1041041340140 SITET a oT: interim memorandum of a few weeks ago. _ MEMORANDUM FOR: _ Deputy Chief, Operations Staff suBaECT ees : Review of Agency Holdings regarding : soe Photograph of Unidentified Individual in’ Mexico City published by the Warren Commission |. REFERENCE’ oo: Letter dated 15 April 1975 by Mr. David W. Belin, Executive Director of the Commission on CIA Activities: within the United States, to Mr. E. Henry “Knoche (copy attached. to- accompanying report) 1. This is further to, and in completion of, my. . ae: The attachment is a detailed review in narrative, to meas order - together with appropriate comment~ ary ~ of our extensive holdings on thé OSWALD case that. have a bearing on the matter of photographs taken by Mexico City Station on(h, (4j and 5; October 1963 of an -) Unidentified Individual. “As a consequence of a combina- Be, ' tion of analytical error, misjudgement and under the 9 |. _ .8tress of an urgent desire to contribute to the develop- = ment of the investigation of the assassination, a cropped version of one of the photographs: of the Unidentified Individual was introduced into the chain of . .evidence in the OSWALD case on 23 NoVember 1963 by an . - FBI representative in Dallas. The successive vicissi- tudes which have now made this event a cause celebre : Fight down to the present moment are detailed in the “narrative. . SECRET ESTAR &t BY 7 ee (2 May 1975 es ee nae
13-00000 _by-paragraph refutation and comment on that article, .- | oe ‘which I believe is more appropriately handled by a sepa ir tgs rate memorandum to Mr. Belin, and I will prepare this as. Ne oa SECRET oo : ’ “3. The attached report is not intended to be an: answer to the Fensterwald/O'Toole article which Mr. Belin | attaches to his memorandum. (I have prepared a paragraph- a memorandum if that: is. Gesired. ) oe a pe era yet . : . pike 7 “whe point of the referenced ‘memorandum is that: OMG a& e _ consideration.should be given now to "whether or not the Le eee entire matter can be fully disclosed at this time." This. gltalr submission is designed to make it possible for you, the —— IG and others whom you may desire to consult to make this decision. The narrative-interpretive summary has been: put together in such.a way that it discloses no cyptonyms, pseudonyms or other CIA jargon. However, its contents qo well beyond what has been released to the public thus far “an the Warren Commission documentation. This point must be borne in mind in making a decision on Mr. Belin's © - question. To remove any question in anybody's mind about our good faith in this matter, the narrative is backed up by copies of actual documentation from our files. It © seems to me necessary, in reply to Mr. Belin, that he or his representative review the documentation that backs up. the narrative. The documentation has not been: keyed into the narrative presentation, but it follows the chronologi- cal order of presentation from 9 October into the latest developments in the matter, and there is an overall index — EY. t _to facilitate reference. to individual items. [NB: There i ee -is only one copy of this collection; this is it. ) peers a 5. As noted above, one of the photographs taken | in tat ; Mexico City on 4 October 1963 was introduced into the ae fue) Warren Commission public record. However, it was intro- oop et hs duced into that record in two cropped versions. The wo phe Warren Commission and its staff were made fully aware in > aa 1 the course of their inquiry at Headquarters and in. ye pst Mexico City of the origins of the photograph, the fact L) aft? that we had additional photographs of the same individual Gfie taken at different times in Mexico City and on the basis of full knowledge of these facts reached their own con- clusions regarding the irrelevance of the photograph to. OSWALD and the assassination. ( 6. In fact, we actually hold twelve different photo- graphs of the Unidentified Individual. Each of these are?— reproduced in the collected documentation backing up the narrative report (see Items 25 ~ 27). Chief, LA Division, 2 SECRET .
13-00000 an L, z | ee Ak! os wie wy 63 Sthe + XO ; . CLERC. King on 22 November 1963 (see Item 8 in the backup Pa 2 OY SECRET — - had indicated in writing to Chief, CIOPS, that he has no. objection for Mr. Belin to do whatever is desired with 7 these photographs at this time. It should be noted that Mr. Fensterwald in 1971 - 1972 was actually shown, by —_ Mr. Houston during a visit to the Agency, two of the twelve photographs, other than the one already published in the Warren Commission report. (It is these two that he has published in The New York Review of Books article © ‘which Mr. Belin attaches to his memorandum. ) 7. jit seems to me that whoever makes a decision on: whether the entire matter can be fully disclosed at this time should bear in mind that a subsidiary decision must also be made, i.e., whether to crop or otherwise fuzz up the background of the photographs or, alternatively, to publish the entire run of the photographs for the first time without taking out the background. Obviously, none of these questions apply to the passage of this material ~~ to Mr. Belin and the Rockefeller Commission itself. I think they should see the entire documentation as it stands. Perhaps after that, the question of what, could be discussed and the question of "how?" and "how much?" could be taken up with Mr. Belin himself. My personal recommendation is that the more we can say about this matter in a fully open and final manner, the better off we will be as an Agency. But it is my understanding that there are still sensitivé aspects deriving from the fact that the operation which produced the photographs was jointly rim with Mexican liaison and as a consequence publication at this time would create additional problems at that level dn México. Also, it should be noted that Ambassador, according to Win Scott's memorandum to documentation), allegedly played a direct role in the decision to put the photographs into the hands of the FBI in Dallas laterally from the Field. As far as I know, there has not been anything published about this aspect at any time in the past nor have we had any discussions with the State Department about that aspect of the matter. Raymond G. Rocca Attachments: as stated SECRET
13-00000 on a SECRET ‘2 May 1975, SUBS ECT : The Photo of an Unidentified Individual in the Warren Commission Report: A Factual Chronological Survey REFERENCE: Memorandum by David W. Belin to Mr. E. Harry Knoche, dens 15 April 1975 (Attachment A) Oo 1. Reference memorandum suggests it would be appropriate to reconsider full disclosure at this time of the circumstances and factual ‘data relative to the Subject. The purpose of this survey is to permit a realistic evaluation of the suggestion. Backgr ound 2. This examination and summary of the record concerns a cropped photograph considered by the President's Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy (hereinafter cited as the Warren Commission) and introduced into evidence as Odum Exhibit No. 1. The photograph (together with others of the same individual) originated fron a highly 1 See Hearings Before the President's Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy (hereinafter cited as Hearings), Vol. XX, p. 691. SECRET
13-00000 : i - i i. ot 4 od SECRET sensitive intelligence operation being conducted in October 1963, by the. qqlewican security authori ties) against the Soviet and Cuban "Embassies in Mexico City. ; 3. Under the extraordinary press of effort to develop information ; -on the assassin and the assassination, copies of the photograph were made available by CIA" s Mexico Station Chief on the afternoon of ne 22 November to the local FBI representative, and later that day, - assertedly on the decision of the Ambassador, copies were conveyed by. an FBI representative by a special flight carried out by the u. Ss. Naval | Attaché to the Dallas office of the FBI for possible use in the angoing "- Gnvestigation. One. photograph , cropped by the FBI, was shown to Mrs. Marguerite OSWALD (Lee Harvey OSWALD! s mother) in Dallas on the evening of 23 November 1963 by FBI Agent Bardwell D. ODUM. | 4. The Warren Commission's report describes the sequence of events at pp. 364-365 and 667 (Attachment B) which ultimately resulted in. Mrs. Marguerite OSWALD's allegation. that she had been shown a cropped photo of Jack RUBY the day before he murdered her son. (A further complication compounding this erroneous conclusion was the fact that -when she had been shown a copy of the same photograph in her .appearance before the Commission, it had been cropped by the FBI in Washington in a slightly different manner.) 5. No detail in the Warren Commission report illustrates more . vividly than this one the difficulties that beset simple truth in the SECRET
