Luis Angel Castillo

[William Kelly]

TITLE: LUIS ANGEL CASTILLO

DATE: 05/19/75

PAGES: 9

SUBJECTS: CASTILLO, LUIS ANGEL

DOCUMENT REQUEST, ROCKEFFELLER COMMISSION

CIA

CONSPIRACY THEORIES, CASTRO

DOCUMENT TYPE: MEMORANDUM

CLASSIFICAITON: SECRET

RESTRICTIONS: 1A, 1B, 1C, REFERRED, MANDATORY REVIEW MATERIAL

CURRENT STATUS: RELEASED WITH RESTRICITONS

DATE OF LAST REVIEW: 02/02/00

OPENING CRITERIA: CIA APPROVAL

COMMENTS:

[William Kelly]

SECRET

COMMISSION ON CIA ACTIVITIES WITHIN THE UNITED STATES

Washington, DC 20500

May 19, 1975

MEMORANDUM

To: David W. Belin

From: Mason Cargill MC

Subject: LUIS ANGEL CASTILLO

In the afternoon of May 12, 1975, I talked with Scott Breckenridge of the Inspector General’s office. He told me that the Agency’s files concerning Castillo were finally located in the East-Asia Division of the DDO. Those files dealing with Castillo are files of the “201” type. However, these files were not filed with normal 201 files. Breckenridge could give no explanation for this anomaly.

He gave me a brief overview of what he said the documents in the file demonstrated. According to him, Castillo left the United States, probably Chicago, in late 1966 or early 1967 for the Philippines. He was traveling under a Philippine passport which he borrowed from a Philippine national illegally in the U.S. Apparently he did so to make the U.S. authorities believe that the illegal Filipino had left the country and therefore to assure that he would not be deported.

In the Philippines he was arrested by the security service and interrogated extensively. At first he claimed to be a Castro agent whose purpose was to establish contact with the Huk guerrillas in the Philippines. Later he said that he had been part of an effort by Cuban Premier Castro to assassinate President Kennedy. He stated that he was one of fourteen Cuban agents stationed at various points at Kennedy’s parade route in Dallas. Breckenridge also said that the documents indicate that during his interrogation Castillo would occasionally go into some type of hypnotic trance. Further, the Philippine interrogators administrators truth serum to him during his interrogation.

RMC:clb

SECRET

DECLASSIFIED with portions redacted JFK Assasss. Rec. Collections Act of 1992

FBI, NSC, CIA Concurrence

NARA date 2/2/00 BY KBH

PHOTO COPY

FROM

GERALD R. FORD LIBRARY.

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In the opinion of Breckenridge, Castillo’s story as documented in these files, probably cannot be dismissed out of hand as inherently incredible. Breckenridge still has no present memory of how the team preparing the 1967 IG report on assassination came to be aware of Castillo or what follow-up action, if any, was taken on the basis of these documents. He suggests that another person who worked on the 1967 IG report, Ken Greer, may have worked on this Castillo angle and would be the person to contact for such information. He stated that Greer is now retired and living in Wisconsin. Breckenridge also stated that these files do not indicate whether or not Castillo was ever actually deported to the United States and if so whether the FBI ever interrogated him. (But see item bellow, which indicates Castillo returned to Chicago on February 10, 1968, and evaded the authorities.) Apparently the Agency has no knowledge of Mr. Castillo’s present location.

…….

IS ANYBODY INTERESTED IN THE REST OF THIS DOCUMENT?

– IT’S NINE PAGES LONG.

BILL KELLY

BKJFK3@YAHOO.COM

[James Richards]

Bill,

I would certainly like to see the rest of the document.

Cheers,

James

[William Kelly]

SECRET

COMMISSION ON CIA ACTIVITIES WITHIN THE UNITED STATES

Washington, DC 20500

May 19, 1975

MEMORANDUM

To: David W. Belin

From: Mason Cargill MC

Subject: LUIS ANGEL CASTILLO

In the afternoon of May 12, 1975, I talked with Scott Breckenridge of the Inspector General’s office. He told me that the Agency’s files concerning Castillo were finally located in the East-Asia Division of the DDO. Those files dealing with Castillo are files of the “201” type. However, these files were not filed with normal 201 files. Breckenridge could give no explanation for this anomaly.

He gave me a brief overview of what he said the documents in the file demonstrated. According to him, Castillo left the United States, probably Chicago, in late 1966 or early 1967 for the Philippines. He was traveling under a Philippine passport which he borrowed from a Philippine national illegally in the U.S. Apparently he did so to make the U.S. authorities believe that the illegal Filipino had left the country and therefore to assure that he would not be deported.

In the Philippines he was arrested by the security service and interrogated extensively. At first he claimed to be a Castro agent whose purpose was to establish contact with the Huk guerrillas in the Philippines. Later he said that he had been part of an effort by Cuban Premier Castro to assassinate President Kennedy. He stated that he was one of fourteen Cuban agents stationed at various points at Kennedy’s parade route in Dallas. Breckenridge also said that the documents indicate that during his interrogation Castillo would occasionally go into some type of hypnotic trance. Further, the Philippine interrogators administrators truth serum to him during his interrogation.

RMC:clb

SECRET

DECLASSIFIED with portions redacted JFK Assasss. Rec. Collections Act of 1992

FBI, NSC, CIA Concurrence

NARA date 2/2/00 BY KBH

PHOTO COPY

FROM

GERALD R. FORD LIBRARY.

SECRET

-2-

In the opinion of Breckenridge, Castillo’s story as documented in these files, probably cannot be dismissed out of hand as inherently incredible. Breckenridge still has no present memory of how the team preparing the 1967 IG report on assassination came to be aware of Castillo or what follow-up action, if any, was taken on the basis of these documents. He suggests that another person who worked on the 1967 IG report, Ken Greer, may have worked on this Castillo angle and would be the person to contact for such information. He stated that Greer is now retired and living in Wisconsin. Breckenridge also stated that these files do not indicate whether or not Castillo was ever actually deported to the United States and if so whether the FBI ever interrogated him. (But see item bellow, which indicates Castillo returned to Chicago on February 10, 1968, and evaded the authorities.) Apparently the Agency has no knowledge of Mr. Castillo’s present location.

