Looking Glass - x 3 - JFK Assassination Characters

LOOKING GLASS – X 3 JFK Assassination Characters

Inside "Silver Dollar" and the "Looking Glass" Airborne Command Post Plane

After I read the article Larry Haapanen and Alan Rogers wrote – “A Call Out of the Blue” regarding the Air Force Command and Control plane “Silver Dollar” over Dallas at 12:25 PM on November 22, 1963 – five minutes before the assassination, it was associated with the “Looking Glass” program of keeping such command and control planes in the air 24/7 at the time.

JFKCountercoup2: Silver Dollar and Looking Glass at Dealey Plaza

More recently I came across three additional mentions of “Looking Glass” in the JFK assassination literature, all related to three minor but possibly significant characters – Jack Lawrence the car dealer, Thomas Beckman the thrift store operator and J.D. Tippit’s good friend Carl Mather.

JACK ALAN CAROL LAWRENCE

Jack Alan Carol Lawrence

https://maryferrell.org/php/marysdb.php?id=5727

A Record from Mary's Database

Record:

LAWRENCE, JACK ALAN CARROLL

Sources:

WC 26, pp. 452-453, 686-688, 704; CE 2970; CE 3080, CE 3089, CE 3093; CD 85, pp. 373-377; CD 205, pp. 211-213, 222-223; CD 329, pp. 61-78; CD 1546, p. 118; Forgive My Grief, Vol. 11, Jones, p. 124; The Third Decade, July 1991, pp. 1-17, "Jack Lawrence, Assassin or Fall Guy," by Sheldon Inkol; The Third Decade, September 1992, pp. 1-17, "Jack Lawrence Responds," by Sheldon Inkol.

Mary's Comments:

DOB: 9/14/38; SS # 236-58-6645. Wife: Linda. Salesman at Downtown Lincoln Mercury, Dallas, TX at time LHO allegedly took demonstration ride. Lawrence allegedly left demonstrator car behind the picket fence at Dealey Plaza at 12:30 p.m., 11/22, when he was unable to drive through the Dealey Plaza area to the dealership. He was fired by Downtown Lincoln on 11/23/63. Lawrence came to Dallas in late October 1963 and stayed at YMCA on Ervay St. He came from West Virginia but claimed to have worked for a New Orleans car dealer on Carondolet. Checked out of Dallas YMCA (Room 811) on November 30, 1963 (Saturday), leaving address: 144 10th Ave., South Charleston, West Virginia (304) RI 4-0857. On 11/27/63, Lawrence told Gene Barnes of NBC that he was going to San Diego to get job similar to position he had held with NASA previously (CD 85, p. 376)

Third Decade

Jack Lawrence Responds by Sheldon Inkol

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=48767 - relPageId=3&tab=page

“….Lawrence tells that he began his Air Force training on May 22, 1956 at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio. He was tested and designated to study ‘Airborne Radio-Tower and Flight.’ This would require some flying however, and since Lawrence had a problem with his vision, he was disqualified. Instead, Lawrence became an Air Policeman….According to information telephoned to the office of the late assassination investigator Bernard Festerwald, Jr., by a ‘Colonel Flyod’ on October 16, 1968, Lawrence served at Parks Air Force Base in Oakland, California beginning on July 8, 1956; at Wheelus AFB in Tripoli, Libya as of October 22, 1956; at Wurtsmith AFB in Oseoda, Michiagn as of May 15, 1958; at Elgin AFB in Ft. Walton Beach, Florida from October 10, 1959 until his discharge on January 9, 1959 at the age of twenty.”

“Lawrence states that the highest rank he attained was Airman 2^nd Class, equal to a Private First Class, and that he pulled guard duty and routine town and traffic control. He was he was given a ‘standard crypto-clearance’ since his duties included guarding B-52 bombers and code rooms, and he dismisses speculation that he performed duties for the Office of Special Investigations……”

“…..One of the places in Florida where Lawrence did find work was at Electronics Communications, Inc., a St. Petersburg company with many government contracts. Lawrence worked as an offset press operator in the printing department, printing sensitive manuals that covered such top secret operations as NASA’s manned suborbital Mercury and Apollo missile projects --- which ECI built the radio systems for ---- and ‘Operation Looking Glass,’ an Air Force operation which kept B-52s in the air twenty-four hours a day, always ready for action. He was not at liberty to discuss Operation Looking Glass back in the sixties; this was the ‘senstitive governmetn work’ he would later allude to in an interview with one of Bernard Fensterwald’s invetigators.’ 3

Notes

….3. Report from Kennard Smith to Bernard Fensterwald, Jr., October 10, 1968. It seems clear that Lawrence worked at ECI in 1962. Smith stated outright that Lawrence lied to him. If Lawrence did tell Smith that he worked for DCI in 1959, it could have been an innocent mistake or simply a result of his irritation at the interview. ….

“When Lawrence told me that he had a ‘standard crypto-clearance’ in the Air Force, I thought nothing of it. Since then however, I have read in two sources that a cryptographic clearance was the highest one granted at the time. 54

I asked Lawrence about his security clearance. He wrote back, ‘As far as I know, my passes and badges were marked with general and universal permissions to go anywhere on the bases on which I served. I guarded ‘crypto room,’ planning and attack rooms or war rooms. I guarded Genie MBI missile sites (atomic air to air warheads) and all of this required Top Secret and crypto-clearance.’ Even if Lawrence did have such a high security clearance, however, this in itself is not necessarily sinister.”

“When news of the president’s death hit the dealership….the salesman he was there sharing a booth with offered him a lift. Lawrence says that he cannot now remember this man’s name, but he describes him as a retired colonel from California who for a hobby wrote novels about the Civil War in such detail that he would even research the kinds of buttons worn on the soldiers’ uniforms. At first, Lawrence could not remember which branch of the military that ‘the colonel’ had served in, and he described him as a balding man in his mid-forties with wavy, reddish-blonde hair. He would later describe the Colonel as being retired from the Air Force, 50-58 years old, about  5’9” or 5’ 10” tall, with freckles, ‘sandy to redish hair’ that was curly or wavy, and a receding hair line.

It could not have been retired Air Force Major Phil Willis, who also worked at the Downtown Lincoln-Mercury but was otherwise occupied that afternoon, having taken several photographs in Dealey Plaza at the time of the assassination. 23

[BK Notes: The Electronic Communications, Inc. – ECI – defense contractor in St. Petersburg, Fla., where Lawrence worked before going to Dallas, is where he says he worked on the “Looking Glass” operations. 

