Oswald and the CIA: The Documented Truth About the Unknown Relationship Between the U.S. Government and the Alleged Killer of JFK (47 page)

The FBI had effective sources inside the FPCC, obviously in Chicago, but probably in New York as well, where the CIA acquired intelligence on the head of the FPCC chapter there, Richard Gibson. As previously discussed, the Agency had tape-recorded him in June Cobb's hotel room in 1960,40 a time when Gibson was actively supporting Castro and Lumumba, both targets of ongoing assassination planning in the CIA.41

Over the course of 1961, Richard Gibson wrote many letters to June Cobb, letters that ended up in the hands of the CIA. His letters revealed much about FPCC policies, personnel and financial matters, and, of course, friends and lovers. It is not clear when Gibson learned of Cobb's intelligence connections, but if the apparent tapering off of his letters after 1961 reflects what happened, it seems that the media-fueled speculation about Cobb (discussed in Chapter Seven) put a damper on Gibson's flame."' During interrogation after the Kennedy assassination Gibson signaled interest in cooperation, and later provided some services for the CIA.

A short update on Cobb's activities are an appropriate digression here. Since last we visited her in 1960-1961, her first round of work with the CIA had ended. She traveled to Guatemala and managed to get expelled with much media fanfare. She became the subject of an article, "She's a Soldier of Fortune," by Jack Anderson in the Washington Post Parade, on August 12, 1962, a copy of which went straight into her CIA 201 file, 201-27884.43 Today we can also read the lengthier original essay, written by Cobb herself, which Anderson used for his Post story and which was also read by the propaganda section of the CIA's Task Force W, which handled Cuban matters.44

In June 1963, June Cobb was reapproved by security for her new role "as an informant" for "WH/3-Mexico, D.F." The previous October, a CIA security memo to chief of Counterintelligence/Operational Approvals (CI/OA) had warned:

As we advised on 1 October 1962 a search of our Indices on Subject disclosed note-worthy and derogatory information which is available for review by your office.... In view of the noteworthy and questionable information reflected above, it is recommended that no contact beyond assessment be permitted at this time. In view of the voluminous information available on the Subject and Subject's controversial background, this office will not conduct any additional investigation on the Subject until the available note-worthy and derogatory information has been reviewed thoroughly as

By June 17, 1963, however, it is clear that CI/OA had certified the use of Cobb to Security, which went along, reluctantly, and "only for the proposed assignment."'

While the CIA was securing approval to keep Cobb on assignment as an informant for WH/3/Mexico, the Dallas office of the FBI was in the process of "losing" Oswald. In his 1964 testimony to the Warren Commission, Hosty said he checked on Oswald in mid-May, but did not say why he chose that date.47 This would corroborate the statement in FBI director Kelly's book, discussed previously, that Hosty had checked the Neely Street apartment on May 15 and found that Oswald had left.41 This means that by the time Hosty wrote his May 28 memo to Shanklin about the "check with the Postmaster," he had two full weeks to discover Oswald's New Orleans Magazine Street address. This seeming incompetence may well have been purposeful, to create plausible deniability for what Oswald was up to in New Orleans before June 26.

We will shortly discuss Oswald's activities-especially those of "A.J. Hidell" at the aircraft carrier Wasp on June 16-and wonder at how strange it is that the very next day, according to Special Agent Hosty's testimony to the Warren Commission, "New Orleans contacted our office, and advised that they had information that the Oswalds were in New Orleans."49 There is no written record of this contact. It appears Hosty confused June 17 and July 17, when New Orleans in fact sent word to Dallas that the Oswalds were in New Orleans. Again, the seeming incompetence of Hosty becomes an issue. In his defense, the Bureau's policy was not to let agents review documents before they testified. Perhaps the further release of documents will better illuminate motives and distinguish plans from accidents. In the meantime, it is reasonable to suspect there was something crucial about this strange period between April 24 and June 26. What did Oswald do during the time he was "lost" in New Orleans?

