The Anonymous Phone Call to the Tippits of Connecticut

[Matt Cloud]

Thanks, although a significant age difference between Dewey (born 1931) and Mary Jane (Meg) (born 1946) ...

 

Evidently she was also an art teacher:

 

"Upper Nyack. Mary Jane (or Meg, as she's known to just about everybody) is an art teacher for the Qarkstown Central School District."

https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/164345721/

The Journal News from White Plains, New York • Page 6

Wednesday, June 2, 1993

***

 

 

I'll still pose the question:

 

Was Frances Garrabrant the woman with whom Ekdahl had an affair?

 

https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-journal-news-obituary-for-frances-ga/66342232/

 

The Journal News

White Plains, New York • Thu, Nov 22, 1990 Page 20

 

 

Frances Garrabrant retired beautician Frances Garrabrant of North Midland Avenue, Upper Nyack, a former beautician, died Tuesday at Nyack Hospital. She was 79. She was born Nov. 18, 1911, in Rockland Lake to Santo and Maria Trumpfio. Mrs. Garrabrant was employed as a beautician in Nyack beauty shops in the 1930s. She was a resident of Upper Nyack for 65 years and was a member of Grace Episcopal Church in Nyack. Her husband, John Garrabrant, died in 1987. She is survived by one son, J. David Garrabrant of Flemington, N.J.; one daughter, Mary Jane Ekdahl of West Nyack; and two grandchildren.

A funeral service will be held Saturday at 11 a.m. at Grace Episcopal Church in Nyack, followed by burial at Oak Hill Cemetery in Nyack. Calling hours are tomorrow from 2 to 4 and 7 to 9 p.m. at the Hannemann Funeral Home, 88 S. Broadway, Nyack.

Donations in her memory may be made to the American Heart Association, 24 N. Main St., New City, N.Y. 10956, or Grace Episcopal Church, First Avenue, Nyack, NY. 10960.

[Paul Jolliffe]

22 minutes ago, John Kowalski said:

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.

John,

Since not even the Warren Commission and the FBI could produce a divorce record for Rasmina and Edwin Ekdahl, I suspect it is highly likely that they never officially divorced. 

Your research here indicates that as of the spring of 1942 (at least), they were not yet divorced. 

Apparently he started with EBASCO in 1943 and somehow met Marguerite thereafter. 

I've been hinting that their "courtship" was not necessarily romantic - that (maybe) he was enlisted in some kind assignment, based on the physical similarity between Marguerite's youngest son and a mysterious little refugee boy in NYC.

In any event, I think it is highly likely that the "other woman" with whom Ekdahl was living in 1947 (according to statements dug up by Armstrong) was in fact his "former" wife, Rasmina.

If so, then the bizarre wording on both of their obituaries becomes much more understandable - they really were husband and wife all along.

 

[Matt Cloud]

15 minutes ago, Paul Jolliffe said:

John,

Since not even the Warren Commission and the FBI could produce a divorce record for Rasmina and Edwin Ekdahl, I suspect it is highly likely that they never officially divorced. 

Your research here indicates that as of the spring of 1942 (at least), they were not yet divorced. 

Apparently he started with EBASCO in 1943 and somehow met Marguerite thereafter. 

I've been hinting that their "courtship" was not necessarily romantic - that (maybe) he was enlisted in some kind assignment, based on the physical similarity between Marguerite's youngest son and a mysterious little refugee boy in NYC.

In any event, I think it is highly likely that the "other woman" with whom Ekdahl was living in 1947 (according to statements dug up by Armstrong) was in fact his "former" wife, Rasmina.

If so, then the bizarre wording on both of their obituaries becomes much more understandable - they really were husband and wife all along.

 

Note also Dewey Ekdahl himself, in his FBI interview dated December 6, 1963, at which point he was living at 34 Fairview Avenue, Upper Nyack, NY, stated only "that his mother and father separated in approximately 1942" after which his father went to Ft. Worth and to Ebasco.

https://reopenkennedycase.forumotion.net/t1395-marguerite-and-lee-in-boston-and-related-matters

[Jim Hargrove]

19 hours ago, Matt Cloud said:

Fred Blair is going to be pretty much Wisconsin centered, the state perhaps not incidentally of Senator Joe McCarthy.

