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Join this thread to provide and discuss FBI cryptonyms!


Bill Simpich

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Join this thread - provide and discuss FBI cryptonyms.   We can read the documents much better when we know what is being said!   
 
Please provide your proposed cryptonyms and/or discussion below the alphabetized list.
 
(Note that the T designation can change in different reports...a T-designation is only applicable for that report - a designation with non-T prefixes are generally good across the board)
 
(The S stands for “symboled informant”.  Uncertain what the * means - may mean active or inactive)
 
FBI Cryptonyms - Identity Known:
 
Bernardo Alvarez de Torres, Bay of Pigs veteran, infiltrated Garrison investigation, MM-4086-OA
 
Roy F. Armstrong, Postal Inspector, Dallas (in this document, Dallas T-6)
 
Paul Barger, Irving Police Chief, FBI Confidential Informant T-4.  Barger claimed that it was not he, but a "telephone repairman", who heard the conversation between Michael Paine in Arlington and Ruth Paine in Irving shortly after the assassination that "(Michael Paine) felt sure that Lee Harvey Oswald had killed President Kennedy, but that he was not responsible and further stated 'we both know who was responsible.'"
 
Felix Botello, DL-18-S, active with American GI Forum and also with extreme right-wingers engaged in Minuteman-like activity, Ashland Burchwell and Vance Beaudreau (in this document, DL T-1
 
Jack Childs, member of the CPUSA in New York City, was an Operation SOLO source and NY 694-S*
 
Morris Childs, Jack’s brother, member of the CPUSA in Chicago and editor of the Daily Worker, was the other Operation Solo source and CG 5824-S*
 
Howard Davis, MM-639-S, FBI reports on his 3/16/61 letter to JFK attacking Manolo Ray; ally of Jerry Hemming; frequent and valued FBI informant throughout the 1960s.
 
Jeronimo Esteves, (various spellings), SJ-492-S, ally of Antonio Veciana, second cousin of Sylvia Odio, based in Puerto Rico.  MM 492-S also discusses Operation Judas as a plan to put Hubert Matos as Cuba's new leader with Gutierrez Menoyo as chief of the Army.
 
Earl Harvey,  informs Jim Hosty in late 1961 of lack of information on Minutemen, DL-107-C
Harry Holmes, Postal Inspector, Dallas, (in these documents, Dallas T-2 and Dallas T-10).
 
Joaquin Insua, Dallas Cuban Catholic Relief Services (in this document, Dallas T-3)
 
Margarita Landin, CPUSA member in Dallas with her husband Joe (Joe was also an ACLU member, Dallas and other Texas CPUSA chapters were poised to call the ACLU in case of emergency, he may have been DL-6-S, see memos dated 8/1/60, 8/30/60, 1/30/614/10/63 ) - DL-7-S (in this document, FBI informant DL T-2)
 
Ruth Lowery, possibly the younger sister of CPUSA member William Lowery - DL-15-S (in this document, FBI informant DL T-4)
 
William J. Lowery, Jr., Dallas CPUSA member from 1945-1963.  FBI informant until 9/23/63, when the double identity of this shoe salesman publicly emerged.  Worked at the Shoe Haven, 620 West Jefferson Blvd., three blocks from the Texas Theatre and three blocks from Johnny Brewer at Hardy's Shoe Store.  Reported to Jim Hosty on 11/29/63 that the KLIF announcer quoted Oswald all afternoon on 11/22 as saying, "I killed the President.  I killed a cop. & I'm going to kill two more", until 6 pm, when the manager reported live that it could not be confirmed.  Secretary of American GI Forum, the President was Joe Molina who worked at the TSBD and was taken into custody during the early AM hours of 11/23/63 as a suspect in the assassination of JFK. In late 64, Detective Stringfellow interrogated him about any connection between the American GI Forum and Joe Landin and Felix Botello. Reported to Jim Hosty.   DL-2-S.
 
