George de Mohrenschildt
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George de Mohrenschildt (April 17 (Gregorian calendar), 1911-March 29, 1977) befriended Lee Harvey Oswald during the months preceding the assassination of U.S. President John F. Kennedy.
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[edit] Early life
George de Mohrenschildt was born in Mozyr in Czarist Russia, near the border of Poland (his birthdate was April 4, old-style Russian Julian calendar). His wealthy father, Sergius Alexander von Mohrenschildt, an anti-Communist, was arrested and put in prison by the Bolsheviks shortly after the Russian Revolution. After being sentenced to life as an exile in Siberia, he managed to escaped with his family to Poland during the 1920s.
Young George traveled around Europe and later claimed he was part of a pro-Nazi plot to kill Joseph Stalin. When de Mohrenschildt came to the United States in 1938, British intelligence reportedly notified the U.S. government they suspected he was working for German intelligence and by some accounts he was under FBI surveillance for a time. At first, de Mohrenschildt worked for the Shumaker company in New York City, purportedly under Pierre Fraiss, who had connections with French intelligence and according to de Mohrenschildt (see his Warren Hearing testamony) was engaged in gathering information about people engaged in "pro-German" activities, such as Nazi bidding for U.S. oil leases before the U.S. became involved in the war. In his testimony, de Mohrenschildt makes it clear that his data-collection was anti-Nazi activity, since it was aimed at helping the French, by out-bidding the Germans. By 1939, he was working for Humble Oil, the company of Prescott Bush.
It was here de Mohrenschildt met George H. W. Bush. Bush has recalled, "I first met de Mohrenschildt in the early 1940's. He was an uncle to my Andover roommate."
Edward Jay Epstein, an author who interviewed de Mohrenschildt shortly before his death, wrote the following diary entry (29th March, 1977)
"David Bludworth, The State's Attorney, was a folksy, charming and savvy interrogator. He began by telling me that De Mohrenschildt had put a shotgun in his mouth and killed himself at 3:45 p.m. There were no witnesses - and no one home at the time of the shooting. The precise time of his death was established by a tape-recorder, left running that afternoon to record the soap operas for the absent Mrs. Tilton, and which recorded a single set of footfalls in the room and the blast of the shotgun, which was found on the Persian carpet next to him. No suicide note or other clue was found. He said I was probably the last person to talk to him. Then, he asked whether I had in my possession De Mohrenschildt's black address book. I replied "No." He politely rephrased the question, and asked me again - about a half-dozen times, whether I had the black book."
George Bush's name and Midland, Texas address were in de Mohrenschildt's address book. The following entry was found in the address book of George de Mohrenschildt: "Bush, George H.W. (Poppy) 1412 W. Ohio also Zapata Petroleum Midland 46355."
As a result of these connections, and documents released January 2007 that showed Bush's Zapata Oil was involved with the CIA, several authors and Internet bloggers have theorized Bush was somehow involved in the Kennedy assassination. (See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kennedy_assassination_theories#George_H._W._Bush_connections)
In 1941, de Mohrenschildt became associated with Film Facts in New York, a production company owned by his cousin Baron Maydell who was said to have pro-Nazi sympathies (de Mohrenschildt denied any Nazi sympathies of his own). De Mohrenschildt made a documentary film about resistance fighters in Poland but when the United States entered World War II his application to join the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) was rejected.
George's elder brother Dimitri de Mohrenschildt was a staunch anti-Communist and member of the OSS and one of the founders of the CIA's Radio Free Europe and Amcomlib (aka Radio Liberty) stations. His contacts included top officials of the agency. Dimitri died at the age of 100 in 2002.
[edit] Dallas, Oswald and Haiti
After the war de Mohrenschildt settled in Dallas, Texas, and took a job with oilman Clint Murchison as a petroleum geologist. Through his charisma and wide social connections he became acquainted with a young Jacqueline Bouvier (who later married John F. Kennedy). Described as sophisticated and articulate, he became a respected member of the Russian emigre community in Dallas, teaching at a local college, working for various oil companies as a geologist and traveling throughout the Americas with his wife Jeanne.
De Mohrenschildt met Lee Harvey Oswald in October 1962 in Fort Worth, Texas. George and Jeanne befriended Lee and Marina Oswald, trying to help them as best they could along with introducing them into Dallas' Russian community. In May, 1963, de Mohrenschildt moved to Haiti. After Kennedy was assassinated, he testified before the Warren Commission. (For this testamony in the hearing record, see [1] and following pages)
[edit] Death
By the early 1970s, reportedly, de Mohrenschildt's behaviour in Haiti sometimes extended towards the erratic. In 1977, de Mohrenschildt returned to the United States, told a reporter he needed money and accepted $4,000 for an interview, during which he claimed that in 1962 a CIA operative in Dallas named Moore asked him to learn what he could about Oswald's activities in the Soviet Union. De Mohrenschildt said that in exchange he received help in an oil transaction he was attempting to negotiate with Haitian dictator Papa Doc Duvalier. When the Haitian government gave de Mohrenschildt the contract in March 1963, he presumed it was payment for assisting the CIA.
