Authors: John Newman
Carson's memo threw cold water on Haser's hopes of opening a file for a State Department conduit to the FBI via his desk. Carson, starting from the defection, went down the list of pertinent memos and cables and then remarked: "From a review of this file, it would appear that the Bureau has been furnished all available information by State."6S Carson recommended that WFO take no further action.' Carson carried the day, but Haser would soon be back again asking to open a case file. Newspaper accounts and White House questions about American servicemen defecting to the Soviet Union breathed new life into FBI activity on Oswald. What happened inside the FBI became inextricably linked with the Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI).
On November 10, 1960, a week after the CIA answered a State Department request on a list of these defectors, including Oswald, someone in the Office of Naval Intelligence signed out the May 1960 FBI report by Fain on "Funds Transmitted to Residents of Russia.' 161 On the routing slip sending the report, a person whose initials look like "WB" commented on the previous transmittal of the Fain report to the Defense Intelligence Officer (DIO), Ninth Naval District (9ND). It is worth adding that the Marine Corps commandant had requested that the 9ND commander "be apprised of the intelligence documentation on Oswald on a priority basis."'
When "WB" of 921E2 (the Programs section of the Counterintelligence Branch) signed out the Fain report on November 10, however, he had a different Naval District (ND)-the Eighth-in mind. Throughout 1960, the 9ND DIO had been involved in the Navy's handling of the Oswald case to provide support to the commander of the Marine Air Reserve Training Command, U.S. Naval Air Station, Glenview, Illinois, who processed Oswald's Undesirable Discharge. The 8ND District Intelligence Office was a long way away-in Building 255 of U.S. Naval Station, New Orleans, Louisiana. 8ND intelligence records were also kept at U.S. Naval Station, Algiers, Louisiana, which was probably also the location for one of the CIA's covert training bases near New Orleans, specifically the base referred to within the CIA as the "Old Algiers Ammo Dump."' On November 15, 1960, five days after "WB" checked out the Fain report, someone from that same ONI office, 921E2, sent a confidential letter to the "Officer in Charge, District Intelligence Office, Eight Naval District."70
ONI also sent a copy of the November 15, 921 E2 letter to the 9ND, to whom these instructions in the last paragraph applied: "By copy of this letter, the District Intelligence Office of the Ninth Naval District is requested to forward the intelligence documentation concerning Oswald to the District Intelligence Office, Eighth Naval District." This information was forwarded by DIO 9ND two weeks later, comprising fourteen documents "which represent subject's intelligence file" to DIO 8ND on November 30, 1960." As of that date, about one week before the CIA opened its 201 file on Oswald, the ONI changed the Navy field intelligence unit watching the case from Glenview, Illinois, to Algiers, Louisiana.
The officer in charge of the DIO 8ND was Navy captain F.O.C. Fletcher, and on January 11, 1961, he sent a letter to the Dallas field office of the FBI, opening up a potentially important lateral interagency channel on Oswald.72 The Dallas FBI field office copy of this letter has a handwritten number after Oswald's name: 105-976-the Dallas Oswald file which ensued from Fain's "Funds Transmitted to Residents of Russia" report of May 1960. This handwritten file number also included the extension "-1, p. 17," meaning page 17 of document number one in that file.13 This is strange because Fain's report, which was supposedly document number one, was just seven pages long. On the bottom of the letter is Fain's writing, and a new Dallas file number for Oswald: 100-10461. This 8ND letter to the Dallas FBI field office became the first document in Oswald's Dallas 100 file.
In the letter Fletcher reported that Oswald, who had been a member of the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve, had been given an undesir able discharge on August 17, 1960. Fletcher also pointed out that Oswald's last known home of record (as of July 20, 1959) was 3124 West 5th Street, Fort Worth, Texas. An information copy was sent to the director of Naval Intelligence (DNI), OP921 section D, where it was received on January 16, 1961, and to 921E (counterintelligence) on January 17."
