The Coincidence Theorist's Guide to the J.F.K. Assassination

Another November 22 passes, another anniversary of the assassination of J.F.K. It's been 46 years now and after having recently read Oswald and the CIA by John Newman, I decided to start something that Jeff Wells did regarding 9/11/01 http://rigorousintuition.blogspot.com/2004/08/coincidence-theorists-guide-to-911.html and apply it to 11/22/63. This is just a starting point, strictly from Newman's book. But it's amazing how far the coincidences stretch!



We should not trust the claims of Gerald Patrick Hemming: that he met Oswald at the Cuban Consulate in Los Angeles in 1959 and gave Oswald documents while he was stationed at El Toro that year. A 1976 CIA internal memo clearly outed Hemming as a liar for claiming Agency affiliation when in fact there was none. That the same CIA memo stated that Hemming's "long-time cohort" Frank Sturgis of Watergate infamy "also has a long-time record of falsely claiming Agency affiliation" just shows that poseurs like each others company.

That both Richard Snyder and John McVicker at the American Embassy in Moscow thought on October 31, 1959 that Oswald might have been "tutored" before appearing at the Consulate to renounce his citizenship can be attributed to a simple error of judgment. We all know Oswald was a lone nut.

That Oswald threatened to reveal military secrets when he defected on October 31, 1959 yet the CIA delayed opening Oswald's 201 file until December 9, 1960 is proof of nothing more than an historical precedence for benign bureaucratic oversight at the Agency. After all, how else could the terrorists have pulled off the attacks of 9/11 without the CIA finding out beforehand?

That the CIA closed down U-2 operations at Atsugi Naval Air Station after Gary Powers was shot down, even though Powers didn't fly out of Atsugi, has no connection with any intelligence Oswald may have obtained while stationed there. Geez, don't you know what poor grades Oswald got in elementary school?

That the CIA told the HSCA probe in 1978 that Oswald's pre-201 Confidential files had been destroyed and that none of the files were classified any higher, yet both claims turned out to be false does not mean the CIA lied about Oswald. They either misspoke or misremembered.

That Snyder's dispatch on Oswald's threat to give the Soviets "something of special interest" is missing from the CI/SI files provided to the HSCA in 1978 and the CIA attributes the "Location of Original" to a 201 file (Snyder's) that did not exist at the time the original document was created is not suspicious at all, just a simple filing mistake.

That the CIA's Security Office launched a counterintelligence operation in the United States against the Fair Play for Cuba Committee (FPCC) without the FBI's permission under the orders of future Watergate burglar James McCord just shows that sometimes a patriot can lose his footing.

That Oswald's FBI 105 New York file and his 100 Bureau file are not even listed in the National Archives is an example of how disorganized government bureaucracy can be.

That the FBI New York field office opened a 65-serial used exclusively for espionage cases on Oswald for a February 26, 1960 memo is an example of how cautious government bureaucracy can be. --- That they forgot to forward it to the CIA, well, nobody's consistent!

That Oswald's mother, Marguerite, also thought that her son might be a "secret agent" when he went to the Soviet Union can be dismissed as the ramblings of an overprotective mother.

That the Warren Commission failed to investigate Oswald's CIA files is not indicative of a cover-up, after all, if they had any CIA related questions all they had to do was ask member Allen Dulles, a former CIA DCI. They didn't need no stinkin' files!

That the Chief of SR/6, the "Soviet Realities" branch in the Soviet Russia Division stated that "we showed operational intelligence interest" in Oswald must be a misstatement. There is no proof the CIA used Oswald in an operational manner, so we can safely disregard all statements to the contrary.

That the CIA reported deleting Oswald from HT/LINGUAL coverage on March 15, 1960, then opened his mother's letter to him from July 8, 1961, then put him back on the list on August 7, 1961 does not indicate any malfeasance on the part of the CIA, just typical bureaucratic bungling.

That George deMohrenschildt, who befriended Oswald when he returned to America in 1962 was in frequent contact with the Dallas CIA Domestic Contacts Service Chief J. Gordon Shanklin and had close contact with a branch chief of the Soviet Russia Division, Nicholas M. Anikeeff, just shows what a wild nut Oswald was, mixing it up with the right-wing White Russian community.

