Reclaiming History

by Vincent Bugliosi

  From his first day at the Reily coffee company, Lee regarded the new job as an annoying distraction from what appeared to be his true mission: striking a spectacular blow for Marxism or Castro, or both, that would propel him to celebrity and, probably in his mind, an honored position as a Fidelista in the new Cuba. The experienced maintenance man who was charged with teaching Lee the job at the coffee company noticed the indifference his pupil couldn’t be bothered to mask. Charles Le Blanc testified, “Well, when they first hired him, they brought him to me, because I was to break him in on his job.” Le Blanc said he started to show Oswald how to grease the machines. But “the first day, I mean when I was showing him, it looked like if he caught on to it, all right, if he didn’t, it was still all right. It looked like he was just one of these guys that just didn’t care whether he learned it or he didn’t learn it.”

  Not that there was much to learn. Le Blanc expected anyone “with any mechanical knowledge” to get it within a week. You found the grease and oil fittings on every machine and you then greased and oiled them. There were five floors of machinery on one side of the building, four on the other, and you started on the fifth floor and worked your way down. For those who couldn’t remember the fittings, there was a check list to follow and initial. But as soon as Le Blanc left Oswald to do the job on his own, which was after about a week, Lee would just disappear. “I would take and put him up there,” Le Blanc said, “and about a half hour or forty-five minutes or so, I would go back up and check how he is doing…and I wouldn’t find him…So I would start hunting all over the building…I would cover from the roof on down and I wouldn’t locate him, and I asked him, I said, ‘Well, where have you been?’ and all he would give me was that he was around. I asked him, ‘Around where?’ He says, ‘Just around,’ and he would turn around and walk off.”

  Oswald was preoccupied with weightier matters. “On one occasion when I was in the shop and I was working on some sort of piece of machinery…,” Le Blanc recalled, Oswald came in the shop “and he was standing there by me and watching me and I asked him, I says, ‘Are you finished [with] all your greasing?’ He said yes. So he stood there a few minutes, and all of a sudden he says, ‘You like it here?’ I said, ‘What do you mean?’ He says, ‘Do you like it here?’ I says, ‘Well, sure I like it here. I have been here a long time, about eight and a half years or so.’ He says, ‘Oh, hell, I don’t mean this place.’ I said, ‘Well, what do you mean?’ He says, ‘This damn country.’ I said, ‘Why, certainly, I love it. After all, this is my country.’ He turned around and walked off.” Le Blanc quickly came to the conclusion that Oswald was a “crackpot.” Apart from his inattention to his work, there was one thing that Oswald did that unnerved Charles Le Blanc more than anything else: he had a habit of walking past Le Blanc and, “like a kid playing cowboys,” lift his “finger like a gun” and go “pow.” Le Blanc said, “When he would do it he wouldn’t even crack a smile. That is what used to get to me.”1220

  Le Blanc told the FBI that on several occasions Oswald overstayed his scheduled fifteen-minute break by “20 to 30 minutes,” and was a “loner,” even during the lunch period.1221

  On May 12, the first Sunday after he had started work, Oswald sent a change of address to the Dallas postmaster and asked for his mail to be forwarded to his Magazine Street address.1222*

  Lee did not immediately rent a post office box in New Orleans as he had done so quickly after he moved from Fort Worth to Dallas. However, while he had tried in a number of childish ways to conceal his presence in Dallas, most likely from the FBI (but as we have seen, the FBI did learn about Oswald’s presence in Dallas, at two different addresses, although they were at sea on his current whereabouts), he now tried to establish an overt presence in New Orleans. On his application for work at the Reily coffee company he had given his Aunt Lillian’s address as his own, and, to the question how long he resided there, he crowded the words “23 yrs. CONTINU” into the tiny space provided—essentially claiming that he had lived his whole life in New Orleans, except perhaps for his last employment, which he gave as “Active duty USMC.”1223 Neither the Soviet Union nor his recent sojourn in Dallas figured in this new scenario. Part of what lay in his mind may have been a desire to erase all traces of Dallas—where he had attempted to commit a murder—from his life story.

