Gene Kelly

Paul Thornberry became a protege of Sam Rayburn. In 1963, LBJ persuaded Kennedy to appoint Homer to the United States District Court for the Western District of Texas. This trusted friend stayed at LBJ’s side during the hours after Kennedy’s assassination (according to his biography). In 1965, Johnson named him to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, where he advanced the cause of civil rights. When LBJ nominated Abe Fortas in 1968 to replace Earl Warren as chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, he put forward Thornberry for Fortas’ seat, but Fortas withdrew from consideration so Thornberry remained on the Court of Appeals until his death in 1995. Attached is a 1965 photo of Thornberry sworn in as Judge at the LBJ Ranch in Texas. Gene

Paul: Nagell's claims regarding the assassination boil down to observing Cuban exiles representing themselves as Castro agents meeting with Oswald to manipulate him and maneuver him into some action in Washington DC - Baltimore area in September. All that he ever alleged was that Oswald was part of a conspiracy to murder Kennedy (not necessarily the assassin) which he thought would take place in late September of 1963. Jim DiEugenio's Kennedys and King article speculates that this is why Nagell acted out in El Paso on September 20th. This is where the plot thickened ... as I understand the story (reading Russell's work), Nagell was working counterintelligence for CIA by 1962 - as part of the Domestic Operations Branch - when he got wind of the plot. He was communicating through a Mexico City contact up to Tracy Barnes. While in Mexico, his CIA contact stopped meeting meet him; his only communication about the plot was now with the KGB, who allegedly told him to try and separate Oswald from the conspirators by telling him he was being duped (or eliminate him). By then Russell and others believe that the CIA was freezing Nagell out (he got no reply from an attempted communication with Desmond Fitzgerald). Russell speculates that Nagell had been duped into thinking that he was working on this mission for both sides. When he appeared before the court on November 4, 1963, Nagell told the judge, "I had a motive for doing what I did. But my motive was not to hold up the bank. I do not intend to disclose my motive at this time." Author Dick Russell went to El Paso in 1975 and discovered that - even though two FBI agents were in on his arrest, and the Bureau confiscated his belongings - no FBI representative testified at his trial. Yet in a newspaper story of 1/24/64, Nagell revealed that the FBI had asked him about Oswald's activities. Nagell was sent to Springfield prison and was part of their behavior modification program (as was Secret Service agent Abraham Bolden). Nagell's sister's widower later told Dick Russell that Nagell's mission was to eliminate Oswald before the assassination. He also told Russell that the FBI visited them in 1965 to see some of the papers Nagell had sent to them; while they were on vacation, someone later broke into their home and stole the documents. To address your question about Homer Thornberry, the first judge at Nagell's trial retired before the trial began. He was replaced by Thornberry, on a recommendation by then Texas attorney Leon Jaworski. After his conviction and sentencing, Nagell was dragged from the courtroom screaming that "the FBI had allowed Kennedy to be shot" and that they had questioned him about Oswald before the murder. While in jail, he was warned not to talk about Oswald and later transferred to Leavenworth where he was allegedly tortured (and during trips back to El Paso for appeal hearings, beaten up). Nagell's 1967 prison letter to Arthur Greenstein (aka "Arturo Verdestein") characterized Oswald as a patsy and an apparent pawn of David Ferrie. To gain his release from prison, Nagell's attorney, Joseph Calamia, got his client to cooperate with the government in a psychological ruse. According to Jim DiEugenio, Thornberry and the FBI apparently brokered a deal with the defendant: a chance to go free if you go along with our discreditation of you as a witness. Urged on by Calamia, Nagell went along with this ploy, but reluctantly. Eventually this is how Nagell was finally released. DiEugenio writes that "Calamia made a deal with the devil to get his client out of jail" ... Nagell got out in April of 1968. Gene

