Author: Carter McLellan – Date: February 16, 2025

Contents

1. Early life of George
2. The 1950’s
3. 1960s
4. 1970s
5. Notes

Early life of George

On April 4 (Russian Julian calendar) or 17, 1911, Jerzy Sergius von Mohrenschildt was born in Mozyr, Russian Empire (today Belarus). His mother, Alexandra, was of aristocratic Polish, Russian and Hungarian descent. His Father, Sergey Alexandrovich von Mohrenschildt, was of Baltic German, Swedish, and Russian descent. He had an older brother named Dimitri von Mohrenschildt. (1)

According to George, his father was the Marshal of Nobility of the Minsk Government and had the civil rank of Actual Civil Councilor, from 1913 to 1917. (2) In 1920, during the Red Terror and the Russian Civil War, Sergey was arrested by the CHEKA for alleged Anti-Soviet agitation and sentenced to life internal-exile in Veliky Ustyug. While Sergey was awaiting transport, he fell 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. (3)

After his release, Sergey, his wife and young George fled to the Second Polish Republic in a hay wagon. During the journey, George, his mother and father, all contracted typhoid fever. His mother died from it shortly after arriving in Poland. (4) George’s older brother Dimitri, who was awaiting execution, was eventually repatriated to Poland as part of a prisoner exchange. Sergey and his two sons then made their way to Milno (Vilnius), where they owned a six-acre estate. (5)

In 1929, at the age of 18, George graduated from the Wilno Gymnasium. He later graduated from the Polish Army’s Cavalry Academy, in 1931, at the age of about 20. (6) He later earned a Master’s degree at the Institute of Higher Commercial Studies. (7) In 1938, around 27 years old, George received a doctor of science degree in international commerce from the University of Liege, Belgium, having completed a dissertation on US influence in Latin America. (8)

Move to the US

In May 1938, George moved to the United States and Gallicised his nobility particular “von” to a French “de”. (9) According to de Mohrenschildt, at this point he was gathering information about people involved in pro-Nazi activities, such as those bidding for US oil leases on behalf of Nazi Germany before the U.S. became involved in WWII. Additionally, a further purpose of his data collection was to help French petroleum companies outbid the Germans. (10)

George spent the summer of 1938 with his older brother Dimitri on Long Island, New York. Dimitri was reportedly an anti-Nazi agent for the OSS and would later help set up Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty after WWII. They were both said to be staunchly anti-communist. (11)

During his time in New York, George became acquainted with the Bouvier family, including Jacqueline Bouvier, future wife of President Kennedy who called him “Uncle George” and would sit on his knee. He was a close friend of her aunt, Edith Bouvier Beale. (12)

In 1939 to 1941, George tried getting into the insurance business, but failed his broker’s examination. (13) In 1941, he reportedly became associated with Film Facts, a production company owned by his cousin, Berend Maydell, who allegedly had pro-Nazi sympathies. (14) A memo by Richard Helms reportedly indicated that George “was alleged to be a Nazi espionage agent.” (15) But, George later denied this, pointing to his effort to raise money in America for the Polish resistance, by making a documentary film about them. (16)

In 1942, George got married to Dorothy Pierson, an American teenager at the time. Together they had a daughter named Alexandre/Alexis, but they divorced in early 1944. (17) By 1945, George obtained a master’s degree in petroleum geology from the University of Texas (UNT). (18)

After the end of WWII, around 1945-1946, George moved to Venezuela where he worked for Hampton Industries Oil, a company owned by the family of Preston A. Hampton. (19) In 1947, George got married to Phyllis Washington, a step-daughter of a diplomate with the State Department, S. Walter Washington. They got divorced after a couple years by 1949. (20) George became a naturalized US citizen the same year, in 1949. (21)

The 1950’s

In 1950, together with his step-nephew, Edward Hooker, George launched an oil investment firm with offices in New York City, NY, Denver, CO, and Abilene, TX. (22) In 1951, George married Wynne “Didi” Sharples, together they would have a son and daughter who both suffered from cystic fibrosis. They settled in Dallas, Texas, by 1952, where George got a job as a petroleum geologist working for Clint Murchison, Sr. (23) George got divorced from Sharples by 1957. (24)

Between the 1952 to 1957 period, it appears that De Mohrenschildt had become friends with Paul M. Raigorodsky, who invited him to the Dallas Petroleum Club. George also joined the World Affairs Council of Dallas/Fort Worth and the Texas Crusade for Freedom. According to offshore oil engineer and friend, George Kitchel, to the FBI, George was friends with Clint Murchison, Sr., H.L. Hunt, John W. Mecom, Sr., ad Sid Richardson. (25)

