THE O’REILLY FACTOR IN THE JFK ASSASSINATION: J. Walton Moore & Lee Harvey Oswald Bill Kelly
The Bill O’Reilly Factor in the JFK Assassination is his thwarted attempt to get at the truth in Dallas. In 1977 Bill O’Reilly worked as a reporter for the WFAA TV news station in Dallas when he unsuccessfully attempted to get an interview with J. Walton Moore, the resident agent of the CIA’s Domestic Contacts Division. Moore had been associated with George DeMohrenschildt, a close friend of Lee Harvey Oswald, the accused assassin of President
Kennedy, and O’Reilly was investigating a possible association between Moore and Oswald himself.
O’Reilly got involved when the House Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA) was beginning to reinvestigate the President’s assassination. O’Reilly learned that Moore often debriefed George DeMohrenschildt. If the CIA’s Moore and Oswald the alleged assassin were associated in any way it would certainly go against the grain of the official conclusion that Oswald killed Kennedy alone, for some perverted and psychological, yet unknown motive.
DeMohrenschildt however, was one of a dozen or so witnesses targeted by the HSCA who were found dead in suspicious circumstances before they could testify. But O’Reilly did get an on-camera interview with his widow, Jeanne DeMohrenschildt, who recalled J. Walton Moore; how they used to socialize with Moore and his wife, and the fact that Moore shunned them when they returned to Dallas from Haiti. And for good reason. The House Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA) did look into the situation, and they included a synopsis of the allegations in the Appendix papers published with the HSCA Final Report. In regards to DeMohrenschildt and J. Watlon Moore, the HSCA reported in Volume XI IV under the heading Allegations of De Morhrenschildt’s Intelligence Connections: during his Warren Commission testimony, de Mohrenschildt was asked by Counsel Jenner if he had ever been in any respect an agent. De Mohrenschildt responded that he never had... In his Warren Commission testimony de Mohrenschildt stated that he believed he had discussed Lee Harvey Oswald with J. Walton Moore, whom de Mohrenschildt described a Government man; either FBI or Central Intelligence; De Mohrenschildt said Moore had interviewed him when he returned from Yugoslvaia and that he was known as the head of the FBI in Dallas. De Mohrenschildt asserted that he asked Moore and Ft. Worth attorney Max Clark about Oswald to reassure himself that it was safe for de Mohrenschildt to assist Oswald. According to his testimony, de Mohrenschildt was told by one of the persons he talked to that Oswald, although he said he could not remember who it was, that the guy seems to be OK; This admitted association with J. Walton Moore fed the rumors of some involvement by de Mohrenschildt in intelligence activities. In 1963 J. Walton Moore was employed by the Central Intelligence Agency in Dallas, Tex., in the Domestic Contacts Division. According to Moore’s CIA personnel file, he was assigned to the Domestic Contacts Division in 1948. Moore’s duties in the Dallas office were contacting individuals... who had information on foreign topics. In an Agency memorandum dated April 13, 1977, contained in George de Mohrenschildt’s CIA file, Moore set forth facts to counter a claim which had been recently made by WFAA-TV in Dallas that Lee Harvey Oswald was employed by the CIA and that Moore knew Oswald. In that memo, Moore is quoted as saying that according to his records the last time he talked to George de Mohrenschildt was in the fall of 1961. Moore said that he had no recollection of any conversation with de Mohrenschildt: First, in the spring of 1958 to discuss the mutual interest the two couples had in mainland China: and then in the fall of 1961 when the de Mohrenschildt showed films of their Latin American walking trip. Other documents in de Mohrenschildt’s CIA file indicate more contact between Moore and de Mohrenschildt than was stated in the 1977 memo by Moore. In a memorandum dated May 1, 1964, from Moore to the Acting Chief of the Contacts Division of the CIA. Moore stated that he had known George de Mohrenschildt and his wife since 1957, at which time Moore got biographical data on de Mohrenschildt after de Dohrenschildt’s trip to Yugoslavia for the International Cooperation Administration. Moore said also in that 1964 memo that he saw de Mohrenschildt several times in 1958 and 1959. DeMohrenschildt’s CIA file contained several reports submitted by de Mohrenschildt to the CIA on topics concerning Yugoslavia. In an interview with the committee on March 14, 1978, Moore stated that he did interview de Mohrenschildt in 1957 after the Yugoslavia trip. At that time Moore also indicated he had periodic contact with de Mohrenschildt debriefing purposes over the years after that. Moore said that none of that contact or conversation with de Mohrenschildt was related to Oswald: Moore said that the allegations that de Mohrenschildt asked Moore’s permission to contact Oswald were false.
