James Hosty

http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/hosty.txt

BOCHAN: In your book, you also describe the shock you initially felt when you saw your name and license number in Oswald's notebook.

HOSTY: Well I was a little bit, but then I knew exactly how it got there. You see, I had given my name and phone number to Ruth Paine. I told her to give me a call if she could find out Oswald's address.

Now I want to add at this time: everyone seems to think that I was trying to interview Oswald. I couldn't interview Oswald without explicit permission from the CIA. And, they weren't about to give it and I wasn't about to ask for it. I was *not* trying to interview Oswald. He had been interviewed three times by other gents unsuccessfully, so I didn't think that interviewing him was the thing to do. But I was trying to develop Mrs. Paine as a source, if you will, on the Oswalds, and so I said, 'here, if you hear anything more, give me a call,' which was sort of a standard procedure.

BOCHAN: Right. When you describe the other agents who had already interviewed Oswald, are you speaking of Fain?

HOSTY: Fain twice, and he had two different guys with him at two different times, and Jack Quigley in New Orleans.


Hosty is obviously lying his arse off when saying he did not want to interview Oswald, but the CIA bit is very revealing.

Reading the current discussion in the "Buell Wesley Frazier: 'Where’s your Rider?'" thread about the start of the lunch period on the day of the assassination, and considering the motorcade route schedule may not have been widely known to many of the TSBD employees that morning, as well as considering what Givens (and Lovelady?) said about seeing Oswald around 11:50 am in the Domino Room, I more firmly believe (if that is even possible) that Oswald was down on the first floor when the motorcade passed by.

Oswald was doing what all the rest of the gang were doing: knocking off for lunch and getting ready for the President to drive by. If your plan is to shoot the President, you don't sit on the first floor reading a paper only a number of minutes before he is to arrive, with a rifle you still have to pull out of hiding and assemble together. Nobody is that damn pathologically, "Terminator" cool. Oswald certainly wasn't this kind of person.

From Chapter 8 of the Warren Commission Report:

In fact, Hosty participated in transmitting to the Secret Service two pieces of information pertaining to the visit.127 Hosty testified that he did not know until the evening of Thursday, November 21, that there was to be a motorcade, however, and never realized that the motorcade would pass the Texas School Book Depository Building. He testified that he did not read the newspaper story describing the motorcade route in detail, since he was interested only in the fact that the motorcade was coming up Main Street, "where maybe I could watch it if I had a chance."
 
Even if he had recalled that Oswald's place of employment was on the President's route, Hosty testified that he would not have cited him to the Secret Service as a potential threat to the President. Hosty interpreted his instructions as requiring "some indication that the person planned to take some action against the safety of the President of the United States or the Vice President." In his opinion, none of the information in the FBI files—Oswald's defection, his Fair Play for Cuba activities in New Orleans, his lies to Agent Quigley, his recent visit to Mexico City—indicated that Oswald was capable of violence. Hosty's initial reaction on hearing that Oswald was a suspect in the assassination, was "shock, complete surprise," because he had no reason to believe that Oswald "was capable or potentially an assassin of the President of the United States."
 
Shortly after Oswald was apprehended and identified, Hosty's superior sent him to observe the interrogation of Oswald. Hosty parked his car in the basement of police headquarters and there met an acquaintance, Lt. Jack Revill of the Dallas police force. The two men disagree about the conversation which took place between them. They agree that Hosty told Revill that the FBI had known about Oswald and, in particular, of his presence in Dallas and his employment at the Texas School Book Depository Building. Revill testified that Hosty said also that the FBI had information that Oswald was "capable of committing this assassination." According to Revill, Hosty indicated that he was going to tell this to Lieutenant Wells of the homicide and robbery bureau. Revill promptly made a memorandum of this conversation in which the quoted statement appears. His secretary testified that she prepared such a report for him that afternoon and Chief of Police Jesse E. Curry and District Attorney Henry M. Wade both testified that they saw it later that day.
 
Hosty has unequivocally denied, first by affidavit and then in his testimony before the Commission, that he ever said that Oswald was capable of violence, or that he had any information suggesting this. The only witness to the conversation was Dallas Police Detective V. J. Brian, who was accompanying Revill. Brian did not hear Hosty make any statement concerning Oswald's capacity to be an assassin but he did not hear the entire conversation because of the commotion at police headquarters and because he was not within hearing distance at all times.

