E ither Oswald knew how to clone himself or he had what’s called an “intelligence double.” One of those two things is true because—on several occasions—it’s been established that Oswald was in two places at the same time.
If you read the evidence, especially the long study of the matter by researcher and author, John Armstrong, you’ll see that there had to be two Oswalds.
Those mysterious anomalies in the history of Lee Harvey Oswald have made some researchers conclude that the only explanation that’s viable is that U.S. intelligence had been “running” two Oswalds as part of an operation. This theory is not as wild as it may at first seem; in fact, quite to the contrary. When it comes to spies and covert operations, the employment of a double is a very useful technique.
In the context of intelligence work, those multiple uses of identity are very common; even sometimes involving the utilization of identical twins. Multiple citings of Lee Harvey Oswald at locations inconsistent with one identity are a telltale sign of the employment of this intelligence tactic. There are also well-substantiated height differentiations in the “two different Oswalds.” Differentiations in Oswald’s height and other physical characteristics, as well as multiple citings of Oswald in separate locations at the same time, lead to a conclusion of identity manipulation in an intelligence context.
I know that probably sounds pretty wild, but keep reading and you’ll understand what I’m talking about.
Consider the following facts. Upon his return from the Soviet Union, changes in Oswald became apparent to family members.
Back in Fort Worth, Lee’s family noticed radical changes in his appearance, such as a great loss and thinning of his hair, adding to the mysteries surrounding Lee’s identity since he was a teenager. A comparison of his height on his Defense Department ID card (5'11") with his height at the time of his arrest (5'9") supports his family’s claims. Oswald’s apparent procommunist activism also fragmented into seemingly conflicting camps.168
That height discrepancy was even more obvious when the “two Oswalds” were younger. The Lee Harvey Oswald who was seen by a doctor named Milton Kurian compared to the Lee Harvey Oswald enrolled at the same time in school in New York City—who was supposedly the same person—revealed dramatic height differential.
Dr. Kurian says Oswald was in the Youth House prior to that time, yet the Warren Commission says Oswald was only confined to Youth House once—a month after speaking to Kurian. Dr. Kurian says Oswald was 4'6" tall, yet New York school records list his height only a month later as 5'4".
These discrepancies suggest there were two different people— both apparently named Lee Harvey Oswald—in New York in the spring of 1953. This would explain the testimony of Oswald’s half-brother John Pic when the Warren Commission showed him a series of photographs from the February 21, 1964, issue of Life magazine of Lee Oswald as a youth. Pic identified photographs of Oswald from ages two through twelve.
But when Warren Commission attorney Albert Jenner showed Pic a photograph of a thirteen-year-old Oswald standing in front of the Bronx Zoo and asked, “Do you recognize that photo?” John Pic replied, “Sir, from that picture, I could not recognize that that is Lee Harvey Oswald.” Attorney Jenner prompted him: “. . . [T]hat young fellow is shown here, he doesn’t look like you recall Lee looked in 1952 and 1953 when you saw him in New York City?” John Pic replied, “No, sir.” This is the only known photograph taken during Oswald’s year-and-a-half stay in New York. Robert Oswald testified that the boy in the picture was Lee Harvey Oswald, and he himself had taken the picture. John Pic, who testified months later, said he would never have known it was Lee Harvey Oswald.
Lee Oswald, the 5'4" southern boy, moved to New York in 1952 and was teased by his classmates for his southern accent and for wearing blue jeans. “Harvey,” who already lived in New York, was the 4'6" kid interviewed by Dr. Kurian, photographed at the Bronx Zoo, and unrecognized by John Pic.169
If you think about it, that all makes perfect sense. As historian John Armstrong—a man who has written for decades on this particular subject— puts it, “If the KGB recruited young boys, can there be any doubt that our intelligence agencies ran similar operations?”170
There are a lot of indications of stark differences in the past of Lee Harvey Oswald that imply they were actually two different individuals:
Mortician Paul Groody was asked twice if he noted a mastoid scar on the left side of Oswald’s neck or scars near his left elbow. In 1945, Oswald had a mastoidectomy operation at Harris Hospital in Fort Worth. A three-inch mastoid scar was noted on his Marine medical records. In 1957, Lee shot himself in the arm with a .22 Derringer. Yet neither the three-inch mastoid scar nor scars from the bullet wounds were observed by Groody or noted on his 1963 report. Jack Ruby shot Oswald, who had no such scars.171
In January of 1957, military records show “Lee Harvey Oswald” was treated for tonsillitis. He was treated again for tonsillitis in 1958 and given injections of penicillin. But according to an FBI report, Dr. Philben, of Dallas, Texas had removed Oswald’s tonsils twelve years earlier—in January of 1945.172
I want to point out here that these are not theories, but rather documented facts. You can examine the documentation in the actual records which are reproduced online: mindserpent.com/American_History/books/Armstrong/Tonsillectomy/Tonsils.htm.
