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Writer's pictureGary Hill, Author

The Devil went down to Antioch

Updated: Jul 31, 2021

By Gary Hill “.......the craziest things make perfect sense.”

David Ferrie

In March, 1959, Lee Oswald registered at the Albert Schweitzer College of Churwalden, Switzerland, using it as a reason for travel to Europe in the fall of that year. However, he never showed up for classes.[1] Instead he traveled through Europe to Finland and from there crossed over to the Soviet Union.

On September 4, 1959, even before he left El Toro in California, Oswald applied for a passport under the pretense of attending the Albert Schweitzer College in Switzerland and University of Turku in Finland, and to travel in Cuba, the Dominican Republic, England, France, Germany, and Russia. Although his passport was authorized on September 10th, he did not get his discharge until September 11th. The Marines never questioned the discrepancy between these travel preparations and the purpose of his discharge, which was to take care of his “ailing” mother.[2] After staying home with Marguerite for three days, he told his mother that he was going into the “import-export” business and her testimony was that import-export was already stamped on his passport. His brother Robert, wrote that Lee planned on going to New Orleans and working for an export firm.

These strange actions raise some puzzling unanswered questions. Why did Oswald apply to this little known college in the first place? Why did he apply for the spring semester then travel to Europe in September? Why didn't he attend after being accepted? Why would this institution accept an applicant with so few academic credentials?[3] But most mysteriously, how did Oswald even know of the existence of this elusive institution? ASC was a tiny, unaccredited school in a remote village in Switzerland.

In March of 1960, Oswald's mother received a letter from ASC addressed to Lee. Wondering where her son was, she opened and answered the letter. ASC officials informed her that Lee never arrived at the college and they had no idea where he was.


Off the beaten path


Walt Brown described Albert Schweitzer College as “a hippie commune with a curriculum.” When the Warren Commission questioned the Swiss Police about the institution they said they had never heard of it! So how did ASC recruit its students? Because of its small size and limited funds, the college seemed to do little or no advertising in the United States. It turns out that the primary sponsor of ASC was the Unitarian Church. When researcher, Dennis Bartholomew, contacted the UUA (Unitarian Church) officials he discovered that many of the records involving Schweitzer College came from an organization known as Friends of Albert Schweitzer College or FASO.[4] The purpose of FASO, it seems, was to assist ASC in recruiting and fund-raising in the United States. Thus ASC recruited American students primarily through personal contacts of the Friends of Albert Schweitzer. As George Michael Evica observed, “The Unitarian Church was the mainstay of the Albert Schweitzer College.” He discovered that “Over the years, Allen Dulles and the OSS/CIA used the Quakers, the Unitarians, the World Council of Churches and other religious groups as sources of intelligence and information.”

Another frequent source of recruitment of ASC students was Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio. Researchers had previously found links between Antioch and Lee Oswald, such as an Oswald "sighting" at a demonstration in Yellow Springs in the early 60's.

On November 29, 1963, Sgt. Donald Swartz, Intelligence Unit, Columbus Police Department, advised that he had received the following unverified information from a source he declined to identify: Lee Harvey Oswald allegedly attended Antioch College, Yellow Springs, Ohio, using his true name for a short period of time in 1957 and was dismissed because he was unable to prove his graduation from high school.[5] In addition, an FBI report (#CI 105-25-5) of SA Thomas B. Estep of the Cincinnati office included an unverified statement that Oswald attended Antioch in 1957.

It is nearly impossible that Oswald attended Antioch in 1957 since he was in the Marines at the time, but someone he knew did. Ruth Paine attended Antioch from 1949-55. Was she the anonymous 1963 source that linked him to the institution? What is going on here?

But there is more. Researcher, Michael Levy found a Navy Department document reporting that Ruth Paine had been requesting information about the family of Lee Oswald in 1957. This was long before she had been introduced to the defector and his wife by George deMohrenschildt in the Spring of 1963


Satan's Little Imps


So how do we explain the shenanigans going on involving ASC, Antioch, Oswald and Ruth Paine? The common denominator is most likely Allen Dulles, whom, along with his colleague James Angleton, manipulated these entities like pawns on the Devil's chessboard. Dulles once referred to himself and his sycophants as Satan's little imps.


