Echoes Of Laurel Canyon - Part Eleven

IB Hale - The CIA's Smoky Soul Of America Aviation

Insall Bailey Hale is relatively unknown to historians except for Pulitzer Prize winner Seymour Hersh. It was IB Hale who got Lee Harvey Oswald a job at the Texas School Book Depository before the JFK assassination. IB Hale also got Lee Harvey Oswald a job at Jaggers U-2 photo reconnaissance interpretation during the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Quite simply, Jaggars performed photo interpretation of U-2 overflight images of Cuba to produce the intelligence the Soviets had a medium-range nuclear missile capable of hitting Washington, DC.

Article Summary

The article argues that former FBI agent–and later General Dynamics security chief–Insall Bailey “I. B.” Hale repeatedly steered Lee Harvey Oswald into three pivotal intelligence posts—at a Soviet radar factory before the 1960 U-2 shoot-down, at the Dallas firm Jaggers-Chiles-Stovall during the Cuban-missile photo analysis of October 1962, and at the Texas School Book Depository six weeks before President Kennedy’s visit.

Hale’s objective, the author contends, was to provide the CIA’s aerial-reconnaissance czar Richard Bissell and other General Dynamics allies with a ready “patsy” who could absorb blame while they advanced projects such as the Corona/Keyhole spy-satellite line and the troubled F-111 fighter program.

The piece traces a web of General Dynamics‐linked handlers—including Max Clark, George de Mohrenschildt, and Office-of-Naval-Intelligence agent Mason Lankford—who allegedly groomed Oswald from boyhood and managed his employment, housing, and surveillance.

It further suggests a corporate motive: killing the Kennedys would clear political obstacles to the company’s ICBM and advanced-aircraft ambitions, while silencing witnesses such as Verita Korth (daughter of Navy Secretary Fred Korth) ensured the conspiracy remained hidden.

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People

• Insall Bailey “I. B.” Hale – A celebrated TCU All-American tackle who became an FBI agent in wartime Texas and later head of industrial security for General Dynamics’ Fort Worth division. The article claims Hale used that position—and his CIA contacts—to place Lee Harvey Oswald in sensitive jobs before the U-2 incident, the Cuban Missile Crisis, and the JFK motorcade. Hale’s security role allegedly gave him advance knowledge of Kennedy’s Fort Worth route and the “secured kitchen” exit. Critics see him as a linchpin linking corporate weapons interests to Oswald’s path to Dealey Plaza. Wikipedia

• Seymour Hersh – Pulitzer-winning investigative reporter who, according to the article, is one of the few mainstream historians to mention Hale’s shadowy post-football career. Hersh’s brief references place Hale inside a Dallas intelligence milieu that overlapped the U-2 and JFK cases. His work provides rare corroboration that Hale’s name surfaced in CIA files. Hersh himself has never endorsed the full conspiracy thesis attributed to Hale.

• Lee Harvey Oswald – Marine radar operator turned Soviet defector whose résumé included six months at Jaggers-Chiles-Stovall, where he handled U-2 reconnaissance prints two days before the famous San Cristóbal missile photographs were taken. The article argues that Hale, Max Clark, and others “sheep-dipped” Oswald into each role so he could be blamed for doctored imagery or assassination gunfire. Documentary evidence confirms Oswald worked at Jaggers from Oct 12 1962 through April 1963 and joined the Depository on Oct 16 1963. Democratic UndergroundNational Archives Whether he knowingly collaborated with intelligence remains fiercely disputed.

• Richard M. Bissell Jr. – As CIA Deputy Director for Plans he ran both the U-2 spy-plane and CORONA/Keyhole satellite programs and oversaw the Bay-of-Pigs invasion. National Reconnaissance Office The article portrays Bissell as Hale’s Washington patron, needing falsified Cuban photographs to dissuade Kennedy from a land invasion and to justify orbital reconnaissance spending. After his 1962 resignation, he allegedly kept informal ties to General Dynamics’ space and missile bids. Mainstream histories acknowledge Bissell’s aerial-reconnaissance leadership but not the photo-doctoring claim.

• Francis Gary Powers Jr. – Son of the U-2 pilot shot down in May 1960; his linked interview notes that his father wondered whether Oswald’s Minsk presence aided Soviet defenses. Powers promotes Cold War aviation history and a foundation preserving U-2 artifacts. The article cites his remarks to suggest Oswald’s Soviet job was no coincidence. Powers Jr. himself stops short of naming Hale but supports further declassification.

• George de Mohrenschildt – Russian-born geologist and Dallas socialite who befriended the Oswalds in 1962; Warren-Commission documents show he later admitted steering Lee toward certain jobs. National Archives The article adds that de Mohrenschildt’s Belarusian relatives helped Oswald secure a radar-factory post in Minsk in 1959. Researchers debate whether he was a CIA asset or unwitting intermediary. His 1977 suicide pre-empted HSCA testimony, fueling suspicion.