13-00000 0830 bu 2 OeGs. 63 het. he Mas chen | te si ay
13-00000 SECRET _ politicized, rigidly deterministic interpretive climate that has been "nurtured by the.media over the past decade about the Kennedy Assassina-_ | tion. The. photograph, acknowledged now not to be RUBY, has continued to. preoccupy “specialists” and has _ become the centerpiece of another hypothesis that holds OSWALD to have been "framed" by the use of a double in his activity in Mexico City.2 - Lee Harvey OSWALD - Reporting on Mexico City Stay | 6. “Although in no way related to Lee Harvey OSWALD or his stay 1 in Mexico City from the morning of 27 September 1963. to the morning of | 2 October 1963, at least one set of photographs of the unidentified man ~ originated during OSWALD's stay there. It is important, therefore, to an understanding of the acquisition and handling of the photographs by the Mexico Station to review what the Station ascertained and did with ‘the information it developed about OSWALD in Mexico City, together with Headquarters action on ‘that information. 7. From all credible evidence known to this time (none, incidentally, added since the exhaustively unique work of the Warren Commission), Lee Harvey OSWALD spent four (4) full days and two (2) partial days-- about 116 hours in all--in Mexico City from about 10:00 a.m. 27 September 2 This is the thrust of the article “The CIA and the Man Who Was Not Oswald" by Bernard Fensterwald and George O'Toole in the New York Review of Books, a copy of which is attached to reference (Attachment A). 3 SECRET
13-00000 ~ SECRET a 1963 to about 8:30 a.m. 2 October 1963. His place of, residence was a. smal] commercial traveler hotel, not frequented by. "gringos"-—the Hotel Conner ci o--where he was registered under. alias. Exhaustive and. | ”- detailed interviews and interrogation by ‘the Mexican authorities: and: the’ FBI, after the assassination, established that in 1 the recollection of: all hotel personnel he left early and returned late each day of his stay. - 8. Assuming, and allowing for the Fact it ake tivtvel and eatiy departure ; that he slept one- -third of . the time of. his ‘stay (38 or 39 hours) there remain some 1 hours of activity to be accounted for. Overall, CIA's information can account solely for very brief periods a during 27, 28 September and ] October. AN coverage ‘by CIA during the entire period was technical. The Station had no live source (ving agent ) coverage either unilateral or from Mexican Tiaison, 9. It should be noted that OSWALD was inno sense "under investi- gation." None of the facts of his defection and stay, in the USSR and return to the U.S. , 1959 - - - 1962, were known ‘to Mexico Station files. before 10 October 1963, when the bare bones of his biography were 7 forwarded by Headquarters in response to a Station cabled report of | 8 October which had forwarded, on a routine basis, what appeared to be a contact by an American for a visa to Cuba in transit to the USSR. This was indicated and deduced from technical ly acquired information on 1 October, which was the first and only occasion in which OSWALD identified himself (partially). by true name. SECRET
13-00000 SEUK bk 4 10. At no time during his stay in Mexico City did the CIA acquire . a photo of OSWALD. A careful review of all coverage, voice intercept, as well as photographic, of both the Soviet and Cuban Embassies was, on - conducted by the Station on 22 and 23 November 1963 after the assassins tien, going back to materials from August 1963. It is, therefore, fim, that there was no CIA photo coverage of OSWALD at any. time during. his _ Mexico trip. or stay in Mexico City. Moreover, although it had made a cabled request on ‘WS October, the Mexico Station had no photo of OSWALD a in its records, nor. did it receive one from Headquarters—which ¢ did not : have one ei ther--before 22 November 1963. 1. byvits Enis intensive review of voice intercept transcripts by t the monitor and other personnel on the basis of the 1 October inter- cept--which had been reported to Headquarters and disseminated to the interested members of the intelligence community (as an ex-Harine OSWALD was a Navy and FBI case under the Delimitations Agreement, and potentially _ of interest to the Department of . State)--turned up matches based on content with materials intercepted on 27 and 28 September 1963: . These matches were reported to Headquarters on 23 November 1963. Analysis based on voice comparison (except for what could be recalled by the monitor--and this was not an insignificant element because of the | memorably poor Russian spoke by OSWALD) could not be made because the tapes, in accordance with the normal practice, had been erased and re-used. SECRET
13-00000 12 It must be stressed that the voice intercept and photographic coverage was not (and normally is not) processed in “real time." The.» ° means of acquisition and the volume of the information precludes anything 7 but the spot reporting of items judged by the monitor ‘to be of more ‘than ordinary interest and, therefore, noted in summary logs . Full texts of selected items require consultation of the tape and. either a full tran- scription or full translation or both. Photo coverage tends to become available in quantity lots which requires scanning and selection on a rapid and accelerated basis in four or five day "peaks.". One of the - "triggers" that normally. operates to focus and accelerate more speedy review and reporting of this kind of raw intelligence is the mention of a name. This was precisely what occurred in the second of two conversa- tions on 1 October with the Soviet Embassy, during which the speaker said he was “Lee OSWALD." It was this information reported by the Station to Headquarters in its first indication on OSWALD on 8 October 1963.0 13. The Mexico Station did one more thing in its 8 October ‘report on Lee OSWALD based on its 1 October voice intercepts: it coupled the data with descriptive information it had acquired from a sensitive collateral source--a photograph of a male individual, apparently an. American, who was observed entering the Soviet Embassy on @ October... Ge The Station reported this detail on the 8th as a matter of coincident fact. The Station did not assert or suggest that the data deduced from the photo was in fact OSWALD, or indeed, was in any way related to OSWALD. SECRET
13-00000 SECRET te Lee Harvey OSWALD - CIA Coverage of His Mexico City Stay 14.. One additional element of background must be stipulated now as the final precondition to understanding the relevarice (or irrelevance) | of the photo of the unknown individual placed in the chain of evidence on 23 November in Dallas by FBI Agent Bardwell ODUM: ‘what was the totality of CIA Mexico's coverage of OSWALD'S ‘activity as of the after- noon of the 23rd when all available coverage fad been checked? 15. The totality of Mexico Station coverage on, or reasonably inferable to be OSWALD, consisted of five (5) voice intercepts as follows: a. 27 September 1963 (Friday), 1605 hours Mexico City time. Silvia DURAN, a Mexican national, a local emp loyee of the Cuban ‘Embassy, Consular section, a receptionist, speaks with an unknown male at the Soviet Embassy. Silvia DURAN tells the man that the | “American ‘citizen was there, the one who wants a visa for Cuba on his way to the Soviet Union, and he wants to know with whom he was talking there because she (Silvia DURAN) had sent him to the Soviet ’ Embassy saying that if they accepted him and gave him a visa, then the Cubans (Embassy) would also give him a visa without further paper work, only advising Immigration in Cuba. The American, she says, wants to know with whom he had talked there because he says he was told there would be no problem. The man in the Soviet Embassy says to wait a moment. A different Soviet speaks, and SECRET
13-00000 te, SECRET 7 ‘Silvia DURAN explains the same thing to him. This man says to leave a name and telephone number and says he will call back. ” silvia DURAN gives the teleptione 1- 28- 47 (cuban Consulate). ‘She also takes advantage of the conversation and states she has “moved and wants to advise the Soviet Embassy of her change of . address SO that she can receive ‘the ‘Soviet ‘Embassy's Bulletin. The man says to call KOUKHARENKO to give her: new address , then he "asks | the name of the Consul: or Cultural Attache. Silvia DURAN says , the name is Teresa PROENZA and the telephone number is u- 13- 26. oe The man says ‘thanks. b. 27 September 1963 (Friday), 1626 hours Mexico City time. An unidentified male, a Soviet, calls the Cuban Gonsulate, asks | Silvia DURAN if the American had been there. Silvia DURAN says he | is there now. The Soviet says the Anerican showed papers Fron the Consulate - in Washington, that he wants to go to the Soviet Union -and be there for a long time with his wife, who is Russian, but the answer has not come from Washington in respect to this problem, and according to this procedure it takes four or five months, but . without having permission from the Soviet Union they should ask, or better said, they cannot issue a visa there without asking Washing- ton. However, according to this man, he showed a letter indicating he was a member of an organization in favor of Cuba and that the Cubans said that they cannot issue a visa without his having a visa SECRET
