Dick Russell makes the claim in his book, The Man Who Knew Too Much, that Richard Case Nagell was taken to Moscow by the East Germans for questioning: (page 657)
Little more is known about Nagell’s time behind the then Iron Curtain. In 1977 we were watching the traffic go by along Sunset Boulevard when Nagell told me that he had already put much of his historic tale on the record.
“Do I have most of that?” I asked naively.
“No,” Nagell replied. “The Soviets have a lot of it, in my own handwriting.
“Oh,” I said, “from when you were in East Germany.
“I didn’t spend all my time in East Germany,” Nagell said evenly.
Isn't it interesting? Nagell never tells Dick Russell his full story, but he writes it down for the Soviets.
Here is an excerpt from a transcript: (47:55)
Russell: There's a lot of questions and a lot of things that still haven't surfaced in these East German documents. I know that there were 39 missing days. Nagell was held there for four months, and he was released in the fall of ’68 in a prisoner exchange where Wolfgang Vogel, who was a major spy master at the time for the for the communists, was very involved in negotiating this. And shortly … then there's a story in the Washington Post, no reference to the bank robbery or anything—attempted bank robbery, so called—but to this guy being released at the border. And so, Nagell’s last 39 days behind the Iron Curtain, and he told me that he wasn't only in East Berlin, East Germany, that he was taken to Moscow, and that he wrote out a confession, or if you call it that, but he wrote out all the reasons why he did what he did in walking into the bank.
There is nothing in the Stasi files that indicates that Nagell was taken to Moscow. There was no need to question him there. Nagell told the East Germans that he was involved in a provocation against the Soviet Embassy in Mexico City in 1962. The East Germans checked with the Soviets who said that it never happened. That was the start of the East Germans realizing that Nagell was not being truthful and that he was seriously affected by his 1954 plane crash.
If you go through the Stasi documents on Nagell, you will find that he didn't say much about the JFK assassination. He spoke a lot about American intelligence in the 1950s and his supposed work with the CIA in the 1960s. But he just repeated the basics of his story about Oswald and the assassination.
In the end, the East Germans only believed what he said about 1950s American intelligence in the far east. They did not believe his stories about the CIA, the JFK assassination, and his supposed connection to the People's Republic of China.
Additional Posts on Richard Case Nagell
The Importance of Richard Case Nagell to Some Conspiracy Theorists
Jim Garrison and a few conspiracy theorists think Nagell is a very important witness. But is he really?
Genesis of the Richard Case Nagell story
David Kroman met Richard Case Nagell at the Springfield Medical Center for Federal Prisoners. Stephen Jaffe, a Garrison volunteer, wrote a memo, relating Nagell's story through the eyes and ears of David Kroman.
Nagell was convicted of armed robbery and was sentenced to ten years, but his conviction was overturned because of startling new evidence.
Richard Case Nagell and the JFK Assassination
There is no credible evidence that Nagell had any foreknowledge of either Lee Harvey Oswald or the JFK assassination.
Nagell claims he met Oswald in Japan, Texas, Mexico City, and New Orleans. There is no credible evidence that he ever met Oswald.
Nagell went to Cuba and met with Fidel Castro and even played ping-pong with the man.
Insane Conspiracy Theories about Richard Case Nagell
Richard Case Nagell said that he knew the two Oswalds - Lee Harvey and Leon. Some conspiracy theorists believe this madness.
Combine one part crazy and one part ridiculous and what do you come up with? An early attempt at a unified conspiracy theory of the JFK assassination.
Was there a plot in Los Angeles against JFK?
Two Smoking Guns of the Richard Case Nagell Story
Nagell sent conspiracy theorist Dick Russell one page of a military intelligence file which seemed to indicate that he was monitoring Oswald and his wife on behalf of the CIA. But does the whole document really show that?
Did Richard Case Nagell have an Oswald Military ID in his possession when he was arrested in September 1963?
Richard Case Nagell and Jim Garrison
Richard Case Nagell believes that he wasn't called to testify at Clay Shaw's trial because his testimony would have blown up Jim Garrison's case.
At a conference in September 1968, Garrison and his investigators discuss his face-to-face meeting with Nagell in New York City.
William Martin, an Assistant District Attorney working for Jim Garrison, tried to retrieve a tape that Nagell said contained the voices of three JFK assassination conspirators.
Richard Popkin, author of "The Second Oswald," writes Jim Garrison about Richard Case Nagell. Garrison staffer Tom Bethell thought the Nagell lead was useless.
Richard Case Nagell's Mental Health
A lawsuit by Nagell proves his mental issues.
Nagell won a full disability pension in 1982 and the 60+ page court case provides complete details on his mental problems.
Richard Case Nagell told a psychiatrist why he shot up the bank in El Paso in 1963.
The FBI spoke to Nagell's ex-wife, his mother, his sister, and one of his friends. They all agreed that Nagell had significant mental health problems.
Nagell visited the American consulates in Zurich and Barcelona in 1969. He was a deeply disturbed man.
More shenanigans in Europe in 1970.
His mental issues were apparent during this visit.
Richard Case Nagell's Evidence
None of the so-called evidence that Nagell promised would materialize on his death has shown up. Did this evidence ever exist?
Samoluk was Deputy Director of the ARRB and he doesn't think much of the Nagell story.
You can read the whole Nagell story in my new book, A Heritage of Nonsense: Jim Garrison's Tales of Mystery and Imagination.