Oswald October 22 - 23, 1962

 

JFK October 20 - 22, 1962

 

Lone Nut or Terrorist Attack?

 

Detectives remove boxes and files from the New Jersey apartment of El Sayyid Nosair, Rabbi Kahane's assassin, who was at first labeled a "lone nut."

LONE NUT OR TERRORIST ATTACK?

One question that always comes to mind when a catastrophic event occurs is whether it is an accident or a terrorist attack.

If the Pan Am 103 had exploded over the ocean instead of Lockerbie, Scotland, so the evidence could be accumulated, history may have recorded it as an airline accident rather than a terrorist attack.

Was the South Korean warship sunk by accident or an attack by a North Korean submarine?

Was the initial explosion of the BP oil rig in the Gulf an accident or sabotage?

The medical examiner in Dubai was about to declare the assassinated Hamas leader’s death a heart attack until someone identified the victim, and the assassination team was exposed by surveillance videos.

When spree killing mass murders like the Beltway Sniper, the Virginia Tech killer or the Fort Hood madman cut loose, the first thing we want to know is whether it’s a Lone Nut or a Terrorist Attack.

The Rabbi Meir Kahane case.

On November 5, 1990, the founder of the Jewish Defense League Rabbi Meir Kahane was shot by 35 year old Egyptian militant El Sayyid Nosair in the ballroom of the Marriott Hotel in midtown Manhattan. The assassination was videotaped as Nosair shot Kahane with a .357 Magnum revolver and yelled, “It’s Allah’s will,” before fleeing, escaping in a cab and shooting a policeman who tried to stop him.

Sound familiar?

Well shortly thereafter the chief of NYPD detectives Joseph Borelli called a press conference to announce that Kahane’s murder was the work of “one, deranged gunman” and had no ties to “known terrorists or Middle East conspiracies.”

This was despite the fact that it had already been established Nosair had an accomplice at the hotel, a getaway driver in a taxi, and two former Arab roommates who acknowledged they too were at the hotel at the time of the assassination, and were taken into custody.

When Borelli asked the lead investigator Lt. Edward Norris if “this was the work of one man?” Norris responded, “Absolutly not.”

But when Norris began to tell Borelli about the two roommates in custody, Borrelli said, “You, shut up. You do murder cases. They (the FBI) do conspiracies.” Borrelli then told Norris he didn’t have enough evidence to hold the roommates and was told to let them go.

Before the day was out however, detectives had discovered Nosair’s other apartment in New Jersey, from where they removed 16 boxes of files, training manuals from the Army Special Warfare School at Fort Bragg, copies of teletypes to the Secretary of the Army and Joint Chiefs of Staff, bomb making manuals, maps of major landmarks, including the Statute of Liberty, Rockefeller Center and the World Trade Center, and an assassination hit list.

According to John Miller, “On the third day after the shooting, while Norris was out to lunch, the FBI removed Nosair’s 16 boxes of files from Norris’ squad room. Unfortunately, the evidence was about to enter a black hole. The FBI now says it turned the files over to the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, after it was decided, following a series of meetings and phone calls, that the local prosecutor and the NYPD would have exclusive jurisdiction over the murder case…The bulk of the material remained untranslated and unread for nearly three years.”

“Many officials, Norris among them, have since claimed that he files provided a virtual road map to future terrorist acts, including the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. Along with the military documents, the bomb manuals, and the diagrams and photos of New York landmarks, the Nossair papers contained a manifesto exhorting his associates to toppled the ‘tall buildings of which Americans are so proud.’”

“Of course, even without the files, Eddie Norris never believed Kahane’s assassination was the work of a lone gunman. Just given the little he had learned during those first few days after the shooting, Norris felt that Nosair was involved in something much larger, something that would come back to haunt law enforcement – hell, even the whole city….In fact, in any attempt to understand the events of September 11, 2001, it makes sense to begin with El Sayid Nosair. That’s where the law enforcement aspect of the September 11 story began, and when American law enforcement agencies first revealed themselves to be institutionally ill-equipped for the war this new enemy had brought to U.S. shores.”

As Miller tried to explain, “Now this may come as a surprise, but I consider Joe Borelli to be a friend of mine…But back in 1991 he was a loyal general, not a revolutionary, and the prevailing theory in the NYPD was, ‘Don’t make waves.’ That is why a commander in those days who uncovered corruption was blamed for causing scandal rather than rewarded for cleaning house. And why a commander who called the media’s attention to a serial rape suspect was rebuked for bringing pressure on the department instead of being applauded for warning the public. So in the Nosair case, when Chief Borelli turned a blind eye to the obvious, he was merely remaining true to the culture of the NYPD. The thinking was, don’t take a high-profile homicide case that could be stamped ‘solved’ and turn it into an unsolved conspiracy. To do so would create a lot of extra work. Instead of getting the press and Jewish community stirred up about the bad guys still out there, it was just so much simpler to say, the bad guy got Kahane, we got the bad guy, and it’s all over. No pressure, no panic, no more headlines.”

