The Twelve Who Built the Oswald Legend

Part 11: The Paines Carry the Weight

by Bill Simpich, Dec 21, 2014

The premise of this series is that Oswald had twelve people who built his legend. Many people still believe the legend about Oswald being "a loner." As this series shows, Oswald was many things, but a loner was not one of them. His ability to provoke people and work both sides of the political spectrum had the intelligence agencies viewing him as an asset.

Let's turn to a liberal couple that moved to the Dallas suburb of Irving in 1959 - during the same week that Oswald came to visit his mother in Irving before he left for the USSR. When Oswald came back to the area in 1962, the Paines were still there. It was like they had been waiting for him.

Ruth and Michael Paine

Michael Paine was Legend Maker #12 for Lee Oswald, while his wife Ruth Paine focused on taking care of Marina Oswald and the children. Like most of the legend makers, I think the Paines were manipulated as much as the Oswalds were. We have seen two CIA officers as legend makers - Richard Snyder and Anne Goodpasture - who I think had a pretty good idea of how they were being used to massage the Oswald legend. The Paines appear to be confused right up to 11/22/63.

Although the Paines appear to be government assets rather than agents, I suspect that they knew about the government's need to keep an eye on Oswald. They probably thought that they were helping out the CIA, the State Department, or Bob Odum at the local FBI office. I do not believe that they played any role in planning the assassination of John F. Kennedy - with the possible exception of agent Odum, a friend of the Paines who we will discuss in the epilogue. Any law enforcement officer suspected of writing a phony report about the infamous alleged assassination bullet CE-399 deserves the closest scrutiny, as discussed in the endnotes.

There was a dramatic event in the moments after JFK's assassination, where several credible witnesses saw a man looking like Oswald escaping from the book depository and picked up by a dark-complected man in a light-colored station wagon looking like the one driven by Ruth Paine. Dallas police chief Jesse Curry commented on it. Angleton's CI-SIG office wrote a memo about it that is missing a page to this day.

I believe that this event was designed to cause confusion about both Oswald and the Paines, and to get the notion in the public mind that Castro's Cubans were involved in the assassination. I also believe that it served as a warning to the Paines to be quiet and let the "Oswald-is-guilty" story go forward.

The witnesses reported seeing a Rambler station wagon with a luggage rack - although the Paine's station wagon was not a Rambler and it had no roof rack, the square size of the reported station wagon still sent an ominous message - we know who you are and you better shut up.

We met the Paines in Part 7 of this series, when they took over the baby-sitting chores from George de Mohrenschildt (Legend Maker #9) as he prepared to leave for Haiti in April. Lee Oswald left for New Orleans at about the same time looking for work after being fired from the photo lab at the beginning of the month.

At Ruth Paine's invitation, Marina and daughter June moved in with the Paine family until Oswald found work in New Orleans. Like the Oswalds, the Paines were having marital difficulties. It was easy for the Russian-speaking Ruth to invite Marina to move into her home so that she could improve her Russian by speaking with her. Throughout 1963, both Michael Paine and Lee Oswald had their own homes, living separate from their families most of the time.

Lee Oswald with Marina and Baby June

At the end of the summer of 1963, the Oswald family decided to return to Dallas. Lee considered looking for work in the Philadelphia-Baltimore-DC area. Both Michael and Ruth had relatives in all three cities that could have put him up, but Lee never took any decisive action on this front that is known.

Either Oswald or someone looking a lot like him went to Mexico City to see if he could obtain visas to enable the family to return to the Soviet Union. Marina was due to give birth in late October and it made sense for her to be back in Minsk where she would have the support of her family. Throughout 1963, both of the Oswalds had asked the Soviet consulate in Washington DC to provide them visas to return to the USSR, but without success.

Ruth Paine went to New Orleans and drove Marina and baby June to her home. She decided to take Marina into her home during the last stages of Marina's pregnancy. When Oswald's attempt to obtain visas failed in Mexico City, he returned to Dallas on October 3. Oswald quickly got himself a place in a rooming house, visiting Marina and June at the Paine residence on the weekends. Although Ruth Paine and Michael Paine were separated throughout 1963, Michael would come over to visit and found himself spending time with Lee. In late 1963, Michael had his own home in Grand Prairie.

But in early 1963, Michael and Ruth would still get together to sing with Everett Glover and others in their singing group drawn from their mutual friends in the local Unitarian choir. Glover, a geologist, lived with another geologist named Richard Pierce and an extremely right-wing German chemist by the name of Volkmar Schmidt. Glover, Pierce and Schmidt all worked at the Magnolia Research Labs. Schmidt sought out Oswald at a party and singled him out for a long political discussion focusing on General Edwin Walker. Schmidt then helped Glover organize the "Magnolia party" of February 1963 described in Part 7 where Ruth Paine met the Oswalds - the story was that Schmidt wanted Oswald to meet Michael Paine because of their mutual interest in politics. But, curiously, Schmidt abruptly left for Germany on business before the Magnolia party took place - and never saw the Oswalds again.

