the House on Harlendale
Robert Harris
In Buddy Walthers' memo found in the WCR, Vol.19. p.534, Walthers relays
information he received from his informant regarding the house at 3128
Harlendale,
"..I learned today that sometime between seven days before the President
was shot and the day after he was shot these Cubans moved from this house.
My informant stated that subject Oswald had been to this house before."
Dick Russell, author "The Man Who Knew Too Much", established that the
Harlendale house was rented for the refugees by a Manuel Orcaberro
Rodriguez. Rodriguez was cited in a Secret Service memo dated 11/24/63 by
an informant as,
"..known to be violently anti-President Kennedy.".
The report also established that Rodriguez was a serious enough threat to
the President to be placed on the Secret Service's "Protective Research"
list. The report described Rodriguez as,
"..apparently a survivor of the Bay of Pigs episode, was attempting to
purchase arms in Dallas for Alpha 66. Rodriguez is also a member of the
DRE (the Carlos Bringuier group which Silvia's sister, Sarita belonged
to).".
Of course, we know the Alpha 66 and DRE groups were the most radical and
violent of the refugee groups. In fact, as Russell points out, Rodriguez
and his group were under investigation by Frank Ellsworth of the ATF, at
the time of the assassination. The LaFontaines go into Ellsworth's
investigation in much greater detail in "Oswald Talked", establishing that
the Cubans were in the process of buying stolen armaments through Dallas
gun dealer, John Thomas Masen.
All of this was confirmed by agent Frank Ellsworth, BTW.
Masen, who was a member of the radical right-wing Minutemen, distinguished
himself in another way - as a dealer in the rather rare ammunition used in
the MC rifle, LHO is alleged to have used. This is from a 3/27/64 FBI
report, cited on p.542 of TMWKTM,
"Mr. John Thomas Masen, Owner, Masen's Gun Shot... advised he purchased
about ten boxes of 6.5mm Mannlicher-Carcano, Western Cartridge Company,
ammunition from Johnny Brinegar in early 1963 and that he sold these 10
boxes to individuals. He stated he was not able to recall the identity of
any persons to whom he sold the ammunition...".
Was Deputy Sheriff Walther's informant correct in claiming Oswald was a
visitor to the Harlendale house? Here is more from Russell's book,
"Lonnie Hudkins, the Texas-based reporter who broke the story on Oswald's
FBI ties as a sometimes informant, also knew of the Harlandale house.
'T.George Harris, the ex-senior editor of Look (magazine) and I went all
through the Little Cuba district in Dallas,' Hudkins said, 'and found
people who said Oswald and others had attended a party the Wednesday night
before the assassination at the Harlandale house."
In "Oswald Talks", Ray and Mary LaFontaine point out that Silvia Odio told
both her ex-best friend and her psychiatrist that she saw LHO several
times at gatherings of these radical Cuban refugee groups. Walther's
informant also reports Oswald was there. Lonnie Hudkins provides more
confirmation.
Should we be suspicious?
This is from a classified teletype sent from FBI headquarters in Miami to
J. Edgar Hoover shortly after the assassination. It was reported in "The
Man Who Knew Too Much", p.540 by Dick Russel,
"..Speculation on future US policy re Cuba is currently topic of
discussion among exiles. Rumors are not circuating among exile Cubans re
possible GOC (Government of Cuba) involvement in Pres Kennedy's death.
Authors these rumors not identified but it clear this being done primarily
in attempt provide strong US action against Cuba...
"A" reported hearing from "B" whose sister's husband "C" is member SNFE
(Second National Front Excambray, an offshoot of Alpha 66) that Eloy
Gutierrez Menoyo commented 21 Nov 63 that "Something very big would happen
soon that would advance Cuban cause."
Robert Harris
--
Check out my website, The JFK Assassination Home Page
http://www.thuntek.net/jfk/
the FTP site is:
ftp://ftp.thuntek.net/pub/users/sub/reharris/
Steve Bochan
It has recently been suggested (again) that the rumors about Oswald
attending some meetings with Cuban exiles at an address known as an
Alpha-66 meeting place in Dallas, is evidence that has somehow been
overlooked. Anyone following these debates and watching the ferocious -
though faulty - efforts of acolytes of the La Fontaines trying to push
the 'Odio-as-having-known-Oswald-from-previous-meetings' lie, might be
interested in some of the history of this old Harlendale tale:
(Excerpted from Gaeton Fonzi's THE LAST INVESTIGATION:)
About the time I found Silvia Odio in Miami, a California
researcher named Paul Hoch sent Senator Schweiker a pre-publication copy
of an article which would be appearing in the Saturday Evening Post.
