The Parkland Cuban & Colonel L Robert Castorr

First topic message reminder :

Inspector Kelley of the Secret Service interviewed Father Walter McChann on April 30, 1964. Fr McChann had been chaplain of the Dallas Cuban Catholic Committee since 1961, and the following year, had been given the responsibility of running the resettlement office. The main focus of this work was in assisting the exiles in finding jobs, and in providing relief in the interim. McChann was interviewed as this work brought him into regular contact with Sylvia Odio. A report on the interview was sent to the Warren Commission on May 5, 1964, and was entered into the records as Commission Exhibit 2943.

The part of the report of interest here goes as follows: He [McChann] first made contact with Heitman [Dallas FBI] when it came to his attention that one of these Cuban refugees was extorting money from some other Cubans, was making false promises to the Cubans, was a disruptive influence in the Cuban community and was considered by Father McChann to be a "political Cuban" rather than a Cuban who was interested in receiving assistance from the Committee. He could not recall the name of this Cuban but he believes the Cuban is still employed at Parkland Hospital. Mrs Connell was interviewed by the FBI on Nov 29, 1963. This report is contained in Commission Exhibit 3108. Connell had been a volunteer with the Cuban Catholic Committee, and had befriended Sylvia Odio as a result.

Although she did not mention the Parkland Cuban, she did pass on the information that General Edwin Walker and Colonel [Robert] Castorr had been "trying to arouse the feelings of Cuban refugees in Dallas against the Kennedy administration policies." Harold Weisberg picked up on these leads in the 1960s. He had been rightly appalled that McChann, Connell and Castorr were all passed over as witnesses by the Warren Commission, and that seemingly no effort had been expended in finding out who the Parkland Cuban was. [1] In finally interviewing the wife of Colonel Castorr, Weisberg fell short of finding out his identity, but was told that this Cuban was sent back to Miami after the assassination. [2] The Warren Commission, the FBI and the Secret Service were not alone however, in ignoring information about this Cuban. The Dallas Police also ignored information regarding him, despite that information being provided by the wife of one of their own.

Buried in the Dallas assassination archives is the original of a memo from OA Jones to Chief Stevenson and Captain Fritz. The date is listed as "unknown". A copy of this however, is also in the archives, and it gives the date as Nov 22, 1963. [3] The text of the Memo is reproduced here:

To: Chief Stevenson

Captain FritzSubject: Informaion on threats against President KennedyThe wife of Detective RE Abbott said that a former employee at Parkland Hospital was heard by Mrs Johnson on the admission desk and a orderly named HOSEY saying that President Kennedy would be killed. The former employee was a Cuban.

His name can be furnished by Mr Morgan, who is Mrs Abbott's supervisor.

OA Jones Captain of Police

If you have information which may lead to the identify of this person, please contact me.

This Cuban, imo, is a key figure to be identified. Another key figure is the identity of the Colonel who met with Jack Ruby and others to offer Robert Perrin and wife Nancy a job running guns to Cuba.

She described the Colonel and his wife in her Warren Commission testimony:

Mrs. RICH. Well, we got there and at that time there was the colonel and another middle-aged woman, kind of a real old granite face I would describe her, steel-gray hair. Looked rather mannish. And there was a rather----
Mr. HUBERT. Did you know her name?
----------
Mr. HUBERT. Could you describe what the colonel looked like?
Mrs. RICH. Vaguely. I would say approximately 45 to 50, perhaps a little younger. He was kind of bald, and that may have made him look older. As I recall, a rather slightly built man--and I would not swear to it.

see photo of Castorr and his wife in gallery under "witness and suspects" They fit the descriptions given by Rich perfectly. 



ENDNOTES
[1] Weisberg notes in his document appendix to Oswald in New Orleans that: "Had these leads been followed, had the Commission had the interest in them it was charged with having, it would have led to other vital information, including threats against the president's life."
[2] Whitewash by Harold Weisberg, "The Number of Shots." Weisberg also speculated that the Parkland Cuban may have been the person who planted the so called "magic bullet" on the hospital stretcher.
[3] Original is Item 11 in Box 1 Folder 14 of the Dallas Police assassination archives. The copy is Item 10 in Box 7 Folder 7.

Feather93 wrote:Hi Greg,

I've been going down the Castorr rabit hole. It seems that his family surname was in fact Castorri. 

As far as his rank of General.....his 2005 obituary reads, "....He received a Presidential Citation from President Julius Sokolnieke of Poland, appointing him Brigidier General." 
https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/washingtonpost/name/l-castorr-obituary?id=5528401

Also, if you scroll down on that obit page, you will see several condolences from people affiliated with the Order of St. Stanislaus. Interesting, right??

His United States military career and dates of service remain mysterious. I was able to do a NARA online request for his separation paperwork from the archives because he separated more than 62 years ago. He separated from active duty in 1947 with a WD AGO 53-98 (equivalent of a modern DD214). At some later date he must have rejoined the reserves. His standalone reserve service would generate a DD 256 that is not likely to show up in a public records search the way a DD214 would. It seems reserve time is recorded differently than full time active duty. 

