Ep 68: The FBI (Part 2)

Matt Crumpton
May 6
15 min read

In this episode, we look at the specific threats against President Kennedy that the FBI was aware of, but, for whatever reason, did not pass on to the Secret Service. Were any of those threats credible? And did the FBI follow the normal protocols when dealing with them?

Then, we turn our attention to the FBI’s relationship with Lee Harvey Oswald. When did Oswald come on their radar? Was Oswald an FBI informant? And what was the ultimate reason for the FBI’s failure to warn the Secret Service about Lee Harvey Oswald’s presence on the Dallas Motorcade route?

Hoover’s Alleged Act of Treason

In his 1991 book, Act of Treason: The Role of J. Edgar Hoover in the Assassination of John F. Kennedy, author Mark North lays out an argument for why he believes Hoover is culpable in President Kennedy’s death. North claims that Hoover failed to relay death threats against President Kennedy, specifically ones from the Mafia, to the proper channels.

On February 9, 1962, a wire tap captured a conversation between Philadelphia mob boss, Angelo Bruno and his associate William Weisburg. The two were discussing Hoover’s recent gambling raid in Reading, Pennsylvania. Weisburg said QUOTE “With Kennedy, a guy should take a knife like one of them other guys, and stab and kill the fucker….somebody should kill the fucker. I mean it. This is true, honest to God…I hope I get a week’s notice. I’ll kill. Right in the White House. Somebody’s got to get rid of this fucker.”[1]

This death threat by Weisburg against President Kennedy was reported to Hoover via Airtel. But, instead of informing the Secret Service or the Attorney General, Hoover hid the information in the FBI’s confidential files.[2]

On May 3rd, 1962, a wire tap caught Eddie McGrath, a New York crime boss who controlled Hell’s Kitchen, in a conversation with an unknown woman named Jeanne. McGrath told Jeanne QUOTE “If I could just hit Bob Kennedy with some kind of bomb that will explode I would gladly go to the penitentiary for the rest of my life…”[3] Hoover took no action to notify the Attorney General about the threat on his life.[4]

In September of 1962, a more specific threat against the life of President Kennedy was brought to Hoover’s attention. This information was the result of a meeting between Florida mafia boss, Santos Trafficante, and Cuban exile, Jose Aleman. Unbeknownst to Trafficante, Aleman was working as an FBI informant. The two men spoke about the Kennedy brothers and Aleman told Trafficante that he thought Kennedy would be re-elected, to which Trafficante responded, QUOTE “No, Jose, he is going to be hit.”

Aleman said that Traficante made it clear to him that he was not guessing about the killing; rather he was giving the impression that he knew Kennedy was going to be killed.[5] This threat that Hoover heard was from a high ranking mob-boss and it had a concrete date on it: before the 1964 election. Still, once Hoover learned about the information, he took no action to pass it on to the Secret Service and the Airtel was stored in Hoover’s confidential files.[6]

In March of 1963, another FBI Informant, Eugene De Lapparra, overheard three men in a Marcello-controlled restaurant talking about killing President Kennedy. One of these men was referred to as “the professor” – the same moniker that Marcello associate, David Ferrie, sometimes used because he lied and told people that he had a PHD in psychology.[7] According to De Lapparra, the men were looking at an advertisement for a foreign made rifle and said QUOTE “This would be a nice rifle to buy to get the president.” This man added QUOTE “There is a price on the President’s head,” and that “somebody will get Kennedy when he comes down South.”[8] De Lappara reported this information to the Philadelphia FBI Office in September of 1963. Presumably this information was relayed on to Hoover. Nevertheless, once again, no action was taken to notify the Secret Service or the Attorney General.[9]

So, J. Edgar Hoover was aware of the 3 death threats against President Kennedy and one death threat against Attorney General Kennedy, yet, he took no action. The Weisburg threat against JFK and the McGrath threat against RFK are notable, but for me, they can be written off as not specific enough, and just being an emotional reaction to the Kennedy Administration’s crackdown on mafia activities.

