For Weeks Before Assassination Oswald's Every Move Monitored By FBI/CIA

[Michael Capasse]

Mr. HOSTY. "No, sir. I want to state for the record at this time that I unequivocally deny ever having made the
statement to Lieutenant Revill or to anyone else that, "We knew Lee Harvey Oswald was capable of assassinating the
President of the United States, we didn't dream he would do it."

  yet, there it is in real time:
https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth338946/m1/1/

[Watson Phillips]

There are usually two sides to “stories” like these. It is prudent to consider both sides. Here is a small snippet from James Hosty’s book “Assignment Oswald” regarding the memo:

Two of my fellow agents, Bob Barrett and Ike Lee, later told me about their conversation with Revill after the story broke. Revill told Barrett and Lee that he had not wanted his November 22 memo to be released to the Warren Commission or the press, but police chief Jesse Curry threatened to charge Revill with filing a false police report if Revill wouldn’t swear to the truth in his memo. The police then got a memo from Detective Jackie Bryan, who had been standing near Revill and me during this brief garage conversation. Contrary to Aynes-worth’s assertion, Bryan supported my version of the events. He reported that he did not hear me make any kind of comment suggesting I knew Oswald was capable of killing the president.

The first four paragraphs of Revill’s five-paragraph memo were accurate. But the last paragraph, the incendiary paragraph, appears to have been added as an afterthought.

How could any FBI agent with two brain cells to rub together  investigating Oswald as a Russian Asset , not be aware of his criminal record showing propensity for Violence towards authority figures and illegal firearms given his record convictions for both?

"April 11, 1958 Court-Martial: Partly Printed Document. Two two-sided pages, 8" x 12.5", Atsugi Japan, April 11, 1958. Being the "Charge Sheet" which contains Oswald's typed information as the accused, as well as names of witnesses, information provided by commanding officers, Oswald's punishment, and other remarks. On October 27, 1957, Oswald accidentally shot himself in the left elbow with his personal .22 derringer. Possession of such a firearm was in direct violation of "a lawful general order... by having in his possession a privately-owned weapon that was not registered." Following a three-week stay at the Yokosuka Naval Hospital and various unrelated delays, Oswald's court-martial commenced on April 11, 1958, at which time Commanding Officer and Convening Authority Lt. Col. N.D. Glenn made his judgment. Oswald was demoted from private first class to private and ordered "To be confined at hard labor for 20 days, to forfeit $25.00 per month for two months and to be reduced to the grade of private... Approved and ordered executed, but the confinement at hard labor for twenty days is suspended for six months, at which time, unless the suspension is sooner vacated, the sentence to confinement at hard labor for twenty days will be remitted without further action."


June 24, 1958 Court-Martial: Partly Printed Document Signed. Two two-sided pages, 8" x 12.5", Atsugi Japan, June 24, 1958. This "Charge Sheet" contains Oswald's typed information as the accused, the names of witnesses, information provided by commanding officers, Oswald's punishment, and other remarks. Just two months after his first court-martial, Oswald was brought before a second military court on charges that he insulted and assaulted a superior officer."

[Watson Phillips]

Mr. HOSTY. "No, sir. I want to state for the record at this time that I unequivocally deny ever having made the
statement to Lieutenant Revill or to anyone else that, "We knew Lee Harvey Oswald was capable of assassinating the
President of the United States, we didn't dream he would do it."

  yet, there it is in real time:
https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth338946/m1/1/

How could any FBI agent with two brain cells to rub together  investigating Oswald as a Russian Asset , not be aware of his criminal record showing propensity for Violence towards authority figures and illegal firearms given his record convictions for both?

"April 11, 1958 Court-Martial: Partly Printed Document. Two two-sided pages, 8" x 12.5", Atsugi Japan, April 11, 1958. Being the "Charge Sheet" which contains Oswald's typed information as the accused, as well as names of witnesses, information provided by commanding officers, Oswald's punishment, and other remarks. On October 27, 1957, Oswald accidentally shot himself in the left elbow with his personal .22 derringer. Possession of such a firearm was in direct violation of "a lawful general order... by having in his possession a privately-owned weapon that was not registered." Following a three-week stay at the Yokosuka Naval Hospital and various unrelated delays, Oswald's court-martial commenced on April 11, 1958, at which time Commanding Officer and Convening Authority Lt. Col. N.D. Glenn made his judgment. Oswald was demoted from private first class to private and ordered "To be confined at hard labor for 20 days, to forfeit $25.00 per month for two months and to be reduced to the grade of private... Approved and ordered executed, but the confinement at hard labor for twenty days is suspended for six months, at which time, unless the suspension is sooner vacated, the sentence to confinement at hard labor for twenty days will be remitted without further action."


