New Book!

[Paul Trejo]

Just for balance I should probably note that I think Somersett was reliable on some things, he certainly was on a Miami PD sting on a gun buy to kill MLK, but you have to keep in mind that he had been outed by none other than JB Stoner as an FBI source early on, well before 63. Stoner had cautioned those hanging with him about what to say and to give him only misleading information. In fact so much misleading info was passed to him (he continued to pass on everything he heard) - that ultimately the FBI dropped him as a credible source. That doesn't mean it isn't worth following what he was passing on but you have to weigh that against Stoners warning and the fact that Somersett was given information that would not pan out upon investigation so as to discredit him as a credible source to the FBI. Anyone with a copy of AGOG can see how much Stu and I wrestled when to use his info and when it was dubious.

Well, Larry, regarding your 2012 book, AGOG (The Awful Grace of God: Religious Terrorism, White Supremacy, and the Unsolved Murder of Martin Luther King Jr.), I find many similarities with this new book by Jeff Caufield. It's worthwhile to note some similarities at this point.

First, the MLK murder, like the JFK murder, has not been satisfactorily solved in the opinions of scholarly persons.

Secondly, the MLK murder and the JFK murder occurred during the peak of the Cold War, when the 1960's Civil Rights movement confused the issues due to the fact that the Radical Right (and even the Moderate Right) in the USA feared that the Civil Rights movement was being controlled by the Communists.

J. Edgar Hoover himself was afraid that MLK was Communist influenced, and said so.

It is not very surprising that the Segregation/Integration issue in Public Schools is still controversial to this day. Modern attacks on the US Public School system begin with these attacks on the Brown Decision of 1954, and related bussing initiatives. Voucher systems and many other alternatives have been aggressively promoted even in recent times.

This suggests that Conservative and even high-placed people in the USA could have been at some level involved in the Anticommunist wing of politics in 1963, and might even be implicated with the JFK KIllers -- at least by name -- if the facts were allowed to hit the newspapers willy nilly.

It's been a half-century and the US Government is still holding onto Top Secret documents with regard to the JFK murder (and evidently with regard to the MLK murder).

Your book, AGOG, written with Stuart Wexler, with a foreword by Gerald McNight, addresses these same issues and offers a special focus on Willie Somersett and Joseph Milteer.

The Somersett/Milteer angle is a third feature that your 2012 book shares with Jeff Caufield's new book.

For this reason, I'm going to dust off my copy of AGOG for review within the context of the current thread, because clearly Jeff Caufield will retain Joseph Milteer as a central character throughout his long narrative on General Walker.

Regards,

--Paul Trejo

Edited October 26, 2015 by Paul Trejo

[Larry Hancock]

There is no doubt that we took a close look at some of the same figures Paul, albeit with a different purpose. We also spent a lot of time on how the really dangerous ultra right groups

operated - well compartmentalized from the ones you normally hear about because they talked but usually didn't act.

I would also point out that both Stu and I felt that there was a serious ultra right NSRP goal of assassinating JFK and other leaders as well as Jewish financial figures. You probably recall

there was an NSRP threat out of San Antonio reported to the SS during the Texas trip. The problem is that making the argument that those same people actually conducted the attack

in Dallas is different than the argument that they wanted to and talked doing it...both messages that Sommersett and Milteer would readily have picked up through gossip within

the ultra right network. But conspiracy to commit is not the same as accessories to the act and there were individuals such as H.L. Hunt who were rightly worried that some of their

associates had been behind the assassination, they had no way of knowing for sure, simply that they had encouraged something of that nature.

In any event, anyone who does have AGOG might want to refresh their memory on our research as they venture into any discussion of Sommersett and Milteer - don't know if Stoner comes

up in his book but that was one deadly guy, who was extremely sophisticated in his plans and had a history of getting away with attacks of various sorts.

[Paul Brancato]

Paul - Hoover, and the NSRP, weren't afraid that the Civil Rights movement was controlled by Communists. They were just against the Civil Rights movement, and hid behind anti-communism, using it as a means to an end. That is what makes Hoover's antagonism towards MLK so insidious. The FBI was completely aware of how powerless the U.S. Communists were, and how easy it was to make sure they stayed that way.

