Adele Edisen

[Magda Hassan]

Title: Re: NARRATIVE ACCOUNT OF CONTACT WITH DR. JOSE RIVERA

NARRATIVE ACCOUNT OF CONTACT WITH DR. JOSE RIVERA IN 1963
BY ADELE EDISEN

In the summer of 1962 it became apparent that my husband was ill. Although he continued to attend to his practice of psychiatry, he had physical symptoms of what later was diagnosed as cholecystitis - inflammation of the gall bladder. I decided to try to get back into professional work as a neurophysiologist. After searching for a suitable position, I was able to apply to the National Institute of Neurological Diseases and Blindness (NINDB) for a third-year level Postdoctoral Fellowship (I had had a Postdoctoral Fellowship from the NINDB in 1954 through 1956). This work was to be done in the Department of Physiology at the Louisiana State University School of Medicine.

In late November or early December, Dr. Sidney Harris, Chairman of the Department, told me that he had received a telephone call from a Dr. Jose Rivera of the NINDB informing him that I had been awarded a Fellowship, beginning January 1, 1963 for one year. It included a stipend (salary) and a small equipment grant to be used for my research on synaptic inhibition and excitation in the cat spinal cord.

I had worked in the Department of Physiology on a volunteer basis during the summer and fall of 1962, so I had accumulated quite a bit of data to present at the April meetings of the Federation of the American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB) in Atlantic City, New Jersey. This is a large umbrella organization of six major scientific societies, one of which is the American Physiological Society.

Just before I was to leave for these meetings, I contracted a bad upper respiratory infection, but I was determined to be there for my presentation. My physician prescribed an antibiotic, oxacillin, a semi-synthetic penicillin, to take for about ten days. I actually had a fever on my way to Atlantic City, but began to feel better, although weak, after a few days. I did present my work on Wednesday, April 17, and it was well received. I met a few former classmates from graduate school and felt very optimistic about continuing with my research.

After my presentation and lunch, I wandered through the scientific equipment exhibits at Convention Hall on the Broadwalk. In addition to such exhibits, there were booths of various scientific foundations and other information centers. I had read of a new award to be offered by the National Institutes of Health -the Research Career Development Award (for five years) which seemed to be perfect for me. So when I saw a National Institutes of Health booth, I stopped to ask about it. I was referred to the NINDB booth on the mezzanine floor above.

Jose Rivera was seated there, speaking with someone. When I sat down at the table and introduced myself, Rivera remembered my name and greeted me in a friendly fashion, offering me a Lifesaver peppermint candy from an already opened package. I asked about the Research Career Development Award and about any other support for which 1 might be able to apply after my Postdoctoral Fellowship ended. He did not have any brochures with him, but promised he would locate some by the next day, and asked me to return then.

This 1 did. He had no brochures or information for me, but promised to mail them to me in New Orleans. He again gave me a Lifesaver candy from an open pack.. He suggested we walk downstairs to obtain free Coca-cola drinks. He said he would help me continue with my work. He spoke about his times in New Orleans and it turned out we had some mutual friends and acquaintances there. 1 had told him that 1 planned to visit the NIH in Bethesda after the meetings, and he then invited me to his home for dinner and to meet his family, which 1 thought was most gracious. When we returned to his booth, he suggested that 1 have my electrocardiogram be taken at the adjacent booth (NIH Heart Institute booth). He did an odd thing: he grabbed the recording from the technician and asked him if it was a normal EKG as he read it. The technician told me to take it to my personal physician when 1 returned home from the meetings. Another strange thing that Rivera did was to tell me to "call him, day or night, if I noticed anything unusual, anything at all." 1 asked, "What?" and he said, "I mean about the Fellowship. If you have any questions about the Fellowship."
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1 believe the Lifesaver candies were the vehicle for LSD-25 ingestion. 1 never saw him take any of the candies, and one time, when 1 put the candy 1 had removed from the package into my purse, he insisted that 1 eat it. At that time, 1 remember feeling somewhat euphoric and "floaty" after eating the candy. Also, my eyes became sensitive to bright lights. 1 felt uncoordinated in my movements. 1 blamed these odd feelings and perceptions to the respiratory infection and to the oxacillin antibiotic - because 1 knew 1 was allergic to penicillin and wasn't sure that the oxacillin would not also produce some kind of allergic reaction which might be causing these unusual symptoms. Even later when 1 experienced trailing lights and colors, micropsia (the houses in the Georgetown part of Washington looked so small to me that 1 thought only dwarfs lived in them), giddiness, insomnia, synesthesia, (sudden loud sounds would produce flashes of light) deja vu, and sensations that did not seem normal to me, 1 attributed them all to the respiratory infection, oxacillin, lack of proper sleep, and so on. It did not occur to me, except at the very end of this trip, that Rivera might be drugging me with something. 1 now also understand that LSD-25 can make people more suggestible and, hence, more prone to be hypnotized.