It was later determined that the special operations military manuals and Joint Chiefs of Staff memos found in Nosair’s Jersey apartment, belonged to one Ali Mohammad, a former Egyptian army officer who had enlisted in the US Army and was an instructor at the special forces school at Fort Bragg and Quantico - an al Quada infiltrator a decade before 9/11.

This is the reason why all of the government records related to the assassination of President Kennedy must be released to the public, why Congress must carry out its oversight responsibilities and why grand juries should be convened in the appropriate jurisdictions to determine the truth and whether justice can still be served. The effort must be made in the name of national security and to prevent such political assassinations from happening again.

Just as the Kahane assassination set the stage for 9/11, and could have possibly prevented additional terrorist attacks had the murder been properly investigated, the assassination of President Kennedy represents something much larger, and had it been properly investigated, could possibly have prevented other political assassinations.

And until the issue is addressed, the assassination of President Kennedy is something that will continue to come back and haunt us until it is resolved to a legal and moral certainty.



1) The Cell –Inside the 9/11 Plot and Why the FBI and CIA Failed to Stop It (Hyperion, NY, 2002, by John Miller, Michael Stone, Chris Mitchell). P. 36-48
2) Coverup – What the Government is Still Hiding About the War on Terror (Regan Books-Harper Collins, 2005) P. 27

El Sayyid Nosair

 

CNVA Quebec - Guantamano Peace March

 

http://www.maryferrell.org/mffweb/archive/viewer/showDoc.do?docId=11127&relPageId=3


And Robert, thanks for the Quebec to Guantamano Peace March photos.

In the meantime, I learned that Will Weston wrote an article about all this that was published in Probe, a article that I missed, but got Weston to send to me. I also sent it to Jimmy D., and if he posts it I will run links to it, and will also mention what issue of Probe the article appeared in.

In any case, this is a very important article for a number of reasons, some of which Weston himself doesn't know, but he brings out some very interesting items - like the first march went through Minsk when Oswald and Marina were there, and after the appearances of "Oswald" with the marchers in Canada, there's TWO sightings of "Oswald" in Scranton and Philadelphia, and guess who gets to Philly at the same time as the marchers? Ruth Paine. Too much. There's more to this than meets the eye, but you'll have to digest this first.

Thanks to William Weston and Jim DiEugenio.

http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=6548&pid=201372&st=45&#entry201372

BK

Oswald: Peace Activist in Pennsylvania?
By William Weston

About two weeks after the assassination of President Kennedy, a 47-year-old minister named Irwin Tucker entered the police station in Scranton, Pennsylvania and spoke with Anthony Batsavage, the Superintendent of Police. Tucker had just returned from a three-week tour of missionary duty among the Indians in Ontario, Canada. He said that he had been staying at the home of a relative in New Liskeard, when he had heard about the shooting in Dallas. That same night he was watching the evening news for further details, when he saw a picture of the accused assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald. Tucker immediately recognized that face. He was certain that he had seen this man about five months previously in downtown Scranton with a group of peace demonstrators. [1]

The demonstration was located on a street corner of Courthouse Square. Tucker had been listening to the demonstrators for a considerable period of time, because he was interested in hearing their views. Oswald was among this group passing out leaflets. He remembered him in particular, for he got into a heated discussion with him. As he would later put it, the young man kept "running down our country" and he was arguing that "President Kennedy was not doing right by Cuba." Tucker lost his patience with this unpatriotic tirade and told the young man that if liked Castro's Cuba so much, he ought to move over there.

When a Scranton reporter heard about this story, he went to Batsavage to ask for his opinion regarding the clergyman's credibility. The superintendent said that he had personally known Tucker for many years and that he regarded him as "a serious, reputable man."

The Scranton peace demonstrations that had taken place from July 22 through July 25, 1963 consisted mostly of young people, about forty in number. They carried signs, which bore the peace symbol - an upside-down broken cross within a circle - and messages such as "Your conscience demands it - REFUSE to serve in the ARMED FORCES." Other signs reflected a concern for the problem of Cuba: "Soviet Troops and U.S. Marines: Leave Cuba" and "Demand Freedom to Visit Cuba."

The rally on Monday evening began with folk singing and then proceeded into speeches. A crowd of about 200 to 300 people came out to listen to them. As the rally went on, hecklers in the audience became more hostile and disruptive. Some of the hecklers protested that the demonstrators were desecrating the memory of "our boys" who have died in Vietnam and if they don't love America they should leave it. The intensity of the hostility would have turned ugly had not the police moved in to break up the demonstration. [2] It was a scene that would become a familiar sight on television newscasts during the Johnson and Nixon Administrations.

The First Hippie

The peace demonstrators in Scranton were the forerunners of the "hippie" movement ©- a phenomenon that would later become a prominent feature of the American cultural landscape. It is interesting to note that Oswald's friend, George de Mohrenschildt, once made the statement that Oswald was ahead of his time and that if the course of events had been different, he would have been among the first hippies. [3] While the image of Oswald as a longhaired, pot-smoking flower child may seem incongruous, I believe de Mohrenschildt was right. Oswald would indeed have been among them, but not as a true believer. As his close ties to such right wing fanatics as Guy Banister and David Ferrie indicate, he would have been an informant or an agent provocateur. His leftist political activity was really a masquerade to subvert the cohesion and integrity of the organizations he claimed to be serving.