Michael Paine got Lee Oswald to join the ACLU, which weakened Lee's most powerful advocate

Michael Paine

Like Lee, Michael was fascinated with both left and right-wing political groups. Lee and Michael enjoyed talking politics. Paine claimed that he only met Oswald six times before the assassination - April 2, October 4, October 18, November 8, 9 and 10. Regardless of how accurate Paine's memory was, the important thing is that his actions led Oswald to make the unfortunate decision to join the ACLU three weeks before he died. The result was to cut off Oswald's most important ally at the knees.

On October 23, Lee went to a John Birch Society meeting that was headed by General Walker. On October 24, Michael went to a sparsely attended John Birch Society meeting while most of the Birchers were outside attacking Adlai Stevenson, just one of "a number of rightist meetings and seminars" that he would check out. On October 25, Michael said that "he took Lee to a meeting of the ACLU". Ruth described herself as "an active member" of the ACLU, and said that Michael was also a member. The meeting was at Southern Methodist, with the focus on recent outrages committed by the ultra-right. After the meeting, Lee wrote the Daily Worker and credited "a friend (who) introduced him into the American Civil Liberties Union local chapter.".

Despite his stated concern to Michael that the ACLU was not a political organization, Oswald went on to submit the requisite documents for membership that week - his request arrived at ACLU headquarters on the 4th of November. Oswald also obtained a new post office box at that time, stating on his application card that the names of his firms were the ACLU and the Fair Play for Cuba Committee. On the day after the assassination, Oswald supposedly told his interrogators that he was an ACLU member.

On that Saturday evening, Oswald received a visit from Louis Nichols, the president of the Dallas Bar Association. For the first time, Oswald asked Nichols if he knew any attorneys who were members of the ACLU who could represent him. Up to this point, Oswald had rejected all offers of legal assistance due to his fixation on speaking with Communist Party attorney John Abt. After finding out that Nichols had no names at his fingertips that he could offer, Oswald said that Nichols and the bar association should do nothing for the time being.

In other words, Paine created a conflict of interest between Oswald and the only organization that would champion his cause in the days immediately after his death. The ACLU told the press:

Time and again, police and prosecution officials stated their complete satisfaction that Oswald was the assassin. As their investigation uncovered one piece of alleged evidence after another, the results were broadcast to the public.

The ACLU told the public that "Oswald's trial would have been nothing but a hollow formality."

Oswald's ties to the ACLU smeared the organization and injured its credibility in its attempts to defend Oswald after his death. A bad situation became worse when the ACLU chair was too cute by half, saying that since Oswald's application had never processed by ACLU headquarters, he was not an actual "member" before his death. Oswald made the ACLU look bad after his death - it's hard to imagine how the group would have looked if Oswald had lived.

Bill Harvey had a bird's eye view into John Abt, the left-wing Quakers, and the Communist Party USA

Remember that Oswald turned away other lawyers to hold out for the attorney John Abt, counsel for the Communist Party USA. This is a real tragedy, because if Oswald had told his story to a lawyer, the lawyer would have been free to tell the public after Oswald was killed. Why was Oswald so stubborn on this point?

Apparently because Mr. Abt had a lot of experience in defending clients who had been framed by the government. Oswald may have been totally sincere, but - as with his joining the ACLU in the last days before the assassination - it looks to me like Oswald was given very damaging advice from Michael Paine and maybe others.

John Abt

Who was John Abt? Abt had a fascinating background of his own.

In the 1930s, John Abt was a member of the Ware Group, a network of young left-wing lawyers such as Alger Hiss and economists Nathaniel Weyl working in FDR's Agricultural Adjustment Administration. Their original leader was Hal Ware, the leading agricultural expert for the CPUSA. What began as a discussion group turned into a Soviet espionage network over time.

When Ware died in an auto accident in 1935, Abt married Ware's widow Jessica Smith, while Whittaker Chambers took over the leadership of the Ware Group. Norman Thomas, the perennial Socialist Party candidate, conducted the wedding of Abt and Smith. Smith, a Swarthmore graduate, had signed up in the 20s to work with the Quaker mission to address famine in the Soviet Union. Smith and Ruth Paine were in the same social circles. Not only were both of them active in the left-wing political wing of the Quakers, but Ruth's family had been long-time supporters of Norman Thomas.

The Ware Group had a period of inactivity for several years after Chambers left in 1938 to join the Quakers and write for Time magazine, only to regain momentum when they came together around a statistician with the War Production Board named Victor Perlo. John Abt enlisted an upper-class woman, Elizabeth Bentley, into the espionage activities of what was now known as the Perlo Group. Abt left the group shortly afterwards.

