George de Mohrenschildt

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George de Mohrenschildt bigraphy, stories - Geologists

George de Mohrenschildt : biography

April 17, 1911 – March 29, 1977

George de Mohrenschildt (in Russian: Георгий де Мореншильд) (April 17, 1911 – March 29, 1977) was a petroleum geologist and professor who befriended Lee Harvey Oswald in the summer of 1962 and maintained that friendship until Oswald’s death, two days after Oswald’s alleged assassination of U.S. President John F. Kennedy. He was acquainted with the Bush family; George H. W. Bush had roomed with de Mohrenschildt’s nephew, Edward G. Hooker, at Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts.Baker, Russ. Family of Secrets (New York: Bloomsbury Press, 2009), pp. 67–68, 72–73. ISBN 978-1-59691-557-2 He was also acquainted with the Bouvier family, including Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy, the president’s wife, when she was still a child. His testimony before the Warren Commission investigating the assassination was one of the longest of any witness. De Mohrenschildt’s testimony occupied 58 pages in the published transcript. Vincent Bugliosi, Reclaiming History, W.W. Norton & Company, 2007, p. 648. ISBN 978-0-393-04525-3. Only the testimony of Oswald’s wife, mother, brother, Jack Ruby, and Ruth Paine was longer.

Memoir

Jeanne de Mohrenschildt also gave the HSCA committee a copy of a manuscript called I Am a Patsy! I Am a Patsy! which George de Mohrenschildt had recently written about his relationship with his "dear, dead friend" Oswald, wherein he said that the Oswald he knew was rarely ever violent and would not have been the sort of person to have killed John F. Kennedy. In part this judgment was based on de Mohrenschildt’s estimation of Oswald’s political views and Kennedy’s liberal ideas. The memoir has never been published as a trade book but has been available online since the entire typescript was published as an appendix in the HSCA report . (For a partial re-type see ). De Mohrenschildt’s testimony to the Warren Commission in early 1964, however, paints a quite different view of Oswald — a man de Mohrenschildt said he considered a "kid" and not a friend. Due to the inconsistency in de Mohrenschildt’s various accounts of Oswald, his later views were regarded by Time magazine with scepticism. Time April 1977 Retrieved 15 June 1977

Dallas, Oswald and Haiti

After the end of World War II, de Mohrenschildt moved to Venezuela where he worked for Pantepec Oil, a company owned by the family of William F. Buckley.Baker, Russ. Family of Secrets (New York: Bloomsbury Press, 2009), p. 75. ISBN 978-1-59691-557-2 He became a U.S. citizen in 1949. In 1950, he launched an oil investment firm with Edward Hooker with offices in New York City, Denver and Abilene. In 1952, de Mohrenschildt settled in Dallas, Texas and took a job with oilman Clint Murchison as a petroleum geologist.Summers, Anthony. Official and Confidential: The Secret Life of J. Edgar Hoover, (New York: Putnam Adult, 1993), p. 329. ISBN 0-399-13800-5

Described as sophisticated and articulate, de Mohrenschildt became a respected member of the Russian emigre community in Dallas. He joined the Dallas Petroleum Club,Warren Commission Hearings, volume 9, p. 217, was a member of the Dallas Council on World Affairs,Warren Commission Hearings, volume 9, p. 267, Baker, Russ. Family of Secrets (New York: Bloomsbury Press, 2009), p. 77. ISBN 978-1-59691-557-2 and taught at a local college. One of de Mohrenschildt’s longtime friends, offshore oil engineer George Kitchel, told the FBI that de Mohrenschildt counted among his good friends oil barons Clint Murchison, H.L. Hunt, John Mecom, and Sid Richardson.Baker, Russ. Family of Secrets (New York: Bloomsbury Press, 2009), p. 84. ISBN 978-1-59691-557-2 De Mohrenschildt also joined the right-wing Texas Crusade for Freedom whose members included Earle Cabell, Everette DeGolyer, Harold Byrd and Ted Dealey.Baker, Russ. Family of Secrets (New York: Bloomsbury Press, 2009), pp. 77-78. ISBN 978-1-59691-557-2

In 1957, de Mohrenschildt went to Yugoslavia to conduct a geological field survey for the U.S. State Department sponsored International Cooperation Administration. While in Yugoslavia, he was accused by the authorities there of making drawings of military fortifications. After returning to the United States, de Mohrenschildt was debriefed by the CIA, both in Washington and in Dallas.Summers, Anthony. Not in Your Lifetime, (New York: Marlowe & Company, 1998), p. 154. ISBN 1-56924-739-0