The Agency’s documents on Castillo are contained in two manila-type folders, legal size. The first is entitled “Luis Angel Castillo, 201-817248, thru April 1967.” The second bears the identical title except for the date, which is “May 67 -.”

The first file, through April 1967, contained the following items of interest:

1. Filed immediately after a cable, dated March 3, 1967, from [Redacted] to Headquarters, is a copy of the National Bureau of Investigation. This document is 20 pages long and in it Castillo outlines his story.

His parents were Cuban nationals. He left Puerto Rico to attend school in Cuba in about 1960. He states he was trained for several years as a Cuban intelligence agent. In late 1966, he changed identities with a Filipino living in Chicago named Antonio Reyes Eloriaga, at the direction of the Cuban Intelligence Service, for the purpose of using Eloriaga’s Philippine passport to go to the Philippines, where he was supposed to contact Huk guerrillas.

Castillo stated that on July 2, 1962, during a speech, Fidel Castro threatened to retaliate against President Kennedy. He said Castro said Kennedy had made two attempts on

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his life and he was prepared to order that Kennedy himself be assassinated by Cuban intelligence agents. Castillo also claims to have been in Dallas at the time of the assassination of President Kennedy, although he is unclear as to exactly what he was doing. He claims he was taking pictures of buildings and people in Dallas. There is one other reference to the assassination of President Kennedy in this long transcript. On the last page of the transcript, below a large blacked-out area, is the question, “What other information do you have in connection with the assassination of President John F. Kennedy?” Castillo answered that all he knew was that Fidel Castro had made these threats against Kennedy in his speech of July 7, 1962. It appears that the blacked-out portion of the transcript may contain certain questions and answers dealing with the Kennedy assassination.

My personal impression from this transcript is that Castillo was not in control of his faculties. He is at times quite rambling, incoherent, and sometimes inherently incredible. He states that in the Philippines he wrote a letter to the President of the Philippines offering to assassinate the leader of the Huk guerrillas.

2. A cable, dated March 8, 1967, from [Redacted] to Headquarters. In this the [Redacted] gives Headquarters a brief outline of the transcribed testimony of Castillo described in paragraph one. Essentially the [Redacted] is giving certain details of what Castillo claims was his history, for the purpose of allowing headquarters to attempt to independently corroborate these details, in order to establish Castillo’s credibility. The cable states that Castillo is in effect telling a “pretty wild story.”

3. An FBI report, dated April 13, 1967, Subject: Luis Angel Castillo. This report contains factual statements made by Castillo in the Philippines, and reports on the FBI’s attempt to corroborate these events, which Castillo alleged to have taken place primarily in a Chicago area. With some exceptions, the FBI could not corroborate these events. They concerned basically hospital and employment records which Castillo claimed would show that he had been treated by a certain hospital or employed by certain organizations.

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4. An FBI report, dated April 13, 1967, on Luis Angel Castillo. This report summarizes a Newark, New Jersey, arrest report on Luis Castillo. He was arrested for robbery and given a sentence in a reformatory, from which he was paroled. One statement in the report was: “There were strong indications of homosexual tendencies on the part of Castillo, and he was described as being of low average intelligence with an unstable personality.”

5. Cable, dated 19, 1967, from [Redacted] to Headquarters. Paragraph one of the cable reads as follows: “During first two weeks of April, subject underwent consecutively truth serum, truth serum-hypnotism, and hypnotism during interrogations at [Redacted].* {footnote #1- [Redacted] appears to stand for the Philippine National Bureau of Investigation. While confirming some earlier points in his sworn statement, subject consistently maintained he among 14 other Cuban intel agents who deployed along street in Dallas on day President Kennedy was assassinated. He stated that after assassination accomplished by people other than Oswald, he and a companion flew to Chicago. He said pilot and operation were directed by Russian looking women named Jean Dole of Two Chipawa Court, Madison, Wisconsin. [Redacted] cannot vouch for professionalism of [redacted] interrogators and above seems patently spurious.”

Paragraph two reads in part: “LNYMA** [ footnote #2 ** “LNYMA” probably stands for the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service. ] representative indicated he would eventually have to effect subject’s travel to U.S. since he deported by error and according to LNERGO*** [ footnote #3 “LNERGO” probably stands for the U.S. FBI] subject is wanted by Bureau of Parole, Trenton, New Jersey, for violation of parole.”

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6. Cable dated April 21, 1967, from Headquarters to [Redacted]. (signed by William E. Colby, Chief, Far-East Division) Paragraph one reads: “Para 1 [Redacted] 9456 [cable referred to in paragraph five above] has created a strong reaction here. Although inclined agree [redacted] evaluation Castillo aka Eloriaga Reyes case, there are disturbing verifications of story and lines to other individuals. Believe we cannot allow case to idle along. Case primarily LNERGO LNYUMA responsibility here, but we want [Redacted] actively and directly involved so long as locus remains Phils.”

Paragraph three reads: “Unless LNYUMA plans effect travel to U.S. in near future, headquarters still prepared send qualified officer assist [Redacted] investigation.”

7. Cable, dated April 24, 1967, from [Redacted] to Headquarters. This cable transmits a verbatim transcript of two interrogations of Castillo by the Philippine NBI. This interrogation contains Castillo’s recitation of the details of this activities on the day President Kennedy was killed. He claims to have been working for one Jean Dolf who placed him under hypnosis in Chicago. He was on the second floor of a building with a rifle when Kennedy was shot by someone else. The rifle had been given to him by a man who had taken its pieces from a bowling bag and assembled it.