J.H.C.

The story of his presence at a peace rally in Scranton becomes even more interesting in light of another report that he was meeting with members of the Fair Play for Cuba Committee (FPCC) at another peace rally in Philadelphia. Someone who only identified himself as "J.H.C." had dropped off a postcard at radio station WPEN in Philadelphia shortly after the assassination and had addressed it to talk show host Red Benson. As indicated below, the hand-written message contained several errors in punctuation and spelling.

Why, has no one checked out this. Lee Oswald [underscored by the writer] was at our meeting this summer here at. Rittenhouse Sq. Check this by Fairmont guards who know about out F.P.T.C meeting. They saw Lee

J.H.C.

In an envelope postmarked "Philadelphia, November 26, 1963" and addressed to "Special Att. Dis. Atty HENRY WADE, Dallas, Tex." the following letter was enclosed:
Phila. Pa.
Mr. Wade:
Will this help you?

Read it:

This summer, we had a meeting of "Fair Play" at Rittenhouse sq. this city. (Check by the guards of Fairmont park. they will recall such.

Lee was, there with us. I have pictures of this meeting to prove such. Lee needed some money, and he got some from a night club party, called "Sparky in Dallas, and so help us, if Ruby says he did not know us, he lies.

A copy of this is being given Sec. Service, as we have photos to prove such Lee. was here this summer and I know Ruby enough to get [missing copy here] Mr Red Benson WPEN, can tell you about Fair play meeting, at park this summer.

Apparently this letter arrived anonymously, yet it must have been written by the same person who wrote the postcard to the Philadelphia radio station. To determine the identity of J.H.C., the FBI checked with the producer of the Red Benson Show. He said that neither he nor Benson knew who J.H.C. was. Of the documents that I could find, there is no mention of whether or not the FBI had been successful in locating J.H.C. Neither do these documents reveal whether or not Benson, the producer, or the Fairmont guards were questioned about what they knew concerning Oswald's presence at a pro-Castro meeting in Rittenhouse Square. One document however does record a statement by the inspector of the Fairmont guards who said that, according to their records, "the only affair held in Rittenhouse Square that could in any way pertain to Cuba, the Cuban situation, or the Fair Play for Cuba Committee was a demonstration on August 15, 1963 put on by the Quebec-Washington-Guantanamo Walk for Peace." [4] This was the same group of peace demonstrators that was in Scranton a few weeks before.

From Canada to Cuba

Both rallies in Scranton and Philadelphia were part of a grand project of a pacifist organization called the Committee for Non-Violent Action (CNVA). The man in charge of CNVA was A.J. Muste, a renowned pacifist, whose ideals of non-violent civil disobedience profoundly influenced such civil rights leaders as Martin Luther King and CORE leader, Bayard Rustin. [5]

To dramatize the need to end the Cold War by unilateral nuclear disarmament and also to reduce tensions with Cuba, the CNVA had conceived the idea of delivering its message via a transcontinental walking tour from Canada to Cuba. The Quebec-Washington-Guantanamo Walk for Peace was strictly a long-distance foot march, accompanied only by a pickup truck to carry sleeping bags, food, water and supplies. It would begin in the city of Quebec and was expected to reach Miami, Florida in seven months. From Miami, a boat would be taken to Havana, Cuba - either with or without the permission of the United States. From Havana they would walk 700 miles to the U.S. Naval Base at Guantanamo, where they would hold their final demonstration, calling for the closure of the base. Covering an average of 15 miles a day, they would stop at various towns or cities along the way, where they would give speeches or pass out leaflets. Any local people sympathetic to their cause would be invited to join the walk for as far as they wanted. Any organizations, which had similar goals (such as the FPCC), were invited to participate. [6]

The project opened with a brief public meeting in a central plaza in historic Quebec City on May 26. By June 9 they were in Montreal, where they spent several days doing demonstrations. It was here that the walkers had Oswald among them for the first time. According to a lead provided to the FBI by an attorney in Windsor, Ontario, Oswald participated in a "ban-the-bomb" protest in Montreal. [7] Another citizen in Seattle said that Oswald was in Montreal with the head of the FPCC. [8] There is also a March 26, 1964 report of a letter from the senior customs representative in Montreal in which it was stated, "several persons had contacted his office and stated that Lee Oswald had been seen distributing pamphlets entitled `Fair Play for Cuba,' on St. Jacques and McGill Streets in Montreal during the summer of 1963." [9]

In an attempt to counter the customs official's letter regarding the Oswald sightings in Montreal, an April 8, 1964 letter was written to the Warren Commission from J. Edgar Hoover, which said: "For your information, the records of the William Reily and Company, Incorporated, New Orleans, Louisiana, reflect that Oswald was on the job Monday through Friday of the week June 3 through 7, 1963, and that he was also on the job all of the following week, June 10 through 14, 1963." As I have pointed out in another article last year, Oswald's attendance records at the coffee company were falsified to conceal the fact that he hardly ever came to work. [10] The job was really a cover to hide his wide-ranging political activities.

