The blond Oswald in Mexico

[Thomas Graves]

Hey Tommy,

Thanks for reviving this classic thread. Glad you got to see the images.

One thing to remember about Duran is that she has a 'soft file' with the Agency, so I don't put much stock into the specifics of her testimony.

George Damon aka Claude Barnes Capehart was around 6'1".

Great find on the image; I've never noticed that before. I don't think he matches TUM's description we see in the images, but very interesting nonetheless. Nice work.

Zach

Zach,

I don't understand your sentence, "I don't think he matches TUM's description we see in the images..."

The only TUM I know about is The Umbrella Man.

Weren't we talking about the blond "Oswald" that Silvia Duran said she dealt with three times at the Mexico City Cuban Consulate on September 27, 1963?

--Tommy

[Zach Robertson]

Hi Tommy,

Sorry for any confusion.

You mentioned he was holding an umbrella; so I just wanted to say he looks nothing like the Umbrella Man aka TUM. Not in appearance or dress.

I seem to remember a Congo thread with a similar umbrella reference back in the day. Neither that Cuban or CBC was the Umbrella Man. And yes, we were talking about the blond Oswald.

Awesome work on the picture once again. Great job.

Zach

[Thomas Graves]

On 7/29/2013 at 7:56 PM, Zach Robertson said:

Hi Tommy,

Sorry for any confusion.

You mentioned he was holding an umbrella; so I just wanted to say he looks nothing like the Umbrella Man aka TUM. Not in appearance or dress.

I seem to remember a Congo thread with a similar umbrella reference back in the day. Neither that Cuban or CBC was the Umbrella Man. And yes, we were talking about the blond Oswald.

Awesome work on the picture once again. Great job.

Zach

Zach,

OK. Thanks.

I didn't mean to suggest that the short blond guy who might be holding an umbrella in the photo is TUM.

Anyway, I guess the 6'1" Capehart couldn't have been the "about the same height as her (5' 3.5")"  Blond Oswald that Duran said she dealt with at the Cuban Consulate.

BTW, how did you find out that Capehart / Damon was 6'1"?

--Tommy

No, I'm not suggesting that TUM was 6'1".

LOL Just kidding.

Edited February 23, 2018 by Thomas Graves

[William Kelly]

I am not sure if its the same guy.

Are there pictures of the scientists?

Scientists? Plural???

Thomas

This is where I found my Moskalev and Oak ridge connection

http://www.hss.energy.gov/healthsafety/ohre/roadmap/histories/0468/0468toc.html

Ian

Bill

thanks for the extra info.

Ian

Bill Simpich, in his latest installment - suggests that the Mystery Man in Mexico City is Soviet Air Force and GRU Col. Yuri I. Moskalev - aka Yurliy Ivanovich Moskalevskiy

JFKCountercoup2: Col. Yuriy Ivanovich Moskalevskiy?

Col. Yuriy Ivanovich Moskalevskiy USSR Air Force, GRU

It was stated that Yuri Moskalev may have been a Russian scientist somehow affiliated with Oak Ridge, but I haven't seen the Oak Ridge connection that Ian makes reference to. Am I missing something?

http://www.hss.energy.gov/healthsafety/ohre/roadmap/histories/0468/0468toc.html

Thanks,

[Zach Robertson]

Very good, Tommy,

I do think Capehart was one of a series of guys using the name Oswald in Mexico City during that Sept-Oct time period in 1963. Again, I don't trust Duran's testimony as she has a 'soft file.'

Its interesting bringing up umbrella man; I was looking at his height not long ago. Approximates etc. I was thinking around 5'9"-5'10".

Damon's height is listed in a Mary Ferrell document. Don't have the link handy, I have files overflowing on my computer but is should be an easy find. It's funny, I looked at the Damon file first and it has him as 6'1". I just now found the Capehart biographical data file and he is listed as 6'1" as well. Those files are pretty funny.

Zach

[Thomas Graves]

Very good, Tommy,

I do think Capehart was one of a series of guys using the name Oswald in Mexico City during that Sept-Oct time period in 1963. Again, I don't trust Duran's testimony as she has a 'soft file.'

