Guy Banister

[William O'Neil]

Bill O'Neil wrote: Banister was not in the Service during the war, he was with the FBI. He was not in the ONI, however his friend and cohort Guy Johnson, was.

William,

We heard this directly from Joe Oster, Banister's former partner in the Detective Agency. He told us he never heard anything about Guy being in the ONI. Said Banister wasn't in the service either, as he had already joined the FBI. Joe left Banister to form Southern Research, because he said Guy was more interested in politics (Segregation), than running a business!

-Bill O

[William Kelly]

Bill O'Neil wrote: Banister was not in the Service during the war, he was with the FBI. He was not in the ONI, however his friend and cohort Guy Johnson, was.

William,

We heard this directly from Joe Oster, Banister's former partner in the Detective Agency. He told us he never heard anything about Guy being in the ONI. Said Banister wasn't in the service either, as he had already joined the FBI. Joe left Banister to form Southern Research, because he said Guy was more interested in politics (Segregation), than running a business!

-Bill O

Hi Bill,

I'm not arguing with you.

There are two Guy Johnsons in the CIA files who might be related.

Guy Persic Johnson is the guy I am interested in. While he is dead his son is alive.

Guy P. Johnson was definately ONI, and according to Jack Martin, the guy who caused Guy Banister all sorts of consternation for connecting him to the assassination, it was Guy P. Johnson who had a copy of the "Homme Report," from the counsel to the Eastland committee which contained evidence that RFK tried to kill Castro.

Both Homme and Guy P. Johnson were stationed in the South Pacific in the 50s and worked on a CIA project together, and both were associated with Bud Festerwald at the time of the Garrison investigation.

I have a bounty out for anybody who comes up with a copy of the so-called "Homme Report," but for some reason, I don't think it will be easy to come buy, even for those who want to falsely pin the blame the assassination on RFK.

BK

[John Bevilaqua]

I believe Klopfer is mistaken about Robert Morris meeting with Eastland in Greenwood Miss. It was Chep (DeLesseps) Morrison; the Mayor of New Orleans who accompanied Banister to Eastland's estate. I came across this article years ago while in New Orleans, searching the Times Picayune and States Item microfiche. The article has a picture of them both

(Morrison and Banister) getting off a private plane in Greenwood Miss.

This meeting was about Banisters desire for a possible ‘Red Squad’ for the NOPD,

Banister requested that Morrison meet with Eastland, in order to brief the Mayor on the 'Red problem' in La.

Banister was indeed close with Eastland (and probably Robert Morris as well), as they both worked tirelessly to defend segregation. Guy Banister was a valued private source for several orgs and Committees. He was recommended as an investigator for the Mississippi Sovereignty Committee by his friend and fellow investigator John D. Sullivan. Sullivan thought that the Committee could utilize Banisters investigative skills, and his numerous files on the Civil Rights groups etc. He was not hired however; do to concerns about his rabid political views, which some Commissioners thought might play into the hands of their critics.

Banister applied for investigative positions’ with the Louisiana Sovereignty Committee (see letter to W.M. Rainach in Boylan post) and the Louisiana Un-American Activities Committee. He especially wanted the position at LUAC because he thought the Committee lacked experienced or qualified personnel to accomplish the task at hand. When they didn’t take him up on it, he became critical of their “lack of results”.

I believe he was counting on a position with the Committee to help with his propaganda aims, before and after 11-22-63. They did cooperate to some extent, but not soon enough, or nearly as much, as Banister desired.

Banister was not in the Service during the war, he was with the FBI. He was not in the ONI, however his friend and cohort Guy Johnson, was.

Banister, was a virulent racist and anti-communist who would stop at nothing to get “results”… even if he wasn’t paid in $$.

For people like Guy Banister, there were causes that didn’t always have monetary rewards, like saving the White race from ‘Godless Communism’

There were many others of his ilk that ended up in the same broke boat, like his former buddy, Kent Courtney. Very few soldiers in this field, made money for their endeavors.

-Bill

Bill, someone I know is obtaining all sorts of files on John D. Sullivan in the near future. What more can you tell us about him in advance? Send me a PM if you

would like to take a look at some of these released documents, if anything of major proportions even exists on him. What can you share about Banister and his roles within several different Banana Dictatorship countries for United Fruit, which was started by Andrew Preston, as Boston Fruit before the turn of the century? Preston was the first cousin of Wickliffe Preston Draper from Hopedale, about 35 miles from Boston.

Just got a book about the working conditions at these United Fruit sites in Latin America. Made the Mississippi cotton plantations look like child's play in comparison. A sack of cotton weighed very little, but a bunch of bananas could have 250-300 bananas and weighed over 100 pounds each. And a banana worker might have to lug tens of dozens of these bunches each and every day. And the conditions at the New England textile mill company towns were pretty bad, too. They were indoors but the noise of the machines, the working conditions and the pay scales were really quite miserable.

Draper fought FDR tooth and nail on things like Social Security and other "employee benefits" of which there were none. You got to live in a company owned house where you paid rent, buy food and clothing from the company owned stores and buy wood or oil from the company owned suppliers. If you had anything left after all those debts every week it was considered a miracle. See: http://www.hope1842. com Insiders supposedly called it "Hopeless, MA" not Hopedale, MA. As long as you did not cross "the man" you had a job at The Draper Company where they manufactured textile loom equipment. The index to Hope1842.com can be found at

http://www.5000watches.com/Hopedale

The Drapers and the Prestons apparently took all they learned about Cotton plantations in the South and implemented these features for both United Fruit and later

for the New England based company towns.

Even Senator James O. Eastland and his ancestors owned Mississippi cotton plantations and Eastland managed to force the price of cottonseed oil up to reward his constituents.

[John Dolva]

John, you touch on what imo is an important consideration re motive.

In January JFK had stated his intention was to enforce freedom of movement , choice of employment, education and living location for negroes.

As negroes, under the prevailing sharecropper conditions, were practically slaves this would have caused a massive shift in economic conditions from top to bottom (for people such as Emmett Tills killers, self described experts at employee controllers and suppliers of goods to those controlled (hence the Chicago born uppity youngsters murder, control by terror)). Thus the persons with a vested interest in keeping the status quo were certainly not above using murder to achieve their goals (note the numerous body parts found during the search for the Mississippi Three, the numerous coroner reports concluding gunshot victims as dead from heart attack). Means Motive and Opportunity was certainly not lacking in (not lone) ''Nut Country''.

