Silvia Odio’s Visitors

A large community of anti–Castro Cuban refugees was living in Dallas in 1963. One of them, Silvia Odio, claimed that she was visited one evening in late September by three anti–Castro sympathisers: two Hispanic men and one American, who was introduced to her as ‘León Oswald’.1 The conversation was largely in Spanish, which the American did not appear to understand. One of the Hispanic men claimed to be a friend of her father, who was a political prisoner in Cuba. She was told that:

• the group had arrived in Dallas from New Orleans,
• they were about to go on a trip,
• and that ‘León Oswald’ might join the resistance movement in Cuba.

Lee Harvey Oswald had been living in New Orleans during the summer of 1963, and was about to travel to Mexico City, where he would attempt to obtain a visa to visit Cuba.

An Incriminating Telephone Call

The next day, one of the Hispanic men telephoned Odio and described ‘León’, the American, as:

• a former Marine,
• a crack marksman,
• someone who thought that President Kennedy should have been assassinated after the failed invasion of Cuba at the Bay of Pigs,
• and, in her words, “kind of nuts.”

When Silvia Odio saw the television coverage of the assassination, she immediately recognised Oswald as her American visitor.2

Corroboration of Silvia Odio’s Account

Silvia Odio’s story appeared to be reliable:3

• Her sister, Annie, who was staying with Silvia at the time of the visit, saw the men and independently recognised Oswald when she saw him on television after the assassination.4
• Before the assassination, Silvia Odio had written about the episode to her father. A letter from him refers to Silvia’s letter and to an unknown person who claimed to be his friend.5
• Silvia Odio had mentioned the incident before the assassination to her psychiatrist, Dr Burton Einspruch, who considered her a reliable witness.6
• Silvia and Annie Odio were reluctant to publicise their stories. The episode became known only by chance.7

A Clash of Dates: Where Was Oswald?

According to Odio, the meeting may have occurred on Wednesday 25 September, but was more likely to have occurred on Thursday 26 September.8 Either way, there was a problem: both of these dates coincided with Oswald’s Mexico City adventure.

Oswald is presumed to have been in New Orleans on the morning of 25 September, when a cheque in his name was cashed.9 He is presumed to have arrived in Mexico City early on 27 September, when he registered at a hotel and made his first visits to the Soviet and Cuban diplomatic compounds.10

Oswald could not drive,11 and had little money. The bus was the only suitably economical mode of transport that Oswald could have taken if he had travelled to Mexico without an associate.

Just one itinerary fitted the available dates. It involved three separate bus journeys:

1. leaving New Orleans shortly after mid–day on the 25th, and arriving in Houston, 350 miles away, very late the same day;
2. leaving Houston early on the morning of the 26th, and arriving in Nuevo Laredo on the Mexican border that afternoon;
3. leaving Nuevo Laredo an hour or so later, and arriving in Mexico City shortly before 10am on the 27th.12

In order to arrive in Mexico City on the 27th, Oswald must have set off from New Orleans on the 25th. New Orleans, however, is more than 500 miles by road from Dallas. Without assistance, Oswald could not have reached Dallas in time to visit Silvia Odio on the 25th and then travel the 240 miles to Houston in time to catch his bus.

Impostor or Accomplices

This created several uncomfortable options:

• Either the real Oswald was on a bus hundreds of miles away when Silvia Odio was introduced to ‘León Oswald’ in Dallas;
• or Oswald met Odio in Dallas and then travelled to Mexico City by some other means, which must have involved assistance from at least one accomplice.
• Or Oswald did not visit Mexico City at all.

The episode posed a similar problem to that of the impostor in Mexico City:

• either Oswald had associates;
• or he was impersonated in Dallas as well as in Mexico City.13

‘León Oswald’ and the Telephone Call

Apart from the question of whether or not Oswald was impersonated, the more sinister issue is the telephone call which planted specific information linking Oswald to the assassination, and which strongly suggests that he was being set up to take the blame.

• The Career of Lee Harvey Oswald
• “A Little Incident in Mexico City”

• The Career of Lee Harvey Oswald
• “A Little Incident in Mexico City”