Ruth Paine-Miss Innocent?

[Dealey Joe]

URL=http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/846/paine4r.jpg/][/URL]

[kenmurray]

THE CONFESSIONS OF RUTH PAINE by Steve Jones As some readers of the JFK/Deep Politics Quarterly may be aware, Carol Hewett, Barbara Lamonica, and I have been conducting research on Ruth and Michael Paine, arguably two of the most significant yet overlooked individuals in the tapestry of people, places, and events that continue to swirl around the vortex that we know as the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. I would like to share with the Quarterly's readers some thoughts that Ruth Paine revealed to a close personal friend of hers. This friend subsequently discussed these thoughts with me, but sought from me a promise [being kept] never to reveal her identity in order to protect her privacy. In the spring of 1997 Jim Douglass, a researcher and Christian peace worker, put me in contact with Ruth's friend in the hope that she might be willing to give me some valuable insights into the life of Ruth Paine, once a central figure in the lives of Lee and Marina Oswald, and, by extension, their children. When I traveled to the friend's home and knocked on her door, she greeted me by saying that we should go somewhere else to talk because she feared that her home might be subject to electronic surveillance. When we did finally sit down to talk, she apologized for seeming paranoid, but quickly gave me reason to believe that her fears were not unfounded. She explained that she had been a Christian peace worker during the turbulent Reagan-Bush years when the United States government was heavily funding the Contras in their efforts to overthrow the populist Sandanista government. Since the peace workers helped the poor and the oppressed natives who generally sided with the Sandanistas, United States intelligence agencies made life very difficult for them. Ruth's friend explained to me that she had recently returned from her fourth (that is my best recollection of the number...) tour of duty in Nicaragua. Since she had returned to the States, she had been openly followed in the streets by federal law enforcement agents in a manner that was obviously meant to intimidate her. FBI agents had visited her home on several occasions. Her mail had been opened and her phone had been tapped. If anyone doubts that the United States government really does this sort of thing to people who openly oppose the agenda of the national security state, I highly recommend the book Resisting Reagan by Christian Smith. [ed. note: Steve's point is well taken here]. This friend got to know Ruth in 1990 when they were both working for pro-Nica, one of the various peace organizations that was involved in that beleaguered Central American country. She went on to explain to me that when Ruth first showed up at the camp, everyone began to distrust her because of her behavior, which overlapped every characteristic of a CIA infiltrator. Ruth was taking notes off of bulletin boards, asking people many personal questions, and taking photographs for supposed purposes that turned out to be false. In fact, Ruth never went anywhere without a notebook handy, ready to jot down anything and everything she saw or heard. The rest of the group had gotten very good at spotting infiltrators, because the CIA was always sending people down there either to gather information or to act as agents provocateur to disrupt their efforts. One evening when volunteer Sue Wheaton told the group about Ruth's connection to the Kennedy assassination, the suspicion intensified to the point of paranoia. Based on what the volunteers had seen the CIA do in Nicaragua, none of these people would hesitate to question whether or not it was possible for the agency to assassinate an American president. Because of the volunteers' conviction in that regard, Ruth became ostracized except for one woman who, though she maintained a distrust for Ruth, took a personal liking toward her and began to develop a friendship with her. The group openly confronted Mrs. Paine with their suspicions, but she would adamantly deny any connection to the CIA (or, one presumes, other 'initial' agencies), and steadfastly stuck to her Warren Commission testimony of being an innocently maligned do-gooder regarding the assassination. When confronted so openly. it was common 'agent' behavior to quietly depart, based on the assumption that the 'cover' had been blown. But because of Ruth's persistent denials and the group's unwillingness to kick someone out who had been wrongfully accused, Ruth was asked to take a leave of absence from the group instead of being summarily dismissed. Her friend was given the assignment of driving her across the border into Costa Rica to a retreat center where peace workers sometimes went for badly needed R & R. When they approached the camp and were getting out of their car, several others came up to greet them and help them with their luggage. As those people approached the car and saw who it was, they started screaming, "Oh my God, it's Ruth Paine, she's CIA -- get her away from us!!" Ruth Paine's reputation had somehow preceded her and they were forced to return to the volunteer camp where Ruth bravely, and without complaint, finished out her year before returning to the United States. Upon returning to America, Ruth and the woman-source of this story continued the friendship that they had begun in the jungles of Nicaragua. The friend explained to me what a strange feeling it is to care about someone, to find someone likable and personable yet to not completely trust them. The friend always had the feeling that Ruth Paine was hiding something, that she was holding something back and that she wasn't being totally honest about her connections to the CIA or her involvement with Lee Harvey Oswald. The two of them could sit around the kitchen table drinking coffee and discussing any topic under the sun, except for two: the CIA and the Kennedy assassination. Yet the friend continued to gently press Ruth, reminding her that confession is good for the soul. At one point, Ruth became irritated about the constant inquiries into the assassination and told her friend, "If you