Thomas Edward Beckham

[John Dolva]

Does anyone know about these two, (particularly post 1972)

Thomas Edward Beckham aka Mark Evans

Connie Diane Beckham

T E Beckham may have been arrested in DP on the 11/22/63 and released after Tippit was shot. I came across him while looking at the SF Contras.

In his Mark Evans (singer, actor) persona, does he appear on any local playlists of the time?

the mugshots are from 1972 when he was arrested and charged with various offences including trying to run down a patrolman. He's got a long rapsheet, mostly cons. Been all over the place. The 'Narcs' were interested for some reason.

[John Dolva]

http://www.jfk-online.com/jpssmrteb.html

The subpoena identified Beckham as an associate of David Ferrie, an ordained priest in the Old Orthodox Catholic Church of North American, the operator of a "Cuban mission" on Rampart Street, and a person with knowledge of CIA training in N.O. and of Guy Banister's "intelligence activities". It was further alleged that Beckham was reported to be in Dallas in November of 1963 with a Cuban exile. (NOTP; December 30, 1967; s1, p1)

In Omaha, Beckham said that he had been introduced to Ferrie "for about 10 minutes" by Jack Martin. He disclaimed any meeting with Oswald.

..................

Beckham arrived in New Orleans after midnight on February 1, 1968. Beckham asked for a delay in the Grand Jury hearing so that he could "confer with his attorney, newly elected state Rep. Edward H. Booker." The delay was granted until February 15.

"Three pistol-toting men accompanied Beckham into court.

One, James Hauger, 32, said he resigned from the Omaha police force two days before to act as Beckham's bodyguard. Another was an unidentified brother of Beckham, and the third was Herman Henning, who carried credentials as an auxiliary sheriff." Beckham claimed he needed the guards because he had been threatened in Omaha and N.O. (NOTP; Frebruary 2, 1968; s1, p1)

..........

On February 15, Beckham testified before the Grand Jury for about six hours. The Giant himself [Jim Garrison] appeared briefly. Earlier, Beckham had sought permission from Judge Matthew S. Braniff to have an attorney accompany him before the Grand Jury, something which was not normally allowed. Beckham expressed a fear that he was being framed by Garrison and Jack Martin. Braniff denied the request and ordered Beckham to testify. When Beckham went into the courtroom,

"he was accompanied by A. Roswell Thompson, who has often been a candidate for ... mayor and other offices." (NOTP; February 16, 1968; s1, p1) Addison Roswell Thompson was described in his obituary as a

"self-proclaimed racist and wizard of the Ku Klux Klan."

Thompson died February 15, 1976 at the age of 64. "Thompson ran a small taxicab company until he retired four years ago." (NOTP; February 16, 1976; s1, p1; s1, p12) In February of 1967, Thompson served as master of ceremonies for a meeting of the Crescent City chapter of the

National States' Rights Party.

The main speaker at the meeting was J. B. Stoner. Stoner made a number of charming remarks about the state of racial relations in the United States. (NOTP; February 20, 1967; s3, p16)

[John Simkin]

Does anyone know about these two, (particularly post 1972)

Thomas Edward Beckham aka Mark Evans

Connie Diane Beckham

T E Beckham may have been arrested in DP on the 11/22/63 and released after Tippit was shot. I came across him while looking at the SF Contras.

I assume you have read Joan Mellen's A Farewell to Justice? She writes in great depth about Beckham.

[John Dolva]

Does anyone know about these two, (particularly post 1972)

Thomas Edward Beckham aka Mark Evans

Connie Diane Beckham

T E Beckham may have been arrested in DP on the 11/22/63 and released after Tippit was shot. I came across him while looking at the SF Contras.

I assume you have read Joan Mellen's A Farewell to Justice? She writes in great depth about Beckham.

'

Thank you John.

No, I haven't. But I will now order it at the library. If someone has and can offer something, particularly (convincing) reasons for not considering him in this context much appreciated.

[Maarten Coumans]

Hi John,

Could this be him? From "A revisionist History ."

Maarten

[John Dolva]

Hi Maarten, I'm inclined to say no. The mugshot is from 1972, and mens noses and ears tend to enlarge with age. If you have the photo in a book you could see if there is a scar on his cheek. Apparently he had one on the left cheek. Though I don't know when he got it.