A big-time alcoholic, Bentley became a double agent. She blew the whistle on the members of the Perlo Group. The Justice Department used her revelations as an excuse to issue indictments in July 1948 against the leaders of the Communist Party USA, with Bentley's identity blown by the newspapers. (Lauren Kessler, Clever Girl (HarperCollins, 2003), pp. 156-159.)

In the ensuing uproar, the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) went into session the day after Bentley testified before a Senate committee. Bentley sang like a canary, exposing the identities of Abt and the members of the Perlo Group as part of a communist espionage ring. Chambers then came forward and backed up Bentley's claims, adding the names of the Ware Group members and Alger Hiss. At this point, Hiss had gone on to become one of the moving forces of the United Nations and was the new president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. (Kessler, pp. 179-181)

The short-term result was the Hiss-Chambers drama during the heat of the 1948 election, and the HUAC congressman Dick Nixon got the exposure he needed to mount a national career in politics. The long-term result was to fuel a period of paranoia now known as the McCarthy era.

Bentley's FBI interrogator from 1945 to 1947 was the future chief of the CIA's assassinations team - William Harvey. By 1963, Harvey had enjoyed for many years a bird's view of John Abt, left-wing Quaker activity, and the Communist Party USA. Undiagnosed complications from exploratory surgery that revealed an inoperable and virulent cancer took Bentley's life at age 55, ten days after the JFK assassination.

Paine superficially resembled Oswald, and had a provocative streak of his own

Besides convincing Lee to join the ACLU, Paine had a provocative streak similar to Oswald. Shortly after meeting Lee, Michael told the FBI that he began to frequent Luby's Cafeteria across from Southern Methodist University after Sunday services in April-May 1963. Paine enjoyed engaging in political conversations or debates with students, taking a pro-Castro, pro-Cuba, pro-peace-with-the-USSR viewpoint. Paine told the Warren Commission that he had also "been to a number of rightist meetings and seminars in Texas...I wanted to be able to speak their language..."

Attorney Ed Buck told a remarkable story about his run-in with "a tall slender man about 6'2", 160 pounds" at Luby's Cafeteria, and how the unknown man mentioned his friendship with Lee Oswald. The man also told Buck that he used to work with books before he went to work at Bell Helicopter.

The FBI Albequerque office concluded that the unknown man could only be Michael Paine. Paine was interviewed and agreed that it was probably him. Robert Gemberling, a prominent FBI investigator of Oswald, omitted from his reports Buck's perfect physical description of Paine.

Michael is described as looking like Oswald in 1963 - Paine had a similar slender frame as Oswald, but quite a bit taller, 35 years old, standing 6'2" and weighing 160. People who have reviewed film footage of Michael Paine during this era report that he was not an Oswald look-alike, but that there was a resemblance.

Michael Paine's stepfather was the reason Bell Aircraft became Bell Helicopter

Before going any farther with the story, this is a good time to stretch out and take a long look at just who is Michael Paine. The man presents a sea of contradictions. Like Oswald, he combines some left-wing and some right-wing tendencies. He is a descendant of Robert Treat Paine, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. Michael's mother was Ruth Forbes of the well-known Forbes family - she married Lyman Paine in 1926 and they divorced in 1934. After that time, Michael saw his father Lyman infrequently. Michael always considered himself more a member of the Forbes family than the Paine family. Michael sang in the choir of the First Unitarian Church, and pastor Byrd Helligas described him as an active member. An avowed pacifist, Michael served in the 40th Division in Korea between 1952-54 as an artillery infantryman, even though he refused to take the oath of allegiance when inducted in 1952. Paine proceeded to win two Bronze Stars.

Bell Helicopter UH-1 Huey Gunship in Vietnam

Paine worked for Bell Helicopter, with ex-Nazi Walter Dornberger as the supervisor of Paine's division of classified projects for Bell Aerospace. Dornberger was the former head of the Nazi Peenemunde rocket center, and surrendered to the US Army with his compatriot Wernher von Braun as part of the infamous Project Paperclip.

"Before turning General Dornberger over to the Americans (in 1947), the British labeled him a 'menace of the first order' (because of his role in war crimes) and warned their Allied partners of his deceitful nature." (Annie Jacobsen, Operation Paperclip (Little, Brown & Co., New York, 2014), p. 262). Allen Dulles, Frank Wisner and other OSS chiefs protected Nazis such as Dornberger who could provide military secrets from prosecution at Nuremberg - this policy also protected major actors such as the Krupp arms manufacturers and Zyklon-B gas producers I. G. Farben.

Michael's stepfather, Arthur Young, invented the original Bell Helicopter. Young was proud of the uses of the helicopter in fighting forest fires and in MASH evacuations in Korea, but didn't like its conversion into an attack weapon in Vietnam. After Michael flunked out of Harvard in 1949, he increasingly spent time in the barn of the Young place in Paoli, PA, where he experimented with new types of aeronautical vehicles. Michael was apparently trying to emulate Arthur. The helicopter was so successful that the company changed its name from Bell Aircraft to Bell Helicopter.