ECI is a subsidiary of a Dallas company – E-Systems, Inc. – an off shoot of LTV.   https://jfkcountercoup2.blogspot.com/2019/08/the-secret-is-out-e-systems-inc.html   ]

THOMAS BECKMAN

Then there’s the curious case of Thomas Beckman – a high school dropout and Natonal Guardsman who worked with Fred Lee Crisman, Guy Banister, David Ferrie, Jack Martin, Dr. Frank E. Stranges and – Lt. Colonel Lowery -  Director of Operations – Office of Plans – Strategic Air Command – who flew on “Looking Glass.”

We learn all of this from his New Orleans Grand Jury testimony that was ordered destroyed by the DA who took over from Jim Garrison – Harry Connick.

New Orleans Grand Jury Transcripts

http://www.aarclibrary.org/publib/contents/garr/contents_garr_grandjury.htm

Thomas Beckman http://www.aarclibrary.org/publib/jfk/garr/grandjury/Beckham/html/Beckman_0001a.htm

3214 N. 48th St. Omaha, Nebraska

Met Fred Lee Crisman, worked with him at Natonal Institute of Criminology, State of Washington

Interviewed by NBC, Tom Pettit, Ted Manon – Burbank, Gene Barnes cameraman –

In January of 1963 he was playing in a band at The Kennymore Motel – Rt. 80, - the Satellite Lounge – owned by James Norton –

Also associated with Dr. Frank E. Stranges – National Investigative Committee on UFOs – Van Nuys –

Was at Alford Air Force Base with Lt. Col. Lowery – Director of Operations – Office of Planning of the Strategic Air Command (SAC) – who he met through Lowery’s wife – who answered a newspaper ad regarding fianancial support to promote his band.

“At the time I knew him (Lowery) he flew on what was known as Looking Glass. This was a plane, a command post that flew in the air. A command post that is airborne all the time.”

How did they meet? Beckman was asked by Garrison’s assistant attorney.

“It’s a long story,” said Beckman, to which the assistant DA replied, “Never mind then.”

“I was out there at the base at the Officers Club, we booked shows there. Mrs. Lowery answered a newsaper add looking for investors.”

They owned a thrift shop together – for about three months and Col. Lowery invested about  $700 –

Lowery gave Beckman a pass to get on the base.

Testified to the grand jury that it was no secret that Lowery flew with Looking Glass – “he told everybody.”

TIPPIT’S GOOD FRIEND CARL MATHER WORKED ON “AIR FORCE 2” AT COLLINS RADIO

http://jfkcountercoup.blogspot.com/2012/02/carl-mather-collins-radio.html

Not that Carl isn’t used to being interviewed by government agents; he has a security clearance – and he has had since he started traveling with his company – he’s been with them for 21 years now. Has traveled overseas. His specific function deals with the installation of special electronics gear in aircraft. One such assignment caused him to be quartered in Brandywine, Maryland as he worked for some period of time at Andrews Air Force Base working on “Air Force Two” – Vice President Johnson’s plane at the time. 

[BK Notes – Air Force One is only called Air Force One when the President is on board. The Vice President did not have a specific plane assigned to him  that was called Air Force 2 – but rather he was assigned whatever plane was needed at the time from the Executive Air Fleet. Apparently – as the Nike Missile men told Coyle – “Silver Dollar” was also known as Air Force 2 – an airborne command and control plane that flew with the “Looking Glass” program and had a plane in the air 24/7.]

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The Significance of the Higgins Memo

The Significance of the Higgins Memo – The Most important Document Released Under the JFK Act, 

So Far

By Bill E. Kelly billkelly3@gmail.com 

There have been a number of serious attempts to determine exactly what we have learned from the millions of documents and records released under the JFK Act of 1992 – the Assassination Archvies and Research Center (AARC), Mary Ferrell, Black Vault,  Rus Baker’s WWW, CAPA, and even Microsoft have contributed to reviewing them. I have reviewed their results, and can report that many are more confused than ever over the wind fall of JFK assassination records, that no one person can ever read in full.

As someone who is familiar with all of the published literature on the assassination as well as the records relased under the JFK Act at the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) I can attest that while there are no “Smoking Gun” document that proves there was a conspiracy, there are many significant documents, and many hundreds and thousands that give us a greater insight into the inner-workings of the Kennedy government at the time of the assassination. And they provide many clues as to who killed JFK, how they did it, why they did it, and how they got away with it.

From my perspective the Higgins document is not a “Smoking Gun” but is certainly a “Smoking Document,” and is what I consider the single most important document so far released under the JFK Act for a number of reasons.

showDoc.html

JFKCountercoup2: The Higgins Memo of JCS Meeting of Sept. 25, 1963

When asked exactly why this is such an important document I decided to write this analysis.

For starters, the date – September 25, 1963 – is a key time in the master chronology – as a lot of pieces were being moved around what David Talbot callas “The Devil’s Chessboard.” 

[See: Assassination Chronology September 1963 - https://jfkcountercoup.blogspot.com/2019/08/jfk-assassination-chronology-september.html  )

Then there’s the Document Source: ACSI – which most people won’t recognize as the Assistant Chief of Staff for Intelligence – one of the most ubiquious but least known military intelligence agency with offices in the Pentagon. 

[See: Colonels at Dealey Plaza - http://jfkcountercoup.blogspot.com/2019/01/following-acsi-colonels-around-board-dp.html ]

Colonel Walter Higgins, the author of this report – meeting minutes –was an aide to General Victor “Brute” Krulak. If you look at Krulak’s career, he spent one year in the Pentagon with a unique title of Special Assistant for Counter-Insurgency Activities under the Joint Chiefs of Staff with the job of providing the military support to the CIA’s covert intelligence operations, especially in Cuba.

The purpose of the meeting is for the Joint Chiefs of Staff to be briefed on those very operations by the CIA’s Demsond FitzGerald, head of Task Force W – the Cuban covert policy making body with offices in the basement of the CIA’s new Headquarters. FitsGerald took over Task Force W in October 1962 from William Harvey, who was sent to Rome as the CIA’s Chief of Station.

Probably the most significant aspect of this meeting is the fact that the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs General Maxwell Taylor – was absent, on a special mission for the President to Vietnam, so Air Force Chief of Staff General Curtis LeMay was temporary chairman and ran the meeting.

According to Higgins, the meeting got right down to the key aspects of the US policy and CIA covet operations against Cuba in discussing the relative merits of the anti-Castro guerrilla commando attacks on Cuban economic targets run out of JMWAVE, the CIA’s base in Florida.

Higgins wrote: “General LeMay opened the meeting by referring to papers recently discussed by the Joint Chiefs on policy and actions concerning military support of the CIA for operations against Cuba. General LeMay expressed the JCS position as had been reflected in the memoranda to Mr. Vance which in effect is that the Joint Chiefs do not believe that the operations to date are of a size and importance enough to justify the use of military support for protection.”

