The mysterious Colonel Wilmeth....

​The world does not revolve around you, or me, or anyone else. But being self-centered individuals that each human being is, and because we ae not omnipotent, we are each individually restricted in our access to knowledge. We are not unlimited in our own ability to learn about our own life, nor about our interaction with the lives of other human beings.

Each individual constantly makes choices in what to filter and what not to filter into our consciousness, and that is when we have a choice of filtering information, rather than being served-up pre-filtered input. Because there is more information available than each individual is even aware of that is relative to their own life, each individual human being has a very self-centered opinion of self, in contrast to the different individual views of other individual human beings.

In a U.S. courtroom, attorneys often approach the Bench and ask the Judge to rule on a 'Motion in Limine'. This is a procedure whereby the Judge renders a decision before a trial even begins, in which a decision is made to either allow or deny the admissibility of a certain piece of evidence. If denied, it must not be referred to within earshot of a sitting jury. When we individually hold court in our minds, and we all do this many times a day, our verdicts are sometimes deemed to be prejudicial by other human beings when we then express our opinions in public.

So it is when dealing with this story about the lives of three individuals as told by the filtered editing of a narrator. This storyline is not only about those individual lives, but about the lives of individuals such as Colonel James Dudley Wilmeth and Lee Harvey Oswald. Then we get involved with the knock-on effect, because when the name of Lee Harvey Oswald is mentioned, the assassination of President John F. Kennedy is immediately brought to mind.

Wilmeth says that he never met Lee Harvey Oswald, although he did meet Oswald's wife, and after you learn more about Colonel James Dudley Wilmeth, you may doubt whether the accepted story about the way in which he met Marina Oswald is true, or whether it is convenient fiction.

Here is what we know about their meeting. It comes from various testimonies given under oath when the questioning began after the murder of President Kennedy and the name of Lee Harvey Oswald became known around the world as his assassin. Maybe he was, and maybe he wasn't, because while he was in police custody, he also became the victim of assassination.

Before November 22, 1963, Lee Harvey Oswald had gained minimal news coverage by emigrating to the USSR, and then emigrating back to the USA a short time later. But this was minor news coverage compared to the big, headline grabbing news when he was accused of killing President Kennedy.

How Colonel James Dudley Wilmeth came to meet Marina Oswald is quite a convoluted story which began with Wilmeth either talking to his Fort Worth neighbour, or to another instructor at the University of Texas at Arlington, (UTA). The neighbor is Clarke Benham and his wife worked at UTA.

Mr. Benham worked at Bell Helicopter with Michael Paine, and Michael's is estranged from his wife whose first name is Ruth.

Ruth Paine came to know Marina Oswald who was estranged from her husband Lee, so Ruth Paine invited Marina Oswald to stay in her home.

The initial connection between James Wilmeth and Marina Oswald came about due to the phone call that Wilmeth made to Ruth Paine. But questions arise as to why Clarke Benham mentioned Marina Oswald to James Dudley Wilmeth, or alternatively, why his wife at UTA mentioned Marina Oswald to James Dudley Wilmeth is not clear.

However, the reason why a contact was made is clear, although we find the official explanation to be not only totally unbelievable, but downright silly, because we now know that James Dudley Wilmeth is a member of U.S. Army Intelligence. Plainly stated he is a USA spy of long standing and importance. Nevertheless, after getting hold of Ruth Paine's phone number, he called and made an appointment to come on over. He wanted to talk to Marina Oswald because she grew up speaking Russia, and Wilmeth wanted to hear a native of Russia speak in the Russian language.

Wilmeth met Ruth Paine and Marina Oswald just three days before Marina's husband allegedly shot and killed John F. Kennedy. So naturally, the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) got involved. They interviewed Wilmeth on January 15, 1964, and their recording was typed-up on January 16 by Agents Earle Haley and Robley D. Madland.

Wilmeth told the FBI Agents that he had ".... retired from the U.S. Army in 1960 and obtained a master's degree from Texas University, majoring in the Russian language, in 1962. He has been teaching Russian at Arlington State College, Arlington, Texas, since 1962." 

This FBI Report continues: "During the early part of November 1963, he learned that a lady from Russia was staying with a family by the name of Paine in Irving, Texas. He called Mr. Paine who works for Bell Helicopter, and obtained the address and telephone number of Mrs. Paine and also obtained the name of this Russian woman as Mrs. Lee Oswald."

"On or about November 11 or 12, 1963, he telephonically contacted Mrs. Paine and explained to her that he would like to meet Mrs. Oswald and to talk to her about the Russian language. Colonel Wilmeth was a member of the U.S. Military Force in Mexico  (sic) for two years during World War II. He learned a great deal about the Russian language at that time. He was interested in talking to someone who might help him in appearing before his class to discuss the modern Russian language."

The typed report was corrected with a side note in pen that was allegedly made by FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover. The word 'Moscow' was circled, and a line was drawn to the typed word 'Mexico'.

This FBI Report continues: "He made arrangements to visit Paine and Mrs. Oswald for about an hour and a half on November 19, 1963. This was strictly a social visit and he talked Russian with Mrs. Oswald and Mrs. Paine and also made arrangements to come back for another visit on November 26, 1963. Mr. Lee Oswald was not present, and his name was not mentioned."

"After the assassination occurred on November 22, 1963, he called Mrs. Paine on November 26, 1963, and advised her that in view of present circumstances he would make no attempts to contact Mrs. Oswald any further."

"Wilmeth has not seen or talked to Mrs. Oswald any more, but did send her a Christmas card at Post Office box in Grand Prairie. He has never seen or met Lee Harvey Oswald and knows nothing of the background of Oswald or his family."

What this FBI Report does not say is that Wilmeth had been groomed as a career spy to serve as a member of G2, Army Intelligence. In 1942 he was ordered to London "for an orientation course in Admiral Louis Mountbatten's office of combined operations." 

In 1944 Wilmeth was sent to Moscow, Russia for two years. His mother told the 'Fort Worth Star Telegram' for its edition of Sunday, July 1, 1945, that "Lt. Colonel James Dudley Wilmeth, stationed in Moscow on a U.S. military mission with the American Embassy, has been awarded the Bronze Star for meritorious service in connection with military operations from February 16 to March 28, 1945." 

That mission, which we will explain in the following precursory chapter, was the subject of such secrecy that details only began to emerge in the Nineteen Eighties, and some of the original documents were intentionally destroyed, while a cover story was invented to obfuscate the truth by misdirection. Now this is the teacher who just happened to arrive in Arlington, Texas where he taught Russian, and he wanted to meet the obscure Marina Oswald in order to hear her speak the Russian language.

No one referred to G2 and Colonel James Dudley Wilmeth was not going to volunteer the possibility that he already knew who Marina and her husband were.

Next: The grooming of a spy ....