J. Walton Moore (CIA agent in Dallas)

[Ron Bulman]

On ‎8‎/‎7‎/‎2007 at 10:56 PM, Ron Ecker said:

What credibility?

Ah, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha.  Shame the quote doesn't encompass  the entire post it was in response to (ref cia).

[Ron Bulman]

On 11/12/2006 at 9:49 AM, Robert Howard said:

The controversy over J Walton Moore and the tie-in to George DeMohrenschildt was a very big news item in Dallas, Texas when the story "broke" in the local media. One of the 'investigative journalist's' covering the story was none other than Bill O'Reilly [my how the political weather can change] it was a very unfortunate event as far as the CIA was concerned, but the storm was weathered so to speak.

One item that bears mentioning is the use of pseudonym's, is it possible that the name Montrell Mills was a pseudonym ala John Scelso, I doubt it personally, but the name does not pop-up on the radar screen, which indicates to me that it is an avenue that should be looked at all the more closely

NOTE: There is also another document that pulls up on NARA re Montrell Mills, see below

AGENCY : CIA

RECORD NUMBER : 104-10248-10060

RECORDS SERIES : JFK

AGENCY FILE NUMBER : 80T01357A

ORIGINATOR : CIA

FROM : MILLS, MONTRELL

TO : [No To]

TITLE : OOC REPORT OF INVESTIGATION

DATE : 09/06/1960

PAGES : 1

DOCUMENT TYPE : PAPER - TEXTUAL DOCUMENT

SUBJECTS : REPORT; V.J.C.

CLASSIFICATION : UNCLASSIFIED

RESTRICTIONS : OPEN IN FULL

CURRENT STATUS : OPEN

DATE OF LAST REVIEW : 03/14/1998

COMMENTS : JFK40 : F28 : 1998.03.14.11:44:08:936109 :

See

http://www.nara.gov/cgi-bin/starfinder/3961/jfksnew.txt

Note Robert's comments.

[Craig Carvalho]

Some interesting information on this topic can be found in Norman Mailer's Oswald's Tale. In it De Mohrenschildt is quoted as having said that it was Moore who ultimately "sanctioned" the meeting with Oswald. This was during the time period that De Mohrenschildt had been organizing his business deal in Haiti.

During a luncheon meeting in late 1961 Moore made reference to De Mohrenschildt's knowledge of Minsk, and casually made the remark that an American ex-marine from Dallas had just returned from Minsk where he had worked in a radio and television factory. Later, in the summer of 1962 an associate of Moore's gave Oswald's Fort Worth address to De Mohrenschildt and suggested he make contact with Oswald as there was an "interest" in this individual.

Seeing this is an opportunity to gain further support for his Haitian business proposition De Mohrenschildt again contacted Moore asking for possible assistance from the U. S. Embassy in Haiti regarding his business affairs. Although no "quid pro quo" was explicitly implied by either Moore or De Mohrenschildt, both men made clear that cooperation in either venture would be greatly appreciated.

It is of value to note that prior to the assassination of President Kennedy, George De Mohrenschildt had been the only person to read Oswald's 50 page "historical diary". Mailer included the bulk of this diary in the appendix of his book. I have read through it several times. It struck me as odd in the sense that it did not read as a diary written by a young romantic recounting his days and nights in Mother Russia. Instead it was dry, analytical, almost sterile in it's description of Minsk the city, the factory in which he worked, and the working and living conditions as they existed there; more akin to what you would expect to hear during a CIA debriefing.

Edited October 28, 2019 by Craig Carvalho

[Larry Hancock]

I just finished blogging about this issue since Domestic Contacts is one of the areas where there is certainly a black hole in regard to correspondence and documents which should have contained files on Oswald.  Clearly Moore was advised to inquire into Oswald on his return and that should be documented as should the De Mohrenschildt contacts.  Yet we have no Domestic Operations documents at all - and we should have been looking for them.  In doing some checking with other researchers I find that not only do we not have any files from that group but we are unsure of what the distribution code should have been - and they should appear as a distribution office on several types of documents pertaining to him. Domestic Contacts and Domestic Operations is a really neglected area of research just as the Office of Security was before Malcolm really began to dig into it.    https://larryhancock.wordpress.com/

I'm certainly interested in whether anyone else has Domestic Contacts reports or distribution codes.

[Craig Carvalho]

Hello Larry,

I just read your most recent blog and have saved the page to my favorites. I will definitely be going back to read more. Great stuff!

The FBI's COINTELPRO program may have acted as a bridge of sorts between activities the CIA was prohibited against engaging in domestically. Yet this FBI program was far from being an "above boards", legitimate means of intelligence gathering.

