Authors: John Newman
Those roles lasted throughout June and July. In August, Oswald switched to an overt pro-Castro role, but not before cashing in on his false identity. This he did by deliberately baiting Carlos Bringuier on August 5 and 6. Why Bringuier? Oswald had managed to pick the Cuban with the best connections to the CIA in New Orleans. When Bringuier rushed to interfere with Oswald's pro-Castro leaflet operation, Oswald was waiting for him.
The Canal Street Caper, August 9
Around one P.M. on a Friday afternoon, Oswald casually walked to the 700 block of Canal Street, not far from Bringuier's store, and began distributing FPCC literature.26 Upon receiving this news, Bringuier and two associates, Celso Macario Hernandez and Miguel Mariano Cruz, moved quickly to the scene. There was an argument and some shouting, and an altercation ensued. Bringuier prepared to punch Oswald when the latter, as if expecting this, dropped his hands and invited "Carlos" to throw the punch. The Cubans then decided to trash Oswald's leaflets, scattering them over the ground. A few moments later, the police arrived and all four men were arrested.27
The above brief sketch is comprehensive compared to the threesentence treatment of the Canal Street episode by the Warren Report: "On August 9, Bringuier saw Oswald passing out Fair Play for Cuba leaflets. Bringuier and his companions became angry and a dispute resulted. Oswald and the three Cuban exiles were arrested for disturbing the peace."28 The Warren Commission was happy to let the American public fill in the details, and to ask obvious questions such as, why did Oswald want an altercation? and why did he pick Bringuier to have it with? The Warren Report did not think it useful to point out to readers that there was a pertinent sentence from New Orleans police lieutenant Frances Martello's testimony about the clash. Martello had said that Oswald "seemed to have set them up, so to speak, to create an incident, but when the incident occurred he remained absolutely peaceful and gentle."2'
Martello's incisive account had little impression on the Warren Commission. The same was true for an even more extraordinary event that occurred in the police station-which earned a grand total of nine words in the Warren Report: "At Oswald's request, an FBI agent also interviewed him."' We will return to that shortly. On the day of the Canal Street caper, a New Orleans FBI report written by Special Agent Stephen M. Callender reported the arrest of Oswald and the three Cubans at 4:20 P.M. by Lieutenant William Gal- liot.31 Callender's brief description of the four men,32 based upon Galliot's report and information provided by an informant" who witnessed the leafleting incident did little to explain the nature of the disturbance. Another person who saw Oswald passing out his handbills was New Orleans attorney Dean Andrews, who recalled that Oswald told him he was being "paid $25.00 per day for the job."34
Habana Bar owner Orestes Pena posted bond for Carlos Bringuier's release." One or two days before Oswald's clash with Bringuier on August 9, Oswald and another man reportedly met at the Habana Bar, 117 Decatur, just a few doors from Bringuier's store (at 107 Decatur)." Pena was present." He recalled that Oswald's companion was a Cuban.38 Previously, Pena overheard two Cubans in his bar, posing as Mexicans, making anti-American remarks. He reported them to the FBI. Bringuier claimed he was told that one of these men was not only Oswald's companion but also a Mexican Communist wanted by the FBI.39 Another Cuban exile, a waiter at the Habana Bar by the name of Evaristo Gilberto Rodriguez, also recalls seeing Oswald and a Latino male in the bar around the second week of August.4"
After spending the night in jail, Oswald found himself speaking with Lieutenant Martello. Martello had previously been assigned to the department's intelligence unit. After he found out that Oswald had been handing out FPCC literature, Martello said he decided to interrogate him to see if this would produce "any information which would be of value and to ascertain if all interested parties had been notified."41 Martello directed that Oswald be brought into the interview room. Martello introduced himself and asked Oswald for identification papers. Oswald pulled out his wallet and gave Martello a social security card and a selective service card, both in the name of Lee Harvey Oswald, and two FPCC membership cards in the name Lee Harvey Oswald, one signed by V. T. Lee, and one signed by "A. J. Hidell, Chapter President, issued June 6, 1963."
