THESEARE THE PICTURES
While in Mexico this man, two months before the assassination of JFK, phoned Soviet official named Kostikov while in the Soviet embassy in Mexico. Valeriy Kostikov was well-known to the CIA and FBI as a KGB agent operating out of the Embassy under official cover. But, far more ominously, the FBI's "Tumbleweed" informant had previously tipped off the U.S. that Kostikov was a member of the KGB's "Department 13," involved in sabotage and assassinations.
The local CIA station in Mexico informed headquarters about it and requested information on him. But headquarters lied to its station, saying that no information on Oswald had been received by headquarters since his return to the United States 18 months earlier (PBS).
Documents show, however, that most of the half-dozen agency employees who participated in the drafting and dissemination of this false reply had signed for and read various FBI reports received on Oswald during those months, especially during the two weeks before this deception was invented.
So the local CIA station took these pictures of this man, who identified himself as Lee Harvey Oswald, placed calls to top KGB officials and according to the WC made threats towards JFK during this trip. Two months later (after the assassination), when these pictures and the describtion was sent to FBI director J. Edgar Hoover, alongside it he got this memo:
"The CIA advised that on October 1, 1963, an extremely sensitive source had reported that an individual identified himself as Lee Oswald, who contacted the Soviet Embassy in Mexico City inquiring as to any messages. Special Agents of this Bureau, who have conversed with Oswald in Dallas, Texas, have observed photographs of the individual referred to above, and have listened to a recording of his voice. These special agents are of the opinion that the above-referred-to individual was not Lee Harvey Oswald."
The day after the assassination Hoover briefed newly inaugurated LBJ about the "the tape and the photograph" of a man who claimed to be Oswald visiting the Soviet Embassy in Mexico City less than two months before the murder (Hoover did not mention how CIA headquarters lied about their surveillance of Oswald). Hoover goes on (WaPo)
"That's one angle that's very confusing. That picture and the tape do not correspond to this man's {Oswald's} voice, nor to his appearance. In other words, it appears that there is a second person who was at the Soviet Embassy down there."
The CIA station wiretapped the impostor's calls. When after the assassination CIA agents who knew Oswald went through these tapes they concluded that this man's voice was very different from Oswald's, on top of his Russian being too broken to resemble Oswald.
So question is, have we ever identified the impostor? And why did he pose as Oswald?
The photographs you refer to were investigated in a very recently declassified document from 1975, record number 104-10054-10259 in the National Archives. One photo (taken 4 Oct 1963) is in fact in the Warren Commission document (Volume 20, page 691) and is one of 12 of what the document calls the Unidentified Individual.
Lee Harvey Oswald did actually visit Mexico City for a time -- from the morning of the 27th of September to the morning of the 2nd of October, where he stayed in a small hotel. At no point did the CIA take a photo of him. He was not "under investigation" while there as the Mexico Station didn't know anything in regards to his attempt to defect to the USSR (the KGB thought there was "something wrong" with him) until after he had left by the 10th of October. They were sent a report regarding an American trying to get a visa to Cuba, and using one recorded phone call in particular (1 October) had made the connection.
OSWALD: This is Lee Oswald speaking. I was at your place last Saturday and spoke to a consul, and they said that they would send a telegram to Washington, so I wanted to find out if you had anything new? But I don't remember the name of the consul.
OBYEDKOV KOSTIKOV: He is dark [hair or skin].
OSWALD: Yes. My name is Oswald.
OBYEDKOV: Just a minute, I'll find out ... they say that they have not received anything yet.
OSWALD: Have they done anything?
OBYEDKOV: Yes, they say that a request has been sent out, but nothing has been received as yet.
OSWALD: ...and what....?
(phone hung up)
(There is no point where anyone has credibly identified this voice as someone other than Oswald. There was a different call in Spanish regarding visas which was not Oswald, but we also know Oswald did not speak any Spanish at all.)
His full itinerary is uncertain, but we know on the 27th of September he visited the Cuban Embassy twice, speaking to a Silvia Duran, including once immediately before closing, and at some point in the middle he visited the Soviet Embassy. We also know the Cuban camera was down on the 27th for technical reasons; we don't have detail on why there was no Soviet Embassy picture on the 27th, but remote technical operations always have issues -- there's no need for a conspiracy to have a missed picture.
The 28th and 29th the Embassies were closed, so photographs were not being taken on those days. Oswald still went on the 28th to speak to a Consul at the Soviet Embassy, but didn't remember his new address in Texas. We know he also visited the Cuban Embassy again at 11:51 and got his address (which he had put in with his visa application). Duran called the Soviets on Oswald's behalf and Oswald was invited to come back in person.
This was the entirety of Oswald's physical visits. So to be clear, there was only one day he was able to be photographed (as the weekend days had no surveillance), and on that day the Cuban camera wasn't working; we don't know what happened with the Soviet one, but this could easily be for other technical reasons.
The October 1st call did not involve any kind of visit, nor did it need to.
When the Mexico Station received notification of an American looking for a visa, they sent photos they had of an American that was visiting, but they were of an entirely different person. 5 were taken on the 1st of October, 5 on the 4th, and 2 on the 15th.
So to be absolutely clear: there was no impersonation, just accidental circumstance to cause the photographs to enter the chain of evidence. There was surveillance of people entering the embassies over a large span of time, and the time span that Oswald visited overlapped with a second person. Oswald had calls caught by the phone taps but due to circumstances -- especially visiting on a Saturday -- he never had a photograph taken of him. The photographs were sent of the American whose visit was the same day by coincidence.
The person has never been identified, but he was apparently found -- a Bernard Fensterwald checked into the matter thoroughly and stated "he did know who the man was" -- that "he is serving a prison term" and had met Oswald while in Mexico, but that he had no connection with the assassination. We have very firm evidence that Oswald was in Mexico with just interviews from the people who spoke to (including, again, Duran from the Cuban embassy) so there wasn't really anything being "hidden" by somehow there being a second person who looked nothing the same and stayed long after Oswald had left.
