Oswald's Quaker connection in New Orleans and Mexico City

In a previous entry to this blog, an article written by William Weston, entitled "Oswald: Peace Activist in Pennsylvania?"  was posted.

Oswald's Quaker connections, particularly through Marina's "friend" in both senses of the word--Ruth Paine--has been of great interest over the years to assassination researcher Bill Kelly, who has previously written about Oswald's strange ties to Quakers in Mexico City:

Professor Jerry Rose ... published the first part of the story in the Fourth Decade [Volume 5 #4, May, 1998]. Rose wrote about the FBI's investigation of The Casa De Los Amigos, a Quaker camp or hostel in Mexico City whose residents apparently had knowledge of Lee Harvey Oswald's activities. Prof. Rose wrote:

"Given the Bureau's propensity to try to associate Oswald with Friends [Quaker] groups like the New Orleans Council for Peaceful Alternatives, this `information' aroused the intense interest of headquarters, which conveyed this information along with directives to interview [Alcaraz] and give the appropriate attention to the matter in view of the fact that, `Mrs. Ruth Paine of Irving Texas, who has befriended Oswald and wife, has been prominently associated with the activities of the Friend's organization.'"

The Mexico City Quaker connection was first developed by the San Francisco Bureau of the FBI, whose undercover informant Judith Gordon, notified them on January 15, 1964 that Barrie Milliman, a female student at the University of Califorinia (Berkeley), learned of some of Oswald's movements and contacts while visiting her fiance Homobono Amo Alcaraz in Mexico City.

Before they got to Alcaraz however, the FBI interviewed the Acting Director of the Casa del Los Amigos, Von Peacock, who speculated that the "unknown American" may have been Robert Kaffke of San Francisco, who had been one of 58 students who made an illegal trip to Cuba in the summer of 1963. While it was determined that Kaffke was not registered at the Casa De Los Amigos until Oct. 25, 1963, weeks after Oswald had left, he was familiar to the FBI since he was also an undercover informant of the San Francisco FBI office. He was not now suspected as being the "unknown American" seen with Oswald in Mexico City.
Kaffke told the FBI that when he stayed at the Casa de Los Amigos in late October 1963 the residents were still talking about Oswald's visit. When Oswald was there he had "a lot of money" and "persons at Casa de Los Amigos are really scared when the name of Oswald is mentioned." [B.K. -- Note that they were scared in October, 1963 -- Before the assassination].

Remarking that this story has been discussed by others, Kelly continues his own article by elucidating for us what those others have learned:

In Live By The Sword, Gus Russo (Bancroft Press, Baltimore, MD., 1998) gives an historically deceiving perspective of Kennedy's murder that still tries to sell the original cover-story for the operation -- that Fidel Castro was behind the assassination. There is however, an interesting footnote under the allegation that there are no photos of Lee Harvey Oswald in Mexico City because, as Russo would like us to believe, Oswald was possibly accompanied by Cuban agents. The note (from Chapter 19 - 8, p. 579) reads:

"In 1994, . . . [Anthony and Robbyn] Summers also interviewed Homer Bono, who told them that he met Oswald at Sanborn's Restaurant outside Mexico City in 1963. Oswald left in the company of a Quaker from Philadelphia named Steve Kennan [sic?]. Oswald was a passenger on Kennan's motorbike as the two drove off to the Cuban Embassy to try to secure a visa for Oswald. Kennan has never been found or interviewed."

The idea that Oswald could have been ferried about Mexico City on a motorbike by "a Quaker from Philadelphia" is certainly an interesting possibility, especially since the Warren Report makes note of the fact (p. 735):

"Although the Soviet and Cuban Embassies are within two blocks of each other, they are some distance from Oswald's hotel. He must, therefore, have traversed a substantial portion of the city on more than one occasion." So, "a Quaker from Philadelphia" with a motorbike would have done very nicely, and he could be a valuable witness to Oswald's activities there.

Anthony Summers, in Not In Your Lifetime (Marlowe & Co., N.Y., 1998 p.441), wrote in a footnote:

"In 1994, in Mexico City, the author interviewed Homobono Alcaraz Aragon, a lawyer. His name featured in reports indicating that he claimed he had met Oswald in Mexico City before the assassination. In the 1994 interview, Alcaraz said he had encountered Oswald at Sanborn's restaurant, in the company of two or three other American students -- all Quakers, like Alcaraz himself. The talk centered on efforts to get to Cuba, and Alcaraz said `Oswald' eventually left with one of the Americans -- whom Alcaraz recalls as being named either Steve Kennan (or Keenan) from Philadelphia. As Alcaraz recalled it, Keenan drove Oswald on his motorcycle to go to the Cuban consulate. Alcaraz seemed sincere, and abhorred publicity. He named a friend, Hector Gastelo (now a farmer in Sanoro State) as probably having been present during the encounter with Oswald. (Interview with Alcaraz, 1993; CE 2121; and multiple FBI reports -- available at the Assassinations Archive and Research Center, Washington D.C.; Miraba: HSCA III.177)."

In a footnote to the footnote, Summers also makes note that, "As this book went to press, the author became aware of information that the CIA ran an agent in Mexico, code named LICOZY-3, who was a student from Philadelphia (Philip Agee, Inside the Company, Stonehill, 1975, p. 530).

The plot thickens as Agee reported (Inside the Company):

"The [Mexico City] station double-agent cases against the Soviets, LICOZY-1, LICOZY-3 and LICOZY-5, are all being wound up for lack of productivity or problems of control. One of these agents, LICOZY-3, is an American living in Philadelphia who was recruited by the Soviets while a student in Mexico City, but who reported the recruitment and worked for the Mexico City station. He worked for the FBI after returning to the US -- the Soviet case officer was a UN offical at one time -- but recently Soviet interest in him has fallen off and the FBI turned the case back over to the Agency for termination."

Sanborn's Restaurant, where Alcaraz and Kennan reportedly met Oswald, is also mentioned by Richard Case Nagell, who according to Dick Russell (in The Man Who Knew Too Much, Carroll & Graf, 1992, p. 354), wrote a letter to his friend Arthur Greenstein refering to Sandborn's restaurant as a meeting place. While Sandborn's Restaurant is reported in one reference (Russo) to be "just outside" Mexico City, Mary Ferrell's index notes that, (Steve) "Kennan was seen several times in Sanborn's Restaurant next to the American Embassy bldg. in Mexico City."
[B.K. Note: If Sanborns Restaurant is next to the American Embassy, Larry Happanen questions whether Oswald visited the American Embassy as well as the Cuban and Russian Embassies while he was there.]

Kelly then sums things up as follows:

The whole "Quaker" connection to the assassination reaches right to the heart of the matter of who was behind Oswald's movements and how he was being directed in his clandestine operations -- his advocacy of the Fair Play for Cuba Committee in New Orleans, his mission to the Cuban and Russian Embassies in Mexico City, his intention to move to Philadelphia, his relocation back to Dallas and his job at the Texas School Book Depository.

Central to everything is Ruth Avery Hyde Paine....Ruth Avery Hyde Paine is a pacifist who harbors Quaker beliefs, studied the Russian language, wrote letters to pen-pals in the Soviet Union, helped arrange east-west exchange students and became Marina Oswald's guardian. She first took Marina into her home as a guest while Oswald went to New Orleans to obtained work and an apartment. Ruth H. Paine then drove Marina from Texas to the Magazine Street apartment in New Orleans and then notified a local Quaker, Mrs. Ruth Kloepfer, of the Oswald's presence in New Orleans. She requested Kloepfer contact and assist the Oswalds, and Mrs. Kloepfer and her two college-age daughters, who were also learning the Russian language, then visited Lee and Marina at the apartment.