However, the threats directly from mob boss Santos Traficante and from associates of another mob boss, Carlos Marcello, were specific. President Kennedy would be hit before the election and it would be in the South. In my view, Hoover’s failure to flag these threats for the Secret Service was, at a minimum, gross negligence. The question is whether Hoover intentionally withheld the information. I don’t know the answer to that.

Later this season, we’ll explore allegations that the Mafia killed President Kennedy. Regardless of where you land on that question, the reports from these two FBI Informants do tend to support the idea that there was a mafia contract on President Kennedy’s life in 1963.

FBI Eyes on Oswald

The strongest argument that Director Hoover had foreknowledge of the assassination appears to be his failure to pass on assassination threats to the Secret Service or the Attorney General. But, what about the idea that, independent of the death threats we just noted, the FBI should have raised red flags on Lee Harvey Oswald when they were watching him?

The Bureau kept tabs on Oswald with some regularity. He first surfaced on their radar in June of 1960 when J. Edgar Hoover wrote a memo noting that QUOTE “there is a possibility that an impostor is using Oswald’s birth certificate.”[10] This concern seems to be legitimate given that Army Intelligence Colonel Phillip Corso told Warren Commissioner Dick Russell that there were two passports under Oswald’s name and they were used by two different people.[11]

On May 5, 1962 Director Hoover sent a memo to the special agent in charge in Dallas that said QUOTE “You should be alert for [Oswald’s] return to the United States and immediately upon his arrival you should thoroughly interview him to determine whether he was recruited by Soviet Intelligence or made any deals with Soviets in order to obtain permission to return to the United States.”[12] When Local Dallas agents met with Oswald to debrief him on his Soviet trip, he told them that he was not recruited by the KGB and that he just wanted to see the country.[13]

Two weeks later, the FBI interviewed Oswald again. After that, Agent James Hosty opened a file on Marina Oswald as a potential KGB sleeper agent.[14] Hosty would later tell the HSCA that the FBI was more interested in Marina than it was in Lee.[15] About a month later, on August 16th, 1962, FBI agents met with Oswald for a third time after steaking out Oswald’s apartment. After this meeting they determined Oswald was not violent.[16] As a result, on August 30th, Agent John Fain closed the FBI file on Lee Harvey Oswald and left Marina’s file on pending inactive status, which meant that she would receive a follow up in about 6 months. A week after that, J. Edgar Hoover himself forwarded Fain’s report on Oswald to the CIA with a note that said “For your information, I am enclosing communications which may be of interest to you.”[17]

In mid-March of 1963, Agent Hosty went to check on Marina Oswald, consistent with her pending inactive status. Hosty found out the couple had been arguing a lot recently and decided to wait to speak to Marina. In the meantime, he ran a check on Lee’s file. Hosty re-opened Lee Oswald’s file because he learned that Oswald was a subscriber to the Daily Worker magazine.[18] After the file was re-opened, the FBI would then continually monitor Oswald’s activities, with dozens of FBI reports on Oswald between the Spring of 1963 and the day of the Assassination.[19]

The Hosty Note

As late as November 5th, 1963, the FBI was interviewing people around Oswald. On that day, they went to see Ruth Paine.[20] This interaction apparently led to Oswald dropping off a note for James Hosty at the Dallas FBI office on November 13th.