“Mr. FitzGerald then discussed his personal feelings as to changed conditions in Cuba. Essentially, he believes that Castro's hold in Cuba has been seriously weakened since last July. He believes that the minor raids conducted by the CIA have contributed to this deterioration in Castro's influence and stability. He is firmly convinced that Castro will fall at some future, not too distant, date, and that such actions as the CIA are conducting, as well as those of exiles, are contributing to unrest and unsettlement.”

“Mr. FitzGerald, in commenting upon criteria as to when the military support should be provided, offered the following. The greatest danger from his point of view is that the mother ships may be captured rather than be sunk. This will result in the capture of crewmen who have too much information and which could result in dangerous publicity for the United States. The location of these raids contributes to the possibility of capture. Hence, only when the raids are conducted in the more vulnerable areas from that point of view, is it likely that the CIA will request military support. He further stated that CIA has no intention of requesting aid for the coming raid.”

[BK Notes: On November 1, 1963 the New York Times ran a photo of the CIA raider ship REX on its front page and a story of Castro’s complaints that the Rex deposited a team of assassins with high powered rifles, who were captured and confessed to have been trained by the CIA.]

“General LeMay questioned the danger of capture in view of the capabilities of Cubans and ridiculed the idea that small motor boats should have the capability of such a ship. General LeMay and others gave opinions concerning such technicalities as the capability of radar both on land and in the air, capability of ship radar of the U.S. and Cuba, the speed of the mother ship, which was cited as 10 to 12 knots, and other related items.”

 “In responding to the question concerning the non-attributality of U.S. equipment, he stated that all equipment they use could be bought on the open market in many countries, even though it was of American origin. He stated that intelligence was not as good yet as they would like to have; however, they are having greater success in having agents enter and depart Cuba.”

US Army Chief of Staff, “General Wheeler injected that he sympathizes with such planners as Mr. FitzGerald because he realizes that many good ideas are never accepted by the cautious policy makers. However, Mr. FitzGerald reported that he believes he had a clearer go-ahead on these operations than he has ever had in his past experience.”

The US Marine Corps Chief of Staff Gen Shoup chips in: “In response to a comment by General Shoup regarding the sabotage of mines Mr. FitzGerald said there had been a recent case of internal sabotage in a mine. He then explained how the success of his operations can only be measured when internal sabotage is increased. In response to a question, he admitted that there was not any coordination as yet with the internal sabotage program.”

The Key Paragraph in Higgins Memo that I have tried to follow up on is:

 “He (FitzGerald) commented that there was nothing new in the propaganda field. However, he felt that there had been great success in getting closer to the military personnel who might break with Castro, and stated that there were at least ten high-level military personnel who are talking with CIA but as yet are not talking to each other, since that degree of confidence has not yet developed. He considers it as a parallel in history; i.e., the plot to kill Hitler; and this plot is being studied in detail to develop an approach.”

FitzGerald said that “this plot is being studied in detail” – yet, when Washington D.C. FOIA attorneys Jim Lesar and Dan Alcorn requested this detailed study, the CIA was unable to locate any reference to the July 20, 1944 German military plot to kill Hitler, but when sued in civil court, they came up with a single document from 1954 that blamed the failure of the plot on communists.

In applying Professor Peter Dale Scott’s “Negative Template” theory – that the most significant records were destroyed, missing or still being withheld – the CIA’s “detailed study” of the Valkyrie plot to kill Hitler must then certainly be significant.

While the reference to the CIA’s study of the July 20, 1944 German military plot to kill Hitler “to develop an approach” to be used against Castro is the most important aspect of this meeting, the Higgins memo also mentions other interesting things that can and should be studied further, such as the radio communications technique that Air Force officer McElroy knew of.

[  MAJOR GENERAL STEPHEN M. MCELROY > U.S. Air Force > Biography Display /  BRIGADIER GENERAL STEPHEN D. MCELROY > U.S. Air Force > Biography Display ]

“General LeMay then questioned the advisability of utilizing a communication technique to install a radio capability which would permit break-in on Castro broadcasts. He stated that an Air Force officer named McElroy was available to talk to Mr. FitzGerald on the matter, and Mr. FitzGerald accepted this offer.”

“The conference closed with General LeMay directing that Mr. FitzGerald's planners meet with General Krulak's people and work out the details as to how the military can assist in supporting these operations. After Mr. FitzGerald departed, General LeMay gave added directions to Colonel Higgins to initiate necessary steps for planning.”

PENDULUM – AND CIA CUBAN OPS SECURITY

Then there’s Admiral Riley’s read-only letter regarding secrecy and security measures related to CIA Cuban operations.

“After the JCS meeting Admiral Riley called Colonel Higgins into his office and read a letter from Mr. McGeorge Bundy which discussed secrecy measures necessary related to Cuba CIA operations. Admiral Riley directed Colonel Higgins to have the nature of this letter put out through SACSA control to SACSA contact points to insure an adequate system for secrecy within the military services. Admiral Riley stated he was returning the letter to Mr. Gilpatric as he did not want written communication by SACSA, but to put this out orally. This was transmitted to Colonel Wyman who will take the action to prepare an appropriate memorandum for the record to be filed with General Ingelido in accordance with further direction by Admiral Riley.”

While Gilpatric is familiar, Colonel Wyman and General Ingelido are new names to me and should have more detailed profiles. There are documents released under the JFK Act from the files of McGeorge Bundy that may reflect on these secrecy and security measures.

“General Wheeler, Chief of Staff of the Army, called and questioned us concerning SACSA's access for the knowledge of such operations as mentioned in the McGeorge Bundy letter. I advised him that our Pendulum system was in being but that I would look into it in greater detail to determine that it met the letter as well as the spirit of the memorandum. I stated I believed this was so but had not had reason to do it until this date and therefore did not give him a positive answer at that time.”

“Our Pendulum system was in being” – must refer to a security measure that I have not seen anywhere else. What is it?

FOUR LEAVES

The JFK Presidential Library in Boston has a web site with an interactive JFK Oval Office desk top with a calendar of dates – so I looked up September 25, and found that it is the date JFK left on his conservation tour – first stop being a visit with his longtime friend and paramour Mary Pinchot Meyer to her mother’s house in Northeast Pennsylvania. 

Mary had married and was separated from Cord Meyer, Jr., the CIA officer responsible for the International Organizations Division, and son of airplane pioneer Cord Meyer, Sr., who co-founded the Civil Air Patrol with D. Harold Byrd, the owner of the Texas School Book Depository.

But a few days earlier, on September 23, 1963 the White House Diary notes that on this date JFK signed a Natonal Security Action Memo written by McGeorge Bundy that reads: “President Kennedy assigns the highest national priority to Project FOUR LEAVES to develop and produce a military communications system.”