I have often wondered in the past if the FBI hadn't intercepted any of Oswald's mail after returning to the States. During my reading of Oswald's Tale a fact that I had never been aware of jumped off the page and really shocked me. As I'm sure you know, Oswald had also mail ordered a .38 caliber pistol. By the time he ordered the Carcano from Klein's the pistol was nearly two months overdue. I believe it took roughly two weeks for the rifle to arrive at his P.O. box in Dallas, and when it did the pistol was there as well, (same day). What are the odds?

Thanks again for the link, and hope to speak with you again soon.

Regards,

Craig C. 

 

 

Edited October 24, 2019 by Craig Carvalho

[David Boylan]

Larry,

I've only looked at the Miami DCD. This major branch was run by Justin Gleichauf. Two of his guys were USAF Lt. Col Manny Chavez and Luis Rodriguez. Chavez was Col. William Bishop's main contact. DCD was responsible for the Caribbean Admissions Center. They had first dibs on any possible assets. Col Sam Kail also worked there. 

[Michael Clark]

3 hours ago, Larry Hancock said:

I just finished blogging about this issue since Domestic Contacts is one of the areas where there is certainly a black hole in regard to correspondence and documents which should have contained files on Oswald.  Clearly Moore was advised to inquire into Oswald on his return and that should be documented as should the De Mohrenschildt contacts.  Yet we have no Domestic Operations documents at all - and we should have been looking for them.  In doing some checking with other researchers I find that not only do we not have any files from that group but we are unsure of what the distribution code should have been - and they should appear as a distribution office on several types of documents pertaining to him. Domestic Contacts and Domestic Operations is a really neglected area of research just as the Office of Security was before Malcolm really began to dig into it.    https://larryhancock.wordpress.com/

I'm certainly interested in whether anyone else has Domestic Contacts reports or distribution codes.

Hi Larry,

 

I would keep my eye out for them if I knew what to look for. Can you give an example of what you are looking for?

 

 

[Larry Hancock]

Michael, that is part of the problem.  We know that domestic contacts was active in contacts with individuals traveling to communist countries:

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=33130&relPageId=36&search=domestic_contacts%20division

We know the CIA had to do some dancing around but eventually admitted that Oswald files may have been retained in separate places for certain periods of time and not in his central 201. 

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=33130&search=domestic_contacts+division#relPageId=31&tab=pag

What we need are some samples of actual domestic contacts documents so we can see what the officer routing headers are,  the sorts of information we are now familiar with for Plans/Operations, CI,. Security etc.  If we can find that we can look at documents from other groups within the CIA and see if anything on Oswald was being routed to them...and from whom.  At this point I'm just beginning to realize we have talked about Domestic Contacts and Domestic Operations for decades but we don't seem to have the sort of document collection we now have on the other CIA departments.  Or perhaps someone does and its just not me. 

I've asked David to help by looking at the documents from Miami where they did run a screening center....which interestingly enough was staffed by people from the JMWAVE Cuban Intelligence group.  Perhaps that will help. At this point I wish I knew exactly what to look for but logically there must have been a domestic contacts file on Oswald given not only Moore's activity in Dallas but simply the overall tasking and mission of the group.  The FBI approached him and asked for help and he agreed; why would the CIA not have done the same?

 

[Larry Hancock]

Craig, on you comment about FBI mail intercepts. Actually we know that the FBI did intercept his mail coming into the US including his magazine subscriptions; he complained to the Post Office about that. have often wondered in the past if the FBI hadn't intercepted any of Oswald's mail after returning to the States.  For that matter he was placed on an FBI watch list and that suggests that in New Orleans and Dallas later, his post office boxes might have been monitored (we often forget that his claim to be an FPCC officer should have kept him on the watch list, which included all those individuals who were to be picked up in case of war or a national security emergency).

A few years back we also have an FBI document which shows the mailing address of his brother had been changed - again suggesting that they were monitoring Oswald's mail and tracking his communications.  Strangely enough we have nothing else in the files to support that - but that is likely because the regional office Section 5 / Subversive files were likely destroyed.

Its all part of the overall picture that teases us that agencies were much more focused on him than they would want to admit later...

[Larry Hancock]

OK, working this in real time with David.  Per the following document it looks like the routing "slug" for Domestic Contacts is "DCD" - which is Domestic Contacts Division which certainly makes sense.  That would be followed by information on the generating or designated field office, in the case below Miami. 

Note how widely the information in this particular domestic contact report is shared including SecDef, JCS, Air Defense Command and NORAD.  That's unusual but so was the incident; however it does make the point some types of information were widely shared by the CIA and vice versa.

