Crossfire: The Plot That Killed Kennedy (42 page)

In August, 1975, JFK researcher Penn Jones, Jr., received a typewritten
letter in Spanish from Mexico City signed only with the initials "P.S."
Translated, the letter reads:

Dear Sir:

At the end of last year I gave Mr. [Clarence] Kelly, the director of the
FBI, a letter from Lee Oswald. To my understanding it could have
brought out the circumstances to the assassination of President Kennedy.

Since Mr. Kelly hasn't responded to that letter, I've got the right to
believe something bad might happen to me, and that is why I see
myself obligated to keep myself away for a short time.

Convinced of the importance of that letter mentioned and knowing
that you have been doing some investigation independently of the
assassination, I'm sending you a copy of the same letter.

Accompanying this typed letter was a copy of a handwritten note in
English dated November 8, 1963 that reads:

Dear Mr. Hunt,

I would like information concer[n]ing my position.

I am asking only for information. I am suggesting that we discuss the
matter fully before any steps are taken by me or anyone else.

Thank you,

Lee Harvey Oswald

Jones, too, sent this information to the FBI and he, too, received no reply.

A reporter for the Dallas Morning News later obtained a copy of the
Oswald note from Jones. He had three handwriting experts in Dallas
compare the note to known examples of Oswald's handwriting. The experts
all agreed that the handwriting was the same. The Dallas Morning News
carried an accurate account of the strange note and raised the question if
"Mr. Hunt" might refer to Dallas oilman H. L. Hunt. In 1983, it was
learned that the FBI studied the note with the idea it may have been
intended for Hunt's son, Nelson Bunker Hunt. The results of the FBI
probe, however, have never been made public.

Jones, then and now, points out that the note came from Mexico City
and that allegedly CIA officer E. Howard Hunt, who was in charge of
anti-Castro Cubans at the time, was stationed there during Oswald's
reported visit.

Jones told this author: "To me, knowing Hunt's background with the
Cuban Revolutionary Committee and the CIA, it makes more sense that
the note is addressed to E. Howard Hunt."

But since neither the FBI nor the House Select Committee on Assassinations appears to have taken an interest in the note, there the matter rests.

The fact of the Oswald note and its accompanying letter leads assassination researchers to believe that Oswald's brief visit to Mexico City might
provide help in understanding who was really behind the assassination.

Yet another contact with the CIA that has only become known in recent
years involves a man who "coincidentally" obtained the Mexican travel
permit number just before Oswald's-William George Gaudet.

When applying for a new passport in June 1963, Oswald did not try to
hide his past or his intentions. On the application, he acknowledged he
might travel to Russia and other European countries later that year. He also
noted that his previous passport had been canceled. Despite these
admissions-coupled with the fact that the State Department, which loaned
him money to return from the Soviet Union, knew of his attempted
defection and threat to give military secrets to the Soviets-Oswald received a new passport within twenty-four hours.

On September 17, a week after the alleged meeting between Oswald and CIA case officer "Maurice Bishop" Oswald visited the Mexican consulate
in New Orleans and applied for a tourist card. He was issued card number
24085, which was valid for fifteen days.

After the assassination, the FBI, with the help of Mexican authorities,
identified every person who had applied for Mexican entry papers on
September 17-all but one. The FBI reported they could not locate the
record of the card holder immediately preceding Oswald, No. 24084.
However, in 1975-apparently due to a bureaucratic mix-up in declassifying FBI documents-it was learned that card holder No. 24084 was
Gaudet, who had worked for the CIA for more than twenty years.

Gaudet claimed that sheer coincidence placed his name just ahead of
Oswald's on the Mexican tourist card application sheet.

Gaudet, who worked in the area of Latin America for the Agency,
operated the Latin American Newsletter for a number of years. Shortly
after the assassination, Gaudet said he was interviewed by FBI agents, but
only after obtaining approval of his CIA boss in New Orleans. No record
of that interview has been made public.

In a 1978 interview with author Anthony Summers, Gaudet admitted he
had "known" Oswald in New Orleans, but then qualified this by saying
he had only observed Oswald handing out leaflets. "He was a strange man,
an unusual man," was Gaudet's description of Oswald to TV newsmen.

Gaudet did firmly state that while in New Orleans, Oswald was in
contact with known CIA and FBI agents. Gaudet told Summers: "I do
know that I saw him one time with a former FBI agent by the name of Guy
Banister. "

Gaudet also mentioned David Ferrie, saying "He was with Oswald ..."

Angered by the connection of his name to Oswald's, Gaudet went on to
say:

I've given this a lot of thought. I am now convinced in my own mind
that those who are truly behind the conspiracy to kill Mr. Kennedy have
done things purposely to draw attention to me. There are too many
coincidences that involve me, unless someone was behind all this.

Gaudet said he did not accompany Oswald on a bus to Mexico, but went
by air. He now claims he cannot remember if his 1963 Mexican trip
involved intelligence activity.

Gaudet said that, due to his experience with the CIA, he is not surprised
that little information concerning Oswald's intelligence activities has been
forthcoming: "[CIA officials] told me frankly when I did things for them
that if something went awry they would never recognize me or admit who
I was. If I made a mistake, that was just tough, and I knew it." The
former CIA operative went on to say he finds it "extremely possible" that
Oswald was working for some American intelligence agency and added:
"I think he was a patsy . . . I think he was set up on purpose." Gaudet also agreed with many assassination researchers who believe that the
anti-Castro Cubans were involved in a plot to kill Kennedy. However,
asked by newsmen if he thought the Cubans could have carried out an
assassination alone, he replied: "No, I don't think so."