8. Newspaper articles of April 1967 from the Philippines indicate that Castillo’s story of participation in the Kennedy assassination received wide publicity. For instance, an article dated April 22, 1967 , in the Saturday Chronicle gives practically all the details that Castillo gave to the Philippine NBI during his interrogation. An even more detailed account of Castillo’s story is contained in an article in the April 22, 1967, edition of the Philippines Herald. These newspapers contain the statement that NBI psychiatrists had examined Castillo and found him to be sane. An article on Castillo and his story appeared in The Washington Post of April 22, 1967.

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9. One press item of interest was published by the AP on April 23, 1967, from Washington. One paragraph of the report reads as follows:

“A spokesman for Representative Gerald R. Ford, Republican-Michigan, a member of the Warren Commission, said the Congressman would not comment until he had more information. He said Ford might have a statement if the reported confession of Luis Castillo, described as a communist agent or Cuba, was made available officially.”

10. Cable, dated April 25, 1967, from the American Embassy in Manila to the Secretary of State in Washington clearly indicates that the State Department considered Castillo to be unbalanced. Paragraph three of this cable reads:

“Apart from questions of delicacy and prudence, one reason why embassy has not sought to offer good offices to alleged American citizen is that he appears, in some respects, be irrational, and has created most of his own problems here. Shortly after arrival he telephoned Chief of Staff MATA with offer to establish contact with Huks in order assassinate prominent Huk leaders. (When asked how he would recognize leaders, he replied that they could supply him with description.) MATA referred him to one of army intelligence agencies which after two interviews concluded he was both unbalanced and semi-illiterate before turning him over to NBI.”

11. FBI report on Castillo, dated April 24, 1967, forwarded to the CIA on April 25, 1967. This contains a complete FBI report on Castillo (i.e. his background, U.S. criminal record, etc.) Only the last paragraph of the FBI report deals with Castillo’s allegation that he was involved in a plot to assassinate President Kennedy. This paragraph reads:

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“With reference to subject’s allegations concerning the assassination of President Kennedy, it is to be noted that the extensive investigation of Lee Harvey Oswald and the assassination developed no indications that anyone other than Oswald was involved in the assassination of President Kennedy.”

The second file, beginning with documents of May 1967, contain the following items of note:

12. Memorandum, dated May 3, 1967, for the record, Subject: Luis Angel Castillo by [Redacted], FE/PMI/P. This gives the CIA’s version of the events beginning with the arrest of Castillo. It substantially agrees with all of the documents discussed above.

13. Cable, dated June 20, 1967, from [Redacted], to Chief, Far-East Division, Subject: Current Status of Illegal Immigrant Luis Castillo. This cable states that the Philippine NBI was still holding Castillo incommunicado in a hospital in the Philippines. The cable indicates that the Philippine officers strongly suspect “subject could have been conditioned by someone to attempt assassination of President Marcos.” Paragraph three of this cable reads as follows:

[Redacted] officer who mentioned that a Russian hypnotism expert Libidev or Libibed, visited Manila while on World Health Organization business in February 1967 when subject had just come to Philippines and was still at large before his arrest. [Redcated] suspected this Russian might have contacted subject to “maintain hypnotic control” which allegedly subject has been placed under before leaving WOLADY.”

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Paragraph five of this cable reads: “While we are minimizing time devoted to this case, [Redacted] will keep in close touch with [Redacted] and report further developments.”

14. Cable dated June 26, 1967, from [Redacted] to Headquarters. This indicates that a [Redacted] within Philippine NBI had reported indicated that Castillo had signed a new statement on June 26, 1967, identifying himself as one Manuel Angelo Ramirez. In this statement Castillo claimed to have been a WOFACT (probably referring to the CIA) employee who participated first in the Bay of Pigs invasion, then in the assassination of President Kennedy. He also indicated that he had been sent to the Philippines to attempt to assassinate President Marcos. Cable indicated that he NBI did not believe Castilo’s claim about his CIA status and its involvement in assassinations, but needed to “clear up” the subject’s claims. Paragraph three contains the statement that, “We briefed minister and will brief FBI and INS on FYI only basis, at first opportunity.”

Paragraph four of this cable reads:

“Subjects story getting more absurd and we frequently point this out to [Redacted]. Nonetheless, Para 1 [referring to assassination allegations referring to CIA] is a leak to local press, no matter how far fetched the story, it could be embarrassing.”

15. FBI report dated February 15, 1968, indicates that Castillo had arrived at Chicago O’Hare International Airport from Manila at approximately 11 p.m., February 10, 1968. On February 14 officers from the Sheriff’s Department of Cook County, Illinois, visited Castillo’s mother’s home in an effort to arrest him with a warrant charging him with parole violation. They were advised that on February 13 Castillo left his mother’s home in an automobile with a number of unidentified male individuals. His mother added that she didn’t expect to see her son again.

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16. FBI report, dated December 30, 1967, on Luis Angel Castillo. This report contains the text of a letter which Castillo sent to his mother in Chicago on December 4, 1967, while he was still under interrogation by the NBI in Manila. In the letter he claims that all his confessions were the result of NBI torture and none of them were true. He explains that since the NBI recently got a new director who is anti-American, he was then being tortured to force him to claim that he is a CIA spy who was sent to the Philippines for the purpose of assassinating President Marcos. His mother turned the letter over to the FBI as soon as she received it.

17. Memorandum for the record, dated June 18, 1969, by J.F. Devanon of the Los Angeles Field Office, Subject: Victor Arcega, Hermosa Beach, California. This memorandum describes contact the Los Angeles field office had with Arcega. Arcega, on May 26, 1969, telephoned the Los Angeles field office of the CIA on the listed number. He claimed that he had information on a Cuban communist in the Philippines and agreed to mail the particulars to the CIA’s P.O. Box. The letter he subsequently wrote is attached to this memorandum. In it Arcega claims to have been the hypnotist used by the NBI in its interrogation of Castillo in 1967. He claims that he used the name Vicente Sanchez.

