The
Paines probably had a handler within the intelligence community in
1959, whether they knew it or not. Based on their background with the
World Federalists and Ruth's work with the Quakers and Soviet-American
friendship committees, Cord Meyer is the logical candidate. By 1963,
Meyer was the chief of the covert action division.
Frederick
Merrill at the State Department put his stamp of
approval on the East-West Contact Committee program organized by the Quakers that Ruth had worked on - the following year,
Merrill worked on the Robert Webster defector case that was linked to the Oswald defector case. Did some combination of Meyer, AID and the State Department somehow persuade the
Paines to keep an eye on this defector family, or were they simply manipulated into position?
Ruth had other intelligence operatives in her family - such as her
sister Sylvia Hoke and her brother-in-law John Hoke - who could play a
role in helping to convince her. Michael Paine's family also had
access to talent in the intelligence arena. Michael's mother had a close friend
named Mary Bancroft who was an OSS spy that slept with Allen Dulles.
After
the Magnolia party, Ruth asked Marina Oswald if she
would like to live with her so that she could improve her Russian. Lee
was about to leave Marina for awhile while he went to his home town of New Orleans and looked for more steady work.
Michael and Ruth had ostensibly split up, and were living in different
houses.
In Part 8, out in a few days: The fiery Cuban dance steps of the CIA-Army Intelligence Mambo.
Thanks to Barbara LaMonica, Greg Parker, Bill Kelly, and many other researchers for their insights on de Mohrenschildt and the Paines.
Endnotes:
Peter Gregory...was also a translator who had his son
Paul take Russian
lessons from Oswald's wife Marina. Gregory provided Oswald with a letter certifying Oswald's ability to serve as a translator:
Warren Commission Document 5, p.l 290; SA Earle Haley interview with
Peter Gregory, 11/29/63. Also see Secret Service report, below.
Gregory
commented on Oswald's pronounced Polish accent: Secret Service report of Leon
Gopadze, 11/29/63, p. 3, FBI
- HSCA Administrative Folders/NARA Record Number:
124-10369-10062.
Oswald contacted Max Clark's wife shortly after his return: Warren Commission Hearings, Testimony of Max Clark, Volume 8, p. 344.
On 11/28/63, Gregory assisted the Secret Service in translating a lengthy interrogation of Marina Oswald: Secret Service report of Leon Gopadze, 11/29/63, p. 3, FBI - HSCA Administrative Folders/NARA Record Number: 124-10369-10062.
On 11/29/63, Clark and Gregory told FBI agent Earle Haley that Oswald had obtained their names from the
Fort
Worth ublic Library, where Gregory worked: Warren Commission
Document 5, p. 262, SA Earle Haley interview with Max Clark, 11/29/63;
p. 290, SA Earl Haley interview with Peter Gregory, 11/29/63.
After
a complaint by the Warren Commission that these these earlier reports
contradicted the witnesses' Warren Commission testimony, Legend Maker #6 FBI supervisor Marvin Gheesling was forced to confront them on these contradictions: Memo from Warren Commission counsel J. Lee Rankin to FBI Director, 5/7/64; Memo from Gheesling to SAC, Dallas, FBI, 5/11/64,
105-82555 Oswald HQ File, Section 151, p. 49.
After Gheesling re-assigned the case to the Dallas FBI office, agent Earle Haley went back and re-interviewed Clark and Gregory: Warren Commission Exhibits 1888, 1889, 5/14/64.
Haley was a personal acquaintance of Max Clark, who used to work with " Earle ": Warren Commission Hearings, Testimony of Max Clark, Volume 8, pp. 349, 352.
Gregory wouldn't change his story and blamed it on Oswald, while Clark said he heard about the whole issue second-hand
from his wife: Warren Commission Exhibits 1888, 1889, 5/14/64.
The Washington Post and other papers ran a UPI article on 6/9/62 announcing the Oswalds' impending arrival to Dallas: "Third American in 2 Months Leaves Soviet 'Home'", Washington Post, 6/9/62.
The FBI has got him tagged and is watching his movements: Warren Commission
Hearings, Testimony of Max Clark, Volume 8, pp. 351.
Marina's uncle and surrogate father Colonel Ilya Prusakov was with the MVD, the parent intelligence organization to the KGB...: William Hood, Mole, (W.W. Norton & Co., New York, 1982) p. 305. See memo of Richard Helms to Warren Commission staffer J. Lee Rankin, 1/25/64, for the time period "18-31 March 1961".
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