by Gus Russo
24 Ross Banister, HSCA interview by L.J. Delsa, 11 August 1978. (Information from interviewer’s notes.)
25 Marina Oswald, testimony, WC, vol. V, 401.
26 Warren C. DeBrueys, testimony before the HSCA, 13 May 1978, 26.
27 Ernesto Rodriguez, interview by Earl Golz of the Dallas Morning News, 7 March 1979.
28 Philip Gerad, testimony, WC, vol. X, 77.
29 Ibid, 77.
30 Carlos Bringuier, pamphlet: “Oswald: A Castro Agent In the United States.”
31 Carlos Bringuier, interview by author, 10 July 1994.
32 CE 93, WC, vol. XVI, 341.
33 Interview of Carlos Bringuier, 5 May 1993 (FL).
34 WC, V.T. Lee Exhibit 6; vol. XX, 261, cited in Posner, 158.
35 “Juan,” confidential interview by author, 14 May 1994.
Juan told the author that “after the assassination, the FBI interviewed me for three days, and all they wanted to know was, ‘Was Castro behind it?’”
36 Carlos Bringuier, testimony, WC, vol. X, 39.
Much of what we know of Quiroga’s conversation stems from the fact that he reported it to Carlos Bringuier.
37 CD 75, 705.
38 Warren C. DeBrueys, testimony before the HSCA, 13 May 1978.
39 HSCA, vol. X, 62.
40 Lynne Loisel to Jim Garrison, Memo about interview of Henry Gogreve, 7 March 1967.
41 McMillan, 351.
42 INCA’s specialty was taping interviews with refugees from communist countries and distributing them to radio stations in Central America.
43 Interview of Carlos Bringuier, 5 May 1993 (FL).
44 Interview of Ed Butler, 6 May 1993 (FL).
45 Interview of Ed Butler, 6 May 1993 (FL).
46 Interview of Carlos Bringuier, 5 May 1993 (FL).
47 Carlos Bringuier, interviewed by Posner, cited in Posner, 162.
48 Interview of Ed Butler, 6 May 1993 (FL).
49 McMillan, 441.
50 Interview of Carlos Bringuier, 5 May 1993 (FL).
51 WC Exhibit #1145, vol. 22, 168-169.
52 Johnson Exhibit (WC), #4A, vol. XX, 265 (cited in McMillan, 443).
53 McMillan, 443-447.
54 Ibid, 444.
55 Ibid, 449-450.
56 CD 1203, 21. Also see Evaristo Rodriguez, testimony before the WC, 4 April 1964.
57 Interview of Carlos Bringuier, 10 July 1994.
58 Warren C. DeBrueys, New Orleans Field Office Report, 17 July 1964.
59 Oswald had applied for a new passport on 24 June, and received it on 25 June. He stated his desire to travel to England, France, Germany, Holland, USSR, Finland, Italy, and Poland. Oswald received Passport # D 092526. According to Passport Office records, Pena also went to the Passport Office on 24 June 1963. (CE 950, 278, 285-286; Hoover to Lee Rankin [WC attorney], letter regarding Pena passport, 1 July 1964.)
60 Weisberg, Oswald in New Orleans, 317.
61 WC, vol. XI, 325-339.
This is seemingly corroborated by a recent discovery. While working on PBS’s 1993 Frontline program “Who Was Lee Harvey Oswald?” researcher Miri Navasky was given exclusive access to the working notes of Marina’s biographer, Priscilla McMillan (Marina and Lee). Navasky found that according to one handwritten note of an interview with Marina, she apparently told McMillan that “Lee was very often in the company of Cubans in New Orleans.”
By far the most sensational allegation is that of Oswald’s friend Adrian Alba. Alba told Frontline investigator Scott Malone that RFK’s network in New Orleans had considered recruiting Oswald for the Castro assassination plot. “Oswald was one of ten dossiers given to RFK to assassinate Castro.” Alba’s sources for this information were John Rice of the Secret Service (who parked his car in Alba’s garage), and a writer from a local paper named “Fitz.” His sources also told him that after the assassination, RFK was seen in the Justice Department wailing, “I’ve killed my own brother!” (Adrian Alba, interview W. Scott Malone, 27 February 1993.) Alba repeated this story to the author in 1994, and to author Gerald Posner.
62 Pavel Golovachev, interview by Peter Wronski, printed in The Third Decade, May 1992.
Chapter Ten (Mexico City: The Parallax View)
1 This is a photographic term that refers to the difference between the image seen in the viewfinder of a non-reflex camera, and what actually appears in the picture-taking lens—a fancy way of saying “things aren’t what they seem.” The term was used as the title of a fictional 1974 film about an assassination.
