COMMENTS ON GEORGE DE MOHRENSCHILDT.
Agency: CIA
Originator: CIA
From: RUSSELL B. HOLMES
To: MFR
Document date: 4/4/77
Document type: PAPER-TEXTUAL DOCUMENT

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4 April 1977

MEMORANDUM FOR THE RECORD

SUBJECT: Comments on George de Mohrenschildt (201-155221)

1.

According to the Warren Commission Report, page 283,

".

• • George de Mohrenschildt is a highly individualistic

person of varled interests.

He was born in (Mozyr) in the

Russian Ukraine in (17 April) 1911 and fled Russia with his

parents in 1921 during the civil disorder following the

revolution. He was in a Polish cavalry military academy for

1 1/2 years. Later he studied in Antwerp and attended the

University of Liege from which he received a doctor's degree

in international commerce in 1928.

grated to the United States; he became a U.S. citizen in 1949.

De Mohrenschildt eventually became interested in oil explora-

tion and production; he entered the University of Texas in

1944 and received a master's degree in petroleum geology and

petroleum engineering in 1945.

He has since become active

as a petroleum

engineer throughout the world.

In 1960, after

the death of his son, he and his wife made an 8-month hike

from the United States-Mexican border to Panama over primitive

jungle trails.

By happenstance they were in Guatemala City

at the time

of the Bay of Pigs invasion.

A lengthy film and

complete written log was prepared by de

Mohrenschildt and a

report of the trip was made to the U.S. Government.

Upon

arriving in Panama they journeyed to Haiti where de Mohren-

schildt eventually became involved in a Government-oriented

business venture

in which he has been engaged continuously

since June 1963 . . . .".

2.

Somewhat of a non-conformist, de Mohrenschildt was a

peripheral member of the so-called Russian community, in Dallas,

with which Lee Harvey Oswald made contact through Peter Gregory,

a Russian-speaking petroleum engineer whom Oswald met as a

result of his contact with the Texas Employment Commission

refice in fort morthe occ

Occasional contacts with de Mohrenschildt

and his wife continued until May 1963 when the de Mohrenschildt's

went to Haiti.

There is voluminous material on de Mohrenschildt in

CIA files,

most of it dating from the post-Kennedy assassi-

nation period when

he testified before the Warren Commission

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on his acquaintance with Lee Harvey Oswald and the latter's

wife.

The testimony given by de Mohrenschildt and his wife

appear in Volume IX of the Hearings before the President's

Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy, pages

166 - 331.

4. The bulk of the material in Agency files consists

of FBI reports, the most recent of which is dated 1967.

The

FBI has informed CIA that it has no traces on de Mohrenschildt

beyond that date.

(Memorandum no. 76-3000 from the IG to the

Director, 22 September 1976.)

5.

Our files show that a mail cover was placed on letters

addressed to de Mohrenschildt, c/o the United States Embassy

in Haiti, from about 1964 to 1966. This included opening and

photographing the contents of some letterstby the Station there.

The results of the operations were shared with the FBI.

(Memorandum no. 76-3000 cited above.) (The genesis of this

mail operation

is not readily available. A search is being

made to find it.)

6. The most recent information relating to de Mohren-

schildt is correspondence dated 5 September 1976 from him to

the Director, George Bush. De Morenschildt claims that he

and his wife

"find ourselves surrounded by some vigilantes;

our phone bugged and we are being followed everywhere.

Either

the FBI is involved in this or they do not want to accept my

complaints.

We are driven to insanity by this situation."

De Mohrenschildt goes on to ask the Director if he could do

something "to remove this net around us."

7.

According to a note from the Director, he had first

met de Mohrenschildt in the early 40's.

"He was an uncle to

my Andover roommate". The Director has not heard from him

for many years until the letter arrived.

The Director res-

ponded to de Mohrenschildt's letter on 28 September 1976.

(A. copy of this material is attached as an enclosure to

Memorandum no. 76-3000 from the IG under Tab A.)

8.

Earlier in 1976, the Agency received information

from Mr. J. Walton Moore who had been contacted in May and

July 1976 by writers connected with the Reader's Digest,

and with the Dial Press

and the Dell Publishing Company.

Both writers questioned Mr. Moore about Oswald and Mr. de

Mohrenschildt.

(Moore's reports on these contacts are

attached to the IG Memorandum.)

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9. De Mohrenschildt appears to have lead an adventurous

and colorful life as a petroleum engineer and businessman.

le is both well and poorly connected, and some of his

associations have raised serious questions. (See paragraph

10 below.) Certainly his relationship with the Oswald's

has caused this Agency and the FBI to spend more time and

energy on him in the past than was necessary.

hin in the past

Both the FBI

and this Agency,

however, had dropped their interests in

de Mohrenschildt's activities by the mid-to-late 1960's.