Oswald had told the arresting officers that he was born in Cuba,42 a lie which he did not repeat to Lieutenant Martello. Oswald told him he had been born in New Orleans, which was the truth, but then Oswald immediately lied about his date of birth, which he claimed was October 18, 1938. Oswald said that he had served three years in the Marine Corps and that he was discharged on July 17, 1959, at El Toro. In fact, Oswald had been discharged on September 11, 1959. Oswald said he had lived at 4907 Magazine for four months, but he had lived there for three months to the day. Several other pieces of information Oswald furnished were inaccurate or outright lies.43
Martello's contemporaneous account of this important interview is preserved only in his handwriting, which he set down at three A.M. on the morning after the Kennedy assassination. That day, the Secret Service took his original report and associated papers and documents from his office. His account described their considerable discussion of the FPCC. This is how this part of the interview started:
When questioned about the Fair Play for Cuba Committee, Oswald stated that he had been a member for three months. I asked how he had become affiliated with the Fair Play for Cuba Committee and he stated he became interested in that Committee in Los Angeles, California in 1958 while in the U. S. Marines Corps. The facts as to just how he first became interested in the Fair Play for Cuba Committee while in the Marine Corps are vague, however I recall that he said he had obtained some Fair Play for Cuba Committee literature and had gotten into some difficulty in the Marine Corps for having this literature."
This tale was completely false. The Fair Play for Cuba Committee did not exist until seven months after Oswald left the Marines, by which time Oswald was deep in the Soviet Union. Oswald probably did not receive his first FPCC material until the spring of 1963.
Martello wanted to know how many members there were in the New Orleans chapter. Oswald lied again when he said there were thirty-five. Martello's handwritten account, entered into his Warren Commission testimony, describes how he then proceeded to grill Oswald on the FPCC:
I asked him to identify the members of the Fair Play for Cuba Committee in New Orleans and he refused to give names of the members or any identifying data regarding them. Oswald was asked why he refused and he said that this was a minority group holding unpopular views at this time and it would not be beneficial to them if he gave their names. Oswald was asked approximately how many people attended meetings of the New Orleans Chapter of the Fair Play for Cuba Committee and he said approximately five attended the meetings, which were held once a month. He was asked where and he said at various places in the city. He was asked specifically at what addresses or locations were the meetings held and stated that the meetings were held on Pine Street. He was asked at whose residence the meetings were held and he refused to give any further information."'
Perhaps Martello thought he had reached what Oswald was hiding. At this point Martello digresses, explaining how a "prior investigation" that he conducted while a member of the intelligence unit had discovered FPCC literature in the 1000 block of Pine Street, "near" the residence of Dr. Leonard Reissman, who, as discussed in Chapter Sixteen, was a leftwing professor at Tulane University.
Martello was looking for a connection between Oswald and Reissman, who probably never met. Martello's report went on about how Dr. Reissman was a "reported" member of the New Orleans Council of Peaceful Alternatives (NOCPA), which Martello described as a "ban the bomb" group. This group had conducted meetings and demonstrations in New Orleans. He is less than convincing, however, when it comes to explaining their relevance to Oswald:
Knowing that Dr. Reissman was reportedly a member of the New Orleans Council of Peaceful Alternatives I thought there might be a tie between this organization and the Fair Play for Cuba Committee. When Oswald stated that meetings of the Fair Play for Cuba Committee had been held on Pine Street, the name of Dr. Reissman came to mind. I asked Oswald if he knew Dr. Reissman or if he held meetings at Dr. Reissman's house. Oswald did not give me a direct answer to this question, however I gathered from the expression on his face and what appeared to be an immediate nervous reaction that there was possibly a connection between Dr. Reissman and Oswald; this, however, is purely an assumption on my own part and I have nothing on which to base this.46
One cannot help but wonder what "expression" Oswald made that permitted such an interpretation. Martello seemed to have obtained a small victory, i.e., that Reissman and Oswald were connected, even though Oswald had actually said nothing. What Martello apparently did not know was that Ruth Kloebfer, a New Orleans resident who was on the NOCPA mailing list, had been recommended to Oswald by a relative in Dallas, Ruth Paine. Also, Carlos Bringuier knew "a Bruce Walthzer who was somehow associated with Kloepfer and Reissman." Presumably, if he had known of Oswald's tie-in to Kloepfer, Martello would have made much ado about it too.47
In any event, Martello evidently felt he had enough on Reissman, and was ready to move to his next target, another leftwing political figure that was dimly connected to the FPCC in Martello's mind: Dr. Forrest E. La Violette, also, as previously discussed, a professor at Tulane University. Martello asked Oswald about La Violette "because I remembered that La Violette allegedly had possession of Fair Play for Cuba literature during the year 1962."