In 1957, George traveled to Yugoslavia to conduct geological field survey for the State Department-sponsored International Cooperation Administration. The UBDA accused George of making drawings of military fortifications. Upon returning to the US, he was debriefed by the CIA in Washington and Dallas. (26)

In June 1959, George got married to Jeane LeGon (Eugenia Fomenko), a former dancer, model and fellow Russian-American. She was the daughter of the Director of Chinese Far East Railway, who was later killed by communists. (27)

1960s

From 1960 to 1961, George and his wife Jeane toured Central America and the Caribbean. His “walking trip” through Central America was made to recover from the grief of losing his only son in 1960 to cystic fibrosis. George submitted a written report of his trip to the State Department, and and a photograph taken during the trip shows him meeting the American ambassador to Costa Rica. George must’ve been back in Dallas by 1961.

In mid-September 1962, George Bouhe informed George about the Oswalds in Fort Worth. So George decided to visit them at their Mercedes apartment. He claimed to have spoken to lawyer Max Clark and J. Walton Moore of the CIA as to whether it was safe to help the Oswald’s. He had apparently gotten the OK.

A strange event apparently occurred around this period. After returning home from a weekend trip to Houston, de Mohrenschildt became aware that someone had broken into his home and copied his personal papers and other documents. At the time, he also had a manuscript that Oswald had given him to read, and realized that the document might also have been photocopied in the search. His primary concern was that the CIA was behind the break-in. According to de Mohrenschildt, Moore flatly denied when confronted that the CIA was involved in any way.

Oswald lost his job at the Leslie Welding Company in October 1962. George helped secured a job for him in Dallas at photographic firm of Jaggars-Chiles-Stovall.

On February 22, 1963, George invited the Oswalds to a Russian emigre party, where Marina befriended Ruth Paine.

On April 5, 1963, Oswald sent a signed backyard photo to George. April 14, 1963: de Mohrenschildt and his wife Jeanne visited the Oswalds’ Dallas apartment. As Marina was showing Jeanne around the apartment, they discovered Oswald’s rifle leaning against the wall inside a closet. Jeanne told George that Oswald had a rifle, and George joked to Oswald, “Were you the one who took a pot-shot at General Walker?” Oswald smiled at that. de Mohrenschildt claimed to have told the CIA that he believed Oswald had attempted to murder General Walker. “I spoke to the CIA both before and afterwards. It was what ruined me.”

Between May to June 1963, the De Mohrenschildt’s moved to Haiti. The JFK assassination occurred on November 22, 1963. In late 1963, several large deposits popped up in de Mohrenschildt’s Haitian bank account including one for two hundred thousand dollars from a Bahamian bank. This occurred when de Mohrenschildt and Clemard Joseph Charles, an advisor to Haitian president Papa Doc Duvalier were supposedly running a sisal plantation, a derelict operation they never went near.”

In April 1964, George testified to the Warren Commission, in Dallas. According to L. Fletcher Prouty, George had several private lunches with Allen Dulles. 

In November 1966, George moved back to Dallas, Texas. In 1967, Jim Garrison interviewed George. Apparently he and his wife insisted Oswald was a scapegoat.

1970s

On April 3, 1973, George and his wife divorce in secret and remain together in public.

In the Summer of 1976, George wrote a book on Oswald. Titled, ‘I Am a Patsy, I am A Patsy’s The manuscript is less concerned with Oswald’s guilt or innocence than with suggesting who the real criminals might be. Stating that Oswald was a “patsy not involved in any revenge”, and referencing articles describing “organized murder for profit”, de Mohrenschildt challenges readers to make up their own minds. Things began to go down hill for George after this point.

On September 5, 1976, George wrote a letter to George H. W. Bush, then CIA Director, requesting help. George complained “My wife and I find ourselves surrounded by some vigilantes; our phone bugged; and we are being followed everywhere.” Bush responded on September 28, that he could not help and that it was likely as a result of the press looking for information on him during the HSCA.

On September 17, 1976, CIA requested that the FBI locate de Mohrenschildt, because he had “attempted to get in touch with the CIA Director,” George H. W. Bush. 