2 Fonzi, 266.
3 Phillips, 114.
4 Coincidentally, the same West Indian Creoles who settled in Louisiana helped Mexico gain its independence from Spain in the nineteenth century. Mexico City shares still another similarity with “the Big Easy.” It is infamous for its history of political corruption.
5 Russell, 229.
6 Nechiporenko, 72.
7 New York Times, 27 February 1994.
8 Another problem in the trade, so to speak, is the treachery a triple agent poses by picking and choosing from both troughs.
9 It is not common knowledge, but in a few rare instances the FBI was allowed a permanent overseas presence. Mexico City was one of those rarities.
10 Ibid, 98.
11 Beck, 85.
12 Phillips, 113-114.
13 Agee, 537-538.
14 Raphael Quintero, interview by author, 6 November 1997.
15 Krulak, Memo, “To Service, Joint Staff. . .” 5 March 1963; in Joseph Califano Papers.
16 Nechiporenko, 70.
17 The week he would spend here cost him an estimated $85, including transportation, hotel, and food. (“Analysis of Lee Harvey Oswald’s Finances from June 13, 1962 through November 22, 1963,” WC Appendix XIV, 741.)
18 Affidavit of John Bryan and Merlyn McFarland, WC vol. XXV, 749-750 (cited in Posner, 172) Summers, Conspiracy, 343.
19 Warren Report, 735 (cited in Posner, 190).
20 Interview of Sylvia Duran, 8 May 1993 (FL).
21 Interview of Mrs. Eusebio Azcue, 8 May 1993 (FL).
22 Nechiporenko, 68-69.
23 Ibid, 70.
24 Ibid, 69.
25 Interview of Sylvia Duran, 8 May 1993 (FL).
26 Nechiporenko, 77.
27 Valery Kostikov, interview by author, 3 May 1993.
28 Nechiporenko, 78-79.
29 Interview of Pavel Yatskov, 3 May 1993 (FL).
30 Nechiporenko, 81.
31 Ibid, 80.
32 Police Officer Charles Thomas, Memo, 10 December 1965.
33 “Mexico City Report,” HSCA, 206-257.
34 “Mexico City Report,” HSCA, 206.
35 June Cobb Sharp, interview by John Newman, 4 March and 17 March 1995; cited in Newman, Oswald and the CIA, 380.
36 “Willard Curtis,” Memo for files, 25 November 1964. (“Curtis” was the code-name of Station Chief Win Scott.)
37 “Mexico City Report,” HSCA, 213.
38 Ibid, 195.
The source was undoubtedly Luis Alberu, a cultural attaché in the Embassy. According to recently-released CIA documents, Alberu was doubling as an agent for the CIA. This document took the form of a request for approval of Alberu’s counterintelligence work. In the document dated 27 July 1962, both Alberu’s “201” number (328609), and his Office of Security (OS) number (OS-279-089) are divulged.
39 Ibid, 195-196.
40 Ibid, 197 (interview of David Phillips, 3 August 1978).
41 Lonnie Hudkins, interview by author, 20 August 1993.
42 Harold Weisberg to Jim Garrison, Memo, 17 March 1968.
43 “Mexico City Report,” HSCA, 254.
44 CIA Memo for “Willard C. Curtis” (Win Scott), 13 June 1967.
45 Newman, Oswald and the CIA, 388.
46 Ibid, 388.
47 “Mexico City Report,” HSCA, 201.
48 Gaeton Fonzi to G. Robert Blakey, Memo (telephone interview of Alvaro Proenza), 14 April 1978.
49 E
lizabeth Mora, testimony, in “FBI LEGAT Mexico City to Director,” 24 January 1964.
50 MIAMI SAC to Director, FBI Teletype, 4 January 1964.
It may have also reached the CIA’s Cuba specialist in Mexico City, David Phillips, as Verson was also one of Phillips’ agents. (“Afterword: The Search for Maurice Bishop,” Lobster #10, January 1986.)
A possible link between Oswald and the Cuban officials is viewable through the story of Oscar Contreras. It should be noted that Contreras has been inconsistent about the time frame of the occurrence. However, it is not inconceivable that, in the context of what we now know about the Mexico City episode, other parts of his story deserved more attention in 1963 than they were given.