 
Hosty's reaction to the news of Oswald being fingered for the assassination was "shock, complete surprise." Why? Because he knew Oswald wasn't this kind of guy. As an FBI agent, I got to believe Hosty was well versed in sizing up people. Hosty was shocked Oswald was made the patsy.
 
We know about the Bookhout & Hosty FBI interrogation report of 11.22.1963 and how it said NOTHING about any encounter with Oswald on the second floor. Then, after Oswald was killed, Bookhout does a another solo report describing a policeman/Roy Truly encounter with Oswald holding a Coke on the second floor.
 
Was Hosty aware of the second report? If so, I wonder if he agreed with it. I doubt it. 

But then it didn't matter. I'm sure his masters told him to no longer concern himself with any of this. "We got other important things for you to do. Now go do them." And I think Hosty did just that.

The "shock" and "complete surprise" was because Oswald was working for him.  It was Hosty, SA Harlan Brown and SA Ed Kuykendall that got Oswald the job in the TSBD by liaising with employees of the Texas Employment Commission (TEC).

That was why Hosty shit a brick.

Hosty did his pretext interview of Roberts Oct 29th, she tells him of the TSBD??? No? Why not?

Mr. STERN. What did Mrs. Roberts tell you?
Mr. HOSTY. Mrs. Roberts told me that the residence of 2515 West Fifth Street was Mrs. Ruth Paine, the wife of Michael R. Paine. They were at this time separated. Michael was not living at that address. She told me that Michael Paine was employed as engineer at the Bell Helicopter Co. in Fort Worth, Tex, that Mrs. Paine was employed on a part-time basis as a teacher of the Russian language at St. Marks School for Boys in Dallas, Tex.
She further told, me that there was a Russian-born and Russian-speaking woman residing with Mrs. Paine. She told me this woman did not speak any English, and that she had just given birth the week before that to a new baby and she had another small child.

This woman further advised me that the wife of this Russian-born woman, who was an American, had visited his wife there on one occasion, but did not reside on West Fifth Street in Irving.


And why was this Dorthy?
Because he was working at the TSBD in Dallas?
November 1st Ruth tells Hosty:
She readily admitted that Mrs. Marina Oswald and Lee Oswald's two children were staying with her. She said that Lee Oswald was living somewhere in Dallas. She didn't know where. She said it was in the Oak Cliff area but she didn't have his address.
I asked her if she knew where he worked. After a moment's hesitation, she told me that he worked at the Texas School Book Depository near the downtown area of Dallas. She didn't have the exact address, and it is my recollection that we went to the phone book and looked it up, found it to be 411 Elm Street.

So she doesn't want to give out his employers info as she thinks he might lose his job... so reluctantly she hands over the info anyways on November 1st.
And claim is it was 411 Elm.
But she said she only knew of the Houston street warehouse, that from seeing its signage. So how did Ruth get a address from a telephone book on November 1st when the book she would have Nov 1st would say 511 Elm, not 411 and may not even list the Houston street address.

Mr. HOSTY. Yes; that is my recollection that we looked it up in her telephone book to show it at 411 Elm Street, Dallas, Tex.
She told me at this time that she did not know where he was living, but she thought she could find out and she would let me know.
Mr. STERN. Did she tell you why she thought he was living alone in Dallas at that time?
Mr. HOSTY. Well, she said that she did not want him at her house; that she was willing to take Marina Oswald and the two children, but she didn't have room for him and she didn't want him at the house. She was willing to let him visit his wife and family, but she did not want him residing there.

Nice Quaker values, no room at the Inn?
There was room because Mike wasn't living there, so it wasn't an "extra" person. Lee had a job and a means of transport, Buell, or bus, so no reason for not letting Lee live where he received his mail, had his belongings and wife.

Mr. HOSTY. On Monday morning, I made a pretext telephone call to the Texas School Book Depository, I called up and asked for the personnel department, asked if a Lee Oswald was employed there. They said yes, he was. I said what address does he show? They said 2515 West Fifth Street, Irving, Tex., which I knew not to be his correct address.
I then sent a communication, airmail communication to the New Orleans office advising them--and to the headquarters of the FBI advising them--and then instructing the New Orleans office to make the Dallas office the office of origin. We were now assuming control, because he had now been verified in our division.

So using employment in Dallas and sketchy details about not living at the Paines, Lee has been verified in the Dallas division..but Hosty doesn't get files or "control" till Nov 21st, conveniently too late.