On November 9, 1976, Jeanne had de Mohrenschildt committed to a mental institution in Texas for three months, and listed in a notarized affidavit four previous suicide attempts while he was in the Dallas area. In the affidavit, she stated that de Mohrenschildt suffered from depression, heard voices, saw visions, and believed that the CIA and the Jewish Mafia were persecuting him. However, he was released at the end of the year.

In 1977, Dutch JFK researcher Willem Oltmans contacted George and brought him to the Netherlands. Oltmans claimed that he had rescued de Mohrenschildt from a mental institution to bring him to Gerard Croiset. According to Oltmans, Croiset agreed that de Mohrenschildt was the man whom he had seen in his vision. They then went to Brussels and had plans to go to Liege, where nearby Oltmans owned a house. Upon returning to Brussels, de Mohrenschildt went for a short walk from which he failed to return. He had earlier agreed to meet Oltmans and his friends for lunch. Oltmans waited for him but he did not come back.

On March 16, 1977, George returned to the United States from his trip. His daughter talked with him at length and found him to be deeply disturbed about certain matters, reporting that he had expressed a desire to kill himself. 

March 29: 1977: gave an interview to Edward J. Epstein, during which he claimed that in 1962, Dallas CIA operative J. Walton Moore and one of Moore’s associates had handed him the address of Lee Harvey Oswald in nearby Fort Worth and then suggested that de Mohrenschildt might like to meet him. He suggested to Moore that he would appreciate some help from the U.S. Embassy in Haiti. “I would never have contacted Oswald in a million years if Moore had not sanctioned it”, de Mohrenschildt said. “Too much was at stake.”

On the same day George got a business card from Gaeton Fonzi from the HSCA saying they’d like to speak to him, considering him a crucial witness. On March 29, 1977, George died in Manalapan, Florida, USA. Ruled a suicide by a self-inflicted shotgun wound to the head.

[this article will be expanded in the future]

Notes

1. 1964, Warren Commission, George de Mohrenschildt testimony
2. Wikipedia, George de Mohrenschildt
3. 1964, Warren Commission, George de Mohrenschildt testimony;
4. 1964, Warren Commission, George de Mohrenschildt testimony
5. *) 1964, Warren Commission, George de Mohrenschildt testimony; *) Johnson McMillian, Patricia (2013). Marina and Lee: The Tormented Love and Fatal Obsession Behind Lee Harvey Oswald’s Assassination of John F. Kennedy, pages 262-263
6. 1964, Warren Commission, George de Mohrenschildt testimony
7. Wikipedia, cited Bugliosi
8. 1964, Warren Commission, George de Mohrenschildt testimony
9. Wikipedia, cites: *) 1964, Warren Commission, George de Mohrenschildt testimony, *) 1977, Lane, ‘The Mysterious Death of a Key JFK Witness’ *) 1977, Gallery;
10. 1964, Warren Commission, George de Mohrenschildt testimony
11. *) 1964, Warren Commission, George de Mohrenschildt testimony; *) 2009, Russ Baker, ‘Family of Secrets’
12. *) 1964, Warren Commission, George de Mohrenschildt testimony; *) 2009, Russ Baker, ‘Family of Secrets’
13. 1964, Warren Commission, George de Mohrenschildt testimony
14. Wikipedia, George de Mohrenschildt
15. 1978, Dallas Times Herald, ‘Oswald friend labeled CIA informant in memo’
16. 1964, Warren Commission, George de Mohrenschildt testimony
17. Vincent Bugliosi, ‘Reclaiming History’
18. 1964, Warren Commission, George de Mohrenschildt testimony
19. 2009, Russ Baker, ‘Family of Secrets’
20. Vincent Bugliosi, ‘Reclaiming History’
21. Wikipedia, George de Mohrenschildt
22. 2009, Russ Baker, ‘Family of Secrets’
23. *) Wikipedia, George de Mohrenschildt; *) Vincent Bugliosi, ‘Reclaiming History’; *) 1993, Anthony Summers, ‘Official and Confidential: The Secret Life of J. Edgar Hoover,’
24. Vincent Bugliosi, ‘Reclaiming History’
25. *) 1964, Warren Commission, George de Mohrenschildt testimony; 1964, Warren Commission, Paul M. Raigorodsky testimony; *) 2009, Russ Baker, ‘Family of Secrets’
26. 1998, Anthony Summers, ‘Not in Your Lifetime’
27. *) 1964, Warren Commission, Mrs. George de Mohrenschildt testimony; *) *) 1964, Warren Commission, George de Mohrenschildt testimony; *) 2013, Johnson McMillian