Oswald's Escorts: The Garrison Files

[Matt Allison]

I also don't believe Larry Howard (or Loran Hall) was Oswald's escort.

Whoever the Latin was that was hanging out with Oswald in the Summer of 1963 has been carefully covered up since day 1 of the investigation.

[Paul Cummings]

Don't get me wrong I'm not closed to the idea but the two personalties being together is what I'm having a hard time thinking about.

[David Boylan]

Fonzi asked her about Hall, Howard and Seymour.

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=60438#relPageId=3

 

 

[Matt Allison]

Yes, both Silvia and Annie Odio looked at pics of Hall and Howard and said they were not the men that visited them.

[Paul Cummings]

Del Valle would make the most sense to me. His description is similiar of what witnesses saw on the upper floors of the TSBD.  

Edited October 24, 2022 by Paul Cummings

[Steve Thomas]

 

On 10/22/2022 at 5:19 PM, Tom Gram said:

 

Deleted

Steve Thomas

Edited August 25, 2023 by Steve Thomas

[Larry Hancock]

Steve, David covered those meetings and the references as well as speculation on who the individual was in our more recent work and I think its mentioned in both Tipping Point and in the Red Bird Leads monographs ...he can probably provide those from memory although I can't.  Its his work so I will leave that and the naming of the individual to him.

[David Boylan]

A small excerpt from The Red Bird Leads:

 

All of which takes us back to the questions regarding DRE visitors to Dallas in October, as well as the reports unidentified anti-Castro activists suddenly appear on the scene and themselves engaging in speaking and activities. In one such event the unidentified speaker made extremely hostile remarks about President Kennedy, stating that something was going to be done to deal with him. After the speech, and upon learning he had been taped, the speaker took it by force - warning that he held a black belt in martial arts. It is impossible to identify that speaker, but for reference, DRE member Carlos Hernandez is noted in CIA documents as being both skilled in martial arts, and regarded as a sharpshooter. 

Records of at least some “official” DRE activities in Dallas are available.  According to Anna Diaz-Silveira, two meetings were on October 13, 1963. The first one was at 1:00 PM for Spanish speaking people at the Dreyfus Club, attended by over 70 persons. A second meeting for English speakers was at 8:00 PM in a conference room over a bank at a shopping center. General Edwin Walker attended the second October 13th meeting and donated five dollars. The third meeting was on October 20th at a bank at Fort Worth on the expressway running from Fort Worth to Dallas.

According to Jaoquin Martinez de Pinillos, the DRE also had meetings at the University of Dallas (where Sarita Odio was a student), at Southern Methodist University and a high school in Dallas. Pinillos, Diaz-Silveira and Manuel Salvat  spoke at these meetings. While there is no concrete evidence that Lee Oswald attended any of these meetings, Manuel Salvat told HSCA investigators that he heard a rumor that Oswald was at one of the meetings, but he did not see him. If that were true it would indicate that for some reason Salvat and the DRE had no interest in the October reappearance of Oswald within the exile community in Dallas – when they had been so eager and active in exposing and propagandizing him in New Orleans only two months earlier. 

The activities of Salvat and Anna (Anita) were also commented on by Colonel L. Robert Castorr and his wife Trudy. They had been unable to attend the October 13th 8:00 PM meeting, but later met two unidentified members of DRE who were speaking in small meetings at both Sarah Castillo’s apartment and Ed Twilly’s house. Castillo was a Dallas fund raising delegate for the DRE. Trudy Castorr described the DRE meeting:

“These two men came to the Twilly home in the company of a very attractive Cuban girl who represented this student group and also Dean Perkins, whom I know very well, Dean and his wife Jan; I believes they are from the St. Bernard Parish and they were interested in the resettlement of the Cubans long before I ever became interested. And also, Sarah Castillo came to this meeting.”