But if Gaudet did not actually accompany Oswald to Mexico, one very
suspicious man did-Albert Osborne. Although the passenger list for
Continental Trailways bus No. 5133, which allegedly carried Oswald to
Mexico City, is missing, the FBI managed to locate some of the travelers,
including two Australian girls who told of a conversation with a man who
told them of his experiences in the Marines and in Russia. These girls told
the FBI that the man also had sat next to and talked at length with an older
man.

FBI agents tried to locate a man named John Howard Bowen, who had
been on Oswald's bus. However, they only found Albert Osborne, but
Osborne seemed to know a lot about Bowen. After three visits from the
FBI, Osborne finally admitted that he was the man they were seeking,
having used the alias "John Bowen" for many years. He denied ever
having met Oswald. Even the Warren Commission didn't buy that, stating
"his denial cannot be credited."

Osborne claimed to be a missionary who traveled extensively all over
the world, although he never said how these travels were financed. Also,
no confirmation of his story could be found by checking border records in
the countries he claimed to have visited. Despite his lies to the FBI
regarding his name, no charges were ever brought against Osborne.

In recent years, several assassination researchers have claimed that
Osborne worked for the CIA, but no hard evidence of this has been
established.

It is interesting to note, however, that when Oswald ordered Fair Play
for Cuba Committee materials printed in New Orleans, he used the name
"Osborne."

Other intriguing connections between the CIA and the JFK assassination
concern George DeMohrenschildt and the Mannlicher-Carcano rifle found
in the Texas School Book Depository.

George DeMohrenschildt, along with his wife, Jeanne, were identified
by the Warren Commission as the people closest to Lee Harvey Oswald
just before the assassination. If anyone was guiding Oswald's activities
during late 1962 and early 1963, it would have been DeMohrenschildt.
DeMohrenschildt's son-in-law, Gary Taylor, even told the Warren
Commission: ". . . if there was any assistance [to Oswald] or plotters
in the assassination they were, in my opinion, most probably the
DeMohrenschildts. "

DeMohrenschildt undoubtedly is one of the most colorful and suspicious
of all the persons connected to Oswald. Based on CIA memos now
available, thanks to Freedom of Information Act suits, it is known that
DeMohrenschildt had a relationship with the Agency dating back to OSS
days. One memo by former CIA director Richard Helms states that
DeMohrenschildt applied to work for the government as early as 1942, but
was rejected "because he was alleged to be a Nazi espionage agent."

The charge had some substance. After a trip to Yugoslavia with his wife
in 1957 (they were shot at by guards of Marshal Tito), DeMohrenschildt
provided the CIA with "foreign intelligence which was promptly disseminated to other federal agencies in 10 separate reports," according to the
Helms memo. Another Agency memo indicated DeMohrenschildt also
furnished lengthy reports on travels he made through Mexico and Panama
at the time of the Bay of Pigs Invasion.

Asked by a Warren Commission attorney if he believed the DeMohrenschildts may have been spying on the invasion preparations, Taylor replied,
"Yes."

In fact, at the time DeMohrenschildt was befriending Lee Harvey Oswald,
one of his close friends in Dallas was J. Walter Moore. Moore just
happened to have been an agent of the CIA's Domestic Contacts Division.
DeMohrenschildt publicly stated that before becoming involved with Oswald,
he had checked with Moore. Moore, according to DeMohrenschildt, said
unhesitatingly: "Yes, he's okay. He's just a harmless lunatic."

In a CIA memorandum written not long after Oswald returned from
Russia, the CIA author wrote: "Don't push too hard to get the information
we need, because this individual [Oswald] looks odd."

Much later it was learned how the CIA was to "debrief" Oswald-by
using the genial George DeMohrenschildt. Author Edward Epstein interviewed
DeMohrenschildt on the morning of March 29, 1977. That same morning,
an investigator from the House Select Committee on Assassinations had
attempted to contact DeMohrenschildt. Three hours later DeMohrenschildt
was dead from a shotgun blast to the head. His death was ruled a suicide.

According to Epstein, DeMohrenschildt said Moore encouraged him to
see Oswald and that, in fact, he was to question Oswald "unwittingly"
about his stay in Russia. DeMohrenschildt said that after his first meeting
with the ex-Marine, Oswald gave him a lengthy memo covering his
activities in Russia.

DeMohrenschildt, a petroleum engineer, and Moore had offices in the
same Dallas bank building and often ate lunch together, according to
Jeanne DeMohrenschildt.

The CIA memos, Moore's closeness, and DeMohrenschildt's own testimony all confirm that a certain relationship existed between the CIA and
the man closest to Oswald in early 1963. While this does not necessarily
involve the Agency in a plot to kill Kennedy, it raises questions about
what Agency officials might have known regarding such a plot.

In a related issue that belies the idea set forth in 1963 that the CIA was
neither aware of Oswald nor interested in him, it is now known that the
Agency was opening Oswald's mail while he was in Russia. In letters to
his mother, Marguerite Oswald, written in 1976 by former CIA legislative
counsel George L. Cary, Cary admitted that the Agency had opened mail
from her to her son while he was in Russia. Cary said the admission was a
result of an investigation into the CIA's mail intercept program-known as
HT-Lingual-by the Government Information and Individual Rights Subcommittee of the House Government Operations Committee.