Meeting Lee Harvey Oswald in Minsk - Questions and More Questions Part III
As an historian, I am not particularly drawn to the topic of the assassination of JFK. For me, it is a matter of family history, and for the past week, I have spent hours talking to and texting with family, reading declassified documents, and researching various persons. A relative sparked this recent bout of activity when he and another relative went on an Uncle Loren-themed tour. In the course of preparing for that tour, they did an internet search of Loren (Loring) and Aunt Marie and sent the links to me. I was quite surprised by online and published accounts that described Marie Hyde as mysterious. The family has always known that she and Loren went to Russia and met Oswald. We also knew that government agents questioned them after November 1963, and, we were told, confiscated a picture of them with Oswald. As I noted in Part I, my experiences as a child explain why the story always fascinated me.
Our family is used to people not believing us, so we were thrilled when our relative found the declassified pictures of Aunt Marie, and to read her affidavit, as well as Kramer’s and Naman’s. So here is who we are: my branch of the family is descended from Elizabeth Hyde, sister of Loren (Loring Hyde), husband of Marie Grey Hyde of Missouri. All of Elizabeth’s and Loren’s generation were born and raised in New London, Connecticut. Loren and Marie married in Missouri, so none of his family could attend. (Update, August 8, 2022: they were married in New London, but my great-grandparents and grandmother did not or could not attend. My grandmother was very upset about this topic., saying that Loren’s family hadn’t been welcome.)
My father had over 20 first cousins on his mother’s side, some close and some not, and we second and third cousins are a huge group. I don’t know how many know this story, but the ones I am close to do and have. Anyone who wants to verify this information can easily find it. And those who want to search - I don’t - can find my grandmother’s aunts and uncles to see if we are related to Ruth Hyde Paine and her family of assets and/or Henry Hyde of New York and his wife Marie Hyde of the OSS.: a veritable tangle of Hyde OSS and CIA assets and agents stretching from New York to Philadelphia.
So, why did Uncle Loren, as we spelled it, tell his sisters and brother that he and Marie were going to Russia and Texas? Because telling family about an impending trip is the normal course of action, especially to such an unusual one in 1961, a time of high tension between the United States and the USSR. It would look suspicious if they hadn’t. Also, they had to consider my father’s work and the impact that it might have on him. In addition, they had to get the message to him that they would be in Dallas, because Loren knew that Mom had family in Irving, and my grandmother would have told them we were going to Irving around the time that they would be in Dallas. Irving was a tiny suburb then, and the Paine/Oswald house was not far from my maternal aunt’s house, we later learned.
I have mentioned that Aunt Marie and Uncle Loren didn’t want to talk about Russia prior to 1963. Who ever heard of anyone in the era before phone cameras coming home from an unusual trip without hundreds of slides and pictures and forcing all and sundry to look at them? Yet, Aunt Marie and Uncle Loren didn’t have picture one and didn’t want to discuss their visit. After the FBI talked to them, it would have been suspicious for them not to tell us. Anyone at the time would have asked them if the government had interviewed them. Now, suddenly, they claimed that they had a - one - picture from this trip, and it happened to include Lee Harvey Oswald, and, according to Loren, Oswald spoke to them, but the agents only took the picture and left after a chat. Again, Dad’s aunt and uncle had to tell my family about their travels to keep my father from being blindsided if the feds wanted to ask him about uncle and auntie.
And what about the declassified documents? Let’s think about Ruth Hyde Paine’s testimony to the Warren Commission. Lucky for her and them, Ruth just happened to keep a diary that included all her meetings with the Oswalds and social events concerning them and other interesting people. She could glance at a short notation of a social engagement and recount in detail for the Commission what had happened and what people had said - two years after the fact. When the police showed up at her door, Ruth was not flustered or surprised. In fact, she insisted on changing clothes and argued with the police when they tried to hurry her. When members of the Warren Commission annoyed her during her testimony, she reprimanded them. And her husband didn’t mind supporting his own family and the Oswalds. Why Ruth let that guy get away, I can’t imagine. I could go on, but you get the idea. Generally, Ruth’s testimony was well rehearsed, and she was extremely confident and unafraid. It sounds as if she had referred to detailed reports she had filed on the Oswalds.