10. One of de Mohrenschildt's more questionable

contacts (not covered in his 201 file) has been reported in

the

Washington Post and the Washington Star. According to

the 31 March 1977 issue of the Star,

Willem Oltmans, a Dutch

Journalist, began cultivating de Mohrenschildt as a news

source

and

as a friend some ten years ago.

According to

Oltmans' file he was born on 10 June 1925

in Huizen, Holland.

le studied at Yale in 1950 and was expelled for misbehavior

(financial problems ?).

For a short time he worked for the

Jnited Press and De Telegraft a Dutch newspaper; however, he

In 1956 or 1957 he married an American

In 1960 he divorced her and in November

1961 was living with a Filipino male. Oltmans was admitted

to the United States in New York City as a permanent resident

on 10 June 1958.

Numerous field reports indicate that in 1956

Oltmans arranged an introduction for himself to President

Sukarno.

He then traveled with Sukarno during the President's

trip through Europe in 1956 as the President's guest.

O1tmans

trip from Indonesia to the US in Feb 57 was paid by the

Indonesian government.

Indications are that he was being used

as a tool by the Indonesian government to carry on propaganda

in the US and at the UN.

b.

In March 1960 Oltmans described himself as anti-

communist.

He stated his views are at best those of a great

admirer of communism and what the communist system represents.

He was described as having excellent contacts with all the

communist-dominated countries, including Cuba.

C.

According to press reports, on 18 December 1962

Oltmans announced he intended to take legal action against.

Dutch Foreign Minister J. M. A. H. Luns.

that he had been refused "on instructions from Luns" a declara-

tion by the Dutch Embassy in Washington, D. C., that he was

a bona fide journalist working for bona

fide newspapers. An

early 1972 report stated Oltmans was attempting to have

the

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government prosecute Luns for "lying and misleading the

government" on Indonesia during his

tenure as foreign

minister. The 19 and 20 January 1972 issues of Dutch paper

De Telegraat carry articles exposing activities Oltmans who

engaged in denigration campaign against luns.

Stories

accuse Soviets of collusion

with Oltmans and

of interference

in Dutch internal affairs.

d.

In 1963 Oltmans was a journalist at the UN

connected with an obscure Dutch newspaper.

The other

journalists claimed to never have seen anything of Oltmans!

in print. While at the UN Oltmans applied for membership

in the UN correspondence association.

not produce a since to demonste tis secondistic

During this time, he gave lectures, earning

tino, he

on 4 2 9 nort at homose act ales a rushing

to have grown up in Indonesia and therefore knows the condi-

tions there.

Subject as

subject son not-peca with the butch."

In November 1963, a liaison report described

outspoken pro-Indonesian,

£ .

In April 1967 Subject claimed to have sold an

article to RAMPARTS magazine about the CIA in Indonesia.

However, the article was never printed.

g.

In February 1968, Subject interviewed Jim

Garrison on Dutch TV about the

Kennedy assassination.

h. In February 1972 a liaison

report described

Subject as an emotionally disturbed publicity seeker who

doesn't seem to care what type publicity he receives.

i. In 1972 Oltmans was planning to make a film in

the USSR on ecology. He visited the USSR 23-26 January 1972

to make final arrangements for the film.

Service claimed Subject had a 5-year retainer from sor Dutch

as overt PR man. (No indication in file if film ever made.)

j.

Subject's Travel: 1956 - met and accompanied

President Sukarno

on European trip.

December 1956 - visited

Indonesia.

February 57 - USA.

1960 - Congo. 1961 - E. Ger-

many, Czechslovakia, Poland, Hungary.

1962 - Cuba.

January

1972

- USSR.

February - March 1972

- USA.

March 1972 - USSR.

(DIRECTOR 851765, 10 May 1976)

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11. An earlier document dated 1 February 1972 from

the Dutch services provides

information relating to Oltmans'

contacts with various Soviet officials including one

Kuznetsov, Cultural Attache in the Soviet Embassy in The

Hague, who, it is believed, may be the same Kuznetzov whom

Oltmans and de Mohrenschildt met in Brussels on 5 March

1977.

A check of Soviets in Brussels reveals the name of

Vladimir Kuznetsov who arrived in Brussels in September 1976.

(See copy of ONHA 38577, 1 February 1972, under Tab B.)

Vladimir Kuznetsov (201-0943610) is possibly identical with

Vladimir Sergeyevich Kuznetsov, a GRU staff officer:

(DIRECTOR 914708, 13 September

1976.)

12. Although Oltmans may be described as an unscrupulous

publicity seeker, his contacts with the Soviets (not fully

explained) and de Mohrenschildt add a sinister quality which,

unless proven to be otherwise, may have an adverse effect

upon the Agency's role in the

present investigation into

the Kennedy assassination.

A Valmer

Russell B. Holmes

• .

Attachments:

Tab A and B

Distribution:

1 - C/CI/OG w/atts.

1 - IG w/atts.

1 - SA/DO/Q w/atts.

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