FBI Agent James Hosty #5
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Let’s dig deeper into the possible role played by Dallas FBI agent James Hosty in the 1963 framing of Lee Harvey Oswald (hereafter LHO) for the JFK Assassination. To begin, let’s flashback to mid-April 1963.
1. FLASHBACK TO THE SHOOTING AT GENERAL WALKER, APRIL 10, 1963
LHO had taken a potshot at Ex-General Walker at Walker’s home in Dallas on Wednesday April 10, 1963, as Marina Oswald told officials eleven days after the JFK Assassination. In 1964, the WC testimony of George and Jeanne DeMohrenschildt, LHO’s close Russian émigré pals, confirmed Marina’s story in separate ways. I’ll briefly summarize.
On the eve before Easter, three days after the Walker shooting, George and Jeanne claimed to innocently visit LHO’s apartment late at night, getting them out of bed, to bring an Easter bunny for baby June. In reality, they suspected LHO of the Walker shooting, the news of which was endless in Dallas that week. They planned to search his apartment for a rifle.
Inside the apartment, Jeanne asked Marina for a tour. As the men talked in another room, Marina showed Jeanne around and soon Jeanne found a rifle with a scope, and she shouted this out to George. For a second, everybody in the house froze in silence. Then, George made a joke about it, and everybody laughed. Then George and Jeanne politely left and never spoke to the Oswalds again in their lives.
2. DICK RUSSELL WEIGHS IN
The 1992 book by Dick Russell (The Man Who Knew Too Much) pursued George’s account. He interviewed George’s good friend, Natasha Voshinin, another Russian émigré in Dallas. She said she had called the FBI early on Easter Sunday, April 14, 1963, to report that George DeMohrenschildt had just told her and her husband Igor about the evidence that George and Jeanne had found in LHO’s apartment to suggest that LHO had been General Walker’s shooter.
After George told the Voshinins, he added that he could not tell the authorities on his pal, so Natasha did. Russell’s data from Natasha challenges the FBI testimony that they never heard that LHO did anything violent until Marina told authorities on December 3, 1963 about the Walker shooting. The FBI repeatedly swore that they never suspected that LHO was violent.
Consider for a moment that Natasha Voshinin told Dick Russell the truth. How can we explain the lack of FBI reports about her message to the FBI on Easter Sunday, 1963? One likely explanation arises – the FBI agent who took Natasha’s call was sympathetic to Walker himself and would report the news to Walker instead of reporting it to FBI headquarters.
As we have seen in previous posts, Walker in 1975 told Senator Frank Church that he was told by somebody in a higher authority than the Dallas Police Department that LHO was his shooter within days of the shooting! So, this likely explanation has a confirmation.
3. THE JFK BOOK BY JAMES HOSTY
Dallas FBI agent James Hosty tried to re-open the FBI case file on LHO in March 1963, according to the WC testimony of FBI Assistant Director Alan Belmont. But in his book, Assignment Oswald (1996), Hosty repeatedly complained that J. Edgar Hoover, Alan Belmont and all the top brass of the FBI in Washington DC had betrayed him personally. This was a running theme in his book.
That betrayal, claimed Hosty, was always over an alleged KGB assassin, Valeriy V. Kostikov. Hosty claimed that LHO met Kostikov in Mexico City in order to plan the JFK Assassination. Hosty claimed that the FBI knew about this, and so did the CIA and all US government institutions – and they all conspired to hide this fact from James Hosty who loved JFK. But James Hosty found out anyway. That is the central story line of his book.
Otherwise, he claimed, Hosty could have saved JFK. Hosty began his self-defense on page 48 where Hosty named ranking INS clerk Jeff Woolsey as the source of his knowledge of top-secret CIA information. In early October, 1963, the New Orleans FBI branch informed Hosty that the Oswalds were suddenly no longer in New Orleans. Following up, said Hosty:
[Afterwards]…I returned to the INS office…Jeff Woolsey, the chief clerk at the INS office, said, "Hey, Jim, what do you think of Lee Oswald being in Mexico City and making contact with the Russians a little while ago?"
"I didn't know that," I replied. "Can I see that communication?"
"I can't. Sorry, Jim," Woolsey said, somewhat embarrassed… (Hosty, 1996, Assignment Oswald, p. 48)
At this point, Hosty tried to explain why Woolsey could not share that memo dated 10/8/1963 – it was because of some obscure bureaucratic rule. Yet he continued:
Back at the office, I sent an urgent overnight-air communication, what the FBI calls an Airtel, to FBI headquarters and the New Orleans office reporting what Woolsey told me. I asked the New Orleans office to respond. By return mail, I received information even more detailed than what Woolsey apparently had: FBI headquarters had been provided with information from the CIA, just as the INS, Navy, and State Department had. (Hosty, ibid.)
