Jim Root

Don Do you know if the "occupants of motorcade press bus #1" wore great big red press cards pinned on their coats? 'I saw Jack and two out-of-state reporters, whom I did not know, leave the elevator door and proceed toward those television cameras, to go around the corner where Captain Fritz's office was. Jack walked between them. these two out-of-state reporters had big press cards pinned on their coats, great big red ones, I think they said "President Kennedy's Visit to Dallas-Press", or something like that. And Jack didn't have one, but the man on either side of him did. and they walked pretty rapidly from the elevator area past the policeman, and Jack was bent over like this-writting on a piece of paper, and talking to one of the reporters, and pointing to something on the peice of paper, he was kind of hynched over." Newsman John Rutledge (WC Report Pg 340) Jim Root

Pamela Do you know if there has ever been any movement in the attempt to retrieve the bullet fragment from Connelly's wrist and thigh? 06/18/1993 Connally Takes Bullet Pieces to Grave By George Lardner Jr. Washington Post Staff Writer Former Texas governor John B. Connally was buried in an east Austin cemetery yesterday after a frantic and unsuccessful effort to get family permission to extract bullet fragments left in his body almost 30 years ago. FBI officials in Dallas had recommended that an attempt be made to recover the evidence and settle a long-standing controversy about whether Connally was hit by the same bullet that wounded President John F. Kennedy on Nov. 22, 1963, just before Kennedy was killed by another bullet that tore into his skull. Dallas FBI agent Oliver B. Revell said he feared that a barrage of lawsuits would be discomfiting to the Connally family in the years ahead unless the fragments were recovered. "We hate to intrude into the family's grief," Revell said a few hours before the final graveside ceremonies, "but it's going to happen sooner or later. I'm afraid the family is going to be harassed on this until it's resolved." The "single bullet" or "magic bullet" theory was crucial to the Warren Commission's findings that Lee Harvey Oswald, acting alone, killed the president and wounded Connally as the two men rode together in a motorcade through downtown Dallas. Connally's family and friends were upset and angry about the last-minute hubbub over the bullet fragments, which began Wednesday with requests from Kennedy assassination researchers urging the Justice Department to step in. A spokesman at Justice said officials attempted to contact the family yesterday morning after receiving the FBI recommendation but were unsuccessful. "It's really offensive," said George Christian, a longtime Connally friend and once his press secretary. "Nobody in the Connally family that I know of ever heard of these fragments." Revell said there was a fragment in one of Connally's thighs and perhaps some traces in a wrist. The nonprofit Assassination Archives and Research Center urged Attorney General Janet Reno on Wednesday to secure the fragments and compare them, using neutron activation analysis and other sophisticated tests, with the nearly intact bullet the Warren Commission said the pieces came from. The bullet was found on a hospital stretcher and was believed to have dropped out of Connally's thigh. "If the family would agree and we can examine those under current technology," Revell said, "we could do one of two things. We could say, 'Yes, indeed, this was the bullet (that hit both men) and there is no basis for saying there were additional shots. But if the mass and metallurgy don't match, we've got a different ballgame." Some bullet fragments were extracted from Connally's wrist at Parkland Hospital in 1963. Tests in 1977 for the House assassinations committee matched several bits with the "pristine bullet," but questions about the authenticity of the pieces arose because they did not have the same weight as fragments tested years earlier - and inconclusively - by the FBI. The FBI's fragments disappeared. Connally's body lay in state in the state capitol for two hours yesterday morning and then was carried across the street to First United Methodist Church, where he and his wife, Nellie, were married 52 years ago. Among those at the funeral service were former president Richard M. Nixon, Treasury Secretary Lloyd Bentsen, and Texas Gov. Ann Richards. Lady Bird Johnson delivered a eulogy, remembering that "John was always the `can do' man, as Lyndon would say." Twenty years ago, Connally delivered a eulogy for her husband, former president Lyndon B. Johnson. Special correspondent Elizabeth Hudson in Austin contributed to this report. What is your take on neutron activation analysis to test the various bullets and fragments in this case? Where do you think the Connelly thigh wounding bullet was fired from? Thank you for your great paper! Jim Root

I brought back this post to go along with the Dallas City Manager info being discussed at this time. I attempted to incorporate it into that thread but was unable to accomplish that task successfully. Hopefully this works. A few weeks ago I began a Topic about the two "reporters" with Jack Ruby at the DPD the night of the assassination. As of this time I have had no response but thought I would provide this additional information. What are your thoughts about these portions of the Warren Report. I heard a great deal of the newsreel tape was distroyed but I have never seen the two men with "badges," such as are discribed by John Rutledge. "At 9:00 p.m. he (Ruby) telphoned Ralph Paul but was unable to persuade Paul to join him at synagogue services." (WC Report, Pg 338) "From his apartment, Ruby drove to Temple Shearith Israel, arriving near the end of a 2-hour service which had begun at 8 p.m." (WC Report, Pg 339) "Ruby is known to have made his way, by about 11:30 p.m., to the third floor of the Dallas Police Department..." (WC Report, Pg 339) 'I saw Jack and two out-of-state reporters, whom I did not know, leave the elevator door and proceed toward those television cameras, to go around the corner where Captain Fritz's office was. Jack walked between them. these two out-of-state reporters had big press cards pinned on their coats, great big red ones, I think they said "President Kennedy's Visit to Dallas-Press", or something like that. And Jack didn't have one, but the man on either side of him did. and they walked pretty rapidly from the elevator area past the policeman, and Jack was bent over like this-writting on a piece of paper, and talking to one of the reporters, and pointing to something on the peice of paper, he was kind of hynched over." Newsman John Rutledge (WC Report Pg 340) "Detective Augustus M. Eberhardt, who also recalled that he first saw Ruby earlier in the evening, said Ruby carried a note pad and professed to be a translator for the Israeli press." (WC Report Pg. 342) He accompanied the newsmen to the basement to observe Oswald. His presence at the midnight news conference is established by television tapes and by at least 12 witnesses." (WC Report Pg. 342) When questioned about his (Ruby) lie detector test this information is gleaned from the administrator of the test: (Testimony of Bell P. Herndon) Mr. Specter. Will movement or speaking cause a variation in the tracings ordinarily, Mr. Herndon? Mr. Herndon. Yes. Body movements or speaking any phrase or sentence would certainly cause changes in the physiological patterns as displayed on the polygraph. <span style='color:red'>I made notation of that, however, and that explains the changes On question No. 2, Mr. Ruby did show a significant drop in the relative blood pressure. This question pertained to: "Did you go to the Dallas police station at any time on Friday November 22, 1963, before you went to the synagogue? I asked him about this question later when he responded "No," and I noticed a physiological change. He advised that there was some man by the name of John Rutledge, and he made an association with proceedings at the trial which I have reason to believe this gentleman, John Rutledge, differed with what Ruby stated as to when he went to the synagogue.</span><span style='color:blue'>Due to the nature of this change, however, it is possible that it was caused by a body motion that I failed to detect during the actual response.</span> I notice that the cardio pen dropped all the way down and hit what we call the limit screws. This frequently is caused by a sudden rapid shift in his body position, and this change could have been caused by a body movement. With regard to the other relevant questions in this series, question 4, question 6, and question 8, there was no significant deviation from his normal physiological patterns. (Warren Commission Hearings: Vol. XIV - Page 594) It seems Jack Ruby may have been nervous about answering questions that delt with Rutledge's, who identified him with the "two out of state" newsmen, testimony and his trip to the synagogue. This particular question created a "a physiological change" or was it just body motion that Herndon, " failed to detect during the actual response"? Jim Root

David Since you bring up Robert Morris perhaps you have more information than I do. Here is what I know. Morris was involved with the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee that was established by Senator Pat McCarran. I have always looked as the McCarran Act as an extention of the Smith Act. The registration of Communists was the intention and it passed by a wide margin after a Veto by Truman. I have always wondered if this act gave the government the ability to monitor and watch a person like Oswald that early in his life began to talk about his admiration for Communist/Marxist ideology. The Morris Walker connection is usually given in a "right wing" type of connection but I wounder if it had more of an intelligence collection/exchange capacity instead. Your thoughts. Jim Root

Greg I was rereading your timeline and realize that you left out Ruby's actions on the night of the 22nd. What are your thoughts about these portions of the Warren Report. I'm trying to identify the two reporters Oswald was with. I heard a great deal of the newsreel tape was distroyed but I have never seen two men with "badges" on such as are discribed by John Rutledge. "At 9:00 p.m. he telphoned Ralph Paul but was unable to persuade Paul to join him at synagogue services." (WC Report, Pg 338) "From his apartment, Ruby drove to Temple Shearith Israel, arriving near the end of a 2-hour service which had begun at 8 p.m." (WC Report, Pg 339) "Ruby is known to have made his way, by about 11:30 p.m., to the third floor of the Dallas Police Department..." (WC Report, Pg 339) 'I saw Jack and two out-of-state reporters, whom I did not know, leave the elevator door and proceed toward those television cameras, to go around the corner where Captain Fritz's office was. Jack walked between them. these two out-of-state reporters had big press cards pinned on their coats, great big red ones, I think they said "President Kennedy's Visit to Dallas-Press", or something like that. And Jack didn't have one, but the man on either side of him did. and they walked pretty rapidly from the elevator area past the policeman, and Jack was bent over like this-writting on a piece of paper, and talking to one of the reporters, and pointing to something on teh peice of paper, he was kind of hynched over." Newsman John Rutledge (WC Report Pg 340) "Detective Augustus M. Eberhardt, who also recalled that he first saw Ruby earlier in the evening, said Ruby carried a note pad and professed to be a translator for the Israeli press." (WC Report Pg. 342) He accompanied the newsmen to the basement to observe Oswald. His presence at the midnight news conference is established by television tapes and by at least 12 witnesses." (WC Report Pg. 342) When questioned during his lie detector test we find this information: (Testimony of Bell P. Herndon) Mr. Specter. Will movement or speaking cause a variation in the tracings ordinarily, Mr. Herndon? Mr. Herndon. Yes. Body movements or speaking any phrase or sentence would certainly cause changes in the physiological patterns as displayed on the polygraph. I made notation of that, however, and that explains the changes On question No. 2, Mr. Ruby did show a significant drop in the relative blood pressure. This question pertained to: "Did you go to the Dallas police station at any time on Friday November 22, 1963, before you went to the synagogue? I asked him about this question later when he responded "No," and I noticed a physiological change. He advised that there was some man by the name of John Rutledge, and he made an association with proceedings at the trial which I have reason to believe this gentleman, John Rutledge, differed with what Ruby stated as to when he went to the synagogue.Due to the nature of this change, however, it is possible that it was caused by a body motion that I failed to detect during the actual response. I notice that the cardio pen dropped all the way down and hit what we call the limit screws. This frequently is caused by a sudden rapid shift in his body position, and this change could have been caused by a body movement. With regard to the other relevant questions in this series, question 4, question 6, and question 8, there was no significant deviation from his normal physiological patterns. (Warren Commission Hearings: Vol. XIV - Page 594) It seems Jack Ruby may have been nervous about answering questions that delt with Rutledge's, who identified him with the "two out of state" newsmen, testimony. This particular question created a "a physiological change" or was it just body motion that Herndon, " failed to detect during the actual response"? Jim Root

Steve The Russell book is an example of the use of the Walker story by one person while many other researchers discount that Oswald participated in the attempted assassination of Walker. An event did happen and is part of the record to be discounted or accepted by each, their choice. What I have tried to introduce is the General Walker that, as a military man, was deeply involved in intelligence operations. Something I believe few have ever offered up in this debate. I ran a thread on the German newpaper's history and story on this website. Here is a copy of what I wrote at the time. On the 29th of November 1963 the Deutsche National und Soldaten-Zeitung published an article that accused Lee Harvey Oswald of having been the person who had shot at General Edwin A. Walker on April 10, 1963. When Walker was questioned by Mr. Liebeler of the Warren Commission on July 23, 1964 he was asked about a phone call he received at the Captain Shreve Hotel in Shreveport, Louisiana on November 23, 1963 at about 7:00 a.m. Mr. Liebeler: "Did you talk to him on a transatlantic telephone call in which you told him about the alleged fact that Lee Harvey Oswald was the person who made an attempt on your life?" Gen. Walker: "I don't recall that name. Did he speak English? I don't speak German." Needless to say the Testimony of Edwin A. Walker is interesting to say the least, perhaps misleading for a purpose. I find it interesting that the same day this article appeared in Germany the Warren Commission was established. (And that the information in the article mirrors the Warren Reports conlussions dealing with the Walker shooting) The FBI did not suspect the connection between the Walker shooting and the Kennedy assassination until "the weekend of November 30, 1963." (CE 2524) The FBI interviewed Marina Oswald about her husbands invovement in the attempt to assassinate General Walker on December 2, 1963. (CE 2545) How did Hasso Thorsten know that Edwin Walker would be at the Captain Shreve Hotel at 7:00 a.m. on the morning of Nov 24th and from whom did Mr. Thorsten get the telephone number of the hotel that Walker was staying in? Walker lived in Dallas, Texas and had been traveling around the country on speaking engagements. He, to my knowledge, had no plans to speak in Shreveport on the two days that he stayed there (Nights of Nov. 23 and 24). Is it possible that Walker, after seeing Oswald's picture on the television news recognized him? How would Walker, an outspoken critic of Kennedy, react to the assassination if he did in fact recognize Oswald? Begining in 1951, while Warren Commissioner John J. McCloy was the High Commissioner for Germany, till 1959 this same German paper had been published under the name, Die Deutsche Soldaten-Zeitung. The creation of this publication in 1951 was reportedly funded by the CIA. And a followup Post Dave Thank you for the information. It concurs with alot that I have gathered over the years. The one question still: How did Thorsten know where Walker was? My belief is that Walker first contacted Thorsten or had a seragate contact him to arrange the interview immediatly after Oswald was arrested. Did Walker have a reason to fear Oswald alive and in custody (read The Testimony of Jack Ruby)? Walker did another interview with a Canadian paper in the days after Oswald was shot and no mention of the attempt on his life or the connection between the two was made. The only thing that I see that changed was that Oswald was now dead and dead men tell no tales (Walker mentions something to that effect in his testimony before the Warren Commission). While this may sound a little odd check out when Walker took command of the 24th Infantry Division, October of 1959. He left Little Rock, Arkansas and traveled to Germany early in October. Was he perhaps on a flight out of London on the 9th or even at the airport in London. Just a strange coincidence of timing I guess. The connection of Frey to a CIA financed newpaper (created while McCloy was High Commissioner of Germany and a person who pardoned many Nazi's during his tenure as High Commissioner) and Gehlen makes Walker's story, if initiated by Walker all the more intriguing, but only if Walker would have some connection to the CIA or some sort of covert opps (like running the Greek desk at the Pentagon during the Greek Civil War) that would put a person like him in contact with a person like Oswald. If the question about who initiated the call and why could be answered it would be very helpful to me. Perhaps also, who made the connection that (according to Thorsten and the Warren Commission) Oswald had shot at Walker? Jim Root