1 spent the weekend with friends in Philadelphia and arrived in Bethesda, the National Institutes of Health, and the NINDB Building 10 on Monday, April 22, 1963. 1 called the various people 1 had hoped to visit there, but it was lunchtime and no one was in. 1 called Rivera to see if he had any information for me. He asked his secretary to locate a motel where 1 could stay, and that evening 1 was to have dinner at his home. Instead, he explained that his wife, a nurse, had been called to duty at her hospital, so we went to a restaurant in Washington (after the Lifesaver candy), and as we waited to be seated, he began speaking of his travels and of Dallas. He recommended the Carousel Club as a "nice nightclub" that 1 should visit when I'm in Dallas. Then he asked if ! knew Lee Oswald. 1 had never heard of him. He explained that Oswald had lived in Russia, had a Russian wife and a child, and they were moving to New Orleans. He said they were a "lovely couple" and I should get to know them. 1 thought Oswald was a scientist friend of his.

As we were about to leave the restaurant, Rivera spoke of a then recent shooting at General Walker in Dallas. Rivera said, "They think Oswald did it." (Note that accusations of Oswald shooting at General Walker were not made publicly until some time after the assassination of President John Kennedy on November 22.)

As we drove back to the motel where I was staying, he asked me to call him at 4:30 and said his secretary would find another motel for me since the one I was staying in was filled for the next night. Also, he said he had heard the weather report and it would be a stormy night. He said I would be kept awake by the thunder and lightning and by the partying guests at the motel. Sure enough, I heard the rain and thunder and the noisy parties. I did not sleep at all; my mouth and throat felt very dry. In the morning I was surprised to see that there was no evidence outside of a downpour of rain as I thought we had had. Tall grass outside was not beaten down and dirt pathways were perfectly dry. There had not been a storm at all. I also experienced deja-vu, that I had checked out of the motel before, that I had entered a cab before to go to the NINDB's Building 10 to visit friends and colleagues. Time would also pass quickly and then slowly. Everything seemed very strange.

I was speaking to a colleague in his office about mutual interests in synaptic functions in
the afternoon when I suddenly stopped, and called Rivera. When I looked at my watch, it was a minute or so after 4:30! This puzzled me.

Rivera came to drive me to my hotel in Washington, and he was to give me a sightseeing trip before going to dinner at his home. I dreaded the evening because I felt unwell, exhausted. This is when he insisted that I eat the peppermint Lifesaver when I didn't want to do so. On the way, he read a list of names of visitors to the NIH and asked if I had met any of them. I had not. Then he asked me if I knew of John Abt of New York City. I did not,and he explained that Abt was a lawyer who defended communists. I thought these were strange questions to be asking someone like me.

It was now early evening. After we left the Library of Congress and were driving toward the White House, he said, "I wonder what Jackie will do when her husband dies." I could not believe he said that. "What?" I asked. He said, "Oh, Oh, I meant when (or if) the baby dies. She might lose the baby." I was not even aware that Mrs. Kennedy was pregnant at the time.

