Tall Lee and Short Harvey--School Days


LEE Oswald in the 6th Grade in 1952

In an FBI report dated June 5, 1964 (CE 2221), SA Earle Haley described his interview with one of Oswald's Ridglea West Elementary School classmates, Richard Warren Garrett. The report indicated that Oswald and Garrett had played together at school, and Garrett had once been in Oswald's home. Garrett described Oswald as "the tallest, most dominant member of our class."

Three months later, in August 1952, Marguerite Oswald and her son LEE drove to New York City to be near her oldest son, John Pic, who was Lee's half-brother. According to the Warren Commission, young Oswald failed to attend school and was placed in the Bronx Youth House in 1953. But John Armstrong reviewed Oswald's school records that were published in the Warren Volumes and discovered that Oswald attended school regularly with few absences. How could Oswald be attending Public School 44 with a good attendance record and still be placed in the Youth House for truancy?

The former President of the New York Chapter of the American Psychiatric Association, Dr. Milton Kurian, interviewed (HARVEY) Oswald in his office in March, 1953. He described (HARVEY) Oswald as short (about 4'8"), thin, and very quiet during a tape recorded interview. (Click here to see YouTube interview.) In April, 1953 Dr. Renatus Hartogs interviewed (HARVEY) Oswald at the Youth House and described him as thin, malnourished, and reminiscent of children he had seen in concentration camps in Europe.


HARVEY Oswald at the Bronx Zoo in 1953

During his Warren Commission testimony, (LEE) Oswald's older half-brother,  John Pic, was shown a series of photographs of LEE taken between the ages of 2 and 12. Pic recognized all of the photos as his brother. But when Pic was shown the picture above of (HARVEY) Oswald at the Bronx Zoo (CE 2893) Pic said this young man was not his brother.

Mr. JENNER. Then right below that is a picture of a young man standing in front of an iron fence, which appears to be probably at a zoo. Do you recognize that?

Mr. PIC. Sir, from that picture, I could not recognize that that is Lee Harvey Oswald.

Mr. JENNER. That young fellow is shown there, he doesn't look like you recall Lee looked in 1952 and 1953 when you saw him in New York City?

Mr. PIC. No, sir.

--WC Vol. 11, p. 65

Why didn't John Pic recognize a picture of his own half-brother at the Bronx Zoo in New York? Because the photo was of HARVEY Oswald (shown in CE 2893), who was placed in the Youth House during the spring of 1953 while LEE Oswald attended Public School 44 regularly. HARVEY was truant and placed in Youth House.


In the fall of 1953 LEE Oswald entered the 8th grade at PS 44 in New York City, according to school records published by the Warren Commission. But the Warren Commission also published school records that showed (HARVEY) Oswald attended Beauregard Junior High School in New Orleans in the fall of 1953. LEE in New York. HARVEY in New Orleans at the same time.

In January 1954 LEE Oswald and his mother left New York and moved to New Orleans where LEE registered at Beauregard Junior High School. All of LEE Oswald's 8th grade report cards are published in the Warren Volumes, and all show that he was assigned to homeroom #303. While LEE Oswald was assigned to homeroom #303 on the 3rd floor of Beaureard JHS, HARVEY Oswald (attending Beauregard since Sept, 1953) was assigned to Myra DaRouse's 8th grade homeroom in the basement cafeteria.

In a videotaped interview Myra discussed HARVEY Oswald, her favorite student. She recalled that when Oswald entered her homeroom and handed her his file Myra asked "how do you want to be called?" Oswald replied, call me "HARVEY." She described HARVEY as short, reaching to about to the level of her chest. Based on her own height of 5'4", she estimated Oswald's height at 4'6" to 4'8" (same height estimated by Dr. Kurian). LEE Oswald's height was measured and recorded on the NYC Public School System health records (1953-54 school year), published in the Warren Volumes. Beauregard JHS records show LEE Oswald's height, while in the 9th grade, at 5'5" and his weight at 135 lbs. We now know that LEE Oswald was 5'4" tall in 1953 and 5'5" tall in 1954--about 8 inches taller than the much shorter, thin, HARVEY Oswald. This photograph of the tall, husky, 135 lb. well-built LEE Oswald was taken in Helen Dufour's English 9th grade class in Oct, 1954 by Oswald's friend Ed Voebel, and appeared in LIFE Magazine.