Thanks for suggesting, I'm reading through his Garrison testimony while referring to MSC files, He was about 20 in 63, he liked to pretend to be a priest and sometimes wore the clothes to go with it. Also a singer etc. Already at 17 he knew some pretty interesting people.

Edited September 19, 2006 by John Dolva

[John Dolva]

Quite frankly I don't know what to make of this fellow.

Peter indicates he's CIA, others see him as just a conman.

He's certainly interesting, and I can see spending a lot of time on him, and it could very well be a waste of time. On the other hand, studying him brings in a lot of other characters and threads to follow, so I'll wander along his track a bit longer.

Borrowing from an other thread:

"A prisoner can sometimes waste a great deal of the interrogator’s time by long and involved description of trivial affairs and matters. This is particularly effective if, from the beginning, the prisoner has used complicated constructions and confusing non sequiturs in his explanations. When stopped in a rambling discourse, the clever prisoner flounders and gets mixed up, loses the thread of what he was saying and then winds up starting at the beginning once more."

this is a very good description of his interrogation by Garrison, though Garrison was certainly not fooled, I think he realised (as Beckham probably wanted him to) that he was not going to get much.

Yet Beckham had some pretty interesting associations like A D Thompson and J Martin and Bannister and Gill to name a few. How he missed meeting Oswald I don't know.

[John Dolva]

???????????? 11/22/63 dealey plaza arrest, 1972 arrest

Edited September 20, 2006 by John Dolva

[Maarten Coumans]

Sorry John,

I have to agree with your conclusion, not being the same. For this I Looked at his ear. Since ears are as unique as fingerprints. I see too many differences, so must agree with earlier verdict. Au.

Maarten

[John Dolva]

No worries Maarten.(nothing to be sorry about, you gotta be in it to win it.)

with the other arrest the glasses and the top of the earlobe is covered with hair, so the shape is right, the difference in resolution and light direction makes it hard to get detail. But it has good match points, like the smaller nose and the shape of the jaw. Almost ten years difference in age if right. The DP one has a slight 5oclock shadow that matches the side burns of ten years later, and the choice of the top front hair is not hard to imagine as a progression.

If someone has a good copy of that arrest photo, please? there's nose there that is a problem.

[Steve Thomas]

Maarten,

Hi John,

Could this be him? From "A revisionist History ."

I believe that is Larry Florer.

Steve Thomas

[John Dolva]

I read you Peter. And when the library gets the book in I'll read it. In the meantime I'll keep on with what's available.

I doubt VERY much one needs to consider copyright as far as this goes, unless you quote whole chapters. A simple acknowledgement will do.

Interesting idea re Patsy #2. One would think there should be one. An Oswald at home with the flue, or a broken ankle etc and a plot to kill the president that solely depends on one Patsy is a bit iffy.

Does Joan identify the latterday Beckham as Mark Bishop Evans? If not,, who?

Edited September 20, 2006 by John Dolva

[John Dolva]

Some background on Addison Roswell Thompson

http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=7958

__________________________

Peter, I'm aware of his alias of Mark Evans. I'm curious to know whether he was also known as Mark Bishop Evans.

Also a form from Tijuana seems to indicate a divorce from Connie in 1970, yet the police have him still married to her in 72. Does Joan go into that?

[David Boylan]

"Be sure to read about the US Army Air Defense Command document on Beckham on page 372 of Mellen's book!.....reading in part:

"intelligence service from Oct. 27, 1963 under Gov Control Fact Finding Missions....." - Peter Lemkin

Interesting...there was also a report that Clint Wheat called his wife from an Army base after he disappeared when he found out Garrison was going to supoena him. Wheat is a very under-researched subject.

Here's some Beckham HSCA testimony:

