The Missile Crisis Plot to Kill JFK
By Paul Bleau
Introduction
Comparative Case Analysis (‘CCA’), also known as ‘Similar Fact Analysis’, is a technique used in criminal intelligence analysis to identify similarities and support decision making (Dominik Sacha et al, 2017, originally published at The Eurographics Association).
Cases can be linked in CCA through any of the following:
a) Modus Operandi (or tactics, techniques, procedures)
b) Signatures and patterns
c) Forensic evidence
d) Intelligence
CCA is also a perpetrator profiling technique. By comparing seemingly similar cases, crime scenes, tactics, language, weapons, injuries, people of interest, and backdrops, templates can be defined and suspects identified.
CCA was never performed for the JFK assassination.
By comparing elements of what occurred in and around the murder of JFK and a November 1962 plot involving the use of incriminating letters purportedly sent from Havana by a Jose Pepe Menendez almost one year before the successful attempt, we will present compelling evidence of not only a conspiracy, but key parts of an m.o. and the identification of persons of interest.
Ask yourself the question: If it can be established that there is a clear connection between two plots to kill JFK, the successful one and another that occurred a year earlier, can one solve the murder by solving the preliminary plot?
Readers will be able to find all letters referred to by clicking here.
Summary
Near the end of November 1962, when the tensions around JFK’s handling of the Missile Crisis were at their highest and military hawks were opposed to their Commander in Chief, three letters from Cuba were intercepted. These letters, all bearing the signature Pepe, were fabrications designed to provide a paper trail that would frame potential patsies in the murder of JFK as leftists who were in league with Cuban agents.
As we will see later, their interception was made easy by design: The intended recipients could easily be portrayed as pro-Castro and were not even connected to the addresses on the letters. Those who picked up the letters in their place were CIA-friendly and certain to pass the information on to their intelligence contacts who were part of the JMWAVE network, controlled by CIA officer William Harvey. The FBI and the Secret Service considered these letters to be serious. They suspected that their interception was intended, and called the alleged sender of the letter, Pxepe Menendez, a suspect. This case was never solved and was closed on November 21, 1963, one day before the assassination.
In October 1963, Oswald and/or an imposter contacted Valeriy Kostikov, a KGB officer in the Russian Embassy in Mexico City, whom the CIA believed was in charge of executive action in the Western Hemisphere. After Kennedy was killed, at least three assets answering to CIA officer David Phillips offered false testimonies to link Oswald to Cuban agents.
Between the Mexico City incident and the assassination six weeks later, Oswald was linked to Kostikov and the Cubans in six incriminatory letters that were strikingly similar to the Pepe Letters in terms of style, content, phrasing, and propaganda strategy.
It is the similarity between the 1962 and 1963 false flag operation templates that renders the Pepe Letters affair so significant.
The Pepe Letters
In the process of reviewing the recent Latin American intel files at the Mary Ferrell Foundation, a series of them pertained to a prior plot that involved the use of incriminating letters to set up a patsy who would be blamed for the assassination of JFK and made to look as if he were a Cuban asset.
The first letter I analyzed was very telling.
- It was sent from Cuba to “Bernardo Morales” at a post office box in Miami owned by an anti-Castro propaganda unit called Radio Libertad, La Voz Anti-Communista de America. The alleged sender was Jose Menendez, and the letter was signed Pepe. Morales was unknown to those who handled the letter and who eventually forwarded it to a CIA contact linked to the JMWAVE station in Miami.
- The sender’s full name is Jose Menendez Ramos. He was nicknamed Pepe. Menendez and his wife Carrie Hernandez had been described by an informant as members of the Tampa FPCC. Menendez got a “top Job” in the Cuban Government after his return. He and his wife were said to be extremely pro-Castro.
- Olga Duque de Heredia de Lopez and Aida Mayo Coetara, Miami Representatives for Radio Libertad (linked to anti-Castro DRE operatives), handled the mail. Lopez handed the letter to Cesar Gajate, whom she described as an anti-Communist fighter. Mayo is the wife of Humberto Lopez Perez, the director of Radio Libertad in Venezuela.