Shanet (Somebody passed Oswald the information generated by the US Embassy in Helsinki on Oct. 9, 1959. Oswald's diversion from France to England and travel in England on Oct. 9, 1959 is contray to his "frugal" nature. Walker is well connected to Military Intelligence. If Walker was the man that passed this info to Oswald) I see Oswald as a man that is so upset that the Parsi Summit was wreaked by the downing of the U-2 that when he returns to the US and recognizes Walker from newpaper and magazine articles decides to act against a man that is portrayed as so anti-communist that it would be easy for Oswald to believe that Walker had in fact sabotaged the Summit. (I believe all the info on the U-2 had already been passed while Oswald was in Japan, not that Oswald carried any info with him into the Soviet Union. I do not think that, "Walker had squired him into Finland USSR with papers on how to sink the U2") Oswald follows Walker to a speaking engagement, perhaps to see if it is really him, and begins stalking him. He takes pictures of his house and begins planning, in a closet at his apartment, to assassinate a "right wing" nut that Oswald believes may have destroyed the warming relations between the Soviet Union and the US. Walker is totally unaware of who Oswald is until after the assassination when he recognizes his picture on television as one of hundreds of people that Walker has passed information to at airports, train stations and parks during his work in military intelligence. Believing that he may, in fact, be set up as a fall guy for the assassination because of his association with Oswald or because he knows (because of contact with Oswald) that Oswald is an agent of some sort, Walker is in fear for his own life. Walker recognizes that his work within the "right wing" will make him a suspect in the assassination conspiracy investigation. In panic he makes contact with a German newspaper that prints, based on an interview with General Walker, a story about Oswald shooting at Walker. The German newpaper/Walker assassination attempt story is another thing that must, by necessity, now be folded into the assassination story that is being fabricated by the Warren Commission. It is, in this senario, the single most important story that cannot be believed and must be lost to history! Otherwise someone might look into Walker's military record and might discover that his connections bring the assassination to close to to many important people. Oswald is killed. Walker denies providing information for the story but admits making the call (phone logs prove this call was made) and that he spoke with the author of the German newpaper story. To date, most conspiracy researchers do not want to accept any possible senario that suggests that Oswald shot at Walker. Perhaps we cannot see the forrest for the trees. It provides a logical connection to the intelligence community. Walker was taveling in the same area at the same time as Oswald. The records of Oswalds travel and the flight records that would have provided names of who was on the plane that Oswald took to Helsinki vanished. The CIA statement that there was "no direct flight" while true is a coverup when you find the cost of the flight was exactly $111.90. Walker is strongly connected to Taylor. But why should we entertain any such possible senario if it does not fit our own? By the way, I'll accept others in Dealey Plaza that were placed by someone (Taylor?) that knew where Oswald was. It was the perfect crime. Jim Root

Shanet Just for discussion: How about Oswald as a shooter with a motive that would blow the roof off the CIA, the Pentagon and the executive branch? Just for discussion. Jim Root

Greg Oswald was in a big legal mess, to say the least. If he was being set up, he either knew it or he did not. To me, the fact that he was so adament about Abt rather than getting just any attorney, makes me believe that he had some insight into the problem he was encountering. The fact that he wanted an attorney that had worked on cases dealing with those charged with attempting to overthrow the government of the United States leads me to believe that he was already planning his defense. The fact that the Warren Commission seems to have wanted to mislead the general public about Abt's backround (Oswald's request for Apt the Smith Act Attorney vs Abt the ACLU Attorney) has me seeing this as another piece of the puzzle. Jim Root

John I have found one statement by a former West Point classmate that indicates that at some time Walker may have been married for a brief period. My research of Walker seems to suggest that this is not true and that he never was married. General Edwin Anderson Walker has a nephew by the same name. As I understand it he, or his family, were the ones that deposited the General Walker papers at the University of Texas. These papers are restricted from researchers. I would love to have an opportunity to get into them. His Aunt was a well know actress of the time named Charlotte Walker. She was very active on the New York stage during the period preceding and while Walker was attending West Point and there is some indication that Walker may have appeared in a play himself during the summer of his junior year. I can imagine this connection may have induced visits to the Broadway scene of that day. Charlotte Walker's daughter attained a degree of recognition in movies. Her name was Sara Haden and is best remembered for her role as Aunt Milly Forrest in the Andy Hardy series of movies with Mickey Rooney. Family includes Charles Ganahl who signed the Ordinance of Succession for Texas during the Civil War period. I do believe the following are living relatives: Ganahl Walker, Jr. (a historian of some note on the "Hill Country" of Texas) Charles Ganahl Walker IV Edwin Anderson Walker (nephew) I have additional genealogy info but it is stored at a different location. Jim Root

Al My vintage rifle of the same era has the cleaning rod stored under the barrel. Does the rifle found in the TSBD building have the same configuration? The one remaining bullet "was necessary" to match the neutron activation analysis of the recovered bullet fragments from the Kennedy and Connally shooting with the Walker bullet. That test was done in 1977 by the HSCA. Jim Root

It disappoints me that so many people are unwilling to deal with the Walker incident. It is as if researchers have closed the door on this topic in a misguided belief that if they accept the incident as real they will be embracing a part of the Warren Report. Needless to say I have embraced it as true but feel that Walker, himself, is a window into a world of mirrors. In most debates that I involve myself in on the subject of the assassination of John F. Kennedy, I find they are usually ended when the person accross from me gets to the point of saying that the atempted assassination of Walker by Oswald cannot be proved or there is no evidence. If anything in this case had been "proved" we would not be here attempting to prove or disprove something! I have reproduced Epstein's collection of the known information about the supporting evidence surrounding the Walker incident. Add to the list that George De Mohrenschildt "commited suicide" after an interview with Epstein that was to be followed by an additional interview the next day. There topic was the Walker assassination attempt. "On 29th March, 1977, Epstein and De Mohrenschildt, broke for lunch and decided to meet again at 3 p.m. George De Mohrenschildt returned to his room where he found a card from Gaeton Fonzi, an investigator working for the Select House Committee on Assassinations. George De Mohrenschildt's body was found later that day. He had apparently committed suicide by shooting himself in the mouth." From, Education on the Internet & Teaching History Online From Epstein: The "Neutron Activation Analysis done in 1977 (by the HSCA) exactly matched the metallic elements found in the bullet that was recovered in Walker's home to the batch of Mannlicher-Carcano ammunition used in Oswald's rifle in the assassination of Kennedy.... the House Select Committee employed a very advanced form of neutron activation analysis to match the recovered bullet and fragments to the ammunition used in the Mannlicher Carcano. In this technique, traces from the ballistic evidence are bombarded by neutrons in a nuclear reactor so that the precise composition of elements-- antimony, silver, and copper-- can be measured by their emissions on a gamma-ray spectrometer to an accuracy of one-billionth of a gram. The composition of traces from the bullet and fragments were thus compared to that of the unfired bullet found in the chamber of the Mannlicher-Carcano and found to exactly match." "On April 10, 1963, Lee Harvey Oswald attempted to assassinate General Edwin Walker, a right- wing leader in Dallas with a high-powered rifle, after aborting a previous attempt on April 5th. The evidence of this assassination attempt includes the testimony of his wife, Marina Oswald, a note in his handwriting Russian describing what Marina should do, after the Walker shooting, if he were arrested, killed or had to go into hiding, photographs of Walker's house from the sniper's position taken by Oswald's camera and pasted into Oswald's scrapbook, and a Neutron Activation test that showed that the metallic elements found in the bullet that was recovered in Walker's home matched the ammunition used in Oswald's rifle in the assassination of Kennedy (This technology for this test, done in 1977, did not exist in 1963). Oswald had told a number of people he knew that someone should shoot Walker a month prior to the shooting, and, on April 5th, when he made his first attempt, he had Marina take a photograph of him dressed in black, armed to kill with a rifle and telescopic sight, and holding in his hand the radical newspaper, The Militant. Those who reportedly knew that he was a self-styled assassin include: 1) Marina Oswald. She testified to the Warren Commission that when Oswald returned on the evening of April 10th, he explained to her that he had just attempted to kill General Edwin Walker with his rifle. 2) George De Mohrenschildt. He had seen Oswald's sniper's rifle. He had heard Oswald make rabid threats against Walker the prior month. He had received the photograph which was signed "For George, Lee Harvey Oswald" and dated April 5th, 1963 (Oswald's first attempt on Walker). If he had any doubts why Oswald was holding the rifle in the photo, Marina had scribbled on back in Russian "Hunter of Fascists. Ha. Ha" After he heard on the radio that a sniper had fired a shot at General Walker and, next day, he went over to Oswald's house to find out what had happened to the rifle. According to Marina's testimony, he had rushed up the stairs, and said "Lee, how did you miss General Walker?" 3) Jean De Mohrenschildt. According to Mohrenschildt, he had told his wife in April 1963, when he left Dallas to go to Washington DC. 4) J. Walter Moore, a CIA officer working in the CIA's Domestic Contact Division in Dallas, according to De Mohrenschildt. De Mohrenschildt told me that he had reported the Walker assassination attempt and the telltale "Hunter of Fascists" photograph to Moore. 5)Eusebio Azque, the Cuban counsel in Mexico City. Marina testified that Oswald brought photos of the Walker shooting to Mexico to support his request for a visa to go to Cuba. According to witnesses at the consulate, Oswald showed these photographs to Azque, and became involved in a heated argument with him about his bona fides as a Pro-Castro revolutionary." Epstein I believe the Warren Report is a masterful cover-up of a great deal of information. The beginning of Walker’s testimony becomes a striking example when you open the book on Walkers military "background." Development of Special Forces, Special Operations, Covert War (Greece), etc., etc., etc. and close association with Maxwell Taylor. From the Testimony of Edwin Anderson Walker Q) Would you state your full name for the record, please? A) Edwin A. Walker. A stands for Anderson. Q) What is your address? A) 4011 Turtle Creek Boulevard, Dallas, Tex. Q) How long have you lived there? A) I believe since December of 1961 or January of 1962. I am not sure of the month I moved in. Q) I don't think we have to indicate a great deal of your background for the record, since I think we all know who you are, but you are a retired major general, are you not? A) No. I am former major general, now resigned from the U.S. Army. I have used the phrase, "Forrest Gump like life" to describe General Walker. He is always everywhere but people seem to ignore his life as many people ignore the simpleton or homeless person they see on the streets of there own hometowns. As researchers, weather we like it or not, General Edwin Anderson Walker, is on our turf. Do we continue to ignore him or do we face the reality of this ugly truth? Jim Root