Andrea McCormick, reported to police LHO’s leafleting that led to his arrest.  (in this document, FBI informant NO-6)

Carlos Quiroga, Cuban exile in New Orleans (in this document, FBI informant NO T-5)
 
L.H. Robertson, Postal Inspector, New Orleans (in this document, FBI informant NO T-1)
Also identified as L.W. Robertson
 
Jeanne Rodgers, Secretary to the Manager, radio station WDSU New Orleans (in this document, FBI informant NO T-3)
 
Nestor Rodriguez, NO-1213-S, ran New Orleans language school, met Lee Oswald, Nazi sympathizer, son of Arnesto Rodriguez/AMJUTE-1 and Emilio Rodriguez/AMIRE-1
 
Andrew St. George, Life Magazine photographer (in this document, NY T-1)
 
Enrique Varona, PSI Enrique Varona.  Frequent contacts with Carlos Bringuier.   (in this document, Dallas T-2)
 
FBI Cryptonyms - Identity Uncertain:
 
Manuel Rodriguez Orcarberro, may be DL-282-S.  This FBI memo says “his identity is known to the Bureau, BUFILE 105-131,209), was in a top leadership position in Alpha 66…(met at Jorge Salzar’s house) at 3126 Harlandale.”   The title of BUFILE 105-131209 is “Manuel Orcarberro Rodriguez.” created on 5/26/64.  This is the very first serial.  DL 282-S reported that the meetings were at Jorge Salazar's residence at 3126 Harlandale.   Problem:  This 1965 document lists Manuel Rodriguez Orcarberro as a PSI - a Potential Security Informant - which would seem to indicate that he is not yet security informant DL 282-S.   DL 282-S moved to San Juan in 1972.  His last known symbol number was SJ-1140-S.
 
 
FBI Cryptonyms - Identity Unknown:
 
CSNY 2822-S, (referred to elsewhere as NY 2822-S)  "Advised that troops being trained by the FRD had nearly completed their training and would be ready to invade Cuba by 11/1/60.  No action would be taken until after US elections on 11/8/60 to avoid the matter becoming an election issue; however, it would be launched before the new President took office in order that there would be no criticism against the new President." 
 
 

 

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Please e-mail or message me if you have off-topic requests (i.e. -  CIA cryptonyms).  My goal is to foster a long-needed discussion about FBI cryptonyms.  As you can see from the list above - particularly on informants like William Lowery - some big questions about the JFK come up.

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7 hours ago, Bill Simpich said:
Join this thread - provide and discuss FBI cryptonyms.   We can read the documents much better when we know what is being said!   
 

Joaquin Insua, Dallas Cuban Catholic Relief Services (in this document, Dallas T-3)

Bill,

 

In a 5/28/64 memo from FBI, Dallas to the Director,
http://www.maryferrell.org/mffweb/archive/viewer/showDoc.do?docId=10146&relPageId=28

Page 28
Informant T-1 is identified as Enrique Varona. Informant T-2 is identified as Joaquin Insua (under consideration as a PSI). Informant T-3 is identified as CIA, Miami, Florida.

 

Steve Thomas

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Steve, do you know anything about Enrique Varona?   He appears to be a Dallas resident - no reason to believe he is a relation to Tony Varona.   But what groups was he with, that kind of thing?   I am also wondering about my ID of Manuel Rodriguez Orcarberro as probably DL 282-S, if you have any thoughts on that.   I would love to button it down, but I can't quite do it.

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24 minutes ago, Bill Simpich said:

Steve, do you know anything about Enrique Varona?   He appears to be a Dallas resident - no reason to believe he is a relation to Tony Varona.   But what groups was he with, that kind of thing?   I am also wondering about my ID of Manuel Rodriguez Orcarberro as probably DL 282-S, if you have any thoughts on that.   I would love to button it down, but I can't quite do it.

Bill,

 

Sorry, I don't remember anything about Enrique Varona at the moment.

I'm not sure why the letter to Dorothy Klein would be signed by Rodriguez as the "General Secretary of Alpha 66". He was the President of the Dallas Chapter.