Oscar Contreras, a member of a pro-Castro student group, recalls encountering Oswald during his “missing days.” At the time, Contreras was a law student at the National Autonomous University of Mexico City. One day in the cafeteria, a young man walked up to Contreras’ table and introduced himself as Lee Harvey Oswald, at one point spelling out his entire name. Oswald made quite a stir over his desire to obtain a Cuban visa, and wondered if Contreras and his friends could help. Coincidentally, Contreras did have contacts in the Cuban Consulate, and, although they were suspicious of Oswald’s real motivation, agreed to help. (Contreras, HSCA Report, 124-25, fn. 17, cited in Summers, 351)
A later FBI interview with Contreras established that he “belonged to a clandestine pro-Castro revolutionary group. . .[which] visited Cuba and met Castro and [his brother] Raul.” (FBI Memo for Director, 30 June 1967). The document continued, “The group allowed Oswald to accompany them the rest of the day, that night (at a group safehouse), and part of the next day.” When pressed for details of what the group discussed with Oswald, Contreras refused to answer. He was a no-show for a scheduled follow-up interview. The FBI was clearly disturbed by Contreras’ refusal to discuss the details, and by his failure to appear.
51 Interview of Dr. Eduardo Borrell Navarros, May 10, 1993 (FL). Navarros added, “For anyone who knows anything about Castro and his personal history, I think they can believe anything. He has absolutely altered the hemisphere. He was capable of sending soldiers to Angola. He is a governor with, you could almost say, psychopathic characteristics, someone who wants to become a leader of all Latin America, who took soldiers to Grenada where forty-five Cubans were killed. How can anyone doubt, in fact, Castro’s participation, whether direct or indirect, in Kennedy’s assassination?”
52 Cited in Epstein, Legend, 237.
53 The Miami Herald, 23 October 1975.
54 WAVE to Director, cable, 30 November 1963.
55 FBI report of agent William Stevens, File # 105-655, 24 October 1962.
56 Dallas Morning News, 24 September 1975, from a Los Angeles Times story by Charles Ashman.
57 Jim Hosty, interview by author, 13 March 1994. See also “Hoover Said to Have Been Told Oswald Disclosed Plans to Cubans,” New York Times, 12 November 1976. On “Solo” mission, see “Lee Harvey Oswald in Mexico: New Leads,” Lobster #6, November 1984.
58 The Wall Street Journal, 18 October 1993, A18.
59 SAC New York to Director, FBI AirTel, 12 June 1964 (released on 30 March 1995).
60 Schorr, 177. (The Clark story was ghost-written by Nina Gadd.)
61 Blakey, 145.
62 “Comer Clark Allegation,” HSCA Summary.
63 HSCA Final Report (Bantam Edition), 142.
64 New Times Magazine, 11 July 1975, 13-14.
65 Miami Herald, 22 March 1976 and 13 November 1976; Chicago Sun-Times, 19 November 1976.
66 WC Exhibit No. 103, vol. XVI, 443-444.
67 Raymond Rocca, Church Committee interview by Dan Dwyer and Ed Greissing, 15 March 1976. Also, CIA Review of Oswald File, 23 May 1975.
68 CIA Blind Memo, 7 May 1964.
69 Transcript, CIA JFK Segregated File, at the National Archives.
70 CIA Review of Oswald File, 23 May 1975, 19.
71 Blakey, 154.
72 CIA Blind Memo, 7 May 1964.
73 Blakey, 148, 155.
74 Autilio Ramirez Ortiz, HSCA interview, 25 August 1977 (Doc # 005134).
75 Summers, Conspiracy, 451.
76 Herminio Portell-Villa, FBI interview, 21 May 1964. (HSCA Box 465, folder 1.)
77 Secret Service Field Report of Ernest Aragon: interview of Cuban exile and attorney, Dr. Fernando Penebaz, 29 November 1963. Included in the Secret Service interview of Penebaz is the following footnote: “Reference is made to the file involving a Cuban plot to assassinate the President under file SC-2-32-682, dated December 14, 1962, wherein Machado is prominently mentioned. ‘The source [of that report] cautions that Quinton Pino Machado should be considered a dangerous person.’” See also HSCA Final Report, 147.
78 HSCA Final Report, 147-148.
79 The Boston Record American, 31 March 1963.
80 Edward McCarthy, Working Press, 9-19.
81 HSCA Final Report (Bantam Edition), 316-324.
82 HSCA Final Report, 320, fn. 2.
83 “Mexico City Report,” HSCA, 178.
