Painful Possibilities

After the assassination of President Kennedy, Dallas Deputy Sheriff Buddy Walthers took part in the search of the home of Ruth Paine. Walthers told author Eric Tagg that they "found six or seven metal filing cabinets full of letters, maps, records and index cards with names of pro-Castro sympathizers.” James DiEugenio concluded that this "cinches the case that the Paines were domestic surveillance agents in the Cold War against Communism."

If this is true, it opens up a whole new can of worms that could explain what was really going on in Dallas in November of 1963. Using deduction let's reconsider and evaluate what is known.

We know that Oswald was being used in New Orleans as an agent provocateur to flush out pro-Castro sympathizers by handing out FPCC pamphlets, getting in street fights, being interviewed on tv and radio, and approaching left wing students at Tulane University. All of this had an additional purpose of sheep dipping Oswald as a Marxist and pro-Castro sympathizer.

We know that the CIA as well as the FBI were trying to smear the FPCC by linking it to Communists. That, in fact, was Oswald's purpose. Associating him, an avowed Marxist, who had been to Russia, with organizations like the FPCC, ACLU, American Communist Party etc., insinuated guilt by association. Furthermore, visiting the Cuban and Soviet embassies in Mexico City projected a guilty association linking Castro and Khrushchev to the upcoming assassination of JFK.

We also know that the Paines were deeply involved with U.S. Intelligence. Particularly the CIA. We know Ruth Paine was a babysitter for the Oswald's and played roles in separating them, getting Lee the TSBD job, incriminating Lee by providing whatever evidence was needed to DPD and testifying against him.

But what if the Paines were playing a duel role and were also working with Oswald in his efforts to denigrate groups like the FPCC? It was Michael Paine that encouraged Lee to join the ACLU. It was Michael that took Lee to a Walker rally as well. In addition, the Paines, like Oswald, portrayed themselves as liberals (Quakers in their case), which in retrospect seems a complete sham. It seems that in reality they were tools of right wing Intelligence. Were there others involved in this Dallas ring of counter-espionage?

Three Ring Circus

Oswald wanted to be a spy like his idol, Herbert Philbrick. By coincidence there was a Philbrick clone in Dallas at the same time as Oswald. William Lowery spied on the Communist Party and the ACLU – Two groups Oswald had contact with. Lee had written to CPUSA and gone to an ACLU meeting and joined.

Lowery came out of the cold just weeks before the assassination. It was Oswald's "I Led Three Lives" fantasy come to life. Lee was waiting for the day when he could come out like Philbrick and Lowery- his visit to Eugene Murret's seminary in August 1963 may have been a dry run in preparing for his debut as an anti-Communist.

One of Lowery's assignments had been “surveillance” of Joseph Rodriguez Molina. Molina worked at the Texas Schoolbook Depository. Did Ruth's getting Oswald that job open the door for him to take over Lowery's assignment? Is that why he took the job? Was he placed in the TSBD to spy on Molina at the behest of Hosty or Lowery? Molina's home was searched in the middle of the night after the assassination and he spent most of the next day under interrogation at DPD. He was, in fact, fired by the end of the year.

Lowery said he received about $200 a month in cash from the local Dallas FBI office. That is the amount that Texas Attorney General Waggoner Carr told the WC Oswald was rumored to be getting as an informant. Did they mix up Lowery with Oswald or were they both on the payroll? Lowery recalled that SA James Hosty paid him on street corners or park benches. Carr's source, journalist Lonnie Hudkins, later said he made up Oswald's FBI Informant number 172 or 179. However, a member of the FBI’s office in New Orleans, William Walter, claimed that he had seen an FBI teletype that showed that Oswald had been an informant for that office. Lowery said that the CP held some meetings in the Oak Cliff YMCA and he speculated that it was possible Oswald, known to frequent the YMCA, may have attended some of the meetings. Was Oswald, like Lowery, a paid FBI informant? Was James P. Hosty the FBI contact for both Lowery and Oswald? As stated earlier, William Lowery spied on the Communist Party and the ACLU – Two groups Oswald had contact with. Lee had written to CPUSA and gone to an ACLU meeting and joined. Were, Lowery, Hosty, Oswald and the Paines working together in anti-Communist activities?

Lowery and his fellow CP members in Dallas were promoting the idea of further establishing their ties to the local ACLU starting in August 1962. Could it be that Ruth and Michael Paine aware of Lowery and his fellow CP members? Were the six or seven metal filing cabinets found in the Paine house after the assassination, full of letters, maps, records and index cards with names of pro-Castro sympathizers part of a surveillance effort involving Lowery, the FBI, Oswald and the Paines? Did Oswald join the ACLU to link it to the CP via his membership in the FPCC?

As mentioned earlier, Lowery was closely connected to Joseph Rodriguez Molina. During the early investigation, Molina was suspected of being a co-conspirator with Oswald in the assassination. He was interviewed by the FBI and lost his job at the depository in December of 1963. Molina worked for the G.I. Forum. Lowery was spying on this group and apparently tried to link them to CPUSA. Lowery was also a member of the American G.I. Forum.

Lowery gave testimony against other members of the Communist Party that he had infiltrated and helped organize. The people who he testified against in September, 1963, were represented by John Abt. Abt was the attorney Oswald asked Ruth Paine to call to represent him. One of the questions Marina Oswald was asked by the HSCA was; “Prior to Lee's being arrested did he ever discuss with you, are you familiar with the name William James Lowery?”

Mysterious Matinee

Oswald's capture in the Texas Theater was made possible by an alert shoe clerk named Johnny Calvin Brewer. Legend has it that Oswald ducked into his store foyer to hide from police cars patrolling Jefferson Boulevard. According to Brewer, he suspected Oswald was acting guilty and followed him to the Texas Theater several doors down the street. He claimed he saw Oswald duck into the theater without paying for a ticket and convinced the ticket seller Julia Postal to call the police. Why would Oswald not buy a ticket when he had the money? To draw attention to himself, of course! What amounted to a SWAT team arrived to arrest someone for not buying a 35 cent ticket.

However, William J. Lowery, who, like Herb Philbrick, led three lives for the FBI as informer, Communist Party member and mild-mannered shoe salesman – was also employed in a shoe store on West Jefferson Boulevard. The Shoe Haven at 620 West Jefferson Boulevard, was approximately three blocks west of the Texas Theater and also three blocks away from Hardy's Shoe Store where Johnny Calvin Brewer worked.

Is it possible Oswald went to the wrong shoe store before or even after entering the theater? Was he trying to contact Lowery? Lowery was a member of the Dallas chapter of the Unitarians for Social Justice. Quakers and Unitarians are everywhere in the JFK case.

So, it seems painfully possible that Ruth and Michael Paine, Lee Oswald, William Lowery and James Hosty may have been working as a team in a clandestine operation involving surveillance of communists and pro-Castro sympathizers in the Dallas area. This might explain sightings of Oswald at the house on Harlandale Street being used by Alpha 66 just prior to the assassination. Was he reporting to Hosty about them when he dropped off his infamous note at the Dallas FBI office in early November of '63? Had he infiltrated their group? Had he learned of the upcoming assassination plan? Did they discover him and turn him into a fall guy? One thing is apparent. After the assassination, the FPCC ceased to exist.