Then the HSCA locked its records away for 50 years, but with the passage of the JFK Assassinations Records Collection Act (JFK ARC Act 1992), the relevant CIA records were reluctantly released. The newly released documents reflect a more definitive association between J. Walton Moore and Lee Harvey Oswald, an association that was repeatedly repressed from the day of the assassination, and continues today. The record reflects that De Mohrenschildt wasn’t conflicted between Max Clark and J. Walton Moore as to who responded to his question as to whether it was okay to assist Oswald in his re-domestication following his return from the Soviet Union. Even in his manuscript I’m a Patsy, published as part of the HSCA records, De Mohrenschildt wrote: Mr. J. Walton Moore had interviewed me upon my return from a government mission to Yugoslvaia and we got along well. He had lived in China, was born there as a matter of fact, in a missionary family. So I invited him and his wife to the house and he got along fabulously well with Jeanne. I used to see Mr. Moore occasionally for lunch. A cosmopolitan character, most attractive. A short time after meeting with Lee Harvey Oswald, before we became friends, I was a little worried about his opinions and his background. And so I went to see Mr. J. Walton Moore to his office, in the same building I used to have my own office; Reserve Loan Life Building on Ervay Street, and asked him point blank. I met this young ex-Marine, Lee Harvey Oswald, is it safe to associate with him? And Mr. Moore’s answer was: he is OK. He is just a harmless lunatic. That he was harmless was good enough for me. I could decide for myself whether Lee was a lunatic; That J. Walton Moore, of the CIA’s Domestic Contacts Division office in Dallas would not only be familiar with Lee Harvey Oswald, but give his approval for De Mohrenschildt to socialize and assist him is a revelation, and was the source of much of the friction that immediately manifested itself immediately after the assassination, when De Mohrenschildt was living and working in Haiti. According to De Mohrenschildt, shortly after the assassination he was visited in Haiti by an FBI agent W. James Woods, who tried to intimidate the formidable Prussian. In his manuscript I’m A Patsy; De Mohrenschildt wrote: Now something unusual happened. A grey-suited, bulky, Miami suntanned, with false teeth and an artificial smile, Mr. W. James Wood, an Agent of the FBI arrived in Port-au-Prince for the sole purpose to make me deny a statement I had made to my friends and to the political officer at the Embassy. What was this disturbing statement? I had contacted a government man in Dallas, the only one I knew personally, probably a CIA agent, or possibly an agent of the FBI, a very nice fellow by the name of J. Walton Moore. Looks like it’s a specialty of these government agents to have a capital letter instead of the first name. Purely Anglo-Saxon, you know... And that was the statement which greatly disturbed W. James Wood and his superiors. And that same statement disturbed later Albert Jenner, a counsel of the Warren Commission, when I gave my testimony. As disturbed as Jenner was, he knew that my testimony was truthful, W. James Wood, who came to see us in Haiti was more than disturbed. He tried to make me deny this statement. And so we were sitting in a luxurious Embassy room, staring with animosity at each other, and this repulsive, replete bureaucrat dared to tell me, you will have to change your statement. What do you mean, I asked incredulously. That false statement of yours that a government man told you that our President’s assassin was a harmless lunatic. False statement! Man, you are out of your mind! I answered sharply. And so the grey-suited man in no uncertain terms threatened me; Unless you change your statement, life will be tough for you in the States; Nuts! Was the only answer I could make. After meeting with Mr. W. James Woods, I immediately began having doubts of Lee’s guilt. And while I was talking to him, the conversation lasted quite some time, he constantly tried to intimidate me reminding me a lot of undesirable people I had met in my life and puritanically challenging me on the grounds of moral turpitude, i.e. too many women. I told this obnoxious FBI agent that neither the FBI or CIA or any other agency was in any way implicated in President Kennedy’s assassination. I just took a precaution which seemingly backfired. But I did imply that these government agencies were negligent. Still my statement was of utter importance to the FBI and Mr. Wood and he kept on trying to force me to deny it. I categorically refused to deny anything and we ended this stormy session without shaking hands. The reception was similar when De Mohrenschildt and his wife returned to Dallas and phoned J. Walton Moore to ask him to dinner. He refused to associate with them. Then fourteen years later, the HSCA began its inquiry, and De Mohrenschildt died under strange circumstances before being interviewed. But reports surfaced about J. Walton Moore’s connection to De Mohrenschildt and the CIA ‘s “Okay” for him to assist Oswald, “harmless lunatic”. Enter Bill O’Reilly, the intrepid WFAA TV News reporter who got a copy of a document that apparently made an association between J. Walton Moore and Oswald himself. O’Reilly got an on camera interview with Mrs.De Mohrenschildt and tried, without success, to interview Moore about the situation. This resulted in at least one telecast on the local Dallas TV station, and a flurry of CIA documents that were sealed until the JFK Act of Congress ordered their release. One of these documents clears up some issues and gives additional details that were previously withheld, even from the HSCA reports, which are now shown to be misleading.
CHARGE MADE ON WFAA-TV
1. On 11 April 1977 at approximately 11:30 Mr. Bill O’Reilly came to the Dallas Field Office with a camera crew and asked to speak with J. Walton Moore. O’Reilly was not permitted to come into the office and J. Walton Moore spoke to him on the telephone in the outer foyer. O’Reilly said he was doing a story on his news program at 1800 hours on CIA involvement in the Kennedy Assassination. Specifically he was going to allege that Moore knew Lee Harvey Oswald and he wanted to give Moore an opportunity to tell his side of the story. Moore said he would not discuss the matter with O’Reilly and would answer questions only to the properly designated authorities. O’Reilly and his crew left after taking some pictures in the foyer.
