The Hosty note

The FBI’s own 1975 inquiry established that Oswald visited the Dallas field office two or three weeks before the assassination, asked for Hosty, and left a note when told he was out, and that the note was destroyed afterward. [1]

The receptionist recalled it as: “Let this be a warning. I will blow up the FBI and the Dallas Police Department if you don’t stop bothering my wife.” Hosty recalled: “If you have anything you want to learn about me, come talk to me directly. If you don’t cease bothering my wife, I will take appropriate action and report this to proper authorities.” His supervisor remembered some kind of threat. [1]

Hosty testified that about two hours after Oswald was pronounced dead on 24 November, the special agent in charge, J. Gordon Shanklin, told him to destroy the note and the memo Hosty had written about it, and that he did. Shanklin denied knowing anything about the visit or the note until July 1975. William Sullivan, then an assistant FBI director, told the Senate that Shanklin had mentioned an “internal problem” involving an agent who received a threatening message from Oswald. [1]

The Senate committee did not try to resolve the conflict. It found the evidence “replete with factual discrepancies.” Hosty himself had testified to the Warren Commission in 1964 that Oswald was never an FBI informant; the note’s existence was not disclosed to the Commission. The Review Board later recorded a three-day interview with Hosty. [1][3][2]