Arcega, in 1969, was a proofreader for the Los Angeles Times, who was about to be deported to the Philippines because his visa was expiring. He claims that Castillo had been subject to prior hypnosis and had been programmed to undertake certain actions when certain key words were said to him. One key word dealt with the assassination of President Marcos of the Philippines. The letter does not state why Arcega is providing this information to the CIA at this time. The file does not indicate what follow-up if any CIA undertook as a result of this letter.

It should be noted that the summary of the interrogation cabled to headquarters on April 24, 1967, discussed above, included a report on Castillo, signed by one “Vincent Sanchez, Hypnotist.” It is not clear how Arcega would have known the name used by the hypnotist in 1967 had he not either been the hypnotist or been associated with the NBI in some other capacity.”

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xxxxyyyyzzzz

…….

IS ANYBODY INTERESTED IN THE REST OF THIS DOCUMENT?

– IT’S NINE PAGES LONG.

BILL KELLY

[James Richards]

His parents were Cuban nationals. He left Puerto Rico to attend school in Cuba in about 1960. He states he was trained for several years as a Cuban intelligence agent. In late 1966, he changed identities with a Filipino living in Chicago named Antonio Reyes Eloriaga, at the direction of the Cuban Intelligence Service, for the purpose of using Eloriaga’s Philippine passport to go to the Philippines, where he was supposed to contact Huk guerrillas. (from report posted by Bill Kelly)

Bill,

Thanks for that. Most interesting.

This is Antonio Reyes Eloriaga below.

James

[William Kelly]

James,

Thanks for the photo of ARE.

Any of Luis Angel Castillo?

The best summary of the Castillo story can be found in a chapter devoted to him

in Operation Mind Control.

Peter Dale Scott also notes that Castillo may be related to Eddie Bayo.

As far as I can tell, Castillo is still wanted on the parole violation from the

Bordentown, N.J. theft charge. I hope I don't run into him at the pub some night.

BK

[James Richards]

James,

Thanks for the photo of ARE.

Any of Luis Angel Castillo?

The best summary of the Castillo story can be found in a chapter devoted to him

in Operation Mind Control.

Peter Dale Scott also notes that Castillo may be related to Eddie Bayo.

As far as I can tell, Castillo is still wanted on the parole violation from the

Bordentown, N.J. theft charge. I hope I don't run into him at the pub some night.

BK

Bill,

Below is Luis Angel Castillo. I remember reading somewhere that Castillo ended up on a raid into Cuba which would be somewhat strange. Then again, in this case, strange is considered somewhat normal.

James

[Greg Parker]

Bill,

the address of the alleged director of the Dallas operation, Two Chipawa Court, Madison, Wisconsin, is the current address of a company called ElasTek, Inc. Is there any way of finding out who leased the address in '63?

a Russian hypnotism expert Libidev or Libibed, visited Manila while on World Health Organization business

I'm guessing that this actually refers to someone from the Lebedev Institute which seems to have close ties to the WHO.

[William Kelly]

Bill,

the address of the alleged director of the Dallas operation, Two Chipawa Court, Madison, Wisconsin, is the current address of a company called ElasTek, Inc. Is there any way of finding out who leased the address in '63?

GREG, GOOD QUESTION. JEAN DOLE OR DOLF AT THAT ADDRESS.

ALSO NOTE THAT THE KEN GREER FELLOW WHO WORKED ON THE CASTILLO ANGLE FOR THE 67'IG REPORT IS ALSO LIVING IN WISCONSIN.

THE CHAPTER IN OPERATION MIND CONTROL ALSO GOES INTO MORE DEPTH INTO THE INTERROGATION SESSION, AND MENTIONS A WOMEN NAMED "RUTH."

FOR SOME REASON THIS WOMEN REMINDS ME OF ROSA KREIG OR WHAT'S HER NAME, THE UGLY RUSSIAN WOMEN WITH THE POISON STELLETO SHOE IN FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE.

a Russian hypnotism expert Libidev or Libibed, visited Manila while on World Health Organization business

I'm guessing that this actually refers to someone from the Lebedev Institute which seems to have close ties to the WHO.

IT APPEARS THAT THE CIA THREW THAT RUSSIAN CONNECTION IN THERE TO MUDDY UP THE WATERS. IT'S QUITE CLEAR TO ME THAT HIS HYPNOSIS WAS DONE IN USA AND THAT THE CUBANS DID IT ANGLE WAS PART OF THE COVER STORY.

I'M GOING TO FOLLOW UP ON THE BORDENTOWN, NJ ARREST AND VIOLATION OF PROBATION CHARGE TO SEE IF THEY EVER FOLLOWED UP ON TRYING TO FIND HIM.

THIS BORDENTOWN REFORMATORY IS ALSO ON THE LIST OF CIA/ARMY RESEARCH GRANTS INTO THE USE OF HUMAN SUBJECTS IN CHEMICAL AGENT RESEARCH.

BK

Edited June 20, 2006 by William Kelly

[William Kelly]

When the FBI arrested former NSA clerk Robert Stephen Lipka in March 1996, he was brought to court in Pennsylvania where he was arrenged as a Soviet spy during the Cold War, belatedly exposed by a defector, a reputed KGB archivest.

Among the secrets he learned at the NSA and betrayed to the Russians was the name of President Kennedy's assassin.

As recorded by a Philadelphia Inquirer reporter (Julia C. Martinez, March 22, 1996, p. B10), Lipka said, "It was a flash report across the teletype, flight location,...it was a message not completed."

"And the assassin's name?"

"'Luis Angel Castillo', who went to the Phillipines,' Lipka said, without elaborating."

