THE COMRADE
AND
THE GOOD OLE BOY
According to the Warren Commission, Lee Harvey Oswald was in the Soviet Union
from October 1959 to June 1962. But it was the Russian-speaking "Harvey"
who traveled there. As we are about to see, the American Southerner born as
Lee Harvey Oswald was surrounded by U.S. intelligence operatives and was involved
in numerous anti-Castro activities in the United States during those very
same years.
On January 20, 1961, a man calling himself "Lee Oswald" met with Fred Sewell, manager of Bolton Ford Truck center in New Orleans. On behalf of the "Friends of Democratic Cuba," an organization whose leadership was composed largely of intelligence agents, Oswald and another man indicated they wanted to buy trucks to send to Cuba. The Bolton sales order form listed FDC and "Oswald."
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The image at left is a composite scan from the beginning and the end of the Louisiana Articles of Incorporation for Friends of Democratic Cuba, Inc. W. Guy Banister worked at the infamous 544 Camp Street address in New Orleans, made famous by the Jim Garrison investigation. Gerard Tugague employed Oswald briefly in late 1955 and early 1956 at the 300 Sanlin Building in New Orleans. |
This well-known story (see, for example, Warren Commission Document 75 p. 677 (at the Archives); House Select Committee on Assassinations Vol. X; FBI 67-39565-66 and other documents) has long been cited by JFK researchers who believed that an imposter was using Oswald's name while the alleged future assassin was in Russia. But years ago, JFK researcher John Armstrong found many more examples from old FBI reports and a few other sources indicating that Lee Oswald was active in the United States during the very years the Warren Commission placed him in the Soviet Union, a clear indication that two Oswald's were both active in American intelligence operations.
A 5/28/64 four-page FBI document (Assassination Records Review Board Record Number 104-10004-10009) is entitled: "ALLEGATIONS BY RAYMOND B. CARNEY, NEWS DIRECTOR OF RADIO STATION KBEA, MISSION, KANSAS, THAT HE BELIEVED HE WAS IN CONTACT WITH LEE HARVEY OSWALD DURING MAY, 1961." In the summer of 1961, Carney was news director of KBOX in Dallas. He told the FBI that he had met Lee Oswald not just once, but several times during that summer. Oswald, Carney said, was trying to get a list of names of pilots who had volunteered to fly Flying Tiger missions over Cuba.
See an FBI document describing the Carney incident.
In Havana in May 1961, CBS journalist Robert Taber (a Fair Play for Cuba Committee founding member) met with a "Lieutenant Oswald," who was introduced as an arms expert, and Dr. Enrique Luaces. (See "SUBJECTS: OSWALD, LEE; TABER, ROBERT POTENTIAL I.D. OF OSWALD, LEE; FAIR PLAY FOR CUBA COMMITTEE," ARRB Rec. No. 180-10031- 10352.) Dr. Luaces had no doubt that "Lieutenant Oswald" was the same man depicted on television after the assassination of JFK. (Many eyewitnesses had difficulty distinguishing "Harvey" from "Lee." )
See a U.S. Army document detailing the sighting above.
During his "Harvey and Lee" presentation at JFK Lancer's November In Dallas ‘97 symposium, John Armstrong displayed an FBI communication describing a U.S. Army report of the Havana incident. Here is the first few paragraphs of that internal FBI document:
FROM: SAC (New York)
TO: Director FBIEnclosed for each recipient is one copy of a self-explanatory Army communication dated 12.30.63 captioned Harvey Oswald.
Enclosed Army communication alleges that Oswald was in Cuba in the company of Robert Taber, former head of Fair Play for Cuba Committee (FPCC), approximately three weeks after the April 1961, Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba.
A number of different FBI documents indicate that Stephen Harris Landesberg, Earl Perry, and Oswald were involved in demonstrations in New York City in late 1961 and early 1962. (For starters, see ARRB Rec. Nos. 124-10058-10262 and 124-10164-10225 and 180-10015-10389.) Oswald took photographs of Landesberg and Perry. When Landesberg reported Oswald's participation in the demonstrations to the FBI hours after the assassination, he was accused of providing false information to the government and COMMITTED TO BELLEVUE PSYCHIATRIC CENTER IN NEW YORK!
