Cuban Rebels Told Ex-Envoy Of Oswald Trip by Earl Golz, Dallas Morning News

              VOLUME I I I NUMBER 11 JUNE 22, 1979
Cuban rebels told ex-envoy
of Oswald trip
ByEARLGOLZ
Less than 12 hours after Lee Harvey
Oswald was apprehended in Dallas,
anti-Castro Cubans in New Orleans
gave Clare Boothe Luce intelligence in­formation
— or misinformation —
about the assassination suspect that
was known by very few people.
In an interview with The News, Mrs.
Luce said the refugees told her of sev­eral
trips Oswald made to Mexico City
and speculated he "had been in contact
with Castro Cubans there."
Oswald made only one trip to Mex­ico
City in September 1963, according
to the Warren Commission. Documents
also show someone using Oswald's
name visited the Cuban and Russian
embassies in Mexico City, Seeking a
transit visa from Cuban officials.
When the Cubans in New Orleans
were telling Mrs. Luce a few hours af­ter
the assassination that Oswald had
been to Mexico, only the CIA, FBI and
Oswald's wife knew of the trip.
THE FORMER congresswoman and
wife of the late co-founder of Time,
Inc., said the Cuban refugees told her
Oswald tried to "infiltrate'* their anti-
Castro "Free Cuba" committee in New
Orleans. But the refugees had their
own double agent who. convinced
Oswald he was a potential member of
Oswald's pro-Castro Fair Play for Cuba
Committee, she said.
The Cubans told Mrs. Luce they had
photographs of Oswald and tape re­cordings
of him at Fair Piay for Cuba
meetings. "Including a speech Oswald
made about what a hell of a good shot
he was and how he could kill the secre­tary
of the Navy."
"I said, 'Go at once to the FBI, give
them your tapes, give them your photo­graphs.
Tell them everything you
know. . .. ' I just assumed that night
that they had done what I advised them
to and I forgot all about it." Mrs. Luce
said.
None of the Oswald photos or tape
recordings, however, has turned up
among evidence during any of the in­vestigations
of the assassination of
President John F. Kennedy.
In 1975, U.S. Sen. Richard Schweick-er,
R-Penn.. of the Senate Intelligence
Committee, heard of Mrs. Luce's story
and asked to talk with the Cubans.
The former diplomat and play­wright
found one of the three refugees,
then a lawyer in Miami.
"I told him he could testify in secret
if he wanted." she said. "But he said he
would just as soon broadcast from the
top of the Empire State Building as to
testify in secret before a senate investi­gating
committee. He begged me not to
reveal his name because he would then
be on the Cuban (Castro) hit list."
MRS. LUCE respected his wishes and
didn't reveal his identity to Schweick-er.
Nor did she when she was inter­viewed
last year by investigators with
the House Assassinations Committee.
The other two Cubans were not
available for testimony. One was de­ported
"right after they had reported to
the FBI" in 1963. she said, and the other
was knifed to death in Miami.
The Miami lawyer said be and the
other refugees in 1963 took the photo­graphs
and tape recordings to the FBI
as Mrs. Luce advised. He told her the
FBI took the photos and tapes,
"roughed them up and told them to
scram and keep their mouths shut and
disappear or they would all be deport­ed."
"Now what became of their evi­dence
is something I do not know,"
Mrs. Luce said. "The Incident was
never reflected in the Warren report. I
myself have always entertained the
theory that unable to prove that the as­sassination
was backed by the Cas-troites
— but perhaps suspicious of it —
the Kennedys and the Johnsons and
the whole government decided to say
nothing about it since even to raise the
suspicion might have plunged us into a
war with Cuba."
May 10.1979
When the three Cubans called Mrs.
Luce in the early morning on the day
after the assassination, they were not
strangers. They had known her as crew
members of a Miami-based boat she had
secretly "sponsored" for raids and
other missions against Fidel Castro's
government.
The boat excursions ended and the
trio was dispersed to New Orleans
when Kennedy ordered a halt to such
activities in early 1963.
"I myself got a personal call from Al­len
Dulles (then a former CIA director
and later a member of the Warren
Commission)." Mrs. Luce said. "He said,
get out of that boat business — he was
well aware of it. by the way — because
the neutrality act has now been reas­serted
and it was against the law to aid
or abet the Cubans in any attempts to
free their country."
MRS. LUCE said the former crew
members called her "because they
wanted to inform me of anything they
could that would, so to speak, put the
finger on or clarify the motive of
Oswald."
However, some of the Cubans' infor­mation
was inaccurate, and maybe in­tentionally
so.
The Warren Commission deter­mined
that Oswald was the only active
member of the Fair Play for Cuba Com­mittee
in New Orleans; no one has ever
claimed his "committee" conducted
meetings at which he spoke.
Mrs. Luce still believes her Cuban
friends took their photos of Oswald to
the FBI "because soon after photo­graphs
appeared in the Dallas papers
. . . showing Oswald handing out hand­bills"
in New Orleans.
Those photos, however, were taken
by newsmen.
The refugees* early knowledge of
any trip by Oswald to Mexico, however,
indicated they had intelligence sourc­es."
Not even the CIA briefing on
Oswald's mysterious visit to Mexico