Fred Litwin: Paul Bleau and the Fake Oswald Handbill

Denise I don't know what irony is Morisette wrote:From Fred Litwin:

Paul Bleau and the Fake Oswald Handbill

Paul Bleau is the latest conspiracy theorist to believe that Oswald handed out handbills on the streets of New Orleans stamped with 544 Camp Street. This is just not true. His handbills were only stamped with his home address or his post office box.

There was a link folllowing to the Litwin piece, but fuck him. I'm not sending people there. I read it so you don't have to.  

First off, there was nothing fake about the handbills. They were bought and paid for for chrisakes. Perhaps Litwin meant the FPCC chapter they advertized was non-existent? 

Here is the exchange between Bleau and Groubert that got Freddy's murcury up. 

Paul Bleau: And I truly think that that flyer that revealed it, was a mistake and it got everybody really pissed.


Mark Groubert: We're talking about the one with a rubber stamp that's said 544 Camp Street?


Paul Bleau: That's right. That's right. 


Mark Groubert: That was quickly removed from future flyers.
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As said in reply to Morissette

Anthony Thorne wrote:So he was handing out pamphlets with the 544 Camp Street address. Got it.

Also, from here

https://www.aarclibrary.org/publib/jfk/hsca/reportvols/vol10/pdf/HSCA_Vol10_AC_13_544Camp.pdf

The top of the link says that the above incident occurred in Canal Street, New Orleans  Documentation says Oswald did it, Litwin has forgotten how to use Google and thinks that Oswald didn't. Has Litwin gone bananas?

Which brought on the inevitable quibble about handbills and flyers

The Fez wrote:I think Denis was speaking specifically about Paul mentioning "handbills" and not pamphlets..

No, Fezzo. Paul mentioned "flyers". But as shown below - it iis all the same diference. Kind of like your garden variety doppelganger. 

A pamphlet is a small, unbound single subject hand-out that provides less, but more focused information than a brochure. Also known as leaflets, this print media can be printed on one or both sides, and are typically folded into multiple sections.14 Oct 2015
https://www.displays2go.com/Guide/The-Difference-Between-Brochures-Pamphlets-26#:

Leaflet: a small flat or folded sheet of printed matter, as an advertisement or notice, usually intended for free distribution.
https://www.dictionary.com/browse/leaflet

A handbill - Definition, Meaning & Synonyms - Vocabulary.comhttps://www.vocabulary.com › dictionary › handbill
an advertisement (usually printed on a page or in a leaflet) intended for wide distribution.

Flyer - Definition, Meaning & Synonyms - Vocabulary.comhttps://www.vocabulary.com › dictionary › flyer
A flyer can be something or someone that flies on a plane, but another meaning is a handbill or advertising sheet handed out to people on the street.

Pamphlet/leaflet/handbill/flyer -- all basically the same thing. 

What was stamped with 544 Camp St was The Crimes Against Cuba by Corliss Lamont. Here is a big clue as to what this was regarded as being. It was published by a company called Basic Pamphlets.

Again - as above - pamphlets = leaflets = handbills = flyers

It may well be that Paul Bleau was mistaking the Hands Off Cuba handbills for the Corliss Lamont pamphlet. Shit happens when you're having a discussion in a podcast. But was he lying? Nah. Paul is not the type. In any case, it is far from certain that he was mixed up. 

The man said there was a "flyer" stamped Camp St. Though flyers typically are printed on a single sheet, I'm typically drunk by the time I leave the pub. Or put another - sometimes I'm not. What Paul never said was that the "flyers" stamped Camp St were ever handed out   

Any confusion from Paul (and again, it is far from certain there was any) in a podcast is one thing, but Litwin writing his piece has no such "off-the-cuff" excuse for his errors.

Fred Litwin wrote:When Oswald handed out "Hands Off Cuba" handbills on June 16, 1963, at the U. S. S. Wasp, there was no address on the handbills. Oswald chose the Wasp because it was part of the Cuban blockade fleet.

Absolute bullshit. These flyers were stamped AJ Hidell with the slightly confused PO Box as the address.

On the face of it, these were handed out by AJ Hidell who Oswald was to state later, contacted him after being escorted from the wharf, and asked him to take over distrubution. Lee agreed to it and the flyers he used were stamped with his name and street address. 

 
"
The only evidence that Oswald was the person handing these out on the wharf was port cop Girod Ray - who post-assassination, described the individual as late 20's 150 pounds and 5' 9. Some might say that's close, but it is also a generic  description of a young white male of the era. And it could be argued that 6 years out on the age and about 16 pounds out on the weight (his weight at his August arrrest was listed as 134 pounds), is not really even that close.

And just how trustworthy was Ray?

Not very, judging by his penchant for fraud and violence. During the period discussed in the link, Ray was working for the Louisianna State Police. In 1963, he was employed by the Port Authority Police - a privately run police force. It appears his errant ways got him fired from the State Police. 

Litwin's witness that it was Oswald was not a good witness. Ray was a person of low character. All other evidence points to the wharf distributor being someone other than Oswald, and using the name AJ Hidell.  In fact, the handbill stamp with the PO address suggests that the PO box may not have even belonged to Oswald - especially since the ones he later distributed himself, had his street address.

Thanks Greg. You are doing a wonderful job refuting all this nonsense.