2. Following is a transcript of O’Reilly’s program which appeared on the program at 1800 and 2200 hours 11 April:
Iola Johnson Channel 8 News Reporter: ...the CIA and the FBI have been suppressing evidence vital to the Kennedy assassination investigation. Channel 8’s Bill O’Reilly has been looking into the CIA’s role in the investigation and has this report.
Bill O’Reilly Channel 8 News Reporter: Channel 8 News has learned that a recently declassified document now in the hands of a writer indicates that Lee Harvey Oswald was employed by the CIA possibly in 1962 and although it may be a coincidence, Oswald’s 1962 income tax return is the only one which has not been made public. In a related matter Mrs. Jeanne de Mohrenschildt (sic Jean) wife of the late George de Mohrenschildt, told Channel 8 News that she and her husband were good friends with a Dallas CIA agent named J. Walton Moore and that Moore told George de Mohrenschildt Lee Harvey Oswald was OK to recommend for a job.
Mrs. George de Mohrenschildt: He checked with J. Walton Moore about Oswald. He checked with him [sic] is OK to recommend for a job. He said perfectly clear.
Bill O’Reilly: After the assassination you were still friends with J. Walton Moore and he still came over to dinner once in a while with his wife.
Mrs. de Mohrenschildt: We have not seen him because we had been gone almost a year in Haiti.
Bill O’Reilly: Yes, but when you came back to Dallas.
Mrs. de Mohrenschildt: When we came back J. Walton Moore wouldn’t talk to us.
Bill O’Reilly: Why?
Mrs. De Mohrenschildt: How do I know?
Bill O’Reilly: He wouldn’t talk to you.
Mrs. de Mohrenschildt: No, I called up and invited him for dinner, because we thought maybe he knows more than we do. He wouldn’t come.
Bill O’Reilly: J. Walton Moore is still with the CIA, and we went to his office in the Federal Building to get his reaction to Mrs de Mohrenschildt’s story.
Bill O’Reilly talking to J. Walton Moore from the outer office. Mr. Moore’s voice cannot be heard.
Bill O’Reilly: We have somebody on camera who is going to say that you knew Lee Harvey Oswald. We would just like to get your comments on it. No comment at all. What would you recommend that I do then? To be fair to you, what would you recommend that I do. You’ll just take your chances. O.K. Mr. Moore, thank you.
Bill O’Reilly: After speaking with Mr. Moore we spoke with CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia. They told us they were astonished by Mrs. DeMohrenschildt’s statements but would not comment on any matter pertaining to the assassination of President Kennedy. [End of Transcript of WFAA – TV News Report] The CIA document then continues:
3. According to Mr. Moore the last time he saw or talked to George de Mohrenschildt was in the fall of 1961. It is not known exactly when Lee Harvey Oswald arrived in Dallas or became acquainted with George de Mohrenschildt. Moore has no recollection of any conversation with George de Mohrenschildt concerning Lee Harvey Oswald. It is possible that either Mr. or Mrs. de Mohrenschildt called Mr. Moore after their return from Haiti to Dallas sometime in the spring of 1964. Moore does not recall this but if the purpose of the call was to discuss with Moore the Kennedy assassination, he almost certainly would have declined to do so in view of the ongoing Warren Commission investigation.
4. Moore recalls only two occasions on which he and his wife met Mrs de Mohrenschildt. The first of these was sometime in the spring of 1958. Moore had mentioned to George de Mohrenschildt that he had grown up on the China Mainland, and George de Mohrenschildt had said that his wife was from Shanghai, China, and was always interested in meeting someone from the China Mainland. The de Mohrendschildts had entertained Mr and Mrs Moore for dinner at their apartment. The other occasion on which the Moores met with Mrs. De Mohrenschildt was sometime in the fall of 1961. Mr. and Mrs. de Mohrenschildt had gone on an extensive hiking trip through Mexico and Central America during which they had taken a number of pictures with their movie camera. The purpose of the meeting was to show off their pictures. In addition to the Moores, there were 10 to 12 other people present.