We would never have had Communism here in the U.S., even if we had elected Wallace and people like Alger Hiss and Harry Dexter White had stayed in the post war government. We might have had stronger unions, maybe some infrastructure industries would have become nationalized, perhaps we would have universal health care. But Soviet style communism - no way. And Hoover and Dulles and Nixon and Walker and Banister etc all knew this, unless of course they were stupid, which I admit is possible. All of them were against FDR, against the New Deal. So really, excusing any of their decisions or actions on the basis of fear of Communism is just fakery. Not all of them were racists, though many were, but all of them were right wing elitists, a word now used against lefties more than righties, as per George Orwell. They all believed in their own brand of exceptionalism, and did not believe in real democracy.

I fail to understand how anyone can look at the Cold War objectively and not become cynical as to the real reasons we got stuck in the stalemate for so long. I would argue that we are still stuck.

[Paul Trejo]

Paul - Hoover, and the NSRP, weren't afraid that the Civil Rights movement was controlled by Communists. They were just against the Civil Rights movement, and hid behind anti-communism, using it as a means to an end. That is what makes Hoover's antagonism towards MLK so insidious. The FBI was completely aware of how powerless the U.S. Communists were, and how easy it was to make sure they stayed that way.

We would never have had Communism here in the U.S., even if we had elected Wallace and people like Alger Hiss and Harry Dexter White had stayed in the post war government. We might have had stronger unions, maybe some infrastructure industries would have become nationalized, perhaps we would have universal health care. But Soviet style communism - no way. And Hoover and Dulles and Nixon and Walker and Banister etc all knew this, unless of course they were stupid, which I admit is possible. All of them were against FDR, against the New Deal. So really, excusing any of their decisions or actions on the basis of fear of Communism is just fakery. Not all of them were racists, though many were, but all of them were right wing elitists, a word now used against lefties more than righties, as per George Orwell. They all believed in their own brand of exceptionalism, and did not believe in real democracy.

I fail to understand how anyone can look at the Cold War objectively and not become cynical as to the real reasons we got stuck in the stalemate for so long. I would argue that we are still stuck.

Well, Paul B., it's a mistake, IMHO, to lump together J. Edgar Hoover with the NSRP.

I do believe that Hoover was honest with us -- he truly believed that MLK was connected with Communists -- and it drove him to investigate MLK more than any other American citizen in history. My argument comes from FBI Agent Wesley Swearingen, who claims to have evidence that J. Edgar Hoover himself was part Negro.

As for the NSRP, I surely agree with you, Paul B., that they didn't care what Communism was or wasn't, as long as they could maintain their traditional Jim Crow status quo. I do believe that. The NSRP attracted the more violent types in politics; the more activists who would shoot first and ask questions later. I think we're seeing hints of that history in Jeff Caufield's new book.

As for the alleged "powerlessness" of the US Communists -- we should reconsider that. They always took credit for the end of the Vietnam War -- and some historians give them some credit for that. They weren't powerless.

Things were not so black and white as we like to think in retrospect.

I also agree with you (as I think you're saying) that without the CPUSA in America we would have had stronger Unions, a stronger Labor voice in government, and generally more progress. The Radical Left like the CPUSA, with their waving of the Communist Manifesto, and calling for the "Abolition" of Private Property, Marriage, Religion and Nationalism, just turned most people off quick.

Also, nobody can claim that those who were against FDR's New Deal were effective -- because it still stands to this day.

I maintain that Anticommunism was a most confusing issue during the Cold War, and nowhere more than in the Brown Decision. IMHO the Radical Right who opposed the Brown Decision above all else, were the political force that murdered both JFK and MLK.

Nor did this have to do with "elitism" or "exceptionalism" or anything but Old-fashioned Racism.

The use of the Confederate Flag in South Carolina only this year in a mass murder shows how hard Racism dies. But that's not an American phenomenon alone. The USA has more diversity in racial population than most places on Earth by far.

The USSR, for example, used to boast that they solved their Race issue (just as they solved their Alcohol issue). Total lies. Racism in the Russian Empire remained as strong in the 20th century as it had in the 19th century.

Regards,

--Paul Trejo

Edited October 26, 2015 by Paul Trejo

[Ernie Lazar]

Paul - Hoover, and the NSRP, weren't afraid that the Civil Rights movement was controlled by Communists. They were just against the Civil Rights movement, and hid behind anti-communism, using it as a means to an end. That is what makes Hoover's antagonism towards MLK so insidious. The FBI was completely aware of how powerless the U.S. Communists were, and how easy it was to make sure they stayed that way.

