tough stuff. https://omnilogos.com/reds-among-sewer-socialists-and-mccarthyites-communist-party-in-milwaukee/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Cloud Posted March 11 Share Posted March 11 3 hours ago, Geo Kozma said: THANKS MATT...I did not remember this letter of mine...i did not get an answer from HK. And I waited patiently until he departs ....with starting to want to see why he needed to avoid responding. i have no memory of this letter, only that i could not see him in 2019 when I was a few days in NYC and the secretary postponed the meeting each day...I read in the Isaacson bio on him, that it was his regular trick if he wanted to show respect by saying yES LETS MEET but then the Secretary would phone each day on the change of schedule HOW SORRY HE IS....(He did it with DAniel Ellsberg in that book.) I would not take it personally. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Cloud Posted March 11 Share Posted March 11 57 minutes ago, Matt Cloud said: I would not take it personally. Further, Geo, could you please, as succinctly and as factually as possible, explain what you believe or are aware of with regard to your uncle Paul Kecskemeti and Fred and Blair Gardos and/or Louis Weinstock and/or any alleged "double" of Lee Harvey Oswald. What is it, in other words, that links your uncle to this phone call story, apart from general association via Hungarian and other ethnic surnames? It is a fascinating connection, and your uncle appears to be highly relevant in terms of the merger of social sciences and post-war military and scientific strategic thinking, but I don't think you've exactly pinned down the connection yet -- or am I mistaken? If it is an impression or a lucky guess so to speak it's incredible. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Cloud Posted March 11 Share Posted March 11 On 3/7/2024 at 9:27 AM, Paul Jolliffe said: As to Elizabeth Bentley herself, while I hope to have a much more definitive answer in a few weeks, for now I believe she was exactly what the narrative has said she was: a genuine communist in the 1930's who then turned into an FBI informant in 1945. Note that according to Haynes & Klehr, VENONA: Decoding Soviet Espionage in America (1999), p. 150: "Bentley did not defect until more than six months after the KGB had taken over her networks, severed her contact with her agents, and changed her status to inactive. Once she had been replaced as their liaison, her former sources would have regarded any contact by her as a sign that something was amiss and would have been put on their guard." Note that John Earl Haynes former day job at the Library of Congress bumps up against my "theories," here: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Hargrove Posted March 12 Author Share Posted March 12 16 hours ago, Paul Jolliffe said: Jim, Edwin Ekdahl, his (then?) wife Rosmina and their son Dewey lived at 207 North Broadway, in Orangetown in Rockland County, New York, just northwest of New York City according to the 1940 census. https://www.ancestry.com/1940-census/usa/New-York/Edwin-A-Ekdahl_639qv https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orangetown,_New_York Close enough, I'd say. Note that his 1953 obituary claims that he "leaves his wife and son." (I cannot find a divorce record from Rosmina. Nor could the FBI, apparently. Rosmina seemingly vanished.) "Wife". Hmm. Gotta wonder with whom Ekdahl was fooling around when Marguerite found him with another woman in 1947 . . . Paul, Can we find out if there was any relation between Ruth A. Ekdahl of Manhattan and Edwin? Interesting that only a single Ekdahl was listed in the 1946 directory for a place the size of Manhattan. Researcher Brian Doyle, who lived in the area most of his life, just wrote to me and said, “The reference to 207 N Broadway Orangetown is actually 207 N Broadway, Nyack, NY...Orangetown is the township but the name of the town for that residence is "Nyack, NY." According to Google Maps, the distance from 207 N Broadway in Nyack to 125 Wadsworth Ave., New York, NY is 19.9 miles. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Kowalski Posted March 12 Share Posted March 12 18 hours ago, Paul Jolliffe said: (I cannot find a divorce record from Rosmina. Nor could the FBI, apparently. Rosmina seemingly vanished.) Paul: She died in Nyak, New York on May 31, 1961. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul Jolliffe Posted March 12 Share Posted March 12 1 hour ago, Jim Hargrove said: Paul, Can we find out if there was any relation between Ruth A. Ekdahl of Manhattan and Edwin? Interesting that only a single Ekdahl was listed in the 1946 directory for a place the size of Manhattan. Researcher Brian Doyle, who lived in the area most of his life, just wrote to me and said, “The reference to 207 N Broadway Orangetown is actually 207 N Broadway, Nyack, NY...Orangetown is the township but the name of the town for that residence is "Nyack, NY." According to Google Maps, the distance from 207 N Broadway in Nyack to 125 Wadsworth Ave., New York, NY is 19.9 miles. Jim, Thanks for the clarification about Orangetown Township and Nyack, NY. Either way, Ekdahl, his longtime wife Rosmina (Rasmina?) and their son Dewey lived within 20 miles or so of NYC in 1940. Close enough. I don't know of any connection to a"Ruth Ekdahl", but I doubt she was a close relative, if anything at all. Edwin Ekdahl's sister was Elvira Ekdahl (Mrs. Julius E. Larsen) of Newton Center, Massachusetts, although her obituary leaves open the possibility of another sister, Anna Larsen. (Did Edwin Ekdahl have two sisters, and did both of them marry brothers named Larsen? Maybe. But no sign of a "Ruth".) By 1946, we know Edwin Ekdahl was living with his wife (?) Marguerite in Texas. What role, if any, was played in their courtship (?) by Ekdahl's sister Elvira remains unknown (but intriguing.) We do know that by 1947, Ekdahl had no interest in Marguerite, having taken up with some other (unknown?) woman. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Cloud Posted March 12 Share Posted March 12 (edited) On 3/6/2024 at 3:48 PM, Jim Hargrove said: New York University Library’s Guide to the Louis Weinstock Papers and Photographs Weinstock and his wife were both Hungarians! The bio indicates: “In the 1960s he served as a business manager for The Worker, a newspaper published by the Communist Party of the United States.” This may, however, have occurred after his radicalization following years of imprisonment in the 1950s. There was no mention of “Workers World” or, of course, “Woman’s World,” but I wouldn’t rule out an earlier association with “Workers World” since, according to the papers held by NYU, from 1930 to 1949 he had some sort of association with “Workers Alliance of America,” which certainly sounds Worker-ish to me. Perhaps this was already established. Worker's World Party began publishing Workers World in 1959. History[edit] Members staffing a WWP information booth at Occupy Wall Street, October 2011 The WWP had its origins in the Global Class War Tendency, led by Sam Marcy and Vincent Copeland, within the SWP. This group crystallized during the 1948 presidential election when they urged the SWP to back Henry Wallace's Progressive Party campaign, rather than field their own candidates. Throughout the 1950s, the Global Class War Tendency expressed positions at odds with official SWP policy, categorizing the Korean War as a class, rather than imperialist, conflict; support of the People's Republic of China as a workers' state, if not necessarily supporting the Mao Zedong leadership; and supporting the suppression of the Hungarian Revolution by the Soviet Union in 1956.[7] The Global Class War Tendency left the SWP in early 1959. Although they would later abandon Trotskyism,[citation needed] in their International Workers Day issue (no. 3) of their new periodical the group proclaimed: "We are THE Trotskyists. We stand 100% with all the principled positions of Leon Trotsky, the most revolutionary communist since Lenin". The nascent group appears to have organized as the Workers World Party by February 1960.[8] At its inception, the WWP was concentrated among the working class in Buffalo, Youngstown, Seattle and New York. A youth organization, first known as the Anti-Fascist Youth Committee and later as Youth Against War and Fascism (YAWF), was created in April 1962.