Michael's birth father Lyman Paine was a well-known architect. A lifelong left-wing Trotskyist, Lyman Paine got into a political battle with fellow party member James Burnham over the direction of the communist movement - until Burnham became a consultant to the CIA - Burnham went on to join Howard Hunt's political action officer William Buckley and founded the conservative National Review magazine.

The FBI considered Lyman Paine and his wife Freddie to be a national threat, placing both of them on the Security Index for the years prior to and including 1963. Meanwhile, Michael had a confidential clearance to work at Bell Helicopter - Bell's security service worked with the CIA and FBI on a regular basis. Michael and Lyman rarely saw each other after Lyman divorced Michael's mother. Michael's brother Cameron did not believe that their father had been a major influence on either of them.

Michael's mother was Ruth Forbes, later known as Ruth Forbes Paine Young after her two marriages to George Lyman Paine and Arthur Young. The Youngs were Quakers and prominent in Philadelphia circles.

Ruth Paine was active in bringing Soviets and Americans together

Who is Ruth Paine, formerly married to Michael? Like Michael, Ruth Hyde Paine was an avowed pacifist. Her parents were Unitarians, and her mother was a minister. She joined the Quakers in 1951. Ruth became active with the East-West Contacts Committee through the Quakers, a society of pen pal correspondence with the Soviet Union that led her to the study of Russian in 1955. Ruth's activity with the East-West Contacts Committee led her to organize a 2500 mile walk in 1957 by five Americans and three Russians. This included working with the Committee of Soviet Youth Organizations.

Ruth also worked on an American-Russian student exchange organized by this committee in 1958, taking an active role in making the travel arrangements for the Russian visitors. The Paines told the Warren Commission that Ruth was a prominent committee member, but never addressed who was Ruth's contact with the State Department to get the travel arrangements done.

I think she had such a contact, and the contact's probable identity tells us a lot. The Director of East-West Contacts within the State Department, Frederick Merrill, stated his approval of this 1958 exchange. Merrill worked with the Free Europe Committee, which funded Radio Free Europe and other projects to ensure the flow of funds to Soviet exile groups. Michael Paine allowed that Ruth may have written the State Department to set up this exchange. The next year, Merrill informed the chief of CIA East-West Contacts that the Rand Corporation was asking the State Department about Robert Webster's whereabouts when he defected to the Soviet Union. Oswald was to follow in Webster's footsteps just days later.

When investigating Priscilla Johnson in 1958, CIA security focused on Johnson's study of Russian at Middlebury College in Vermont during the summers of 1948 and 1950: "The Russian Language Summer School at Middlebury College is staffed almost entirely by teachers from the American-Russian Institute which has been cited by the Attorney General under E.O. 10450."

Ruth Paine being interviewed on 11/24/63

Ruth testified that she took a summer course at the University of Pennsylvania in 1957, two Berlitz courses in Philadelphia in 1958 and 1960, some private lessons with Mrs. Dorothy Gravitis, and the 1959 summer course at Middlebury. Ruth's mother-in-law claimed that Ruth had spent four or five summers studying Russian at Middlebury, which looks like puffing based on the record. We do know that Ruth had taken 42 Berlitz lessons when she transferred her classes from Philadelphia to Dallas on September 9, 1959, indicating that she was trying to learn it in a hurry.

The Paines moved to Irving, Texas on or about September 13, 1959, at the same time that Oswald was making his move from the area to the USSR. The ostensible reason was to work at Bell Helicopter, but the timing was remarkable. To my knowledge, it was the only weekend that Oswald spent in Irving between 1956 to 1962. Wittingly or not, the Paines were now in an ideal physical locale to assist Oswald if his trip to the USSR was unsuccessful.

In his book A Certain Arrogance, George Michael Evica wrote that CIA director Allen Dulles never forgot during his fifty years in espionage "the pragmatic utility of a religious help organization (like the Quakers) as a cover for intelligence activity." (p. 93). As discussed in Part 7, Dulles' mistress Mary Bancroft had access to Michael Paine's side of the family.

If anyone else with CIA affiliations played a role to entice the Paines to move to Texas during September 1959, Cord Meyer (Legend Maker #2) would be the ideal candidate. As discussed at the beginning of this series, Meyer could play the anti-Communist religious Left in America like a violin. His years as an activist for the United World Federalists brought him in contact with the various skeins of the Unitarian and Quaker communities. In the fifties, Meyer worked with the CIA's International Organizations division. By 1963, Meyer was the chief of the Covert Action staff.

Oswald was discharged from the Army on Sept. 11, 1959. The next day, he visited his brother Robert in Fort Worth. His mother testified that he visited with her on or about Sept. 14 for about three days before he went to New Orleans to take a freighter to Europe on the 16th.

