Cryptonym: LICOOKY-1
104-10218-10185: VIOLA JUNE COBB
This Office of Security form explicitly lists Viola Cune Cobb's cryptonym as "LICOOKY-1, formerly AMUPAS-1." 104-10175-10176: C/WH/3 John Whitten states that on June 1960 Cobb was used by SAS and WH since that time.
104-10175-10350: NOTE: THE FOLLOWING PORTIONS OF 201-278841 ON AMUPAS-1 (NOW LICOOKY-1) HAVE BEEN
This document notes the change in crypt (Cobb had moved from Cuba - AM - to Mexico City - LI), and includes her 201 file number: 201-278841.
104-10174-10123: MEMORANDUM: CONTINGENT RECRUITMENT OF VIOLA JUNE COBB
This June 1960 memo discusses the "contingent recruitment" of June Cobb, referencing three days of recent interviews with her. Cobb was at the time "employed at the Ministry Office of Fidel Castro in Havana." The memo anticipates actual recruitment to take place a few days later in New York.
March 4, 1960 interview of Marita Lorenz by Special Agents Gabriel Pease and Francis Lundquist: "The two principal figures in the July 26 Movement in the New York City area are Jose Sanchez, Secretary General and Julio Medina, Secretary of Organization. However, the most fanatical member was June Cobb. Cobb, according to Lorenz, took great pleasure in making fervent speeches praising everything Castro did and criticizing the Department of State policy in regard to Cuba."
Mary's DB Viola June Cobb entry
104-10266-10161: Summary of Licooky's Activities From 1961 Through 1965
Mentions her Mexico contact "Bill" probably Bill Mannix, real name Tom Hazlett. Many other references here.
8/11/61 memo from SAC, New York to Director, FBI: Focus is on FPCC chair Richard Gibson and his upcoming trip to Mexico City. Cites June Cobb as a source and provides her address in Mexico City, as well as the SOLO source (CG-5824) on the Fair Play for Cuba Committee.
104-10175-10344: DISPATCH:.JOSE VASQUEZ BLANCO
9/1/61 dispatch from Chief of Station, Caracas to Chief, WHD and Chief of Base, JMWAVE re Operational/KUTUBE Jose Vasquez Blanco: Summary of informatio provided by Vasquez Blanco, the head of the anticommunist Radio Libertad station in Caracas: "On one occasion, Raul Roa, the Foreign Minister of Cuba, told (Vasquez Blanco) that he should no longer have any contact with an American girl named June Cobb, who had acted as an interpreter for Fidel Castro, because ROA had been told by the Russian embassy that she was an FBI agent." Note that Vasquez's radio station had a "provocative-type letter" sent to it in 1962 threatening the assassination of President Kennedy: www.maryferrell.org/snhowDoc.html?docId=954&search=aragon#relPageId=441&tab=page
1993.06.10.09:07:17:530000: INVESTIGATION OF FERNANDO FERNANDEZ'S ALLEGATIONS OF CUBAN ESPIONAGE N
Re 1961-1963 period: Memo of 5/8/64 by FBI SA James J. O'Connor, reporting an article written in a Spanish-speaking publication by professor Herminio Portell-Vila: "'Fair Play', with the aid of JUNE COBB, organized excursions of 'students' and agitators from the United States to visit Communist Cuba, with all expenses paid. It published bulletins and announcements; it published propaganda received from Communist Cuba; it deceived the unwary; it informed CASTRO of those things which interested him concerning the United States; and it held in Canada and in the United States a large number of meetings in favor of the dictatorship in Communist Cuba and against the Cuban emigres, persecuted by the Castristas..." See 104-10175-10176, p. 37: 1/27/64 OA is restricted to provide as little as possible classified information to Cobb, who is a contract agent.
Memo for Files of 25 Nov 1964: JUNE COBB
Re Sept-Oct. 1964: This 1964 Memo for the Files discusses the strange intersection between June Cobb and Elena Garro de Paz, the Mexican writer who alleged that Oswald had attended a party at the home of Sylvia Duran. Cobb was apparently Ms. Garro's landlord, and further that Garro "is afraid June Cobb will 'break her arms and legs' one day if she gets angry." Nov. 1964, 104-10218-10047, p. 116: Indicates that LICOOKY-1 is listed among a group of "LIHUFF ops". LIHUFF was an anti-communist organization in Mexico with an emphasis on students, economics, civil pressure and propaganda...at 117: "Recommend also LILINK (note: an operation in Mexico City to provide non-official cover for CIA officers with infra-red communications system to the CIA station in the Embassy prepare new project covering LICENTO-1 (a Mexico City travel agency employee - possibly Howard Estinger - and later known as LICOOKY-2) and LICOOKY-1 as informants Central American exile activity Mexi."
104-10065-10102: HSCA INTERVIEWS
May 1978 memo from Director to Mexico City: "On 25 May, HSCA investigators were told that under no circumstances would they be permitted to interview any former station assets, i.e., LICOOKY-1, LIHUFF-1, REDACTED, REDACTED, etc. They did not protest."
180-10147-10188: COMPILATION OF CONCLUSIONS AND OTHER RHETORIC FROM MEXICO CITY REPORT
Re August 1978: Personal working notes of Rodger Gabrielson - compiling notes from Lopez report: "CIA Declined to Aid - The Committee next asked the Central Intelligence Agency to arrange interviews with LICHANT-1 (Manuel Calvillo), LICOOKY-1 (June Cobb), who may have had information related to Lee Harvey Oswald's trip to Mexico City. The CIA declined to aid the Committee in this aspect of the investigation. The Committee returned to Mexico City on August 7, 1978 and attempted to locate June Cobb Sharp and Manuel Calvillo on its own."