In Honor of the Anniversary of the Magnolia Party - Lee Harvey Oswald Meets his "Makers"

Ruth Paine and Marina Oswald became housemates after the Magnolia party

Ruth Paine met the Oswalds and George de Mohrenschildt at the party of Everett Glover on February 22, 1963. This is known as the "Magnolia party". Glover was a chemist with Magnolia Labs, a geology lab for Socony Mobil Oil -- the same "Socony labs" that Moore referred to when he argued that there was no White Russian community in Dallas. Glover and four other Magnolia employees approached Oswald and got him to talk for several hours about life in the Soviet Union. One of these employees, Norman Fredericksen, was the son of the former director of Radio Free Europe. As discussed in the previous chapter, de Mohrenschildt had many close ties with Radio Free Europe.
The Paines have been described by researcher Greg Parker as pragmatic pacifists. In an amazing coincidence, they moved from Pennsylvania to Oswald's mother's community of Irving, Texas during the second week of September 1959, the very week that Oswald abruptly left his mother and went off to defect to the USSR. They had made the move so that Michael could take a job with the military contractor Bell Helicopter. Michael said that Bell manufactured 40% of all of the helicopters used in the Vietnam War. Bell Helicopter was begun and run by Michael's stepfather, Arthur Young, the most recent husband of Michael's mother Ruth Forbes Paine.

They had made the move so that Michael could take a job with the military contractor Bell Helicopter. Michael said that Bell manufactured 40% of all of the helicopters used in the Vietnam War. Bell Helicopter was begun and run by Michael's stepfather, Arthur Young, the most recent husband of Michael's mother Ruth Forbes Paine.

Helicopters on the attack by none
The Paines probably had a handler within the intelligence community in 1959, whether they knew it or not. Based on their background with the World Federalists and Ruth's work with the Quakers and Soviet-American friendship committees, Cord Meyer is the logical candidate. By 1963, Meyer was the chief of the covert action division.

Frederick Merrill at the State Department put his stamp of approval on the East-West Contact Committee program organized by the Quakers that Ruth had worked on - the following year, Merrill worked on the Robert Webster defector case that was linked to the Oswald defector case. Did some combination of Meyer, AID and the State Department somehow persuade the Paines to keep an eye on this defector family, or were they simply manipulated into position? Ruth had other intelligence operatives in her family - such as her sister Sylvia Hoke and her brother-in-law John Hoke - who could play a role in helping to convince her. Michael Paine's family also had access to talent in the intelligence arena. Michael's mother had a close friend named Mary Bancroft who was an OSS spy that slept with Allen Dulles.

After the Magnolia party, Ruth asked Marina Oswald if she would like to live with her so that she could improve her Russian. Lee was about to leave Marina for awhile while he went to his home town of New Orleans and looked for more steady work. Michael and Ruth had ostensibly split up, and were living in different houses.