As we approached the White House, Rivera spoke of "tourists coming to Washington and sometimes seeing young Caroline Kennedy on the lawn of the White House with her pony Macaroni." All in all, we circled the White House three times, with side trips squeezed in between, and he spoke of the tourists and Caroline and Macaroni each time, asking me if I saw Caroline and her pony, Macaroni. I did not, but the third time around, I decided to indicate I did, just to see what this was about. I said, "Ummm." He stepped hard on the accelerator and said, "Fine. Now we'll go to dinner!"

We took off at a fast speed and went to the Mariott Motor Hotel across the Potomac River. His wife had again been called to work. As we were finishing dinner, he asked me to do a favor for him when I arrived back in New Orleans. I took out my little memo book and pencil to make notes. He asked me to call Winston de Monsabert with whom he had taught at Loyola and tell him to call Rivera when he was leaving New Orleans. I wrote: "Winston de Monsabert. Call Dr. Rivera when leaving N.O." (New Orleans).

After a bit more conversation, Rivera began talking about Dallas again. Then he said, "Pretend you're in a phone booth (in Dallas?), and you're very nervous and upset; your handwriting is very shaky. Write down this phone number. He dictated "899-4244". I wrote down the phone number and when I looked at it, it was a crude scrawl, not at all my normal handwriting. In fact the writing just above it with the name of Winston de Monsabert was in my normal handwriting. I was now pretty scared. Was he hypnotizing me, I wondered.

Then he said, "Write down this name: Lee Harvey Oswald. Tell him to kill the chief" I wrote the name and under it, wrote in quotation marks: "kill the chief" When he saw me writing down the message, he said, "No. No. Don't write that down. You'll remember it when you get to New Orleans. We're playing a little joke on him." I assume he meant Oswald.

The "chief' part did not mean much to me, other than that it had some reference to the National Institutes of Health where every study or research section had a director whose title was 'Chief'. Rivera had made a riddle of it, asking why was the NIH called the 'Reservation'. "Because there were so many Chiefs and no Indians there". He told this joke several times to me and to other people we met. Still thinking that Oswald was a scientist friend of his, I thought the expression had something to do with the National Institutes of Health in some way. I had never heard of Oswald before Rivera had begun speaking about him.

However, I became very suspicious about his odd behavior and his talk of something happening. I took my notepad and put it back into my purse, surreptitiously tearing off the top sheet of the notepad and putting it in a separate place in my purse. Rivera was now quite agitated and speaking about ''when it happens". It was almost as if he were having some strange seizure, with his face becoming puffy. "I'll show you where it will happen," he said. I asked what he was talking about, but he gave no answer. He asked for the notepad, which I gave him and he drew a square on it with an X next to it. "This is the room, with windows over here. And this (the "X") is where it will happen. It will be on the fifth floor. There'll be some men up there."

I wanted to get away from him because I was becoming more frightened. On the way out of the dining area, he suddenly pushed me into an open elevator, saying "Want to see the _ Persian? Room?" When we were on the fifth floor, he pointed down the hallway and asked, "What do you see down there? A bar?" I saw no such thing, just room doors. Then he wanted to show me the Pentagon from a large window. I would not get close to him for I feared he might push me through the window. When the elevator that I had called came, I ran for it and tried to close the doors before he could get in. I had no choice but to accompany him to his car while I kept up a barrage of conversation because there were no cabs in front of the motor hotel.

He started talking about the note I had written, asking me to destroy it, and that they were only playing a joke on someone. He threatened me with, "I really don't want to have to hurt you." He proceeded to the driver's side of the car and opened the passenger door from the inside. I put my purse on the seat, and as I reached to close the car door, I heard him searching in my purse for the note he was concerned about. I quickly pulled my purse away from him to my other side. I did not then fully understand the importance of the note, but I felt that I should save the note and remember everything I could.

