remarks about the President. This, too, was given to the Secret Service. Last night, there had been a tip about a demonstration against Kennedy at the Trade Martâpicketing, perhapsâand this, for whatever it was worth, was passed from FBI to SS.
The only thing that Hosty recalled about the parade route was that it would come down Main Street about noon, and he thought that, when the Friday morning meeting closed in Mr.Shanklinâs office, he might get a window table and have lunch at a restaurant along Main. He had no reason to think of any of his small âfollow-upâ cases in relation to the safety of the President.
One of them was Lee Harvey Oswald. Mr. Hostyâs most recent report on this matter had been filed with the Washington office four days ago. It said that Oswald had been in communication with the Soviet Embassy in Washington. Oswald was a chronic chore to Mr. Hosty. He had been on it a year. The Federal Bureau of Investigation had interviewed Lee Harvey Oswald when he returned from Russia with Marina and baby June.
Oswald felt he had nothing to hide. He had served his country as a United States marine in foreign service, and his country had rewarded him with a dishonorable discharge. The Soviet Union turned out to be a disappointment because there was no freedom for the workers. He had been employed in a parts factory in Minsk; the trade union meetings had turned out to be dull and doctrinaire. At one time he couldnât even get permission to leave Moscow. At another, he couldnât leave Minsk to join his wife at a vacation resort.
The exploitation of the workers, Oswald said, was even worse in the United States, but here he could go where he pleased, and he did not have to answer Mr. Hostyâs questions. If Hosty intended to inform Oswaldâs boss of his defection to Russia, then he would be harassed out of work. All Lee expected was to be left to work in peace and support his family. Yes, he was a communist, but he didnât expect an FBI agent to understand the word. He was a Marxist in the purest sense; not a socialist-despot like Stalin and Khrushchev; a true communist.
Mr. Hosty checked the Oswald case regularly. Oswald was never home. Hosty spoke to Marina Oswald, who resented him, through Mrs. Ruth Paine, who interpreted. To the agent, Mr. Oswald was a chronic complainer who lost jobs regularly. He had no friends. He had no admiration for the Russian expatriates who tried to befriend him and his wife. They detested communism.
There was a small communist cell in the Dallas area, and the FBI had an undercover agent in it, but none of them knew Lee Harvey Oswald and the young malcontent had no desire to join. He felt superior to them and, in the time Hosty kept him under surveillance, Oswald vacillated between wanting to stay in the United States; sending Marina back to Russia with the baby; getting a Soviet visa for himself so that he could get to Cuba and the communist bloc countries. From day to day, he seemed to change his course abruptly, so that even his wife could not understand him.
Hosty was aware that the newest job Oswald had was in the Texas School Book Depository. He worked filling book orders, but there was nothing sinister in this. Another thing: Oswald was not a violent person; he was never seen with firearms; never walked a picket line; never wrote hate letters to newspapers; he never even went to a motion picture.
If Hosty had followed the newspaper diagram of the parade route and noticed that it would pass the Texas School Book Depository, it would have been witless to draw the attention of his superiors to the presence of the defector, because he represented no physical danger to anyone. Hosty made the trips out to the little house in Irving as a matter of duty, but he never met his man. The investigation disclosed Oswald as a sullen braggartânothing more.
At Love Field, the captain of American Airlines Flight 82 asked for taxi clearance. In
The only thing that Hosty recalled about the parade route was that it would come down Main Street about noon, and he thought that, when the Friday morning meeting closed in Mr.Shanklinâs office, he might get a window table and have lunch at a restaurant along Main. He had no reason to think of any of his small âfollow-upâ cases in relation to the safety of the President.
One of them was Lee Harvey Oswald. Mr. Hostyâs most recent report on this matter had been filed with the Washington office four days ago. It said that Oswald had been in communication with the Soviet Embassy in Washington. Oswald was a chronic chore to Mr. Hosty. He had been on it a year. The Federal Bureau of Investigation had interviewed Lee Harvey Oswald when he returned from Russia with Marina and baby June.
Oswald felt he had nothing to hide. He had served his country as a United States marine in foreign service, and his country had rewarded him with a dishonorable discharge. The Soviet Union turned out to be a disappointment because there was no freedom for the workers. He had been employed in a parts factory in Minsk; the trade union meetings had turned out to be dull and doctrinaire. At one time he couldnât even get permission to leave Moscow. At another, he couldnât leave Minsk to join his wife at a vacation resort.
The exploitation of the workers, Oswald said, was even worse in the United States, but here he could go where he pleased, and he did not have to answer Mr. Hostyâs questions. If Hosty intended to inform Oswaldâs boss of his defection to Russia, then he would be harassed out of work. All Lee expected was to be left to work in peace and support his family. Yes, he was a communist, but he didnât expect an FBI agent to understand the word. He was a Marxist in the purest sense; not a socialist-despot like Stalin and Khrushchev; a true communist.
Mr. Hosty checked the Oswald case regularly. Oswald was never home. Hosty spoke to Marina Oswald, who resented him, through Mrs. Ruth Paine, who interpreted. To the agent, Mr. Oswald was a chronic complainer who lost jobs regularly. He had no friends. He had no admiration for the Russian expatriates who tried to befriend him and his wife. They detested communism.
There was a small communist cell in the Dallas area, and the FBI had an undercover agent in it, but none of them knew Lee Harvey Oswald and the young malcontent had no desire to join. He felt superior to them and, in the time Hosty kept him under surveillance, Oswald vacillated between wanting to stay in the United States; sending Marina back to Russia with the baby; getting a Soviet visa for himself so that he could get to Cuba and the communist bloc countries. From day to day, he seemed to change his course abruptly, so that even his wife could not understand him.
Hosty was aware that the newest job Oswald had was in the Texas School Book Depository. He worked filling book orders, but there was nothing sinister in this. Another thing: Oswald was not a violent person; he was never seen with firearms; never walked a picket line; never wrote hate letters to newspapers; he never even went to a motion picture.
If Hosty had followed the newspaper diagram of the parade route and noticed that it would pass the Texas School Book Depository, it would have been witless to draw the attention of his superiors to the presence of the defector, because he represented no physical danger to anyone. Hosty made the trips out to the little house in Irving as a matter of duty, but he never met his man. The investigation disclosed Oswald as a sullen braggartânothing more.
At Love Field, the captain of American Airlines Flight 82 asked for taxi clearance. In
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