On one occasion, clearly remembered by Myra, Ed Voebel came running out of the basement and told Myra that a piano had fallen on HARVEY's legs. Myra and fellow teacher Dorothy Duvic ran downstairs and lifted the piano from HARVEY's legs. Myra took HARVEY to the Monte Lepre Clinic and then drove him to his apartment at 126 Exchange Alley. This was early spring, 1954, when LEE Oswald and his mother were living at 1454 St. Marys in an apartment owned by Marguerite's close friend, Myrtle Evans. LEE and his tall, nice-looking mother lived at 1454 St. Marys (1954-55). HARVEY and his short, heavy-set caretaker lived at 126 Exchange (1954-55)

click here for 1997 interview of Myra DaRouse


The Warren Commission omitted any reference to school records that showed HARVEY Oswald attending Beauregard JHS in the fall of 1953. Instead, they provided background information on LEE Oswald:

In New Orleans, Lee and his mother stayed with the Murrets at 757 French Street while they looked for an apartment. Lee enrolled in the eighth grade at Beauregard Junior High School on January 13 and completed the school year without apparent difficulty. He entered the ninth grade in September and again received mediocre but acceptable marks. In October 1954, Lee took a series of achievement tests, on which he did well in reading and vocabulary, badly in mathematics. At the end of the school year, on June 2, 1955, he filled out a "personal history." He indicated that the subjects which he liked best were civics, science, and mathematics; those he liked least were English and art.
Warren Report, p. 67


Much later in the Report, we are told:

After a short period with the Murrets, Mrs. Oswald and Lee had moved to an apartment owned by Myrtle Evans at 1454 Saint Mary Street, which she and Mrs. Murret helped to furnish; later they moved to a less expensive apartment in the same building, the address of which was 1452 Saint Mary Street. Relations between Mrs. Oswald and Mrs. Evans became strained, and in the spring of 1955 the Oswalds moved to a new apartment at 126 Exchange Place in the French Quarter. Although Lee gave the Exchange Place address on a school form at the end of the ninth grade, the school authorities had apparently not been advised of these moves earlier, because Mrs. Oswald did not want Lee to be transferred from Beauregard, which she considered a good school.
Warren Report, p. 680


The Warren Commission was incorrect when it reported that LEE Oswald and his mother were living at 1454 St. Marys from early 1954 through the spring of 1955. We know that Oswald's homeroom teacher, Myra DaRouse, drove HARVEY Oswald to his home at 126 Exchange Alley in the spring of 1954. This means that HARVEY and the Marguerite Oswald impostor were living at 126 Exchange Place from September, 1953 to the summer of 1954. After the 1953-54 school year at Beauregard ended (June, 1954) HARVEY Oswald and the Marguerite Oswald impostor left New Orleans and moved to 2220 Thomas Place in Ft. Worth, Texas. In the fall of 1954 HARVEY entered the 9th grade at Stripling Junior High which was directly across the street from their home.

In the fall of 1954 LEE Oswald and his tall, nice-looking mother moved into 126 Exchange. LEE Oswald entered the 9th grade at Beauregard Junior High School and soon became involved in a fight with Johnny Neumeyer. Ed Voebel was standing nearby and, after the fight, helped LEE Oswald to clean up. Voebel and LEE Oswald became friends and Voebel visited Oswald at his home where he met Marguerite Claverie Oswald. Voebel told the Warren Commission that Oswald lost a tooth during the fight. In October, 1954 Voebel took a photo of LEE Oswald in his English class, which appears to show a missing front tooth. This photo, known to researchers as the "classroom photo," appeared in LIFE Magazine in February, 1964.

NOTE: It is very important to realize and understand that Ed Voebel had unknowingly become friends with HARVEY Oswald (spring of 1954) and with LEE Oswald (9th grade 1954-55 school year).

While LEE Oswald and Ed Voebel were in the 9th grade at Beauregard JHS (fall, 1954), HARVEY Oswald was in the 9th grade at Stripling Junior High in Ft. Worth, 

After the 1954-55 school year ended LEE Oswald and Ed Voebel joined the CAP. LEE began working for an import/export company, the Gerard F. Tujague company. In July 1955 LEE Oswald's brother, Robert Oswald, was discharged from the Marine Corps and lived with his mother and brother at 126 Exchange for a few weeks. Robert Oswald wrote in his book, LEE, that his brother was working for an import/export company (Tujague's). The following is from Robert Oswald's Warren Commission testimony:

