Palm Beach, Florida
On Tuesday, October 22-23 Cuban exile commando's using a 174-foot ****p
name the "Rex" attempted to assassinate Fidel Castro. The "Rex" was
leased to Collins Radio in Richardson, Texas, but dock fees were paid by
"Sea ****pping Company" from a post office box address in Palm Beach,
Florida. The vessel was registered in Bluefields, Nicaragua was recently
purchased by the Belcher Oil Company (Miami) from Luis Somoza of
Nicaragua. (Collins Radio was located at 1200 North Alma Road in
Richardson, Texas and held major communications contracts with the
military and CIA, including the installation of communication towers in
Vietnam.)
In late October Cuban exile commandos from the "Rex" were captured on a
Cuban beach with high-powered sniper rifles and admitted they had been
trained by the CIA to kill Cuban leaders. (On November1, 1963 the New
York Times published a photo of the "Rex" along with a story concerning
commandos that were sent ashore in Cuba.
2:00 P.M. November 22, 1963
At 2:00 P.M. on November 22, Mr. T.F. White was working at Mack's
Automobile Service at 113 W. 7th Street, 1 block south of Davis Street and
6 blocks north of the Texas Theater. From his garage Mr. White noticed a
1961 red Ford Falcon speeding west on Davis Street, and saw the same car a
short while later as it drove into the El Chico Restaurant parking lot
across the street.
The driver parked the red Falcon behind a large billboard and appeared to
be hiding from the police who were patrolling the streets. With news of
the President's assassination fresh in everyone's mind Mr. White was
curious and walked toward the parking lot. As he approached the vehicle
he observed a white male wearing a white t-****rt, and noticed the car
engine was still running. When Mr. White got to within 10-15 yards of the
car the driver turned and looked directly at him, and then quickly sped
out of the parking lot throwing gravel with his rear tires. White wrote
the make and model of the car and the license plate number (PP 4537) in
his notebook as the red Ford Falcon sped out of the parking lot and west
on Davis Street.
When interviewed by FBI agent Charles Brown, Mr. White said the man drivng
the car was indentical with LEE Harvey Oswald, and gave the agent a
description of the car and the license plate number. The authorities soon
determined the license plates were registered to a two-tone blue 1957
Plymouth, and not to a red Ford Falcon. The blue Plymouth belonged to
Carl A. Mather, an employed of Collins Radio of Richardson, Texas, who was
J.D. Tippit's best friend. (One of Carl Mather's jobs in 1963 was
servicing the communications equipment aboard Air Force Two,
Vice-President Lyndon Johnson's plane.)
About 2:00 P.M., when Mr. White saw the red Ford Falcon, Mrs. (Barbara)
Mather received a phone call at her home in Garland, Texas. The call came
from her close friend Marie Tippit, who informed her of the death of her
husband, J.D. Tippit, Mrs. Mather immediately telephoned her husband at
work and informed him of Tippit's death. Carl Mather left work at Collins
Radio shortly after 2:00 P.M. and drove from Richardson (a Dallas suburb)
to his home at 4309 Colgate in Garland (a Dallas suburb). Mather picked up
his wife and children and drove them to Tippit's home in South Oak Cliff.
(It is interesting to note that after the assassination, the FBI
interviewed Mrs. Barbara Mather on two occasions but never interviewed
Carl Mather. Neither Carl nor Barbara Mather were interviewed by the
Warren Commission).
News re****ter Wes Wise (later mayor of Dallas) heard the story and,
accompanied by a CBS re****ter, decided to interview Carl and Barbara
Mather during dinner. Wise said that while Barbara Mather was fairly
calm, her husband was "so upset" and "agitated" that he was unable to eat.
The HSCA interviewed Wes Wise in 1978, but before they interviewed Carl
Mather he insisted on a grant of immunity. (To this day Mather's HSCA
testimony remains classifed and is unavailable to the public.)
Another employee of Collins Radio, Kenneth ****ter, quit his job after the
assassination of President Kennedy, left his wife, took up with Marina
Oswald, and married her in Fate, Texas on June 1, 1965.
In August 1994 the President and Congress were surprised to learn the U.S.
government funded construction of a massive $350 million dollar structure
for the National Reconaissance Office headquarters in Virginia.
Government officials learned the NRO used the address of Rockwell
International's Collins Radio as it's offical address.
Pg. 731, 872-3 Harvey and Lee
CJ
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