GEORGE DE MOHRENSCHILDT Staff Report of the Select Committee on Assassinations U.S. House of Representatives Ninety-fifth Congress Second Session March 1979 (47) CONTENTS Paragraph Foreword ________________________________________________________________ (1) 1. De Mohrenschildt's background__________________________________________ (1) II. Allegations of de Mohrenachildt Nazi activity____________________________ (10) III. Knowledge of Oswald's possession of the rifle______________________________ (19) IV. Allegations of de Mohrenachildt intelligence connections____________________ (29) V. De Mohrenschildt activities in Haiti_____________________________________ (37) VI. De Mohrenachildt military connections__________________________________ (80) Page Appendix : Manuscript by George de Mohrenschildt, "I am a Patsy! I am a Patsy!"-- 69 (48) FOREWORD (1) The Warren Commission concluded that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone in the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, that he was not tied to any intelligence agency, and that none of his associates were tied to the assassination. Nevertheless, speculation continued to center about one of Oswald's associations : George de Mohrenschildt and de Mohrenschildt's background. The Warren Com- mission concluded about de -Mohrenschildt The Commission's investigation has developed no signs of subversive or disloyal conduct on the part of either of the de Mohrenschildts. Neither the FBI, CIA, nor any other wit- ness contacted by the Commission has provided any informa- tion linking the, de Mohrenschildts to subversive or extremist organizations. Nor has there been any evidence linking them in any way with the assassination of President Kennedy. (1) (2) Despite this disclaimer of any subversive or disloyal activity on the part of de Mohrenschildt by the Warren Commission, de Dfohrenschildt was rumored to have had ties with the intelligence communities of several countries. Indeed de Mohrenschildt himself admitted some involvement with French intelligence, but his ac- tual role with them was never fully disclosed, and he emphatically denied any other intelligence associations. He explained his travels to Haiti with the cooperation of the Haitian Government as innocuous business deals with no political overtones. (3) Speculation also continued about Oswald's relationship to de Afohrenschildt because of the contrast between the backgrounds of the two men. De Mohrenschildt was described as sophisticated and well educated, moving easily in the social and professional circles of oil- men and the so-called "White Russian" community, many of whom were avowed riglltwingers. Oswald's "lowly" background did not include much education or influence, and he was in fact shunned by the same Dallas Russian community that embraced de Mohrenschildt. (4) The committee undertook to probe more into the background and associations of de Dlohrenschildt to determine if more light could be shed to either explain the relationship between Oswald and de Mohrenschildt or to determine if any new information contradicts that which was available to the Warren Commission. This probe seemed justified in view of the controversy that continues to surround the relationship, and the additional speculation that was caused by the apparent suicide of de Dlohrenschildt in 1977 on the day he was contacted by both an investigator from the committee and a writer about Oswald. I. DE MOHRENSCIIILDT's BACKOROIIND (5) De Mohrenschildt testified extensively before the Warren Com- mission about. his childhood in Russia and Poland and his family. He (49) 50 was born on April 17,1911, in Mozyr in Czarist Russia.(2) . His father, Sergius Alexander yon Mohrenschildt, was a "marshal of nobility" in Minsk Province, and he served as director of the Nobel interests in Russia. (03) His mother, Alexandra Zopalsky, was of Russian, Polish, and Hungarian descent. (4) . (6) De Mohrenschildt's family had long had ties to the United States. A descendant of the de Mohrenschildt family, Baron Hilien- felt, who was a Baltic Swede, fought in the American Army of Inde- pendence, according to de Mohrenschildt. (5) An uncle, Ferdinand de Mohrenschildt, was First Secretary of the last Russian Embassy in Washington under the Czarist government. (6) De Mohrenschildt's brother, Dimitri von Mohrenschildt, emigrated to the United States and became a professor at Dartmouth University. (7) (7) De Mohrenschildt's father was jailed by the Communist regime in 1920 for criticizing the Communist Government. (8) Friends of the government intervened to secure his release. (9) He was jailed again in 1921 and was banished to Siberia (10) for life. De Mohrenschildt explained that sentence was imposed when his father maintained that the kind of government he favored for the Russian people was a con- stitutional monarchy. (11) (8) Sergius von Mohrenschildt escaped with his family to Poland; de Mohrenschildt's mother died soon after from typhoid fever which she had contracted during the escape. (1°2) While living in Poland the elder de Mohrenschildt successfully fought to regain an estate he had held in Russia near the Polish border. (13) It was money from that estate that George de Mohrenschildt brought to the United States in 1938 when he started his first business interest. (14) The size of the estate at that time was estimated at approximately $10.000.