5. On 12 April 1977, our administrative assistant Mrs Barham received a phone call from an individual asking to speak with Morris Bishop. She advised that there was no one by that name working in the office. day after O’Reilly’s attempt to interview Moore, somebody called the Dallas CIA DCD office asking for a Morris Bishop; which is now recognized as an attempt by someone, possibly O’Reilly, to identify the mysterious “Maurice Bishop”; a person whose real identity would take up a lot of time of HSCA investigators in attempting to trace. Most significant however, is the assertion by Moore himself that he attended the De Mohrenschildt’s party held to showcase the film they made of their year long trip through Mexico and Central America, one peculiar aspect of which was their arrival in Guatemala at the same time the Bay of Pigs brigade was in training - that being April, 1961. That’s the date the HSCA Report mistakenly says was the last time Moore met with DeMohrenschildt. The party at which the film was shown was actually in February, 1963. One possible reason for all the secrecy, blackmail and intimidation is the fact that Oswald himself attended that party, and in the company of only ten or twelve people, Moore and Oswald would have a hard time not meeting. According to De Mohrenschildt’s account of the party, it was a night to remember for more than one reason. Quoting again from George De Mohrenschildt’s manuscript, I’m A Patsy; But one evening with Oswalds, frought with incidents, stands out in our memory. That evening we decided to show the 8mm. movie of our walking trip which Lee did not see and insisted on seeing. This was sometime in January of 1963. A scientist working for the researchdepartment of an oil company, Edward Glover, arranged for the projection in his house. And he invited all his friends, acquaintances and colleagues. Most scientists and skillful technicians dream of wilderness and free life in the open. And so the large room was full. Our only guests were Lee and Marina. They had found someone to babysit for baby June. I did not show the film often as this original was precious to us and we didn’t have a copy. Taken all outdoors, this film came out amazingly well starting with our departure from the “civilized” world and ending a year later south of the Panama Canal. What we did was a little walk from the Texas border, all on foot - and we did not cheat even once. This trip began in October of 1960 and we returned from Panama in a civilized way by plane, to Jamaica first and then to Haiti where we took a good rest. During this hegira we made a complete breakaway from all comforts, slept exclusively outside, on the ground, ate whatever the Indians had to sell and I exchanged occasionally my knowledge of minerals against food supplies. We walked freely as much as we wanted, slowly at first, much faster later, guiding ourselves by old mining maps and by compass. We lost a lot of disgusting fat in a hurry and after three months became lean and bronzed like savages, able to run up a high mountain without breathing hard. The film, taken periodically, showed this amazing change in us, from slobs to healthy individuals, the rest consisted of beautiful scenery, of Indians we met, of our wonderful Manchester hero and our unpredictable mule - Condessa. We stopped in a ranch south of the Panama canal and left our mule there, to be retired from hard work. I hope she ended her life peacefully. Quite of a few of Glover’s friends from Dallas and New York, mostly your career people, although conservatively inclined, were interested in meeting Lee Harvey Oswald. Some were more interested in him than in our movie. And they got their money’s worth. After the showing they asked Lee some pointed questions and he answered them aggressively and sharply without hiding, and even exaggerating, his feelings. Lee wanted to show these well dressed, prosperous youngsters that he was different radically from them. I wanted to stop him but he went on nevertheless talking of his sympathies of revolutionary movements all over the world, of his respect for Fidel Castro and for Che Guevara. This made him hardly popular with this group, composed mainly of big oil company employees, dreaming not of revolution but of advancement of their respective careers. And there is nobody more conservative and even race conscious than an oil company employee or executive. Lee knew that, I bet you; he said sharply, that your companies do not employ any Blacks or Mexicans in any positions, not executive but average personnel; Nobody answered Lee’s challenge. But there was an exception in this conservative group - a tall, dark haired, attractive women in her late twenties. She took a vivid interest in Marina and did not take offense to Lee’s utterances. She asked me if Marina spoke any English. I said,- no. Would you introduce me to her? My name is Ruth Paine.
So both Oswald, the alleged assassin, and J. Walton Moore, of the CIA’s Domestic Contacts Division, attended the De Mohrenschildt’s party where Ruth Paine also met Marina Oswald, the Russian wife of the alleged assassin, setting up another important association. In addition, the documents released under the JFK Act also show that both J. Walton Moore and Charles Donald Ford joined the Navy during World War II, but ended up in the Army, assigned to the
OSS, where in 1945 they were both sent to China on a mission together. Charles Donald Ford became a CIA training officer assigned to the JM/WAVE station before being assigned to be the chief liaison between the CIA and Robert F. Kennedy, the attorney general, said to be a middle-man between the White House and the mob in the plots to kill Castro. If J. Walton Moore and Charles Donald Ford, together in the OSS, were also working together in 1963, then Moore could have been a direct CIA channel on Oswald’s activities to those operators at JM/WAVE, who are suspected of setting Oswald up as the patsy and framing him for the assassination. While all investigative roads seem to lead back to JM/WAVE, the CIA is still stonewalling in refusing to abide by the JFK Act, and refuses to release the pertinent records, about Mr. J. Walton Moore, C. D. Ford, George Joannides, David Morales, David Atlee Phillips, and the others who were involved in the few and specific (April-Nov.) anti-Castro Cuban operations that involved RFK.That Fox News commentator Bill O’Reilly was one of the reporters stonewalled on this issue should inspire him to follow through on his 1977 assignment, and join other reporters in the call for the release of the necessary records and for proper congressional oversight and enforcement of the JFK Act. As can be seen, O’Reilly was on the right track, and that a follow-up into the recently released records shows that O’Reilly was correct in his assertions that there were more definitive associations between the CIA’s J. Walton Moore and Lee Harvey Oswald, the accused assassin of President Kennedy.
