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Edward Jay Epstein once complained that the FBI managed to bog down the Warren Commission by burying its staff lawyers with a blizzard of "irrelevant papers ... caused in part by the FBI's policy of submitting reports on all the crank letters and weird allegations received by FBI field offices."1 Part of this FBI effort to overwhelm the beleaguered Warren Commission staff apparently involved the preparation of memoranda on hundreds of "unsubstantiated" Oswald-sighting reports, the lion's share of which did come from people merely seeking publicity or attention in the days and weeks following the assassination.
On the other hand, a very small percentage of these reports could represent (a) holes in the "official" Oswald time line (fairly unlikely); or (b) evidence of additional attempts to impersonate Oswald (a decent possibility). This area of the assassination investigation has broadened in recent years, since the 1992 President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act (PL 102-526) has afforded researchers the opportunity to review many previously-classified primary source FBI reports regarding the alleged sightings.
One such report I have been investigating has opened up a number of interesting leads and still unanswered questions. The biggest unanswered question is whether someone could have been involved in efforts to "sheep-dip" Oswald's reputation as a pro-Castro Cuban as far back as 1961.
While at KBOX in Dallas in May, 1961, Carnay was introduced by Tom Matts of radio station KVIL to Charlie Waters. In the aftermath of the Bay of Pigs debacle, Waters claimed to be in Dallas recruiting pilots and "guerrilla forces" for (another) possible Cuban invasion and for flying harassment raids over Havana.5 Waters told Carnay that he was from Houston and that he was a vice-commander of the "anti-Castro revolutionary forces for the Western Hemisphere." Saying he was on the way to Miami for a meeting with other anti-Castro leaders, including Antonio de Varona, Waters told Carnay that KBOX could get the first newsbreak on the meeting in exchange for airing Waters' plea for help.6 A day or two after KBOX ran a piece on Waters, he called Carnay and reported that he had successfully recruited over 100 persons with "experience in guerrilla and aerial warfare." He also told Carnay that he had been in contact with "some federal agencies" concerning the recruitment activities. As a result of his radio interview with Waters, Carnay himself would soon be in contact with a federal agency -- the FBI. As the summer of 1961 wore on, Carnay apparently began getting concerned about a substantial number of inquiries coming his way from interested pilots -- one of them identifying himself as an active member of the United States Air Force. A July 27, 1961, FBI memo reveals that Carnay contacted the FBI on July 10 with details of his encounters with Waters and the other individuals. The final page of that memo notes that Carnay was really Raymond B. Charney, who was arrested on a sodomy charge in El Paso in 1956.7 I believe the fact that this information was included at the conclusion of Carnay's statement makes it unlikely that he was a paid FBI informant.
Though Carnay's 1961 statement does not mention any meetings with a Castro-sympathizing Oswald, his post-assassination interviews with the FBI in 1963 indicate that those alleged meetings came subsequent to the contacts with the would-be pilots. Moreover, Carnay's July 10, 1961, statement included information about contact with a pilot as late as July 9.
In early June, Carnay received a phone call from an anonymous man in Fort Lauderdale who said that he had heard that Carnay could use some "hot" pilots.
Another call came Carnay's way in early June, this time from Miami. The caller said that ground forces were assembling along the Florida coast for a Cuban invasion "in big numbers" and that he wanted to know what kind of aircraft Carnay and "his associates" had ready to go.
A third anonymous phone call in June came from Memphis, according to Carnay. This man claimed to be a military pilot with an instrument rating, said he was not in the military service at the present time, and that he also had heard that he could earn $1,000 per day by hooking up with Carnay.
Carnay told the FBI that he "played along" with a number of these callers to see if there was any news story potential and to try and identify their source of information.