[William O'Neil]

Bill O'Neil wrote: Banister was not in the Service during the war, he was with the FBI. He was not in the ONI, however his friend and cohort Guy Johnson, was.

William,

We heard this directly from Joe Oster, Banister's former partner in the Detective Agency. He told us he never heard anything about Guy being in the ONI. Said Banister wasn't in the service either, as he had already joined the FBI. Joe left Banister to form Southern Research, because he said Guy was more interested in politics (Segregation), than running a business!

-Bill O

Hi Bill,

I'm not arguing with you.

There are two Guy Johnsons in the CIA files who might be related.

Ok , I will try and go back and establish the details.

Guy Persic Johnson is the guy I am interested in. While he is dead his son is alive.

Guy P. Johnson was definately ONI, and according to Jack Martin, the guy who caused Guy Banister all sorts of consternation for connecting him to the assassination, it was Guy P. Johnson who had a copy of the "Homme Report," from the counsel to the Eastland committee which contained evidence that RFK tried to kill Castro.

Both Homme and Guy P. Johnson were stationed in the South Pacific in the 50s and worked on a CIA project together, and both were associated with Bud Festerwald at the time of the Garrison investigation.

I have a bounty out for anybody who comes up with a copy of the so-called "Homme Report," but for some reason, I don't think it will be easy to come buy, even for those who want to falsely pin the blame the assassination on RFK.

BK

Ok , I will check on this! I can assure you that both are likely dead. My inclination is that Guy P. Johnson is our man, but I can't say for sure. I did not know there were two!

BTW, anybody that says Banister was a non - entity in the assassination.... has not done their homework!

-Bill

[John Bevilaqua]

John, you touch on what imo is an important consideration re motive.

In January JFK had stated his intention was to enforce freedom of movement , choice of employment, education and living location for negroes.

As negroes, under the prevailing sharecropper conditions, were practically slaves this would have caused a massive shift in economic conditions from top to bottom (for people such as Emmett Tills killers, self described experts at employee controllers and suppliers of goods to those controlled (hence the Chicago born uppity youngsters murder, control by terror)). Thus the persons with a vested interest in keeping the status quo were certainly not above using murder to achieve their goals (note the numerous body parts found during the search for the Mississippi Three, the numerous coroner reports concluding gunshot victims as dead from heart attack). Means Motive and Opportunity was certainly not lacking in (not lone) ''Nut Country''.

John, where do you stand on the possibility that both Operation Red Cross and the operation behind the LHO legend building were done basically almost entirely by the SISS and HUAC crowds surrounding Eastland, Banister, Morris, Draper and his Pioneer Fund cohorts by extension and implication?

And where do you (and others) stand on the other possibility that if these Ghosts of Mississippi from SISS, The Dallas John Birch Society, the Shickshinny Knights of Malta and the MissSovComm pulled off what they are now credited with using the MissSovComm laundered funding plus other Draper money and the inspiration from Draper, The Pioneer Fund and Company that they were able to take it one step further and snuff JFK as their own personal but gigantic project?

It is a pretty scary thought to think that they could have pulled off "the big one", too, but quite honestly, I would not put that beyond them for a New York minute. All they needed was the Big Four from the American Security Council: Morris, Willoughby, Angleton and Cline with their blackmail files and their influence peddling among all the Senators and the Reps, and the active and retired Generals and they were good to go. I have been saying this for years now, and I have just about convinced myself on that score. They got the nod from Dulles, MacArthur and others, but all they needed was a little nudge to get that nod. I bet that even Cardinal Francis Spellman was asked for his ok. There was an Admiral Francis Spellman on Shickshinny Knights, too. I wonder if he was related somehow.

The rest is history.

[William O'Neil]

John, you touch on what imo is an important consideration re motive.

In January JFK had stated his intention was to enforce freedom of movement , choice of employment, education and living location for negroes.

As negroes, under the prevailing sharecropper conditions, were practically slaves this would have caused a massive shift in economic conditions from top to bottom (for people such as Emmett Tills killers, self described experts at employee controllers and suppliers of goods to those controlled (hence the Chicago born uppity youngsters murder, control by terror)). Thus the persons with a vested interest in keeping the status quo were certainly not above using murder to achieve their goals (note the numerous body parts found during the search for the Mississippi Three, the numerous coroner reports concluding gunshot victims as dead from heart attack). Means Motive and Opportunity was certainly not lacking in (not lone) ''Nut Country''.

John , As we have dicusssed in the past . The battle for segregation was the last stand for the White supremisists (sic?) Even though the die was cast, and the segregationist's battle was all but lost ..... It was still do or die! This is what people fail to realize......it was a battle of survival for their... "Way of life"

This is highly stressed throughout the literature of the time. I've read so much of the literature ( political ephemera) of that period, that it's a wonder JFK lasted as long as he did! It was more bitter and vitriolic than any Cuban broadsides I've ever seen. Vile hatred!

-Bill

[John Bevilaqua]

Bill O'Neil wrote: Banister was not in the Service during the war, he was with the FBI. He was not in the ONI, however his friend and cohort Guy Johnson, was.

William,

We heard this directly from Joe Oster, Banister's former partner in the Detective Agency. He told us he never heard anything about Guy being in the ONI. Said Banister wasn't in the service either, as he had already joined the FBI. Joe left Banister to form Southern Research, because he said Guy was more interested in politics (Segregation), than running a business!

-Bill O

Hi Bill,

I'm not arguing with you.

There are two Guy Johnsons in the CIA files who might be related.

Guy Persic Johnson is the guy I am interested in. While he is dead his son is alive.

Guy P. Johnson was definately ONI, and according to Jack Martin, the guy who caused Guy Banister all sorts of consternation for connecting him to the assassination, it was Guy P. Johnson who had a copy of the "Homme Report," from the counsel to the Eastland committee which contained evidence that RFK tried to kill Castro.

Both Homme and Guy P. Johnson were stationed in the South Pacific in the 50s and worked on a CIA project together, and both were associated with Bud Festerwald at the time of the Garrison investigation.

