two defectors

Code to Oswald?

Comparison of Two Defectors

Posted October 13, 2000

Robert E. Webster represented a plastics manufacturer at a trade show in Moscow during 1959. He met a woman named Vera and starting dating her. After the show ended, Mr. Webster defected to the Soviet Union.

The New York Times devoted two articles to Webster's defection. When Webster decided to return to the U.S., he merited four articles in The New York Times.

In late October, the article, "American Picks Life in The Soviet," announced the defection of Robert E. Webster. This article contained the error "C.E. Webster, the father said no telephone call had yet been received. He and his wife said: ceived. He and his wife said:" These mangled lines gave the appearance of an editing error after they wrote the story.

The next day, the New York Times published "Wife of Defector Voices Suspicions" (1) that developed the "another woman" theme. Surprisingly, the staid New York Times reported Mr. Webster had seen a lot of Vera but they did not tell us how often he saw her.

In March 1962, the media became aware of the desire of Robert E. Webster to return to the U.S. The New York Times published the article, "American in Russia Seeks Return Here," with two groups of illegible symbols between the words "employe" and "Rand." The first group might have been the word "of."

During May, The New York Times reported Robert E. Webster's pending return in the article, "Man Who Renounced U.S. to Return." (2) Four days later, they reported Webster's return in the article, "Defector to Soviet is Back to 'Undo Wrong' to U.S." (3) Both these articles were error free.

The last article on Robert E. Webster, "Ex-Ohioan is Questioned on Three Years in Soviet," reported his testimony before a Congressional committee. This article contained the error "The hearing took place behind closed roors."

Three out of six articles published by The New York Times on Robert E. Webster contained errors. This 50 percent error rate is atypical for any newspaper and suggests that The New York Times reported more than they printed.

Robert E. Webster had a contemporary who defected to the Soviet Union in 1959 and returned to the United States in 1962. This contemporary was Lee Harvey Oswald.

The Dallas Morning News, The New York Times, and The Washington Post reported the defection of Lee Harvey Oswald. The Times article, "Ex-Marine Requests Soviet Citizenship," described Oswald's demonstration at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow.

Most newspapers showed little interest in Oswald's story. The Chicago Daily Tribune, Herald Tribune (New York City), Los Angeles Times, New York Daily News, Times - Picayune (New Orleans), and The Washington Post did not follow up on the initial report of Oswald's defection.

Lee Harvey Oswald received special treatment by The New York Times. They published the follow-up article, "American Awaits Soviet Word" (4) with the words, "on his" and "nothing to" printed as "o nis" and "nothin gto." Probably, these errors were pointers to the adjacent Nat Sherman' advertisement.(5)

This Nat Sherman' advertisement contained an anomaly. In place of the opening quote in "It's a Boy" a large comma and a period appear as superscripts.

Production of a line of text containing these anomalies required the five-step sequence of half-down, comma, change font wheel, period, and half-up. The complexity of this process rules out accidental production. I conclude Nat Sherman intentionally embedded an encoded message in his advertisement.

By contrast on six separate occasions, The New York Times published a Robert E. Webster article and an errorless Nat Sherman' advertisement on different pages.

Source: The New York Times

1.     October 21, 1959, pg. 5, "Wife of Defector Voices Suspicions"

2.     May 17, 1962, pg. 12, "Man Who Renounced U.S. to Return"

3.     May 21, 1962, pg. 4, "Defector to Soviet is Back to 'Undo Wrong' to U.S."

4.     November 3, 1959, pg. 8;7, "American Awaits Soviet Word"

5.     November 3, 1959, pg. 8;8, Nat Sherman' advertisement

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Last Updated on March 5, 2014 by Herbert Blenner

Source: The New York Times, October 20, 1959, Page 3

Source: The New York Times, Nov. 1, 1959, Page 3

Source: The New York Times, March 24, 1962, Page 6

Source: The New York Times, May 25, 1962, Page 5