Sure, but some of us are trying to figure out if Blair stayed in NYC for any period of time in the late 1940s.  If he did, he may have stayed with the Gardos family  (his sister Grace and her husband Emil).   This could help give us some clue how the anonymous caller knew of Emil’s commie brother-in-law.  That information probably didn’t come from news reports, at least from the East Coast.

Surprisingly, for me at least, the New York Times Archives has only a single article about Emil Gardos, and that was a March 3, 1934 AP story describing the hearing in Milwaukee in which Federal Judge F.A. Geiger revoked “the citizenship of Emil Gardos of Cleveland, Communist organizer, chemical engineer and editor.”
 

John K and Paul J--

Do either of you know how to access the Manhattan phone book after 1946 or 1947?  It was simple to gain access to the 1946 book, but I spent an hour trying to look through the 1948 edition without success.

[John Kowalski]

33 minutes ago, Paul Jolliffe said:

If so, then the bizarre wording on both of their obituaries becomes much more understandable - they really were husband and wife all along.

That makes sense, they probably never divorced. When Edwin married Marguerite on May 5, 1945 he became a bigamist.

[Matt Cloud]

11 minutes ago, Jim Hargrove said:

Sure, but some of us are trying to figure out if Blair stayed in NYC for any period of time in the late 1940s.  If he did, he may have stayed with the Gardos family  (his sister Grace and her husband Emil).   This could help give us some clue how the anonymous caller knew of Emil’s commie brother-in-law.  That information probably didn’t come from news reports, at least from the East Coast.

Surprisingly, for me at least, the New York Times Archives has only a single article about Emil Gardos, and that was a March 3, 1934 AP story describing the hearing in Milwaukee in which Federal Judge F.A. Geiger revoked “the citizenship of Emil Gardos of Cleveland, Communist organizer, chemical engineer and editor.”
 

John K and Paul J--

Do either of you know how to access the Manhattan phone book after 1946 or 1947?  It was simple to gain access to the 1946 book, but I spent an hour trying to look through the 1948 edition without success.

The "anonymous caller" -- Elizabeth Bentley -- was the courier -- and in reality the manager -- for the Communist Party in the United States.  She knew the entire network. It's no mystery how she knew of Gardos and anyone associated with him.

On October 15, 1938, Bentley met Jacob Golos, who would eventually become her boss. Golos convinced her to become a spy for the Soviets and work with him in forming a network within the CPUSA. 

Although Bentley was formally Golos’ chief assistant and courier, in reality, she was more involved with him and his work than the title may suggest. Bentley served as Golos’ agent handler, as well as his lover. Her role allowed her to become privy to various details and sources in Golos’ spy network.

After the FBI began surveillance on Golos, they noted a meeting between Golos and Bentley outside of her offices at U.S. Services and Shipping Corporation (USSSC). Suspecting she might be a Soviet agent, the FBI began to follow Bentley and continued to do so until August 20, 1941. Following Golos’ death in 1943, Bentley took over Golos’ duties, including the management of the Perlo spy group, which included its namesake Victor Perlo and five other Soviet spies. 

https://ahf.nuclearmuseum.org/ahf/profile/elizabeth-bentley/

 

So did Emil Gardos:

 

"

[J. Peters]  came  to  the  United  States  with  another  person  called  Emil 
Gardos.  He  started  to  work,  and  I  met  him  for  the  first  time  in 
1923  or  1924.  He  was  later  in  charge  of  all  of  the  underground  ap- 
paratus of  the  organization,  the  hush-hush  organization  of  the  party, 
and  the  espionage  that  the  party  did  for  the  Soviet  Union  in  this 
country.  He  collaborated  with  the  Central  Control  Commission  and 
the  resident  GPU  agents  in  this  country,  some  of  whom  I  will  name 
later  in  my  statement.     They  were  later  known  as  NKVD.