• General Charles P. Cabell – Former CIA Deputy Director fired by Kennedy after the Bay of Pigs; his brother Earle was Dallas mayor during the assassination. The article claims Cabell joined Hale and Bissell in planning the parade route that exposed the President. Declassified records confirm Earle Cabell was a CIA asset and that the route bent past the Depository, although a direct link to Charles is unproven. Spartacus EducationalWikipedia

• Mason Lankford – Office-of-Naval-Intelligence agent who interrogated El Toro personnel after Oswald’s defection and, per the article, cleared JFK’s Fort Worth hotel kitchen while moonlighting for General Dynamics security. ONI files place a J. M. Lankford in Dallas investigating Jack Ruby leads on 26 Nov 1963. Coalition on Political Assassinations The dual role would further entwine naval intelligence with Hale’s corporate network. Public biographic data on Lankford is otherwise sparse.

• Max Clark – General Dynamics industrial-security supervisor with a 1959 CIA “covert security approval.” Testimony shows Clark and his Russian-speaking wife Galina aided the Oswalds on their return from the USSR, and Oswald kept Clark’s contact details. ASSASSINATION ARCHIVES The article casts him as Hale’s Dallas-based “handler” who lined up apartments and background checks. Clark denied any clandestine role before the Warren Commission.

• Guy Bannister & William Monaghan – Ex-FBI men turned private-intelligence operatives in New Orleans who, the article says, “closely shepherded” Oswald during his 1963 Fair Play for Cuba activities. Researchers tie Bannister to anti-Castro gun-running and note Monaghan’s security work for oil firms; both had loose links to CIA Task Force W. Their precise influence on Oswald remains debated. Neither was called as a principal witness by the Warren Commission.

• Col. Edward G. Lansdale – Air-Force psychological-warfare specialist appointed by RFK to run Operation Mongoose’s covert sabotage program against Cuba. National Security Archive The article alleges Lansdale used Lacome, Louisiana, to test bio-agents and saw Oswald as a disposable cover for violations of the Geneva accords. Photographs of Dealey Plaza figures have sparked “Lansdale sighting” controversies but no official confirmation. Lansdale’s declassified papers show deep involvement in Mongoose planning.

• Robert Allen “Bobby” Hale & Billy Hale – I. B. Hale’s twin sons who attended Arlington Heights High with Oswald; Bobby later built an outlaw reputation culminating in the 1985 “Papa Pilgrim” case in Alaska. The article suggests Bobby was present at the suspicious 1969 shotgun death of Verita Korth, though he was never charged. Family proximity to Oswald is used to infer grooming. Public records confirm the shared high-school enrollment but not criminal charges in 1969.

• Verita Korth – Beauty-queen daughter of Navy Secretary Fred Korth who died of an officially ruled suicide by 20-gauge shotgun in 1969. The article alleges Robert Allen Hale’s involvement and posits she may have been used to entrap the Kennedys. Contemporary press covered her death briefly; no homicide inquiry reopened the case. Her fate deepens the narrative of silenced insiders tied to the TFX scandal.

• Fred Korth – Texas banker, JFK’s Secretary of the Navy (Jan 1962–Nov 1963) who resigned amid Senate scrutiny of his prior bank’s loan to General Dynamics in the $7-billion TFX (later F-111) fighter contract. American HeritageWikipedia The article notes he handled Marguerite Oswald’s 1948 divorce case and once owned Mar-a-Lago, intertwining him with both Oswald’s family and later Donald Trump lore. Though officially cleared of wrongdoing, Korth’s Fort Worth roots and GD ties add motive layers to an anti-Kennedy bloc. His daughter’s death and his sons’ school ties to Oswald amplify suspicion.

• John Connally – Texas governor wounded in the JFK limousine; here invoked because Hale’s son is “implicated in murdering” Connally’s daughter in an unrelated incident (unverified in open sources). Connally preceded Korth as Navy Secretary and lobbied hard for Fort Worth defense contracts. He supported Lyndon Johnson’s escalation in Vietnam, aligning him with pro-military industry interests. No mainstream investigation links him or his family to Oswald.

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Organizations

• Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) – U.S. foreign-intelligence service whose Directorate of Plans ran the U-2, CORONA/Keyhole, and Bay-of-Pigs operations under Richard Bissell. Declassified files show factional strife after Kennedy fired Bissell and Deputy Director Charles Cabell in early 1962. The article portrays a rogue “Inside Chess” cadre (overlapping later DARPA leadership) that covertly manipulated Hollywood and Cuban policy while keeping regular CIA officers in the dark. Critics point out that no released document directly ties official CIA orders to Oswald’s jobs.

