The McCone-Rowley Document

When I first received the McCone-Rowley memo I thought that it was entirely new. Re-reading the orginal edition of Dick Russell's The Man Who Knew Too Much I was surprised to learn that he quoted from the document which he described as being found in the National Archives. I thought that I might have found confirmation of the authenticity of the document, only to discover throught correspondence with Dick that his actual source was a tabloid article by the same James L. Moore! I posted the following on alt.assassination.jfk on July 20, 2002 At this time I was in possession of the document but was not at liberty to make it public.

Dick Russell, on p. 675 of his book The Man Who Knew Too Much quotes from a memo dated March 3, 1964 from CIA Director McCone to Secret Service Chief James Rowley. He says this document is "on record in the National Archives". He quotes that Oswald might have been "chemically or electronically 'controlled'...a sleeper agent. Subject spent 11 days hospitalized for a 'minor ailment' which should have required no more than three days hospitalization at best." He footnotes this with #11. Footnote #11 in the back of the book seems unrelated. This is apparently an error in the book. Footnote #10 however references an article published in the tabloid Modern People "Oswald Was Brainwashed" by James L. Moore. This article, which Dick was kind enough to send me, is apparently the actual source for the McCone-Rowley memo, which must now be considered to be questionable, lacking any independent evidence for the existence of the memo beyond a tabloid article. The Modern People article contains further quotes from this alleged memo, of a sensational nature. I quote:

"Oswald... was trained by this agency, under cover of the Office of Naval Intelligence, for Soviet assignments. In 197, subject (Oswald) was active in aerial reconnaissance of mainland China and maintained a security clearance up to the 'confidential' level. "While in the Soviet Union, he was on special assignment in the area of Minsk.It would not be advantageous at this time divulge the specifics of that assignment. Speculation within this agency--and this is only speculation at this point--is that Oswald became unstable following surgery April 1, 1961, in the Minsk Hospital."

This is followed by the "sleeper agent" passage that Russell quotes.

I have been unable to find any reference to this memo that does not track back either to Dick Russell or Modern People. James L. Moore has made other claims that --while they could be true--cannot be verified. He claimed possession of a secret 350 page report on RHIC-EDOM. He has also claimed to be the real author of the Skeleton Key to the Gemstone Files, generally believed to be authored by Stephanie Caruana.

posted by gary @ 8:49 PM