Sunday, March 22, 2015

Lee Harvey Oswald in Florida

On my Unusual Kentucky blog, I've delved into the curious connections between the JFK assassination and the city of Louisville; you may peruse those here and here if you wish to go down that rabbit hole. But as we'll see, there are plenty of Florida connections as well.

This blog post, like the aforementioned Kentucky ones, will assume you know the backstory to the general JFK assassination story and the characters who populate it. That being so, your mind may instantly assume that because of the role Cubans played in the drama, that Florida would be a natural spot for related conspiracy activity. And it appears your guess isn't far wrong.

At this link we find the texts of various declassified government files that a diligent seeker located on the National Archives database. One of them is ONI (Office of Naval Intelligence) casefile 173-10011-10157, which is in itself a relaying of an FBI report about "13 uniformed men seized in Florida, accused of planning attack on Cuba". I've done zero research on this so far, but am pretty sure this is one of David Ferrie's secret paramilitary camps where mercenaries were being trained for a planned invasion of Havana and ousting of Fidel Castro, all financed by Clay Shaw.

Another is a CIA document (104-10004-10235) in which a man named John K. Kaylock says he met Lee Harvey Oswald in Punta Gorda, Florida on October 2, 1963. And still another (179-40010-10186) is called "Jack Ruby in Florida". Ruby was always traveling around, ostensibly on business amongst the burlesque-club circuit (of which Florida is and was very well-represented) but of course he was working for a number of different people on a number of different projects with a number of different motives. The Mafia? The CIA? The Cubans? Probably all of the above.

Two different FBI reports exist investigating the relationship between Marina Oswald and her business manager - one James Martin - but interestingly, both reports came from the Tampa office. (Oswald and Martin both lived in Dallas and have no connection to Florida so far as I know.)

A 1967 FBI document (180-10020-10293) from a W.A. Brannigan to a W.C. Sullivan has the tantalizing subject header "JFK; CASTRO, FIDEL; DADE COUNTY, FLORIDA; OSWALD, LEE HARVEY".

Silvia Odio, a Cuban-American woman in Dallas, was paid a mysterious unexpected visit by two Cubans and a man calling himself "Leon Oswald". These men asked her to help them prepare a letter to solicit funds for an anti-Castro organization in which she was involved, the Cuban Revolutionary Junta (JURE). Odio testified that one of the Cubans identified himself by the "war name" of "Leopoldo" and that "Leon Oswald" was in the Marine Corps and was an excellent shot. She testified that the men told her that they had come from New Orleans and were about to leave on a trip for somewhere else. After seeing Lee Harvey Oswald's face on TV after the shooting of Kennedy, she realized he was "Leon." Silvia's brother Cesar was a city manager of Miami for eleven years, and she later moved to Florida herself. Her father was a Cuban refugee who was jailed for a failed assassination attempt on Castro in 1962.

Then there's this, which tells of a journalist's source claiming that Lee Harvey Oswald was in Florida to attend a speech given by Bobby Kennedy at Homestead Air Force Base in the summer of 1963. Oswald, in fact, was in Miami at the time, but doing what exactly is uncertain. There are FBI dox (180-10029-10313) from the Dallas office to the Miami office, in fact, about Oswald's activity in Florida. Considerable efforts were made by agents to learn more about Oswald's involvement with the Tampa chapter of the Fair Play For Cuba Committee but nothing conclusive was learned.

Most interesting of all to me, however, is the strange case of Kerry Wendell Thornley.

In 1959, Thornley was in the Marine Corps, and served in the same radar unit as Lee Harvey Oswald. They had a sort of combative friendship, often arguing about politics, and philosophy, and discussing books like George Orwell's 1984. After the two were reassigned to different units, Thornley learned of Oswald's autumn 1959 defection to Russia in the Stars and Stripes military newspaper.

In February 1962, Thornley wrote a book called The Idle Warriors about his experiences with Oswald. Because of this, he was called to testify before the Warren Commission in 1964. After he'd moved to Tampa, he was hounded by Jim Garrison, who was convinced of Thornley's complicity in the conspiracy. Thornley's physical resemblance to Oswald caused some speculation that he was one of the "fake Oswald" doubles that were going around. These accusations were eventually dropped by Garrison's successor.

Thornley, who spent two years living in New Orleans, encountered a creepy pair who called themselves Gary Kirstein and Slim Brooks, who claimed to have inside info on various matters conspiratorial. He later became convinced these men were Howard Hunt and Jerry Milton Brooks, and believed that Oswald had been a deep-cover agent involved with MK-ULTRA. Anecdotes about the revelations of Kirstein and Brooks filled his writings for the remainder of his life, and he published handmade zines from a garage in Atlanta for the rest of his days.