• Jaggers-Chiles-Stovall (JCS) – Dallas photo-lithography firm with classified Army Map Service contracts that hired Oswald on Oct 12 1962; two days later a U-2 captured the first confirmed Soviet missile images. Democratic UndergroundNational Security Archive Workers enlarged and annotated U-2 film for briefings shown to President Kennedy during the Crisis. The article alleges Oswald had access to originals that Bissell’s group could then alter. Documentary payroll and Warren-Commission exhibits corroborate his employment but not tampering.

• Texas School Book Depository (TSBD) – Downtown Dallas warehouse where Oswald was hired on Oct 16 1963 and from which the Warren Commission said he fired the fatal shots. The author argues only insiders with prior knowledge of the Nov 22 motorcade path could have placed him so advantageously. General Dynamics security allegedly learned the provisional route in late September. Secret-Service records show the final turn onto Elm Street was confirmed only on Nov 18, leaving debate over advance leaks.

• General Dynamics & General Atomics – Fort Worth aerospace conglomerate and its San Diego spin-off that sought Air Force ICBM and Navy TFX/F-111 contracts after failures such as the Convair NB-36H nuclear-powered bomber. The Armory Life The article claims executives used Hale’s security shop and CIA allies to neutralize the Kennedy brothers, who threatened contract approvals. Senate hearings on the TFX deal did question cost overruns and conflict-of-interest but produced no criminal findings. GD ultimately built the F-111 and later Midgetman and cruise-missile programs.

• Keyhole/Corona Satellite Program – Series of film-return spy satellites pushed by Bissell after the U-2 became vulnerable; first successful image bucket was recovered in August 1960. National Reconnaissance Office The author suggests doctoring Cuban missile photographs would have underscored the need for orbital assets and protected program funding. Historians regard Keyhole as a major Cold-War intelligence leap. No remote-sensing archive indicates manipulation of the October 14 1962 prints.

• Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI) – Navy’s counter-intelligence arm; agent Mason Lankford appears in FBI logs interviewing Ruby informants two days after JFK’s murder. Coalition on Political Assassinations The article links ONI to Oswald’s 1959 discharge paperwork and Cuban Working Group bio-war experiments. Official ONI releases show internal debate over Oswald’s defection but do not confirm covert sponsorship. Researchers disagree whether ONI, the CIA, or both controlled his file.

• Operation Mongoose / Cuban Working Group – 1962 covert campaign, directed by RFK and run day-to-day by Col. Lansdale, to sabotage and possibly assassinate Castro. Wikipedia The article adds allegations of chemical or biological agent testing near Lacome, Louisiana, with Oswald as planted fall-guy. Contemporary Mongoose memos emphasize sabotage and propaganda but include exploratory discussions of exotic weapons. Official histories acknowledge Lansdale’s aggressive proposals, many vetoed by the White House.

• F-111 “TFX” Fighter Program – A swing-wing tactical bomber whose 1962–63 contract award to General Dynamics triggered charges of political favoritism and forced Korth’s resignation. Sixties Assassinations The article implies Kennedy skepticism endangered GD finances, motivating loyalists to remove him. The plane’s long gestation overspent and under-delivered yet supplied the USAF through the 1991 Gulf War. Historians treat the TFX hearings as a glimpse into the “military-industrial complex” Kennedy questioned.

• Convair NB-36H Nuclear-Powered Bomber – Experimental aircraft built by GD’s Convair division; reactor-bearing test flights ended in 1957 and the sole airframe was scrapped. The Armory Life Its failure and that of early ICBM prototypes magnified GD’s need for new flagship contracts. The article cites this financial pressure as backdrop to a pro-war corporate faction. Aviation analysts agree the NB-36H was a technological dead end rather than a conspiracy catalyst.

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Further Reading

• National Archives JFK Collection (search Oswald employment files, ONI interviews, and motorcade planning records)

• CIA’s “Corona: America’s First Satellite Program” declassified monograph (details Keyhole lineage)

• Senate Rules Committee Hearings on the TFX Contract (1963)

• George de Mohrenschildt testimony, Warren Commission Vol. IX

These primary documents let readers check each claim against archival evidence.

Oswald was probably the patsy that IB Hale and Richard Bissell used to doctor U-2 photos that would be presented to President Kennedy to prevent Kennedy from ordering a full-scale invasion of Cuba.

