Originator: FBI
From: HQ
To: USSS
Document date: 12/19/1969
Document type: PAPER, TEXTUAL DOCUMENT

## Page 1

124-10369-10049

2023 RELEASE UNDER THE PRESIDENT JOHN F. KENNEDY ASSASSINATION RECORDS ACT OF 1992

JFK Assassination System

Identification Form

Date:

Agency Information

4/15/201

AGENCY:

RECORD NUMBER:

RECORD SERIES:

FBI

124-10369-10049

HQ

AGENCY FILE NUMBER:

62-117290-ADMIN FOLDER-H9

Document Information

ORIGINATOR:

FBI

FROM:

HQ

TO:

USSS

TITLE:

DATE: 12/19/1969

• PAGES:

289

SUBJECTS:

HSCA ADMINISTRATIVE FOLDER, LEE HARVEY OSWALD

VOLUME XXI

DOCUMENT TYPE :

PAPER, TEXTUAL DOCUMENT

CLASSIFICATION: Secret

RESTRICTIONS: 1B; 1C; 4

CURRENT STATUS: Redact

DATE OF LAST REVIEW: 03/20/1999

OPENING CRITERIA: INDEFINITE, APPROVAL OF CIA

COMMENTS:

INC FOLDER, LIST, MEMO, A/T, LET, R/S, S/S, RAPSHEET, TTY, INSERT, FD-302, ENV,

TABS, NOTE, DRAFT MEMO, COURT ORDER, NEWS RELEASE

v9.1

NH 50953

31

DooId: 32319415

Page 1

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## Page 2

DECLASSIEICATION AUTHCEITI DERIVED ERDUE

EBI AUTUMATIC DECLASSIEICATION CUIDE

DATE 05-16-2023

BY: 3043/98142

SEGRET

SAC, New York (65-23422)

Director, FBI (65-09127)

MICHAEL, JELISAVCIC, aka

BBP - R

11/6/69

HIT-

air.

Goble

McW 111ams

1.

STA

STAASITE;

a (40-T 44-/9225

SPORTA GEL 211, 326-1/28190

Reterance in made to Department of State telegr

dated 10/2/00 fron Sabusy Hoscow,

to State Headquarter.

Nyhich reported subject was ordered by the Soviets on 10/29/60

, Copies of reterenced telegran were

(a) previously tarnished to lew York and Chicago.

Lew York should remin alert to return of subject

to the United States for the purpose of interview concurta

Informntion on lim prevlously turninhed by "Eemmy."

Dont

In mind during any forthcoming interview that the Sovlots

save in the pot experted invionals

fron the USER to cover

the laot ho in a developed KGB sont )Subject should also

be curationed concorate als one and

packs Dunder bette

In the addrous book of Loe Harvey Orwald.

37ED 88566814/nde

I - Chicago

1 = 070 (65-9483)

DECLASSR

ALL INFORMACION CONTAINED

HORSIN IS

KECLAESAFIED

EXCRET MDIA CRONG

OTHERWISE

# 24,324

Classified

Declassify

OR: OADR2-4-84

IM:as

(7)

NOTE:

20P B24/05

HOUS

Sammy•

42188

as daised that the ta

Department, KGB, had been moünting

American Express

representative in Moscow.

We are desirous of

Interviewing suoject concerning what he knows about the operation

against him.

At should be noted that Arsenslyippel, predecessor

of subject in loscow, was recruited

admitted same

SA INFRIN NOTE CLASSIFIE

PER LTR. 0T0./417/81

SDGBSACICA

9/15/886

CIA HAS NO CENEGRONAO FUrZ COT

DECLASSTACAITORRARI

NOR.

OE CA INFORMATION,

(U)

SEE REVERSE

SIDE FOR

CLASSIFICATION

ACTION

HASECRET

HH 50953 DooId: 32319415

Page 2

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## Page 3

VENTIAL

7726

C 174

*TO

LON AS SANITIED

IN TAJ COsamant CIC - 3/10/97)

(STATE DEPT INTO IS DECLASSIFIED

PER SHAWCORN

10/25095)

CBeNRETED INFO

CLASSIFIED

UPGRADED. tO 56CREY PARCIN)

Honorable William P. Rogers

Secretary of State

Washington, D.C.

5601 Potomac Avenue, N.W.

Washington, D.C.

20016

July 25; 1969

Dos

REVIEWED BY #BUJFK TASK FORCE

Oid.

8-10-2

DS RELSADE IN FULL

E, PEASE IN PART

C. T i DENIAL

Dear Mr. Secretary:

In winding up my affairs at the Department of State, there is a pend-

ing matter which I believe merits your attention.