[Robert Howard]

Bill,

the address of the alleged director of the Dallas operation, Two Chipawa Court, Madison, Wisconsin, is the current address of a company called ElasTek, Inc. Is there any way of finding out who leased the address in '63?

GREG, GOOD QUESTION. JEAN DOLE OR DOLF AT THAT ADDRESS.

ALSO NOTE THAT THE KEN GREER FELLOW WHO WORKED ON THE CASTILLO ANGLE FOR THE 67'IG REPORT IS ALSO LIVING IN WISCONSIN.

THE CHAPTER IN OPERATION MIND CONTROL ALSO GOES INTO MORE DEPTH INTO THE INTERROGATION SESSION, AND MENTIONS A WOMEN NAMED "RUTH."

FOR SOME REASON THIS WOMEN REMINDS ME OF ROSA KREIG OR WHAT'S HER NAME, THE UGLY RUSSIAN WOMEN WITH THE POISON STELLETO SHOE IN FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE.

a Russian hypnotism expert Libidev or Libibed, visited Manila while on World Health Organization business

I'm guessing that this actually refers to someone from the Lebedev Institute which seems to have close ties to the WHO.

IT APPEARS THAT THE CIA THREW THAT RUSSIAN CONNECTION IN THERE TO MUDDY UP THE WATERS. IT'S QUITE CLEAR TO ME THAT HIS HYPNOSIS WAS DONE IN USA AND THAT THE CUBANS DID IT ANGLE WAS PART OF THE COVER STORY.

I'M GOING TO FOLLOW UP ON THE BORDENTOWN, NJ ARREST AND VIOLATION OF PROBATION CHARGE TO SEE IF THEY EVER FOLLOWED UP ON TRYING TO FIND HIM.

THIS BORDENTOWN REFORMATORY IS ALSO ON THE LIST OF CIA/ARMY RESEARCH GRANTS INTO THE USE OF HUMAN SUBJECTS IN CHEMICAL AGENT RESEARCH.

BK

Bill, I also find this thread very intriguing, and am also interested regarding 'who leased that office in 1963'

Oshkosh B'gosh

[William Kelly]

APPARENTLY BOWART GOT A HOLD OF VICTOR ARCEGA, THE DEPROGRAMER, OR HIS REPORTS.

HERE'S WHAT BOWART HAS TO SAY.

OPERATION MIND CONTROL – Our Secret Government’s War Against Its Own People – By W.H. Bowart – Introduction by Richard Condon (Dell, N.Y.)

Chapter Twelve

THE FOUR FACES OF A ZOMBIE

On March 2, 1967, twenty-four-year-old Luis Angel Castillo was arrested by the Philippine National Bureau of Investigations (NBI) on suspicion of conspiring to assassinate President Ferdinand Marcos in Manila. In a series of interrogation sessions, the NBI and Phiippine Army investigators gave him truth serum (at his request) and put him under hypnosis. During one of these sessions, Castillo revealed that he had been involved in an assassination four years earlier.

Castillo told the NB, both under hypnosis and truth serum and also in a normal state, that he had been hypno-programmed to kill a man in an open car. Although Castillo did not know the identity of his target, the scene of his supposed “hit” was in Dallas, Texas. The date was November 22, 1963.

After revealing this information, Castillo asked for political asylum in Manila. He was quoted in the Manila Times as saying, “I am afraid to go anywhere anyway. I am as good as dead now.”

“I don’t know how I got into Dallas and how I got out,” Castillo told reporters, “but I am sure I did not carry a gun.”

The Manila Times story reported that Castillo had arrived in Manila carrying a Phillippine passport which identified him as Antonio Reyes Eloriaga, a returning resident who had been expelled from America for overstaying his visa and stealing a car. While in the U.S. Castillo had traveled under the aliases Angelo Rodriguiz, Raxo Hernandez, Mario Rodriguez, Ignacio Gonzaes Gradjeda, and Antonio Eloriaga.

Castillo told investigators that a women with a German accent, a Mrs. Kreps, had given him his initial instructions in Dallas. According to Castillo, she was just one of many individuals who worked on him to place him in a deep hypnotic trance for the Kennedy job. Castillo said that he had been a private in the Cuban militia, the Segunda Organization Defensiva in Santiago, Cuba, when he was initially chosen for training in espionage work. He was subsequently trained by the Defensiva under a Colonel Calma, at a camp located about fifteen miles from the Bay of Pigs. Among the members of the training cadre, Castillo said, were a communications expert named Karnovsky, along with some other Cubans and a handful of Americans. One American he identified was James Smith, who attended to Castillo’s needs both as a civilian in Cuba and later in the United States.

Three years later, on October 2, 1966, Castillo was arrested in New Mexico and charged with driving without a proper registration. His arrest was made under the Eloriaga identify. Castillo was brought before New Mexico Justice of the Peace Elmer Bassett and sentenced to four days in jail. “The reason I gave him a jail sentence,” Basset said, “was, I figured when a fellow has a hard time remembering what his name is, there’s something wrong with him.” After serving his sentence Castillo was turned over to U.S. immigration authorities because he had no proof of U.S. citizenship.

Basssett reported that “Castillo said he was from Madison, Wisconsin, but was born in the Phillipines. He couldn’t show that he was born in the Philippines or that he wasn’t.”

Bassett also revealed that someone had called him a few hours after Castillo had appeared before him and asked that the man be released. “I don’t know who it was,” Bassett said, “I just told them I couldn’t do that.”

According to the NBI, Castillo had Antonio Eloriaga’s Philippine passport on his person when he was arrested in Manila. Based on information provided by the intelligence service of the Philippine armed forces, the NBI had been searching for him since February. They had evidence that Castillo, in the guise of Eloriaga, had made contact with a guerrilla group that was constantly plotting to assassinate Marcos and overthrow the Philippine government.

