Ridge Runner Chronicles

By Editor | March 2, 2022 |

What the Latest JFK Declassified Files Reveal

By Bill Hoagland
In previous columns, I discussed the fact that the US Government was still holding over 15,000 classified files pertaining to the John F. Kennedy assassination because the release of these files could “potentially cause irreversible harm to our national security”. On December 15, 2021, President Biden ordered that 1,491 of these files be declassified and released immediately, with the remainder of those 15,000 to be reviewed again in one year to determine if they could then be declassified and released without harming our national security.
I have now reviewed the files that were declassified on December 15. Some experts contend that these files do not provide any new information. I disagree. For me, these files offer evidence that Fidel Castro may have instigated the assassination. Unfortunately, these files are not assembled in an orderly sequence, but I will give you an overview of what I think is significant. If you want to review the documents for yourself, they can be found by googling “The President JFK Assassination Records Collection Act of 1992” and looking for the files released December 15.
When the Cuban Missile Crisis was resolved in 1962, JFK promised Russia and Cuba that there would be no further US sponsored raids on Cuba by anti-Castro participants. Not withstanding this promise, the raids continued. In addition, the CIA continued in its attempts to assassinate Fidel Castro. As discussed in these newly released files, the CIA tried to hire the Mafia and dissent Cubans inside Cuba to kill Castro. The CIA was creative: they tried a poisoned cigar, a poisoned skin-diving suit and finally, some specifically designed poisoned pills that could not be traced back to the CIA. Castro was aware of the ongoing raids and the attempts by the CIA to assassinate him. So on September 7, 1963, Castro told a US journalist in Cuba that if these raids and assassination attempts continued, Cuba would retaliate. Later, Ricardo Santos Pesa, a high ranking Cuban official, in referring to Castro’s desire for revenge because of the ongoing raids and assassination attempts, told an American diplomat, “Just wait and you will see what we can do [in retaliation]. It will happen soon.” That declaration was made November 7, just two weeks before JFK was assassinated.
Do you not think Castro had an overwhelming motive to kill JFK? I’d say having to assassinate someone else before they assassinate you is a pretty good motive, but maybe that’s just me.
The files I reviewed include many references to Oswald’s activities in Mexico City in September and October, 1963. Clearly, he was at the Cuban and Russian embassies on multiple occasions in an attempt to get a visa to Cuba. Several files deal with a witness who claimed he saw Oswald inside the Cuban embassy getting paid in cash to carry out an upcoming assassination of some sort. That witness later recanted that story but the original version of that claim had an unusual amount of detail in it, making me think the original version was actually true and that the witness had later recanted out of fear for his own life. The files also contain evidence that there were four unidentified persons—presumably Cubans– who were in Dallas on the day of the assassination and who later were flown to Cuba under special circumstances; two of these persons arrived in Mexico City from Dallas a few hours after the assassination in a private plane that then flew directly to Havana without the passengers going through customs in Mexico City. These men were described by someone who saw them getting off the plane in Havana as “gangsters”. Another individual flying in from Dallas within hours of the assassination boarded a Cuban Airline flight to Havana that evening. A fourth individual, known to be a pro-Castro advocate living in the US, left Dallas and crossed the border late on November 22 in a car and after arriving in Mexico City a few days later, was flown to Havana on a Cuban commercial flight with nine crew members but devoid of any other passengers. Sounds like that person was regarded by Cuba as an important passenger, don’t you think?
We will probably never know who these persons were because of an important overriding fact: President Johnson did not want any evidence circulating that Cuba may have been involved in the assassination; he had too much already on his plate to also contend with a demand that the US invade Cuba in retaliation for the assassination of JFK. So the CIA and FBI, within several weeks after the assassination, ordered that all further investigations in Mexico as to the identity of those mysterious Cubans who were in Dallas on the day of the assassination and as to Oswald’s activities in Mexico City be stopped.
At this point, the remaining 14,000 files that are classified are to be reviewed again on December 15, 2022 to determine if the declassification and release of these files might “potentially cause irreversible harm to our national security.” So here’s my question: if Oswald truly acted alone, why is the US government still refusing to release 14,000 files that are almost 60 years old?

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■ Bill Hoagland has practiced law in Alton for more than 50 years, but he has spent more than 70 years hunting, fishing and generally being in the great outdoors. His wife, Annie, shares his love of the outdoor life. Much of their spare time is spent on their farm in Calhoun County. Bill can be reached at [email protected].