National Archives releases first batch of 2017 JFK documents

[Anthony Thorne]

I agree. JFK Facts are in email contact with the Archives staff, which is useful.

Newman on Facebook today.

This extract is a sneak preview from Chapter Three in Volume III (Into the Storm). It is from one of two chapters in Vol III on the changing story of Antonio Veciana. The attached document from the 2017 NARA release confirms my identification of James Joseph O'Mailia as the "Joe Melton" that Veciana claims trained him in Havana:

Who was Joe Melton?

During his 26 April 1978 HSCA deposition Veciana was asked if he recalled "Mr. Melton's first name. Veciana replied, "I don't know if this is correct, but I think it was Joe." In his 2017 book Trained to Kill Veciana said the name was "Dick Melton." On 25 August 1978, the HSCA requested the CIA to grant access to the following records:

…all files and index references pertaining to the following individual, and in addition to the standard search of indices by name, it is requested that a search be made for persons closely fitting the enclosed biographical profile, even though those persons may have no similarity in name to MELTON: FNU "Melton" AKA Joe Melton.

That profile was of a white American male living in Havana during the period 1959-1961, engaged in anti-Castro propaganda, clandestine paramilitary and explosives training, and instruction in psychological warfare, and infiltration activities. The HSCA request also noted that, on various occasions, such training occurred in an office in the Edeficio LaRampa building located in the El Verdado section of Havana. The building "also housed offices for the Moa Bay Mining Company and, in addition, a Berlitz language school."

It is not out of the question that James O'Mailia might have sometimes been addressed by a version of his middle nameJoe. O'Mailia also told UPI that he had been arrested "on suspicion" by the Cuban secret police, and that he was "glad to be back in the good old USA." And well he should have been. He had been a paid CIA agent in Havana since 1959.

O'Mailia's operational profile was a white American male living in Havana during the period 1959-1961, engaged in anti-Castro propaganda and psychological warfare activities (with AMPALM-1), clandestine paramilitary and explosives activities (with AMPALM-4), and infiltration and exfiltration activities with support from the CIA station. That is nearly an exact match for the profile of Joe Melton that the HSCA provided to the CIA. I know of no better candidate for this identification.