The Militant / Worker

Anyone know if the FBI had a chat with the folks at The Militant or The Worker after the assassination? Would seem logical, given LHO was subscribed to both and is holding them in the backyard pix, but I can't find any evidence any interviews took place.

orangebicycle wrote:Anyone know if the FBI had a chat with the folks at The Militant or The Worker after the assassination? Would seem logical, given LHO was subscribed to both and is holding them in the backyard pix, but I can't find any evidence any interviews took place.

Have never come across anything suggesting they did. And they probably didn't need to since they would have had informants in those organizations.

Which is part of the reason I don't believe the very belated claims that Oswald sent one of the BY pics to the Militant. Had he done so, the FBI would have been all too aware of it. But it is also pretty hard to send photos anywhere that never existed at that time.

Thanks, Greg. Good point. Reason I ask is there's a letter on page 7 of the 11 Mar Militant Oswald is holding that I've never seen mentioned before. It's headlined News and Views from Dallas:

https://www.marxists.org/history/etol/newspape/themilitant/1963/v27n10-mar-11-1963-mil.pdf

Be interested to hear your thoughts.

The following affidavit was executed by Louis Weinstock on May 20, 1964.
PRESIDENT'S COMMISSION
ON THE ASSASSINATION OF
PRESIDENT JOHN F. KENNEDY
AFFIDAVIT
STATE OF NEW YORK,
County of New York, ss:
Louis Weinstock, being duly sworn, says:

1. On or about December 19, 1962, I was General Manager of "The Worker," the address of which is 23 West 26 Street, New York 11, New York. On or about December 19, 1962, I wrote the attached letter on the letterhead of "The Worker" addressed to Lee Harvey Oswald, Post Office Box 2915, Dallas, Texas, and sent or caused such letter to be sent to Mr. Oswald. I have initialed that letter immediately below the initials "WJL" appearing thereon for the purpose of identifying it as Weinstock Exhibit No. 1.

2. The letter refers to certain "blow ups" which were apparently sent to "The Worker" by Mr. Oswald. I described those "blow ups" in my letter as "poster like blow ups" and indicated that they would be "most useful at newsstands and other public places to call the attention of newspaper readers that The Worker' is available."

3. While my recollection is not entirely clear concerning the nature of the "blow ups" which Oswald had apparently sent to "The Worker," it appears from the description of such "blow ups" in my letter that they must have consisted of the item which has been marked as Exhibit 5A in the deposition of Mr. Arnold S. Johnson, which Exhibit, as indicated in Mr. Johnson's testimony, was obtained from the files of "The Worker" and turned over to the Federal Bureau of Investigation by Mr. Johnson's counsel.

4. Aside from the attached letter of December 19, 1962, I know of no other correspondence which I may have written to Lee Harvey Oswald and I do not recall receiving anything from him other than the material described in this affidavit.
Signed the 20th day of May 1964.
(S) Louis Weinstock,
LOUIS WEINSTOCK.

Thanks, Vinny. Really interesting. Shame historic issues of The Worker are not archived online; it would be interesting to trawl through their 1962/63 back issues, and particularly their letters pages, to see what LHO would have been reading and/or writing.

They are, in fact, online...

https://www.themilitant.com/backissu.html

The records for the Worker are spotty at best. Here's a link to some of the Worker papers from the '20s. Although not germane to Oswald, provide some historical information on the Left

https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/

The main site for the Worker, and other Left leaning publications is: https://www.marxists.org/index.htm

Phil.

Thanks, Phil. Pity they don't have a copy of the 24 March 1963 issue! As mentioned in a previous post, there is a letter in the 11 March Militant that could easily have been written by LHO. I'm just wondering whether "L.H." from Dallas wrote in to The Worker as well.