Unfortunately, Bill Kelly is one of those researchers who has never bothered to read what Judyth Vary Baker has written, always sloughing it off as something merely about a love affair between an alleged assassin and a school girl. Judyth tell us in her book, Me and Lee, that Ruth Paine:

"... wrote to Mrs. Ruth Kloepfer, a fellow Quaker who lived in New Orleans, ostensibly asking her to check on Marina and June. Mrs. Kloepfer just happened to be married to a Tulane professor, Dr. Henry Warner Kloepfer, and they would just happen to move from Pine Street to Louisiana Avenue Parkway -- close to David Ferrie -- not long afterwards. The first visit to 4905 Magazine involved only Mrs. Kloepfer and her daughters. Marina was unaware that Dr. Kloepfer was a geneticist at Tulane Medical School, who was involved in the Project. Dr. Kloepfer's name, address and phone numbers were later found in Lee's address book." (p. 339)

Dr. Kloepfer's father, John Alexander Kloepfer, was a farmer in Ohio, whose own father was a German immigrant to the United States. The 1961 obituary of John A. Kloepfer (who died in New Orleans many years after his wife's death in Ohio) indicated that he and his wife, the former Mary Ivett, were Methodists. Another newspaper article that appeared in Ruth Kloepfer's Ohio hometown in 1952 stated that her father was Rev. D.C. McCoy, pastor of the Calcutta United Presbyterian Church, and her brother was  Rev. Wayne L. McCoy, assistant pastor of the Second Presbyterian Church in Washington, Pa., while still a student at the Presbyterian seminary in Pittsburgh. (East Liverpool (Ohio) Review, June 6, 1952).

So when and how did this family become Quakers? We find no clues from any information in Dr. Kloepfer's biography nor in his obituary:

Henry Warner Kloepfer biography and obituary:

(1913-1982) KLOEPFER, HENRY WARNER, b Roseville, Ohio, Feb 25, 1913; m 1936; c 4. HUMAN GENETICS. Educ: Ohio Univ, BS, 34, MA, 1938; Muskingum Col, BA, 35; Ohio State Univ, PhD (human genetics), 1942. Prof Exp: Instr, Ohio Pub Sch, 1935-36; asst zool, Ohio State Univ. in Columbus, OH 1939-42; prof biol & head dept, Dakota Wesleyan Univ,1942-46, prof biol & chmn div, dean of men & acad dean, 1946-47; prof biol & acad dean, Col of Ozarks, 1947-52; assoc prof anat, 1952-77, EMER ASSOC PROF ANAT, SCH MED, TULANE UNIV, 1977-Concurrent Pos: Danforth vis lectr, Asn Am Cols, 1962-66. Mem: Am Soc Human Genetics (treas, 1958-60); Genetics Soc Am; World Fedn Neurol (secy, 1961-65); Int Dermatoglyphics Asn (pres, 1974- ). Res: Genetics of rare genes; detection of genetic carrier. Mailing Add: 3033 La Ave Pkwy New Orleans LA 70125

Obituary from "New Orleans Genesis" Volume 21, Number 83 (July 1982) page 296:

In Memoriam -- The Society extends its sympathy to the family of Dr. H. Warner Kloepfer, who passed away Saturday 27 March 1982. Dr. Warner was a charter member of the Society. He was director of the Genetic Counseling Center and associate Professor of Human Genetics at Tulane University Medical School. His work researching the identification and description of specific major genes was also helped by his researching family lineage. He is survived by his wife, Mrs. H. Warner Kloepfer, the former Ruth Elizabeth McCoy, three daughters, Jean Elizabeth Watts, Karol Grace Kloepfer, and Dr. Ruth Ann Peters, and one son, Rev. John Warner Kloepfer. We deeply regret the loss of this dedicated member.

Scientist to Speak on Forum Series

Tuesday evening, March 15 (1961), at 8 p.m., in the University Fieldhouse, Dr. H. Warner Kloepfer will lecture on the Forum of Eau Claire State University on the topic, "Radiation and Human Genetics." Dr. Kloepfer's field of research ranges throughout most phases of human genetics, and he will discuss both the adverse and optimistic trends in the field of genetics today. He will explore the role of fallout and the genetic damage which is occurring because of radiation effects and, on the other hand, the breakthroughs in genetic research which he feels will more than offset the damaging effects of increased radiation.                          Dr. Kloepfer will be on the campus of the university March 14 and 15 as a Danforth visiting lecturer. Now in its ninth year, the Danforth visiting lecturers project is sponsored jointly by the Danforth Foundation and the Association of American Colleges. Dr. Kloepfer is one of 17 scholars from this country and abroad selected by the Foundation and the Association's arts program for campus visits during the 1965-66 academic years. During his two-day visit he will lecture to botany, zoology, and genetics classes and visit with individual students and faculty.

