Those generations who were there in 1963 are grateful that people like you are continuing the pursuit and taking another look at events which may have been too shocking for the rest of us to ever fully comprehend. They were co-hosts of a program called Alternative Views featuring news, interviews, and opinion pieces from a progressive point of view. Mr. PREYER - And dozens of others talked to you in a general, speculative manner? When Doug Kellner answered the phone, I described to him the contents of the letter. Mr. WILCOTT - The basis for that is discussions that I had with people at the XXXXX Station. Mr. CORNWELL - Did you -- at the time you made the decision to discuss outside of the Agency this matter, did you focus on the secrecy oath problem? Mr. CORNWELL - What routinely was done with such note pads? or C.I.A. About a year or two after her death, while his father was away, someone broke into the house and set it on fire, creating a furious blaze. She said that there is a whole lot more to tell about the TSBD than what has been publishedthat the whole building should be suspected as more or less of a safe base to operate from that day in November 1963.[9]. Truly notified Police Captain Will Fritz, who immediately thought that it was "important to hold that man.[29] What makes this even more interesting is the following new information. Mr. WILCOTT - Yes, sir. Obviously, my handwriting has long been broken down. (At this time the school book depository had been relocated to a warehouse near the intersection of Royal Lane and Interstate 35.). This is the story of the Wilcott file. And their security that there is in the Government didn't strike me as the kind of security that would keep me from getting attacked in some way, if someone wanted to do it. Mr. WILCOTT - That is correct. Mr. WILCOTT - Yes. I am a reporter there. Thank you for your letter. It was a total loss. She said that she had been in the personnel department since 1982, and she never knew anyone by that name. Mr. WILCOTT - That is true. Mr. WILCOTT - Well, it was my understanding that Lee Harvey Oswald was an employee of the agency and was an agent, of the agency. Mr. WILCOTT - No, sir; that was a smaller station. His information was that he had been unwitt. Mr. SAWYER - Could you tell us what those things consisted of? Bring your club to Amazon Book Clubs, start a new book club and invite your friends to join, or find a club thats right for you for free. Mr. WILCOTT - Yes. Enclosing the back area is a high, chain-link fence with coils of barbed wire on top. And perhaps even having people inside the TSBD as assets. Two weeks later when I made a follow-up call, Kellner said that his partner Frank Morrow vaguely remembered the letter, but could not provide any additional information. "[24] Lovelady must have been one of the other calm men, since, as previously noted, he made no response when Adams said that the president had been shot. Since the CIA has the capability of engineering car crashes to look like accidents, Harriss name should be added to the list of mysterious deaths, along with Warren Commission witness Lee Bowers, who died when his car ran off the road and ran into a freeway abutment. Mr. PREYER - He stated that as a fact and not that he believed it was drawn out for Oswald or it could have been or something like that? Regardless, it ended up in my files around the time we opened the JFK Center in 1989. Mr. WILCOTT - Yes. Mr. CORNWELL - Had you ever run into any similar cryptonym? [3] Telephone interviews of Campbell March 19, 1994; Jones, March 19, 1994; Williams, April 4, 1994; Garner, August 14, 1999. Mr. GOLDSMITH - Do you remember the name of this Case Officer? Mr. GOLDSMITH - How long were these records maintained? Mr. GOLDSMITH - What do you mean by the term "agent"? Mr. WILCOTT - I resigned. Mr. GOLDSMITH - Have you received a copy of the Committee's rules? As you can well imagine, she was quite confused because the job was low-paying and involved minor duties. It was first broadcast in 1978 on a public access television channel in Austin, Texas. Mr. WILCOTT - XXXXXXXXXXXX George Breen, Ed Luck, and. Needless to say, she never did wear that dress. Mr. GOLDSMITH - Do you have an opinion as to how the Mr. PREYER - Let me interrupt. [4] FBI report of Roy Truly interview by Nat Pinkston, November 23, 1963, File No. Mr. WILCOTT - XXXXXXXXXXXXX (spelling). New York, 1989) p. 319. And when did you begin to develop attitudes of dissatisfaction with the Agency and its reaction and attitudes toward what you described as undemocratic principles and a lack of humanism? Mr. WILCOTT - No. ASSASSINATION OF PRESIDENT JOHN F. KENNEDY The other one was the Lone Star School Book Depository, also located in the city of Dallas. Present: Representatives Preyer (presiding), Dodd and Sawyer. Mr. GOLDSMITH - And you testified without any reservation? I made my call and left. Not long after Oswald departed from the scene, Shelley told Truly that Oswald was missing. Mr. DODD - Am I to believe by that that you were not aware at the time you made the disbursement that it was, in fact, an Oswald project? "It is inconceivable that a secret intelligence arm of the government has to comply with all the overt orders of the government." - CIA CounterIntelligence head James Angleton . [17] Gladys Cason, One Life, self-published book, 2004, pp. New security officers appeared. Mr. CORNWELL - All you can recall is that, when you. ALTERED! files -- my internal files, prior to the end of the month. Mr. CORNWELL - However, I take it from the fact that, as you describe it, it wasn't always applied, that occasionally you did learn something about the identities of the persons or projects that the cryptonyms referred to; is that correct? Mr. CORNWELL - Did they request that you leave? Mr. WILCOTT - I do. He stated that he left work because, in his opinion, based upon remarks of BILL SHELLEY, he did not believe that there was going to be any more work that day due to the confusion in the building. The stark contrast in the quality of scholarship between the two books was one factor convincing him that there was a huge conspiracy behind the assassination. A puzzling aspect of Glazes 1989 letter was his reference to the book depository having moved to a location near the intersection of Royal Lane and Interstate 35. (Its address, I later learned, was 11310 Gemini Lane.) I must admit that my own fear of getting involved in the investigation has prevented me from writing you earlier. Mr. GOLDSMITH - Mr. Wilcott after leaving the XXXXXXXXX Station, was there any other time when you came across any information that indicated that Oswald was a CIA agent? Considering the noise of gun blasts and the uproar going on outside, it is odd that Oswald continued to be unconcerned. James B. Wilcott was a CIA accountant who disbursed CIA station funds in Tokyo, Japan. Mr. GOLDSMITH - So basically, you checked only one of the advance books, is that correct? He enjoyed giving to others, and loved the companionship of his four dogs. Mr. GOLDSMITH - Why not? Mr. GOLDSMITH - Were any of these people on your list possible subjects who made references to Oswald being a CIA agent? The day after their disappearance, an estimated 20 Dallas policemen pulled up on front of my apartment. SILENCED! Mr. WILCOTT - All of the people that we mentioned in the case. As a CIA employee, Wilcott stated under oath that many people told him that Lee Harvey Oswald was an agent of the CIA after the assassination had occurred. Mrs. Bergin paid a great deal of money for that dress. Mr. WILCOTT - Yes. He was an accomplished journalist and author and had worked as a radio engineer in his early career. But you apparently indicated that you feel there was a direct connection between the Bay of Pigs operation and the assassination of the President. One of said employees, her husband, and child, disappeared without a trace a few hours after granting me an interview. Mr. GOLDSMITH - Do you have that list with you? Mr. WILCOTT - I don't know. When Joe entered the building, he took a recently installed passenger elevator to the fourth floor. [7] The Bergins house appeared to be under surveillance and their telephone line seemed to have been tapped. We should not jump to conclusions, since we do not know the entity that was actually paying him. Instead, he might have been one of the temporary musicians. Mr. WILCOTT - Yes, sir. Supposedly, he fell asleep at the wheel, or committed suicide, when he rammed into the back of a semi-truck. When, exactly, was the very first time that you heard or came across information that Oswald was an agent? It would be easy to verify: (1) if a reporter named Glaze has ever worked for the Lubbock newspaper, (2) if a journalist named Glaze was living in Dallas in 1974/1975. The two new employees were administered a written questionnaire asking about their opinions of current topics of the day, especially social issues. When the woman heard that Glaze was planning to go to the FBI, or had already been to the FBI, she was terrified and told him that she would deny everything. [5] Examination of city directories and phone books in the Dallas Public Library shows that the book depository and the publishing companies did not have the 411 Elm Street address until 1963. phone, and hang up, and I would get notes written in snow or my windshield and I had slips of paper left under my, windshield and this sort of thing. Mr. WILCOTT - Yes, sir. This was all cash payments and record keeping for the station. Mr. WILCOTT - That is correct, sir. Please try your request again later. One man had blonde or light-brown hair, wore a white shirt, and was armed with a rifle. Mr. GOLDSMITH - Did you prepare such a list? Mr. WILCOTT - Yes, they did. "I was standing on the triple underpass at the time and was wounded by a fragment that bounced off the pavement," Tague, now 77, told ABC News. Mine was a happenstance meeting and short, casual friendship with a man who appeared to have fallen through the cracks. They told me that I had passed both of those. Customer Reviews, including Product Star Ratings help customers to learn more about the product and decide whether it is the right product for them. Mr. WILCOTT - My name is James B. Wilcott. [11] Glaze misdated his letter as 12/12/74.. Mr. CORNWELL - How many of them were newspaper or magazine reporters or involved in at least the news business ? Please excuse this messy letter. Mr. WILCOTT - That he was a regular employee, receiving a full-time salary for agent work for doing CIA operational work. Had the seemingly insignificant trail of bread crumbs I stumbled across had not been so he avidly guarded, I might never have given it a second thought. Let us say, for instance, that there was a certain project going on, and the project was one that became known that this project was being carried out -- and we call it "flaps," -- and the Case Officer in charge might get word that somebody from headquarters was coming to review the files to investigate the flap. Apparently, work