Its interesting bringing up umbrella man; I was looking at his height not long ago. Approximates etc. I was thinking around 5'9"-5'10".

Damon's height is listed in a Mary Ferrell document. Don't have the link handy, I have files overflowing on my computer but is should be an easy find. It's funny, I looked at the Damon file first and it has him as 6'1". I just now found the Capehart biographical data file and he is listed as 6'1" as well. Those files are pretty funny.

Zach

Zach,

Thanks for the feedback on Capehart / Damon.

--Tommy

[Bill Simpich]

While this discussion is still hot, I wanted you to know that I found what I consider the best evidence on the identity of

the blond Oswald I've been wondering about on this site - that's the man in the Cuban embassy on Sept. 26.

Azcue says the first Oswald visit was on the 26th, not the 27th

http://digitalcollections.baylor.edu/cdm/ref/collection/po-arm/id/6116 - page 5 -

But also look at page 2, Here's Azcue talking to CBS and identifying the blond man as the man at the "embassy" - the way I read this memo.

The two photos Azcue is talking about are the same two we have been looking at in this thread. These photos were taken by the LIERODE camera at the Cuban embassy - not the consulate. One was taken Sept 26, the other in early October.

I was at the Archives earlier this year, and several members of the Duran family were interviewed and asked who

he was by the HSCA. They all responded that he was Ernesto Lehfeld Miller. Miller was a friend of the Duran family and

he used to drive Sylvia to work.

When I heard that, I became quite skeptical that Miller was actually a man who pretended to be Oswald at the Embassy and threatened JFK-

not the consulate. Fidel was very clear in saying that the man who threatened JFK was at the embassy. Azcue said he heard no JFK threat

http://digitalcollections.baylor.edu/cdm/ref/collection/po-arm/id/6116 - page 13, 28 (I must say

that embassy and consulate seem to be translated interchangeably.)

It will take me a couple weeks to post the material I obtained at the Archives, as it's not immediately available. But I will have it and I know

where it is at the Archives.

So I'm pretty sure that the blond man is Miller, who I understand is now deceased. Like Azcue, he was a well-known architect. Miller was Mexican.

But that's not the same as saying that I'm convinced that Miller identified himself as Oswald.

No one else ever backed him up on that. Witness IDs are notoriously unreliable. I don't know why it took Azcue 15 years to make the ID. Azcue admitted that he didn't make the ID of

"two Oswalds" when he was interviewed at the beginning. He only came up with it years later after hearing Jim Garrison's two Oswald theory.

http://digitalcollections.baylor.edu/cdm/ref/collection/po-arm/id/6116 pages 23-25

Azcue also made it clear to Blakey that the guy he saw was not the guy in the embassy. Granted, Miller could have gone to the consulate as well on the 27th. But that would mean that Sylvia Duran was in on the whole scheme, which I doubt.

http://digitalcollections.baylor.edu/cdm/ref/collection/po-arm/id/6116 page 3

Azcue worked in the consulate - and this photo is of Miller's visit to the embassy on the 26th. Again, the fake Oswald incident that was reported to Castro took place in the embassy, not the consulate.

Azcue was shown the LHO photo that was with his visa and asked if that's what he looked like. Azcue said yes, and then made some qualifications. He couldn't ID Miller, who was in the photo book. So I lost some faith in Azcue that I had before.

http://digitalcollections.baylor.edu/cdm/ref/collection/po-arm/id/6116 - pages 14 and 15; 17 and 18, 20-22. When Azcue was shown the photobook with Miller in it -

the one where Miller was ID'd by the Duran family - he could only ID the classic Oswald, he couldn't ID Miller.

So I'm on the fence on the blond Oswald story.

I am not on the fence re my belief that the phone call of the 28th impersonated Oswald and Duran. Here's Azcue agreeing that Oswald never made a phone

call from the Cuban consulate. http://digitalcollections.baylor.edu/cdm/ref/collection/po-arm/id/6116 page 9

[Thomas Graves]

[...]

The two photos Azcue is talking about are the same two we have been looking at in this thread. These photos were taken by the LIERODE camera at the Cuban embassy - not the consulate. One was taken Sept 26, the other in early October.

[...]