On February 27, 1961, FBI director Hoover sent a letter to the State Department Office of Security about Oswald, announcing a dead end in its search for an Oswald impostor in Europe.7S There was no impostor there, as the FBI's sources in Switzerland found out for themselves: no one calling himself Oswald had shown up at the Albert Schweitzer College. The February 27 Hoover letter mentioned Oswald's August 17, 1960, undesirable discharge from the Marines, his old Fort Worth address, and asked "that any additional information contained in the files of the Department of State regarding subject be furnished to this Bureau."76
On February 28, 1961, the special agent in charge at FBI-Dallas wrote a memorandum to the special agent in charge at FBI-New Orleans on the subject of Lee Harvey Oswald, to follow up on the January 11 DIO 8ND letter from New Orleans." Fain's memo discussed the largely unproductive checks he had made since Captain Fletcher's January 11 letter which had mentioned Oswald's old Fort Worth address. A February 2, 1960, check with the Retail Merchants Association netted only Marguerite C. Oswald's 1957 address at 3830 West Sixth Street, Fort Worth, along with the address of Oswald's brother, Robert, at 7300 Davenport Street, Fort Worth. There was "no record" on Oswald.78 A February 25 check with "Dallas Confidential Informants" showed only that Oswald had never been known to be a member of the Communist Party at Fort Worth.
Fain then asked the New Orleans FBI office to review the files of 8ND District Intelligence Office of the Eighth Naval District, "for background information available on subject [Oswald] and any information available concerning CP [Communist Party] activities and attempted defection to Russia, and forward same to Dallas Of- fice."79 It is worth noting that while adding this as the third document in Oswald's new Dallas file, 100-10461, Fain still filed a copy of his memo in the old Dallas 105-976.
Meanwhile, on March 2, 1961, Emery J. Adams of the State Security Office (SY/E) requested several offices to "advise if the FBI is receiving information about Harvey [Oswald] on a continuing basis. If not, please furnish this Office with the information which has not been provided the FBI so that it may be forwarded to them."80 Presumably, Adams meant that these offices should look at the attached February 27, 1961, FBI memo and then determine if anything was missing. On the bottom of this document is a handwritten note of March 20 from the Soviet Desk which advised that no information had been sent to date, but added, "all future [information] will be forwarded to SY [Security Office] for transmittal."
On March 31, 1961, Edward J. Hickey sent a memorandum to John T. White, both of the State Department's passport office. This memo addressed the question of giving back Oswald his passport, and Hickey's point was that the mails could not be trusted. He said:
In view of the fact that this file contains information first, which indicates that mail from the mother of this boy is not being delivered to him and second, that it has been stated that there is an impostor using Oswald's identification data and that no doubt the Soviets would love to get hold of his valid passport, it is my opinion that the passport should be delivered to him only on a personal basis and after the Embassy is assured, to its complete satisfaction, that he is returning to the United States.B1
No one had definitely said there was an Oswald impostor-it had merely been suggested because of the confusion surrounding Oswald's application to the Albert Schweitzer College in Switzerland. By the time of Hickey's memo, the impostor issue was dead. Very much alive were the surreptitious readers of Oswald's mail. "It's hard for me to know whether you get all my letters," Oswald wrote to his brother later that year, "they have a lot of censorship here."8Z The KGB was not the only clandestine reader of Oswald's mail. As we will shortly see, the CIA was too.
On April 13, 1961, the State Department sent a strongly worded set of instructions to the embassy in Moscow on how to deal with Oswald.S3 The instructions boiled down to three things: Thoroughly interrogate Oswald, make no promises about legal proceedings, and report all developments promptly to Washington.84 With respect to Oswald's demand that he receive guarantees that all "legal proceedings" be dropped, the State Department had this to say:
The Department is not in a position to advise Mr. Oswald whether upon his desired return to the United States he may be amenable to prosecution for any possible offenses committed in violation of the laws of the United States [or] of the laws of any of its States. The developments in the case of Mr. Oswald should be promptly reported. In particular, a report of his travel data should be submitted when the Embassy receives confirmation of his travel plans."S
The seriousness of this rebuff was mitigated somewhat by the afterthought at the end of the cable. "It may be added that Mrs. Marguerite Oswald has been informed of the address given by Mr. Oswald," the State Department said. On the other hand, there was a by-now-familiar handwritten inscription on the bottom right-hand corner of the page: "U.S. Defector."