Hoover stated that after extensive investigation of de Mohrenschildt and the Paines, there was no finding that they were communists, fascists, or subversives. Hoover did not address their extensive and wide-ranging intelligence connections.

Ruth Hyde Paine's interest in Russian was never very great, despite her years of study, but it was good enough to qualify her as Marina's legend maker and help quell any suspicions that Marina could speak English

Despite Ruth's years of Russian study, and her claim that she had Marina to move in so that she could improve her skills, she was forced to admit that "my actual skill didn't progress fast enough to be of any real use." Her Middlebury roommate Helen Mamikonian described Ruth's Russian as "very poor".

Ruth was introduced to Marina Oswald because geologist Everett Glover knew that she was studying Russian with the hopes of becoming a teacher. Ruth went so far as to tutor one young student in Russian during 1963. There is no evidence that she continued her study of Russian after Lee Oswald's death.

In the moments after JFK's assassination, Ruth Paine pitched in and helped the law enforcement officers with translation until Ilya Mamantov came on the scene. Evica describes Mamantov as a White Russian emigre hired by Sun Oil (a Pew family enterprise) and "an indication that reactionary oil operations had serious U.S. intelligence connections in Dallas (p. 239)." Mamantov's mother-in-law was the aforementioned Dorothy Gravitis who had given Paine some private Russian lessons.

Gravitis heard Ruth Paine speak Russian and was frank in assessing her command of the language as "very poor", even for an American.

Marina, Robert, and Marguerite Oswald with the
Oswalds' two children at Lee's funeral

Wittingly or unwittingly, Ruth knew enough Russian to provide protective cover for Marina, who needed to hide her knowledge of English. As discussed in Part 4, Lee Oswald obtained a lot more information in the Soviet Union when he pretended that he didn't understand Russian well. Lee would tell people that he didn't want Marina to learn how to speak English. I believe Lee wanted Marina to have the same advantage in the US that he had in the USSR. Marguerite Oswald made a point of telling the Warren Commission that Marina was fluent in English. In the Epilogue, I will explain how the Warren Commission realized that Marina had fooled them all along. Was Ruth fooled by Marina?

Mamantov said that he was brought into the investigation on 11/22 when Jack Crichton - chief of the Army Intelligence reserve in Dallas - asked him to serve as the translator for the interrogation of Marina Oswald.

Gravitis also had met Marina, and testified that Marina told her that Oswald was "ideinyi", a not easily translatable Russian word. Mamantov, who was translating, explained that it meant "a person who believes in Communist movement, Communist ideals, but doesn't yet hold a ticket or membership in the Communist Party".

Marina's statement to Gravitis was mere cover for Lee. Marina knew that Lee was at least a wannabe spy, because of his reluctance to publicly speak Russian in the Soviet Union. Lee knew that Marina owed Soviet intelligence some favors. Otherwise, she probably would not have been allowed to leave, and would not have hid her knowledge of English to the general public.

- Bill Simpich

A big shout-out to Linda Minor, who published an incredible multi-part series on the Paines in 2014. Also to Carol Hewett, Barbara Lamonica, Nancy Wertz, Steve Jones, Bill Kelly, George Michael Evica, Jim DiEugenio, Jim Douglass, and everyone else who have put in the time in sorting out the role of this enigmatic couple.

ENDNOTES

Any law enforcement officer suspected of writing a phony report about the infamous alleged assassination bullet CE-399 deserves the closest scrutiny, as discussed in the endnotes: An August 1964 FBI memo was found which said that both Wright and Tomlinson thought that the bullet in evidence "appeared to be" the same one that they had seen on November 22. Thompson and his colleague Gary Aguilar sought out the memo's author, FBI agent Bardwell Odum, and interviewed him about this contradictory evidence in 2002. Incredibly, Odum said that he never had possession of the magic bullet. Odum added that even though it was highly unlikely that he forgot such a significant event, the established procedure was to write up a report about something that important. No such memo has been found in the Archives, despite numerous searches.

The "very dark-complected" description was provided by deputy sheriff Roger Craig. The description of the running man looking like Oswald getting into a light-colored station wagon going west was made by Craig, Marvin Robinson, Robinson's employee Roy Cooper (driving behind his boss), Helen Forrest, and James Pennington.

On the observations of Craig and Robinson, see the HSCA Report, Volume XII, Section 4: "Accounts of Persons Fleeing Dealey Plaza.", p. 18.

On the observations of Forrest and Pennington, see Michael Kurtz, Crime of the Century, pp. 132-133, 189.

For the observations of Cooper and an overall description of the incident, see James Douglass, JFK and the Unspeakable, p. 276.

Dallas police chief Jesse Curry told the media, "We have heard that Oswald was picked up by a Negro in a car.": Larry Hancock, Someone Would Have Talked, (2010 edition) p. 226.