Associate professor of anatomy at the Tulane University School of Medicine since 1952, Dr. Kloepfer taught previously at Ohio State University, Dakota Wesleyan University, the College of Emporia, and the College of the Ozarks. A native of Ohio, he is the author of many articles in professional journals in the field of genetics. Dr. Kleopfer has served on the commission of neurogenetics of the World Federation of Neurology, a post to which he was elected at the founding meeting in Geneva, Switzerland, in 1961.

~~~~~~~~~~

Previously, lectures he gave at various colleges across the country dealt more with the subject of genetics, or "eugenics," as the field was formerly known. The following item appeared in a nearby newspaper in Jennings, La. following the publication of an article in the Eugenics Quarterly:

Jennings Daily News – July 13, 1960

Genetic Control Of Diseases Possible

NEW ORLEANS, La.—Medical scientists may be on the verge of controlling cancer, muscular dystrophy, heart disease and mental illness. But first, they must learn to spell with a new alphabet. Keys to this alphabet are locked in the genes—"the roots of life" —through which parents transfer to their children the color of eyes and hair, shortness and tallness, slimness and heaviness.       Unfortunately, genes also transfer diseases and "susceptibility" to diseases from generation to generation. Reporting in Eugenics Quarterly, Dr. H. Warner Kloepfer pointed out that genetic scientists can identify these death-dealing or crippling genes, but in most cases are helpless to correct the situation. But now, a new hope has appeared on the medical horizon, the Tulane geneticist said. Aided by powerful electron  microscopes, biochemists can now determine the chemical structure of genes, he emphasized.

"This discovery is the first giant step in artificially-producing human genes to serve as weapons in the fight against human suffering and death," he stressed.

   "It opens the door for mass-production of genes, just as the discovery of vitamins and hormones paved the way for large-scale production of these items and the subsequent increase of life expectancy."

   The Tulane scientist predicted that, in time, artificial, mass-produced genes would be available for use in preventing diseases before they begin. However, a major obstacle in producing genes today is an incomplete knowledge of spelling with "the genetic alphabet," he said.

   Dr. Kloepfer pointed out that there are four "letters" in the genetic alphabet, corresponding to four known amino acids which are components of all genes. He explained further that each gene in turn looks like a flexible, spiralling ladder with 10,000 rungs—each rung composed of the amino acids.

   "Just as arranging letters in the English language form all the words in the dictionary, the 'spelling' or arrangement of each gene is dependent on the arrangement of the four 'letters' in the genetic alphabet," he said.

   "Learning to spell words with four letters, or to build ladders with four kinds of rungs may seem easy, but it must be remembered what each word has 10,000 letters, or each ladder, 10,000 rungs.

   "The number of possible combination of the molecular structure combinations are almost infinite.

Intriguingly, Dr. Kloepfer appeared at Tulane during the polio scare of the mid-fifties, about a year before Dr. Alton Ochsner's grandson died from a polio vaccine produced at the Cutter Laboratory in California. He indicated to one journalist that he had come to Tulane to study whether there was any genetic connection to polio.

After introducing the Kloepfer name, however, Bill Kelly quickly moved on in his article to other subjects involving Quakers, i.e. a man named Steve Kennan or Keenan, who was supposedly a Quaker residing in Mexico City at the time Lee Oswald visited the embassy there. According to Kelly:

Ruth H. Paine then drove Marina from Texas to the Magazine Street apartment in New Orleans and then notified a local Quaker, Mrs. Ruth Kloepfer, of the Oswald's [sic] presence in New Orleans. She requested Kloepfer contact and assist the Oswalds, and Mrs. Kloepfer and her two college age daughters, who were also learning the Russian language, then visited Lee and Marina at the apartment. According to the Warren Report (p. 726):

"Ruth Kloepfer was a clerk of the Quaker Meeting in New Orleans whom Ruth Paine had written in the hope that she might know some Russian-speaking people who could visit Marina. Mrs. Kloepfer herself visited the Oswalds but made no attempt to direct any Russian-speaking people to them." [Other than her daughters, who were never interviewed].

Oswald then embarked upon his trip to Clinton, LA., and pro and anti-Castro Cuban operations in New Orleans, which continued until September 22, 1963, when Ruth H. Paine arrived in New Orleans from Philadelphia. Arriving after a long summer tripthat took her to visit relatives in Massachusetts andPhiladelphia Ruth Hyde Paine had spent some time with her husband's mother, Ruth Forbes Paine Young and her husband Arthur Young, the inventor of the Bell Helicopter. Both Ruth F. P. [Forbes Paine] Young (Michael Paine's mother) and Arthur Young were pacifists, professed Quaker beliefs and were associated with the Philadelphia Friends community.

Oswald had told a few acquaintances, including Ruth H. Paine, that he intended to relocate to Philadelphia, and in his notebook are five Philadelphia addresses and the notations:

• Philidelphia (sic)
• Russ-Amer. citizenship club 2730 Snyder Av.
• Russ. Lan. school 1212 Spruce
• Russian Daliy (sic) Paper Jefferson Bldg.
• Russian Lan. Trn. 216 S. 20 / Russ. _ _ _ _ _ -- Ho_ _ Organ. 1733 Spring Grdn. [WC Exhibit 18].

From Lee's notebook

Kelly continues:

Philadelphia is the headquarters of the world Quaker community, which maintains close ties to nearby Main Line colleges Swathmore [sic] College and Haverford. Michael Paine attended Swathmore [sic] after leaving Harvard, and journalist Priscilla Johnson McMillan matriculated at Haverford. Both Priscilla Johnson and Ruth Forbes Paine were active in support of the World Federalists, the organization founded by Cord Meyer, who later became head of the CIA's International Organizaitons [sic] and Domestic Contacts Divisions.

Also in downtown Philadelphia is the headquarters of the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), which operates Casa de los Amigos, the "camp" or youth hostel for America students studying the Spanish language in Mexico City, where the "unknown American," Philadelphia Quaker student "Steve Kennen -- or Keenan" is alledged to have stayed.

Instead of going to Philadelphia however, Oswald went to Mexico City, while Mrs. Ruth H. Paine took Marina, the kids and all of the Oswald's belongings -- including his rifle -- to Texas.
It is possible that "Steve Kennan -- Keenan" and his Quaker friends knew Oswald in Mexico City and were associated with Casa de los Amigos, which is still operational today.

After searching for a Quaker in Philadelphia named either Steve Kennan or Keenan, Bill Kelly states that he came up empty, before speculating that the person could have been " 'Edward L. Keenan,' the graduate exchange student in Leningrad and Moscow," who happened to be a "professor of linguistics at the University of the City of Los Angeles (UCLA), whose Curricululm [sic] Vitae includes a BA degree in Philosophy and Religion from Swathmore [sic] College in Philadelpia in 1959 and the Sorbonne (1962), as well as work as an "Escort Interprter" (French-English) for the U.S. Department of State in 1962-64 (summers)."

Kelly asks, "Is this the guy? If so, it is even more remarkable that he would meet Oswald at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow on the day he defects in 1959 and then hooks up with him again in Mexico City in the fall of 1963, a few months before he is accused of being the assassin of the President of the United States."

Lee Oswald and the Peace Movement

Oswald: Peace Activist in Pennsylvania?

By William Weston

Photo Courtesy of  Friends Journal

About two weeks after the assassination of President Kennedy, a 47-year-old minister named Irwin Tucker entered the police station in Scranton, Pennsylvania and spoke with Anthony Batsavage, the Superintendent of Police. Tucker had just returned from a three-week tour of missionary duty among the Indians in Ontario, Canada. He said that he had been staying at the home of a relative in New Liskeard, when he had heard about the shooting in Dallas. That same night he was watching the evening news for further details, when he saw a picture of the accused assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald. Tucker immediately recognized that face. He was certain that he had seen this man about five months previously in downtown Scranton with a group of peace demonstrators. [1]

The demonstration was located on a street corner of Courthouse Square. Tucker had been listening to the demonstrators for a considerable period of time, because he was interested in hearing their views. Oswald was among this group passing out leaflets. He remembered him in particular, for he got into a heated discussion with him. As he would later put it, the young man kept "running down our country" and he was arguing that "President Kennedy was not doing right by Cuba." Tucker lost his patience with this unpatriotic tirade and told the young man that if liked Castro's Cuba so much, he ought to move over there.

