HR EJL First Draft Page. 3 Before her disappearance from Mexico, Elena was well disposed toward the United States and had been friendly with Embassy officers. Her broad range of signifi- cant personal friends, the views of many important to the American Embassy, made her a useful Embassy target. Through- out the early 1960's she was carried as a target in the Embassy's Youth Program. American Embassy employees dealing with Elena. believed that despite her access to the underground happenings in Mexico, including peasant unrest, Since she had a tendency to romanticize developments in reporting on them made it difficult at times to determine what degree of credence to place on.what.might truly be useful and concrete information.
EJL First Draft Page 4 Elena's Story and American Government Agency Follow-up eS ee hah vovernment agency Foilow-up Elena Garro de Paz' story first came to the American intelligence agencies' attention on October 5, 1964, eleven days after the publication of the Warren Commission Report. The source of The Blind Memo was a Central “LICOOKIE 18(wx7241, p. 94, Intelligence Agency asset known a Entry #430, CIA #721; Blind Memo dated 10/5/64, CIA #576). The memo reported that Elena Garro de Paz, her daughter and Deba Garro de Guerrero Galvan discussed meeting Oswald in Mexico in the fall of 1963. The discussion was, reportedly, sparked by the newspaper coverage given the Warren Report. Elena and Deba are the first cousins of Horatio, Ruben and Lynn Duran. Elena, her daughter and Deba were invited to a “twist party" at the home of Ruben Duran. The party was in the middle of a week in the fall of 1963. Lee Harvey Oswald was at this party in the company of “two other beatnik looking boys." (IBID.) The Americans remained together the whole evening and did not dance. When Elena tried to talk with them, she was "shifted" to another room. One of Elena's cousins told her at the time that he (or she) did not know who the Americans were except that Silvia Duran had brought them to the party. The day after the party Elena and Deba saw the same three people on the Insurgentes, a main avenue in Mexico City.
EJL First Draft Page 5 The Garro's claimed that they had recognized Oswald's photograph when it was published after the assassination. The arrest of Silvia Duran "underlined their certainty" that the man had been Oswald. (IBID.) Deba added that Lynn and one of the Duran brothers had made trips to Texas. She also said that, even though they were always poor before the assassination, they were both driving expensive new cars. A notation on the memo (2/1 arcooxre never regained contact with Elena Garro de Paz. (IBID.) the(Etcoox8) nemo was not in either the Elena Garro or Lee Harvey Oswald "P" files but in a project file. It was found in December, 1965. See WX 7241, p. 94, CIA #721.) A marginal notation on WX 7241 says, "Why was this not sent to Headquarters??" (p. 87, CIA #714.) On 10/12/64 the Chief of Covert Action, FNU Flannery, wrote a memo for the record. (10/12/64 memo, CIA #596; WX-7241, p. 87, CIA #714.) This memo reported that Elena Garro de Paz had told her story to Eunice Odio who relayed on 10/9/64. it to (cxcupoRn ie The story is not as detailed as the 10/5/64 version. There is no mention of Deba Garro Guerrero Galvan. The story, perhaps because it is third hand, differs from the previous story in two areas. The party was at the Cuban Embassy not at Ruben Duran's. Elena talked to a Cuban
EJL First Draft Page - Embassy official not one of her cousins about the three Americans. A note, attached to the memo, to the Chief of Station, Winston Scott; from Flannery reads, "Do you want me to send the gist of this to Headquarters?." Scott replied "Yes, but we should follow up first." Flannery then wrote: "Nothing further." Scott then noted that the memo should be filed. The file indications show that the memo went into the Oswald "P" file and the Elena Garro "P" file. (IBID.) On 24 November 1964 a CIA informant reported some information he had learned a cSCANE/ Win Scott to the Files, re: June Cobb, 11/25/64, CIA Nos. 592-593; WX-7241, p. 88, Entry #404, CIA #715.) June Cobb is an “American Communist" who rents a room from Elena Garro. Elena oe (Gsict/ ae she tried to talk to Robert Kennedy when he was in Mexico because she had met ~ Oswald “and two friends (Cubans)" at Horacio Duran's house at a party. Elena also said that she had told her story to an American official, at the Embassy, who claimed to represent the Warren Commission. The COS noted that he had asked the informant to ger{ronmnn/1 }eo pursue the story. (IBID.) There is no indication thadlgresan/1 fursued the story.