As far as DL 282-S goes, it could be any one of a number of individuals. If you look at this document,

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=28726#relPageId=4&tab=page

On pages 5-6, Rodriguez lists the officers of the Dallas Chapter of Alpha 66/SNFE. I know the FBI interviewed several of them in 1964; most notably in my mind, Raul Castro and Juan Quintana. Juan Francisco Quintana Maya and Raul Castro Baile were jointly interviewed by FBI Wallace Heitman at their home in Garland on May 14, 1964.

See here for a Heitman interview of Raul Castro Baile:
http://www.maryferre....do?docId=69112

See here for an interview of Juan Quintana Maya:
http://www.maryferre....do?docId=69111

 

On May 25, 1964, Manuel Rodriguez voluntarily appeared at the Dallas FBI offices and spoke to Wallace Heitman. He told Heitman that the members of SNFE met at bi-weekly meetings at 3126 Harlandale. (Although in his Report, Heitman spelled it Hollandale.)

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=11481#relPageId=222&tab=page

See p. 222.

 

Steve Thomas

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9 minutes ago, Steve Thomas said:

Bill,

 

On pages 5-6, Rodriguez lists the officers of the Dallas Chapter of Alpha 66/SNFE. I know the FBI interviewed several of them in 1964; most notably in my mind, Raul Castro and Juan Francisco Quintana Maya.

Bill,

 

Along those lines...

http://www.maryferrell.org/mffweb/archive/viewer/showDoc.do?docId=11481&relPageId=215

see page 6

 

Wallace Heitman and W. James Wood interviewed Raoul Castro on May 14, 1964. Their Report is dated May 22, 1964. Castro told them that he had entered Aviation Cadet School in Cuba in June, 1959, where he met Juan Francisco Quintana Maya. They were sent to Mexico, where they spent seven months. They returned to Cuba in May, 1960, spent twenty days there, and were sent back to Mexico for “link training, and to finish their course in crop dusting”. ( I don't know what “link training” is). Castro told them that it was obvious that the training they were receiving was military in nature.

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=69112&search=%22Eden_Gutierrez%22#relPageId=6&tab=page page 7.

 

In my mind, that's the kind of thing an FBI informant would be relaying to the FBI.

 

Steve Thomas

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Bill - thought I would post this here. Doesn’t deal with Cryptonyms or FBI informants, but does show that many DPD detectives presumably attached to Army Intel units were graduates of the FBI National Academy. 

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On 2/15/2019 at 8:58 PM, Bill Simpich said:

Please e-mail or message me if you have off-topic requests (i.e. -  CIA cryptonyms).  My goal is to foster a long-needed discussion about FBI cryptonyms.  As you can see from the list above - particularly on informants like William Lowery - some big questions about the JFK come up.

This is great Bill. Maybe more light could be  (directly or indirectly lol) shed on the FBI’s work in Mexico City circa ‘63 as a result of this effort as well.

Edited by B. A. Copeland
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  • 9 months later...

Still looking for leads on solved FBI cryptonyms - see the previous posts above.

This post is to discuss Bill Lowery, FBI informant DL-2-S - and the fake story about Oswald being S-172 and/or S-179.

He was paid $200 a month by Hosty.    For the proof, see...

 
At page 5:  William Lowery, the CPUSA officer in Dallas who came out as an FBI informant in Sept 1963, is the guy who actually received $200 a month as an informant from Jim Hosty.
 
- and believe it or not, FBI cover-up artist Wally Heitman volunteered to work for free as Lowery's lawyer before the HSCA!  When Lowery admitted he got paid $2500 a year - which boils down, again, to $200 a month, the next question was "how was he paid" -Heitman instructed Lowery not to answer.  He did not want the answer that Hosty paid him $200 a month!  (p. 15)  When they pinned him down, he said $50 a week (p. 19)   

If Oswald played any role with the FBI - or any other agency - it needed to be covered up.  What better way to do it than with a disinformation campaign, aided by members of the news media.  Consider this...

