The Chicago Plot: A Hypothesis

[Steve Franklin]

I speculate the "Lee" teletype was meant to get Oswald to cooperate at the Book Depository thinking he was a super secret important presidential security operative reporting on threats. The fact he had successfully stopped the Chicago plot gave him confidence that he was a genuine important secret service member. At this point Oswald was completely suckered. His importance in relation to the Chicago plot he now thinks he prevented is used to induce him to take orders without question. He then does what he's told at the Depository that day (Or wherever "Lee" was).

"Lee" was a common pseudonym at the time, stemming, I suspect, from William Burroughs' use of "William Lee." I personally received a call from a friend in the mid 60s using the name "William Lee." Burroughs also used a character in his novels called "Inspector J. Lee of the Nova Police." Other Lee pseudonyms may be found doing a search on "Lee pseudonym." They are fairly common and at least some of them derive from good old Robert E Lee of Civil War infamy.

So I really don't think you can draw any conclusions from the use of that particular name.

Agreed.

Although I'm not adverse to the notion that the "Lee" ID was utilized by the planners of the Chicago faux "plot" to further confuse pre- and post-assassination investigators.

And while it is noted by certain spy novelists and pretenders that, upon occasion, a deep cover operative will use his or her true first/Christian name in the chosen nom du guerre so that a chance encounter with an old friend will not result in the cover being blown, in this instance it is more likely that the "Lee" in question -- if real -- was not born with that name.

As for the "speculation" noted above, it is based on an entirely unsubstantiated and wholly unlikely premise (that the Chicago "plot" was real on a literal level) and otherwise is embarrassingly sophomoric (now the Chicago "plot" was blown to get LHO to obey orders unquestioningly).

This stuff would get laughed out of every pitch meeting in Hollywood -- even with the Farrelly brothers ("There's Something About Oswald").

I'm really not in a position to voice an opinion either way on this matter. My first encounter with the Chicago plot was a recent interview by Len Osanic with Abraham Bolden on Black Op Radio. If I had to pick a place to start research in this matter (a working hypothesis), I would postulate that the agencies involved were running a series of parallel operations in the belief that one or more of them would fail. I am not advocating this position. I am just saying that it's the place to start. Was Chicago amateurish? No doubt. Was it any more amateurish than Dallas? I think not. After all, trying to blame an assassination on someone on the wrong floor of a building is only one of number of absurdities that suggest lack of planning and on-the-fly changes of plans.