Hoch had written it with George O'Toole, a former CIA computer
specialist and the author of THE ASSASSINATION TAPES [Zebra Books,
1975], a book which revealed that psychological stress analysis of
Oswald's voice indicates he was telling the truth when he denied killing
President Kennedy. Hoch himself, a physicist at the University of
California at Berkeley, was a respected Warren Commission critic known
for his plodding dissections of Government documents.
Hoch and O'Toole's article, "Dallas: The Cuban Connection,"
dealt with the visit to Silvia Odio: "The Saturday Evening Post has
learned of a link between the Odio incident and one of the many attempts
on the life of Cuban Premier Fidel Castro carried out by the Central
Intelligence Agency and Cuban emigres in the early 1960s."
Hoch had discovered that Silvia Odio's parents had been arrested
because they had harbored a fugitive named Reynol Gonzalez who was
wanted for plotting to assassinate Castro in October, 1961. The
plotters had planned to fire a bazooka from an apartment near the
Presidential Palace and kill Castro while he was standing on a balcony,
making one of his marathon speeches. The plot failed (the triggerman
copped out at the last moment), the potential killers were arrested, and
Gonzalez was later picked up on the Odio estate. However, Antonio
Veciana, the chief organizer of the plot, escaped to Miami. There he
founded Alpha 66, which came to be one of the largest, best- financed
and most aggressive of the militant Cuban exile groups.
The article pointed out that Alpha 66 had chapters all over the
country, that Veciana made frequent fund-raising trips to these
chapters, and that one of the chapters he visited was in Dallas at "3126
Hollandale." Digging into the mounds of Warren Commission files, Hoch
had found a report by a Dallas deputy sheriff saying that an informant
told him that person resembling Oswald was seen associating with Cubans
at "3128 Harlendale."
The article concluded: "Like the two Cubans who, with 'Leon
Oswald,' visited Silvia Odio in September, 1963, Antonio Veciana was: 1)
an anti-Castro activist, 2) engaged in raising funds for the commandos,
and 3) acquainted with Silvia Odio's father. While this falls short of
proving it, a real possibility exists that Veciana was one of the two
Cubans who visited Silvia Odio, or that he at least can shed some light
on the Odio incident."
I doubted that, but I had the advantage of having spoken to
Silvia Odio and her father, Amador. If Veciana had been one of Silvia's
visitors, I assumed both she and Amador would have confirmed that by
now, since Veciana was a very visible figure in Miami's anti-Castro
movement. If he hadn't been involved, I doubted that Veciana would know
anything about the visit, but thought he might be worth talking with
anyway. I didn't give it any priority, though, because I thought the
article was overly speculative.
[...]
As soon as I saw Veciana I knew that he could not have been
directly involved in the Odio incident. He simply did not match the
description of any of Silvia's visitors. (Certainly she would have
mentioned the large mole, or birthmark, over the right side of his
mouth.) Later, when I asked Veciana about the Odio incident, he said he
knew Amador Odio and Silvia, but he knew nothing about the incident.
That, I thought, knocked out the theory that Hoch and O'Toole had
advanced in their Post article.
[...]
[I] could see no connection between Veciana's activities in
Miami and what had happened in Dallas. Then Veciana said he had met
with Bishop over the years in places outside Miami -- including Dallas,
Las Vegas, Washington, Puerto Rico and Latin America -- and started
talking about chapters of Alpha 66 he had set up across the country.
That gave me the opportunity to casually ask him about the one in
Dallas.
Yes, Veciana said, he had gone to Dallas and had spoken at some
fund-raising meetings at the home of the Alpha 66 delegate there.
I asked him if he knew Jorge Salazar. That was the name
mentioned in Hoch and O'Toole's article, in the part about Cubans
gathering at "3126 Hollandale." But I did not mention that to Veciana,
nor did I say that Lee Harvey Oswald was supposedly seen there.