  Two days later, he mailed a change-of-address card to the Fair Play for Cuba Committee in New York, again giving his Magazine Street address.1224 On that same day, Oswald visited the New Orleans Public Library, applied for a card, and took out his first book, Portrait of a Revolutionary: Mao Tse-tung, by Robert Payne. Marina told Priscilla McMillan that Lee identified with the great men he read about and genuinely believed he was one of them, but his interest in Chairman Mao may have been inspired by an article in the April 29, 1963, edition of the Militant, which was about the possibility that Castro, disappointed with the support he was getting from the Soviets, might turn to—and even visit—China. The article’s author denied, however, that Castro had become a Maoist.1225 On May 26, two weeks after starting work, Lee wrote what he must have felt was a very important letter to Vincent Lee at the FPCC. He wanted to formally lead a group in the fight against the foes of Castro.

  Dear Sirs…

  I am requesting formal membership in your Organization.

  In the past I have recived from you pamplets ect., both bought by me and given to me by you.

  Now that I live in New Orleans I have been thinking about renting a small office at my own expense for the purpose of forming a F.P.C.C. branch here in New Orleans. Could you give me a charter?

  Also I would like information on buying pamplets ect. in large lots, as well as blank FPCC applications ect.

  Also, a picture of Fidel, suitable for framing would be a welcome touch. Offices down here rent for $30. a month and if I had a steady flow of litarature I would be glad to take the expense. Of course I work and could not supervise the office at all times but I’m sure I could get some volunteers to do it.

  Could you add some advice or recommendations? I am not saying this project would be a roaring success, but I am willing to try…so here’s hoping to hear from you.

  Yours respectfully

  Lee H. Oswald1226

  Lee’s move to New Orleans not only had brought him closer geographically to Havana but also seemed to clearly signal an increased interest on his part in Castro and Marxist Cuba.

  Three days later Vincent Lee sent him a membership card and the FPCC’s constitution and bylaws, and welcomed him to the organization. However, he made it clear that only if the national committee deemed it was “reasonable” to expect that there was enough interest in New Orleans in their activities would they “issue a charter” to Oswald “for a New Orleans chapter of FPCC.” So far they were not convinced. Nonetheless, Lee went on to advise Oswald: “You must realize that you will come under tremendous pressures with any attempt to do FPCC work in that area and that you will not be able to operate in the manner which is conventional here in the northeast. Even most of our big city chapters have been forced to abandon the idea of operating an office in public…Most chapters have found that it is easier to operate semi-privately out of a home and maintain a P.O. Box for all mailings and public notices…We do have a serious and often violent opposition and this procedure helps prevent many unnecessary incidents which frighten away prospective supporters. I definitely would not recommend an office, at least not one that would be easily identifiable to the lunatic fringe in your community. Certainly, I would not recommend that you engage in one at the very beginning but wait and see how you can operate in the community through several public experiences.”

  Vincent Lee added a few elementary precautions, which Oswald, with his taste for spy-craft, surely found congenial to his instincts. (For example, “Note: When you contact people by mail we recommend that only first class be used and that no full name go on the return address on the outside of the envelope.”)1227

  The
same day, May 29, that Lee wrote to Oswald, and hence, before Oswald received Lee’s letter, Oswald took matters into his own hands by going to the Jones Printing Company on Girod Street, where, under the fictitious name of Lee Osborne, he ordered a thousand copies of a handbill reading,

  HANDS

  OFF

  CUBA!

  Join the Fair Play for

  Cuba Committee

  NEW ORLEANS CHARTER

  MEMBER BRANCH

  Free Literature, Lectures

  LOCATION:

  EVERYONE WELCOME!

