June Cobb

Viola June Cobb (August 24, 1927 – October 17, 2015) was an American informant for the CIA. She worked at Fidel Castro's headquarters in Havana as a translator and public relations worker in 1959 and 1960. After leaving Cuba, Cobb continued working for the CIA in Guatemala and Mexico. She was the first CIA asset to relay an account of Lee Harvey Oswald having attended a twist party in Mexico City weeks before the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Earlier in the 1950s, Cobb was involved with the production and trafficking of narcotics with her Colombian fiancé and his twin brother. She later provided information to the US Federal Bureau of Narcotics that led to arrests in Cuba and Colombia.

Cobb was fluent in Spanish, notably translating Castro's "History Will Absolve Me" speech and former Guatemalan president Juan José Arévalo's short story The Shark and the Sardines.

Early life and education Viola June Cobb was born on August 24, 1927, in Ponca City, Oklahoma, to Jasper E. Cobb and Jesse Lois Sharp. She graduated from Ponca City High School, and went on to attend University of Oklahoma for one year in the mid-1940s. She then worked at a Ponca City radio station and for a local newspaper as a courthouse reporter. She was an adjunct of the Civil Air Patrol squadron in Norman, Oklahoma, attaining the rank of 2nd class Lieutenant.

Travels to Mexico and Colombia After leaving the University of Oklahoma, Cobb traveled to Mexico, where she met Rafael Herran Olozaga, who was from a wealthy and politically connected Colombian family. Both his great-grandfather, Pedro Alcántara Herrán, and his great-great-grandfather, Tomás Cipriano de Mosquera, had served as Presidents of Colombia. His family disapproved of the relationship, considering Cobb beneath his station. They were later engaged.

Cobb took extension classes with Olozaga at the National University in Mexico City in 1947. a rare tropical disease. She returned to the United States for treatment, spending several months hospitalized at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City. After she recovered, she spent five months working at the hospital as an administrative assistant for Dr. Isidore Snapper. In early 1952, Cobb began a relationship with the Federal Bureau of Narcotics. During the summer of 1952, she was employed with Time magazine in their letters department. Cobb then moved to Chicago and worked as a secretary again for Snapper, who was now the director of medical education at Cook County Hospital.

Cobb returned to New York City in 1953 and found work as an interpreter and translator. Her friend Warren Broglie, manager of the Waldorf Astoria, referred clients to her. Towards the end of 1953, Cobb worked briefly for Foster Wheeler, a firm that was building a refinery in Colombia. In the summer of 1954, Cobb was treated for agranulocytosis at Beth-El Hospital in New York. From September 21 to 29, the CIA maintained surveillance of Cobb's hotel room in New York City. Cobb was acquainted with Kennedy advisor Richard N. Goodwin, and soon had direct access to the White House through him.

While in Havana, on more than one occasion, Cobb met with CIA operative David Sánchez Morales at the house of Geraldine Shamma.

Cobb's first CIA operation involved befriending CBS newscaster Richard Gibson, a co-founder of the Fair Play for Cuba Committee. Cobb determined that Gibson had made a trip to Cuba, met with Castro and Osvaldo Dorticós Torrado, and received money for operating expenses and to maintain the FPCC New York office. In later testimony, Cobb said that she had firsthand knowledge that Cuba was funding the committee. During 1961, Gibson wrote a number of letters to Cobb.

Guatemala Around 1961, alongside Raul Osegueda, Cobb translated former Guatemalan President Juan José Arévalo's 1956 allegory The Shark and the Sardines to English. From Mexico, Cobb assisted Guatemalan revolutionaries fighting Miguel Ydígoras Fuentes, helping them obtain equipment.

Mexico City In June 1963, the CIA reapproved Cobb as an informant for WH/3-Mexico D.F., despite an October 1962 CIA security memo recommending no contact with her other than assessment. Later that year, Cobb was transferred to Mexico City and her cryptonym was changed to LICOOKY-1.

Cobb then moved to Mexico City. She was a CIA asset for the Mexico City station, reporting to David Atlee Phillips. Warren Broglie, who was then managing Hotel Luma, passed information to Cobb that she relayed to station chief Winston M. Scott. When she was in need of a residence, her friend Eunice Odio suggested she call Elena Garro.

Following the assassination of John F. Kennedy by Lee Harvey Oswald, and the release of the Warren Report, Cobb was privy to a conversation between Elena Garro, her sister Deva Guerrero, and her daughter. They expressed surprise at seeing Oswald's face in the newspapers, as they said they recognized him from a twist party at the home of Rubén Durán. They said that he was accompanied by two other men who looked like beatniks. In an October 5 report, Cobb informed the CIA of the conversation. Cobb wanted the women to tell American authorities what they knew, but advised them against going to the American embassy, instead suggesting that they go to Texas. Cobb was asked to leave Garro's home after their cat's back legs were found broken.

Oswald had checked out a copy of The Shark and the Sardines from the Dallas Public Library on about November 6, 1963. The book had not been returned.

As of December 1965, Cobb was roommates with Eunice Odio. In 1965 and 1966, Cobb set up Milton Abramson, a New York-based drug trafficker, Adela Castillo, and others for arrest by the FBI in the United States.

Connection with Jerrie Cobb From 2009 to 2011 independent filmmaker Mary Haverstick was researching a documentary she wanted to make about Jerrie Cobb, an American pilot and aviator who was also part of the Mercury 13. The documentary was never made, but Haverstick continued to visit with Jerrie about her life to write a biography. The two became close. Haverstick concluded that Jerrie Cobb was the well-known American spy June Cobb after several years of research and interaction between the author and Cobb.

Death After falling ill, June Cobb lived with family in Houston, Texas, for a time until she sustained a head injury in a household accident and was eventually transferred to the Manhattan senior center prior to her death on October 17, 2015. Cobb was survived by her brother Arthur Tom Cobb and his wife, Elizabeth Ann Cobb (Middleton). Cobb was also survived by her nephews Michael Matthew Cobb, Steven Earl Cobb, and Dennis Middleton.

CIA files The CIA's extensive file on Cobb is estimated to include over 2,500 pages. Following the Kennedy assassination, all of the documents related to Cobb's work with the Federal Bureau of Narcotics were marked secret. Following the passage of the President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act of 1992, many of the documents have been declassified. Some of the Warren Commission's declassified files indicate that the CIA, in the late 1970s, refused to help House Select Committee on Assassinations investigators locate Cobb for an interview about Oswald's activities in Mexico.