In October 1959 the Warren Commission reported that 20-year-old "Lee Harvey Oswald" defected to the Soviet Union. But it was Russian-speaking "HARVEY" who traveled to the USSR (on behalf of the CIA), while southern born LEE Oswald remained in the USA. LEE was surrounded by U.S. intelligence operatives and was involved in numerous anti-Castro activities in the United States beginning in 1959.
In the fall of 1959 LEE Oswald was in New Orleans and Florida. William Huffman told the FBI that he saw Oswald "sometime after Castro came to power (January, 1959)." Oswald and four or five Cubans fueled a 43 foot Chris Craft diesel boat at his dock. Oswald telephoned a man named "Ruben" in Key West, who came to the dock and paid for the fuel. "Ruben" may have been Jack Ruby, who ran guns to Castro in the late 1950s from Florida and from a house in Kemah, Texas. Ruby's neighbors remember him well and remember his many weekend trips to Cuba in a 50 foot surplus military craft that was loaded with guns.
In June 1960, FBI director J. Edgar Hoover was aware of a "Lee Harvey Oswald" in the Soviet Union, and another "Lee Harvey Oswald" in the USA. Hoover sent a memo to the Office of Security, Department of State that read as follows:
Date:
June 3, 1960
To:
Office of Security
Department of State
From:
John Edgar Hoover, Director
Subject:
LEE HARVEY OSWALD
-INTERNAL SECURITY
_______________________________
Since there is a possibility that an imposter is
using Oswald's birth certificate, any current information the
Department of State may have concerning the subject will be
appreciated.
1 - Director of Naval Intelligence
Marita Lorenz met LEE Oswald at a safehouse in Miami and saw him again at CIA training camps in the Florida Everglades several times during 1960 and 1961. Former Congresswoman Clare Boothe Luce financed several of the Cuban exile groups in the early 1960's. The Captain of one of these groups advised Luce that (LEE) "Oswald and others were involved in infiltration of communist groups in the area."
See a
page from Lorenz's secret HSCA
testimony.
On January 20, 1961, a man calling himself "Lee Oswald" met with Fred Sewell, manager of Bolton Ford Truck center in New Orleans. Oswald and another man told Mr. Sewell they wanted to buy trucks to send to Cuba. Sewell provided Oswald with a written proposal and the purchaser was listed as "Friends of Democratic Cuba." The Bolton sales order form listed FDC and the name "Oswald."
The image at left is a composite scan from the beginning and the end of the Louisiana Articles of Incorporation for Friends of Democratic Cuba, Inc.
W. Guy Banister worked at the infamous 544 Camp Street address in New Orleans, made famous by the Jim Garrison investigation.
Gerard Tugague employed Oswald briefly in late 1955 and early 1956 at the 300 Sanlin Building in New Orleans.
This well-known incident was cited in Warren Commission Document 75 p. 677 and the House Select Committee on Assassinations Vol. X; FBI 67-39565-66. For years some JFK researchers believed that an imposter was using Oswald's name while the alleged future assassin was in Russia. As more and more examples surfaced it became clear that another man, using the name "Lee Harvey Oswald," was associating with anti-Castro Cubans and CIA operatives in the southern United States during the very years the Warren Commission placed him in the Soviet Union. This man was southern born LEE Oswald, and is a clear indication that both Oswalds were active in American intelligence operations.
On March 31, 1961, State Department official Edward Hickey sent a written memo to fellow official John White informing him, “there is an imposter using Oswald’s identification data…” and recommending his passport should be forwarded to him on a personal basis—to make sure the right Lee H. Oswald got it. It was becoming clear to a few high level government officials that two people were using Oswald's identification, and perhaps sharing the same identity.
