Bill Simpich

Late during the night of the assassination, Gannaway and his buddies came to Joe Molina's house and asked him questions about Oswald and the assassination. They asked Molina to come to the station the next day, where he is asked a lot of follow-up questions. Molina was fired a few days later, although he was never arrested. Greg Parker offered some informed speculation on Lowery back in 2015: "Oswald was a long-time cia asset who became the property of the fbi on return from Russia. What got him into "intelligence" was a program that will be revealed in the upcoming volume. This program both took him to the soviet union, and was the one used to get him into the TSBD. "He was told he would be taking over from William Lowery in watching and informing on Joe Molina. Lowery had "outed" himself (and thus making him useless as an informant) in September."

Steve, I should add that I did an entire presentation on William Lowery at Chris Gallop's luncheon last month. His story is a doozy, much of it can be found here, I have more.

Steve and Bart, It looks to me that the "FBI agent" the provided the tape was "the shoe salesman" that was a "government agent" and with the "Texas Communist Party" That would be William Lowery, cited in my Key Point #7 above - Joe Molina's colleague who had been an FBI informant inside the Communist Party from 1945 right up to September 1963. If you are interested in Nestor Castellanos, I have a fair amount on him. Bart, do you have the other Butler deposition a month earllier - on or about April, 1978?

It's useful to keep in mind that many people are witting or unwitting "assets", and others are "sources" - neither description is the same as an informant, who is paid for their work. The "T-1" type of cryptonyms only give you information about that specific case - when you see a crypt with a city prefix and a C or an S suffix, you have a more substantial "symboled informant" at hand.

Bart, do you know how to find Butler's earlier deposition, taken a month earlier?