I have a bounty out for anybody who comes up with a copy of the so-called "Homme Report," but for some reason, I don't think it will be easy to come buy, even for those who want to falsely pin the blame the assassination on RFK.

BK

What does the CIA even have to do with either Operation Red Cross, the Oswald legend building process, the Mississippi Sovereignty Commission, SISS, Senator James Eastland of Mississippi, Medgar Evers, Jr., The Birmingham Choir Girls, The Freedom Riders, Gerald L K Smith, Wesley Swift, the KKK, the NSRP of Senator J. Strom Thurmond, The Ghosts of Mississippi, The Dallas John Birch Society, The Shickshinny Knights of Malta, the Dixie Clan, the American Nazi Party, Emmett Till, Wickliffe Draper, Charles Willoughby, H. L. Hunt, Leander Perez, the Jung Hotel Meeting, HUAC, Robert Morris, The World Anti-Communist League, The Pioneer Fund or even Guy Banister in New Orleans for that matter? Something is wildly amiss here.

[John Dolva]

John, you mention a few there I've not explored. I'll do so before commenting.

I think the dispersal of Drapers funds are important. Accounting seems to have become a bit muddled around assassination time

I think the White Chamelias KKK are worth exploring.

(Gotta go do stuff soon, so will reply further later.)

[John Bevilaqua]

John, you touch on what imo is an important consideration re motive.

In January JFK had stated his intention was to enforce freedom of movement , choice of employment, education and living location for negroes.

As negroes, under the prevailing sharecropper conditions, were practically slaves this would have caused a massive shift in economic conditions from top to bottom (for people such as Emmett Tills killers, self described experts at employee controllers and suppliers of goods to those controlled (hence the Chicago born uppity youngsters murder, control by terror)). Thus the persons with a vested interest in keeping the status quo were certainly not above using murder to achieve their goals (note the numerous body parts found during the search for the Mississippi Three, the numerous coroner reports concluding gunshot victims as dead from heart attack). Means Motive and Opportunity was certainly not lacking in (not lone) ''Nut Country''.

John , As we have dicusssed in the past . The battle for segregation was the last stand for the White supremisists (sic?) Even though the die was cast, and the segregationist's battle was all but lost ..... It was still do or die! This is what people fail to realize......it was a battle of survival for their... "Way of life"

This is highly stressed throughout the literature of the time. I've read so much of the literature ( political ephemera) of that period, that it's a wonder JFK lasted as long as he did! It was more bitter and vitriolic than any Cuban broadsides I've ever seen. Vile hatred!

-Bill

I once met a basketball player from Natchez, Mississippi at the Duke University summer basketball program in the hills of North Carolina when I was about only 16 years old shortly before JFK was killed. He looked like someone who belonged in the movie "Deliverance" and acted just about the same way. When we asked him about the issues of Segregation in the South and where the attitudes in Mississippi about "Negroes" came from he would get all agitated and vitriolic he would actually drool and spit when he talked on that topic.

"You know whenever they'd get out of line, we just used to just kill 'em, cut em up and feed them to the gators in the bayous. And sometimes we didn't even bother to kill 'em, we just tied them up and threwed them right into the bayous, while they was still a-kicking and a-hollering. Funny as all get out! They made so much noise that it only took the gators a few minutes to come by to see what all the fussin' and the splashin' was all about. Didden take long after that. And there was no evidence left behind either for anybody to find. We called that the Mississippi Bathworks, we did."

[David Boylan]

Here's an old piece by Jerry Shinley. This covers some of Banister's visit with Eastland and MSC among other things.

Jerry Rose, in an article entitled "Nut Country II", (The

Third Decade; May, 1990; Volume 6, Number 4; pp 1-5)

transcribes a document from the National Archives concerning

the activities of Major General Edwin A. Walker in New Orleans

on Nov 20, 1963. The document is a report from the Louisiana

State Police. Walker met privately with Leander Perez at his

office in

the National American Bank Building and also met with about 35

conservative leaders at the Jung Hotel. On the 21st, Walker

held another meeting with 90 people.

-

Walker's presence in New Orleans on the 20th was also

documented by the NOTP in an account of a public speech

given by Harold Lloyd Varney at the Roosevelt Hotel. Walker

is mentioned as being in the audience. (NOTP; Nov 21, 1963;

S1, P14) Varney's speech urged the ouster of Castro.

-

Perhaps this would be the logical point to introduce a

mutual acquaintance of Banister and Walker: Medford Bryan

Evans. The first item concerning Evans is his entry from

"Contemporary Authors" (Volumes 25-28 (revised); Gale Research

Co.; 1971-78). Evans was born in 1907 in Lufkin, Texas. He

graduated from the University of Chattanooga in 1927 and took a

Ph. D. from Yale in 1933. He taught at various colleges. From

1944 to 1952, Evans worked for the Atomic Energy Commission in

Oak Ridge and Washington, D. C. His last position was as chief

of security training. He worked for the H. L. Hunt-created

Facts Forum Foundation in Dallas from 1954 to 1955. He lived in

Natchitoches, Louisiana from 1955 to 1962, teaching at

Northwestern State College from 1955 to 1959, and working as a

"consultant" from 1959 to 1962. In 1962, he went to work as

managing editor of "The Citizen", official publication of the

Citizens' Councils of America in Jackson, Mississippi. Evans

was also a member of the John Birch Society and a contributor

to its publication, "American Opinion". (see also: McMillen,

Neil R. "The Citizens' Council". Chicago: University of

Illinois Press, 1971) My understanding is that Evans died in

the late Eighties. M. (Medford) Stanton Evans, a member of

William F. Buckley's circle, is Evans' son.

