CIA Officer Confirms Oswald's CIA Employment
Hunter Leake, a CIA officer who was second in command at the New Orleans's field office in 1963, confirmed in interviews with a historian that Lee Harvey Oswald was, as long suspected, associated with the Central Intelligence Agency.
That historian is Michael L. Kurtz, a professor of history and dean of the graduate school at Southeastern Louisiana University, who describes his interviews with Leake in his 2006 book The JFK Assassination Debates, published by the University Press of Kansas.
Leake stated that Oswald came to New Orleans in 1963 because the CIA intended to use him for certain operations. His job at the Reily Coffee Company served as a cover for his actual role. Leake personally paid Oswald sums of cash for his services.
During his stay in New Orleans, Oswald was working out of the offices of a former FBI agent with CIA connections, William Guy Banister, portrayed by Ed Asner in the film JFK. Banister was observed with Oswald by numerous witnesses, including Professor Kurtz himself. Hunter Leake confirmed that he worked with Banister in anti-Castro operations.
Hunter Leake recalled voluminous files that mentioned or pertained to Oswald's activities in New Orleans. After the assassination of President Kennedy, Leake said that he was called by Richard Helms, then the agency's Deputy Director for Plans, who ordered him to transport those files to Langley, where Leake later heard they were "deep-sixed."