The FBI initially reported that the name Hidell could have been written on the box 30061 application by the postal clerk, Richmond Tankersley:

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=57682#relPageId=109

Substitute clerk Tankersley’s initials are on all of Oswald’s postal forms from New Orleans. The guy was never interviewed by the FBI or WC.

Where I think the Hidell issue gets interesting with respect to that box app is that the FBI actually had a Postal Inspector informant (I think it was Lee Robertson) look at the app in July ‘63. He mentioned the nonexistent French St. address but said nothing about A.J. Hidell:

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=233140#relPageId=31

The goal at the time was to determine Oswald’s street address, but still. The guy was looking right at the box app and I find it a bit hard to believe that he wouldn’t mention that others were entitled to receive mail in the box while on the phone or whatever with the FBI.

JFK_FNG wrote:The FBI initially reported that the name Hidell could have been written on the box 30061 application by the postal clerk, Richmond Tankersley:

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=57682#relPageId=109

Substitute clerk Tankersley’s initials are on all of Oswald’s postal forms from New Orleans. The guy was never interviewed by the FBI or WC.

Where I think the Hidell issue gets interesting with respect to that box app is that the FBI actually had a Postal Inspector informant (I think it was Lee Robertson) look at the app in July ‘63. He mentioned the nonexistent French St. address but said nothing about A.J. Hidell:

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=233140#relPageId=31

The goal at the time was to determine Oswald’s street address, but still. The guy was looking right at the box app and I find it a bit hard to believe that he wouldn’t mention that others were entitled to receive mail in the box while on the phone or whatever with the FBI.

Thanks Tom.

I know most people believe it was Oswald at the wharf as well as later on Canal St, but I don't buy it. As I said - not sure about the PO box either.

He said later he was contacted by Hidell to take over. Why didn't he continue using the PO Box? 

On Richmond Tankersley. Found an obit for a Richmond Sr. Died 2010. Said he had been in Jefferson Parish for 42 years and was from Arkansaw. THis means he arrived in 1968 - whch tends to rule him out. He did have a son, Richmond, Jr whose Linked In page has him attending LSU in 1967. Possibly too young to have been him. 

Might be further info on Tankersley in the Garrison files.

greg_parker wrote:

JFK_FNG wrote:The FBI initially reported that the name Hidell could have been written on the box 30061 application by the postal clerk, Richmond Tankersley:

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=57682#relPageId=109

Substitute clerk Tankersley’s initials are on all of Oswald’s postal forms from New Orleans. The guy was never interviewed by the FBI or WC.

Where I think the Hidell issue gets interesting with respect to that box app is that the FBI actually had a Postal Inspector informant (I think it was Lee Robertson) look at the app in July ‘63. He mentioned the nonexistent French St. address but said nothing about A.J. Hidell:

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=233140#relPageId=31

The goal at the time was to determine Oswald’s street address, but still. The guy was looking right at the box app and I find it a bit hard to believe that he wouldn’t mention that others were entitled to receive mail in the box while on the phone or whatever with the FBI.

Thanks Tom.

I know most people believe it was Oswald at the wharf as well as later on Canal St, but I don't buy it. As I said - not sure about the PO box either.

He said later he was contacted by Hidell to take over. Why didn't he continue using the PO Box? 

On Richmond Tankersley. Found an obit for a Richmond Sr. Died 2010. Said he had been in Jefferson Parish for 42 years and was from Arkansaw. THis means he arrived in 1968 - whch tends to rule him out. He did have a son, Richmond, Jr whose Linked In page has him attending LSU in 1967. Possibly too young to have been him. 

Might be further info on Tankersley in the Garrison files.

The false P.O. box number 30016 I think is pretty interesting, and relevant. That could have been a flag for the Postal Inspection Service to identify subversives, or something like that, but I don’t think there’s any chance in hell it was an accident. If someone else made those flyers, they’d be connecting Hidell to Oswald without tipping him off by having mail to Hidell delivered to his box. The name A. J. Hidell is on the box application, but why would Oswald do that if he wasn’t planning on receiving mail under that name? 

Also, like you said, why the heck wouldn’t Oswald use the P.O. Box for the Canal St. flyers? I talked about this a bit in my mailbox essay. Oswald never changed his address to that box, so he deliberately set it up so he’d continue receiving certain mail at his apartment. Marina did change her address to the box however, but all of her postal forms disappeared - minus the bullshit forwarding cancellation. 

Garrison had a cop interview Tankersley about the cancellation form, which Tankersley supposedly filled out, but he didn’t know the right questions to ask. Garrison was not aware that the form was canceling a CoA that didn’t exist, even according to the WC, and he didn’t know the background because the relevant documents were still classified. The form was reported on Nov. 22nd as being in Marina’s name, then it vanished for nine months until Harry Holmes hand delivered it to the WC - but the name on the form was now Lee H. Oswald. Holmes’ hand delivery bypassed any examination by the FBI, and the avoidance of Tankersley killed any further investigation. Garrison had Tankersley fill out a sample form for comparison, and wrote that his handwriting looked “quite different” to the actual form, but the sample form and subsequent handwriting analysis are now missing. I don’t think Garrison knew that Tankersely’s initials were also on the box application and CoA to Irving. 

How this all relates to the Wasp incident, I’m not sure. I can’t help but think there’s some tie-in to the rifle and pistol orders, and to Marina signing the name Hidell on the FPCC card, etc. - but I have no idea where to look to make that connection.