Lee Harvey Oswald, the presumed assassin of President Kennedy, was

alledgedly present at a party given by a Mexican communist sympathizer

and attended by the Cuban Consul, a veteran intelligence,officer, when

he was in Mexico shortly before the assassination.

There are allega

tions that the Mexican Government may have been aware of Oswald's

presence at that party and that the Cuban Government may have tried to

intimidate others who saw him there.

A careful investigation of these allegations could perhaps explain

them away. Until then, however, their public disclosure could reopen

the debate about the true nature of the Kennedy assassination and

damage the credibility of the Warren Report.

Since I was the Embassy officer in Mexico who acquired this intelli-

gence information, I feel' a responsibility for seeing it through to

Mits final evaluation. Accordingly, I have prepared a memorandum

# (enclosed) explaining this information and its initial assessment, keyed

¿to three memoranda of conversations with my Mexican informant.

I believe you would want to consider carefully whether to let well

enough alone in this case, or whether the risks attending possible

public disclosure of these allegations make further investigation

warranted

Respectfully

+: 72-76-00

Charles William Thomas

Enclosure:

Memorandum and four attachments.

NH 50953

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## Page 4

CONFIDENTIAL

CIA HAS MA ADJECTION TO

July 25, 1969

D..

OVATION AS SANITIED

MEMORANDUM

SUBJECT: Investigation of Lee Harvey Oswald in Mexico

I. While serving as Political Officer in the U.S. Embassy in Mexico

•City from 1964 to 1967, I became quite friendly with the Mexican play-

right, Elena Garro de Paz.. An intellegent, witty, and outspoken woman,

I found her a very useful if sometimes biased source of political gossip

and personal history on significant Mexican personalities. She introduced

my wife and me to many important people in Mexico.

She was also.parti-

cularly knowledgeable about agrarian affairs. A biographic report that

I prepared on her on May 3, 1966 is attached (Tab A) :

2.

On one occasion, Miss Garro inadvertently mentioned to me that she

had been at a party with Lee Harvey Oswald and two American companions

when Oswald was in Mexico just before the Kennedy assassination.

The

party had been at the home of her cousin, Ruben Duran.

• The memorandum

of that conversation, dated December 10, 1965, is attached (Tab B).

had not read the Warren Report, but I assumed that if Oswald had been

to such a party in Mexico, it would have been well known to the Embassy.

I also knew Miss Garro to be something of a professional anti-communist

who tended to see a communist plot behind any untoward political event.

However, the episode about her being escorted into hiding at an obscure

hotel intrigued me. Accordingly, I decided to report the matter in

writing. I gave the memorandum of conversation limited distribution

within the Embassy, and did not send any copies to Washington.

3. A few days later I was called to the office of Mr. Winston Scott,

who headed the Embassy's Political Research Section (CIA). Also present

was MT. Nathan Ferris, the Enbassy's Legal Attache (FBI). They had noted

with interest my December 10 memorandum of conversation.

They pointed

out that there had been a great many rumors about Oswald at the time of

the assassination and that some could not be verified and others had

proved false.

They asked me, however,

to try and get a more detailed

replay of Miss Garro's story.

Mr. Scott made clear that the FBI had full

responsibility for any further investigations of the Oswald case!

4. In a memorandum of conversation dated December 25, 1965 (Tab C), I

provided a much more detailed and accurate restatement of Miss Garro's

alleged encounter with Oswald and

subsequent developments.

Certain errors

in my original presentation were corrected. Miss Garro guessed that the

date of, the party at her cousin's house was' in early September, 1963. She

admitted that she had gone to the Embassy to report briefly about this matter

on an earlier occasion.

NH 50953 DocId: 32319415 Page 1

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## Page 5

SECRET

(CONFIDENTIAL

3

Durans after the assassination about a party which Oswald had reportedly

attended, but that the transcript of the interrogation was entirely

unsatisfactory by normal investigatory standards. Furthermore, the party

inquired. about was not the one at Ruben Duran's house, reported by

Elena Garro, but at an entirely different place. This transcript may

well be the source of Mr. Ferris' belief that Elena Garro's story had been

checked out and found to be untrue.

10.

It would appear: that whereas the FBI has discounted the Elena Garro

allegations, the CIA is still considerably disturbed by them. The CIA

may not have pressed for further investigation, however, for a number of

reasons: 1) considering the sensitive overlap and subtle competition

between two intelligence collecting agencies, it had to yield to the

FBI's clear jurisdiction; 2) there are obvious complications in conducting

such an investigation in a foreign country; 3) there is a close and

delicate relationship between the CIA Station Chief and Ehe former Minister

of Interior - President Gustavo Diaz Ordaz; and some some of the people

ppearing in the Elena Garro scenario may well be agents of the CIA. Under

the circumstances it is unlikely that any further investigation of this

matter will ever take place unless it is ordered by a high official in

Washington.