84 CCIR, 173.
85 Jose Aleman, Church Committee interview by Andy Purdy, 10 March 1977; Aleman HSCA testimony, 27 September 1978.
Chapter Eleven (Two Tracks to Oblivion)
1 Reeves, 655-657; also Beschloss, The Crisis Years, 641-642.
2 Colby and Dennett, 404-407.
The Kennedy camp also feared the potential candidacy of the devout Mormon Governor of Michigan George Romney. “We have to watch Romney,” advised Robert Kennedy. “People buy that God and country stuff.”
“Romney could be tough,” the President responded. “You have to be a little suspicious of somebody as good as Romney. No vices whatsoever, no smoking and no drinking. Imagine someone we know going off for twenty-four or forty-eight hours to fast and meditate, awaiting a message from the Lord whether to run or not. . . Give me Barry. I won’t even have to leave the Oval Office” (Reeves, 655-657).
3 Over the years, debate has raged as to whether Kennedy had set his mind on pulling out of Vietnam in his second term. There is much evidence to support that interpretation. However, there seems to be even more evidence that Kennedy was flexible to a fault on this issue—seemingly inclined to change his mind from week to week. As CIA agent Grayston Lynch says, “Kennedy was one of those guys who, you know—whoever talks to him last has his way. He just blew with the wind. They spent so much time trying not to embarrass themselves that they brought on the very embarrassment they sought to avoid.” (Grayston Lynch, interview by author, 20 January 1994). Marine Major General Victor Krulak, appointed by Kennedy as the Special Assistant for Counterinsurgency and Special Activities, was one of Kennedy’s closest military advisors on Vietnam policy. Krulak told the author in 1994, “If there was a plan to pull out of Vietnam, I never saw it. The truth of the matter is we had no more of an idea of what to do than you or anyone else. It was total confusion” (General Victor Krulak, interview by author, 22 April 1994).
4 Captain Eduardo Ferrer, who commanded the exile air force in the Bay of Pigs invasion, said in 1994, “Today, ninety percent of the Cubans are Republicans because of Kennedy” (Eduardo Ferrer, interview by author, 14 May 1994).
5 Kern, Levering, and Levering, 100.
6 Kern, Levering, and Levering, 100.
7 Ibid, 107.
8 Beschloss, The Crisis Years, 667.
9 Paterson, Kennedy’s Quest For Victory, 154.
10 Attwood, 258.
11 CCR, bk. V, 21.
12 CCIR, 174.
13 CCR, bk. V, 21.
14 Flammonde, 255-261.
15 Ibid, 259.
16 Hinckle and Turner, 222.
17 FBI testimony, cited in Adolfo Merino, “The Charge,” UPI, 3 September 1964.
18 New York Times and Washington Post, 19 November 1962; New York Times, 20 November 1962; Baltimore Sun, 21 November 1962; Breuer, 1-5.
19 Mexico Station to Director, CIA Classified Message,
#7065, 96-572, 25 November 1963.
In a 1995 interview with Anthony Summers, Duran denied the Oswald affair, but openly admitted the Lechuga relationship, adding that Lechuga had petitioned Castro for permission to marry Duran. Castro denied the request (Newman, Oswald and the CIA, 281-282).
20 Newman, Oswald and the CIA, 255-261.
21 Anthony Summers and Robbyn Summers, “The Ghosts of November,” Vanity Fair, December 1994, 101.
22 Beschloss, The Crisis Years, 667.
23 ONI officer, interview by author, 10 August 1994.
24 CIA to Church Committee, “Approved CIA Covert Operations into Cuba,” Memorandum, 11 July 1975, in CCIR, 173.
25 Robert Kennedy Oral History, Kennedy Library; conducted by John Martin, 1 March 1964.
26 Ayers, 147-149; also Turner and Hinckle, 218-219.
27 Jim Flannery, interview by author, 23 December 1993.
28 “Case Officer” [Nestor Sanchez], testimony to Church Committee, 29 July 1975, 42.
29 “Case Officer” [Nestor Sanchez], testimony to Church Committee, 29 July 1975, 12.
30 CCR, bk. V, 14.
31 CIA Inspector General’s Report, 87.
32 RFK Phone Logs, National Archives.
Neither Helms nor FitzGerald was ever confronted with the RFK phone logs proving an October 11 conversation with FitzGerald. (It was then that the Cubela pot was boiling.) The logs were only released in 1994. FitzGerald died in 1967.
33 Des FitzGerald, “Contact Plan for Meeting with AM/LASH,” October 1963.
34 Rolando Cubela Secades, HSCA interview, 28 August 1978, 8.
35 Rolando Cubela Secades, HSCA interview, 28 August 1978, 10.
36 Rolando Cubela Secades, testimony in CCR, bk. V, 19.