Pseudonym: Breitheim, John

104-10274-10274: CONTACT REPORT, MEETING WITH AMSMILE-1

06/10/64, Memo for the record from Sidney P. Di Ubaldo: Subject: Contact Report, Meeting with AMSMILE-1: Date: 10 June 1964, 1830 - 2100 hours: Place: Chez Francois Restaurant: Present: Subject and Sidney P. Di Ubaldo as John Breitheim.

104-10183-10439: MEMORANDUM FOR THE RECORD: SUBJECT - CONTACT REPORT, MEETING WITH AMWHIP-1

05/21/65, Memo for the record from Sidney P. Di Ubaldo (used alias of Breitheim): "1. On 20 May I phoned Subject and requested that he travel to Washington to discuss the background of his discussions with UNSNAFU-19 (Antonio Maria Carrillo Carreras) from which stemmed the suggestion that A-1 supply a French-English-Spanish speaking secretary to U-19's mission in Paris. The meeting was quite short for as it turned out, the discussion between Subject and U-19 on the topic of secretaries, which had taken place in March 1965, had been little more than a casual sort of thing devoid of any specifics whatever and, in particular, devoid of any commitment by either party to proffer or to accept a profferred body. Nevertheless, Subject felt quite certain that slots would still be open in U-19's mission and that a recommendation from him would suffice to effect favorable action by U-19. 2. I sketched AMBUNNY's qualifications stressing the fact that she had gone to school in the U.S., had worked here, and had done a hitch as a social secretary for the (REDACTION). Subject drew the obvious conclusions that it might be difficult to dummy up AMBUNNY's labenslauf adequately to prevent her from being 'discovered' by the Cubans. At any rate, since she was our only candidate, Subject agreed to meet with her in New York so that together they could thresh out the pragmatics of the problem. The meeting was set for 22 May. Al Marin (alias) would participate in this meeting. 3. For the record, I should like to note that in the two and a half years since I had last seen Subject he had aged over 15 years. When I last saw him he was a round-faced, dark-haired, boyish person and has now been transformed into a very grey, very puffy, 50 year old man though I understand his chronological age is something short of 40. These observations have nothing to do with anything except they might indicate that Subject is living under a great strain..."

104-10183-10428: MEMORANDUM FOR THE RECORD: SUBJECT - MEETING WITH AMWHIP/1 IN NEW YORK 4 JUNE 1965

06/17/65, Memo for the record from R. H. Webster: "1. Two meetings were held with AMWHIP/1 (Carlos Tepedino Gonzalez) in New York City on 4 June 1965. The first was a brief luncheon meeting from 1340-1445 between A/1 and R. H. Webster (known to him as 'Harry Wills'). The second was at the Hotel Roosevelt from 2030-2230 during which A/1 was introduced to Mr. Harold Swenson (as 'Mr. Safely') by Webster. 2. A/1 had little news to report. He said he had not been abroad since his return from Europe in April, but that he plans to make another trip to Europe in July 'for about 40 days.' He had made brief trips in May to Philadelphia (business) and Washington (to meet 'Mr. Breitheim' - John Sherwood. He also planned to fly to Puerto Rico 5 June on business, returning to New York about 10 June. During the trip he was going to discuss the possibility of establishing a shop of his jewelry firm in San Juan. He was asked if he expected to see Manolo Ray there and said that he probably would, since they were friends. 3. A/1 said he had not heard recently from AMLASH/1 (Rolando Cubela Secades) or AMLASH/3 (Alberto Blanco Ramirez aka "El Loco" - The Crazy One), who is also now back in Cuba. He had received a letter from AMLASH/2 (Jorge Carlos Robreno Marieguez aka "El Mago" - The Wizard) from Madrid dated 14 May and passed it to the case officer. (See attached translation). He said he expected something (anti-Castro) to break in Cuba by October 1965, but he did not appear to have any firm basis for this date. 4. Prior to his next trip to Europe A/1 would like guidance on two matters: (a) What he should say to UNSNAFU/19 (Antonio Maria Carrillo Carreras) when the latter raises the question of the report given him in Paris in April that the U.S. Government might deal with anti-Castro elements if they could get rid of Fidel. (b) Whether we have any candidates for him to suggest to U-19 to work for him at the Embassy..."

https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/old-man-and-cia-kennedy-plot-kill-castro/

03/08/2001: Extract from article by David Corn and Gus Russo in the Nation magazine: Headlined: The Old Man and the CIA: A Kennedy Plot to Kill Castro? New evidence of a CIA scheme to use Ernest Hemingway’s Cuban farm: ..."'We didn’t have any assets that could do anything with this information then,' says John Sherwood, a former CIA case officer who worked on the Cuba task force. 'We had a few agents in Cuba who could send us secret-writing intelligence reports. That was it.' But, Sherwood adds, that did not stop US intelligence from hatching ideas: 'All kinds of things bubbled up then. If Mary Hemingway goes to her cottage in Cuba and comes back and says something about a slight security detail or anything else, people would have been interested. No one knew anything. Any information about Castro was exciting. We never penetrated his entourage. We never knew where he was...'"

The Secret History of the CIA by Joseph Trento (2001)

Page 189: ..."Ed Ryan, a former Naval attaché, replaced Graver as chief of base in 1963. It was Ryan's misfortune to have to explain to Sherwood, who by this time was deputy to John Limond Hart, Chief of the CIA's Western European division, that he felt Berlin Base should be staffed up to go after the Soviets one more time..." - - - Page 214: ..."On August 17, 1962, Harvey sent John Sherwood to Miami with a message for Ted Shackley at JM/WAVE. 'I walked into Shackley's office,' Sherwood recalled. 'He instinctively knows people he can't dominate. He has the pit-bull instinct, and he hated me from the very first time he saw me...And he said right off the bat, pointing his finger at me, 'Sherwood, you think you're pretty fucking smart. I'm going to show you. I'll get you someday.' All Sherwood wanted to do was give Shackley Harvey's message: 'I was to tell Shackley that Bill Harvey says he's going to pay you that $5,800 in a couple of days.' Sherwood assumed he was communicating instructions to Shackley for the Mafia assassination operation. Sherwood returned to Washington wondering about Shackley's threat. He knew Shackley was jealous because Sherwood had succeeded in getting agents into Cuban while Shackley kept losing agents..." (NOTE: No footnotes available).