"No," said Veciana, "I do not know the Salazar that is mentioned
in the magazine article in Dallas. And I never saw Oswald at the home
where we met."
I was surprised that Veciana should mention Oswald at all. "Why
did you mention Oswald?" I asked.
"Because that is what it said in the article. I just read it
yesterday. Wait a moment, I still have it in the bedroom."
Veciana got up, went back into the bedroom and returned with a
copy of the Saturday Evening Post with Hoch and O'Toole's piece. I
hadn't realized it was already published.
"No ...," Veciana was saying as he sat back down, "I never saw
Oswald at that place where we held the meetings."
I was jotting that down in my notebook, not looking at him, as
he continued ...
"... but I remember once meeting Lee Harvey Oswald."
I did not look up. In my mind, fell off the chair. But I
restrained myself and, attempting to sound exceptionally casual, I asked
in a forced monotone: "Oh, really. How did you meet him? Where? When?"
Veciana said he met Oswald with Maurice Bishop in Dallas
sometime near the beginning of September, 1963.
[END]
As usual, in Harris' previous post, he relies on the hearsay of unnamed
and uncorroborated witnesses. He has no proof that Odio and Oswald
attended exile meetings together and thus is reduced to reposting this
House on Harlendale stuff.
STEVE
"I would like to turn at this point then to discuss the question of how
the Commission came to terminate its investigation. Pressure for a quick
report was not, in my experience, what induced the Commission to curtail
its investigation of areas that are now a public concern and under
investigation by this committee. The reasons for stopping the
investigation by the Warren Commission were that to anyone with
substantial criminal investigatory experience, and you must remember
that Chief Justice Warren had been the prosecutor of Alameda County for
20 years before he became Governor of the State of California, to anyone
with such investigative experience, the evidence seemed overwhelming
that Oswald was the assassin and the conspiracy questions that remained
were entirely speculative. They were based upon political or underworld
acquaintanceships but devoid of any concrete evidence on any
participation in a murder or in the planning of a murder."
-- Burt W. Griffin, WC investigator, from his HSCA testimony.
Robert Harris
In article <35A09E...@erols.com>, sbo...@erols.com wrote:
Steven, this is one of your absolute poorest and silliest arguments ever.
Veciana lived in Miami, and only travelled to Dallas on rare occasions.
You're trying to say that because he didn't see Oswald at the house, that
this proves Oswald was never in that house.
This is comparable to the following logic:
1. Bill Clinton gave a speech in Albuquerque during the last election.
2. Bill didn't remember seeing Robert Harris there.
3. Therefore, Harris was never in Albuquerque.
And BTW, Steven - why did you snip my entire post? You didn't even bother
to insert a "<snip>".
But don't feel bad Steven. I'm sure it was just an *honest* mistake huh.
I'll be happy to put it back for you.
Bob
Should we be suspicious?
Robert Harris
> It has recently been suggested (again) that the rumors about Oswald
--
Steve Bochan
Robert Harris wrote:
>
> In article <35A09E...@erols.com>, sbo...@erols.com wrote:
>
> Steven, this is one of your absolute poorest and silliest arguments ever.
Sure it is. Who needs to hear from the head of Alpha-66, the very group
who presumably used that house you keep crowing about?
> Veciana lived in Miami, and only travelled to Dallas on rare occasions.
> You're trying to say that because he didn't see Oswald at the house, that
> this proves Oswald was never in that house.
No. I am saying that the head of the group, an accountant by trade,
would know who was coming and going in those meetings.
Or are you suggesting that the crime of the century was planned around
just anybody coming and goung out of the plot hatcher's presence?
:-)
> This is comparable to the following logic:
>
> 1. Bill Clinton gave a speech in Albuquerque during the last election.
>
> 2. Bill didn't remember seeing Robert Harris there.
>
> 3. Therefore, Harris was never in Albuquerque.
False analogy.
Show how the crime of the century could be planned by people who did
*not* know who was in the presence of the plot hatching?
Then you might have a point. But as usual, you want us to accept the
wildest and most outrageous claims because they meet your needs to link
Oswald to the exiles.
> And BTW, Steven - why did you snip my entire post? You didn't even bother
> to insert a "<snip>".
How's this:
SNIP!
Now how about that $10,000 bet, Bobby.
You aren't chickening out, are ya? :-)