Many have concluded before me that Ruth was CIA and tasked to keep an eye on Oswald. If so, she probably has gone down in agency history as the Inspector Clueseau of the CIA. What a terrible job she did: she helped get Oswald a job at the textbook facility from which he is accused of shooting JFK. Oswald filled her garage with suspicious files and weapons posing as curtain rods, but she never noticed, demonstrating that she was as bad a housekeeper as she was an agent. While Oswald traveled about sowing communism and hatching plots, Michael Paine supported Marina and the kids and Ruth ferried Lee to and from the bus stop. Who did her performance evaluations? He doesn’t deserve his pension.
Moving on to the Kramer, Naman, and Hyde affidavits. First, these three women actually met Lee Harvey Oswald in Minsk and took pictures of and with him, yet they are allowed to submit short one-page affidavits and skip appearing in front of the Warren Commission to give sworn testimony. In case you missed the significance: three women meet Oswald in Minsk in August of 1961 and have their picture taken with him. Two of them admitted to talking to Oswald, but none of them has to appear in front of the Commission to be questioned under oath. The FBI asked Marina Oswald if she knew that her husband had pictures taken with Marie Hyde, Monica Kramer, and Rita Naman. Marina said no, and the matter was dropped.
Let’s take a closer look at those affidavits. According to Kramer and Naman, Marie Hyde shows up at their hotel in Moscow, says she got separated from her tour group, and asks to travel with them. Can you imagine the KGB /In Tourist losing an America tourist, shrugging their shoulders, and going home for the day? No. Then, we hope before heads roll, Mrs. Hyde shows up in Minsk and the new KGB/In Tourist guide is unfazed by a new person, who is not on her government provided list of tourists, and sports this unregistered American around Minsk. Marie Hyde’s account is a description of a day’s outing, and she is not distressed by the idea that a few short months before she spent time in the company of the man everyone says killed her president. And Marie sure lucked out with the KGB. Apparently, they kindly overlooked her disappearing and reappearing acts and let her continue her excellent adventure. She probably reminded one of the KGB thugs of his grandma.
My impression from reviewing the affidavits? Rita Naman told Anthony Summers in an interview for his book Not in Your Lifetime that Marie knew Moscow well and seemed like an agent of some sort. She sure does, but so do you, Rita.
And here’s another question. Where are the transcripts of CIA exit interviews with the three women when they came out of the USSR? Or FBI reports of the interviews that resulted in confiscated pictures and signed affidavits? Three women strolled in and out of the USSR, our sworn enemy who wanted to bury us, and no one in the CIA rang noticed? Or are they hanging onto those documents? Over the years of commissions and hearings, the declassified documents reveal that various people and agencies think the CIA is stonewalling them. Sure looks like it. And where are the police reports regarding Ruth Hyde Paine when they went to her house and when they questioned her at the police station? (As I mentioned, this topic is not in my field, so if they are out there, please let me know.)
Finally, where is any mention of Loren (Loring)? He said that he went, according to my grandmother and father, but maybe that was a game of telephone, and they got the story mixed up. Ok, but why is the House Select Committee on Assassinations looking for Loring Marie Loretta Hyde in 1978? Loren died in 1975. Has someone accidentally conflated Loren and Marie? Has someone gotten a hint that Loren was in Russia? Is the CIA stonewalling? Can’t someone just tell the poor investigator so he can go home for dinner? I think the CIA hid Aunt Marie in the cracks between the various agencies and committees, and maybe Uncle Loren, too.
I’m sorry that the pictures of the documents are so poor, but they are available online.
This family story was supposed to be one post, but keeps growing. Let’s go over the pictures of Marie and Oswald later.
Note: someone recently contacted me and asked if I knew that the Hydes had lots of pictures of Russia. Yes, I read about that in the declassified documents, but they never sent to or showed a single picture to the family. That was very unusual in the 1960s when everyone forced their travel pictures of everyone they knew.
Declassified House Committee on Assassinations Request