We would never have had Communism here in the U.S., even if we had elected Wallace and people like Alger Hiss and Harry Dexter White had stayed in the post war government. We might have had stronger unions, maybe some infrastructure industries would have become nationalized, perhaps we would have universal health care. But Soviet style communism - no way. And Hoover and Dulles and Nixon and Walker and Banister etc all knew this, unless of course they were stupid, which I admit is possible. All of them were against FDR, against the New Deal. So really, excusing any of their decisions or actions on the basis of fear of Communism is just fakery. Not all of them were racists, though many were, but all of them were right wing elitists, a word now used against lefties more than righties, as per George Orwell. They all believed in their own brand of exceptionalism, and did not believe in real democracy.

I fail to understand how anyone can look at the Cold War objectively and not become cynical as to the real reasons we got stuck in the stalemate for so long. I would argue that we are still stuck.

Significantly, when you make these broad assertions you never quote documentary evidence to support your contentions. Obviously, we all have subjective personal opinions but it is not historically accurate to say that the FBI (as an institution) or that all of its senior officials were "against the civil rights movement".

IF you genuinely want people to believe your unkind assertions, then you should demonstrate that you have taken the time to explore, in depth, the background of all the Section Chiefs and supervisory personnel within the various FBI units which had direct responsibility for civil rights matters. In addition, you should prepare a documented paper to substantiate precisely in what ways senior FBI officials (and the FBI as an agency) were "against" our civil rights movement. A major section of that paper should quote extensively from testimony and speeches and articles by senior FBI employees, along with monographs (used internally to train FBI Agents).

In addition, it would be hugely important for you to show awareness of research done by well-known historians who have often spent decades researching the FBI, i.e. people like Dr. David J. Garrow ( who has won a Pulitzer-prize for his reporting on our civil rights movement), and Taylor Branch (who spent two decades researching our civil rights movement and then wrote a multi-volume history of it) and, of course, Dr. Athan Theoharis. See if you can get any or all of them to agree with your generalization.

Lastly, a major section of your paper should attempt to explain why (if Hoover and other senior FBI officials were so "against" our civil rights movement) then why did they bother to make dozens of speeches around our country before all sorts of civic organizations and in those speeches they explicitly and categorically falsified the major premises of white supremacist organizations such as NSRP and Citizens Councils of America?

For example: why would J. Edgar Hoover bother to make the following comment in 1964?

“Let me emphasize that the American civil rights movement is not, and has never been dominated by the communists—because the overwhelming majority of civil rights leaders in this country, both Negro and white, have recognized and rejected communism as a menace to the freedoms of all.”

[J. Edgar Hoover speech, 12/12/64, Our Heritage of Greatness, pg 7 - Hoover speech before Pennsylvania Society and the Society of Pennsylvania Women; bold emphasis in original document on “not” and “never”]

And why would senior FBI officials bother to develop cordial personal relationships with major figures within the civil rights movement like Walter White Jr. (Executive Secretary NAACP) and his successor, Roy Wilkins?

And why would the FBI as an institution conclude (in direct opposition to white supremacists and extreme right anti-communist groups) that organizations and institutions such as Highlander Folk School in Monteagle TN (described by extreme rightists as a "Communist training school" and eventually closed by the state of TN) was NOT a Communist created or Communist run or Communist dominated school?

And why would the FBI describe the heroes of the white supremacy movement and the major critics of our civil rights movement (such as Sen. James O. Eastland, Senate Internal Security Subcommittee Chairman) as a life-long bigot? And ditto for virtually everybody mentioned in Dr. Jeffrey Caufield's new book i.e. the FBI's files on those persons (and organizations) are almost universally derogatory.

Edited October 26, 2015 by Ernie Lazar

[Ernie Lazar]

Paul - Hoover, and the NSRP, weren't afraid that the Civil Rights movement was controlled by Communists. They were just against the Civil Rights movement, and hid behind anti-communism, using it as a means to an end. That is what makes Hoover's antagonism towards MLK so insidious. The FBI was completely aware of how powerless the U.S. Communists were, and how easy it was to make sure they stayed that way.