After the peace walkers left Montreal, they reached the border of the United States by the latter part of June. In the next two months they crossed the states of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland. By the end of August they were in Washington, D.C. where they participated in the massive civil rights demonstration led by Martin Luther King. This event marked a turning point for the peace walkers, for after their departure from the capitol, their focus shifted from issues of foreign policy to that of racial equality. As they advanced deeper into the southern states, their racially integrated ranks aroused an increasing antagonism among deeply committed segregationists. While passing through Georgia, their progress was interrupted in three towns, where they were put in jail for violating segregation laws. They were frequently insulted, harassed, or pelted with debris.

When they finally reached Miami, they spent several months besieging a State Department office in the city, trying to get permission to go to Cuba. When all legal avenues were finally exhausted, six of the remaining walkers got into a powerboat on October 27, 1964 and started for Havana. They were stopped by the U.S. Coast Guard, which seized their boat and kept it impounded. This defeat put an end to the peace walkers' efforts to get to Cuba.

From start to finish the Quebec to Guantanamo Walk for Peace was organized and led by CNVA coordinator, Bradford J. Lyttle. Two years earlier he had led an even more ambitious Walk for Peace that began in San Francisco on December 20, 1960 and finished up in Moscow on October 3, 1961. Strangely enough, it was while the peace walkers were going through Russia, that they might have been seen by Lee Harvey Oswald, who was living in Minsk at the time. It would therefore be relevant to go into some detail regarding the first Walk for Peace. [11]

The First Walk for Peace

A group of about twenty walkers, more or less, began its walk south towards the city of Los Angeles. There they heard an address by Nobel Prize laureate Linus Pauling, who was also a leader in the peace movement. From Los Angeles, they walked through thirteen states, stopping at towns, cities or military bases to hold demonstrations. When they reached Washington, DC a delegation of the peace walkers was granted a 45-minute interview with White House political advisor, Arthur J. Schlesinger. From Washington, they went to New York City, where they took a plane flight to England. After joining with British peace organizations in a big nuclear disarmament rally in London's Trafalgar Square, they took a boat to Belgium (France having denied them entry).

Their march across the European continent advanced unchecked into the Iron Curtain countries. The effect of these peace walkers upon the Communist-controlled populace must have been electrifying. It marked the first time that anyone was allowed to carry placards and distribute leaflets urging young men to resist the draft or demanding that the Soviet Union stop the development of nuclear weapons. Whenever they stopped in a town to hold a rally, as many as 1000 to 1500 people would come out to welcome them.

On September 22, 1961 they arrived in the city of Minsk. In the center of the city they saw one of the few monuments to Josef Stalin remaining in the Soviet Union. The huge, 10-ton, bronze statue was a city landmark and it was near the Oswalds' apartment building. Marina used to pass by this statue while riding on a bus to work. One of the peace walkers later wrote down the following words regarding his impression of Minsk:

The streets were filled with serious, silent, humbly friendly, almost shy people . . . Most people reacted with noncommittal fascination and amazement. But there was, as in every other country, every other variety of reaction. Some people grasped our hands and shook them heartily, or beamed admiration. Others refused leaflets. . . . A few people walked along with us. Quite a few officials who were with us seemed apprehensive that the crowd might grow to unmanageable proportions, and they kept things circulating, according to reports. Nevertheless, there were large numbers all along our route through the broad streets and past the massive, classic buildings . . . [12]

That same evening, they held a meeting at the Friendship House. A Newsweek reporter from Moscow was also in attendance and the following is an excerpt from his report:

Jerry Lehman of Mokena, Ill., speaking through an interpreter, told an audience of boisterous Russians: "We hope you'll say to your leaders what we said to ours - that no government which urges development of nuclear weapons and tests them is sane." This struck the Russians as funny and they roared with laughter. But after Lyttle had followed Lehman on the speaker's stand there was a different reaction. "I went to jail," Lyttle said, "because I refused to serve in the U.S. Army. I have protested against American rockets aimed at your cities and families. There are Soviet rockets aimed at my city and my family. Are you demonstrating against that?" There were murmurs in the crowd and a dark-haired girl shook her head. Obviously she had not heard anyone publicly ask that question in quite that way before. [13]

It is hard to believe that Lee and Marina was indifferent to this intrepid band of American pacifists, especially since America was so much on their minds at this time. Lee was making repeated visits to bureaucratic agencies in order to speed up the process of getting exit visas to return to the United States. His mother was sending copies of Time magazine, which he pored over eagerly. Yet despite the momentousness of the arrival of the peace walkers, they receive no mention in any of the Oswald sources. It is not as if this period of time is unrecorded. In a letter to the American Embassy dated October 4, 1961, Oswald said that his wife Marina had been hospitalized for a five-day period beginning September 22. This was the same day the peace walkers came into Minsk. In the letter, Oswald demanded that the Embassy launch an official inquiry, for he claimed that Marina's hospitalization was due to a nervous condition, resulting from intimidation by local authorities, who were trying to get her to withdraw her application for an exit visa.