[ http://jfkcountercoup.blogspot.com/2008/12/basis-for-legal-action-jfk.html  ]

Although the Pendelum security system and Project Four Leaves – military communications system, are only mentioned once – they appear to be important – yet we have no published references to either of them, and like the CIA’s “detailed study” of the German military plot to kill Hitler, to be developed for use against Castro, the lack of published references only increases their potential value in understanding the Kennedy presidency and his assassination.

Related Links
JFKcountercoup: Valkyrie At Dealey Plaza - Updated
JFKcountercoup: VALKYRIE at Dealey Plaza III - The Saga Continues
JFKcountercoup: AARC v. CIA Re: The CIA's Detailed Study of the Hitler Plot
JFKcountercoup: Kelly Declaration AARC v. CIA Re: Detailed Study of Hitler Plot

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JFK Assassination Chronology - September 1963

As every reporter and research analyst knows, whenever a major news story breaks - like Watergate, 9/11, or a political assassination, the first thing you do is begin a NAME FILE of individual players involved in the story, and a detailed chronology of every event that comes into play. 

As for the JFK Assassination, Ira David Woods, III has put together the best and most complete chronology, and here's what he has for September 1963, which I am using to analyze the Higgins Memo minutes of the meeting of the Joint Chiefs of Staff on September 25, 1963.

JFK Assassination Chronology 

Ira David Woods, III 

chrono1.PDF

September - 1963

Antonio Veciana claims "Maurice Bishop" introduces him to Lee Harvey Oswald at a meeting in Dallas this month. David Atlee Phillips, is running the CIA's covert operations out of its Mexico City station. It has long been speculated that Phillips is really "Maurice Bishop", who is eventually identified by exile leader Veciana, speaking to Congressional investigators in 1978, as his CIA case officer, involved in numerous assassination plots against Castro. Although Phillips' physical description is a near-match for that provided by Veciana, the exile has never positively identify Phillips as "Bishop". Phillips, who will die in 1988, denied using the alias or working with Veciana.

Also this month, FBI (Philadelphia) AIRTEL to J. Edgar Hoover regarding Marcello informant’s report on the New Orleans incident (three men, including the “professor,” discussing a rifle ad, and President’s coming south).

A September 1963 FBI teletype reports that a discussion of such a plot has been overheard in March 1963. Supposedly this information is also sent by AIRTEL to the Dallas and Miami CACs. And yet, no such threat will be found in the Secret Service’s PRS file for Dallas prior to the President’s ill-fated trip. AOT

September 2, 1963 Lee Harvey Oswald reportedly visits his uncles, Charles Murret in New Orleans on this day. Otherwise, Oswald has not been seen by anyone since August 21. He will not publicly resurface again until September 17. It is further alleged by Elena Garro that LHO and Silvia Duran attend a twist party at Ruban Duran’s home on either this date or tomorrow. (This is a month earlier than LHO’s known visit to Mexico City.) LHO’s presence is indicated only by visits to the employment office, the cashing of unemployment checks, and the withdrawal of library books. However, the FBI is able to authenticate LHO’s signature on hardly any of the unemployment documents. Of the seventeen firms where LHO says he applies for work, thirteen deny it, and four do not even exist.

The CBS Evening News goes from fifteen minutes a night to thirty on this date. Walter Cronkite, CBS anchorman, flies this morning from New York to Hyannis Port to film an interview with JFK for the expanded broadcast. JFK intends to play off Cronkite’s questions in order to put pressure on Diem and Ngo Dinh Nhu. It is during this broadcast that JFK says: “I don’t think that unless a greater effort is made by the government to win popular support that the war can be won out there.” “In the final analysis, it is their war. They are the ones who have to win it or lose it. We can help them, we can give them equipment, we can send our men out there as advisers, but they have to win it, the people of Vietnam, against the Communists . . . And, in my opinion, in the last two months, the government has gotten out of touch with the people.” During the fall of this year, JFK talks to Charles Bartlett about who will be President in 1968. Bartlett finds him “apprehensive” about the prospect of RFK running against LBJ. “Jack talked about how ‘68 was going to be a contest between Bobby and Lyndon Johnson, and I don’t think he took cordially to it at all.”

September 3, 1963 Secretary of the Army Cyrus Vance, RFK’s Army representative on the Cuban Coordination Committee (CCC), writes a memo listing various options available to the administration in dealing with Castro. The list includes “Bribing, embarrassing, blackmailing, assassinating, coercing and kidnapping leaders.”

September 6, 1963 Harold Tannenbaum arrives in Dallas and stays at Jack Ruby’s apartment. Tannenbaum is supposedly looking for employment in Dallas.

NOTE: From May until September, Jack Ruby averages twenty-five to thirty-five calls per month. During October and November, he places more than seventy toll calls. The number reaches nearly one hundred the first three weeks of November. Also on this date, Manuel Rodriguez registers as alien in Dallas and sets up a local chapter of Alpha 66. Las Vegas Review Courier publishes a collumn attacking J. Edgar Hoover for FBI methods used in a local case. The article accuses him of being a demagogue. Meanwhile, the FBI sends the first of three reports this month to CIA regarding LHO’s latest activities. AOT

During this month, Richard Case Nagell alleges he realizes that much of his intelligence work has not been for the CIA but for a foreign nation. He decides against proposal made to him to participate in criminal offense against the United States. Nagell then contacts FBI in New Orleans, using “Kramer” alias. 

September 7, 1963 Rolando Cubela, (CIA code name: AM/LASH), a former assassin for Castro during the revolution, and now an official in his government, meets with a CIA case officer in Brazil. Cubela explains that he wants to overthrow Castro and has an elaborate plan to murder him. Cubela is told that American interest in getting rid of Castro and his government remains high. Cubela wants assurances of U.S. interest and states that he is prepared to move against Castro once he has this assurance. In Havana, Cuba, this same evening, Fidel Castro buttonholes Daniel Harker, a reporter for the Associated Press, and gives him a three-hour interview. Castro’s purpose seems to be to let the U.S. know that he will “answer in kind” any attempt to murder Cuban leaders. “United States leaders should thing that if they are aiding terrorist plans to eliminate Cuban leaders, they themselves will not be safe.” 

NOTE: It has been suggested that Rolando Cubela might have been working as a double agent, supplying Castro with the information he had gleaned concerning CIA murder plots against the Cuban leader. This Labor Day weekend, JFK writes and briefly acts in a home movie. While a White House photographer’s camera is rolling, JFK disembarks from the “Honey Fitz,” the family’s yacht, and walks down a pier at the Rhode Island estate of his wife’s parents. Suddenly, he clutches his chest and falls to the boards. Jackie and a visitor casually step over him, as if he isn’t there. Paul Fay, an Undersecretary of the Navy and JFK’s buddy from World War II, then falls on JFK’s body, sending a gush of red liquid spurting from the President’s mouth. The few lines of dialogue have never been revealed. For twenty years, this film’s existence is kept secret.

