Oswald in New Orleans
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Oswald in New Orleans: Case for Conspiracy with the CIA by Harold Weisberg Publisher: Mary Ferrell Foundation Press Order this book online or see its Selected Book page for comments and reviews. |
The Mary Ferrell Foundation is republishing Oswald in New Orleans and other books by Harold Weisberg, including Whitewash, Whitewash II, and Photographic Whitewash (see sidebar). This page presents additional resources related to the book.
1. Documentary Appendix and "Live" Index
The MFF edition of this book includes an Index which was omitted from the Canyon Books edition published in 1967. Not present in either edition is a 308-page documentary appendix Weisberg prepared. The vastly detailed index includes entries for both the book and the documentary appendix.
The Oswald in New Orleans documentary appendix is only available online.
The Index is printed in the book, but is also available online. In the online edition, every reference to a page in the documentary appendix is a direct link to that document page.
=> Browse the Oswald in New Orleans "Live" Index
2. Highlights from the Documentary Appendix
These documents are contained in the 308-page Oswald in New Orleans Documentary Appendix.
Dean Andrews. Lawyer Andrews told the FBI that he had been called on the day after the assassination by a "Clay Bertrand," who told him to go to Dallas to represent Oswald.
- FBI interview of Dean Andrews, 25 Nov 1963. Andrews told the FBI of Oswald's visit and contacts with his office, in the company of others, and also of Clay Bertrand's 23 Nov 1963 call requesting legal assistance for Oswald.
- FBI interview of Sam "Monk" Zeldeon, 25 Nov 1963. Andrews' colleague Monk Zelden corroborated Andrews' account regarding having been contacted to defend Oswald.
- FBI interview of Dean Andrews, 27 Nov 1963. Andrews told the FBI he had been under "heavy sedation" when Bertrand contacted him, and this idea was subsequently used to discredit Andrews' story.
- FBI interview of Dean Andrews, 6 Dec 1963. This interview as recorded is a meandering review by Andrews of his story, not really a retraction in its details but is summarized by Andrews himself as "a figment of his imagination."
- FBI interview of Eva Springer, 6 Dec 1963. Andrews' secretary confirmed the major aspects of Andrews' story, saying he had called her on the 23rd and said that Bertrand had contacted him about representing Oswald.
Clay Shaw and Ramsey Clark. Attorney General Ramsey Clark told the press on 2 Mar 1967 that Shaw, who had been arrested in New Orleans the previous day, had been investigated in 1963 and was "checked out and found clear." This statement was later disavowed.
- Press Interview with Ramsey Clark, 2 Mar 1967. A transcript of the interview given by Clark.
- Statement by a Department Spokeswoman. The Justice Department, prompted by Shaw's lawyers, retracted Clark's "erroneous" statement a couple of months later, explaining that Shaw had never been the subject of investigation and stating that "No evidence was found that Clay Shaw was ever called Clay Bertrand."
Carlos Bringuier. Carlos Bringuier was an anti-Castro activist who was approached by Oswald and later had a public scuffle with him. Bringuier's Cuban Student Directorate went public with Oswald's purported Castro connections on the afternoon of the assassination.
- FBI interview of Carlos Bringuier, 25 Nov 1963. Bringuier told the FBI of Oswald's approach and the later scuffle over Oswald's leafletting.
- FBI interview of Carlos Bringuier, 27 Nov 1963. This interview contains Bringuier's curious statement that Oswald had warned Bringuier that "'we' can infiltrate you."
- FBI interview of Philip Geraci, 29 Nov 1963. Bringuier had mentioned the 15-year-old Geraci as a possible associate of Oswald's. Weisberg notes that Geraci's connection with Bringuier had to do with the illegal sale of bonds.
- FBI letter to J. Lee Rankin, 26 May 1964. This letter and enclosures, part of CD 984, includes Weisberg's comments on the FBI's failure to investigate anti-Castro connections to the JFK assassination.
Bolton Ford Dealership. Oscar DeSlatte told the FBI three days after the JFK assassination that he had been approached in 1961 by members of Friends of Democratic Cuba about buying trucks, and had created a bid form in the name given to him: Oswald. Lee Harvey Oswald was in the Soviet Union at this time.
