James Patrick Hosty, Jr Biography

The FBI agent assigned to investigate Lee Harvey Oswald upon Oswalds June 1962 return to the US after his brief defection to the Soviet Union

The FBI agent assigned to investigate Lee Harvey Oswald upon Oswalds June 1962 return to the US after his brief defection to the Soviet Union

After the Kennedy assassination, Hosty did not disclose Oswalds letter about Marina to the Warren Commission and destroyed Oswalds letter on his superiors order. Because of this, Hosty attracted speculation as a possible conspirator in several conspiracy theories

After the Kennedy assassination, Hosty did not disclose Oswalds letter about Marina to the Warren Commission and destroyed Oswalds letter on his superiors order. Because of this, Hosty attracted speculation as a possible conspirator in several conspiracy theories

After the Kennedy assassination, Hosty did not disclose Oswald's letter about Marina to the Warren Commission and destroyed Oswald's letter on his superior's order. Because of this, Hosty attracted speculation as a possible conspirator in several conspiracy theories

Later states that after the firing stopped she saw a white man wearing a brown overcoat and a hat running west away from the Depository Building in the direction of the railroad tracks.

She has since stated when she saw a photo of Jack Ruby after his killing of Lee Harvey Oswald she now believes he was the man she saw running.

While trying to locate Marina Oswald, Hosty spoke with former landlady M. F. Tobias and received allegations about difficulties in the Oswald household.

After locating the Oswalds, Hosty decided not to conduct a detailed interview with Marina immediately and continued the investigation through other sources.

Hosty determined that Lee and Marina Oswald were living at 214 Neely Street while he was working to locate Marina for the FBI.

Hosty recommended reopening the FBI security investigation of Lee Harvey Oswald, and the recommendation was accepted.

Information obtained while locating Marina led Hosty to review the existing FBI security file on Lee Harvey Oswald.

During his file review, Hosty learned that Oswald had become a subscriber to the Communist Party newspaper The Worker.

Hosty receives reporting about Oswald's Mexico City contacts.

Hosty receives reporting about Oswald's Mexico City contacts.

Hosty reported the results of his Irving pretext inquiry in an FBI airtel describing Marina's residence and Oswald's visiting arrangement.

Hosty conducted a pretext inquiry near 2515 West Fifth Street in Irving to establish where Marina and Lee Harvey Oswald were staying.

Hosty's October 30 inquiry established that Marina Oswald was living with Ruth Paine in Irving.

Hosty learned that Lee Harvey Oswald visited Marina at the Paine residence but was not living there during the working week.

Investigators established that Oswald's personal address book contained identifying information for Hosty, including his office contact details.

Oswald's address book came to contain Hosty's name, FBI office information, telephone number, and automobile license number.

Approximately two or three weeks before the assassination, Oswald delivered a note addressed to Hosty at the Dallas FBI office.

Hosty later recalled the Oswald note as complaining in tone and said he did not regard it as evidence that Oswald was prone to violence.

Hosty later testified that the note remained in the Dallas FBI office after he received it rather than being treated as an immediate security threat.

Hosty gave Ruth Paine his name and telephone number and asked her to contact him if she learned where Oswald was living in Dallas.

Ruth Paine later gave Oswald the slip containing Hosty's name and telephone number, information that subsequently appeared in Oswald's address book.

Visits Ruth Paine & learns Oswalds address & job at the Texas School Book Depository

Requests the FBI Oswald file from New Orleans, established Oswald is living in Dallas

Requests the FBI Oswald file from New Orleans, established Oswald is living in Dallas

The Dallas FBI office reported Hosty's November 1 contact with Ruth Paine in an airtel sent to FBI headquarters.

During Hosty's November 5 visit, Marina Oswald noted the license number of his FBI automobile and later gave it to her husband.

FBI correspondence transferred responsibility for the Marina Oswald case from New Orleans to Dallas, where Hosty was already handling related inquiries.

The FBI learned that Oswald had recently communicated with the Soviet Embassy in Washington and routed the information through normal Bureau channels.

FBI correspondence changed the office of origin for the Lee Harvey Oswald investigation from New Orleans to Dallas.

Hosty later testified that he conducted no active investigative work on the Oswald case between November 5 and the assassination.

Back at the FBI office, Hosty was instructed to review his files for possible investigative leads concerning the President's shooting.

Detective V. J. Brian later testified that he did not hear Hosty say Oswald was capable of assassination, although he missed part of the conversation.

Hosty was sent to Dallas police headquarters and observed an interrogation of Oswald after the arrest.

During the basement exchange, Hosty said the FBI had known of Oswald's employment at the Texas School Book Depository.

Receives the New Orleans FBI files & papers on Oswald

Receives the New Orleans FBI files & papers on Oswald

Hosty told Revill that the FBI had known about Oswald and knew he was living in Dallas before the assassination.

Hosty's first direct encounter with Oswald occurred after the assassination when he attended the police interrogation.

Hosty maintained that the FBI had possessed no pre-assassination information indicating that Oswald was likely to commit violence.

After learning that President Kennedy had been shot, Hosty returned toward the Dallas FBI office to await instructions.

Hosty later explained that Oswald had not been referred to the Secret Service because the FBI file contained no presidential threat from him.

Hosty immediately retrieved the Dallas FBI file on Oswald after learning that Oswald had been arrested.

Hosty took the Oswald file to Special Agent in Charge J. Gordon Shanklin as the Dallas FBI office organized its assassination investigation.

After 2 p.m., Hosty learned that the suspect arrested in Oak Cliff had been identified as Lee Harvey Oswald.

Oswald's reaction to Hosty's presence during interrogation led Hosty to associate Oswald with the unsigned note previously delivered to the Dallas FBI office.