Within the Warren Commission Report are many conclusions that, upon reexamination, may have been at best misleading and quite possibly part of a cover up. A year or so ago I wrote the following paper. For myself it was an opportunity to gather information on a small part of the Warren Report. What I found was misinformation and some posible reasons why the misinformation may have been produced. You decide. ATTORNEY FOR THE DEFENSE, JONATHAN ABT Can anything be logical about the actions of the man who was charged with shooting the President of the United States? The Warren Commission suggests that Lee Harvey Oswald was a “lone nut” assassin, not a rational person. If Oswald had a motive its content was lost to history at the exact moment that Jack Ruby recklessly ended Oswald’s life on the morning of November 25th 1963. But like so many anomalies in this case, Oswald, the irrational nut, knew whom he wanted as his attorney, Jonathan Abt. And, while Lee Harvey Oswald let everyone know why he wanted Jonathan Abt, the Warren Commission was hesitant to share that information in their conclusion! The name John Abt was mentioned repeatedly by Oswald while he was in the custody of the Dallas Police. There exists about forty pages of written documentation, filed by the men who interrogated Oswald, that appear in Appendix XI of the Warren Report that attests to this interesting, yet under investigated, subplot within the assassination drama. Each person present tells a similar story. Captain Will Fritz: “Oswald asked if he was allowed an attorney and I told him he could have any attorney he liked, and that the telephone would be available to him up in the jail and he could call anyone he wished. I believe it was during this interview that he first expressed a desire to talk to Mr. Abt, an attorney in New York.” Lee Harvey Oswald turned 24 years old in October of 1963, just a month before the assassination of John F. Kennedy. For myself I found it surprising to see that Oswald knew the name of the attorney that he wanted to represent him in the earliest of interviews with detectives. He also knew where attorney Jonathan Abt lived. My mind began to contemplate, “How many 24 year olds, living in Texas, would know the name of an attorney in New York?” It is true that Oswald had lived in New York at one time but how did he know about this particular attorney, Jonathan Abt? During a subsequent interrogation, Captain Will Fritz would reveal that Oswald knew even more about Jonathan Abt than just his name: “He (Oswald) reminded me that he did not have to answer any questions at all until he talked to his attorney, and I told him again that he could have an attorney any time he wished. He said he didn’t have money to pay for a phone call to Mr. Abt. I told him to call ‘collect.’ If he liked, to use the jail phone or that he could have another attorney if he wished. He said he didn’t want another attorney, he wanted to talk to this attorney first. I believe he made this call later as he thanked me later during one of our interviews for allowing him the use of the telephone. I explained to him that all prisoners were allowed to use the telephone. I asked him why he wanted Mr. Abt, instead of some available attorney. He told me he didn’t know Mr. Abt personally but that he was familiar with a case where Mr. Abt defended some people for a violation of the Smith Act….” The Smith Act, actually the Alien Registration Act, was adopted by congress at 54 Statutes at Large 670-671 (1940) on June 29, 1940. Authored by Representative Howard W. Smith of Virginia, it was signed into law by President Franklin Roosevelt. Smith, a fifth term congressman at the time, would continue to serve in congress untill1967. The intent of the Alien Registration Act was to make it illegal for any person to advocate, abet, or teach the desirability of overthrowing the government of the United States. The law also required all foreign residents of the United States that were over the age of 14 to register as aliens. Within five months of passage (November of 1940) over 4,741,971 persons had complied with the obligations of the Act. Each registered alien was required to make a statement that included their occupational status and information about their political beliefs. It was the first statute since the Alien and Sedition act of 1798 to make the mere advocacy of ideas a federal crime. (Michael Steven Smith, About the Smith Act Trials) The government’s ability to register and process so many individuals in such a short span of time was a reflection of the crisis that was, at that time, destroying the world order. John J. McCloy, the newly appointed Assistant Secretary of War at this time, advocated the collection of information on potential saboteurs within the United States. The Smith Act provided the vehicle to accomplish his goal. John J. McCloy had made his reputation as the attorney that broke the Black Tom case (dealing with German sabotage during World War I at the Black Tom pier in New York). His decades spent unraveling the covert operations of German espionage during World War I made him an ideal candidate to help Secretary of War Stimson upgrade the military intelligence apparatus. In 1941 the Smith Act was used to prosecute leaders of the Socialist Workers Party. At the time the United States was being driven toward an alliance with the Soviet Union against Germany which had invaded Russia. The Communist Party in America fully supported its use by the government of the United States against their “Trotskyist” political opponents. The later use of the Smith Act would involve Jonathan Abt. Historians who disagree with the conclusions of the Warren Commission Report have criticized the officers that questioned Oswald. An argument is made that since the various Dallas Police detectives and the FBI and Secrete Service agents present did not tape record or keep their detailed notes of all the Oswald interrogations, the written reports must be incomplete. The truth is that at the time of Oswald’s arrest, the Dallas Police Department did not own a tape recorder. For better or worse the majority of information that survives, survives within the numerous volumes of the Warren Commission Report. It is these written reports, made by the people who witnessed the interrogations and heard the words of Lee Harvey Oswald while he was in custody, that I find so interesting. Rather than speculating on what might have been lost, I am intrigued by what is contained in the supporting records of the Warren Commission that were not included in the final summary report. The accumulated reports were transcribed from notes kept by the interrogators as well as their own personal recollections, all within hours of the interviews with Oswald. I have chosen to look more closely at what is in the written reports and interviews but did not survive into the final draft of the Warren Commission Report than to speculate on what might or might not be missing. Their statements demonstrate that Lee Harvey Oswald repeatedly referred to Abt as a Smith Act Attorney and that his desire to have Abt for this reason was made abundantly clear to all present. What reasons can be ascribed to this coincidence? The record shows that between 4:45 and 6:30 P.M. on the day of the assassination, Captain Will Fritz of the Dallas Police conducted his second interview with Lee Oswald. The interview took place in Captain Fritz’s office: Oswald. “…I want that attorney in New York, Mr. Abt. I don’t know him personally but I know about a case that he handled some years ago, where he represented the people who had violated the Smith Act…I don’t know him personally, but that is the attorney I want….If I can’t get him, then I may get the American Civil Liberties Union to send me an attorney.” During the same interview Oswald repeated his request with these words: “…I want to talk with Mr. Abt, a New York attorney…” During the 1948 presidential election race, Harry Truman’s Republican rivals were accusing the Democrats of being “soft” on Communism. (Michael Steven Smith, About the Smith Act Trials) At the Republican National Convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania the delegates added a plank to their platform that stated; “We pledge a vigorous enforcement of existing laws against Communists and enactment of such new legislation as may be necessary to expose the treasonable activities of Communists and defeat their objective of establishing here a godless dictatorship controlled from abroad.“ To counter this threat Truman turned to J. Edgar Hoover and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. J. Edgar Hoover had first developed his reputation as a tough investigator and prosecutor by deporting radicals and immigrants during the 1919 Palmer Raids. For Hoover the harassment of the radical fringe would become a professional trait. It was J. Edgar Hoover that suggested to Truman that the Smith Act could be used against members of the Communist Party. On July 20th, 1948 eleven members of the American Communist party were arrested and charged under the Alien Registration Act. The Smith Act defendants were not charged with the actual commission of a crime. As strange as it may seem today the charges were designed to prove that “they conspired to organize as the Communist Party and willfully to advocate and teach principles of Marxism-Leninism.” It was then construed to show that by the mere fact that they had organized as a Communist Party that they therefore advocated, “overthrowing and destroying the government of the United States by force and violence” sometime in the future. For Truman, behind in the polls, the Presidency itself was at stake. Truman needed these prosecutions to deflect the criticism of his Republican rivals. The federal government successfully prosecuted the defendants and Harry Truman defeated his challenger Thomas Dewey and his running mate, Vice Presidential candidate Earl Warren (later chairman of the Warren Commission) in one of the closest elections in United States History. Chief Justice Earl Warren would later overturn these same Smith Act convictions. Between 10:30 A.M. and 1:10 P.M. on November 23rd Oswald was again interrogated in Captain Fritz’s office when he stated: “I said I wanted to contact Attorney Abt, New York. He defended the Smith Act cases in 1949, 1950, but I don’t know his address, except that it is in New York….” On Saturday afternoon, November 23, 1963, around 3:30 PM Oswald made a telephone call to Ruth Paine Ruth Paine: I said, “Well, hi.” And he said he wanted to ask me to call Mr. John Abt in New York for him after 6:00 PM. He gave me a telephone number of an office in New York and a residence in New York…He said he was an (the) attorney he wanted to have… Oswald’s mother confirmed Ruth Paine’s story when the Warren Commission questioned her. Marguerite Oswald recalled the call she received from Ruth Paine. Marguerite Oswald: …the telephone rang, and it was Mrs. Paine. She said, “Mrs Oswald, Lee called and he was very upset because Marina was not with me, and he asked me to get a lawyer for him, a Mr. Abt.” At 6:30 P.M. on November 22nd Oswald was a part of a police lineup for three witnesses to the Jefferson Davis Tippit murder. The three witnesses were Cecil J. McWatters, Sam Guiyard, and Ted Callaway. Once again Oswald is quoted as saying: “I want to get in touch with a lawyer, Mr. Abt, in New York City…” Early the next morning, at 1:35 A.M., November 24, 1963, Lee Harvey Oswald was arraigned for the Murder with Malice of John F. Kennedy when he said: “Well, sir, I guess this is the trial…I want to contact my lawyer, Mr. Abt, in New York City. I would like to have this gentleman. He is with the American Civil Liberties Union.” Mr. Abt was never a member of the American Civil Liberties Union. He was general counsel for the Senate Sub-Committee on Civil Liberties from 1935-1937, and was later a legal advisor for the Progressive Party from 1948-1951. He worked with and knew Alger Hiss and has been, many times, labeled as a communist. But Lee Harvey Oswald was absolutely correct on his other statement; a study of John Abt’s biography demonstrates that he had indeed represented people accused of violating the Smith Act. Oswald, it seems, was familiar enough with the Smith Act cases that had begun fifteen years earlier, when Oswald was eight years old. He had knowledge of Mr. Abt that he knew where Jonathon Abt could be located (New York). Oswald knew that these particular cases had actually occurred more than a decade earlier. On November 23, 1963, H. Louis Nichols, President of the Dallas Bar Association, contacted Oswald for a brief discussion at 5:30 P.M.: Oswald “….Do you know a lawyer in New York named John Abt? I believe in New York City. I would like to have him represent me. That is the man I would like.” Assistant counsel for the President’s Commission, Mr. Samuel A. Stern, interviewed James W. Bookhout on April 8, 1964. Bookhout was a Special Agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation stationed in Dallas at the time of the assassination. He was present at several of the interrogations of Oswald at the invitation of Captain Will Fritz. On the morning of November 24, 1963, James Bookhout participated in an interrogation of Lee Harvey Oswald conducted by Captain Fritz and was later questioned about his knowledge of this event. Also present at the Oswald interrogation were T.J Kelly and David B. Grant, of the U.S. Secret Service, Robert I. Nash, a U.S. Marshall and Detectives Billy L. Senkel and Fay M. Turner of the Homicide and Robbery Bureau of the Dallas Police Department. Mr. Bookhout: Yes. It was in this interview that he (Oswald) mentioned he wanted to contact Attorney Abt (spelling) A-b-t, New York City. I recall Captain Fritz asked him if he knew Abt personally and he said he did not, but he explained that he knew that Abt had defended the Smith Act cases in 1949, or 1950, and Captain Fritz asked him if he knew how to get ahold of Mr. Abt, and he stated that he did not know what his address was, but he was in New York. On April 17, 1964, just nine days after James Bookhout was interviewed by Warren Commission attorneys, J. Lee Rankin, general counsel for the Warren Commission, and Wesley J. Liebeler, assistant counsel of the Presidents’ Commission interviewed John Abt. (Warren Commision Report) Wesley J. Liebeler was also the Warren Commission Attorney that interviewed General Walker. Unfortunately for history, the interview was amazingly short. J. Lee Rankin neglected to probe into Abt’s involvement in the Smith Act cases, even when the opportunity afforded itself. The total transcript of Jonathan Abt’s interview contains less than two pages of questions and responses. The longest statement made by Abt dwelt with how, because he and his wife were at their mountain retreat, he had missed the calls that Lee Harvey Oswald had made to him from the Dallas Police Department jail. Were the Warren Commissioners and the American public denied an opportunity to understand that a possible Oswald defense was to center around Jonathan Abt’s knowledge of the Smith Act? Reading the transcript of Abt’s testimony, I was surprised, not by what was there but once again, by what was missing. Lee Harvey Oswald repeatedly stated that he desired Jonathan Abt as his attorney because Abt had represented clients in Smith Act cases. But the questioning by the General Council for the Warren Commission went in a different direction: Mr. Rankin. “Mr. Abt, did you learn that Lee Harvey Oswald was interested in having you represent him apparently because of some prior connection of yours with the American Civil Liberties Union?” Mr. Abt. “No. My assumption was, and it is pure assumption, that he read about some of my representation in the press, and, therefore, it occurred to him that I might be a god man to represent him, but that is pure assumption on my part. I have no direct knowledge of the whole matter.” (Warren Commission Hearings, Vol. X, p. 116) Mr. Rankin then asked: “You have told us all that you know about it? Mr. Abt. “Yes. I may say that I had no prior contact with Oswald, knew nothing about him, did not know the name, and this request came as something entirely new and surprising to me when it came.” Mr. Rankin. “None of your clients had ever communicated to you about him prior to that time you heard about it over the radio?” Mr. Abt. “No; I had no recollection of even having heard the name, his name, before that time.” Mr. Rankin. “Thank you.” At this point the interview was ended. The Warren Commission gathered no further information about Johathan Abt nor was there any speculation about why Lee Harvey Oswald would be so insistent upon having an attorney that was familiar with the Smith Act. An act designed to prosecute for advocating the over-through of the Government of the United States. What can we speculate about any possible Oswald defense? The mother of Lee Harvey Oswald Marguerite Oswald, and his wife, Marina Oswald visited Lee at 1:10 P.M. November 24, 1963 for about 20 minutes. At this meeting Oswald again reiterated his desire to have Abt as his attorney. “Everything is fine. I know my rights, and I will have an attorney. I already requested to get in touch with Attorney Abt,…” In 1993 we learned more about the thoughts of Marina Oswald when her friend and biographer, Priscilla McMillan appeared on the television show Frontline. Historian Priscilla Johnson McMillan was a reporter in Moscow in the 1950’s and interviewed Lee Harvey Oswald shortly after his defection to the Soviet Union. Later, after the Kennedy assassination, McMillan befriended Oswald’s widow, Marina, and the two spent considerable time together. In 1977, McMillan wrote “Marina and Lee,” an intimate portrait of the Oswalds’ life together. In an interview conducted in conjunction with the first broadcast of Frontline’s “Who Was Lee Harvey Oswald?” in 1993, Priscilla Johnson McMillan made this statement: “Lee, in jail, told Marina that she had friends, that they would help her. He told her that there was someone in New York who would help him. He was counting on John Abt, lawyer for the American Communist party, to be his lawyer. He telephoned Ruth Paine and asked her to call Abt. Marina thought, when she saw Lee in jail, she could see that he was frightened. But then she thought that he would use the trial to proclaim his ideas, and to say that what he had done was justified by History.” Frontline also interviewed Robert Oswald, Lee’s older brother, about Abt: “I asked him about this lawyer in New York…and I told him I would get him one down here, meaning in Texas. He said no, he wanted that one up there. I didn’t press it any further. He was seeming to be pretty adamant about it. …” Was the assassination of John F. Kennedy an attempt to overthrow the government of the United States? If so, it failed. It did succeed in showing the world that our Constitutional government was not only resilient but that it could, again, survive another cataclysmic event just as it had done numerous times before. I believe Lee Harvey Oswald knew his history well enough to know that a single event would not change our government. But we can question why Oswald would be so intent on having Abt act as his attorney. Since the record shows that he repeatedly stated the reason he wanted Abt was his connection to the Smith Act Trials, I began to wonder, was Oswald going to use his trial to accuse someone, or group, of violating the Smith Act? I remembered that Oswald had left information behind that would have been found if he had been apprehended for assassinating Edwin Walker. Did he have a motive? Did he believe he need a trial? Did Oswald have a reason to believe that someone or some group was attempting to over-through the government? Remember: “She (Marina) testified that Oswald said that General Walker ‘was a very bad man, that he was a fascist, that he was the leader of a fascist organization, and when I said that even though all of that might be true, just the same he had no right to take his life, he said if someone had killed Hitler in time it would have saved many lives.” If a trial had taken place would anybody believe that Kennedy had violated the Smith Act in some way that could justify taking the life of the President? The strange thing is, Major General Edwin Anderson Walker would seem to be the more obvious choice if Oswald’s intent was going to be to accuse someone of attempting to overthrow the government. But it would also seem to be irrational to believe that Oswald would be siding with Walker and his “right wing” accusations that were being leveled against the Kennedy Administration. Is there any connection? The question began to haunt me. In 1951 twenty-three Communists were indicted using the Smith Act. By 1957 the number had grown to over 140. It would take a number of Supreme Court decisions in 1957 to finally halt the parade of prosecutions. The two most important were Yates v. United States and Watkins v. United States. In Watkins the Court ruled that a defendant who had opted not to use the Fifth Amendment could still use the First Amendment against “abuses of the legislative process.” The vote was six to one, with Chief Justice Earl Warren writing the majority opinion. Is it a coincidence that Earl Warren was associated with the use of the Smith Act to prosecute communists, first as a candidate for the vice-presidency in 1948 and then as the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court in 1957? In 1963 many conservatives in the United States considered Warren, the former Republican Governor of California for eight years, a left wing radical. Did Justice Earl Warren influence the commission to eliminate any mention of the Smith Act cases from the final report of his commission? When Jack Ruby fired his fatal shots the American public lost the opportunity to witness the trial of Lee Harvey Oswald. The jury of public opinion lost our opportunity to hear more about the possible defense strategy that would be used to defend Lee Harvey Oswald when the telephone calls to Jonathan Abt went unanswered. On Sunday morning November 25th 1963, Lee Harvey Oswald was himself assassinated while being transferred to a more permanent jail site to await prosecution. At the time of his death, Lee Harvey Oswald had very few items in his possession. One item of significance was a sheet of paper with two phone numbers written on it. Those phone numbers belonged to Jonathan Abt.