Mr. OSWALD. Just a minute, please. In 1952 Lee was 13 years old. He would be attending W. C. Stripling Junior High School then.
Mr. JENNER. I see. For the school year 1951-52?
Mr. OSWALD. Yes, sir. Junior high school there was from the seventh to the ninth grades. And as soon as he was through with his sixth year, he started attending W. C. Stripling Junior High School.
Mr. JENNER. As soon as he finished the sixth year at Ridglea Elementary School, he entered W. C. Stripling High School, as a seventh grader?
Mr. OSWALD. Yes, sir--junior high school.
Mr. JENNER. Now, the condition that you described as to Lee shifting for himself during the daytime, when your mother was away working and you were away working, and your brother John was in the Coast Guard, continued, I take it, when he began attendance and while he was attending W. C. Stripling Junior High School?
Mr. OSWALD. Yes, sir.
--Warren Commission, Vol. 1, p. 299


LEE Oswald's older brother, Robert, told the Warren Commission that the alleged assassin of President Kennedy attended W.C. Stripling Junior High School in Fort Worth, Texas. In two interviews with the Fort Worth Star Telegram, one in October 1959 when Oswald defected, the other in June 1962 when he returned, Robert repeated his recollection that his brother had attended Stripling JHS in Fort Worth. Robert Oswald knew about HARVEY Oswald as early as 1953, when he took the photo of HARVEY at the Bronx Zoo. In 1956 Robert Oswald lived with HARVEY and the Marguerite Oswald impostor at 4936 Collinwood in Ft. Worth prior to HARVEY's departure for the Marines in October and prior to Robert's marriage to Vada Mercer in November.

Francetta Schubert, a year behind Oswald at Stripling in the fall of 1954, recalled watching HARVEY Oswald walk home and remembered discussing him with her friends. She remembered that Oswald lived at 2220 Thomas Place, across the street from Stripling, which was the same house the Marguerite Oswald impostor lived in at the time of the assassination. In a videotaped interview, first shown during John Armstrong's 1997 November in Dallas presentation, Fran pointed to the house as the camcorder panned to indicate its close proximity to Stripling.


click here for 1997 interview with Fran Schubert


In another videotaped interview (also currently online), the assistant principal at Stripling in 1963, Frank Kudlaty, recalled his boss calling him early on Saturday morning, the day after the assassination. Frank was told to go to the school, locate school records for Oswald, and give them to FBI agents who would meet him at Stripling. While waiting for the FBI agents to arrive, Frank looked over Oswald's records and remembered that Oswald had attended "not quite a semester" in the ninth grade.


click here for 1997 interview with Frank Kudlaty


Frank gave Oswald's Stripling school records to the FBI agents, but where, oh where, have those records gone? John Armstrong reported: "Don't bother to look for Oswald's Stripling records in the Warren volumes, and don't waste your time filing a Freedom of Information request with the FBI--the FBI denies any knowledge of Stripling records."  The word "Stripling" appears nowhere in the Warren Report. In the Warren Volumes it appears only in Robert Oswald's testimony. The Warren Commission published LEE Oswald's school records that show he attended the 9th grade at Beauregard Junior High School in New Orleans in 1954-55. At the same time HARVEY Oswald was attending Stripling Junior High in Sept/Oct, 1954.



In 1994 I sent a FOIPA request to the FBI for any and all records for Stripling Junior High School in Ft. Worth. The letter above is their response. After HARVEY Oswald dropped out of Stripling, in late 1954, he and the Marguerite Oswald impostor returned to New Orleans and resided at 126 Exchange. In February, 1955 they began working at Dolly Shoe company on Canal St.


How the FBI was able to merge the lives of HARVEY and LEE


FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover first became aware of HARVEY Oswald and LEE Oswald when HARVEY was in Russia while LEE was in New Orleans and Florida among anti-Castro Cubans. By November 22, 1963, when President Kennedy was assassinated, Hoover knew that the existence of HARVEY and LEE had to disappear, because two "Lee Harvey Oswald's" would be traced back to the agency responsible for creating them--the CIA. The backgrounds of HARVEY and LEE had to be combined and merged into a single (fictitious) "Lee Harvey Oswald." The FBI accomplished this by merging the school records, employment records, and Marine Corps records of HARVEY Oswald with the school records, employment records, and Marine records of LEE Oswald. The FBI began, only hours after the assassination, by confiscating LEE Oswald's time cards and employment records from the Gerard F. Tujague Company in New Orelans when LEE was 15-16 years old. The next day, early Saturday morning, two FBI agents in Ft. Worth were sent to the Striping Junior High school. Assistant principal Frank Kudaty was told to meet the two agents and give them HARVEY Oswald's school records, which he did. On Monday, November 25, FBI agents confiscated HARVEY Oswald's employment records from the Pfisterer Dental Lab and Dolly Shoe in New Orleans when HARVEY was 16-17 years old. A few days later New York Judge Florence Kelley released school records from PS 117 and PS 44 for "Lee Harvey Oswald" to the FBI. With original documents in hand, the FBI was then able to eliminate, alter, manipulate and piece together portions of these records to create a background for one fictitious "Lee Harvey Oswald."  The FBI then gave the Warren Commission photographs of documents relating to the background of one fictitious "Lee Harvey Oswald." The original documents disappeared, and only photographs remain. The FBI's pieced together background of HARVEY Oswald and LEE Oswald was then given to the Warren Commission and presented to the public as the life history of the (innocent) man that was (falsely) accused of killing President Kennedy and Officer J.D. Tippit.