- Gajate was an AMOT contact. AMOT is a cryptonym for a network of Cubans trained by David Morales at JMWAVE during 1960-61. He passed on the information to his contact (likely CIA officer Tony Sforza or David Morales, who answered to William Harvey).
- This was an elaborate hoax to push the "Cubans plan to kill JFK" narrative. One of the people pushing it - CIA's Bill Finch, worked with Bill Harvey.
- The information was sent to the Secret Service, the FBI, and the Department of State on Dec. 8, and later to the INS by Rufus Horn of Task Force W and is signed by him as Liaison and in lieu of William Harvey.
- The INS identified a Morales who entered the U.S. using a fake visa.
- Radio Libertad was CIA-sponsored (which was also the case for Voice of America) and operated out of Venezuela. It had an antenna office in Miami.
- The letter is postmarked November 29, 1962, a month after JFK's peaceful resolution of the Missile Crisis.
- It reveals a network of conspirators based in Miami, Washington, and Cuba.
- It lamely suggests that by sending the letter to the right-wing Radio Libertad, it would not be intercepted.
- It crudely links “Fidel” to a plot to kill JFK.
- It does not mince words and is self-incriminating: “if we are able to kill President Kennedy,” “It would be a great success, super extraordinary, for Fidel,” “Marxist-Leninists 90 miles from the U.S.,” “paralyze imperialism completely,” “terrorize capitalism”, “get in contact with your Friends”, “You are an artist”: all very similar to the 1963 letters we will discuss later.
The second letter, which was postmarked November 14, was sent to Antonio Rodriguez--a student at Georgetown's foreign service school and the son of a Venezuelan diplomat--who was a chauffeur for Colonel Hugo Trejo. Trejo was a suspected intelligence contact from Venezuela and a Venezuelan military officer and politician who led the first attempt at a military rebellion against the president of Venezuela, Marcos Pérez Jiménez. Improperly addressed, Trejo advised the FBI about the letter.
Trejo said that the letter arrived at a Venezuelan Delegation office in Washington. The Secret Service, tipped off by an informant suspecting an assassination plot involving Trejo, questioned members of the delegation, including Trejo, Rodriguez, and others, about the letter.
“Antonio Rodriguez Jones' address was crossed out in red ink and emerged from the Dead Letter Section with the address Antonio Rodriguez Gil, "2335 Ashmead Place NW, Washington, DC. The Secret Service eventually found "this was in error".
This address was the base for the office of the Venezuelan delegation of the Inter-American Defense Board, an OAS institution, where Antonio Rodriguez Gil was a chauffeur.
The ostensible reason for the operation against foreign service student Antonio Rodriguez Jones was because his father was Antonio Rodriguez Echazabal, also a diplomat by trade. He was Cuba's ambassador to Haiti as recently as 1959 before he defected in place in Haiti. He identified as anti-Communist but was not involved with any anti-Castro opposition group. In November 1962, Echazabal was living in Washington, DC and planning to defect to the United States. Echazabal was believed to secretly be a communist. When Echazabal was arrested and deported in August 1963, the "Cuban plot against the President" file was ostensibly closed, but new files kept going inside it.” (Bill Simpich email to Paul Bleau, Sept 6, 2025)
The letter refers to the assassination Cuba-linked plot in a similar fashion to the first Pepe letter discussed above, and was deemed to have been written by the same sender (Menendez) following FBI handwriting analysis.
Intelligence forces attempted to link Rodriguez to an alleged Cuban Terrorist named Pino Machado:
Who or what was the seed of the "Cuban plot? Perhaps Pino Machado, who was yet another diplomat, and formerly the alternate ambassador to Carlos Lechuga at the United Nations. The Secret Service believed Pino Machado would be near JFK at an April 1961 UN event, and his profile was described as dangerous because he might be armed and had a history of violence.
His crimes? A member of the July 26th Movement and imprisoned by Batista for sabotage activities until his fall. The anti-Castroites had accused Pino Machado of being involved in JFK's death since the very beginning.
