Currently I am reading William Turner and John Christian's "The Assassination of Robert F. Kennedy: The Conspriracy and Coverup" In the introduction they describe a new police intelligence group that formed in 1956 that coordinated some police departments across the country.

This is described as a rival to the FBI's work with police departments, that was formed because of Hoover's infamous lethargy when it came to going after organized crime. The two main departments involved seem to have been the LAPD and the police department in Chigago. Two of the leading investigators in the LAPD's Special Unit Senator, were trained by the CIA as part of this program.

I thought it might be useful to start a thread on the history of the LEIU. Perhaps it would be useful to include information from work with other departments as well as in Los Angeles; that way we can see if there are any parallels that might help in understanding the RFK assassintion.

The main force behind the LAPD's decision to join the LEIU, according to the authors, was the very influencial William H. Parker, who served as Chief of Police from 1950-1966. This is the longest reign of any LAPD Chief of Police. Parker was succeded by Thad Brown as acting chief in 1966 and then by Thomas Reddin from 1967-69

As someone who is very interested in connections between media and intelligence operations, I found it intriguing that, as reported by Turner and Christian,
Police Chief Reddin resigned from the LAPD in 1969 to become a news anchorman at KTLA-TV with a salary of 125,000. That was a wholesome sum back then.

I am curious as to how the Chief changed careers so quickly. Did the LEIU play a catlytic role in this career move?

I was clicking back to a Time magazine article on Police Chief Tom Reddin's transtion from Chief of police to LA TV station newsanchor
(with very little if anything? in the way of journalism background) when I noticed another Time article on Tom Reddin.

It happened to be a Coverstory, with ONLY Reddin on the Cover from July 1968!

The subject was nothing to do with the RFK assassination, but on the topic of policing the cities in general. Certainly, this was a legit, issue for a cover story in
July 1968 but why Reddin ALONE for the cover Reddin was not chief at the time of Watts in 1965.

Well I started reding the article and it portrays Reddin in a liberal light , " a streetcorner sociologist" . Part of this may have been real in comparison to others on the LAPD ( but just how high is THAT bar?) More to the point might this have been a PR attempt to "liberalize" the image of LAPD at a time when many might have become sceptical of their ability to conduct an ENTIRELY objective investigation into a some little incident that happened the month before, but to which the Cover makes not even the slightest allusion? Was the ghost of C.D. Jackson STILL moonlighting for Henry Luce?

http://www.time.com/time/covers/0,16641,19680719,00.html

click on cover for story under table of contents

Reddin was only a broadcaster for a couple of years.

After that, he became president of the American Protection Industries, a private guard agency with some 1,000 men. L.A. International Airport and the United California Bank were two of their clients.

FWIW.

James

This article is necessary! SEE ALSO MANNY PENA THREAD IN JFK SECTION.

It also mentions a quite a conincidence that is also mentioned in the TURNER AND CHRISTIAN book:


http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/pandora/rfk.html

Theres a lot in this article. What do other members know of the figures that this author mentions. Bear in mind that the author is the guy who became famous for challenging a top CIA guy in 1996 or 7 live on ABC's Nightline about the Dark alliance between CIA and Contra Drug financing. He is also the author of the 9/11 book Crossing the Rubicon.

In January I posted this about Many Pena, the co-lead invesigator of Special Unit Senator who was in LEIU:
---------------
Richard Bartholomew and Walter Graff, in their article The Gun That Didn't Smoke --part three, conect Manny Pena to Sen. Thomas Dodd's Senate subcommittee investigating the sale of firearms through the mail:

.... One of the investigators looking into interstate firearms sales at this time was Manuel Pena, the Los Angeles
police lieutenant who was later one of the pivotal officers invsestigating Robert Kennedy's assassination. It was
Pena who traced Oswald's telescopic sight to a California gun shop.(163) And one of the primary culprits, robbing
domestic manufactures of profits, was the Mannlicher-Carcano.

Dodd was ostensiby undertakng the investigation-- which may have used Oswald as an undercover agent-- on behalf of gun-manufacturers like Colt in
his home state of Connecticut. First I'd heard of a connection between Pena and the Dodd investigation.
__________

I wonder if there might be anywhere to look for records of any correspondence between Many Pena and Thomas Dodd or members of this subcommittee on which Dodd served. If memory serves, another reactionary Democrat, Sen. Eastland of Miss. was also on the committee. Also wondering about possible further communications between Pena and Dodd's office or Committee after 1963. Recall that Pena left the LAPD after 1963 (1964-5??) and went to work for
AID-CIA in Latin America. There he worked with Dan Mitrione.

Then he returned to the LAPD in 1968, and was put in charge of Special Unit Senator.

Does anyone know how direct his reationship with Mitrione was there? I am just starting the book by A.J Langguth on Mitrione.

Also what about later commuications between Pena and CIA or Senate committees dealing with intelligence. Dodd was forced to resign because of corruption scadal in 1967. Was he more corrupt than the average Senator from Connecticut?

I know that the Nutmeg State has maintained historically high standards of corruption. Must have been something reall smoky to stand out in that crowd!
Any chance that his involvement with the Dodd's mail order weapons investigation that tied the scope to "Oswald" and Many Pena in LA may have been a variable?

Generally I find this Dodd- Pena connection very ineresting. ANY other sources on this would be much appreciated.

Nat,

Have a look through a) the thread on the JFK assassination forum "CIA backed Eugene McCarthy in '68" for details on the affair Spanel; and b) the Time archive online, which gives a useful summary of the surface reasons for Dodds fall.

Paul

Small World, isn't it. I know someone here on the Forum, not long ago asked, but was there ever an answer as to if Pena is still alive and if so, where?!

Dodd's papers [or at least many of them] are at the Univ. of Conn.
http://www.lib.uconn.edu/online/research/s...SS19940065.html

Not to interject but there is a forthcoming book on Robert Kennedy entitled
The Last Campaign: Robert F. Kennedy and 82 Days That Inspired America, by Thurston Clarke by Henry Holt and Company, L.L.C.; 2008
The June 2008, Vanity Fair features an excerpt of the book, has Bobby on the cover and some photographs, the one of Bobby's "security team, made up of L.A. Rams players, still chokes me up......
Here is the link
http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/feature...currentPage=all