Tim Attempting to respond...... Example of a simpler issue which I can readily take exception: Do you believe that the U-2 was downed by the Soviets at all? "Yes. The U-2 incident did in fact occur. We can speculate on the details but it did in fact happen, one way or another." But Jim, the question was, do you believe that the U-2 was "downed?" In other words, was it sabotaged before takeoff, as opposed to being shot down by a SAM, which might imply the benefit of inside radar information. If it was not shot down, that implication isn't there. See previous edited post that deals with this topic within this thread. "Do you believe that then Senator Kennedy conspired with Taylor ..." "No, I believe that the then out of the military General Taylor may have shared information with the Kennedy campaign with the intent of gaining influence (which he did in some way, becoming Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff)." So Jim, it's your take that Taylor's Uncertain Trumpet doctrince of Flexible Response, which greatly suited JFK's need to escape the confines of Mutual Assured Destruction (MAD) was secondary to the receipt of politically beneficial inside information? The two parts do not have to be mutually exclusive. The fact that Kennedy and Taylor are on the "same page" about Flexible Response would enhance Taylor's ability to to be accepted into the close group of top level campaign advisors that Robert Kennedy led. Advance knowledge about events to come (U-2 Incident/Bay of Pigs) would provide Taylor with a big advantage for a man who wished to gain influence within the group. It would be hard for me to believe that Taylor would say something to the effect of, "Well on May 1, 1960 a U-2 aircraft will be shot down so you should...." But evidence does seem to indicate that Kennedy was well advised on issues that were of such a high security level (Bay of Pigs planning), that he was not privy to in is intelligence briefings, that it is not such a large jump to believe that someone was providing him this information. Taylor could easily be that man. Do you believe, electorally, that there is any foundation for the statement, "As a result of the U-2 incident Kennedy is elected President?" "Yes, by looking at the negitive. If the U-2 incident does not occur and the Paris summit becomes a historical reality with some sort of (test ban/Berlin) treaty/resolution photo opp with Khrushchev, Eisenhower and NIXON standing together promising peace in our time....Nixon very well wins the election he, in reality, lost in one of the closest elections in US History. Looking at it honestly, in your own mind, would the few votes necessary to sway that election have been there if the Paris Summit was a success? Would Kennedy's position of labeling the Eisenhower Administration soft on Communism have worked if the US and the Soviet Union were in fact entering into a warmer relationship within the framework of the Paris Summit? Would the American public be inticed into voting for a continuation of the administration if additional summits/successes were espoused by the Nixon campaign of 1960?" What makes you think that peace with the Soviets, after so many years of demonizing the godless communists, would have been helpful in the realm of domestic political politics. After the Bay of Pigs fiasco, when Kennedy's approval ratings soared, he remarked: "It's just like with Ike; the worse you do the more they approve." I'm not sure it's a supportable political calculus that a successful Paris Summit would have helped Nixon's electoral chances. It would have made him look even softer on communism; and what would the consequences have been to Nixon's performance as chief political officer on the Bay of Pigs planning? Once again look at the negitive of what you are suggesting. Do you think the "Seven Days in May" that Eisenhower spent denying the U-2 incident enhanced Nixon's chances of winning the election? Do you think the ongoing show trial of Francis Gary Powers, played out in the nightly press, during the campaign period was a help or a hindrance to Nixon? Were the diplomatic relations of the United States strengthend or weakend during the election period that followed the U-2 downing? France and Germany were openly critical of US policy at that period, France because of the failure of the Summit and Germany because they felt that the Soviet Union had hardend its position on Berlin. Was the Eisenhower/Nixon Adminstration viewed as being prepared on defense after the U-2 incident or did the bomber/missile gap rethoric gain traction? "Was the U-2 incident just another coincidence leading to Dallas, Nov. 22, 1963?" Huh? If the U-2 incident did in fact "help" the Kennedy election it is an event that led to Dallas. Another way of looking at the question would be, "Was it just a coincidence that Lee Harvey Oswald was a radar operator that worked with U-2 aircraft and defected to the USSR before one was "downed" and then returned to be charged with the assassination of the President of the United States. It is either a coincidence or there may be some part that plays in the events leading up to Nov. 22, 1963. If Walker was such a protege of Taylor's, why was Walker doing anything so transparent and problematic as propagandizing troops in Germany against Kennedy during that administration? "Look at the dates. Think for a moment, Nosenko first made contact with the CIA in the days immediatly following Oswald's return to the US and then defected, with information about Oswald's non affilliation with the KGB in tow, right after the assassination.... Although the process would take over a year to complete, Walker has been so distanced and even would be institutionalized that if Oswald could "finger" him as the man who passed the Oct. 9, 1959 Helsinki Embassy memo information to Oswald, it could be deflected from both the Kennedy adminsistration and, more importantly to General Taylor's connection to Walker." So your answer is just a guess that Walker was Oswald's Helsinki contact, and the nutty behavior leading to institutionalization was a buffer from culpability? Bottom line: If anything I am proposing here makes any sense at all you have the potential for an Oswald that is returning to the US that could potentially point a finger at Walker and say something along the lines of , "Walker is the man who provided me with the information that helped me to get into the Soviet Union. Here is how I helped the Soviets shoot down the U-2. General Edwin Walker is a bad man." The senario I present suggest that that may have been a fear of the CIA. How would the CIA distance themselves from Walker? Give him a new assignment. "Ted" Walker always snaped to attention and said, without question, the word, "check" when given any assignment. Walker's actions directly following the assassination leads me to believe that he immediatly felt he was being set up to be the fall guy. But the "company" did not let him down. Fact, Walker's demise is timed to Oswald's application to return. Walker's demise provides a perfect "cover story" if, in fact, Oswald were to do such a thing as return to the United States and accuse Walker of having sabatoged the Paris Summit. Everything I have found in my research began with a reading of the Warren Report and the "discovery" of the Walker story. Within a short period of time I found this document: Walker, Colonel Edwin Anderson 10.11.1909 Center Point, Texas - 31.10.1993 Dallas, Tex. Education: Schreiner Insitute; 1925-1927 New Mexico Military Institute; 1927-1931 US Military Academy, West Point; 1937 Field Artillery School; 1946 Command and General Staff College, Fort Leavenworth; 1948 Air War College 1931 commissioned, Field Artillery 1932-1933 Battery Officer, 15th Field Artillery (Fort Sam Houston, Tex.) 1934-1936 Battery Officer, 16th Field Artillery Battalion (Fort Myer, Va.); US Army polo team 1936-1939 Battery Executive Officer, 18th Field Artillery Regiment (Fort Sill, Okl.) 1939-1941 Battery Commander, 2nd Battalion, 13th Field Artillery Regiment (Schofield Barracks, T.H.) 1942-1943 Artillery Battalion Commander, 4th Infantry Division (Camp Gordon, Ga.) & 83rd Infantry Division (Camp Atterbury, Ind.) & 2nd Cavalry Division (Fort Clark, Tex.) 1943-06.1944 Commanding Officer, 3rd Regiment, 1st Special Service Force (Aleutins, Italy) 06.1944-12.1944 Commander, 1st Special Service Force (Italy, France, Germany) 1944-1945 Commanding Officer, 474th Infantry Regiment (Germany) 1945 Commander, Task Force A, Oslo (Norway) 1946-1947 Executive, Assistent Director Combined Arms Department Field Artillery School, (Fort Sill, Okl.) 1948-1949 Staff Officer, Office of the Chief of Staff (Washington, DC) 1949-1950 Secretary, General Staff, 4th Army (Fort Sam Houston) 1950-1951 Assistant Commander, Ranger Training Commnd (Fort Benning) 1951-1952 Commanding Officer, 2nd Infantry Divisional Artillery; Commanding Officer, 7th Infantry Reiiment, 3rd Infantry Division 1952-1953 Deputy Chief of Staff for Prisoners of War Affairs, 8th Army; then senior adviser First Republic of Korea Corps, KMAG (Korea) 02.1953-09.1954 Deputy Commander for supporting arms, 82nd Airborne Division (Fort Bragg, NC) 1955 chief Army sect. MAAG, Tapai, Taiwan, adviser to Commander-in-Chief Chinese Nationalist Army 1955-1957 Commanding General, 25th Divisional Artillery (Schofield Barracks) 1957-1959 Commanding General, Arkansas Military District (Little Rock) 10.1959-1961 Commanding General, 24th Infantry Division (Augsburg, Germany) 1961 Assistant Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations, US Army Headquarters Europe 1961 resignated [because of right-wing opinions] (Vice-)President American Eagle Publishing Co., consultant, author, speaker; 1962 candidate for Governor of Texas Ranks: 2nd Lt. (1931); Lt.Col.; Col. (1944); Brig.Gen. (1953); Maj.Gen. (1957) Decorations: SS, BSM (2x), CI (2x), LM (2x), CR, Korean Unit Citation (US), Croix de Guerre (France), Order of St. Olav (Norway), OBE (UK), Ulchi Medal with gold and silver star (Korea) Literature: Courtney, K. & P., The case of General Edwin A. Walker : the muzzling of the military who warn of the communist threat (Conservative Society of America, 1961) Links: The strange case of Maj. Gen. Edwin A. Walker The handbook of Texas online The two highlighted portions caught my eye. First Special Services Forces (Special Forces/Special Opps potential CIA involvement) and the fact that Walker traveled from the US to Europe within the same time period that Oswald traveled to the Soviet Union. My research then followed three paths: Was Walker involved with intelligence operations? I have a myriad of information that suggests he was. Could Oswald have met Walker on his way to the Soviet Union? I have, within Serindipity, made my case. Why? That was the tough one till the Taylor connection became apparent. When the Taylor/Walker connection appeared too many things made to much sense! "In my opinion, Walker was tasked by his friend, General Taylor, to infiltrate the far right movement in America and was unaware that Oswald returned to the US until he saw his picture on the television after the assassination. After Oswald was dead, Walker denied making the statements attributed to him in the paper. I also believe that it is possible that "high officials" in the administration were aware of Oswald's movements in Dallas and suspected that he was involved with the assassination attempt on Walker. Hence the letters exchanged between McCloy and Walker that were left in a public place for easy discovery within a month of the attempt on Walker's life. I do not believe Walker knew the reason for those letters, just that they were additional cover for his "right wing" bonifides. McCloy was needed on the Warren Commission from the date of those letters on if for no other reason than to make sure his involvement with this whole series of events was buried." You seem to be saying that Walker was as much a patsy as Oswald. What are these "letters exchanged between McCloy and Walker?" And what evidence is there that there was an actual "attempt on Walker's life?" Yes, I believe that Edwin Walker was a GREAT war hero and my research leads me to believe a "patsy" himself. He may well be the ideal Professional Soldier that follows orders, without question, and is willing to sacriface his life in the line of duty for his country without question. I have found nothing in his character/ military career that leads me to believe anything else until his "Pro Blue Program." From then on everything seems out of character. An examination of his "fiery" rethoric after the assassination of John F. Kennedy shows more of a half hearted effort by a man a little disenchanted. Evidence "that there was an actual "attempt on Walker's life?" Marina Oswald has never wavered that Lee had a rifle, and practiced with it. Her testimony to the WC and HSCA was nearly identical concerning the Walker shooting attempt. From her HSCA testimony:Q. When was the first time that Lee told you he had used the rifle apart from the target practice? A. I think the General Walker incident. Q. Could you relate the details of that incident to us now? A. Well, I really cannot describe the details but the would be quite accurate in the testimony that I gave at the Warren Commission and if you refresh my memory I might be able to tell you. Q. What happened the days before the Walder incident; did Lee act unusual at all? A. Well he would be sitting--he made a little kind of not an office, a little closet that he has a chair there and maybe a desk-not a desk, improvisation of a desk, and he would be writing something down and he told me to to bother him so he was quite secretive about it. Q. And that was a few days before? A. A few days, a few weeks. I do not remember exactly the time. Q. Was Lee restless a few days before the incident? Was he calm? Did he sleep well? A. I don't recall his mood. Q. Did Lee ever talk in his sleep? A. Not that I remember. Q. Again in the book "Marina and Lee" you said that a few days prior to the Walker incident you recollect that he was talking in his sleep. A. that could be true. Q. Do you remember, would he talk in English or would he talk in Russian. A. I don't remember the incident right now. Q. Did Lee go to work the day that he told you he shot at General Walker? A. I don't remember the incident right now. Q. Did Lee go to work the day that he told you he shot at General Walker? A. I don't remember that either. What day of the week was it? Q. It was a Wednesday. A. Was it Wednesday? Well, I am sorry. I simply do not remember. Q. How did Lee first tell you about the shooting of General Walker? A. Well, he was gone most of the night and came home very late and turned the radio on. Q. How did you feel that evening when he did not come home? A. He did not come home for a long time and I do believe that I found a note addressed to me what to do in case something happened to him and I was petrified and didn't know what to do. Q. When did you find the note? A. After he went out. Q. Was it unusual for him to be out late? A. No; since he was leaving the house sometimes for this practicing that he supposedly was going to. Q. So you were not surprised that he was out that evening? A. Well, I was surprised that he came home that late. Q. Were you worried where he was? A. Of course I was. Q. Did you contact anybody? A. No; I didn't. Q. What did he say when he returned? A. Well, he turned the radio on and he was very pale and he was listening to the news, changing from station to station. I asked him what it was all about and he said that he tried to shoot General Walker. I told him how dare you take somebody's life and you should not do things like that, I mean you have no right to do it. He said, see, if somebody shot Hitler at the right time you will do justice to humanity so since I don't know anything about the man I should not talk about it. Q. Did you know who General Walder was? A. He told me he was a Fascist. That is all I know. Q. Had you heard the name before? A. No. Q. Did Lee ever mention to you a man named Scotty? A. No. Q. Did Lee ever-- A. Just a minute. I heard this name before and I don't know if it came from Lee or somebody that he could be working with. I think it is a little but confusing. Scotty could be a dog. I am sorry. Q. Did he ever mention a man who spoke with a Scottish accent? A. Oh, you mean with a Scottish accent? No; never. Q. Did he ever mention a man who lived with General Walker? A. No; I thought the man lived alone after what I read later on. Q. When Lee came back that night was he disheveled? A. What's disheveled? Q. Was he dirty? Were his clothes still neat? A. Well, honestly I only remember that he was very pale and that is all I recall. Q. When do you recall him leaving the house that day prior to his shooting at General Walker? A. I don't recall if he came from work and then left or whether he left after work. I don't remember. Q. Was he dressed in the same clothes that you saw him previously when he returned? A. I just don't remember. Q. Did he have the rifle with him when he came back? A. No; I think he said he left it hidden somewhere and I do believe the next day at night he went and got it. That is what I remember right now. That is the testimony I am giving you, what I remember. Q. That is what we want, your present recollection. Did he tell you he had shot at him with a rifle or did he mention that he had used a gun? A. Well, I think it was a rifle. Q. Did he tell you where he hid the rifle or the gun? A. I think he might have mentioned that it was in the shrubs somewhere. Q. Did you discuss with him whether it would be found and the police would be looking for him? A. It was such an unpleasant and terrifying incident that I was just trembling all day long. I was looking through the windows; I was expecting police coming any second. Q. Did you suggest to Lee that he go back and get the gun or rifle or did he do it by himself? A. I think he did it by himself. Q. What did he do with the gun or the rifle when he went back and got it? A. Kept it in the house. Q. Did you see it again? A. Well, I never made a point of going and checking the rifle every day to see whether is was there or not. Q. Where in the house would he keep it? A. In the closet. Q. On a shelf or was it on the floor? A. I don't remember. Q. Was it wrapped in anything? A. It could be just kind of stanking in the corner. Q. Proppoed up in the corner of the closet? A. It could be. Q. Was it covered? Was it wrapped in anything? A. I don't remember. Q. Was the closet crowded? Did it have many things in it? A. Usually his personal belongings, his clothes, his books, whatever, and he told me to stay out of it; that is his own private thing. Q. This was his closet? A. Yes. Q. If you opened the closet, was it easy to get the rifle or did you have to move a lot of things aside before you got it? A. I never did it. Q. If you opened the closet door, would you see the rifle immediately? A. I don't remember. Q. The photographs you took of Lee with the rifle and the pistol, do you know where Lee developed those photos? A. Well, didn't he work for some time with photography? Q. You don't know where he developed the films? A. No. Q. Did he have any photographic supplies around the house? A. It is so hard to dig through your memory that long back. He might have; I don't know. Q. When you saw the rifle that he had, was that the same rifle he had in Russia? A. I don't remember. How can you transport a gun from one country to another when you have to go through the inspection on the border? Q. So you don't think he brought the gun with him? A. I don't see how it logically or possibly could happen. Oh, you mean the same gun. Well, he bought the rifle right here. Q. He bought it here? A. Yes. Q. How did he buy the rifle here? A. Well, I learned later afterward that he ordered through some mail. Q. At that time did you know that he had ordered a rifle? A. Well, since I had seen the rifle I knew he purchased it. How he purchased it I do not know. Q. The first time you saw it did you ask him, "Where did you get the rifle?" A. No; but I was very upset that he spent money on such an unnecessary, stupid thing then we barely could survive on what he was making. Q. Did you ask him how much it cost? A. No. Q. Where did Lee keep his gun? The rifle was in the closet. A. Well, it never was on display on the wall but everybody can see it. It was always hidden somewhere back in the closet. We did not live in one place very long; we moved from apartment to the apartment. Q. In the apartment where the rifle was kept in the closet, was the gun also kept there or was it dept somewhere else? A. I assume it was together. Q. Did you see it in that closet? A. Well, see, my recollection about-do you recall the gun? Q. Yes. A. The pictures I took showed two. Q. It showed a rifle and a gun. A. Yes. Q. the question I have is just where did he keep the gun if the rifle was in the closet? A. I honestly do not know. Q. When you were living with Lee at this time, did he ever take the gun out to go target shooting with that as well as the rifle? A. I recall only the rifle because it was quite bulky and he had to hide it under his raincoat but I do not recall the gun at all. Q. When he brought the rifle back after he had hid it in the bushes from General Walker's house, what did he carry it in? He didn't just carry the rifle over his shoulder. A. No; he didn't, but I told you that he was wearing this raincoat. Walker fieled a police report after the incident but in his own testimony before the Warren Commission was quick to deny that Oswald had in fact shot at him. A few notes from Walker's Testimony before the Warren Commission: Mr. Liebeler. I don't think we have to indicate a great deal of your background for the record, since I think we all know who you are... Mr. Liebeler. It is my understanding that on the evening of April 10, 1963, some person fired a shot at you while you were in your home on Turtle Creek Boulevard; is that correct? General Walker. That is correct. Mr. Liebeler. Would you tell us the circumstances surrounding that event, as you can now recall them? General Walker. I was sitting behind my desk. It was right at 9 o'clock, and most of the lights were on in the house and the shades were up. I was sitting down behind a desk facing out from a corner, with my head over a pencil and paper working on my income tax when I heard a blast and a crack right over my head. Mr. Liebeler. What did you do then? General Walker. I thought--we had been fooling with the screens on the house and I thought that possibly somebody had thrown a firecracker, that it exploded right over my head through the window right behind me. Since there is a church back there, often there are children playing back there. Then I looked around and saw that the screen was not out, but was in the window, and this couldn't possibly happen, so I got up and walked around the desk and looked back where I was sitting and I saw a hole in the wall which would have been to my left while I was sitting to my right as I looked back, and the desk was catercornered in the corner up against this wall. I noticed there was a hole in the wall, so I went upstairs and got a pistol and came back down and went out the back door, taking a look to see what might have happened. Mr. Liebeler. Did you find anything outside that you 'could relate to this attack on you? General Walker. No, sir; I couldn't. As I crossed a window coming downstairs in front, I saw a car at the bottom of the church alley just making a turn onto Turtle Creek. The car was unidentifiable. I could see the two back lights, and you have to look through trees there, and I could see it moving out. This car would have been about at the right time for anybody that was making a getaway. Mr. Liebeler. Now as I understand it, there is an alley that runs directly at the rear of your house; is that correct? General Walker. yes, sir. Mr. Liebeler. Does that alley run directly into Turtle Creek Boulevard, or does it join with another alley? General Walker. No, sir; it joins with another alley, and it joins with the street called Avondale. Mr. Liebeler. So that to get-- General Walker. At one end is Avondale, which runs into Turtle Creek going downhill east, and at the other end it goes into the parking lot of the church. As you enter that parking lot from my alley, if you turn directly right, you go down the church alley going into Turtle Creek, and that is where the car was going down that I referred to, and it was just making the turn out of. the church alley. Mr. Liebeler. The alley that runs into Turtle Creek? General Walker. No; directly from the church alley into the Turtle Creek main boulevard. Now, there is another alley right at the entrance of my alley to the church parking lot, which runs straight west practically-to Oak Lawn. Hardly anybody knows it is there, because you have to ease down it with an automobile, it is so narrow. And as I know, only garbage trucks use it. I have been up and down it once or twice only. Mr. Liebeler. Now when you got that pistol, did you go out the back door of your house? General Walker. I went out the back door. Mr. Liebeler. You went into the alley? General Walker. I went about halfway out to the alley. Mr. Liebeler. From that point you could observe this car that was just turning? General Walker. No, Sir. I observed that--it was already gone I observed that from the window upstairs as I came down with the pistol. I could see out the south window, front and left. Mr. Liebeler. I would imagine that you assumed that that car had gone from the church parking lot down the alley and was at that point entering Turtle Creek Boulevard? General Walker. That is correct. Mr. Liebeler. Did you see which direction it turned? General Walker. Left, going north. Mr. Liebeler. Were you able to make any kind of identification of the automobile at all? General Walker. None at all. Later in the testimony, Mr. Liebeler. In point of fact, it would be correct to state that, to your knowledge, you never saw or heard of Lee Harvey Oswald at any time prior to the time that his name was announced after the assassination on November 22, 1963? General Walker. That is correct. Mr. Liebeler. You had no connection of any sort whatsoever with him prior to that time? General Walker. None at all. Mr. Liebeler. Or since that time? General Walker. Or with anybody that I ever knew that was associated with him, unless Duff turns out to be. General Watts. Off the record. Was the above statement a slip? "Or with anybody that I ever knew that was associated with him..." and his attorney, general Watts pull him "off the record." Continuing: Mr. Liebeler. Do you know Helmet Hubert Muench? General Walker. That name is not familiar to me. Can you give me anything to refresh me? Mr. Liebeler. Yes. He is a West German journalist who wrote an article that appeared in the Deutsche Nationalzeitung und Soldatenzeitung, a Munich, Germany, newspaper. General Walker. No; I don't know him. Mr. Liebeler. Did you ever talk to him? General Walker. Not that I know of. Mr. Liebeler. Did you talk to him on a transatlantic telephone call in which you told him about the fact or the alleged fact that Lee Harvey Oswald was the person who made an attempt on your life? General Walker. I don't recall that name. Did he speak English? I don't speak German. Walker avoids answering the questions: Mr. Liebeler. Have you ever seen a copy of that newspaper? General Walker. Yes; I have. Mr. Liebeler. In fact, I suggest that you have seen the November 29, 1963, copy of that newspaper which had on its front page a story entitled in German "The Strange Case of Oswald", that told about how Oswald had allegedly attacked you. General Walker. November 29, that is correct. Mr. Liebeler. Now, where did that newspaper get that information, do you know? General Walker. I do not. There was all article in the paper that he probably got from me. Mr. Liebeler. Well, in fact, the issue of that newspaper has right on the front page what purports to be a transcript of a telephone conversation between you and some other person. General Walker. Thorsten? Mr. Liebeler. Yes. Hasso Thorsten, is that the man? General Walker. He called me in Shreveport. Avoids the question. Mr. Liebeler. When were you in Shreveport? General Walker. He called me the morning of November 23, 1963, about 7 a.m. Mr. Liebeler. That is when you gave him this information about Oswald having attacked you? General Walker. I didn't give him all the information--I think the portion you are referring to, I didn't give him, because I had no way of knowing that Oswald attacked me. I still don't. And I am not very prone to say in fact he did. In fact, I have always claimed he did not, until we can get into the case or somebody tells us differently that he did. Who would need to tell him differently? General Walker. Well, starting back to make the record clear, I had a speaking engagement in Hattiesburg, Miss., either the 18th or 19th of November. I went from there to New Orleans and stayed 2 or 3 days. I was in the airplane between New Orleans and Shreveport about halfway, when the pilot announced that the President had been assassinated. I landed in Shreveport and went to the Captain Shreve Hotel and stayed there two nights and returned to Dallas and was walking into my house, just about the time of the immediate rerun of the shooting of Oswald. I had been out of the city on speaking engagements. How did the German newspaper get his telephone number at the Captain Shreve Hotel to call him at exactly 7:00 AM? The answer to this question will never be known, but I think it is highly possible that Walker made the arrangements to speak with the German newspaper that broke the story that was later supported by Marina Oswald and was a major basis for the conclusions of the Warren Commission's "lone nut" assassin. The timming of the McCloy/ Walker correspondance was a topic of a very early post of mine. At the time that I "discovered" the letter from McCloy I was so new to this topic that I did not even know that McCloy was a member of the Warren Commission. After the Walker bio was found this letter was the next peice to a puzzle that was laying accross the trail that has gotten me to this point. Do you believe that Taylor, because he "knows where Oswald is working," directed "the motorcade past that point?" "Completely plausible that someone had to know and influenced the motorcade planning." Yes, plausible that the motorcade route involved knowledge of Oswald's workplace, but that hardly means that the Chairman of the JCS would pesonally be involved in such a local matter. "If Taylor was aware of where Oswald was working and "helped" to direct the motorcade along that path then Maxwell Taylor pulled off the perfect murder" would be an interesting "if then" statement for debate, don't you agree? . "It would take me hours to explain WS 117L in connection with why the U-2 may have been a planned operation along with Tiros/Midas, Corona and Samos projects, the Army Missile Program, Walker, Taylor, etc., etc." I'll look forward to that explanation. Provided to a point.... You've even explained the 1927 reference, which at first glance seemed off to me. You do seem to be implying that Taylor played Walker to a degree, the realization of which began to dawn on Walker during the last stages of the assassination events. Yes, see above testimony excerpts. Jim Root