The January 11 letter from the 8th Naval District to Dallas FBI office, Hoover's February 27 request to the State Department, and new activity between the State Department and the Moscow Embassy concerning Oswald's decision to return to America were new ammunition for FBI Special Agent Haser, of the Washington, D.C. field office. His plan to open a WFO case on Oswald had been shot down the previous September by his colleague, Special Agent Carson. On April 20, 1961, Haser wrote a new memorandum to the WFO SAC, reporting his visit that day to the State Department passport office:
This passport file of captioned subject was made available to the writer on this date by Mr. Henry Kupiec, Foreign Adjudications Division, Passport Office, Department of State, inasmuch as the file contains information subsequent to the date on which the file was last reviewed by WFO. It appears that the subject is still in the Soviet Union.
It is, therefore, recommended that this case be reopened to bring up to date a review of subject's file for notification to the Bureau and interested offices. No flimsy [a sheet that enables mimeograph copies of a document to be made] is required.'
Within a month, Haser's recommendation was put into effect, and a channel of Oswald information between WFO and the Dallas FBI field office opened.
Meanwhile, the Dallas FBI request that the New Orleans FBI office read 8ND Navy records had borne fruit. "I had, as a result of a request of the Dallas office," New Orleans FBI Special Agent John L. Quigley recalled, "checked the Office of Naval Intelligence records at the U.S. Naval Station at Algiers."87 Quigley had reviewed Oswald's file at Algiers on April 18, and the results were forwarded to the Dallas FBI office on April 27, 1961. On that date the special agent in charge of the New Orleans FBI office responded formally with a memorandum to the SAC in Dallas detailing SA Quigley's review of the "ONI 8th Naval District Records United States Naval Station, Algiers, Louisiana, on April 18, 1961."88
The Oswald Navy file at Algiers was comprehensive, covering most of the salient points of his history since his defection. For example, it included the January 27, 1960, report on Oswald's brother, John Edward Pic by Special Agent John T. Cox of the Air Force's Office of Special Investigations (OSI).89 The New Orleans FBI memorandum, probably written by Special Agent John L. Quigley, erroneously referred to Cox's OSI report as an "ONI" report. Otherwise, Quigley was meticulous, noting such tiny details as a "Control Number 20261 "-apparently assigned by ONI-for the first embassy cable from Moscow (#1304) which reported Oswald's defection and his threat to give up radar secrets.
"In reviewing this file," SA Quigley said, "it appears that much of the above material has been furnished to ONI 8th Naval District by ONI 9th Naval District." He ended the memo with a suggestion:
Since New Orleans does not have any background information with regards to this investigation, nor is aware of what investigation is contemplated, no leads are being set forth in this communication, other than it is suggested that Dallas and Fort Worth may desire to review ONI's files at Carswell Air Force Base concerning subject.90
Quigley's review of the ONI's 8th Naval District file considerably broadened the database on Oswald at both the Dallas and New Orleans FBI offices. For example, these field offices now had the October 26, 1959, ONI memorandum on Robert Edward Webster who, Quigley said, "appears to have defected to the Russians at about the same time as Oswald." The 1959 Webster memo was assigned ONI "Control Number 1178."91
On April 28, 1961, SAC Dallas sent a memorandum to SAC New Orleans relaying the information acquired since the previous Dallas memorandum on February 28.92 This new information came from a phone call to Special Agent Fain made by Oswald's mother. Marguerite told Fain her son wanted to come home.93
On 4/10/61 [10 April], Mrs. Marguerite C. Oswald, aka Mrs. Edward Lee Oswald, telephonically contacted SA John W. Fain at the Fort Worth RA and stated that she is currently residing at 1612 Hurley Street, Fort Worth. She advised that she had returned to Fort Worth about the first of April 1961 to live ... Mrs. Oswald also volunteered the information that she made a trip to Washington, D.C., during January 1961, for the purpose of contacting the Secretary of State's office for information concerning her son, Lee Harvey Oswald.... She stated that during the following month or after a lapse of about four weeks, she had learned that subject [Oswald] was at Minsk, Russia.94
SAC Dallas noted that when Fain had interviewed Marguerite on April 28, 1960, she had given him a photograph of Oswald with the description: "Race: White; Sex: Male; Age: 20; Birth data: 10/18/39, New Orleans, Louisiana; Height: 5'10"; Weight: 165 lbs.; Eyes: Blue; Hair: Light brown, wavy." SAC Dallas asked SAC New Orleans "to expedite [the] investigation so that this matter can be brought to a successful conclusion." In New Orleans, Special Agent Quigley filed this memo as the third in Oswald's file there: 100-16601.95