In the spring of 1961, LEE Oswald traveled to Havana via Mexico City and met with Robert Taber, a news correspondent and one of the founding members of the Fair Play for Cuba Committee (FPCC). Taber and LEE went to Sloppy Joe’s Bar and met Dr. Enrique Lorenzo Luaces, a former professor of engineering at the University of Santiago (Cuba). Taber introduced LEE as Lieutenant HARVEY Oswald,” an arms expert, who promptly opened his briefcase and pulled out a series of folded charts, which were training aids for the M1 rifle. Dr. Luaces had no doubt that "Lieutenant Oswald" was the same man depicted on television after the assassination of JFK. The document describing this encounter is entitled: "SUBJECTS: OSWALD, LEE; TABER, ROBERT POTENTIAL I.D. OF OSWALD, LEE; FAIR PLAY FOR CUBA COMMITTEE," ARRB Rec. No. 180-10031-10352.) On November 22, only two hours after JFK was assassinated, FBI Director Hoover wrote a memo to top FBI officials and said, "Oswald went to Russia and stayed three years; came back to the United States in June, 1962, and went to Cuba on several occasions but would not tell us what he went to Cuba for." Hoover knew that (LEE) Oswald was in Cuba, yet never furnished that information to the Warren Commission. In its published findings, the Warren Commission gave no indication that Oswald EVER travelled to Cuba.
Click
here to see and read an FBI document describing Spencer's report.
In Havana in May 1961, CBS journalist Robert Taber (a Fair Play for Cuba Committee founding member) met with a "Lieutenant Oswald," who was introduced as an arms expert, and Dr. Enrique Luaces. Dr. Luaces had no doubt that "Lieutenant Oswald" was the same man depicted on television after the assassination of JFK. The document describing this encounter is entitled: "SUBJECTS: OSWALD, LEE; TABER, ROBERT POTENTIAL I.D. OF OSWALD, LEE; FAIR PLAY FOR CUBA COMMITTEE," ARRB Rec. No. 180-10031-10352.) On November 22, only two hours after JFK was assassinated, FBI Director Hoover wrote a memo to top FBI officials and said, "Oswald went to Russia and stayed three years; came back to the United States in June, 1962, and went to Cuba on several occasions but would not tell us what he went to Cuba for." Hoover knew that (LEE) Oswald was in Cuba, yet never furnished that information to the Warren Commission. In its published findings, the Warren Commission gave no indication that Oswald EVER travelled to Cuba.
See a U.S.
Army
document detailing the Robert Taber incident.
During his "Harvey and Lee" presentation at JFK Lancer's November In Dallas ‘97 symposium, John Armstrong displayed an FBI communication describing a U.S. Army report of the Havana incident. Here are the first few paragraphs of that internal FBI document:
FROM: SAC (New York)
TO: Director FBI
Enclosed for each recipient is one copy of a self-explanatory Army communication dated 12.30.63 captioned Harvey Oswald.
Enclosed Army communication alleges that Oswald was in Cuba in the company of Robert Taber, former head of Fair Play for Cuba Committee (FPCC), approximately three weeks after the April 1961, Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba.
In the summer of 1961, Raymond B. Carney was news director of KBOX in Dallas. He told the FBI that he had met Lee Oswald not just once, but several times during that summer. Oswald, Carney said, was trying to get a list of names of pilots who had volunteered to fly Flying Tiger missions over Cuba. The FBI interview of Carnay resulted in a four-page FBI document dated 5/28/64 (Assassination Records Review Board Record Number 104-10004-10009). The document is entitled: "ALLEGATIONS BY RAYMOND B. CARNEY, NEWS DIRECTOR OF RADIO STATION KBEA, MISSION, KANSAS, THAT HE BELIEVED HE WAS IN CONTACT WITH LEE HARVEY OSWALD DURING MAY, 1961."
Click
to see and read this FBI document describing the Carney incident.
In the fall of 1961 the Immigration and Naturalization
Service set up a sting operation, looking for Cuban refugees who were
waiting to be flown to Cuba by David Ferrie. INS agents surrounded a
house in Lakeview, Louisiana, on the south side of Lake Pontchartrain.