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=72673&search="manuel_chavez"#relPageId=2&tab=page

So to the question, if you see a document going or coming related to Oswald and see "DCD" as either the originator or on the distribution list...give a shout.   There really should have been a bunch given on how many we see for much lower profile individuals than Oswald.

By the way, looking at some other documents David is sending me now,  headquarters for Domestic Collections appears to be designated as "C/CD/CIA" which of course is chief, collections division, CIA

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=40162&search=Gleichauf#relPageId=1&tab=page

Now we know what to look for...find an Oswald document with DCD on it or with routing to C/CD/CIA and we are off to the races.

 

 

[Paul Brancato]

15 hours ago, David Boylan said:

Larry,

I've only looked at the Miami DCD. This major branch was run by Justin Gleichauf. Two of his guys were USAF Lt. Col Manny Chavez and Luis Rodriguez. Chavez was Col. William Bishop's main contact. DCD was responsible for the Caribbean Admissions Center. They had first dibs on any possible assets. Col Sam Kail also worked there. 

Interesting. Colonel Kail was definitely a contact of ACSI. I believe he and Dorothe Matlack met with DeMohrenschildt after he left Dallas and went to Haiti. Colonel Rose at ACSI suggested Kail as a contact for Colonel Frank Brandstetter. So basically Colonel Kail was Army Intelligence and CIA, another example of the thin line between the two.

is the Colonel Haig mentioned in the Califano doc on Kail Alexander Haig?

is Colonel William Bishop the same as mentioned in your other doc? He is not identified as a Colonel in that doc. The General Tabernilla he worked for was a Cuban General. 

Edited October 25, 2019 by Paul Brancato

[David Boylan]

On 10/25/2019 at 11:01 AM, Paul Brancato said:

Interesting. Colonel Kail was definitely a contact of ACSI. I believe he and Dorothe Matlack met with DeMohrenschildt after he left Dallas and went to Haiti. Colonel Rose at ACSI suggested Kail as a contact for Colonel Frank Brandstetter. So basically Colonel Kail was Army Intelligence and CIA, another example of the thin line between the two.

is the Colonel Haig mentioned in the Califano doc on Kail Alexander Haig?

is Colonel William Bishop the same as mentioned in your other doc? He is not identified as a Colonel in that doc. The General Tabernilla he worked for was a Cuban General. 

Hi Paul,

Col. Haig was indeed Alexander Haig.

Col William Bishop is also the same guy as Clarence Ward Bishop. Bishop did work for Tabernilla. Tabernilla "promoted" him to Colonel. Bishop was running a training camp for Tabernilla and later Rolando Masferrer.  Felipe and Ivan Vidal also trained there with Bishop.

 

[Steve Thomas]

On 10/24/2019 at 8:14 PM, Larry Hancock said:

I've asked David to help by looking at the documents from Miami where they did run a screening center.

 

Larry,

Posted by James Richards on July 11, 2007 (edited) in the Education Forum

Cryptonym: JMFIG

JMFIG is defined as the "Opa-locka Naval Base. Opa-locka CAC (note: Caribbean Admissions Center)

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

 

198-10004-10157 MOVEMENT OF THE CARIBBEAN ADMISSION CENTER (CAC) 1

Background on the use of the Opa-locka facility. "The Caribbean Admission Center was established in March 1962 as a joint DOD/CIA operation under CIA operational control and Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) cover..." See https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=19773#relPageId=10&tab=page

- it shows that "CIA's Domestic Contact Division (DCD) had primary responsibility for obtaining positive intelligence interest from refugees." DCD officers conducted interviews with refugees at the CAC.

 

Steve Thomas

[Larry Hancock]

Yes Steve, David B. was indicating that with all the documents he has from Miami which relate to interviews at the screening center.  The center was officially under DCS but most of the interviewing of the refugees and exiles was done by the Cuban Intel Group under JMWAVE because they had the language ability to carry that off.

DCS overall had the responsibility for interviewing refugees and exiles that might have useful information as well as Americans who had been in communist countries like Russia and Cuba...you see that in several of the document links I posted.

It would have been standard operating practices to interview Oswald after his time in Russia, and to collect information on his experiences and contacts there.  And clearly headquarters advised Dallas of his return and directed that information be obtained about he and Marina.  Some information may have already been obtained directly form him as soon as he arrived back in the U.S; there are indications that did happen.

 

 

[Ron Bulman]

You guys are getting deep for me again though it's important and I try to follow along.  But regarding Moore I've wondered about him as a funnel, a conduit.  If any other information on him was available.  I.E. speculation yes, might Moore as head CIA agent in Dallas have been operating on orders from say Angleton, Helms, even Dulles, through a subordinate?  Might he have established communication with De Mohrenshild as well as those east coast establishment Paine's and directed their activities further?  Any evidence, anything even worthy of pursuit?