[9] The WWP began publishing Workers World in 1959. The newspaper has been a weekly since 1974. .https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Workers_World_Party Edited March 12 by Matt Cloud Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul Jolliffe Posted March 12 Share Posted March 12 Just now, John Kowalski said: Paul: She died in Nyak, New York on May 31, 1961. Thanks, John. Of course, Nyak was where she and Edwin and their son, Dewey were living together in 1940, and apparently where she remained for the rest of her life. Can you find a divorce record for Edwin and Rasmina? I can't. Mighty curious that both Edwin Ekdahl's 1953 obituary and Rasmina Ekdahl's 1961 obituary mention spouses - hers specifically references him! - even though (supposedly) they divorced roughly twenty years before and he (mysteriously) remarried Marguerite in 1945 and then (supposedly) died a twice-divorced man . . . Again, exactly with whom was 52 year old Edwin fooling around when he was caught by Marguerite and her boys in 1947? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Cloud Posted March 12 Share Posted March 12 3 minutes ago, Matt Cloud said: Worker's World Party began publishing Workers World in 1959. History[edit] Members staffing a WWP information booth at Occupy Wall Street, October 2011 The WWP had its origins in the Global Class War Tendency, led by Sam Marcy and Vincent Copeland, within the SWP. This group crystallized during the 1948 presidential election when they urged the SWP to back Henry Wallace's Progressive Party campaign, rather than field their own candidates. Throughout the 1950s, the Global Class War Tendency expressed positions at odds with official SWP policy, categorizing the Korean War as a class, rather than imperialist, conflict; support of the People's Republic of China as a workers' state, if not necessarily supporting the Mao Zedong leadership; and supporting the suppression of the Hungarian Revolution by the Soviet Union in 1956.[7] The Global Class War Tendency left the SWP in early 1959. Although they would later abandon Trotskyism,[citation needed] in their International Workers Day issue (no. 3) of their new periodical the group proclaimed: "We are THE Trotskyists. We stand 100% with all the principled positions of Leon Trotsky, the most revolutionary communist since Lenin". The nascent group appears to have organized as the Workers World Party by February 1960.[8] At its inception, the WWP was concentrated among the working class in Buffalo, Youngstown, Seattle and New York. A youth organization, first known as the Anti-Fascist Youth Committee and later as Youth Against War and Fascism (YAWF), was created in April 1962.[9] The WWP began publishing Workers World in 1959. The newspaper has been a weekly since 1974. .https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Workers_World_Party See also pp. 7-8, here, from 1966 FBI background memo on Soviet reactions to assassination: https://www.archives.gov/files/research/jfk/releases/docid-32204484.pdf CPUSA through its publication The Worker criticized Warren Commission for "brushing-off" notions of "ultra-right wing" involvement, while Workers World Party part of effort to discredit WC by citing authors such as Edward Jay Epstein. See also Gus Hall discussion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Kowalski Posted March 12 Share Posted March 12 41 minutes ago, Paul Jolliffe said: Can you find a divorce record for Edwin and Rasmina? Did research on Ekdahl years ago. Did not find his divorce record. His WWII draft registration card states that he is living with Rasmina at 109 First Ave in Nyak. The draft card is not dated but at the bottom it says D.S.S. Form 1 Revised 4-1-42. He says his age is 46 and was born on September 26, 1895, which suggests that he signed it sometime before his 47th birthday in 1942. Do not know the name of the woman that he had an affair with but John A in one of his podcasts mentioned that Marguerite caught Ekdahl with a woman. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Cloud Posted March 12 Share Posted March 12 28 minutes ago, Paul Jolliffe said: Thanks, John. Of course, Nyak was where she and Edwin and their son, Dewey were living together in 1940, and apparently where she remained for the rest of her life. Can you find a divorce record for Edwin and Rasmina? I can't. Mighty curious that both Edwin Ekdahl's 1953 obituary and Rasmina Ekdahl's 1961 obituary mention spouses - hers specifically references him! - even though (supposedly) they divorced roughly twenty years before and he (mysteriously) remarried Marguerite in 1945 and then (supposedly) died a twice-divorced man . . . Again, exactly with whom was 52 year old Edwin fooling around when he was caught by Marguerite and her boys in 1947? Pinning down details surrounding Mary Jane Ekdahl, born 1946, may be helpful. The following is a bit of a mess but she's linked with son Dewey in some way. Mary Ekdahl (16 matches): Phone Number, Email, Address Spokeo https://www.spokeo.com › 🔍EF › 📁Ekdahl Mary Jane Ekdahl, 77. Resides in Wellfleet, MA. Lived InNew City NY, West Nyack NY, Congers NY, Nyack NY. Related ToDewey Ekdahl, Meg Ekdahl. Also known as ... People Living at 84 Chequessett Knolls Dr Wellfleet MA FastPeopleSearch.com https://www.fastpeoplesearch.com › address › 84-chequ... West Nyack NY 10994. Phone: Cell/Mobile/Wireless and ... Maryjane Ekdahl • Mary Jane Ekdahl • Maryjane Jane Ekdahl ... Dewey Ekdahl • Dewey Ekdahl • Mary Armstrong ... 303 Fairview Ave Nyack, NY 10960 POSSIBLE OWNERS & RESIDENTS Mary Ekdahl Dewey Ekdahl **** "Dewey Ekdahl, art teacher in the Nyack school system. " (1959) https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/162444474/ **** Maryjane J Ekdahl New City, NY Also Known As : Maryjane Ekdahl • Mary J Ekdahl • Mary Jane Ekdahl • Mary Ekdahl • Meg Ekdahl Age : 77(Jul 1946) ♋ Cancer Current Address 2 Rella Dr, New City NY 10956 (Nov 2000) Past Addresses 34 Loraine Dr, New City NY 10956 (Oct 2005) 410 N Midland Ave, Nyack NY 10960 (May 1991) Po Box 94, Wellfleet MA 02667 (May 2000) 84 Chequessett Knolls Dr, Wellfleet MA 02667 (Jun 2000) Lived In: Congers, NY • West Nyack, NY • Nyack, NY • Leland, NC Phone Numbers (508) 349-3834 • (508) 221-5460 • (508) 358-2579 • (845) 358-0452 Relatives Dewey Ekdahl • Dewey Ekdahl • Mary Armstrong • Brian Hickey • George Armstrong • George Armstrong • Lynn Colett • Patricia Armstrong *** "John D. Garrabrant of North Midland Avenue in Upper Nyack, a retired electrician, died Thursday in Nyack Hospital. He was 81. Mr. Garrabrant was born Oct. 22, 1905, to George and Frances Garrabrant in Central Nyack. He was a member of Local 36 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, New City. Mr. Garrabrant was a member of Rockland Masons Lodge 723, and of the Grace Episcopal Church, Nyack. Survivors include his wife Frances; a son, J. David of Flemington, N.J., a former village trustee in Upper Nyack; a daughter, Mary Jane Ekdahl of West Nyack; and two grandchildren. Services are 10 a.m. Monday at the Grace Episcopal Church, with burial at Oak Hill Cemetery, Nyack." https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/162852836/ Mary Jane Ekdahl from New City, NY Also known as: Ms Maryjane Ekdahl + 1 Age: 77 years old Gender: Female Born: July 11, 1946 *** https://www.kennedysandking.com/john-f-kennedy-reviews/lee-harvey-oswald-s-cold-war The two eventually married in 1945 and moved to Fort Worth, where Ekdahl was now working. The couple stayed together until 1948. Parker notes more oddities about Lee’s enrollment in 2 elementary schools: Ekdahl is listed as his father, but in the blank for mother, no one is listed. (Parker, pp. 117–18). Although the wife thought the husband was having an affair, it was the husband who filed for divorce first. The attorney he hired was Fred Korth, who had an office in close proximity to his own. (Parker, pp. 110, 118) Korth was a lawyer and a banker. He would eventually become Secretary of the Navy in 1962, succeeding John Connally. Both men served at Vice President Johnson’s request. Parker points out something about Korth here that may be more than just passing interest. Though Korth handled Ekdahl’s end of the divorce, the Warren Commission could not find any evidence that Ekdahl had legally divorced his first wife, Rasmina. What makes that even more odd is that Rasmina and Edwin