- FBI interview of Oscar DeSlatte, 25 Nov 1963. The interview report notes that DeSlatte had retained a carbon copy of the form with the name Oswald on it, which he "made available to the interviewing Agents."
Sylvia Odio. Sylvia Odio is the woman who told the Warren Commission of three visitors in late September 1963, one of whom was a "Leon Oswald," at a time when the Commission put Oswald on a bus to Mexico. Odio said that one of the other men called her the next day to say that Oswald said JFK should have been assassinated after the Bay of Pigs. The files contain some new twists on this story:
- FBI interview of Mrs. C.L. Connell, 29 Nov 1963. Mrs. Connell told the FBI that Ms. Odio had phoned her the previous day and stated that Oswald had "made some talks to small groups of Cuban refugees in Dallas," that she "personally considered Oswald brilliant and clever," and that New Orleans-based Cuban associates considered Oswald to be a "double agent."
- FBI interview of Sylvia Odio, 19 Dec 1963. Ms. Odio told the FBI her story being visited by three men in late September.
- Secret Service report of 5 May 1964. Miami inquiries regarding several people associated with the Odio story, including Father Walter Machann, turned up blank. Weisberg notes that Machann had been in New Orleans and interviewed by the Secret Service during this period.
- Secret Service memo to Commission of 5 May 1964. This memo is a report on the interview of Father Machann, who provided information about Sylvia Odio and various other Cubans in Dallas.
- Portion of CD 1546. Starting on page 212 of Commission Document 1546, the FBI reported on the late effort to find the men who visited Ms. Odio. The letter from the Commission asking for the investigation was dated 28 Aug 1964, less than a month before the Warren Report was issued..
- Memo from FBI to Commission of 9 Nov 1964. This memo, Commission Document 1553, wrapped up the FBI's Odio investigation, more than a month after the delivery of the Warren Report.
Loran Hall, Lawrence Howard, and William Seymour. The FBI, based on Hall's statement, told the Warren Commission that these three men were Sylvia Odio's visitors. This occurred right before the Warren Report was issued. Subsequently Howard and Seymour disputed the story and Hall retracted. The Warren Commission by then was no longer in existence.
- FBI interview of Loran Hall, 16 Sep 1964. In this interview, Loran Hall said he had visited Ms. Odio's apartment in late September 1963 with Lawrence Howard and William Seymour.
- FBI interview of William Seymour, 18 Sep 1964. Seymour disputed Hall's account and called him a liar.
- FBI interview of Lawrence Howard, 20 Sep 1964. Howard similarly disputed meeting Sylvia Odio, but he did tell the FBI of a trip to Dallas in September to obtain "supplies" and funds.
- FBI interview of Loran Hall, 20 Sep 1964. On September 20 Hall retracted his original account.
- FBI report of 25 Sep 1964. FBI agent Harry Whidbee reported on the interviews of the previous week, including the retractions. Note that this report is dated one day after the delivery of the Warren Report to President Johnson.
- FBI report of 26 Sep 1964. This report recorded more details from the follow-up interviews with Howard, Seymour, and an associate named Celio Sergio Castro Alba.
The False Oswald. Weisberg points out some of the appearances of what he terms "the false Oswald."
- Report of Bob Carroll, Criminal Intelligence Section, 23 Jan 1964. Hubert Morrow of Albright Parking System on Commerce Street remembered Oswald looking for a job six or seven days prior to the assassination, inquiring about the height of the parking lot and whether it afforded a "good view of Dallas."
- Criminal Intelligence Section report, 27 Jan 1964. This followup interview of Morrow noted that Albright employee Viola Sapp was also aware of the Oswald visit.
Francis Martello. When Oswald was arrested in the summer of 1963 in New Orleans during the scuffle with Carlos Bringuier, he was interviewed by Police Lieutenant Francis Martello.
- FBI Quigley memo of 29 Nov 1963. FBI Special Agent Quigley interviewed Martello, who talked about a handwritten note in Russian and English in Oswald's wallet.
- Slip of paper from Oswald's wallet. Photocopy of both sides of the handwritten note, with Weisberg's comments.