We should not question the FBI's claim that it lost track of Oswald for two months, from April 24 to June 26, 1963 during his move to New Orleans despite the fact that Warren Commission Exhibit 793 shows Oswald sent a forwarding address to the Dallas post office in May 1963. Sometimes sneaky bastards like Oswald just get lucky.

That the FBI broke into the FPCC headquarters in New York on April 21, 1963, the exact date that Oswald's letter to the FPCC was postmarked there just shows that sometimes the Feds catch a lucky break.

That Oswald stamped the address 544 Camp Street on FPCC pamphlets does not mean he was acquainted with former FBI & ONI operator Guy Banister who rented out the same building for the Cuban Revolutionary Council. It was a big building!

That the HSCA could not verify the claims of Banister's longtime friend and secretary Delphine Roberts that Oswald came in the building looking for a job and on one occasion brought his wife Marina with him and that Banister "had become angry" with the building owner for Oswald's use of the 544 Camp Street stamp on his handbills probably means she is a goddamn liar seeking publicity.

That Oswald bought a stamp kit that permitted the user to manipulate the letters and numbers, then posted the wrong FPCC P.O. Box number, 30016 instead of 30061 through his AJ Hidell alias does not hint at a disinformation campaign to smoke out local Castro sympathizers, it just demonstrates Oswald was an idiot.

That the Church Committee has a flyer on file that Oswald handed out in New Orleans in June 1963 stamped "AJ Hidell P.O. Box 30016" and the Warren Commission example reputed to be that handbill not only lacks this stamp, but had a Canal Street handbill from August 1963 stamped "LH Oswald 4907 Magazine St" pasted in is inconsequential, the government just tried to make Oswald look neater than he was.

That a search of Banister's files after his death in 1964 by the Louisiana State Police indicated "Oswald's name was included among the main subjects of the file on the Fair Play for Cuba Committee", yet a partial index of his file compiled by Jim Garrison's investigators did not include Oswald or the FPCC is not suspicious, it just shows investigations can get messy sometimes.

That CIA asset William Gaudet, who claimed he knew about Oswald's distribution of literature before the assassination and saw Oswald on a street corner talking with Guy Banister, also was in front of Oswald at the New Orleans Mexican Consulate on September 17, 1963, is one of those freaky occurrences best not to dwell upon too deeply.

That the Gaudet piece is missing from the 544 Camp Street analysis in Volume X for the HSCA's work shows how difficult organizing committee research is.

That Oswald posed as an anti-Castro activist offering to fight and donate money to Student Revolutionary Directorate (DRE) delegate Carlos Bringuier, then handed out pro-Castro literature on Canal Street not far from his store on August 9, 1963 does not illustrate cunning, just craziness.

That Bringuier, the New Orleans delegate of the DRE, partially funded by the CIA, knew DRE members busted in the FBI raid on the Lake Ponchartrain camp run by Gerald Patrick Hemming and was concerned about infiltration of his organization by the FBI or Communists, happened to be the guy Oswald played double agent with should be chalked up more to Oswald's dumb luck than a coordinated set-up.

That upon arrest for the Canal Street incident with Carlos Bringuier, Oswald had possession of a paper with the name Leo Setyaev, the Radio Moscow man who interviewed Oswald when he defected, probably just illustrates his yearning to be back in a Communist country.

That Oswald asked to be interviewed by an FBI agent while in jail in August 1963 is just another example of his lust for attention.

That Oswald, while at the Soviet Consulate in Mexico City on September 28, 1963, sobbed that he was being followed by the FBI and was afraid "they'll kill me" is not indicative of Oswald being a patsy in a conspiracy, just a paranoid nut.

That Oswald did not take the visa application forms the Soviets offered him then does not mean Oswald had given up on getting a visa, just that he was sloppy.