B. K. Bkjfk3@yahoo.com
Many thanks to Dallas researcher Robert Howard for finding documents and calling attention to them, and to Rex Bradford for posting docs at the Mary Ferrell Archives.
Kennedy, and O’Reilly was investigating a possible association between Moore and Oswald himself.
O’Reilly got involved when the House Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA) was beginning to reinvestigate the President’s assassination. O’Reilly learned that Moore often debriefed George DeMohrenschildt. If the CIA’s Moore and Oswald the alleged assassin were associated in any way it would certainly go against the grain of the official conclusion that Oswald killed Kennedy alone, for some perverted and psychological, yet unknown motive.
DeMohrenschildt however, was one of a dozen or so witnesses targeted by the HSCA who were found dead in suspicious circumstances before they could testify. But O’Reilly did get an on-camera interview with his widow, Jeanne DeMohrenschildt, who recalled J. Walton Moore; how they used to socialize with Moore and his wife, and the fact that Moore shunned them when they returned to Dallas from Haiti. And for good reason. The House Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA) did look into the situation, and they included a synopsis of the allegations in the Appendix papers published with the HSCA Final Report. In regards to DeMohrenschildt and J. Watlon Moore, the HSCA reported in Volume XI IV under the heading Allegations of De Morhrenschildt’s Intelligence Connections: during his Warren Commission testimony, de Mohrenschildt was asked by Counsel Jenner if he had ever been in any respect an agent. De Mohrenschildt responded that he never had... In his Warren Commission testimony de Mohrenschildt stated that he believed he had discussed Lee Harvey Oswald with J. Walton Moore, whom de Mohrenschildt described a Government man; either FBI or Central Intelligence; De Mohrenschildt said Moore had interviewed him when he returned from Yugoslvaia and that he was known as the head of the FBI in Dallas. De Mohrenschildt asserted that he asked Moore and Ft. Worth attorney Max Clark about Oswald to reassure himself that it was safe for de Mohrenschildt to assist Oswald. According to his testimony, de Mohrenschildt was told by one of the persons he talked to that Oswald, although he said he could not remember who it was, that the guy seems to be OK; This admitted association with J. Walton Moore fed the rumors of some involvement by de Mohrenschildt in intelligence activities. In 1963 J. Walton Moore was employed by the Central Intelligence Agency in Dallas, Tex., in the Domestic Contacts Division. According to Moore’s CIA personnel file, he was assigned to the Domestic Contacts Division in 1948. Moore’s duties in the Dallas office were contacting individuals... who had information on foreign topics. In an Agency memorandum dated April 13, 1977, contained in George de Mohrenschildt’s CIA file, Moore set forth facts to counter a claim which had been recently made by WFAA-TV in Dallas that Lee Harvey Oswald was employed by the CIA and that Moore knew Oswald. In that memo, Moore is quoted as saying that according to his records the last time he talked to George de Mohrenschildt was in the fall of 1961. Moore said that he had no recollection of any conversation with de Mohrenschildt: First, in the spring of 1958 to discuss the mutual interest the two couples had in mainland China: and then in the fall of 1961 when the de Mohrenschildt showed films of their Latin American walking trip. Other documents in de Mohrenschildt’s CIA file indicate more contact between Moore and de Mohrenschildt than was stated in the 1977 memo by Moore. In a memorandum dated May 1, 1964, from Moore to the Acting Chief of the Contacts Division of the CIA. Moore stated that he had known George de Mohrenschildt and his wife since 1957, at which time Moore got biographical data on de Mohrenschildt after de Dohrenschildt’s trip to Yugoslavia for the International Cooperation Administration. Moore said also in that 1964 memo that he saw de Mohrenschildt several times in 1958 and 1959. DeMohrenschildt’s CIA file contained several reports submitted by de Mohrenschildt to the CIA on topics concerning Yugoslavia. In an interview with the committee on March 14, 1978, Moore stated that he did interview de Mohrenschildt in 1957 after the Yugoslavia trip. At that time Moore also indicated he had periodic contact with de Mohrenschildt debriefing purposes over the years after that. Moore said that none of that contact or conversation with de Mohrenschildt was related to Oswald: Moore said that the allegations that de Mohrenschildt asked Moore’s permission to contact Oswald were false.