Dulles' name permeates the Paine family closet of secrets. Let us count the ways;


• The Paine family's involvement with United Fruit. Dulles was on the board of directors.

• One of Ruth Forbes Paine's best friends was Mary Bancroft, secretary and mistress of Allen Dulles.

• Operation Paperclip was a Dulles inspired project to bring Nazi scientists and intelligence operatives into the U.S. after the war to work for the CIA and NASA. Walter Dornberger, convicted Nazi war criminal, was one of these. He was Michael Paine's boss at Bell Helicopter.

• It was revealed by an FBI document dated Dec. 1963, that two friends of the Paines, Fred and Nancy Osborn, vouched for them when questioned by the FBI. Their father, Fred Osborn Sr., was a close friend of Allen Dulles. They attended Princeton together. In addition they were co-founders of the “Crusade for Freedom.” Like “Radio Free Europe,” Crusade for Freedom spewed CIA propaganda and used the power of radio as a tool of indoctrination. In fact, the two projects merged in 1962. Osborn was the first President of Crusade for Freedom. Allen Dulles and Henry Luce of Time-Life were on it's board of directors.[6] Life magazine was responsible for convicting Oswald in the eyes of the public by displaying the Neely Street photo of Oswald and his rifle on the cover of it's February, 1963 issue. Time-Life also purchased the Zapruder film for more that $100,000 in 1963 dollars only to hide it away from the public for years. Former CIA operative, C.D. Jackson[7] was the catalyst behind this venture.

• Ruth Paine's older sister, Sylvia Hyde Hoke, was living in Falls Church, Virginia in 1963. In September of 1963 while traveling across country, Ruth stayed with Sylvia. Falls Church adjoins Langley, which was then the new headquarters of the Central Intelligence Agency, a prized project of Allen Dulles. When Ruth Paine traveled to New Orleans to pick up Marina Oswald, she made the trip from Falls Church. After picking up Marina, she took her to her home in Irving, Texas, successfully separating Marina from Lee at the time of the assassination.


Friendly Persuasion


In addition to Unitarians, Quakers[8] also keep popping up in Oswald's world? Richard Nixon, a Quaker, was in Dallas on the day of the assassination. At one time, Jack Ruby worked for Nixon as well as for LBJ. Robert Webster was known to be of the Quaker faith. Ruth Paine was a Quaker and she asked a fellow Quaker, Ruth Kloepfer, to check on the Oswalds while they were in New Orleans. Kloepfer's husband was a professor a Tulane University. Oswald reportedly passed out FPCC leaflets near the homes of professors at Tulane who were members of leftist groups. When Oswald was in Mexico City he reportedly made contacts with Quakers studying at the Autonomous University. One Quaker student at the University was an active agent of the CIA at the time. Another Quaker, Priscilla McMillan, got an exclusive interview with Oswald when he was in Moscow and befriended Marina after the assassination to collaborate on the book “Marina and Lee.” A wealthy Main Line Quaker and philanthropist, Dr. Dee Dee Sharples, later a Temple University Trustee, was once married to George de Mohrenschildt, one of the accused assassin’s best friends.[9]

A Dallas version of Herb Philbrick, William Lowery, was a Unitarian. He ran a shoe store near the Texas Theater and like Philbrick was a CPUSA infiltrator. Oswald's Marine Corps buddy, Kerry Thornley and CIA mercenary, Gerald Patrick Hemming were Unitarians. As noted by George Michael Evica, the Unitarian Church was the pillar that supported the Albert Schweitzer College and Patrice Lumumba University. Oswald applied to both.

Another suspicious example of the connection of religion to the JFK assassination is the Abundant Life Temple in the Oak Cliff section of Dallas. After breaking the world record for the mile, killing Tippit, and escaping the scene of the murder, Oswald, or whoever the shooter was, reportedly was seen entering the church. Dallas Police were about to search the building when they were called to the Texas Theater.

Eric Tagg labels these “old church” organizations as “a clandestine substructure developed to serve the intelligence community's concept of national security.[10] Tagg continues; “...like all churches are virtually free from official inquiry by virtue of the Constitution, not to mention American custom. The “ministers” and “bishops” can accumulate (tax free) money (religious fund-raising) without serious inquiry as to the source, ...they are free to operate in relative seclusion from the expected social involvements, free to engage in obscure crusades or missions........they may actually be a home structure for the particular church, one would have the most natural of safe-houses.”

