<Photo, Ruth Paine at 20, ca. 1952>
(Continued from previous blog post)
THE OSWALDS IN NEW ORLEANS
63. As we resume our history on May 11, 1963, Ruth Paine lived up to her word when Lee Harvey Oswald (LHO) called for his family – then residing with Ruth – to rejoin him there in New Orleans. Ruth drove Marina Oswald and baby June to New Orleans and dropped them off for LHO.
64. Ruth and Marina would stay in touch by writing letters. Near the end of May 1963, Marina sent Ruth a long letter, once again complaining that LHO wanted to send her back to Russia but Marina didn’t want to go. Marina also described LHO’s aunt, uncle, and cousins in New Orleans in kind and respectful terms.
65. Also, near the end of May, LHO wrote to the FPCC in New York City, asking for permission to start an FPCC chapter in New Orleans. The FPCC turned him down because they saw so few potential members there. This didn’t stop LHO. He worked with Guy Banister at 544 Camp Street in downtown New Orleans, to forge a bogus FPCC chapter.
66. As May came to a close LHO had a thousand copies of his FPCC flyer printed (evidently at Banister’s expense) to promote his bogus FPCC chapter. It had exactly two members – LHO and his alias, Alek J. Hidell.
67. As June 1963 began, Marina received a letter from Ruth proud to be hired by St. Marks school for boys to teach elementary Russian. Still, Ruth had asked Michael to move back home, and he said no. Divorce loomed. Regarding medical care for Marina’s pregnancy, Ruth sent figures for Lee regarding prices at local hospitals near Dallas.
68. It was during that time that LHO rented a PO box in New Orleans, with A.J. Hidell as one of the identities to receive mail there.
69. Marina replied to congratulate Ruth on her new job, and again complained that LHO wanted to send her back to Russia, but this time she emphasized that he would send her back without him going! This motivated Ruth even further.
70. On June 8, 1963, Marina was rejected for treatment at the New Orleans Charity Hospital. This infuriated LHO, but there was nothing he could do about it with his small income.
71. On June 11th, Ruth sent Marina a letter spilling all the beans. If LHO left her, Marina could live with Ruth! It would be no burden! Ruth in her excitement told Marina too much about Michael’s finances and income.
72. As the month of June moved forward, Marina carefully thought about Ruth’s offer. Would LHO abandon her? If so, then Marina had a plan, and she thanked Ruth. As June 1963 closed, Ruth gave Marina all the addresses of her family and friends back East, to ensure that she could keep up her correspondence. LHO applied for a new US passport, as he was already planning a trip to Mexico.
73. As July 1963 opens, LHO accepted an invitation by his monastic cousin Eugene to speak to a group of students at the Jesuit House of Studies on the topic of Russia. This could further project LHO’s faux-left credentials in local newspapers.
74. In mid-July, LHO was fired from the Reily Coffee Company. He held back this fact from Marina for as long as possible. July 22, 1963, LHO filed a claim for unemployment benefits. Then he intensified his activity for Banister’s fake FPCC.
75. As July came to a close, The Navy denied LHO’s request to review his undesirable discharge. Disappointed, LHO pressed forward to speak to the Jesuit House of Studies for 30 minutes on the topic, Contemporary Russia and the Practice of Communism.
76. As August 1963 opens, LHO offered help to Carlos Bringuier, the leader of his own Cuba raid group named the “DRE”. LHO was a former Marine and claimed that he could help train Bringuier’s student paramilitary squads.
77. On Friday, August 9, 1963 – Bringuier assaulted LHO on Canal Street. Police came. Bringuier explained to police that he became enraged upon seeing LHO distributing FPCC literature there. Both men were arrested and LHO spent the night in jail. (Jim Garrison would later claim that their fight was theatrically staged.)
78. The next day, LHO himself called the FBI to request an interrogation! (This would also publicize LHO’s faux-left credentials in official records). FBI agent John Quigley interrogated LHO and reported nothing of interest. This report reopened LHO’s FBI casefile, however, and James Hosty would regularly touch bases with John Quigley.
79. In the middle of August, Guy Banister’s propaganda expert, Ed Butler, contacted Bill Stuckey from radio station WDSU to arrange a radio interview of LHO. It would be recorded for the WDSU program Latin Listening Post. This would further advertise LHO’s faux-left credentials (this time on radio).
80. On Saturday, August 17th, LHO arrived at station WDSU at 5 p.m. to tape a 37-minute segment. It was cut to 4.5 minutes and broadcast at 7:30 p.m.
81. In a couple more days, Bill Stuckey offered to host Carlos Bringuier as they grilled LHO on a live radio program, Conversation Carte Blanche, which ran from 6:05 to 6:30 p.m. This would further advertise LHO’s faux-left credentials – this time on TV. This all occurred on Wednesday, August 21, 1963. LHO performed well.
82. In the middle of September 1963, in Southern California, the resigned General Walker spoke one evening at a local John Birch Society meeting. After the meeting, according to Harry Dean, a small group of rogues met in the offices of Republican Congressman John Rousselot. In attendance there as well were two local Minutemen, famed WW2 hero Guy Gabaldon along with Harry, his constant companion. The topic was the planned assassination of JFK.
