James P. Hosty
James Patrick Hosty was well aware of who Lee Oswald was before the JFK Assassination. The file below, with thanks to Malcolm Blunt shows in very good detail as to Oswald’s whereabouts in New Orleans and note the date at the top of the second page.
Hosty’s notes from Oswald’s first interrogation have been part of a little controversy since he claimed that he had destroyed them as per common FBI procedure. Which was: after having them typed up and signed the handwritten notes were to be discarded. Low and behold that when he published his book Assignment Oswald the notes appear in print. The excuse being used that he thought he had destroyed his notes, but that he found them after many years between papers while researching for the book.
Hosty’s notes like all the others contain only answers, nowhere is there anything with what questions were asked by any of the interrogators this seemed to be common procedure.
But there is a much bigger issue at hand. Hosty did not write this particular note, he wrote a lot more.
In Feb 2019 I find a document in Malcolm Blunt’s archive which is rather startling. See for yourself, as it points to Oswald going outside to watch the parade.
However in the same book by Hosty he lists an exchange of how the questioning went while Oswald was in custody.
Okay now, Lee, you work at the Texas School Book Depository, isn’t that right?
Yeah, that’s right.
When did you start working there?
About October fifteenth
What did you do down there?
I was just a common laborer.
Now, did you have access to all floors of the building?
Of course.
Tell me what was on each of those floors.
The first and second floors have offices. The third and fourth floor are storage. So are the fifth and sixth.
And you were working there today, is that right?
Yep.
Were you there when the president’s motorcade went by?
Yeah.
Where were you when the president went by the book depository?
I was eating my lunch in the first floor lunchroom.
What time was that?
About noon.
Were you ever on the second floor around the time the president was shot?
Well, yeah. I went up there to get a bottle of Coca-Cola from the machine for my lunch.
But where were you when the president actually passed your building?
On the first floor in the lunchroom.
And you left the depository, isn’t that right?
Yeah.
When did you leave?
Well, I figured with all the confusion there wouldn’t be any more work to do that day.
Hosty relies on his brief notes, his joint report with James Bookhout and his memory more than a decade after the event. He initially blends Oswald’s lunch (at 12:00) in the Domino Room with the limo passing by the building, but we also know that Oswald went out front to see what the commotion was about (and by commotion it is safe to assume that it was the crowd noise when the limo started to appear on Houston St.). But then blends it even more by allegedly asking again where he was when the limo passed by: The Domino Room.
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Hosty speaks with the Church Committee over three dates in Dec 1975. These transcripts contain 550 pages of testimony in which many aspects of his involvement are discussed. They are a good read to get some valuable background info on what he was doing when all this was all going on.
During the Dec 5th 1975 testimony session. Pages 30-47 deal with the interrogations.
- Mexico City is brought up (p 30).
- Hosty took notes during the interrogation, but subsequently destroyed them (p 31 & 32).
- Oswald did not respond to the Mexico City question as Will Fritz went into another question. Later on Hosty states that the interrogation was suddenly halted as they were going to take Oswald downstairs for the Markham line-up (p 45).
- James Bookhout did not ask any questions, he just sat and observed (p 46).
- Fritz did all the questioning, Hosty fed Fritz info who in turned asked Oswald the question (p 47).
- Other than Mexico City, Hosty forwarded questions to Fritz about Russia, Marina, New Orleans and the FPCC (p 46). The session goes off the record straight after this and when reconvened the subject has been changed (p 47).
On Dec 12th 1975. This 164 page document does not discuss much when it comes to the interrogations.
- Hosty only knows of his own report and the ones made by James Bookhout (p 98).
- The inconcistencies of the reports of what was allegedly said by Oswald and what actually was said by him are brought up (p 100).
- Hosty and Warren DeBrueys who had come in from New Orleans went through the evidence together, before it was released by the DPD (p 151).
On the 13th of December 1975 his second day of his testimony there is more.
- Hosty recants the interrogations. The Mexico City question is broadly discussed, without any real effect and how quickly Will Fritz moved on to a different question.
- He describes his and James Bookhout’s reports.
- Hosty took notes but there are no transcripts (p 31). Yes there are-B.K.
- Hosty pictures the setting of him feeding questions to Will Fritz who then asks Oswald (p 68).
- The Mexico City question was denied by Oswald and did not get a follow-up as shortly after the interrogation was interrupted for a line-up (p 70).
- Fritz asked all the questions. Started with background questions to get Oswald go along after being upset with Hosty’s presence.
- Oswald had his hands cuffed behind him when Hosty and Bookhout had made their entry. It was Hosty who suggested to Fritz to remove the handcuffs with his hands behind him (p 136).
- Upon his arrival in the room Hosty heard them talk about the JFK and Tippit shootings and Oswald being questioned where he was inside the TSBD at that time. Then confirms that DPD and FBI do not take any transcripts, that many law enforcement officers don’t do this is in preliminary investigation and that it is normal rocedure (p 137).
- After Oswald has been removed from the room and is on his way to the first line-up Hosty makes his way to where Oswald’s evidence has been laid out. Among that is Oswald’s address book which is the only item brought up in his answer (p 138). There is no mention of a Hidell ID.
- The encounter with Oswald is discussed again (p 139-141).
A recent find by me in the Malcolm Blunt Archives is a 82 page document, which is a HSCA staff review interview on the 25th August 1978. This document had no online presence anywhere before, it does now!
In this interview Hosty again discusses the interrogations.
- Oswald is only slightly upset when Hosty has introduced himself upon entry into the room (page 21 of the PDF!).
- Hosty feeds Fritz questions (p 21).
- He sat alongside of Fritz (p 23).
- The questioning about Mexico City does not last long as shortly after the interrogations are ended, as they are ready for the first line-up with Helen Markham (p 24).
- Hosty discusses with James Bookhout whether they could talk to Oswald alone. Bookhout did not seem to think that was feasible knowing Fritz’s temperament and attitude (p 25).
- He sees Oswald talking to Forrest Sorrels of the Secret Service and also to Manning Clements of the FBI at a later time (p 30 & 31).
- Hosty is told not to attend any further interrogations (p 30).
- Hosty did contact the TSBD before the assassination to enquire if Oswald was working there, in a report dated Dec. 9th 1963.
- Hosty is the guy who informs Lt. Jack Revill of the DPD in the basement (yup the same place Oswald got shot) just before 3 PM on Nov 22nd 1963 that Oswald was a subversive who had stayed in Russia, and now comes the debatable part, and that he was capable of committing such an act as shooting The President. This latter part is in high dispute between the FBI and the DPD, but nevertheless Hosty, as an agent assigned to ‘manage’ files on subversives in the Dallas area and who had Oswald being part of those files never bothered or was ordered to inform the DPD nor the Secret Service. Even when the motorcade went right past the TSBD building! Captain Gannaway was smart when he heard Revill say what had happened in the basement and ordered him to write a statement there and then. Of course it was a C.Y.A. move which got Hosty in hot water with Hoover. Revill’s WC testimony did not help either. I also find the report suspect in the sense of the due diligence displayed in creating this piece of evidence, compared to the interrogations of Lee Harvey Oswald. Jesse Curry’s HSCA interview underlines the issues between Hosty and Revill and the FBI and the consequences thereof.
James Hosty during the Vincent Bugliosi fugezi trail of Lee Harvey Oswald.
In 1964 Hoover punishes Hosty and suspends him for 30 days and transfers him to Kansas City.