Was the Abundant Life Temple a safe-house where the real shooter of J.D. Tippit found sanctuary? David Ferrie was a “priest” in the Old Orthodox Catholic Church. His vestments were found in his apartment after his death. Guy Banister's investigator, Jack Martin, was also a member of the Old Orthodox Catholic Church clergy and he encouraged Thomas Beckham to join and be ordained as well. Later “Bishop” Thomas Beckham set up his own obscure ministry in the Holy Orthodox Christian Church. Fred Chrisman was a minister in the non-existent Universal Life Church.[11] An employee of Jack Ruby, and Oswald look alike, Larry Crafard, was affiliated with the General Assembly and the Church of the First Born.” Is it yet another coincidence that five peripheral characters in the JFK assassination story just happen to be members of “Old Church” ordination mills? Beckham, it seems, came to the conclusion that he was a patsy and later concluded that his “Old Catholic Church” was just a front for a group of Cuban Exiles. John Howard Bowen was affiliated with the Council of Christian Churches. Bowen was an apparently self ordained minister who ran several missions in Mexico and founded “The Campfire Council,” a youth group that promoted fascist ideologies.[12] Bowen was also known as Albert Osborne and it was he who sat next to Oswald or his impersonator on a bus to Mexico City. He also was said to have run a school training assassins in Mexico.

It was the United Missions of America, a Texas Corporation located in Dallas and represented by O.B. Graham (president), that purchased the Oak Cliff Christian Church in April 1962 and renamed it the Abundant Life Temple. One of the incorporators of the United Missions of America was Walter C. Tucker. Tucker was a mechanic with the Continental Trailways which was located across the Stemmons Expressway from the TSBD. Continental Trailways also employed a man named Kenneth Cosy as a bus driver. Cosy's telephone number (FR5-5591) appears twice on the last page of Lee Oswald's notebook.[13] Oswald's benefactors, the White Russians in Dallas had ties to the Tolstoy Foundation and the Russian Orthodox Church (both backed by CIA). Michael Paine's brother and father-in-law both worked for AID[14], as did George deMohrenschildt.

Conclusions


What is to be made of the Antioch incident? It raises a flag that can easily be construed as a false one. Oswald could not have been a student there in 1957. The anonymous sources that incriminated him had to have come forward much later than that. The omnipresent Ruth Paine was always handy when evidence against Oswald is needed. She is certainly a link to Antioch, being an alumni. If we follow the thread of the Antioch incident it will lead us directly to Allen Dulles via Ruth Paine. Antioch was a “liberal” college. Beatnik liberals, the 1950's version of Hippies, were always a threat to the establishment. When the CIA and FBI felt threatened by these groups their usual course of action was to tarnish their reputation with disinformation by linking them to communist front organizations. One of their secret weapons to do this were agents like Lee Oswald. Oswald was used for this purpose to defame the Fair Play for Cuba Committee. His ordering of a weapon via mail was likely another assignment to aid in the prosecution of interstate weapon sales by providing evidence that these businesses were supplying subversives with weapons. Klein's Sporting Goods and Seaport Traders were on the Senate Subcommittee's list to be investigated[15]. In turn using Oswald as the agent provacatuer, insinuates the presence of James Angleton via his use of Oswald as a singleton agent.

In his book, CHAOS, Tom O'Neill linked CIA/MKULTRA doctor, Jolly West to Charles Manson via a clinic run by Dr. David Smith in Haight-Ashbury. Manson had been encouraged to go to the Haight and become part of the hippy drug culture by his parole officer, Roger Smith. West started the “Haight-Ashbury Project” which was financed by the Foundations Fund for Research in Psychiatry, INC. This Fund was a CIA front.

MHCHAOS was established under President Johnson and expanded under Richard Nixon. It was launched by James Jesus Angleton under the reign of Richard Helms, and the project was run by Richard Ober. Angleton is once again in the background inducing chaos.

