Cigar chomping Dallas Detective Paul Bentley takes
Oswald into custody
November 24, 1963
Detective Paul Bentley
Dallas Police Department
Dear Paul,
Perhaps you are aware that ONI has quite a file on
Oswald, which no doubt has been made available on the Washington level. If not,
I am certain that this information can be obtained for you through our resident
special agent in charge of the Dallas office, A. C. Sullivan, who is a
wonderful agent, and whom I hope you know. As a personal friend, I congratulate
you, wish you continued success, and pray that your guardian angel will remain
close at hand and vigilant, always.
Robert D. Steel
Commander, USNR-R
7960 June Lake Drive,
San Diego, California
[BK NOTES: The 119 Investigation Reports that were filed with ONI after Oswald's defection and after the assassination were not turned over to the NARA in response to the JFK Act as they should have been. This interview was conducted at my request by a neighbor of Steel who asked questions that I prepared. The original tape was to be donated to the Baylor Library but they have stopped collecting JFK material, so I still possess it, and will return it to the interviewer as soon as I can make a copy of it.]
Please help support this research:
Please help support this research:
Oral History Interview with Robert D. Steel, La
Jolla, California. February 1, 2013 by Thomas Graves.
Interviewer: I am interviewing Commander Robert D.
Steel, US Navy Reserves, Retired in La Jolla, California, as an oral history
project for the Baylor University Library, JFK Section. Steel’s wife Judy is
sitting in as an observer during this interview. Good morning Commander
Steel.
Good morning Commander Steel.
Good morning Commander Steel.
Robert D. Steel: Good morning.
Question: What is your full name?
RDS: Robert David Steel.
Q: When and where were you born?
RDS: May, M-A-Y- Texas, that’s in the central part
of the state….
Q: And when were you born?
RDS: May 26, 1919
Q: When did you join the Navy?
RDS: I graduated from the University in Texas, then
I went to Northwestern University midshipman school in Chicago in January 1942
and graduated in May, 1942. I came out to the West Coast, I was in charge of
training, Naval section from the University of Southern California.
Q: Did you serve on any ships during World War II?
RDS: I would consider the Sea Scout a ship.
Q: So you served on the Sea Scout?
RDS: I was the commanding officer.
Q: I read about the Sea Scout, that was a sonar
training ship, wasn’t it?
RDS: Yes it was.
Q: Okay. Did you serve on any other ships during
World War II?
RDS: Yes I did, for the last two years of the war I
was on board a destroyer escort.
Q: Were you an officer on that ship?
RDS: Yes, I was number three officer, a first
lieutenant in charge of everything above the waterline.
Q: What did you do after the war?
RDS: I first worked for the Internal Revenue Service as a tax collector.
RDS: I first worked for the Internal Revenue Service as a tax collector.
Q: In San Diego?
RDS: Collecting from business men in San Diego, and
following that Naval Intelligence, I came to work for them as a special agent.
Q: What year did you leave active duty and join the
Naval Reserves.
RDS: I suppose that would be 1945.
Q: And what year did you join ONI?
RDS: 1948.
Q: How many years did you work for ONI?
RDS: As a special agent 22 years.
Q: Did you work for ONI in any other capacity other
than special agent?
RDS: Yes, I was a commanding officer of the Reserve
officers throughout the area.
Q: What years would that have been?
RDS: That was for a two year period and I had to work my way up to that position, and I retired from that around 1962.
RDS: That was for a two year period and I had to work my way up to that position, and I retired from that around 1962.
Q: When you were working as a special agent were you
technically a civilian agent?
RDS: Yes sir, but I wore two hats, being a Reserve officer I was also doing Reserve duty from time to time with various other agencies – CIA, FBI and other military services in Washington DC mainly.
RDS: Yes sir, but I wore two hats, being a Reserve officer I was also doing Reserve duty from time to time with various other agencies – CIA, FBI and other military services in Washington DC mainly.