at the book depository was not so demanding as to preclude these forays into military, law enforcement, or intelligence organizations. His desire to tell what he knew overcame his fear at least twice in his life. Mr. GOLDSMITH - Did you have any basis for thinking that their security was poor? Please try again. the day we would list all of the advances that were made in an advance book. For many years he assisted organizations that helped veterans, monitored the nuclear power industry, and worked to ensure basic human rights. Mr. GOLDSMITH - And did you check any other records? Mr. WILCOTT - Yes sir; at Oakland Technical High School, at the invitation of -- the social department asked me if I wanted to speak and I said yes, and so I spoke to two classes at Oakland Technical High School. [10] Larry Ray Harris at the age of 44 died in an automobile accident on October 5, 1996. JFK Assassination : The James B. Wilcott Files And The CIA Oswald Project: An Investigative Report. And I think that is why I probably heard a lot more things than other people did, for instance, than my wife did, because of that situation. There is a very large spider guarding this web of secrecy. Namely the mention that Shelley was a CIA operative, while at the same time he was an employee in the schoolbook business. There were two depositories in the state of Texas. Wilcott's Full HSCA Testimony EXECUTIVE SESSION ASSASSINATION OF PRESIDENT JOHN F. KENNEDY WEDNESDAY, MARCH 22, 1978 House of Representatives, John F. Kennedy Subcommittee of the Select Committee on Assassinations, However, while visiting the vacant building in 1983, Hurt saw seven large wooden boxes on the sixth floor, left behind by the TSBD when it moved to a new location in 1970. Mr. GOLDSMITH - And a copy of the relevant House Resolutions? JAMES WILCOTT'S TESTIMONYJames B. Wilcott, a former CIA accountant, swore in a secret session of the House Select Committee on Assassinations that he was told by other CIA employees that Lee Harvey Oswald was paid by the CIA, and that money he himself had disbursed was for "Oswald or the Oswald project." Mr. GOLDSMITH - And what did he tell you the cryptonym was? Mr. GOLDSMITH - Is that list complete and does it have. Mr. WILCOTT - No, I am not saying that. Mr. WILCOTT - Not really files; it was my book. Mr. GOLDSMITH - If the agency, in fact, was run on the "need-to-know" basis, how would you account for so many people supposedly knowing that Oswald was an agent? From June of 1964 to about December of 1964, I was at Roseland. Considering the far-reaching extent of control over so many occupations in American society, the CIA could very well have infiltrated the schoolbook depositories and their associated publishers. Mr. WILCOTT - Yes. Mr. WILCOTT - Not at this time. There are photos of him getting into a police car along with Bonnie Ray Williams and Daniel Arce. [12], A suggestion of smuggling activities within the TSBD comes in the form of boxes too large to be practical containers of books. Mr. WILCOTT - Yes, sir. As far as I know, the unknown Dallas author who interviewed has not published his book. If it is true that Shelley was affiliated in some way with CIA or U.S. intelligence, that would be a disturbing and potentially significant development.[10]. For in Barry Ernests book, The Girl on the Stairs, the reader will read that both Vickie Adams and Sandy Styles told Barry that they did not see either Shelly or Lovelady when they descended from the fourth floor to the first. Mr. WILCOTT - No, I didn't. Mr. DODD - Was he described as an agent to you or was he described as an operative or a paid informant? Mr. WILCOTT - Yes, there were several other incidents that I believe could possibly be somehow connected with CIA. Mr. WILCOTT - Yes, sir; it was a cryptonym that I was familiar with, that it must have been at least two or three occasions that I had remembered it and it did ring a bell, yes. The band started out in 1966 in Long Beach, California, and became known for its unique blend of country western and rock and roll. Mr. DODD - As a point of information, are people who work within the Agency fairly careful in their language in describing what the category of certain people are who work for the Agency? Mr. GOLDSMITH - Do you remember which of these individuals if any, made the specific allegation or reference that Oswald was an agent? Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web. Free shipping for many products! Learn more. Mr. CORNWELL - On that occasion to whom did you speak? Give as a gift or purchase for a team or group. Mr. WILCOTT - Yes. What, on recollection, strikes me as possibly significant is that all three seemed to be exceedingly calm and relaxed, compared to the pandemonium which existed right outside their front door. Mr. WILCOTT - Yes, I was on security duty, and on security duty, agents were coming in and out of the station, and I pulled a lot of security duty, three and four nights right in a row, and pulled as much as 24 hours on weekends, and an agent would come back from meeting with somebody and he would be waiting for his wife to pick him up or would be waiting for a call from one of the indigenous agents that he was running and a lot of times conversations would be talked. Mr. PREYER - That was shop talk, speculation, I gather; people were saying that the CIA is somehow connected with it. DL 100-10461. Mr. WILCOTT - Yes. Mr. PREYER - The Committee will resume. Mr. WILCOTT - Yes. 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