Oswald’s Marine medical records indicate the following: “Mastoid operation 1945; Hospitalized 2 weeks, Ft. Worth, Texas.” But despite a careful examination of his body for scars as small as a quarter of an inch in size, Oswald’s autopsist recorded none remotely near the mastoidectomy. The mortician who prepared Oswald’s body for burial couldn’t find scars that should have been there either. The scar from a self-inflicted gunshot wound in the left elbow from Oswald’s Marine years also appeared to have disappeared after his death.
In October of 1957, Lee shot himself in the left arm with a .22 derringer. The entrance wound was closed with stitches and the bullet left in his arm. Later an incision was made on the back side of his arm and the bullet removed. Two incisions— two scars. After Oswald was shot and killed by Jack Ruby an autopsy was performed. Photographs were taken of Oswald’s arms. There are no scars from a bullet wound, nor are any scars noted on the autopsy report. Oswald was prepared for burial and embalmed by Mortician Paul Groody. Groody was twice asked about scars on Oswald’s arms. Groody said he had not seen any scars on Oswald’s arms.173
Scars simply do not disappear like that!
Years earlier, when Lee Oswald was six years old, he had a mastoidectomy operation behind his left ear. In 1956 Lee’s Marine medical examination report lists a 3" mastoid scar behind his left ear. When Harvey was killed by Jack Ruby, Dr. Earl Rose performed the autopsy. Dr. Rose noted many scars in his autopsy report, some were as small as 1/16." Dr. Rose also took twenty-seven color slides of Oswald’s body which are now in the National Archives. There is no 3" mastoidectomy scar on the autopsy report nor can such a scar be seen in any of the color slides. It was Lee Oswald who had the 3" mastoidectomy scar— not Harvey. Harvey had no such scar.
These mysteries have long puzzled JFK researchers, but the solution is simple enough. One Lee Harvey Oswald had a tonsillectomy and a mastoidectomy in 1945 and shot himself in the left elbow in 1957. The other Oswald did not.174
But there’s an even bigger “whopper” from a forensics standpoint, and here it is:
Oswald’s body was ordered exhumed in 1981 after author Michael Eddowes brought suit in Texas to determine who was actually buried in Oswald’s grave. The pathologists assigned to the case officially identified the body as Oswald’s. However, the funeral director who originally buried the body insisted it could not be the same since the one he buried clearly showed a craniotomy, which had been done during autopsy, and the exhumed skull showed no craniotomy. Also, the pathologists used dental records to identify the corpse, but ignored the fact that Oswald had lost a front tooth in a fight in high school (there is a photo
of him in class with a gap-tooth smile, and many classmates remember the fight and the missing tooth). The exhumed skull had a full set of natural front teeth.175
Oswald’s “legend”—which is a term in covert intelligence to describe a manufactured personal history—also gives an indication of the existence of a sophisticated intelligence operation.
Accounts of co-workers, other eyewitnesses, and records from schools, employment and the military began to conflict greatly on such details as his appearance, whereabouts and abilities in such areas as driving and foreign languages. From the time he was a young teen it was as if his identity was being used by several people at once. While no specific official program or operation has been publicly documented involving the requisition of identities, similar activities have long been common in spy tradecraft. Certainly by 1963, one or more persons was actively impersonating Oswald in ways that helped incriminate him in the Kennedy assassination.176
As a result, many in the assassination research community began to look at the possibilities.