I cannot remember any further details about this or do I have any information that he is or was connected with the Fair Play for Cuba Committee in New Orleans. Oswald became very evasive in his answers and would not divulge any information concerning the Fair Play for Cuba Committee, where the group met, or the identities of the members.... I asked him again about the members of the Fair Play for Cuba Committee in New Orleans and why the information was such a big secret; that if [he] had nothing to hide, he would give me the information. Oswald said one of the members of the Fair Play for Cuba Committee in New Orleans was named "John" and that this individual went to Tulane University. He refused to give any more information concerning the Fair Play for Cuba Committee in New Orleans.'
"John" might have. existed, but he probably did not. Oswald was treading on dangerous ground-if indeed he was a genuine proCastro activist. He had engaged a rabid anti-Castro organization and their CIA masters.
In one sense, it does not matter whether Oswald himself picked the DRE or whether he was steered to them. From their perspective, Oswald was a propitious propaganda opportunity. After the assassination, this was all the more true. Then, the Joint Legislative Committee on Un-American Activities for the State of Louisiana hired J. D. Vinson of the Isaac Detective Agency to research Oswald. FBI special agent Quigley interviewed Vinson on November 27, 1963, who said he had checked on Forrest E. La Violette and Leonard Reissman, since "he had a dim recollection that sometime in 1962," FPCC literature had been found in the 1200 or 1300 block of Pine Street.49 It is striking how similar were Martello's and Vinson's "dim" memories of FPCC literature near the 1200 block of Pine Street in 1962.
When arrested, Oswald had the booklet "The Crime Against Cuba," stamped with the address "FPCC 544 Camp Street, New Orleans, La."S0 By this time, however, the 544 Camp Street address was an anachronism: Oswald had begun stamping his real name and 4907 Magazine Street on his FPCC handbills. As we have seen, from the moment he walked into Bringuier's store on August 5, Oswald had entered the overt phase of his FPCC activities in New Orleans. The Camp Street address was not the only anachronism among Oswald's possessions when he was arrested. When Lieutenant Martello turned over his file on Oswald to Agent A. G. Vial from Secret Service at three A.M. on November 23, 1963, Martello noticed "a small white piece of paper containing handwritten notes." In response to the Warren Commission's question on how this piece of paper was "taken from Oswald," Martello answered that "it wasn't actually taken from him ... it was left-it was inadvertently picked up with the [FPCC] literature, and I put it in a file folder and it remained there."51 Martello's testimony to the Warren Commission included this remark:
This piece of paper, which was folded over twice and was about 2" by 3" in size, contained some English writing and some writing which appeared to me to be in a foreign language which I could not identify. Before I gave this paper to Mr. Vial, I made a copy of the information....52
On one side of this piece of paper were street addresses for relatives in Dallas and New Orleans, but on the reverse side was handwriting in Russian, including the name "Leo Setyaev."S3 Setyaev, of course, was the Radio Moscow man who had interviewed Oswald at the time of his defection. Oswald had also tried-on at least one occasion-to contact Setyaev during his stay in the Soviet Union.
Why Oswald would have a name from his Russian past, let alone Setyaev's on a piece of paper in his pocket in the summer of 1963 is a mystery. So was his request to be interviewed in jail by the FBI. The FBI man who did the interview knew about Oswald's Russian past, because it was the same man who looked over the ONI file on Oswald at the Algiers station in 1961.54
The Quigley Jailhouse Interview
On August 10, 1963, Lieutenant Martello notified the New Orleans FBI that Oswald had been picked up the day before and charged with disturbing the peace. Martello told them that Oswald had been handing out FPCC literature in the 700 block of Canal Street. But Martello had a special reason for contacting the FBI that day. According to Agent John Quigley, Martello "said that Oswald was desirous of seeing an Agent and supplying to him information with regard to his activities with the `Fair Play for Cuba Committee' in New Orleans."55