That one hour later, 'Oswald' called the Soviets from the Cuban Embassy, which was supposed to be closed on Saturdays, to tell them he had gone to the Cubans to ask for his address, does not indicate the Oswald making this call was an imposter, only that Oswald was very sloppy.

That there were at least two other calls to the Soviet Consulate between September 28 and October 1, 1963 in which 'Oswald' spoke "terrible, hardly recognizable Russian" is not proof of an imposter, just that Oswald's Russian, in spite of being married to a Russian, had gotten rusty since leaving the Soviet Union in June 1962.

That the Cuban Consulate worker Silvia Duran, who supposedly made the call with Oswald to the Soviet Consulate on Saturday, September 28, even though the Cuban Consulate is closed on Saturdays, said Oswald "never called again" after his Friday visit must mean she's a lying slut because after Oswald was murdered, the Mexican police arrested her, beat her and got her to admit she had an affair with Oswald.

That a transcriber told the HSCA that a tape "marked as urgent" by the CIA from Monday, September 30 featuring the same 'Oswald' from September 28 and October 1 with an offer of information for money was transcribed by her but can no longer be found means she's either mistaken or it got accidentally misfiled 15 years ago, nothing sneaky.

That a six foot balding man, bearing no resemblance to Oswald, entered and left the Soviet Embassy in Mexico City on September 28 at the same time 'Oswald' was making a call, got his picture in the Warren Commission listed as Oswald doesn't make him an imposter, Oswald probably just sneaked out the back door and cut the Warren Commission some slack! Compiling 26 volumes of evidence is hard work!

That J. Edgar Hoover told President Johnson on November 23, 1963 that "a second person was using Oswald's name" was just a simple mistake similar to Hoover telling Bobby Kennedy on November 22 that Oswald had been to Cuba and since the tapes were never recovered we should assume it was Oswald on every call.

That the CIA told the Warren Commission they didn't know Oswald visited the Cuban Consulate until after the assassination, which Station Chief Win Scott laughingly debunked in his manuscript Foul Foe, was probably done as indicated by Dick Helms, to protect sources, nothing more.

That Ann Goodpasture, lauded by David Atlee Phillips as "the case officer who was responsible for the identification of Lee Harvey Oswald in his dealings with the Cuban Embassy in Mexico", was connected to Staff D, a super-secret CIA component within which was hidden ZR/RIFLE, the Agency's assassination program, is just another one of those colorful chance occurrences that people who want to pin a conspiracy on the CIA would find fascinating.

That the Soviet Embassy official Oswald met with in Mexico City, Valery Kostikov, was part of the KGB's notorious Department 13, which handled assassinations, is just another one of those colorful chance occurrences that people who want to pin a conspiracy on the KGB would find fascinating.

That in addition to his 201 file, the CIA started a 100-300-11 file on Oswald's FPCC activities that was stripped clean of the Oswald reports maintained in it during the eight weeks before the President's murder does not mean the Agency had an increased operational interest in Oswald prior to the murder, just sloppy CIA accounting.

That the omission of Oswald's Cuban activities from his 201 file lowered his profile resulting in an FBI removal from their Security Index one month prior to the assassination is just a tragic series of errors that left a lone nut free to act out.

That the FBI agent who took Oswald off the espionage watch list, Marvin Gheesling, has never been deposed and asked why he removed Oswald from the list is inconsequential. Hoover censured him for his mistake! Case closed.

That shortly after Oswald's murder on November 24, 1963, Hoover wrote, "The thing I am concerned about, and so is Mr. Katzenbach, is having something issued so we can convince the public that Oswald is the real assassin" does not mean he wanted conflicting evidence covered up, it's just that Hoover knew already that there would be no conflicting evidence.

That the following day, Deputy Attorney General Katzenbach prepared a memo for the White House directing that "speculation" about Oswald be "cut off" and that the executive branch of government use "editorial license" handling the Oswald case was not a request for a cover-up, just a heads-up about being careful to report the facts.



That's just from one book. I'm sure that if others explored the evidence from other researchers that conflicted with the official story, there would be a much longer list. So, for anyone who wishes to do just that, as Jeff Wells would say, happy coincidenting!