According to Agent Hosty the note said QUOTE “If I did not stop talking to his wife, he would take action against the FBI.”[21] On the other hand, Nannie Lee Fenner, the FBI receptionist who took the note from Oswald said that the note said something along the lines of QUOTE “Let this be a warning, I will blow up the FBI and the Dallas Police Department if you don’t stop bothering my wife.” Fenner was certain the note was signed by Lee Harvey Oswald. She signed 3 affidavits confirming her testimony over a 3 month period when the FBI investigated the issue of the Oswald Hosty Note in 1975.[22]

According to Hosty, he flushed Oswald’s note down the toilet on the order of his boss, Gordon Shanklin, the special agent in charge of the Dallas FBI. Despite Hosty’s testimony, Shanklin denied any knowledge of the note or ordering it to be destroyed. But, HSCA investigators reviewed the incident and did not find Shanklin’s denial credible.[23]

Shanklin knew that it looked bad for the FBI that Oswald visited their office 9 days before the assassination, and the FBI still didn’t flag him as a threat. Keep in mind that Hosty knew that 1) Oswald subscribed to the Daily Worker, 2) Oswald was an ex-marine and Communist defector, 3) Oswald went to Mexico City and made contact with the Soviet Embassy, 4) Oswald was handing out pro-cuba flyers in New Orleans, and 5) Oswald worked at the Texas Schoolbook Depository building.[24] Hosty also knew or should have known that the presidential motorcade was scheduled to go through Dealey Plaza. Still, Oswald never made any threats against the president or vice president. And Hosty had no reason to believe he was violent. So, for Hosty to have reported it to the Secret Service, he would have had to put all of that other information together and realize that there was a potential threat. We expect law enforcement to be able to do that, but as a practical matter, it is not that surprising that Hosty never told the Secret Service about Lee Harvey Oswald.

Was Oswald an FBI Informant?

Another key question when it comes to Oswald and the FBI is whether or not Oswald was an FBI informant. The Bureau addressed this issue directly in a January 30, 1964 memo, finding that Oswald was not an FBI informant. According to the memo, there were no payments to Oswald, there was no background check of Oswald which would be required to be an informant, and the number allegedly linked to Oswald was actually used by other informants.[25]

Quick Sidebar on the FBI Informant Number: Warren Commission chief counsel, J. Lee Rankin, wrote a memo on January 24, 1964, which noted that there was an allegation that Oswald had CIA number 110669 and used badge numbers S172 and S179. Of course, FBI informants didn’t have badge numbers and, as noted, informant number 179 was in use by someone else.[26] However, according to Robert Story, a former CIA officer familiar with the CIA’s numbering system, 110669 was consistent with how the CIA identified informers and sources. When J. Lee Rankin told the Commissioners this information, he focused on the fact that 179 was not Oswald’s FBI informant number, but Rankin never mentioned Oswald’s alleged CIA number 110669 or the fact that it was consistent with the CIA’s informant and sources numbering system.[27]

Even still, the mere denial of the FBI and the Warren Commission of Oswald’s status as an informant is not sufficient to answer the question. After all, if Oswald was an informant, it would not be shocking for the FBI to deny it if they believed it made the Bureau look bad. Indeed, Allen Dulles said the same thing in a closed Warren Commission session on January 27, 1964. Specifically, he said QUOTE “I think under any circumstances, I think Mr. Hoover would say certainly he didn’t have anything to do with [Oswald].”[28] But is there any evidence to support this idea that Oswald was an FBI informant?

According to what former FBI agent, Carver Gayton, relayed to the Church Committee, James Hosty told him that Oswald was a potential security informant for an older FBI agent who had deactivated Oswald’s file as an informant just before he retired.[29] It would appear that Gayton is referring to Agent John Fain, who closed Oswald’s file before he retired in the fall of 1962. Gayton said Agent Hosty told him that Hosty was trying to re-activate Oswald as a potential FBI security informant, but was not successful in reaching Oswald to discuss that possibility.[30]

This idea that Oswald was once an FBI potential security informant for John Fain is supported by former FBI New Orleans Clerk, William Walter. Walter told the HSCA that when he was asked to check Oswald’s file in August of 1963 after Oswald had been arrested he QUOTE “recall[ed] searching the indexes and finding a card that showed more than one file number, which would indicate that we had more than one case….From looking at the file numbers, they fell in the category of security type, informant type files.”[31]