As an impressionable lad and avid reader of his works, visiting Thornley was top of my to-do list when I moved to Atlanta in 1984. Though Thornley was well-known for his paranoia, he openly used his actual street address on his zines, not a post office box. I found the street, a cul-de-sac called Lookout Place, on a map and went there to say hello. But a young man answered the door when I knocked, and said Thornley actually didn't live in the house, he lived in the garage. "He's probably sleeping right now," he said, "but you can try him."

I knocked on the garage door, and the man himself emerged. Though he was groggy from being awakened, he immediately remembered me from mail correspondence, and we chatted a few minutes; mostly about a theory he had about a conspiracy of clowns - like, actual circus clowns - driving cross-country abducting hitchhikers. He loaded me up with back issues of all his zines and broadsides I'd missed, and made some rumblings about needing to get back to work. I thanked him for his time and excused myself, wondering if I'd just had a brush with greatness or a meeting with a madman. Both, maybe?

(And though I was a fan of Robert Anton Wilson's Illuminatus! trilogy and the Discordians, at that point I had no idea that Thornley was actually the founder of the Discordians, under the pen name "Omar Khayyam Ravenhurst" - something I didn't learn until many years later.)

2 comments:

  1. New Orleans People saw a lot of things only few
    people came out against odds when fear face them in the face.Jack Martin pistol whipped Guy Banister 11-22-1963Jack Martin came out news cospiracy as he toldFriends that Guy Banister & David Ferrie involvedin the JFK Kennedy Assassination.Jack Martin knew all the characters.
    David Lewis D.O.B 5/12/1940 D.O.D.5/5/1997.
    David Lewis originally questioned Dec 14,1966.
    Louis Ivon interrogated David F Lewis office.
    W. Guy Banister hired people in his office.
    David F Lewis worked for Guy Banister.(off/on)
    Inbetween Lewis Employment compensation benefits. (David Lewis stated late Summer 1963 I was report Lousiana Employment Office at 601
    Camp Street New Orleans (near Newman building)David Lewis met Lee Harvey Oswald thru Banister/Jack Martin as David Lewis by now known
    as a temporary investigator when they needed him.
    David Lewis claims he saw Lee Harvey Oswald
    in the Newman building in the Mancuso Restaurant,
    544 Camp Street - 531 Lafayette (st) Place ,
    which is the W. Guy Banisters & Associates.
    W.Guy Banister March 7,1901-June 6,1964.
    Lous Ivon asked David Lewis (question) How many times have seen Lee Harvey Oswald? (answer) No more than 4 times.(fact is David Lewis admits seeing Lee Harvey Oswald) Remenber the Leaflets That Lee Harvey Oswald hand out were stamped 544 Camp Street New Orleans.
    In 1963 W.Guy Banister, David Ferrie, began working for lawyer ,G.Wray Gill and his client Carlos
    Marcello.Then have Anna Lewis utube video saying,She and Husband was at 500 club with Lee and Judyth owned by Carlos Marcello. Anna lewis didnt profit from a book nor from any thing she said she is credible even if she isnt einstein .Anna said She was waitress Thompson that where Lee & Judyth would meet her and Husband David Lewis.
    Then have Judyth in highway to Hell cook up poisons & Have affair married man with 1 child and baby on the way with wife barefoot pregnant which some times makes it uncomfortable marital relations so Judyth filled in so Lee to have his funtimes. Judyth is no saint she left home got involved boys had a unplanned pregnancy .Judyth didnt come out closet til 2003 after undividuals have all disappeared the fear has subsided & she profit from from admit she summer affair with lee.
    Judyth even Said Lee claim Ferrie tried but failed.
    No man would admit another man molested as kid?
    McAdams will not admit some people tell the truth but they sometimes don't tell the whole truth but
    that don't take away from the fact what they had did show that Lee Harvey Oswald had cospirators.
    JFK researchers can't fight between each others cause facts is right there but big wheels don't want
    to admit to the truth so they'll forever hide truth?
    New Orleans Group show cospiracy was going on.
    Hemming&Sturgis&cubans all say LHO in Florida.
    But did they want to set up /Frame Lho for Jfk?

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  2. Lee Harvey Oswald - was not in florida unless talk about when he was in military. Only Frank Fiorini Sturgis & cubans & Gerald P Hemming spread that story to Florida newspaper buddy of there's. And Scott Kaiser pick up on it to promote his book and his story in which he ask jfk researchers for help in his book & all scott had was dad's address book inwhich the book is written in different colors and is it in the same hand writing& didn't he say Sonia would write for Ed Kaiser in the address book?Sonia was one that said Hemming was at her place. but wasn't Hemming married would his wife want her husband stay at another place?

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