We would never have had Communism here in the U.S., even if we had elected Wallace and people like Alger Hiss and Harry Dexter White had stayed in the post war government. We might have had stronger unions, maybe some infrastructure industries would have become nationalized, perhaps we would have universal health care. But Soviet style communism - no way. And Hoover and Dulles and Nixon and Walker and Banister etc all knew this, unless of course they were stupid, which I admit is possible. All of them were against FDR, against the New Deal. So really, excusing any of their decisions or actions on the basis of fear of Communism is just fakery. Not all of them were racists, though many were, but all of them were right wing elitists, a word now used against lefties more than righties, as per George Orwell. They all believed in their own brand of exceptionalism, and did not believe in real democracy.

I fail to understand how anyone can look at the Cold War objectively and not become cynical as to the real reasons we got stuck in the stalemate for so long. I would argue that we are still stuck.

Well, Paul B., it's a mistake, IMHO, to lump together J. Edgar Hoover with the NSRP.

I do believe that Hoover was honest with us -- he truly believed that MLK was connected with Communists -- and it drove him to investigate MLK more than any other American citizen in history. My argument comes from FBI Agent Wesley Swearingen, who claims to have evidence that J. Edgar Hoover himself was part Negro.

As for the NSRP, I surely agree with you, Paul B., that they didn't care what Communism was or wasn't, as long as they could maintain their traditional Jim Crow status quo. I do believe that. The NSRP attracted the more violent types in politics; the more activists who would shoot first and ask questions later. I think we're seeing hints of that history in Jeff Caufield's new book.

As for the alleged "powerlessness" of the US Communists -- we should reconsider that. They always took credit for the end of the Vietnam War -- and some historians give them some credit for that. They weren't powerless.

Things were not so black and white as we like to think in retrospect.

I also agree with you (as I think you're saying) that without the CPUSA in America we would have had stronger Unions, a stronger Labor voice in government, and generally more progress. The Radical Left like the CPUSA, with their waving of the Communist Manifesto, and calling for the "Abolition" of Private Property, Marriage, Religion and Nationalism, just turned most people off quick.

Also, nobody can claim that those who were against FDR's New Deal were effective -- because it still stands to this day.

I maintain that Anticommunism was a most confusing issue during the Cold War, and nowhere more than in the Brown Decision. IMHO the Radical Right who opposed the Brown Decision above all else, were the political force that murdered both JFK and MLK.

Nor did this have to do with "elitism" or "exceptionalism" or anything but Old-fashioned Racism.

The use of the Confederate Flag in South Carolina only this year in a mass murder shows how hard Racism dies. But that's not an American phenomenon alone. The USA has more diversity in racial population than most places on Earth by far.

The USSR, for example, used to boast that they solved their Race issue (just as they solved their Alcohol issue). Total lies. Racism in the Russian Empire remained as strong in the 20th century as it had in the 19th century.

Regards,

--Paul Trejo

You can totally ignore what "Hoover believed" and just focus upon (1) what senior members of the Communist Party believed about Martin Luther King Jr. and (2) what MLK's father said about his own son's beliefs, i.e. that he was a Marxist!

Truth, even unpleasant or inconvenient truth, is still truth or reality. There was a legitimate reason for what caused the FBI to be concerned about MLK Jr. or his associations with known CP members. Significantly, the Bureau did NOT concern itself about other major figures within the civil rights movement (such as A. Philip Randolph and Roy Wilkins) -- even though those persons ALSO were described by their detractors as Communist sympathizers or Communist agents or as suspect in terms of their loyalties.

[Paul Trejo]

Proceeding further into Jeffrey Caufield's new book, General Walker and the Murder of President Kennedy: The Extensive New Evidence of a Radical Right Conspiracy, Chapter 6, Joseph Milteer and the Congress of Freedom, New Orleans 1963, we finally arrive at material that is news to me regarding Somersett and Milteer.

In 1963, there were three hardcore Radical Right underground meetings, and Milteer was at all three. Willie Somersett joined Milteer at two, and he reported both to the FBI. The first was held by the "Congress of Freedom," which is the topic of this chapter.

The meeting was concerned with Freedom from Racial Integration in the Brown Decision, which they considered Communist and a violation of the US Constitution. Three key groups were involved: the JBS, the Christian Crusade of Reverend Billy James Hargis, and the Liberty Lobby.