The FBI's Chief of National Intelligence, Ray Wannall, noted here that a "Secret Service informant" (#3-11-48) claimed on 11/27/63 that Pino Machado was involved in "terrorism" in Washington, DC, back in April 1961. And that if there was an "international plot", then Pino Machado was the "intellectual director" of Oswald's activities in Mexico City. His subordinate Lambert Anderson had been monitoring both Oswald and the FPCC for months before 11/22/63.
Wannall accused Pino Machado of being in Mexico City in 1963, being involved in a plot to assassinate an anti-Castro leader at JFK's dinner in Miami on 11/18/63, and the assassination of JFK himself. All of this bogus information--and much more over the months--was passed on to Miami Secret Service officer Ernest Aragon and his boss, John Marshall. JM/Wave’s Ted Shackley and Harvey had been studying Aragon as early as November 1962. By early December 1963, Aragon knew that a Pedro Charles letter was a fake. This was allegedly sent after the JFK murder from Cuba to Oswald, discussing the “affair” and Oswald’s marksmanship. Unfortunately, the man (FBI informant) I call "the other Ernest Aragon/it may have been an alias" working for the Cuban Revolutionary Council, who also served as Secret Service informant 3-11-14, turned it over to Bill Finch of the Miami CIA's security division (who worked for William Harvey). This offers some understanding as to why Aragon reported security lapses and Marshall twice told the HSCA that he was concerned that the Secret Service might be involved in the assassination of JFK.” (Bill Simpich email to Paul Bleau, Sept 7, 2025)
The third Pepe letter was sent to: SEÑOR MINISTRO DE REPÚBLICA DE GUATEMALA in Guatemala. It does not refer to the assassination plot. It does attempt to link Cuba to clandestine revolutionary activities in the country. It made its way to the CIA.
The FBI suspected subterfuge around the flagrant errors in addressing all three letters.
(HSCA Report Volume 3 page 431)
Even Secret Service inspector Thomas Kelley admitted the letters were apparently "meant to be intercepted".
The links with the 1963 letters and William Harvey (a person of extreme interest in the assassination) are most notable.
The 1963 forged letters
“Oswald’s” letter to the Russian Embassy on November 9, 1963
This uncharacteristically typed letter, purportedly written by Oswald, was intercepted by the FBI (as they did with all mail going to the embassy). This letter incriminated Oswald and foreign confederates and was corroborative of the Mexico City charade. It denigrates the “notorious FBI” and refers to Kostikov as “comrade Kostin.”
The Warren Commission accepted this letter as authentic and explained it as an awkward appeal by Oswald for help from the Soviet Embassy. In fact, the content and the timing of the letter suggest that it was part of the same stratagem designed by those behind the Mexico City set-up.
The fact that this letter was sent to Tovarich Nikolai Reznichenko at the embassy was a source of concern, even if the Oswalds corresponded with him several times in 1963. An FBI report (HSCA Record 180-10110-10104) clearly refers to him as “the man in the Soviet Embassy (Washington’s) in charge of assassinations.” In 1970, researcher Paul Scott had described him as “one of the top members of the Soviet Secret Police (KGB) in the United States.” (Paul Scott article)
Incriminatory letters from Cuba- 1963
Five letters from Cuba, all postmarked shortly after the assassination, one of which was destined for Oswald, were part of the Castro false flag operation and were also used to incriminate Oswald with unidentified Cuban agents, and Fidel Castro himself. These letters were addressed to recipients (Oswald, RFK, The Voice of America--a CIA propaganda asset), which guaranteed their interception or their being simply handed over to intelligence agencies.
They also corroborate the Mexico City fabrication, which very few people would have known about at this time. The FBI dismissed these letters as a hoax, which they were. But they were a hoax with a purpose: to blame JFK’s murder on the Russians and the Cubans. Their content and timing revealed the same tactics being used by the planners.