Hosty was sent from the Dallas FBI office toward Parkland Hospital after the shooting, but he was soon directed back to the office.

Hosty encountered Dallas police lieutenant Jack Revill in the basement and discussed the FBI's prior knowledge of Oswald.

Lieutenant Revill promptly prepared a memorandum recording his disputed conversation with Hosty about the FBI's prior knowledge of Oswald.

Revill later reported that Hosty said the FBI knew Oswald was capable of the assassination; Hosty repeatedly denied making that statement.

Hosty received FBI information that afternoon concerning Oswald's recent communication with the Soviet Embassy in Washington.

At about 1:30 p.m., Hosty received word that Officer J. D. Tippit had been killed and that a suspect was surrounded at a theater.

Hosty later stated that a memorandum concerning Oswald's note was destroyed along with the original note after Oswald's death.

Hosty dictated a memorandum in December recording that his identifying information had been found in Oswald's address book.

An FBI report transmitting entries from Oswald's address book to the Warren Commission omitted the entry containing Hosty's information.

Hosty is one of 12 agents reprimanded for investigative improprieties after the release of the Warren Report, and was transferred to the FBI's Kansas City office until his mandatory retirement in 1979

Hosty is one of 12 agents reprimanded for investigative improprieties after the release of the Warren Report, and was transferred to the FBIs Kansas City office until his mandatory retirement in 1979

The Commission's published witness list identified James P. Hosty Jr. as an FBI agent whose testimony appeared in the assassination hearings.

Hosty is one of 12 agents reprimanded for investigative improprieties after the release of the Warren Report, and was transferred to the FBI's Kansas City office until his mandatory retirement in 1979

Hosty is one of 12 agents reprimanded for investigative improprieties after the release of the Warren Report, and was transferred to the FBIs Kansas City office until his mandatory retirement in 1979

FBI headquarters questioned the Dallas office about why the Hosty entry had been omitted from the earlier report on Oswald's address book.

The FBI informed the Warren Commission that Hosty's name and related information appeared in Oswald's address book.

A later FBI report to the Warren Commission included the Hosty information that had been missing from the December submission.

Public reporting brought attention to Revill's memorandum alleging that Hosty had made a stronger statement about Oswald than Hosty acknowledged.

Hosty stated under oath that Oswald had not been his informant and that he knew of no FBI effort to recruit Oswald.

Hosty explained how his name, telephone number, office information, and automobile license number could have reached Oswald's address book.

In Commission testimony, Hosty described his responsibility for FBI internal-security cases involving Lee Harvey Oswald and Marina Oswald.

Hosty testified that he had never interviewed Oswald before President Kennedy's assassination.

Hosty explained the purpose of his early-November contacts at Ruth Paine's home and the limited nature of his conversations with Marina.

Hosty denied Revill's allegation that he had said the FBI knew Oswald was capable of assassinating President Kennedy.

Hosty's testimony addressed why Oswald had not been referred to the Secret Service under the FBI procedures then used for presidential threats.

Hosty testified that before November 22 he regarded Oswald as a security concern but had no information identifying him as potentially violent.

Hosty testified before the Warren Commission about the FBI's investigation of Oswald, his Paine-house contacts, and events on November 22.

The Commission reported that Paine supplied Hosty's contact information to Oswald and that Marina supplied the license number recorded in his notebook.

The Warren Commission found that Hosty and other Dallas FBI agents did not interview Oswald between his October return to Dallas and November 22.

The Warren Commission concluded that Oswald had not served as an FBI informant, consistent with Hosty's testimony and the Bureau files it reviewed.

The Warren Commission examined whether the FBI should have referred Oswald to the Secret Service and recorded Hosty's explanation of Bureau procedures.

Public and congressional attention focused on Hosty after disclosure that the note delivered by Oswald before the assassination had been destroyed.

Hosty was questioned during congressional investigation of whether the FBI had withheld information about Oswald's note from the Warren Commission.

Congressional questioning examined why the existence and destruction of Oswald's note had not been disclosed to the Warren Commission

In congressional testimony, Hosty maintained that he destroyed the Oswald note after being instructed to do so by his Dallas superior.

Hosty told investigators that he remembered the note as a complaint and did not recall language threatening violence against the FBI.

Congressional inquiry recorded conflicting recollections about whether Oswald's note was merely a complaint or contained a threat.

Congressional investigators compared Hosty's recollection of the note with a former Dallas FBI receptionist's more threatening account of its contents.

Investigators confronted the conflict between Hosty's claim that Shanklin ordered destruction of the note and Shanklin's denial of prior knowledge.

Congressional investigators continued reviewing the Dallas FBI office's handling and destruction of Oswald's note to Hosty.

Hosty told congressional investigators that Oswald had never been an FBI informant and that he would have known of any such Dallas relationship.

The House committee criticized aspects of testimony concerning the destroyed note and the omitted address-book entry while continuing its FBI review.

The House Select Committee on Assassinations examined why Hosty's information appeared in Oswald's address book and why it was omitted from an early FBI report.

The House Select Committee examined Hosty's destruction of Oswald's note and the conflicting accounts of who ordered it destroyed.

House investigators reviewed Hosty's November 1963 contacts with Ruth and Marina Oswald when assessing allegations of an Oswald-FBI relationship.

The House Select Committee reported that it found no credible evidence that Oswald had been an FBI informant, despite unresolved concerns about record handling.

Hosty published Assignment: Oswald, presenting his account of the FBI investigation of Oswald and controversies surrounding his role in Dallas.

Hosty donated papers concerning the FBI, Lee and Marina Oswald, the Kennedy assassination, and his Bureau career to the National Archives.