11.

If all the allegations in the attached memoranda were true, they

would not, in themselves, prove that there was a conspiracy to assassinate

President Kennedy. However, if they were ever made public, those who

have tried to discredit the Warren Report could have a field day in

speculating about their implications. The credibility of the Warren Report

would be damaged all the more if it were learned that these allegations

were known and never adequately investigated by the

competent American

authorities.

12. Reference is made again to the biographic report (Tab A) on Elena

She is hardly an ordinary or average person. Her strengths and

weaknesses become exaggerated precisely because she is not. It would

be easy and convenient to sweep this matter under the rug by claiming

that Miss Garro is an unreliable informant since she is emotional,

opinionated, and "artistic." I have been affected at times by that

temptation, myself. No American official, however, knows her better than

On the basis of the facts that I have presented, I believe that,

on balance, the matter warrants further investigation.

13. Elnally, the record should show that a representative of a major

American publication has at least some knowledge of

this story.

Charles William Thomas

July 25, 1969

CON

EGRET

NH 50953 DocId: 32319415 Page 5

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## Page 6

N7: 50953

DocId: 32319415

Page 6

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## Page 7

*

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02-109060 - 5061 414/07 gram No..

forme No 1308-c - hospermished both

linda t messelate ejo in part

paste career

that Busly was freed a dead to

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NH 50953

DocId: 32319415 Page 7

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## Page 8

DECLASSIFICATICN AUTHORITY DERIVED FROM:

EBI AUTOVATIC DEELASSIZICATION CULLE

DATE 05-16-2023

BY: F51493442

DIRECTOR, FBI

7/15/69

SIC, LFO (62-0-19290)

ARE INFORMATICE CONTAINED

HEREIN IS Y

S0: 29 120228

WHEn 5193

SAMUEL P. BERZON

MISCALL/NSOUS - INFORHATION CONCENING;

IS - ISR/EL

+233/9065d08 54s hule

DECLASSIEY ON, 267

5FK

Be-FOlet to Bureau dated 1/7/63, under first.

character above, no copy Mt, which enclosed a copy of a

letter dated 12/9/62, from subject to INS end in which he

indiçated he had ettended the U.s. Naval /cademy. M.copy

of subject's letter is enclosed for the information of iP.

For the additional information of the Bureau and

Li, on 7/10/69, (VF 569-S* reported thet SiNUIL L. BERZON (

(U)

contacted the inbossy of Israel, from Minnesota, exact

Location not obtained by inforrant, at which time he

Inquired of diss PNINA LOLLICK, a secretory at the Embassy, KU)

as to the stetus of & letter he

had written to the Embassy

a few weeks #g0.

contents of the letter and subject said he did not cara

to discuss its contents over the telephone. Hovever, he

did state he has quite a military background in the d..:

has not been nole to get clestance to servelin the israeli

Defense Forces, singe he right lose his eitizenship, but

thought [the Istaelis might find sorething suitable for him.

He mentloned that his letter also contains "many things of

s politicel nature", which he thought the arnelt should C

snow about; that be had been to the Embassy le couple of

years ago; that he could not gol to Israel then and that he

could not reveal the reason why, but that he told ill about

this in the letter.

iccording to informant, [POLl/C)did not give subject (Su)

an offirmative onaver as to the status of his letter, or es

to that ection would be taken in the matter.

(3) - Burest

(1 - 005-10929) (EMB/SSY OF ISRAEL) COU

2 - Minneapolis (Enc. 1) (301)

2 - FFO

(1 -(205-524) CEMBASSY OF ISRAELI LE

U)

170)

NH 50953 DocId: 32319415 Page 8

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## Page 9

MTC 62-0-19290

If Information from 569-S*is disseminated, (Su

it should be classifted "Secret - No Foreign Dissemination"

and should be suitably, paraphrased, since it contains

incormation turnished byle sensitive source in the Isreeli

CHOU

field. In the event IT prepares e communication which may

subsequently be disseminated and which includes information

fromT S68-S*, the cover communication should explicitly

state

that the Ill, or report, contains information which

should be designated@SCOPS. The Bureau will stamp the C

document prior to dissemination.

Since there is no indicetion that subject is presently

in the dimed Services, it being noted that in his letter to

Ills, above, he furnished his employment as Vitro Leboratories,

Silver Spring, lld., and the fact that his arret location 1s

unknown, no recormendation is being made to further identify

subject. However, It should search its indices on subject

and furnish the Bureau and WFO the results theraof. It is

further requested that i designate a copy of its repty to

the Dureau end TO files on the Embassy of Israel.V

NH 50953 DocId: 32319415 Page 9

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