Joan Mellen at the Wecht Conference: WHO WAS LEE HARVEY OSWALD?

Meanwhile, since "A Farewell To Justice" was published, I have received confirmations of the CIA connections of Oswald-connected figures like Fred Lee Crisman, the handler of Oswald's acquaintance Thomas Edward Beckham, and Jack Martin, whose name, CIA admits (see the Appendix to "Jim Garrison, His Life and Times") was a "generic." A fragmentary report of Crisman as what is termed an "Internal Security Section" agent emerged from a FOIA inquiry I initiated. The document, dated September 13, 1969, its attachment missing, refers to Crisman as a 4250 agent.

Its author is a CIA agent himself, who takes the risk and exposes Crisman's CIA connection, because Crisman's behavior as what he calls a "disruption agent" appalls him. The author finds people like Crisman "dangerous to the democratic way of life and they should be halted. These men bear no love for the USA," he writes. "They serve the CIA, and, what is more, they serve only a part of the CIA, for they would kill a fellow agent as fast as they would arrange your death…." The author, whose name is redacted, was angry enough to provide information to an outsider.