Matt I don't think Russell would misrepresent Bundren's comments, and he told him quite a few things. Hard to imagine that Russell would've related it, if he didn't think Bundren was credible. Here is what Russell wrote: When Kennedy was assassinated, the full impact of Nagell's prediction did not hit Bundren … but when Jack Ruby shot Oswald, it did. Bundren exclaimed to himself, "How the hell would he have previous knowledge of it? How would he know what was coming down in Dallas?" When Bundren went to the FBI to try and talk about Nagell's stunning prognostication, the agent he knew there told him he was not at liberty to discuss it. Bundren concluded from the experience that "Nagell know a lot more about the assassination then he let on, or that the government let on. It bothered me ever since." Indicating Bundren was right about what the government knew, Russell notes at this point that one of the notebooks seized from Nagell that day was not returned to him for eleven years. The other notebook was not returned at all. Nagell ended up serving more than four years in federal prisons, after two trials presided over by Judge Homer Thornberry, a friend of LBJ, who resigned a congressional seat to take over the Nagell case in 1964. Following Nagell’s release from Leavenworth in April 1968, he obtained a passport, quickly left the country, and traveled to East Germany. That's quite a long incarceration for Nagel's "crime" in that El Paso bank. Gene

Matt According to Dick Rusell's book, "On the Trail of the JFK Assassins", Nagell first went to a nearby post office before entering the bank, where he mailed five-hundred-dollar bills to an address in Mexico. He then mailed two letters to the CIA (one was apparently addressed to Desmond Fitzgerald). From the post office, Nagell walked over to the State National Bank where he approached a teller and asked for a hundred dollars in American Express traveler's checks. But before Nagell could retrieve the checks, he turned and fired two shots into a wall right under the ceiling. An interesting read is "Evidence and the Big Easy III", Carmine Savastano's TPAKK blog, dated January 09, 2019. Carmine cites an El Paso Police Department Supplementary Offense Report ("Attempted Robbery of State National Bank", Ref: Richard Case Nagell, September 21, 1963). Based on evidence from the El Paso police, Nagell did not fire shots, walk to his car, and calmly await the police ... he tried to escape and surrendered a distance from the bank. Unknown to many was the presence of police officer J. Bundren assigned to guard a Treasury Department currency display in the west lobby, which Carmine surmises might have been what attracted Nagell. Following the sound of shots in the east lobby, the officer rushed to the area where he learned Nagell had fled running out the side door. The police officer "ran out the door of the bank chasing the subject to the corner of Oregon and Overland and then west on Overland" and Nagell's trail led to a local alleyway where he emerged in a vehicle but now faced the pursuing officer pointing a gun at him and stated "All-right, I give up". After some questioning Nagell was taken into custody, and his vehicle was impounded. When Bundren searched Nagell, one thing found on him was a mimeographed newsletter from the Fair Play for Cuba Committee. When Bundren notified the FBI, Nagell asked them to get the machine gun out of the trunk of his car (but there was no machine gun). However, there was a suitcase, two briefcases filled with documents, two tourist cards for entry into Mexico (one in the name of Aleksei Hidel), a small Minolta camera, and a miniature film development lab. And according to Russell, on the way to the El Paso Federal Building, Nagell issued a statement to the FBI: "I would rather be arrested than commit murder and treason." According to Jim DiEugenio's article in Kennedys and King ("The Most Important Witness, Part 2", June 2009), Officer Bundren later told Dick Russell that, at a preliminary hearing for Nagell, the defendant shared that he wanted to be caught. To which Bundren replied that he knew Nagell was not out to rob the bank, and following statements were made: Nagell: Well, I'm glad you caught me. I really don't want to be in Dallas. Bundren: What do you mean by that? Nagell: You'll see soon enough. When Bundren later went to the FBI to try and talk about Nagell's prediction, the agent he (Bundren) knew there told him he was not at liberty to discuss it. I doubt that Bundren would misrepresent all of this to Dick Russell years later ... there seems no reason for that. Gene