-

In 1962, Evans appeared alongside General Walker at the

Senate "Military Muzzling" Hearings organized by Strom

Thurmond. (Military Cold War Education and Speech Review

Policies;

Hearings before the Special Preparedness Subcommittee of the

Committee on Armed Services, U. S. Senate, 87th Congress, 2nd

Session, p 1389)

-

A review, by Evans, of three books related to the JFK

assassination appeared in "American Opinion" for September,

1977. (pp 67-70). In the course of the review, Evans described

Banister as "a friend of mine as it happens." (p69, 1st column,

1st paragraph)

-

An indication that Evans and Banister moved in the same

circles in Louisiana is that in 1960 Evans was named as

secretary of the Louisiana States Rights Party. Kent Courtney

was the party's candidate for governor. David C. Treen, a New

Orleans attorney was named chairman, replacing another

N. O. lawyer, Felix Lapeyre. (NOTP; January 6, 1960; s1, p11)

Kent Courtney was named by the HSCA as a Banister

acquaintance. (HSCA; Vol X, 130)

-

Another Walker-New Orleans link is through George Soule,

president of Soule Business College. In 1962, George Soule was

"community chairman" of the New Orleans Indignation

Committee. (NOTP; February 8, 1962; s2, p4) In January, Walker

had addressed this group, via closed-circuit TV, at a meeting

held at Soule College. (NOTP; January 4, 1962; s1, p14)

-

In 1963, Soule was chairman of the 12th Annual National

Congress of Freedom. (Who's Who in the South and Southwest 1963

- 1964) General Walker's lawyer, Clyde Watts, was a speaker at

this

event. (NOTP; April 7, 1963). J. A. Milteer was also in

attendance. (Weisberg; Frame-Up; p481)

-

Warren Commission Document 794 deals with certain

statements made by a "citizen of American origin who is

presently a member of the Communist Party [CP]." This person

expressed concern about "press references to [Lee Harvey]

OSWALD's activities in New Orleans, Louisiana, before he went to

Russia" which would link Oswald to the Communist Party. The

FBI's investigation focused on the brief time Oswald was in New

Orleans in September of 1959, before sailing for

Europe. However, I suspect it would have been more logical to

examine the time between January, 1954, and July, 1956, when the

teenaged Oswald and his mother lived in New Orleans. (Warren

Commission Report, GPO Edition, pp 679-681)

-

One New Orleans acquaintance of Oswald's, Palmer McBride,

reported that "Oswald praised Khrushchev and suggested that he

and McBride join the Communist Party 'to take advantage of their

social functions.'" (WCR, p. 384) Viewed out of context,

Oswald's interest in joining the CP may seem a juvenile fantasy,

but, in the light of the intense public interest in Communist

activity in New Orleans during the early part of 1956, Oswald's

desire to contact the CP could have been realized through a

number of avenues.

-

The New Orleans Times-Picayune (NOTP) for January 11,

1956, featured a front-page story from Baton Rouge reporting that

Baton Rouge District Attorney J. St. Clair Favrot and the FBI

were "checking on Communist literature mailed here [baton Rouge]

attacking segregation in the South." The article included the

address of the Southern Regional Committee of the Communist

Party, "P. O. Box 464, St. Louis, Mo." A similar mailing in

March, a leaflet urging support for the Montgomery bus

boycott and signed by the Louisiana Communist party, was also

reported. (NOTP, March 28, 1956, p. 2)

-

The next incident to draw attention to alleged Communist

activities in New Orleans occurred in March of 1956. The Senate

Internal Security Subcommittee (SISS), chaired by Mississippi

Senator James Eastland, questioned Herman Liveright, the program

director of New Orleans television station, WDSU, in Washington,

D. C. Liveright, without invoking the fifth amendment, refused

to answer a number of question dealing with his alleged

involvement with the CP in New York and New Orleans. (NOTP,

March 20, 1956, p. 1) WDSU promptly fired Liveright. (NOTP,

March 21, 1956, p. 1)

-

The Liveright incident spurred New Orleans Mayor deLesseps

Story "Chep" Morrison to order a probe of "subversive activities

in New Orleans." Morrsion stated that he had contacted SISS

chairman Eastland and asked for any information the subcommittee

had. Morrison selected Assistant Police Superintendent Guy

Banister to head the investigation. (NOTP, March 21, 1956, p. 1)

Banister later was a figure of interest in the Garrison probe

and has been alleged to have been personally acquainted with

Oswald.

-

Morrison and Banister traveled to Greenwood, Mississippi,

to confer personally with Senator Eastland for more than three

hours. "Describing the conference as completely 'satisfactory,'

Morrsion said, 'Mr. Banister has complete liason with the

committee's staff which was the main object of our trip.'"

(NOTP, March 23, 1956, p. 1) Less than a week later, plans to

hold SISS hearings in New Orleans were announced. (NOTP, March

28, 1956, p. 1) The subcommittee issued subpenas for ten

witnesses. Efforts to locate one witness, Hunter Pitts O'Dell,

resulted in the seizure of books and documents from a rented

room which O'Dell had vacated. Banister termed the library "the

finest collection of Communist literature in the South that I

have ever seen or heard of." (NOTP, March 23, 1956, p. 1; March

31, 1956, p. 1) Hunter Pitts O'Dell is a figure of some

importance because of his later association with Martin Luther

King and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. O'Dell's

alleged Communist ties were used to discredit Dr. King. (Garrow,

David J. The FBI and Martin Luther King, Jr. New York: Penguin

Books, 1981) Interestingly, Louisiana political boss and

notorious segregationist Leander Perez publicly linked King and

O'Dell in March of 1960. (NOTP, March 12, 1960, section 3, p. 2)

-

The SISS held public hearings on April 5 and 6. The NOTP

devoted extensive space to coverage of the hearings, including

detailed summaries of the testimony of each of the witnessess.

(NOTP, April 6, 1956; April 7, 1956). At follow-up hearings in

Washington, three additional witnesses, including O'Dell were

heard. (NOTP, April 12, 1956, p.1; April 13, 1956, p. 1) The

Orleans Parish District Attorney's office announced it was

considering prosecuting O'Dell and other SISS witnesses under

Louisiana anti-subversion laws. Charges were finally filed in

1957. (NOTP, May 9, 1956, p. 1; March 26, 1957, p. 1; April 4,

1957, p. 8)

[John Bevilaqua]

Here is one of the MSSovComm links to an article in the Robert Morris folder about this "Jack" O'Dell character used

to implicate MLK as a Communist by associatioin. It is from the Jackson, MS paper owned by Mary S. Cain and is only

1 of 7 similar articles found in the Morris folder at the MSC. I knew these types of articles existed but did not know

that our old friend Robert J. Morris was cited in two of them and that he apparently submitted them to the

MSC which accounts for why they are filed under his name in his folders there.

http://mdah.state.ms.us/arrec/digital_arch...0|5|1|1|1|6381|

Both Leander Perez and Robert Morris seem to be the most active and powerful persons involved with building

the MLK as Commie legend and the MLK as womanizer legend. Who would be better than Robert Morris, Mr. McCarthyism,

at doing this?