Letters from Cuba to Oswald—proof of pre-knowledge of the assassination
In JFK: The Cuba Files, Cuban G2 officer Fabian Escalante presents a thorough analysis of five bizarre letters that were written before the assassination in order to position Oswald as a Castro asset. It is difficult to sidestep them the way the FBI did. The FBI argued that they were all typed from the same typewriter, yet supposedly sent by different people. This indicated to them that it was a hoax, perhaps perpetrated by Cubans wanting to encourage a U.S. invasion.
However, the content of the letters and timeline proves something far more sinister, according to Cuban intelligence. The following is how John Simkin summarizes the evidence:
The G-2 had a letter, signed by Jorge that had been sent from Havana to Lee Harvey Oswald on 14th November, 1963. It had been found when a fire broke out on 23rd November in a sorting office. After the fire, an employee who was checking the mail in order to offer, where possible, apologies to the addressees of destroyed mail, and to forward the rest, found an envelope addressed to Lee Harvey Oswald. It is franked on the day Oswald was arrested and the writer refers to Oswald’s travels to Mexico, Houston and Florida …, which would have been impossible to know about at that time!
It incriminates Oswald in the following passage: “I am informing you that the matter you talked to me about the last time that I was in Mexico would be a perfect plan and would weaken the politics of that braggart Kennedy, although much discretion is needed because you know that there are counter-revolutionaries over there who are working for the CIA.”
Escalante informed the House Select Committee on Assassinations about this letter. When he did this, he discovered that they had four similar letters that had been sent to Oswald. Four of the letters were postmarked “Havana”. It could not be determined where the fifth letter was posted. Four of the letters were signed: Jorge, Pedro Charles, Miguel Galvan Lopez and Mario del Rosario Molina. Two of the letters (Charles & Jorge) are dated before the assassination (10th and 14th November). A third, by Lopez, is dated 27th November, 1963. The other two are undated.
Cuba is linked to the assassination in all the letters. In two of them, an alleged Cuban agent is clearly implicated in having planned the crime. However, the content of the letters, written before the assassination, suggested that the authors were either “a person linked to Oswald or involved in the conspiracy to execute the crime.”
This included knowledge about Oswald’s links to Dallas, Houston, Miami and Mexico City. The text of the Jorge letter “shows a weak grasp of the Spanish language on the part of its author. It would thus seem to have been written in English and then translated.”
Escalante adds: “It is proven that Oswald was not maintaining correspondence, or any other kind of relations, with anyone in Cuba. Furthermore, those letters arrived at their destination at a precise moment and with a conveniently incriminating message, including that sent to his postal address in Dallas, Texas …. The existence of the letters in 1963 was not publicized or duly investigated, and the FBI argued before the Warren Commission to reject them.”
Escalante argues: “The letters were fabricated before the assassination occurred and by somebody who was aware of the development of the plot, who could ensure that they arrived at the opportune moment and who had a clandestine base in Cuba from which to undertake the action. Considering the history of the last 40 years, we suppose that only the CIA had such capabilities in Cuba.”
The first letter addressed to Oswald includes: “close the business,” “money I gave you,” “recommend much to the chief,” “I told him (Castro) you could put out a candle at fifty meters,” “when you come to Habana.” Letter four specifies $7000 given to Oswald, which is close to what a Phillips-connected false witness claimed he saw being given to Oswald in Mexico City in the Cuban embassy. It also states that a Cuban agent named Pedro Charles “became a close friend of former Marine and expert shooter Lee H. Oswald in Mexico.”
Black Ops: ZRRIFLE and Black Letters
File 178-10004-10148 (released in 2025), from the Rockefeller Commission, discusses the use of this type of psy-war propaganda. This strongly indicates what all the letters discussed in this article are: Black Letters, i.e., forged incriminatory letters designed to create a phony paper trail to set up a foe:
Partial file content:
The Pepe Letters are too similar to the six 1963 incriminatory letters for this to all be happenstance. The tone, wording, and content, as well as the designed-to-be-intercepted expedition of all nine letters, incrimination targets, nature of the recipients, and the timing, can only be interpreted one way. These were Black Letters. They are the workings of specialized strategists who began plotting by November 1962 or earlier against JFK. They used psych-ops techniques, such as black letters. The letters supplemented other tactics that were in tune with the following part of Harvey’s ZRRIFLE: It also contemplates the need for false documentation within CIA files to protect the operation from exposure: "Cover: planning should include provision for blaming Czechs or Sovs in case of blow" and "Should have phony 201 in RI to backstop this, documentation therein forged and backdated. Should look like a CE [Counterespionage] file."
