Mexico City - Pandora's Box

Following is the full text, with footnotes, of the Mexico City chapter from John Armstrong’s Harvey and Lee: How the CIA framed Oswald (ISBN 0-9745097-0-1, Quasar Press, Arlington, Texas, 1022 pages). This chapter appears on pages 614-706 of the bound book. It is copyright Ó 2003 by John Armstrong and is posted here with the expressed permission of the author.

Washington, DC

On Thursday, September 26, 1963 the White House announced that President Kennedy would visit major cities in Texas on November 21 and 22nd.[1] A Presidential visit to Dallas, like most other major metropolitan cities, was to include a drive through the downtown area.

September 26, 1:20 pm - Lee Oswald arrives in Laredo, Texas

Continental Trailways bus #5133 departed Houston at 2:35 am on September 26 with a stop in Corpus Christi before arriving in Laredo, Texas at 1:20 pm in the afternoon. The bus averaged 27 mph for the 349 mile trip from Houston to Laredo.

The FBI interviewed employees of Continental Trailways in Laredo to see if they remembered selling Oswald a ticket to Mexico City, with negative results. The FBI then asked Claude A. Piatt and R. H. Thomas, the drivers of bus #5133, if they remembered Oswald as a passenger en route to Nuevo Laredo, also with negative results.[2]

NOTE: The FBI also interviewed employees of Continental Trailways and Greyhound in New Orleans, Lake Charles, Beaumont, Houston, Corpus Christi, San Antonio and Laredo in an attempt to determine where Oswald purchased the Continental Trailways bus ticket from Laredo, Texas to Mexico City, with negative results.

September 26 - Laredo, Texas to Nuevo Laredo, Mexico

Eugene Pugh, in charge of the US Customs office at Laredo, Texas, said that Oswald was checked by American Immigration upon entering and leaving Mexico. Pugh said, "This was not the usual procedure, but US Immigration (INS) had a folder on Oswald's trip."[3]

NOTE: This information was published in the Herald Tribune on November 26, 1963. In 1997, former FBI SA James Hosty said that Oswald's visit to the Soviet Embassy in Mexico City was reported to the FBI by INS, who undoubtedly received this information from the CIA station in Mexico City.[4]

The travel document with which Oswald allegedly entered Mexico was form FM-8, which was good for one visit to the interior of Mexico for up to 15 days. Another travel document which was not used by Oswald, was form FM-5, which was valid for 180 days. These documents were commonly referred to as a tourist visas or tourist cards, were individually numbered, and consisted of an original and a carbon copy duplicate.

Tourist card No. 24085 shows that "Lee, Harvey Oswald" entered Mexico at Nuevo Laredo between the hours of 6:00 am and 2:00 pm on Thursday, September 26. Oswald allegedly gave the carbon copy duplicate of form FM-8 to Mexican Immigration Inspector Helio Tuexi Maydon. The original card, allegedly retained by Oswald, was to be surrendered to Mexican Immigration upon leaving the country.

The FM-8, issued at the Mexican Consulate in New Orleans, recorded that Oswald was 23 years old, married, a photographer, resided in New Orleans, and listed his destination as Mexico City. Maydon's supervisor, Raul Luebano, advised, "Our inspector said that his best recollection was that Oswald was traveling with two women and a man in an automobile. Oswald was dressed in a sailor's uniform and said he was a photographer."[5]

NOTE: The FBI learned the young couple driving the automobile were Bill Steve Allen and Elaine Esterman Allen, from Miami, Florida, but determined they were not traveling with Oswald. Curiously, their names appear as Stephen Alan Brill and Elaine Esterman Brill on the FM-8 tourist cards.[6]

Normally, a visitors means of travel into Mexico was recorded on their FM-8 form with a stamped, typed, or handwritten notation. However, the means of travel allegedly used by Oswald for entry into Mexico did not appear on his FM-8 form, No. 24085.[7] At the end of each day the tourist cards (FM-5 and FM-8) were collected and delivered to the Mexican Immigration Office in Nuevo Laredo. Clerical personnel then typed the name of each tourist on Mexican Immigration form FM-11.

The FBI fails to locate records of Oswald's entry or departure

Shortly after the assassination of President Kennedy two men in their mid-30's, in uniform, showed up at Flecha Roja bus lines in Mexico City. They confiscated the original manifest for bus No. 516, which Oswald allegedly rode from Nuevo Laredo to Mexico City. They then confiscated the duplicate copy of the bus manifest from the Flecha Roja terminal in Nuevo Laredo. These bus manifests disappeared weeks before the FBI knew how Oswald entered Mexico. When the FBI tried to locate the bus manifests they learned that both had been confiscated by the Mexican Federal Judicial Police.

