INVESTIGATIONS: FBI: Shaken by a Cover-Up That Failed

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One measure of Mohr's influence is the impressive attendance at the all-night poker parties that he gives at the Blue Ridge Club in the Shenandoah Valley near Harper's Ferry, W. Va. In the course of a separate civil suit unrelated to the probe of the Oswald note, Mohr last summer was forced to divulge a list of 39 people who attended some of the games last Nov. 29-30, April 4-5 and June 13-14. The roster included eleven former FBI officials and at least a dozen present officials, including Adams, Callahan, Dunphy and Jenkins.

Another guest was Joseph Tait, owner of a Washington firm, U.S. Recording Co., which quietly supplies wiretapping and bugging devices to the FBI and the CIA. In addition, Mohr's list contained the names of several past and present CIA employees, including James Angleton, the agency's former counter-intelligence chief, who retired under pressure last year because of charges that he directed some of the CIA's illegal domestic spying. The poker games were an important status symbol within the bureau. Said one FBI agent: "It means that the clique has accepted you."

No Records. In addition to the Oswald note, there are more ominous suspicions about links between him and the FBI that are being explored by a Senate subcommittee headed by Pennsylvania Republican Richard Schweiker and Colorado Democrat Gary Hart. Schweiker even suspects that Oswald might have had a formal connection with the bureau. The Senator's suspicions rest in part on the linguistic ruse Hoover used when asked by the Warren Commission about the bureau's links to Oswald. The director declared that "no FBI records could be found" of any connection; the careful wording has persuaded Schweiker that Hoover was hiding something. Further, the Senator believes Hoover may have been lying when he told the commission that the FBI had rejected Oswald's offer to work as an informer in 1962 and 1963. Asks Schweiker: "Why would the FBI reject a man who had lived in Russia and had connections with pro-Castro Cubans?"

Schweiker and Hart are considering holding public hearings on the FBI and Oswald. For the time being, the Senators intend to conduct their probe privately. But in the unlikely event that the subcommittee turns up solid evidence that discredits the Warren Commission's conclusion that Oswald acted alone, the two Senators will propose that Congress reopen the entire investigation into the assassination of John Kennedy.