The NBI set to work grilling their captured suspect. They knew something of his criminal past. They knew, for example, that he had been arrested in 1962 for carrying a concealed weapon; they also knew that two years later he had been sentenced to a state reformatory in Bordentown, New Jersey, for larceny. But nothing prepared them for the shocking story implicating him in the events of Dallas.

They asked Castillo to submit to a lie detector test and were surprised when he said he preferred truth serum. Suspicious of both his strange story and behavior, NBI officials called in a psychiatrist to examine him. But even after the psychiatrist judged Castillo normal, the NBI investigators still refused to take Castillo’s bizarre and contradictory story at face value.

Later, reporters connected with the Manila Times were equally dumbfounded by Castillo’s strange behavior.

One reporter described him as a “now-talkative, now reticent cloak-and-dagger man.” He clammed up when he was asked whether he was in the Philippines to help implement an assassination plot against President Marcos. In his truth serum statement, he claimed he had worked with a “cell of Reds” to end someone’s life. But during his interview with the press he said, “neither do I admit or deny it.” When quizzed about Lee Harvey Oswald, he drew a blank.

As a member of the Warren Commission, Gerald Ford was queried by the Philippine authorities about Castillo’s revelations concerning the JFK assassination. Ford said that he would not comment on the Castillo story until he had more information. A spokesman for the Dallas Police Department said that they had no record on Castillo.

Nevertheless, the U.S. embassy did agree to a closed door meeting between embassy officials and NBI Director Serafin Fauston on the subject of Castillo. After the meeting, Fausto refused to comment further on the story, but he did tell reporters that, “although publication of the story has prejudiced investigation of the case, one good thing has come out of it; needed information is coming in from the United States to shed light on the case.”

Fausto also made it clear that leads obtained from the U.S. embassy justified continuing the investigation of Castillo’s link to the assassination of President Kennedy.

After making an official request for assistance from the FBI, the NBI clamped a news blackout on the story, and nothing further was published in the press. Private investigations later revealed that Castillo was spirited out of the Philippines, but not before a series of hypnotic sessions had taken place, at the request of the FBI.

The FBI wanted to have Castillo, while under hypnosis, place the time of the Kennedy assassination. They wanted to know when Castillo had come to Dallas, what time he arrived in the building, and from what location he was supposed to shoot. They wanted to know the time he left the building, the names of any people involved, and any information which might indicate how the plot was hatched, and by whom.

It came as a surprise to the NBI that the FBI also wanted Castillo questioned about the Boyeros airport, eight miles south of Havana, Cuba. The FBI requested that the tightest possible security be kept on any testimony obtained from the hypnotic sessions.

In the last of the three sessions requested by the FBI, Castillo was induced into deep hypnotic trance by the ordinary talking method in an NBI interrogation room in Manila. While in that trance state he was questioned for more than three and one-half hours.

The hypnotist’s report stated, “Initially, the subject indicated an admixture of desired susceptibility to hypnosynthesis but deep-seated resistance due to the presence of a posthypnotic block. This block appeared to have been connected with the presence – nightmarish – of a Mrs. Kreps. The total removal of this block may pave the way for maximum results.”

The hypnosist reported that during the pretrance warm-up he examined Castillo and found little scars on his forehead, chest, stomach, and fingers. Castillo told him that the scars were the result of a car accident in the U.S., which happened when some men were chasing him while he was trying to deliver “an envelop of some kind.” Castillo mentioned that after the crash he’d awakened in bandages in a hospital bed.

Names which were presented to Castillo in the pretrance interview were repeated while he was under hypnosis. He recognized the names of several individuals who were then gaining notoriety in connection with New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison’s JFK assassination investigation. But Castillo revealed that he knew some of the people by other names.

Throughout his recollections Castillo suffered stomach cramps, said he felt a “weight on his legs,” and cried out in a pain a number of times. Through the manipulations of the hypnotist, he was able to recall that on many different occasions he had been taken to a factory. Mrs. Kreps and Castillo had always driven to the factory in her car, and they had always entered through the front door. Castillo could not remember the exact location of the factory, other than that it was located “way outside of Chicago.” He spoke of a romantic relationship with Mrs. Kreps, but while one moment he spoke of her as “nice” and “kind,” in the next breath he said that he hated her.

According to the hypnotist’s reported one thing was certain. Whoever Mrs. Kreps was, she “controlled the subject’s activities and consciousness like a nightmare.”

Eliciting information from Castillo was no easy task. Over the course of man interrogations, the hypnotist discovered that Castillo could be taken to four different hypnotic levels. It appeared to the hypnotist that each level came closer to the truth. He labeled these states “Zombie I, Zombie II, Zombie III, and Zombie IV.” Depending upon which “Zombie” state Castillo was in, his mannerism and identity changed.

In the first state, “Zombie I,” Castillo believed he was Eloriaga, and he told tales of anti-American espionage. During “Zombie II,” he took on the identity of a tough-talking CIA agent in trouble. While in “Zombie III,” again Castillo emerged as an agent whose cover had been blown. At this level, however, he experienced a compulsion to kill himself. On the day he was to have assassinated Marcos, Castillo responded to a program he had revealed in an earlier interrogation. He attempted suicide in his jail cell by swallowing a bottle of epoxy glue.

The “Zombie IV” state revealed that “Castillo’s” true name was Manuel Angel Ramirez, a twenty-nine-year-old native of the Bronx, New York. In this state he had no recollection of his youth, except for a hazy memory of his father, who “Ramirez” believed was a highly placed official at “the Agency.”

As “Ramirez,” Castillo said that most of his life had been spent in training with, or on missions for, the Special Operations Group of the CIA. He remembered one training camp where he learned clandestine and martial arts. Throughout the interrogations the theme of “programmed agent” emerged. Castillo’s testimony under hypnosis was that of an individual whose identity had been completely erased and reconstructed several times over.