Joan Mellen reports that Joseph Goulden was the executor to the will of David Phillips (Farewell to Justice, p. 454).  

Goulden reported on December 8, 1963 that Oswald was an informant of the FBI.  This then was brought into the scheme of Bill Alexander and Hugh Aynesworth to spread a deliberately made-up story about LHO being Agent S-172 or S-179.
 
Lonnie Hudkins printed the story in the Houston Post on Jan. 1, 1964
 
Hudkins was interviewed on 2/8/64 and said that the 179 number came from a Dallas government official, not a federal official -  undoubtedly Alexander - but he refused to reveal the exact name.  He said that Goulden gave him a number different from 179 that he couldn't recall.
 
In Esquire, Feb. 1976, Aynesworth admitted he and Alexander made it up to draw out the FBI on the issue. (James Hosty repeated this story in Assignment:  Oswald).  
 
Hudkins claimed that he invented the two phony informant numbers for Oswald "and leaked the information during a phone conversation in order to determine if the FBI had tapped his telephone."   Hudkins even claimed that an FBI dropped by his office a half an hour later and after beating around the bush asked if he had heard  anything about Oswald's phony payroll number.  Hudkins claim about both of these stories does not mean it is true.  Even FBI chief Clarence Kelley referred to Hudkins and his frequent tips as a "usually unreliable source of information".
 
 
Goulden denied it, claiming he got it from a "Dallas law enforcement officer".  The FBI considered Goulden's story scurrilous.  Goulden said he would try to get permission, and called back and said he couldn't reach him.   He told the FBI later that the officer assured him it was being "handled through proper channels".
 
Goulden also wrote that a Dallas law enforcement officer provided him information that Ruby gained access to the basement by posing as the helper of a cameraman.  He claimed he couldn't reach this officer again, and then used the same story about it being "handled through proper channels".
 
Years later, the man at FBI HQ believed that DA Bill Alexander had made up the story.   Alexander told Gerald Posner, "I never much liked the federals...I figured it was as good a way as any to keep them out of my way by having to run down that phony story."  (Posner, Case Closed, p. 348).
 
To top it off, reporter Hugh Aynesworth told Larry Sneed that "I made it up" - and that he gave the phony number S-172 to Hudkins.  (Sneed, No More Silence, p. 32).
 
Were Goulden or Hudkins prosecuted for lying to the FBI and this campaign of disinformation?  Or Alexander, who was a seasoned district attorney and knew that FBI informant numbers were identified as DL 2-S, not S-172?  Nope.   These men didn't have to say anything - but once they did, that's obstruction of justice under 18 USC 1001 then and now.
 
Assistant WC counsel Leon Hubert told his boss that if they wanted to make a proper record, the FBI could not simply get an affidavit from the FBI HQ Security Division, they needed to search the informant files for the field offices in Dallas and New Orleans.  According to Breach of Trust author Gerald McKnight, this was never done.  (p. 145). 
 
I think it's at least possible that all this was done to hide the very real relationship Oswald had with Customs and New Orleans FBI agent Warren de Brueys - who worked the Cuba beat -  as reported for more than fifty years by FBI informant Orestes Pena.
 
Cuban exile Orestes Pena testified that he saw Oswald chatting on a regular basis with FBI Cuban specialist Warren de Brueys, David Smith at Customs, and Wendell Roache at INS.   Pena told the Church Committee that Oswald was employed by Customs.   Informant Joseph Oster went farther, saying that Oswald's handler was David Smith at Customs.   Church Committee staff members knew that David Smith "was involved in CIA operations".  Orestes Pena's handler Warren de Brueys admitted he knew David Smith. Oswald was also frequently seen with Juan Valdes, who described himself as a "customs house broker".  
 