September 9, 1963 Eugene Hale Brading, an ex-convict suspected of having ties with organized crime in Southern California has a new driver’s license made for himself today, in the name of Jim Braden. (Immediately following JFK’s assassination a man named Jim Braden will be arrested and taken in for interrogation because he had been in the Dal-Tex Building, overlooking Dealey Plaza, without a good excuse.)

September 10, 1963 The FBI sends a second report to CIA on LHO’s recent activities. AOT

September 11, 1963 Ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge, eighteen days after his arrival in Vietnam, cables: “The time has come for the U.S. to use what effective sanctions it has to bring about the fall of the existing government.” This refers to the Diem regime. In response to the cable, JFK calls a meeting for 6:00 this afternoon. During this meeting, advocates for a coup fail to get strong presidential support.

September 12, 1963 A committee designated by the Special Group meets today for a “brainstorming session” concerning Castro’s recent public threat of reprisals against American leaders. The committee concludes that although “there was a strong likelihood that Castro would retaliate in some way . . .” it would probably be at “a low level.” The specific possibility of “attacks against U.S. officials” is assumed to be “unlikely.” Robert Morrow alleges in his book First Hand Knowledge that CIA staff meet today to determine whether to use Rolando Cubela for an assassination mission against Fidel Castro. There are those who now favor the opinion that Cubela is a Castro plant. Washington Post reports on a breach-of-contract suit against Bobby Baker. This development presumably makes LBJ nervous. The Bobby Baker scandal is about to break. AOT

September 13, 1963 The New Orleans newspapers confirm that JFK will make a one - day visit to Texas on either November 21 or 22. Dallas Times Herald prints the first unofficial report that JFK will include Dallas in his November Texas itinerary. AOT Federal parole officer Sam Barrett approves Eugene Brading’s request to go to Texas. He leaves via plane today for Houston where he supposedly spends the next ten days. (Note the fact that both Ferrie and Ruby will also appear in Houston in the coming months.) AOT RFK is in North Dakota where he tells a gathering of Indian tribes that their treatment by the Federal government is a national disgrace. RK

September 14, 1963 From Porto Alegre, Rolando Cubela flies to Paris. He is there ostensibly to attend the Alliance Francaise, but actually to take an extended vacation - of which he plans to inform Fidel Castro only after the fact. September 15, 1963 Perry Russo, a young insurance agent and acquaintance of David Ferrie attends a party at Ferrie’s apartment. There Ferrie introduces him to a “Leon Oswald,” whom Russo will later be unable to positively identify as being Lee Harvey Oswald. Russo maintains that, after a long night of drinking, Ferrie, “Leon”, several anti-Castro Cubans, and a tall, distinguished-looking, white-haired man introduced as “Clem Bertrand” [most probably Clay Shaw] begin discussing how to assassinate Castro. After the Cubans leave, Ferrie reportedly begins pacing the room, a perpetual mug of coffee in his hand, talking of a plan to get rid of JFK and blame it on Castro. He speaks of a “triangulation of crossfire” as the best means to assassinate the president. (Richard Case Nagell maintains that Leon Oswald was not Lee Harvey Oswald. He says that, a few days after this party, Leon Oswald was eliminated. Who eliminated Leon Oswald, Nagell would not say. But since Nagell’s orders to eliminate the real Oswald came from the KGB, it would make sense it was the Soviets’ mistake.)

September 16, 1963 The CIA advises the FBI that the “Agency is giving some consideration to countering the activities of [the Fair Play For Cuba Committee ] in foreign countries.” The CIA specifically wants the FPCC’s foreign mailing list and other documents sent over by the FBI.

Also, on this day a signature appears in a registry of a restaurant in Hubertus, Wisconsin. 

It is that of Lee Harvey Oswald. Not long after JFK’s assassination, two deputies will say that they turn over a box of Oswald’s personal papers to Texas D.A. Henry Wade, among which is a paper with a reference to a planned assassination attempt on JFK in Wisconsin during the dedication of a lake or dam in the fall of 1963. The FBI will later reject the signature as that of Oswald and this subject will receive little attention outside of Wisconsin.

An Interoffice Memo from Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. to JFK states: “Maury Maverick, Jr. writes that there “is a terrible fight going on down here in Texas and, to mention a highly delicate subject, this is true between Sen. Yarborough and the Vice President ... as a private in the rear ranks of the Democratic party I deeply recommend that Yarborough be on the President’s plane. He also writes that Henry Gonzales and some prominent Texas black be included in the group. He closed with the observation that we “should put Bobby Kennedy in the back of the plane with a whip in his hand to make everybody act nice.”

September 17, 1963 CIA operative William George Gaudet gets a visa to go to Mexico along with an alleged Lee Harvey Oswald. Gaudet’s office is a “stone’s throw” from Guy Banisters office 544 Camp Street in New Orleans.

Richard Case Nagell departs New Orleans en route to El Paso, Texas.

LHO visits Mexican consulate general in the Whitney Building, New Orleans, and fills out an application for a tourist card. AOT

Also on this day Ambassador Syedou Diallo of Guinea in West Africa brings word to William Attwood, then a special advisor to the United States delegation to the United Nations and a former U.S. ambassador to Guinea, that Castro wants to reach some sort of understanding with the Kennedy administration. This leads to secret meetings aimed at normalizing relations between the U.S. and Cuba. This drive proceeds until 3 days after JFK’s assassination, when LBJ, informed of the move, turns a cold shoulder.

September 19, 1963 JFK takes a phone call today from Ambassador to the United Nations, Adlai Stevenson. Stevenson is reporting that, through an obscure African diplomat, Fidel Castro has expressed interest in reaching some sort of accommodation with the United States. Castro, it is reported, is unhappy about the way Cuba is becoming tied to the Soviet Union, and is looking for a way out. JFK gives his approval and appoints William Attwood as a go-between. JFK has two conditions: on no account must it appear the the United States has solicited the discussions. And the contact is to be informal and top secret. Authur Schlesinger will eventually say: “Undoubtedly if word leaked of President Kennedy’s efforts, that might have been exactly the kind of thing to trigger some explosion of fanatical violence. It seems to me a possibility not to be excluded.” (NIYL)

September 20, 1963 Richard Case Nagell gets himself arrested by firing two shots inside the State National Bank of El Paso. Mexican tourist cards for “Hidel” (Oswald) and “JKramer” are concealed in his luggage. Nagell is a CIA contract agent and KGB operative. Nagell will eventually say that he was assigned by the Soviets to prevent the assassination of JFK by killing Lee Harvey Oswald in Mexico City. Instead, he pulls himself out of what he believes to be a web of deceit by having himself arrested.

September 20, 1963 Ruth Paine arrives in New Orleans. LHO on best behavior; supports idea of Marina going back to Texas with Ruth. 

