Begging the CIA director for help

A plea for help

De Mohrenschildt described vigilantes surrounding his family, a tapped phone, and being followed everywhere. He suspected the FBI was involved or refused to accept his complaints, and he wrote that his attempt to write about Lee Harvey Oswald had angered a lot of people. He asked the director to remove the net around him and his sick, nervous wife.

Bush's reply

Bush recognized the name. His prep school roommate was de Mohrenschildt's nephew, and de Mohrenschildt's address book held an entry for an old friend, Bush, George H.W., Poppy. When Bush's staff asked how well he knew the writer, Bush answered that he had known him since the 1940s. In a memo he added that he knew de Mohrenschildt but didn't recall his role in all this.

Bush wrote back that his staff had found no indication of interest in de Mohrenschildt's activities from federal authorities in recent years. He guessed that renewed interest in the Kennedy assassination had made de Mohrenschildt newsworthy again, and that people in the media might be the source of the attention.

Two months later

Two months later, de Mohrenschildt tried to take his own life four times. His wife had him committed, and doctors put him through electroshock therapy before releasing him at the end of 1976.