I believe that I was initially supposed to make contact with Oswald. Oswald left Dallas for New Orleans the same day, Wednesday, April 24, that I left Washington D.C. The phone number I had been given was that of Jesse Gamer, manager of the apartments where Oswald rented one for himself and his family. The apartments were actually owned by William McLaney, who also owned the land across Lake Pontchartrain where the anti-Castro Cubans and the CIA had established a training camp to prepare for an invasion of Cuba. McLaney and his brother were gangsters who had managed gambling casinos in Havana, Cuba, before Fidel Castro came into power. I believe that Oswald was sent there to that apartment complex and Rivera had complete knowledge of this process.

I called the phone number and asked to speak with Lee Harvey Oswald. The first time I called the man who answered (Jesse Garner) said there was no one there by that name. Oswald did not rent the apartment until May 10, but the second time I called they had apparently arrived. I then spoke with Marina Oswald, as Oswald was not there. I did speak with Oswald during my third call. I asked him if he knew Colonel or Dr. Rivera in Washington. He said he did not. I told him that was odd as Rivera knew of him and his wife. I asked for the address where the phone was located and he gave me an address on Magazine Street. I thanked him and apologized for bothering him. I did not convey Rivera's message. I did identify myself to the apartment manager, to Mrs. Oswald, and to Oswald himself.

There were other comments made by Rivera which pertained to the assassination of President Kennedy. He said:

"After it's over, the men will be out of the country."

"The Director of the International Trade Mart is involved in this."

"He'll call Abt to defend him." (Oswald did try to reach John Abt after he was captured.)

"We're going to send him to the library to read about great assassinations in history."

"After it's over, someone will kill him. They'll say his best friend killed him." (He was referring to Oswald.)

"It will happen after the Shriners' Circus comes to New Orleans." (The Shriners' Circus usually came to New Orleans the second week of November.)

"After it happens, the President's best friend will commit suicide. He'll jump out of a window because of his grief." (Grant Stockdale of Miami, a friend of Kennedy's and former ambassador to Ireland, did so in December, 1963, although some believe he was murdered.)

Rivera made a number of threatening statements to me about going to the FBI; that "we will be watching you"; and told me to destroy the note. I believe that he gave me a possible lethal dose of either LSD-25 of some similar drug (BZ?) because I felt as if ! were dying when I left Washington and remained that way for an entire week. Another reason for thinking he might have done so was that in September he was at the LSU School of Medicine walking down the hallway, and when he noticed me, he stopped, almost tripped, stumbled backwards, and looked as if he had seen a ghost. He did not say anything to me, nor I to him, and he hurried on.

I had some flashbacks during the summer, and many fearful episodes, but I managed somehow to continue with my research. In early July I called the local Secret Service Office to make an appointment to speak with them, as I thought they should be told about this occurrence. An Agent Rice had answered and I told him briefly that I had met someone who had said some very strange things about the President which they should know about. I was about to go there, but I became frightened and thought they would not believe me, so I canceled. Also, my husband would have been furious to learn that I had done so, because when I had told him of the things that Rivera had said, and even though he thought there was a conspiracy to kill the President, he thought we should not get involved. I had wanted to go to the Secret Service or the FBI then, but he did not want me to, fearing some embarrassment for him, I suppose. He had consulted with two attorneys and their advice was that nothing could be done because it was a matter of my words against Rivera's.

When the assassination occurred, I called the Secret Service and went to speak with them. Secret Service Agent John Rice (he was Agent-in-Charge of the New Orleans Secret Service) escorted me to the FBI office in the Federal Building where an FBI Liaison Special Agent, Orrin Bartlett, was present. He was from Washington. I told them my story, beginning with the trip to the FASEB Meeting and then Rivera's odd statement about what "Jackie would do when her husband dies." Agent Rice began to take notes, but after a while he stopped. I believe the interview was tape recorded. I was there for at least 3-4 hours, during which time FBI Special Agent Bartlett called his headquarters and asked them to bring Rivera in for interrogation. Both agents seemed very concerned and appreciative of my information. I gave the top portion of my note with the Winston de Monsabert name, message, and the phone number on it to the FBI Agent when he asked for it. In July after my call to the Secret Service, I had destroyed the bottom portion of Oswald's name and Rivera's message to him on it for fear that if the President were to be assassinated, and this note were to be found in my handwriting, it would be very difficult to explain.