The Castorrs were involved in both the Dallas Cuban relief effort and Dallas conservative society. They were friends with Robert Morris, General Edwin Walker, H.L. Hunt and Dallas Police Lieutenant George Butler. 

Edited October 25, 2022 by David Boylan

[Benjamin Cole]

19 hours ago, Paul Cummings said:

Del Valle would make the most sense to me. His description is similiar of what witnesses saw on the upper floors of the TSBD.  

Amos Euins seemed to say he saw a bald guy with the rifle in the sixth floor window on 11/22. Unfortunately, Euins affidavits and statements are garbled. 

Euins was a same-moment witness, reported immediately what he saw to the DPD on the street, and was overheard by newsman as describing the shooter as "colored."

His DPD affidavit says Euins said the shooter was white. Later Euins would say he did not see clearly enough to ID the shooter's race, but saw a white spot on the shooter head, as if bald. 

The usual witness muddle. 

My pet theory is that Euins saw Eladio Del Valle in the sixth floor window. 

Interestingly, decades later Robert Blakely would come to name Del Valle as a prime suspect in the JFKA, at a recorded Sixth Floor Museum event.

So it goes....

 

 

Edited October 25, 2022 by Benjamin Cole

[Steve Thomas]

Thank you David and Larry.

Steve Thomas

[Gene Kelly]

David

Does anyone have pictures of DRE member Carlos Hernandez?   I tried the Tango Down JFK site, but no luck.  Since Paul Bleau lays out more than 30 sightings of a stocky Latino escort, one would think there would be some pictures from one or more of those episodes.  Is Carlos one and the same with Celso Hernandez, who participated in the New Orleans leafletting skirmish along with Carlos Bringuier?  Or maybe the Cuban named Victor Hernandez who showed up with Oswald at Robert McKeown's house to solicit rifles. 

Gene

[Larry Hancock]

Gene,  David will respond I'm sure but  you will find at least one photo of Carlos Hernandez in the Red Bird leads papers...David is looking for more but photos of  Carlos, his brother and (unrelated) Victor Hernandez.  They are tough to find even though Carlos was associated not only with the CIA Cuba Project and JM/WAVE maritime operations but also with his connections to both DRE and JURE. 

[Tom Gram]

14 hours ago, David Boylan said:

A small excerpt from The Red Bird Leads:

 

All of which takes us back to the questions regarding DRE visitors to Dallas in October, as well as the reports unidentified anti-Castro activists suddenly appear on the scene and themselves engaging in speaking and activities. In one such event the unidentified speaker made extremely hostile remarks about President Kennedy, stating that something was going to be done to deal with him. After the speech, and upon learning he had been taped, the speaker took it by force - warning that he held a black belt in martial arts. It is impossible to identify that speaker, but for reference, DRE member Carlos Hernandez is noted in CIA documents as being both skilled in martial arts, and regarded as a sharpshooter. 

Records of at least some “official” DRE activities in Dallas are available.  According to Anna Diaz-Silveira, two meetings were on October 13, 1963. The first one was at 1:00 PM for Spanish speaking people at the Dreyfus Club, attended by over 70 persons. A second meeting for English speakers was at 8:00 PM in a conference room over a bank at a shopping center. General Edwin Walker attended the second October 13th meeting and donated five dollars. The third meeting was on October 20th at a bank at Fort Worth on the expressway running from Fort Worth to Dallas.

According to Jaoquin Martinez de Pinillos, the DRE also had meetings at the University of Dallas (where Sarita Odio was a student), at Southern Methodist University and a high school in Dallas. Pinillos, Diaz-Silveira and Manuel Salvat  spoke at these meetings. While there is no concrete evidence that Lee Oswald attended any of these meetings, Manuel Salvat told HSCA investigators that he heard a rumor that Oswald was at one of the meetings, but he did not see him. If that were true it would indicate that for some reason Salvat and the DRE had no interest in the October reappearance of Oswald within the exile community in Dallas – when they had been so eager and active in exposing and propagandizing him in New Orleans only two months earlier. 

