THE RIFLE ALLEGEDLY USED TO ASSASSINATE JFK MUST HAVE BEEN INTERCEPTED BY FBI PRIOR TO MURDER OF POTUS

Lee Harvey Oswald's Infamous PO Box 2915 In Dallas Was Under Surveillance When Rifle Was Shipped.

In the National Archives is a JFK bombshell CIA file (see PDF pgs. 162-174) that contains a previously classified memo, and two crucially important pieces of mail - letters intercepted by the CIA for translation and review before being forwarded - that were sent to Lee Harvey Oswald’s infamous PO Box 2915 in Dallas, addressed to his wife Marina Oswald, on the dates January 19, 1963, and May 16, 1963, from Russia to Dallas.

These letters were intercepted as part of the HUNTER mail intercept project, a joint endeavor on behalf of both the CIA and the FBI. A declassified file at NARA includes the entire history of the origin of the HUNTER project going back to its genesis in 1958. You may read it here in its entirety.

The “Project Hunter” file contents involve fascinating correspondence with FBI leadership: Dir. J. Edgar Hoover; A.H. Belmont; and W. A. Branigan, chief of the FBI's counterespionage section; as well as James Angleton, legendary head of counterespionage at the CIA.

The existence of the Oswald letters intercepted by Hunter has been previously discussed by JFK researchers, particularly John Newman, in his 1995 book, "Oswald and the CIA”. Unfortunately, Mr. Newman's book never mentions that these letters were intercepted en route to PO Box 2915 in Dallas. Instead, the index to his book, on pg. 623, implies that these two letters were addressed to a PO Box in New Orleans. They were not. And that is a most significant error.

More insidious to the clarity of the nation is Newman’s half-truth characterization of the Hunter program, on pg. 230, as follows:

“ ‘Hunter’ was the FBI term for the CIA’s HT/LINGUAL project which…was used to monitor Lee Harvey Oswald.”

In fact, the Hunter project was a separate and uniquely negotiated collaboration of mail interception between the FBI and the CIA. A domestic angle concerning FBI address stops and interception of such mail within the USA was not part of the already in progress HTLINGUAL program, which was in sole control of the CIA.

As you will see, when you read the declassified documents, part of the Hunter program was designed to operate with delicate verbal communications that were never put on paper and/or filed, as well as on a strict “need to know” basis. Hunter utilizes the code word “JUNE” to classify the CIA as “INFORMANT 200” of the FBI. Obviously, simply referring to the Hunter program as “the FBI term for the CIA’s HT/LINGUAL project” leaves the collaborative aspect of the project out in the cold.

FBI INTERCEPTS DOMESTIC MAIL FOR HUNTER PROJECT COLLABORATION

Below is the FBI correspondence clipped from the Hunter project file, where A.H. Belmont indicates that the FBI - after reviewing material previously intercepted by the CIA - would “select that which appears to warrant investigation and then make appropriate checks”.

Belmont then states that with regard to conducting “a check on the back traffic of these individuals” - meaning domestic mail of names already selected for Hunter project surveillance - the FBI “would, of course, make these stops on a highly selective basis.”

And here is the section of the file where James Angleton of the CIA sends the first report in the Hunter project to the FBI, describing the nature of the joint program and how it will operate:

“The intercept project that has been explained” is a joint project between the CIA and the FBI called HUNTER. It is not simply a word used by the FBI to describe the aforementioned HTLINGUAL project, which was solely conducted by the CIA. Understanding the difference is crucial to understanding how the FBI probably came into possession of the weapon that allegedly murdered JFK, before it was allegedly delivered to Oswald’s Post Office Box.

Another essential aspect of the Hunter project, as dictated in a memo (PDF pg. 12) to A.H. Belmont, from W.A. Branigan on April 4, 1958, was that the FBI would identify Soviet individuals in the U.S.A. (such as Marina Oswald) who had “indicated weakness or dissatisfaction, a situation the Bureau might exploit for defection or double agent purposes.” This is monumentally important now, because when we return to it below, you will see that Marina Oswald did, at a very relevant time in the saga, express dissatisfaction to the Soviet Embassy in Washington D.C.