The statements in the above mentioned letter were later contradicted by Marina when she denied to the Warren Commission that she had ever been hospitalized in 1961. This denial was reversed in Priscilla MacMillan's book, Marina and Lee, in which Marina said that she remembered going to the hospital "around September 20." It was not the result of intimidation, but rather she had been riding a bus to work and she had succumbed to the exhaust fumes. [14] These conflicting statements in combination with the complete silence regarding the peace walkers themselves raise questions marks about the importance of this episode in the lives of the Oswalds. The changing stories, especially in light of Priscilla McMillan's and the peace walkers presence, need to be explained.

After spending a few days in the vicinity of Minsk, the peace walkers resumed their march on Moscow. On October 3, they stumbled footsore and utterly exhausted into Red Square, where an enthusiastic crowd awaited them. It was an extraordinary triumph. 3900 miles across the United States and 1750 miles across the continent of Europe. In Russia alone, over 80,000 leaflets were distributed. It could hardly have been possible without the shuttle diplomacy efforts of A.J. Muste, who regularly performed miracles in shepherding the walkers past bureaucratic roadblocks.

In the ensuing years of the 1960's Muste continued to use his energy and talents in the cause of world peace. In February 1967, at the age of 82, he died a few days before he was to launch an anti-war campaign called the Spring Mobilization against the Vietnam War. This massive demonstration drew to the UN Plaza of New York over 300,000 people. On this occasion Martin Luther King gave an address denouncing American policy in Vietnam.

The official commemoration service of Muste's death was held at the Friends Meeting House in New York. Although Muste was technically a Presbyterian minister, his real spiritual home was among the Quakers. The Quakers were the most active supporters of Muste's CNVA. To those participating in the peace walks, they provided food, lodging, assistance, publicity, and meeting places. [15]

The Quaker Connections

Muste's ties to the Quaker church leads us to consider the Quaker connections of one of the most visible figures to emerge from the events surrounding the JFK assassination. Ruth Paine told the Warren Commission that she first became interested in the Society of Friends in 1947. In 1955 she was a chairman of the Young Friends of North America Committee, a student exchange program between the Soviet Union and the United States. [16]

What gives the connection even more weight is the fact that Wesley Liebeler asked Ruth's non-Quaker husband Michael a startling series of questions about the walk during the Warren Commission hearings. The queries reveal that Liebeler and the Commission knew and were interested in the march, its organizers, and the Quaker connection.

Mr. Liebeler: Are you acquainted with an organization known as the Friends Peace Committee?
Mr. Paine: It is a familiar name. I guess not, though. I don't think I have been to a meeting of theirs.
Mr. Liebeler: Do you know if it is connected in any way with the Young Friends Committee of North America?
Mr. Paine: I take it to be a Friend, you know, a Quaker committee, but I believe it is connected.
Mr. Liebeler: Do you know a gentleman by the name of Dennis Jamieson, who I believe is active in the Friends Peace Committee? Mr. Paine: I don't think so.
Mr. Liebeler: Or George Lakey.
Mr. Paine: For particle purposes, no. The names seem a little familiar but I can't place them.
Mr. Liebeler: Do you have any recollection of the connection in which it is familiar to you?
Mr. Paine: No.
Mr. Liebeler: Are you familiar with the Committee for Non-Violent Action?
Mr. Paine: Many of these things sound familiar. I don't - I really am saying no. [17]

In typical double-talk fashion, Michael Paine avoided giving straight yes or no answers to Liebeler's questions. Had Liebeler addressed these same questions to Ruth, he might have gotten more interesting responses. Yet as far as the public record is concerned, she was never asked.

Nevertheless, Michael's admission of a connection between the Young Friends of North America Committee and the Friends Peace Committee is sufficient ground for putting Ruth in association with those who were actively involved in the Walk for Peace. The George Lakey mentioned above was the executive secretary of the Friends Peace Committee and he served as the principal host for the peace walkers during their stay in Philadelphia. [18] The Dennis Jamieson mentioned above was the chairman of the Friends Peace Committee and he served as chief publicist for the march as it went through Pennsylvania. In a Scranton news photo of a group of peace walkers on the steps of the YMCA, he could be seen next to Bradford Lyttle, holding a sign that read "Quebec-Washington-Guantanamo Walk for Peace." [19]

It is quite possible that Ruth Paine had joined with her Quaker friends to give assistance to the peace walkers. During her cross-country summer vacation trip with her two children, her wide-ranging itinerary landed her near Philadelphia precisely two days before the peace walkers got there. [20] She was visiting Michael's mother and stepfather, Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Young, who lived in Paoli, a town about 30 miles west of Philadelphia. During her month long stay in Paoli, she had visited with her Quaker friends in Philadelphia. Whether or not she got involved in Walk for Peace meetings during these visits, she did not say. [21]

A second instance of an opportunity to join in peace walk activities occurred in Washington, DC during the big civil rights demonstration. Ruth Paine had come to the capitol for a few days to visit her sister and also a family known as the Houghtons. According to the Houghtons, she had actually attended the demonstration during her stay in Washington. [22] Once again Ruth's itinerary had crossed paths with the peace walkers' route of march.

