Cryptonym: ERYTHROID-3
104-10162-10289: REVOLUTIONARY ACTIVITIES OF THE NATIONAL LIBERATION FRONT IN HONDURAS AND NICARAGUA
Back in Feb. 1963, ERYTHROID-3 thought highly of ERYTHROID activity officer Alvarado.
104-10069-10025: FIELD INFORMATION REPORT ON THE ACTIVITIES OF THE NATIONAL LIBERATION FRONT (FLN)
Field Information Report, 3/18/63: Gilberto Alvarado was reported as a leader of the "Frente de Liberacion Nacional (FLN - National Liberation Front), Cuban-supported and Communist-dominated revolutionary group". Another document shows that ODACID/State Dept in Honduras doubted the veracity of Alvarado's reports as of March 1963 while ERYTHROID-3 continued to think highly of Alvarado: http://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=42041&search=eitel#relPageId=2&tab=page 10/27/63, see 104-10162-10284 and 104-10162-10285: A report from ERYTHROID-3 from his "regular informant" within the guerillas - it could be Alvarado.
104-10015-10157: CABLE - BIOGRAPHIC INFORMATION ON GILBERTO ALVADARO
11/26/63 memo from Jack Whitten, C/WH/3 to the White House, attn. McGeorge Bundy: "On 26 November 1963 Gilberto Alvarado, a professed Castroite Nicaraguan born 31 January 1940 came to the American Embassy and made a statement about Lee Oswald. He said that on 18 September 1963 he saw Lee Oswald received six thousand five hundred dollars in a meeting inside the Cuban embassy in Mexico City. About himself, Alvarado said he in Mexico City awaiting false documentation so that he could go to Cuba for sabotage training. He named three other members of his organization in Nicaragua as Juan Lorillo, Rolan Alvarado and Carlos Fonseca Amador. The questioning of Alvarado is continuing. (Comment: Gilberto Alvarado is a well-known Nicaraguan Communist underground leader who is also a regular informant of the Nicaraguan Security Service (an officer of which has provided this agency with his reports for over a year.) We consider his credibility to be questionable although he has not been wholly discredited. The other men he names are well-known Nicaraguan communists. A check of the files of this agency do not show where Lee Oswald actually was on 18 September 1963. When Alvarado says he saw Oswald in the Cuban Embassy, but based on the information but based on the information available to this agency on this date Oswald visited the Cuban embassy in Mexico City for the first time after the date of September 25, 1963."
104-10241-10211: CABLE: IN THE FACE OF MOUNTING EVIDENCE THAT ALVARADO IS FABRICATING HIS STORY
11/27/63 cable DIR 85616 from John M. Whitten to Mexico City: "...In face of mounting evidence that Alvarado is fabricating his story of seeing Oswald take money in the Cuban embassy, urge you follow up with his local Nicaraguan case officer and avail yourself of the help of the Nicaraguan service, which can send ERYTHROID-3, a good (CIA) asset, to help in the interrogation...all he has said about Oswald he could have gotten from the newspapers, except for certain incorrect items such as his statement that Oswald wore glasses. The fact that Alvarado is a calm, nice and intelligent young man does not mean that he is not a fabricator...His interrogators must probe deeply into his make-up and lead him back thru the thought processes which may have led him to make this possible mis-step."
104-10241-10212: CABLE: FEEL ERTHYROID 3 SHOULD GO MEXI EVEN THOUGH ALVARADO MAY BE IN MEXICAN HANDS
11/28/63 cable: C/WH/3 John Whitten states that he does "feel ERTHYROID should go MEXI...assume he can be used as consultant at least."
104-10431-10123: INTELLIGENCE DOCUMENTS ON OSWALD ACTIVITIES IN MEXICO CITY
Wheelock arrived in Mexico City on Nov. 29 to assist in the interrogation of Alvarado. See 104-10522-10039: "Wheelock...born Managua 21 Feb 1924...Captain National, Chief Anti Communist Section, Office of National Security." Also see 104-10438-10179, MANA 4615: Wheelock was "five foot eight, brown hair, green eyes, weight 170."
