MEMO:REVIEW OF AGENCY HOLDINGS REGARDING PHOTOGRAPH OF UNIDENTIFIED INDIVIDUAL IN MEXICO CITY PUBLISHED BY THE WARREN COMMISSION
Agency: CIA
Originator: CIA
From: ROCCA, RAYMOND G.
To: DEPUTY CHIEF, OPERATIONS STAFF
Document date: 5/2/75
Document type: PAPER-TEXTUAL DOCUMENT

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ROUTING AND RECORD

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2 May 1975

MEMORANDUM FOR: Deputy Chief, Operations Staff

SUBJECT

Review of Agency Holdings regarding

Photograph of Unidentified Individual

in Mexico City published by the

Warren Commission

REFERENCE

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)

This is further to, and in completion of, my

interim memorandum of a few weeks ago.

2.

The attachment is a detailed review in narrative,

chronological.order - together with appropriate comment-

ary - of our extensive holdings on the OSWALD case that

have a bearing on the matter of photographs taken by

Mexico City Station on 1,. 4 and 15 October 1963 of an

Unidentified Individual.

As a consequence.of a combina-

tion of analytical error, misjudgement and under the

stress 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

right down to the present moment are detailed in the

narrative.

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3.

The attached report is not intended to be an

answer to the Fensterwald/0'Toole article which Mr. Belin

attaches to his memorandum.. 1. have prepared a paragraph

by-paragraph refutation and comment on that article,

which I believe is more appropriately handled by a sepa-

rate memorandum to Mr. Belin,

and I will prepare this as

a memorandum if that is desired.)

4.

The point of the referenced memorandum is that

consideration should be given now to "whether or not the

entire matter can be fully disclosed at this time."

This

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.

well beyond what has been released to the public thus far

in the Warren Commission documentation.: This point must

be borne in mind in making a decision on Mr.

question. To remove any question in anybody's mind about

our good faith in this matter,

by copies of actual documentation from our files.

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

to facilitate reference to individual itens.

INB: There

is only one copy of this collection; this is it.

As noted above, one of the photographs taken in

Mexico City on 4 October 1963 was introduced into the

duced into that record in two cropped versions.. The

Warren Commission and its staff were made fully aware in

course of their inquiry at Headquarters and in

Mexico City of the origins of the photograph, the fact

that we had additional photographs of the same individual

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 At i5

reproduced in the collected documentation backing up the

narrative report (see Items 25 - 27)•

Chief, LA Division,

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had indicated in writing to DC/OPS Staff, that he has no

objection for Mr. Belin to do whatever is desired with

these photographs at this time.

•It should be noted that

Mr. Fensterwald in 1971 - 1972 was actually shown, by

MI. 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..

It 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 MI. Belin and the Rockefeller Commission itself.

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 sensitive aspects deriving from the

fact that the operation which produced the photographs

was jointly run with Mexican liaison and as a consequence

publication at this time would create additional problems

at that level in mexico.

Also, it should be noted that

the Ambassador, according to Win Scott's memorandum to

J.C. King on 22 November 1963 (see Item 8 in the backup

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

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SUBJECT

REFERENCE:

Review of Agency Holdings Regarding Photograph of

Unidentified Individual in the Warren Commission

Report

Memorandum from David W. Belin to E. Henry Knoche,

dated 15 April 1975

1. In accordance with reference request, we have examined

and summarized the record concerning a cropped photograph that was

considered by the Warren Commission in the course of its investi-

gation.. The photograph (together with others of the same

individual) originated from an intelligence operation conducted

in October 1963.

The photograph is of an individual who to this

day remains unidentified. Intelligence did not provide

a photo-

graph of Lee Harvey Oswald during his brief stay in Mexico City

that month.

2. Under the extraordinary press of effort to develop infor-

mation on the assassin and the assassination, copies of the photo-

graph were made available by CIA's Mexico representative on the

afternoon of 22 November to the local FBI representative.: Later

that day, assertedly on the decision of the Ambassador, copies

were conveyed by an FBI representative on a special U. S. Naval

Attache flight to the Dallas office of the FBI for possible use

in the ongoing investigation. One photograph, cropped by the

FBI, was shown to Mrs. Marguerite OSWALD (Leé Harvey OSWALD's

mother) in Dallas

on the evening of 23 November 1963 by an FBI

agent.

The Warren Commission's report describes the sequence of

events that ultimately resulted in Mrs. Marguerite OSWALD's

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allegation that sh had been shown a cropped

_noto 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 Washing-

ton in a slightly different manner.

4.: Although in no way related to Lee Harvey OSWALD or his

stay 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 CIA's Mexico representative

to review what he ascertained and did with the information

developed about OSWALD in Mexico City, together with CIA Head-

quarters action on that information.

5. From all credible evidence known to this time (none,

incidentally, added since the exhaustive work of the Warren Com-

mission), 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 1963 to about 8:30 a.m. 2 October

1963.