Mr. STERN. Mr. Hosty, at your interview on November 1 with Mrs. Paine, do you recall whether you asked her whether there was any telephone number that she knew of where Lee Harvey Oswald could be reached?
Mr. HOSTY. No, sir; I didn't ask her about a telephone number; no, sir.
Mr. STERN. And she didn't tell you?
Mr. HOSTY. She didn't volunteer. She told me she did not know where he lived.

and again on Nov 5th she doesn't get any information from Oswald as to where Lee is living??

So why give up the employer info and Ruth holds out on the two numbers for rooming houses or places that Lee is or was living??

Was Lee complaining about FBI calls or visits getting him kicked out?
No it was calls to his wife in Russian!!...and or using bathrooms, kitchens and fridges?

Hosty: ...I rang the bell, talked to Mrs. Paine, at which time she advised me that Lee Oswald had been out to visit her, visit his wife, at her house over the Weekend, but she had still not determined where he was living in Dallas, and she also made the remark that she considered him to be a very illogical person, that he had told her that weekend that he was a Trotskyite Communist. Since she did not have his address, I thanked her and left.

So he knows where is Lee. He is living in Irving. Working at the TSBD.
Avoids talking to or "Interviewing" Lee.

Mr. HOSTY. Let me see. Part of it would have, this paragraph on page 11, this November 1, Mrs. Ruth Paine was interviewed. This appeared in the communication I sent out to the New Orleans office advising them where he was employed.
Mr. DULLES. When was that sent?
Mr. HOSTY. The 4th of November, sir. The rest of it was in note form. I hadn't reduced it to writing yet.

CIA tactic or neat trick to avoid Interview of Oswald,
but all others you can pretext or interview but only Oswald he can delay for at least five days writing down in report form the notes he took... but that wasn't till Dec 2nd? Because he hadn't interviewed Oswald till Nov 22nd??? Yes, no, maybe and

Mr. STERN. Now you say that you are required to reduce your notes of an interview to writing within 5 working days.
Mr. HOSTY. Right.
Mr. STERN. Did that happen with respect to the interviews you conducted on October 29, November 1, and November 5?
Mr. HOSTY. To make this a little clearer, this would be an interview of a subject, not of a witness, unless this witness has something that was quite pertinent to the investigation.
Routine-type matters do not have to be put on these interview forms, but pertinent interviews would be. Now everything in this case after the assassination was declared to be pertinent. All interviews, regardless of how insignificant, were to be put on these forms.
Mr. STERN. But the interviews you conducted at the beginning of November and the end of October were not within this rule?
Mr. HOSTY. No; because they were not an interview of the subject or anything that contained anything of major importance.

Pertinent to what investigation? Finding where Lee and Marina were.
Irving, Lee was employed TSBD Dallas. End of "investigation"...

But then again Ruth refused her special information of alias Oswald and numbers to rooming houses. Yeah that's it.
Or more like Ruth had no such numbers.
Period. Well... till she updated her calendar or phone book on 11/23



Whom did Hosty talk to at the TSBD?
Aiken?
Did he call the Houston warehouse number directly?
Which number did he have?
he destroyed his notes, but sent info out to NO, did he specify to NO the Place and PH. Number of employment?
Anyways would like to know where and who exactly Hosty spoke to.

 
Mr. HOSTY. On Monday morning, I made a pretext telephone call to the Texas School Book Depository, I called up and asked for the personnel department, asked if a Lee Oswald was employed there. They said yes, he was. I said what address does he show? They said 2515 West Fifth Street, Irving, Tex., which I knew not to be his correct address.
I then sent a communication, airmail communication to the New Orleans office advising them--and to the headquarters of the FBI advising them-

Did Aiken advise Truly?
Cheers, Ed

"And the subject of his looking for work and that he hadn't found work for a week came up while we were having coffee, the four young mothers at Mrs. Roberts' house, and Mrs. Randle mentioned that her younger brother, Wesley Frazier, thought they needed another person at the Texas School Book Depository where Wesley worked. Marina then asked me, after we had gone home, asked me if I would call...the School Book Depository to see if indeed there was the possibility of an opening, and at her request, I did telephone. ....