13-00000 meee ee eee i \ ! i- : i 1 4 \, SECRET for the Soviet Union, and now he (the Soviet) does not know what to do with him (the American), because they have to wait for an answer | from Washington. ce ne Silvia “DURAN agrees the same problem exists with ‘the Cubans that the problem with him (the American) is that: he does not, know anyone in Cuba and therefore if ‘that is true it wil be difficult a ’ for- him to get a visa for: Cuba, because he was thinking, ‘of proces - 7 sing. his visa (For ‘the Soviet Union), because he knew it would require waiting a _Tong time for his visa to. the Soviet, ‘Union while. | in Cuba, and from there go to the Soviet Union. The Soviet said the thing is that if his wife right F now were in n Washington she. “| would receive her visa right now, or permission, fron the Soviet aan " Union, to return to her country, she is going to receive her visa in . “Washington but having this visa, she could communicate to any place this permission, for example here or any: place she could receive it. (visa or permission), but right now they do not have them. | Silvia _ DURAN says certainly cand they cannot give a letter. either because they do not know if the visa will be approved. ‘The Soviet says he cannot give a letter or recommendation either because he does not know him (the American) and asks to be excused for bothering her. Silvia DURAN says that is all right and many thanks. c. 28 September 1963 (Saturday), 1151 hours Mexico City time. Silvia DURAN calls the USSR Embassy and talks to an unidentified SECRET
13-00000 - | SECRET “Soviet. She says that in the Cuban Embassy there is a North “American who was at the Soviet Embassy. ‘The Soviet says wait a minute. Silvia DURAN speaks English with someone--and comments in Spanish that they gave APARICIO ‘telephone 14-12-99 and to take the number down--Si Ivia DURAN then says the American citizen. is going to talk with you, i.e., the Soviet. _ The American first speaks Russian and the Soviet speaks English. They continue in English. 7 The American talks broken Russian and says I was in your Embassy and spoke to your: Consul. Just a minute, A Soviet takes the phone and asks the American in English what ‘does he want? The American says please speak Russian. The Soviet says what else do you want? The American says I was just now at your Embassy and they took my _ address. The Soviet says I know that. The American, in hardly recognizable Russian, says I did not know it then. I went to the Cuban Embassy to ask them for my address, because they have it. The Soviet says why don’t you come again and leave your. address . with us, it is not far from the Cuban Embassy. The American says I'l] be there right away. d. 1 October 1963 (Tuesday), 1031 hours Mexico City time. An unknown male (Aner ican) calls the Soviet ‘Embassy, the Military Attaché ': s number, 15-69-87, and says to an unidentified Soviet respondent: I was at your place last Saturday and talked to your Consul. They said that they would send a telegram to Washington, 10 SECRET
13-00000 { | I f sae SECRET = and I wanted to ask you if there is anything new? The Soviet says | I would like to ask you to call another phone number? Please write it down: 15-60-55, and ask for a consul. Thank you. e. 1 October 1963 (Tuesday) , 1045 hours Mexico City time. The same person who phoned a day or so ago and spoke “in broken Russian speaks to OBYEDKOV (a Soviet Embassy guard). He ‘says: This is Lee OSWALD speaking. I was at your place last Saturday and ~ spoké to a consul, and they said that they would send a telegram to. Washington, so I wanted to find out if you have anything new? But. I don't remember the name of that consul. OBYEDKOV says: KOSTIKOV. He is dark (hair or skin - ?).. OSWALD says yes. My name is OSWALD. OBYEDKOV says, just a minute, I'll find out. They say that they | have not received anything yet. OSWALD says? Have they done anything? OBYEDKOV says: Yes, they say that a request has been sent out, but nothing has been received as yet. OSWALD says, and what . . . ? OBYEDKOV hangs up. 16. Each of these items, including the texts of the raw intercepts, were read by, discussed with, and examined by “Warren Commission staffers in Headquarters and at the Mexico Station during a stay from 8 - 13 April 1964.3 All were made available promptly to the FBI. 3. The Warren Commission group that visited the Mexico Station consisted of Mr. Coleman, Mr. Slawson, and Mr. Willens. They examined not only the 1] SECRET
13-00000 SECRET 17. Summing up, we can state, or by free interpretation reasonably _ infer from the intercept evidence, that OSWALD made or could have made the Following contacts with the Cuban and Soviet official establishments in Mexico City. a. 27 September 1963 (Friday). After arrival and check-in to _his hotel, OSWALD went first to the Cuban Embassy where he talked with Mrs. Silvia DURAN. . The time of his first Cuban Embassy visit | is unknown.. The time of his second Cuban. Embassy visit was about 1600 hours (i.e., just before closing). Someét ime between the two ‘Cuban Embassy visits, at Mrs. DURAN's indication, he must have visited the Soviet Embassy. We have no indicatiohwhothe talked wi str at the Soviet Embassy. — . intercepts a - e above, but others for the 27th and one for 3 October. that seemed to have relevance. These have not been included in this summary because they appear, on review; to be excludable fron the OSWALD matter on logical or substantive grounds, or both, bearing in mind that the Soviet Embassy received many calls pertaining to visa matters. On the 27th at 1037 hours. the Soviet Embassy received a call fron an unknown individual speaking Spanish who said he wanted visas to go to Odessa. He was told the Consul was not in and to call back at 1130. OSWALD is known to have arrived at the Flecha Roja bus terminal on bus #516 at circa 1000 hours on the 27th. It was, therefore, possible for him to have made this call. But granting this, it is unreasonable to believe the calls were OSWALD's for the following reasons: a. The caller wanted visas, and specifically for Odessa. OSWALD was seeking a visa and never in any context did he specify the Black Sea port of Odessa as a destination. @ 12 SECRET
13-00000 yank pawd Pe tol Bl lm, Camera the eg Mac fitted bua re | bowl, i
13-00000 SECRET ao c. 29 September 1963 (Sunday). No activity registered. d. 30 September 1963 (Monday). No activity registered. . ; (It is known that OSWALD reserved space this date on a México City- * Laredo bus , departing 2 October 1963 at 0830 hours.) a — e@. «1 October 1963 (Tuesday) . OSWALD made at least’ two calls, at 1031 and 1045 hours, to the Soviet Embassy. He identified himself | twice during the second call when he talked with OBYEDKOV--a guard-- and referred to his talk on Saturday , probably with KOSTIKOV. There was no photographic coverage of OSWALD on 1 October; if the follow- ing reasoning is correct, that was as it should be. “From the context eo of the two calls, there would have been no reason for him to go to / the Embassy. His case had clearly been placed at the sufferance of the USSR Embassy in Washington. His two calls on 1 October were concerned with whether any reply had been received from Washington. Under those circumstances, it is unreasonable to believe OSWALD would have gone to the Soviet Embassy on that date. 18. The camera at about mid-day registered the entry into the Soviet Embassy of a white-shirted individual who, in the opinion of the c. OSWALD had left Mexico City, based on all the credible evidence, the early morning of the previous day, 2 October, and could not have made this local call. 15 SECRET
13-00000 a ~ SECRET. Station, among all the persons photographed that day, appeared to be the only person--a non-Latin, and possibly an Ameri can--who entered the Soviet’ installation. On the chance there could be an association between the identification data derived fran the voice intercept and the descriptive dath derived from the photograph, the Station reported the two elements as separate facts in its cable to Headquarters on 8 October. 19. The Station's action was not unusual and really amounted to an analytic "quantum leap," justified by the primitive and initiatory status of the OSWALD. identification. Many examples of a similar kind of thing can be found in the day-to-day record of Station-Headquarters corres pon- dence and reporting. Developments from 8 October - 22 November 1963 20. Mexico Station reported to Headquarters on 8 October (received in ‘Headquarters 9 October) the following initial information on OSWALD.4 (1) On.1 October 1963, an American male who spoke broken Russian and said his name Lee OSWALD (phonetic), stated he was at SovEmb on 28 September when he spoke 4 Cablese has been rendered here, and throughout, into readable English, without substantive changes or omissions. Cryptonyms and pseudonyms have been omitted or put into clear text. . 16 SECRET