Oswald 's New Orleans "Branch " of the FPCC

A good deal of Oswald's energy in May, June, and July centered on the FPCC. On April 19, 1963, just five days before he left Dallas, Oswald wrote to FPCC national headquarters in New York. We have elsewhere mentioned this letter, quoted here in full:

Dear Sirs, I do not like to ask for something for nothing but I am unemployed. Since I am unemployed, I stood yesterday for the first time in my life, with a placard around my neck, passing out fair play for Cuba pamplets, etc. [sic] I only had fifteen or so. In 40 minutes they were all gone. I was cursed as well as praised by some. My home-made placard said: HANDS OFF CUBA! VIVA FIDEL! I now ask for 40 or 50 more of the fine [five?], basic pamplets [sic]. Sincerely, Lee H. Oswald.30

As stated previously, this letter was intercepted by the FBI. It was postmarked April 21, and a photograph of it provided by source "3245-S*" was in the hands of the FBI's New York office that same day. It took the New York office until June 27, over two months, to mail the photographs to the Dallas FBI office. The negatives were retained in New York."

A possible explanation for the delay in transmitting the images of the letter to Dallas might have been that the FBI broke into FPCC headquarters, photographed a large number of documents, and took several weeks to develop the negatives, so that a print of Oswald's letter became available only in late June. If this explanation is true, the FBI would have coincidentally broken into the FPCC nearly on the day that Oswald's letter arrived in New York. This is so because the negatives were in hand by April 21. Hosty, however, claimed that the source "advised" of the letter's existence on April 21, which means Oswald's letter had to have been among the very first film to be developed, and even opens the possibility that the break-in was done to get Oswald's letter. This would have required knowing when the letter was sent, information that might have been acquired from someone besides Oswald. For example, someone in the Dallas post office might have spotted the letter on its way out and, based on this tip, the FBI's New York office broke in to retrieve the letter.

According to Hoover biographers Dr. Anthan G. Theoaris and John Stuart Cox, the New York office's "Surreptitious Entries" file indicates that "no radical or left-liberal organizations escaped the Director's surveillance interest, and when it came to the American left, the bureau's illegal break-ins were not used with restraint."52 According to these sensitive files, maintained "informally" in the special agent in charge's "personal" folder, the FBI did break into the FPCC offices during April 1963. As previously discussed, FBI informant reports on May 16 and 20, 1963 indicate that the FBI also had access to the FPCC by means other than breaking in.

By May 26, Oswald had been in New Orleans more than a month. On that date he sent another letter to the FPCC, requesting "formal membership" in the organization." Oswald said he had received their pamphlets, some of which he paid for. "Now that I live in New Orleans," Oswald wrote, "I have been thinking about renting a small office at my own expense for the purpose of forming a F.P.C.C. branch here in New Orleans." Then Oswald asked, "Could you grant me a charter?" Oswald also requested more information about buying large quantities of pamphlets, blank FPCC application forms, and added presumptiously, "also a picture of Fidel suitable for framing would be a welcome touch." Oswald confessed he could not "supervise the office" all of the time but that he could get volunteers to man it. "I am not saying this project would be a roaring success," he cautioned, "but I am willing to try." Oswald said that providing he had "a steady flow of literature," he would gladly pay for the office rent, which would be $30 a month.

FPCC national director Vincent Lee responded to Oswald on May 29, enclosing Oswald's FPCC membership card.' Lee encouraged Oswald's plan to form a chapter in New Orleans but suggested, "It would be hard to conceive of a chapter with as few members as seem to exist in the New Orleans area." Lee said he was not "adverse" to a small chapter, providing Oswald could get twice the number of members needed to convene a "legal" executive board. Lee advised against renting an office in New Orleans:

I definitely would not recommend an office, at least not one that will be easily identifyable[sic] to the lunatic fringe in your community. Certainly, I would not recommend that you engage in one at the very beginning but wait and see how you can operate in the community through several public experiences.55

A post office box was a "must," Lee added. The FPCC national director might have been concerned, however, if he had known that while he was composing this go-ahead letter in New York, Oswald was taking matters into his own hands in New Orleans.

On May 29, Oswald went to the Jones Printing Company at 422 Girod Street, where he ordered 1000 FPCC handbills, using the name "Osborne."' This printing company was opposite the Reily Coffee Company, where Oswald worked as a machinist. Myra Silver, the secretary at Jones Printing, told him the handbills would be ready on June 4. On June 1 Oswald dropped off a down payment of $4.00.57 On June 3, Oswald entered the offices of Mailers Service Company, where he "ordered 500 offset printed copies of an application form" from John I. Anderson. Anderson later told the FBI that the name he wrote on the bill was "Lee Osborne."' Oswald picked up his FPCC application forms "within a couple of days" from Mailers Service.

