All right guys let's see if we can get on with the intended purpose of this thread. I shall introduce one of the fringe characters of whom I believe played a very important role in deciding the direction that Lee Oswald would pursue while in Dallas. This is George A. Bouhe. Some background of Mr. Bouhe. He was born in St. Petersburg, Russia on February, 1904. As a young man he worked for the American Relief Commission from 1920 - 23. At the encouragement of some American there he decided to emigrate to America, applied for a passport but was denied by the Soviet authorities. Bouhe then crossed a river into Finland and came to America by way of Germany, arriving here in April 1924 and became an American citizen in June 1939. Bouhe made his way to Dallas in 1939 were he worked as an accountant for Chase Manhattan Bank and as a personal accountant for Lewis W. MacNaughton, a prominent geologist in the Dallas area. As the senior member of the burgeoning Russian ?migr? community he formed a church congregation in part to be used as a meeting place for the newly arriving Russian emigres in the 1950's. Soon Bouhe attained the informal title of the leader of the Dallas-Ft. Worth Russian community.
Bouhe met the Oswalds, Marina and Lee, at a party hosted by Dorothy lane at the invitation of Peter Gregory, a Siberian emigre who now lived in Dallas and who Lee had met lee Oswald previously for the purpose of examining Oswalds competence in the Russian language.. It was at this party that Bouhe first met the Oswalds. At this party Bouhe became very interested in Marina because she had lived in St. Petersburg. According to Priscilla Johnson this meeting between Bouhe and Marina established a father and daughter type relationship between them and Bouhe became very protective of Marina. This didn't sit well with Lee and he resented the attention lavished upon Marina by Bouhe's generosity arousing feelings of jealousy and inferiority.
Mr. Bouhe, along with other members of the Russian expatriate community, continued to try to help the Oswalds but it soon became apparent that Lee was mistreating Marina, hurting her both mentally and physically. Seeing this mistreatment Bouhe became concerned about Marina and encouraged her to leave Lee. But Bouhe soon became frustrated with Marina because she would give in to Lee's pleas for reconciliation and decided that he had had enough of them. Although he still felt pity of Marina he thought she was weak and Bouhe, being scared of Lee, decided to wash his hands of any responsibility for the welfare of Marina and her child. During a friendly encounter with George de Mohrenschildt, Brouhe made it plain that he was scared of Oswald and feared there would be trouble between them if he continued to try to help Marina. When George de Mohrenschildt expressed friendly feelings towards Lee, Bouhe told George "All right...you carry the ball'
From this point on it was George de Mohrenschildt who would take over as the only benefactor of the Oswalds left in the Russian expatriate community of the Dallas-Ft. Worth area.
I consider this a major influence of the path both Marina and Lee took that eventually led to the tragedy of Nov 22, 1963 because like Lee, George de Mohrenschildt had become an out cast of the Russian ?migr? community. Marina lost whatever support could be offered that would help her cut ties with an abusive husband of whom the majority of them thought of in terms that would describe Lee as an unstable, bitter and selfish character.
