JFK Assassination Forum

Excellent post, Steve. Thanks for the reminder about this info. Mailer's book is really underappreciated for its level of new details.

"It's a Small World" Factoid: On 29 November 1956, evidently while on her way home from Moscow, Priscilla Johnson checked in with Army Major Alexander Sogolow in Frankfurt. Sogolow was Chief of CIA's SR/10 (Soviet Russia Division's Branch 10) which interviewed American "legal travelers" to the USSR as they were coming and going. Interestingly, Sogolow was a KGB "mole" and was the CIA's boss of another "mole," Golitsyn's SASHA / Sasha, Igor Orlov, aka Alexander "Sasha" Kopatzky, who was "uncovered" four years after he'd retired from the Agency by probable mole Bruce Leonard Solie (look him up) based on a "hot tip" from Kremlin-loyal triple agent KGB Major Igor Kochnov. Sogolow confessed and wasn't prosecuted because he allowed himself to be "played back" against the KGB.

When Golitsyn was being exfiltrated from Helsinki by the CIA on 15 December 1961, his plane was diverted to Frankfurt either intentionally so Golitsyn could be debriefed and have his bona fides assessed or due to bad weather. Golitsyn freaked out and told one of his escorts that he was afraid he'd be assassinated by SASHA / Sasha in Frankfurt, and the escort unwisely sent an unlimited-distribution cable to CIA to that effect. Orlov / Kopatzky got wind of the cable in Washington and sent a letter to CIA headquarters saying Sogolow was a "mole."

I say SASHA / Sasha because Golitsyn mistakenly believed Kopatzky's codename was SASHA when in reality it was his nickname. (The nickname for Alexandr in Slavic countries is "Sasha.")

One can only wonder what Sogolow and Priscilla spoke about . .  .

Scroll down to the last entry on page 4.

https://www.archives.gov/files/research/jfk/releases/docid-32272679.pdf

Scroll down to page 7.

https://www.archives.gov/files/research/jfk/releases/2018/180-10145-10441.pdf

I don't believe they were involved in the JFKA.

But if they did know each other, it would vindicate Garrison on at least that point. And also mean Shaw lied in court.

I mean, I guess so? What value does "vindicating" Garrison on "that point" have in the grand scheme of things, especially in light of the lives he destroyed and the nonsense he disseminated about the "real" assassins and plotters?

Tom, I just don't buy that Marina had any connection to Soviet intelligence. Let's say for the sake of argument that she did. Did the KGB just promptly abandon her once she and Lee moved back to the U.S.? Marina lived a miserable life of poverty and abuse from that point forward. So, what changed?

The McMillan book "Marina and Lee" and the Mailer book "Oswald's Tale" goes over almost all of these claims. For example, Marina didn't want to join the Komsomol but you had to in order to get a good job and references and other state benefits ("If you live with wolves then you have to howl like one" went the line). When they found out she was leaving they berated her, kicked her out. Her co-workers turned their backs on her too (they pretty much had to). The Oswalds had enormous problems first getting married and, particularly, being allowed to leave (about 8 months). The bureaucracy, something Oswald detested, gave them additional trouble because he was an American. Nothing was easy.

Obviously, if someone believes Marina lied and the KGB lied and the friends and associates of the Oswalds lied (Mailer interviewed them), that it was all part of a KGB operation, then there's no place to go. *Whatever* evidence is shown that Marina wasn't a "swallow" or working for an intelligence service is simply evidence that she was. Because it's all part of that operation. In this world, up is not only up but down too. And down is both up and down. This is classic Garrison's deranged worldview; only substitute the KGB for the CIA.

Mailer included transcripts of the KGB's recordings of Marina's and Lee's conversation on the Komsomol meeting and other problems they had. You can read it online here: https://archive.org/details/oswalds-tale/mode/2up

Here's a transcript of Marina discussing the Komsomol meeting she had to attend:

I guess? But the notion of Shaw and Ferrie meeting at a bar flies in the face of every single thing we know about them. My guess is that Pena was wrong in his identification of Shaw. I'm also not sure why you're clinging to this one specific anecdote so heavily. Do you believe Shaw and Ferrie were up to anything untoward as it pertains to the JFK assassination?

I don't believe they were involved in the JFKA.

But if they did know each other, it would vindicate Garrison on at least that point. And also mean Shaw lied in court.

   This "ID" issue is not funny. To the contrary, it is critical. Officer Haygood was supposed to be the only DPD Motorcycle Cop inside the railroad yard after the Kill Shot. I continue providing Facts that prove the guy on the Darnell/Martin films is Not Haygood. He is an imposture. This proves a conspiracy was involved in the JFK Assassination.
   I
 

What's funny is that you genuinely believe there was a Dallas Police "imposture" (the correct spelling is "impostor" or "imposter," by the way) running around Dealey Plaza moments after the assassination. Such a notion is preposterous on about 100 different levels.