Thanks, Bill.

But those two LIERODE photos are of two different people, aren't they?

--Tommy

[Bill Simpich]

I agree that the LIERODE photos show two different men.

The October 2 photo Azcue thought might be "Oswald" is depicted as "photo 7" on this LIERODE reel.

Photos 6 and 7 refer to "LEON" - just minutes before the Mystery Man shows up in photos 9-13.

I believe that "LEON" is probably Nikolai Leonov, third consul at the time and still alive and serving in the Russian parliament.

Here's a description of "Nikolai Leonov" as short and blond.

Here's something interesting about the blond man on the 26th. See his photos in the fourth column, first two photos, marked "24" and "23"? The Sept 26 log at items 23 and 24 show that he was sent from the embassy to the consulate...

So Miller, however unlikely, is not totally out of the question. But this would mean some kind of collaboration between Miller and Duran, which seems unlikely to me. Why would Azcue want to blow the whistle on that? Azcue and Duran were friends, she had worked there from July-Nov 63. Miller and Duran were also friends, and that was well-known.

Maybe because Duran was also trying to figure it out. Duran herself testified that she thought the photo of Oswald (#57) depicted the man who came to the consulate - AND she thought the photos of the architect and friend of her husband "Ernesto Lefel" (that would be Ernesto Lehfeld Miller) (#26 and #27). also depicted the man who came to the consulate.

I don't know how she came to that conclusion, but she did. I wish the HSCA had questioned her further on that point. If you read the transcript, her idea of "blond" was a wider variety than we would use in the United States.

And why would Azcue suggest that the photos of Sept 26 and Oct 2 were of the same man? And why wait till 1978? Fidel refused to call Azcue a xxxx, but he wouldn't vouch for him either.

I remain an agnostic on the question of whether Oswald was impersonated in Mexico. I think it's just as likely that the real man was manipulated. It's an open question for me.

[Bill Simpich]

Here's just a little more - this mugbook shows that #57 was Lee Harvey Oswald.

#27 and #28 - the photos of Ernesto Lehfeld Miller - are in a second mugbook unfortunately not available on MFF as far as I can see but I have seen this second mugbook in the Archives.

What is interesting is that Duran ID'd the photo of #57 not as Oswald, but as "Gavino Fernandez", a dignitary in the Mexican government who used to work in the Cuban Institute.

[Thomas Graves]

I agree that the LIERODE photos show two different men.

The October 2 photo Azcue thought might be "Oswald" is depicted as "photo 7" on this LIERODE reel.

Photos 6 and 7 refer to "LEON" - just minutes before the Mystery Man shows up in photos 9-13.

I believe that "LEON" is probably Nikolai Leonov, third consul at the time and still alive and serving in the Russian parliament.

Here's a description of "Nikolai Leonov" as short and blond.

Here's something interesting about the blond man on the 26th. See his photos in the fourth column, first two photos, marked "24" and "23"? The Sept 26 log at items 23 and 24 show that he was sent from the embassy to the consulate...

So Miller, however unlikely, is not totally out of the question. But this would mean some kind of collaboration between Miller and Duran, which seems unlikely to me. Why would Azcue want to blow the whistle on that? Azcue and Duran were friends, she had worked there from July-Nov 63. Miller and Duran were also friends, and that was well-known.

Maybe because Duran was also trying to figure it out. Duran herself testified that she thought the photo of Oswald (#57) depicted the man who came to the consulate - AND she thought the photos of the architect and friend of her husband "Ernesto Lefel" (that would be Ernesto Lehfeld Miller) (#26 and #27). also depicted the man who came to the consulate.

I don't know how she came to that conclusion, but she did. I wish the HSCA had questioned her further on that point. If you read the transcript, her idea of "blond" was a wider variety than we would use in the United States.

And why would Azcue suggest that the photos of Sept 26 and Oct 2 were of the same man? And why wait till 1978? Fidel refused to call Azcue a xxxx, but he wouldn't vouch for him either.

I remain an agnostic on the question of whether Oswald was impersonated in Mexico. I think it's just as likely that the real man was manipulated. It's an open question for me.

