From - Fri Mar 02 13:23:41 2001 From: jmcadams@primenet.com (John McAdams) Newsgroups: alt.assassination.jfk,alt.conspiracy.jfk Approved: jmcadams@execpc.com Subject: LaFontaines Manipulate Marina [REPOST] Followup-To: alt.assassination.jfk Date: Wed, 28 Feb 2001 03:14:39 GMT Organization: Marquette University Message-ID: <3a9c6ced.6911317@mcadams.posc.mu.edu> References: <37c75247.2591949@mcadams.posc.mu.edu> X-Newsreader: Forte Free Agent 1.11/32.235 NNTP-Posting-Host: 216.67.114.111 X-Original-NNTP-Posting-Host: 216.67.114.111 X-Trace: 27 Feb 2001 21:25:34 -0600, 216.67.114.111 Lines: 137 Path: mcadams.posc.mu.edu!216.67.114.111 Xref: mcadams.posc.mu.edu alt.assassination.jfk:87807 On Sat, 28 Aug 1999 03:14:58 GMT, 6489mcadamsj@vms.csd.mu.edu (John McAdams) wrote: > >MEMORANDUM FOR FILE > >September 23, 1998 > >Written By: Doug Horne > >SUBJECT: Questions Raised by John Armstrong and Carol Hewett About Lee >Harvey Oswald's Tax and Earnings Records > >Memo Overview: > >The Assassination Records Review Board (ARRB) received a number of >requests from independent researchers John Armstrong and Carol Hewett >to open, to the maximum extent allowable under the JFK Act, Lee Harvey >Oswald's tax and earnings recordsparticularly his earnings records. {Snipping to get to the stuff about the LaFontaines] > >Chronology (and remarks) follow: > >-May 31, 1996: ARRB's Executive Director David Marwell sends a letter >(enclosure (10)) to Marina Oswald Porter, requesting that she execute >and submit to the IRS a pre-prepared waiver that would allow release >of all of Lee Harvey Oswald's tax > >Horne e:\wp-docs\IRS/SSA.2 File: 4.6.3 (IRS) > >6 > >information to the JFK Collection. [It was thought that receipt of >annual tax returns would substantially address which years Oswald >earned money, and where, and for what employer, which was a major >concern of some researchers.] > >-September 9, 1996: ARRB's General Counsel, Jeremy Gunn, after >discussing this same (unresolved) IRS waiver issue with Marina Oswald >Porter on the telephone, sends her enclosure (11). > >-March 5, 1997: Marina Oswald Porter executes (signs) a modified >version of the IRS tax information waiver prepared by the ARRB, and >mails it to the IRS. This modified version requires the IRS to release >her former husband's tax returns only to researchers Ray or Mary La >Fontaine, who in turn, as indicated in writing in the modified waiver >form, would subsequently make a permanent donation of them to the JFK >Collection at NARA only after full dissemination of these materials to >the American public via the print and/or electronic media. [The author >received assurances from IRS official Bill Lovelace in September, 1998 >that the IRS did indeed send these materials to the La Fontaines in >1997, but expressed regret that the IRS could not find a copy of the >forwarding correspondence that would have indicated exactly what was >sent, and when. A similar inquiry with Mr. Steve Tilley at NARA >revealed that as of September, 1998, the La Fontaines had not donated >any Lee Harvey Oswald tax returns to the JFK Collection.] > [skipping to next discussion of LaFontaines] >9 > >-September 18, 1998: The author, acting upon a tip from IRS official >Aileen Summerlin, examines HSCA Record # 180-10110-10130 for the >second time since being given the overall ARRB staff responsibility >for IRS/SSA issues in August, 1998. [This document is the original >letter (not a copy) dated 19 December, 1978, from Howard T. Martin of >the IRS to Mr. G. Robert Blakey, General Counsel and Director of the >HSCA staff. It is found in the "HSCA Security Classified Files, Box 5, >Folder JFK-164, "maintained by NARA at the legislative archives in >the old Archives building on the National Mall, not at Archives 11 in >College Park, Maryland. Attached to the letter are photocopies of four >Lee Harvey Oswald tax returns that were provided to the HSCA for >study. The letter states that the originals of these returns are held >by the National Archives.] Our assumption at the ARRB had always been >that records in the HSCA Security Classified Files were "not open;" >as a result, knowing that this file contained Oswald's tax returns >that had been released to the HSCA in 1978 with the permission of >Marina Oswald, and knowing that the La Fontaines were (presumably) >"sitting" on the same returns (see enclosure (12)), I asked the IRS >what could be done to release this document. In reply, IRS official >Aileen Summerlin told me to check carefully to see whether the HSCA >had released the documents to a third party --- if so, she said, then >it was no concern of the IRS what the third party did with the records >that had been released to them. In addition, when I had asked IRS >official Bill Lovelace about the same problem, he said that this >letter and its contents could be released either by the HSCA >(unfortunately now defunct), or by the entity now holding the record. > >To the author's great surprise, when he re-examined HSCA Record # >180-10110-10130 on September 18, 1998 he discovered that both the >letter and all of its enclosures had been open in full since August >16, 1993. [See enclosure (24).] This was a very fortunate observation, >for it means that the research community no longer has to depend upon >the La Fontaines to release to the JFK Collection what they obtained >from the IRS in 1997. > This sounds *just* like Ray and Mary LaFontaine, doesn' it? They manipulated Marina into giving them (they thought) exclusive access to Lee's tax records. Instead of immediately sharing them with he research community or turning them over to the National Archives they hoarded them. Why? Is this just an instinct on their part -- not to allow other people to see the materials they have? These particular records blew one of John Armstrong's key contentions -- that one of his two "Lee Oswald's" was in New Orleans working in 1957 when Lee Oswald was supposed to be in the Marines -- entirely out of the water. Why not release them and debunk this piece of nonsense as quickly as possible? So far as I know, I was the first person to make Lee Oswald's 1956 tax return available to the general public. It was sent to me by an anonymous researcher, and it's on my web site as: http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/lho56tax.gif When I announced this Bill Adams jumped in to confirm the authenticity of the document. This was well and good, but why didn't Adams put it on *his* site long before? Presumably because the LaFontaines told him not to. But why play these games with the documents? .John The Kennedy Assassination Home Page http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/home.htm