It was suspected by several assassination researchers that, early on in Oswald’s Marine career, someone started to impersonate him. The man, or men, used the names Lee Harvey Oswald, Harvey Lee Oswald and Alek James Hidell. These researchers believe that Hidell or one of the others took over the identity of Lee Harvey Oswald as a US or Soviet intelligence agent for the rest of his life. One might then believe that the real Oswald was given another identity—as in the Witness Protection Program . . .177
The evidence for two Oswalds is dramatic:
• By June of 1960, J. Edgar Hoover was aware of an Oswald in the states and an Oswald in Russia. He sent a memo to his field offices warning them that an imposter may be using Oswald’s birth certificate. FBI files contain many reports of Lee Oswald in the States while Harvey is in Russia, but you won’t find them in the Warren Commission volumes.
• In early 1964, Warren Commission member and Georgia Senator Richard Russell was very troubled and asked Army Intelligence Colonel Phillip Corso to quietly conduct an investigation into the “Oswald matter.” Corso soon reported to Senator Russell that there had been two United States Passports issued to Lee Harvey Oswald, which had been used by two different men. He obtained this information from the head of the U.S. Passport office, Francis Knight. He also reported to Senator Russell there were two birth certificates in the name of Lee Harvey Oswald and they too had been used by two different people. He obtained this information from William Sullivan, head of the FBI’s Domestic Intelligence Division. Corso said he and Senator Russell concluded the assassination had been a conspiracy.
• James A. Wilcott, a former CIA finance officer, told the House Select Committee on Assassinations that Lee Oswald had been recruited from the military by the CIA ‘with the express purpose of a double agent assignment in the USSR.’ His testimony was ignored.178
Here’s how Oswald’s own brother knew that something was up:
After Harvey quit high school, he worked briefly for J. R. Michels, and then left New Orleans for California. We know about his residing in California thanks to Texas Employment Commission employee Laurel Kittrell. She interviewed the two Oswalds in 1963 in Dallas. She remembered they looked remarkably similar.
Russian-speaking “Harvey” replaced Lee at El Toro and took a Russian language exam in February, 1959. Lee Oswald’s brother, John Pic, wasn’t fooled by the switch. When shown a photograph of ‘Lee Harvey Oswald’ wearing a Marine helmet, Pic told the Warren Commission, “I would never guess that that would be Lee.” Pic knew this person was not his brother. So did Robert Oswald.
When Lee Oswald’s older brother, John Pic, saw ‘Harvey’ Oswald after his return from Russia, Pic told the Warren Commission ‘the Lee Harvey Oswald I met in November of 1962 was not the same Lee Oswald I had known ten years previous.’
When Attorney Jenner asked Pic how he looked physically ‘as compared with when you had last seen him,’ Pic replied, ‘I would never have recognized him, sir.’ You noticed a material change in his appearance? Pic replied, ‘much thinner, didn’t have as much hair, different facial features, eyes set back, his face was rounder, and he no longer had a bull neck.’
The Oswald that Pic saw on Thanksgiving Day in 1962 wrote his name in Pic’s address book as ‘Harvey.’179
In an eerie event, Oswald’s Russian wife provided the most interesting revelation of all:
She insisted on seeing Oswald’s body during his autopsy. Marina entered the room, stood next to the body of Lee Harvey Oswald and did a most curious thing. She raised his eyelids and looked at his eyes. Four months later she told a French journalist, ‘I had two husbands: Lee, the father of my children, an affectionate and kind man; and Harvey Oswald, the assassin of President Kennedy.’180
Therefore, the comparative evidence strongly suggests that:
• There was at least one other individual actively impersonating Lee Harvey Oswald, either as part of a sophisticated intelligence operation, or as part of a hijacked intelligence operation.
• There were at least “two Oswalds” as a component of that operation. Two separate individuals who formed the composite identity and legend of “Lee Harvey Oswald” for U.S. intelligence.
• As a component of the False Defector Program of U.S. Intelligence, it was the operational design for “Harvey” Oswald (who spoke fluent Russian) to step into the “Lee Harvey Oswald legend” prior to “defection” to Russia.
• According to Armstrong’s research, the “real” or original Lee Harvey Oswald was not the man who was shot by Jack Ruby, nor the corpse that was buried in Oswald’s grave.
