Bill Simpich

Posted the above by mistake but that's ok - it might return focus to the question of whether the Dallas police knew about Oswald before 11/22. This is not evidence, but it made me laugh - from Jack Ruby's brother: "...I blame everything on the stupid Dallas police...they knew Oswald was in town, why didn't they grab him?" In a highly informative 1978 article by reporter Earl Golz, he wrote that the Texas Rangers (Department of Public Safety - DPS) said had a file on Oswald before 11/22, mostly news clippings, and not much hard intelligence. Gannaway's aide Bill Biggio at Fair Park was in charge of communications - Golz wrote Hill "thinks" he told Biggio about the Hidell and Oswald ID and that Biggio "immediately" passed it on to the Department of Public Safety (DPS - the Texas Rangers). However, Bill Biggio claimed that he called DPS with Hidell information and that DPS told him they had information on both Oswald and Hidell. Hill tried to split the difference, claiming: "in all probability Army intelligence got their information from DPS who had it probably ten minutes after we got back here with them." Gannaway went a step further, saying that If Army Intelligence in San Antonio or Dallas "had any information on Oswald, we didn't know about it." Revill echoed Gannaway. Two Army Intelligence sources claimed in 1978 that it had not only no record of "Hidell" before the assassination, but no record of Oswald either! We now know this information was false, because the file number for "Lee Harvey Oswald" in Army hands was unearthed - the file itself was destroyed in 1973. It is stunning to me how poorly the law enforcement intelligence/DPD/sheriff's/state police side of this case has been documented in books - not counting all the hard working researchers that have been educating us, of course. What books are out there on Dallas law enforcement: Walt Brown's book is good. Judy Bonner's is more of a fiction piece. Penn Jones did a lot. Of course Sylvia Meagher. But what has been done since the flood of new documents in the 90s? I have always felt that we need a far more in-depth search of documents sitting in Texas warehouses. Where are the full records of Gannaway , Revill and company from the state fairgrounds at what Phil Melanson called "the spooky little unit" at Fair Park physically separated from the rest of the police department? Only a few can be found at NARA. As we now know, Lumpkin, Gannaway, Col. Crichton, and 50-100 Dallas police officers were members of the 488th, the 4150th, and the 112th - army intelligence and the army reserves. Crichton was involved in everything from oil intelligence to the Marina Oswald interview to running for governor in 1964. And Lumpkin had ruled the roost at the Special Services Bureau before Gannaway did. Some of the records are right at our fingertips and I didn't know it. For example, transcripts of radio transmissions of Bill Decker's sheriff's department - KKE 891 - are part of CE 705 - mistakenly labeled as "police communications" (KKB 364) when other evidentiary items are also inside. The Texas Rangers log of their radio communications on KKQ 395 are also within CE 705 - although they ignored the request to provide the communications themselves, they only coughed up the log book. A few questions, if anyone can weigh in: Where are the radio transmissions and/or transcripts from the WHCA (for which the ARRB found almost nothing) - which should be linked to Gannaway and friends in the underground bunker at the fairgrounds? Where are the radio transmissions and/or transcripts from Lumpkin and the lead car (Unit 5)? The ARRB asked for motorcade field transmissions were allegedly monitored at Love Field, with Army Signal Corps responsible for relaying these transmissions to the White House Situation Room - as well as personnel and military intelligence files on records on Crichton, Whitmeyer, James Powell and William C. Bishop - did they get anywhere on this? Or the Texas Rangers, besides the aforementioned log book itself? Or Gordon McClendon's KLIF radio? (I think David Von Pein collected them and others - have they been transcribed by anyone?) Or the FBI? On 3/3/64, the Warren Commission asked state and local law enforcement for their transmissions, but not the FBI! The week before, Hoover had reminded all FBI agents to be discreet with their radio transmissions. The FBI followed up with the cops, the sheriffs and the rangers for their materials, but, again, I don't see the FBI offering its own! Or the Secret Service? The sheriff's unit  sought Secret Service 473 in radio calls on 11/22. Or the champions - the National Security Agency? (The ARRB got totally stonewalled by the NSA and the Secret Service. The NSA found less than 400 relevant documents. The Secret Service destroyed documents with impunity.) Has anyone ever studied Jim Bowles' (DPD communications czar) opus on the DPD radio transmissions?