When a Scranton reporter heard about this story, he went to Batsavage to ask for his opinion regarding the clergyman's credibility. The superintendent said that he had personally known Tucker for many years and that he regarded him as "a serious, reputable man."

The Scranton peace demonstrations that had taken place from July 22 through July 25, 1963 consisted mostly of young people, about forty in number. They carried signs, which bore the peace symbol - an upside-down broken cross within a circle - and messages such as "Your conscience demands it - REFUSE to serve in the ARMED FORCES." Other signs reflected a concern for the problem of Cuba: "Soviet Troops and U.S. Marines: Leave Cuba" and "Demand Freedom to Visit Cuba."

The rally on Monday evening began with folk singing and then proceeded into speeches. A crowd of about 200 to 300 people came out to listen to them. As the rally went on, hecklers in the audience became more hostile and disruptive. Some of the hecklers protested that the demonstrators were desecrating the memory of "our boys" who have died in Vietnam and if they don't love America they should leave it. The intensity of the hostility would have turned ugly had not the police moved in to break up the demonstration. [2] It was a scene that would become a familiar sight on television newscasts during the Johnson and Nixon Administrations.

The First Hippie

The peace demonstrators in Scranton were the forerunners of the "hippie" movement ©- a phenomenon that would later become a prominent feature of the American cultural landscape. It is interesting to note that Oswald's friend, George de Mohrenschildt, once made the statement that Oswald was ahead of his time and that if the course of events had been different, he would have been among the first hippies. [3] While the image of Oswald as a longhaired, pot-smoking flower child may seem incongruous, I believe de Mohrenschildt was right. Oswald would indeed have been among them, but not as a true believer. As his close ties to such right wing fanatics as Guy Banister and David Ferrie indicate, he would have been an informant or an agent provocateur. His leftist political activity was really a masquerade to subvert the cohesion and integrity of the organizations he claimed to be serving.

J.H.C.

The story of his presence at a peace rally in Scranton becomes even more interesting in light of another report that he was meeting with members of the Fair Play for Cuba Committee (FPCC) at another peace rally in Philadelphia. Someone who only identified himself as "J.H.C." had dropped off a postcard at radio station WPEN in Philadelphia shortly after the assassination and had addressed it to talk show host Red Benson. As indicated below, the hand-written message contained several errors in punctuation and spelling.

Why, has no one checked out this. Lee Oswald [underscored by the writer] was at our meeting this summer here at Rittenhouse Sq. Check this by Fairmont guards who know about out F.P.T.C meeting. They saw Lee J.H.C.

 

In an envelope postmarked "Philadelphia, November 26, 1963" and addressed to "Special Att. Dis. Atty HENRY WADE, Dallas, Tex." the following letter was enclosed:

Phila. Pa.
Mr. Wade:
Will this help you?
Read it:
This summer, we had a meeting of "Fair Play" at Rittenhouse sq. this city. (Check by the guards of Fairmont park. they will recall such.
Lee was, there with us. I have pictures of this meeting to prove such. Lee needed some money, and he got some from a night club party, called "Sparky in Dallas, and so help us, if Ruby says he did not know us, he lies.
A copy of this is being given Sec. Service, as we have photos to prove such Lee. was here this summer and I know Ruby enough to get [missing copy here] Mr Red Benson WPEN, can tell you about Fair play meeting, at park this summer.

Apparently this letter arrived anonymously, yet it must have been written by the same person who wrote the postcard to the Philadelphia radio station. To determine the identity of J.H.C., the FBI checked with the producer of the Red Benson Show. He said that neither he nor Benson knew who J.H.C. was. Of the documents that I could find, there is no mention of whether or not the FBI had been successful in locating J.H.C. Neither do these documents reveal whether or not Benson, the producer, or the Fairmont guards were questioned about what they knew concerning Oswald's presence at a pro-Castro meeting in Rittenhouse Square. One document however does record a statement by the inspector of the Fairmont guards who said that, according to their records,

"the only affair held in Rittenhouse Square that could in any way pertain to Cuba, the Cuban situation, or the Fair Play for Cuba Committee was a demonstration on August 15, 1963 put on by the Quebec-Washington-Guantanamo Walk for Peace." [4] 

This was the same group of peace demonstrators that was in Scranton a few weeks before.

From Canada to Cuba

Both rallies in Scranton and Philadelphia were part of a grand project of a pacifist organization called the Committee for Non-Violent Action (CNVA). The man in charge of CNVA was A.J. Muste, a renowned pacifist, whose ideals of non-violent civil disobedience profoundly influenced such civil rights leaders as Martin Luther King and CORE leader, Bayard Rustin. [5] 

A.J. Muste worked within the labor movement, infiltrated by agents provocateurs, since at least 1929.

 In 1928 a faction within the American Federation of Labor had put the kibosh on a British labor speaker invited by Muste, with approval from AFL president William Green, to address his students at Brookwood.  In March 1921 Muste had been executive secretary of the Amalgamated Textile Workers of America at the time he was selected to head the new college, set up by the labor movement:

"Katonah, N. Y.—Labor leaders and
educationalists who state they are for
a new social order met here today in
Brookwood school, behind closed
doors to plan the founding of the 'first
resident workers' college in America.

As the NEA Service reported on labor activities that summer with the rise of two new American labor movements which emerged during the summer: "One is the Conference for Progressive Labor Action and the other is the Trade Union Unity League." Just weeks prior to the stock market crash in  October, Dutcher opined in his syndicated article:

However, one may view the chances of success of any new labor movement led by Foster, the Communist, the work of the Conference for Progressive Labor Action has been attracting widespread and thoughtful interest. This group stands somewhere between labor's left wing and the right wing A. F. of L. Its chairman is A. J. Muste, head of the Brookwood Labor College, who has announced sweeping plans to fight the "new capitalism." The C.P.L.A. hopes that bold, energetic organization work will win over millions of workers to trade unionism and it looks forward to a new solidarity and idealism among the labor class. Speakers at its recent four-day session at Brookwood outlined their aims along with their plaint against the A. F. of L. It was charged that the southern textile field, the best testing place for militant labor action, had found the A. F. of L. completely unprepared to deal with its challenge. ...Muste sees a definite trend toward progressive action in the ranks of labor. "No progress has been made in organizing basic industries," he says. "In politics, due to failure to organize a Labor Party, the unions are without influence.

Intro by W.Z. Foster

Sees Labor Militant Again

"But we have reached a turning point. The post-war period marked by brutal attacks upon labor by open shoppers, subtle undermining of organized labor by company union and welfare schemes, and in the ranks of organised labor itself by internal conflict, stagnation, retreat and defeatism is being liquidated. A new period which will be marked by a revival of militant progressivism and courage has begun.

"Among the workers of America there is again evident a spirit of revolt and militancy, a dissatisfaction with the share of prosperity which they are getting, with the strain of speed-up systems, with the drawing of the deadline against workers at 40 years of age or earlier and the accompanying burning up of the youth of the nation in our mechanized industries, with lack of insurance against the risks of old age, unemployment and sickness—dissatisfaction which is beginning to express itself again in action and not mere grumbling under the breath."

William Z. Foster (a communist) had been secretary of the Trade Union Educational League, at 156 West Washington street in Chicago, and had called for a general labor strike in 1927.

To dramatize the need to end the Cold War by unilateral nuclear disarmament and also to reduce tensions with Cuba, the CNVA had conceived the idea of delivering its message via a transcontinental walking tour from Canada to Cuba. The Quebec-Washington-Guantanamo Walk for Peace was strictly a long-distance foot march, accompanied only by a pickup truck to carry sleeping bags, food, water and supplies. It would begin in the city of Quebec and was expected to reach Miami, Florida in seven months. From Miami, a boat would be taken to Havana, Cuba - either with or without the permission of the United States. From Havana they would walk 700 miles to the U.S. Naval Base at Guantanamo, where they would hold their final demonstration, calling for the closure of the base. Covering an average of 15 miles a day, they would stop at various towns or cities along the way, where they would give speeches or pass out leaflets. Any local people sympathetic to their cause would be invited to join the walk for as far as they wanted. Any organizations, which had similar goals (such as the FPCC), were invited to participate. [6]

