George de Mohrenschildt

George Sergius de Mohrenschildt (April 17, 1911 - March 29, 1977) was a Russian-born petroleum geologist and Texas academic who befriended Lee Harvey Oswald in Dallas in the summer of 1962 and remained his closest social contact until April 1963. De Mohrenschildt maintained a documented relationship with CIA Domestic Contact Service officer J. Walton Moore in Dallas spanning at least 1957 to 1961. Based on de Mohrenschildt's own statements to journalist Edward Jay Epstein shortly before his death, Moore had asked him to befriend Oswald and report on his experiences in the Soviet Union, with CIA assistance on a Haitian oil contract as the reciprocal arrangement. De Mohrenschildt obtained that Haitian oil exploration contract in March 1963 - immediately after his period of closest contact with Oswald - and moved to Haiti in June 1963. He was found dead of a shotgun wound on March 29, 1977, the same day that House Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA) investigator Gaeton Fonzi made his first attempt to contact him.¹

Background

De Mohrenschildt was born in Mozyr, Czarist Russia, to a noble family with oil industry connections; his father managed Nobel family oil interests in Baku. He emigrated to the United States in 1938 via Belgium and France. A State Department "lookout" notation dated October 8, 1942, flagged him as a possible Nazi agent; he was expelled from Mexico as persona non grata in 1942. He subsequently earned a doctorate in petroleum geology from the University of Texas and taught at Texas colleges while working as an independent petroleum consultant, accumulating a broad social network in Dallas spanning the White Russian emigre community, the Texas oil industry, and, through his travels, U.S. government contacts.¹

CIA Contact: J. Walton Moore

J. Walton Moore had been assigned to the CIA's Domestic Contact Division (DCD, also called the Domestic Contact Service) in Dallas since 1948. Moore's role was to cultivate American businessmen, academics, and travelers who could report on foreign contacts and countries without holding formal CIA employment.

A declassified CIA file confirmed Moore "obtained foreign intelligence which was promptly disseminated" from de Mohrenschildt following his 1957 Yugoslavia trip. Moore's own 1964 memo to the Warren Commission acknowledged meetings with de Mohrenschildt in 1957, "several times" in 1958 and 1959, and in 1961. In a 1977 HSCA memo, Moore reduced this to only two meetings - a discrepancy the HSCA identified when it found Moore's earlier memo contradicted the later account.

Shortly before his death, de Mohrenschildt told Epstein that Moore had asked him to befriend Oswald after Oswald returned from the Soviet Union in June 1962 and to report on what Oswald had observed there. According to de Mohrenschildt's account, CIA assistance with his Haitian oil contract negotiations was the reciprocal arrangement. Moore denied this characterization to the HSCA. The Warren Commission investigated de Mohrenschildt's CIA connections and concluded: "The Commission's investigation has developed no signs of subversive or disloyal conduct on the part of either of the de Mohrenschildts." The HSCA concluded more cautiously that it "was not able to establish that George de Mohrenschildt was connected to the CIA," despite the documented Moore relationship.¹

Relationship with Oswald

De Mohrenschildt met Lee and Marina Oswald through the Dallas Russian emigre community in the summer of 1962, shortly after the Oswalds returned from the Soviet Union. He was the most socially prominent member of the emigre community to take an active interest in Oswald; other community members found Oswald politically offensive and socially abrasive.

The practical assistance de Mohrenschildt provided was significant: in February 1963 he introduced Marina Oswald to Ruth Paine, who later provided Marina housing. Paine's home in Irving, Texas became the location where investigators found Oswald's Mannlicher-Carcano rifle and the backyard photographs after the assassination. De Mohrenschildt's active oversight of Oswald effectively ended in April 1963 when Oswald left Dallas for New Orleans.

De Mohrenschildt's Warren Commission deposition was taken by staff counsel Albert Jenner and ran to 118 pages - one of the most extensive depositions in the entire Warren Commission record. He later wrote that he had said "some unkind things about Lee which I now regret" due to what he described as intimidation during the questioning.²

The Haiti Oil Contract

In March 1963 - immediately after the period of his closest contact with Oswald - de Mohrenschildt obtained an oil exploration survey contract from the government of Haitian President François Duvalier. He and his wife Jeanne moved to Haiti in June 1963. De Mohrenschildt told Epstein he believed CIA connections "had arranged it for him." The timing of the contract - following a period during which de Mohrenschildt had reportedly been monitoring Oswald as a CIA asset, and immediately preceding Oswald's departure for New Orleans where his pro-Castro activities would unfold - has been noted by researchers as circumstantially significant and was examined by the HSCA without definitive resolution.¹

Death and the HSCA

During the HSCA investigation period of 1976-1979, de Mohrenschildt was in deteriorating psychological condition. He had been briefly committed to a Dallas psychiatric facility in 1976. In fall 1976, while fragile, he wrote an unpublished memoir titled "I Am a Patsy! I Am a Patsy!" - its title a reference to what he claimed were Oswald's final public words before being shot by Jack Ruby. The 28-chapter manuscript covered his friendship with the Oswalds and the assassination's effects on his life, maintaining throughout that Oswald was innocent of killing Kennedy. The HSCA received a copy from his widow Jeanne on April 1, 1977 - three days after de Mohrenschildt's death - and published it as HSCA Volume XII.

On March 29, 1977, de Mohrenschildt was found dead of a shotgun wound to the head at his daughter Alexandra's home in Manalapan, Florida. The Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office ruled the death a suicide. De Mohrenschildt was 65 years old.

Two events had occurred on the same day: HSCA investigator Gaeton Fonzi visited the house that morning and left his business card when de Mohrenschildt was not home; journalist Edward Jay Epstein concluded an extensive interview with de Mohrenschildt at The Breakers Hotel in Palm Beach for a Reader's Digest-commissioned article on the Kennedy assassination. De Mohrenschildt reportedly found Fonzi's business card in his shirt pocket upon returning home. He died approximately three hours after the Epstein interview ended. The suicide ruling was not challenged through any formal proceeding.¹