MORRIS, ROBERT - [1-85-0-5-1-1-1]

MORRIS, ROBERT - [1-85-0-9-1-1-1]

MORRIS, ROBERT - [1-85-0-70-11-1-1]

MORRIS, ROBERT - [1-86-0-9-1-1-1]

MORRIS, ROBERT - [3-16A-2-76-2-1-1]

MORRIS, ROBERT - [6-0-0-27-5-1-1]

MORRIS, ROBERT - [13-59-0-53-2-1-1]

Can anyone else give me the background of the relationship between Leander Perez and James Garrison as it existed?

My first blush thought is that Garrison was TOTALLY DEPENDENT on Perez for his political life in New Orleans since

Perez has been called the political boss of Plaquemines Parish by several others. If this is true, what is everyone's take

on the possibility that Garrison would have slightly or grossly distorted or biased his case to AVOID the friends of Leander

Perez and to try to pin the JFK hit on people like David Ferrie, Clay Shaw and Guy Bannister as if any of them would EVER be

considered for employment as CIA agents or contractors? Well, maybe after removing the wigs, the eyebrows and the makeup and agreeing to try to break their cross-dressing habits. Just to eliminate the possibility of blackmail and all that.

Garrison's choice of other suspects like that guy from American Council of Christian Churches in California, Edgar Eugene Bradley, and a few others seemed more on the money, but Reagan the California Governor at that time refused to honor the request for extradition. What a surprise!

[John Bevilaqua]

Leander Perez from Time Magazine 12/12/1960

The symbol of Louisiana racism is a heavy man with pewtery hair, cold blue eyes, a cunning legal mind and a fanatic's zeal. To Leander Henry Perez, 68, there are just two kinds of Negroes: "Bad ones are niggers and good ones are darkies." Although he is not a member of the Louisiana legislature. Perez often operates out of a hideaway office in the skyscraper Baton Rouge capitol, has helped mastermind the legislative struggle against school integration. And at arousing the rabble, Perez has few equals. At a recent meeting of the New Orleans Citizens Council, Perez raised the battle cry against the four Negro girls in the city's first integrated schools: "Are you going to wait until Congolese rape your daughters! Are you going to let these burr-heads into your schools! Do something about it now!" For much of its present trouble, Louisiana can thank Leander Perez.

The seventh of 13 children of a Delta farmer, Perez was born in Plaquemines Parish (pop. 22,275), a spongy wilderness on the splayed toe of Louisiana, where the muskrats and the alligators outnumber the people. In Perez' lifetime Plaquemines has risen, through the discovery of rich oil and sulphur deposits, from Louisiana's poorest back-bayou parish to one of its richest. Although he has never made more than $7,000 a year as a public official, shrewd Leander Perez has become a multimillionaire through his law practice and interests in oil and sulphur lands in his native habitat.

Way of Life. Perez hopped into parish politics right after he got out of Tulane Law School in 1914. At 27 he was a district judge, in 1924 became district attorney for Plaquemines and neighboring St. Bernard's Parish—a position he gave up only this week, having airily announced that his son, Leander Jr., would take over the job. But lest anyone get the idea that he was retiring, Perez explained: "I intend to remain as assistant district attorney. The state constitution provides that the assistant district attorney has all the powers of the district attorney."

With Leander Perez, defiance is a way of life. In 1943, when Louisiana's Governor Sam Jones appointed a Plaquemines sheriff against Perez' wishes, Perez mobilized the able-bodied men of Plaquemines, including the American Legion, set up a flaming roadblock of gasoline-soaked oyster shells in an attempt to turn the appointee back. Frustrated by a convoy bristling with state militiamen, Perez retreated to mid-Mississippi on a ferryboat, resorted thereafter to a volley of lawsuits (15 at one time), finally defeated the Jonesman in a typically casual Delta election.

The Offensive. Again, when New Orleans' Roman Catholic Archbishop Joseph F. Rummel declared that segregation was sinful, Leander Perez breathed defiance. Himself a Catholic, he accused the Catholic hierarchy of "turning against their own people." The New Orleans parochial schools remained segregated, and fortnight ago, as Archbishop Rummel lay ill in a hospital after a fall, Perez hinted that it was all because of his stand against segregation.

Now, although he has seen to it that schools in St. Bernard's Parish have opened their classrooms to white "refugees" from New Orleans, the battle against integration is going against Leander Perez. Some Louisiana newsmen be lieve that his influence is waning. But those who know him best think he is just waiting for his next move. "I always take the offensive," Leander Perez once said, daintily flicking an ash from his omnipresent cigar. "The defensive ain't worth a damn."

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/...l#ixzz0bxd2FeQJ

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/...l#ixzz0bxcqWGQI

[John Bevilaqua]

Leander Perez

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Leander Henry Perez, Sr., (July 16, 1891 – March 19, 1969) was the Democratic "political boss" of Plaquemines and St. Bernard parishes, Louisiana, in the first half of the twentieth century. Officially, he served as a district judge, later as district attorney, and as president of the Plaquemines Parish Commission Council.

Contents [hide]

1 Youth education

2 Perez enters Plaquemines Parish politics

3 A political machine on the Gulf of Mexico

4 Militant defense of segregation

5 Perez and the Catholic Church

6 Later political activities

6.1 Family

7 Sources

8 References

[edit] Youth education

Perez was born in the small town of Dalcour, on the east bank of Plaquemines Parish, to Roselius E. "Fice" Perez (died 1939) and the former Gertrude Solis (died 1944). He was educated in New Orleans schools, Louisiana State University at Baton Rouge, and the Tulane University Law School in New Orleans. Perez opened a law practice in New Orleans and Plaquemines Parish.

[edit] Perez enters Plaquemines Parish politics

In 1916, Perez was defeated as a candidate for state representative. In 1919, he was appointed judge of the 25th Judicial District to fill an unexpired term. In 1920, he won a full term as judge by defeating a local machine run by his intraparty rival John Dymond. He was elected district attorney in 1924 and became involved in a dispute over trapping lands which ended in a shootout known as the "Trappers' War."

