MARK LANE
Originator: FBI
From: DEKE
To: FORD, GERALD R.
Document date: 02/14/1964
Document type: PAPER-TEXTUAL DOCUMENT

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JFK Assassination System

Identification Form

Agency Information

Date:

8/27/201

AGENCY :

RECORD NUMBER :

FORDCONG

178-10003-10449

RECORD SERIES:

WARREN COMMISSION

AGENCY FILE NUMBER: WORKING PAPERS, FEB-MARCH 1964

Document Information

ORIGINATOR:

FBI

FROM:

DEKE

1O:

FORD, GERALD R.

TITLE:

MARK LANE

DATE:

PAGES:

SUBJECTS :

02/14/1964

3

LANE, MARK

WARREN COMMISSION

DOCUMENT TYPE: REPORT

CLASSIFICATION: Unclassified

RESTRICTIONS: IA

CURRENT STATUS: Redact

DATE OF LAST REVIEW: 07/30/1993

OPENING CRITERIA:

COMMENTS:

Has been open in sanitized form. Sixth paragraph excised. "Deke" is probably Cartha De Loach.

v9.1

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178-10003-10449

Mark Lane

News broadcasts on January 15, 1964, stated that Mark Lane,

New York Attorney has been retained by the mother of Lee Harvey Oswald to

represent Oswald before the committee appointed by President Johnson to

investigate the assassination of President Kennedy.

Mark Lane is an attorney-at-law who resides at 164 West 79th

street, New York City, and maintains offices in Room 1001, 654 Madison

Avenue, New York City. He was born in New York City on February 24, 1927.

He was inducted into the U. S. Army on May 1, 1945, and

honorably discharged as a Private First Class on November 12, 1946.

Lane was elected to the New York State Assembly in 1960 and in

May, 1962, was defeated in an attempt to secure the nomination as candidate

for U. S. Congress from the 19th Congressional District of New York.

Lane has reportedly been married twice, his first marriage

being annulled on a charge of fraud on Lane's part and the second marriage

ending in divorce.

It was reportedly general knowledge in local New York

political circles that Mark Lane and a young single girl had maintained an

intimate sexual relationship during 1960 and 1961 and had lived together.

The Office of the District Attorney of Queens County, New York,

reportedly conducted an investigation of Mark Lane in 1962 for alleged sodomy.

The District Attorney's office reportedly has signed statements by two girls

along with an obscene photograph of Lane plus handwritten instructions by Lane

relating to perverted sexual acts of a sadistic and masochistic nature performed

by the girls on the person of Mark Lane.

Lane has publicly stated he is making a speaking tour on behalf of

the 'National Guardian. " The "National Guardian" is known as a "left-wing,

New York City weekly newspaper.

This newspaper has been cited by the House

Committee on Un-American Activities (HUA) and on page 193 of the Guide to

Subversive Organizations and Publications of HCUA it is stated that the 'National

Guardian, " although denying any affiliation with the Communist Party,

"has

manifested itself from the beginning as a virtual official propaganda arm of

PHOTOCOPY

FROM

THE GERALD R.

UNMARKED

MAY CONTAIN NATIONAL SECURITY INFORMATION

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Mark Lane

Soviet Russia. " The "National Guardian" reportedly contracted with Town

Hall, New York City, to use its meeting hall for a gathering on 2-18-64 which

would feature Mark Lane and Marguerite Oswald, mother of Lee Harvey Oswald.

The Town Hall broke this contract and the 'National Guardian" is threatening

suit. According to the January 23, 1964, issue of 'National Guardian, " Lane

will speak concerning the Oswald matter

in Southern California, Chicagu and in

Detroit, with these addresses sponsored by 'Friends of the Guardian.

The May 27, 1953, issue of the 'Daily Worker" stated that the

National Lawyers' Guild (NLG) held an election of officers on May 26, 1953,

and that Mark Lane was elected an ex officio member of the Board of Directors

of the NLG.

The 'Daily Worker" was an east coast communist newspaper which

is no longer being published.

On May 17, 1961, Lane reportedly spoke at a membership meeting

of the NLG. A report of the HCUA has described the NLG as the foremost legal

bulwark of the Communist Party.

On October 21, 1962, Lane reportedly addressed a meeting of the

Emergency Civil Liberties Committee in New York City and strongly supported

Cuba while condemning U.S, policy with regard to Cuba. The HCUA has des-

cribed the Emergency Civil Liberties Committee as operating as a communist

front.

Lane also reportedly addressed a meeting sponsored by the Chicago

committee to defend the Bill of Rights in Chicago on October 21, 1962, and called

for the abolition of HCUA. The avowed purpose of the Chicago committee to

defend the Bill of Rights, organized in October, 1960, with the support of Com-

munist Party officials is to seek the abolition of the HCUA.

Lane also reportedly spoke at rallies sponsored by the New York

Council to Abolish the HCUA on April 21, 1961, and December 6, 1961. The

December 18, 1961, edition of The Militant" reported that at the December 6.

1961, raily Lane spoke and said that his first official action during the coming

session of the New York State Legislature would be to introduce a resolution to

pursuade Congress to abolish the HCUA.

'The Militant" is a weekly newspaper

of the Socialist Workers Party, wnich nas been described by the Attorney General

as a subversive publication.

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*

Mark Lane

Members of the Communist Party reportedly lent assistance

to Lane in his unsuccessful

political campaign in 1962 to be elected to

the U. S. Congress.

Lane reportedly shared a speaking platform on 11-6-61 at

McMillan Theater, Columbia University, New York City, with Benjamin o.

Davis, National Secretary of the Communist Party, in connection with a rally

to protest the ban by Columbia University againsi the appearance of several

previously scheduled communist speakers.

According to the June 9, 1961, "New York Times," page 31,

Mark Lane was arrested on June 8, 1961, at Jackson, Mississippi, as a

member of the "Freedom Riders" apprehended in that city.

The April 3, 1962, edition of the "New York Times, " on

page four, reported that Lane had been fined $415 in New York City on

April 2,

1962, as a

"scofflaw, " for ignoring numerous traffic tickets.

The December, 1963, issue of "National Guardian" which has

been cited by the HCUA as having manifested itself as a virtual official

propaganda arm of Soviet Russia, contains Lane's defense brief for Lee Harvey

Oswald on pages five, eight and nine.

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