On June 3, Oswald opened a post office box-30061-in the Lafayette Square Station, located on the first floor of the Federal Building at 600 South Street.59 According to New Orleans postal inspector J. J. Zarza, "the persons designated by Oswald [besides himself] to receive mail in this Post Office box were: A. J. Hidell and Marina Oswald." On or about June 12, Oswald notified both The Militant and the Worker to use this post office box. However, the only box number that appeared on any of Oswald's FPCC and socialist literature was a false variant of Oswald's, 30016. This creates another Oswald riddle: Why did he always-without mistakeput 30061 on his letters and his change-of-address cards and, at the same time, always-and therefore without mistake-use 30016 on his FPCC handbills? He bought a stamp kit that permitted the user to manipulate the letters and numbers, meaning Oswald could easily have corrected the stamp to 30061 if he had wanted to do so. We will return to the post office box riddle shortly.

On June 4 Oswald returned to Jones Printing, where he paid off the balance of $5.89 and picked up his FPCC handbills.' The handbills contained the words "New Orleans Charter Member Branch," something Oswald had not been authorized to print, as he found out when he received Lee's May 29 letter. After picking up the handbills from Jones Printing, Oswald wrote this to Lee:

I see from the circular [handbill] I had jumped the gun on that charter business but I don't think its [sic] too important, you may think the circular is too provocative, but I want it too [sic] attract attention, even if its [sic] the attention of the lunatic fringe. I had 2000 of them run off.61

Oswald wrote this letter between June 5 and 14.62 His exaggeration of the number of handbills he ordered-the true number was 1000seems less noteworthy than the fact that he had proclaimed the existence of a "charter" FPCC branch in New Orleans.

Two other details in Oswald's early June letter to Vincent Lee merit our close attention. "As per your advice," Oswald told Lee, he had rented New Orleans P.O. Box 30061.

Against your advice, I have decided to take an office from the very beginning.... In any event I will keep you posted, even if the office stays open for only 1 month more people will find out about the F.P.C.C. than if there had never been any office at all, don't you agree?63

Lee did not agree. It was the end of the line for Oswald from Vincent Lee's point of view. He testified to the Warren Commission that he had considered Oswald's act a fundamental transgression of the FPCC bylaws and procedures. (Lee had taken the trouble to send these rules to Oswald.)

On June 8, 1963, Oswald was trying out his new stamp kit.' It was a ninety-eight-cent Warrior Rubber Stamping Kit, a picture of which was published in volume XVI of the Warren Commission exhibits.65 This exhibit includes a piece of paper on which Oswald practiced stamping. Neither the Hidell alias nor the false (30016) post office box appears on this document.

On June 10, Oswald showed off his new wares-by sending an FPCC handbill and application card-to the Worker. "I ask that you give me as much literature as you judge possible," Oswald said, "since I think it would be very nice to have your literature among the `Fair Play' leaflets (like the one enclosed) and phamplets [sic] in my office."66 On these materials Oswald did not use his stamp kit. On June 12, Oswald sent letters to the FPCC and the U.S. Navy. He sent a change-of-address card to the FPCC newspaper The Militant, changing from 4907 Magazine Street to P. O. Box 30061.67 He also sent a change-of-address card to the Naval Discharge Review Board, changing his address from 2703 Mercedes, Fort Worth (Oswald had moved from there on October 8, 1962), to New Orleans P. O. Box 30061.65 On none of this correspondence, and on none of his letters to Vincent Lee, did Oswald ever use the name Hidell.

From the available evidence, including evidence that was deliberately falsified at the Government Printing Office during the publication of the Warren Commission exhibits, there are two stamp configurations on the early handbills and pamphlets. Leaving aside the New Orleans and Louisiana part of the stamp, these two variants were "FPCC-A J Hidell P. O. Box 30016" and "FPCC 544 Camp Street." These stamps-while not conclusive-are nevertheless documentary evidence suggestive that Oswald had or pretended to have had an office for the FPCC at 544 Camp Street. What other evidence is there for this possibility?