About three years ago, John Armstrong attempted to acquire the U.S. District Court records of the case, U.S. vs. Steven Harris Landesberg. Armstrong met with Rosemary Fugnetti who was then (and remains today) archivist at the Federal District Court House at 4 Foley Square in New York City. In a series of actions prompted by Armstrong's request, Fugnetti discovered that all records of the case, including paper documents and two backup microfilm copies, had disappeared. Armstrong added: "When the FBI tried to obtain Earl Perry's records from the Marines, they were told they would first have to get clearance from the Pentagon!"
Here are some other sightings compiled by John Armstrong of Lee Oswald in the United States while "Harvey Oswald" was in Russia. From the text of Armstrong's November in Dallas ‘97 "Harvey and Lee" speech:
Lee Oswald was in New Orleans and Florida in the summer and fall of 1959. William Huffman told the FBI he saw Oswald "sometime after Castro came to power, in January 1959." Oswald and four or five Cubans fueled a 43 foot Chris Craft diesel boat at his dock. Oswald telephoned a "Ruben" in Key West, who came to the dock and paid for the fuel. "Ruben" may have been Jack Ruby, who ran guns to Castro in the late 1950's from a house in Kemah, Texas. Neighbors were quite familiar with Jack Ruby, and remember his weekend trips to Cuba in a 50 foot surplus military craft loaded with guns. Marita Lorenz met Lee Oswald at a safehouse in Miami in 1960 and saw him again at CIA training camps in the Florida everglades several times during 1960 and 1961. Former Congresswoman Clare Boothe Luce financed Cuban exile groups in the early 1960's. The Captain of one of these groups advised Luce "that (Lee) Oswald and others were involved in infiltration of communist groups in the area."
[....]
In the spring of 1961, Lee Oswald visited the Dumas and Milnes Chevrolet Dealership in New Orleans. He and salesman James Spencer had coffee at Walgreens and discussed the sale of a 1958 Chevrolet to Oswald. This Oswald--Lee Oswald--could drive and, as we shall see, had a valid Texas drivers license.
[....]
In the fall of 1961, Police Officer Charles Noto arrested Lee Oswald and Celso Hernandez on Breakwater Road on the Lakefront in New Orleans. They were brought to Levee Board Police Headquarters where, after a closed door session with Marcel Champon, the officer in charge, they were released. This 1961 arrest is very important. Two years later, in August, 1963, Celso Hernandez would again be arrested. But this time he was arrested with Harvey Oswald, who created a disturbance by handing out "Fair Play for Cuba Literature." Hernandez knew both Oswalds. [Documentation from the Noto arrest comes from the Garrison investigation, much of it available to, but buried by, the HSCA.]
--John Armstrong, 1997
In his Probe articles and in his November in NID97 and 98 presentations, Mr. Armstrong has compiled still other instances, not mentioned above, in which Lee Oswald was active in the U.S. while the Warren Commission had him in the Soviet Union. During those years, he was working with CIA operatives in New York City, New Orleans, Texas, and Florida. But even before the Bolton Ford incident mentioned at the top of this page, FBI director J. Edgar Hoover had made an important discovery, as this old hard-to-read document from June 3, 1960 attests:
The excerpts of the 6/30/1960 memo above are pretty hard to read even on a copy directly from the National Archives, and so here is what the document says:
| Date: | June 3, 1960 |
| To: | Office of Security |
| Department of State | |
| From: |
John Edgar Hoover, Director |
| Subject: | LEE HARVEY OSWALD |
| -INTERNAL SECURITY |
Since there is a possibility
that an imposter is
using Oswald's birth certificate, any current information the
Department of State may have concerning the subject will be
appreciated.
1 - Director of Naval Intelligence
Director Hoover must have found the information he was seeking soon enough. By the time of the Kennedy assassination, his FBI had no interest at all in pursuing leads of two different Oswalds.
But there were two Oswalds. One, born Lee Harvey Oswald, had a Southern U.S. accent and operated mostly in the American South while the other Oswald was in the Soviet Union. Armstrong notes that the Oswald who defected to the U.S.S.R. and was shot dead by Jack Ruby was referred to as "Harvey." He was shorter than the birth Oswald and spoke Russian from a very early age. The two Oswalds looked similar, but were not identical. Both were American intelligence agents, entangled in an operation designed to give a U.S. identity to a Russian speaking child. And both became entangled in the Kennedy assassination, the "smoke and mirrors" Jim Garrison called hallmarks of intelligence operations.
