The Most Interesting Document in the Kennedy Assassination Release

Who exactly is Pedro Charles?

Yesterday’s release of more than 13,000 pages of documents related to the November 22, 1963, assassination of President John F. Kennedy sentenced legitimate historical researchers and conspiracy theorists alike to endless hours in front of their laptops at least through this weekend. I, too, was curious and last night stumbled upon one document that truly surprised me, leading me to reconsider a plausible theory laid out by a former director of the CIA.

But first, FOX News’ Tucker Carlson jumped on the release last evening saying that an anonymous but trustworthy source confirmed to him that the United States Government, in the form of the Central Intelligence Agency, indeed had a hand in the killing of JFK.

Carlson said that this source had seen all the documents that have still not been released and was asked, "Did the CIA have a hand in the murder of John F. Kennedy, an American President?” "The answer is yes,” came the reply. “I believe they were involved. It's a whole different country from what we thought it was. It's all fake."

I find two things very puzzling about this report. First, if the CIA had a hand in killing the President, why would they have documented it? Second, if they did somehow foolishly document it, why didn’t they later destroy the files? The world’s greatest super-spooks were able to successfully murder the President of the United States in broad daylight in front of a crowd but couldn’t throw papers in a burn box? I don’t buy it.

Last year, however, former CIA chief James Woosley co-authored a book titled Operation Dragon: Inside the Kremlin’s Secret War on America. Woosley claims that “All evidence points to the fact that the assassination―carried out by Lee Harvey Oswald―was ordered by Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev, acting through what was essentially the Russian leader’s personal army, the KGB.” It’s an interesting angle, especially given Woosley’s background. He’s also given media interviews telling the story.

As I searched through the newly released files, the document that shocked me was a letter, written November 10, 1963, to Lee Harvey Oswald by what appears to be a Cuban operative calling himself “Pedro Charles.” In it, Charles tell Oswald that “the man plans to visit there soon and you should close the business as soon as possible.” Charles goes on to say that he has told “the Chief” (Castro?) that “[Oswald] could put out a candle at 50 meters.” Before warning his “friend Lee” that he should destroy all of his correspondence, Charles talks of meeting Oswald in Miami to give him “silver” and seems to imply that the assassin would then live in Havana, the land of “liberty, of beautiful women, and rich Havana tobacco.”

The letter never made it to Oswald. Instead, it was first intercepted by the U.S. Secret Service. The latter fact leads to yet more questions. Why was the USSS intercepting Oswald’s mail? And, given the contents of this letter and the impending visit by President Kennedy less than a fortnight later, why wasn’t Oswald tailed, at least during Kennedy’s visit?

I’m far from a conspiracy enthusiast. I loathe the “truthers” of 9/11 and Sandy Hook with an unhealthy fervor. I believe that on November 22, 1963, Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone. There’s incontrovertible proof of this fact, and it has all been laid out methodically and convincingly by both Gerald Posner and Vincent Bugliosi. But this letter does cause me to sit back and wonder whether Woosley’s book might be worth re-examining. Could this Pedro Charles have been a Cuban middleman for the KGB, or KGB himself? My guess is that we’ll never know.