Note:  Pena told the Church Committee that Oswald was employed by Customs:   Church Committee Boxed Files / NARA Record Number: 157-10014-10120.   See http://www.maryferrell.org/mffweb/archive/viewer/showDoc.do?docId=1421&relPageId=31 (de Brueys); http://www.maryferrell.org/mffweb/archive/viewer/showDoc.do?mode=searchResult&absPageId=182451    (Pena)(also see 180-10075-10167, 2000 release of Pena's depo, at National Archives; and Joan Mellen's Farewell to Justice, pp. 46-48) http://www.maryferrell.org/mffweb/archive/viewer/showDoc.do?mode=searchResult&absPageId=488541 (Juan Valdes' still-unreleased file, part of the CIA's broken-up "Fair Play for Cuba file" 100-300-011) 
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On 2/16/2019 at 1:15 AM, Bill Simpich said:

Steve, do you know anything about Enrique Varona?   He appears to be a Dallas resident - no reason to believe he is a relation to Tony Varona.   But what groups was he with, that kind of thing?   I am also wondering about my ID of Manuel Rodriguez Orcarberro as probably DL 282-S, if you have any thoughts on that.   I would love to button it down, but I can't quite do it.

Bill.

 

https://www.archives.gov/files/research/jfk/releases/docid-32180962.pdf

 

On 11/23/63, Wallace Heitman reached out to Enrique Varona, Manuel Perez, and William Hsuek to see if they had any information on this matter.

 

I believe that this should be William Hsueh (from page 782 of the 1961 City Directory)

https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth806907/m1/1118/zoom/?resolution=2&lat=2621.5&lon=684

 

 

Varona is not in the 1961 Dallas City Directory.

 

https://www.archives.gov/files/research/jfk/releases/docid-32328737.pdf

is a May 5, 1964 report from Heitman

shows Varona as Dallas PSI T-1 and cross references him with the SNFE and a report out of Miami filed by SA William Drew out of Miami in February of 1964

Cross references file 105-112098-443

(105-112098 is the Bureau File on Alpha 66 and the SNFE. 443 is Osvaldo Pino Pino)

 

Steve Thomas

 

Edited by Steve Thomas
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On 2/16/2019 at 1:15 AM, Bill Simpich said:

 I am also wondering about my ID of Manuel Rodriguez Orcarberro as probably DL 282-S, if you have any thoughts on that.   I would love to button it down, but I can't quite do it.

Bill,

I believe that you are right about Manuel Rodriguez Arcarberro being informant DL 282-S, but my evidence is circumstantial.

[No Title] page 2  This is a 1966 memo from Wallace Heitman. As you and others have pointed out, "T" informants are transactional, and only relate to that particular informant, at that particular time, in that particular case.

Information about Informant DL 282-S can be found in the Dallas case file DL 134-332

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=194594&relPageId=2&search=%22DL_134-332%22

 

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=174523&relPageId=2&search=%22DL_134-332%22

[No Title] page 2 shows us that Dallas case file DL 134-332 consists of one volume. Sub-file 134-332-A also consists of one volume.

 

HARON_FBIREC.TBL page 28

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=213423&search=%22DL_134-332%22#relPageId=28&tab=page

tells us that DL 282-S is a Dallas informant that dealt with Alpha 66 matters and case file 134-332 can be found in response to ARRB request# FBI-20.

 

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=202873&relPageId=1&search=DL_282

FBISUMRY_FBI20.WPD page 1

shows that Dallas case file DL 134-442 contains memos from Wallas Heitman concerning meetings of the Dallas Chapter of Alpha-66 that took place at the home of Jorge Salazar.

 

 

Finally, the following memo tells us that 282-S moved to Puerto Rico in 1972. Case file 134-332 was then closed. We'd have to learn if Orcarberro moved to Puerto Rico in 1972.

 

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=10146&relPageId=15&search=DL_282

ADMIN FOLDER-L2: HSCA ADMINISTRATIVE FOLDER, JACK ANDERSON COLUMN MLK-JFK page 15

 

 

Steve Thomas

 

 

Edited by Steve Thomas
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