When Oswald was asked about a "white station wagon" during interrogation, he said "keep Mrs. Paine out of this". Mrs. Paine’s response to this evidence was, “Sorta late for him to be concerned about my feelings.”, not a denial regarding the description: 4/18/68 grand jury testimony, p. 25.

Roger Craig testified at the Clay Shaw trial that Oswald told Fritz on 11/22/63 that the station wagon seen at the depository belonged to Mrs. Paine and: “Don’t try to drag her in this.” Oswald then leaned back into his chair and said, "Everybody will know who I am now." Clay Shaw Trial Transcript, 2/14/69, p. 81.

Ruth Paine was told that Officer Roger Craig said the stationwagon "looked white". Marvin Robinson called it "light-colored". HSCA Report, Volume XII, p. 18.

For more on Robinson, also see report of SA John V. Almon and J. Calvin Rice, 11/23/63, Warren Commission Document 5, p. 70.

Ruth Paine responded, "Well, the car has been sold, but it did not have a luggage rack." Ruth Paine grand jury testimony, 4/18/68, p. 24.

Mrs. Paine did not argue with the description of the color of the car as "almost white", or the make as a "Rambler" - probably because her Chevrolet was also large and square-cut: Joan Mellen, Farewell to Justice, p. 488.

Angleton's CI-SIG office wrote a memo about it that is missing a page to this day: Memorandum for the Record, Birch O’Neal, Subject: Mrs. Michael Paine, “CI-SIG memo”, 11/29/63, Russ Holmes Work File/NARA Record Number: 104-10440-10005.

At Ruth Paine's invitation, Marina and daughter June moved in with the Paine family until Oswald found work in New Orleans: Interview by Bardwell Odum with Ruth Paine, 11/25/63, Commission Document 5 - FBI Gemberling Report of 30 Nov 1963 re: Oswald, p. 198.

Although Ruth Paine and Michael Paine were separated throughout 1963...: George Michael Evica, A Certain Arrogance (Xlibris, 2006), pp. 236-237.

Like Lee, Michael was fascinated with both left and right-wing political groups. Lee and Michael enjoyed talking politics: Barbara LaMonica, Steve Jones, and Carol Hewett, "The Paines", Fourth Decade, May 1996.

Paine claimed he only met Oswald six times: Interview with Bardwell Odum and James Hosty, 11/26/63.

On October 23, Lee went to a John Birch Society meeting that was headed by General Walker: FBI interview by Bardwell Odum of Michael Paine, p. 2, 11/25/63. Oswald 201 File, Vol 3, Folder 9A, Part 2.

On October 24, Michael went to a sparsely attended John Birch Society meeting, while most of the Birchers were outside attacking Adlai Stevenson: Testimony of Michael Paine, Warren Commission, Vol. 2, p. 388-389, 3/18/64.

They attended at least one ACLU meeting together: FBI interview by SA Joseph Schott of Raymond Krystinik, 11/25/63, Commission Document 75 - FBI DeBrueys Report of 02 Dec 1963 re: Oswald/Russia.

On the day after the assassination, Oswald told law enforcement that he was an ACLU member. Oswald had submitted the requisite documents earlier that month: Commission Document 107 - FBI Sup. Investigation of Assass. Pres. Kennedy dated 13 Jan 1964, pp. 45-46.

Paine introduced Oswald to just about the only organization that would champion his cause in the days immediately after his death: Mark Lane, "Lane's Defense Brief for Oswald", National Guardian, 12/19/63, NARA Record Number: 124-10371-10166.

...the ACLU chair was too cute by half, saying that since Oswald's application had never processed by ACLU headquarters, he was not an actual "member" before his death: Commission Document 107 - FBI Sup. Investigation of Assass. Pres. Kennedy dated 13 Jan 1964, p. 46.

Michael also frequented a cafeteria across from SMU after Sunday services to engage in political conversations or debates with students: SA A. Raymond Switzer and James Hosty interview with Michael Paine, 6/25/64, Commission Document 1245 - FBI Gemberling Report of 02 Jul 1964 re: Oswald - Russia/Cuba, p. 196.

Taking a pro-Castro, pro-Cuba, pro-peace with Russia viewpoint: Id., Warren Commission Exhibit 1245, p. 191, Robert P. Gemberling insert re SA William Curran interview with Ed Buck, 6/19/64; also Robert P. Gemberling report, p. 4, Oswald 201 File, Vol 45/NARA Record Number: 1993.06.15.18:01:50:090000.

Buck gave a perfect description of Paine: Interview with Ed Buck by SA Wirt Jones, 6/5/64, pp. 1-2, FBI 105-82555 Oswald File, Section 171.

People who have seen film of Paine during 1964 say that he was not a total Oswald look-alike, but close: William Weston, "Laura Kittrell - Oswald's Unemployment Counselor, Part One" Fourth Decade, Volume 8, No. 1, p. 6 (November 2000).