June 24, 1958 Court-Martial: Partly Printed Document Signed. Two two-sided pages, 8" x 12.5", Atsugi Japan, June 24, 1958. This "Charge Sheet" contains Oswald's typed information as the accused, the names of witnesses, information provided by commanding officers, Oswald's punishment, and other remarks. Just two months after his first court-martial, Oswald was brought before a second military court on charges that he insulted and assaulted a superior officer."

[Lance Payette]

Mr. HOSTY. "No, sir. I want to state for the record at this time that I unequivocally deny ever having made the
statement to Lieutenant Revill or to anyone else that, "We knew Lee Harvey Oswald was capable of assassinating the
President of the United States, we didn't dream he would do it."

  yet, there it is in real time:
https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth338946/m1/1/

I recall from my reading of Walt Brown's voluminous JFKA works (his Chronology is over a million words) that there was some backstory to the Revill-Hosty or Revill-FBI relationship. Unfortunately, I can't recall what it was. Given the paranoia that permeated the FBI thanks to Hoover, I guess we have to ask how likely it is that an FBI field agent like Hosty would have made a bombshell statement like that to an officer of another agency? We would also have to ask what possible factual basis there would have been for such a statement - i.e., what would have caused Hosty or anyone else to "know" that Oswald "was capable of assassinating the President of the United States"? One guess would be that the statement was an invention by Revill and attributable to some sort of bad blood between him and Hosty or him and the FBI. Or perhaps Revill simply misunderstood what Hosty had said. I find the statement itself, and the notion of Hosty making it to Revill as an offhand revelation, highly unlikely.

[Lance Payette]

How could any FBI agent with two brain cells to rub together  investigating Oswald as a Russian Asset , not be aware of his criminal record showing propensity for Violence towards authority figures and illegal firearms given his record convictions for both?

"April 11, 1958 Court-Martial: Partly Printed Document. Two two-sided pages, 8" x 12.5", Atsugi Japan, April 11, 1958. Being the "Charge Sheet" which contains Oswald's typed information as the accused, as well as names of witnesses, information provided by commanding officers, Oswald's punishment, and other remarks. On October 27, 1957, Oswald accidentally shot himself in the left elbow with his personal .22 derringer. Possession of such a firearm was in direct violation of "a lawful general order... by having in his possession a privately-owned weapon that was not registered." Following a three-week stay at the Yokosuka Naval Hospital and various unrelated delays, Oswald's court-martial commenced on April 11, 1958, at which time Commanding Officer and Convening Authority Lt. Col. N.D. Glenn made his judgment. Oswald was demoted from private first class to private and ordered "To be confined at hard labor for 20 days, to forfeit $25.00 per month for two months and to be reduced to the grade of private... Approved and ordered executed, but the confinement at hard labor for twenty days is suspended for six months, at which time, unless the suspension is sooner vacated, the sentence to confinement at hard labor for twenty days will be remitted without further action."


June 24, 1958 Court-Martial: Partly Printed Document Signed. Two two-sided pages, 8" x 12.5", Atsugi Japan, June 24, 1958. This "Charge Sheet" contains Oswald's typed information as the accused, the names of witnesses, information provided by commanding officers, Oswald's punishment, and other remarks. Just two months after his first court-martial, Oswald was brought before a second military court on charges that he insulted and assaulted a superior officer."

On this thread as well, I must put your "violent criminal" portrayal of Oswald in perspective:

1. An 18-year-old kid manages to shoot himself in the elbow at his locker in the barracks with a .22 Derringer that he possesses in contravention of military regulations. The discharge occurs while he is reaching into his locker for shaving cream. He is charged with "wrongful conduct" but not charged with the more serious "misconduct' because it's a minor incident.

2. The same kid, while drunk, accidentally (that was the court finding) spills a drink on a Technical Sergeant, who then shoves him, and the two end up in a minor altercation outside. He is convicted of only one of the charges against him - "using provocative words."