want to know about the Kennedy assassination, I have old issues of Life magazine that I can give you. That will tell you everything you need to know." However, that disclaimer not withstanding, the friend did tell me that over the years there were a few times that Ruth did open up ever so slightly about both the CIA and the assassination. These comments, along with some other general information that the friend shared with me helped to both confirm and to dismiss some of the previous thoughts that we 'Paine researchers' had developed. One hypothesis that can now be dismissed is that Ruth Paine's long vacation in the summer of 1963 had any sinister or clandestine purpose. In July, 1963, she drove her 1955 Chevy station wagon on a whirlwind tour of the eastern United States, culminating in her picking up Marina Oswald in New Orleans and bringing her and one child (Marina was expecting their second child in October) back to Texas in late September, as Lee was about to embark (unknown to them) on his adventures in Mexico. At the 1995 COPA conference, I gave a presentation in which I hypothesized that Ruth may have been involved in helping to impersonate Oswald on this trip, or even that Lee may have joined her in order to be seen at several demonstrations that Ruth attended during the trip, such as Dr. King's "I have a dream" speech/protest march in Washington in late August, 1963. But her friend informed me that Ruth takes those long cross-country journeys every summer, that she loves to drive, and that on those trips she has been visiting the same people for years, including her ex-husband Michael, whom she divorced in 1971. What has been corroborated beyond any doubt is that Ruth has immediate family members who were employed by the CIA. Documents have been located at the Archives showing that her sister was a staff psychologist for the CIA as of 1961 and that her father had been approached by the Agency to run an educational co-operative alliance in Vietnam in 1957. Though refusing to admit that she herself ever had anything to do with the CIA, she admitted to her friend that her father had been in their employment. She said that while working as an insurance executive for Nationwide Insurance, and later for the Agency for International Development, her father had often gathered intelligence for the CIA. But she was quick to add that he would never have done so if "he had known what the CIA was really all about." By this she meant that her father was serving in the capacity of a genuine patriotic, anti-Communist fervor and did not really understand how the CIA used such intelligence gathering to undermine local economies and suppress indigenous people so that American corporations could move in and exploit local cheap labor. The fact that Ruth understands this showed that she was quite attuned to the motivations, methods, and purposes of the Central Intelligence Agency. The one and only time Ruth showed any cracks at all regarding the assassination itself was when she was having a difficulties with her now 40-year-old daughter. With tears in her eyes, Ruth stated that her daughter did not want to speak to her any more until she came to grips with "the evil that I have been associated with in my life." When the friend gently pushed further and asked, "What evil?" Ruth clammed up. But the friend assured me that she was convinced this was a veiled reference to the Kennedy assassination and that Ruth was not talking strictly about Lee Oswald. The friend firmly believes this because the comment was made in the context of a brief discussion about the assassination. I learned this after several lengthy visits with the friend and decided that it was time to take things one step further. I asked the friend if she would be willing to act as an intermediary between interested researchers and Ruth Paine, and the friend accepted the challenge. Ruth was going to be making one of her yearly summer trips and would stop to visit the friend. The arrangement was that I would give her articles that Barbara, Carol, and I had written for PROBE along with some documentation. The friend was to 'confront' Ruth with the information and ask her to explain it. Depending how this went, the friend would consider arranging a meeting between the researchers cited and Mrs. Paine. Predictably, things fell apart at this point. A week before the scheduled arrival, the friend called me and told me that Ruth had canceled out, calling and saying that she was very busy and would have to cut her trip short and thus wouldn't have time for the visit. The friend noted that this was out of character because Ruth had been especially looking forward to the visit for a reason that cannot be divulged here. I could not help but think that someone had been listening to our phone conversations and that Mrs. Paine had been tipped off. The friend then began to distance herself from me. Phone messages were not returned and letters went unanswered. After several months, I decided to leave her alone. I determined that for her own reasons, she desired no more contact with me. But I cannot help but surmise that her abrupt dismissal of me, and the work I was seeking to enlarge or corroborate, was out of a genuine sense of fear. This episode only served to convince me even more that Ruth Paine was, and still is, working in some type of intelligence capacity. It also showed me what a determined, poised, and tough lady she truly is. Though she was under the most intense pressure in Nicaragua and was surrounded by people who distrusted her, she kept her cool. And later, when in the relaxed company of a genuine friend who truly cared about her, Ruth still refused to let down her guard for a brief moment. If Ruth Pain is an agent, and I still firmly believe she is, she is a damn good one. Vincent Salandria once told me that the Paines, whether unwitting or not, played a key role in the assassination conspiracy by getting Oswald into the Texas School Book Depository. The conspirators knew that the people they chose for such a vital role had to be rock solid individuals who would never crack. After my experience with Ruth Paine's friend, I would have to say that Salandria was absolutely right. TOP OF THE PAGE