[BK Notes: For Marina to accompany Ruth Paine to Texas to have the baby was previously arranged via mail, when Ruth Paine asked Marina to write to her in care of Arthur Young of suburban Philadelphia. Arthur Young is the inventor of the Bell Helicopter, married to Ruth Forbes Paine Young, Michael Paine's mother. After visiting the Youngs, Ruth Paine picked up Marina, the daughter and their belongings, including Oswald's belongings, and drove them to Texas while Oswald ostensibly went to Mexico.]

September 21,1963 JFK writes to McNamara (Sec. of Defense) saying: “The events in South Vietnam since May 1963 have now raised serious questions both about the present prospects for success against the Viet Cong and still more about the future effectiveness of this effort.” JFK and Mrs. Kennedy spend the afternoon aboard the White House yacht Honey Fitz. AOT

[BK Notes: (Not in Wood's Chronology) September 23, 1963 - JFK signs NSAM drawn up by McGeorge Bundy that gives the highest national security priority to Project Four Leaves, which is described as a military communications system. The only known source of this is the virtual Oval Office desk diary at the JFK Presidential Library web site. ]

September 23, 1963 Oswald allegedly visits the Soviet embassy in Mexico City and meets with Valery Vladimirovich Kostikov. The CIA says Kostikov is known to be a staff officer of the KGB. He is connected with the Thirteenth, or “liquid affairs” department, whose responsibilities include assassination and sabotage. According to Col. Oleg Maximovich Nechiporenko, who was present in the Soviet Embassy: “Throughout his story, Oswald was extremely agitated and clearly nervous, especially whenever he mentioned the FBI, but he suddenly became hysterical, began to sob, and through his tears cried, ‘I am afraid ... they’ll kill me. Let me in!’ Repeating over and over that he was being persecuted and that he was being followed even here in Mexico, he stuck his right hand into the left pocket of his jacket and pulled out a revolver, saying, ‘See? This is what I must now carry to protect my life.”

NOTE: Just days prior to LHO’s visit to Mexico City, the CIA’s David Atlee Phillips is promoted to grade 15 and assigned new duties as Chief of Cuban Operations, Mexico City. LHO also visits the Cuban Embassy while in Mexico. Phillips has been working as a government service employee at level GS-14 since 1955. He was assigned to the CIA station in Mexico just this month. (PROBE Sept.- Oct. 1999)

Also on this day, on orders from JFK, Secretary McNamara and General Maxwell Taylor, Chairman of the Joint chiefs of Staff, leave for Viet Nam to evaluate the prospects of winning the war there.

Lisa Howard, a reporter for ABC News who has interviewed Castro in Havana (and has been to bed with him) gives a small cocktail party at her Manhattan apartment. Ambassador William Attwood and Carlos Lechuga (Cuban delegate to the U.N.) are there, and - at a discreet distance from the other guests - talk cautiously for half an hour. Attwood says he will be glad to talk with Fidel Castro if the invitation comes from Havana. Ruth Paine and Marina Oswald leave New Orleans today, bound for Irving, Texas. LHO leaves his apartment either this evening or the following evening. He puts in a change-ofaddress card, forwarding all mail to the Paines in Irving. AOT

September 24, 1963 JFK’s Limited Test Ban passes the Senate today. Eleven Democrats are opposed -- all Southerners, except for the maverick conservative Frank Lausche of Ohio. Eight Republicans are opposed -- all Westerners, except for Margaret Chase Smith of Maine. Ted Sorensen feels that “no other accomplishment in the White House ever gave Kennedy greater satisfaction.” The Limited Test Ban never fulfills JFK’s and Khrushchev’s hopes. The treaty reduces the amount of strontium 90 in the atmosphere, but its failure to stop all forms of nuclear testing keeps it from throwing a serious damper on the nuclear arms race.

JFK departs for Wisconsin this day and makes a speech in Ashland, Wisconsin as part of a nationwide conservation tour. It has been speculated that an assassination attempt was to be made during this visit. Lee Harvey Oswald’s name is later found in a Wisconsin hotel registry. The signature is later determined not to be LHO’s.

LHO is seen by a neighbor leaving his apartment in New Orleans with two suitcases. FBI (SOG) sends yet another report to CIA on the latest activities of LHO. Note also, between now and the assassination LHO, or someone resembling him, will be seen a number to times in the company of a Latin man. AOT William Attwood meets in Washington today with Robert Kennedy - concerning Fidel Castro’s desire for discussions (and better relations) with the U.S. Also today, Alex Rorke and copilot Geoffrey Sullivan leave Miami in a rented twinengine Beechcraft heading for Honduras for a “lobster-hauling business deal.” This same day, they arrive in Merida, Mexico. (Alex Rorke is a photographer, journalist, pilot, rabid anti-Communist, former FBI employee and the wealthy son-in-law of Sherman Billingsley, the celebrity owner of New York’s famous Stork Club. Rorke also works closely with Miami millionaire William Pawley, the ultra rightwinger who fronts and funds a number of Agency operations.)

September 25, 1963 On this day, as Oswald is supposed to be somewhere between New Orleans and Mexico on a bus, a person claiming to be Harvey Oswald presents himself at the Selective Service office in Austin, Texas. He is there for thirty minutes discussing what he might do about his dishonorable discharge from the Marine Corps. 

In Mexico, a O. H. Lee registers at the Hotel del Comercio, a meeting place for anti-Castro Cuban exiles. 

Sometime between eight in the morning and noon, LHO cashes a Texas unemployment check at a Winn-Dixie store at 4303 Magazine Street in New Orleans. AOT 

On the bus to Mexico City, Oswald reportedly sits next to a man identified as Albert Osborne, an elderly itinerant preacher. Albert Osborne is really John (“Jack”) Bowen as he finally admits to the FBI. (When Oswald is captured following the assassination, we are told he had a library card in his wallet with Jack L. Bowen’s name on it This card later disappeared from the evidence.)

Later, when three “tramps” are arrested in Dealey Plaza immediately following JFK’s assassination, one of the names used by the older tramp will be “Albert Alexander Osborne.” He will also use the name “Howard Bowen.” LHO is seen in a Dallas bus station at 6 PM today.

There is also credible testimony that LHO is interviewed at a Selective Service office in Austin, Texas today - between 1:05 PM and 1:35 PM. If there is not an Oswald impostor at work, then it appears that LHO is being flown to various locations via private aircraft today - possibly piloted by David Ferrie.

It has been speculated that the conspirators never intended for the assassination to appear to be the act of a lone gunman without accomplices. Rather, the lone gunman idea will be a creation of the Warren Commission, after the fact.

