Agency: FBI
Originator: DOS
Document date: 00/00/0000
Document type: PAPER, TEXTUAL DOCUMENT

## Page 1

JFK ASSASSINATION SYSTEM

IDENTIFICATION FORM

AGENCY INFORMATION

• AGENCY: FBI

RECORD NUMBER: 124-10004-10023

RECORD SERIES: DL

AGENCY FILE_ NUMBER: 100-10461-SEE COMMENTS

Released under the John

F. Kennedy

Assassination Records

Collection

Act of 1992

144 USC 2107 Notel.

Case# :NIT 54027 Date:

08-29-2017

DOCUMENT INFORMATION

ORIGINATOR: DOS

FROM:

TO:

TITLE:

DATE: 00/00/0000

PAGES: 34

SUBJECT: SEE FBI 105-82555-5612

DOCUMENT_ TYPE:

ORIGINAL

CLASSIFICATION:

PAPER, TEXTUAL DOCUMENT

Secret

REVIEW DATE:

STATUS

09/25/1997

Redact

NEW

CLASSIFICATION:

UPDATE DATE:

11/03/2000

COMMENTS:

RESTRICTIONS:

JFK Act 6 (1)(B)

100-10461-9199,9200,9201,9202,9203,9204,9205,9206,9207,9208,9209,9210, INC

DOS MEMOS, LIST, AIRGRAMS, CIT LTR

ITH 54027

DooId: 32114649

Page 1

---

## Page 2

CIA HAS NO OBJECTION TO

DECLASSIPIOAT CO AND/OR

SECRET

RELGASE Gi C INFURIMATION

IN THIS DOCUMENT. AS SANITIZED

(K 310197)

ESTATE DEDIT INFO IS DECLASSIFIED

PER SifAW-C0R=101493

BRACKETEO INTO GGASSIFIGD HER CALI

MEMORANDUM

SUBJECT: Investigation of Lee Harvey Oswald in Mexico

July 25, 1969

1. While serving as Political Officer in the U.So 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 usefül 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). I

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,

PRORATION CONTAINED

HARDON 20 TICLASSIF

DA 2-17-97: 9803200/80

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!

100-10461-9208

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

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

alleged encounter with Oswald and subsequent developments

in my original

ts. Certain errors

presentation were corrected. Miss Garro guessed that the

date of the party at her cousin's house was in early sop

ad an ed that she had gone to the Embassy to repot it D

on an earlier occasion.

matter

SEPT

86 1969

ember

NH 54027 DooId: 32114649

Page 2

---

## Page 3

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.

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 Chieftand the former Minister

of Interior - President Gustavo Diaz Ordaz; and 4) some of the people

appearing 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

Garro.

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

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

on balance, the matter warrants further investigation.

13. Finally, 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,

169

NH 54027

DooId:32114649

Page 3

---