John Abt and Frederick A. O. Schwartz, Jr.

[Tim Gratz]

We all know that Lee Harvey Oswald had requested representation by John Abt, a left-wing oriented attorney from New York City. Over twenty years later he crossed paths with an attorney who had investigated the assassination.

This story may not forward progress on the research but it is of some historical interest.

Frederick A. O. Schwartz, Jr. was a descendant of the famous A. O. Schwartz toy store. He served as a legal counsel to the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (the Church Committee) and if I recall right he participated in the depositions of some of the witnesses.

After his service on the Senate Intelligence Committee he became an assistant corporation counsel for New York City (i.e. he was an attorney for the City of New York). In that capacity he represented the city in a suit filed by Abt on behalf of the Communist Party against the City and other defendants.

If you are interested in what the case was all about, there is a brief description of it found here:

http://www.icdc.com/~paulwolf/cointelpro/l...hu787F2d828.htm

I understand that Mr. Schwartz is now a partner in the prestigious Wall Street firm of Cravath Swain and Moore. He was a founder of a well-respected environmental organization called the Natural Resources Defense Council whose board members include Robert Redford, Laurence Rockefeller and others.

(See: http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title...Defense_Council

Edited January 9, 2006 by Tim Gratz

[Jim Root]

Tim

"I understand that Mr. Schwartz is now a partner in the prestigious Wall Street firm of Cravath Swain and Moore. "

Just to add to the "historical interest:"

John J. McCloy was a partner in the Wall Street firm of "Cravath, de Gersdorff, Swaine & Wood, where he remained for more than 15 years. He dedicated more than a decade of his life to investigating an emotional case of Imperial German sabotage in New York Harbor that dated back to 1916, almost a year before the United States had entered World War I. The so-called Black Tom Island explosion case went on to become a landmark in international law." (American Council on Germany)

"Black Tom" was the case that propelled McCloy's career into espionage and governement via Henry Stimson and the War Department. McCloy was to bring into the OSS fold such notables as William Donovan. McCloy would also do the necessary legal work from which the CIA would emerge from the ashes of the OSS.

McCloy would also sponsor or help to propel the careers of such Kennedy assassiantion notables as Earl Warren, Allan Dulles and Maxwell Taylor.

Small world.

Jim Root

[Tim Gratz]

Jim, I was quite certain that McCloy had been with that firm, one of THE most prestigious Wall Street firms. I knew your interest in McCloy and suspected you would make the connection.

[Jim Root]

Tim

Seems that many areas of interest can be associated with Joh J. McCloy!

Jim Root