Eugene Dinkin: The Saga of an Unsung Hero

[David Andrews]

10 minutes ago, Paul Brancato said:

Who is Bowers?

104-10067-10403: LIST OF DOCUMENTS

Between November 7-12, 1963, several documents are included in a CIA-created list of Oswald-related documents. Uncertain why these documents are included, other than story that Eugene Dinkin gave some kind of warning about the assassination during his assignment in Western Europe. To summarize the statements on the list: CIA cable from Bern, Switzerland forwards info on Eugene Dinkin; CIA cable from Berlin, West Germany, forwards info on Michael K. Bowers; LCHARVEST - CIA cable from Berlin, West Germany; CIA cable from Bern, Switzerland, forwarding info on possibility someone using name of Michael K. Bowers; cable from Bern, Switzerland, forwarding info that Eugene Dinkin returned to military custody.

Oswald 201 File, Vol 1, Folder 2

11/8/63 CIA cable from Bern, FOIA 20-532: Unredacted portion states "Chief of Station comment: Requested check whether Bowers actually assigned USASA Berlin and whether present Suiise on leave." The response was: "Bowers is assigned USASA Berlin. Is on duty at present. No leave presently at all."

 

https://www.maryferrell.org/php/cryptdb.php?id=LCHARVEST

[Paul Brancato]

Despite the fact that the reporting all postdates the assassination, it hardly seems like a CIA created rabbit hole, but rather an honest reportage of a mysterious foreknowledge by Dinkin, however he got it, and it corroborates Dinkin's own account of his actions and movements while awol. The missing details are the accounts pre assassination by the various people Dinkin tried to talk to about this. I'm inclined, despite all the questions, to believe the story. Am I right that the accounts of psychological sets all come from Dinkin himself after his 'treatment' for psychological problems? If so, it seems more likely that this story is a cover for what really set Dinkin off, which was cables he read while still on duty with access to those cables. As usual I find Garrison's surmise reasonable - it was OAS cable traffic that got him going. 

[David Andrews]

Again - consider that Dinkin may have had unknown collaborators within the Army.

[Steve Thomas]

2 hours ago, David Andrews said:

104-10067-10403: LIST OF DOCUMENTS

Between November 7-12, 1963, several documents are included in a CIA-created list of Oswald-related documents. Uncertain why these documents are included, other than story that Eugene Dinkin gave some kind of warning about the assassination during his assignment in Western Europe. To summarize the statements on the list: CIA cable from Bern, Switzerland forwards info on Eugene Dinkin; CIA cable from Berlin, West Germany, forwards info on Michael K. Bowers; LCHARVEST - CIA cable from Berlin, West Germany; CIA cable from Bern, Switzerland, forwarding info on possibility someone using name of Michael K. Bowers; cable from Bern, Switzerland, forwarding info that Eugene Dinkin returned to military custody.

Oswald 201 File, Vol 1, Folder 2

11/8/63 CIA cable from Bern, FOIA 20-532: Unredacted portion states "Chief of Station comment: Requested check whether Bowers actually assigned USASA Berlin and whether present Suiise on leave." The response was: "Bowers is assigned USASA Berlin. Is on duty at present. No leave presently at all."

 

https://www.maryferrell.org/php/cryptdb.php?id=LCHARVEST

David,

 

Among the list of documents in 104-10067-10403 are:

CIA 19-530 and

CIA 20-532.

 

See:

CIA DOCUMENT DIPOSITIONINDEX 16 OCT 58 - 20 OCT 75

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=77401&relPageId=8&search=CIA_"20-532"

documents concern the "identity of an American serviceman temporarily mistaken for Eugene Dinkin".

I hadn't heard of Michael Bowers before. I'll have to research him. The cables seem to indicate he was assigned to the Army Security Agency.

 

Steve Thomas

[Steve Thomas]

3 hours ago, David Andrews said:

104-10067-10403: LIST OF DOCUMENTS

 

David,

 

CIA cable 22-531 is an interesting one. You can see a copy here:

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=50238&search="Michael_K.+Bowers"#relPageId=2&tab=page

 

Someone using Michael Bowers name was traveling in Switzerland. The person using Bowers' name did not match the physical description of Eugene Dinkin as provided by newsmen and ODIBEX. In other sources, ODIBEX appears to be the U.S. Army. It seems Dinkin had a heavy black mustache and horn-rimmed glasses.