The project opened with a brief public meeting in a central plaza in historic Quebec City on May 26. By June 9 they were in Montreal, where they spent several days doing demonstrations. It was here that the walkers had Oswald among them for the first time. According to a lead provided to the FBI by an attorney in Windsor, Ontario, Oswald participated in a "ban-the-bomb" protest in Montreal. [7] Another citizen in Seattle said that Oswald was in Montreal with the head of the FPCC. [8] There is also a March 26, 1964 report of a letter from the senior customs representative in Montreal in which it was stated, "several persons had contacted his office and stated that Lee Oswald had been seen distributing pamphlets entitled `Fair Play for Cuba,' on St. Jacques and McGill Streets in Montreal during the summer of 1963." [9]

In an attempt to counter the customs official's letter regarding the Oswald sightings in Montreal, an April 8, 1964 letter was written to the Warren Commission from J. Edgar Hoover, which said: "For your information, the records of the William Reily and Company, Incorporated, New Orleans, Louisiana, reflect that Oswald was on the job Monday through Friday of the week June 3 through 7, 1963, and that he was also on the job all of the following week, June 10 through 14, 1963." As I have pointed out in another article last year, Oswald's attendance records at the coffee company were falsified to conceal the fact that he hardly ever came to work. [10] The job was really a cover to hide his wide-ranging political activities.

After the peace walkers left Montreal, they reached the border of the United States by the latter part of June. In the next two months they crossed the states of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland. By the end of August they were in Washington, D.C. where they participated in the massive civil rights demonstration led by Martin Luther King. This event marked a turning point for the peace walkers, for after their departure from the capitol, their focus shifted from issues of foreign policy to that of racial equality. As they advanced deeper into the southern states, their racially integrated ranks aroused an increasing antagonism among deeply committed segregationists. While passing through Georgia, their progress was interrupted in three towns, where they were put in jail for violating segregation laws. They were frequently insulted, harassed, or pelted with debris.

When they finally reached Miami, they spent several months besieging a State Department office in the city, trying to get permission to go to Cuba. When all legal avenues were finally exhausted, six of the remaining walkers got into a powerboat on October 27, 1964 and started for Havana. They were stopped by the U.S. Coast Guard, which seized their boat and kept it impounded. This defeat put an end to the peace walkers' efforts to get to Cuba.

From start to finish the Quebec to Guantanamo Walk for Peace was organized and led by CNVA coordinator, Bradford J. Lyttle. Two years earlier he had led an even more ambitious Walk for Peace that began in San Francisco on December 20, 1960 and finished up in Moscow on October 3, 1961. Strangely enough, it was while the peace walkers were going through Russia, that they might have been seen by Lee Harvey Oswald, who was living in Minsk at the time. It would therefore be relevant to go into some detail regarding the first Walk for Peace. [11]

In 1966 both Muste and Lyttle were present in Saigon at a protest rally against the war.

The First Walk for Peace

A group of about twenty walkers, more or less, began its walk south towards the city of Los Angeles. There they heard an address by Nobel Prize laureate Linus Pauling, who was also a leader in the peace movement. From Los Angeles, they walked through thirteen states, stopping at towns, cities or military bases to hold demonstrations. When they reached Washington, DC a delegation of the peace walkers was granted a 45-minute interview with White House political advisor, Arthur J. Schlesinger. From Washington, they went to New York City, where they took a plane flight to England. After joining with British peace organizations in a big nuclear disarmament rally in London's Trafalgar Square, they took a boat to Belgium (France having denied them entry).

Their march across the European continent advanced unchecked into the Iron Curtain countries. The effect of these peace walkers upon the Communist-controlled populace must have been electrifying. It marked the first time that anyone was allowed to carry placards and distribute leaflets urging young men to resist the draft or demanding that the Soviet Union stop the development of nuclear weapons. Whenever they stopped in a town to hold a rally, as many as 1000 to 1500 people would come out to welcome them.

On September 22, 1961 they arrived in the city of Minsk. In the center of the city they saw one of the few monuments to Josef Stalin remaining in the Soviet Union. The huge, 10-ton, bronze statue was a city landmark and it was near the Oswalds' apartment building. Marina used to pass by this statue while riding on a bus to work. One of the peace walkers later wrote down the following words regarding his impression of Minsk:

The streets were filled with serious, silent, humbly friendly, almost shy people . . . Most people reacted with noncommittal fascination and amazement. But there was, as in every other country, every other variety of reaction. Some people grasped our hands and shook them heartily, or beamed admiration. Others refused leaflets. . . . A few people walked along with us. Quite a few officials who were with us seemed apprehensive that the crowd might grow to unmanageable proportions, and they kept things circulating, according to reports. Nevertheless, there were large numbers all along our route through the broad streets and past the massive, classic buildings . . . [12]

That same evening, they held a meeting at the Friendship House. A Newsweek reporter from Moscow was also in attendance and the following is an excerpt from his report:

Jerry Lehman of Mokena, Ill., speaking through an interpreter, told an audience of boisterous Russians: "We hope you'll say to your leaders what we said to ours -- that no government which urges development of nuclear weapons and tests them is sane." This struck the Russians as funny and they roared with laughter. But after Lyttle had followed Lehman on the speaker's stand there was a different reaction. "I went to jail," Lyttle said, "because I refused to serve in the U.S. Army. I have protested against American rockets aimed at your cities and families. There are Soviet rockets aimed at my city and my family. Are you demonstrating against that?" There were murmurs in the crowd and a dark-haired girl shook her head. Obviously she had not heard anyone publicly ask that question in quite that way before. [13]

It is hard to believe that Lee and Marina were indifferent to this intrepid band of American pacifists, especially since America was so much on their minds at this time. Lee was making repeated visits to bureaucratic agencies in order to speed up the process of getting exit visas to return to the United States. His mother was sending copies of Time magazine, which he pored over eagerly. Yet despite the momentousness of the arrival of the peace walkers, they receive no mention in any of the Oswald sources. It is not as if this period of time is unrecorded. In a letter to the American Embassy dated October 4, 1961, Oswald said that his wife Marina had been hospitalized for a five-day period beginning September 22. This was the same day the peace walkers came into Minsk. In the letter, Oswald demanded that the Embassy launch an official inquiry, for he claimed that Marina's hospitalization was due to a nervous condition, resulting from intimidation by local authorities, who were trying to get her to withdraw her application for an exit visa.

The statements in the above mentioned letter were later contradicted by Marina when she denied to the Warren Commission that she had ever been hospitalized in 1961. This denial was reversed in Priscilla MacMillan's book, Marina and Lee, in which Marina said that she remembered going to the hospital "around September 20." It was not the result of intimidation, but rather she had been riding a bus to work and she had succumbed to the exhaust fumes. [14] These conflicting statements in combination with the complete silence regarding the peace walkers themselves raise questions marks about the importance of this episode in the lives of the Oswalds. The changing stories, especially in light of Priscilla McMillan's and the peace walkers presence, need to be explained.