EJL First Draft Page 7. On November 24, 1964 Elena and her daughter met with Mexico City representatives of the Legal Attache's office. They recounted the same story previously given “t ttcooxre 12] The date of the party was given as September 30, October 1 or October 2, 1963. (FBI 105-825555 Report, Dec. ll, 1964 entitled Lee Harvey Oswald, P.1) The agent who wrote the report noted that the FBI investigation of the John F. Kennedy assassination had established that Lee Harvey Oswald had departed Mexico City by bus at 8:30 a.m. on October 2, 1963. Lee Harvey Oswald could not have been identical with the American allegedly observed by Mrs. Paz at the party if this party were held on the evening of October 1] or October 2, 1963. (IBID. p. 3) Pecan Elena was questioned regarding the identity of other persons attending the party at the Ruben Duran home who tenes might have been in a position to observe the three Americans. Elena stated that in the course of the party her daughter met a young man named "Alejandro" at the party and danced with him. He was apparently quite smitten with the daughter and tried to call her on several occasions after the party. The daughter did not take the calls and as a result "Alejandro" wrote several letters to the daughter. Ms. Garro exhibited two of the letters, as well as a business card which identified the young man as Ario Alejandro
EJL First Draft Page 8. ney Lavagnini Stenius. (IBID) The letter which Ms. Garro said was the first written by the young man to her daughter bore the date September 1, 1963 and the Mexico City Post Office postmark September 2, 1963. When Ms. Garro was told this she commented that probably the Communists have facilities for falsifying postcards. (IBID) To further investigate Ms. Garro's story the Federal Bureau interviewed Ario Alejandro Lavagnini Stenius on November 27, 1964. (IBID.) Lavagnini recalled that there were approximately thirty people at the Ruban Duran-party, few of whom he knew. He recalled having met a Mexican girl who had recently returned from living in France. He was unable to fix the date of the party, but felt it was probably early in September because of a heavy rain which occurred as they were leaving the party about 2:00 a.m. (IBID. p. 4) | Lavagnini noted no Americans present at this party. He was familiar with the appearance of Lee Harvey Oswald because of publicity following the assassination of President Kennedy but otherwise had no knowledge of him and had never seen him except for news photographs following the assassina~ tion, (IBID. p. 4) There is no indication on the document that this information was given to the Central Intelligence Agency's Mexico City Station.
EJL First Draft Page 9 On 12/10/65 Charles Thomas, a political officer at the American Embassy, wrote a memorandum about a conversation with Elena Garro de Paz. (CIA #586-587, WX-7241 Entry No. 425, p. 91, CIA No. 718.) The meeting with Elena had been about other matters but she mentioned knowing Oswald. Thomas noted that she was reluctant to talk but did. Elena's story reported here is the same, but with Eusebio Azcue, Emilio Carballido, and a Latin American Negro man with red hair were at the party. A marginal comment by this entry in WX-7241 says, "How did Elena know about a red-haired Negro?" Elena also told Thomas that she had later learned that Silvia Duran had been “Oswald's mistress while he was there." (A note by this entry in WX-7241 says "How did Elena Garro know about Silvia being the mistress of Oswald?? This is 1965. Station heard trom(irrtNe/3/in July 67; see also WX-7241, Entry 613, p. 116, CIA No. 743.) Elena told Thomas that she and her daughter had _gone to the Cuban Embassy in November 1963. Once inside the gates they shouted “assasins" and other insults at the Embassy employees. Shortly after this incident a friend, Manuel Calvillo, an official in the Gobernacion, took her and her daughter to a small hotel in the center
EJL First Draft Page 10 of Mexico City. They were kept there for eight days under the pretext that they were in danger. Elena claimed to have told Calvillo that she wanted to tell her story to the American Embassy. Calvillo dissuaded her by telling her that the American Embassy was full of Communist spies. Elena said that some of the other people who had been at the party were taken to Veracruz where they were “protected" by Governor Lopez Arias. She said that Ruben Duran, reportedly "protected" by General Clark Flores, was very prosperous and was driving a big car. The COS wrote a note on the memo which says: “What an imagination she has!?! Should we send to Headquarters?" The Officer replied, “Suggest sending. There have been stories around town about all this, and Thomas is not only person she has talked to...If memory serves me, didn't [(sscooxredperer to Oswald and the local leftists and Cubans in one of her squibs?" (CIA No. 588, note from SW to COS.) The information in Thomas' 12/10/65 report was cabled to CIA Headquarters (Cable from Mexico City to the Director, Mexi 5621, date cut off my copy; CIA Nos. 584-585.) This cable reports that Elena is the wife of the "prominent Mexican poet Mexican Ambassador Delhi Octavio Paz Lozano." (IBID.) The cable informed Headquarters of the substance of Thomas! report including the fact that Elena claimed that Ruben Duran later told her that he was not really a Communist
