Orvie Aucoin

Thanks to the late Gary Mack for this information, which first appeared on the Internet in 2015.

On page 575 of Harvey & Lee, John Armstrong makes the following statement:

It is worth remembering and repeating that everyone associated with the Fair Play for Cuba Committee leafletting incident on August 9th and 16th, and Oswald’s radio interviews of August 17th and 21st, were connected to intelligence agencies-everyone including Oswald.

Armstrong then has a list of individuals to back up his claim. Included in the list is:

WDSU-TV cameraman Orvie Aucoin, an active FBI informant, filmed Oswald as he passed out leaflets.

But it is well known that the cameramen who filmed Oswald passing out leaflets were Johann Rush from WDSU-TV, the local NBC affiliate, and Mike O’Connor from CBS affiliate WWL-TV. Aucoin didn’t even work for WDSU, but rather for WVUE-TV the local ABC affiliate which ignored the event. As is often the case in Armstrong’s book, no citation is given either here, or on page 564 where the claim is repeated.

On page 572 we find:

That evening (Charles) Steele’s girlfriend, Charlene Stauff, told Steele that she saw pictures of him on WWL television handing out leaflets with Oswald.

So, Armstrong contradicts his own assertion by correctly stating that WWL-TV had film of the event.

In a similar vein, on Page 571 we find:

Delores (Neeley) saw her friend, Johann Rush, standing near the entrance to the Trade Mart taking pictures of two young men as they passed out leaflets.

Again, Armstrong has contradicted his own assertions.

When this information was posted at the Education Forum Jim Hargrove responded:

John did NOT make an error in his write-up, but this minutia about cameramen and witnesses is minor stuff.

I also asked Hargrove to provide a citation for Armstrong’s original claim as well as one for the assertion that Aucoin was an FBI informant and he has not responded.