Since Ruth considered herself a pacifist, it would be natural to assume that she would be among those professing sympathy for the peace walkers. Certainly there would be no reason for her to reject an invitation to join them for the peace rally at Rittenhouse Square on August 15 or the Washington civil rights rally on August 28.

If Ruth Paine found reason enough to be attracted to the peace walkers because of their activism in promoting world peace, her friend Lee Harvey Oswald would have been drawn to them for the same reason. He was an advocate of peaceful coexistence between the United States and the Soviet Union and he fully approved of President Kennedy's efforts to bring peace to the world and to end the cold war. "If he succeeds," he once said to his friend George de Mohrenschildt, "he will be the greatest president in the history of this country." [23]

Another reason why he would have been interested in the Walk for Peace was its emphasis on improving relations between Cuba and the United States. He certainly would have approved of their positions regarding American policy toward Cuba. As stated in a Philadelphia newspaper, "The peace walkers ask the U.S. to give up an intention to support an invasion of Cuba, stop reconnaissance flights over the island, end travel and trade restrictions, guarantee economic and technical assistance to Cuba through the UN." It is quite probable that Oswald would not even have objected to the demands directed toward Cuba. "They ask Cuba for withdrawal of foreign military personnel and weapons, renounce all intention of military intervention in other nation's affairs, end restrictions on the political freedom of Cubans, encourage its people to visit the U.S." [24]

A third reason why he would have been sympathetic to the peace walkers is their strong stand against racial injustice. According to de Mohrenschildt, Oswald said "It hurts me that the blacks do not have the same privileges and rights as white Americans." He admired Kennedy's efforts to end segregation and he also "greatly admired Dr. Martin Luther King and agreed with his program . . . he frequently talked of Dr. King with a real reverence." [25]

Overshadowing these noble sentiments on world peace and racial equality is the reference to Jack Ruby in J.H.C.'s letter to Henry Wade. What is the true nature of the association between the salacious night club owner and the virtuous political activist? It is common knowledge that Ruby's friends in the criminal underworld hated Castro for closing down the Havana gambling casinos. It is also known that Ruby served as the paymaster for anti-Castro operations. Why then would Oswald solicit money from Ruby?

The letter from J.H.C. strips off the leftist masquerade and exposes Oswald's true intentions. The man who supposedly grieved over racial inequalities was the same one who continued to have a working association with such fanatical segregationists as Guy Banister. The man who professed sympathy for Castro was the same one who stamped on his leaflets the address of an anti-Castro center, 544 Camp Street. And finally, the man who said that he admired President Kennedy for his efforts to bring peace to the world and to end racial segregation was the same man who willingly served as the lynchpin in a conspiracy that ended the President's life.

If Oswald's professed ideology turned out to be a sham, what does that tell us about the professed piety of the Quaker woman who sheltered him and his family during the six critical weeks prior to the assassination? Was Ruth Paine really just a simple housewife, who had no inkling of the unsavory characters that Oswald had been spending a lot of his time with? Are there hidden motives behind the amiable Quaker facade? In a highly important article for Probe, authors Carol Hewett, Steve Jones, and Barbara LaMonica reveal how Ruth Paine has been suspected of being a government informant by her peers in the peace movement. [26] It is relevant to mention at this point that Sylvia Hoke, the sister whom she stayed with during the 1963 Washington civil rights demonstration, was an employee of the CIA - an agency that has no scruples in violating the civil rights of public and private citizens. It is also noteworthy to mention that the tax returns of Ruth and Michael Paine still remain closely guarded classified secrets.

The Quebec-Washington-Guantanamo Walk for Peace, as well as the predecessor that went to Moscow, are mostly forgotten in historical works dealing with the 1960's. They hardly rate even a footnote. Yet the power of this small band of peripatetic pacifists must have worried some major political interests enough to bring upon them the full encumbrance of such undercover heavyweights as Lee Oswald, Jack Ruby, and Ruth Paine.

ENDNOTES

1. The Scranton Times, December 11 and 12, 1963. The second newspaper article mentions a local resident named Gloria Glickman who said that she had been among the peace walkers and she was sure that Oswald was not among them. But since the peace walkers were in Scranton for several days and since they sometimes split up into teams to protest at different warmaking industries around the city, it is quite possible that Glickman was not at the right place and time to see Oswald.

