Deanonymizing “Anonymous” (“Agent Kewper”)
As far as we can tell so far, Ex-CIA/US Army Signal Corps “Agent Kewper Stein” was named (when he died) Oscar Wayne Wolff, born Sept. 17, 1935 in Park Rapids, MN. He passed away on March 18, 2015 in Menahga, MN at the Green Pine Acres Nursing Home.
Thanks to @mrjeffknox for big help with this candidate. Also thanks to @JeremyCorbell’s hints he placed in the documentary, which helped us narrow down the state, time, and outdoor temperature where/when the video was made. This led to us finding the people who had enough information to help us narrow down a name. Thanks to Lisa Fine for her genealogical research assistance. Also thanks to @StephenApWales for more video clues. Without their help/hints, I have my doubts it would have been possible to get this far.
Update 8/14/22: I received an anonymous tip. The Super 8 Hotel in Park Rapids, MN where the video was made has been identified. More info here. Lots of photos of the actual hotel lobby, rooms and furniture are on orbitz.com. The lobby is a perfect match. This, in my opinion, is our man.
If you have ancestry.com access, here’s the link to the current in-progress public tree. Note the public records are confusing (more than usual), and it’s been difficult to piece them together.
So far he’s a good match. Here’s his obituary (or another).
His audio interview with LMH on June 6, 1998 along with a transcript and other files are here. 15 years later, he was interviewed by Richard Dolan. The video is on YouTube here. There’s also a book interview available. LMH’s phone interview with him is also transcribed here (there are 20 parts).
The video interview was filmed on March 5, 2013 and was released on April 4, 2014. Kewper said in the video he was 77 years old. He was actually 77 years, 5 months 16 days old (assuming we have the right person, which I think we do):
From the ancestry.com tree (built using entirely public information):
According to public records, he was living in Florida at the right time when he did his interview with LMH:
The Florida link is also supported by two newspaper articles. The first one I’m not going to post to keep his son anonymous, but here’s the second:
Later in life he lived in Osage and Menahga, MN. We know Corbell’s Anonymous interview video was shot in Minnesota because of a clear MN state map on the wall in the nursing home behind Wolff, and because the man pushing Wolff in the wheelchair (an extended family member, initials D.S. according to our research, or “S.D.” according to LMH) went to MUFON meetings on the West Coast. He was open about his involvement/knowledge of Kewper/Wolff. (We know who this person is, but for privacy reasons that’s staying anonymous.)
This information is well-known in some circles, but it wasn’t released to the public.
Here are all the pictures we’ve found so far from various public sources.
Ancestry.com school yearbook photos:
“Anonymous” book cover:
Frame from video interview:
Web (see here, search for “Oscar Wayne”) — notice this picture is larger than the one on the book cover:
Here’s a screenshot from that web page (in case it disappears):
The birth year on this web page is 1 year off (1936 vs. 35), which is common in genealogical work. It’s common for people to do simple year subtraction (death year minus age), and then wind up with a date that’s off by 1 year. Also notice that they misspelled the town where he passed away, implying this information may have been passed on by telephone or by voice.
The next steps are to further verify this candidate, and then try to determine if Wolff’s identity was changed in the 1970’s like he claimed it was. I suspect he left us clues in the book interview, which I’ve not fully read yet, and in his video interview.
For reference, here are Oscar W. Wolff’s parents, siblings, and wife:
Update 1
I received an anonymous tip from someone who carefully watched the video. They tracked down the precise Super 8 Hotel in Park Rapids, MN where the video was filmed. More here.
Update 2
Oscar’s sister Aldena Alma Wolff, Nov 26. 1920 to June 23, 2001, mentioned that her brother Oscar lived in Florida in her obituary. This is strong verification that we have the right family and the public record information is correct.
Here’s a screenshot of the obituary:
Update 3
Oscar had another sister named Marvilla Wolff (married name Paulson) 1926–2006. Her obituary mentions her brother “Oscar Wolff of Florida”.
Update 4
Kewper mentioned in his interview with LMH living in Fort Myers, Florida. Public records show that Oscar W. Wolff lived in Fort Myers in/around 1993.
Interview:
Tree events for Oscar W. Wolff:
Update 5
Oscar’s sister Aldena was a member of St. John’s Lutheran Church. In part 6 of his interview, he said he was raised as Lutheran.
