JFK Assassination System Date: 10/13/20 Identification Form AGENCY : Agency Information Released under the John HSCA Kennedy RECORD NUMBER: _ 180-10108-10070 Mssassination Records . oOllection Act of 1992 RECORD SERIES: NUMBERED FILES. (44 USC 2107 Note). ; ase#: NW 56629 Date: AGENCY FILE NUMBER: 015107 (FOLDER 2 OF 4) 4-13-2018 Document Information ORIGINATOR: HSCA FROM: MCKEOWN, ROBERT. TO: FONZI, GAETON. TITLE: DATE: 08/27/1976 PAGES: 9 SUBJECTS : CIA. FBI. PRO-CASTRO ACTIVITIES. OSWALD, LEE; POST-RUSSIAN PERIOD, POLITICAL CONSERVATIVE ACT PRIO, CARLOS. MCKEOWN, RPBERT. DOCUMENT TYPE: OTHER TEXTUAL. CLASSIFICATION: — Unclassified RESTRICTIONS : Consulted CURRENT STATUS: — Withhold DATE OF LASTREVIEW: 07/06/1993 OPENING CRITERIA : COMMENTS : ssion v9.4 HW 56329 DBocld: 322762501 This document is a summary of an interview by Fonzi Gaeton, with Warren Commission number CE. 1689. Box 289. FBI tabbed Box 297-6. | Page 1
(> -fonzi -rough notes--Robert McKeown interview -- 8/27/76 \ -a mechanical! engineer by profession; had a large machine shop se ~ 4 in Houston; heard & of a quy named Van Zeivander who had designed a new coffee cleaning machine; they traveled through tatin America and introduced machine with help of U.S. Experimental Station in Guatemala in the mid-50s. Went into husiness and started manufacturing machine, hecame very successful with it, was making a lot of money,-- kx decided to open manufacturing plant, warehouse , and office in Santiago, Cuba -- after about a year, representatives of Batista came around and said the dictator wanted a cut of the a husiness, wanted a cut of $5000 a month personally -- PM refused; (ns ~ about six months later, militia came around, arrested him, put him on airplane and told him to get out of country: Batista took: over business., RE came to Miami where his daughter was living; shortly afterwards: was contacted by representatives of Carlos Prio who asked him Co how he would like to get his business back... fellow contacted) +3 4 4 him was named Mario (doesn't remember ltast name) [records: Marion’, Silverio Vitiema, aks Frank Guzman, Frank George, John Jordon, ’ Bl Castil AWR and fellow named Manny [Manuel Arques].., 4 Prio asked him if he would go to Mexico and meet a man down ‘theres, 7h | then he explained that he was trying to overthrow Batista...so _ he went to Mexico and got some arms down there...that's where ~ _ he met Castro... in Tampico... xamaxkakarxkhayxneakxka (Houston, TExas. and they checked in the Shamrock Hotel there;anmd he met Prio. there and that's when Prio told him au how to find Castro in Mexico and . RM went and stayed with Castro....that's when Castro made his. famous 26th of July raid against Cuba ("! was there the day he took off for Cuba.") -~-initially Prio was smuggling arms to Cuba even before Castro; RM says Castro betrayed Prio who was supposed to take over the govenment after Castro won the revolution... Q '"Prio was the money man, He got out of Cuba with a helluva lot of money and he didn't aive a damn how he spent it either. { carried $106,000 in cash in my goddamn inside coat pocket a fotta times." -~-Prio told him he needed RM as the middleman in the arms deal because he needed an American; everybody who was working forhim was Cuba. LRM says he heard that Frank Sturgis was working for , Prio also at that time but he never met him. J] Also Prio liked oe the way he got things done quickly. cre (How did Prio know you had heen kicked out of Cuba and were in a 5 Miami?) "! don't know. ! don't know how he knew it." [There were 7 no news articles ahout it or any notoriexty.] "But | don't want 4 to get Prio in any trouble because | believe he is one of the | finést men | ever met. He's a real fine man." Heard he lost a bundte of money in building condominiums in Puerto Riceo.. [Shown picture of Fiorini; recognized it as Sturgis, said he might have "a few dealings with him" at the time, but not positive! the name of Fiorini was familiar] --worked with more than a hundred guys here and in Texas, who were working for Pria.., remembers a former Cuban actress named Maria Sol, HW 56829 DocId:32262501 Page 2—