So, that’s one official memo against Oswald being an informant and two witnesses who say that he was. Official Story critics also note that Oswald’s behavior gives away the fact that he must have been an FBI informant. For example, when Oswald is taken into police custody after he gets in a fight with Carlos Bringuier in New Orleans, he asks the local police to call the FBI to come and talk to him. If that wasn’t strange enough, Oswald had the phone number for the FBI with him, which he gave to the cops.[32] There’s also the fact that Oswald was seen by numerous witnesses either at Guy Banister’s office or talking to Guy Banister elsewhere.[33] And remember, Guy Banister, was the former Special Agent in Charge of the FBI Chicago office who, according to Banister’s former investigator, Joe Oster, was able to easily get J. Edgar Hoover on the phone whenever he wanted.[34]

The counterpoint to all of these Oswald ties to Banister is that when you zoom in to each witness, you find that the witnesses aren’t credible – even though there are many of them all saying the same thing. Warren Report defenders would argue that just because Banister could get Hoover on the phone and because someone may have seen Banister talking to Oswald, that doesn’t mean Oswald is an FBI informant. And that’s a fair point. But, it still doesn’t explain why Oswald had the 544 Camp Street address (which was the second floor office above Banister’s) stamped on his Crime Against Cuba pamphlets that he was handing out.

It’s also true that some FBI agents had “vest pocket” informants, who were never formally recorded.[35] This is according to Agent James Gale – who was tasked to investigate the FBI’s pre-assassination handling of Oswald –If Oswald was this type of informal informant, there would not have been a written record.

Marvin Gheesling

The core failure of the FBI in the JFK Assassination was that it didn’t provide Oswald’s pre-assassination file to the Secret Service. He should have been on the FBI’s Security Index, because of his time in Russia, his handing out of pro-Castro materials that led to his arrest in New Orleans, and his alleged trip to Mexico City. These events should have triggered an alert when the Secret Service’s Protective Research Section asked for info on Dallas, such that Oswald would have been removed from the building - or the motorcade route would have been altered.[36] It’s hard to overstate how big of a deal this is.

The FBI straight up dropped the ball, and, if you believe the official story, that failure to put Oswald on the Security Index changed the course of history. If you are a critic of the official story, the FBI dropping the ball on Oswald is also relevant because if Oswald is not in place in the Schoolbook Depository Building, then that means there is no patsy. So, the question is, how could Oswald build up this backstory that lets everyone know on the day of the Assassination that he was a sympathizer with enemies of America, but also avoid having those same characteristics flag him as a threat to intelligence agencies - before the assassination?

So, what happened at the FBI to allow this major breach in protocol? In November of 1959, Lee Harvey Oswald told the US Embassy in Moscow that he would give military secrets to the Soviet Union. This led to the FBI issuing a FLASH on Oswald, which meant that anyone who received information or inquiries about Oswald was supposed to notify the FBI’s Espionage Division.[37] The purpose of the FLASH was to make sure that the FBI knew what potential intelligence threats were up to. This 1959 FLASH on Oswald was issued by FBI Counterintelligence Supervisor, Marvin Gheesling.[38] Gheesling was the man at the FBI who oversaw Oswald’s file, along with fellow FBI agent, Lambert Anderson.[39] Gheesling also supervised the FBI’s field investigation of Oswald when he returned from the Soviet Union.[40]

But, on October 9th, 1963, Agent Marvin Gheesling cancelled the FLASH on Oswald. The timing of this cancelled FLASH is extremely important because on the very next day – October 10th, the CIA sent a memo to the FBI about Oswald contacting the Soviet Embassy in Mexico City.[41] This information about Oswald’s alleged Soviet Embassy visit in Mexico City would become explosive after the assassination, but because there was no FLASH on Oswald anymore, Oswald wasn’t placed on the Security Index – which meant he was present on November 22nd to be either the shooter or the patsy, depending on your perspective.[42]

We have no proof that the cancellation of the FLASH was ordered by Gheesling’s superiors. It seems to have come straight from Gheesling. Indeed, Director Hoover censured Gheesling after the assassination and wrote QUOTE “Send this guy to Siberia!” on Gheesling’s censure document.[43]

So, what did Gheesling have to say for himself? Is there a reasonable counterpoint for why he turned off the FBI alarm on Oswald the literal day before it would have been triggered?