  Two days later he returned to put down a four-dollar deposit, and on June 4, “Osborne” appeared to collect the handbills, for which he paid $9.89 in all.1228

  On June 3, Oswald also opened a post office box in New Orleans (number 30061) under the name L. H. Oswald. He listed his address as 657 French Street in New Orleans. (The Murrets lived at 757 French Street.)1229

  Also on June 3, Oswald visited the Mailers Service Company to order five hundred copies of an application for membership in the projected New Orleans chapter of the FPCC. Again, it was “Lee Osborne” who picked up the order and paid $9.34 in cash for it. According to the layout furnished by “Osborne,” an interested party could join the chapter for a one-dollar initiation fee and maintain membership by paying dues of a further dollar a month, or he could subscribe to “mailings” for five dollars a year, or he could make a donation in an amount to be determined by the donor. Several days later “Osborne” returned to order three hundred membership cards with spaces for the name and signature plus a third space to be signed by the “Chapter President.”1230*

  On June 10, Oswald wrote to the Worker to apprise them of his activities:

  Dear Sirs,

  As a long time subscriber to the worker I know I can ask a favor of you with full confindence of its fulfillment. I have formed a “Fair Play for Cuba Committe” here in New Orleans, I think it is the best way to attract the broad mass of people to a popular struggle.

  I ask that you give me as much literature as you judge possible since I think it would be very nice to have your literature among the “Fair Play” leaflets (like the one enclosed) and phamplets in my office.

  Also please be so kind as to convey the enclosed “hounery [honorary] membership” cards to those fighters for peace Mr. Gus Hall and Mr. B. Davis.

  Yours Faternally

  Lee H. Oswald1231

  Gus Hall and Ben Davis were the Communist Party officials for whose defense committee Oswald had offered to create a poster in December (see earlier text). Even if his letter did not bring the hoped harvest of CPUSA literature, he may have thought it might well provoke a reply from the party that he could add to his bonafides for his eventual arrival in Havana.

  Although Oswald’s commitment to the FPCC cannot be seriously challenged—he had passed out its literature even in Dallas—surely, being a leaflet peddler on the streets of New Orleans could never satisfy someone of such grandiose dreams. It appears that Oswald was starting to move fast, that he had other plans, but before they came to fruition he intended to pursue his small-bore FPCC endeavor. One can reasonably infer that his real goal at the time was to forge a new life for himself in Cuba. I say that because on June 1, only three days after he placed his printing orders for the FPCC materials, he had himself photographed.1232 We can fairly presume this was for a passport because a week later, on June 8, he prepared an “International Certificate of Vaccination or Revaccination Against Smallpox,” a World Health Organization document for international travelers that he had probably picked up at a government passport office.1233*

  Priscilla McMillan, who, along with Ruth Paine, knew Marina as well as anyone, and through Marina, knew Lee, has this analysis of what Lee was up to during this period: “Four years earlier [in the Marines at El Toro] he had thought about gaining Castro’s trust and joining his revolution. Now, in the summer of 1963, he was thinking about the same thing. His effort to establish a chapter of the Fair Play for Cuba Committee in New Orleans appears to have been two-pronged, both an attempt to change American policy toward Cuba by peaceful political action at the grass-roots level, and an attempt to win the trust of the Castro government.”1234 And we do know what Marina told the Warren Commission: “I only know that his basic desire was to get to Cuba by any means, and that all the rest of it was window dressing for that purpose.”1235

  On June 11, Oswald returned to the post office where he had his mailbox list A. J. Hidell and Marina Oswald as people authorized to receive mail there.1236

  On June 16, Lee made his debut as New Orleans’s leading Fidelista. He took some of the leaflets he had printed and some of the pamphlets he had received from the New York headquarters of the Fair Play for Cuba Committee—one-page flyers protesting the recent decision by the government to prevent Americans from traveling to Cuba—and went down to the Dumaine Street Wharf, where an aircraft carrier, the USS Wasp, was docked, to pass them out to naval personnel and civilians who were leaving the carrier. The ship, which normally operated out of Boston, had arrived with six other ships several days before and was allowing visits by the public, so Lee expected a good crowd. He attracted the attention of the ship’s officer of the deck, who sent an enlisted man to find an officer of the Harbor Police. Patrolman Girod Ray, thus alerted, located Oswald, took two copies of the leaflets he was handing out, and asked him if he had permission to distribute literature on the wharf. Oswald told him he did not, but he was an American citizen and had a right to distribute literature anywhere he wanted. Ray told him that he was mistaken about that. The wharves and buildings along the Mississippi River, encompassing the port of New Orleans, were under the jurisdiction of the Harbor Commissioners, and Oswald could not distribute leaflets on their property without their permission. Oswald objected, insisting he saw no reason why he could not distribute whatever literature he chose wherever he liked, and Ray warned he would be arrested if he did. Oswald finally conceded the point and left the Dumaine Street Wharf.1237