[kenmurray]

Ruth and Michael Paine lies again:http://www.whokilledjfk.net/minox_camera.htm

[Phil Dragoo]

Ruth put Lee in the Depository to be the patsy. Things materialized in her garage to frame him. She is CIA; she is evil--but I repeat myself.

[Michael Calder]

Ken,Most interesting. Thanks for posting the Steve Jones essay. Another nail in Ruth's coffin. www.jfkcia.com

[Dealey Joe]

I find it more than coincidence that on her tours thru the country she always visited the Birthplace/Hometown of our infamous David Von Pein. Both families seemed to be from the Quaker heritage. Richmond, Indiana is well known as a Quaker headquarters.

[kenmurray]

Dealey Joe wrote:I find it more than coincidence that on her tours thru the country she always visited the Birthplace/Hometown of our infamous David Von Pein. Both families seemed to be from the Quaker heritage. Richmond, Indiana is well known as a Quaker headquarters.Joe, maybe Ruth is Von Pein's aunt?

[Phil Dragoo]

George Michael Evica, A Certain Arrogance: U.S. Intelligence's Manipulation of Religious Groups and Individuals in Two World Wars and the Cold War -and the Sacrificing of Lee Harvey Oswald:Surprise: The Paines were first Quakers then Unitarians.Reading the book now. Dulles built networks lasting decades. He was in Zurich in 1917 the very day the Germans put Lenin on a train to Petrograd to relieve the pressure on the Eastern front.Dulles built the Unitarian networks which made the Albert Schweitzer College the depot for illegals which worked to wash the trail of false defector Lee Oswald.Ruth Paine placed Oswald in the Depository and provided all manner of stage props and smears to frame him after he was murdered.Think of the blood of Vietnam and Cambodia on her hands.A Quaker; a Unitarian. Indeed.And let's glance at what Jim DiEugenio chose out of James Douglass' JFK and the Unspeakable: Why He Died and Why It Matters regarding the Paines:IVGenerally speaking, Douglass has done a good job of choosing some of the better evidence that has appeared of late to indicate a conspiracy. What he does with Ruth and Michael Paine, especially the former, is salutary.Michael Paine did not just work at Bell Helicopter. He did not just have a security clearance there. His stepfather, Arthur Young, invented the Bell helicopter. His mother, Ruth Forbes Paine Young, was descended from the Boston Brahmin Forbes family -- one of the oldest in America. She was a close friend of Mary Bancroft. Mary Bancroft worked with Allen Dulles as a spy during World War II in Switzerland. This is where Dulles got many of his ideas on espionage, which he would incorporate as CIA Director under Eisenhower. Bancroft also became Dulles' friend and lover. She herself called Ruth Forbes, "a very good friend of mine." (p. 169) This may explain why, according to Walt Brown, the Paines were the most oft-questioned witnesses to appear before the Commission.Ruth Paine's father was William Avery Hyde. Ruth described him before the Warren Commission as an insurance underwriter. (p. 170) But there was more to it than that. Just one month after the Warren Report was issued, Mr. Hyde received a three-year government contract from the Agency for International Development (AID). He became their regional adviser for all of Latin America. As was revealed in the seventies, AID was riddled with CIA operatives. To the point that some called it an extension of the Agency. Hyde's reports were forwarded both to the State Department and the CIA. (Ibid)Ruth Paine's older sister was Sylvia Hyde Hoke. Sylvia was living in Falls Church, Virginia in 1963. Ruth stayed with Sylvia in September of 1963 while traveling across country. (p. 170) Falls Church adjoins Langley, which was then the new headquarters of the Central Intelligence Agency, a prized project of Allen Dulles. It was from Falls Church that Ruth Paine journeyed to New Orleans to pick up Marina Oswald, who she had been introduced to by George