George de Mohrenschildt

George Sergius de Mohrenschildt (Георгий Сергеевич де Мореншильд; April 17, 1911 – March 29, 1977) was an American petroleum geologist, anti-communist political refugee, professor, and occasional CIA field agent.

Sergey von Mohrenschildt was described by his son as the Marshal of Nobility of the Minsk Governorate from 1913-1917, and a civil rank of Actual Civil Councilor corresponding to Major General.

In 1920, during the Red Terror and the Russian Civil War, Sergey von Mohrenschildt was arrested by the Bolshevik secret police, or CHEKA, for alleged anti-Soviet agitation.

He was sentenced to internal exile for life in Veliky Ustyug, a town in the north of Russia.

De Mohrenschildt later testified before the Warren Commission that, while awaiting transport to Veliky Ustyug, his father became ill.

Two doctors who treated him in jail advised him to stop eating so he would appear more sickly.

The doctors then told the Soviet government that Sergey was too ill to survive the trip to Veliky Ustyug and he should be allowed to recover at home.

The Soviet Government agreed, under the condition that Sergey check in weekly until he was well enough to be sent to Veliky Ustyug.

After his release, Sergey, his wife and the young de Mohrenschildt then fled to the Second Polish Republic in a hay wagon (de Mohrenschildt's older brother Dimitri, who was awaiting execution, was later repatriated to Poland as part of a prisoner exchange).

During their journey, de Mohrenschildt, his father and mother Alexandra contracted typhoid fever.

Alexandra died of the disease shortly after the family crossed into Poland.

After the death of his wife, Sergey von Mohrenschildt and his sons made their way to Wilno, where the family owned a six-acre estate.

George de Mohrenschildt graduated from the Wilno gymnasium in 1929 and later graduated from the Polish Army's Cavalry Academy in 1931.

He went on to earn a master's degree at the Institute of Higher Commercial Studies.

Having completed a dissertation on the economic influence of the U.S. on Latin America, he received a doctor of science degree in international commerce from the University of Liège in Belgium in 1938.

George von Mohrenschildt emigrated to the United States in May 1938, after which he legally Gallicised the nobiliary particle in his name from the German "von" to the French "de".

According to de Mohrenschildt, he gathered information about people involved in pro-Nazi activities, such as those bidding for US oil leases on behalf of Nazi Germany before the US became involved in World War II.

De Mohrenschildt testified that a further purpose of his data collection was to help French petroleum companies outbid the Germans.

George de Mohrenschildt spent the summer of 1938 with his older brother Dimitri von Mohrenschildt on Long Island, New York.

Like George, Dimitri von Mohrenschildt was a staunch anti-communist, who was also an anti-Nazi agent for General William J. Donovan's OSS and, during the Cold War, one of the founders of Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty.

While in New York, de Mohrenschildt became acquainted with the Bouvier family, including future First Lady of the United States Jacqueline Bouvier.

Jacqueline grew up calling de Mohrenschildt "Uncle George" and would often sit on his knee.

He became a close friend of Jacqueline's aunt Edith Bouvier Beale.

De Mohrenschildt dabbled in the insurance business from 1939 to 1941, but failed his broker's examination.

In 1941, he became associated with Film Facts in New York, a production company owned by his cousin, Berend Maydell, also known as Baron Maydell (or Count Maydell) who allegedly had pro-Nazi sympathies.

According to a memo by former CIA director Richard Helms, de Mohrenschildt "was alleged to be a Nazi espionage agent."

George de Mohrenschildt denied ever having Nazi sympathies and claimed instead to have helped raise money in America for the Polish resistance, by making a documentary film about resistance fighters in Occupied Poland.

In 1942, de Mohrenschildt married an American teenager named Dorothy Pierson.

They had a daughter, Alexandra (known as Alexis) and divorced in early 1944.

In 1945, de Mohrenschildt received a master's degree in petroleum geology from the University of Texas.

After the end of World War II, de Mohrenschildt moved to Venezuela, where he worked for Hampton Industries Oil, a company owned by the family of Preston A. Hampton In 1947, he married Phyllis Washington, the step-daughter of a diplomat with the State Department, S. Walter Washington.

De Mohrenschildt, who moved to the Dallas area in October 1961, is best known for having befriended Lee Harvey Oswald in the summer of 1962.

De Mohrenschildt's testimony before the Warren Commission investigating the assassination was one of the longest of any witness.

Since his testimony and subsequent suicide, de Mohrenschildt has been a popular figure in conspiracy theories regarding the assassination of John F. Kennedy.

For example, those who believe that the United States Government was responsible have accused de Mohrenschildt of being Oswald's CIA handler.

On the other hand, Ion Mihai Pacepa, a high level defector from Communist Romania, has alleged that de Mohrenschildt, despite his claims to be a descendant of the Russian nobility and an anti-communist political refugee from the Red Terror, was in reality a KGB First Chief Directorate illegal field agent, who focused on collecting military intelligence and who acted as Oswald's Soviet intelligence handler.

De Mohrenschildt was born as Jerzy Sergius von Mohrenschildt in Mozyr, in the Russian Empire, now in Belarus, on April 4 in the old-style Russian Julian calendar.

He had.

His aristocratic father, Sergey Alexandrovich von Mohrenschildt, was of Baltic German, Swedish, and Russian descent.

De Mohrenschildt's mother, Alexandra, was of aristocratic Polish, Russian, and Hungarian descent.