On December 2, 1963 the American Consul at Nuevo Laredo, Harvey Cash, was given a list of the names of tourists who entered Mexico at Nuevo Laredo on September 26 and departed Mexico at Nuevo Laredo on October 3 (Oswald's alleged date of departure). The lists were derived from Mexican tourist forms FM-8 and FM-5, but Oswald's name was not on the list. As of December 2, 1963 the FBI did not know by what means of transportation Oswald had entered Mexico.[8]

On December 5, 1963 the SAC in San Antonio sent a teletype to the FBI Director and the SAC in Dallas which stated, "Investigation to date has failed to establish subject returned to US on October 3 last or entered Mexico on September 26 last."

The following day, however, a baggage list turned up in the hands of FBI SA Robert Chapman, the resident FBI agent in Laredo. This list was allegedly obtained from Flecha Roja by Galdino Sanchez Martinez, a Mexican Customs Inspector, private detective, and FBI informant (SA 599-C).[9] On December 6, 1963 Chapman reviewed the list, re-typed it, and wrote "Lee H. Oswalt" next to the entry for seat number 14 (later changed to "Lee H. Oswalj)."[10] This baggage list was the only written "evidence" which the FBI had to show that Oswald was aboard Flecha Roja bus No. 516 en route to Mexico City. The obvious question? Was the baggage list fabricated?

This baggage list contained only the names of passengers who had luggage stored in the baggage compartment. Oswald, as we shall see, had only one bag which was stored in the rack above his feet. Therefore, Oswald's name should not have appeared on this baggage list and the authenticity of this document is doubtful. The only document which shows that Oswald entered Mexico is the FM-5 tourist card.

Nuevo Laredo to Monterrey, Mexico

After Oswald cleared Mexican Immigration he proceeded to Mexican Customs to have his one bag inspected before reboarding the bus to Monterrey at 2:30 pm. The first four seats on the bus were reserved for English speaking passengers. The two front seats were occupied by Dr. John Bryan McFarland and his wife Maryl, a middle aged couple from Liverpool, England. Oswald took a seat behind the McFarlands and sat next to an elderly Englishman named John Bowen, with whom he conversed during much of the trip.

Two hours after departing Nuevo Laredo the bus made a 10-minute rest stop at Sabinas Hidalgo before continuing on to Monterrey.

NOTE: On December 2, 1963 Harvey Cash, the American Consul at Nuevo Laredo, furnished a list of persons who entered Mexico at Nuevo Laredo on September 26, 1963 to the FBI. The list was obtained from Gilberto Cazares Garza, Chief of Mexican Immigration, and Roberto Morales, Chief of Mexican Customs. The list contained the names of Dr. John McFarland, Maryl McFarland, and John H. Bowen, but not the name of Lee Harvey Oswald, H.O. Lee, or any variation thereof.

According to John Bowen, aka Albert Osborne, there was a roster of bus passengers and it was signed by each passenger.[11]

September 26, 6:00 pm - Lee Oswald arrives in Monterrey

Pamela Lillian Mumford, 21 years old, and Patricia Clare Rashleigh Winston, 22 years old, were born in the Fiji Islands and raised in Australia where their families were friends. In 1963 Mumford was working in New York City and residing with Winston at 222 West 23rd St.

On August 24, 1963 the two young women were issued Mexican tourist cards in New York City. After purchasing bus tickets at Continental Trailways, which allowed them unlimited travel within the US for 90 days, they left New York and traveled to Washington, DC, Miami, New Orleans, and continued through Texas to Laredo. On Wednesday, September 25, 1963 they purchased bus tickets to Mexico City at the Continental Trailways terminal in Laredo, Texas.

NOTE: Continental Trailways was affiliated with the Flecha Roja bus line in Mexico (Greyhound was affiliated with Transportes del Norte bus line). The assistant manager of Continental Trailways in Laredo, Mr. Luis Mora, told the FBI that a ticket issued in the US for travel to Mexico could be utilized in Mexico at any of the various autobus lines.

The girls departed Laredo at 10:00 am on September 25 and crossed into Mexico at 11:00 am. They arrived in Monterrey, Mexico at 6:00 pm where they spent the night, toured the city the following day, and departed for Mexico City in the evening.[12] Mumford told the Warren Commission, "We left Monterrey, I know, on the night of September 26 at 7:30 pm.....it was a bus company called Transportes del Norte."