1955--the FBI alters Dolly Shoe Company records

The Secret Service report relating to Oswald's employment in 1955-56, as allegedly recorded by the Social Security Administration, shows that Oswald worked at Dolly Shoe in 1956. However, the FBI interviewed the company's Certified Public Accountant (CPA), Moses Brenner, who allegedly gave the FBI two W-4 forms (questionable!). Both of these forms are handwritten and signed in pencil. They show that HARVEY Oswald and his caretaker/mother began working at Dolly Shoe in early 1955 (below). The FBI provided a photograph of these items to the Warren Commission, which was the only document used to establish the beginning date of (HARVEY) Oswald's employment with Dolly Shoe. The FBI never provided an ending date of his employment with Dolly Shoe.



The FBI failed to provide the Warren Commission with any of Oswald's payroll checks or any documents that could verify his beginning and ending dates of employment and/or income from Dolly Shoe (payroll checks, vouchers, bank statements). The reason for this was simple. HARVEY Oswald was working full time at Dolly Shoe, while at the same time LEE Oswald was attending Beauregard Junior High with a near perfect attendance record. Payroll records would prove that (HARVEY) Oswald worked full time at Dolly Shoe, and would have made it impossible for him to attend Beauregard Junior High at the same time. The FBI resolved this problem by claiming, without payroll records from Dolly Shoe, that one person, "Lee Harvey Oswald," worked only part time at Dolly Shoe while attending school full time at Beauregard. Not a single employee or former employee of Dolly Shoe was interviewed by the Warren Commission.
   





In 1995 I contacted and spoke at length with former Dolly Shoe store manager Maury Goodman, who remembered both (HARVEY) Oswald and his short, heavy-set caretaker/mother. I sent Mr. Goodman a photo of Marguerite Claverie Oswald (mother of LEE Oswald) taken in late 1957, and asked him if this was the same woman who worked for him at Dolly Shoe in 1955. Mr. Goodman replied to my letter and said that he didn't "recognize her at all...." The one thing that Mr. Goodman remembered, more than anything else, was that Mrs. Oswald continually refused to provide personal information that was required by the company's insurance carrier. A few months later, after continually refusing to provide information, Mr. Goodman fired the short, heavy-set Marguerite Oswald impostor. HARVEY Oswald's caretaker/mother had to avoid working for companies which withheld taxes and sent financial reports to state and federal agencies, which would conflict with similar reports relating to the employment of Marguerite Claverie Oswald and her federal income tax records, which are still withheld by the government. This impostor preferred instead to work for cash as a bar maid, caretaker, or practical nurse in order to avoid generating a paper trail that would include federal and state income tax records, social security records, credit reports, etc.

Maury Goodman gave me the names of Rita Paveur and Louis Marziale as former employees who would remember young (HARVEY) Oswald. I spoke with Rita, who remembered Oswald as very short and thin, and described his mother as a short and heavy-set woman who never smiled. Rita remembered they lived “uptown,” near the corner of Magazine St and Canal. School records show that in the 1954-1955 school year Lee Harvey Oswald was in the 9th grade and living at 126 Exchange.

Mr. Goodman hired Louis Marziale (click here for YouTube interview) on April 11, 1955, the day after Easter, which was April 10, 1955. Louis observed Oswald and soon realized that he was doing very little work. Louis terminated young Oswald that afternoon, and later saw his mother/caretaker working as a bar maid at the Tradewinds Bar on Decatur St. While working at Dolly Shoe, HARVEY Oswald and the Marguerite Oswald impostor were living at an unknown location in New Orleans.