13-00000 tm SECRET roa with a consul whom he believed. to be Valeriy Vladimirovich KOSTIKOV. ‘Subject asked. the Soviet guard [Ivan]. OBYEDKOV who answered, if there was vo anything new regarding. a telegram to iiashington. - , 7 OBYEDKOV upon checking said nothing had been received yet, but ‘the’ request had been sent. (2) Mexico Station said it had photos of male «who appeared to be an. American enteritig the Soviet 7 Embassy at 1216 hours , leaving 1222 on: | october Apparent age 35, athletic build, circa 6 feet, . receding hairline, balding top. Wore khakis and sport shirt. ~ (3) No local dissemination was being made by the Station. On 10 October 1963 at 20122 time ‘the WH Division responsible for action disseminated ‘this report to the Department of State, the FBI, and the Navy Department by routine electrical transmission, adding some | collateral details drawn from a preliminary file review: (1) On 1 October 1963 a reliable and sensitive source in Mexico reported that an American male, who identified himself as Lee OSWALD, contacted the Soviet Embassy in Mexico City inquiring - 7 SECRET
13-00000 oI | 22. SECRET co whether the Embassy had received any news con- “cerning a telegram which had been sent to Washington. [The Anerican was described as approximate ly 35 years old, with an athletic ‘build, about 6 feet tall, with a "receding" hate iines 7 (2) It'is believed that OSWALD may be identical ‘to Lee Henry [sic] OSWALD, born on 18 October 1939 in New Orleans, Louisiana, a former U.S. Marine _who defected to the Soviet Union “in October 1959 and later made arrangements through the United States Embassy in Moscow to return to the United States with his Russian-born wife, Marina Nikolaevna PUSAKOVA [sic] and their child. (3) The information in paragraph (1) is being disseminated to your representatives in Mexico City. Any further information received on this subject will be furnished you.. This information is being made available to the Immigration and Naturalization Service. Although the reaction of the Headquarters desk was "by the book" and in good time, there were a number of errors in this advisory to the departments which, on the record, were concerned with the OSWALD 18 SECRET
13-00000 SECRET. a. OSWALD's middle name was misgiven: "Henry" for Harvey. The reason for this mistake is simplicity itself. The sheet opening the file on OSWALD on 9 December 1960 had been erroneous ly inscribed - . "OSWALD, Lee -H Henry." That sheet --unchanged except for the notation of the error--is still the first sheet in the OSWALD file. oe —b. His wife's maiden name was misspelled: |" "PUSAKOVA" for PRUSAKOVA. Neither of these errors are significant (though they persist in the. Headquar ters communications throughout the month). More important was : Cc. Paragraph (2) of the Mexico Station’ s report, which dealt with a concurrent, but separate, phenomenon, the description of an individual, observed going into and out of the Soviet Embassy, had been locked on to Lee OSWALD as an alleged descriptive fact. ‘The Station's. qualification, “appeared to be an American," was transformed in the flat designation of the unidentified individual as “The American. ' There can be no question that this misreading of the Mexico Station report was an analyst's error which escaped detection in the coordination before . release: the descriptive details attributed to OSWALD were so far off the mark as to be immediately recognizable as suck by the recipients in Head- quarters, among whom both the Navy and FBI had photos of OSWALD. (In partial explanation, if not exculpation, be it recalled that as of that moment CIA had no photograph of OSWALD in Headquarters or in Mexico City to refer to.) 23. Confirmation of this judgment is provided by the contents of the cable composed by the same analyst and sent as of 2209Z time (two hours later) to Mexico Station, referencing its 8 October cable: 19 SECRET
13-00000 a SECRET vn, (1) Lee OSWALD who called SovEmb 1 October _ probably identical Lee Henry [sic] OSWALD. born 18 October’ 1939, New Orleans, Louisiana, former . radar. operator in United States Marines who : defected to USSR in October 1959. ~ OSWALD is five feet ten inches , one hundred sixty five pounds, light brown wavy hair, blue eves (2) - On 31 October 1959 he attempted to renounce “his United States citizenship to the United States ' Embassy in Moscow, indicating he had applied for Soviet citizenship. On 13 February the US Embassy Moscow received an-undated letter from OSWALD postmarked Minsk on 5 February 1961 in which sub- ject indicated he desired return of his US passport "as he wished to return to USA if “we could come to some agreement concerning the dropping of any legal proceedings against me." On 8 July on his own initiative he appeared at the Embassy with his wife to see about his return to States. Subject stated that he actually had never applied for Soviet citizenship and that his application at that. time had been to remain in USSR and for a temporary extension of his tourist visa pending outcome of his request. This application, according to OSWALD, contained no reference to Soviet 20 SECRET
13-00000 1 _ SECRET -~ citizenship. OSWALD stated that he had been employed since 13 January 1960 in Belorussian radio and tv factory in Minsk where he worked - as: a metal worker in research shop. OSWALD was married on 30 April 1961 to Marina Nikolaevna’ -PUSAKOVA [sic], a dental technician born 17 July — 1941, USSR. No.Headquarters traces. He attempted to arrange for his wife to join him in Moscow so she could appear at Embassy for visa interview. His American passport was returned | to him. US Embassy Moscow stated twenty months: of realities of life in Soviet Union had clearly “had a maturing effect on OSWALD. (3) Latest Headquarters information was an FBI . report dated May 1962 saying the FBI had deter- mined OSWALD. is still a US citizen and both he and his Soviet wife have exit permits and | Department of State had given approval for their travel with their infant child to USA. (4) The Station should pass the information of reference [its 8 October cable] and paragraph (1) above to the Embassy, the FBI, the Navy, and I&NS locally. The information given above as 21 SECRET
13-00000 24. paragraphs (2) and (3) originated with the, FBI. oF SECRET (5) Reference and possible ‘identifi cation — | being disseminated to Headquarters of FBI, ae, 7 oo Navy, and TaNs.. Please keep Headquarters | advised on any further contacts or ‘positive | ‘identification of ‘OSWALD. Headquarters. feedback to Mexico city of OsiALD 's correct "description should have been sufficient, in view of the incongrutties with the detai Is deduced From the photo. of the unidentified ma'le , to keep these two matters apart as investigative facts. “But ‘things did not: ~ . 25.. work out that way. Mexico Station on 15 October 1963 asked Headquarters to “please pouch a photo of. OSWALD. " Headquarters, electrical ly delivered to the Department of the Navy ‘the following message on 24 October 1963. "Lee Henry [sic] OSWALD’. "It is requested that you forward to this office | as soon as possible two copies of the most recent photograph you have of subject. We will forward them to our representative in Mexico, who will . attempt to determine if the Lee OSWALD in Mexico City and subject are the same individual." 22 SECRET
13-00000 > bk UR tt fo ‘No photo had been received by CIA by 22 November 1963. © 26. Within its limitations and capabilities, Mexico Station had done all it could to comply with. Headquarters instructions: 4 a, Headquarters had been alerted, and in turn those agencies . with an investigative or policy interest: in OSWALD as an American “in the United States had been alerted, both in Washington and in the field. Oo | on _* 'b, Mexico Station had no further contacts by OSWALD to report - because-~as it was ultimately ascertained--he had left Mexico City on 2 October. C. OSWALD was not an Agency investigative responsibility, in any case. Even with a photograph, it would have taken very special efforts, triggered by the other interested U.S. agencies, to have made a positive identification in view of OSWALD's hotel registra- tion under alias. .*. There the matter rested until mid-day 22 November 1963. * The: Insertion of the Photo of the Unidentified Individual into the Chain of Evidence 27. On 22 November 1963 the Mexico Station cabled Headquarters at 2229Z time after learning of the arrest of Lee H. OSWALD, age 24, 23 SECRET
