Harvey in North Dakota
Although her letter was not released until 1992, in December 1963 Mrs. Alma
Cole wrote a letter to then-President Lyndon Johnson. In her handwritten note,
Mrs. Cole explained that her son knew Lee Harvey Oswald in the summer of 1953,
when they had played together in the town of Stanley, North Dakota. Mrs. Cole
added that even back then, Oswald was reading Communist literature. She noted
that the owner of the Stanley Cafe had a child who was even more familiar
with Oswald.
Since Oswald was supposed to be living in New York, this news apparently prompted a quick FBI interview with the son, William Henry Timmer (Mrs. Cole had divorced and remarried when William was young). Via the seven-page FBI report, William indicated that Oswald "introduced himself as 'Harv' or "Harvey" Oswald."
Readers familiar with John Armstrong's work will instantly recognize "Harvey," the Russian-speaking youth who, perhaps because he had lived in New York with Hungarian immigrants posing as Communists, spouted Communist propaganda at every opportunity.
In
her November 23, 1963 UPI story, Aline Mosby, who had interviewed Harvey in
Russia, quoted him as follows: "I still remember that pamphlet about
the Rosenbergs. I don't know why. Then we moved to North Dakota and I discovered
in the library, 'Das Kapital.' It was what I'd...."
From John Armstrong's "Harvey and Lee" presentation (NID97):
In the summer of 1953, Lee Oswald was living in the Bronx with his mother, who was employed at Lady Orva Hosiery. At the same time "Harvey Oswald" was residing in North Dakota. After the assassination, Mrs. Alma Cole wrote this letter to President Johnson informing him that her son, William Henry Timmer, had befriended Oswald in Stanley, North Dakota in 1953. Timmer told of meeting a boy in the City Park who introduced himself as Harvey Oswald. This is the first known reference to "Harvey Oswald", the person who would eventually assume the identity of Lee Oswald.
"HARVEY" spent a lot of time with Timmer during the next two months of the summer of 1953. They went swimming at the reservoir and rode their bicycles at the city park. Timmer was impressed by this kid "from the big city" who talked of gang fights in New York City and of making weapons with razor blades stuck in potatoes. "Harvey" said he had been all over the country. "Harvey" carried a pamphlet in his back pocket and on one occasion showed it to Timmer and remarked, "I'll bet you've never seen anything like this". It was a pamphlet on Marxism. Where would he get such a pamphlet? From his father and his uncle, who were, according to the woman who spoke with Mrs. Tippit, "Hungarians and spent all of their time on Communist activities". These people may have acted like Communists, but in reality they were probably agents provocateur and their mission was to uncover and identify domestic Communists.
Oswald told Aline Mosby, in a 1959 interview in Moscow, that after living in New York "we moved to North Dakota". Mosby's interview appeared in newspaper articles in 1959, and is mentioned in FBI reports. When Oswald was arrested in August, 1963 in New Orleans, he was interviewed by Lt. Francis Martello. He told Martello that he had moved from New York to North Dakota. Clearly, someone named Harvey Oswald was in North Dakota in the summer of 1953. However, there are no references to Timmer or Oswald in North Dakota in the Warren Commission Volumes.
[. . . .]
Lee Oswald, the 5'4" southern boy, moved to New York in 1952 and was teased by his classmates for his southern accent and for wearing blue jeans. "Harvey", who already lived in New York, was the 4'6" kid interviewed by Dr. Kurian, photographed at the Bronx Zoo, and unrecognized by John Pic. "Harvey" moved to North Dakota in the summer of 1953 and then to New Orleans where he was teased for his New York accent and attacked while sitting in the back of a bus with "negroes".
-- John Armstrong, 1997
See all seven pages of the FBI report prompted by Mrs. Coles' letter to President
Johnson