Michael always considered himself more a member of the Forbes family than the Paine family: 12/10/63 FBI memo by SAs James Hosty and Bardwell Odum, FBI - Ruth and Michael Paine Files/NARA Record Number: 124-10137-10105.

Michael sang in the choir of the First Unitarian Church, and pastor Byrd Helligas described him as an active member: FBI memo re James Hosty interview of Rev. Byrd Helligas, 2/5/64. Commission Document 437 - FBI Hosty Jr. Report of 20 Feb 1964 re: Michael Paine.

An avowed pacifist: Supplemental Report on the Assassination of John F. Kennedy, Warren Commission Document 107, p. 32.

Artillery infantryman: SA A. Raymond Switzer and James Hosty interview with Michael Paine, 6/25/64, Warren Commission Document 1245, p. 197.

40th Division: Nancy Wertz, "Michael Paine - A Life of Unanswered Paradoxes", Kennedy Assassination Chronicles, Winter 1998, p. 20.

Paine refused to take the oath of allegiance when inducted in 1952: Supplemental Report on the Assassination of John F. Kennedy, Warren Commission Document 107, p. 32.

Paine proceeded to win two Bronze Stars: 12/13/63 report of SA James Hosty, p. 2; FBI - Ruth and Michael Paine Files/NARA Record Number: 124-10137-10104.

An avowed pacifist and a Unitarian, Michael served in the military and worked for Bell Helicopter, with ex-Nazi Walter Dornberger as the supervisor of Paine's division of classified projects for Bell Aerospace: James DiEugenio, Destiny Betrayed (New York: Sheridan Square Press: 1992), p. 215, citing the Bell Aerospace roster of corporate officials in Standard and Poor's 1963.

Michael's stepfather, Arthur Young, invented the Bell Helicopter: William Kelly, "Arthur Young and Ruth Forbes Young - The Crux of the Matter", Conference Abstract, Coalition on Political Assassinations, Opening the Files: JFK, MLK, RFK; Washington, DC, Oct. 18-20, 1996.

Young was proud of the uses of the helicopter in fighting forest fires and MASH evacuations in Korea, but didn't like its conversion into an attack weapon in Vietnam: Interview of Arthur M. Young by William Kelly; see JFK Countercoup, 12/20/09.

After Michael flunked out of Harvard in 1949, he increasingly spent time in the barn of the Young place in Paoli, PA, where he experimented with new types of aeronautical vehicles: Interview with Ruth Forbes Paine Young, Commission Document 261 - FBI Lewis Report of 26 Dec 1963 re: Michael Paine, pp. 3-4.

Ruth became active with the East-West Contacts Committee through the Quakers, a society of pen pal correspondence with the Soviet Union that led her to the study of Russian in 1955: FBI memo by SA Kenneth Pettijohn on interview with Wilmer Stratton, p. 3, 1/21/64, Warren Commission Document 435.

Ruth's activity with the East-West Contacts Committee led her to organize a 2500 mile walk in 1957 by five Americans and three Russians. This included working with the Committee of Soviet Youth Organizations: FBI memo by SA Kenneth Pettijohn on interview with Wilmer Stratton, p. 3, 1/21/64, Commission Document 435 - FBI McDonald Report of 05 Feb 1964 re: The Paines.

The Director of East-West Contacts within the State Department that approved this 1958 exchange was Frederick Merrill...: See George Michael Evica, A Certain Arrogance (Xlibris, 2006), pp. 244-245, and the sources cited about Merrill in the Preface to this series.

Michael Paine allowed that Ruth may have written the State Department to set up this exchange: Warren Commission Testimony of Michael Paine, Volume 2, p. 387.

The next year, Merrill informed the chief of CIA East-West Contacts that the Rand Corporation was asking the State Department about Robert Webster's whereabouts when he defected to the Soviet Union: Memorandum for the Record, by SR/COP/FI REDACTED, 10/8/59. HSCA Segregated CIA Collection (microfilm = reel 17: Ruiz - Webster)/NARA Record Number: 104-10181-10128.

While Ruth attended Russian classes for seven weeks during the summer of 1959 at Middlebury College in Vermont: Interview with Helen Mamikonian (Ruth Paine's Middlebury roommate in 1959), Commission Document 342 - FBI Warden Report of 16 Jan 1964 re: Ruth & Michael Paine, 1/16/64, p. 3.

Michael started working at Bell Helicopter in late July: 3/24/64 report of SA James Hosty, FBI - Ruth and Michael Paine Files/NARA Record Number: 124-10131-10076.

Michael Paine was hired on July 27, 1959: Oswald 201 File, Vol 45/NARA Record Number: 1993.06.15.18:01:50:090000.

Or January: The Credit Association file indicates that Michael had been working at Bell Helicopter since January 1959. Insert by SA Raymond Eckendrode, 3/25/64. Commission Document 849 - FBI Hosty Jr. Report of 08 Apr 1964 re: The Paines/Russia, p. 4.