| WW 56829 i toemdtageslr belie ghee, ! Hea snlibseomlient a ings who worked with Prio and thinks she's’ the one who eventually. Be de, turned them in to the Feds...fater her car was blown up but a nf she escaped injury.. : --Eventually we transferred our base of operation from Miami et and Tampa because jit got too hot here, they were watching us ct too closely...so0 we changed it down to Houston, and we'd have the arms sent to Houston by truck, by commercial! lines like Mayflower and that, and then we bought a lot of supplies, like ropes and blankets and stuff, down in Houston... (Were you getting arms mostly from the Mob?) "Mostly, yeah. Fram | the mob and from... well, I'm gonna tell you something but I'm ae not gonna name no names until | have to. 1 got them from. Sehator United States Senators. (Here in Florida?) No. (Was he ‘the link to the Mob?) He was the link to the Redstone Arsenal ' In Arkansas. (didn't want to talk about it anymore) iF (he hasn't worked in five years, since he had an operation for: his lunas; was working for API company, head of quality control]; was in hosptial for 73 days; now in need of money.) rs * "That shows you how goddamn dumb | was. Hell, 4! was Jn control: of a lot of money, | could have gone South with kk it but [- always brought it back. Like when | ,bought this big ship, | oyu: paid $78,000 for it. He told me | could have aqone as highk as $200,000. At teast i could have told him | paid $150,000 or ; $100,000 for it, but | didn't. 4 was just too damn honest. 4 (All CBS paid was his expenses to Houston; he stayed down there: - for about two weeks with Dan Rather and this girl Harrlet Rubin sy "ALI | was trying to do was show them how | believe that: Oswald’ couldn't have acted alone. But | can prove everyting | say. me Like they say that Ruby just came to me once. He came to, me. Tt three times. But they didn't put that in thet Warren Commission): And | told them, that he came to me three times. And they say. * that | say |! thought he was Jack Ruby, but, hell, he told me. he was Jack Ruby. He told me his name was Rubinstein. He didn't. say Jack Ruoy, he said, 'My name is Rubinstein from Nallas. And he kept saying he was qonna give me this money for a latter, a letter x of introduction to Castro. But he never did come’ up with the money. He wanted me to give him this letter and tell him: in the letter what a responsible man he was and all this bullshit, and all that time | believe he was just finding out about me so te . could go on over there and tell him that he knew me. I don't believe; he was ever gonna give me money...." t sl (To go back to aun-running operation: Ever deal with Tratficante?) me Didn't think so, couldn't recall the name. Said he did: have a: call. an from George Ratt who wanted to get back in the gambling operation a es ne 1, with Castro. _- piso mentioned a Jack Porter (2), a "Mr. Republican," = campaign mamacer forfisenhower (?) who contacted him for something. : but didn't say what. After Castro took over he got numerous calls ,. from people who wanted him to contact Castro on their behalf... re .onty did one thing, for friends of his brother, who ran-a oll. tool’: rental business in Houston, when they were caught tishing too. closé” to Cuba: he did contact Castro and get them out of prison.. i _DoclId: 32262501. Page 3
Sn ee HW 56829 ar little town called Bay Cliff, tTexas. That's right between — ' Houston and Dallas. And he came down there. He came to my house. ,,one Saturday morning. A boy by the name of Sam Neal was there... -As a matter of fact, he lived there with me. {| married this > . +. | a Docld: 32262501 Page 4 tt a . . ae ; i . 3 wr (Julio Lobo?) Says he did meet him but not too clear, says he. a thinks maybe in Houston but could not remember details... thinks a he came with Che Gueverra (?) * phetatiewe S EEE alee (You were actually getting your arms from a U.S. Senator?) He was the one who would tel! us where to go to get them. (Diag you actually buy them from Senators?) No, from the Government. Ammunition, everything. i was caught with over $2 miflion worth. They were in a house in Houston. | coe 2B bought this house to put them all’ in, had them piled:way ‘up ,.'" ane it was the damndest thing you ever saw.. to, sere (The way - they got caught was that he had this Costa Rican’ ihoy come up from Costa Rice, he was a xd radio technician, and. he". was going to Houston from Miami, but it was a cold winter and. he went to Maria Sol to borrow her husband's overcoat. and ‘she: dig it out of him where he was going; and she had fallen in love with a lawyer who was Bastista counsel here and wR shé told: h ims and he took her to the FBI. Priots people tater tried to kiN her, hlew her car up, but they didn't.) hs -~says he never dealt with Roselli... his own,opinion that. Giancanna” and Hoffa were all linked and that Hoffa hated Kennedy with. a 1 Pass! on and maybe he did it... coe te oniy ‘dealing with a guy named Rocky up in Gainesville (now: dead), he was a pitot..he mentioned he was with Hoffa and guy before: Hoffa, Beck; “He done a few things for me with the airplanes." -Netails of Oswald visit: "It was either kake August or BAREYX September. lee Harvey Oswald came to my house. He came to. my” house. Right down in Bay Cliff, Texas. | was “ arried toa | schoo! teacher. ! had divorced my wife after all that trouble.’