Q: Did you serve as liaison with CIA and FBI so to
speak?
RDS: I wouldn’t call it liaison, I was indoctrinated into their activities.
RDS: I wouldn’t call it liaison, I was indoctrinated into their activities.
Q: Did you work for the same branch or department of
ONI while you were a special agent all those years?
RDS: Would you repeat the question?
Q: I am a little bit unfamiliar with the structure
of ONI. I believe there was a special branch – the Naval Investigative Service,
did you work for that branch for 22 years as a special agent?
RDS: Yes.
Q: Did your work at ONI involve liaison with any other
government agencies?
RDS: (Laughs) Yes.
RDS: (Laughs) Yes.
Q: With CIA and FBI for example?
RDS: Yes.
RDS: Yes.
Q: In which naval district were you stationed in
late 1959 and early 1960?
RDS: Would you repeat that?
Q: In which naval district were you stationed in late
1959-60?
RDS: My headquarters were always in this naval
district.
Q: That would include San Diego?
RDS: San Diego and all the area that included
Arizona and New Mexico.
Q: Who was your boss 1959-1963?
RDS: Who was my boss? I had many.
Q: Did you know Fred Reeves?
RDS: (Laugh) A very good close friend.
Q: Was he the head of the San Diego ONI
office?
RDS: For a brief period.
RDS: For a brief period.
Q: Do you remember roughly when?
RDS: No I’m sorry I can’t recall.
Q: Was he ever your boss.
RDS: Very briefly. We were mainly co-workers.
Q: When did you start living in San Diego?
RDS: Ten, 1942.
Q: Where was your office in San Diego?
RDS: Headquarters building was at Broadway Pier.
Q: Who were your closest colleagues in San
Diego?
RDS: ONI or other law enforcement agencies?
Q: I was thinking ONI.
RDS: ONI or other law enforcement agencies?
Q: I was thinking ONI.
RDS: I had dozens, I mean, its best to be good to everybody.
Q: Do you know what a “119 Report” was?
RDS: Yes sir.
Q: Did you ever write any 119 Reports on anyone
while you were with ONI?
RDS: Hundreds of them.
Q: Did you have anyone working under you in 1959.
RDS: Yes.
Q: Is it fair to say that you did as well in
1963?
RDS: Repeat?
RDS: Repeat?
Q: Did you have anyone working under you in 1963?
RDS: Its hard to say working under me, we worked as a team. There were people in certain positions who were less qualified as myself, so we worked as a team because somebody had to fill certain billets, somebody had to sit by at a desk because they were incapable of doing certain things.
Q: Let me put it this way, were you anybody’s boss in 1963?
RDS: We worked as team, they were co-workers.
Q: Okay. Fred Reeves told the Assassinations Records
Review Board that a week or so after Lee Harvey Oswald defected to the USSR,
Reeves had been called by two ONI officers in Washington DC and was asked to do
a background investigation on Oswald at El Toro, Marine Air Station, Oswald’s
last duty station before leaving the Marine Corps. Is it possible you did this
investigation for Reeves?
RDS: Yes.
Q: Would you say it is possible or would you say it
is probable?
RDS: Probable.
Q: Is it fair to say you were you probably sent in
to do this investigation of Oswald because you were a more highly skilled
experienced investigator than the ONI people stationed at El Toro who were used
to doing more mundane investigation.
RDS: Yes.
Q: Do you remember doing this investigation for
Reeves at El Toro?
RDS: (Yes) but not very well.
Q: Given that Oswald was stationed at El Toro and
had just defected, I’d like to ask you some hypothetical questions. Would have
done it by yourself or with other special agents?
RDS: (unintelligible)
Q: Okay. Would you have questioned Oswald’s former
colleagues at El Toro?
RDS: Yes.
Q: Would you have had a stenographer with you?
RDS: No.
Q: Would you have introduced yourself to these
marines you were questioning?
