MARINA TO ARRB

Marina Oswald Porter's
04/96 Letter to the ARRB

Assassination Records Review Board Hearing in



Los Angeles

LOS 

ANGELES
, 
CA

 - September 17, 1996 --- The

Assassination Records Review Board was given 17

boxes of never-before-seen documents belonging

to the late J. Lee Rankin, General Counsel for

the 

Warren

 Commission, by his son this week.

Testifying before the ARRB in a Public Hearing

in 

Los Angeles

, James Rankin, the son of J. Lee

Rankin, said his family found the boxes about

six months ago.

These documents and other materials were offered

to the ARRB, a federal commission established

to collect documents on the JFK assassination.

The ARRB also made public a request from 

Marina

Oswald Porter, widow of Lee Harvey Oswald, asking

the board to investigate his involvement with

the FBI. (Reprinted below.)

"I definitely think that Lee Oswald did not kill

President Kennedy," she wrote. "I think he was

given up to pacify people as a patsy...I believe

that the documents I have requested will be

eye-openers."

Also testifying this week were:

- David Belin, former Assistant Counsel to the

  

Warren

 Commission;

- James DiEugenio, author of DESTINY BETRAYED:

  

JFK
, 
CUBA

 AND THE GARRISON CASE;

- Eric Hamburg, co-Producer of the Oliver Stone

  film, NIXON, and a Congressional staff assistant

  involved in the passage of the President John

  F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection

  Act of 1992;

- Wesley Liebeler, former Assistant Counsel to

  the 

Warren

 Commission;

- David Lifton, author of BEST EVIDENCE: DISGUISE

  AND DECEPTION IN THE ASSASSINATION OF JOHN F.

  KENNEDY;

- Robert Tanenbaum, former Deputy Counsel for the

  House Select Committee on Assassinations and

  author of CORRUPTION OF BLOOD; and

- Steven Tilley, who oversees the JFK Collection

  at the National Archives.

ARRB Board Chair John Tunheim and Board Members

William L. Joyce, Dr. Anna K. Nelson, and Kermit

L. Hall were present (Board Member Henry Graff

was unable to attend), as were ARRB Executive

Director David G. Marwell, Press & Public Affairs

Officer Tom Samoluk, Press & Public Affairs

Assistant Eileen Sullivan, and Administration

Officer Tracy Shycoff.  - Clint Bradford

===============================================

Marina Oswald Porter's 04/96 Letter to the ARRB

===============================================

April 19, 1996

Mr. John Tunheim, Chairman

JFK Assassination Records Review Board

600 E Street N.W., Second Floor



Washington
, 
D.C.
 
20530

(Certified Mail No. P 271 942 632)

Dear Mr. Tunheim:

I am writing to you regarding the release of still

classified documents related to the assassination

of President Kennedy and to my former husband,

Lee Harvey Oswald.

Specifically, I am writing to ask about documents

I have learned of from a recent book and from a

story in the 

Washington

 Post by the authors of the

same book (as well as other documents they have

described to me).  The book reviews 

Dallas

 police,

FBI, and CIA files released since 1992, and

places them in the context of previously known

information.  I would like to know what the Review

Board is doing to obtain the following:

1. The 

Dallas

 field office and headquarters FBI

reports on the arrests of Donnell D. Whitter and


Lawrence
 R. Miller in 

Dallas

 on November 18, 1963

with a carload of stolen 

U.S.

 army weapons.  I

believe that Lee Oswald was the FBI informant who

made these arrests possible.  I would also like

to know what your board has done to obtain the

reports of the U.S. Marshal and the 

U.S.

 Army on

the same arrests, and the burglary these men were

suspected of.

2. The records of the FBI interrogations of John

Franklin Elrod, John Forrester Gedney and Harold

Doyle (the latter men were previously known as

two of the "three tramps") in the 

Dallas

 jail

November 22-24, 1963.  All of these men have

stated that they were interrogated during that

time by the FBI.