In  the Spring of 1955 LEE Oswald and his mother were living at 126 Exchange Ed Voebel visited LEE in his apartment, which was over a pool hall. Voebel was taking piano lessons on Canal Street and on occasion he would stop by to visit LEE and play darts and pool. On one occasion Voebel met Oswald's mother, who was sitting down and smoking a cigarette. When Voebel saw her in the newpapers, after the assassination, he didn't recognize her. Voebel told the Warren Commission "She was a lot thinner, and her hair wasn't as gray, as I recall it, when I met her."  Voebel met Marguerite Claverie Oswald, LEE Oswald's thin, nice looking mother in 1955, but in 1963 did not recognize photos of the short, heavy set Marguerite Oswald impostor in the newspapers.




In July, 1955 Robert Oswald was discharged from the USMC and lived at 126 Exchange for "a few weeks" with his brother LEE and his mother Marguerite Claverie Oswald. While living at 126 Exchange, in July, 1955, Robert bought a Civil Air Patrol uniform for his brother LEE Oswald. In June, 1955 LEE and Ed Voebel attended a few meetings of the CAP at Moisant Airport in New Orleans.

1955-1956--Gerald F. Tujague Company & Warren Easton High School

The Warren Commission reported that "Lee Harvey Oswald" worked at the Gerard F. Tujague Company for 2  months (Thursday, Nov 10, 1955 - Saturday, Jan 14, 1956). Yet (LEE) Oswald's supervisor, Frank DiBenedetto, told me and told the HSCA on November 16, 1978 that Oswald worked at Tujague's for "a year to a year and a half." This time discrepancy caught my attention, and so I travelled to New Orleans to meet Mr. DiBenedetto.

Frank purchased the company after Mr. Tujague died. When I met with Frank, the Tujague office was still in the Sanlin Building on Canal St., where Frank worked with (LEE) Oswald in 1955 and 1956. I learned from Robert Oswald's book that after graduating from the 9th grade at Beauregard Junior High in June, 1955, LEE Oswald began working for Tujague's. After Robert was discharged from the USMC in July, 1955. he traveled to New Orleans. Robert lived at 126 Exchange for a few weeks with his brother LEE. Robert wrote in his book that his brother was working at an import/export company--Tujague's. This time frame helps to establish an approximate beginning date of LEE Oswald's employment at Tujague's, which was June, 1955. Frank's secretary, Gloria Callahan, who was working at Tujague's in 1955, said that LEE Oswald was working at Tujague's when she went on maternity leave in the Spring of 1956 (her daughter was born March 15, 1956). Frank said that (LEE) Oswald quit Tujague's in late summer or early fall, 1956 to join the USMC. I was now convinced that Frank was correct when he told the HSCA that LEE Oswald worked at Tujague's for a year to a year and a half. LEE Oswald worked at Tujague's from June, 1955 until August or September, 1956. The Warren Commission, however, with unreliable photographic documentation from the FBI, said that from June, 1955 thru September, 1956 "Lee Harvey Oswald" had worked for three different companies--Tujague's, J.R. Michels, and the Pfisterer Dental Laboratory.  The Warren Commission was wrong.
 
I soon met and spoke with former Tujague employee Jimmy Hudnell. Jimmy told me that on the afternoon of November 22, shortly after President Kennedy was shot, Mr. Tujague told employees "the FBI will be here soon so you all can go home." How did the FBI know, within hours, that Oswald had worked at Tujague's? FBI agents soon arrived at the Gerard F. Tujague Company and confiscated all of LEE Oswald's employment records and time cards. Why did the FBI confiscate all of LEE Oswald's payroll records, only hours after the assassination?

The FBI changed the beginning date of Oswald's employment at Tujague's



I knew from Frank DiBenedetto and from Robert Oswald's book that LEE Oswald began working at Tujague's in June, 1955. But when I looked at the Tujague W-4 form it was dated November 12, 1955, 5 months after Frank and Robert Oswald said that Oswald began working at Tujague's. I noticed the original date on the W-4 form had been rubbed out, and replaced with the date November 12, 1955. In addition, the signature of LEE Oswald on this form is questionable when compared with the known signature of HARVEY Oswald, which appears as an endorsement on his payroll check from J.R. Michels, on the J.R. Michels W-4 form, on his discharge from the USMC in 1959. This W-4 form had been altered and appears to have the handwritten signature of LEE Oswald. Notice the round loop at the bottom of the "L" in Lee.
,





I knew the original date on the W-4 form had been altered and was changed to Saturday, November 12, 1955. I now wanted to look at Oswald's time cards, which were published in the Warren Volumes. I found only 5 time cards, shown above, but there were no time cards prior to November, 1955. The first bi-monthly time card ended on 11/15 (Monday, November 15, 1955), and showed Oswald's beginning date of employment as November 10, 1955. These time cards show stamped work hours in the morning and afternoon, but there are no machine stamps to show the month or year of work. I noticed that 4 of the cards had the number "16" handwritten on the upper left side of the time card, likely the employee number assigned to LEE Oswald. But the number on the first time card was "18," and the handwritten name "Lee Harvey Oswald" was totally different from the handwriting on the other four cards. This dubious time card, with no verifiable dates, was used by the FBI to establish LEE Oswald's first day of work at Tujague's.