RDS: Yes.
Q: Do you remember the name Nelson Delgado at El
Toro.
RDS: Not the name, could you tell me his position?
Q: He was a marine like Oswald and a friend of
Oswald, not an officer, an enlisted man.
RDS: No I don’t remember.
Q: Okay. Going back to Reeves and the ARRB Final
Report, Reeves said he went to El Toro Marine Air Station, copied Oswald’s
enlisted personnel files, talked to Oswald’s associates and mailed this to ONI
in Washington D.C. Reeves said that ONI in Washington DC ran the post
defection investigation of Oswald and the Washington officers then directed
various agents in the field. Reeves said he did not interview anyone himself
but that later, late 1959 or early 1960, there were approximately twelve to
fifteen ONI 119 Reports that crossed his desk. Reeves said he was aware of some
of the 119 Reports from Japan and Texas and that the primary concern of the
reports he read on Oswald was to ascertain what damage to national security
Oswald’s defection to the USSR had caused. Is it possible that you wrote any of
the 119 Reports on Oswald that crossed Reeves’ desk?
RDS: Yes.
Q: Do you remember writing any of them?
RDS: No.
Q: Okay, shifting gears a little bit here, was
Detective Paul Bentley of the Dallas Police Department a friend of yours?
RDS: An acquaintance.
Q: How did you know him?
RDS: I’m not sure, but I think he was a polygraph
examiner.
Q: Did you ever work with him?
RDS: I think (we were in) the Navy together.
[Unintelligible]
Q: Now you wrote a letter to Paul Bentley on
November 24, 1963, two days after Oswald was arrested in Dallas, and in the
letter you say that quote “ONI had quite a file on Oswald,” and in the letter
you also said that A. C. Sullivan of the ONI office could provide Bentley with
this file. Did you send this letter before or after Jack Ruby shot Oswald that
day?
RDS: Did I send the letter before….?
Q: It’s an historical fact that Jack Ruby shot
Oswald on the 24th of November, 1963 and the letter you sent Bentley was
dated the same day, so I am wondering if you sent it before or after Ruby shot
Oswald?
RDS: I’m sure it was after.
Q: How did you know that ONI had quote “quite a file
on Oswald” at that time?
RDS: (Long pause) I don’t know.
Q: Did you see it?
RDS: Did I see it?
RDS: Did I see it?
Q: Did you see the ONI file on Oswald?
RDS: I may have written the God damn thing.
Q: Okay. Was A.C. Sullivan of Dallas a friend of
yours.
RDS: A very close friend.
Q: How did you come to know him?
RDS: He was in the same business I was in. He had
been a guest at my home. I had been a guest at his home.
Q: Now was he the head of the Dallas ONI office?
RDS: Yes he was.
Q: Did Sullivan know about the ONI file on
Oswald?
RDS: Of course.
RDS: Of course.
Q: Did A.C. Sullivan already have the file on Nov.
24, 1963
RDS: Undoubtedly.
Q: Did you ever speak with Sullivan about Oswald’s
ONI file?
RDS: Yes.
RDS: Yes.
Q: Looking back at it, are you sure your statement
in the letter that ONI had quite a file on Oswald was accurate? Absolutely
sure, very sure, or less sure now than when I wrote the letter.
RDS: Does the letter today bring back any memories?
Q: Reads letter: Dear Paul, Perhaps you are aware
ONI has quite a file on Oswald…..
RDS: No.
Q: Did you ever write to or discuss with anyone else
about Oswald’s ONI file?
RDS: I don’t think so, other than A.C. Sullivan.
Q: Did you ever have occasion to visit the Dallas
ONI office?
RDS: Yes, a number of times.
RDS: Yes, a number of times.
Q: Where was it located?
RDS: It was in the Post Office building, it was across the street, it was the building from which Kennedy was killed.
RDS: It was in the Post Office building, it was across the street, it was the building from which Kennedy was killed.