The "Congress of Freedom," originally formed in 1952 in support of Joe McCarthy, met on the weekend of April 4-6, 1963 in New Orleans at the Fountainbleau Hotel. According to Willie Somersett, the "Congress of Freedom" there revealed plans for the assassination of many political, CFR and business figures who were considered Communists. Jeff Caufield expresses astonishment that neither the Warren Commission nor the HSCA ever mentioned this meeting. Willie Somerset provided many details, as Jeff Caufield writes:

Their goal was to eliminate the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) through legislation, if possible, but if not, through assassination. "Eskimos" was the code word they used for Jews. They advocated "knocking off the Eskimos with carbines." (Caufield, General Walker and the Murder of President Kennedy, 2015, p. 141)

They considered JFK's policies beyond scandal -- they were Treason -- especially: (1) Civil Rights; (2) disarmament; (3) compromise with the USSR; and (4) failure to overthrow Fidel Castro.

Caufield introduces a new radical character, Ted Jackman, whom Willie Somersett believed was "one of the Dealey Plaza riflemen," who was also on the national speaker's roster of the JBS, as "Reverend Jackman." Jeff Caufield writes:

Somersett estimated that 75 to 90 percent of the top leadership of the Congress of Freedom meeting were members of the John Birch Society. He reported, "Any action by the Congress of Freedom regarding assassination would have the sanction of the John Birch Society." (Caufield, General Walker and the Murder of President Kennedy, 2015, p. 142)

At least, this was the opinion of Willie Somersett, FBI informant. The COF group was new to me, so I'm glad that Jeff Caufield presented a full chapter on them. There are still a dozen more pages in this chapter to review.

Regards,
--Paul Trejo

<edit typos>

Edited January 2, 2016 by Paul Trejo

[Larry Hancock]

Paul, for a little more detail, could you specify when and to whom Sommersett identified Jackman as a DP shooter......it might be interesting for David Boylan to chime in on the COF, as I recall he collected a lot of background information on them. It's interesting to trace their membership and leaders over the years and also to separate out some of the subgroups that seem were having their own very private and possibly more "action" oriented meetings during the larger COF gatherings.

As you continue if you could call out any actual attacks that the COF sponsored that would be interesting too.

[Ernie Lazar]

Paul, for a little more detail, could you specify when and to whom Sommersett identified Jackman as a DP shooter......it might be interesting for David Boylan to chime in on the COF, as I recall he collected a lot of background information on them. It's interesting to trace their membership and leaders over the years and also to separate out some of the subgroups that seem were having their own very private and possibly more "action" oriented meetings during the larger COF gatherings.

As you continue if you could call out any actual attacks that the COF sponsored that would be interesting too.

You may also review the FBI HQ file on CoF here:

https://archive.org/stream/foia_Congress_of_Freedom-HQ-1/Congress_of_Freedom-HQ-1#page/n0/mode/2up

[see pages 111-128 for list of Board of Directors and brief biographical sketch of key figures within the Congress as of 1960]

https://archive.org/stream/foia_Congress_of_Freedom-HQ-1/Congress_of_Freedom-HQ-1#page/n111/mode/2up

https://archive.org/stream/foia_Congress_of_Freedom-HQ-2/Congress_of_Freedom-HQ-2#page/n0/mode/2up

P.S.: I currently have FOIA requests being processed for 9 FBI field office files on CoF. Unfortunately, when I submitted my request for the HQ file, that file had been processed by the Bureau less than 10 years previously for somebody else which means that the FBI would not re-process it. Instead they just sent me what they released previously. My requests (HQ and field) included 3 pages of death records on persons connected to the CoF so I anticipate that the field office files will (when released) contain very few (if any) redactions.

Edited October 28, 2015 by Ernie Lazar

[Ernie Lazar]

This is a list of some of the individuals whom were (1) Congress of Freedom officers at some point (2) speakers at CoF conventions, or (3) attacked by CoF in their newsletter, The Greater Nebraskan OR (4) persons whom I thought might be mentioned in field office files on CoF. [The references to "RIDS Dead List" merely informs the FBI that they have already processed requests on those deceased individuals.]

There are, of course, many other individuals who could be added to the list but I was not always able to find death records about them or, in some cases, they are very obscure individuals and their names appear only once or twice in CoF literature so I did not bother to include them.

DECEASED PERSON NAME

SSN (if known), BIRTHDATE, DEATH

Hobart Young Andrews

262-01-8395

01-02-03

10-01-78

Orland Kay Armstrong aka O.K. Armstrong

577-22-6537

10-02-1893

04-15-87

Guy Banister aka William Guy Banister (FBI SAC)

03-07-01

06-06-64

Bryton Barron

223-50-7069

12-06-1898

08-05-89

George Stuart Benson

430-72-9760

09-26-1898

12-15-91

Eugene Robert Black Sr.