NOTE: The Warren Commission disagreed with Mumford and said that Oswald and the two girls were aboard the "Flecha Roja" bus line and departed Monterrey at 6:30 pm. Neither the McFarlands nor John Bowen were asked the name of the bus line.

The two girls walked past Dr. & Mrs. McFarland, who were sitting in the front row, Lee Oswald and John Bowen, who were sitting in the second row, and took seats toward the rear of the bus. Mumford told the Commission that during the trip, "They were talking quite a lot, the four of them.....And we could hear them talking a lot, and laughing, when we were sitting in the back, wondering what was going on."

When Oswald heard Mumford and Winston talking, in English, he left his seat and walked to the back of the bus. Without introducing himself he began talking to the girls, said he was from Fort Worth, and asked where they were from. Oswald showed them a 1959 passport with HIS PHOTO, and cancellation stamps that showed travel to the Soviet Union. He told the girls that he had studied in Moscow, had an apartment, and lived there for two years (not true).

NOTE: Harvey Oswald entered the US in June 1962 with his 1959 passport, which was valid thru 1966. For unexplained reasons Harvey applied for a new passport in June 1963, which invalidated his 1959 passport.

The passport which Lee Oswald showed to the Australian girls in September 1963 was Harvey Oswald's 1959 passport. When the Dallas Police confiscated Harvey's possessions from 1026 N. Beckley on 11/22/63, they did not find this passport. The only passport they found was Oswald's new passport issued in June 1963 (Turner Ex. No 1).

The FBI had custody of Oswald's possessions from November 23 to November 26. When the Bureau returned Harvey Oswald's possessions to the Dallas Police on November 26, two passports were listed on the joint DPD/FBI inventory (CE 2113)-item 446 (the 1963 passport) and item 449 (the 1959 passport). The 1959 passport, which was not initialed by Dallas Police detectives, listed on their inventory, or photographed on November 22/23, was added to the inventory between November 23 to November 26 by the FBI in Washington, DC.

Oswald also told the girls that he had been to Japan while in the Marines and had previously made several trips to Mexico (see Donald Norton, the Luma Hotel, Richard Case Nagell, Shasteen). He said that on several previous trips he had stayed at the Hotel Cuba, in Mexico City, and recommended it as clean and inexpensive.

Mumford remembered that Oswald wore a dark, charcoal gray colored wool sweater, and remembered that he had one piece of luggage, a small zipper bag, which he stored in the rack above his feet. During the trip, Oswald was very talkative yet said nothing about communism, Castro, Cuba, or political issues. Mumford recalled that Oswald had thinning, curly, wiry hair.[13] Harvey had thinning, straight hair-not wiry!

NOTE: On December 15, 1963 Hoover sent a teletype to the SAC in New York and advised that Patricia Clare Rashleigh Winston and Pamela Lillian Mumford were passengers on the Flecha Roja bus from Monterrey to Mexico City. Curiously, neither of their names appear on the bus manifest from Monterrey to Mexico City.

Winston was very important to the Warren Commission, as she was the only witness who said that Lee Harvey Oswald was on Flecha Roja bus #516 from Monterrey to Mexico City.

During the trip, the girls approached the elderly English gentlemen, John Bowen, and asked about the weather in Mexico. Bowen told the girls "The young man traveling beside me has traveled to Mexico also. Why don't you talk to him?"[14]

NOTE: After the assassination, the McFarland's, Mumford, and Winston identified the young man they talked to on the bus as "Lee Harvey Oswald," and photographs of John Bowen as the man who sat next to Oswald.[15]

History of Albert Alexander Osborne, aka John Howard Bowen

The man who sat behind the McFarland's and next to Lee Oswald was an elderly Englishman who used two names-Albert Alexander Osborne and John Howard Bowen. ^{MEX, 63-01} The FBI had considerable difficulty in locating this man and an even more difficult time getting truthful answers from him.

The FBI knew from Mexican Immigration records that "John Howard Bowen" entered Mexico at Nuevo Laredo on September 26 and listed his address as Houston, Texas. They determined that a John Howard Bowen, born January 14, 1887 in Chester, Pennsylvania, had once resided in Houston, Texas. After they were unable to locate Bowen in Houston, the Bureau interviewed, Dr. and Mrs. McFarland, who sat in the seats directly in front of Bowen and Oswald en route to Mexico City. The McFarlands said the man who sat behind them claimed to be an 80-year-old schoolteacher who said he lived in Tennessee and Cuernavaca, Mexico. When the FBI searched for Bowen in Tennessee, they located several news articles about him in the Knoxville Journal.