  During the same period that Lee was busy organizing his political group and hopefully setting in motion his political career, he did not completely neglect implementing his other decision—to send Marina and his beloved Junie back to Russia. He had already sent a change-of-address card to the Soviet embassy in Washington, D.C., giving Magazine Street as his new address.1238

  Although Marina knew nothing of this communication, she knew he had not given up on the plan. He told her she was “in his way.” He was planning to go to Cuba, then China, he told her, and she would have to wait for him in Russia. “I love to travel,” he said, “and with you I can’t.”1239

  On Saturday morning, June 1, Marina, pushing June in her stroller, walked with Lee to the nearby Napoleon branch of the New Orleans Public Library with the hope of finding some books in Russian that she could read. There were none, but Lee checked out Deane and David Heller’s The Berlin Wall and Hermann Bacher Deutsch’s The Huey Long Murder Case for himself. Walking home, Marina started to feel faint. “Don’t go so fast,” she told him, “I don’t feel well.” She stopped and leaned against a storefront. Thinking Marina was joking, he kept walking. She passed out and found herself lying on the sidewalk when she came to. He carried her into a store, where strangers revived her with ammonia. She was eventually able to walk the rest of the way home but she took to her bed, and Lee, finally alarmed, was particularly caring for the rest of the day.1240

  Before the week was out Marina received a letter from Comrade Reznichenko on behalf of the consular’s section of the Russian embassy in Washington. The letter essentially reiterated what he had written on April 18, asking Marina to give him her reasons for wanting repatriation to the USSR.1241 She noticed that the letter had not been forwarded from Dallas; it was sent directly to Magazine Street, and only Lee could or would have informed the consulate of their new address. To her it was additional proof that his insistence on her returning to Russia had continued and was deadly serious. The threat w
as constantly on her mind.1242

  The Murrets and the Oswalds exchanged visits from time to time during this period, providing temporary, marginal relief to Marina for her anxieties. Marina thought Lee’s relatives were very kind. Lee, she said, liked them very much, but he disliked their religiosity and said they were “bourgeois,” a term to describe the tastes and values of the middle class and their emphasis on materialism, social respectability, and a secure, conformist existence.

  A week after Marina fainted in the street, Lee took her to the New Orleans Charity Hospital for a medical examination. It was nearby and largely free, but as a state institution it was permitted to treat only patients who were legal residents of Louisiana. The Oswalds had not been in the state long enough to qualify. Oswald argued heatedly with the staff for an hour but failed to move them. He was furious and complained that it was just one more proof that nothing but money counted in America. He made no further attempt to get appropriate medical attention for his wife, though he was now working and not completely indigent. Marina would be back in Dallas in her ninth month of pregnancy before she finally saw a doctor for the first time.1243 Ruth Paine, in Dallas, worried when she heard nothing from Marina for a time and tried to get the names of the secretaries of the Quaker and Unitarian churches in New Orleans to enlist their help. She wrote to ask them to find people who spoke Russian who might call on Marina, but her efforts came to very little—just one visit from Ruth Kloepfer, clerk of the Quaker Meeting in New Orleans who spoke no Russian and had to rely on Lee’s interpreting to chat with Marina. One of Kloepfer’s daughters was studying Russian but was presently out of the country, and Mrs. Kloepfer never made a serious attempt to locate real Russian contacts for Marina.1244