Bill,

I couldn't see the photo you linked to at "photo 7" because when I clicked on it, this is what I got (please click on it): https://www.maryferrell.org/mffweb/archive/viewer/showDoc.do

--Tommy

PS The two photos of the blond guy who was sent to the Soviet Embassy aren't the first two in the fourth column, they're the first two (from the left) in the fourth row.

Edited August 2, 2013 by Thomas Graves

[Bill Simpich]

I agree that the LIERODE photos show two different men.

The October 2 photo Azcue thought might be "Oswald" is depicted as "photo 7" on this LIERODE reel.

Photos 6 and 7 refer to "LEON" - just minutes before the Mystery Man shows up in photos 9-13.

I believe that "LEON" is probably Nikolai Leonov, third consul at the time and still alive and serving in the Russian parliament.

Here's a description of "Nikolai Leonov" as short and blond.

Here's something interesting about the blond man on the 26th. See his photos in the fourth column, first two photos, marked "24" and "23"? The Sept 26 log at items 23 and 24 show that he was sent from the embassy to the consulate...

So Miller, however unlikely, is not totally out of the question. But this would mean some kind of collaboration between Miller and Duran, which seems unlikely to me. Why would Azcue want to blow the whistle on that? Azcue and Duran were friends, she had worked there from July-Nov 63. Miller and Duran were also friends, and that was well-known.

Maybe because Duran was also trying to figure it out. Duran herself testified that she thought the photo of Oswald (#57) depicted the man who came to the consulate - AND she thought the photos of the architect and friend of her husband "Ernesto Lefel" (that would be Ernesto Lehfeld Miller) (#26 and #27). also depicted the man who came to the consulate.

I don't know how she came to that conclusion, but she did. I wish the HSCA had questioned her further on that point. If you read the transcript, her idea of "blond" was a wider variety than we would use in the United States.

And why would Azcue suggest that the photos of Sept 26 and Oct 2 were of the same man? And why wait till 1978? Fidel refused to call Azcue a xxxx, but he wouldn't vouch for him either.

I remain an agnostic on the question of whether Oswald was impersonated in Mexico. I think it's just as likely that the real man was manipulated. It's an open question for me.

Bill,

I couldn't see the photo you linked to at "photo 7" because when I clicked on it, this is what I got (please click on it): https://www.maryferrell.org/mffweb/archive/viewer/showDoc.do

--Tommy

Here's the Photo 7 picture of Leon.

PS The two photos of the blond guy who was sent to the Soviet Embassy aren't the first two in the fourth column, they're the first two (from the left) in the fourth row.

That's what I was trying to say.

[Bill Simpich]

It's also worth noting that the Mystery Man, who I believe was Soviet intelligence agent Yuri Moskalev, was described by the CIA as "blond".

[William Kelly]

I am not sure if its the same guy.

Are there pictures of the scientists?

Scientists? Plural???

Thomas

This is where I found my Moskalev and Oak ridge connection

http://www.hss.energy.gov/healthsafety/ohre/roadmap/histories/0468/0468toc.html

Ian

Bill

thanks for the extra info.

Ian

Ian, what's the Oak Ridge connection to Moskalev? Is he mentioned in that report? Maybe I just didn't see it.

Thanks, BK

[Ian Kingsbury]

I am not sure if its the same guy.

Are there pictures of the scientists?

Scientists? Plural???

Thomas

This is where I found my Moskalev and Oak ridge connectionhttp://www.hss.energy.gov/healthsafety/ohre/roadmap/histories/0468/0468toc.html

Ian

Bill

thanks for the extra info.

Ian

Ian, what's the Oak Ridge connection to Moskalev? Is he mentioned in that report? Maybe I just didn't see it.

Thanks, BK

[/quote

Bill

Goldman says Moskalev visited him in 1960 ,whilst Goldman was connected to Oak ridge before before and during the whole of the sixties. Moskalev was interested in whole body radiation counters

He photographed Goldmans own detector.

The Russians were experimenting with radiation of different elements

I.e. Radium and strontium. The U.S. we're using beagles the Russians were using humans!

Ian

Ps if be could photograph equipment he would have no trouble gaining access

To Oak ridge !

Edited August 11, 2013 by Ian Kingsbury