It Runs In The Family!
Was Oswald’s cousin Marilyn Murret a CIA operative?
One thing I have noticed during my research into the JFK assassination is the number of people involved that are players. Many have intel connections or are informants. It’s quite obvious now that Lee Oswald was a low level operative. His mother may have been been an informant as well, with 7 years of tax returns still sealed. How could her tax returns be harmful to National Security? More like a threat to the official story sold to the public regarding the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Ruth Paine who helped Oswald get the job that placed him on the motorcade route, both her and her husband Michael have their returns sealed from 1956 to 1958 (CE212, CE218). Michael has other files on him sealed (CE258). Also, Michael’s family members have many records collected by the Warren Commission sealed on them too (CE600-CE629). With Ruth, her sister Sylvia Hoke, a CIA agent has files sealed on her. (CE508).
This leads us to Marilyn Murret, the daughter of Lillian Claverie Murret, Marguerite Oswald’s younger sister. Lee stayed with the Murret’s several times during the course of his life. His uncle Charles was a full-time steamship clerk, but for a time was a bookie for Carlos Marcello. Marilyn is an interesting character. A school teacher by profession, she didn’t limit her educational skills to New Orleans and was quite the world traveler teaching in foreign countries before settling down in New Orleans to teach and live out the remainder of her life there, passing away in 2020. The FBI investigated her background and found that Marilyn had traveled to Japan, Lebanon, Egypt, India, Iraq, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, and many other countries. She was once detained in East Berlin for twelve hours for unknown reasons. She would be called to give her testimony for the Warren Commission and later, in 1978, for the House Select Committee on Assassinations.
Marilyn Murret’s Warren Commission testimony in April of 1964 makes for an incomplete read. Staff attorney Liebeler unfortunately spends most of it asking leading questions or questions regarding unimportant events, and then omitting the questions he should have asked. For example, regarding Marilyn’s overseas treks, he asks her about her employment in those countries (only three countries and then as a teacher) but rarely asks her about her employment in New Orleans or during Lee’s childhood. Does Liebeler ask about why she was doing so much traveling in so many countries or how she financed the trips? No. One trip was a 3-week vacation to Europe. What did she do in those countries when she was unemployed? Also, during her testimony she reaffirms the myth that Marina could not speak English other than rudimentary sentences.
Intel Connections?
Was Marilyn Murret an operative? As stated above, she gave her sworn testimony to the HSCA and all 23 pages of her testimony were classified and have never been released. Even before she spoke to them, the Committee had to seek permission from the CIA in order to talk to her. If she had no prior relationship with the Agency then why go to that trouble? (Armstrong p.274)
Researcher Jones Harris, who briefly worked with Jim Garrison during his criminal investigation of Clay Shaw, told me of the time they brought Marilyn Murret into Garrison’s office for questioning. In walked a tall, attractive woman accompanied by a gaggle of lawyers. She sat down and said little while the lawyers did all the talking. Nothing came of this encounter and she was never called to testify at the trial. Apparently she came prepared to do battle if called to be a witness and wisely let her attorneys do her talking for her.
Researcher Dick Russell has even more intriguing news on Marilyn in his book about intelligence agent Richard Case Nagell entitled, The Man Who Knew Too Much. Russell was told by Houston Post reporter Lonnie Hudkins that a CIA source had told him that Marilyn Murret was a CIA agent assigned to Japan in the late 1950’s and helped facilitate Oswald’s trip to Russia. She arrived in Japan in September of 1959 and started teaching at an all-English school. Was she teaching the children of the military? Or the children of diplomats and government agents stationed there? While that is unknown, it should be pointed out that all three of the brothers, John, Robert, and Lee as part of their overseas military service, passed through Japan. In fact, it was Marilyn that told John Pic while stationed in Japan in 1959 of Lee’s defection (in a minor squabble, John said it was Marilyn and Marilyn said it was John’s wife.). How else could she have known since only intelligence agencies and the State Department in the U.S. knew about Lee Oswald’s journey there?
Other researchers have chimed in. John Armstrong in Harvey and Lee (p.274) said that in 1975 CIA agent William George Gaudet told lawyer Bernard Fensterwald, “She (Marilyn Dorothea Murret) may have worked for the Agency in New Orleans.”
Joan Mellon flatly stated in her book, A Farewell To Justice that Marilyn was a CIA agent (p.41, Notes p.397).
In Closing
Marilyn Murret has been asked if she was ever connected with the Agency and she vehemently denied it. Despite her denials and circumstantial evidence of being a spook, the most telling fact is the House Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA) requiring CIA approval to interview her and then having her testimony, all 23 pages of it classified, is quite telling.
It is very likely that she was involved in intelligence work for the government of the United States.
Marilyn Murret’s Obituary Page
It’s understandable that any family connections to the historic crime of presidential assassination would want to distance themselves from the tragedy. And I dislike having to present it here, but for the sake of reporting, the reference to being the first cousin to Lee H. Oswald is omitted; as is the reference to Marilyn’s mother Lillian being the sister of Lee’s mother Marguerite.
From her Obit page:
“Marilyn D. Murret passed away on Tuesday, May 5, 2020 at age 91. Daughter of the late Charles F. "Dutz" Murret and Lillian Murret; sister of the late Joyce Murret O'Brien, Dr. Charles W. Murret (Mary, deceased), Eugene J. Murret (Kathleen) of Denver, CO, John M. "Boogie" Murret (Mary Lynn) of Hattiesburg, MS; aunt of the late Gary Murret, Bobby Murret, Ron O'Brien, Jill Mount, Kerry O'Brien, Laine Blackburn, Denise Missler, Suzanne Prevost, Brad Murret, Donn Murret, Patricia Murret, Claire Moynihan, Cecilia Saunders, and E. John Murret, Jr.; and great-aunt to many nieces & nephews. She wishes to express her extreme gratitude to her nephew Brad Murret and her nieces Patricia Murret and Suzanne Prevost for their loving care during her last years.”
Endnotes
Apologies to my readers. One of the citations from Dick Russell I can’t find because I can’t find his book in my collection! When I buy another copy, or find the original, I’ll post the page reference.
This one of Dick Russell’s I do have. Russell cited a tale from Lonnie Hudkins that a "high level source in Washington" told him that Oswald's cousin Marilyn Murret was “..a CIA agent assigned to Japan, the person who helped make the contacts when Oswald "defected" to Russia." (p.120)
Marilyn Murret’s passport application in 1954 had her parent’s birth dates wrong. Her passport application in 1958 had the same exact error. Her cousin Lee made the same error on his 1959 passport application. Playing the spy game? Armstrong, p.275.
Jim Garrison documenting of the Paine’s and their family members having classified files, are from his two books: On The Trail of the Assassins, p.315, note 63; and A Heritage of Stone, pp.115-116 (hardback, pp.134-135).
Sources
https://obits.nola.com/us/obituaries/nola/name/marilyn-murret-obituary?id=2227418
Marilyn Murret Warren Commission testimony
http://jfkassassination.net/russ/testimony/murret_m.htm
Books
The Man Who Knew Too Much, Dick Russell
Harvey and Lee, John Armstrong, p. 273-274
On The Trail of the Assassins and A Heritage of Stone, Jim Garrison
A Farewell To Justice, Joan Mellen