HW 53060 AGENCY : RECORD NUMBER : RECORD SERIES : AGENCY FILE NUMBER : ORIGINATOR : FROM: TO: TITLE : DATE: PAGES: SUBJECTS : DOCUMENT TYPE : CLASSIFICATION : RESTRICTIONS : CURRENT STATUS : DATE OF LAST REVIEW : OPENING CRITERIA : COMMENTS : v9.1 JFK Assassination System Date: Identification Form Agency Information HSCA 180-10110-10108 SECURITY CLASSIFIED FILES 009093 Document Information — HSCA 06/08/1 Peleased under the John 8/1978 Kennedy 4 WSsassination Records Ollection Act of 1992 (44 USC 2107 Note). [Restricted] ase#iNW S3060 Date: OUTSIDE CONTACT REPORT ——— Unclassified 1A Redact 06/13/1997 Press clipping attached.Box 4. DoclId: 32263513 Page 1 10/20/20
a an. TIt. AW. 53080" - pcr fbanaase $ Wh KENNEDY . ss, pare 6/8/78 | erm 3:00: Identifying Information: _Name,cynthia Thomas _ _ . "-Belephone Address 4420 50th St. NW. . Washington 1 D.C. ype of ‘contact: oe  Fetemtone! ; co Lote ex Person ‘summary of Contact On. 5/29/78 Ms. “Thomas was interviewed at ‘her home. on. 50th Street NW by Dan  Yardway and Harold Leap. Ms. Thomas said that her husband, ‘Charles W. Thomas had -conmitted suicide in’ 1971. M3 ‘Thomas was questioned. about Elena Garro de Paz. She said that she was oe ‘familiar with the story and only wondered why we had not. contacted her earlier. She said that Elena is now in hiding and has always been. a Little bit wild. Ms. Thomas was adament in denying that Elena was at all “orazy" . Ms. Thomas believes very strongly that Elena: had -to have had some basis for her reporting. Ms. Thomas said that she believed Elena's allegation about Duran being Oswald's lover because Elena was not the type of woman who took. part’ in” gossip, "women talk" or stories about other women. Ms. Thomas said that it was her husband,. not Elena; who -had figured out the corréct dates of... the. party from Elena's datebook. - Ms. Thomas does not know where this date-. -book is now. Ms. Thomas said that Elena was very bright, and "knew too much". . Recommended Follow-up (if, any) :. Ta “Form ES.
HW 53060 When asked why she knew too much, Ms. Thomas hedged and did not divulge any specifics. Ms. Thomas'said that their last contact with Elena was in 1968. At that time Elena called her husband from New York. She (Elena) said that she was being held at a hotel against her will and asked Charles Thomas for help. Thomas tried to help her. Cynthia does not remember all the things that her husband did to try to help, but does remember that he called Octavio Paz. She was sure that Thomas took other actions at the time but cannot remember them. She said that he always kept extensive’ notes and she would try to locate his notes from this incident. After contacting Octavio, Charles Thomas tried to locate Elena at the hotel she claimed to be at. When he called there he was told that she had checked out..in a hurry, leaving her luggage behind. Ms. Thomas said that Elena had trusted Charles Thomas and had taken him into her inner circle of friends. Most.of Elena's friends were Mexican intellectuals and leftests, hence the value of this contact to the CIA. Ms. Thomas said that the CIA used Thomas to get information from these people and that Charles Thomas willingly cooperated in this effort. Ms. Thomas offered two reasons why Charles Thomas’ report of Elena's allegations recieved the type of response from the American officials that it did, The first reason was that Win Scott was very close to President Diaz Ordaz and that this, in some way, may have been the reason for suppressing Elena's story. The second reason that she offered was that Ferris, the Legal Attache at the time, resented someone from the political section poking around in his business. Ms. Thomas said that her husband had always "bailed out" the CIA by providing them with the information that he obtained. She said, because of this the CIA was always trying to "pick up” their expenses but the LE, y Docld: 3272763513 Page 3
always declined the CIA's offers. The Thomas' left Mexico City in 1967. At that time a CIA officer took over Charles Thomas' contacts. Ms. Thomas said that the officer was named Stanley Watson and that he was now retired and living in Cuenavaca, Mexico. Ms. Thomas termed Waton a "bungling manipulator”. She said that Waston was involved in some way that she is not sure of in the Student riots in Mexico in 1968. She speculated that he may have been involved in inciting them. When asked specifically whether Watson had taken over the contact with Elena in 1967 Ms. Thomas responded affirmatively. | Not long after the last contact with Elena in 1968, Charles Thomas learned that he was being ‘'selected out" of the Foreign Service. The © reason for his selection out was that he had not recieved a promontion in the required manner. After his selection out Mr. Thomas applied for over 2000 jobs. He remained unemployed nevertheless until his suicide in 1971. It is Ms. Thomas' beleif that he was blackballed. Ms. Thomas provided an article about her husband that appeared in the Washington ' Evening Star. (Copy attached.) She also showed us a copy of an article 7 that appeared in Time magazine, p. 20, on 11/15/71. After Charles’ suicide, Cynthia took actions to. get her husband reinstated in the Foreign Service. As a result of this she obtained a job in the Foreign Service. William Fulbright and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee held hearings on the case. Most of Charles’ documents were turned over to the SFRC. Mrs. Thomas dealt with Robert Dockery (phon.) at the SFRC. After holding hearings the SFRC introduced a private bill which reinstated Charles Thomas. (Copies of report and bill attatched.) HW 53060 Docld:322763513 Page 4
HW 53060 -4- Ms. Thomas said that she took the matter to the Foriegn Relations Committee only after she had tried to-get relief through State Department channels. She said that her case was handled at the State Department by Wilmet Hastings, an-assistant to Eliot Richardson, and John McCumber. Ms. Thomas said that it was McCumber who offered her the job with the Foreign Service, and that he is now associated with the Museum of Modern Art. She said that he has always had strong ties to the CIA. Ms. Thomas suggested two other people who might know something about Charles Thomas and Elena Garro de Paz's allegations. Wally Stewart was the Political Consul in Mexico City at the time and all of Charles Thomas' reports went to him. He was Thomas' direct superior. Ms. Thomas said that he was also a very good friend of the Legal Attache. The other person Clare Boonstra was also a political officer and was aware of the discussions with Elena. Ms. Thomas thinks that Stewart is retired in Mexico and that Boonstra is retired somewhere in Florida. Docld: 322763513 Page 5