In 1928, Perez allied with Huey Pierce Long, Jr., who was elected governor. In 1929, he successfully defended Long in the latter's impeachment trial before the Louisiana state Senate. This situation was more than a bit odd, as Long found the racial rabble-rousing, for which Perez would later be famous, distracting, and since Perez later became a fierce critic from the right of the Long family.

Perez became wealthy by subleasing state mineral lands. In 1940, the state Crime Commission investigated Perez at the request of then Governor Sam Houston Jones. In 1943, Jones sent state troopers to Plaquemines Parish to enforce his appointment of an anti-Perez sheriff.

Perez and Jones both came out of the conservative wing of the Democratic Party, but whereas Perez had been a Huey Long backer, Jones was staunchly anti-Long. The two later joined forces to support Republican Barry M. Goldwater for president in 1964. Perez headed "Democrats for Goldwater" in Louisiana.

[edit] A political machine on the Gulf of Mexico

In 1919, Judge Perez launched a reign of bought elections and strict segregation. Laws were enacted on Perez's fiat and were rubber-stamped by the parish governing councils. Elections under Perez's reign were sometimes blatantly falsified, with voting records appearing in alphabetical order and names of national celebrities such as Babe Ruth, Charlie Chaplin, and Herbert Hoover appearing on the rolls. Perez-endorsed candidates often won with 90 percent or more of the ballots. Those who did appear to vote were intimidated by Perez's enforcers. He sent large tough men into the voting booths to "help" people vote. Many voters were bribed. Perez testified that he bribed voters $2, $5, and $10 to vote his way depending on who they are. Perez took action to suppress African Americans from voting within his domain. Perez said "Negroes are just not equipped to vote. If the Negroes took over the government, we would have a repetition here of what's going on in the Congo."

Starting in 1936, Perez also diverted millions from government funds through illegal land deals. When he was a district attorney, he was the legal adviser to the Plaquemines levee boards. He used this position to negotiate payoffs between corporations he set up and big oil companies that leased the levee board lands for drilling. After Perez's death, the parish government sued his heirs seeking restitution of $82 million in government funds. In 1987, the lawsuit was settled for $12 million.

[edit] Militant defense of segregation

In 1948, Perez headed the Thurmond presidential campaign in Louisiana; and after the failure of the Dixiecrat movement, he unsuccessfully strove for several years to keep the party alive.[1] In 1952, he convinced Lucille May Grace, the register of state lands, to question the patriotism of Congressman Thomas Hale Boggs, Sr. "Miss Grace" and Boggs were among ten Democratic gubernatorial candidates that year. She claimed that Boggs had past affiliation with communist-front organizations. The allegations, never proved, worked to sink both of their candidacies.

Over the course of the next two decades, Perez and Boggs would battle again. In 1961, Perez launched an ill-fated campaign to have Boggs recalled as a Congressman for his support of a move to expand the House Judiciary Committee, a move that had the approval of the new President John F. Kennedy and was seen as enhancing civil rights bills considered by that committee. In 1965, Boggs, from the floor of the House, announced his support of the Voting Rights Act. In so doing, he spoke of an "area of Louisiana" where "out of 3,000 Negroes, less than 100 are registered to vote as American citizens." When asked the next day by a reporter for the Times-Picayune if he was referring to Plaquemines Parish, the "stronghold of Leander Perez," Boggs replied: "Yes."

In the 1950s and 1960s, Perez became a nationally prominent opponent of desegregation, taking a leadership role in the opposition to desegregation, along with nationally recognized figures such as Strom Thurmond, George Wallace, and Ross Barnett. He was a member of the White Citizens Council and an organizer of the white supremacist Citizens Council of Greater New Orleans. Thereafter, Perez wrote and researched much of the legislation sponsored by Louisiana's Joint Legislative Committee on Segregation. He supported Rainach for governor in the 1959 Democratic primary and then switched his backing to James Houston "Jimmie" Davis in the party runoff, which Davis won over New Orleans Mayor deLesseps Story Morrison, Sr.

In defending segregation, Perez said: "Do you know what the Negro is? Animal right out of the jungle. Passion. Welfare. Easy life. That's the Negro."

The American Civil Rights Movement, according to Perez, was the work of "all those Jews who were supposed to have been cremated at Buchenwald and Dachau but weren't, and Roosevelt allowed 2 million of them illegal entry into our country."

Perez controlled the activities of civil rights workers by prohibiting outsiders from entering Plaquemines Parish through his direction of the bayou ferries that were the only way to enter the jurisdiction.

In 1960, while opposing desegregation of local public schools at a New Orleans rally, Perez said: "Don't wait for your daughter to be raped by these Congolese. Don't wait until the burrheads are forced into your schools. Do something about it now." Perez's speech inspired an assault on the school administration building by 2,000 segregationists, who were fought off by police and fire hoses. The mob then went loose in the city, attacking blacks in the streets. When the schools were opened, Perez organized a boycott by white residents, which included threats to whites who allowed their children to attend the desegregated schools. Perez arranged for poor whites to attend a segregated private school for free and helped found a whites-only private school in New Orleans.

In the 1960 presidential election, Perez was the state finance chairman and a presidential elector for a third-party, the Louisiana States' Rights Party. On the ticket with him was future Governor David C. Treen and the flamboyant anticommunist Kent Howard Courtney. Treen left the party, denounced its national organization as "anti-semitic," and joined the Republican Party in 1962, when he first ran for Congress.

[edit] Perez and the Catholic Church

In the spring of 1962, the Archdiocese of New Orleans announced its plan to desegregate the New Orleans parochial school system for the 1962–1963 school year. Perez led a movement to pressure businesses into firing any whites who allowed their children to attend the newly desegregated Catholic schools. Catholics in St. Bernard Parish boycotted one school, which the Archdiocese kept open without students for four months until it was burned down. In response, Archbishop Joseph Rummel excommunicated Perez on April 16, 1962. Perez responded by saying the Catholic Church was "being used as a front for clever Jews" and announced that he would form his own church, the "Perezbyterians."

