Report of the President's Commission on the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy

by United States. Warren Commission

OSWALD AND U.S. GOVERNMENT AGENCIES

Rumors and speculations that Oswald was in some way associated with or used by agencies of the U.S. Government grew out of his Russian period and his investigation by the FBI after his return to the United States. Insinuations were made that Oswald had been a CIA agent or had some relationship with the CIA and that this explained the supposed ease with which he received passports and visas. Speculation that he had some working relationship with the FBI was based on an entry in Oswald’s notebook giving the name and telephone number of an agent from the FBI office in Dallas. The Directors of the CIA and the FBI have testified before the Commission that Oswald was never in the employ of their agencies in any capacity. The Commission has concluded on the basis of its own investigations of the files of Federal agencies that Oswald was not and had never been an agent of any agency of the U.S. Government (aside from his service in the Marines) and was not and had never been used by any U.S. Government agency for any purpose. The FBI was interested in him as a former defector and it maintained a file on him.

Speculation.—Oswald was an informant of either the FBI or the CIA. He was recruited by an agency of the U.S. Government and sent to Russia in 1959.

Commission finding.—Mrs. Marguerite Oswald frequently expressed the opinion that her son was such an agent, but she stated before the Commission that “I cannot prove Lee is an agent.”[A12-93] The Directors of the CIA and of the FBI testified before the Commission that Oswald was never employed by either agency or used by either agency in any capacity. Investigation by the Commission has revealed no evidence that Oswald was ever employed by either the FBI or CIA in any capacity.[A12-94]

Speculation.—Oswald told Pauline Bates, a public stenographer in Fort Worth, Tex., in June 1962, that he had become a “secret agent” of the U.S. Government and that he was soon going back to Russia “for Washington.”

Commission-finding.—Miss Bates denied a newspaper story reporting that Oswald had told her that he was working for the U.S. Department of State. She stated that she had assumed incorrectly that he was working with the Department of State when he told her that the State Department had told him in 1959 that he would be on his own while in the Soviet Union.[A12-95]

Speculation.—The FBI tried to recruit Oswald. An FBI agent’s name, telephone number, and automobile license number were found among Oswald’s papers.

Commission finding.—FBI officials have testified that they had never tried to recruit Oswald to act on behalf of the FBI in any capacity. The Commission’s investigation corroborates this testimony. An FBI agent, James P. Hosty, Jr., had given his name and telephone number to Mrs. Ruth Paine so that she could call and give him Oswald’s address in Dallas when she learned it. Mrs. Paine and Marina Oswald have stated that Mrs. Paine gave Oswald a slip of paper with the agent’s name and telephone number on it. Marina Oswald had taken down the license number of Hosty’s car on one of his visits and given it to her husband.[A12-96]

Speculation.—Dallas police must have known where Oswald was living in the city because Mrs. Paine had given the address of Oswald’s room on North Beckley Avenue to the FBI some time before the assassination.

Commission-finding.—Mrs. Paine had never given the address of Oswald’s roominghouse to the FBI, nor had she known the address prior to the assassination. Therefore, the Dallas police could not have learned the address from the FBI which did not know the address before the assassination. The Dallas Police did not know that Oswald was in the city before the assassination.[A12-97]

Speculation.—It has been FBI policy for 20 years to inform employers of Communists or suspected Communists employed by them. It is a mystery, therefore, how Oswald retained his job at the Texas School Book Depository.

Commission finding.—The FBI advised the Commission that it has never been its policy to inform employers that they have Communists or suspected Communists working for them and that the FBI does not disseminate internal security information to anyone outside the executive branch of the U.S. Government. FBI agents had no contacts with Texas School Book Depository officials until after the assassination.[A12-98]

Speculation.—Municipal and Federal police had observed Oswald closely for some time but had not regarded him as a potential killer.

Commission finding.—The Dallas police had not been aware of Oswald’s presence in the city before the assassination. The FBI knew that Oswald was in Dallas from an interview with Mrs. Paine, but no FBI agents had interviewed him there before the assassination. The FBI had not regarded him as a potential killer.[A12-99]

Speculation.—The FBI probably knew that Oswald had the rifle before the President’s murder because it was most unlikely that it could have traced the ownership of the rifle within 1 day if it had not already had information on the rifle.

Commission finding.—The FBI successfully traced the purchase of the rifle by Oswald within 24 hours of the assassination. It had had no previous information about the rifle.[A12-100]

Speculation.—The FBI interviewed Oswald 10 days before the assassination.

Commission finding.—The last FBI interview with Oswald, before the assassination, took place in New Orleans in August 1963, when he asked to see an FBI agent after his arrest by police for disturbing the peace, the outcome of his distribution of Fair Play for Cuba handbills. Neither Special Agent Hosty nor any other FBI agent saw or talked with Oswald between his return to Dallas, on October 3, and November 22. Hosty did interview Mrs. Paine at her home about Oswald on November 1 and 5, 1963. He also saw Marina Oswald briefly on November 1 at Mrs. Paine’s house, but he did not interview her.[A12-101].