05-01-1898

02-20-92

Roger Blough

01-19-04

10-08-85

Arthur J. Bohn

493-07-7885

04-05-10

03-01-72

Anthony Trawick Bouscaren

547-38-3059

07-07-20

07-07-00

Spruille Braden

133-30-2176

03-13-1894

01-10-78

Tullius Brady

425-05-2273

06-18-06

09-26-93

Mary Helen Brengel

556-20-1839

05-29-15

08-12-96

Howard Homan Buffet (U.S. Congressman, NE)

08-13-03

08-30-64

Benjamin Joseph Buttenwieser Jr. (aka Buttenweiser)

10-22-00

12-31-91

Taylor Caldwell aka Janet Reback (Buffalo NY)

09-07-00

08-30-85

Frank Alphonse Capell aka Francis A. Capelli

057-03-6999

05-08-07

10-18-80

N.J. Cardin aka Nolen J. Cardin

420-38-7616

06-11-33

05-20-98

Frank Chodorov

120-01-2003

02-05-1887

12-28-66

Lucius D. Clay

08-23-1897

04-16-78

Ralph Jarron Cordiner

03-20-00

12-04-73

Richard Berkeley Cotten (on RIDS Dead List)

556-05-4807

09-18-19

06-18-98

Kent Howard Courtney (RIDS Dead List)

539-09-1329

10-23-18

08-12-97

Phoebe Greene Courtney (RIDS Dead List)

433-02-8190

03-13-18

09-14-98

Lucille Cardin Crain

061-01-3820

08-28-01

02-83

Ralph Emerson Davis

561-12-8483

03-05-1897

03-25-85

Mary McPhilomy Davison aka Mrs. Clyde Davison

072-10-6449

03-12-1896

06-78

Pedro Augusto Del Valle

094-24-8109

08-28-1893

04-28-78

Robert D. Dilley

11-05-26

06-20-11

James L. Doenges

313-48-4034

01-24-15

07-73

Robert Newsom Donner Sr.

12-17-1891

08-08-64

Robert Bartlett Dresser

037-16-0051

12-28-1880

09-76

Harry T. Everingham

321-18-4076

08-14-08

05-01-05

Austin Thompson Flett

319-12-5490

12-12-1894

06-71

W.L. Foster aka Walter L. Foster

1882

C.O. Garshwiler aka Clarence Oliver Garshwiler

586-16-1646

10-05-04

01-23-77

Richard Earl Gerstein (Dade County FL State Atty)

265-28-2588

09-05-23

04-26-92

Percy L. Greaves Jr.

131-10-4163

08-24-06

08-13-14

Kenneth Goff aka Oliver Kenneth Goff

09-19-14

04-11-72

Lochard Flood Gracey Jr. (aka Lochart) – Miami PD

05-06-23

06-04-07

Ferrell Eugene Griswold (Rev.)

417-32-3818

09-21-28

02-82

Helen S. Habig

267-46-7780

07-28-01

01-19-90

Robert C. Habig

267-24-3407

12-23-01

06-30-91

Billy James Hargis (on RIDS Dead List)

455-20-3977

08-23-25

11-27-04

W. Averell Harriman

11-15-1891

07-26-86

Merwin Kimball Hart

064-07-0484

06-25-1881

11-30-62

Willard Owen Hedrick

325-03-1511

08-16-1899

07-27-70

George Delos Higgins

1877

Frank Ezekiel Holman

01-07-1886

1967

Edward Hunter

215-12-6187

07-02-02

06-24-78

T. Robert Ingram aka Tolbert Robert Ingram

522-03-4288

05-15-13

01-01-94

Gerald Orville Inman

358-20-0892

03-08-08

04-06-88

Walter B. Jackson

043-07-3283

05-19-10

08-06-80

George Racey Jordan (Major)

05-03-3107

01-04-1898

05-05-66

Verne Paul Kaub

390-07-0365

07-04-1884

09-06-64

Joseph Stephen Kimmel aka J.S. Kimmel

484-14-2790

10-31-21

07-26-02

Alfred Kohlberg

01-27-1887

04-07-60

Joseph Zack Kornfeder

093-16-6418

03-20-1897

05-01-63

Arnold Kruckman

11-13-1880

Robert T. LeFevre

468-10-4661

10-13-11

05-13-86

Herbert Henry Lehman

03-28-1878

12-05-63

Dallas Bedford Lewis aka D.B. Lewis

570-03-8162

07-24-04

04-25-66

Milton Miles Lory

483-36-3662

01-16-1896

12-78

Sumter deLeon Lowry (Lt. General)