He eventually reconciled with the church before his death and received a requiem mass at Holy Name of Jesus Christ Church at Loyola University in New Orleans. He is interred at his home in Plaquemines Parish. [2]

[edit] Later political activities

Perez had once chaired the powerful Louisiana Democratic State Central Committee, in which capacity he threatened to deprive senatorial candidate Russell B. Long of the official title of Democratic nominee, thus denying him a place on the Democratic column, the ticket headed with the traditional rooster emblem. Perez toyed with passing the official Democratic mantle to the Republican Senate candidate Clem S. Clarke, a Shreveport oilman. Only a deal with Governor Earl Kemp Long kept Long's nephew, Russell Long, on the regular Democratic ticket in Louisiana. The result was that Russell Long began a 38-year tenure in the U.S. Senate.

In his last campaign, Perez supported Wallace's American Independent Party. When asked in the summer of 1968 what he and a group of associates had been discussing, he replied: "Richard M. Nixon and other traitors." Though he had supported Goldwater, Perez grew disillusioned with the Republican presidential nominees and flatly drew the line against supporting Nixon in 1968. Perez's former ally Treen, however, supported Nixon's successful presidential campaign.

Judge Perez Drive, a major thoroughfare in St. Bernard Parish, was named after him until 1999, when officials of that parish decided to distance themselves from Leander Perez's legacy. Judge Perez Drive is now named in honor of the late Melvyn Perez, a long-time judge in St. Bernard Parish.

It should also be noted that in the 1970s, several years after Leander Perez's death, St. Bernard Parish was placed in its own judicial district by the Louisiana legislature.

[edit] Family

Perez had ten brothers and sisters. In 1917, Perez married the former Agnes Chalin. They had two sons, Leander H. Perez, Jr. (1920–1988), who followed his father as district attorney in 1960, and Chalin O. Perez (1923–2003), who succeeded his father as president of the Plaquemines council in 1967. They were unable to continue their father's stern reign over the two lower river parishes because of their own personal differences and because of interference from the FBI. Feuding between the brothers in the late 1970s gave political opponents an opening and the local elections of 1980 saw the first significant decline of Perez family power.

In 1996, Perez was posthumously inducted into the Louisiana Political Museum and Hall of Fame in Winnfield.[3]

[edit] Sources

Boulard, Garry, "The Big Lie—Hale Boggs, Lucille May Grace and Leader Perez in 1951" (Gretna, LA: Pelican Publishing, 2001).

Jeansonne, Glen. Leander Perez: Boss of the Delta; Jackson, MS: University Press of Mississippi, 1977

Loewen, James W. Lies Across America: What Our Historic Sites Get Wrong New York:The New Press, 1999): Chapter 47: "Let Us Now Praise Famous Thieves."

http://www.cityofwinnfield.com/museum.html

"Leander Henry Perez", A Dictionary of Louisiana Biography, Vol. 2 (1988), p. 641

"The Canary Islanders in Louisiana" (Film of Manuel Mora Morales, 2006)

FBI FOIA file

[edit] References

^ Jeansonne, Glen. Leander Perez: Boss of the Delta Jackson, MS:University Press of Mississippi, 1977; pp. 185–189.

^ Smestad, John Jr. Loyola University, New Orleans. The Role of Archbishop Joseph F. Rummel in the Desegregation of Catholic Schools in New Orleans. 1994.

^ "”Louisiana Political Museum and Hall of Fame”". cityofwinnfield.com. http://www.cityofwinnfield.com/museum.html. Retrieved August 22, 2009.

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leander_Perez"

[John Bevilaqua]

Here's an old piece by Jerry Shinley. This covers some of Banister's visit with Eastland and MSC among other things.

Jerry Rose, in an article entitled "Nut Country II", (The

Third Decade; May, 1990; Volume 6, Number 4; pp 1-5)

transcribes a document from the National Archives concerning

the activities of Major General Edwin A. Walker in New Orleans

on Nov 20, 1963. The document is a report from the Louisiana

State Police. Walker met privately with Leander Perez at his

office in

the National American Bank Building and also met with about 35

conservative leaders at the Jung Hotel. On the 21st, Walker

held another meeting with 90 people.

-

Walker's presence in New Orleans on the 20th was also

documented by the NOTP in an account of a public speech

given by Harold Lloyd Varney at the Roosevelt Hotel. Walker

is mentioned as being in the audience. (NOTP; Nov 21, 1963;

S1, P14) Varney's speech urged the ouster of Castro.

-

Perhaps this would be the logical point to introduce a

mutual acquaintance of Banister and Walker: Medford Bryan

Evans. The first item concerning Evans is his entry from

"Contemporary Authors" (Volumes 25-28 (revised); Gale Research

Co.; 1971-78). Evans was born in 1907 in Lufkin, Texas. He

graduated from the University of Chattanooga in 1927 and took a

Ph. D. from Yale in 1933. He taught at various colleges. From

1944 to 1952, Evans worked for the Atomic Energy Commission in

Oak Ridge and Washington, D. C. His last position was as chief

of security training. He worked for the H. L. Hunt-created

Facts Forum Foundation in Dallas from 1954 to 1955. He lived in

Natchitoches, Louisiana from 1955 to 1962, teaching at

Northwestern State College from 1955 to 1959, and working as a

"consultant" from 1959 to 1962. In 1962, he went to work as

managing editor of "The Citizen", official publication of the

Citizens' Councils of America in Jackson, Mississippi. Evans

was also a member of the John Birch Society and a contributor

to its publication, "American Opinion". (see also: McMillen,

Neil R. "The Citizens' Council". Chicago: University of

Illinois Press, 1971) My understanding is that Evans died in

the late Eighties. M. (Medford) Stanton Evans, a member of

William F. Buckley's circle, is Evans' son.