Late one night two men were sitting in a black-and-white panel truck on
Breakwater Road on the Lakefront in New Orleans that read “TV
Electronics Parts and Service.” The driver of the truck was Celso
Hernandez. The passenger was LEE Oswald. Police Officer Charles Noto
arrested both men and they were taken to Levee Board Police
Headquarters. LEE Oswald demanded to see the officer in charge. After a
closed door session with Marcel Champon, the officer in charge, both
men were released. This 1961 arrest is very important. Two years later,
in August, 1963, Celso Hernandez would again be arrested. But this time
he was arrested along with HARVEY Oswald, who had created a disturbance
by handing out "Fair Play for Cuba Literature." Celso Hernandez knew
both LEE Oswald and HARVEY Oswald. [Documentation from the Noto arrest
comes from the Garrison investigation, much of it available to, but
buried by, the HSCA.]
Click
to see and read a Garrison investigation document about this arrest.
In the 1960s there were two young men living in and around Greenwich Village (in New York City) named "Steve Landesberg." Although they were similar in age and appearance, there were distinct differences between them. One boy, Stephen Harris Landesberg (the student), was from Queens. He was quiet, introverted, kept to himself, a bookworm, and an honor student. He had black hair, a life-long speech impediment, stuttered profusely when excited, never wore glasses, and had no southern accent. The other boy, Stephen Richard Landesberg (a future actor), from the Bronx, was outgoing, likable and gregarious. He had reddish brown hair, occasionally wore rimless eyeglasses, enjoyed being around people, had no speech impediment, and acquired a Southern accent that he could use or not use at will. In late 1961 and early 1962 Stephen Richard Landesberg became entangled in activities involving the harassment of liberal and minority-oriented political groups that were active in and around the Village. During this time he befriended and became involved with American-born Lee Oswald, while at the same time Harvey Oswald and Marina were living in Russia. In the 1970s Stephen Richard Landesberg gained notoriety as an actor on the TV show, Barney Miller. The actor's relationship with Oswald motivated a number of JFK researchers, including author Carleton W. Sterling, Professor Stan Weeber (UNT, Denton, TX), attorney Carol Hewitt, author/researcher Joachim Joesten, and myself to investigate the two "Steve Landesbergs." For more information on the Steven Landesberg story, click this link.
In April, 1962 LEE Harvey Oswald visited the Texas
Employment Commission in Ft. Worth and filled out form E-40a, Aptitude
Profile Test (APT) B-1002 and the Occupational Aptitude Pattern test
(OAP). This document was printed on page 491 in volume 19
(WarrenVolumes). But when this document was filled out by LEE Harvey
Oswald in Ft. Worth, HARVEY Oswald and his wife and daughter were
living in Russia.
In September, 1962 LEE Oswald met Donald P. Norton in
Monterrey, Mexico (not to be confused with the Donald Norton who met
John Judge and Mae Brussel in Ohio). This "Donald Norton" was
interviewed by New Orleans DA Jim Garrison. Donald P. Norton was
a CIA agent who received $150,000 from David Ferrie in 1958 and
delivered the cash to Havana, and was given another assignment
involving Cuba in the fall of 1962. On this occasion he was given a
case full of money and told to travel to Monterrey, Mexico and meet
"Harvey Lee." Norton took the case, traveled to Monterrey as directed,
and checked into the Yamajel Hotel. Before he was able to get to his
room Norton was met by "Harvey Lee." The two men went into the hotel
bar to drink a couple of beers and relax. Norton recalled that "Harvey
Lee" refused to look him in the eye. He described "Harvey Lee" as a man
of slight build who was dressed casually and said that he was from New
Orleans. A photograph of "Saddleback Mountain," a well known site east
of
the city of Monterrey, was found among the items returned by the FBI to
the Dallas Police on November 26, 1963.