. a woman, she was a real rich woman, she had this gx big house, but. | don't want to cet her mixed up in this, she didn't have nothing © to do with it, she didn't even know I'd heen in all that trouble. As a matter of fact, | was on probation then, when | married her. Rut me and Sam were sitting there, this was "Saturday morning, | guess it was aweu about 11 otclock. This is what was-so astoundtng about this Harvey Oswald business, now | want you to listen to this’: aood. Somebody knock on the max door. We was tiving right down on the water. And | heard this fella..we had these bia draw-string . drapes in the front, a whole big picture window all the way across the building. | heard this car stop out there, it was a station wagon. So | seen xkse these two suys get outxkReK there and then | went to sit down. (Who was drivina it?) This here other quy. { think he said his name was Hernandez. He was driving if. (Pecall the color of the station wagon?) I think it was kinda. pinkish. | don't know, it was a reat lioht color. But. anyway; ' they knocked on the door and this quy, kap xax | opened the . a!
door and this auy said, ay name is Oswald. How he told me that riqht’ off. He said, 'dust call me Lee.™ He didn't say lee Harvey, he just said Lee. So he says, "! can see | got The right man." That's what he said. | said, “Whataya mean?" He says, "Well, you're name is McKeown, isn't it?" and le. says, "Yeah." My wife is upstairs, she was still upstairs and , Sam is sitting downstairs, § think he was drinking a highbal| en or something, 1! don't know.’ But anyway, that was along ahout ae August or September,: I'm not sure, maybe k before, ! don!t know “ what month it was, but it wasn't cold. So | invited him xk in, so he came in and he had this Spanish man with hime "1 can Stysay he was a Cuban, | can't say he was a Mexican; 4 eanit. ‘Say ‘he was a Costa Rican, | don't know what he was,'! just “know he Was’ Latin | know he was Latin. And very few words. He introduced: hin’ to" 5 me, ! never will forget that, his name was Hernandez, -And'he ‘was well dressed. He was a well-dressed £x fella, but: Harvey! vial ‘to mean Gswald, he was in shirtsleeves, but this Latin was with” a tie and everything. And he commenced telling me,-: after. Ne =. sit down, he said, "Might as well get to the a point. ‘to want te! know if vou'd he interested in furnishing some arms, ‘We! re. gonna try to take over Salvador. (Salvador?) Down in Central, America. San Salvador. (Oswald said this?) ,Qswald said” Rig. And | told him, | said, now listen, man, lemme tell you something I'm on five years probation, and | said | don't have about maybe : a year to go on that damn thing and | don't want no part of ho A kind of arms, no kind of nothing, nothing to do, | don't: want to. get mixed up in it, | don't want to even talk of it. And, ¢ 2) fy) ama Sam is sittin' there. And he say, 'Well, vou. could make a lot... of money out of it.’ And | says, "1! quess you could make. a lor of money out of it and you'd have to serve a lot of Himes asithe 34. goddamn jail, too! | can remember that, | don't want to ever, ‘go. back to that place. So he kept talking, kept talking. He says, Well, | know, | know | got the right man and | know you.can ‘get wed me anything | want, can't you?" And | says, "I guess | could if | put my mind to something like that," |! says, "hut | dontt: want . to even discuss it." And in the meantime | was trying to get Ali cout of there because my wife was unstairs and | didn't wa ant Her to know all this stuff, you know, So | finally got him -out-and | whe he says, "Well, we'll talk to you later." (How !ong were they there?) They was there about 20 minutes, 30 maybe, ! don't know. So they went to the car, and they come back. And |-seen tem, a watched them throuugh the curtains. And they come back and they >. after | went to the door and | stepped back outside and he said to me, he said, "Naw, McKeown, can you do me something that ‘can get this done pretty quick and I'It! give you quite a bit of’ money 4: if you can qet me four -- tisten now -- four high powered automat 1 riffes with telescope sights on them, He sayd, I'l!lft be wilbing’ TO yy arts pay as much as you want for those mux BMX guns. Xam There's kaux just’ Fol of them, now you can do that pretty quick now, can 't you?" Ha says, .