But that can hardly be accurate, because as Hosty admitted, that CIA memo of 10/18/1963 said, “NO FURTHER DISSEMINATION.” Still, Hosty continued his contradictory explanation as follows:
This information had logically been forwarded to our New Orleans office, which had the Oswald file. When I received this information in late October from New Orleans, I saw the communication was dated October 18, 1963. The CIA report said that Lee Oswald had been in Mexico City and had made contact with V.V. Kostikov, a vice consul at the Soviet Embassy there. (Hosty, ibid.)
Thanks to JFK Records Act fulfillment in 2017, we can see that FBI memo today on the Mary Ferrell web site.
For those whose browsers cannot connect to that web page, I'll reproduce most of the text here:
FBI
Date: 10/18/63
Via: CABLE: PRIORITY
No. 109
LEE OSWALD IS DASH R.
CIA MEXICO CITY TODAY FURNISHED INFORMATION CLASSIFIED SECRET NOT TO BE FURTHER DISSEMINATED THAT SUBJECT CONTACTED VICE CONSUL VALERIY VLADIMIRIVICH KOSTIKOV AT SOVIET EMBASSY ON SEPTEMBER 28 LAST INQUIRING FOR RESPONSE FROM WASHINGTON DC, TO UNKNOWN REQUEST MADE BY HIM AND WAS AGAIN IN CONTACT WITH SOVIET EMBASSY MEXICO CITY ON OCTOBER 1 LAST.
CIA HEADQUARTERS ADVISED THAT SUBJECT PROBABLY IDENTICAL WITH LEE HENRY OSWALD, WMA, BORN OCTOBER 18, 1939, NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA, A FORMER RADAR OPERATOR IN U.S. MARINE CORPS WHO DEFECTED TO SOVIET UNION IN OCTOBER 1959.
BUREAU ADVISE INTERESTED OFFICES AND FURNISH BACKGROUND DATA TO LEGAT MEXICO.
LEGAT FOLLOWING WITH CIA, AND ATTEMPTING ESTABLISH SUBJECTS ENTRY INTO MEXICO AND CURRENT WHEREABOUTS.
DECLASSIFIED ON 3-23-1993
Notice that glaring error: it calls LHO, “Lee H-e-n-r-y Oswald.” That will prove to be super- important as we proceed. Also, thanks to the JFK Records Act, we have the original CIA documents that inspired that FBI memo. Here is one from 10/08/1963.
For those whose browsers cannot connect to that web page, I will reproduce most of that CIA document – now declassified and in the public domain:
Document id number: 1993.07.09.16:48:43:370150
Recseries JFK
RECORD NUMBER: 104-10050-10009
CITE: MEXI
NUMBER: 6453
Title: AMERICAN MALE SPEAKING BROKEN RUSSIAN CALLED SOVEMB
Document Date: 10/8/1963
Whofrom: MEXICO CITY
Whoto: DIRECTOR
Oritinator: CIA
1. ACC <redacted> OCT 63, AMERICAN MALE WHO SPOKE BROKEN RUSSIAN SAID HIS NAME LEE OSWALD (PHONETIC), STATED HE AT SOVEMB ON 28 SEPT WHEN SPOKE WITH CONSUL WHOM HE BELIEVED BE VALERIY VLADIMIROVICH KOSTIKOV. SUBJ ASKED SOV GUARD IVAN OBYEDKOV WHO ANSWERED IF THERE ANYTHING NEW RE TELEGRAM TO WASHINGTON. OBYEDKOV UPON CHECKING SAID NOTHING RECEIVED YET, BUT REQUEST HAD BEEN SENT.
2. HAVE PHOTOS MALE APPEARS BE AMERICAN ENTERING SOV-EMB 1216 HOURS, LEAVING 1222 ON 1 OCT. APPARENT AGE 35, ATHELETIC BUILD, CIRCA 6 FEET, RECEDING HAIRLINE, BALDING TOP, WORE KHAKIS AND SPORT SHIRT. SOURCE: <redacted>
3. NO LOCAL DISSEM.
My focus regarding this declassified CIA document of October 8, 1963 is its use of the CIA photo of LHO which matches its description: “apparent age, 35, athletic build, circa 6 feet…balding top.” But LHO was 24 years old, skinny at 131 pounds, only 5’9”, and had plenty of hair! Actually, nobody ever identified the man in that now-famous photo. This photo will also prove to be super-important as we proceed.