I believed that Rivera had been apprehended and was incarcerated. When I received a form letter with Rivera's signature on it acknowledging receipt of my progress report (requested by someone else of the Training Grants and Award Section of the NINDB), I became terrified. I assumed that the Secret Service Agent and the FBI Agent did not believe me, although they had asked me to call them if I remembered anything else. They also had told me not to speak to anyone about my being there, as a protection for myself. I expected to be called before the Warren Commission, but I never was.

My husband suggested that I consult Milton Erickson, a respected medical hypnotist, to confirm my experiences and memories. I tried to make contact with him several times, but each time he had some medical emergency of his own and I was never able to see him. I suffered through fearful times, depressions and anxieties. For many years I did not speak of these things and would not read anything about the assassination.

However, in late 1974, the "Tomorrow" television program featured an interview between Tom Snyder and a man whose identity and features were hidden and who claimed that there had been a conspiracy by some government employees of certain federal agencies to murder the President. The man claimed to have been a liaison between a military unit (Air Force?) and the CIA. I started to read books by critics of the Warren Commission. In April of 1975, after a few other programs on the assassination, I wrote to the Tomorrow Program and received a phone call from Ms. Pamela Burke, Executive Producer of the show. This began a telephone friendship which lasted a few years.

One week before the Rockefeller Commission revealed the LSD experimentation on witting and unwitting civilian and military personnel by the CIA, Army and Navy, I told her about Rivera's drugging me. She tried to locate him and to investigate what she could. She advised that I needed an attorney.

I consulted Attorney Jack Peebles in New Orleans who recommended making Freedom of Information requests of the FBI, CIA, USSS, which I did. Over the years I have repeated these requests, asking for copies of reports of my interview with the FBI and Secret Service on November 24, 1963. The responses have not been positive. Mr. Peebles sent letters to the Chairmen of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (no real interest on the part of Senator Church; Senator Inouye expressed interest, but his staff member did not think the Committee's purview extended to investigate Rivera), and to the Chairmen of the House Select Committee on Assassinations (Louis Stoked and Richardson Preyer - no acknowledgment or response of any kind).

I consulted Richard Garver, a hypnotist, to try to recover the remainder of the telephone number I had been given by Rivera. I had remembered the first three digits, 899, and the last two, 44, when I wrote up my experiences for Mr. Peebles in 1976 (for safekeeping if anything untoward were to happen to me), but was not sure of the intermediate numbers. Through Mr. Garver I met a Special Agent of the FBI in the San Antonio FBI office in late 1984, and he suggested that I write a very brief summary of my experiences which he would send to his Headquarters in Washington, D.C. This was completed in February 1985, but neither one of us heard anything in response. This was some years after the House Select Committee on Assassinations had concluded, in 1978, from acoustical studies that there had been more than three shots and a second gunman, hence a conspiracy, and had directed the Justice Department to investigate this matter, which, apparently, it did not do.

In 1992 when passage of the law to collect government documents related to the President Kennedy assassination was being considered, I wrote to as many Congressmen as I could, among them Louis Stokes. His vote was crucial to passage of the law. I received a very nice letter of acknowledgment from him. Somehow my three-page summary and the FBI's Agent's covering letter were found by a staff member of the Assassination Records Review Board (ARRB) and a copy now resides in Box 18 of the Douglas Home section of the JFK Collection in the National Archives II (NARA II) in College Park, Maryland, among with other documents of mine and government files on Jose A. Rivera. I am mentioned on page 109, as well as identified as giving testimony in Dallas in 1994, in the Final Report of the Assassination Records Review Board.

I wish to thank Dave Robertson, Attorney-at-Law, for his suggestions and editorial assistance with this article.
Adele