Q: It was near Dealey Plaza, and there was a Post
Office building on the other side.
RDS: Yes.
Q: Did the Dallas ONI do general ONI work or did it
specialize in certain things?
RDS: General.
RDS: General.
Q: Did you know other law enforcement or
intelligence people in the Dallas area?
RDS: Yes.
Q: Did you know J. Mason Langford, of Ft. Worth, he
was head of security for General Dynamics or Convair and later became fire
martial of the county.
RDS: I don’t recall him.
Q: Did you know I.P. Hale or Max Clark?
RDS: Both names sound familiar but I don’t recall
right now.
Q: Did you know Pat Gannaway, of the Dallas Police
Special Services Bureau?
RDS: I just don’t remember.
Q: Did you know Jack Revell, the head of the Dallas
Criminal Section of the SSB?
RDS: These names are all familiar but I don’t recall
them.
Q: Did you know Colonel Robert E. Jones of 112 Army
Intel Group at Fort Sam Houston?
RDS: I don’t recall.
Q: James Powell, an Army Intelligence agent of the
112th?
RDS: The name is familiar but I don’t recall.
Q: Had you heard of Lee Harvey Oswald or Harvey Lee
Oswald before the assassination?
RDS: Yes, its possible that I knew him very, very
well.
Q: On some documents the name is transposed – Harvey
Lee Oswald.
RDS: That is a common occurrence and I never paid much attention to it.
Q: You said there’s a good chance you know Oswald
quite well before the assassination?
RDS: Quite possibly.
Q: How would you have possibly known about Oswald
quite well before the assassination?
RDS: Because I may have investigated the guy. (After
his 1959 defection)
Q: Do you remember investigating him?
RDS: Vaguely [?]
Q: What is your personal opinion of ONI and
Oswald?
RDS: ONI was a wonderful organization. As for Oswald, he was a sick man.
RDS: ONI was a wonderful organization. As for Oswald, he was a sick man.
Q: What is your personal opinion of the causes of
the assassination?
RDS: Oswald was just sick out of his mind.
RDS: Oswald was just sick out of his mind.
Q: Do you think he killed Kennedy by himself?
RDS: Yes.
Q: Where were you when you heard Kennedy was shot?
RDS: I don’t know.
Q: When you heard that Oswald had been arrested, did
his name sound familiar to you?
RDS: Yes.
Q: Is there anything else you want to say about
Oswald, ONI and the assassination?
RDS: No.
Q: Thank you for letting me interview you today,
Commander Steel.
ing.
Question: What is your full name sir?
RDS: Robert David Steel.
Q: When and where were you born?
RDS: May, M-A-Y- Texas, that’s in the central part
of the state….
Q: And when were you born?
RDS: May 26, 1919
Q: When did you join the Navy?
RDS: I graduated from the University…. in ….Texas,
then I went to Northwestern University midshipman school in Chicago in January
1942 and graduated in May, 1942. I came out to the West Coast, I was in charge
of training , Naval section from the University of Southern California,
followed by … Midshipman from UCLA.
Q: Did you serve on any ships during World War II?
RDS: I would consider the Sea Scout a ship.
Q: So you served on the Sea Scout?
RDS: I was the commanding officer.
Q: I read about the Sea Scout, that was a sonar
training ship, wasn’t it?
RDS: Yes it was.
Q: Okay. Did you serve on any other ships during
World War II?
RDS: Yes I did, for the last two years of the war I
was on board …. a destroyer escort.
Q: Were you an officer on that ship?
RDS: Yes, I was number three officer, a first
lieutenant in charge of everything above the waterline.
Q: What did you do after the war?
RDS: I first worked for the Internal Revenue Service as a tax collector.
RDS: I first worked for the Internal Revenue Service as a tax collector.
Q: In San Diego?
RDS: Collecting from business men in San Diego, and
following that Naval Intelligence, I came to work for them as a special agent.