-

In 1962, Evans appeared alongside General Walker at the

Senate "Military Muzzling" Hearings organized by Strom

Thurmond. (Military Cold War Education and Speech Review

Policies;

Hearings before the Special Preparedness Subcommittee of the

Committee on Armed Services, U. S. Senate, 87th Congress, 2nd

Session, p 1389)

-

A review, by Evans, of three books related to the JFK

assassination appeared in "American Opinion" for September,

1977. (pp 67-70). In the course of the review, Evans described

Banister as "a friend of mine as it happens." (p69, 1st column,

1st paragraph)

-

An indication that Evans and Banister moved in the same

circles in Louisiana is that in 1960 Evans was named as

secretary of the Louisiana States Rights Party. Kent Courtney

was the party's candidate for governor. David C. Treen, a New

Orleans attorney was named chairman, replacing another

N. O. lawyer, Felix Lapeyre. (NOTP; January 6, 1960; s1, p11)

Kent Courtney was named by the HSCA as a Banister

acquaintance. (HSCA; Vol X, 130)

-

Another Walker-New Orleans link is through George Soule,

president of Soule Business College. In 1962, George Soule was

"community chairman" of the New Orleans Indignation

Committee. (NOTP; February 8, 1962; s2, p4) In January, Walker

had addressed this group, via closed-circuit TV, at a meeting

held at Soule College. (NOTP; January 4, 1962; s1, p14)

-

In 1963, Soule was chairman of the 12th Annual National

Congress of Freedom. (Who's Who in the South and Southwest 1963

- 1964) General Walker's lawyer, Clyde Watts, was a speaker at

this

event. (NOTP; April 7, 1963). J. A. Milteer was also in

attendance. (Weisberg; Frame-Up; p481)

-

Warren Commission Document 794 deals with certain

statements made by a "citizen of American origin who is

presently a member of the Communist Party [CP]." This person

expressed concern about "press references to [Lee Harvey]

OSWALD's activities in New Orleans, Louisiana, before he went to

Russia" which would link Oswald to the Communist Party. The

FBI's investigation focused on the brief time Oswald was in New

Orleans in September of 1959, before sailing for

Europe. However, I suspect it would have been more logical to

examine the time between January, 1954, and July, 1956, when the

teenaged Oswald and his mother lived in New Orleans. (Warren

Commission Report, GPO Edition, pp 679-681)

-

One New Orleans acquaintance of Oswald's, Palmer McBride,

reported that "Oswald praised Khrushchev and suggested that he

and McBride join the Communist Party 'to take advantage of their

social functions.'" (WCR, p. 384) Viewed out of context,

Oswald's interest in joining the CP may seem a juvenile fantasy,

but, in the light of the intense public interest in Communist

activity in New Orleans during the early part of 1956, Oswald's

desire to contact the CP could have been realized through a

number of avenues.

-

The New Orleans Times-Picayune (NOTP) for January 11,

1956, featured a front-page story from Baton Rouge reporting that

Baton Rouge District Attorney J. St. Clair Favrot and the FBI

were "checking on Communist literature mailed here [baton Rouge]

attacking segregation in the South." The article included the

address of the Southern Regional Committee of the Communist

Party, "P. O. Box 464, St. Louis, Mo." A similar mailing in

March, a leaflet urging support for the Montgomery bus

boycott and signed by the Louisiana Communist party, was also

reported. (NOTP, March 28, 1956, p. 2)

-

The next incident to draw attention to alleged Communist

activities in New Orleans occurred in March of 1956. The Senate

Internal Security Subcommittee (SISS), chaired by Mississippi

Senator James Eastland, questioned Herman Liveright, the program

director of New Orleans television station, WDSU, in Washington,

D. C. Liveright, without invoking the fifth amendment, refused

to answer a number of question dealing with his alleged

involvement with the CP in New York and New Orleans. (NOTP,

March 20, 1956, p. 1) WDSU promptly fired Liveright. (NOTP,

March 21, 1956, p. 1)

-

The Liveright incident spurred New Orleans Mayor deLesseps

Story "Chep" Morrison to order a probe of "subversive activities

in New Orleans." Morrsion stated that he had contacted SISS

chairman Eastland and asked for any information the subcommittee

had. Morrison selected Assistant Police Superintendent Guy

Banister to head the investigation. (NOTP, March 21, 1956, p. 1)

Banister later was a figure of interest in the Garrison probe

and has been alleged to have been personally acquainted with

Oswald.

-

Morrison and Banister traveled to Greenwood, Mississippi,

to confer personally with Senator Eastland for more than three

hours. "Describing the conference as completely 'satisfactory,'

Morrsion said, 'Mr. Banister has complete liason with the

committee's staff which was the main object of our trip.'"

(NOTP, March 23, 1956, p. 1) Less than a week later, plans to

hold SISS hearings in New Orleans were announced. (NOTP, March

28, 1956, p. 1) The subcommittee issued subpenas for ten

witnesses. Efforts to locate one witness, Hunter Pitts O'Dell,

resulted in the seizure of books and documents from a rented

room which O'Dell had vacated. Banister termed the library "the

finest collection of Communist literature in the South that I

have ever seen or heard of." (NOTP, March 23, 1956, p. 1; March

31, 1956, p. 1) Hunter Pitts O'Dell is a figure of some

importance because of his later association with Martin Luther

King and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. O'Dell's

alleged Communist ties were used to discredit Dr. King. (Garrow,

David J. The FBI and Martin Luther King, Jr. New York: Penguin

Books, 1981) Interestingly, Louisiana political boss and

notorious segregationist Leander Perez publicly linked King and

O'Dell in March of 1960. (NOTP, March 12, 1960, section 3, p. 2)

-

The SISS held public hearings on April 5 and 6. The NOTP

devoted extensive space to coverage of the hearings, including

detailed summaries of the testimony of each of the witnessess.

(NOTP, April 6, 1956; April 7, 1956). At follow-up hearings in

Washington, three additional witnesses, including O'Dell were

heard. (NOTP, April 12, 1956, p.1; April 13, 1956, p. 1) The

Orleans Parish District Attorney's office announced it was

considering prosecuting O'Dell and other SISS witnesses under

Louisiana anti-subversion laws. Charges were finally filed in

1957. (NOTP, May 9, 1956, p. 1; March 26, 1957, p. 1; April 4,

1957, p. 8)

Nice posting Dave. I had forgotten some of these details over the years.

Medford B. Evans also worked at the Atomic Energy Commission with

Boris Pash, long a suspect in the JFK shenanigans. And I just recently

discovered that Elmore Greaves from Jackson, Mississippi who started The Mississippi Sovereignty

Commission headed the World Anti-Communist League for a short period just after Dr. Roger Pearson

of The Pioneer Fund and just before Ray S. Cline formerly of the CIA. Seems like Draper was

calling a lot of the shots at WACL during that timeframe before he died in 1972 of prostate cancer.

And Draper paid for a lot of the called shots that came from these Mississippi murderers.