After spending a few days in the vicinity of Minsk, the peace walkers resumed their march on Moscow. On October 3, they stumbled footsore and utterly exhausted into Red Square, where an enthusiastic crowd awaited them. It was an extraordinary triumph. 3900 miles across the United States and 1750 miles across the continent of Europe. In Russia alone, over 80,000 leaflets were distributed. It could hardly have been possible without the shuttle diplomacy efforts of A.J. Muste, who regularly performed miracles in shepherding the walkers past bureaucratic roadblocks.

In the ensuing years of the 1960's Muste continued to use his energy and talents in the cause of world peace. In February 1967, at the age of 82, he died a few days before he was to launch an anti-war campaign called the Spring Mobilization against the Vietnam War. This massive demonstration drew to the UN Plaza of New York over 300,000 people. On this occasion Martin Luther King gave an address denouncing American policy in Vietnam.

The official commemoration service of Muste's death was held at the Friends Meeting House in New York. Although Muste was technically a Presbyterian minister, his real spiritual home was among the Quakers. The Quakers were the most active supporters of Muste's CNVA. To those participating in the peace walks, they provided food, lodging, assistance, publicity, and meeting places. [15]

Ruth Paine

The Quaker Connections

Muste's ties to the Quaker church leads us to consider the Quaker connections of one of the most visible figures to emerge from the events surrounding the JFK assassination. Ruth Paine told the Warren Commission that she first became interested in the Society of Friends in 1947. In 1955 she was a chairman of the Young Friends of North America Committee, a student exchange program between the Soviet Union and the United States. [16]

What gives the connection even more weight is the fact that Wesley Liebeler asked Ruth's non-Quaker husband Michael a startling series of questions about the walk during the Warren Commission hearings. The queries reveal that Liebeler and the Commission knew and were interested in the march, its organizers, and the Quaker connection.

Mr. Liebeler: Are you acquainted with an organization known as the Friends Peace Committee?
Mr. Paine: It is a familiar name. I guess not, though. I don't think I have been to a meeting of theirs.
Mr. Liebeler: Do you know if it is connected in any way with the Young Friends Committee of North America?
Mr. Paine: I take it to be a Friend, you know, a Quaker committee, but I believe it is connected.
Mr. Liebeler: Do you know a gentleman by the name of Dennis Jamieson, who I believe is active in the Friends Peace Committee? Mr. Paine: I don't think so.
Mr. Liebeler: Or George Lakey.
Mr. Paine: For particle purposes, no. The names seem a little familiar but I can't place them.
Mr. Liebeler: Do you have any recollection of the connection in which it is familiar to you?
Mr. Paine: No.
Mr. Liebeler: Are you familiar with the Committee for Non-Violent Action?
Mr. Paine: Many of these things sound familiar. I don't - I really am saying no. [17]

In typical double-talk fashion, Michael Paine avoided giving straight yes or no answers to Liebeler's questions. Had Liebeler addressed these same questions to Ruth, he might have gotten more interesting responses. Yet as far as the public record is concerned, she was never asked.

Nevertheless, Michael's admission of a connection between the Young Friends of North America Committee and the Friends Peace Committee is sufficient ground for putting Ruth in association with those who were actively involved in the Walk for Peace. The George Lakey mentioned above was the executive secretary of the Friends Peace Committee and he served as the principal host for the peace walkers during their stay in Philadelphia. [18] The Dennis Jamieson mentioned above was the chairman of the Friends Peace Committee and he served as chief publicist for the march as it went through Pennsylvania. In a Scranton news photo of a group of peace walkers on the steps of the YMCA, he could be seen next to Bradford Lyttle, holding a sign that read "Quebec-Washington-Guantanamo Walk for Peace." [19]

It is quite possible that Ruth Paine had joined with her Quaker friends to give assistance to the peace walkers. During her cross-country summer vacation trip with her two children, her wide-ranging itinerary landed her near Philadelphia precisely two days before the peace walkers got there. [20] She was visiting Michael's mother and stepfather, Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Young, who lived in Paoli, a town about 30 miles west of Philadelphia. During her month long stay in Paoli, she had visited with her Quaker friends in Philadelphia. Whether or not she got involved in Walk for Peace meetings during these visits, she did not say. [21]

A second instance of an opportunity to join in peace walk activities occurred in Washington, DC during the big civil rights demonstration. Ruth Paine had come to the capitol for a few days to visit her sister and also a family known as the Houghtons. According to the Houghtons, she had actually attended the demonstration during her stay in Washington. [22] Once again Ruth's itinerary had crossed paths with the peace walkers' route of march.

Since Ruth considered herself a pacifist, it would be natural to assume that she would be among those professing sympathy for the peace walkers. Certainly there would be no reason for her to reject an invitation to join them for the peace rally at Rittenhouse Square on August 15 or the Washington civil rights rally on August 28.

If Ruth Paine found reason enough to be attracted to the peace walkers because of their activism in promoting world peace, her friend Lee Harvey Oswald would have been drawn to them for the same reason. He was an advocate of peaceful coexistence between the United States and the Soviet Union and he fully approved of President Kennedy's efforts to bring peace to the world and to end the cold war. "If he succeeds," he once said to his friend George de Mohrenschildt, "he will be the greatest president in the history of this country." [23]

Another reason why he would have been interested in the Walk for Peace was its emphasis on improving relations between Cuba and the United States. He certainly would have approved of their positions regarding American policy toward Cuba. As stated in a Philadelphia newspaper, "The peace walkers ask the U.S. to give up an intention to support an invasion of Cuba, stop reconnaissance flights over the island, end travel and trade restrictions, guarantee economic and technical assistance to Cuba through the UN." It is quite probable that Oswald would not even have objected to the demands directed toward Cuba. "They ask Cuba for withdrawal of foreign military personnel and weapons, renounce all intention of military intervention in other nation's affairs, end restrictions on the political freedom of Cubans, encourage its people to visit the U.S." [24]

A third reason why he would have been sympathetic to the peace walkers is their strong stand against racial injustice. According to de Mohrenschildt, Oswald said "It hurts me that the blacks do not have the same privileges and rights as white Americans." He admired Kennedy's efforts to end segregation and he also "greatly admired Dr. Martin Luther King and agreed with his program . . . he frequently talked of Dr. King with a real reverence." [25]

Overshadowing these noble sentiments on world peace and racial equality is the reference to Jack Ruby in J.H.C.'s letter to Henry Wade. What is the true nature of the association between the salacious night club owner and the virtuous political activist? It is common knowledge that Ruby's friends in the criminal underworld hated Castro for closing down the Havana gambling casinos. It is also known that Ruby served as the paymaster for anti-Castro operations. Why then would Oswald solicit money from Ruby?

The letter from J.H.C. strips off the leftist masquerade and exposes Oswald's true intentions. The man who supposedly grieved over racial inequalities was the same one who continued to have a working association with such fanatical segregationists as Guy Banister. The man who professed sympathy for Castro was the same one who stamped on his leaflets the address of an anti-Castro center, 544 Camp Street. And finally, the man who said that he admired President Kennedy for his efforts to bring peace to the world and to end racial segregation was the same man who willingly served as the lynchpin in a conspiracy that ended the President's life.

If Oswald's professed ideology turned out to be a sham, what does that tell us about the professed piety of the Quaker woman who sheltered him and his family during the six critical weeks prior to the assassination? Was Ruth Paine really just a simple housewife, who had no inkling of the unsavory characters that Oswald had been spending a lot of his time with? Are there hidden motives behind the amiable Quaker facade? In a highly important article for Probe, authors Carol Hewett, Steve Jones, and Barbara LaMonica reveal how Ruth Paine has been suspected of being a government informant by her peers in the peace movement. [26] It is relevant to mention at this point that Sylvia Hoke, the sister whom she stayed with during the 1963 Washington civil rights demonstration, was an employee of the CIA - an agency that has no scruples in violating the civil rights of public and private citizens. It is also noteworthy to mention that the tax returns of Ruth and Michael Paine still remain closely guarded classified secrets.