CIA station in Bern wonders who this person could be.

 

Steve Thomas

[David Andrews]

Thanks, Steve - will check those out when have more time.

[Gene Kelly]

A few things (not necessarily profound) that strike me as off or odd about the Dinkin story;

1. He is only 24 years old at the time
2. Mostly 2nd and 3rd hand information that is passed along (e.g. acquaintance Howard Cowen has girlfriend named Beth Cox, Cowen talks to Col. Adams, Dennis DeWitt tells Cowen) ... lots of whisper round the block
3. Dinkin was transferred out of the "Code Section" and sent to Metz Depot ... for a contentious stance on savings bonds?
4. Reminds one of the Newman's "dimming the lights" just before 11/22 - as with the Mexico City stories and FBI watch list removal - perhaps another tactic to "blackmail" FBI and CIA into burying a story that otherwise depicts knowledge of a credible threat that they didn't act upon
5. No one ever interviews (at least not documented) many of the peripheral players named (Pullen, Reynolds, Dr. Afar, R. Thomas) ... strange, given that a President has been murdered
6. Dewhirst (Newsweek) and DeWitt (acquaintance) seem to be a play on words (real names, real people?)
7. Didn't bring his concerns forward to his Army superiors (because he thought it was a high-level military plot?) ... seems hard to believe, as the first/best way taught for raising concerns in a government agency or a sensitive industry is to first go through your reporting chain ... there exist many layers (and good people) before the "high levels" are reached  
8. Having previously worked in a government agency, allegations (which is what this was) are taken very seriously, and failure to follow-up or document these is grounds for dismissal  
9. Civil action filed at some time in Brooklyn NY ... what was that about, and where did it end?
10. Shows up after 14 years at the HSCA's doorstep (actually wrote two letters in Feb/March 1977 to an investigator named Jacqueline Hess)
11. The Stars & Stripes psychological sets and subliminal programming seems a cover story ... a way of  avoiding criminal prosecution for divulging classified information (if indeed he was legitimate and a cryptographic technician).  He stated that his secret clearance was revoked ... and that's when he left the base, and started his unsuccessful Geneva travels  

[Steve Thomas]

3 hours ago, Gene Kelly said:

A few things (not necessarily profound) that strike me as off or odd about the Dinkin story;

1. Civil action filed at some time in Brooklyn NY ... what was that about, and where did it end?

Gene,

 

Apparently in 1975 Dinkin filed a civil suit against the Department of Defense and the CIA disputing the facts as presented to the Warren Commission in CD 943.

You can see a reference to this civil suit in a letter he wrote to William Colby here:

REQUEST RE CIVIL SUIT, DINKIN V. U.S

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=8940#relPageId=1&tab=page

 

I don't know the outcome of this civil suit.

 

More than anything else, the Dinkin story reminds me of the Robert Redford movie, "Three Days of the Condor".

 

Steve Thomas

[Gene Kelly]

Thanks Steve .... Item #3 in Dinkin's filing seems missing or redacted (and it has to do with his "reported activates in Europe...".   At least we know he was living in Brooklyn NY in 1975.   This set of questions (reads like a FOIA request) lends credibility to his story and motives.   By 1975, he wasn't afraid to challenge the CIA.  Interesting that he wants to know more about his "treatment and interrogatories" while in Walter Reed, and about "grey propaganda" techniques.   This filing was at least two years prior to HSCA contacts, and during the Church Committee hearings.

Gene

[Steve Thomas]

3 hours ago, Gene Kelly said:

Thanks Steve .... Item #3 in Dinkin's filing seems missing or redacted (and it has to do with his "reported activates in Europe...".   At least we know he was living in Brooklyn NY in 1975.   This set of questions (reads like a FOIA request) lends credibility to his story and motives.  

Gene

Gene,

 

Do you know anybody who has a subscription to the Lexis database that could run this civil suit case number?