"I looked up the number in the book, and dialed it, was told I would need to speak to Mr. Truly, who was at the warehouse. The phone was taken to Mr. Truly, and I talked with him and said...I know of a young man whose wife was staying in my house, the wife was expecting a child, they already had a little girl and he had been out of work for a while and was very interested in getting any employment and his name, and was there a possibility of an opening there, and Mr. Truly said he didn't know whether he had an opening, that the young man should apply himself in person."


Dorthy knows where every other person is employed and she was in on the conversation about Lee and getting work at TSBD, so why would Dorthy be so dense as to not pass along this, even as a possible place of employment.
Is Dorothy claiming to not be aware Buell and Lee going to work?
Buell beeping his horn for Lee... Dorothy the snoop would be WELL aware.
So why the slipping the date back to Nov 1st?
Oct 29th Hosty knows where Lee is getting his mail and where Lee works, I am quite sure. To be otherwise is spin.
Both Roberts are informants it seems. (Earlene and Dorthy)

How does a guy whom is out of work, living apart from his wife, Lee having to get separate accommodations, due to Ruth not wanting him there, and how does this help Lee's case. I mean Ruth will not have this man in her home, but is desperate to get him work, and will vouch for the guy, a man she refuses to let live in her house... really?


 

Same cloth, same cut.

Mrs Roberts relates she did have the TSBD information.

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=10490&search=%22dorothy_roberts%22#relPageId=493&tab=page

Why does Hosty imply he did not get this info from her on the 29th?

Mrs Roberts says Mrs Paine was happy as Lee would have money before the baby was born.

She further states she saw Lee twice more in the yard of the Paines after this conversation with Ruth, about a week after his employment.
So was Hosty correct in implying she saw him ONE time at the Paines, and only ONE time by October 29th?


What was in the coffee?
https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=60418&relPageId=58&search=%22dorothy_roberts%22


Point is Randle would cross Paine's homes view to go see Roberts.
This pattern if observed would tend to tell Mrs Paine when she might catch all the gals together and use this as a reason for her woes and concerns about poor Russian girl with baby on the way and husband who doesn't support his family... to have coffee and chit chat.

Bilking nothing out of Mrs. Roberts as far as employment concerns over several cups, yet Randle shows up and the job opportunities abound.
Really? What did Ed Roberts do?
Dorthy could provide no leads. Only Linnie Mae was a help, and yet Buell got his job through an an employment agency fully researched at this site (ROKC exclusive).
So why not tell Ruth to go call the employment agency and see?
What was Ruth doing asking Linnie to call TSBD for?
Trying to pass this part off on Linnie leaving Ruth squeaky clean.
Linnie didn't play along. rightly so. And Ruth was forced to "call" Truly.

Or that is the story.
And Hosty knew better,

So Hosty states in his testimony from 1975 that Bookhout made two additional reports.....
Come again? And what a coincidence of this eligible part of that testimony, I mean everything else is clear as today's sky. With using PS it still yields bugger all.
https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=1408#relPageId=98&tab=page

so Hosty mentions two reports by Bookhout from two interviews Bookout made of Lee that Hosty didnt attend... hmm

only words in that bit I can make out are WHEN INTERVIEWED ...WHAT or WHEN.

Yeah we want a better copy of this, add it to the list Bart

Stan Dane wrote:Reading the current discussion in the "Buell Wesley Frazier: 'Where’s your Rider?'" thread about the start of the lunch period on the day of the assassination, and considering the motorcade route schedule may not have been widely known to many of the TSBD employees that morning, as well as considering what Givens (and Lovelady?) said about seeing Oswald around 11:50 am in the Domino Room, I more firmly believe (if that is even possible) that Oswald was down on the first floor when the motorcade passed by.

Oswald was doing what all the rest of the gang were doing: knocking off for lunch and getting ready for the President to drive by. If your plan is to shoot the President, you don't sit on the first floor reading a paper only a number of minutes before he is to arrive, with a rifle you still have to pull out of hiding and assemble together. Nobody is that damn pathologically, "Terminator" cool. Oswald certainly wasn't this kind of person.

From Chapter 8 of the Warren Commission Report:

In fact, Hosty participated in transmitting to the Secret Service two pieces of information pertaining to the visit.127 Hosty testified that he did not know until the evening of Thursday, November 21, that there was to be a motorcade, however, and never realized that the motorcade would pass the Texas School Book Depository Building. He testified that he did not read the newspaper story describing the motorcade route in detail, since he was interested only in the fact that the motorcade was coming up Main Street, "where maybe I could watch it if I had a chance."
 