The Quebec-Washington-Guantanamo Walk for Peace, as well as the predecessor that went to Moscow, are mostly forgotten in historical works dealing with the 1960's. They hardly rate even a footnote. Yet the power of this small band of peripatetic pacifists must have worried some major political interests enough to bring upon them the full encumbrance of such undercover heavyweights as Lee Oswald, Jack Ruby, and Ruth Paine.

ENDNOTES

1. The Scranton Times, December 11 and 12, 1963. The second newspaper article mentions a local resident named Gloria Glickman who said that she had been among the peace walkers and she was sure that Oswald was not among them. But since the peace walkers were in Scranton for several days and since they sometimes split up into teams to protest at different warmaking industries around the city, it is quite possible that Glickman was not at the right place and time to see Oswald.

2. The Scranton Times, July 22, 23, 24, 25, 1963.

3. Dick Russell, The Man Who Knew Too Much (New York: Carroll & Graf, 1992), p. 277.

4. FBI report dated 12/5/63 of letter to Henry Wade in Dallas by SA James Bookhout and SA George W.H. Carlson; FBI report dated 12/4/63 of an interview with Theodore Reinhart, producer of the Red Benson Show in Philadelphia by SA Mason P. Smith; FBI report dated 12/3/63 of an interview with Inspector Philip Cella, Fairmont Park Guard, Philadelphia by SA Edward A. Smith. There is a difference of only a single day between Oswald's appearance in Philadelphia on August 15 and his appearance in New Orleans on August 16, where he was seen passing out FPCC leaflets in front of the International Trade Mart. To travel the 1225 miles between the two cities in one day could only have been accomplished by airplane.

5. Jo Ann Robinson, Abraham Went Out: A Biography of A.J. Muste (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1981), p. 117

6. Robinson, Abraham Went Out, pp. 125-128, 185-186.

7. CD 45, p. 3.

8. CD389, 349.

9. CD 729.

10. See "Budreau's Music and Appliance Store" in the July 1996 issue of The Fourth Decade.

11. The most detailed account of this march is Bradford J. Lyttle's book You Come with Naked Hands: The Story of the San Francisco to Moscow Walk for Peace (Raymond, New Hampshire: Greenleaf Books, 1966).

12. Lyttle, You Come with Naked Hands, p. 196.

13. Newsweek, October 8, 1963.

14. Priscilla MacMillan, Marina and Lee (New York: Harper and Row, 1977), pp. 155-157, 592.

15. Robinson, Abraham Went Out, pp. 220-223.

16. WC Vol. III, pp. 133-135.

17. WC Vol. II, p. 388.

18. The Philadelphia Daily News, August 13, 1963.

19. The Scranton Times, July 22, 1963.

20. WC Vol. XVI, p. 280.

21. WC Vol. III, p. 3.

22. Information provided by researcher Steve Jones in a presentation at the COPA Conference, October 21, 1995.

23. George de Mohrenschildt, I Am a Patsy! an unpublished manuscript in HSCA Vol. XII, pp. 133, 147.

24. Philadelphia Daily News, August 13, 1963.

25. George de Mohrenschildt, I Am a Patsy! pp. 127, 146, 198.

26. "Ruth Paine: Social Activist or Contra Support Networker" by Carol Hewett, Barbara LaMonica and Steve Jones in the July-August 1996 issue of Probe.

Cached on August 11, 2011 at http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:PHElA9ITc0wJ:educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php%3Fshowtopic%3D6548%26st%3D45+&cd=5&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&source=encrypted.google.com

Harold Weisberg and Alonzo "Lonnie" Hudkins

GRAND JURY PROCEEDINGS - SPECIAL INVESTIGATION APRIL 28, 1967

PRESENT: MR, JIM GARRISON, District Attorney
MESSRS. ALVIN OSER, RICHARD BURNES, JAMES ALCOCK _
and ANDREW SCIAMBRA, Assistant District Attorneys
MEMBERS OF THE ORLEANS PARISH GRAND JURY

HAROLD WISEBERG [sic]

* * * * *

MR. JIM GARRISON:

Gentlemen, Mr, Weisberg, as you probably know, is the author of "Whitewash I" and "Whitewash II"- have you completed "Whitewash III" - or are you working on it?

A. No, I completed a book called "Oswald in New Orleans, CIA Whitewash", and have about a month's work yet on a  book I call "Manchester Machiavelli - The Unintended, Unofficial Whitewash". I am sorry I did not know I was going to speak to you and I‘would have brought more documents from "Whitewash III", which is going to be largely documents. I have been ransacking the Archives every time I could get down to Washington and I have a few of these things with me that I wilI be glad to show you.

MR. GARRISON:

May I suggest that there are two other areas which I think you will be very helpful to us since you are one of the leading experts on one, which would be the assassination scene

and some of the indications that the Warren Commission missed the boat, for example, that there were shots from the front, etc, And secondly, since you have written something about

the CIA in our group, and very much off the record, there seems to be some CIA involvement here in the New Orleans phase. So I think these gentlemen would be real interested in what you have to say about that. ***

Q. When the FBI came to talk to him this interview with all the others were all together. When he came to talk to Oswald he took them separately.

A. Even Bringuier complained about that. And what does the FBI agent testify - oh, he says 'everybody does it. This is Hosty part of the course, everybody does it. And he/burned his notes after the assassination by a month, of the questioning of Ruth Payne [sic] and Marina. That's in their sworn testimony. Some of these items are very strange, some are not identifiable and this is a very mysterious thing, would you care to pass that around and if you like I can give you an actual size copy of it, in Lt. Martello's handwriting. One of the things I found that looked like the word pouch in his notebook within a page of that was microducts . . .

Q. Microducts was in the notebook and also fingerprints?

A. Yes. Now this is only one of the things. I presume that you know that Alonzo Hudkins was never called before the Commission. He was a Texas reporter . . . He was the man who was told by the Chief Criminal Deputy in Dallas, Allan Sweat, [possibly Allan Sweatt] that Oswald was an FBI employee with a known number getting $200.00 a month and the way he proved this was not so was not to call Sweat before the Commission nor Hudkins, he just asked Mr. Hoover and Mr. Hoover said it didn't happen. They didn't call Thayer Waldo, who was a reporter, and from whom I have a letter. He was told by the same officials, who doesn't say who but he says officials, exactly the same story, they don't call him, but if you will turn to page 50 in Whitewash II you will find the facsimile of part of the document that I got in the Commission's files, Wesley Leibeler again - he knew all of this - is the man who introduced all of the photographic evidence incompetently and too late. And not one case did he ask the witness what camera were you using, what kind of lens, what kind of film, here is a chart mark yourself on the chart....

Connection between Robert G. Storey, Jr., Dal-Tex Bldg. and H.L. Hunt

 When John Stuart Hunt married in 1946, the rehearsal dinner was hosted by Mr. and Mrs. H.L. Hunt in their home on Lawther Drive. A bridesmaid was the daughter-in-law of Robert G. Storey, who was the former
Elizabeth Anne Toline (daughter of Basil Irving Toline). Toline, incredibly enough was from Moline (Rock Island) Illinois and was assistant sales manager for the farm implement company (John Deere) in 1930. Elizabeth had been born in Moline, IL in 1921. Once they moved to Dallas, B.I. Toline, as he was called, became president of the Dallas Agricultural Club.

501 Elm Street built in 1902
Originally ~ The John Deere Plow Company 

Dallas Textile ("Dal-Tex") Building (Kingman-Texas Building)
(John Deere Plow Company Building^)
501 Elm Street

Taken from "The Dallas Morning News" Friday, June 7, 1946

BEST BIB AND TUCKER KEPT BUSY

Best bonnets and prettiest dresses are being worked overtime this week going to parties for brides-to-be.

A rehearsal dinner will be given Friday evening by Mr. and Mrs. H. L. Hunt, Mr. and Mrs. Al Hill and Mr. and Mrs. Loyd Sands at the Hunt home on Lawther Drive in honor of Miss Jeanne Gannon and John Stuart Hunt, who will be married Saturday evening. Complimenting Miss Mary Hillman, bride-elect of Robert Heidrick, Miss Susan Diggie will entertain with a kitchen shower Friday at her home, 5101 Swiss Avenue. Miss Hillman has announced that her bridal attendants will be Miss Margaret Nell Carlisle, maid of honor; Mrs. Vernon Coe, sister of the bride-elect, matron of honor; Mrs. R. G. Storey, Jr., Mrs. Charles F. Heidrick Jr., of Beaumont, Miss Lenora Rose and Miss Houston Tripp, bridesmaids. Mr. Heidrick's best man will be his brother, Charles F. Heidrick Jr. Ushers will be Vernon Coe, Thomas Hanlon of Scarsdale, N.Y., James Tollison of Amarillo, Harry Underwood of Lubbock and Ronnie B. Cousin Jr. of Austin.  

Madison, Wisconsin THE CAPITAL TIMES, Thursday, April 19,1962

Ex-Chairman of

ABA Is Dead

DALLAS (UPI) — Robert G. Storey Jr., 50, past chairman of the American Bar Association, died Wednesday. Storey, a prominent attorney, was the son of Robert G. Storey Sr., president of the Southwestern Legal Foundation and a former dean of Southern "Methodist University law school.