13-00000 SECRET possibly in connection with the assassination, and referenced ‘its . earlier messages of 8-9 and 15 October and Headquarters’ reply of “10 October. The Station requested by: "oriority pouch a photo of OSWALD so that Station © ‘can check all recent coverage for OSWALD. Forward- ing soonest copies of only visitor to Soviet Embassy on 1 October who could be identical with OSWALD . " (28. It is Clear that Mexico Station had forgotten that accord ing to its own communication the unidentified male in ‘the photo was of "apparent age 35" and that the accurate description of OSWALD Forwarded by Headquarters on (10 October precluded the identity with OSWALD of the person whom they regarded as the “only visitor to the Soviet Embassy on 1 October who could be identical." 29. The Station meanwhile had begun an exhaustive and accelerated review of all its technical and photographic intelligence. A dispatch was prepared in accordance with the indication given in the cable of 22 November, cited in paragraph. 25 above. The dispatch noted that 7 ; photo coverage of the unidentified individual had turned up on 4 and 15 October at the Soviet and Cuban Embassies, respectively. The text. - of the 22 November 1963 pouched dispatch read: © "1. Attached are copies of the only photographs obtained . . . on 1 October 1963 which appeared 24 SECRET
13-00000 . SECRET ’ : . a meen, in which 7 requested permission to give the Legal Attache’ ‘copies of photographs of a certain Person oe Se who is. known to you. 7 | es "Attached are copies of each of ‘the photographs ee - we have with: the dates. of the. visits stamped « ‘on a the, Peck: "At 6 p.m. Mexico time on 22 Novenber The pbs “sador decided that this was important ‘enough to ca have a member of the Legal Attache’ s office take oo copies of these pictures to Dallas, Texas. The | Naval Attache is making a special Flight from Mexico City for this purpose. The Legal ‘Attache’ s | officer who is going to Dallas has promised to ‘mail this material to you for me. “Copies of these photographs are also being sent by pouch which will leave Mexico City on the night of 22 November 1963. "Best wishes. "Win [SCOTT]" According to a sidelined comment on this letter, the Legal Attache's officer was Eldon RUDD. | 27 SECRET
13-00000 SECRET oé 34.. The. decision to remit the photographs to the FBI in Dallas ee 7 had been made by: the Anbas sador »- according to the Chief of Station, who go : simuTtaneous ly with the. FBI agent' s departure reported to Headquarters | oe, by cable (02442 time, 2B November ): - ir cgee "EBI agent left here 2000 local time with two copies | : a>) “each of Six photos of a person suspected to be ‘OSWALD, ona ‘special Flight for Dallas. He is “carrying envelope with one copy each photo for . airmail special fron Dallas. to J. C. KING at home as per telephone conversation with SCOTT. One copy of each of these photos plus a copy of each of the photos showing the same person exiting the Cuban Embassy forwarded by memorandum leaving by regu lar pouch tonight. _In view of above does Has still want a staffer with additional photo(s)?" 35. "Headquarters responded two hours later, 0422Z time, 23 November 1963, cancelling its request: e "], No need send staffer with photos. We have asked’ Navy for photos again, but Mexico can see QOSWALD's picture soonest on the press wire. "2. Have just re-emphasized to FBI Headquarters the sensitivity of photos you are sending and also 28 SECRET
13-00000 36. SECRET ~ relaying names of travelers with similar names. “ Note radio says OSWALD lived under alias of * 0. H. LEE." On the 23rd at 17292 time, Headquarters advised Mexico City: - "The FBI says that the photos of the man: entering the Soviet. Embassy which Mexico Station sent to Dallas were not of Lee OSWALD. Presume Mexico Station has doub le~checked . dates of ‘these photos and is also checking all a pertinent photos for possible shots of OSWALD." 37. And at this point, 2048Z time, 23 November, Mexico Station 38. finally agreed: "Saw photos of Lee OSWALD on television night of 22 November and it obvious photos sent to Dallas were not identical with Lee OSWALD held in Dallas. . Dates are as given on photos. "Mexico Station is reviewing all available photos of persons entering Soviet and Cuban Embassies." Two hours later (2254Z time, 23 November 1963) the Station had reported the results of its effort to review all available coverage: 29 SECRET
13-00000 a SECRET a “Complete recheck of photos of all visitors to Cuban Enbassy from August through first half of November against good press photos shows no. evidence of. OSWALD visit. Similar blank against "all Soviet Embas sy photos from 1 September. | Note, only visit. we: know he made to Cuban Embassy a. 28 September, Saturday, on which Enbassy closed and we’ had not had coverage. 39. With this communication the matter of. the "unidentified individual” reaches the end of Phase I, the key element of which is the conviction, at first latent, then expressed, that the photographed individual might be identical with OSWALD. This applies especially to the Station, though. at a certain point. even Headquarters moved no. - rebuttal despite the hard fact that the description of OSWALD and the . unidentified individual were quite disparate. 40. This review has attempted. to deal even-handedly with all items in the case record that have a bearing on what happened. The operational zeal, innovativeness , and the high committment of all involved, especially in Mexico City, speaks for itself. Equally apparent-- | because of the 20/20 advantage of hindsight--is the evidence of non-performance. It was a critical failure, for example, that no photo | of OSWALD was made available--though it was expressly requested both at Headquarters and by the field--or that it was not more aggressively 30 SECRET
13-00000 SECRET an) sought by CIA, before 22 November.. A photograph OF OSWALD would. have . obviated--in a way ‘the mere possession of a correct physical. description | evidently could not-- the whole successive deterioration of what began in ‘Mexico City, as an impressionistic selection of the photograph on. ] October 1963 into a cause celebre today. 40. It should be clear from this factual survey that never had there been a cause celebre with less intrinsic merit. It is + equa ly clear frroh the facts themselves that there was s nothing contrived ‘or “conspired in what happened, unless. we have now 1 descended to that point - in human values: achieved under STALIN in the USSR and under HITLER in - Germany, where just a plain mistake is per se evidence of conspiracy. The Genesis and Development _of Odum Exhibit No. 1 and Commission Exhibit 237 41. Special Agent of the FBI, Bardwell D. ODUM, on 23 November 1963 showed one of the six photos flown up from Mexico City the previous day to OSWALD's mother, Marguerite OSWALD. ODUM himself had trimmed off — -* the background by straight cuts. Mrs. OSWALD had no recognition of the image in the photograph. ODUM's own detailed account may be found in . _ Hearings, op cit, Vol. XX, p. 268. 42. The photograph shows the unidentified individual in a black ‘ shirt. It was one of the five photos taken of him in front of the Soviet 31 SECRET
13-00000 SECRET ~ Embassy in Mexico City on 4 October 1963, two days after OSWALD had deft the city. . 43. At this. point, for the record, the total available photo - coverage of the unidentified individual numbers twelve (12) photographs: a. Five (5) taken on 1 October 1963, entering and exiting the Soviet Embassy. He is garbed in a white shirt and light-colored /. (khaki-2) trousers. b. Five (5) taken on 4 October 1963 in front of the Soviet Embassy. He is garbed ina dark, open, button-down shirt with a — a / oe high-neckline undershirt showing and dark trousers. c. Two (2) taken on 15 October 1963 in front of the Cuban | Embassy. He is wearing a dark, collar less T-shirt or light sweater. ae oe The negatives of all of these are extent and are now held in Headquarters nl - as integral parts of the OSWALD and related file holdings. 44, The result of ODUM's display of the photagraph--to repeat, a aa cropped version of one of those noted under paragraph 43b, above--was Mrs. Marguerite OSWALD's allegation that she had been shown a picture of ‘her son's killer, Jack RUBY, a day-before he perpetuated the deed! Again the Warren Commission Report (pp. 364-365, 367) exhaustively disposes of this erroneous charge and requires no repetition here. A complica- ting fact developed along the way was Mrs. OSWALD's (correct) observation, 32 SECRET
