Nicky you are entirely correct, all my info is from books, I wouldn't google the info but suggest books brought up in this thread like JFK The Unspeakable, Oswald and CIA, State Secret- The Framing of Oswald . Just make sure the book includes analysis from the AARB documents as those are critical to get the most accurate portrayal of events
The information you ask about the Russian defection is too much and detailed to type but State Secret The Framing of Lee Oswald Chapter 1 The Double Dangle will provide you with the answer you are looking for- you can read the entire book for free online/below link. Its only 7 chapters but one of the best assassination books out there that is not widely read, told entirely thru AARB documents and a detailed account of Oswald and CIA into Russia, NO, Dallas and most importantly alleged activities in Mexico City. I highly recommend reading this book as it pieces together areas that no one has done before.
https://www.maryferrell.org/pages/State_Secret.htmlThe book also shows comments and info made by organized crime figure John Martino, who was very close with Bill Harvey and admitted his role in the assassination.
We don't know much about what LHO himself knew as he was killed and the notes from his Dallas arrest were (I think) destroyed but the below summarizes info Martino told to a reporter or family/friends close to him, this was reported to the HSCA and verified by his wife and a Miami reporter Cummings. The below account is about as close as any insider has provided about the actual assignation planning/plot- how it was supposed to work.
I doubt LHO actively involved with all the rogue CIA agents in the plot, the highest officer we have witnesses for is LHO meeting with CIA Propaganda chief David Atlee Phillips in Dallas weeks before the assassination.
Gontae Fonzi was able to backtrack all the "Castro did it" sources to David Atlee Phillips and Gontae Fonzi really broke the lid on several important aspects including Mexico City and propaganda efforts orchestrated by Phillips.
LHO was clearly set up but we don't know to what extent he knew this outside of his public statements after his arrest that he was just a "Patsy".
You can find more John Martino info in the articles referenced below.
Several pages that refer to Martino have been withdrawn from the Kennedy assassination collection at the National Archives, at the insistence of the CIA and the FBI.
"He died in 1975. But before he passed away he spoke about what he had heard of the plot to kill Kennedy to a couple of friends and to his wife. One of the friends, Fred Claasen, went to the House Select Committee on Assassinations. According to Hancock, the HSCA did only a perfunctory investigation of the claims. Later on, in Vanity Fair, (December of 1994) Anthony Summers fleshed out the story more fully. Hancock, on page 16, puts the Martino findings in synoptic form:
1. Cuban exiles manipulated Oswald in advance of the plot and two of them were snipers in Dealey Plaza.
2. Oswald was a U. S. government undercover operative who was approached by anti-Castro exiles representing themselves as pro-Castro.
3. Oswald was supposed to meet an exile contact at the Texas Theater. Oswald thought he would help him escape the country, but the actual plan was to shoot him. Tippit's killing aborted this. Therefore the planners had to have Ruby murder Oswald.
4. The motorcade route was known in advance, and the attack was planned thoroughly in advance."
“The anti-Castro people put Oswald together. Oswald didn’t know who he was working for — he was just ignorant of who was really putting him together. Oswald was to meet his contact at the Texas Theater [the movie house where Oswald was arrested]. They were to meet Oswald in the theater and get him out of the country, and then eliminate him. Oswald made a mistake . . . there was no way we could get to him. They had Ruby kill him.”"
"Shortly before his death in 1975 Martino confessed to a Miami Newsday reporter, John Cummings, that he had been guilty of spreading false stories implicating Lee Harvey Oswald in the assassination. He claimed that two of the gunmen were Cuban exiles. It is believed the two men were Herminio Diaz Garcia and Virgilio Gonzalez. Cummings added: "He told me he'd been part of the assassination of Kennedy. He wasn't in Dallas pulling a trigger, but he was involved. He implied that his role was delivering money, facilitating things.... He asked me not to write it while he was alive."
Fred Claasen also told the House Select Committee on Assassinations what he knew about Martino's involvement in the case. Florence Martino at first refused to corroborate the story. However, in 1994 she told Anthony Summers that her husband said to her on the morning of 22nd November, 1963: "Flo, they're going to kill him (Kennedy). They're going to kill him when he gets to Texas."