Cheers,
Feather93

1947. The year the CIA came into being.

Good point. There is something very shady about Castorr.

Also, I took a look at that book you pointed out. It is available for free on Internet Archives. I read Castorr's forward. LOL. What a charlatan. He insinuates that he was promoted to Brigadier General in the U.S. Army.  
Archives https://archive.org/details/unset0000unse_u1c2/page/n9/mode/2up?view=theater

Feather93 wrote:Good point. There is something very shady about Castorr.

Also, I took a look at that book you pointed out. It is available for free on Internet Archives. I read Castorr's forward. LOL. What a charlatan. He insinuates that he was promoted to Brigadier General in the U.S. Army.  
Archives https://archive.org/details/unset0000unse_u1c2/page/n9/mode/2up?view=theater

Agreed. I think he pulled the wool over Weisberg. One of Weisbergs few missteps.

What I want to know is what qualified him to write the forward for a book like this?

His friend Lucille was certainly into some weird shit of interest to the CIA.

greg_parker wrote:

Feather93 wrote:Good point. There is something very shady about Castorr.

Also, I took a look at that book you pointed out. It is available for free on Internet Archives. I read Castorr's forward. LOL. What a charlatan. He insinuates that he was promoted to Brigadier General in the U.S. Army.  
Archives https://archive.org/details/unset0000unse_u1c2/page/n9/mode/2up?view=theater

Agreed. I think he pulled the wool over Weisberg. One of Weisbergs few missteps.

What I want to know is what qualified him to write the forward for a book like this?

His friend Lucille was certainly into some weird shit of interest to the CIA.

Weren't there reports of Castorr having given rousing speeches to rile up the Cuban exile community in Dallas? But, he downplayed to Weisberg his involvement to simply "attending" some meetings?       Looking for connections between the military intelligence elite and the Cuban exile ground-crew, Castorr seems like a prime candidate to me.

In looking through the Weisberg archive, I see some warm, chummy communications with Castorr and his wife Trudi. I can understand that Weisberg had to warm them up in an effort to glean information from them. But....it seems to me like it crossed the line to where he was too friendly with them. To be fair to Weisberg, I don't think they would ever have told him anything of substance.

I think Weisberg communicated with Trudi after she and Castorr divorced. Did she ever spill anything real?   Who is Lucille?

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1z7odEbW-TQU1U9XmOqY-SBPJqdz3iIGz/view?usp=share_link

The OS (that is the office of sec. at Langley) had a file on him.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1gGplYX2jpn_X-O6kyyM49nkE2f7PDy6A/view?usp=share_link

https://drive.google.com/file/d/14rOTMr_AMgXstI4WORPbFpG3z7i5YhVT/view?usp=share_link

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1KwyrNxj-XBZEhwhmcVpjYKx6tFNCEQWn/view?usp=share_link

There is some more but you will have to search thru the Blunt archives by yourself.

If anyone is interested, I just published an article on my blog that mentions Col. Castorr. It's a brief mention relative to his having served as advisor to 90th. The article is more about a different Colonel who was attache in Helsinki when Oswald got his visa, and then transferred to an advisory role with the 90th in Texas. I'm currently working on a similar piece about Castorr.
https://jfktodaynews.blogspot.com/

Feather93 wrote:If anyone is interested, I just published an article on my blog that mentions Col. Castorr. It's a brief mention relative to his having served as advisor to 90th. The article is more about a different Colonel who was attache in Helsinki when Oswald got his visa, and then transferred to an advisory role with the 90th in Texas. I'm currently working on a similar piece about Castorr.
https://jfktodaynews.blogspot.com/

read enough of it to know i want to get back to it and finish.

Thanks.

Thanks Feather.

I wonder if CIA,or any other intel agency, would (1) have a 201 file on Castor, and (2) release it in response to a FOIA request.

I found an old thread (2006-2016) about Castorr on Ed. Forum. Really intriguing stuff in there from Greg and others. 
https://educationforum.ipbhost.com/topic/6901-l-robert-castorr/page/3/

I would love to see substantiating documentation for some of that, including the claim that a DC-area house from Castorr's estate was sold to a World Bank employee.  I mean, lots of people work for World Bank, but it's one more piece in the larger Mosaic of Castorr's globalist network of connections. After '63, Castorr's connections definitely elevated at the international level.

John Belivilaqua made the following point:

I just published on my blog an article about another army intelligence colonel, J.D. Wilmeth. He's the one who visited Ruth and Marina on Nov 19th at Ruth Paine's house. He also served in 90th Infantry Division, Austin, Texas as a senior advisor at the same time that Castorr did. Both Castorr and Wilmeth served with the allied forces under Mountbatten. (Castorr developed a close friendship with Mountbatten, and I believe that is his connection to Buckingham Palace, but that will be the subject of next month's article)

Anyhow, this new article is more about Wilmeth. It briefly mentions Castorr. Link if anyone is interested: https://jfktodaynews.blogspot.com/