Oswald’s 1963 Passport Application and FBI Inaction
On June 24, 1963, Oswald applied in New Orleans for a passport, stating he planned to depart by ship for an extended tour of Western European countries, the Soviet Union, Finland, and Poland. The Passport Office in Washington had no listing for Oswald requiring special treatment, and his application was approved the following day. The FBI had not asked to be informed of any passport application by Oswald, as it might have under existing procedures, and did not know of the application. According to the Bureau, it did not request that Oswald be placed on a watch list because the facts relating to his activities at that time did not warrant such action, and the investigation had disclosed no evidence that he was acting under the instructions or on behalf of any foreign government.
Oswald’s 1963 New Orleans Arrest and FBI Interview
On August 9, 1963, Oswald was arrested and jailed by the New Orleans Police Department for disturbing the peace after a street fight broke out when he was accosted by anti-Castro Cubans while distributing Fair Play for Cuba Committee leaflets. The next day, Oswald asked the New Orleans police to arrange an FBI interview, and Agent John L. Quigley was sent to the police station. The police had not given Oswald’s name to the Bureau, so Quigley did not know of his prior FBI record during the interview. Quigley found Oswald receptive about his general background but evasive about specific Fair Play for Cuba Committee details. After the interview, Quigley learned that Agent Milton R. Kaack had been conducting a background investigation of Oswald at Hosty’s request, and Quigley gave Kaack a detailed memorandum. Kaack recognized inconsistencies between Oswald’s statements and information already in Bureau files—for example, Oswald claimed his wife’s maiden name was Prossa and that they had married and lived in Fort Worth, and he had told arresting officers he was born in Cuba. On August 22, the Bureau learned Oswald had appeared on a radio program on August 21, and on August 30, William Stuckey reported that Oswald had told him he had worked and been married in the Soviet Union. Neither these discrepancies nor the fact that Oswald had initiated the FBI interview was considered sufficiently unusual to require another interview. Assistant to the Director Alan H. Belmont explained that the Bureau’s interest was in determining whether Oswald’s activities constituted a threat to internal security, that Oswald’s false statements became a matter of record, and that there was no law violated by lying to the Bureau, so the matter would be handled in due course as required by the investigation. On August 21, 1963, Bureau headquarters instructed the New Orleans and Dallas field offices to conduct an additional investigation, and FBI informants in the New Orleans area reported that Oswald was unknown in pro-Castro or Communist Party circles there.
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