Why change the beginning date of LEE Oswalds employment at Tujague's?

The answer is simple. In September, 1955 LEE Oswald was working at Tujague's. At the same time HARVEY Oswald began attending Warren Easton High School, which created a permanent school record that could not be ignored. LEE and HARVEY in two different places at the same time. HARVEY Oswald dropped out of school at Warren Easton High School on October 7. In Oswald's Warren Easton's school file there was a handwritten note that read, in part, "we are moving to San Diego in the middle of this month. Lee must quit school."


The reference to San Diego is somewhat accurate. When HARVEY Oswald was interviewed in 1963 by Texas Employment Commission employee Laura Kittrell, he spoke of working as a motorcycle delivery boy at age 16 for ETI in Encino, California as a teenager. ETI were the initials for Escrow Title Insurance. Oswald's 16th birthday was on October 18, 1955, the same month as this note was written. It is very probable that HARVEY Oswald and his caretaker did move to California after his employment with J.R. Michels ended. Click here to read her interview with Oswald.

While  LEE Oswald was working full time at Tujague's, and HARVEY Oswald was attending Warren Easton High School, two records were created. Two "Lee Harvey Oswald's" in two different places at the same time threatened to expose the CIA's "Oswald Project." The FBI had to correct this problem. Their solution was to make it appear that after "Lee Harvey Oswald" dropped out of school at Warren Easton High School on October 7, he began working at Tujague's on November 10. This was accomplished by destroying LEE Oswald's time cards for the months of June, July, August, September, and October, 1955, and changing the date on Oswald's W-4 form to November 12, 1955. The FBI then gave photographs (no original documents) of the 11/15 time card and a photograph of the W-4 form to the Warren Commission. The Warren Commission then reported that Oswald's beginning date of employment at Tujague's was November 10, 1955.

The ending date of Oswald's employment at Tujague's


The FBI used the time card dated 1/15 to "show" Lee Harvey Oswald's last day of employment at Tujague's. The FBI fixed the ending date of Oswald's employment at Tujague's as January 14, 1956. All of Oswald's time cards after this date, from mid-January to September, 1956 were destroyed. The FBI then gave the Warren Commission photographs of Oswald's W-4 form for Tujague's, dated November 10, and photographs of Oswald's time cards, with the first bi-monthly time card dated November 15, 1955. The Warren Commission did nothing whatsoever to verify the beginning or ending dates of Oswald's employment at Tujague's with federal or state tax withholding reports.The Warren Commission simply reported that "Lee Harvey Oswald" entered Warren Easton High School on Sept 2, dropped out on October 7, and then worked at Tujague's from November 10 to January 14, 1956.

J.R. Michels Company


After meeting with Frank DiBenedetto I met with Nick Mazza, the manager of J.R. Michels in New Orleans in 1956. Nick's office was directly below Frank's office in the Sanlin Building on Canal St. Nick told me that he and Frank were close friends and used to have lunch together most of the time. The Warren Commission reported that after Lee Harvey Oswald quit working at Tujague's he began working at the J.R. Michels Company. I asked Nick about this. Nick said that if Oswald worked at Tujague's, and a few days later worked at J.R. Michels, that both he and Mr. DiBenedetto would have known. But this did not happen, because in January, 1956 HARVEY Oswald worked one week for J.R. Michaels while at the same time LEE Oswald was working at Tujague's. In my opinion, this a clear indication that HARVEY Oswald and LEE Oswald knew each other.


When I asked Nick about Oswald's brief employment at J.R. Michels he told me about a visit from the FBI. After the assassination two FBI agents came to his office and asked about Oswald's brief employment. Nick told the agents that he did not remember Oswald, whereupon the agents asked Nick to check his records for January, 1956. Nick personally checked the company records and found a payroll check made out to Oswald in January, 1956. Nick made several copies of the check and then gave the original check to the FBI agents. Below is an image of the check that Nick gave to me, endorsed by HARVEY Oswald. Researchers who are interested in "handwriting" should compare (HARVEY) Oswald's signature on the J.R. Michels W-4 form and (HARVEY) Oswald's signature on the back side of his payroll check (endorsed by HARVEY Oswald) with the signature of LEE Harey Oswald on the Tujague W-4 form. The two signatures below are very different from the "LEE Oswald" signature on the Tujague W-4 form.