On May 30, 1967, Castillo spontaneously went form his normal state into a “Zombie” state. In answering Castillo’s question about transfer from the hospital to jail, the hypnotist unknowing said, “That depends entirely on the big chief, you know.” Upon hearing these words, a blank look came over Castillo’s eyes and all efforts to wake him were at first unsuccessful. The hypnotist then called out a series of phrases from Castillo’s notebooks and found that the phrases “I will win if I don’t lose my nerve” and “I must believe myself or no one else will believe me” awakened him.

The next day was Castillo’s birthday. The NBI planned to give him a birthday party as an excuse to get him drunk to see if his behavior changed. Castillo, it seemed, had a huge capacity for liquor. Drunk to his eyeballs, he saluted one of the NBI agents and called him “Colonel.” “Where do we fly tonight, Colonel?” he asked.

The agent quickly told him that he was to fly the same mission as the last one. Castillo said, “Haiphong,” then drunkenly fell into bed. He dug his fingers into his throat and vomited. He cried out for a doctor and between vomit spansms, ratteledout his mission to the hypnotist.

He said his real name was Manuel Angel Romirez, his rank was sergeant, and he was assigned to the Strategic Air Tactical Command in South Vietnam. He said his immediate superior was Colonel Summers.

He was in Saigon in January, 1966, he related, and had flown B-26 missions over Haiphong and Hanoi. He came to Manila, he said, to kill President Marcos in June, when the president would make a public speech. If his assassination attempt failed someone else would get Marcos before the end of 1968, Castillo added.

“I am dying,” he groaned, and pleaded again for a doctor. He thought he was dying from a heart attack. “If I die today,” he warned, “my secrets die with me.”

When the NBI doctor arrived, he examined Castillo and pronounced him fit, except for his obviously drunken state. He tried to give him a shot to calm him down, but Castillo protested violently. The doctor then asked him to take a pill, which he did without resistance.

Two days later, Castillo was given another medical examine by Dr. Alexis Guerrero of the NBI. A series of tests were given to measure his breathing rate, pulse rate, sweat production, and other functions. All of these tests were performed in “Zombie” states I, II, and III. The doctor noted that in each state there was a vast difference in pulse rate, and assumed, because of what Castillo said, and the reactions of his heart and respiration, that he was experiencing some emotions agitation.

Sodium amytal was administered while he was in the “Zombie III” state. According to the hypnotist, Castillo did not even notice he’d been given the injection. Soon he began to talk as he’d done previously while in the drunken state. “I’m Sergeant Manuel Ramirez of the Tactical Air Command,” he said. When asked to reveal his base he said, “You’ll never know,” adding, “I am a pilot. I’ve flown a B-26.”

“The NBI are suckers,” he said a little while later. “They thought they arrested me. But there I was, waiting for them to get me. I know a great plot. I am supposed to expose it, after I’m arrested. I know I will eventually return to my country [the U.S.]. I’ll go through the motions of a trial, conviction, and jail as a criminal. After a couple of months, I will be released for my next assignment.”

Awakening from the “Zombie” state, Castillo was told all about these various states and his strange behavior while in them. The hypnotist explained how he thought Castillo had been programmed. Castillo seemed baffled by this news. He said that he was not told by anybody about being programmed. He said that “Papa” didn’t even know about the “Zombie” state. He grew agitated, saying that if he were in the “Zombie” state he might even kill “Papa,” and then “the Agency would go to blazes. Hell will break loose on the guy responsible for the Zombie.”

Asked in trance to identify “Papa,” Castillo said that he was not just a “guy,” but was his real father. He described him as having a mustache and smoking a pipe. He said he was the only one who could send the Agency to “blazes” if he, Castillo, was killed on his mission. He said that “Papa’s” initials were A.D. and that his first name was “Allen.” He said that he would personally tell “Papa” about the “Zombie” when he got back.

After more than forty hypnotic sessions lasting from one to five hours each, covering the period from April 3 to June 25, 1967, the hypnotist reviewed the data and summarized it for the Chief of the Defense Intelligence Division of the National Bureau of Investigations. The summary report not only involved Castillo in the assassination of John F. Kennedy: it disclosed that Castillo was a hypno-programmed “Zombie” who would kill on cue.

The summary report stated: “The Zombie phenomenon referred to here is a somnambulistic behavior displayed by the subject in a condition response to a series of words, phrases, and statements, apparently unknown to the subject during his normal waking state. While under the influence of such a Zombie state, the subject closed his eyes, rose bodily, walked, triggered a pistol, stared blankly, and fell to the floor with no apparent sense of physical pain. As far as could be determined experimentally, the Zombie behavior had for its objective the assassination of President Ferdinand Marcos of the Republic of the Philippines.”

The report also added: “Neither the presence nor the discovery of the Zombie states in our subject should be regarded as noble or unique. If anything, the only remarkable character of the Zombie state in our subject is its deeply ingrained and systematic presentation, indicating a certain disturbing degree of conditioning.”

In a lengthy summary, the NBI hypnotist and deprogrammer of Castillo recounted the details of exactly how he had uncovered the key that unlocked the programmed assassin’s mind.

The letters “XBGUMIDUTYBX” were found scribbled on the white surface of a cigarette package which was in Castillo’s possession at the time of his arrest. The paper had been folded and carefully and tucked into the back of his watch. Castillo had told investigators that this piece of paper was given to him by a man named Luis Mauricio. Castillo said that Mauricio also gave him money. Mauricio was known to the NBI as a member of the HUK guerillas.

Placing Castillo in a trance, the hypnotist called out the series of letters on the cigarette package. Castillo did not react. He then tried calling out the letters, pausing at different places. He found that when he paused between the G and the U, saying “XBG, UMIDUTYBX,” Castillo would reply with “I am myself to kill.”

The hypnotist then tried the letters one at a time, and then in different combinations. While many of the combinations produced no response, the following were significant:

When the hypnotist said, “X,” Castillo quickly answered, “Mauricio.”