CHAOS was a domestic spying project targeting Americans and ran from 1967 to 1974. The mission of CHAOS was to uncover possible foreign influence on domestic race, anti-war and other protest movements. Of particular interest was the hippy movement and drug culture as well as groups like the Black Panthers. CHAOS was complimented by Hoover's COINTELPRO (counter-intelligence program) of which Oswald may have been used in against CORE[16] in Clinton, Louisiana. The goal of CHAOS and COINTELPRO was to destroy the anti-war movements of the 60's and 70's. Drugs were given to the hippies and behavior control used to encourage acts of violence and crime. The project was clearly illegal as the CIA's charter forbade domestic activities. Is it possible that the Manson murders were an MKULTRA experiment gone wrong? Or was it, as forensic psychologist and law professor Allan Scheflin described it, an MKULTRA experiment gone right.[17]

It is now apparent that Dulles was using religious groups as fronts. Angleton ran an illegal domestic spying project targeting Americans. Hoover's device was COINTELPRO. The purpose of these activities was to destroy the credibility of left wing groups. The Antioch incident was indicitive of this effort. Just Satan's little imps running amuck behind the scenes with their mischievious games.


Bibliography


1) A Certain Arrogance, George Michael Evica, TrineDay, 2011

2) Deep Politics and the Death of JFK, Peter Dale Scott, University of California Press, 1993

3) Dennis Bartholomew, LHO on Campus, Fourth Decade, vol. 4, nr. 3, 1997

4) “Lee”, A portrait of Lee Harvey Oswald, Robert Oswald, Coward-McCann Inc., NY 1967

5) The Other Oswald, A Wilderness of Mirrors, Gary Hill, TrineDay, 2020

6) New Evidence Regarding Ruth and Michael Paine-Steve Jones

Brush With History, Eric R.Tagg, Shot in the Light Publishing, 1998

[1]It seems unusual behavior for the parsimonious Oswald to pay the $25 registration fee and then forfeit it.

[2]A box of candy fell off a shelf in a store she worked in and hit her on the nose.

[3] It seemed odd to me that Oswald was accepted at a college with no high school diploma. However, Robert Oswald disclosed in his book “Lee”, that his brother had earned a GED while in the Marine Corps. in March of 1959.

[4] Dennis Bartholomew, LHO on Campus, Fourth Decade, vol. 4, nr. 3, 1997

[5]Oswald was constantly incriminated by anonymous sources. See The Other Oswald, A Wilderness of Mirrors, Gary Hill, TrineDay, 2020

[6] New Evidence Regarding Ruth and Michael Paine-Steve Jones

[7] Jackson was in the OSS during WWII and after the war became Managing Director of Time-Life International. In 1948 he worked with Frank Wisner in what became the counter-intelligence branch of the CIA. It was Wisner that established Operation Mockingbird, a program to influence the domestic American media. According to Sparticus International, Jackson also successfully negotiated with Marina Oswald after the assassination for the exclusive rights to her story. Peter Dale Scott writes in his book Deep Politics and the Death of JFK that Jackson, on the urging of Allen Dulles, employed Isaac Don Levine, a veteran CIA publicist, to ghost-write Marina's story. This story never appeared in print.

[8]Others were Trotskyites: George Lyman Paine, Harold Issacs, Harry Power etc.

[9]A Certain Arrogance, George Michael Evica, p.72

[10] Brush With History, Eric R.Tagg p154

[11] Beckham and Crisman were subpoenaed by Jim Garrison to testify in the Clay Shaw trial.

[13] Brush With History, Eric Tagg, p157-158

[14] AID was a CIA cover for clandestine activity abroad.

[15] Oswald supposedly ordered these weapons using the alias Alik Hiddell. He was first called Alik in Russia, by his fellow workers at the Minsk radio factory who couldn't pronounce Lee. Alik came from “Likoy “(daring in Russian) from anagram of his 3 names. Lee-H-O pronounced Li-kh-o-y in Russian. It may also have become the KGB nickname for Oswald.

[16]Congress On Racial Equality

[17]Could it be that other MKULTRA subjects; Whitey Bulger, Ted Kaczynski, Rev. Jim Jones, Charles Whitman, Arthur Brenner and David Chapman and Tim McVeigh were victims or tools as well.

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