HARVEY Oswald began work at J.R. Michels on Tuesday, January 17, 1956. Three days later, on Friday, January 20, HARVEY Oswald quit J.R. Michels and was given a check for $34.20, which he cashed the same day. The FBI obtained a W-4 form, signed by (HARVEY) Oswald, dated Tuesday, January 17, 1956. They also obtained one payroll check that was written to and cashed by Lee HARVEY Oswald on January 20, 1956. At the same time LEE Oswald was working at Tujague's, and continued working at Tujague's until August or September, 1956, when he quit to join the Marines. Therefore, the FBI had to make sure that LEE Oswald's employment at Tujague's ended before January 17, which was HARVEY Oswald's first day of employment at J.R. Michels.

The FBI changed the ending date of Oswald's employment at Tujague's


The last work day shown on the 1/15 time card is Saturday, January 14, 1955, which, according to the FBI, established Lee Harvey Oswald's last day of employment at Tujague's. All of Oswald's Tujague time cards after January 15, 1956 were destroyed. The Warren Commission never requested federal or state tax returns to verify the dates of Oswald's employment at Tujague's. With only photographs of Oswald's time cards and a photograph of the W-4 form the Warren Commission reported that "Lee Harvey Oswald" worked at Tujague's from November 10 thru January 14, 1956.


To further fix Oswald's last day of employment at Tujague's the FBI obtained a "Release," signed by 16 year old LEE Oswald and Gerard F. Tujague from any further claims against the company. Oswald was paid $11.30.



Finally, the FBI created fake W-2 forms for 1955 and 1956. The FBI made sure that the wages listed on these forms matched the amount of wages the FBI claims were paid by Tujague's to LEE Oswald in November & December, 1955 and in January, 1956. Neither of these W-2 forms were found by the Dallas Police at Oswald's rooming house or at Ruth Paine's. These W-2 forms were created by the FBI and returned to the Dallas Police on November 26, 1963, together with the original possessions of HARVEY Oswald.

The FBI's manipulation and fabrication of HARVEY and LEE Oswald's schooling and employment records as a teenager in 1955 and 1956 was essential in covering up the existence of two "Lee Harvey Oswalds." It was absolutely critical to properly re-arrange Tujague's records in order to create the illusion there was one, and only one, "Lee Harvey Oswald." Changing and re-arranging the records for Oswald's 1 year and 3 month employment at Tujague's was crucial. The last obstacle to overcome was HARVEY Oswald working at the Pfisterer Dental Laboratory from October, 1957 thru May of 1958, while at the same time (LEE) Oswald was stationed in Japan with the U.S. Marines. The FBI needed to change the dates of Oswald's employment with the dental lab from 1957-1958 to the Spring of 1956. The FBI needed to make it appear that after Oswald quit Tujague's on January 14, 1956, he worked several months at the dental lab before joining the Marine Corps in October, 1956.

On Monday, November 25, 1963 FBI agents arrived at Pfisterer's and confiscated all payroll records relating to "Lee Harvey Oswald." They interviewed the owners and every employee of Pfisterer's and warned them not to discuss Oswald or his employment at Pfisterer's with anyone. None of the payroll records confiscated by the FBI were given to the Warren Commission, and there was no way to determine (HARVEY) Oswald's beginning and ending dates of employment. With no way to determine Oswald's beginning or ending dates of employment at Pfisterer's the Warren Commission wrote in their report, "for several months thereafter, he was a messenger for the Pfisterer Dental Laboratory."  We can now understand why the beginning and ending dates of LEE Oswald's employment at Tujague's, from June, 1955 thru September, 1956 had to be changed. Without changing these dates, it would be impossible to explain Lee HARVEY Oswald attending Warren Easton High School in September, 1955, Lee HARVEY Oswald working at JR. Michels in January, 1956, and Lee HARVEY Oswald working at the Pfisterer Dental Laboratory for 8 months in 1957-1958. The FBI's manipulation of Oswald's employment records at Tujague's is very important to understand how the FBI pieced together the teenage work history of LEE Oswald and HARVEY Oswald. The Warren Commission, from FBI photographs of Oswald's teenage employment records, reported that one person, "Lee Harvey Oswald," attended Warren Easton High School in September/October, 1955, worked November/December, 1955 at Tujague's, 4 days at J.R. Michels in January, 1956, "a few months thereafter" at the Pfisterer Dental Lab in the Spring of 1956, and joined the Marines in October, 1956. By re-arranging employment records, fabricating documents, and altering school records for both HARVEY and LEE Oswald the FBI was able to create a fictitious background for one fictitious person... "Lee Harvey Oswald." It was FBI Director Hoover, and a few of his trusted top level officials, who were responsible for creating the legend of "Lee Harvey Oswald."