Tim Attempting to respond...... Example of a simpler issue which I can readily take exception: Do you believe that the U-2 was downed by the Soviets at all? "Yes. The U-2 incident did in fact occur. We can speculate on the details but it did in fact happen, one way or another." But Jim, the question was, do you believe that the U-2 was "downed?" In other words, was it sabotaged before takeoff, as opposed to being shot down by a SAM, which might imply the benefit of inside radar information. If it was not shot down, that implication isn't there. See previous edited post that deals with this topic within this thread. "Do you believe that then Senator Kennedy conspired with Taylor ..." "No, I believe that the then out of the military General Taylor may have shared information with the Kennedy campaign with the intent of gaining influence (which he did in some way, becoming Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff)." So Jim, it's your take that Taylor's Uncertain Trumpet doctrince of Flexible Response, which greatly suited JFK's need to escape the confines of Mutual Assured Destruction (MAD) was secondary to the receipt of politically beneficial inside information? The two parts do not have to be mutually exclusive. The fact that Kennedy and Taylor are on the "same page" about Flexible Response would enhance Taylor's ability to to be accepted into the close group of top level campaign advisors that Robert Kennedy led. Advance knowledge about events to come (U-2 Incident/Bay of Pigs) would provide Taylor with a big advantage for a man who wished to gain influence within the group. It would be hard for me to believe that Taylor would say something to the effect of, "Well on May 1, 1960 a U-2 aircraft will be shot down so you should...." But evidence does seem to indicate that Kennedy was well advised on issues that were of such a high security level (Bay of Pigs planning), that he was not privy to in is intelligence briefings, that it is not such a large jump to believe that someone was providing him this information. Taylor could easily be that man. Do you believe, electorally, that there is any foundation for the statement, "As a result of the U-2 incident Kennedy is elected President?" "Yes, by looking at the negitive. If the U-2 incident does not occur and the Paris summit becomes a historical reality with some sort of (test ban/Berlin) treaty/resolution photo opp with Khrushchev, Eisenhower and NIXON standing together promising peace in our time....Nixon very well wins the election he, in reality, lost in one of the closest elections in US History. Looking at it honestly, in your own mind, would the few votes necessary to sway that election have been there if the Paris Summit was a success? Would Kennedy's position of labeling the Eisenhower Administration soft on Communism have worked if the US and the Soviet Union were in fact entering into a warmer relationship within the framework of the Paris Summit? Would the American public be inticed into voting for a continuation of the administration if additional summits/successes were espoused by the Nixon campaign of 1960?" What makes you think that peace with the Soviets, after so many years of demonizing the godless communists, would have been helpful in the realm of domestic political politics. After the Bay of Pigs fiasco, when Kennedy's approval ratings soared, he remarked: "It's just like with Ike; the worse you do the more they approve." I'm not sure it's a supportable political calculus that a successful Paris Summit would have helped Nixon's electoral chances. It would have made him look even softer on communism; and what would the consequences have been to Nixon's performance as chief political officer on the Bay of Pigs planning? Once again look at the negitive of what you are suggesting. Do you think the "Seven Days in May" that Eisenhower spent denying the U-2 incident enhanced Nixon's chances of winning the election? Do you think the ongoing show trial of Francis Gary Powers, played out in the nightly press, during the campaign period was a help or a hindrance to Nixon? Were the diplomatic relations of the United States strengthend or weakend during the election period that followed the U-2 downing? France and Germany were openly critical of US policy at that period, France because of the failure of the Summit and Germany because they felt that the Soviet Union had hardend its position on Berlin. Was the Eisenhower/Nixon Adminstration viewed as being prepared on defense after the U-2 incident or did the bomber/missile gap rethoric gain traction? "Was the U-2 incident just another coincidence leading to Dallas, Nov. 22, 1963?" Huh? If the U-2 incident did in fact "help" the Kennedy election it is an event that led to Dallas. Another way of looking at the question would be, "Was it just a coincidence that Lee Harvey Oswald was a radar operator that worked with U-2 aircraft and defected to the USSR before one was "downed" and then returned to be charged with the assassination of the President of the United States. It is either a coincidence or there may be some part that plays in the events leading up to Nov. 22, 1963. If Walker was such a protege of Taylor's, why was Walker doing anything so transparent and problematic as propagandizing troops in Germany against Kennedy during that administration? "Look at the dates. Think for a moment, Nosenko first made contact with the CIA in the days immediatly following Oswald's return to the US and then defected, with information about Oswald's non affilliation with the KGB in tow, right after the assassination.... Although the process would take over a year to complete, Walker has been so distanced and even would be institutionalized that if Oswald could "finger" him as the man who passed the Oct. 9, 1959 Helsinki Embassy memo information to Oswald, it could be deflected from both the Kennedy adminsistration and, more importantly to General Taylor's connection to Walker." So your answer is just a guess that Walker was Oswald's Helsinki contact, and the nutty behavior leading to institutionalization was a buffer from culpability? Bottom line: If anything I am proposing here makes any sense at all you have the potential for an Oswald that is returning to the US that could potentially point a finger at Walker and say something along the lines of , "Walker is the man who provided me with the information that helped me to get into the Soviet Union. Here is how I helped the Soviets shoot down the U-2. General Edwin Walker is a bad man." The senario I present suggest that that may have been a fear of the CIA. How would the CIA distance themselves from Walker? Give him a new assignment. "Ted" Walker always snaped to attention and said, without question, the word, "check" when given any assignment. Walker's actions directly following the assassination leads me to believe that he immediatly felt he was being set up to be the fall guy. But the "company" did not let him down. Fact, Walker's demise is timed to Oswald's application to return. Walker's demise provides a perfect "cover story" if, in fact, Oswald were to do such a thing as return to the United States and accuse Walker of having sabatoged the Paris Summit. Everything I have found in my research began with a reading of the Warren Report and the "discovery" of the Walker story. Within a short period of time I found this document: Walker, Colonel Edwin Anderson 10.11.1909 Center Point, Texas - 31.10.1993 Dallas, Tex. Education: Schreiner Insitute; 1925-1927 New Mexico Military Institute; 1927-1931 US Military Academy, West Point; 1937 Field Artillery School; 1946 Command and General Staff College, Fort Leavenworth; 1948 Air War College 1931 commissioned, Field Artillery 1932-1933 Battery Officer, 15th Field Artillery (Fort Sam Houston, Tex.) 1934-1936 Battery Officer, 16th Field Artillery Battalion (Fort Myer, Va.); US Army polo team 1936-1939 Battery Executive Officer, 18th Field Artillery Regiment (Fort Sill, Okl.) 1939-1941 Battery Commander, 2nd Battalion, 13th Field Artillery Regiment (Schofield Barracks, T.H.) 1942-1943 Artillery Battalion Commander, 4th Infantry Division (Camp Gordon, Ga.) & 83rd Infantry Division (Camp Atterbury, Ind.) & 2nd Cavalry Division (Fort Clark, Tex.) 1943-06.1944 Commanding Officer, 3rd Regiment, 1st Special Service Force (Aleutins, Italy) 06.1944-12.1944 Commander, 1st Special Service Force (Italy, France, Germany) 1944-1945 Commanding Officer, 474th Infantry Regiment (Germany) 1945 Commander, Task Force A, Oslo (Norway) 1946-1947 Executive, Assistent Director Combined Arms Department Field Artillery School, (Fort Sill, Okl.) 1948-1949 Staff Officer, Office of the Chief of Staff (Washington, DC) 1949-1950 Secretary, General Staff, 4th Army (Fort Sam Houston) 1950-1951 Assistant Commander, Ranger Training Commnd (Fort Benning) 1951-1952 Commanding Officer, 2nd Infantry Divisional Artillery; Commanding Officer, 7th Infantry Reiiment, 3rd Infantry Division 1952-1953 Deputy Chief of Staff for Prisoners of War Affairs, 8th Army; then senior adviser First Republic of Korea Corps, KMAG (Korea) 02.1953-09.1954 Deputy Commander for supporting arms, 82nd Airborne Division (Fort Bragg, NC) 1955 chief Army sect. MAAG, Tapai, Taiwan, adviser to Commander-in-Chief Chinese Nationalist Army 1955-1957 Commanding General, 25th Divisional Artillery (Schofield Barracks) 1957-1959 Commanding General, Arkansas Military District (Little Rock) 10.1959-1961 Commanding General, 24th Infantry Division (Augsburg, Germany) 1961 Assistant Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations, US Army Headquarters Europe 1961 resignated [because of right-wing opinions] (Vice-)President American Eagle Publishing Co., consultant, author, speaker; 1962 candidate for Governor of Texas Ranks: 2nd Lt. (1931); Lt.Col.; Col. (1944); Brig.Gen. (1953); Maj.Gen. (1957) Decorations: SS, BSM (2x), CI (2x), LM (2x), CR, Korean Unit Citation (US), Croix de Guerre (France), Order of St. Olav (Norway), OBE (UK), Ulchi Medal with gold and silver star (Korea) Literature: Courtney, K. & P., The case of General Edwin A. Walker : the muzzling of the military who warn of the communist threat (Conservative Society of America, 1961) Links: The strange case of Maj. Gen. Edwin A. Walker The handbook of Texas online The two highlighted portions caught my eye. First Special Services Forces (Special Forces/Special Opps potential CIA involvement) and the fact that Walker traveled from the US to Europe within the same time period that Oswald traveled to the Soviet Union. My research then followed three paths: Was Walker involved with intelligence operations? I have a myriad of information that suggests he was. Could Oswald have met Walker on his way to the Soviet Union? I have, within Serindipity, made my case. Why? That was the tough one till the Taylor connection became apparent. When the Taylor/Walker connection appeared too many things made to much sense! "In my opinion, Walker was tasked by his friend, General Taylor, to infiltrate the far right movement in America and was unaware that Oswald returned to the US until he saw his picture on the television after the assassination. After Oswald was dead, Walker denied making the statements attributed to him in the paper. I also believe that it is possible that "high officials" in the administration were aware of Oswald's movements in Dallas and suspected that he was involved with the assassination attempt on Walker. Hence the letters exchanged between McCloy and Walker that were left in a public place for easy discovery within a month of the attempt on Walker's life. I do not believe Walker knew the reason for those letters, just that they were additional cover for his "right wing" bonifides. McCloy was needed on the Warren Commission from the date of those letters on if for no other reason than to make sure his involvement with this whole series of events was buried." You seem to be saying that Walker was as much a patsy as Oswald. What are these "letters exchanged between McCloy and Walker?" And what evidence is there that there was an actual "attempt on Walker's life?" Yes, I believe that Edwin Walker was a GREAT war hero and my research leads me to believe a "patsy" himself. He may well be the ideal Professional Soldier that follows orders, without question, and is willing to sacriface his life in the line of duty for his country without question. I have found nothing in his character/ military career that leads me to believe anything else until his "Pro Blue Program." From then on everything seems out of character. An examination of his "fiery" rethoric after the assassination of John F. Kennedy shows more of a half hearted effort by a man a little disenchanted. Evidence "that there was an actual "attempt on Walker's life?" Marina Oswald has never wavered that Lee had a rifle, and practiced with it. Her testimony to the WC and HSCA was nearly identical concerning the Walker shooting attempt. From her HSCA testimony:Q. When was the first time that Lee told you he had used the rifle apart from the target practice? A. I think the General Walker incident. Q. Could you relate the details of that incident to us now? A. Well, I really cannot describe the details but the would be quite accurate in the testimony that I gave at the Warren Commission and if you refresh my memory I might be able to tell you. Q. What happened the days before the Walder incident; did Lee act unusual at all? A. Well he would be sitting--he made a little kind of not an office, a little closet that he has a chair there and maybe a desk-not a desk, improvisation of a desk, and he would be writing something down and he told me to to bother him so he was quite secretive about it. Q. And that was a few days before? A. A few days, a few weeks. I do not remember exactly the time. Q. Was Lee restless a few days before the incident? Was he calm? Did he sleep well? A. I don't recall his mood. Q. Did Lee ever talk in his sleep? A. Not that I remember. Q. Again in the book "Marina and Lee" you said that a few days prior to the Walker incident you recollect that he was talking in his sleep. A. that could be true. Q. Do you remember, would he talk in English or would he talk in Russian. A. I don't remember the incident right now. Q. Did Lee go to work the day that he told you he shot at General Walker? A. I don't remember the incident right now. Q. Did Lee go to work the day that he told you he shot at General Walker? A. I don't remember that either. What day of the week was it? Q. It was a Wednesday. A. Was it Wednesday? Well, I am sorry. I simply do not remember. Q. How did Lee first tell you about the shooting of General Walker? A. Well, he was gone most of the night and came home very late and turned the radio on. Q. How did you feel that evening when he did not come home? A. He did not come home for a long time and I do believe that I found a note addressed to me what to do in case something happened to him and I was petrified and didn't know what to do. Q. When did you find the note? A. After he went out. Q. Was it unusual for him to be out late? A. No; since he was leaving the house sometimes for this practicing that he supposedly was going to. Q. So you were not surprised that he was out that evening? A. Well, I was surprised that he came home that late. Q. Were you worried where he was? A. Of course I was. Q. Did you contact anybody? A. No; I didn't. Q. What did he say when he returned? A. Well, he turned the radio on and he was very pale and he was listening to the news, changing from station to station. I asked him what it was all about and he said that he tried to shoot General Walker. I told him how dare you take somebody's life and you should not do things like that, I mean you have no right to do