 

https://archive.org/stream/communistactivit021950unit/communistactivit021950unit_djvu.txt

Edited March 12 by Matt Cloud

[John Kowalski]

Paul.

Have you know who George and Margaret Paecoast are? According to an FBI document Bentley lived with them in Westport CT for 4 months in 1950. Their address is about 12 miles from where Tina Tippit lived.

The document is on pg. 916 of an FBI Bentley file which is over 2,000 pages.

https://archive.org/details/bentleyelizabethterrillhqandnyc/page/n915/mode/2up?view=theater

 

[Paul Jolliffe]

1 hour ago, John Kowalski said:

Paul.

Have you know who George and Margaret Paecoast are? According to an FBI document Bentley lived with them in Westport CT for 4 months in 1950. Their address is about 12 miles from where Tina Tippit lived.

The document is on pg. 916 of an FBI Bentley file which is over 2,000 pages.

https://archive.org/details/bentleyelizabethterrillhqandnyc/page/n915/mode/2up?view=theater

 

No, not yet. I have only made it to July, 1948 in her life so far.

[Jim Hargrove]

Matt -- Thanks!  I forgot to put two and two together.

John -- That's quite a file, but it seems to end in the 1950s, at least from what I've browsed through so far.  Do you know of anything else on Bentley that goes to or approaches 1963?  Or do you think much more was unlikely after she changed teams? 

[Paul Jolliffe]

2 hours ago, John Kowalski said:

That makes sense, they probably never divorced. When Edwin married Marguerite on May 5, 1945 he became a bigamist.

Which, of course, Ekdahl had to know when he "married" Marguerite on May 5, 1945. 

So, why did he do it?

By then, Marguerite was a 38-year-old, twice married woman with three sons, including a six-year old who bore a distinct resemblance to another little boy in NYC.

Whether there was ever any fleeting romantic interest between Ekdahl and Marguerite is irrelevant. The real question is whether that "marriage" was in any way and to any degree at all an intelligence assignment, based on the boys' physical similarities. 

I don't know, but I can't think of any other plausible reason why Ekdahl would risk a bigamy charge in Texas, unless he knew he had protection from such a charge. 

[Matt Cloud]

1 hour ago, Jim Hargrove said:

Matt -- Thanks!  I forgot to put two and two together.

John -- That's quite a file, but it seems to end in the 1950s, at least from what I've browsed through so far.  Do you know of anything else on Bentley that goes to or approaches 1963?  Or do you think much more was unlikely after she changed teams? 

That file covers the late 40s through 50s.  She "changed teams" -- and that concept is debatable if one understands long-term communist party trends in 45.  She was relegated more or less to obscurity after '58.  

 

Briefly stated the issue of her changing teams is debatable not because of her actions so much but in light of Soviet strategy, which shifted circa 1943, just as VENONA was being cracked to subversion via illegals to subversion via domestic insurgency.  Was she rendered useless by Moscow with the intention that she go to the FBI to "out" persons no longer relevant to the strategy? You see, there is a question of whether the Red Scare itself was an after-the-fact expose/witch-hunt of persons no longer in government for the most part, as a diversion from another, again, more home-grown, form of ideological "attack" if you like.  The conflict between Stalinists and Trotskyites is tied up in this, with the Trotskyites having essentially succeeded here after a lot of the ostensible round-ups and deportations of the 40s and early 50s.  The Shelepin reorg of the KGB in Moscow in 1958 would mirror this.  

Whether Bentley's call was in furtherance of this -- Geo suggests it was a false flag -- is also open to discussion.  My hunch is that she was sincere, and by re-inserting herself back into the situation via the call, her presence risked un-earthing what I have just described above.

 

That's probably more than anyone wants to handle at this point, so let's just call that an intro. 

Edited March 12 by Matt Cloud

[Matt Cloud]

1 hour ago, Paul Jolliffe said:

Which, of course, Ekdahl had to know when he "married" Marguerite on May 5, 1945. 

So, why did he do it?