Ben What comes to mind for me about the bank robbery is, it's an FBI matter (not just local police) ... Nagell wanted to get the FBI's attention (imho). Plus, I think that the "Cubans" were onto him ... the violent anti-Castro crowd that were cultivating Oswald and had operational roles in Dealey Plaza. He sought federal protection, from both the KGB and CIA (i.e., any port in a storm). Just my two cents. Gene

A January 2018 article in Who/What/Why by Dick Russell, "How to Get the CIA’s Attention: Threaten a JFK Assassination Reveal" has some interesting points about why Nagell never testified at the Shaw trial for Garrison. His outreach to Garrison was aborted because Nagell suspected that Garrison's investigation had been penetrated by the CIA (which was true) and anything he said would be compromised: On April 3, 1968, while Nagell was in Leavenworth Penitentiary serving a ten-year sentence for “attempted bank robbery,” the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit handed down a decision that “the evidence introduced by the Government is not sufficient to maintain [Nagell’s] conviction. Upon his release, Nagell flew to New York and met twice with Jim Garrison in Central Park. [Garrison verified the get-togethers in interviews with Russell]. Issued a new passport, Nagell soon flew to Zurich, Switzerland. According to an earlier released 1969 Secret Service report, Nagell stated that the Garrison trial [of Clay Shaw] was getting ready to open in New Orleans and that ‘certain interests’ wanted him out of the country so that he could not be subpoenaed to appear.” A CIA cable describes what happened when, in early June 1968: Nagell walked into the American consulate in Zurich, met with a “political officer” and announced he’d been interviewed by Garrison “in connection ‘CIA and Pres Kennedy assassination.’” It goes on to say “Subj[ect] claims Garrison told him he in danger being killed. Therefore wants ‘inform CIA he in Zurich.’” Russell points out in the 2018 article that individuals long involved in the CIA’s Oswald paper trail - including Jane Roman, Bruce Solie, and David Murphy - overlapped with that of the Nagell saga ... at a minimum, the Agency wanted to keep up with where he was and what he might be saying to whom. Larry Hancock's blog lends credence to the Nagell story, and explains why he (Nagell) left New Orleans and ended up in an El Paso bank: Nagell gives us word of a potential action involving the East Coast, but then relates that his own visibility to the Cubans forced him to flee New Orleans pursued by the Cubans. In order to escape their attention, he was decided to commit a fake bank robbery in El Paso, Texas. In doing so he was arrested and remained in jail beginning in September and through November 22. That provided protection from the people who had been pursing him. Richard Sprague wrote that Dick Russell had obtained an agreement from Nagell to meet with the HSCA, but no contact had been made up to April 1978. Nagell was apparently hiding in fear of his children's lives (not so much his own life). Russell was the only person who knew where Nagell was, and a recommendation was given to Chairman Stokes that the committee contact Nagell through Russell. Stokes referred the Nagell matter to Robert Blakey for follow-up, but Blakey never mentioned it by telephone or by letter. By September 1978, when the public hearings had begun, there was no indication that Blakey was going to call Nagell, who was standing by but had not been contacted. Gene

Ron/Ben/David: Kris Milligan, publisher of the Oregon-based Trinday books, did do most of the talking in the Podcast. When he started to expound upon JVB, it turned me off. Nagell is a tough nut to crack ... lots of tantalizing stories and connections, some of which are difficult to ignore. Surely the policeman who arrested him in El Paso can attest to what Nagell said about what was coming in Dallas ... that part seems to be corroborated and hard to ignore. Then he is incarcerated for several years - taken out of the picture (like Abraham Bolden) - and reappears to convince Garrison of his bona fides. While Nagell is eccentric and an enigma, it does seem that he played games with the story up until his death. Tapes and documents that are allegedly stolen, but never show up or become revealed ... letters purportedly sent to Congressmen, FBI and others, but undated and no longer available. Just quite sure what to think about him ... and what was he doing a year earlier (in 1962) with Oswald in Mexico? However, he has all of these interesting artifacts of Oswald's, and he does single-out Carlos Quiroga and another Cuban as his companions that summer. Gene