3. The official explanation of why the arrest

records for Mr. Elrod, Mr. Gedney and Mr. Doyle,

as well as for Daniel Wayne Douglas and Gus

Abrams were placed "under federal seal" in the



Dallas

 Police Records Division for 26 years as

described by 

Dallas
 
City

 Archives supervisor

Laura McGhee to the FBI in 1992.

4. The FULL records of the interrogation of Lee

Harvey Oswald, including his interrogation in

the presence of John Franklin Elrod as described

by Elrod in an FBI report dated August 11, 1964.

5. The reports of army intelligence agent Ed J.

Coyle on his investigation of Captain George

Nonte, John Thomas Masen, Donnell D. Whitter,



Lawrence

 R. Miller, and/or Jack Ruby.  I am also

requesting that you obtain agent Coyle's reports

as army liason for presidential protection on

November 22, 1963 (as described by Coyle's

commanding officer Col. Robert Jones in sworn

testimony to the House Select Committee on

Assassinations).  If the army does not

immediately produce these documents, they

should be required to produce agent Coyle to

explain what happened to his reports.

6. Secret Service reports and tapes of that

agency's investigation of Father Walter

Machann and Silvia Odio in 1963-64.

7. Reports of the FBI investigation of Cuban

exiles in 

Dallas

, to include known but still

classified documents on Fermin de Goicochea

Sanchez, Father Walter Machann and the Dallas

Diocese Catholic Cuban Relocation Committee.

These would include informant files for Father

Machann and/or reports of interviews of Father

Machann by 

Dallas

 FBI agent W. Heitman.

8. The full particulars and original of the

teletype received by Mr. William Walter in the



New Orleans

 FBI office on the  morning of

November 17, 1963, warning of a possible

assassination attempt on President Kennedy in



Dallas

.  I now believe that my former husband

met with the 

Dallas

 FBI on November 16, 1963,

and provided informant information on which

this teletype was based.

9. A full report of Lee Harvey Oswald's visit

to the 

Dallas

 FBI office on November 16, 1963.

10. A full account of FBI agent James P.

Hosty's claim (in his recent book, ASSIGNMENT:

OSWALD) that Lee Harvey Oswald knew of a planned

"paramilitary invasion of 

Cuba

" by "a group of

right wing Cuban exiles in outlying areas of New



Orleans

."  We now know that such an invasion

was indeed planned by a Cuban group operating on

CIA payroll in Miami, New Orleans, and Dallas--

the same group infiltrated by Lee Oswald.  We

know this information ONLY from documents

released since 1992, as described in the book I

have mentioned.  On what basis did agent Hosty

believe Lee "had learned" of these plans, unless

Lee himself told him this?  I am therefore

specifically requesting the release of the

informant report that Lee Oswald provided to

agent Hosty and/or other FBI personnel on this

intelligence information.

The time for the Review Board to obtain and

release the most important documents related to

the assassination of President Kennedy is running

out.  At the time of the assassination of this

great president whom I loved, I was misled by

the "evidence" presented to me by government

authorities and I assisted in the conviction of

Lee Harvey Oswald as the assassin.  From the new

information now available, I am now convinced

that he was an FBI informant and believe that he

did not kill President Kennedy.  It is time for

Americans to know their full history.  On this

day when I and all Americans are grieving for the

victims of 

Oklahoma City

, I am also thinking of my

children and grandchildren, and of all American

children, when I insist that your board give the

highest priority to the release of the documents

I have listed.  This is the duty you were charged

with by law.  Anything else is unacceptable --

not just to me, but to all patriotic Americans.

Please be advised that this is an open letter,

and I intend to make it available to anyone who

wishes to see it.  The time for secrecy in

government is over.  I ask that you respond to

me in writing within two weeks, and will take

no further action until then.

Thank you for your attention to my requests.

Sincerely,

Marina Porter (signed)

cc: Rep. John Conyers Jr.

    Rep. Newt Gingrich

    Rep. Henry B. Gonzalez

    Rep. Lee H. Hamilton

    Rep. Joseph P. Kennedy

    Sen. William S. Cohen

    Sen. Edward M. Kennedy

    Sen. Bob Kerrey

    Sen. John Kerry

    Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan

    Sen. Arlen Specter

--end--