13-00000 SECRET ont when she Finally ‘admitted before the Commission that the ODUM photograph . ‘was not RUBY , was that the photo had: been cropped differently from the 7 one she had been shown in.Dallas~ _ Inspector MALLEY' s cropped version of the ODUM photograph became Commission Exhibit 237 (see Hearings, > Vol. XVI, p. 638). 7 | . 45. ‘The het effect of the developments in the hearings of the — Commission was to require the admission of the cropped photograph into evidence tn.a chain of depositions beginning with ODUM, Including the FBI Inspector ; James R. MALLEY (who had trimmed. ‘the photograph used by the Commission in Washington), and Richard HELMS, who deposed for the © originator. These documents speak for themselves and will be found in the Hearings, Vol. XI, pp. 468-470. 46. Mexico Station and other senior Agency officers strongly. advised against the publication of the photograph in any form on the— grounds that the Soviets would be immedi ately alerted to the existence of a useful and continuing U.S. intelligence operation, and the opera- tion would go down the drain. There were repeated cables exchanged on this point between Headquarters and Mexico Station during the summer of 1964, in particular fron 23 September to 15 October 1964 when the Station had plans underway to abandon the operation. 47. In acceding to the Commission's request for a deposition, Mr. HELMS, then the Deputy Director for Plans, replied affirmatively to 33 SECRET
13-00000 | SECRET _ Mr. RANKIN by memorandum of 23 June 1964 which included the Following ‘additional observation: : "The ‘central Intelligence Agency recommends that. .... - oo this photograph not. be reproduced in the Commis - . -Sion's report because it would jeopardize a most an a confidential and productive operation. Ine | oe addition, it could be embarrassing to the indivi- ~ «dual ‘involved who as far as the Agency is aware | had no. connection with. Lee Harvey OSWALD or | the assassination of President KENNEDY. " 48. In this instance the needs of the Commission prevailed over the DCI's statutory obligation to protect sources and methods. The “Unidentified Individual" remains to this day unidentified and there is -no credible evidence up to this time to rebut the assertion made by © - Mr. HELMS in the concluding sentence of his memorandum to Mr. RANKIN on ane | 23 June 1964. And the operation did, as predicted; go: down-the drain. : Within a week of the public appearance of the Odum Exhibit No. 1 and Commission Exhibit 237, members of the Soviet Embassy began systematic efforts to survey the -surrounding buildings, ostensibly for rental a - space, but clearly their inquiries were directed to spotting possible : camera sites. The operation was continued in any case. Within a year it had become almost totally unproductive in coverage on Americans in contact with the Embassy--a clear sign that this category of visitor ke was being warned away by the Soviets themselves. +34 SECRET
13-00000 SECRET Ty Phase III: The “Unidentified Man" Photographs, 1964 - 1975 49. As could be foreseen, there has been persistent pressure by critics of the Warren Commission Report to exploit Odum: Exhibit No. I ands Commission Exhibit No. 237 for partisan interpretive purposes. A considerable correspondence has accumulated since the end of 1964 in . which the Agency has attempted to be responsive to these requests and, Simultaneously, has tried to satisfy what has been its sole interest from the inception. of the matter: to protect the method of acquisition of the phot ograph.and-the “foreign liaison. relationship which. made—tha cacquisitton possible) 50. Following are highlights from the correspondence during the current phase. a. On 16 May. 1967, over the signature of the General Counsel | of the Agency, Lawrence R. HOUSTON , CIA voluntarily submitted a statement about the photograph to Judge BAGERT of the Criminal District Court for the Parish of Orleans, State of Louisiana. The response dealt affirmatively with the contents of the subpoena that had been delivered to the United States Marshal] in the District of Columbia, despite the fact that the subpoena could not be executed because of the lack of jurisdiction. Mr. HOUSTON proferred on Agency behalf categoric assur- ances to the court regarding the inaccuracy of statements and 35 SECRET
13-00000 ~ SECRET a . inferences made by Mr. GARRISON in New Orleans. about .the photograph of the unidentified individual. The fol lowing ig extracted from | |. Me. HOUSTON! s memorandum. |” - "Because of. the publicity which has surrounded the Orleans Parish Grand. Jury proceedings , we have recently carried out an exhaustive search of the files of the Central Intelligence Agency for any ‘picture of Lee Harvey OSWALD taken in Mexico. As a result of this search, I can state categorically that the files of this Agency do not contain, and never have contained, any such picture of Lee Harvey OSWALD taken in Mexico and that we have - no information whatsoever that any such photograph ever existed. To the best of our knowledge and _ information, therefore, there is no such photograph. Furthermore, the photograph which is printed in the ' Warren Commission Report, Exhibit No. 237 in Volume XVI, never contained more than one figure, and the figure in the photograph depicts an individual who, to our knowledge, has not been identified. The circumstances of the filing of this photograph with the Warren Commission are set forth in affidavits on pages 468 ard 469 of Volume XI, Hearings Before © . the President's Commission on the Assassination of 36 crcrope Tr
13-00000 i i “edema, iNe2isen A. Rockefellers, ' David W. Belin, Joha oT, Connor.  C. Dougtas Dillon COMIMIS o.0" WN CIA ACTIVITIES WITUIN THe. ~ JED AVATES Washington, DC 20500 ° ATTACHMENT A Chairman Executive Director Ervin M. Griswold “Lane Kirkland)” oo / | April 15, 1975 — Lyman L.Lemnitzer ~ = Ron alc? Reagan Edgar F . Shaanon, Jr Mr. E. Henry Knochne — , 7 | / ee Assistant to the Director Central Intelligence Agency Washington, D.C. Dear Mr. Knoche: _As you know, Lee Harvey Oswald was in Mexico City in late September and early October, 1963. Shortly after he left Mexico City a photograph was taken of an American male and a question was raised whether or not this male was Lee Harvey Oswald... The CIA and the Warren Commission both determined that the picture was not of Lee Harvey Oswald ‘and that the picture was taken after Oswald ieft Mexico City. . : . -. Although portions of this record have been released to the. public, other portions have remained classified because ‘of concerns by the CIA at the time that a release of the full picture might disclose sources and methods which the CIA felt were not in the national interest to disclose at that time. In light of the false allegations about the assassination of President Kennedy and the false allegations of CIA involvenent, I feel that it would be appropriate to reconsider whether or not the entire matter can be fully disclosed at this time. I would like to receive by April 22 a full report from the CIA on this entire matter. Sincerely yours, WY oo eB _— David We Belin Executive Director Sle vid 96 2 GY aay wins 237: ua “| { Bet pte ee LoS ESL
Ol Any farts 13-00000 . ( ‘\Six weeks before the assassination of [1953, the Centrat Intelligence Ageacy. {sent ti i Federal Bureau of- Investigation | the Departments of Stare and the 7 Subject: hea Henry OSWALD On ! October-1963- a reliable: sensitive source’ in Mexico | reported that an Amevican male, who idertified ‘himself as Lee 1 OSWALD, contacted: the Soviet ! Einbassy in Mexico City inquiring - whether the Embassy had received | any news conceming a telegram’ | which had been sent to Washing. ton, The American was described #3 aporoximately 35 years old, - with an ataletic build, about six” feet tall, with a receding hairline. ‘j. mey- be identical to.Lez Henry “< QSWALD, bom on 18 October 1939 in New Orleans, Louisiana. A former U.S, Marine who defected. to the Soviet Unign in October 1959-and later made arrangement . through the United States Em- - bassy in Moscow to return to the | United. States with his Russian- ' born wife, Marina Nikolaevna |) Pusakova, and their child. °. 