2. The Scranton Times, July 22, 23, 24, 25, 1963.

3. Dick Russell, The Man Who Knew Too Much (New York: Carroll & Graf, 1992), p. 277.

4. FBI report dated 12/5/63 of letter to Henry Wade in Dallas by SA James Bookhout and SA George W.H. Carlson; FBI report dated 12/4/63 of an interview with Theodore Reinhart, producer of the Red Benson Show in Philadelphia by SA Mason P. Smith; FBI report dated 12/3/63 of an interview with Inspector Philip Cella, Fairmont Park Guard, Philadelphia by SA Edward A. Smith. There is a difference of only a single day between Oswald's appearance in Philadelphia on August 15 and his appearance in New Orleans on August 16, where he was seen passing out FPCC leaflets in front of the International Trade Mart. To travel the 1225 miles between the two cities in one day could only have been accomplished by airplane.

5. Jo Ann Robinson, Abraham Went Out: A Biography of A.J. Muste (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1981), p. 117

6. Robinson, Abraham Went Out, pp. 125-128, 185-186.

7. CD 45, p. 3.

8. CD389, 349.

9. CD 729.

10. See "Budreau's Music and Appliance Store" in the July 1996 issue of The Fourth Decade.

11. The most detailed account of this march is Bradford J. Lyttle's book You Come with Naked Hands: The Story of the San Francisco to Moscow Walk for Peace (Raymond, New Hampshire: Greenleaf Books, 1966).

12. Lyttle, You Come with Naked Hands, p. 196.

13. Newsweek, October 8, 1963.

14. Priscilla MacMillan, Marina and Lee (New York: Harper and Row, 1977), pp. 155-157, 592.

15. Robinson, Abraham Went Out, pp. 220-223.

16. WC Vol. III, pp. 133-135.

17. WC Vol. II, p. 388.

18. The Philadelphia Daily News, August 13, 1963.

19. The Scranton Times, July 22, 1963.

20. WC Vol. XVI, p. 280.

21. WC Vol. III, p. 3.

22. Information provided by researcher Steve Jones in a presentation at the COPA Conference, October 21, 1995.

23. George de Mohrenschildt, I Am a Patsy! an unpublished manuscript in HSCA Vol. XII, pp. 133, 147.

24. Philadelphia Daily News, August 13, 1963.

25. de Mohrenschildt, I Am a Patsy! pp. 127, 146, 198.

26. "Ruth Paine: Social Activist or Contra Support Networker" by Carol Hewett, Barbara LaMonica and Steve Jones in the July-August 1996 issue of Probe.

DC Cuban Demonstration

 

Steve & Anne in MC

 

Steve & Moni's Mom in Mexico City

Caroline & JFK

 

JFK's Day Book - October 20, 1962

 

JFK's National Security Council

 

Rendezvous at Dealey Plaza Part III

Rendezvous At Dealey Plaza - Part III – Sorjourn in New Orleans

April – September 24, 1963

The Story Thus Far

In Rendezvous With Death At Dealey Plaza Part I I followed JFK’s October 5, 1962 morning meeting with his National Security Council in the Rose Garden at the White House when young daughter Caroline Kennedy interrupted to recite the President’s favorite Poem, “Rendezvous With Death,” a provocative prequel to the encroaching Cuban Missile Crisis, which took the world to the brink of nuclear destruction.
The story was brought to my attention by James Douglas, who recounts it in his book “JFK and the Unthinkable – Why He Died and Why It Matters” and presents the dichotomy of the way the assassination is viewed, either as the divorced from reality act of a lone nut madman, or a well planned out and executed covert operation by those who took over the reign of power with the murder of Kennedy.

It can’t be both, and must be one or the other, and it is with the following of the poem and the actions and activities of the President and his alleged assassin over the period before they came together, especially the forces that moved them, that we come to understand what really happened and how it happened, not only why.
The records reflect that it was on that day, October 5, 1962, when Caroline read her poem, that Lee Harvey Oswald cashed a check from the Leslie Welding Company, in Dallas, Texas, where Oswald had been working since the previous June, shortly after he returned to the United States from the Soviet Union with his Russian wife and baby. Oswald got the job through Mrs. Virginia Hale, of the Texas Employment Commission, where he also met Mrs. Hall, who permitted Marina and the baby to live at her home and saw to their general welfare, including providing food, money and dental care. Mrs. Hall also became the Godmother for the baby, who without the knowledge of Oswald, was baptized in her church, the Old Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia.

While Mrs. Hale’s twin sons would break into the apartment of JFK mistress Judyth Cambell Extner, under the eyes of an FBI stakeout team, and one of them would become involved with and accused of murdering the daughter of Texas governor John Connnally, Mrs. Hall took over responsibility for the returning defector after George Bouhe and Paul Raoridsky had “kept the files on newcomers,” to the White Russian Orthodox Church.

From Mrs. Hall, as Bill Simpich details in his article (Oswald’s Handlers), the Oswalds were passed on to George DeMohrenschildt and then handed off to the Paines, Ruth and Michael, who took them in under their wing and were responsible for if not knowledgeable of the movements of the Oswalds, from apartment to apartment, home to WMCA, to New Orleans and back again, carrying the rifle said to have been used to kill the President.