- FBI Quigley report of 29 Nov 1963. This report contains a much more detailed description of Martello's account of his interview with Oswald after the New Orleans arrest.
David Ferrie. David Ferrie was a prime witness/suspect for Jim Garrison until his mysterious death early in the Garrison investigation. Ferrie was a pilot who had been under investigation in the days immediately after the assassination. He had also been a leader in the Civil Air Patrol in New Orleans - in the early 1990s a photo would finally surface featuring both Ferrie and a teenage Oswald in it.
- FBI interview of David Ferrie, 27 Nov 1963. Ferrie was questioned about anti-Kennedy statements and about whether his library card had ever been loaned to Oswald.
- FBI report on activities of David Ferrie, 28 Nov 1963. This report and those on successive pages focus on the "goose hunting" trip to Texas Ferrie and three companions made in a rainstorm late in the evening after the JFK assassination. They spent a few hours on Nov 23 at an ice-skating rink in Houston, where Ferrie made several phone calls.
- FBI interview of David Magyar, 27 Nov 1963. Magyar was an acquaintance of Ferrie and knew of Ferrie's involvement the Civil Air Patrol. He named George Piazza as one of Ferrie's "best friends"; Weisberg points out that Piazza was killed in a plane crash early in the Garrison investigation.
- Statement of David Ferrie, 10 Dec 1963. Ferrie with some equivocation denied knowing Oswald: ".....I have no records, or recollection, to my knowledge, to show that Lee Harvey Oswald was, or was not, a member of this particular unit of the Civil Air Patrol. To my best knowledge and belief I do not know Lee Harvey Oswald, and have no personal recollection of ever having met him. If I did ever meet him it was very casual and to my best recollection have definitely not seen him in recent years."
Ruth Paine. Ruth Paine was housing Marina and her child at the time of the assassination, and it was in her garage that Oswald's rifle had allegedly been stored prior to the assassination.
- FBI interview of Mrs. Louis Rico, 23 Nov 1963. Mrs. Rico lived in an apartment in the same building in New Orleans with the Oswalds. She told the FBI of a "woman who drove a station wagon" helping the Oswalds move in September 1963.
- FBI interview of Alexander Eames, 23 Nov 1963. Another neighbor, Alexander Eames, recalled the woman with the station wagon. Like Mrs. Rico, Eames remembered the woman "loading luggage and other articles into the station wagon." Weisberg points out that this raises doubt about the idea that Oswald had secretly put the rifle into the car.
- FBI interview of Mrs. Gladys Rodgers, 25 Nov 1963. Mrs. Rodgers told the FBI of Oswald's afternoon outings after he lost his job at the Reilly Coffee Company, and also how several days before Oswald moved away a man with "dark complexion...probably Spanish" came looking for him.
- FBI interview of Mrs. Jesse Garner, 26 Nov 1963. Mrs. Garner gave the FBI details of Ruth Paine's appearance to move Marina to Dallas, and Lee Oswald's actions after they left.
Hands Off Cuba. Oswald distributed handbills marked "Hands Off Cuba!" in front of the International Trade Mart on 16 Aug 1963; this was televised locally. Clay Shaw, the man arrested by New Orleans DA Jim Garrison for the murder of Kennedy, was managing director of the Trade Mart.
- FBI summary report. This report states that Oswald ordered 1,000 "Hands Off Cuba FPCC handbills from the Jones Printing Company on 29 May 1963.
- FBI interview of Douglas Jones, 3 Dec 1963. Douglas Jones of Jones Printing Company told the FBI he did not believe it was Oswald who had ordered the handbills.
- FBI interview of Myra Silver, 4 Dec 1963. Ms. Silver supplied additional details about the handbill order placed by "Osborne." She was shown a photo of Oswald and "stated she could not recognize the person represented in the picture as the person who placed the order for the handbills."
- Handbill. Photocopy of a "Hands Off Cuba" handbill.
3. General Resources
See these other resources:
- Garrison Investigation - Starting Point about the New Orleans investigation and trial.
- Anti-Castro Activists and Organizations and Lee Harvey Oswald in New Orleans - HSCA staff report in Volume X.
- Transcript of the Clay Shaw trial
- Orleans Parish Grand Jury transcripts