104-10103-10194: DISCUSSIONS BETWEN THE WARREN COMMISSION AND THE CIA
11/29/63: Wheelock told Gobernacion that "Alvarado is inclined to 'go off on his own' and is impossible to control".
State Dept cable, 11/30/63: "Alvarado said his motive for claiming the passage of money to Oswald was to involve the United States in a way which would result in the overthrow of Oswald...Wheelock...was standing by advising with the Mexican authorities during the latter part of the investigation...the Alvarado story about having seen money pass must be completely discounted."
1993.08.12.17:09:21:250005: MEMOS RE CONTACT WITH PAPICH FM FBI
12/3/63 memorandum for the record by C/CI-SIG Birch D. O'Neal stating that Alvarado told Captain Wheelock of the Nicaraguan Intelligence Service that "he recanted his original story because of fear of physical harm; that Alvarado was being deported from Mexico to Nicaragua on 4 December 1963 and would be accompanied by Wheelock; that Wheelock assured our representative that Alvarado would be available for further interview in Nicaragua if the United States desired." Also see 104-10332-10018, p. 4 for a less redacted version. This page also has a bleed-through note from another page (see p. 5, partially redacted), which appears to read: "Ask Ashcraft - OO on Oswald." E.M. Ashcraft was the chief of the Domestic Contacts Division and a logical place for CI-SIG or other CIA officials to learn more about Oswald and whether he had been debriefed after his visit to the USSR. Also see 104-10128-10168, p. 2, where Ashcraft is asked to provide permission to inform the FBI that 1958's Soviet defector Libero Ricciaredelli was a CIA source.
104-10013-10381: CABLE RE ALVARADO RETURN.
12/6/63: Re Alvarado case, "ERYTHROID 3 returning to Managua 7 Dec."
104-10069-10027: DISPATCH ON IDENTIFICATION OF INFORMANTS AND AGENTS
3/31/64: Memo of all the agents and informants used by ERYTHROID-3: Active: "Y-1, Y-2 aka Uriel Cruz, Y-3, Rafael Lopez, Armando Rodriguez, Francisco Mendoza, Dispersion #3, Filemon Garcia, Fidel Ruiz, Jose Castro, Cornell Zapata, Carlos Castillo, "Ruiz", Carlos Montenegro, Jorge Blanco, Jose Maria, "Maruja". Inactive or 'Burnt': Jose Frasco, Jose Ugarte, Dispersion #1, Dispersion #2, Jose Reyes. Also see 104-10181-10007, p. 5 - Franklin Wheelock Garcia is identified as 201-240990.
104-10338-10005: THIRD AGENCY REFERRALS: FBI
Another note discusses how Sam Papich, FBI's liaison to CIA, met with CIA Director John McCone on 12/23/63 "to confront the CIA Director with false statements attributed to him by Mr. DeLoach's sources...(McCone) was charged with being the source of information conveyed to a high Government official and to (note: Washington columnist) Drew Pearson in that he, McCone, had stated that CIA had uncovered a plot in Mexico City indicating that Lee Harvey Oswald had received $6500 to assassinate President Kennedy...if this were true, McCone had endeavored to leave the impression with certain people that CIA had developed information not known to the Bureau and, in essence, made the Bureau look ridiculous. The Agent advised that if McCone had made such statements, we could only assume that he was employing vicious and underhanded tactics since he and his officials of his agency full knew that the story concerning the $6500 had been proved to be absolutely false...McCone was very visibly incensed..." McCone said that he never had any direct or indirect contact with Pearson and that Pearson had been attacking him over the last two weeks; that he had been in direct contact with LBJ about the Alvarado story, that CIA would keep Alvarado in a safe house until the FBI was satisfied that all necessary investigation had taken place; and that he was not critical of the FBI and had come to the defense recently of both the FBI and the Secret Service. At the end of the discussion, McCone asked about FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover's health and was told it was good. Margainalia in Hoover's handwriting states, "That news probably didn't please him."