On September 17, 1976, the CIA requested that the FBI locate de Mohrenschildt, because he had "attempted to get in touch with the CIA Director." [CIA Message Reference Number 915341] De Mohrenschildt had "written a letter to the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency asking for his assistance. It seems that Subject feels he is being harassed as a result of his involvement with the OSWALD case." [CIA MFR Raymond M. Reardon SAG 9.20.76] George Bush wrote back: "Let me say first that I know it must have been difficult for you to seek my help in the situation outlined in your letter. I believe I can appreciate your state of mind in view of your daughter's tragic death a few years ago, and the current poor state of your wife's health. I was extremely sorry to hear of these circumstances. In your situation I can well imagine how the attentions you described in your letter affect both you and your wife. However, my staff has been unable to find any indication of interest in your activities on the part of Federal authorities in recent years. The flurry of interest that attended your testimony before the Warren Commission has long subsided. I can only speculate that you may have become 'newsworthy' again in view of the renewed interest in the Kennedy assassination, and thus may be attracting the attention of people in the media. I hope this letter had been of some comfort to you, George, although I realize I am unable to answer your question completely. George Bush, Director of the Central Intelligence Agency." [CIA Exec Reg. # 76,51571 9.28.76]
On March 29, 1977, while on a break from the interview, de Mohrenschildt received a card from Gaeton Fonzi, an investigator for the House Select Committee on Assassinations. That afternoon he committed suicide by shooting himself in the mouth with a shotgun.[2]
[edit] Another backyard photo
Days later, on April 1, 1977, Jeanne de Mohrenschildt gave the House Select Committee on Assassinations a photograph taken of Lee Harvey Oswald, by his wife Marina, standing in his Dallas backyard holding two newspapers and a rifle with a pistol on his hip. The existence of this photograph, while similar to others which had been found among Oswald's effects on November 23, 1963, was previously unknown. Jeanne de Mohrenschildt said it had been kept privately for almost 14 years.
On the back was written To my friend George from Lee Oswald, and the date “5/IV/63” [this is in Russian/European convention with day in front and month in Roman numerals, and means 5 April, 63] [1] along with the words “Copyright Geo de M”' and a Russian phrase translated as “'Hunter of fascists, ha-ha-ha!” Handwriting specialists later concluded that the words “To my friend George…” and Oswald's signature were written by Lee Harvey Oswald but could not determine whether the rest was the writing of Lee Oswald, George de Mohrenschildt or Marina Oswald. Some historians have speculated the Russian line was written by Marina, in sarcasm. (George de Mohrenschildt in his memoir translated it as "This is the hunter of fascists, ha, ha, ha!" and also assumed that Marina had written it sarcastically).
George de Mohrenschildt wrote in his manuscript (reference and pages cited above) that he had missed Oswald's photograph in packing for the move to Haiti in May, 1963, and this was why he hadn't mentioned it to the Warren Commission (though he had noted in his manuscript that Oswald had a rifle in April, 1963, because he had seen it in the apartment at Easter and scoffed to Lee that he had missed General Walker, remembering in memory that Lee had blanched at the joke). According to de Mohrenschildt the photo was not found among his storage papers until his wife found it in 1967. When analyzed by the HSCA in 1977, this photo turned out to be a first generation copy of the backyard photo already known to the Warren commission as CE-133A, and which had probably been taken on March 31, 1963.
[edit] Memoir
Jeanne de Mohrenschildt also gave the HSCA committee a copy of a manuscript called I AM A PATSY! I AM A PATSY! which George de Mohrenschildt had recently written about his relationship with Oswald, wherein he said that the Lee Oswald he knew, while capable of violence and petty meanness, would not have been the sort of person to have killed John F. Kennedy. In part this judgement was based on de Mohrenschildt's estimation of Oswald's political views and Kennedy's liberal ideas. The memoir has never been published as a trade book but has been available online since the entire typscript was published as an appendix in the HSCA report [3]. (For a partial re-type see [4]). De Mohrenschildt's testimony to the Warren Commission in early 1964, however, paints a quite different view of Oswald — a man de Mohrenschildt said he considered a "kid" and not a friend. Due to the largely complete conflict in point of view between these two accounts (one given under some duress and the other written ostensibly for money) most historians give neither account of de Mohrenschildt great historical value [5].
George de Mohrenschildt has been widely described as a sociable, talkative and gregarious provocateur and no direct connection between him and any intelligence agency — including the CIA — has ever been established (De Mohrenschildt denied in his manuscript ever having worked for the CIA, and openly admitted to detesting the FBI). However, his apparent family (brother) and social ties to the OSS and later CIA officials are beyond reasonable doubt.
De Morenschildt was played by Willem Oltmans in the 1991 film JFK and by Bill Bolender in the 1993 TV movie Fatal Deception: Mrs. Lee Harvey Oswald.
[edit] External links
- I Am A Patsy, de Mohrenschildt’s memoir. This is only part of the manuscript (see the HSCA report on him below (ref. 4) for the full manuscript).
- [6] De Mohrenschildt's 118-page Warren Commission testimony, taken over two days, provides a great deal of biographical information on him, starting from earliest memories and aided in specifics and dates by many public documents available to the commission.
- [7] The HSCA staff report on the (by then late) de Mohrenschildt. This includes analysis of his politics and useful insight into his government contacts. Appended is a photocopy of the full typescript of "I Am a Patsy! I Am a Patsy!". De Mohrenschildt's analysis of his Oswald photo is pp. 254-262 (citations to page in the HCSA analysis of the manuscript on this point appear incorrect).
