2022 RELEASE UNDER THE PRESIDENT JOHN - KENNEDY ASSASSINATION RECORDS ACT OF 1992 _ 10 Feb 77 Soi lrce -iotes - ade · y A G odpasture for Joh Leader IG Staff Subject l Backgrou 'ld on He dco Station Support Assets Coverage of Soviet and Cuban Embassies Unilateral coverage Fro n tr e time the 'Iexico Station was or 1ened in pril J 947 by Bill Doyle U ltil arrival of Win Scott as COS in 1956 Charles Anderson III still in LA HQ had developed a support apparatus to·- aJ j@a exploit leads from the Soviet Embassy This umbrella type project_ LIFEAT co sisted of I IU lti line phone taps three photo sites a mobile surveillance team a id _a mail_ intercept operation a Fhone taps were placed by an·· emplo7ee of • lt _-4 W o L t te lephone company •· s ·MI 1 -1 -who was handled by David WILSTED pseud The nuo ber of lines • '- ' -tapped -wa s limted by availability o f a lis e st nearby • since the taps were not ·n ade in the r i_a 'eMt• and English _ __- _ i_·· __ •· - · _ • Spanish Soviet Polish Cze e1 cl aris-cribers Generally d _-- ' - · •• t ese agents r 10 - t pr I-'iexican erican 'W'ere related · · ·' • 7 •r which tr U' hat time felt Yas good security in that i f they t t-W ed about· shop · they would talk to each other b Three photo sites were handled by Anderson with the help of Harry l• ahoney retired living in Chicago and TDY TSD people checking the best type of ca era film and concealment devices These had sub-cripts under LIFEAT LIMITED LILYRIC and LICALLA LIHITEDwas a fixed site bang opposite across the street fro n the front gate of the Soviet Enbassy which had both a vehicle and foot entrance The Soviet gate· as on the t orth1 est corner of their c- impound and LI ITED was diagonally across a double barrelled street on the l Fr LLOlri 6-4 _ · - - SE-CRET Qf- 3_ · 13-00000 • ' IRl' ®ID 1fij@® ' ®oommrn -ttat block LL I'i' D ' as l- e first base a d it C · l·a· ecl strictly o 'l an s r L e tel bes s n tl e early stages I t ink tl € i ' exi Station bo gr t one s torey this property a S -anish Color ial sto 1 e house through LE-iOUSI IE cl eck to 'J be sure Later this house bega 1 to fall apart This base was closed when the Stat on got 'lrlord that the photo of unide 'l ian as be g r-eleased to the public by the Warren Co m ssion nea_rby The photo operators were moved to another apt The property was sold u l der an operational agree 'llent with LI OUS C·lE for a long term lease on the top floor of a new apartment bldi g to be built LILYRIC was planned es an alternate photo base to LD ITED on this site It was in an upper storey Jrd floor -check on the sane side of the street as LIHITED but in the middle of the block South the front gate of the Soviet nbassy It had a slanted view of The agenta in LIK TED and LILYRIC both l exican f ies as far as we knew were not acquainted with each other • -·• • LILYRIC was a rented apart ient LICALLA the third P h0'6 - tt ·was located - -· ' '_ • _ • - - ' in one of a row of four houses on the South_ s - it·-the- S'o 1iet Er bassy compound - - - - _ --• which the Hexico Station pur a -- o ut _ 1958 check date also usi '1 g rs _ LI • OUSTI-IE as the purc11 t ' - 'This site overlooked the back garden of ___ · · · -- - the Soviet Eo'bassy co J t Iria' · •# The purpose of' this operation ' cs to get good identif'ic ation photographs of the Soviet ersonnel ho at th2t time uere largely unidentified in Hexico Station records The three photo sites ere ha 11dled by Ramon Alvarez fexican citizen of U S mother who taught ele1 e ' ltary level at the Ar ierican School • Rar i on collected the fil i $£H·r fteif from LI fITED and LILYRIC three tiraes a Week His sister's husba ri d Carlos r· e dcan docto ' develop_ed and printed the film into jxlO c m -a t pri 'lt strips I The 1 aster plan 1-- as for LICALLA film to e processe i l side TSD raan from • 1957 to 1959 Harper i -I Holt - resigned could not handle the volume and as the unprocessed filn began to accU llUlate the i 'lside CO l·hloney beca 1e disgusted and took t he fil o out for Ramon's br· ither-in-law to process probal ly early 1959 the handler for all three photo ses Thus Ra on becane A ensitive staff' D r °nitoring operation I I I l I ·_ SECRET I I J 0000165' f @ID1W 1rn@l l PJ @OO mlDJ i 13-00000 • as ru '1 out of' another ohe of these houses crypt for the four house • as This ·was ha -dle d by Gle 1 HDDE I outside TSD 'fic3r a d · a honey usir g HQ TDY teams for ionitoring This operation as also se arate The· two houses in 'betueen • ere rented to uns·1scecti 1 z tenants from LIGALLA c •1Zobile surveillance was developed L lder iahoney and joseph San ho c r Anderson a - d later placed This tea l co sisted cf a half' dozen or so a ents who 'l lSed three to foi r late nodel cars 2 nd a panel truck which could be used on stake_out s for photo CO' E ra··e • The plan was to activate this group by radio from Lil• I ED 3ASE Soviet when sol l9one of interest left the E lbassy gate and stay with them until they made their I leetings These agents knew about the L C- ITED BASE be cause they had Ll ·1I' LED photos for identification purp ises • This worked fairly well until about the middle of 1958 check date ·'I• • vhen one of the surveillance agents got too lQsEi t'b hi target and P• • · · • was arrested by the Mexican transit poli ' 'btf r d over to the _ t v '•j l · 1-Iexican Secret Serrice _ ' I • et_ • t h St tion could arrange through • ' l ' I ' a cleared atto j'l bfH' out Judd Austin of the Goodrich Little and Riq l fi the agent had identified Sancho who was I evacuated across the border at m gales by Bob Shaw and the inside--- · • 1·- • phone number of Mahoney who 1 as subsequently replaced by Louis Puckett As a result of this flap the LIF AT project -ras broke l up into several others The a1ents were not cho nged but • ere gi- en Frank ne w crypts Estancona ar d Peggy Haggard replaced Anderson in handling the unilateral phone taps l ··--·-' l · I Puckett replaced Ha honey and handled the surveillance team LI rTnAF and the photo bases thro igh Rer ion I I d LIBIGHT was the CI 'JPt used for a unilate rnl originally mail intercept handled by Charlie Anderson III The agent Hexican had a semi o fficial status and arranged to obtain selected letters fro n t 7 i i s C I I I f I I i · 000016H· m @IIDWt1rn@oo • woo mm -·· 13-00000 lfJ @IIDijt lij@OO f i®OOmBlir O • a sub-nge t in t r e - ostal s stem I thiIL at l' e airport Al onso Sp ra ere l ter Puckett R o' ert F ld iann a i ci Alan t'hite 2 Hi3 case o ficers Liaison coverage was un eliable and insecure as characterized by the nature of the - ex can services at that tir e Security with which we dealt Of Gov rrcent· SS Tr e · exican D S Direction of ederal a hip pocket zroup r- L l out of the -linistry This il nistry spent a iajor part of its tic e m control of foreigners and olitical investii ations corrupt extortionists Their a c ts - ere vicious venal Robert Helberg established c mtact with one of them M 'l '- Lev 1 e De Leon later LIFIRE group in about 1950 or 51 He gave them some trai ing a group of about five sur eillance types in travel control orking the air ort as well as file searches of naI l es fror i DFS Ectrs where the files · • - l · -' 1 ere poorly organized and often inaccurate ·lo· - and h e n ·h fe ·1 1 ·'- ' • _ • · _ '·• _ so e useful • infornati m - as developed but it could not ' dei nd - upon Eelberg was · --_ _ ·-- - - replaced by Phil ltoettinger resig d ritl' re inea in Eexico 1 ahoney Tho mas - · - - ·- Hazlitt ar d Rooert _Feldro_aF ··1-L- -l t s 'v ' r - b - -· ·- 4 fi During 1958 - 1s ott met socially some of tr e chronies of the Uexican President elect Adolfo Lopez r·- ateos During this period the U S Anbassador Robert C Hill rerlecting the policy of then Sec State J F Dulles was energetic in organizing groups to fight co - munisra One of these seeds •· grew into a propos al t' - iguelAl eman ·Jr son o ' ror i er exi·presi d ent act·i ng for Lo ez a teas made to Win Scott for a joint telephone tap operation I • I ·-r i This project LI EirJOY went through about £our distressing years or a shakedown The Hexican in c_ontrol LIELEGANT was inexperienced old a d greedy son LI iVOY 2 - as a masterpiece of deceit and corruption His LIELEG TT also anipulated c r trol over tr e principal agent of LIBIGh'T 11' ail intercept The • first case officer was··Alfonso Spera inside with Turner Smith retired outside and John TSO tc·aining officer for sur11eillance a d head of the listening post -where thirty