Two days after Oswald started at Jaggars, the telltale photograph of the Soviet missiles at San Cristobal, Cuba, was “taken” by the U-2. Having Oswald to blame, IB Hale and Richard Bissell distanced themselves from presenting false information to the President. But I have also presented evidence that IB Hale arranged for Oswald to go to Russia in 1959 to aid in the shootdown of the U-2 on behalf of Richard Bissell’s Keyhole Satellite program. Here is the interview with the son of Gary Powers, who was shot down by Russia and blamed Oswald.

https://lawliberty.org/interview-with-francis-gary-powers-jr/

IB Hale’s close CIA intimate in Dallas, George Demohrenschildt, had relatives in Belarus, where Oswald was able to obtain a job at a secret Soviet radar factory.

So, let’s tally this historical coincidence up, shall we? First, Oswald is inserted into a Soviet radar factory right before the shootdown of the U-2. Second, Oswald is inserted into the U-2 photo interpretation contractor during the critical analysis of U-2 photographs during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Third, Oswald is inserted by IB Hale into the Texas School Book Depository before President John F. Kennedy visits Ft. Worth and Dallas.

Oh yes, IB Hale’s General Dynamic Security Division is in charge of the route the Kennedy motorcade will take in Ft. Worth, and his good friends, Richard Bissell, and Charles Cabell, will be in charge of Kennedy’s route in Dallas.

https://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/2000/summer/jfk-last-day-1

Only IB Hale’s General Dynamics knew the White House plans and route at the end of September, so Oswald would have had only one day to prepare for the assassination without inside knowledge of the route.

Oswald got the job at the Texas School Book Depository on October 7th, so he would have had to be psychic to know that the Kennedy route would go by the TSBD in October. The “security cleared kitchen” that JFK exited in Ft. Worth, with ominous foreboding overtones of the RFK assassination, was cleared by IB Hale’s associate at General Dynamics, one Mason Lankford, also a holder of a Q Security Clearance at General Atomics.

https://educationforum.ipbhost.com/topic/20291-joseph-mcbride-into-the-nightmare-my-search-for-the-killers-of-president-john-f-kennedy-and-officer-j-d-tippit-2013/page/11/

It turns out Mason Lankford just happened to be the Office of Naval Intelligence Officer who interviewed the staff at El Toro Air Force Base after Oswald's defection to Russia. This is another strange Oswald—General Dynamics coincidence, I guess.

Our research group just finished our 38th Learning Man news gathering charrette at El Toro, now an Orange County train station on the Amtrak line to San Diego. Oh, one other detail: both of IB Hale’s sons went to Arlington High School with Lee Harvey Oswald, and they knew he was an orphan.

I wrote a book about Oswald in New Orleans from my many Learning Man charrettes there. Colonel Ed Lansdale was abusing the authority given by Robert F. Kennedy in 1962 with the Cuban Working Group to test biological agents on the Cuban countryside in Operation Mongoose. Again, Oswald provided the likely patsy for this unconventional warfare preparation at the Lacome training base on Lake Pontchartrain.

Max Clark was yet another General Dynamics employee who became the handler for Oswald, and other Ex-FBI agents like IB Hale who had crossed over to the CIA like Guy Bannister and William Monaghan also closely shepherded Oswald in New Orleans.

George Demohrenschildt knew Oswald was a preciously intelligent “orphan” in a boys home from the time Oswald was five years old from Oswald's early childhood in New Orleans, where Demohrenschildt lived close by. Does it sound like the grooming of a patsy to provide plausible deniability for dirty tricks? But wait, there are even “Moore” General Dynamics “Security” people coming into the life of Oswald. And the son of IB Hale, Robert Allen Hale, is not only implicated in murdering the daughter of John Connally, but also Verita Korth, the daughter of the Secretary of the Navy who been implicated in the General Dynamics F-111 fighter scandal, Fred Korth.

Fred Korth was also from Ft. Worth and implicated in the F-111 procurement scandal before he became Secretary For The Navy. Korth was also the lawyer for the divorce of Lee Harvey Oswald’s mother.

The son of Fred Korth also went to Arlington Heights High School with Robert Allen Hale, Billy Hale, and Lee Harvey Oswald. Verita Korth also died from a 20 gauge shotgun wound to the head “suicide” in 1969. Fred Korth also owned Mar-A-Lago before it was purchase by Donald Trump in 1980.

Why would so many General Dynamics people want John F. Kennedy dead? IB Hale stood to gain with the new General Atomics ICBM missiles after the failure of the NB-36H Nuclear Plane and the failure of the F-111 fighter. General Dynamics and General Atomics badly needed a win to stay in business, and ICBM were the golden parachute.

General Atomics NB-36H Nuclear Bomber was a colossal failure in addition to the F-111 fighter. And the Kennedy’s were the only ones standing in the way of Johnson approving these new ICBMs and F-111s, and the Kennedy’s were coming to Ft. Worth under the care of General Dynamic “Security”.

Was Vera Korth yet another beauty queen being asked by the Hales to tempt the Kennedy with information from Russia to entrap them? Did that contribute to her suicide?