Then the HSCA locked its records away for 50 years, but with the passage of the JFK Assassinations Records Collection Act (JFK ARC Act 1992), the relevant CIA records were reluctantly released. The newly released documents reflect a more definitive association between J. Walton Moore and Lee Harvey Oswald, an association that was repeatedly repressed from the day of the assassination, and continues today. The record reflects that De Mohrenschildt wasn’t conflicted between Max Clark and J. Walton Moore as to who responded to his question as to whether it was okay to assist Oswald in his re-domestication following his return from the Soviet Union. Even in his manuscript I’m a Patsy, published as part of the HSCA records, De Mohrenschildt wrote: Mr. J. Walton Moore had interviewed me upon my return from a government mission to Yugoslvaia and we got along well. He had lived in China, was born there as a matter of fact, in a missionary family. So I invited him and his wife to the house and he got along fabulously well with Jeanne. I used to see Mr. Moore occasionally for lunch. A cosmopolitan character, most attractive. A short time after meeting with Lee Harvey Oswald, before we became friends, I was a little worried about his opinions and his background. And so I went to see Mr. J. Walton Moore to his office, in the same building I used to have my own office; Reserve Loan Life Building on Ervay Street, and asked him point blank. I met this young ex-Marine, Lee Harvey Oswald, is it safe to associate with him? And Mr. Moore’s answer was: he is OK. He is just a harmless lunatic. That he was harmless was good enough for me. I could decide for myself whether Lee was a lunatic; That J. Walton Moore, of the CIA’s Domestic Contacts Division office in Dallas would not only be familiar with Lee Harvey Oswald, but give his approval for De Mohrenschildt to socialize and assist him is a revelation, and was the source of much of the friction that immediately manifested itself immediately after the assassination, when De Mohrenschildt was living and working in Haiti. According to De Mohrenschildt, shortly after the assassination he was visited in Haiti by an FBI agent W. James Woods, who tried to intimidate the formidable Prussian. In his manuscript I’m A Patsy; De Mohrenschildt wrote: Now something unusual happened. A grey-suited, bulky, Miami suntanned, with false teeth and an artificial smile, Mr. W. James Wood, an Agent of the FBI arrived in Port-au-Prince for the sole purpose to make me deny a statement I had made to my friends and to the political officer at the Embassy. What was this disturbing statement? I had contacted a government man in Dallas, the only one I knew personally, probably a CIA agent, or possibly an agent of the FBI, a very nice fellow by the name of J. Walton Moore. Looks like it’s a specialty of these government agents to have a capital letter instead of the first name. Purely Anglo-Saxon, you know... And that was the statement which greatly disturbed W. James Wood and his superiors. And that same statement disturbed later Albert Jenner, a counsel of the Warren Commission, when I gave my testimony. As disturbed as Jenner was, he knew that my testimony was truthful, W. James Wood, who came to see us in Haiti was more than disturbed. He tried to make me deny this statement. And so we were sitting in a luxurious Embassy room, staring with animosity at each other, and this repulsive, replete bureaucrat dared to tell me, you will have to change your statement. What do you mean, I asked incredulously. That false statement of yours that a government man told you that our President’s assassin was a harmless lunatic. False statement! Man, you are out of your mind! I answered sharply. And so the grey-suited man in no uncertain terms threatened me; Unless you change your statement, life will be tough for you in the States; Nuts! Was the only answer I could make. After meeting with Mr. W. James Woods, I immediately began having doubts of Lee’s guilt. And while I was talking to him, the conversation lasted quite some time, he constantly tried to intimidate me reminding me a lot of undesirable people I had met in my life and puritanically challenging me on the grounds of moral turpitude, i.e. too many women. I told this obnoxious FBI agent that neither the FBI or CIA or any other agency was in any way implicated in President Kennedy’s assassination. I just took a precaution which seemingly backfired. But I did imply that these government agencies were negligent. Still my statement was of utter importance to the FBI and Mr. Wood and he kept on trying to force me to deny it. I categorically refused to deny anything and we ended this stormy session without shaking hands. The reception was similar when De Mohrenschildt and his wife returned to Dallas and phoned J. Walton Moore to ask him to dinner. He refused to associate with them. Then fourteen years later, the HSCA began its inquiry, and De Mohrenschildt died under strange circumstances before being interviewed. But reports surfaced about J. Walton Moore’s connection to De Mohrenschildt and the CIA ‘s “Okay” for him to assist Oswald, “harmless lunatic”. Enter Bill O’Reilly, the intrepid WFAA TV News reporter who got a copy of a document that apparently made an association between J. Walton Moore and Oswald himself. O’Reilly got an on camera interview with Mrs.De Mohrenschildt and tried, without success, to interview Moore about the situation. This resulted in at least one telecast on the local Dallas TV station, and a flurry of CIA documents that were sealed until the JFK Act of Congress ordered their release. One of these documents clears up some issues and gives additional details that were previously withheld, even from the HSCA reports, which are now shown to be misleading.
CHARGE MADE ON WFAA-TV
1. On 11 April 1977 at approximately 11:30 Mr. Bill O’Reilly came to the Dallas Field Office with a camera crew and asked to speak with J. Walton Moore. O’Reilly was not permitted to come into the office and J. Walton Moore spoke to him on the telephone in the outer foyer. O’Reilly said he was doing a story on his news program at 1800 hours on CIA involvement in the Kennedy Assassination. Specifically he was going to allege that Moore knew Lee Harvey Oswald and he wanted to give Moore an opportunity to tell his side of the story. Moore said he would not discuss the matter with O’Reilly and would answer questions only to the properly designated authorities. O’Reilly and his crew left after taking some pictures in the foyer.