David I would be interested in your take on Nagell. His story is a bit difficult to believe (i.e., almost too good to be true). It's not easy to validate much of it, as a lot derives from 2nd-hand sources like Professor Richard Popkin and others (Bill Turner, Dick Russell). It's reassuring that Jim Garrison believed in Nagell's story, and some of the evidence and anecdotes are hard to ignore. It is unclear who he was working for/with in the early 60's ... his military intelligence career ended in 1959, and he had some controversial experiences in the early 60's in California. There are also documents out there that indicate he experienced brain trauma, and he is characterized as unsteady by many who encountered him. It also doesn't seem that his marriage and family life were sound. Gene

Matt Not sure how you feel about Nagell, as his story almost seems incredulous, but he is difficult for me to ignore or dismiss. Author Dick Russell would likely vouch for Nagell's credibility. Also, his death was equally intriguing ... when the Assassination Records Review Board decided to contact Nagell. The ARRB sent a registered letter on October 31, 1995. One day after the letter was mailed, Nagell was found dead in his apartment, victim of an apparent heart attack. Gene

Ben The Military Intelligence report was written in May 1969 by special agent Thomas Hench ... it's not the September 1963 warning letter to the FBI. It isn't yet clear to me how that Hench report was subsequently discredited. Gene

Sandy and David: Not sure how you feel about Nagell's credibility in this case, but several years after the assassination, Nagell allegedly told a military friend (John Margain) that he had visited Mexico with Oswald (not sure specifically when). Also, a Military Intelligence report written in May 1969 by special agent Thomas Hench states that Nagell had been conducting "inquiries" into Marina and Lee Oswald from April - September 1963. Since Nagell was arrested on September 20, 1963, in El Paso, he was out of the picture during the alleged Consulate and Embassy visits. But if we put stock in some of Nagell's stories, he seemed to know quite a bit about LHO, and some of that interaction apparently occurred in Mexico. Nagell's allegations about his Mexico adventures with Oswald have always muddied the waters for me about Mexico City. Gene

Makes better sense now Tom. I will read the essay and dig deeper on this. I do certainly have suspicions about Marina, although it's difficult to put much stock in her testimony. Perhaps she wasn't asked any questions by the WC about how the rifle got from the PO to Lee's possession and/or Ruth's house, because they were afraid of what she might say. Also, I wouldn't put much stock in any Harry Holmes report about Oswald's interrogation. However, I don't doubt that he may have lent Marina one of the two keys to the box on occasion to pick up the mail. And the record of someone (anyone) picking up that rifle is nonexistent ... its provenance is highly suspect. Gene

Steve I find Steve's logic difficult to follow ... it's not clear cut. Just because Marina wasn't questioned about this, doesn't make it possible. I simply cannot envision her going to the PO box and retrieving the contents. Plus, my perception is that Ruth Paine had her under intense scrutiny at this point. Gene Gene

Ben I am having a difficult time following your logic ... what id the point here? Gene

Matt Perhaps it was the visit to Robert McKeown, or the Clinton-Jackson incident, or the Odio visit. There are several Oswald sightings in and around this time, many of which are not fixed with a precise date, but rather characterized as happening in "late September". LHO is being shepherded around by his exile handlers. Gene

No worries, Matt ...

Tom I can't see where Marina ordered the rifle or picked it up ... the same people who did the revolver (at the same time) orchestrated this entire weapons purchase, imho (under an alias, Hidell). I don't think that a young Russian bride could/would be capable of that. What makes you think she did this? Gene

Matt For the record, I don't believe any of this. Gus Russo is not a credible source or researcher. He has been involved in a number of prominent disinformation projects, and ranks up there with Gerald Posner, Phillip Shenon and other purveyors of bad information ... defenders of the Warren Commission and proponents of the ludicrous Castro-did-it theme. Gene

Lance ... so Oswald did all of this without any help or encouragement ... all on his lonesome, his own volition? And he was leaving his wife, to go to Cuba as a "hero of the revolution", even with a 2nd baby on the way? And the rifle that he "went and got" was one he hadn't used since it arrived by mail order in March ... under an alias (Hidell) later used to incriminate him at the Tippit murder scene?