3. For 3+ years in the USSR and U.S., the individual's only brush with the law is for disturbing the peace in violation of a New Orleans municipal ordinance, for which he is fined $10.

4. He was not "under investigation for being a Russian asset." As a former defector with a Russian wife who openly engaged in pro-Castro activities, he was of routine interest to the FBI with no indication he was dangerous or a Russian asset.

5. At the time of the JFKA, he was working as a temporary order filler in a grungy warehouse with some 95 other people, most of whom were employees of well-known publishing companies. He did not have a "workplace on the 6th floor" - it was simply one of the floors from which he filled book orders. There was no "sniper's test" until the day of the JFKA. Every window in every building along the motorcade route was a potential sniper's nest (not to mention all the other locations from which CTers think shots were fired!).

You are simply engaging in the sort of long-after-the-fact, ad hoc "analysis" that is the lifeblood of conspiracy thinking. The day before the assassination, Oswald was simply a young oddball the SS probably should have been told about. After the JFKA, he was an obvious threat, a ticking time bomb, a violent criminal who should have been in shackles a week before the assassination. The reality is, if the SS had been told about him, they like the FBI might well have concluded he was not a threat.

[John Mytton]

How was the FBI incompetent ?
They knew exactly where Oswald worked everyday :

Mr. HOSTY. Yes; that is my recollection that we looked it [where Oswald was working] up in her telephone book to show it at 411 Elm Street, Dallas, Tex.

They knew he obtained a rifle.
They knew of his post-assassination escape plan thru his visit to the embassy in Mexico city

They knew that the Oswald's was working in a building that was literally a sniper's dream nest in terms plugging the president as his scheduled motorcade was to pass close enough for Oswald to spit on him.

What else did they need to know ?

Add to that they had the Secret Service completely informed and updated on the threat Oswald presented with his rifle purchase, escape plan, and his working in a dream sniper's nest high above the upcoming Presidential motorcade route.
How could they have Monitored all the threats that Oswald presented any better ?

They knew he obtained a rifle.

Ok, so "they" knew Oswald received a rifle some time shortly after the 20th of March and then not much later on the 10th of April, General Walker, who lived about 6.5 miles away, survived an assassination attempt, why do you think the obvious assassin Oswald who you claim the FBI was monitoring extremely closely, wasn't a suspect?
Because a search of Oswald's possessions would have provided a very clear link?

Kleins sent the rifle on the 20th of March.



A photo of Walker's home taken with the same camera that took Oswald's family photos and the Backyard photos.



Another photo of Walker's home, also taken by Oswald's camera, was taken very close to where the attempted assassination took place.
An examination of certain construction work appearing in the background of this photograph revealed that the picture was taken between March 8 and 12, 1963.
https://www.archives.gov/research/jfk/warren-commission-report/chapter-4.html#walker



JohnM

[Dan O'meara]

I recall from my reading of Walt Brown's voluminous JFKA works (his Chronology is over a million words) that there was some backstory to the Revill-Hosty or Revill-FBI relationship. Unfortunately, I can't recall what it was. Given the paranoia that permeated the FBI thanks to Hoover, I guess we have to ask how likely it is that an FBI field agent like Hosty would have made a bombshell statement like that to an officer of another agency? We would also have to ask what possible factual basis there would have been for such a statement - i.e., what would have caused Hosty or anyone else to "know" that Oswald "was capable of assassinating the President of the United States"? One guess would be that the statement was an invention by Revill and attributable to some sort of bad blood between him and Hosty or him and the FBI. Or perhaps Revill simply misunderstood what Hosty had said. I find the statement itself, and the notion of Hosty making it to Revill as an offhand revelation, highly unlikely.

 I find the statement itself, and the notion of Hosty making it to Revill as an offhand revelation, highly unlikely.

It is nowhere near as unlikely as Revill making up such a statement and putting it on the record within hours of the assassination.
The gravity of Revill's accusation can hardly be underestimated, he had basically placed the DPD at loggerheads with the FBI. What gave him the authority to do that?
Why would it have occurred to Revill that Hosty had some kind of relationship with a suspect arrested for the murder of J D Tippit? How would Revill know this suspect had Communist links?