2. Following is a transcript of O’Reilly’s program which appeared on the program at 1800 and 2200 hours 11 April:
Iola Johnson Channel 8 News Reporter: ...the CIA and the FBI have been suppressing evidence vital to the Kennedy assassination investigation. Channel 8’s Bill O’Reilly has been looking into the CIA’s role in the investigation and has this report.
Bill O’Reilly Channel 8 News Reporter: Channel 8 News has learned that a recently declassified document now in the hands of a writer indicates that Lee Harvey Oswald was employed by the CIA possibly in 1962 and although it may be a coincidence, Oswald’s 1962 income tax return is the only one which has not been made public. In a related matter Mrs. Jeanne de Mohrenschildt (sic Jean) wife of the late George de Mohrenschildt, told Channel 8 News that she and her husband were good friends with a Dallas CIA agent named J. Walton Moore and that Moore told George de Mohrenschildt Lee Harvey Oswald was OK to recommend for a job.
Mrs. George de Mohrenschildt: He checked with J. Walton Moore about Oswald. He checked with him [sic] is OK to recommend for a job. He said perfectly clear.
Bill O’Reilly: After the assassination you were still friends with J. Walton Moore and he still came over to dinner once in a while with his wife.
Mrs. de Mohrenschildt: We have not seen him because we had been gone almost a year in Haiti.
Bill O’Reilly: Yes, but when you came back to Dallas.
Mrs. de Mohrenschildt: When we came back J. Walton Moore wouldn’t talk to us.
Bill O’Reilly: Why?
Mrs. De Mohrenschildt: How do I know?
Bill O’Reilly: He wouldn’t talk to you.
Mrs. de Mohrenschildt: No, I called up and invited him for dinner, because we thought maybe he knows more than we do. He wouldn’t come.
Bill O’Reilly: J. Walton Moore is still with the CIA, and we went to his office in the Federal Building to get his reaction to Mrs de Mohrenschildt’s story.
Bill O’Reilly talking to J. Walton Moore from the outer office. Mr. Moore’s voice cannot be heard.
Bill O’Reilly: We have somebody on camera who is going to say that you knew Lee Harvey Oswald. We would just like to get your comments on it. No comment at all. What would you recommend that I do then? To be fair to you, what would you recommend that I do. You’ll just take your chances. O.K. Mr. Moore, thank you.
Bill O’Reilly: After speaking with Mr. Moore we spoke with CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia. They told us they were astonished by Mrs. DeMohrenschildt’s statements but would not comment on any matter pertaining to the assassination of President Kennedy. [End of Transcript of WFAA – TV News Report] The CIA document then continues:
3. According to Mr. Moore the last time he saw or talked to George de Mohrenschildt was in the fall of 1961. It is not known exactly when Lee Harvey Oswald arrived in Dallas or became acquainted with George de Mohrenschildt. Moore has no recollection of any conversation with George de Mohrenschildt concerning Lee Harvey Oswald. It is possible that either Mr. or Mrs. de Mohrenschildt called Mr. Moore after their return from Haiti to Dallas sometime in the spring of 1964. Moore does not recall this but if the purpose of the call was to discuss with Moore the Kennedy assassination, he almost certainly would have declined to do so in view of the ongoing Warren Commission investigation.
4. Moore recalls only two occasions on which he and his wife met Mrs de Mohrenschildt. The first of these was sometime in the spring of 1958. Moore had mentioned to George de Mohrenschildt that he had grown up on the China Mainland, and George de Mohrenschildt had said that his wife was from Shanghai, China, and was always interested in meeting someone from the China Mainland. The de Mohrendschildts had entertained Mr and Mrs Moore for dinner at their apartment. The other occasion on which the Moores met with Mrs. De Mohrenschildt was sometime in the fall of 1961. Mr. and Mrs. de Mohrenschildt had gone on an extensive hiking trip through Mexico and Central America during which they had taken a number of pictures with their movie camera. The purpose of the meeting was to show off their pictures. In addition to the Moores, there were 10 to 12 other people present.