3. The information in paragraph eir is being disseminated to your represeniatives in Mexico City. xr information received on this subject will be furnished you. This information is. being rade available to the Immigration and Naturatization Service,! wey was Henry Oswald of the the Lee ic Lee Harvey Oswald? Yes, f£'pa kets Lie, megsaz accorliaz in Richard Helms, then chief of the Agency’s Clandestine Ssrvices, '¥64 memorandum to J. , general counsel to the “waren Commision, Helms explained : mame was ne following teletype message to - “.i, 2,10 is’ believed that OSWALD - phe Wian who President Xennedy.on November- 22, - Bemard Fensterwald and . George O'Toole erroneously given as ‘Henry’ in the subject line vand . in paragraph two of | “the dissemination. .:. The maiden sur- Was name of Mes. OSWALD was mistakenly — . listed as *PUSAKOVA,’ 2 o° But ‘Lem Harvey Oswald - was: not. “approximately 35 years old, with an athletic build”; he- was: twenty-three "years old and slender? Apparently the CIA. was concerned about the dis- ' erepancy, for on October 23 it sent the following. message ment-of the Navy: ~~ : - Subject: Lee Henry OSWALD ; -Reference is made to CIA Out Teletype No. 74673 [the earlier to tne Deépart- - message], dated 10 October 1963, — regarding’ possibla presence of sub-_ _ ject in Mexico Gity. It is requested “that you forward to this office as soon as possible two copies of the most recent photograph you have _ __of subject. We will forward them §: tg .to our representative in. Mexico, _ who’ will attempt to determine if ‘the Lee OSWALD in Mexico City and subject are ual? © — Sing? Oswald fiad served -in the Marine Corps, which comes under the y. the same individ- ._. administration of the Navy, his person-- nel records would have included. his © photograoh, What tae Agency did not say in this cable is that it had in its possession a- - photograph of the man who had apparently “identified himseli’ as Os- wald. The man in the CiA photo was mot Lee Harvey Oswald; he was, just as the Agency’s “reliable and - sensitive source’ had ceseribed him, approxi- _ mately thirty-five years.oid, with an athletic build end a receding hairline. - e According to a memorandum by Helms, the CIA never received the Navy's Pictures of Oswaid -and only concluded after the assassination that two different peosie were invotved.> Meanwhile, the photograph was deliv- ered to the FBI on November 22, iy63o e: . 0 o Not Oswald } + One can only guess at the confusio » Caused by the picture. The . FRI neede RO Navy Photograph ta establish th: . ‘the mystery man was not Oswald—L: _ Harvey Oswald wag. Sittidz handcuffe _ in a third-flaor office of the Dall: _Bolice headquarters. The next do Special Agent Bardwell D. “Odum w: J. dispatched with the -photograoh to th motel where Oswald's wite and moth: ‘were hidden. He showed the Picture t Mrs. Marguerite Oswald, mother of th accused assassin. Mrs. Oswald looked : the -photo and told Odum she dida’ _ Fecognize the man.? The followin _ dy, however, shortly after her son wa _ murdered in tha basement of Dafla City Hall, Mrs. Oswald erroneous!: identified the rmaystery man, She tol: the press the FRI hag shown her.: Picture of Jack Ruby the night before _ Mrs. Oswald's mistake. was. under standabie—the mystery man ‘bore : superficial resemblances to Jack Ruby and in her recollection of a brie: glance at the photogranh, two face: ' became one. But the misidentificatior ‘made it necessary for the Warrer Commissian to refer, however oblique: - ly, to the affair of the mystery man. In the twenty-six volumes of published testimany and evidence supplementary ta the Warren Report, the Commission printed the picture that was shown to Mrs. Oswaid.* The Warren Report contains 2 very brief account of the incident. “ According to the Report, the CfA had provided the FRI with a photo- graph of ca man who, it was thought. at the tims, might have been 23sociated with Osweatd.”? ‘The Report quoted an attidavit by Richard Helms that “the original photograph had been taken hy the CIA outside of the United States sometime bstween July $, 1963 and November 22, 1997 "800 The Commission's explanation is both imiecurate and tTisleading. The aplication that the CEA thought the mystery man was associate: With
13-00000 - ai the mystezy man. was impersof ting Osea:d or that aa unlikely cha. tof errars hid accidentally Haked both wee nee one rete cr Seeer sy ‘the man in the photowraoh and the . “man who “contacted” the Soviet Em- ‘bassy to Lee Harvey Oswald. - (The trcth was further obscured by the Report's reference. to the Helms affidavit, which described the circhhm- stances in which the.mystery man was Phoiographed only in the most vague and‘ genacel terms, The affidavit was. " (eated August-7, 1964,"* However, the Commission never mentionad in its Regort or in its twenty-six supplementae - ry ¥oluntes that .it had obtained .an ] jezliee atidavit from Heims on July 22, -: {1944 in which he was; much more _iSpeuifie.’* * “The original photograph,” | Hels 2d, “wes taken in Mexico + stees testifh, oo City “on October 4,-1963275? (This astier Halms affidavit was released in 1937 through the efforts of Paul Hoch, Py private researcher.) .° There is no available record that Sichard Helms ever told thé Warren Commission exactly, where in’ Mexico ity the . graphed, , “i which the photograph wag given to the . _| Commission ‘offer. a very plausible _ lsuggestion, The CIA required the FBI tka: crop out the background: in - the i “|photo before | handing it.over to the | Commissioa.! * The obvious conclusion is: that the photograpii was taken by a hidden surveillance camera, and the ~ CIA wished to avoid disclosing its. a location, According to knowledgeable >. }former employees of the CIA, the Soviet and Cuban embaasies,. among - fothers in Mexico City, were under », jeonstant photographic surveillance at iihe time. It seems likely then that the ran who, according to the CIA, “ileautee timaat a ee OnWalo™ wat photogragned embassy of the Soviet Union or of pome othe; communist country. “he first public hint that the mys-- tery man may have been impersonating ‘Oswald came in 1966, with the publi- _cztion of Edward Jay Epstein’s In- - qest, a schotarly study of tne Warren Commission.’ > Epstein interviewed one of the Commission’s legal staff J weho recalled the incident. He said he ‘fad asked BR aymond G, Bocca, the Agency's with the Cormmis- abuat the photegranh. The law- i yer later received word from the Agency ' sha: cha mystery maa was thougie to be lisisaa a 6 ' gina,! : Cywald 32 mystery man was photo- . . but the circumstances in — MERICS City . ne time the photograph was DUNKUA ee np pene a cee emery Oswald? The CLA said they wor’ check further and cail him back. | lawyer, tdild Epstein that they neve! called him back and the Warren Report contains no explanation of the Agen . cy’ s raistaxs,"7 cana 1 , Another piece of the puzzle fell into place early in 1971, when the National Archives released a previously classified ; “mgmorandum about the mystery maa ‘| from’ Richard Helms to the Commis J. Lee Rank- +904, the ‘sions ‘general ‘counsal, -in® Dated March 24); " memo informed Rankin: ec On 22 and 23 No vember, im- ‘mediately following the asszssi- nation of Presidant Kennedy, three . cabled reports were received’ from {deleted} in Mexico. City relative — ‘to photographs of an unidentified - man who visited the Cuban and - Soviet Embassies in that city dur- '_ ing October and: November 1963....°%. om eg ree eee eee pee tere confnsed with Lee Harvey Oswald, Birt m a , who had visited both the Soviet ani Cuban embassies, Was it the sam mystery ran whose picture had bee, snown to Mrs, Oswald?. Or was it ye another Oswald Dopoelsingsr? (7. additional photographs of the unident - (Firm evidencs of the- existence 0. fied man mentiond in the Wace sport was- turned up. by Robe: Smith, @ private. researcher. In 197 - Smith, Cormmistion to Investigate Assassin: then research’ director for th .tions, was poring over some recenti dectassified Warren Commission doc ' . ments when he fouad reference to tt " maystery photo. and two. other views ¢ ‘the same person.** Smith called } -discavery to the ‘attention of one « the authars, Bernard Fensterwald, wi - instituted a suit under the Freedom - 1% on the basis ‘of these ‘cables, “Helms went on to say, the CIA had sent -séveral reports to the Secret Service. ‘Attached to the Helms memorandum “were. paraphrases of these reports.?° Two dealt with the mySery man: ~ Me essage to “the Protective Re- search Staff, The Secret Service, ‘delivered by hand on 23 Novem- ber 1963, at 1030 hours. . Through sources available. to it, ‘the CIA {deleted} had come into _ possession of a photogragh of an _unidentified person thought: to” have visited the Cuban Embassy in mid-October, This individual, it was believed at the time, might be | identical with Lee Harvey, OS- WALD.