261-01-2052

08-27-1893

02-03-85

Florence Fowler Lyons

548-26-9345

01-29-11

11-01-71

John Russell Maguire aka Russell Maguire

093-10-9884

07-27-1897

11-10-66

Marcia C.J. Mathews

11-26-1891

05-27-63

John J. McCloy

03-31-1895

03-11-89

Thurman L. McCormick

492-60-9364

05-23-1893

12-83

Anna McKinney

027-38-2615

07-03-03

05-74

Martel Pratt McNeely

361-07-9198

10-17-1888

11-28-56

Roger Milliken

208-10-7142

10-24-15

12-30-10

Joseph Adams Milteer

261-32-0646

02-26-02

02-28-74

Gordon Dwight Mohr aka Jack Mohr

354-14-3191

01-01-16

07-17-03

George Samuel Montgomery Jr.

067-18-1795

07-07-1897

01-06-66

Revilo Pendleton Oliver

358-42-3679

07-07-08

08-10-94

Alvin Mansfield Owsley

315-22-3327

06-11-1888

04-03-67

Charles William Pavey III

299-26-1605

06-10-33

07-20-01

Jessica Wyatt Payne

330-18-3725

02-26-1899

01-78

Fernando Jose Penabaz

266-70-4469

03-17-16

05-30-92

J.C. Phillips aka James Clayton Phillips

451-07-3153

12-23-1899

05-01-90

R. Carter Pittman aka Robert Carter Pittman

Hugh S. Ramsey (M.D.)

303-96-9395

11-20-07

06-30-89

Clayton Thomas Rand

426-09-8638

05-25-1891

02-71

Robert B. Rapp

527-42-7617

08-05-07

04-20-88

Archibald Edward Roberts

237-05-9922

03-21-15

07-28-06

George Washington Robnett

321-28-6766

12-30-1888

01-70

Archibald Bulloch Roosevelt

057-03-2238

04-09-1894

10-13-79

E. Merrill Root aka Edward Merrill Root

038-18-0505

01-04-1895

10-26-73

John Harbin Rousselot (RIDS Dead List)

564-32-5120

11-01-27

05-11-03

Alexander Sachs

08-01-93

06-23-73

Clifford J. Simpson

283-42-9019

12-31-07

06-09-02

Dan Smoot aka Howard Drummond Smoot (FBI SA)

452-03-3106

10-05-13

07-24-03

Robert B. Snowden

413-07-6989

10-14-11

07-83

Willie Augustus Somersett aka William A. Somersett

FBI-Miami informant 607-C

241-32-0646

02-26-02

02-28-74

George Soule

11-24-1896

03-18-83

George Edward Stratemeyer

263-58-0102

11-24-1890

08-09-69

William Scott Stephenson

227-34-9514

03-11-14

03-83

Willis Emerson Stone

323-10-2106

07-20-1899

03-02-89

Lewis L. Strauss

01-31-1896

01-21-74

Wesley Albert Swift (Rev.)

551-12-8781

09-06-13

10-08-70

George Junior Thomas

479-24-9298

01-22-28

12-08-02

John Walton Thurman

263-05-0544

07-13-00

04-03-86

George H. Todt

526-09-3199

11-06-15

08-30-77

Ned Oneal Touchstone aka Ned O’Neil Touchstone

434-30-4346

09-27-26

07-26-88

Edwin Anderson Walker (Maj. General, US Army)

460-64-3005

11-11-09

10-31-93

Eric Moritz Warburg

04-15-00

07-09-90

James Paul Warburg

08-18-1896

06-03-69

Clyde J. Watts

443-40-5169

12-20-07

11-75

V. Orval Watts aka Vernon Orval Watts

548-28-9767

03-25-1898

03-30-93

Albert Coady Wedemeyer (General, US Army)

061-28-6345

07-09-1896

12-17-89

Sidney James Weinberg

10-12-1891

07-23-69

Opal Tanner White aka Opal Maurine Tanner

334-18-9911

09-18-19

09-29-96

Edwin Leo Wiegand aka E.L. Wiegand

167-01-0992

09-10-1891

04-29-80

Robert H.W. Welch Jr.