His place.

of residence was a small commercial traveler

hotel, not frequented by "gringos" - the Hotel Commercio -- 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 the recollection of all hotel

personnel, he left

and returned late each day of his stay.

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6. Allowing fur the fact of late arrivas and early departure,

and assuming that he slept one-third of the time of his stay

(38 or 39 hours), there remain some 78 hours of activity to be

accounted for. Overall, CIA's information can account only for

very brief periods during 28, 29 September and 1 October.

7.. It should be noted that OSWALD was in no sense "under

investigation." None of the facts of his defection and stay in

the USSR and return to the U. S., 1959-1962, were known to CIA's

Mexico representative before 10 October 1963.

On that date, the

bare bones of Oswald's biography were forwarded by Headquarters in

response to a 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 information acquired on 1 October, which was the first

and only occasion on that visit in which OSWALD was recorded as

idertifying himselt (partially) by true name.

8. At no time during his stay in Mexico City did the CIA

acquire a photo of OSWALD. A careful review of all coverage was

conducted on 22 and 23 November 1963 after the assassination,

including materials back to August 1963. This confirmed 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 15 October, the CIA's Mexico representative had

no photo of OSWALD in his records, nor did he receive one from:

Headquarters - which did not have one either -- before 22 November

• 1963.

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9. It must bu

stressed that what information there was

had not been (and normally is not) processed in "real time."

The means of acquisition and the volume of the information

preclude anything but the spot reporting of items judged to

be of more than ordinary interest and, therefore, noted in

summary logs.

Photo coverage tended 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 identification of a person's name. This was precisely what

occurred on I October. It was this information reported to Head-

quarters in its first reference on OSWALD on 8 October 1963.

10. The CIA's Mexico representative did one more thing in

his 8 October report on Lee OSWALD based on the I October infor-

mation: he coupled the data with descriptive information acquired

from a sensitive source - a photograph of a male individual,

apparently an American, who was observed entering an Embassy

on 1 October. This detail was reported on the 8th as a matter of

coincident fact.

CIA's Mexico representative did not assert or

suggest that the data led to any deduction that the photo was in :

fact OSWALD of, indeed, was in any way related to OSWALD.

11.. One additional element of background must be stipulated

now as the final precondition to understanding the relevance (or

irrelevance) of the photo of the unknown individual placed in the

chain of evidence on 23 November in Dallas by the FBI agent:

what was the totality of CIA Mexico's coverage of OSWALD's activity

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as of the afternoon of the 23rd when all available coverage

had been checked?

12°

The totality of this coverage on or reasonably

inferable to be OSWALD was read 'by, discussed with, and

examined by Warren Commission staffers in Headquarters and in

Mexico City during a stay from 8-13 April 1964. All were made

available promptly to the FBI;

13. At about mid-day on 1 October, the camera registered

the entry into an Embassy of a white-shirted individual. In the

opinion of CIA's Mexico representative, among all the persons

photographed that day, he appeared to be the only non-Latin and

possibly American who entered.. On the chance that there could be

an association between the identification data derived from

coverage and the descriptive data derived from the photograph,

the two elements were reported as separate facts in the cable to

Headquarters on 8 October:

14. This action was not unusual and really amounted to an

analytic "quantum leap," in terms of the primitive status of

the OSWALD identification.:

Many examples of a similar kind of

thing can be found in the day-to-day record of Mexico City

Headquarters correspondence and reporting.

15. On. 22 November 1963 CIA's Mexico representative cabled

Headquarters at 2229z time after learning of the arrest of Lee H.

OSWALD, age 24, possibly in connection with the assassination,

and referenced its earlier messages of 8-9 and 15 October and

Headquarters' reply of 10 October. This cable requested by

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priority pouch a photo of OSWALD so that a check could be

made of "all recent coverage for OSWALD. Forwarding soonest

copies.of only visitor on 1 October who could be identical with

OSWALD."

16. . This obviously was for comparison at the CIA Mexico

City office which had estimated the age of the unidentified male

whose photograph it had selected as having the "apparent age of

35. "

17. A dispatch was prepared in accordance with the indication

given in the cable of 22 November. The dispatch noted that photo

coverage of the unidentified individual had turned up on 4 and

15 October:

The text of the 22 November 1963 pouched dispatch

read:

"1. Attached are copies of the only photographs

obtained. • con 1 October 1963 which appeared to be

an American. This same man visited (an] Embassy on

4 October 1963.

"2. Copies of these photographs were

shown to the

U. S. Ambassador on 22 November 1963 and a copy of

each of the two photographs was given to Chief FBI,

Mexico, on that date. • •

"P. S. Photographs dated 15 October 1963 were

inserted after typing of dispatch.

These were

taken

as [thel person entered [an] Embassy."

18. The "Unidentified Individual" remains to this day

unidentified. There is still no credible evidence, as

far as

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CIA is aware, that the individual in the photograph had any

connection with Lee Harvey OSWALD or the assassination of

President Kennedy•

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