THE INTERCEPTED LETTERS TO PO BOX 2915 IN JANUARY AND MAY 1963

Now let’s return our attention to the two relevant letters intercepted by the CIA en route to Marina Oswald at PO Box 2915 in Dallas, Texas - January 1963 & May 1963: the CIA folder at the National Archives mentioned above which contains these letters as attachments to a CIA memo to FBI Director, J. Edgar Hoover, dated November 26, 1963, wherein James Angleton informs that these two letters may be of “significant” interest concerning the murder of JFK and the rifle that allegedly killed him, has all references to “Hunter” redacted, and it also has the name of James Angleton redacted.

But another CIA file at NARA does contain the November 26, 1963 memo from Angleton to Hoover with both Hunter and Angleton unredacted. But that file doesn’t have the actual letters and envelopes attached, so you need both files which are linked above.

In that second file is a memo by Birch D. O’Neil, CIA Chief, CI/SIG, dated May 1, 1964, wherein he argues for holding back all Hunter project materials from the Warren Commission. Looking back on it now, we can see that the CIA brass was afraid of sensitive information hinted at in Angleton’s memo to Hoover ever becoming public, because O’Neil’s subsequent memo mysteriously leaves Angleton’s reference to “Hunter” out, referring to information derived from the Hunter project as “HTLINGUAL items”, a subterfuge which may have been the inspiration for Newman’s truncated characterization of Hunter thirty years later.

O’Neil’s argument to prevent the Warren Commission on May 1, 1964 from ever knowing about the Hunter materials was absolutely false in light of the totality of information I've highlighted herein today, all of which predates his memo:

“I think you will find that an examination of the items clearly show that none contain in and of themselves any information which could be interpreted as bearing on the question of the responsibility for the assassination of President Kennedy.”

Unfortunately, O’Neil’s shady demand for secrecy won, and the Warren Commission did not have the two letters intercepted en route to Marina Oswald at PO Box 2915, Dallas, from friends in Russia, dated January 19, 1963, and May 16, 1963.

The CIA/Angleton memo to FBI/Hoover also does not mention PO Box 2915 in Dallas, but the actual letters do feature the correct address - “Mrs. Marina Oswald, PO Box 2915, Dallas, Texas, USA” - on the envelopes, and also in the actual CIA translations from Russian to English, which are also available at NARA in the same aforementioned CIA file pertaining to the JFK assassination.

Below, I have highlighted a stunning paragraph from the memo, which has incredible consequences upon American history today. Please read it in context, starting with paragraph 1:

Indeed, James Jesus Angleton was once again an accurate sentinel, as this may be the most “significant” memo ever written in American history.

Why? Because there is a factual “mistake” in Angleton’s memo of which it was not possible for Angleton to make accidentally. Therefore, it is a tell. As such, it functions as a subtle warning to J. Edgar Hoover that somebody with all of the materials that I have provided in this Substack today, could disentangle a timeline of Hunter project information, leading to a conclusion that the FBI must have intercepted the Carcano rifle - allegedly sent by Klein’s Sporting Goods in Chicago, to PO Box 2915 in Dallas, Texas, on March 20, 1963 - before handing it over to the Dallas Post Office for transfer to Lee Harvey Oswald.

I’m not saying whether the rifle was, or was not, actually given over to Oswald at the Dallas Post Office desk. I’m saying that if we accept the FBI version of events presented to the Warren Commission, then those purported events - in light of the information presented in this Substack report today - lead to the inevitable conclusion that the FBI must have intercepted the weapon the Bureau claims was used to kill JFK…before it was ever handed over to Oswald. I will now break that down, step by step.