tele hone lines Tottld connect as iell es a transc -iption roo n ·1 rr t1I ffii ®WW ¥ ®00 mmmm I - J _· 0000167- · 13-00000 ·' ' · - fR IE p @lffiMt1f ij@OO Rl@00 ® 1flBO SEC-HEl tsi'fed _ J·· -b - i n _J ar r L 1 • 1•· 1·· t Ol l l ·c r 6 demand mde bJ the · e x icans __ ··e _ _ od 5 Lr-1- ·o u '- - _ _ l L o · e _ t e · r ' - Lj Both Snith and John had lar guage difTiculties and personal probler is associated with beir g outside the st ti m so thet the t exioo 'ls were virt' 1ally unc - ntrolla Jle spendi g t ney as they pleased squirrelling away equip ient o t enormous costs a ld neglecti g their part of the ' largain in the production of transcripts r placing taps which we wanted Spera was replaced by Jack Brady who found hir sel t in the sa le pLricer no· ren ent of having Scott approve a request by LIELEG AlIT that Brady had turned down b7 the son LIE·i°VOY-2 Finally wheri the cost became exhorbitant and there was little to show for it the project was re rar ped Smith and John returned to the U S and vere replaced by a TSD officer Charles Flick who has put inside the listeni g post to oaintai i1 • Brady was reassigned to oth9r duties r-endir g 8 trar sfer the equipment Scott took over the project as case offi e ll_' s _etfr g with LIELEGA TT • '·· ' -- ' · - ··_- • He designated A lil Goodpasture to meet dailing wi t1r i cl C oY routine supervision · ·- - -·-•• - of the listening post picking up tran_s 1-ts arfi -8-e pes Goodpasture he d rio --- -- _·' _-· ·dealing with the exicans e 1 - ott ·i as ill or out of town Generally _ • • all decisions were made b it - h-is was about late 1961 - Y z ie lOry is a little vag- e about tl e origins of the Cuban E lbassy but I think the staff first developed from a pro-Castro group celebrati g on Iew Years eve 1959 As I recall it as a akeshift arrangement of volunteers through most of 1960 and 61 with Tom Hazlitt producir g voll l - d 'lous reports on I their acti· ities and recruitfrg agents right and left a 1 ong Cuban nationals in I l- exico City 4 Personnel assignments Of interest to us now is who was in Hexico during the period prior to Oswald's visit and the subsequent investigation by the Warren Coz 1 -nission To deter u ne wr o · ras there a ld what they were doL g I have gro· ped persons toe-ether chr mologically with areas of their assign nent as the covi ring from 1950 to 1969 so th t names pop up one can tell what 1 L• 'Y · u_ - '-- period they were in 1exico and their assignments at the tine SECRET 0000168 • @IDJW©1llIDOO w rmmm ·17 13-00000 • 1· • J· -IR P1 @ID @t1rij@OO f Rl OO lm ' r I 8j56-6 69 COS Winston -l Scott deceased DCOS 7 56 - 7 58 Alfonso Rodriguez retired 10 58 - 12 62 Warren Dean retired ·6 63 - 9 65 Alan t•ihite retired 10 65 1969 Stanley Watson retired in Nexico COVERT ACTIO J -r Prior to 1954 Howard Hunt retired 12 54 - 7 53_ Williard Hill resigned 12 56 - 9 61 StannardSho'rt retired Chief David Phillips c retirt d 9 61 - 3 64 Gunnar Bec14 -nan Asst 8 62 - 9 64 2 64 - 6 65 Ja es FlannerJ C retired _ 9 64 - 11 66 Harold Dalghren Asst 10 65 - 1967 · Stanley Watson C retired • 66 - 68 68 71 - • Don Heath • Joseph SmithC retired in ti exico Ct raA OPERATIOUS SOVIET TARGET 57 - 10 59 Louise L on JUJ- _ J 9 59- 8 65 Herbert I- nell Chief 9 59 - 8 65 Barbara - anell 5 64 - 7 66 • Willian Bright • 4 65 - 11 67 Cyntr ia P aus lann 6 65 - 7 67 Alice Pittinger 7 65 - 4 69 Paul Dillon Chief 6 62 - 1 67 Prentice Marheine • ps retired Outside co· SOVIE TPJl· SCRIBEP S 6 56 - 6 53 Norris Gordon resiened 6 58 - 6 63 6 63 - 70 r George 1isko Boris Tarasoff retired in Mexico - 0000169 i J • m ®IDJW i @OO w mmmm· 13-00000 • Rl W @ IDijt1f @OO f @OO lm II SUPPJRT ASS STS Unilateral phono taps 1949 - 1961 Charles Anderson III Chief t 55 - 4 60 Peggy I•Zaggerd Asst 4 56 - 1 62 Frank Estancona Chief 2 60 - l0 64 Thomas Keenan 9 64 - 12 67 Hicr ael Farmer Unilateral photo 49-71 7 Outside CO David 1 -fILSTF D s retired in Mexico· Cubans 6 59 - 4 64 Robert Zambernardi resigned l e dco 7 59 - 6 62 Richard Spa-thar TSD retired Unilateral photo Soviets J 54 - 4 59 Harry T Mahoney retired Chicago 5 57 - 6 64 A Goodpasture alternate COnnd internal routing - 6 58 - 6 63 Loui -D P u retired --t l 6 63 - lo 6n om s Kee an - f obe