it. He said, see, if somebody shot Hitler at the right time you will do justice to humanity so since I don't know anything about the man I should not talk about it. Q. Did you know who General Walder was? A. He told me he was a Fascist. That is all I know. Q. Had you heard the name before? A. No. Q. Did Lee ever mention to you a man named Scotty? A. No. Q. Did Lee ever-- A. Just a minute. I heard this name before and I don't know if it came from Lee or somebody that he could be working with. I think it is a little but confusing. Scotty could be a dog. I am sorry. Q. Did he ever mention a man who spoke with a Scottish accent? A. Oh, you mean with a Scottish accent? No; never. Q. Did he ever mention a man who lived with General Walker? A. No; I thought the man lived alone after what I read later on. Q. When Lee came back that night was he disheveled? A. What's disheveled? Q. Was he dirty? Were his clothes still neat? A. Well, honestly I only remember that he was very pale and that is all I recall. Q. When do you recall him leaving the house that day prior to his shooting at General Walker? A. I don't recall if he came from work and then left or whether he left after work. I don't remember. Q. Was he dressed in the same clothes that you saw him previously when he returned? A. I just don't remember. Q. Did he have the rifle with him when he came back? A. No; I think he said he left it hidden somewhere and I do believe the next day at night he went and got it. That is what I remember right now. That is the testimony I am giving you, what I remember. Q. That is what we want, your present recollection. Did he tell you he had shot at him with a rifle or did he mention that he had used a gun? A. Well, I think it was a rifle. Q. Did he tell you where he hid the rifle or the gun? A. I think he might have mentioned that it was in the shrubs somewhere. Q. Did you discuss with him whether it would be found and the police would be looking for him? A. It was such an unpleasant and terrifying incident that I was just trembling all day long. I was looking through the windows; I was expecting police coming any second. Q. Did you suggest to Lee that he go back and get the gun or rifle or did he do it by himself? A. I think he did it by himself. Q. What did he do with the gun or the rifle when he went back and got it? A. Kept it in the house. Q. Did you see it again? A. Well, I never made a point of going and checking the rifle every day to see whether is was there or not. Q. Where in the house would he keep it? A. In the closet. Q. On a shelf or was it on the floor? A. I don't remember. Q. Was it wrapped in anything? A. It could be just kind of stanking in the corner. Q. Proppoed up in the corner of the closet? A. It could be. Q. Was it covered? Was it wrapped in anything? A. I don't remember. Q. Was the closet crowded? Did it have many things in it? A. Usually his personal belongings, his clothes, his books, whatever, and he told me to stay out of it; that is his own private thing. Q. This was his closet? A. Yes. Q. If you opened the closet, was it easy to get the rifle or did you have to move a lot of things aside before you got it? A. I never did it. Q. If you opened the closet door, would you see the rifle immediately? A. I don't remember. Q. The photographs you took of Lee with the rifle and the pistol, do you know where Lee developed those photos? A. Well, didn't he work for some time with photography? Q. You don't know where he developed the films? A. No. Q. Did he have any photographic supplies around the house? A. It is so hard to dig through your memory that long back. He might have; I don't know. Q. When you saw the rifle that he had, was that the same rifle he had in Russia? A. I don't remember. How can you transport a gun from one country to another when you have to go through the inspection on the border? Q. So you don't think he brought the gun with him? A. I don't see how it logically or possibly could happen. Oh, you mean the same gun. Well, he bought the rifle right here. Q. He bought it here? A. Yes. Q. How did he buy the rifle here? A. Well, I learned later afterward that he ordered through some mail. Q. At that time did you know that he had ordered a rifle? A. Well, since I had seen the rifle I knew he purchased it. How he purchased it I do not know. Q. The first time you saw it did you ask him, "Where did you get the rifle?" A. No; but I was very upset that he spent money on such an unnecessary, stupid thing then we barely could survive on what he was making. Q. Did you ask him how much it cost? A. No. Q. Where did Lee keep his gun? The rifle was in the closet. A. Well, it never was on display on the wall but everybody can see it. It was always hidden somewhere back in the closet. We did not live in one place very long; we moved from apartment to the apartment. Q. In the apartment where the rifle was kept in the closet, was the gun also kept there or was it dept somewhere else? A. I assume it was together. Q. Did you see it in that closet? A. Well, see, my recollection about-do you recall the gun? Q. Yes. A. The pictures I took showed two. Q. It showed a rifle and a gun. A. Yes. Q. the question I have is just where did he keep the gun if the rifle was in the closet? A. I honestly do not know. Q. When you were living with Lee at this time, did he ever take the gun out to go target shooting with that as well as the rifle? A. I recall only the rifle because it was quite bulky and he had to hide it under his raincoat but I do not recall the gun at all. Q. When he brought the rifle back after he had hid it in the bushes from General Walker's house, what did he carry it in? He didn't just carry the rifle over his shoulder. A. No; he didn't, but I told you that he was wearing this raincoat. Walker fieled a police report after the incident but in his own testimony before the Warren Commission was quick to deny that Oswald had in fact shot at him. A few notes from Walker's Testimony before the Warren Commission: Mr. Liebeler. I don't think we have to indicate a great deal of your background for the record, since I think we all know who you are... Mr. Liebeler. It is my understanding that on the evening of April 10, 1963, some person fired a shot at you while you were in your home on Turtle Creek Boulevard; is that correct? General Walker. That is correct. Mr. Liebeler. Would you tell us the circumstances surrounding that event, as you can now recall them? General Walker. I was sitting behind my desk. It was right at 9 o'clock, and most of the lights were on in the house and the shades were up. I was sitting down behind a desk facing out from a corner, with my head over a pencil and paper working on my income tax when I heard a blast and a crack right over my head. Mr. Liebeler. What did you do then? General Walker. I thought--we had been fooling with the screens on the house and I thought that possibly somebody had thrown a firecracker, that it exploded right over my head through the window right behind me. Since there is a church back there, often there are children playing back there. Then I looked around and saw that the screen was not out, but was in the window, and this couldn't possibly happen, so I got up and walked around the desk and looked back where I was sitting and I saw a hole in the wall which would have been to my left while I was sitting to my right as I looked back, and the desk was catercornered in the corner up against this wall. I noticed there was a hole in the wall, so I went upstairs and got a pistol and came back down and went out the back door, taking a look to see what might have happened. Mr. Liebeler. Did you find anything outside that you 'could relate to this attack on you? General Walker. No, sir; I couldn't. As I crossed a window coming downstairs in front, I saw a car at the bottom of the church alley just making a turn onto Turtle Creek. The car was unidentifiable. I could see the two back lights, and you have to look through trees there, and I could see it moving out. This car would have been about at the right time for anybody that was making a getaway. Mr. Liebeler. Now as I understand it, there is an alley that runs directly at the rear of your house; is that correct? General Walker. yes, sir. Mr. Liebeler. Does that alley run directly into Turtle Creek Boulevard, or does it join with another alley? General Walker. No, sir; it joins with another alley, and it joins with the street called Avondale. Mr. Liebeler. So that to get-- General Walker. At one end is Avondale, which runs into Turtle Creek going downhill east, and at the other end it goes into the parking lot of the church. As you enter that parking lot from my alley, if you turn directly right, you go down the church alley going into Turtle Creek, and that is where the car was going down that I referred to, and it was just making the turn out of. the church alley. Mr. Liebeler. The alley that runs into Turtle Creek? General Walker. No; directly from the church alley into the Turtle Creek main boulevard. Now, there is another alley right at the entrance of my alley to the church parking lot, which runs straight west practically-to Oak Lawn. Hardly anybody knows it is there, because you have to ease down it with an automobile, it is so narrow. And as I know, only garbage trucks use it. I have been up and down it once or twice only. Mr. Liebeler. Now when you got that pistol, did you go out the back door of your house? General Walker. I went out the back door. Mr. Liebeler. You went into the alley? General Walker. I went about halfway out to the alley. Mr. Liebeler. From that point you could observe this car that was just turning? General Walker. No, Sir. I observed that--it was already gone I observed that from the window upstairs as I came down with the pistol. I could see out the south window, front and left. Mr. Liebeler. I would imagine that you assumed that that car had gone from the church parking lot down the alley and was at that point entering Turtle Creek Boulevard? General Walker. That is correct. Mr. Liebeler. Did you see which direction it turned? General Walker. Left, going north. Mr. Liebeler. Were you able to make any kind of identification of the automobile at all? General Walker. None at all. Later in the testimony, Mr. Liebeler. In point of fact, it would be correct to state that, to your knowledge, you never saw or heard of Lee Harvey Oswald at any time prior to the time that his name was announced after the assassination on November 22, 1963? General Walker. That is correct. Mr. Liebeler. You had no connection of any sort whatsoever with him prior to that time? General Walker. None at all. Mr. Liebeler. Or since that time? General Walker. Or with anybody that I ever knew that was associated with him, unless Duff turns out to be. General Watts. Off the record. Was the above statement a slip? "Or with anybody that I ever knew that was associated with him..." and his attorney, general Watts pull him "off the record." Continuing: Mr. Liebeler. Do you know Helmet Hubert Muench? General Walker. That name is not familiar to me. Can you give me anything to refresh me? Mr. Liebeler. Yes. He is a West German journalist who wrote an article that appeared in the Deutsche Nationalzeitung und Soldatenzeitung, a Munich, Germany, newspaper. General Walker. No; I don't know him. Mr. Liebeler. Did you ever talk to him? General Walker. Not that I know of. Mr. Liebeler. Did you talk to him on a transatlantic telephone call in which you told him about the fact or the alleged fact that Lee Harvey Oswald was the person who made an attempt on your life? General Walker. I don't recall that name. Did he speak English? I don't speak German. Walker avoids answering the questions: Mr. Liebeler. Have you ever seen a copy of that newspaper? General Walker. Yes; I have. Mr. Liebeler. In fact, I suggest that you have seen the November 29, 1963, copy of that newspaper which had on its front page a story entitled in German "The Strange Case of Oswald", that told about how Oswald had allegedly attacked you. General Walker. November 29, that is correct. Mr. Liebeler. Now, where did that newspaper get that information, do you know? General Walker. I do not. There was all article in the paper that he probably got from me. Mr. Liebeler. Well, in fact, the issue of that newspaper has right on the front page what purports to be a transcript of a telephone conversation between you and some other person. General Walker. Thorsten? Mr. Liebeler. Yes. Hasso Thorsten, is that the man? General Walker. He called me in Shreveport. Avoids the question. Mr. Liebeler. When were you in Shreveport? General Walker. He called me the morning of November 23, 1963, about 7 a.m. Mr. Liebeler. That is when you gave him this information about Oswald having attacked you? General Walker. I didn't give him all the information--I think the portion you are referring to, I didn't give him, because I had no way of knowing that Oswald attacked me. I still don't. And I am not very prone to say in fact he did. In fact, I have always claimed he did not, until we can get into the case or somebody tells us differently that he did. Who would need to tell him differently? General Walker. Well, starting back to make the record clear, I had a speaking engagement in Hattiesburg, Miss., either the 18th or 19th of November. I went from there to New Orleans and stayed 2 or 3 days. I was in the airplane between New Orleans and Shreveport about halfway, when the pilot announced that the President had been assassinated. I landed in Shreveport and went to the Captain Shreve Hotel and stayed there two nights and returned to Dallas and was walking into my house, just about the time of the immediate rerun of the shooting of Oswald. I had been out of the city on speaking engagements. How did the German newspaper get his telephone number at the Captain Shreve Hotel to call him at exactly 7:00 AM? The answer to this question will never be known, but I think it is highly possible that Walker made the arrangements to speak with the German newspaper that broke the story that was later supported by Marina Oswald and was a major basis for the conclusions of the Warren Commission's "lone nut" assassin. The timming of the McCloy/ Walker correspondance was a topic of a very early post of mine. At the time that I "discovered" the letter from McCloy I was so new to this topic that I did not even know that McCloy was a member of the Warren Commission. After the Walker bio was found this letter was the next peice to a puzzle that was laying accross the trail that has gotten me to this point. Do you believe that Taylor, because he "knows where Oswald is working," directed "the motorcade past that point?" "Completely plausible that someone had to know and influenced the motorcade planning." Yes, plausible that the motorcade route involved knowledge of Oswald's workplace, but that hardly means that the Chairman of the JCS would pesonally be involved in such a local matter. "If Taylor was aware of where Oswald was working and "helped" to direct the motorcade along that path then Maxwell Taylor pulled off the perfect murder" would be an interesting "if then" statement for debate, don't you agree? . "It would take me hours to explain WS 117L in connection with why the U-2 may have been a planned operation along with Tiros/Midas, Corona and Samos projects, the Army Missile Program, Walker, Taylor, etc., etc." I'll look forward to that explanation. Provided to a point.... You've even explained the 1927 reference, which at first glance seemed off to me. You do seem to be implying that Taylor played Walker to a degree, the realization of which began to dawn on Walker during the last stages of the assassination events. Yes, see above testimony excerpts. Jim Root