THE FBI MUST HAVE INTERCEPTED THE RIFLE VIA HUNTER PROJECT

Angleton’s memo to Hoover on Nov. 26, 1963 mentions Klein’s, and the rifle, and a fraudulent PO Box number in New Orleans used by Oswald on flyers handed out on the streets there in support of the Fair Play For Cuba Committee. But the CIA memo to Hoover - just four days after the murder of JFK - does not mention PO Box 2915 in Dallas, or its relation to the rifle, or its relation to the letters for Marina intercepted by the Hunter project in January and May 1963.

Angleton literally buries the lead, while hinting subtly at it, warning that these letters are “significant”, but focusing only on their significance with relation to the alias used by Lee Harvey Oswald, aka “Alek Hidell”, to order the rifle, which is a fact Angleton gets wrong - intentionally wrong.

By informing Hoover that the rifle was shipped to “Alek Hiddel”, when in fact it was shipped to “A. Hidell”, Angleton puts Hoover on alert. This is because the name “Alek” was not used by Oswald in his order to Klein’s, as you can see in the image below:

MARINA TRIGGERS DOMESTIC MAIL STOP ASPECT OF HUNTER PROJECT

The “significance” - of the January 19, 1963, and May 16, 1963 letters - to the investigation of JFK’s murder, is that those interceptions encompassed a window - inclusive of March ‘63 - when the rifle was shipped to the very same PO Box.

But that time window - January 1963 to May 1963 - also encompassed correspondence between Marina Oswald and the Soviet Embassy in Washington, D.C. On February 17, 1963, she expressed dissatisfaction with living in the USA, stating:

“I beg your assistance to help me return to the Homeland in the USSR where I will again feel myself a full-fledged citizen…I beg you once more not to refuse my request.”

Since all mail to the Soviet Embassy was being intercepted by the CIA, the information in this letter from Marina, expressing misery at being away from the USSR, along with her wish to return there, fit exactly into the parameters of the Hunter project as outlined above for FBI selection of domestic targets to “exploit”. Such exploitation would trigger “back traffic” domestic mail name and address stops in the USA by the FBI. This put domestic traffic to and from PO Box 2915 in Dallas squarely on FBI mail stop Hunter radar.

But there’s a prior Hunter event that was even more significant in this regard to the FBI, and that was the January 19, 1963 letter intercepted en route to PO Box 2915, Dallas, wherein the Russian friend of Marina referred to Lee Harvey Oswald using the name, “Alik.”

Therefore, the FBI was informed by the CIA intercept in late January 1963, that Lee Harvey Oswald was known to use a pseudonym of “Alik” when he lived in the USSR. Then, in February 1963, the explicit criteria for the FBI to place mail stops on domestic mail - as stated by A.H. Belmont with regard to the Hunter project - was triggered by Marina Oswald’s dissatisfaction with life in the USA as expressed to the Soviet Embassy at that time.

These two events combined to give the FBI solid justification - established by the Hunter project protocols - to stop domestic mail going to PO Box 2915 in Dallas. The rifle was a domestic package which allegedly arrived there in March 1963.

THE RIFLE ARRIVES AT PO BOX 2915 WITH A FICTITIOUS NAME

Following these two key Hunter project events in January and February 1963, the Carcano rifle allegedly arrives in March 1963 at Oswald’s PO Box 2915 in Dallas addressed to a person whose first initial is “A”, full name: “A Hidell”.

Assuming the Hunter project worked as described by Belmont above, an address stop for PO Box 2915 must have been in place in March 1963, meaning that the weapon the FBI claims was used to kill JFK first went into their hands before it was then forwarded to Lee Harvey Oswald.

Written and researched by Leo Donofrio ©2025

[The reader is encouraged to follow the progress of this story as the twists and turns and frustrations of it unfolded on my X feed @lcdlaw1 from May 13-17, 2025, as well as the X audio Space of May 17, 2025.]