° "I'd he willing ta qo up te $10,000 for the four. And he | . . ee specifically mentioned 300 Savace automatics with telescope™. Sightse:r * side one a, ce Ee E as Tape oner-- ca. So oamen anal . . Me ie | HW 56829 Docld:32262501 Page 5 ee othe
| HW 4568299 " treratisnet eh conan wtartiobune weveratisen Mt, | aOtnetnatiombiegma And | told him, ‘Il told you | don't want no part ‘of this kind of business!!! (When they came back, did both of them come back?) Both of them came back, but this Latin, he stood back. | stepped outside and like he was standing here and the other quy was standing there. (And where was your friend Sam Neal at that time?) He was still back in the house. But the door was open, | left the door open, he was still sittin' on the divan, you know, in tee tiving room. But he was sitting there while we discussed this while they were both inside. He was there, And that was the biq thing, you see, because Dan Pather, he went ro Houstron to talk to Sam, and Sam told him it .was definitely, Lee Harvey Oswald that came, definitely: k he was the man who’ came and he says, 'I'!l swear'‘to it,that Lee Harvey Oswald vias the man who came to talk to Mac.' So he left, him and thts iguy that's the reason | know this other guy drove the car because, } seen them, you Know, when they left, they pulled up fin my., driveway and turned m around. | lived am right on the: waters (No you recat! whether they had Texas plates?) No, | don't. In them days you didn't think nothing about a person was gonna | kill the President. All | wanted to do was to get them the, hell away. (Wasn't it Rambler that used to make a pinki'sh color car?) | couldn't tet! you for sure what kind of’ car: it. was. | knew it was a station wagon, a light ‘colored. station. waqgon. | don't think it was a brand new car, but | don't know (Have a roof rack on it?) 1! think it did. That's one of them; things that qoes around the top for the luggage? 1! think. it: did, but !'m not sure. (When they got back in the car, did’ Hernandez get back in to drive?) That's right. ¢And Oswald . got in the front seat?) He got in the front seat. (How was. this Hernandez built. Taller than Oswald?) Well, | won't: say: he was talfer. ¢t think they was both about the same size, about’, 5'10" or B'it". (Was he wearing a hat?) No. (Neither of them?) - Neither of them. Oswald was in his shirt sieeves. (But. the : guy had a tie and suit on?) That's right. Very dignified’ I60 guy. (Was he older than Oswald?) Well, it seemed like he wa | imagine he was in his 40s. | don't know. A nice looking w “quy: And he was well dressed. He had a dark suit on. .... repetitious questions here).... (didn't mention Prio) ‘He did mention Castro. He said, You're the man wk that run all. the guns Castro and got cauqht with tkaxmakc the cache here in Houston ° weren't you? Yeah, | says, but that's all! in the past... (More specific on the date? Was it before Labor Day?) Might! been before Labar Nay. Because my wife was a schoo! teacher ‘and shes oh was preparing to & ao back to school. So it might have been.” He beaged me almost to aet them guns. And he told me, he says, .in any more of this kind of husitness....! (Did Oswald givey. “You “at any indication that he knew Ruby?) No, he didn't. (Where hé was from?) No, but he said ha lived in Texas, i can remember thet pe he, Docld:32262501 Page 6 me vs cat round: the fast of August or the first of September when he came to. ‘my. house. 1 can recall that she was in the process of gétting. ready | to go back te school. (Did he say why he mentioned. San Salvador?) No, he jast said his contacts had a big opportunity. to ‘take ‘over the country of San Salvador. But you know, from the way he talked” 1 think the onty reason he come there to see me was to get. those four guns, because he emphasized that's what he really did want. v Helly ic you don't have any guts!!' | savs, ‘Well, | just don't: want to, get.