When the hypnotist said “BGU,” Castillo said, “I am myself.”

When the hypnotist said, “MI,” Castillo answered, “to kill.’

In another session the hypnotist experimented with saying, “Luis Castillo” as a command. The hypnotist reported, “A pathetic sight takes place after this. The subject turns his pistol to his own temple and squeezes the trigger, as many times as his name is repeated.”

Whenever the hypnotist would say, “June 12, 1967, 12 o’clock,” June 22, 1967,” “July 4, 1967, “ or “January 1, 1968,” Castillo would invariably aim the pistol and squeeze the trigger.

The hypnotist found that after the preparatory command to put him in a trance, if Castillo’s eyes were open and he saw a photograph of President Marcos, he would, with no verbal instructions, aim and repeatedly squeeze the trigger of his pistol, following the photo wherever it was taken around the room. If the hypnotist said the word “kill” while Castillo was following this program, he would drop heavily to the floor and remain motionless.

The hypnotist’s report also includes Castillo’s amazing story about his participation in yet another organized assassination attempt. Under hypnosis, Castillo said that he assassination had happened “before noon.” He remembered being with a man called “Lake,” whom he described as a tall man, weighing about 190 pounds, with a hawklike nose, black hair, and Oriental eyes set in a long face. Lake spoke with a foreign accent which Castillo could not identify. He said that he remembered meeting Lake along with four or five other men in an airport. They then drove together in a black car to a building. Castillo said that he thought the group included both Americans and foreigners, and he thought one man was Spanish.

When the group arrived at the building, Castillo said they climbed to a second floor room which he described after some uncertainty as brown. The room contained packing crates, a short brown table, a typewriter, and two lift-up glass windows overlooking a street.”

Lake opened a black suitcase, which Castillo described as a bowling bag with a zipper and a lock. It contained a scope and pieces of a rifle, which Lake assembld. He set the scope at 500 yards and gave the rifle to Castillo. Castillo did not seem certain about the make or caliber of the rifle, but finally said that he thought it was Russian.

Lake told him to shoot a man in the back seat of an open car in the middle of a caravan. He said that the man would be seated with a lady or another man. A mirror was to be flashed twice from a building across the street, so that Castillo would know when to shoot. When he saw the two flashes he was suppose to shoot at the next car coming into view. When he was questioned about the identify of the man riding in the open car, Castillo said that he did not know who the victim was.

After Lake had assembled the rifle and had given Castillo his instructions, he went downstairs. Later Lake rushed into the room. “They got him already,” Lake told him. “Let’s get out of there.” He ten grabbed the rifle away from Castillo, dismantled it, and stuffed it and the scope into the black bag.j

Castillo and Lake rushed downstairs, got into a car with two other men, and drove away from the building. They picked up a bald-headed, skinny man after they turned the first corner. Three or four blocks later the car stopped and picked up another man.

Castillo said he was riding in the back seat between Lake and the man who had joined them at the second stop. As the car drove away from the scene of the crime the unidentified man gave Castillo an injection while he wasn’t looking. He went immediately to sleep and woke up in a Chicago hotel room with Mrs. Kreps.

He and Mrs. Kreps got into a blue car and drove to Milwaukee, Castillo said. While driving there, they heard the news of the assassination of John F. Kennedy on the car radio.

Within a few days after the hypnotist submitted is final report, Catillo was out of the NBI jail and had left the Philipines for parts unknown. It was later uncovered that Castillo was returned to the United States in 1967 and questioned by the FBI, whose spokesman said, “We talked with Castillo and he told us that he’d fabricated his story about the Kennedy assassination. Said he’d made it up in Manila.”

The official record says that Castillo was sentenced to six years in the Missouri Penitentiary for robbery in June, 1971. On August 1, 1974, he was released after serving thirty-seven months. Castillo’s last known contact was with his mother shortly after his release from prison. Since then he has disappeared, from both his family and those researchers who would like to question him further.

If Castillo had indeed “made it up in Manila,” as the FBI spokesman claimed, then he would have had to have had a phenomenal memory, an incredibly high tolerance to sodium amytal and alcohol, and virtuso acting ability. Neither the psychological profile nor the life history of Luis Angel Castillo supports the conclusion that he possessed any of these talents.

[NOTE: If anybody gets this far and is inspired to respond, please try not to repost the entire article as its quite long and will save people a lot of scrolling. Also Bowart has updated his book, though I’ve only seen a manuscript it might be out by now, and includes another interesting chapter on Candy Jones, another MKULTRA subject whose husband talked with LHO on the telephone. – BK ]

[Ron Ecker]

A question that comes readily to mind is why conspirators would go to such trouble to hypnotically program someone as an assassin, and hope that it worked, when all they had to do was hire a gunman, or get someone (in the JFK case, say an anti-Castro Cuban) who would be perfectly willing to do it for free.

[James Richards]

A question that comes readily to mind is why conspirators would go to such trouble to hypnotically program someone as an assassin, and hope that it worked, when all they had to do was hire a gunman, or get someone (in the JFK case, say an anti-Castro Cuban) who would be perfectly willing to do it for free.

Ron,

The programmed assassin scenario is supposed to be used for a one time deal out in the open with no plan for escape; like say Sirhan in the pantry of the Ambassador Hotel. This scenario of course doesn't make sense for the JFK hit as the shooters had cover and obvious escape routes.

James

[Ron Ecker]

The programmed assassin scenario is supposed to be used for a one time deal out in the open with no plan for escape; like say Sirhan in the pantry of the Ambassador Hotel.

I agree, a programmed assassin makes a good patsy. It worked fine with Sirhan (and Bremer and Chapman and Hinckley). But in the JFK case, all the shooters got away, and I see nothing to indicate that Oswald was hypnotically programmed. (Progammed to do what, buy a Coke at the time of the shooting?)