But a series of calls beginning in late June from a man identifying himself as Captain Bob Leopold of the USAF apparently prompted Carnay to contact the FBI. Carnay said that on June 26, Leopold called him from Phoenix and said that "some friends" had told him to get in touch with Carnay to see if any additional pilots were needed. Carnay told Leopold that he "might" need more pilots and inquired as to who had recommended him to Leopold. Leopold said that he had gotten word through Jerry Mann. Leopold told Carnay that he was stationed in Arizona, gave him a phone number in Phoenix, and asked how lucrative the "job" would be. Carnay cautiously responded by saying that he did not know, since Leopold was in the USAF. Leopold called Carnay next on July 8, this time from a local number in Dallas. Carnay was surprised when he called the local number Leopold had left and discovered it was at the Naval Air Station in Dallas. Leopold insisted on a face-to-face appointment with Carnay on Sunday, July 9. Carnay told Leopold he could stop by the station or call him at the station between 2 pm and 10 pm on July 9. Leopold never did show up for the appointment or call Carnay that Sunday. The next day, a nervous Carnay contacted the FBI.
Carnay said that after he had furnished the information and names of the pilots to the FBI in 1961, he was contacted and met with an individual he believed to be Oswald, "who attempted to obtain the names of the volunteers and also expressed to him his pro-Castro sympathies and tried to convince Carnay that Castro was right."9 Carnay refused to furnish the information, but did tell "Oswald" that he was welcome to try and get the names from the FBI. Carnay also told "Oswald" that he had been jailed in Havana in December, 1959, and there was no chance that he could be convinced that Castro was "right." Notwithstanding Carnay's past history, "Oswald" insisted on meeting with Carnay in person two more times and made several follow-up phone calls over the next several months. Carnay told the FBI in a December 6, 1963, follow-up interview that the three face-to-face meetings had occurred in the KBOX news car at hangar #1 at the Dallas-Garland Airport over a period of seven to nine days.10
Were these repeated contacts really an attempt to obtain the names and information regarding the pilots or were they an attempt to leave a lasting impression on Carnay? What realistic hope could "Oswald" have had that Carnay, who had been jailed in Cuba under Castro's regime, would sell out the anti-Castro Cuban cause?
When the FBI finally tracked down Tullis, Sr., they found him at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, D.C. He told them that his son, Tullis, Jr., was living at Seaman's Institute, 25 South Street, New York, NY. He also asked them to contact his son at home rather than at work so as to "avoid possible loss of employment" attributable to the FBI inquiry.12 Two declassified FBI documents reveal that Tullis, Jr., apparently was no stranger to the FBI files. The FBI deduced that "from elder Tullis remark re son having been questioned previously by authorities re narcotics in Japan and activities in Cuba, Tullis, Jr., appears identical with Richard Anthony Tullis, with alias, registration act, Bufile one hundred dash one nine nine four two seven, New York file ninety seven dash one four six six. Incomplete WFO file shows Tullis, Jr., interviewed 1958, furnished info re Cuban activities."
The file numbers in the sentence above appear in full in one declassified FBI memo but are redacted in another (supposedly "open in full") memo available at the National Archives.13 The Archives responded to me in a July 5, 1996, letter that Tullis' FBI case files 100-199427 and NY 97-1466 were not located in the Kennedy Assassination Collection and noted that the FBI may not have considered the files as "assassination-related" documents subject to release under the 1992 law.
Tullis, Jr., was interviewed by the FBI on December 5, 1963. He told them that he had been born in Fort Worth and had lived there for many years, but that "to the best of his knowledge, there is no Cuban activity pro- or anti-Castro, in the Dallas or Fort Worth areas." 14 He said that he had been in Cuba during the revolution and was "familiar with" Cuban organizations but denied being associated with any such organizations in New York City. Tullis denied knowing Oswald and said he could not furnish any information regarding any association the alleged assassin might have had with either pro- or anti-Castro organizations.15 Tullis apparently did not comment as to whether he knew someone who could have been posing as Oswald in 1961, and it is unclear from an FBI report on the interview whether he was asked.
