i. } i ; °° PEON AOE AIEEE CORO PNET SI PMT TINT POAC, AERTS! OF? INET, fF he or eg, 8 er EE So een EJL First Draft Page 25— evaluation." (State Dept.: Letter from Charles Thomas to William Rogers, Secretary of State, July 25, 1969. In the letter, Mr. Thomas also writes, “whereas the FBI has discounted Elena Garro's allegations, the CIA is still considerably disturbed by them." (IBID.) The Legat's office in response wrote that Ag e'{from the CIA had indicated that he was aware of Elena's unreliability. (FBI report, 9/30/69, p. 7, JFK Document No. ) The Legat's office further wrote that the concept that every person who passes on to another government agency information relating to matters within the jurisdiction of that agency has the responsibility and authority to review and evaluate the action taken by that agency is, of course, untenable. (IBID.)
EJL First Draft Page 26 House Select Committee on Assassination ee a tee on Assassination Investigation of Elena Garro's Allegations ae ee ena Garros Ailegations The House Select Committee on Assassinations investigated Elena Garro's story both through file reviews and personal interviews. The Committee requested and reviewed the CIA's, FBI's and State Department: Files, when they existed, on Elena Garro de Paz, Elenita Garro de Paz, Manuel Calvillo, Noe W. Palomares, June Cobb Sharp, Victor Rico Galan, Eunice Odio, Sylvia Duran, Lydia Duran, Ruben Duran, Betty Serratos, Horatio Duran, Eusebio Azcue, and Emilio Carballido. Only the Elena Garro de Paz file contained information on her allegations. Though all the names listed above played a role in Elena Garro de Paz' story, not one of their files included a reference to Elena Garro de Paz. Furthermore, the House Select Committee on Assassina- tions requested and reviewed the Central Intelligence Agency 's[ LICOOKIE I, LICHANT I, LIRING 3, LIHUFF TI and TICHBORN sites. Jonce again not one of the files included a mention of Elena Garro's allegations. The House Select Committee on Assassinations learned that{ LtcooKrE I was June Cobb sharp Juno first reported Elena's allegation. (Supra p. 4) The Committee also learned thay GEE MEND, Manuel Calvillo ) who hid Elena Garro and her daughter in a hotel the day /
EJL First Draft Page. 27 Ceo1rcwing the assassination.] (supra p. 13) He also told Elena that Sylvia Duran had been arrested before it was public an knowledge. Since a file review lead nowhere, the Committee decided to arrange interviews in Mexico with Sylvia Duran, Elena Garro, Elenita Garro, Horacio Duran, Ruben Duran, Lynn Duran, Emilio Carbillido and Betty Serratos. The Mexican Government informed us that Elena and Elenita Garro had disappeared in 1968 during the student uprisings and had never returned to Mexico. The officials stated that Elena and her daughter might be in Spain. (See Mexico City Procedural Write-up Trip 1.) Emilio Carballido could not be found. The others were interviewed between ssh | June 1 and June 6, 1978. ciate stele Betty Serratos, Lydia Duran, Ruben Duran, and Horatio Duran all stated that Elena was not the dancing type and therefore did not attend any of the twist parties at the Duran homes. (See: HSCA Staff Interview of Betty Serratos, 6/6/78, .p. 6, JFK Document No. ; HSCA Staff Interview of Lydia Duran, 6/5/78, p-. 6, JFK Document No. ; HSCA Staff Interview of Ruben Duran-Navarro, 6/6/78, p. 16, JFK Document No. ; HSCA Staff Inter- view of Horatio Duran Navarro, 6/5/78, p. 25, JFK Document No. -) When Sylvia Duran was asked if Elena or Elenita Garro
EJL First Draft Page 28 ever attended twist parties at the Duran homes, she stated that she recalled Elena attending one twist party at Ruben's home in 1963 when she returned to Mexico from France. (HSCA Staff Interview of Sylvia Triado Bazan, 6/6/70, p. 90, JFK, Document No. ) All the Durans denied that Lee Harvey Oswald had attended any party at one of their homes.. The Committee next asked the Central agence z i Agency to provide for interviews ' Calvilloyy LICOOKIEF /1 (June a, with a list of other assets that might help clear the Lee Harvey Oswald trip to Mexico City. ( The Agency declined to aid the Committee. ( The Committee decided to return to Mexico and attempt to locate the individuals. The Mexican govern- ment told the Committee that June Cobb Sharp received a tourist permit, number 72781, on June 27, 1947 when she entered Mexico through Nuevo Lareda She asked, but was denied, permission to represent the magazine, Modern Mexico. On June 21, 1948, she received a courtesy permit, number 25556. She disappeared in 1954 and never returned to Mexico. (See Procedural Writeup Trip 2 Mexico City) The Committee knows the information is incorrect. Ms. June Cobb was also in Mexico from 1961 through 1966. (CIA
EJL First Draft Page 29 Report, 1965, June Cobb File, 201 No. ) The Mexican government told the Committee that Manuel Calvillo did not live at Cuahtemoc 877-5 as the Committee had stated. Their agent in charge had spoken to the superintendent at the apartments for the past twenty-five years who said that no Manuel Calvtllo had ever resided there. When Committee staffers gave the Mexican governitent Calvillo's pen name, the Mexicans gave the same answers. (See Procedural Write Mexico City Trip 2) The Committee is quite certain that Mr. Calvillo lives at this address since it acquired the address from a recent CIA document. { The Committee believes that there is a possibility that the Mexican government received orders from the Central Intelligence Agency {to \not; aid it. (See: Procedural Write-Up Mexico City Trip 2). The Committee did interview Noc W. Palomares who told the Committee that "Elena was so brilliant that anything she imaged became real." (See HSCA Staff Interview of Noe W. Palomares, 8/10/78, p. l, JFK Document No. | The Committee made every attempt possible to locate Elena. On July 7, 1978 a Committee staffer telephoned her published Mortiz in- Mexico City and asked about her whereabouts. (HSCA Staff Contact Report, 7/7/78, JFK Docu-
EJL First Draft Page 30. ment No. 10016) The publisher stated that Ms. Garro was living in the Hotel S.A.C.E. in Madrid, Spain. ‘The Committee staffer telephoned the Hotel in Spain and spoke to the manager who told him that Ms. Garro had moved out. (HSCA Staff Contact Report, 7/7/78, JFK Document No. On July 14, 1978 a Committee staffer recalled her publisher who told him that he should call the Mexican Embassy in Madrid, Spain. He stated that all her checks were sent there because she was so paranoid that she did not even trust her publisher with her address. (HSCA Staff Contact Report, 7/14/78, JFK Document No. 9950) The Com- mittee staffer called the Mexican Embassy in Madrid, Spain and spoke to Adolfo Padilla, an employee who stated -that when Elena visited the Embassy a couple of weeks before to pick up a check she looked financially poor. He stated that when he asked Elena her new address she declined to give one, stating that she would return every few weeks to pick up checks and mail. The staffer left the Committee's number and a message asking Elena to tele- phone the Committee collect. (HSCA Staff Contact Report, 8/31/78, JFK Document No. ) On September 5, 1978, Elena Garro called the Committee staffer. When the staffer explained that the Committee wished to talk to her in person and would pay both her daughter's and her travel from Spain, Ms. Garro