The activities of Salvat and Anna (Anita) were also commented on by Colonel L. Robert Castorr and his wife Trudy. They had been unable to attend the October 13th 8:00 PM meeting, but later met two unidentified members of DRE who were speaking in small meetings at both Sarah Castillo’s apartment and Ed Twilly’s house. Castillo was a Dallas fund raising delegate for the DRE. Trudy Castorr described the DRE meeting:

“These two men came to the Twilly home in the company of a very attractive Cuban girl who represented this student group and also Dean Perkins, whom I know very well, Dean and his wife Jan; I believes they are from the St. Bernard Parish and they were interested in the resettlement of the Cubans long before I ever became interested. And also, Sarah Castillo came to this meeting.”

The Castorrs were involved in both the Dallas Cuban relief effort and Dallas conservative society. They were friends with Robert Morris, General Edwin Walker, H.L. Hunt and Dallas Police Lieutenant George Butler. 

There seems to be a group of exiles who were trained in judo/martial arts for whatever reason. AMCHEER-1 (Julio Garcia) is another one - and it looks like he was introduced to Wilfredo Morales and a Gerardo Rodriguez for recruitment as a “karate instructor”. 

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=155773#relPageId=11

https://www.maryferrell.org/php/cryptdb.php?id=AMCHEER-1

I’m just throwing stuff out there and seeing if anything sticks. Someone trained in martial arts would make a pretty damn good bodyguard or “escort” - and at least one of these guys was running around in New Orleans with Guy Banister.

I only mentioned Morales because of Orestes Pena. I don’t know how many CIA connected Wilfredo M.‘s there were but Morales seems like a pretty good guess for Pena’s Wilfredo Mas - and if Morales=Mas I think he’s a prime suspect for the karate expert Ricky Davis met with Banister. However, I haven’t seen anything placing any of these judo expert exiles in New Orleans, let alone anything linking them to Oswald. 

These Dallas DRE meetings are another of countless reasons we need the missing Church Committee records. There’s a report saying the Committee was planning on interviewing INS agents from Dallas - which might have yielded some valuable intel on the Dallas exile community. 

[David Boylan]

Hi Gene,

Carlos was not related to Celso. Carlos was an early recruit to the Cuba Project and was a member of the "cadre". His trainers read like a who's who on the early paramilitary staff - Carl Jenkins, Rip Robertson, Tom Clines, Rocky Farnsworth, "Alton Pirnack" and was a close friend of Bernado Barker of Watergate fame.

Originally a member of Artime's MRR. He was Artime's bodyguard in 1960 (he had a black belt in judo). He was a trainer of Nino Diaz's team in New Orleans (JMMOVE) just prior to the BOP. After the BOP he joined up with his friends in the DRE where he became a military trainer in 1962. Carlos travelled to Helsinki in July 1962 with members of the DRE where he appeared on stage with Juan Salvat and Anna Diaz-Silveira (see my post above).

He was action oriented and would work with other groups. In March of 1963 he was working closely with Laureano Batista's MDC. Batista would later send a group of his guys to the New Orleans area across from Lake Pontchartrain lead by Angel Vega. Carlos and friends set up his own "camp" at Bill McLaney's (Victor Espinosa Hernandez was a close friend of Carlos and Mike McLaney) place just outside or New Orleans in July 1963. This was the famous raid that never was. They were to bomb an oil refinery in Havana.

I haven't been able to find any good photos on CH but there is this below. This was his original recruitment photo from 1960. The CIA reused this photo on 9/18/63 when he was given his 4th(?) POA (Provisional Operational Approval). His POA was for the AMWORLD Project where he became a member of Quitero's Commandos.

 

Edited August 24, 2023 by David Boylan

[David Butler]

There is a photo on this page which is labelled as being a photo of Carlos Hernandez

https://www.maryferrell.org/pages/Essay_-_The_Wheaton_Lead.html