say, 'l'm an..old Texan like you are, you can do me. that ‘favor, - we're both Texaas.' (Did Hernandez speak English?) | did, but ° he didn't do much talking. When he was introduced he said, "Glad? to know you. xk | heard a tot about you.! (Did Oswald ever “cally 7 back?) Oh yeah! There was a call come there, and | wasn't there wt and my wife was there, and this party asked, and she told me, ae she said, 'Who in the hell was it calling you wanting to know if you changed your mind vet?! And t says, | don't know who it {He ,says at this point he-was trving to ke eep his. wife from.findin out ahout his past. He was pretty despondent around that +imey : having lost his first wife, to divorce, and a few- jobs as a result of his arrest and its aftermath. tle had had: a good job. with. Houston Slush Pump, chief sales rep, when Kennedy was. shot because FRI came around to question him...He dented. he - kne 4 Oswald when they asked. ] Hell, | was scared. a ¥¥? ° [Telephone number of his house according to KE CE 1689 was. Bay Clif¢ 966-1492; his wife's name was Pauline Daley: it: may have been In her name at the time because he had been married, ‘t her only six months and she had lived in that house] - ‘ (%n CBS interview, you mentioned Oswald had blondish. hate? I what you call a real blond; kind of a dirty blondé or. brownt'sh lt wasn't real tiaht... [Had a picture of him and Castro when’ Castro visited him tn” Houston after the Revolution; )aezwaszabaakz(also had- newspaper. of his arrest and finding of wka cache)(never # caught him; h . himself in after they reided the house) ; NTR wo He had purchased a 104-foot converted Navy ship - the Buddy Dee Te also purchased a boat called the Cuaat, a 120-foot trawter,. twin me diesel... . wee At time of his arrest, he was a vice president of the Texas Drilling Co. of Oklahoma City... James Gwinn, was president; weren't aware of what he was doing... , ae A women named Evelyn Archer was living in house with: mothenvas- front...all the rest arrrested were quys who Prio had sent down. to help km him; he was in charge of the whole operation... (Were you ever contacted by the CIA when you were xw In Cuba?. : Well, |! was contacted by so many people, | don't know whether was CIA or not. There was one auy named 'Vance! | think, 1 . in Miami. ae oy BE He remembers he used to get the money for buying arms fiéom | ‘an va ko”. "office building on Flagler, the office of an attorney. who: was ae ’ counsel for Haiti. That's where he would meet his. Cuba nicontadts’ and get the money. In the attorney's conference room, The money © Be came from Prio'ts contacts. (Was it Fan American Bank Bldg?)"No,. NO» th. but that's where Prio kept his money" Because all the money | got. always had that bank's wrappers around it." . --The attorney's first name was Walter (doesn't remember lasit nae) 5" white huildina on corner of Flagler and ? fantrance not OF. Flagter)- HW 56629 Docld: 32262501: Page 7.