Q: What year did you leave active duty and join the
Naval Reserves.
RDS: I suppose that would be 1945.
Q: And what year did you join ONI?
RDS: 1948.
Q: How many years did you work for ONI?
RDS: As a special agent 22 years.
Q: Did you work for ONI in any other capacity other
than special agent?
RDS: Yes, I was a commanding officer of the Reserve
officers throughout the area.
Q: What years would that have been?
RDS: That was for a two year period and I had to work my way up to that position, and I retired from that around 1962.
RDS: That was for a two year period and I had to work my way up to that position, and I retired from that around 1962.
Q: When you were working as a special agent were you
technically a civilian agent?
RDS: Yes sir, but I wore two hats, being a Reserve officer I was also doing Reserve duty from time to time with various other agencies – CIA, FBI and other military services in Washington DC mainly.
RDS: Yes sir, but I wore two hats, being a Reserve officer I was also doing Reserve duty from time to time with various other agencies – CIA, FBI and other military services in Washington DC mainly.
Q: Did you serve as liaison with CIA and FBI so to
speak?
RDS: I wouldn’t call it liaison, I was indoctrinated into their activities.
RDS: I wouldn’t call it liaison, I was indoctrinated into their activities.
Q: Did you work for the same branch or department of
ONI while you were a special agent all those years?
RDS: Would you repeat the question?
Q: I am a little bit unfamiliar with the structure
of ONI. I believe there was a special branch – the Naval Investigative Service,
did you work for that branch for 22 years as a special agent?
RDS: Yes.
Q: Did your work at ONI involve liaison with any
other government agencies?
RDS: (Laughs) Yes.
RDS: (Laughs) Yes.
Q: With CIA and FBI for example?
RDS: Yes.
RDS: Yes.
Q: In which naval district were you stationed in
late 1959 and early 1960?
RDS: Would you repeat that?
Q: In which naval district were you stationed in
late 1959-60?
RDS: My headquarters were always in this naval
district.
Q: That would include San Diego?
RDS: San Diego and all the area that included
Arizona and New Mexico.
Q: Who was your boss 1959-1963?
RDS: Who was my boss? I had many.
Q: Did you know Fred Reeves?
RDS: (Laugh) A very good close friend.
Q: Was he the head of the San Diego ONI
office?
RDS: For a brief period.
RDS: For a brief period.
Q: Do you remember roughly when?
RDS: No I’m sorry I can’t recall.
Q: Was he ever your boss.
RDS: Very briefly. We were mainly co-workers.
Q: When did you start living in San Diego?
RDS: Ten, 1942.
Q: Where was your office in San Diego?
RDS: Headquarters building was at Broadway Pier.
Q: Who were your closest colleagues in San
Diego?
RDS: ONI or other law enforcement agencies?
Q: I was thinking ONI.
RDS: ONI or other law enforcement agencies?
Q: I was thinking ONI.
RDS: I had dozens, I mean, its best to be good to everybody.
Q: Do you know what a “119 Report” was?
RDS: Yes sir.
Q: Did you ever write any 119 Reports on anyone
while you were with ONI?
RDS: Hundreds of them.
Q: Did you have anyone working under you in 1959.
RDS: Yes.
Q: Is it fair to say that you did as well in
1963?
RDS: Repeat?
RDS: Repeat?
Q: Did you have anyone working under you in 1963?
RDS: Its hard to say working under me, we worked as a team. There were people in certain positions who were less qualified as myself, so we worked as a team because somebody had to fill certain billets, somebody had to sit by at a desk because they were incapable of doing certain things.
Q: Let me put it this way, were you anybody’s boss in 1963?
RDS: We worked as team, they were co-workers.
Q: Okay. Fred Reeves told the Assassinations Records
Review Board that a week or so after Lee Harvey Oswald defected to the USSR,
Reeves had been called by two ONI officers in Washington DC and was asked to do
a background investigation on Oswald at El Toro, Marine Air Station, Oswald’s
last duty station before leaving the Marine Corps. Is it possible you did this
investigation for Reeves?