4936 Collinwood, Fort Worth, Texas



On   July 1, 1956, with LEE Oswald still working at Tujague's in New Orleans, the Marguerite Oswald impostor rented a partially furnished apartment at 4936 Collinwood in Ft. Worth. She was joined by HARVEY Oswald and by LEE Oswald's brother, Robert Oswald. Mrs. James Taylor, the landlady, told the FBI that Lee HARVEY Oswald resided in the apartment until he joined the Marines (October, 1956). Robert Oswald resided in the apartment until he was married (November 1956). The Marguerite Oswald impostor then lived alone in this apartment until May 1, 1957. There is no record of her employment during the time she lived at 4936 Collinwood.



3830 W. 6th, Fort Worth, Texas

On July 31, 1956, Marguerite Claverie Oswald quit her job at Goldrings Dept. Store in New Orleans. LEE Oswald, after working more than a year at Tujague's, told supervisor Frank DiBenedetto that he was quitting in order to join the Marine Corps. According to John Pic, Robert Oswald drove from Ft. Worth to New Orleans, picked up his mother (Marguerite Oswald Claverie) and his brother (LEE Oswald) and drove them back to Ft. Worth. Marguerite rented apartment #3 at 3830 W. 6th, where she lived for the next 2 years. This address of 3830 W. 6th was given to the Marine Corps, to the Red Cross, to the Ft. Worth Retail Credit Merchants Association, and appeared in the Ft. Worth city directory. A neighbor, Lee McKracken, remembered that LEE Oswald visited his mother on two occasions when on leave from the Marines, and stayed in the apartment with her about two weeks each time .

On September 6 HARVEY Oswald, while living with Robert Oswald and the Marguerite Oswald impostor at 4936 Collinwood, enrolled as a sophomore in Arlington Heights High School. Richard Garrett, who had known and befriended LEE Oswald at the Ridglea West Elementary School in Ft, Worth, told LIFE Magazine (Feb. 21, 1964 issue) about meeting up with Oswald in September, 1956. Garrett said:

"He walked up to me in the hall at school," said Garrett. "I remember I had to look down to talk to him, and it seemed strange, because he had been the tallest, the dominant member of our group in grammar school. He looked like he was just lost. He was very different from the way I remembered him."


Richard Garret knew the tall, husky LEE Oswald in grammar school, but met the short, thin HARVEY Oswald in high school.

Three weeks later, on September 28, HARVEY dropped out of Arlington Heights. On October 3 he wrote a letter to the Socialist Party of America and asked if there was a branch in the area that he could join. A few days later, on October 8, Robert Oswald wrote a check to Lee HARVEY Oswald in the amount of $10.00 (see below).


From 4936 Collinwood to 3930 W. 6th is 1.9 miles (Google map)

On the check Robert wrote his current address and phone number. This is very important because while Robert was living at 4936 Collinwood with HARVEY Oswald and the Marguerite Oswald impostor, his mother (Marguerite Claverie Oswald) was living nearby in apartment #3 at 3830 W. 6th.

NOTE: It is worth remembering that Robert Oswald told the WC that he took the photo of young HARVEY Oswald at the Bronx Zoo in 1953. Two years later, in July, 1955, Robert lived with his mother (Marguerite Claverie Oswald) and his brother LEE Oswald at 126 Exchange in New Orleans for one week. A year later, while living with the Marguerite Oswald impostor and HARVEY Oswald at 4936 Collinwood in the late summer of 1956, Robert Oswald drove from Ft. Worth to New Orleans. Robert picked up his mother and brother LEE in New Orleans and drove them to Ft. Worth where his mother rented apartment #3 at 3830 W. 6th. While his mother was living at 3830 W. 6th Robert Oswald was living at 4936 Collinwoodwith HARVEY Oswald and the Marguerite Oswald impostor. HARVEY Oswald moved out of 4936 Collinwood when he joined the USMC in October. Robert moved out of 4936 Collinwood when he married Vada Mercer one month later, in November. The Marguerite Oswald impostor lived alone at 4936 Collinwood for the next 9 months.