Jim Russo seems like a scoundrel, and I wouldn't characterize him as a "foremost expert" on the assassination. Russo is apparently a member of The Mob Museum’s Advisory Council, and claims he was co-lead reporter for the 1993 documentary Who Was Lee Harvey Oswald? for PBS. His November 2021 article in the blog MobMuseum.com is quite the piece of disinformation, and posits a Cuban-driven plot: Gus Russo, one of the foremost experts on the JFK assassination, says Cuban officials were aware of Lee Harvey Oswald’s intention to kill Kennedy and encouraged him. Russo has a simple explanation for the Mexico City charade: "Oswald was there for six days in Mexico City ... but the witnesses that we’ve uncovered say that he was meeting for lunches and dinners and going to Communist get-togethers. He was meeting with Castro’s intelligence officers, and they were encouraging him. One officer told us that, ‘We offered him money, but he wasn’t interested in money. It was all ideological for him.’ So [the Cuban agents] gave him a few dollars to go to the bullfights and to walk around Mexico City" In the article, Russo also defames Mark Lane "Lane’s work turned out to be “completely inaccurate, there were a lot of falsehoods in it . . . it was a total fiction,” Russo said. In fact, Vasili Mitrokhin, who for years had been the Russian KGB archivist, claimed in a 1999 book he co-authored, The Sword and the Shield, that the KGB spy agency clandestinely fed disinformation on the JFK killing to an undercover KGB source in America, a faux journalist named Genrikh Borovik. Mitrokhin contended that Lane (unawares) trusted and used this disinformation to write his book, falsely alleging CIA involvement, meant to discredit the U.S. government in the eyes of Americans. It proved effective in doing that. Then Russo slanders Oliver Stone and Jim Garrison: "Oliver Stone’s movie JFK. (Russo initially consulted for the project but withdrew after he read the script ... movies are powerful,” Russo said, “and especially in an era when young people aren’t reading. Movies are their main influence, and it’s terrible that that movie JFK got the last word, so to speak, on what happened for a generation who doesn’t read. I’m always hoping that someday the other movie will come out, the true story, and I try and get that done because that’s the only way we can get to young people.” Jim Garrison was another really crazy guy,” Russo said. “And when he decided that he was going to go after the assassination theory, [arguing] that the CIA killed Kennedy and Oswald was some innocent patsy, he was influenced by Mark Lane [who] was part of his counsel, his inner circle telling him all these things." Apparently, we were all being fed disinformation by the "KGB psychological warfare division" according to Russo ... further in the article, Russo perpetuates all of the various Oswald myths: "In no way a hero, Oswald, Russo said, continually beat his wife, Marina, tried to kill General Edwin Walker – with the same rifle he used to shoot Kennedy – earlier in 1963, murdered President Kennedy and Officer Tippit, and finally tried to shoot a second Dallas officer while resisting arrest. He was “a serial murderer wannabe and a violent sociopath, not exactly the kind of guy the CIA would hire as an officer or asset,” Russo said. Oswald was a good shot in the Marines. He had a sharpshooter’s rating. He hit 48 out of 50 rapid-fire bullseyes from 200 yards, with a bolt-action weapon. Kennedy was much closer than that in Dealey Plaza, and Oswald had been practicing rapid-fire bolt action shooting all summer. Last, he then uses LBJ as a rationale for his Cuba-did-it story: According to assassination expert Gus Russo, President Lyndon Johnson decided to cover up intelligence reports of the Cuban connection to Oswald in order to prevent war with Cuba and its ally, the Soviet Union. McCone, after reviewing his agency’s secret statements, had come to a conclusion about the assassination. “It was the Castro connection,” he told the new president. Johnson also spoke by phone with his own longtime sources in the Mexican government, as well as CIA and FBI officers stationed in Mexico City. Thus, Johnson knew the troubling story within only hours of Kennedy’s death, the connections Cuban intelligence and Cuban leader Fidel Castro had to Oswald. Russo addresses (and distorts) all of the major tenets of the assassination story with deceptive sophistry. He bases his Cuban-driven theory "not only on interviews, but on documentary evidence from the American, Russian, Mexican and other governments, many unclassified and released since the 1990s." I've come to believe that - when "they" (i.e., critics like Russo) attack someone - it's usually a sign that those being attacked are onto the real story and truth. And he discounts Mark Lane, Oliver Stone and Jim Garrison ... three very credible individuals. You simply can't make a story like Russo's up ... I look forward to your essay. Gene