Tim I listed the wrong year for Tiros I and the first Midas Satelite. Should have been April 1, 1960 and May 24, 1960 which brackets the U-2 Incident of May 1, 1960. The previous post was edited. Sorry about the mistake. Jim Root

Tim I am perhaps to simple, in my complex way. Taylor perhaps just wanted to assure that he got his Vietnam War. Who knows a successful conclusion and he might become President (Caesar) himself. Just a thought, Jim Root

Tim (Dates were editied to correct year) Your simplest of questions is in reality the most difficult. But let me attempt to answer your point (noting that more info is still being sought by myself) "Example of a simpler issue which I can readily take exception: Do you believe that the U-2 was downed by the Soviets at all? "Yes. The U-2 incident did in fact occur. We can speculate on the details but it did in fact happen, one way or another." But Jim, the question was, do you believe that the U-2 was "downed?" In other words, was it sabotaged before takeoff, as opposed to being shot down by a SAM, which might imply the benefit of inside radar information. If it was not shot down, that implication isn't there." Starting in 1949 an Army/Rand study began looking at the fesibility of using satelites to gather intelligence information. The study resulted in a three pronged group of programs that became known by the names Corona (Photo recon), Samos (still classified) and Midas (early warning detection of missile lauches using infrared technology). When the program was deemed fesible, Eisenhower took the position that he did not want the United States to be seen as the country that militarized space number one and did not want that group of German scientists (former Nazi's) working at the Armys Redstone Arsenal to be the ones that launched Americas first satelite. Eisenhower wanted plausible civilian cover for these military programs. After Sputnik and the early Air Force failures, Eisenhower (I'll use this word) nationalized the Army Missile Program and created NASA with Werner Von Braun's team, that had been working for the Army for all these years, leading the way. Jumping over tons of info....... On April 1, 1960 the Tiros I satelite was launced. It was a polar orbited weather satelite complete with television cameras and the ability to relay these pictures to earth. The Army team had built this satelite and the rocket it was launced on. It's military value, in press releases, was said to be classified. It is known, for certain, that the Tiros satelites launched after this first one had infrared technology on board. On May 24, 1960 the first Midas Satelite was launced and put into a sationary orbit over the Soviet Union. It only remained operational for a short period of time but displays that we did, in fact, have the technology to "see" missiles being launched from the ground in the Soviet Union. This series of Midas Satelites had the technology to provide us with an early warning system that would assure the MAD threat could and would be used (no surprize ICBM's). The Midas Satelite was a hugh piece of equipment for its time and was put into a very high orbit. The Tiros satelite, by comparison was tiny and had a much lower orbit which ment that the area it viewed would be constantly changing as it circled the globe. While preparing the infrared sensing technology for the Midas satelite a much smaller infrared sensor, known as W-17, was built. What it was used for is still classified. My simple math seems to indicate that the Tiros I satelite may have been in a position to "see" Soviet SAM launches that would be directed at the U-2. Living in Aerospace Valley, I have been unable to get people to respond to my inquiries about the location of this satelite at that point (U-2 incident) in time. I am left wondering if we wanted to see if we could "see" Soviet missile lauches from a place and at a time that we would choose to test our technology before we put a whole series of satelites in space that we would depend upon for our survival. A legitamate CIA operation, planned for years, known about by very few that would require that necessary information be passed to the Soviets that would tempt them to shoot exactly when and from where we needed them to shot. With this senario in mind, I believe we may have wanted the U-2 shot down and did everything possible to allow it to happen. The fuel mixture conspiracy theory is another popular thought. Mine fits well with Taylor having advanced knowledge of the plan and a reason why he would have sent his most trusted man, Walker, to pass information to Oswald on Oct. 9, 1959. It also explains why Oswald's work location would be monitored, Nosenko, the Pro Blue Program, why Oswald might have felt quilt for the U-2 incident and Kennedy may have used the strategy that he did in his campaign prior to May 1, 1960 that folded in so well with the U-2 incident after it happened. It was after I tripped over this coincidence that I first connected Taylor to Walker. It is since that time that so many pieces of the puzzle seemed to fit together. Jim Root

Tim "But as for Max Taylor, he went from greatly admired by the Kennedys early in the administration, to despised less than three short years later." Is this a motive (element) for the crime? Or, turn it around....from the Seven Days in May thread....Could Taylor have percieved of Kennedy as ungrateful? Undeserving? Once again: "...S.L.A. Marshal (Detroit News, a retired brigadier general and one of the nation's leading military historians...., has serious reservations about the man he followed through Normandy, Holland, Belgium and Korea. 'I think I know Max Tayor as well as any man in America. He was an extraordinary battle commander - the most tightly self disciplined officer I ever knew. But Taylor is the wrong man for this job. Taylor is not a conciliator. He's actively interested in the exercise of power for his own sake." Jim Root