On television, Joseph Valachi, a former soldier and “made” man in New York’s Genovese family, in his appearance before Senator John McClellan’s subcommittee on organized crime, publicly testifies on the inner workings of the Mafia in America. For the first time, America hears the term “Cosa Nostra.” (It is worth noting, in passing, that Lee Harvey Oswald was heard using the expression Cosa Nostra in the summer of 1963, before the expression was known to anyone outside of the Cosa Nostra itself and the FBI.)

William Attwood has his second secret meeting with Carlos Lechuga regarding the possibility of better relations between Cuba and the U.S. (NIYL)

September 26, 1963

Someone introduced as Oswald visits Sylvia Odio, a Cuban exile in Dallas. “Oswald” is also reported to be in New Orleans this day. One of the men accompanying “Oswald” is known (to this day) only as Leopoldo. LHO reportedly crosses the Mexican border at Nuevo Laredo today. Following the assassination, the FBI will find a receipt from a Laredo, Texas store in LHO’s belongings. The receipt is for $32 dollars worth of clothing. AOT

Today, the press announces the precise day -- November 22 -- that JFK will visit Dallas.

THE DALLAS MORNING NEWS DALLAS, TEXAS, THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 1963 DALLAS INCLUDED KENNEDY TO VISIT TEXAS NOV. 21-22

By Robert E. Baskin News Staff Writer 

JACKSON HOLE, Wyo. – White House sources told The Dallas News exclusively Wednesday night that President Kennedy will visit Texas Nov. 21 and 22. The visit will embrace major cities of the state, including Dallas. Kennedy is currently on a tour of the Midwest and West. The White House sources said the Texas trip Would be political, although they did not reveal the particular political mission. The final White House decision to make the trip to Texas came late Tuesday night, these sources said. Although specific details have not been worked out, it was considered likely that the President will visit Dallas, Houston, San Antonio and Fort Worth. There has been speculation for some time that the President was contemplating a visit to Texas, but the final decision has just been reached, The News learned. It has been known that numerous Texas Democratic leaders have urged Kennedy to come to the state to repair what they regard as a deteriorating party situation. The presidential decision may have been prompted by what he has seen on his current tour: a strong trend toward conservation and Republicanism in the Western states. He is believed to feel that he must cope with this situation in preparation for the 1964 campaign.

Earlier Wednesday at Billings, Mont., Kennedy recaptured his old campaign oratory in his best-received appearance in two days of intensive, "nonpolitical" campaigning across the country. In a straight-forward, rather far-reaching address to some 15,000 persons, Kennedy gave a resounding vote of confidence to Montana's veteran Mike Mansfield, Senate Democratic leader, and won cheers when he explained why he sought the nuclear test ban pact. And he was obviously in high spirits as a result of the House's approval of the tax cut bill, news of which reached him just before he began his talk. For the first time since he left Washington. he was applauded in the course of a speech. The subjects that won him applause, however, had nothing to do with conservation -- the announced reason for his ....-state tour. Foreign affairs got him his best hand Kennedy said Mansfield, up for re -election in 1964, was responsible for ratification of the test ban treaty Tuesday. He added that Senate GOP leader Everett M. Dirksen, Ill., had been helpful. He recalled his confrontations with Soviet Premier Nikita S. Khrushchev in 1961 and 1962 and how war has been avoided. "What we hope to do," the President said, "is to lessen the chance of a military collision between these two great powers which together have the power to kill 300 million people in a day. That is why I support the test ban treaty." From Billings the President flew on to Jackson Hole for an overnight stop. Earlier in the day at Cheyenne, Wyo., Kennedy claimed that his New Frontier administration "has been able to make a start at getting our country moving again."

JFK visits the Mormon Tabernacle in Salt Lake City. Referring to the Test-Ban Treaty, makes a speech in which he refers to flying over the Little Big Horn, “where General Custer was slain, a massacre which has lived in history, four hundred or five hundred men. We are talking about three hundred million men and women in twenty-four hours. I think it is wise to take a first step to lessen the possibility of that happening.” The crowd gives him a standing ovation.

According to Richard Case Nagell, still another plot against JFK is scheduled for this day but does not materialize.

Also on this day, Henry Cabot Lodge brings in Patrick Honey of the University of London to meet with Robert McNamara concerning Vietnam. Honey is only identified as “Professor Smith.” McNamara’s notes of the meeting read as follows: “Diem has aged terribly since 1960. He is slow mentally . . . would not last 24 hours without Nhu who handles the bribes and manipulates the power base necessary for his survival. Only a military coup or an assassination will be effective and one or the other is likely to occur soon. In such circumstances we have a 50% chance of getting something better. Through independent sources he has confirmed . . . that the North Vietnamese have approached Nhu through the French. The American government cannot do anything other than to either publicly support Diem or keep our mouths shut. If we follow the latter policy, a coup will probably take place within four weeks.”

September 27, 1963 Four blocks from the bus station in Mexico City, Lee Harvey Oswald registers at the Hotel Comercio under the alias O.H. Lee and is given a room on the third floor. The hotel, rarely frequented by Americans, costs only $1.28 a night. Silvia Duran, a Mexican citizen who works in the Cuban embassy in Mexico City says Lee Harvey Oswald visits her office to apply for a visa. She calls the Soviet Embassy and is told Oswald’s application for a visa will take three to four months to process. Informed of this, Oswald gets angry. Duran has to call for help from the Cuban Consul who gets into a shouting match with Oswald and finally tells him to get out. All calls on the morning of 9/27 are in Spanish, mention Odessa as destination, and are to the military attaché Today, Alex Rorke and Geoffrey Sullivan depart Merida, Mexico in their rented Beechcraft airplane and arrive in Mexico City where they remain for four days.

September 28, 1963 Malcolm Price at the Sports Drome Rifle Range remembers helping an “Oswald” sight his rifle today. (Oswald is reportedly in Mexico City.) In Mexico City, Lee Harvey Oswald returns to the Cuban Embassy. It is Saturday and the embassy is officially closed. After a brief session with officials there he goes back to the Soviet Embassy and suggests the the Soviet Embassy in Washington might be able to resolve the impasse. A series of telephone calls between today and October 1 are made by LHO - or someone impersonating LHO - to and from the Cuban and Soviet consulates in Mexico City. Tapes of these conversations are made by the CIA. The CIA will eventually report that these tapes were routinely destroyed BEFORE the assassination. There are, however, FBI documents which contain detailed accounts of how two of the tapes were listened to AFTER the assassination by FBI agents familiar with Oswald’s voice. (PROBE Oct. - Nov. 1999 / John Newman)

NOTE: When Silvia Duran testifies before the HSCA she will emphatically state that LHO does NOT return to the Cuban embassy on Saturday, September 28, and that she does NOT call the Soviet consulate on his behalf on this day. A CIA report dated June 13, 1967, by Winston Scott, chief of station, Mexico City, reads: Headquarters attention is called to paragraphs 3 through 5 of report dated 26 May. The fact that Silvia Duran had sexual intercourse with Lee Harvery Oswald on several occasions when the latter was in Mexico City is probably new, but adds little to the Oswald case. The Mexican police did not report the extent of the Duran-Oswald relationship to this Station. CIA Document 1225- 11293 “Leopoldo” calls Silvia Odio in Dallas and asks her what she thought of the American (Leon Oswald) he’d introduced her to during their previous meeting. “I didn’t think anything,” Silvia tells him. Leopoldo then tells Odio that Oswald is an ex-Marine who is “kind of nuts.” Oswald has told the Cubans, Leopoldo claims, that they didn’t “have any guts,” because “President Kennedy should have been assassinated after the Bay of Pigs, and some Cubans should have done that, because he is the one who is holding the freedom of Cuba actually.”