In any case, these top-secret memos from October 1963 name LHO and Kostikov together in Mexico City, and so James Hosty published that photo of Kostikov and accused Kostikov of many murders in Mexico City, as well as many failures of CIA and FBI agents to arrest him.
4. WIRE-TAPPING IN MEXICO CITY: BY BILL SIMPICH (2014)
Now let’s look at the same scenario through the lens of a well-known eBook by JFK researcher Bill Simpich, namely, State Secret: Wiretapping in Mexico City (2014). This rare, brilliant research is available freely on the Mary Ferrell web site. For example, here’s chapter 4:
Simpich’s painstaking, legal analysis of 1998 FOIA releases of CIA documents on JFK revealed a rogue Mole plot inside the Mexico City CIA starting on October 1, 1963.
LHO truly was in Mexico City during the final week of September 1963. LHO truly did visit the Soviet Embassy on that final Friday and Saturday. LHO truly did meet Valeriy Kostikov there. However – LHO only made a fool of himself both days, and he left empty-handed. Kostikov later told his Soviet associates that LHO was a mental case (cf. Nechiporenko, 1993).
The main twist, as Simpich reported, was that on the Tuesday after LHO’s visits, on October 1, 1963, somebody impersonated LHO over the telephone at the Cuban consulate to call the Soviet Embassy to ask for Kostikov! The CIA knew that it was an impersonator, because as Simpich reported, this was the most heavily wire-tapped telephone in the world in 1963, and the CIA instantly went to work to identify the caller!
During the Cold War, the CIA in Mexico City had mandated that any call made from the Cuban consulate to the Soviet Embassy had to be transcribed into English and placed on the Mexico City CIA Director’s desk within 15 minutes. The translators rushed to do that. Within one hour after that phone call, the translators and the local CIA Director concluded that the call was an impersonation, as they had been watching LHO closely that week.
The impersonator spoke to the Cuban clerk in fluent Spanish while LHO knew no Spanish.
The impersonator spoke to the Soviet clerk in broken Russian, while LHO spoke fluent Russian, having lived in the USSR for three years. The caller invited the Soviet clerk to name Kostikov – deliberately linking the names of Kostikov and Oswald on tape! Clearly, the impersonator had carefully planned this to deceive the CIA. But the CIA was not deceived.
The CIA concluded that the caller had to be a Mole – only an expert who knew CIA protocols and knew exactly what he was doing could have planned a call of this type. Bill Simpich then carefully described the CIA standard Mole Hunt procedure which in those days was known solely and only to the CIA high command. Nobody else.
To catch the Mole, the CIA high command booby-trapped LHO’s 201 file by changing his name to “Lee H-e-n-r-y Oswald.” Then, they replaced LHO’s real photo with a photo of some 35-year-old, athletic, 6-foot, balding Russian guy outside the Russian Embassy. They also made minor changes that only the CIA high command would know. Then, they placed the altered LHO file back into the CIA files. That way, any unauthorized person who read LHO’s 201 file would go around repeating these minor errors, and so would stand out as the Mole.
Also, anybody who publicly claimed that the real LHO truly did make that call from the Cuban consulate to the Soviet Embassy would also be implicated along with that Mole.
Thanks to Bill Simpich, the world can finally see the importance of these key errors in the CIA 201 file on LHO – the fake middle name and the fake photograph! What Bill Simpich evidently missed, however, was the fact that in 1996, retired FBI agent James Hosty did claim in his book, Assignment Oswald, that LHO himself really did call Kostikov that day!
James Hosty said INS Agent James Woolsey shared that information with him. But Woolsey could not be the Mole since only a CIA agent could be the Mole. It seems, rather, that Woolsey was connected to the Mole, or else Hosty lied about him to cover his actual source. In any case, the fact that Hosty admitted that he himself had seen this CIA memo – unaware that it was part of a Mole hunt, manifestly places Hosty inside the orbit of a suspected CIA Mole.
5. A RUSSIAN CONSUL WRITES ABOUT LHO
In 1993, a co-worker with Valeriy Kostikov as a Soviet consul, Oleg Nechiporenko, wrote a book about LHO, entitled, Passport to Assassination. He remembered LHO on Friday and Saturday, September 27-28, 1963 – as a “neurotic” who demanded an instant visa to the Soviet Union – but specifically going through Cuba first. It was nonsense to him (and also to the Cuban consuls) because LHO refused to go through proper channels.
Nechiporenko added that LHO evaded answering this direct question: why had LHO returned to the USA after defecting to the USSR? Evasion is always suspicious. So, on Friday, after spending a full hour with LHO, Soviet consuls Nechiporenko and Kostikov sent LHO away empty-handed.