Case Linkage
The assassination and the “Pepe” plot are not the only cases that should have been compared for clues that would help profile the plotters. On their own, they already provide compelling evidence of central coordination. Oswald’s opening of a Fair Play for Cuba Committee branch in New Orleans is already considered very suspicious by many in the research community. The Menendez links to the FPCC should set off alarm bells for all. This author’s chronicle of other potential patsies that were linked to this dying outfit--deemed to be Castro’s network in the U.S. by the House Committee on Un-American Activities--exceeded several in number. The newly found Menendez link is the topping on the cake.
Conclusion
At this point, the reader is encouraged to read the letters discussed in this article and peruse the other sources that can be found in the bibliography. If one concludes that the 1962 and 63 incidents are linked, then there is most likely a conspiracy involving central planning by those capable of implementing such tactics. Just as importantly, these events should be added to the growing body of evidence around CIA officers William Harvey and David Phillips, making them persons of even greater interest. Already suspected by some government investigation insiders, the proximity of Harvey to the Pepe Letters and Phillips’ links to Mexico City and the FPCC should not go unexplored. These letters have been for too long unexplored, but they are powerful evidence of a pre-existing plot against JFK.
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank Bill Simpich and Doug Campbell, who were the first to see the significance of the Pepe Letters. They, along with Dave Boylan, have provided valuable input to me regarding this still-developing story.
References
The PEPE Letters at Kennedysandking (all nine black letters are in the appendices) 25 January 2025
Exposing the FPCC, Parts 1, 2 and 3 at Kennedysandking.com,
The Three Failed Plots to Kill JFK at Kennedysandking.com, 18 November 2016
The CIA and Mafia’s “Cuban American Mechanism” and the JFK Assassination at Kennedysandking.com, 12 April 2018
Oswald's Last Letter: The Scorching Hot Potato at Kennedysandking.com, 17 December 2019
Paul Bleau: "On the Trail of the Plotters" (Conference at UK Dealey Plaza)
Doug Campbell Lancer presentation 2020
Bill Simpich Education Forum 2025 My Summary of the Pepe Letters
The Following Files are at the Mary Ferrell Foundation:
104-10012-10022 Kostikov
104-10308-10249 PLOTS TO ASSASSINATE THE PRESIDENT OF THE U.S- Menendez, Gajate, FPCC
104-10506-10037 SURFACING OF LETTER DATED 27 NOV 1963 RE POSSIBLE PLOT TO ASSASSINATE PRESIDENT KENNEDY- 1976 distancing of Menedez
104-10308-10001 100-300-12 PLOTS TO ASSASSINATE THE PRES OF THE US
104-10506-10008 ROUTING SHEET AND DISPATCH: BERNARDO MORALES; THREATENING LETTER RE PRESIDENT KENNEDY
104-10506-10016 TRANSMITTAL SLIP AND MEMO: INFORMATION CONCERNING POSSIBLE PLOT TO ASSASSINATE PRESIDENT KENNEDY- William Harvey sender
104-10308-10272 Lt. Ramos: friendly with Fidel
104-10506-10003 GAJATE PUIG AS INTERMEDIARY
178-10004-10148 Description of how CIA uses Covert Black letters
104-10506-10015 This sheet confirms Gajate is an AMOT contact : ROUTING SHEET AND GREEN LIST NAME CHECK REQUESTS/RESULTS
180-10108-10017: ANTONIO GUILLERMO ROGRIGUEZ JONES.
124-10279-10069: No Title Hugo Trejo
HSCA Report, Volume III, Starting on Page 399: Analysis of the Pepe Letters
