Report of the President's Commission on the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy

Preparations for Travel to Mexico City

Preparations for Travel to Mexico City Marina testified that sometime in August, Oswald first told her of his plan to travel to Mexico and from there to Cuba, where he intended to stay; he had abandoned an earlier plan to hijack an airplane directly to Cuba, which Marina had consistently opposed. On September 17, Oswald obtained from the Mexican consulate general in New Orleans a “Tourist Card” (FM-8 No. 24085) good for one journey of up to 15 days, typed in the name “Lee, Harvey Oswald,” occupation “Fotogrofo,” with destination Mexico City. On the application he stated he was employed at “640 Rampart,” though he was in fact unemployed. On September 24, a neighbor saw Oswald, carrying two pieces of luggage, hurriedly leave the Magazine Street apartment and board a bus; a city busdriver recalled picking up a similarly described passenger who asked directions to the Greyhound station. The landlord found the apartment vacant on September 25. Among the items Oswald took with him were a Spanish-English dictionary, his address book, his 1963 passport and old passport, his correspondence with the Communist Party and the Soviet Embassy, proof of his marriage, newspaper clippings about his Fair Play for Cuba arrest, evidence that he was “Director” of the New Orleans FPCC chapter, various identification cards from Russia, and several sheets of notepaper containing a summary of important events in his life—including his Marine service, Soviet stay, Russian language ability, organization of the New Orleans FPCC, and experience in “street agitation,” as a “radio speaker and lecturer,” and as a photographer—which he apparently intended to present to Cuban and Soviet officials in Mexico City. The two bags were a small blue cloth zipper bag and a large olive-colored cloth bag; he carried the smaller one throughout the trip and checked the larger one through from Nuevo Laredo to Mexico City.