As detailed in Rendezvous II, after quitting his job at Leslie Welding, where he was in line for a promotion, Oswald got a new job through the Texas Employment Commission, this time with Jaggers/Chiles/Stoval, a graphic arts firm who did work for the Army Map Service and the Bloom Advertising Agency, who helped plan the motorcade. In fact, the technicians at J/C/S placed the arrows and captions on U2 photos of Russia and Cuba, during the Cuban Missile Crisis. And Oswald was working on the Bloom account at J/C/S when he was supposed to be mail ordering and picking up the weapons from the Post Office. Bloom also played a major role, as we shall see, in the planning of the Dallas trip, the selection of the Trade Mart and the route of the motorcade, that would be instrumental in the rendezvous at Dealey Plaza.

At a party arranged by George DeMohrenschildt for the Oswalds to meet the Paines, Marina meets Ruth Paine, while Oswald has a long conversation with Volkmar Schmidt, a Magnolia Oil Co. geologist from Germany who talks to Oswald about the Valkyrie plot to kill Hitler and asks Oswald if such fascists should be assassinatd before they become too powerful, giving Gen. Edwin Walker as an example. Shortly thereafter Oswald orders the rifle, having already ordered a pistol the previous January, both of which, inexplicity arrive at the Dallas PO box on the same day. Oswald had taken out the PO box for the purpose of getting his back checks from Leslie Welding, and then used the box to subscribe to Communist publications, the State Department, Russian Embassy and the United States Navy, for whom he offered to reenlist.

Oswald then poses for some photos of himself holding the two weapons said to have been used to kill the President and officer Tippitt, and the two Communist publications – the Worker and the Militant, and is implicated in the failed attempt to shoot Gen. Walker. Oswald is said to have cased, staked out and taken photos of the area around Walker’s house, and kept a blue notebook of events that involved the Walker Shooting, a notebook he burned and flushed down the toilet.

By the end of April, weeks after the Walker shooting, Oswald was never considered an official suspect in that case, even though his FBI case officer (Hosty) was involved in the investigation.

Nevertheless, DeMohrenschildt did suspect Oswald and joked to him about it, and Oswald suddenly decides to relocate to New Orleans, his original hometown.
Asking Mrs. Paine to drive them to the bus station with all their belongings, Mrs. Paine convinces Oswald to allow Marina to stay with her at her house in Irving while he goes on to New Orleans and gets an apartment and job, and then she will drive them there when he’s ready. Oswald agrees, and takes the bus alone to New Orleans, leaving his wife, daughter and rifle behind.

RENDEZVOUS III – New Orleans – April – September 24, 1963

Arriving back in New Orleans for the first time since he disembarked to Europe by merchant ship, Oswald returned to his home, checked in with his cousins, the Murrats, and visited the graves of his family. He also obtained an apartment and got a job at the coffee company, even though he was also getting unemployment insurance checks from his jobs at Jaggers/Chiles/Stoval and Leslie Welding.

Ruth Paine drives Marina and the baby and ostensibly the rifle in their belongings to the Magazine Street apartment, asks the local Quakers to look in on them, while she returned to Irving, Texas.

Oswald opened a PO box and included the name A.J. Hidell as someone who could also receive mail there, and settled in for the summer, sometimes agitating Cuban causes with the local DRE and getting arrested with some of them while handing out FPCC leaflets. Compiling his newspaper clips and other documentation, Oswald made arrangements to visit the Cuban and Russian embassies in Mexico City.

In August of 1963, while he was supposed to be in New Orleans, anti-Castro Cuban activist Antonio Veciana sees Oswald with his case officer “Maurice Bishop” in the lobby of the Southland Building in Dallas, Texas. “Bishop is suspected of being David Atlee Phillips, the CIA officer responsible for the overseeing the FPCC in the hemisphere and the Cuban embassy in Mexico City.

At the same time Ruth Paine and her children took the family’s Chevrolet station wagon on a summer road trip that included stops at her husband’s family island off the coast of Massachusetts, his mother and stepfather in Pennsylvania and her brother and father in Ohio.

In a letter to Marina Oswald in New Orleans Ruth Paine wrote from Massachusetts, she suggested that she pick up Marina on the way home to Texas, and the pregnant Marina have the baby while living at her home in Irving. If Marina agreed to this scenario, she was to write back to Ruth Paine in care of Arthur Young, in suburban Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. That was the next stop on her trip home. Apparently Marina told her husband and he must have agreed because Ruth Paine stopped in New Orleans, after having visited Michael’s mother and her father and brother in Ohio.
Picking up Marina, the baby, and their belongings, including the rifle said to have been used to kill the President, Ruth Paine drove to Irving, Texas, while Oswald went to Mexico City.

Oswald was last seen leaving the Magazine Street New Orleans apartment, jumping on a bus with two suitcases. The date: September 24, 1963, the day the White House officially announced that the President would visit Dallas, a key turning point on the road to the Rendezvous at Dealey Plaza.