ended up being buried together. (p. 119) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul Jolliffe Posted March 12 Share Posted March 12 18 minutes ago, Matt Cloud said: Pinning down details surrounding Mary Jane Ekdahl, born 1946, may be helpful. The following is a bit of a mess but she's linked with son Dewey in some way. Mary Ekdahl (16 matches): Phone Number, Email, Address Spokeo https://www.spokeo.com › 🔍EF › 📁Ekdahl Mary Jane Ekdahl, 77. Resides in Wellfleet, MA. Lived InNew City NY, West Nyack NY, Congers NY, Nyack NY. Related ToDewey Ekdahl, Meg Ekdahl. Also known as ... People Living at 84 Chequessett Knolls Dr Wellfleet MA FastPeopleSearch.com https://www.fastpeoplesearch.com › address › 84-chequ... West Nyack NY 10994. Phone: Cell/Mobile/Wireless and ... Maryjane Ekdahl • Mary Jane Ekdahl • Maryjane Jane Ekdahl ... Dewey Ekdahl • Dewey Ekdahl • Mary Armstrong ... 303 Fairview Ave Nyack, NY 10960 POSSIBLE OWNERS & RESIDENTS Mary Ekdahl Dewey Ekdahl **** "Dewey Ekdahl, art teacher in the Nyack school system. " (1959) https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/162444474/ **** Maryjane J Ekdahl New City, NY Also Known As : Maryjane Ekdahl • Mary J Ekdahl • Mary Jane Ekdahl • Mary Ekdahl • Meg Ekdahl Age : 77(Jul 1946) ♋ Cancer Current Address 2 Rella Dr, New City NY 10956 (Nov 2000) Past Addresses 34 Loraine Dr, New City NY 10956 (Oct 2005) 410 N Midland Ave, Nyack NY 10960 (May 1991) Po Box 94, Wellfleet MA 02667 (May 2000) 84 Chequessett Knolls Dr, Wellfleet MA 02667 (Jun 2000) Lived In: Congers, NY • West Nyack, NY • Nyack, NY • Leland, NC Phone Numbers (508) 349-3834 • (508) 221-5460 • (508) 358-2579 • (845) 358-0452 Relatives Dewey Ekdahl • Dewey Ekdahl • Mary Armstrong • Brian Hickey • George Armstrong • George Armstrong • Lynn Colett • Patricia Armstrong *** "John D. Garrabrant of North Midland Avenue in Upper Nyack, a retired electrician, died Thursday in Nyack Hospital. He was 81. Mr. Garrabrant was born Oct. 22, 1905, to George and Frances Garrabrant in Central Nyack. He was a member of Local 36 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, New City. Mr. Garrabrant was a member of Rockland Masons Lodge 723, and of the Grace Episcopal Church, Nyack. Survivors include his wife Frances; a son, J. David of Flemington, N.J., a former village trustee in Upper Nyack; a daughter, Mary Jane Ekdahl of West Nyack; and two grandchildren. Services are 10 a.m. Monday at the Grace Episcopal Church, with burial at Oak Hill Cemetery, Nyack." https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/162852836/ Mary Jane Ekdahl from New City, NY Also known as: Ms Maryjane Ekdahl + 1 Age: 77 years old Gender: Female Born: July 11, 1946 *** https://www.kennedysandking.com/john-f-kennedy-reviews/lee-harvey-oswald-s-cold-war The two eventually married in 1945 and moved to Fort Worth, where Ekdahl was now working. The couple stayed together until 1948. Parker notes more oddities about Lee’s enrollment in 2 elementary schools: Ekdahl is listed as his father, but in the blank for mother, no one is listed. (Parker, pp. 117–18). Although the wife thought the husband was having an affair, it was the husband who filed for divorce first. The attorney he hired was Fred Korth, who had an office in close proximity to his own. (Parker, pp. 110, 118) Korth was a lawyer and a banker. He would eventually become Secretary of the Navy in 1962, succeeding John Connally. Both men served at Vice President Johnson’s request. Parker points out something about Korth here that may be more than just passing interest. Though Korth handled Ekdahl’s end of the divorce, the Warren Commission could not find any evidence that Ekdahl had legally divorced his first wife, Rasmina. What makes that even more odd is that Rasmina and Edwin ended up being buried together. (p. 119) Matt, Mary "Meg" Ekdahl was Dewey Ekdahl's ex-wife. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Kowalski Posted March 12 Share Posted March 12 Jim and Paul: Found Bentley's will. Probate Court will not email it to me but will send it by mail. Will upload it when received. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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