RDS: Yes.
Q: Would you say it is possible or would you say it
is probable?
RDS: Probable.
Q: Is it fair to say you were you probably sent in
to do this investigation of Oswald because you were a more highly skilled
experienced investigator than the ONI people stationed at El Toro who were used
to doing more mundane investigation.
RDS: Yes.
Q: Do you remember doing this investigation for
Reeves at El Toro?
RDS: (Yes) but not very well.
Q: Given that Oswald was stationed at El Toro and
had just defected, I’d like to ask you some hypothetical questions. Would have
done it by yourself or with other special agents?
RDS: (unintelligible)
Q: Okay. Would you have questioned Oswald’s former
colleagues at El Toro?
RDS: Yes.
Q: Would you have had a stenographer with you?
RDS: No.
Q: Would you have introduced yourself to these
marines you were questioning?
RDS: Yes.
Q: Do you remember the name Nelson Delgado at El
Toro.
RDS: Not the name, could you tell me his position?
Q: He was a marine like Oswald and a friend of
Oswald, not an officer, an enlisted man.
RDS: No I don’t remember.
Q: Okay. Going back to Reeves and the ARRB Final
Report, Reeves said he went to El Toro Marine Air Station, copied Oswald’s
enlisted personnel files, talked to Oswald’s associates and mailed this to ONI
in Washington D.C. Reeves said that ONI in Washington DC ran the post
defection investigation of Oswald and the Washington officers then directed
various agents in the field. Reeves said he did not interview anyone himself
but that later, late 1959 or early 1960, there were approximately twelve to
fifteen ONI 119 Reports that crossed his desk. Reeves said he was aware of some
of the 119 Reports from Japan and Texas and that the primary concern of the
reports he read on Oswald was to ascertain what damage to national security Oswald’s
defection to the USSR had caused. Is it possible that you wrote any of the 119
Reports on Oswald that crossed Reeves’ desk?
RDS: Yes.
Q: Do you remember writing any of them?
RDS: No.
Q: Okay, shifting gears a little bit here, was
Detective Paul Bentley of the Dallas Police Department a friend of yours?
RDS: An acquaintance.
Q: How did you know him?
RDS: I’m not sure, but I think he was a polygraph
examiner.
Q: Did you ever work with him?
RDS: I think (we were in) the Navy together. [Unintelligible]
Q: Now you wrote a letter to Paul Bentley on
November 24, 1963, two days after Oswald was arrested in Dallas, and in the
letter you say that quote “ONI had quite a file on Oswald,” and in the letter
you also said that A. C. Sullivan of the ONI office could provide Bentley with
this file. Did you send this letter before or after Jack Ruby shot Oswald that
day?
RDS: Did I send the letter before….?
Q: It’s an historical fact that Jack Ruby shot
Oswald on the 24th of November, 1963 and the letter you sent Bentley was
dated the same day, so I am wondering if you sent it before or after Ruby shot
Oswald?
RDS: I’m sure it was after.
Q: How did you know that ONI had quote “quite a file
on Oswald” at that time?
RDS: (Long pause) I don’t know.
Q: Did you see it?
RDS: Did I see it?
RDS: Did I see it?
Q: Did you see the ONI file on Oswald?
RDS: I may have written the God damn thing.
Q: Okay. Was A.C. Sullivan of Dallas a friend of
yours.
RDS: A very close friend.
Q: How did you come to know him?
RDS: He was in the same business I was in. He had
been a guest at my home. I had been a guest at his home.
Q: Now was he the head of the Dallas ONI office?
RDS: Yes he was.
Q: Did Sullivan know about the ONI file on
Oswald?
RDS: Of course.
RDS: Of course.
Q: Did A.C. Sullivan already have the file on Nov.