DeMohrenschildt. After she picked Marina up, she deposited her in her home in Irving, Texas. Thereby separating Marina from Lee at the time of the assassination.Some later discoveries made Ruth's itinerary in September quite interesting. It turned out that John Hoke, Sylvia's husband, also worked for AID. And her sister Sylvia worked directly for the CIA itself. By the time of Ruth's visit, Sylvia had been employed by the Agency for eight years. In regards to this interestingly timed visit to her sister, Jim Garrison asked Ruth some pointed questions when she appeared before a grand jury in 1968. He first asked her if she knew her sister had a file that was classified at that time in the National Archives. Ruth replied she did not. In fact, she was not aware of any classification matter at all. When the DA asked her if she had any idea why it was being kept secret, Ruth replied that she didn't. Then Garrison asked Ruth if she knew which government agency Sylvia worked for. The uninquiring Ruth said she did not know. (p. 171) This is the same woman who was seen at the National Archives pouring through her files in 1976, when the House Select Committee was gearing up.When Marina Oswald was called before the same grand jury, a citizen asked her if she still associated with Ruth Paine. Marina replied that she didn't. When asked why not, Marina stated that it was upon the advice of the Secret Service. She then elaborated on this by explaining that they had told her it would look bad if the public found out the "connection between me and Ruth and CIA." An assistant DA then asked, "In other words, you were left with the distinct impression that she was in some way connected with the CIA?" Marina replied simply, "Yes." (p. 173)Douglass interpolates the above with the why and how of Oswald ending up on the motorcade route on 11/22/63. Robert Adams of the Texas Employment Commission testified to having called the Paine household at about the time Oswald was referred by Ruth -- via a neighbor-- to the Texas School Book Depository (TSBD) for a position. He called and was told Oswald was not there. He left a message for Oswald to come down and see him since he had a position available as a cargo handler at a regional cargo airline. Interestingly, this job paid about 1/3 more than the job Oswald ended up with at the TSBD. He called again the next day to inquire about Oswald and the position again. He was now told that Lee had already taken a job. Ruth was questioned about the Adams call by the Warren Commission's Albert Jenner. At first she denied ever hearing of such a job offer. She said, "I do not recall that." (p. 172) She then backtracked, in a tactical way. She now said that she may have heard of the offer from Lee. This, of course, would seem to contradict both the Adams testimony and common sense. If Oswald was cognizant of the better offer, why would he take the lower paying job?http://www.ctka.net/reviews/jfk_unspeakable.htmlRuth's got the blood of Vietnam and Cambodia on her hands, hands which have helped strangle our Republic.

[Dealey Joe]

Why would the city of Irving, Tx give Ruth Paine the Key to the City?My imagination will not extend that far. Maybe you can figure it out?

[Dealey Joe]

kenmurray wrote:Dealey Joe wrote:I find it more than coincidence that on her tours thru the country she always visited the Birthplace/Hometown of our infamous David Von Pein. Both families seemed to be from the Quaker heritage. Richmond, Indiana is well known as a Quaker headquarters.Joe, maybe Ruth is Von Pein's aunt? I have wondered about that, of course the Paine name is from Michael's family.However the names do change over the years, it is easy to see where the Von Peins could have emerged from Paine or vise - versa.Little Davie would have been about 2 years old and if is a high percentage probability that they were acquainted in some way. I saw a post somewhere where Davie says he might have set on Aunt Ruths lap?