The Russian Language Summer School at Middlebury College is staffed almost entirely by teachers from the American-Russian Institute which has been cited by the Attorney General: Memo from Robert H. Cunningham to Thomas Carroll, Deputy Director of Security, "Reference is made to your memorandum dated 6 May 1958", HSCA Segregated CIA Collection, Box 43/NARA Record Number: 104-10119-10286.

Ruth testified that she took a summer course at the University of Pennsylvania in 1957, two Berlitz courses in Philadelphia in 1958 and 1960, some private lessons with Mrs. Dorothy Gravitis, and the 1959 summer course at Middlebury: Warren Commission Vol. 3, p. 136, 3/20/64.

According to her mother-in-law, Ruth had spent four or five summers studying Russian at Middlebury: Interview with Ruth Forbes Paine Young, Commission Document 261 - FBI Lewis Report of 26 Dec 1963 re: Michael Paine, p. 5.

Ruth had taken 42 Berlitz lessons when she transferred her classes from Philadelphia to Dallas on September 9, 1959: Memo of FBI SA Mason Smith, 3/13/64, FBI - Ruth and Michael Paine Files/NARA Record Number: 124-10140-10003.

The Paines then moved to Irving, Texas on or about September 13, 1959, at the same time that Oswald was making his move from the area to the USSR: Testimony of Ruth Hyde Paine, 3/18/64, Warren Commission Hearings, Volume 2, page 432, 434.

The Paines moved to Irving, Texas on or about September 13, 1959, at the same time that Oswald was making his move from the area to the USSR:

Note that Ruth Paine wrote the Credit Bureau on September 5, asking them to transfer their credit accounts from Philadelphia to Irving, Texas, informing them that they were moving to Irving, Texas on or about September 13, 1959: Memo of SA Raymond Eckenrode, 3/25/64, Commission Document 849 - FBI Hosty Jr. Report of 08 Apr 1964 re: The Paines/Russia, p. 5.

Irving is a suburb of the Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area. The Paines opened a joint account in an Irving bank on September 14. This is during the 72-hour period that Oswald was in the vicinity. Report of SA Raymond Eckenrode, 4/2/64, FBI - Ruth and Michael Paine Files/NARA Record Number: 124-10065-10356, p. 9.

By 1963, Meyer was the chief of the Covert Action staff: Cord Meyer, Memorandum for the Record, 4/17/63, Miscellaneous CIA Series/NARA Record Number: 104-10302-10000.

Marguerite Oswald testified that Lee Oswald returned to visit her on September 14, and stayed about three days: Warren Commission Hearings, Testimony of Marguerite Oswald, Volume 1, pp. 201-203.

Hoover conducted extensive investigation of De Mohrenschildt, Lydia Dymitruk, and the Paines, and found that they were not communists, fascists, or subversives: Memo from Hoover to J. Lee Rankin, General Counsel of the Warren Commission, 9/8/64, Warren Commission Hearings, Volume 26, p. 761, Exhibit 3117.

Despite Ruth's years of Russian study, and her claim that she had Marina to move in so that she could improve her skills, she was forced to admit that "my actual skill didn't progress fast enough to be of any real use.": Testimony of Ruth Hyde Paine, Warren Commission Hearings, Vol. 9, p. 372.

Her Middlebury roommate Helen Mamikonian described Ruth's Russian as "very poor": Interview with Helen Mamikonian (Ruth Paine's Middlebury roommate in 1959), Commission Document 342 - FBI Warden Report of 16 Jan 1964 re: Ruth & Michael Paine, 1/16/64, p. 3.

Ruth was introduced to Marina Oswald because geologist Everett Glover knew that she was studying Russian with the hopes of becoming a teacher: Testimony of Ruth Hyde Paine, 3/18/64, Warren Commission Hearings, Volume 2, page 432-434.

Ruth went so far as to tutor one young student in Russian during 1963: Testimony of Ruth Hyde Paine, Warren Commission Hearings, Vol. 3, p. 137.

Mamantov was a Dallas White Russian whose mother-in-law, Dorothy Gravitis, had previously given Paine some private Russian lessons, heard Ruth Paine speak Russian and was frank in assessing her command of the language as "very poor", even for an American: Testimony of Dorothy Gravitis (comment by Ilya Mamantov, translator), Warren Commission Hearings, Vol. 9, p. 119.

A "spot report" from Dallas says that Mamantov came on the scene only after Army Reserve officer contacts was contacted and asked for assistance: Paul Hoch, "The Final Investigation? HSCA and Army Intelligence." Third Decade, Volume 1, Issue 5.

Gravitis also had met Marina, and testified that Marina told her that Oswald was "ideinyi", a not easily translatable Russian word: Testimony of Dorothy Gravitis (comment by Ilya Mamantov, translator) Id., at p. 136.