 

Steve Thomas

[Gene Kelly]

No ... sorry, I do not

[Steve Thomas]

On 10/22/2017 at 11:17 AM, Tom Hume said:

 

Hi Steve,

Dinkin’s name first came up in the Garrison investigation, wherein interviews with some of Dinkin’s former Army associates led to the conclusion that he had been hospitalized until he memorized a cover story. And as Garrison’s people pieced the story together, they discovered that one of Dinkin’s duties as a code breaker had been to decipher telegraphic traffic that originated with the French OAS. 34

34: Dinkin as code breaker: transcript, New Orleans researchers' conference (September 21, 1968), pp.73-75.

 

 

Tom,

 

Here's a copy of the relevant pages from that New Orleans research conference. If they don't show up here as attached file, I'll try to copy and paste them.

 

Dinkin Garrrison Papers New Orleans Conference 9 21 1968 Pages 73 to 75.pdf

 

 

Steve Thomas

[Larry Hancock]

Hi Steve, I know this is old ground but could you just give the confirmation for that assertion of his code breaking job not to mention the OAS traffic...I'm still open to it, I just need to see something solid and all I see in the papers you linked to is the same old story..or have I missed it.

[Jason Ward]

On 10/30/2017 at 10:51 PM, Gene Kelly said:

A few things (not necessarily profound) that strike me as off or odd about the Dinkin story;

1. He is only 24 years old at the time
2. Mostly 2nd and 3rd hand information that is passed along (e.g. acquaintance Howard Cowen has girlfriend named Beth Cox, Cowen talks to Col. Adams, Dennis DeWitt tells Cowen) ... lots of whisper round the block
3. Dinkin was transferred out of the "Code Section" and sent to Metz Depot ... for a contentious stance on savings bonds?
4. Reminds one of the Newman's "dimming the lights" just before 11/22 - as with the Mexico City stories and FBI watch list removal - perhaps another tactic to "blackmail" FBI and CIA into burying a story that otherwise depicts knowledge of a credible threat that they didn't act upon
5. No one ever interviews (at least not documented) many of the peripheral players named (Pullen, Reynolds, Dr. Afar, R. Thomas) ... strange, given that a President has been murdered
6. Dewhirst (Newsweek) and DeWitt (acquaintance) seem to be a play on words (real names, real people?)
7. Didn't bring his concerns forward to his Army superiors (because he thought it was a high-level military plot?) ... seems hard to believe, as the first/best way taught for raising concerns in a government agency or a sensitive industry is to first go through your reporting chain ... there exist many layers (and good people) before the "high levels" are reached  
8. Having previously worked in a government agency, allegations (which is what this was) are taken very seriously, and failure to follow-up or document these is grounds for dismissal  
9. Civil action filed at some time in Brooklyn NY ... what was that about, and where did it end?
10. Shows up after 14 years at the HSCA's doorstep (actually wrote two letters in Feb/March 1977 to an investigator named Jacqueline Hess)
11. The Stars & Stripes psychological sets and subliminal programming seems a cover story ... a way of  avoiding criminal prosecution for divulging classified information (if indeed he was legitimate and a cryptographic technician).  He stated that his secret clearance was revoked ... and that's when he left the base, and started his unsuccessful Geneva travels  

Gene, you are almost alone as a voice of reason in this thread.  Steve Thomas is also maintaining an admirable insistence on evidence.

There is no evidence whatsoever dated prior to November 22, 1963 that Dinkin made any statement to anyone about the assassination of Kennedy or that Dinkin had advanced knowledge of the upcoming murder.  All there is evidence of is a journalist and the usual tin-foil-hat-wearing conspiracy theorists making up stories AFTER Kennedy was assassinated alleging an AWOL private heard about Kennedy's upcoming demise.  

It's equivalent to "predicting" Trump will win the presidency a few days after election results are in.

It's pure nonsense.

 

Jason

Edited November 11, 2017 by Jason Ward

[Steve Thomas]

10 hours ago, Larry Hancock said:

Hi Steve, I know this is old ground but could you just give the confirmation for that assertion of his code breaking job not to mention the OAS traffic...I'm still open to it, I just need to see something solid and all I see in the papers you linked to is the same old story..or have I missed it.

Larry,

 

No, I can't.

Like you, I would like to see his military service record, or a copy of his discharge papers, or something.

Not to mention the OAS angle. I'd like to see a copy of something that he supposedly intercepted.

Dinkin gave the names of several people to whom he told his story before he went AWOL. I would like to see first person accounts from those people of what he allegedly told them.

 

Steve Thomas