*! _ and, <*> Messags to the Protective Re- starch Staff, The Secret Service, delivered by hand on 23 Novem- ber 1983, at 1030 hours. ‘ CIA Headquarters was informed [deleted] on 23 November that several photographs of a person known to frequent the Soviet- Embassy ia Mexico City, and who might be identical with Lee Har- vey OSWALD, had been forwarded to Washington by the hand of a ‘United States official returning to this countzy.?? Helins’s covering om memorandum af- fiermad that “ithe subject of the phato- wraphs mentioned in these reports is ct Inforrmation Act for release of tha ty Pictures. The Rovernment yielded zi - turned over the | _sterwald and Smith, They are. pu hotogranhs to Fe “lished [here for the first time. The two-new views. of the myste man were taken -at a different tic _ from the first picture. In the fi _ picture, Warren Commission. volumes, he’. wearing 2 long-sleeved dark shirt a: appears empty-handed; in the two ne photos he is wearing a short-sleey white shirt and is carrying some ki of bag or pouch, The new photos ai show him holding'.a small, sized booklet and what appears to bi wallet. As in the first photograph, t the one ‘published in t passpo ’ backgrounds of the two new phoi _have been cropped ont. Whoever was, he managed to be photograph: apparently by the CIA’s hidden s velllance cameras, on at feast | = - Separate occasions, And nzither of new photography reveals any, res blance between the mystery. man . Lee Harvey Oswald.. : (0) ane Warren Commission conclu nr nat Oswald had been in Mexico in September and early October. 19 Records of Mexican Customs ard migration, bus.lines, aad a Mexico ( hotel indicate ‘that Mexico at Nuevo Laredo on the border on September 26, traveled bus to Mexico City, arriving thes nex Uatted States on October stirs) on Oswald ents and returned to 3.75 Pas the bus to Mexico ( bered Oswald, but thare és morning, most no _eyswitnass testimony to : Bort_the Cammissioa’s_ ce eanstruc’ of Osea’ Smears alter he arr The Cammiatnats fF
4 -aeaee toe Yop inten srs me ne both the Soviet and Cubaa embassies rests heavily upon the affidavit of one . witness, 3 Mexican woman -wha- worked at the Cuban Embassy.77 . ¢ a : SMilvia Ticado de Duran was secretary : to the Cuban Consul in Mexico City. ? '' Tm a swomm statement?? she gave to the - -<puty cdizector of Mexican Federal c : Embassy in late September to apply r visa to visit Cuba during a : panned trio to the Soviet Union, Mrs. 2 aated exchange be. and the Consul when ial told him kis request t a BxinZ & “sembofricial” the Sovie! Embassy to ol said that Cswatd nad visited the Cuban ; peer . J . ° morcayver, conta! Uran's name an “newspaper reporter tried to interview telephone number. But the only cred hee in Apri! 1964, Her husband would. ible eyewitness testihony that Oswak not permit the man to speak.with her, in fact “visited” the embassy” is’ th: saying “she. had suffered a nervous - statement of Silvia Duran, Coo breakdown following her interrogation - When viewed~ in“the light of th. by the Mexican authorities and had Recently Gisclosed evidence sugeestin: been ‘prohibited by her physician... -- that ‘Somzone’ might have visited thi from discussing the Oswald matter “erabassy.. impersonating Oswald, th: further.”>° If this report is. correct, Commission’s falure’ to settle com .the interrogation of Silvia Duran may pistely the “question of the thre: have been a more emotional interview . ‘nisidentified photos - seems extraor than one would conclude’ ‘from. the dinary. It is probable that tha CIA dic report forwarded by the Mexicana po- in fact sugply an explanation of the lice. The report gives the impression photographs that was enough to satisfy that the police were routinely collect- the Commission at the time. If so, tha! ing information about Oswald’s Mexi- . explanation remains a part of th: can trip for the American authorities. classified Warren Commission. dacu- One question that arises is whether ments not available to the public. Ducan’s statement was even volua-. cb aymond Racca (who, until hi: tarily, and, if mot, whether her identi, WV Sreceat resignation, was the Agency’: fication of Oswald a5 the visitor ta the embassy is valid. f he Warrea Commission may haya | omitted 2 ful exploration of thi question because it had collateral evi- of Oswald’s visit to the Cuban action .officer for all post-Warren Re. port inquiries about the matter) told - onz of the authors that the CIA could not identify the mystery manv Tf this iz so, we may W fF Row the Agency could have offered a satisfactary ex- Erioassy. There ware for example, Manation of the incident to the Com. i ora Cuban visa, mission, Uatit additionat cocuments aad signa. bearing on this matter are declassified , Pes £ ture?! and 3 lettes reporiedly written fhe conclusion that Oswald sally vwisit- ed the Cutan Embassy must remain in Weashinsioa, refeering to his vistt to the some caudt. But even if he did, the Cudan Embassy.*? The address bank question whether someons was naver- found emorg Oswald's possessions - theless trying to impersonate him re- mains a crucial one, :
13- ‘00000 sae Ee Soria: T posing de Os iid vistted aud Cian embassies in thd 1963, me Savi batly gutuma of what implica- ° tons might be drawn from this dis-- ravary? One obvious interpretation is “shat someone sought to counterfeit a fresh connection between the man who ¥28 soon to ‘become the accused a But a. further. If someone were 3 Before the” assassination, . the a Co ommissian’s tase ‘should be ‘yeobened.. here “could be, nacent, expisnation of how the CIA meta misidentify the. mystery man 3 Ag af & 9 r embassies, If this were the case, is $i @ = Ware Y Lee Harvey Oswald departing from Soviet and Cuban embassies in ite oxic ce) Ciiy. Tf those - photographs _ Paist, theic publication would help to : ; settle the question, If they don’t, the co ane, & a pia Shauld now explain why not. In _ rither case, it should also disclose what . vdentified as Oswald on two separates casions, It should. explain why it shisves that this man was not imper- atiag Oswald. Alb these matters houtd be clarified both by..the CIA stit, and by the congressional com- pe be aes e oa i tees that are about to investigate its "- Sotivities, | - . 0 Other. Side, Tapes: “wesidential assassin and the govern. - freats of those two communist ” cour |. is not necessary to - -” to /impersonute Cswald eight . theory of a lone.” esas, ‘unconnected with any “con. eT iracy, is seriously unde ined and ee *Y ¥ ame t.0 Wypid. p. 4638, of ‘course, an? 7 * Hacvey Oswald: Oswald may | meaty. shave visited. the Cuban and “somewhere in’ the CIA’s files. | should be photographs of the = knows about the man it wrongly .. . government wiretapping. former chief of the Cia, His books include a novel, and, most recently, Taz Assassinetioa An Elsetrenic Probe into the Murder of Jahn ’ (hereafter, Hearings). » BG ate Tits Notional Ar€nives,- Washington ' 2yyoid. Her cotract maiden name was ' Prusakova, *Report of the Presicent’s Commission on tne Asscisination of President Ken- nedy (US Government Printing Office, 1964), P. 144, (Hereafter, Report.) * Commission Document 631 , OP cit, Styia. ing Office, 1954), Vol. 11,° *Toid., Odum Exhibit 1, _ Report, p. 364. _*Fbid., pp. 364-365,  "l Bearings, Vol. ll, p. 469- 22 Commission: Document 1787, ‘The National Acchives, Washington, DC, 43 Ibid, ; 1 pearing " * Edward Jay Epstein, Inquest: The , Vol. li, p. 469. Warren Commission end the Estabdlish- ment of Truth (Viking, 1966). Rocca, deputy chief of the CIA’s Counterintelligence «Staff, was onz of the four senior Agency officials who resigned, last December in the wake of The New York Times's revele- ‘tions of illegal domestic operations by the CIA’s Clandestine Services, 17 Epstein, Inquest, p. 94, ‘*®Commission Document 674, The ’ National Archives, Washin ston, DC. 197 bid, 20 hig, . 2 ipia, Ss 22 Ibid. Assassinations and od ; . F, XNennedy and tie Dallas Coverup. ‘5 Hearings Before the Presideat’s Com- .- _- mission on the Assassination of Presi “ dent Kennedy (US Governmant Print. p.- 469. *“Commissioa Document “566, Tr National Acchives, Washiagton, DC, no 3-4. . 25 Report,'p. 299, *SIbid., pp. 733-736. 27hbid., p. 734. Two other wilimesses told the FRI they saw Oswald at-th “Cuban Embassy. A Mexicen private stective who had visited the embassy on October 1, 1963, identified Oswald from newspaper photayraghs as some. ene he had seen leaving the embass, on that date in the company of : ‘Cuban, The detective was shown othe: photos of Oswald and. failed ‘to iden tify him, and the FRI seems to hav: concluded that he was mistaken (Com mission- Document 566). The Ware: ‘Report dots not’ offer the detective’ testimony as evidence of Oswald’s visi! Another witness who claimed to hav seen Oswald at the Cuban Enrbass: retracted his testimony after failing t pass a_ polygraph examination (Renori .p. 308). ' 28Commission Documeat ‘Téa, Th National Archives, Washington, DC. 291bid., p. 5S. Lo “2°Commission Document 963, National Archives, Washington, be, 4" Hearings; Commission Exhibit 256 >? Ibid, Commission Exhibit 15; et BERNARD FENSTERWALD-is Director of the Com- mittse fo Investigate Counsel for Senator Edward Long’s investigation oF GEORGE O'TOOLE is the robler Analysis Branch of the An Agent on ine was Chief