24, 1963
RDS: Undoubtedly.
Q: Did you ever speak with Sullivan about Oswald’s
ONI file?
RDS: Yes.
RDS: Yes.
Q: Looking back at it, are you sure your statement
in the letter that ONI had quite a file on Oswald was accurate? Absolutely
sure, very sure, or less sure now than when I wrote the letter.
RDS: Does the letter today bring back any memories?
Q: Reads letter: Dear Paul, Perhaps you are aware
ONI has quite a file on Oswald…..
RDS: No.
Q: Did you ever write to or discuss with anyone else
about Oswald’s ONI file?
RDS: I don’t think so, other than A.C. Sullivan.
Q: Did you ever have occasion to visit the Dallas
ONI office?
RDS: Yes, a number of times.
RDS: Yes, a number of times.
Q: Where was it located?
RDS: It was in the Post Office building, it was across the street, it was the building from which Kennedy was killed.
RDS: It was in the Post Office building, it was across the street, it was the building from which Kennedy was killed.
Q: It was near Dealey Plaza, and there was a Post
Office building on the other side.
RDS: Yes.
Q: Did the Dallas ONI do general ONI work or did it
specialize in certain things?
RDS: General.
RDS: General.
Q: Did you know other law enforcement or
intelligence people in the Dallas area?
RDS: Yes.
Q: Did you know J. Mason Langford, of Ft. Worth, he
was head of security for General Dynamics or Convair and later became fire
martial of the county.
RDS: I don’t recall him.
Q: Did you know I.P. Hale or Max Clark?
RDS: Both names sound familiar but I don’t recall
right now.
Q: Did you know Pat Gannaway, of the Dallas Police
Special Services Bureau?
RDS: I just don’t remember.
Q: Did you know Jack Revell, the head of the Dallas
Criminal Section of the SSB?
RDS: These names are all familiar but I don’t recall
them.
Q: Did you know Colonel Robert E. Jones of 112 Army
Intel Group at Fort Sam Houston?
RDS: I don’t recall.
Q: James Powell, an Army Intelligence agent of the
112th?
RDS: The name is familiar but I don’t recall.
Q: Had you heard of Lee Harvey Oswald or Harvey Lee
Oswald before the assassination?
RDS: Yes, its possible that I knew him very, very
well.
Q: On some documents the name is transposed – Harvey
Lee Oswald.
RDS: That is a common occurrence and I never paid much attention to it.
Q: You said there’s a good chance you know Oswald
quite well before the assassination?
RDS: Quite possibly.
Q: How would you have possibly known about Oswald
quite well before the assassination?
RDS: Because I may have investigated the guy. (After
his 1959 defection)
Q: Do you remember investigating him?
RDS: Vaguely [?]
Q: What is your personal opinion of ONI and
Oswald?
RDS: ONI was a wonderful organization. As for Oswald, he was a sick man.
RDS: ONI was a wonderful organization. As for Oswald, he was a sick man.
Q: What is your personal opinion of the causes of
the assassination?
RDS: Oswald was just sick out of his mind.
RDS: Oswald was just sick out of his mind.
Q: Do you think he killed Kennedy by himself?
RDS: Yes.
Q: Where were you when you heard Kennedy was shot?
RDS: I don’t know.
Q: When you heard that Oswald had been arrested, did
his name sound familiar to you?
RDS: Yes.
Q: Is there anything else you want to say about
Oswald, ONI and the assassination?
RDS: No.
Q: Thank you for letting me interview you today,
Commander Steel.
NOTE: Robert Steel passed away shortly after this
interview. Many thanks to Thomas Graves for taking the time to question him on
the record before he passed away. A copy of the original cassette will be made
as well as a digital version and the original returned to Thomas Graves.
Originally slated to be sent to the Baylor Poague Library JFK Collection, that
is no longer accepting JFK material, copies will be archived at the
Assassination Archives and Research Center in Washington D.C.
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