Bob Not sure of how much stock we can put in Dean Andrews' testimony. From everything that I've read, he was pretty scared, and had been warned (and possibly threatened) about talking. My read - based on Garrison's later investigatory work - is that Dean (a well-informed lawyer) was too close to the "fire" and knew something sinister was afoot in New Orleans with Shaw, Ferrie, Bannister, et al. By the time the Warren Commission deposed him in July 1964, he was telling them whatever they wanted to hear. And he seems to have been backing away from his previous FBI interviews, that were likely too close to the truth: LIEBELER. Do you remember telling the FBI that he told you that he was being paid $25 a day for handing out these leaflets? ANDREWS. I could have told them that. I know I reminded him of the $25. I may have it confused, the $25. What I do recall, he said it was a job. I guess I asked him how much he was making. But obviously, someone was paying Oswald for the FPCC charade. Gene

Greg I would seriously doubt the hearsay that Postal Inspector Harry Holmes relates here. He states "he went to the Mexican Consulates, I guess ... ". Then, he admits that none of this was reported in his memorandum of interview. Holmes is not a reliable source on anything. He is frankly a suspect in the entire affair. Holmes is the one and only person in Dallas to know the number of the money order that linked Oswald with the Mannlicher-Carcano rifle; the only person who claimed to have located the money order "stub" (and had access to postal money orders and GPO cancellation stamps); and then waited 4 hours before telling postal inspectors that this never-deposited, never-cashed money order could be found at the Federal Records Center in Washington, DC? Harry D Holmes, a Dallas postal inspector, an active informant for the FBI (Dallas T-2 and T-10), who according to his abbreviated Warren testimony was "feeding change of addressses as bits of information to the FBI and Secret Service, and sort of a coordinating deal on it ..." (before he was cut off by David Belin and taken off the record). There exist no stenographic records or tape in evidence for Oswald's interrogation sessions ... just the word of Harry Holmes, whose summary was not submitted until December 17th, almost a month after the assassination. Then, under oath, he said he heard Oswald say things that others did not hear him say. The only non- law enforcement officer allowed to sit in during Oswald's final interrogation. A guy who dropped his wife off at church the morning of Oswald’s transfer to county jail, and just happened to wander over to the police station where his friend Will Fritz was going to interview Oswald one more time, and asked to sit in Room 317 with Fritz, Forrest Sorrells of the Secret Service, and several deputies who were supposed to be guarding Oswald. And then Fritz allows Holmes to ask questions ... a lowly off-duty postal Inspector walks in during an interrogation of the alleged assassin of the President and interrogates the prime suspect. Really ... Gene