By then, Marguerite was a 38-year-old, twice married woman with three sons, including a six-year old who bore a distinct resemblance to another little boy in NYC.

Whether there was ever any fleeting romantic interest between Ekdahl and Marguerite is irrelevant. The real question is whether that "marriage" was in any way and to any degree at all an intelligence assignment, based on the boys' physical similarities. 

I don't know, but I can't think of any other plausible reason why Ekdahl would risk a bigamy charge in Texas, unless he knew he had protection from such a charge. 

This seems like sound analysis.  And where Fred Korth would come in, at direction of ... someone else. 

 

Now also, or soon, it will be be necessary to incorporate what I have already written on the other thread, but which also goes here, especially the portion in bold.  

 

"4. Louis Weinstock, head of the Painters’ Union, would go on trial in the early to mid-‘50s for subversive activities (the Smith Act) and perjury, inter alia, in NY, before Judge Irving R. Kaufman of Rosenberg trial fame and in DC, before E. Barrett Prettyman, later famous for the Castro-Donovan-Alfred Boerum (a McMahon brother-in-law) negotiations to secure the Bay of Pigs prisoners in 1962.  Weinstock served about two-years’ time, and some of the issues over which he was originally charged were dismissed or reversed over the ensuing years – the disposition of the cases is worth noting.

 

See “Weinstock Admits Treachery of CP in Fight on Smith Act,” The Militant, Jan. 31, 1949 (highlighting divisions between Stalinists and Trotskyites) (“Weinstock used to be secretary-treasurer of Painters District Council No. 9, and it was in that capacity in 1944 that he played his part in the scabby Stalinist campaign to prevent the mobilization of the labor movement against the Smith Act when 18 Socialist Worker Party and C.I.O. members were railroaded to prison under its provisions in the Minneapolis trial. The members of the union have since then kicked Weinstock out of that post, and the forum he used in discussing The Militant’s expose was a meeting … held at Yorkville Temple on Jan. 17.  He could not deny that he and his fellow Stalinists had prevented the District Council from extending aid to the Civil Rights Defense Committee, which was helping the 18 Trotskyites.”).

 

From FBI report on Claudia Jones, part 10 of 10, p. 71:

 

“On January 10, 1955, United States District Court Irving R. Kaufman ordered revocation of bail and ordered warrants issued for all defendants except Louis Weinstock, who was then on trial in a separate perjury proceeding in [D.C.].”

 

See also Louis Weinstock v. United States, 231 F.2d 699 (D.C. Cir. 1956); Louis Weinstock, Petitioner, v. Subversive Activities Control Board, Respondent, 331 F.2d 75 (D.C. Cir. 1963) (Submitted October 3, 1962, Decided December 17, 1963)

 

In Harvey and Lee (2003), p. 67, John Armstrong notes the leniency of the treatment toward Weinstock “suggests that he may have been working for the U.S. Government.”  (That seems to have go unnoticed here.)

 

5. On December 8, 1959, an FBI Operation Solo report to Director Hoover from SAC Chicago states that in the investigation pertaining to Louis and Rose Weinstock, an informant stated “Weinstock also stated that while in Hungary, he had seen Emil and Grace Blair Gardos.  They have a son who is attending a university in Hungary.  He is studying to be a physicist and has almost completed his education.  Emil Gardos was scheduled to leave Hungary for Moscow on or about November 1, 1959.  He is scheduled to be a Commercial Attaché in Moscow.”

 

*****ALERT ***** November 1, 1959 is – coincidentally – virtually the precise date that Lee Harvey Oswald is attempting to gain entry via defection into the Soviet Union."  ***** ALERT *****

 

See p. 136, https://archive.org/details/OperationSOLO/SOLO 016/page/n135/mode/2up

[Geo Kozma]

On 3/11/2024 at 11:13 PM, Matt Cloud said:

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?  

Thnx Matt, for this question.