Beckham: Right. Okay. I guess the best place to start is a meeting I had in Algiers, Louisiana...that's as soon as you get off the ferry boat. It's in Orlean Parish. This meeting was attended by myself, Sergio Arcacha, G. Wray Gill, a gentleman by the name of Marcello. If I'm not mistaken a picture I've seen of him was Vincent Marcello. Along with me was a gentleman, a little bitty guy, his name was O Lord, let's see, Morello, Charlie Morello, and Sergio Arcacha was there. Roswell Thompson and a lady by the name of Berglass, she was Anna. At this meeting there were Cubans present, other ones. We talked about, I say "we", they talked about the assassination of the President....We also had a meeting at a place called the Town and Country. That's a motel, vaguely as I can remember on the right hand side of the highway going out towards the airport. This meeting was attended by a Marcello, there was G. Wray Gill, and us there at the time. At that particular meeting, the Cuban issue was discussed, the President, his involvement and how, oh, different things, that, how the President refused to give air support, things like this was discussed. Also I delivered a package approximately, I'd say, two weeks to Dallas prior to the assassination of the President, to a Mr. Howard. I went into Mr. G. Wray Gill's office, I was told to go there by Mr. Ferrie, which I knew real well, and in his office shuffled up some documents which were drawings, that of a map, or plots and stuff. There were some pictures, pictures of buildings and cars and was regular pictures but they wasn't glossy. They were put inside of an envelope at which time G. Wray Gill handed me...it was either one hundred or two hundred dollars, and told me that I was to be, I was going to be taken to the airport. I was to deliver this package to a Mr. Howard at the Executive Inn. At this meeting was Roswell, was Jack Martin, David Ferris[sic] and a bunch of...Sergio Arcacha. Also at the meeting was your Mr. Marcello was at the meeting, setting at, they were setting on a couch. I remember the couch....My good friend Clay Shaw was also there.

[…]

I was sitting at my desk at my home and Jack Martin I had got hold of and asked him, I found out that Martin was a, I knew that Martin was in the Organization and I thought that Martin was to sell me out, using me as the escapegoat [sic]. And I got mad at Martin and hung up with Martin and that’s when I received my telephone call from Crisman …telling me don’t worry about the [Garrison] investigation, that I was to go to someplace in Iowa that they couldn’t serve me there, and not to worry about it. I said “well, Jack is selling me out.” He said, “Don’t worry about Jack. Jack is himself leading the investigation in another direction, and he’s a, it’s going in the opposite direction…

That Jack was the plant inside of it and would feeding information [sic], only the information he wanted Garrison to know.

-------------------------------------

And an anonymous letter to Garrison. Some believe that Crisman himself sent it.

Mr. G;

Out on the coast is a man you should talk with. Trace this

information out. His name is Fred Lee Crisman, of Tacaoma, Wash.

He flys to New Orleans steadily. 1964 eleven times. 1965, 17

times. 1966 32 times, 1967 24 times. He is the first man Clay

called after being told he was in trouble and he is the first

man that Beckham called also. He was questioned by both the CIA

and FBI in 1966 but he is able to call Wash. and they laid off of

him in a hurry. He is very good friends with Cubans and specially

SA [sergio Arcacha] in Dallas (he goes there too) and J.R. [Jorge

Rodriguez] in N.O.

Mr. Crisman is a very odd man. He supplied money for certain

political campaigns and in return is very much protected by both

Lou. politicos and Wash. state people. He has a diplomatic

passport issued on the word of a senate chairman of a committee.

He seems to have no income and certainly spends a large sum of

money on air travel. He is friends with F. Gremillion of your

state. His private office has an unlisted number (206 Ma 7-4790)

and is the meeting place for many odd characters from Cubans

to political figures. Ask him to take a lie detector test and

then ask him where he put the $200,000 dollars delivered to him

by Beckham in August of '67. (Cuban Money) Money that is used to

recruit killers to be sent to Cuba to try for Castro ask him if

it is not true that he has sent 5 different men to S.A. in Dallas

for final briefing. Make Crisman talk and you will have the

answer to why there has been fighting among certain Cuban factions

over the money in certain buried places. You know this is true

because some special Cubans have dropped out of sight. (Dropped

in Torpedo Junction) Crisman is also a pilot. He is the man that

through Beckham and S.A. (Arcacha] paid off certain people is

it not odd that he was a friend of Clay's as well as Beckham.

Is it not strange that he knew Tippet! Just ask Crisman certain

questions under a lie detector and see what the answers are. He

is the one that advised Mark Evans [beckham's alias] to hide

out in Iowa and NOT to go to N.O. to make any statement about

money or anything. Have an investigator check out the amount of

long distance calls that Beckham (Evans) has made to Crisman in

the past year and the wild places Crisman calls. He is leaving

for Europe in Jan. Keep digging Jim, you have some odd fish

on the run.

---------------------------------------------------------------------

There was also a report that Crisman was hiding Wheat.

[James Richards]

Does anyone know anything about this Gulf Coast Rescue Squadron?

James