Gordon Shanklin

Gordon Shanklin  (policeman)
Died	1998
In charge of the Dallas Field Division of the Federal Bureau of Investigation in 1963

J. Gordon Shanklin was appointed special agent in charge of the Dallas Field Division of the Federal Bureau of Investigation in 1963.

In March, 1963, FBI agent James Hosty was ordered to keep Lee Harvey Oswald under observation. Soon afterwards Hosty discovered that Oswald was purchasing The Worker, the newspaper of the American Communist Party. In June, Hosty heard from FBI headquarters that Oswald was in New Orleans, and requested information on him.

Hosty visited the home of Ruth Paine to discover where Oswald was living. He spoke to both Paine and Marina Oswald about Oswald. When Oswald heard about the visit he went to the FBI office in Dallas. When told that Hosty was at lunch Oswald left him a message in an envelope.

The contents of the envelope has remained a mystery. A receptionist working at the Dallas office claimed it included a threat to "blow up the FBI and the Dallas Police Department if you don't stop bothering my wife." Hosty later claimed it said: "If you have anything you want to learn about me, come talk to me directly. If you don't cease bothering my wife, I will take appropriate action and report this to the proper authorities."

Soon after Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested for the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, Shanklin called James Hosty into the office. Hosty was asked about what he knew about Oswald. When Oswald was shot dead by Jack Ruby two days later, Shanklin ordered Hosty to destroy Oswald's letter.

According to Hosty's sworn testimony, his superior, Gorden Shanklin, ordered him to destroy both the note Oswald had delivered to the FBI shortly before the assassination and the memorandum that Hosty had prepared about the incident." After returning to his office, he followed his orders and destroyed this evidence, flushing the remains down the toilet.

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