John Stuart Hunt, whose father was Sherman Hunt, graduated from the University of Texas in 1943, a member of the same fraternity and class as James McQueen Moroney, Jr., who with his father worked with the Dealeys at the Dallas Morning News. Sherman Hunt was an elder brother of Harold Lafayette Hunt, the Dallas oil millionaire. Both were sons of Haraldson Lafayette Hunt, a South Carolinian who had relocated to Illinois before 1880 and reared his family there. Sherman had moved to Montana, where he established a family before moving them to Dallas in the 1930s after his brother H.L. discovered oil in East Texas. However, Sherman had previously traveled on business to Mexico, as shown by his passport application below:

Official Contends Gas

Company Defied Order

By United Press 

EL PASO HERALD-POST - Jan. 23, 1947

NEW ORLEANS, Jan. 23.—Joseph J. McHugh, Louisana conservation commissioner, charged today that natural gas was being piped to coal-producing regions outside the state through the Little Inch line in defiance of an order canceling a previously-granted permit. McKugh said that wells owned by H. L. Hunt, Texas millionaire" oil and gas man were running "full blast." The gas removal permit had been issued to the Tennessee Gas and Transmission Co., to transfer 50,000,000 cubic feet of gas daily to northern coal fields.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Stevens Point (Wis.) Daily Journal - Thursday, March 3, 1977

FBI has letter Oswald wrote

to H.L. Hunt 

DALLAS (AP) — The FBI acknowledges that it has obtained a letter which Lee Harvey Oswald reportedly wrote to a Dallas millionaire, two weeks before the assassination of President John F. Kennedy,
asking about Oswald's "position"' before any "steps" were taken.
A spokesman for the FBI said here that the letter was "being investigated" and declined to comment on any findings since it was received. He indicated the letter was obtained only recently.
The FBI spokesman said Wednesday that the letter apparently came from a former aide to H. L. Hunt, a late Dallas millionaire who was a strong financial supporter of conservative causes. The brief letter, dated Nov. 8, 1963, said:

"Dear Mr. Hunt:"I would like information concerning 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." 

A comparison of the handwritten note with samples of Oswald's handwriting led investigators to conclude that it was written by Oswald or someone who could imitate his handwriting. Oswald, according to the Warren Commission which investigated the assassination, fired the shots that killed Kennedy. Earlier this week published reports said a copy of the letter had been sent to a retired Texas newspaper editor, Penn Jones, at Midlothian. Tex., by an unidentified source in Mexico City. Jones said the source sent an accompanying letter explaining that he had given a copy of the letter to FBI director Clarence Kelly in 1977, but had received no response. Jones quoted the source as saying that because he had received no answer he was afraid something bad "might happen to me" and had decided to leave the country temporarily. Jones said he wrote to the address in Mexico City, but never heard from the man again. Oswald's widow, Marina, testified in 1964 before the Warren Commission that about two weeks before the assassination Oswald had mentioned he had found a job opening that would provide "more interesting work."

HUNT, HAROLDSON LAFAYETTE (1889-1974). 

H. L. Hunt, oil tycoon, the youngest of eight children of Haroldson Lafayette and Ella Rose (Myers) Hunt, was born in Carson Township, Fayette County, Illinois, on February 17, 1889. He was educated at home. In 1905 he traveled through Colorado, California, and Texas. By 1912 he had settled in Arkansas, where he ran a cotton plantation that was flooded out by 1917. In 1921 he joined the oil boom in El Dorado, Arkansas, where he became a lease broker and promoted his first well, Hunt-Pickering No. 1. He claimed to have attained a "fortune of $600,000" by 1925, the year he bought a whole block in El Dorado and built a three-story house for his family. His El Dorado investments and a venture called Smackover taught Hunt lessons about the cost of wasteful practices and excessive drilling. Both fields were depleted rapidly. He also lost money on the Florida land boom, and by the time he got interested in the East Texas oilfield(qv) in 1930, he seems to have been broke again.

Hunt is in the famous photograph that immortalizes the drill test for Daisy Bradford No. 3 and the opening of the East Texas oilfield. On November 26, 1930, he made a deal with Columbus M. "Dad" Joinerqv that made him owner of the well and all Joiner's surrounding leases. Hunt used $30,000 that belonged to P. G. Lake, a clothier from El Dorado, and planned to make subsequent payments from revenue to buy out Joiner. He knew Joiner was beset by problems of oversold interests in the well. By December 1, 1930, Hunt had his own pipeline, the Panola Pipe Line, to run oil from the East Texas field. By 1932 the Hunt Production Company had 900 wells in East Texas.

In 1935 H. L. Hunt, Incorporated, was superseded by Placid Oil Company, and the shares were divided into trusts for Hunt's six children. In late 1936 Hunt acquired the Excelsior Refining Company in Rusk County and changed the name to Parade Refining Company. It was residue gas from this company's lines that caused the New London Explosion on March 18, 1937. Most of the people involved in that catastrophe were employees of H. L. Hunt. In 1937 or 1938 the family moved to Dallas. On April 5, 1948, Fortune printed a story on Hunt that labeled him the richest man in the United States. It estimated the value of his oil properties at $263 million and the daily production of crude from his wells at 65,000 barrels.

John Stuart Hunt

A Final Tribute to Stuart Hunt

John Stuart Hunt was born on July 6, 1921, and passed away on March 18, 2011. He was born in Miles City, Mont., to "Tot" and Sherman Hunt Sr. He arrived in Tyler at the age of 9. His brother, Sherman Jr., drove the entire distance from Montana to Texas at the age of 14 to meet with their father at the beginning of the East Texas Oil Boom. The family moved to Dallas in 1939.

He attended Washington and Lee University for two years before returning to Texas to be close to home at the outbreak of World War II, and graduated from The University of Texas in 1942. He was a proud member of the United States Marine Air Corps. Upon his return to Dallas after active duty, he married Jeanne Gannon in 1946. He remarked that he would marry the love of his life after seeing her enter the ballroom of the Dallas Country Club, before he ever knew her name.

His lengthy and colorful career ran the gamut of endeavors. He started in the oil industry, purchasing leases at the age of 18 after convincing a judge to remove his status as a minor. Stuart participated in the prosperity and growth of Dallas after World War II. He owned, operated or served on the boards of numerous corporations and businesses in banking, to insurance, ranching and real estate development.

In looking over his 70 years as a businessman, his greatest personal achievement was the founding of Preston Trails Golf Club. He was the visionary behind the concept and the driving force to see it through to fruition. Preston Trails was opened in 1965 and is continually regarded as one of the most respected private golf clubs in the United States. Mr. Hunt's crowning recognition came about last year on the first tee box, upon the reopening of the golf course. He was honored as the last living founder of Preston Trails. A man of few words, he expressed humble appreciation for the spirit and camaraderie that has existed throughout the life of the club. He further stated that this "brotherhood" had exceeded his wildest dreams, and for this he was most grateful.

He is survived by his three children, John Ward Hunt, Elizabeth Hara Hunt, Hilre Lucille Hunt; six grandchildren, Elizabeth Gannon Hunt, John Ward Hunt Jr., Andrew Stuart Hunt, Margaret Camille Hunt, William Kent Hunt, Henry William Frost V; one great-grandchild, Beau Turner Jr.; two nephews, Clay McLean Hunt and Todd McLean Hunt, sons of the late Mary and [his brother] Sherman Hunt Jr.

Ted Dealey Steps Up to Dallas 

News Board Chairman

MARCH 17, 1960  

DALLAS (AP) — E. M. (Ted) Dealey has stepped up to become chairman of the board and publisher of the Dallas Morning News. Joseph M. Dealey succeeded his father as president of The News and its associated enterprises, WFAA television and radio. The announcement Tuesday by the board of directors of A. H. Belo Corp., formal name of the company, also said that Managing Editor Jack Krueger, formerly of The Associated Press, had been named one of three new directors.
The board elevated James M. Moroney Sr. from senior vice president to vice chairman of the board; elected Ben H. Decherd Jr. and James M. Moroney Jr. to vice presidents, and elevated Joe Lubben from vice president to senior vice president. Other than Krueger, the new directors named include A. Earl Cullum Jr., prominent in radio and television engineering; D. Gordon Rupe, a leader in investment banking and civic affairs, and Sol M. Katz, circulation manager of The News.

 The man whose wedding rehearsal dinner would be hosted by his uncle, oil millionaire H.L. Hunt, lived in the same fraternity house at the University of Texas with James M. Moroney, Jr., whose father had long worked with the Dealey family at the Dallas Morning News.