t-f- H --fP _p- r _ 65 - 66 William Bright ft fffej - 1 _ • • i ' c 1 ' -· - Sa - in Mexico _ u - - Liaison phone taps 1959 - 1969 Winston Scott deceased 1959 1960 Al fonso Spera retired 1959 - 1960 Turner Smith outside now retired 1959 - 1960 John· Training rept resigned 1960- 1961 John Brady retired 1962 - 1968 A Goodpasture ·1961 - 1971 Charles Flick outside TSD Star£ I gent - retired - l Liaison - Du rveillanc Prior 1954 Robert l' elberg retired J 54 - 4 59 Harr-J fahoney retired 4 59 - 1961 Tho 18 s Hazlitt 12 62 - 9 67 Robert Feldmann I I TSD Outside unit 4 58 - 12 63 Glen 1 Iidden retired o 59 -4 64 Joseph Re igno ps Unit blovn and closed d i n i I 0000170 I i I • R ®WWt1r ® l woommmm - -- ----·---- ----- 13-00000 • ' -' ' Rl t Rl@ID ijt'ifij@OO f R1 00 l$ 1f O ·•· Ab mt nid 1962 cl eck date for the telephone nu - 1bers of the S iviet Cuban and Satellite E r bassies With tr is f'ore• arning LIF AT unilate -al co· erage 1 as disconnected · F owever as I recall the -le dcans con 'lected 5 Cuban lines 5 Soviet lines 3 Czech 2 Polish ·ond 1 Yugoslav line The basel ouse listenir g post had a live --·· monitor who nede short su rn aries of interestir g conversations for a daily resume which was received each day arour d 8 a n passed by Flick to Good asture to get to Scott before 9 a m Later when the reel was co pletely recorded full trar scripts were typed ar d passed to the station in the same way however r there was us ly a time lag of a day or so Those transcripts which r ad Russian or another language besides S anish or English went out of the listening post the day after the transcript of other conversations ert· U reel s ' ' s · l ' -0 1 - y tJped These reels were taken to another locat i fh- J lie f ·were translated and typed In the case if the Russ a f tii ris Ta rasoff usually ran ·- ·'· - about a week behind the date - t tion because of the volume l - -- · -- of - __Russian conversations ' li 'l ers of the Soviet llibassy During this • period·_ fall of 1963 the reels were probably being brought into the station and carried to Boris by one of the people from the Soviet Section or they may have been carried to him by Flick but I think I brought the _reel in and gave it to Herbert Ha nell to take to Boris Herbert Nanell and his wife E rbera har dled all of the processL g of Soviet transcripts -iy job in 01 Yed screening i r I the photographs as soon as probably an Arierican Ye learned that the nan calling hioself Osi- ald i as However here again there was a backlag because the photos i ere picked up three ti es a week but the ones ic ed up were usually t L I I I - for dates a few days preYiously because the doctor proce sed the film on a night ti ie basis Fhot°ographs were made usually until one roll ms used but later we got it changed to one day coirerage on each roll - in other v ords the •• b '- · operators cleared the ca era each day 'hetr er the_re was a flilnxoxpi a full roll of film m p sed m r @fIDlllJ i ®l l ·• f WOO lmTOJ Instructions were to cover office hours photograph each _00001 71 f 13-00000 ' 'o I I IR p @@ijtlfij@OO r @oomm 1m rl- - new So•riet and fa dly all foreign' rS and 'orei n lieenee plates error did ccur but generally the 8i ents were conscientious f u 'll an The Cuban e nbassy coYerage had more sopr_isticated equip nent a pulse ca -_era l ut it frequently developed i echan cal difficulties Bob Za- ibar lardi and Spathar I thin lt handled this film - pick _up and deli very Lorna r ac ay scree ed the film inside the station I am certain that the Oswald call caz ie to our attention from the S viet line It was picked U and taken to Boris for a translation because the caller 'as trying to S eak Russian Any delay was caused by wai ti g to co npare tr e photographs 'ith the typed transcript There uere no copies of' t anscripts everf made in languages oth r than Spanish _ lish because Win ---- ' Scott cot ld read o ily tho e two languages a d r e_ - j • reened the transcripts for operat-ior al leads he anj ' • f --fi 1 ·- -Al i r s j·ii• t r t - _ '-9 • C ' • t I i I I I i i 0000172 -m r @mJWtll ® l mmmam J I i I f ' 15 • 7 · 1 - · • - - ' - r-- 1 ---- ' ·- • -·· f - ·•- · r 4 $0 _ 6 LiH re 2 - A' '-'IR 3 1-t e ___ __ 0 0 0 0 0 I T a t o e AL'- A