Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, August 25, 1993 TAG: 9308250181
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: STATE
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
The letter, dated Nov. 10, 1963, was described in a secret Central Intelligence Agency memo made public this week. Addressed to "Friend Lee," the letter was written in Spanish and signed by "Pedro Charles."
"You ought to close the business as soon as possible, like I told you before in Miami," the letter states according to the CIA's translation. "Do not be foolish with the money I gave you. So I hope you will not defraud me and that our dreams will be realized. After the affair I am going to recommend much to the Chief."
The letter does not identify "the Chief." But the writer says he told the Chief, "You could put out a candle at 50 meters," an apparent reference to Oswald's shooting ability.
The CIA memo raises questions about the letter's veracity, which is postmarked Nov. 28, 1963 - six days after the assassination.
The memo notes that the type face and signature match that of another letter also postmarked from Havana on Nov. 28 and addressed to then-Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, the slain president's brother.
That letter was signed "Mario del Rosario Molina." The text of the letter to RFK was not included in the memo.
Assassination experts said the letter has long been known to investigators with access to secret assassination files and they said it may have been a fake, perhaps designed to falsely implicate the Castro regime in the assassination.
Other documents that are part of the 300-plus boxes of CIA material available at the National Archives included a CIA memo dated March 18, 1964, that details Oswald's psychiatric record.
The analyst, Arthur Dooley, writes that, "All available evidence points to a solitary act of a mentally unstable person." The memo cites psychiatric reports from counseling sessions Oswald underwent at age 13 in which he revealed "a compulsive urge to kill people," and described "fantasies about being all-powerful and being able to do anything he wanted. When asked if this ever involved hurting and killing people, he said that it did on occasions."
As the assassination receded in time, the CIA memos increasingly concerned the agency's own image.
A 1967 memo warns that "Conspiracy theories have frequently thrown suspicion on our organization, for example by falsely alleging that Lee Harvey Oswald worked for us." The memo goes on to suggest detailed arguments for countering such conspiracy charges.
The CIA was particularly concerned in 1967 with allegations being raised by New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison, whose conspiracy theories about the Kennedy assassination formed the basis of Oliver Stone's film "JFK."
"It would be unwise to dismiss as trivial any attempts by Garrison to link the agency to his plot just because his case looks flimsy," another memo warns. "We do not know what Garrison knows or thinks he knows, only what has leaked so far."
Memo: Ran on A-2 in Metro & NRV editions)