1. Very shortly, succintly, facually : my mom  AND GARDOSH from the Tippit call both working in the Corvina and being in regular weekly letter contact with an Oval Office analyst (her Uncle) -  the Corvina Book  found in 2013 to be ownd by OSWALD   is a proof of the TIPPIT CALL CLAIM that GARDOSH has some kind of contact with Oswald in real life ..And one more thing which I found last week I think. The drector of Corvina was a KGB financier of Castro (no source just some article printed in Hungarian on him  claims it...I asked his nephew on FB and he said his Uncle nver shareed anything on his past.)

2 FACTUALLY BUT NOT ABLE TO BE SUCCINT HERE:

 

But it sounds to me realstic that my mom and her Uncle were not involved in this...my mom did not know more than the Uncle being a prof...

 

 

4. FACTUAL BUT HALF SUCCINT

 

And if I do see some evident mistake - like accepting that Gardosh and his son are innocent in the 2 Oswald context bcause they claim "were in Budapest".....as told by the descendant in-law (Mr Geck)... nothing prevented  24 yrs old son Janos (sounds Yanosh) to do an "errand" at the Cuban and Russian Embassy with a fake Oswald ID.

(the problem is we will never be able to prove it. )

 

5   NON FACTUAL JUST INSIGHTS 

TLDR: I do not think that th Tippit CAll in itself is proof of the content's veracity - but WITH the CORVINA link - practically a maybe unintended PRIVATE  HOTLINE between the Oval office and the KGB  - it must be taken serriously as a proof of some kind of relation..

 

 

 

1

 

 

Edited March 20 by Geo Kozma
To make it clearer

[Jim Hargrove]

20 hours ago, Paul Jolliffe said:

John,

Since not even the Warren Commission and the FBI could produce a divorce record for Rasmina and Edwin Ekdahl, I suspect it is highly likely that they never officially divorced. 

Your research here indicates that as of the spring of 1942 (at least), they were not yet divorced. 

Apparently he started with EBASCO in 1943 and somehow met Marguerite thereafter. 

I've been hinting that their "courtship" was not necessarily romantic - that (maybe) he was enlisted in some kind assignment, based on the physical similarity between Marguerite's youngest son and a mysterious little refugee boy in NYC.

In any event, I think it is highly likely that the "other woman" with whom Ekdahl was living in 1947 (according to statements dug up by Armstrong) was in fact his "former" wife, Rasmina.

If so, then the bizarre wording on both of their obituaries becomes much more understandable - they really were husband and wife all along.

 

Paul,

As we probably indicated before, at the time of her marriage to Edwin Ekdahl, Marguerite was working for the U.S. Navy and Edwin for EBASCO, suggesting a clear path to an intelligence hookup.

Note the pictures below that John A. referred to near the beginning of his book.

The first one shows Marguerite on the day of her marriage to Ekdahl on May 7, 1945:

The second is a close-up of Marguerite from the Paul’s Shoe group photograph taken in 1957.  The pictures directly above and below show the Marguerite who married Edwin in 1945.  Note her level eyebrows in both photos. 

The last photo (below) is from 1954 and shows the “Marguerite” who testified to the Warren Commission. Note her slanting eyebrows, which, in most photos of this woman, were partially obscured by glasses. Here is the detail:

And here is the full shot:

[Matt Cloud]

9 hours ago, Geo Kozma said:

 

1. Very shortly, succintly, facually : my mom  AND GARDOSH from the Tippit call both working in the Corvina and being in regular weekly letter contact with an Oval Office analyst (her Uncle) -

 

 

Thank you.  I will break-down pieces of this bit-by-bit over time, perhaps.  For now, what is the actual relationship you describe here:

 

"my mom  AND GARDOSH from the Tippit call both working in the Corvina and being in regular weekly letter contact with an Oval Office analyst (her Uncle) "

 

Who is your mother, and what exactly is the relationship between her and Grace Gardos and Paul Kecskemeti?  I just need a one or two sentence response, please.

 

Your mother's brother is Paul Kecskemeti?  Yes?  Your mother worked for Corvina press?  Yes?  

 

Do you have any indication that Mary Gardos herself, or any of her family, was in contact with Paul Kecskemeti?

 

Thank you.

Edited March 13 by Matt Cloud