Saddleback Mountain, east of Monterrey, Mexico
When Norton saw photographs of "Lee Harvey Oswald" in the
newspaper following the assassination, he said the man was identical to
the "Harvey Lee" he met in Monterrey, except that his hair appeared to
be thinner. Norton delivered the case full of money to "Harvey Lee" and
was given a briefcase full of documents in re-turn. Norton took the
documents and drove, as instructed, to Calgary in Alberta, Canada. When
approached by his CIA contact, who identified himself by using the
phrase, "The weather is very warm in Tulsa," Norton told his contact
the documents were in his room. Norton retrieved the documents and met
his contact in the parking lot, where he found the man sitting in a
Volkswagen. Norton gave the documents to his contact and then left. He
then telephoned Mr. Albert Penn, another of his CIA contacts in Five
Points, Alabama. Penn instructed Norton to proceed to Boston, Mass,
which he did. CLICK HERE TO READ
MORE ABOUT DONALD NORTON.
In 1977, during his brief tenure with the HSCA, attorney
Robert Tanenbaum saw a short film of Cuban exiles in training at Lake
Ponchartrain. The film was made in the early 1960's and showed the
CIA's David Atlee Philips, David Ferrie, and LEE Harvey Oswald. HARVEY
Oswald is either in Russia at this time (prior to June, 1962) or in
Dallas/Ft. Worth (thru May, 1963) or in New Orleans. LEE Oswald is
shown in the film in the presence of CIA operatives, something he was
not supposed to have done, according to the official story. In 1996 Mr.
Tanenbaum testified before the assassination records review board. He
talked about his tenure with the HSCA and said, "the major area, and I
can't overemphasize this, focused on the government and what the
government knew about Lee Harvey Oswald... and what the CIA was doing
with Lee Harvey Oswald. And what he was doing in New Orleans with
anti-Castro Cubans, rabid anti-Castro Cubans, and to get everything you
could get from the government with respect to it. And how this
government today could want to hold that information and feed the kind
of anti-government feeling that results from non-disclosure is really
beyond my comprehension."
Mr. Tanenbaum could not comprehend how our government could withhold information from the public. But a high level official, like FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, not only comprehended but knowingly withheld vital information from the public. Hoover knew about the possibility of two Oswald's in 1960, as did other people within the State Department in 1961. Three and a half years later, when President Kennedy was assassinated, his FBI knowingly withheld information about HARVEY and LEE and showed no interest whatsoever in pursuing leads of two different Oswalds. Furthermore, as we shall see, his FBI was responsible for falsifying evidence, destroying evidence, creating evidence, and changing FBI and WC testimony to conceal their knowledge of HARVEY and LEE.
But there were two Oswalds and though they looked similar, they
were not identical. One, born LEE Harvey Oswald, had a southern U.S.
accent and operated mostly in the American South while the
Russian-speaking HARVEY Oswald was in the Soviet Union. Both were
American intelligence agents, entangled in an operation designed to
give a U.S. identity to a Russian speaking child. After HARVEY Oswald
returned to the US with his Russian wife and child, this Russian
speaking supporter of communism became the ideal candidate to blame for
assassinating JFK. But someone was needed to assist in helping to frame
HARVEY Oswald as the "patsy" in the months preceding the assassination.
Who was this person who identified himself as Lee Harvey Oswald? Who
tried to purchase rifles from Castro's close friend (Robert McKeown)?
Who demonstrated his shooting ability (Sports Drome Rifle Range)? Who
drove to the Irving Furniture Store and asked for gun parts
(Whitworth/Hunter)? Who claimed that he would soon have lots of money
(Downtown Lincoln Mercury)? Who carried a long package wrapped in brown
paper to the TSBD just two days before the assassination (Ralph Leon
Yates). Who was driving a red Ford Falcon, with license plates from a
1957 Plymouth, shortly after the assassination and was identified as
LHO (T.F. White)? Who was this person who helped to set up HARVEY
Oswald as the "patsy" for the murder of President Kennedy?
Who else but LEE Oswald? To see where, why, when ,and how
LEE Oswald impersonated HARVEY and set him up as the "patsy," CLICK HERE.
