Report of the President's Commission on the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy

1963 Reopening of the Oswald FBI Case

From August 1962 until March 1963, the FBI continued to accumulate information about Oswald but conducted no active investigation. Agent Fain retired in October 1962, and the closed Oswald case was not reassigned. However, pursuant to a Bureau practice of interviewing certain immigrants from Iron Curtain countries, Fain’s assignment to interview Marina Oswald was transferred to Agent James P. Hosty, Jr., of the Dallas office. In March 1963, while attempting to locate Marina, Hosty was told by a former landlady, Mrs. M. F. Tobias, that other tenants had complained of Oswald drinking to excess and beating his wife. A file review revealed Oswald had become a subscriber to the Worker, a Communist Party publication. Hosty recommended reopening the case based on the alleged personal difficulties and the Worker contact, and the recommendation was accepted. He decided not to interview Marina at that time but determined the Oswalds were living at 214 Neely Street in Dallas. On April 21, 1963, the New York field office was advised that Oswald was in contact with the Fair Play for Cuba Committee and had claimed to have distributed its pamphlets in Dallas. This information did not reach Hosty until June, and he considered it “stale” and did not attempt to verify the statement, having earlier found no evidence of Fair Play for Cuba Committee activity in Dallas.

FBI Investigation of Oswald in New Orleans

In mid-May 1963, Agent Hosty checked Oswald’s last known residence and found he had moved. Oswald was tentatively located in New Orleans in June, and Hosty asked the New Orleans FBI office to determine his address and activities. The New Orleans office investigated, located Oswald, and learned his address and former place of employment on August 5, 1963. A confidential informant advised the FBI that Oswald was not known to be engaged in Communist Party activities in New Orleans.