Fifty years ago today President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas by Lee Harvey Oswald. At the time, Jim Hosty, the father of Tom Hosty, director of enforcement, was a counterintelligence agent in the Dallas FBI office. The elder Hosty quickly became a central figure in the drama that played out in the aftermath of that fateful day. Years later, father and son collaborated on a book (“Assignment: Oswald;” Arcade Publishing; 1996, republished 2012) giving readers the ultimate inside look at what happened in the months following the killing. To mark the anniversary of that terrible day in Dallas, Tom shared his insights and thoughts on his father’s role in the events surrounding the fourth assassination of a U.S. president by answering a few questions for NCAA.org.
Q: Tom, what is your connection to that fateful day in Dallas?
A: I was born in August 1963 in Dallas, Texas, the eighth of nine children of Jim and Janet Hosty. In the fall of 1963, my father was a FBI agent who had recently been assigned a routine counter-espionage case involving both Lee and Marina Oswald.
In 1963, our country was at the height of the Cold War with the Soviets, and the FBI routinely opened cases on anyone who came to America from behind the Iron Curtain. Oswald had defected to the Soviet Union and returned to America with his Soviet bride. The objective of the case was to determine if either Oswald posed any risk to national security. Were they employed in a sensitive industry or were they associating with Soviet agents?
In these efforts, my father tried to locate and schedule interviews with both Lee and Marina. My father made brief contact with Marina in early November 1963 – but never had a chance to interview either Oswald. When Oswald was arrested on November 22, my father was thrust into the assassination investigation and got swept up into a number of issues related to the investigation.
My father participated in the interrogation of Oswald on November 22, and it believed he was the only one who preserved his notes from that interrogation. Those notes are now saved in the National Archives. My father was later ordered by his supervisor (presumably under orders from J. Edgar Hoover’s second in command) to destroy a note that Oswald left for my father just 10 days before the assassination.
Oswald, in his note, berated my father for contacting Marina in early November. Oswald told my dad in the note that if he or the FBI wanted to talk with him, they should do so directly and leave Marina out of it. Oswald threatened to report my father and the FBI to the Soviet embassy for their “notorious” tactics. My father’s supervisor ordered the destruction of the note as he feared others would blame the FBI for having Oswald under surveillance for the counter-espionage case and not preventing the assassination.
But as my father always pointed out, there was no evidence that Oswald ever posed a threat to the president. No one could have predicted that Oswald was going to shoot the president.
Q: You wrote a book about what happened to your dad after the assassination, his role in the investigation and his interaction with J. Edgar Hoover among other law enforcement agencies after the shooting. Are there two or three takeaways you think staff should know either about the assassination or your dad’s role in it?
A: No. 1, there is very solid and strong evidence proving that Oswald shot and killed the president, wounded Governor Connally, and shot and killed Officer JD Tippit – and did so alone.
No. 2, the law enforcement investigators working the case were good, solid people, doing the best they could under the most difficult of circumstances.
No. 3, in almost virtually every case, crime is quite simple. There is never a conspiracy or a convoluted explanation. It is almost always quite simple. That was the case with the president’s assassination: A single man with a rifle shot and killed the president.
Q: It’s now been 50 years since that fateful day in Dallas. How do you think America as a whole has come to grips with what happened in Dealy Plaza that day aftermath?
A: It remains a pivotal moment in our country’s history and one that played out on television, which cemented these tragic events in the conscious of every American alive that day. It was a horrible tragedy that everyone witnessed and experienced.
Q: What would you say to those who continue to believe President Kennedy was assassinated as part of a conspiracy instead of the radical actions of just a lone gunman?
A: It is very understandable why many still question whether there was a conspiracy or more to the crime. Oswald was killed by an impulsive Jack Ruby and so we never had a trial. There appears to be a lot of unanswered questions and others have stirred the pot and seemingly raised what appear to be intriguing questions about the assassination. However, while It takes quite a bit of time, if one carefully and objectively studies the evidence, it becomes quite clear Oswald did this horrible crime and did so alone.
Q: What it was like growing up in a family that was so closely associated to an event that arguably is etched in America’s mindset as much or more than Pearl Harbor or 9/11?
A: I was very blessed. I grew up the eighth of nine children in a very loving family. My late parents were quite remarkable. There was never a feeling of turmoil, that I recall. I am sure my parents shared an incredible amount of stress and strain between themselves. But as time passed, the assassination was a frequent dinnertime conversation.
I was a very curious boy and loved to ask my father a million questions. He had a brain like an encyclopedia and seemed to know everything. I also loved to watch him very patiently and kindly debunk any and all conspiracy theories posed by others. People always walked away with a changed perspective.
Q: Is there anything else you’d like to say regarding the assassination or your dad’s role in the aftermath?
A: There have been a number of movies about the assassination. Oliver Stone irresponsibly distorted the truth. Before his death in June 2011, my father cooperated with the writer/director of the Tom Hanks produced film, “Parkland.” This movie is pretty accurate. I disagree with a couple of points, but by and large, this movie is the most realistic and accurate. It just came out on DVD. National Geographic Channel just aired their film, “Killing Kennedy,” and this seemed fairly accurate to me, as well. But they got a few things wrong about my father and the FBI office.