The first article, which appeared on December 5, 1953, reported that John Bowen, of Box 308, Laredo, Texas had established the first protestant missionary, a Baptist Church, in the land of the Mixteca Indians. The source of this information was a letter written by Bowen himself to the Knoxville Journal.

NOTE: On 12/26/63 FBI agent Arthur Carter interviewed Ivan D. Maricle, Associate Registrar of the Baptist Annuity Board, who advised they had no record of John Howard Bowen and doubted he was a Baptist minister.

The FBI learned that at 5:05 am on December 11, 1953 John Howard Bowen was arrested at the Woods Hotel, 412 Travis in Houston, and held for "investigation in connection with a mattress fire." Bowen was fingerprinted and his prints matched those of Albert Osborne who was interviewed by the FBI in 1964.

Records of the social security administration show that someone, either John Howard Bowen, born 1/14/80 in Chester, PA, or Albert Osborne using Bowens social security number (ss #449-36-9745), worked 3-4 months per year at the Chronicle Building in Houston, Texas from 1952-1955. In 1955 social security records show that someone, using ss #449-36-9745, worked at the YMCA and the Panoram Hotel in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

NOTE: In 1944 social security records show that someone using ss #449-36-9745 worked at the Jung Hotel in New Orleans and the Terminal Cafe in Laredo, TX. In 1948 someone using ss #449-36-9745 worked for Spur Distributing Company in Nashville, TN. and in 1951 and 1952 worked at the Woods Hotel in Houston, TX.

On April 5, 1958 records of the Mexican Ministry of the Interior show that Albert Osborne, who was also known in Mexico as John H. Bowen and John H. Owen, was deported as an undesirable alien from Mexico at Nuevo Laredo. He was accused of selling an automobile in Oaxaca without paying import duties and did not have proper immigration papers. Mexican Immigration contacted the Canadian Royal Mounted Police for information on Osborne and found the address he had given in Canada was non-existent.

A second article appeared in the Knoxville Journal on April 12, 1958 and reported that Bowen saved two schoolchildren in Oaxaca, Mexico from being struck by a truck when he dashed in front of the truck and swept the children to safety. The author of the letter, allegedly a "Dr. Martin Hidalgo" (probably Bowen) said that Bowen had also saved three children from a burning building eight years earlier. The Knoxville Journal had two photographs of Bowen, taken in 1954, which they allowed the FBI to copy.

A third article appeared in the Knoxville Journal on September 15, 1961 and reported that Bowen, who claimed to have been a missionary in Mexico since he left Knoxville in 1943, was injured when he fell on a bus between Mexico City and Puebla. The source of this information was a letter from Albert Osborne (aka Bowen), mailed to the Knoxville Journal from Texmelucan, Mexico. Osborne wrote that Bowen was 82 years old but could pass for a man in his middle 50's.

On September 26, 1963 John Howard Bowen obtained a Mexican tourist form FM-5 in Laredo, Texas. He listed his age as 60, his residence as Houston, Texas, and used a birth certificate for identification (born 1/14/80 in Chester, PA).[16] Bowen entered Mexico at Nuevo Laredo the same day, boarded a Flecha Roja bus, sat next to Lee Harvey Oswald, and talked with him at length. After arriving in Mexico City, Bowen told the FBI that he boarded another bus and departed for Puebla, Mexico and stayed at the Teresa Hotel. The following day he allegedly boarded a train for Jesus Caranzas, Mexico, stayed at the Railroad Hotel, and returned to the US on October 2 at Laredo (Oswald allegedly returned to the US at Laredo on October 3).

Bowen told the FBI that after returning to the US he resided temporarily at the St. Anthony Hotel in Laredo and then departed for Houston, Memphis, Charlette, Columbia, and back to Laredo prior to Christmas, 1963. Bowen, however, failed to tell the FBI he obtained a Canadian passport in New Orleans on October 10, using the name Albert Alexander Osborne, and was in Europe from November 13 to December 5 (during the assassination of President Kennedy).

On October 10, 1963 "Reverend" Albert Alexander Osborne (aka John Howard Bowen) appeared at the office of the Canadian Consul in New Orleans. Osborne told clerk Percy Whatmough that he just arrived in New Orleans from his residence in Montreal and that he was on his way to Mexico City as part of his vacation (he just arrived in the US from Mexico a week earlier). He gave his address as 1441 Drummond Street, Montreal, and said this had been his permanent address since 1917. Osborne's passport application contained a recent photogra