82.1. Harry Dean to this day still describes the important announcement by General Walker that evening – namely, that leaders had finally framed a fall guy for the assassination. It would be the well-known ex-Marine and defector, Lee Harvey Oswald, now a secretary of Fidel Castro’s FPCC in New Orleans.
82.2. Harry Dean had never heard that name before, but he never forgot it. The small gathering applauded that a Communist would be framed for killing a Communist. Harry chimed in that although he was now reformed, he himself had formerly been a secretary of the FPCC in Chicago, so he could attest that FPCC members were armed and dangerous, so be careful.
82.3. On September 17, 1963 – LHO obtained a tourist card from the Mexican consulate in New Orleans, good for a 3-day visit to Mexico City.
83. Friday, September 20, 1963, Ruth arrived in New Orleans to check on Marina. Marina was in dire straits – eight months pregnant, had not yet seen a doctor, had no insurance, and LHO was out of work. Ruth turned to LHO and offered to take Marina back to Dallas to register at Parkland Hospital to get ready for that new baby! LHO agreed with relief, and he promptly loaded up her station wagon. On Monday Ruth and Marina drove back toward Dallas – to Irving, Texas.
A WEEKEND IN MEXICO CITY
84. On Wednesday, September 25, 1963 – early in the morning, LHO collected his unemployment check of $33. Then (as Harry Dean saw it) Loran Hall and Larry Howard would have promptly arrived in their red Ford to drive LHO to Texas on the way to Mexico.
85. That evening around 7 p.m. (to ensure LHO getting into Cuba) Hall, Howard, and LHO stopped at the home of Sylvia Odio in Dallas. They didn’t know her, but Loran knew her father was active in the counter-revolutionary group, JURE, which tried to assassinate Fidel Castro, but failed. Our three travelers asked Silvia for a covert ally inside Cuba to vouch for LHO. Odio listened politely to these strangers at her doorstep for perhaps 20 minutes as they made their case. Then she turned them down.
86. Hall, Howard, and LHO continued another 410 miles to the Mexican border in their automobile. Early on Thursday morning, Hall, Howard, and LHO crossed the border from Texas into Mexico, still bound for Mexico City which was another 750 miles south.
87. On Friday, at 10 a.m. Hall, Howard, and LHO arrived in Mexico City. At 11 a.m. LHO registered at the Hotel del Comercio. At 11:30 a.m. LHO entered the Embassy Compound, aware that the CIA station in Mexico City continually recorded anybody who contacted the “Cuban and Soviet diplomatic installations” there.
88. LHO request an express visa into Havana from consul Sylvia Duran at the Cuban Consulate. He was a real Communist, he insisted, and had lived in Russia for years. But Duran was suspicious because LHO hadn’t followed standard Communist protocol of contacting the officials in Cuba first – before coming to the Consulate!
89. Duran delayed LHO by demanding a passport photograph. LHO returned an hour later with the photograph. She delayed by demanding clearance from the Soviet Union – and that would take 7 days. LHO replied that he could only stay for 3 days. So, Duran directed LHO to Soviet Embassy to do the paperwork.
90. LHO visited the Soviet Embassy, but Vice Consul Nechiporenko told LHO that it would take four months for his visa application to be approved by the Soviet Embassy in Washington DC. LHO made a scene and was ordered out.
91. LHO returned to the Cuban consulate at 4 p.m. and told Duran that the Soviet Embassy clerks had approved giving him an immediate visa. Duran telephoned the Soviet Embassy and they explained that LHO was boldly lying. Duran denied LHO’s unreasonable request, so LHO exploded in rage. Again he had to be escorted out.
92. The next day, Saturday, LHO returned to the Soviet Embassy carrying a loaded pistol and crying real tears to dramatize his plea for help – the FBI was after him, he wailed. But he had dodged too many questions according to the Soviet consuls, so they denied him again (see, Passport toAssassination, 1993, by consul Oleg Nechiporenko).
93. On Tuesday, October 1, the day that LHO checked out and paid his hotel bill, somebody called the Soviet Embassy from the Cuban Consulate claiming to be LHO and asking for consul V.V. Kostikov.
94. The CIA had a standing rule to instantly translate all calls from the Cuban Consulate to the Soviet Embassy and submit the English version to the desk of the Mexico City CIA Chief within 15 minutes. They did. The CIA translators were certain that the speaker wasn’t LHO, though they didn’t know who it was. Anyway, the caller had successfully linked the names of LHO and V.V. Kostikov in CIA records.
BACK IN DALLAS
95. Early on October 3, 1963, back in Dallas, LHO checked into the YMCA for a bed. Later, he filed a claim at the employment office.
96. On Friday, October 4, 1963, LHO applied for a job at Padgett Printing Company. He wasn’t hired due to a lack of references. Later, he telephoned Marina to ask Ruth for a ride to Ruth’s home. Ruth was too busy. She’d given blood at Parkland Hospital that day to benefit Marina.