(16) (9) De Mohrenschildt testified that his brother Dimitri remained a "ferocious anti-Communist."(16) He served in the Czarist Russian Imperial Navy. (17) After the Russian revolution, Dimitri von Moh- renschildt joined anti-Communist groups and was jailed by the Com- munists and sentenced to death. (18) He was released from jail in a prisoner exchange with the help of a Polish Catholic bishop. (19) Dimitri von Mohrenschildt emigrated to the United States in August 1920. (,20) IT. ALLEGATIONS Or DE DToimFNscHmDT NAZI ACTIVITY (10) On October 8, 1942 the U.S. Department of State placed a "refusal" or "lookout" in de Mohrenschildt's passport office file. (21) The committee was informed by the State Department that the effect of such a "lookout" would be that when the person applied for any type of passport action the file would be reviewed to determine if the person posed a security threat or had made false statements upon entering- the United States. (°22) (11) The reason given for the lookout in de Mohrenschildt's file was : "Alleged to be Nazi agent. Refer any application to Fraud Sec- tion." (33) The file was cross-referenced to the file of Lilia P. Larin. (°2.1) (12) De Mohrenschildt entered the United States in 1938.(2.5) Ac- cording to his Warren Commission t?stimony_ in 1942 de Mohren- 51 schildt met and fell in love with Lilia Larin, a Mexican citizen, and they traveled to Mexico together. (26) They stopped at a beach in Corpus Christi. Tex., enroute to Mexico and were then confronted by American Government agents, whom de Mohrenschildt thought might have been FBI agents. (27) The agents accused de Mohrenschildt of being a German Nazi spy. (28) Their car was searched but they were then allowed to continue on their way into Mexico. (29) (13) After de Mohrenschildt lived m Mexico for several months, the Mexican Government informed him that he was a persona non grata in Mexico and ordered him to leave the country. (30) De Mohren- schildt speculated that the expulsion was prompted by General Maxino Camacho of the Mexican Army, who was jealous of de Kohren- schildt's relationship with Lilia Larin. (31) (14) De Mohrensehildt's passport file also contained a document dated January 23, 1943, that referred to the censorship of mail of Lilia Larin. According to that document, a letter by Larin to the Mexican Government was intercepted : in that letter, Larin was seeking to intercede on de Mohrensehildt's behalf in getting permission for him to enter Mexico. (32) (15) When de Mohrenschildt applied for a U.S. passport in Jan- uary 1957, his application contained a pencilled notation referring to the earlier lookout in his file. (33) Nevertheless, the application was approved and de Mohrensehildt's passport was issued on January 23, 1957.(34) A similar notation was made on de Mohrensehildt's applica- tion in March 1960 when he applied for a passport renewal. (35) The refusal was similarly disregarded at that time, and he continued to receive passport renewals. (36) There was no further reference in de Mohrensehildt's State Department file about the original allegation or the determinations to later disregard the refusal. (16) The Warren Commission also questioned de Mohrenschildt about the background of his cousin, Baron Maydell, and the allega- tions that Maydell may have had connections with the Nazis. De Mohrenschildt described Maydell as a White Russian who was op- posed to communism and thought he could get the return of his Rus- sian estate through intervention of the Germans. (37) In de 'Mohren- schildt's opinion, it was Maydell's German sympathies that created' controversy and speculation that he was a German spy. (38) (17) In 1941 de Mohrenschildt began work with Mavdell's com- pany, Film Facts, Inc., in New York. (39) De Mohrenschildt said he saw the work as an opportunity to learn something about making docu- mentary movies. (40) With Maydell he made a documentarv about the resistance movement in Poland and solicited the sponsorship of the Polish Consulate. (41) De Mohrenschildt said the movie was also used to benefit Polish refugees. (12) (18) De Mohrensehildt's Central Intelligence Agency file contains a memo dated July 30, 1942. that referred to some type of film enterprise . The memo is written by Ensivn Horrigan and directed to Commander Vanderbilt of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) . In the memo Ilorrinan states that de. Mohrenschildt said he was representinm an Irish film company that had taken pictures during the Spanish Civil War. (!3) Horrigan wrote de Mohrensehildt's uncle's apartment was raided and that many films of a pro-Nazi nature were discovered which 52 were intended to show the force and effectiveness of the German Army.