5. On 12 April 1977, our administrative assistant Mrs Barham received a phone call from an individual asking to speak with Morris Bishop. She advised that there was no one by that name working in the office. day after O’Reilly’s attempt to interview Moore, somebody called the Dallas CIA DCD office asking for a Morris Bishop; which is now recognized as an attempt by someone, possibly O’Reilly, to identify the mysterious “Maurice Bishop”; a person whose real identity would take up a lot of time of HSCA investigators in attempting to trace. Most significant however, is the assertion by Moore himself that he attended the De Mohrenschildt’s party held to showcase the film they made of their year long trip through Mexico and Central America, one peculiar aspect of which was their arrival in Guatemala at the same time the Bay of Pigs brigade was in training - that being April, 1961. That’s the date the HSCA Report mistakenly says was the last time Moore met with DeMohrenschildt. The party at which the film was shown was actually in February, 1963. One possible reason for all the secrecy, blackmail and intimidation is the fact that Oswald himself attended that party, and in the company of only ten or twelve people, Moore and Oswald would have a hard time not meeting. According to De Mohrenschildt’s account of the party, it was a night to remember for more than one reason. Quoting again from George De Mohrenschildt’s manuscript, I’m A Patsy; But one evening with Oswalds, frought with incidents, stands out in our memory. That evening we decided to show the 8mm. movie of our walking trip which Lee did not see and insisted on seeing. This was sometime in January of 1963. A scientist working for the researchdepartment of an oil company, Edward Glover, arranged for the projection in his house. And he invited all his friends, acquaintances and colleagues. Most scientists and skillful technicians dream of wilderness and free life in the open. And so the large room was full. Our only guests were Lee and Marina. They had found someone to babysit for baby June. I did not show the film often as this original was precious to us and we didn’t have a copy. Taken all outdoors, this film came out amazingly well starting with our departure from the “civilized” world and ending a year later south of the Panama Canal. What we did was a little walk from the Texas border, all on foot - and we did not cheat even once. This trip began in October of 1960 and we returned from Panama in a civilized way by plane, to Jamaica first and then to Haiti where we took a good rest. During this hegira we made a complete breakaway from all comforts, slept exclusively outside, on the ground, ate whatever the Indians had to sell and I exchanged occasionally my knowledge of minerals against food supplies. We walked freely as much as we wanted, slowly at first, much faster later, guiding ourselves by old mining maps and by compass. We lost a lot of disgusting fat in a hurry and after three months became lean and bronzed like savages, able to run up a high mountain without breathing hard. The film, taken periodically, showed this amazing change in us, from slobs to healthy individuals, the rest consisted of beautiful scenery, of Indians we met, of our wonderful Manchester hero and our unpredictable mule - Condessa. We stopped in a ranch south of the Panama canal and left our mule there, to be retired from hard work. I hope she ended her life peacefully. Quite of a few of Glover’s friends from Dallas and New York, mostly your career people, although conservatively inclined, were interested in meeting Lee Harvey Oswald. Some were more interested in him than in our movie. And they got their money’s worth. After the showing they asked Lee some pointed questions and he answered them aggressively and sharply without hiding, and even exaggerating, his feelings. Lee wanted to show these well dressed, prosperous youngsters that he was different radically from them. I wanted to stop him but he went on nevertheless talking of his sympathies of revolutionary movements all over the world, of his respect for Fidel Castro and for Che Guevara. This made him hardly popular with this group, composed mainly of big oil company employees, dreaming not of revolution but of advancement of their respective careers. And there is nobody more conservative and even race conscious than an oil company employee or executive. Lee knew that, I bet you; he said sharply, that your companies do not employ any Blacks or Mexicans in any positions, not executive but average personnel; Nobody answered Lee’s challenge. But there was an exception in this conservative group - a tall, dark haired, attractive women in her late twenties. She took a vivid interest in Marina and did not take offense to Lee’s utterances. She asked me if Marina spoke any English. I said,- no. Would you introduce me to her? My name is Ruth Paine.
So both Oswald, the alleged assassin, and J. Walton Moore, of the CIA’s Domestic Contacts Division, attended the De Mohrenschildt’s party where Ruth Paine also met Marina Oswald, the Russian wife of the alleged assassin, setting up another important association. In addition, the documents released under the JFK Act also show that both J. Walton Moore and Charles Donald Ford joined the Navy during World War II, but ended up in the Army, assigned to the
OSS, where in 1945 they were both sent to China on a mission together. Charles Donald Ford became a CIA training officer assigned to the JM/WAVE station before being assigned to be the chief liaison between the CIA and Robert F. Kennedy, the attorney general, said to be a middle-man between the White House and the mob in the plots to kill Castro. If J. Walton Moore and Charles Donald Ford, together in the OSS, were also working together in 1963, then Moore could have been a direct CIA channel on Oswald’s activities to those operators at JM/WAVE, who are suspected of setting Oswald up as the patsy and framing him for the assassination. While all investigative roads seem to lead back to JM/WAVE, the CIA is still stonewalling in refusing to abide by the JFK Act, and refuses to release the pertinent records, about Mr. J. Walton Moore, C. D. Ford, George Joannides, David Morales, David Atlee Phillips, and the others who were involved in the few and specific (April-Nov.) anti-Castro Cuban operations that involved RFK.That Fox News commentator Bill O’Reilly was one of the reporters stonewalled on this issue should inspire him to follow through on his 1977 assignment, and join other reporters in the call for the release of the necessary records and for proper congressional oversight and enforcement of the JFK Act. As can be seen, O’Reilly was on the right track, and that a follow-up into the recently released records shows that O’Reilly was correct in his assertions that there were more definitive associations between the CIA’s J. Walton Moore and Lee Harvey Oswald, the accused assassin of President Kennedy.
B. K. Bkjfk3@yahoo.com
Many thanks to Dallas researcher Robert Howard for finding documents and calling attention to them, and to Rex Bradford for posting docs at the Mary Ferrell Archives.