However, after normal working hours that same day, a Cuban consul called the Soviet Embassy to say that LHO told them that the Soviet Embassy had promised him a visa to the USSR and recommended that the Cuban consul give LHO an immediate visa to Havana. Nechiporenko just laughed. No way.
The Cuban consuls told the CIA much the same – LHO came to the Cuban consulate without official paperwork and foolishly demanded instant passage to Cuba. He offered homemade credentials – New Orleans newspaper clippings about his leading role in the FPCC, and even a Communist Party ID card (though the Communist Party never issued ID cards). Every Cuban consul there saw LHO as a mere provocateur. They sent LHO to the Soviet Embassy to get him to put up or shut up. After several hours and calls that Friday afternoon, everyone involved sent LHO packing.
The next morning, however, LHO returned to the Soviet Embassy with a pistol in his hand and tears in his eyes. He cried that the FBI was persecuting him, so he needed that pistol, which he laid on the table. (Soviet consuls quickly removed the bullets and put it back on the table.) LHO insisted that he was a real officer of Castro’s FPCC – and that the Cuban consuls were just wrong! He said he was on a mission and could say no more about it. The Soviet consults just repeated: everybody must go through proper channels! No exceptions! It could take months!
Here is a brief summary by Nechiporenko of the group opinion of the Soviet consuls that day:
Here our opinions meshed, and we gave Oswald our unconditional evaluation, perhaps not very scientific, but one widely used in our everyday life: psychotic. We were also of the unanimous opinion that if this was not a person suffering from mental disorders, then he was unbalanced at the very least, or had an unstable constitution. (Nechiporenko, 1993, p. 105)
So, they saw LHO as a mental case – not as a fellow Communist. Still, as Simpich reported, the CIA never found that Mole (or never reported finding him). Nor do we know who leaked that CIA memo to INS agent Jeff Woolsey (presuming James Hosty named him truthfully). Or, if Hosty invented that attribution, then who leaked the existence of the 10/8/1963 CIA memo to James Hosty in early October?
6. BACK TO JAMES HOSTY’S BOOK
The main thrust of the news coming out of Dallas on the day of the JFK Assassination, was that LHO was a Communist. Not a loner as J. Edgar Hoover and the Warren Commission (WC) would have it, but an active Communist. For many years the Dallas radical right-wing would fight to revive the myth of a Communist plot in the JFK Assassination. The resigned General Walker promoted that claim until his death in 1993.
That theme of a Communist plot to kill JFK was also the plot of James Hosty’s 1996 book. Was it only a coincidence that it matched Walker’s doctrine – the man Hosty was officially assigned to track?
In the conclusion of his book, on page 244, Hosty claimed that in the 1980s, the FBI Directors Kelly and Webster admitted that FBI Directors Hoover and Belmont had withheld data about Kostikov from Hosty, and that this “fact” absolved him of his own failure to help the Secret Service PRS protect JFK in Dallas.
In his dreams.
Hosty claimed throughout his book that Hoover and Belmont had betrayed him personally. . On page 70 of his book, he claimed that three days after the JFK Assassination he overheard the name of “Kostikov” coming from an FBI office room. When Hosty entered the room he saw his superiors conversing, but they abruptly stopped talking to each other and asked Hosty what he was doing there! Hosty walked away, pursuing it no further. Yet Hosty wrote:
Kostikov again! Who was he and what was going on? I was being kept from the full facts! (Hosty, 1996, Assignment Oswald p. 70)
Our clue today is that when James Hosty wrote his book, he had no idea about the CIA Mole Hunt that Bill Simpich revealed. Hosty decided to research Kostikov on his own – secretly – just as he had researched LHO since March 1963 – without telling FBI headquarters.
The FBI memo of October 18th obviously refers to the CIA memo of October 8th which named Kostikov together with Lee H-e-n-r-y Oswald as a large Russian athlete. The CIA high command had presumed that whoever first published this data would be the Mole. But they did not dream that JFK would be Assassinated, so that the FBI would properly demand the CIA 201 file on LHO on November 22, 1963, when he was suspected as the JFK Assassin.
We might have given J. Edgar Hoover a break on that basis – except that the FBI response to that October 8th CIA memo was dated October 18th – more than a month before JFK traveled to Dallas. So we still have a mystery: who supplied the FBI with the altered 201 file on LHO before October 18th, which contained a fake middle name and a fake photograph?
That was most likely the Mole.
More to come,
--Paul Trejo, MA
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