Note the striking and substantiated differences between the two Oswalds:
• One spoke fluent Russian; the other did not.
• One was 5 feet, 9 inches tall; the other was 5 feet, 11 inches.
• One had a tattoo of a dagger with a snake on his left forearm; the other did not.
• One had a mastoidectomy scar on the left side of his neck; the other did not.
• One had two scars on his left forearm; the other did not.
• One still had all his permanent teeth; the other did not.
• One still had his tonsils; the other did not.
• One is buried in the grave of Lee Harvey Oswald; the other is not.181
Richard Helms was a major player at the CIA. He was the head of covert operations for many years and eventually rose to CIA Director. Some researchers think he may have been involved in the assassination. Whether he was involved in its planning or not, it seemed he knew more than he was telling. For example, he made a very odd comment once which seemed very hard for people to put into context. Pay close attention to the strange words chosen by former CIA Director Helms:
In 1978, former CIA Director Richard Helms exited from his executive-session testimony before the House Select Committee on Assassinations. He paused to talk with the press. Washington Post reporter George Lardner, Jr. described the encounter in his paper’s August 10 edition:
Helms told reporters during a break that no one would ever know who or what Lee Harvey Oswald, named by the Warren Commission as Kennedy’s assassin, represented. Asked whether the CIA knew of any ties Oswald had with either the KGB or the CIA, Helms paused and with a laugh said, “I don’t remember.” Pressed on the point, he told a reporter, “Your questions are almost as dumb as the Committee’s.”182
“No one will ever know who or what Lee Harvey Oswald represented.” What a bizarre thing to say. But if what researchers like John Armstrong seem to have figured out about there being two Oswalds is actually true, then that cryptic comment by Helms above suddenly makes a helluva lot of sense.
After the assassination, U.S. intelligence apparently created a new and false legend for Lee Harvey Oswald. The new legend was actually a composite of Lee Oswald and Harvey Oswald and explains why the two legends at times overlap; i.e. one Oswald was sighted (or even interviewed) in the United States at a time when we
know Oswald was supposed to be in Russia, etc. The purpose of the final legend was to distance themselves from the assassination of President Kennedy and to manufacture and sustain believability for the “lone gunman theory.” Most of that research is available online: acorn.net/jfkplace/03/ JA/DR/.04-sources.html
New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison investigated Oswald’s background more tenaciously and with much more factual thoroughness than did the Warren Commission.
In 1967, Jim Garrison and his staff recognized the discrepancies in Oswald’s background. Investigator Alberto Fowler told Carlos Bringuier that Garrison had information that an identical double of Lee Harvey Oswald existed and this individual was a ‘double agent’ of the FBI.183
As a result of their investigation into the inconsistencies in Oswald’s background, New Orleans District Attorney Garrison wrote the following in a memorandum to one of his associates:
If you really want to know what I think, it is that Robert Oswald knew this returning defector was not really Lee [his brother] and this is what Robert’s problem was the night of the assassination when he found it necessary to take such a long drive to think things out. He knew things were far more complicated than they appeared on the surface.184
There were some very cogent reasons why Garrison reached that conclusion.
Lee Oswald remained in the U.S. while Harvey went to Russia. When Harvey Oswald met Marina, she thought he was a native Russian with a Baltic accent. When she learned he was a foreigner, she asked which of his parents was Russian. His March 1961 medical records from Minsk list his name as ‘Harvey Alik Oswald.’ A State Department Security Office memo of March 2, 1961, refers to ‘Harvey’ Oswald. A letter written to Oswald in May 3, 1961, is addressed to Esteemed Citizen ‘Harvey Oswald.’ A CIA memo of November 25, 1963, explained the Agency’s interest in the ‘Harvey’ story. The merging of Harvey Oswald with Lee Oswald’s background had been successful. Russian speaking Harvey was in Russia and Lee was working with CIA operatives in New Orleans, Texas, and Florida. People who look similar, like Harvey and Lee, are often used by the intelligence community. Castro’s top agents were identical twin brothers— Patricio and Antonio De La Guardia. Lee and Harvey were not identical in appearance, but they looked similar enough to confuse, deceive, and fool those who saw or knew them. This is the smoke and mirrors Jim Garrison spoke of—trademarks of the intelligence community.”185
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