023-07-1169

12-01-1899

01-06-85

Felix Wittmer

138-32-8370

10-26-02

11-11-85

John Hornor Wisner Jr.

150-22-1002

07-30-1879

11-73

John Travers Wood (U.S. Congressman, ID)

11-25-1878

11-02-54

Glenn Olen Young

447-88-1440

10-26-1894

07-11-91

Edited October 28, 2015 by Ernie Lazar

[Larry Hancock]

Good stuff Ernie, I think it should help everyone understand how much of an Umbrella organization COF was.....very much different from the true action oriented groups, although no doubt it had some very special cliques with their own plans. One of the things we had to learn was how sophisticated people like Stoner were, setting up very visible political groups like the NSRP to garner the broadest public support and then dialing down through sub groups to a handful of individuals trusted and vetted to carry out actual bombings and shootings. As I recall Milteer himself commented that the NSRP existed largely as a recruiting took and cover for Stoner's more violent activities.

All of which shows the risk of six degree type associations until you are able to connect the dots for an actual tactical operation.

[Ernie Lazar]

Good stuff Ernie, I think it should help everyone understand how much of an Umbrella organization COF was.....very much different from the true action oriented groups, although no doubt it had some very special cliques with their own plans. One of the things we had to learn was how sophisticated people like Stoner were, setting up very visible political groups like the NSRP to garner the broadest public support and then dialing down through sub groups to a handful of individuals trusted and vetted to carry out actual bombings and shootings. As I recall Milteer himself commented that the NSRP existed largely as a recruiting took and cover for Stoner's more violent activities.

All of which shows the risk of six degree type associations until you are able to connect the dots for an actual tactical operation.

Also, Larry, there are other relevant considerations. I will discuss this at greater length after I finish reading Caufield's book (I'm 1/2 way through it now).

1. Caufield is very fond of listing the names of people whom "belong to" organizations -- but it should be remembered that many of these groups were letterhead only and many existed for very short periods of time.

2. More importantly, what, exactly, does "belong to" mean in practical terms? Some of these guys (according to Caufield) "belonged to" more than a dozen organizations -- which is to say that they allowed their name to be listed as an endorser or even as an officer (on paper). If you take everything presented in Caufield's book at face value (and literally), you would have to assume that some of these guys had no personal life of any kind because every minute of every day would have been totally consumed by their organizational activities and responsibilities.

3. Let me use the JBS as an example. The JBS National Council was (on paper) the governing body of the JBS. It met quarterly at various locations around the country and it also sponsored dinners around the country which were open to JBS members and invited guests. However, the men who were National Council members often told Welch that they would need to skip the quarterly Council meeting because of other matters (including family health problems, business meetings, or other conflicting activities). Furthermore, it is clear from the personal papers of Council members which are archived at various institutions that many Council members did not regularly participate in the JBS and, in fact, they did not even exchange much correspondence with Welch or with other Council members.

Welch, himself, stated that the JBS National Council was intended more to show the stature of the people whom were willing to associate themselves with the Society than it was meant to be an actual or active governing body. So, in short, it was more of a public relations device.

4. As you point out, the inherent quality of "umbrella groups" is to serve as a recruiting device and to present a "respectable" public face and to encourage public support. It also is interesting to learn how often individuals discovered that their names appeared on some group letterhead when those persons never authorized such a listing! [This was not uncommon for both left-wing and right-wing organizations].

5. In 1957, Willis Carto's group, Liberty and Property, Inc., published the first edition (27 pages) of the First National Directory of Rightist Groups, Publications, and Some Individuals. By 1962 it had grown to 36 pages. But 99.9% of the organizations listed were just paper organizations that totally disappeared within a year or two and/or which left no trace of themselves in any library.

So, in summary, the "six degrees type associations" methodology can be very misleading because it can suggest "dots" which are not even connected, much less active.

Edited October 28, 2015 by Ernie Lazar

[Paul Trejo]

I gotta admit, Ernie Lazar's listing of COF members is historically valuable.

--Paul

[Harry J.Dean]

In the dark

It is no doubt frustrating for any who were not there,especially those to young to understand

or care at the time in history re; murder of J F Kennedy, also the so-called brilliant self

promoting researchers and book writers, along with a document retrieving, older, and contrarian

self proclaimed expert attaching themselves, like barnacles, to the hull of ship of history.

[Harry J.Dean]

Into the light

General Walker and the murder of President Kennedy

by Jeffrey Caufield MD.