Bob See the August 2021 Kennedys and King article by Paul Bleau "Exposing the FPCC, Part 2": “Follow the money” is one of the things that the FBI and Warren Commission did not do in trying to understand how such a destitute person like Oswald could run an FPCC chapter, raise a family, and save money for Marina (at least $1600 in today’s money).[1] He was so poor that the White Russians paid for his YMCA fees. The FPCC added the following to this drifter’s cost of living: FPCC membership fees, renting of a space, hiring leafleteers, paying a fine for disturbing the peace, the purchase of rubber-stamping equipment, personal displacements, printing of up to five different pieces of literature, correspondence with the FPCC, and use of a Post Office Box…with not one single member to help absorb the costs. The following exchange between Oswald’s lawyer and Wesley Liebeler of the Warren Commission suggests something more plausible than Oswald giving away time and money for a passé organization rather than focusing on his growing family—he was paid $25 a day (Note that Oswald’s job at the Texas Schoolbook Depository paid $1.50 per hour): This commentary is derived from Dean Andrews' July 21, 1964, Warren Commission testimony to Wesley Liebeler: Mr. ANDREWS. Only time I really paid attention to this boy, he-was in the front of the Maison Blanche Building giving out these kooky Castro things. Mr. LIEBELER. When was this, approximately? Mr. ANDREWS. I don’t remember. I was coming from the KBC building, and I walked past him. You know how you see somebody, recognize him. So, I turned around, came back, and asked him what he was doing giving that junk out. He said it was a job. I reminded him of the $25 he owed the office. He said he would come over there, but he never did. Mr. LIEBELER. Did he tell you that he was getting paid to hand out this literature? Mr. ANDREWS. Yes. Mr. LIEBELGR. Did he tell you how much? Mr. ANDREWS. No. Mr. LIEBELER. Do you remember telling the FBI that he told you that he was being paid $25 a day for handing out these leaflets? Mr. ANDREWS. I could have told them that. I know I reminded him of the $25. I may have it confused, the $25. What I do recall, he said it was a job. I guess I asked him how much he was making. They were little square chits a little bit smaller than the picture you have of him over there [indicating]. Mr. LIEBELER. He was handing out these leaflets? Mr. ANDREWS. They were black-and-white pamphlets extolling the virtues of Castro, which around here doesn’t do too good. They have a lot of guys, Mexicanos and Cubanos, that will tear your head off if they see you fooling with these things. Gene

Sandy I think that Eusebio Azcue's statements are credible ... and he was adamant that the imposter in the Cuban Consulate on Friday Sept 27th was not our guy Ozzie. There were also some other sources that testified to that effect. The HSCA Lopez report states that Eusebio Azcue Lopez, a Cuban citizen, was the Cuban Consul, and he had diplomatic immunity. The HSCA asked the Cuban government to make Azcue available for staff interviews and they complied with the Committee's request on April 1, 1978. Azcue stated that Alfredo Mirabal, who in September 1963 had recently arrived from Cuba to assume the Consul's duties, had also been present during Oswald's visit. During a second trip to Cuba, the HSCA (including Lopez and Hardaway) interviewed Mirabal. Both of these individuals were then available for the public hearings on September 18, 1978, where Azcue Lopez again told the HSCA at a public hearing on 9/18/78 that the Consul visitor was not LHO. There were also other witnesses that day at the Consulate ...two Cuban officials—Guillermo Ruiz and Antonio García—from the Commercial Office, located upstairs, were also eyewitnesses of the Oswald imposter’s making a scene at the Consulate, and both claimed they didn’t hear any threats against Kennedy. I would refer you to a May 2017 Kennedys and King article "JFK Declassified: Tracking Oswald, Part 3" written by Arnaldo M. Fernandez which unravels some of this story. Further, the declassified HSCA Lopez Report describes the following: The Cuban Consulate was in a separate building from the Embassy. In 1963, the Cuban diplomatic compound in Mexico City was at Francisco Marquez Street (Colonia Condesa) with two main entrances: One to the Embassy, on the corner of Tacubaya Alley, and the other to the Consulate, on the corner of Zamora Street. Gene

Lee apparently is paid $25 (by Bannister and Associates) for the leafletting stunts in August. On September 20th, Ruth Paine returns to NOLA, where Marina decides to return with her to Dallas for the birth of the baby; on September 23rd, they leave for Irving. Lee will return a week or so later, on October 4th, allegedly with no job and no money. Gene