Oswald was arrested in New Orleans on August 13th, 1963 for breach of the peace while handing out Fair Play for Cuba flyers. As a result of that arrest, both Gheesling and Lambert Anderson signed off on a watch list document that maintained the FBI’s flash.[44] Gheesling claimed that the reason the FLASH was put on Oswald in the first place was in the event that he returned from Russia with an assumed name. He told FBI internal investigator, James Gale, that he should have removed the FLASH on September 7, 1962 when Oswald returned from Russia without an assumed name.[45] So, Gheesling’s defense is that he should have removed the FLASH much earlier, and he just coincidentally happened to remove it on October 9th – which was the day before the alarm would have gone off in response to CIA’s memo about Oswald visiting the Soviet Embassy in Mexico City.

But, as author Bill Simpich points out,[46] the reason Oswald was put on the watch list, according to an FBI memo written on the day of the assassination was to ensure that QUOTE “any subsequent arrest in the US was brought to [the FBI’s] attention.”[47] If the goal was to ring the alarm bell on Oswald after he was arrested, then why would the FBI remove the FLASH after Oswald had just been arrested?

The bigger problem for Gheesling is that he claims that his October 9th removal of the FLASH on Oswald was done because he had just found out about Oswald’s arrest in New Orleans, which he says triggered him to remember to cancel the FLASH.[48] But, the documents tell a story that is not compatible with Gheesling’s defense. As noted, Gheesling signed off on a document to maintain the FLASH on Oswald on August 13th. Bill Simpich notes that Gheesling’s initials are also on two other documents about Oswald’s arrest on August 21stand August 23rd.[49] This demonstrates that Gheesling was indisputably aware of Oswald’s arrest on August 13th. Instead of cancelling the FLASH at that time, Gheesling signed off on a watchlist document to keep the FLASH going.

The only other defense I have seen of Gheesling, which is put forth by Simpich, is that Gheesling became aware that Oswald was helpful to the FBI as an informant or otherwise, and removed Oswald from the security list because informants didn’t belong on the list. Of course, while that argument helps Gheesling personally, it’s not available to official story defenders because it implicates Oswald as working for the FBI in some capacity.[50]

NEXT TIME ON SOLVING JFK: We wrap up our series on the FBI by analyzing J. Edgar Hoover’s relationship with the Warren Commission, and ultimately attempting to answer the questions of whether J. Edgar Hoover had foreknowledge of the assassination, and whether he was knowingly involved in the cover-up.

[1] HSCA Vol 5 at 448; Robert Blakey, Plot to Kill the President, at 237.

[2] Mark North, Act of Treason: The Role of J. Edgar Hoover in the Assassination of President Kennedy, at 128.

[3] Fort Worth Star Telegram, 10/1/78, at A12.

[4] North at 144.

[5] Washington Post, 5/16/76, at C1; HSCA, Vol 5 at 310, 317, 319.

[6] North at 199.

[7] John H. Davis, Mafia Kingfish, at 508, 596.

[8] John H. Davis, The Kennedys, at 596

[9] North at 239.

[10] Letter from J. Edgar Hoover to Office of Security, State Department, June 3, 1960.

[11] Anthony Summers, Official and Confidential, the Secret Life of J. Edgar Hoover, at 322; Author’s interview with Phillip Corso, 1996.

[12] John Armstrong, Harvey & Lee, at 390.