Still looking for leads on solved FBI cryptonyms - see the previous posts above. This post is to discuss Bill Lowery, FBI informant DL-2-S - and the fake story about Oswald being S-172 and/or S-179. He was paid $200 a month by Hosty. For the proof, see... http://digitalcollections.baylor.edu/cdm/compoundobject/collection/po-arm/id/25293/rec/28 At page 5: William Lowery, the CPUSA officer in Dallas who came out as an FBI informant in Sept 1963, is the guy who actually received $200 a month as an informant from Jim Hosty. - and believe it or not, FBI cover-up artist Wally Heitman volunteered to work for free as Lowery's lawyer before the HSCA! When Lowery admitted he got paid $2500 a year - which boils down, again, to $200 a month, the next question was "how was he paid" -Heitman instructed Lowery not to answer. He did not want the answer that Hosty paid him $200 a month! (p. 15) When they pinned him down, he said $50 a week (p. 19) If Oswald played any role with the FBI - or any other agency - it needed to be covered up. What better way to do it than with a disinformation campaign, aided by members of the news media. Consider this... Joan Mellen reports that Joseph Goulden was the executor to the will of David Phillips (Farewell to Justice, p. 454). Goulden reported on December 8, 1963 that Oswald was an informant of the FBI. This then was brought into the scheme of Bill Alexander and Hugh Aynesworth to spread a deliberately made-up story about LHO being Agent S-172 or S-179. Lonnie Hudkins printed the story in the Houston Post on Jan. 1, 1964. Hudkins was interviewed on 2/8/64 and said that the 179 number came from a Dallas government official, not a federal official - undoubtedly Alexander - but he refused to reveal the exact name. He said that Goulden gave him a number different from 179 that he couldn't recall. In Esquire, Feb. 1976, Aynesworth admitted he and Alexander made it up to draw out the FBI on the issue. (James Hosty repeated this story in Assignment: Oswald). Hudkins claimed that he invented the two phony informant numbers for Oswald "and leaked the information during a phone conversation in order to determine if the FBI had tapped his telephone." Hudkins even claimed that an FBI dropped by his office a half an hour later and after beating around the bush asked if he had heard anything about Oswald's phony payroll number. Hudkins claim about both of these stories does not mean it is true. Even FBI chief Clarence Kelley referred to Hudkins and his frequent tips as a "usually unreliable source of information". Hudkins claimed he got the story that Oswald was a "symbol number informant" from Goulden. Goulden denied it, claiming he got it from a "Dallas law enforcement officer". The FBI considered Goulden's story scurrilous. Goulden said he would try to get permission, and called back and said he couldn't reach him. He told the FBI later that the officer assured him it was being "handled through proper channels". Goulden also wrote that a Dallas law enforcement officer provided him information that Ruby gained access to the basement by posing as the helper of a cameraman. He claimed he couldn't reach this officer again, and then used the same story about it being "handled through proper channels". Years later, the man at FBI HQ believed that DA Bill Alexander had made up the story. Alexander told Gerald Posner, "I never much liked the federals...I figured it was as good a way as any to keep them out of my way by having to run down that phony story." (Posner, Case Closed, p. 348). To top it off, reporter Hugh Aynesworth told Larry Sneed that "I made it up" - and that he gave the phony number S-172 to Hudkins. (Sneed, No More Silence, p. 32). Were Goulden or Hudkins prosecuted for lying to the FBI and this campaign of disinformation? Or Alexander, who was a seasoned district attorney and knew that FBI informant numbers were identified as DL 2-S, not S-172? Nope. These men didn't have to say anything - but once they did, that's obstruction of justice under 18 USC 1001 then and now. Assistant WC counsel Leon Hubert told his boss that if they wanted to make a proper record, the FBI could not simply get an affidavit from the FBI HQ Security Division, they needed to search the informant files for the field offices in Dallas and New Orleans. According to Breach of Trust author Gerald McKnight, this was never done. (p. 145). I think it's at least possible that all this was done to hide the very real relationship Oswald had with Customs and New Orleans FBI agent Warren de Brueys - who worked the Cuba beat - as reported for more than fifty years by FBI informant Orestes Pena. Cuban exile Orestes Pena testified that he saw Oswald chatting on a regular basis with FBI Cuban specialist Warren de Brueys, David Smith at Customs, and Wendell Roache at INS. Pena told the Church Committee that Oswald was employed by Customs. Informant Joseph Oster went farther, saying that Oswald's handler was David Smith at Customs. Church Committee staff members knew that David Smith "was involved in CIA operations". Orestes Pena's handler Warren de Brueys admitted he knew David Smith. Oswald was also frequently seen with Juan Valdes, who described himself as a "customs house broker". Note: Pena told the Church Committee that Oswald was employed by Customs: Church Committee Boxed Files / NARA Record Number: 157-10014-10120. See http://www.maryferrell.org/mffweb/archive/viewer/showDoc.do?docId=1421&relPageId=31 (de Brueys); http://www.maryferrell.org/mffweb/archive/viewer/showDoc.do?mode=searchResult&absPageId=182451 (Pena)(also see 180-10075-10167, 2000 release of Pena's depo, at National Archives; and Joan Mellen's Farewell to Justice, pp. 46-48) http://www.maryferrell.org/mffweb/archive/viewer/showDoc.do?mode=searchResult&absPageId=488541 (Juan Valdes' still-unreleased file, part of the CIA's broken-up "Fair Play for Cuba file" 100-300-011)

The above posts are from the Powerpoint presentation at the CAPA conference on Saturday, November 16. These posts are a distillation of the citations provided in Page 7 of this Lumpkin-Gannaway thread.

Key point #10: Dissemination of the Oswald backyard photo November 22: Curry issues order - photos only to be disseminated upon orders of the Chief's office November 23-24: Lumpkin makes "24 or more" copies of the backyard Oswald photo Lumpkin places them on a table for law enforcement officers - where anyone could take them

Key point #9: The False CPUSA Report to Army Stringfellow: Notified 112th that LHO said he went to Cuba AND was a card-carrying CPUSA member Memo winds us at US Strike Command - the base poised to retaliate on Cuba Stringfellow: Like others, part of the Army Intelligence Reserve Ed Coyle of 112th: Testifies that all DPD intelligence officers are Army Intelligence

Key point #8: The False Marina Story Crichton and Lumpkin hire Mamantov as interpreter in first 24 hours after 11/22 Mistranslation by Mamantov: Marina "presumed Oswald's rifle to be his Russian rifle"... Actual translation: "...can't describe it...rifle to me like all rifles."