September 29, 1963 McNamara, Taylor, Gen. Paul Harkins, Lodge and Admiral Felt meet with President Ngo Dinh Diem at the presidential palace in Vietnam. These are to be the last top-level meetings with President Diem, and from this day forward his days in Saigon are numbered. The decision to remove him has been made. The initial secret plan calls for Diem to have to leave the country on official business, after which a coup will take place and he will be overthrown. This overall plan is carefully orchestrated under JFK’s direction. JFK is staying at Bing Crosby’s secluded house in the Palm Desert community. He spends the day relaxing beside the movie star’s spacious pool. AOT

September 30, 1963 Lee Harvey Oswald returns to the Russian Embassy in Mexico City for a final attempt to get his transit visa. A guard, apparently unacquainted with Oswald’s case, asks to whom Oswald has spoken at the embassy. Oswald explains that he has seen “Comrade Kostikov” on September 28. 

NOTE: Valery Vladimirovich Kostikov, although listed merely as “attaché, consular office” on the embassy roster, has been identified for some time as an intelligence officer for the KGB, who specializes in handling Soviet agents operating under deep cover within the United States. The FBI has recently followed another Soviet agent from the United States into Mexico and observed his contact with Kostikov. He is also suspected of being part of the Thirteenth Department of the KGB, which is involved with planning sabotage and other violent acts. David Ferrie today receives the final decision from the Eastern Airlines appeal board: it unanimously upholds his discharge from the airlines. AOT

During the last week of this month, it is alleged that JFK severely tears a groin muscle while frolicking poolside with one of his sexual partners during a West Coast trip. The pain is so intense that the White House medical staff prescribes a stiff canvas shoulder-to-groin brace that locks his body in a rigid upright position. It is far more constraining than his usual back brace, which he also continues to wear. The two braces are meant to keep him as comfortable as possible during the strenuous days of campaigning, including the upcoming trip to Dallas, Texas. JFK’s groin brace is not in the possession of the National Archives in Washington, DC.

October -- 1963 In Martinsburg, Pennsylvania, a housewife named Margaret Hoover finds a piece of paper with the words “RUBY,” “RUBENSTEIN,” and “OSWALD” written on it. She suspects the note belongs to one of her neighbors, a Cuban exile named Dr. Julio Fernandez. Fernandez will deny having any knowledge of the piece of paper found by Hoover. Hoover loses the piece of paper, but while in her possession, she shows it to her daughter who will verify it to the FBI. Hoover also finds a railroad ticket from Miami to Washington dated September 25, 1963. It was around this time that members of the anti-Castro DRE were traveling from Miami to Washington to testify before a Congressional Committee.

October 1, 1963 (According to CIA reports finally released in August, 1993) Today, someone who identifies himself as Lee Harvey Oswald calls the Soviet Consulate in Mexico City. This individual indicates that he has visited the Soviet Consulate at least once and inquires about the telegram the Consulate sent to Washington, DC requesting more information regarding LHO and Marina. Fourteen minutes later, the Consulate receives another phone call. This time, the caller identifies himself as “Lee Harvey Oswald” and asks about the telegram sent to Washington, DC. Other evidence from the CIA and witness testimony, indicates that the individual visited the Soviet and Cuban Consulates on five or six different occasions. While the majority of the evidence tends to indicate that this individual was indeed Lee Harvey Oswald, the possibility that someone else is using Lee Harvey Oswald’s name during this time in contacts with the Soviet and Cuban Consulates cannot be absolutely dismissed. John Martino, a mobster and asset of AMSPELL sponsor William Pawley, arrives today in Dallas to deliver an anti-Castro talk (based on his recently published book, I Was Castro’s Prisoner) to Cuban exiles, Birchers and members of the Catholic Cuban relocation committee. Silvia Odio’s lover Father Walter Machann delivers the invocation at the Martino speech and then abruptly disappears from public life.

Also today, Alex Rorke and Geoffrey Sullivan fly their rented Beechcraft back to Merida, Mexico from Mexico City. They are accompanied by “a nervous person who appears eager to resume flight,” according to an FBI report. The trio then departs for Cozumel and, upon arriving, immediately take off again. It is unclear whether the third person is still with Rorke and Sullivan when they leave Cozumel the last time, but the plane is never seen again. The rented Beechcraft has been due back on September 28th. And FBI report dated November 13th, 1963 will note that two wealthy New York right-wingers financed Rorke’s venture, which was meant to be a bombing mission to Havana. The third person on the plane, according to Gerry Patrick Hemming, is an anti-Castro veteran named Molina, who was to be infiltrated into Cuba to monitor Castro’s movements for the hit teams that are to come later.

(A report dated January 11th, 1962 reveals that Miami Police’s intelligence unit has been notified by the Secret Service that a Rafael Anselmo Rodriquez Molins, known as “Rafael Molina” was a suspect in a plan to assassinate John F. Kennedy when he visited the family home in Palm Beach.)

A tape recording of a meeting of anti-Castro Cubans and right-wing Americans in the Dallas suburb of Farmer's Branch is made today. In it, a Cuban identified as Nestor Castellanos vehemently criticizes the United States and blames President Kennedy for the U.S. Government's policy of "non-interference" with respect to the Cuban issue. Holding his copy of the September 26 edition of the Dallas Morning News, featuring a front-page account of the President's planned trip to Texas in November, Castellanos vents his hostility without restraint: CASTELLANOS. * * * we're waiting for Kennedy the 22nd, buddy. We're going to see him in one way or the other. We're going to give him the works when he gets in Dallas Mr. good ol' Kennedy. I wouldn't even call him President Kennedy He stinks. QUESTIONER. Are you insinuating that since this downfall came through the leader there [Castro in Cuba], that this might come to us * * * ? CASTELLANOS. Yes ma'am, your present leader. He's the one who is doing everything right now to help the United States to become Communist.

Silvia Odio moves to a Davis Street address in Oak Cliff with her sister, Sarita. This address is about a mile and a half from LHO’s current boarding house address on North Beckley. 

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