EJL First Draft Page ll and that killing Kennedy had been a mistake. (IBID: see also Thomas! 12/10 report.) The cable said that Elena's against the pro- |: story would be checked wien fxenane/ duction from the Cuban surveillance operation "and other sources." (IBID.) Scott wrote, next to the routing indications on the cable, "Please ask Charles Thomas if he'll “follow-up". Get questions from Anne G. Please let's discuss. Thanks." After the December 10 memorandum/conversations Winston Scott (Chief/Station) and Nathan Ferris (Legal Attache) called C. Thomas for a meeting. They asked him to get a more detailed replay of Ms. Garro's story. At this meeting Winston Scott made it clear that the FBI ESE had full responsibility for any further investigation in the Oswald case. (State Dept: letter from Charles Thomas to William P. Rogers, July 25, 1969, JFK Doc. # ) Thomas met with Elena again on December 25, 1965, ‘The same date he wrote a memorandum of conversation which provided a much more detailed and accurate restatement of Ms. Garro's alleged encounter with Lee Harvey Oswald and subsequent developments. (CIA Nos. 580-583; Wx-7241, Entry #427, p. 92, CIA #719) Elena admitted that she had spoken to two men at the Embassy "(presumably from the Legal Attache's Office)." She said that she did not tell them the whole story because "the Embassy officers did not give much credence
EJL First Draft Page 12 to anything she and Elenita said" (Ibid.) She stated that the party had been at Ruben Duran's home. She was unclear about the date of the party. It was a few days before the Soviet Astronaut, Gagarin, visited Mexico; she thought that this would put the party around September 2 or 3, 1963. She believed that the party was on a Monday or Tuesday because it was an odd night for a party. The memo noted that September 1 and 2 were indeed a Monday and Tuesday... Elena could not check her calender to refresh her memory at the time of the interview because the calender was in a desk that had been stored away. During the conversation Elena described Oswald and his companions. The man who she thought was Oswald wore a black sweater. She said he was quiet “and stared a lot at the floor." One of his companions "was very tall and slender and had long blond hair which hung across his forehead. He had a gaunt face and a rather long protruding chin." The other companion was also tall, with short, light brown hair and no really distinguishing characteristics. The three Americans did not dance or mix with the other guests. Elena saw the same three men on the street the next day. (IBID.) Elena was certain that Eusebio Azcue, Horacio Duran, Silvia Duran, Lydia Duran, Deba Guerrero, General Clark Flores and his mistress, a doctor from Dalinde Hospital,
EJL First Draft Page 13 a young American couple who were honeymooning in Mexico, and several other people were at the party. She said that Ricardo Guerra, whom she claims converted Horatio Duran to Communism, and his wife, Rosario Castellanos, were supposed to be at the party but did not show up. (IBID.) The red-haired man and Emilio Carballido were not at the party that Oswald attended but at another party where Carballido and Azcue got into a heated argument about President Kennedy. "They came to the conclusion that the only solution was to kill him." (IBID.) Elena was not clear on whether this party was before or after the party where she met Oswald. | Elena said that Carballido “is a known Castro _ agent in Mexico." After the assassination he spent a year in Cuba. He then got a job teaching at Rutgers University through Dr. Jose Vasquez Amaral. The incident at the Cuban Embassy, where Elena and her daughter shouted "assassins", etc., at the Embassy employees, occured on November 23rd at or about 3:00 p.m. Elena and Elenita were driven to the Cuban Embassy by Elena's brother who was embarrassed by their behavior. This occured before they had seen photographs of Oswald. Later that day they were visited by Manuel Calvillo who told them that they were in serious danger from the Communists and that he would take them to a small hotel,