Key point #7: Gannaway says on 11/22 LHO is only man "unaccounted"

Key point #6: Lumpkin takes Roy Truly to Captain Fritz

Key point #5: Lumpkin controls the crime scene

Key point #4: Hill joins Westbrook in Personnel - 10/63 Had access to all personnel files and internal affairs records Westbrook: Chief of hiring, firing, discipline, internal affairs Official reports stated that Homicide found the hulls on 6th Floor, but claims made that Luke Hill joins Westbrook in Personnel - 10/63 or Jerry Hill found the hulls Official reports stated that Lumpkin - or Revill - or Homicide - controlled crime scene

Key point #3: Who's in charge after 12:30 pm? Lumpkin - orders the sealing of the Book Depository Not all the doors were covered - for up to half an hour Sawyer claimed he had a witness - shooter was 5'10/165 pounds Sawyer lost his witness - later fired in disgrace

Key point #2: Who led the motorcade? George Lumpkin, #2 man in 488th, answered to Colonel Jack Crichton General George Whitmeyer, Army reserves chief for East Texas - Three minutes ahead of the motorcade, in pilot car - Made a suspicious stop, right in front of the Book Depository

Key point #1: At the 11/21/63 operational plan meeting for JFK in Dallas Three of the twelve DPD officers present were Pat Gannaway, George Lumpkin, and Herbert Sawyer.

Vice - Herbert Sawyer was a former chief, aided in false ID of LHO on 11/22 Narcotics - George Butler formerly involved, suspect in death of LHO on 11/24 Intelligence - Jack Revill was chief in 1963

Thank you. Keep the suggestions coming!

I reached Burroughs a couple weeks ago and I am working out an interview. Any questions you want me to ask?

I imagine that Col. George L. Lumpkin is related to the motorcycle patrolman William George Lumpkin...many of you may know this story...it has always fascinated me. At Main and Houston Brewer and Freeman drove ahead to join the 3 Advance Motorcycles to assist in Stemmons Freeway traffic control, leaving the trio of Ellis, Grey and Lumpkin leading the motorcade through Dealey Plaza (Warren Commission, Lawrence Exhibit 2). Born and raised in Avery, Texas, Bill Lumpkin worked at General Dynamics as an aircraft electrician after serving a hitch in the military. He joined the Dallas Police Department in 1953 and was assigned as one of the lead motorcycle officers in the Kennedy motorcade... Also of interest regarding Officer Lumpkin was a famous, now missing, photo of him taken by eyewitness, Mary Moorman, as he rode through Dealey Plaza. It was potentially valuable because it may have shown activity on the 6th floor. According to the late Gary Mack, Director of the 6th Floor Museum, the Moorman Poloroid #4, showed Officer Lumpkin on Elm in the foreground with the Texas School Book Depository and the sixth-floor corner window of the Depository in view in the background. The photo was taken about a minute before JFK arrived on the scene in Dealey Plaza. Moorman lent the photo (known as Moorman 4) to Bill Lumpkin during the summer of 1964, and he never returned it to her, claiming that he couldn't find it. Many people asked him to find it over the years, citing it as evidence that there was no one in the assassin's window in the critical moments before the assassination, including Gary Mack in this 1982 article. Mack said that Moorman told him that no one could be seen in the assassin's window just seconds before the shooting: "...(Moorman) remembers counting floors and windows in her pictures both that day and on more than one occasion later on. She never found anyone in any of the windows, nor did others in her presence. Lumpkin told Larry Sneed: "I also knew Mary Moorman. She and McBride went to school together, I believe it was. That’s how I met her, and she was down there with another lady named Jean Hill, so I knew them both. Mary took a picture of me sitting on my motorcycle there in front of the Triple Underpass just before Kennedy arrived. Then she took a picture of Kennedy and received a cash settlement for quite a bit of money. I’ve seen her a number of times since then. She gave me the Polaroid picture of me straddling this motorcycle, but I don’t know where it is now. I knew where it was for a long time, and some years ago, somebody wanted to look at it, and now it’s misplaced. I’ve been asked about that picture a number of times, but I just remember it had me being on a motorcycle. It didn’t show anything suspicious that I recall. I didn’t pay that much attention to it since I don’t care much about getting my picture taken." Really? The whole point of trying to find the photo is because it was suspicious that no one was in the 6th floor window.