Carnay told the FBI in that interview that the individual he had met with in Dallas was "violently pro-Castro and ... claimed to be a member of the Fair Play for Cuba Committee." He also reaffirmed that the man had used the name Lee Oswald or something "similar to it." No doubt under some pressure when confronted with the official Oswald time line, he did say "that he was sorry he seemed so positive in his identification of Oswald upon initial interview." The FBI report goes on to state that after sufficient reflection and a more accurate pinpointing of the timing, Carnay "felt that although a remote possibility exists that it was Oswald, it was now his considered judgment that it probably was not." 18
But far from backing off of his story about the 1961 meetings (with someone who was babbling about how great Castro was and who may have been using Oswald's name) at the Dallas-Garland Airport, Carnay then told the agents that he often took detailed notes during meetings such as these and offered to make a search of his old records.
On February 12, 1964, he advised the Kansas City office that he had been unable to find any of his notes regarding the 1961 meetings. 19 He also insisted on December 6, 1963, that four other people he knew in Dallas in 1961 could be "cognizant of the identity of the individual he thought was Oswald" or could at least back up his story that the meetings had taken place -- Dick Moore, Earl Burnham, and Tom Matts (all former KBOX employees); and Art Hammett of the Dallas Police. 20
But the Dallas FBI office apparently fumbled the ball in pursuing these leads. The Dallas copy of a December 12, 1963, FBI telegram from Kansas City to Dallas said that "leads to interview Art Hammett, Dick Moore, Earl Burnham and Tom Matts are being left to the discretion of the office of origin." A hand-written notation next to that sentence reads, "not pert as Oswald in Russia in 5/61." 21
Carnay's continued insistence on December 6, 1963, about 1961 meetings with a Castro-sympathizing possible Oswald impostor may have proved somewhat disconcerting for the FBI. For whatever reason, the Kansas City office as late as December 17, 1963, continued to receive reports on the 1956 sodomy charges. 22
I certainly am not suggesting that Carnay's story -- assuming it is to be believed -- points to an assassination plot launched against Kennedy in the early months of his presidency. But what the Carnay allegations may represent is the discovery of yet another layer of mystery and complexity surrounding Oswald and his identity.
One possibility is that a right-wing intelligence operation could have had a number of reasons for systematically sheep-dipping in absentia the reputation of Oswald, who at that time (it has been persuasively argued) was serving abroad as an intelligence "dangle" in a false-defector program. After all, one never knew when a leftist patsy may be needed. Unbeknownst to them, other potential patsies may well have been waiting in the wings for whatever time and for whatever purpose their Cold War puppeteers saw fit -- oblivious pawns on the chessboard who, but for the grace of God, could have been both as infamous and as dead as was Oswald two days after the crossfire in Dealey Plaza.
But even if we do not accept a multiple-patsies-warming-on-the-bench scenario, there remain a number of troubling questions with respect to Carnay's story. How could the Oswald impostor have known in the first place that Carnay had turned a list of names and other information over to the FBI? Was someone in intelligence circles testing Carnay's loyalties by sending in a straw man as a dangle to pose as a Castro advocate? Did this possibility occur to Carnay, or did he just figure there was a Communist leak in the FBI? What was the reason Carnay (apparently) did not file a follow-up report on the "Oswald" contacts immediately in 1961? Did Carnay figure he was home free for not "taking the bait" and turning over the list of names to the Oswald impostor? Or was he just getting tired of all the cloak-and-dagger shenanigans? Assuming such an intelligence operation had been aimed at Carnay in 1961 in the wake of his initial report to the FBI, what are we to make of the fact that Oswald's identity appears to have been an integral part of that operation?
My efforts to locate Carnay (assuming he is still alive) in both the Dallas and Kansas City areas have proven unsuccessful. I have written to the ARRB regarding Richard Anthony Tullis' FBI case files. At this point, numerous opportunities remain for additional research into any number of leads suggested by the strange allegations of Raymond Carnay -- allegations which could provide additional evidence that Oswald and his identity were in the early 1960s at the vortex of a complicated web of intersecting and overlapping intelligence operations.
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