Ron Agreed Jim

Ron I was a child of the era and read the info a little differently. The phrase, "Number Please" was the standard phrase of greating that an operator at that time used. A person would then either give a number, ask for information, request a person to person call, ask to make a collect call, etc. Without disagreeing with your opinion, "I heard her repeat a number to the caller" could be exactly that, after getting, in this case two numbers, she may have repeated them to the caller. My point is not to rewrite the testimony of Alveeta Treon but rather to offer a different perspective on Oswald's attempt to contact a John Hurt. Why do you think Oswald would give two different numbers for two different John Hurt's in one city if he knew the number of who he was calling? Jim Root

Shanet, Tim I cannot tell you both how much I appreciate your critical approach to my thoughts/research. Shanet has suggested the Sierra Nevada Pale Ale and Tim and I know the place. Let me first say that I recently spent about 6 - 7 hours explaining my hypothisis and the information that I have uncovered while trying to support/prove/disprove said hypothisis with several people at the Univ. of Wisconsin. I have used the anology of a puzzle in some of my postings because it is appropriate. While looking at a particular piece to a puzzle we usually concentrate on that single pieces edges and how it might fit to an adjoining piece. While we may have a picture of the completed puzzle (the assassination took place) each individual piece does not complete a picture or even a distingushable part of the picture. It is not until all the pieces come together that we recognize that without the last single piece the puzzle will never be complete. But keep in mind that any one piece could be the last piece in any one attempt to complete our puzzle. For years I have attempted to attach significance (where it would fit) to each piece, but without the ability to show you the whole picture I have found it is difficult for you to understand the roll each piece plays. How's that for a disclaimer? Attempting to answer your questions (not in order of course): "Do you believe that then Senator Kennedy conspired with Taylor ..." No, I believe that the then out of the military General Taylor may have shared information with the Kennedy campaign with the intent of gaining influence (which he did in some way, becoming Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff) Do you believe, electorally, that there is any foundation for the statement, "As a result of the U-2 incident Kennedy is elected President?" Yes, by looking at the negitive. If the U-2 incident does not occur and the Paris summit becomes a historical reality with some sort of (test ban/Berlin) treaty/resolution photo opp with Khrushchev, Eisenhower and NIXON standing together promising peace in our time....Nixon very well wins the election he, in reality, lost in one of the closest elections in US History. Looking at it honestly, in your own mind, would the few votes necessary to sway that election have been there if the Paris Summit was a success? Would Kennedy's position of labeling the Eisenhower Administration soft on Communism worked if the US and the Soviet Union were in fact entering into a warmer relationship within the framework of the Paris Summit? Would the American public be inticed into voting for a continuation of the administration if additional summits/successes were espoused by the Nixon campaign of 1960? Was the U-2 incident just another coincidence leading to Dallas, Nov. 22, 1963? What was the 1927 Taylor-Walker connection? The connection begins as a student/teacher relationship. Taylor and Walker were both at West Point in their respectful capacities from 1927 - 1931. There careers are parallel. For example: from the Arlington National Cemetary Website dealing with Maxwell Davenport Taylor: "He was chief of staff of the European Command in 1949, and commander of the United States forces in Berlin, 1949–1951; He was promoted to temporary Lieutenant General and permanent Major General in August 1951; He was then Assistant Chief of Staff for Operations, G–3, and Deputy Chief of Staff for operations and administration, 1951–1953; He was promoted to temporary General in June 1953. He then was commander of the Eighth Army in the final operations of the Korean War in 1953 and then initiated the Korean armed forces assistance program, in 1953 and 1954. He commanded United States Forces, Far East, and the Eighth Army 1954–1955, and was Commander in Chief, United Nations Command, 1955; He was Chief of Staff of the United States Army, 30 June 1955–30 June 1959 and opposed dependence upon a massive retaliation doctrine, pushing for an increase in conventional forces to ensure a capability of flexible response, guided the transition to a "pentomic" concept, and directed Army participation in sensitive operations at Little Rock, Lebanon, Taiwan, and Berlin." Walker played a major role in each item listed in red or blue (and that is just 1949 to 1957). Is that just coincidence. If Walker was such a protege of Taylor's, why was Walker doing anything so transparent and problematic as propagandizing troops in Germany against Kennedy during that administration? Look at the dates. Think for a moment, Nosenko first made contact with the CIA in the days immediatly following Oswald's return to the US and then defected, with information about Oswald's non affilliation with the KGB in tow, right after the assassination. Does this allow you to speculate that the pieces may fit the need to deny Oswald. It would also mean Oswald would have been very important to somebody. It may be coincidence but we could also then ask, "If the USSR would need to be able to plausibly deny Oswald would the US need to do the same?" The Walker "Pro Blue Program" begins in the days immediatly following the State Departments decision which says that Oswald must leagally be allowed back into the US. Although the process would take over a year to complete, Walker has been so distanced and even would be institutionalized that if Oswald could "finger" him as the man who passed the Oct. 9, 1963 Helsinki Embassy memo information to Oswald, it could be deflected from both the Kennedy adminsistration and, more importantly to General Taylor's connection to Walker. In my opinion, Walker was tasked by his friend, General Taylor, to infiltrate the far right movement in America and was unaware that Oswald returned to the US until he saw his picture on the television after the assassination. Walker actions are interesting. Apparently he made everyone on the plane he was traveling aware of his presence when th enews was first announced. Then, after arriving at the Captain Shreve Hotel he became so nervous that, I believe, he made contact with a German newspaper that printed a story about Oswald's assassination attempt upon him days before the FBI and Marina Oswald connected on the story. After Oswald was dead, Walker denied making the statements attributed to him in the paper. I also believe that it is possible that "high officials" in the administration were aware of Oswald's movements in Dallas and suspected that he was involved with the assassination attempt on Walker. Hence the letters exchanged between McCloy and Walker that were left in a public place for easy discovery within a month of the attempt on Walker's life. I do not believe Walker knew the reason for those letters, just that they were additional cover for his "right wing" bonifides. McCloy was needed on the Warren Commission from the date of those letters on if for no other reason than to make sure his involvement with this whole series of events was buried. Do you believe that Taylor, because he "knows where Oswald is working," directed "the motorcade past that point?" Completly plausible that someone had to know and influenced the motorcade planning. Hosty informs the FBI and State where Oswald is working on Nov. 5, 1963 and the route was scheduled around Nov. 8, 1963. People in government knew where Oswald was which makes route selection a key piece of evidence that needs to be researched for this point of view (who had access to the Hosty info at the State Department and did it "move up the latter." No matter what you believe about the assassination, conspiracy or lone nut, both require Oswald to be in the School Book building. Taylor may have had as great a motive as anyone on the planet to see Kennedy dead, old fasion greed and power and he had the capability to pull it off as well. Do you believe the U-2 "downing" resulted from information passed to the Soviets by Oswald? I believe that the downing of the U-2 was a planned operation. Weather Oswald supplied all the information or the information was supplied in his name I leave open. If the Soviets had an opportunity to interview Oswald in Moscow/Russia and were to come to the conclusion that he was not capable or stable enough of a person to be a US agent the information "he" supplied would become more believable (orchid man interview with James Jesus Angleton) Even Posner suggests that Oswald may have had contact with Soviet agents while in Japan. I can go in a couple of different directions here and arrive at the same "big picture." Suffice it to say that: fact, Oswald was a radar operator at U-2 bases. Fact, Oswald defected to the Soviet Union. Fact, Francis Gary Powers was captured alive in the Soviet Union after his U-2 went down. Fact, the Paris Summit did not happen. It would take me hours to explain WS 117L in connection with why the U-2 may have been a planned operation along with Tiros/Midas, Corona and Samos projects, the Army Missile Program, Walker, Taylor, etc., etc. Do you believe that the U-2 was downed by the Soviets at all? Yes. The U-2 incident did in fact occur. We can speculate on the details but it did in fact happen, one way or another. If "Oswald is a 'patsy' because he went to Russia,".... I believe that Oswald may have been watched very closly by intelligence agencies of both countries for the same reasons as were stated above about Nosenko and Walkers behavior that begins with Oswald's announced intention to return to the US. In the high stakes world of intrigue that surrounded the Cold War period both sides, in my picture, would have a great interest in maintaining contacts with this man because they just were not sure who he really was. "Oh what a tangled web we weave when at first we do deceive." When it is all said and done I believe that Oswald's actions, before the assassination of Kennedy, could easily be viewed as a man who may have been haunted by what role he was playing in life. Suppose he had been used, unwittingly, to pass U-2 information to the Soviets. Would he, as a normal person, have guilt after the U-2 went down and the Paris Summit was cancelled? He seemed to show some remorse for this in his speech at his cousins Jesuit college. Would he become a bit parinoid and attempt to create false identities to conceal his activities from the people he may have believed were watching him (especially after the attempt on the life of Walker). Hidell and mail order rifles may have been the feeble attempts of a man who felt he was in fact a "patsy" to deal with the world that he was living within. Picture his mind.....not the accused assassin, but Lee Harvey Oswald the defector that had returned to the United States that may well have taken a shot at General Walker and might at any moment be arrested for that crime. Jim Root

Shanet Nor do I think he was trying to call "Mississippi" John Hurt..... Waker was the student and Taylor was the instuctor at West Point, 1927 - 1931. A list of the Class of 1931 (and a few of the classes following) finds several General Officers whose names show up in the early 1960's. For example: Lt. Gen. Marshall Carter (Class of 31) Deputy Director of the CIA 62 - 65, Director of NSA 65 - 69 Maj. Gen. Chester Clifton (Class of 36) joined the Kennedy staff in 1961 abd was the officier responsible for the Presiden's daily morning intelligence briefings on world event, in the motorcade in Dallas....first CO upon graduation from West Point, Edwin Walker Lt. Gen. William Westmorland (Class of 36)...first CO upon graduation from West Point, Edwin Walker. Just coincidence. Jim Root

Ron Oswald did not give the operator two numbers for "John Hurt." The operator located two numbers for "John Hurt" in the same manner that Johathan Abt's numbers were located. The difference being that, upon his death, Oswald had the numbers for Abt in his pocket and the numbers for "Hurt" were not "discovered" until the HSCA uncovered them. As you say the numbers were investigated and John David Hurt was of interest because of his "U.S. Army Counter Intelligence from 1942 to 1945." The reality was that the calls were never completed and, as I recall the story, some researchers have found evidence that a nationwide search was made for people with the name John Hurt or a phonetic spelling thereof by the FBI (?). The whole matter has sort of gone away because the investigations never led to anything more than sinister speculation. I understood that at the time I first looked into the "Raliegh Call" story. Years later, while following a Walker thread, I came upon the name John B. Hurt and decided to do more followup. In doing so I was able to place him in the "Old Munitions Building" where Maxwell Taylor was working and associated their common Japanese Language connection with their high security clearences and thought that this needs further investigation. Perhaps I was wrong for pursuing this information. But if there was a connection to this John Hurt and Oswald, well that would just be speculation. While John B. Hurt was a part of the original team of people that broke the Japanese Diplomatic Code prior to WWII, I found it a little strange that he has been sort of "cut out" of the glory (has not received the recognition or publicity of the others in the group). Since the "Ultra Secret" stories did not start to be declassified until after the assassination of Kennedy, the names of this group were not well known at the time of the WC investigation. Is there now a reason for this man to be "buried"in history while the others have received their due recognition? If he was the man that Lee Harvey Oswald was attempting to contact, the intelligence community may well have wanted this name to be buried. I agree with your statement about coincidence which is one of the reasons I have used the word so often at the end of my posts. After ten years of finding alot of coincidences dealing with Walker, Taylor and Oswald I just thought I would share another one that deals with another piece of evidence that the Warren Commission seemed to avoid dealing with at the time, which is about a man (John B. Hurt)and his work that was still classified at the time of the assassination. Jim Root

Richard Very nice job on the Marina Oswald testimony. It disapoints me that so many people are unwilling to deal with the Walker incident. It is as if researchers have closed the door on this topic in a misguided belief that if they accept the incident as real they will be embracing a part of the Warren Report. Needless to say I have embraced it as true but feel that Walker is a window into a world of mirrors. In the movie JFK they make reference to an Alice in Wonderland type of world that as I have studied Walker I believe may actually exist (Nosenko case as an example where nobody is willing to reveal the whole truth perhaps because nobody is really sure of what the whole truth is). From the Testimony of Edwin Anderson Walker Mr. Liebeler. I would like to have the record show that prior to the commencement of this deposition, a discussion between General Watts and General Walker and myself was had in which we reached an agreement under which a copy of the transcript of the testimony which will be taken here today will be made available here at the office of the U.S. attorney for examination by General Walker and by his counsel. They will be given an opportunity to make whatever changes in the testimony may be necessary, so that the transcript reflects accurately what happened here today. We also agreed and confirmed in a telephone conversation with Mr. Rankin, the general counsel for the Commission, that as soon as a copy can reasonably be made available, within 2 or 3 days after this transcript has been signed by General Walker and approved by me, a copy of the transcript will be made available to General Walker at his expense. It may be purchased from the court reporter here in Dallas. We will make whatever arrangements may seem proper at that time to give the general a corrected copy. Would you state your full name for the record, please? A) Edwin A. Walker. A stands for Anderson. Q) What is your address? A) 4011 Turtle Creek Boulevard, Dallas, Tex. Q) How long have you lived there? A) I believe since December of 1961 or January of 1962. I am not sure of the month I moved in. Q) I don't think we have to indicate a great deal of your background for the record, since I think we all know who you are, but you are a retired major general, are you not? A) No. I am former major general, now resigned from the U.S. Army. I believe the Warren Report is a masterfull coverup of a great deal of information. The beginning of this testimony becomes a striking example when you open the book on Walkers military "backround." Development of Special Forces, Special Operations, Covert War (Greece), etc., etc., etc. and close association with Maxwell Taylor. I have used the phrase, "Forrest Gump like life" to discribe General Walker. He is always everywhere but people seem to ignore his life as many people ingore the simpleton or homeless person they see on the streets of there own hometowns. As researchers, weather we like it or not, General Edwin Anderson Walker, is on our turf. Do we continue to ignore him or do we face the reality of this ugly truth? Jim Root