97. LHO now had to travel from Dallas to Irving, 12 miles by city bus, and some walking time in Irving. Ruth went grocery shopping, expecting LHO after an hour or more. Yet when she returned from the grocer, LHO was already there. (This was plausibly when LHO secretly brought his rifle into Ruth Paine’s garage). LHO stayed the weekend.
98. Early on Monday, October 7th, Ruth drove LHO to the Irving bus station, and from there he returned to Dallas to look for work – and to rent a room from a dowager at 621 Marsalis Street. On the street LHO found no work.
99. The next Friday, LHO advised his landlady that he was leaving for the weekend. She told him that she didn’t want him to return. LHO went to stay at Ruth’s for the weekend.
100. On Monday, October 14th, LHO quickly moved out his Marsalis Street room and registered as “O.H. Lee” at a rooming house on North Beckley in Oak Cliff. Meanwhile, Marina and Ruth told a coffee clutch of next-door neighbors at the home of Mrs. Dorothy Roberts, that LHO needed work. One of the ladies, Linnie Mae Randle, announced that her teenage brother who worked at the Texas School Book Depository (TSBD) had recently heard of an opening there.
101. Marina urged Ruth to call. Ruth called TSBD and told superintendent Roy Truly that LHO was a young father, a former Marine who needed work, and was expecting another baby any day now. Roy told Ruth to advise LHO to apply in the morning. When LHO called Marina at Ruth’s home that evening, they told him all about the TSBD and Roy Truly.
102. On Tuesday, October 15th, LHO applied at the TSBD and Roy Truly promptly hired him. Mrs. Ruth Paine of Irving, Texas was his reference. LHO began working at the TSBD the very next day.
103. The next Friday, after his first three days at work, LHO was approached by teenager Wesley Buell Frazier. He had his own car, and he lived just a few doors down from Ruth Paine. Would he like a ride to and from Ruth Paine’s every weekend? Thanks, said LHO, it’s great luck. At Ruth’s, a surprise birthday party was ready for LHO to arrive. That was also the weekend that Marina gave birth to Audrey Marina Rachel Oswald. Things were looking up.
GENERAL WALKER RIDES AGAIN
104. General Walker had been fairly quiet since the Walker shooting back in April. But he came back into the limelight after he learned that UN Ambassador Adlai Stevenson was coming to downtown Dallas. Stevenson would give a speech on Thursday, October 24, 1963, at the Dallas Memorial Auditorium. Adlai named the day, “UN Day.”
105. All that greatly displeased General Walker. Walker, like all John Birchers, believed that the United Nations was controlled by Communists. They regarded the visit by Adlai as a Communist invasion of Dallas.
106. The Birchers had a standing rule, “Never let a Communist finish a speech in your hometown!” Walker quickly devised a plan for the Birchers and their Minutemen supporters to prevent Adlai from finishing his speech there. Walker called it, “US Day,” and he proposed to booby trap the auditorium.
107. Walker’s plan was to rent the Dallas Memorial Auditorium for the evening before Adlai’s speech. The Birchers could gather there on the evening of Wednesday, October 23rd and using as many volunteers as possible, prepare a John Birch Society welcome for Adlai. Walker would train the volunteers to make a giant, endless ruckus in the building during Adlai’s speech – by using party noisemakers, melodramatics, speeches on chairs, or anything at all.
108. About the middle of Adlai’s speech, they would pull on a rope hanging from the ceiling and unfurl a large banner from the ceiling. One side read, “US out of UN!”, and the other side read, “UN out of US!” Finally, volunteers were instructed to buy up as many tickets as they could afford to fill the auditorium with as many Dallas Birchers and Minutemen as possible.
109. The training worked. The bizarre humiliation of Adlai Stevenson in Dallas on UN Day, Thursday, October 24th, is part of US history today. Asked whether he had been present on the occasion of that humiliation, General Walker said, “No – I’d already done enough against Adlai!” (See the masters thesis, Edwin A. Walker and the Right Wing in Dallas, 1960-1966, by Chris Cravens, 1991)
110. Between the dates of Wednesday, October 23rd through Friday, October 25th, Michael Paine and LHO attended three political meetings in which General Walker featured in a prominent manner.
110.1. US Day, an event staged by Walker himself along with his Dallas followers to booby-trap the auditorium inside which Adlai Stevenson would speak on the following night. LHO attended this event said Michael Paine (though Michael denied being there himself).
110.2. UN Day, an event executed the plans that Walker made the previous day. LHO attended this event said Michael Paine (though Michael denied being there himself).
110.3. An ACLU meeting where LHO reported the negative things that Walker and his speakers had said about Catholics and Jews on US Day.
111. On nearly the last day of October 1963, Dallas FBI agent James Hosty inquired at the home of Ruth Paine’s next-door neighbor, Dorothy Roberts, about anything that she might have seen or heard regarding her next-door neighbor, Ruth Paine. Mrs. Roberts told Hosty that Ruth Paine certainly housed a pregnant Russian lady and her 2-year-old baby living with her and her own children. James Hosty thanked her and planned to visit Ruth Paine herself in a couple of days.
(to be continued)
Regards,
--Paul
Copyright © 2021 by Paul Trejo. All Rights Reserved.
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