Even if he had recalled that Oswald's place of employment was on the President's route, Hosty testified that he would not have cited him to the Secret Service as a potential threat to the President. Hosty interpreted his instructions as requiring "some indication that the person planned to take some action against the safety of the President of the United States or the Vice President." In his opinion, none of the information in the FBI files—Oswald's defection, his Fair Play for Cuba activities in New Orleans, his lies to Agent Quigley, his recent visit to Mexico City—indicated that Oswald was capable of violence. Hosty's initial reaction on hearing that Oswald was a suspect in the assassination, was "shock, complete surprise," because he had no reason to believe that Oswald "was capable or potentially an assassin of the President of the United States."
 
Shortly after Oswald was apprehended and identified, Hosty's superior sent him to observe the interrogation of Oswald. Hosty parked his car in the basement of police headquarters and there met an acquaintance, Lt. Jack Revill of the Dallas police force. The two men disagree about the conversation which took place between them. They agree that Hosty told Revill that the FBI had known about Oswald and, in particular, of his presence in Dallas and his employment at the Texas School Book Depository Building. Revill testified that Hosty said also that the FBI had information that Oswald was "capable of committing this assassination." According to Revill, Hosty indicated that he was going to tell this to Lieutenant Wells of the homicide and robbery bureau. Revill promptly made a memorandum of this conversation in which the quoted statement appears. His secretary testified that she prepared such a report for him that afternoon and Chief of Police Jesse E. Curry and District Attorney Henry M. Wade both testified that they saw it later that day.
 
Hosty has unequivocally denied, first by affidavit and then in his testimony before the Commission, that he ever said that Oswald was capable of violence, or that he had any information suggesting this. The only witness to the conversation was Dallas Police Detective V. J. Brian, who was accompanying Revill. Brian did not hear Hosty make any statement concerning Oswald's capacity to be an assassin but he did not hear the entire conversation because of the commotion at police headquarters and because he was not within hearing distance at all times.

 
Hosty's reaction to the news of Oswald being fingered for the assassination was "shock, complete surprise." Why? Because he knew Oswald wasn't this kind of guy. As an FBI agent, I got to believe Hosty was well versed in sizing up people. Hosty was shocked Oswald was made the patsy.
 
We know about the Bookhout & Hosty FBI interrogation report of 11.22.1963 and how it said NOTHING about any encounter with Oswald on the second floor. Then, after Oswald was killed, Bookhout does a another solo report describing a policeman/Roy Truly encounter with Oswald holding a Coke on the second floor.
 
Was Hosty aware of the second report? If so, I wonder if he agreed with it. I doubt it. 

But then it didn't matter. I'm sure his masters told him to no longer concern himself with any of this. "We got other important things for you to do. Now go do them." And I think Hosty did just that.

Spot on Stan,

all roads lead to Truly here don't they. Fritz, Curry and Wade did the rest. Those Cliff Carter (LBJ's Office) calls to Henry Wade Friday evening sealed Oswalds fate for sure. IMO

Does anyone have any evidence of Hosty's presence inside the DPD on the 23rd?
His book makes no mention if it.

The reason I am asking because he supposedly spoke to 2 SS men in the corridor....and it does not look good for Jimbo.

THX

Thanks to Malcolm Blunt


Part of a larger document of a telephone convo to Jim Cocenaur.

Yet more missing tape...
Thanks Bart

A very interesting timeline.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1-kplsgyh1eF_VjVDF_JDTOTgEeeVHizm/view?usp=sharing

And Hosty, Ed Coyle and Frank Ellsworth meeting just prior the assassination.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1-kplsgyh1eF_VjVDF_JDTOTgEeeVHizm/view?usp=sharing

Thanks to Malcolm Blunt.

Hosty is certainly an interesting character. I would have placed him up there with Ruth Paine as a key person of interest with regards to Oswald's framing.

More gold from Malcolm Blunt.

Thanks to Malcolm Blunt.
Scans by me.

Two cool not available before online documents and very interesting reads.

Hosty - MC Airtel

Hosty - Oswald Russian period

http://jfk.hood.edu/Collection/McKnight%20Working%20Folders/Part%204/Gemberling%20Reports-Extracts/Gemberling%20Reports-Extracts%2014.pdf

Jan 15 report of Truly.