A newly uncovered JFK assassination document is reviving questions about a possible connection between Lee Harvey Oswald and the FBI. The 1976 affidavit to the Senate by former FBI agent Carver Gayton suggests the bureau used Oswald as an informant prior to the John F. Kennedy assassination, says author John Newman. "This thing has been kept under wraps for 20 years," says Newman, who says he discovered the affidavit at the National Archives while doing research for his new book Oswald and the CIA. The FBI, as far back as J. Edgar Hoover's tenure as director, has steadfastly denied Oswald ever worked for the bureau. FBI spokesman Mike Korten Tuesday declined comment on Newman's claims. Meanwhile, a 30-day deadline expires today for President Clinton to decide whether to allow the release of additional JFK documents. The federal government's Assassination Records Review Board voted last month to unveil 15 still-sealed documents, but the FBI appealed to Clinton to block the release. The White House said Tuesday Clinton will allow negotiations between the FBI and the review board to continue before making a decision. Authorities say the contested documents do not involve the Gayton affidavit, although disclosure of FBI informants is a central issue. In his sworn affidavit, Gayton says he was told about a year after the assassination by then-FBI agent James Hosty that Oswald "had been a PSI" (potential security informant) for the FBI. Authorities say Gayton, who couldn't be reached for comment Tuesday, later denied that Hosty made the remark. Hosty, who is writing his own book on the JFK case, denies ever making that statement to Gayton. And the former Dallas FBI agent who monitored Oswald's activities declined to explain, except to say that the matter will be explored in his book. Oliver "Buck" Revell, the FBI's former criminal investigations chief, says the PSI designation does not necessarily mean Oswald became an informant. It merely suggests that the FBI had an interest in possibly turning him into one because of his Marxist connections, Revell says. "I've seen nothing indicating he had any sort of informant status," he says. But Newman, a former career U.S. intelligence analyst, says the PSI designation suggests Oswald was a "low-level" informant for the bureau. Like a lot of things about the JFK assassination, the affidavit is fresh fodder for conspiracy theorists. More than three decades after the killing, speculation still swirls - with allegations of involvement that include the CIA, the Mafia, Fidel Castro and the Kremlin. The Gayton affidavit sheds no new light on whether Oswald was part of any hit team or a fall guy for a larger assassination plot. Nor does it show an FBI cover-up. But it provides "very powerful evidence" that the review board should further probe the FBI relationship with Oswald, and that Clinton should order release of the additional documents, Newman says.
Copyright 1995, USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co., Inc.
Fields, Sam, JFK MEMO UNCOVERED POSSIBLE LINK OSWALD TO FBI., USA TODAY, 08-30-1995.