The Dallas police claimed they had no knowledge of Lee Harvey Oswald before the assassination. But Gannaway's intelligence unit tracked subversives, just like the FBI did. Is it credible that they didn't know the Fort Worth Communist Party members? Because these Communists knew about Oswald years before 11/22/63, and told the FBI. If anybody on the Dallas force knew about Oswald, it was Pat Gannaway and his ex-partner George Butler, who knew a lot about Ruby. Researcher Harold Weisberg believed that Butler was running the downtown jail the morning of Nov. 24 when Oswald was shot by Ruby. Butler knew all about Ruby, he had questioned him at length in 1950. As for Oswald, the FBI knew about Oswald for several years before 1963, their sources included "Communists in Fort Worth". Those sources were almost certainly known to the Dallas police as well, and Gannaway and Butler in particular. Oswald's return to the Dallas/Fort Worth area in mid-1962 was reported in the newspapers, and the local Russians and Cubans like Sylvia Odio knew about him before Nov 22, 1963. Butler was busy investigating those very individuals. This document says that in 1947, Gannaway was working on confidential investigations on the vice squad with his partner Lt. George Butler. "He is extremely well informed as to the criminal activity in this city...knows or can determine the associates of practically all characters in the city." 1955: Butler transferred from the field of racketeers and mobsters and into the juvenile division. (Stated in the 1958 testimony, below) 1958: With RFK asking the questions, Butler testified at the Investigation of improper activities in the labor or management field. Hearings before the Select Committee on Improper Activities in the Labor or Management Field Butler testified mainly about how the mob moved in during the late 40s with their coin-operated machines into Dallas and had an 18 million dollar enterprise - hardly what he testified in 1950. In 1961 - Lt. George Butler also provided information to W. Penn Jones Jr. According to Jones, Butler told him that 50% of the Dallas Police Department were also members of the Ku Klux Klan. More to the point, he also wanted Jones to start a statewide Klan newspaper with him! (Bill Turner, Ramparts, June 1967) On June 23, 1961, four days after John Fain receives the mailing list from New York with FPCC subscriber and Dallas resident Ernest Larson on it , Fain asks his informants T-3 and T-4 aka DL-16-S and DL-20-S about Oswald. These informants know Oswald is a defector simply by reading the local newspapers. In November 1961 - DL-16-S and Dallas CP head Bill Lowery (DL-2-S) are both questioned by the FBI about the Minutemen - here is Bill Lowery ID'd as DL 2-S - and Gannaway's office had a file on Lowery and other CP members going back to at least 1955 - they do not know anything about them at that time. (In 1965, DL 16-S and DL 20-S were interviewed at the same time as Gen. Walker's attorney regarding a Klan plot.) DL 16-S and DL 20-S are questioned again after Oswald's return in mid-1962, and say that Lee and Marina are not involved in any Communist activities in Fort Worth. During the 1962-63 period, Trudy Castorr of Dallas (wife of Col. Castorr) discusses at great length how Butler was also pals with Sylvia Odio and got deep inside information from the whole Dallas Cuban crowd. Trudy Castorr made a point of giving him letters from Lucille Connell about Odio. It turns out Sylvia Odio was the cousin of Marcella Insua, the daughter of Joaquin Insua (an FBI informant and the head of Catholic Cuban Relief in Dallas). These two informants say in 1961 that what that they know is what they read in the paper about LHO defecting to the USSR. They knew much the same in 1962. By January 1964, even the FBI was concerned about Butler: "We are also instructing SAC, Dallas, to request the that the head of the Dallas Police Department determine whether Lt. George Butler of the Dallas Police Department is involved in a scheme to furnish FBI data to (right-wing activist Earl) Lively as alleged by (Dallas CP chief - and FBI informant - Bill) Lowery. Who are DL 16-S and DL 20-S? It is not credible they were not known to the Dallas police - and Gannaway's Special Services unit in particular.

Thanks Steve! Let me start with three points. 1. The FBI always keeps more than it gives to local officials. 2. The Communists of Dallas and Fort Worth were certainly a prize for agencies to fight over. The FBI had at least two Fort Worth Communists., plus Lowery and some of the Dallas Communists. Gannaway was right in thinking that Joe Molina of the TSBD worked with a lot of Communists - because he did. It's well-documented. It's inevitable that those two agencies had a tug of war over the Communists. 3. Anyone who read the Fort Worth Star-Telegram knew that an American defector had returned from the USSR to the Dallas-Fort Worth area. I can't put my hands on my copy of Larry Sneed's book, but online access shows that it is filled with good comments and leads. One problem in reading the interviews in that book - of course - is who do you believe? When Cunningham excuses himself for losing the list of the theater patrons after Oswald's arrest, he passes off this loss as "unimportant". Whether you believe the killing was done by a lone gunman or multiple gunmen, that kind of comment is beyond the pale. Who was Oswald trying to meet? How did he conduct himself during that time? Any inquiry that might shed light on an Oswald confederate on 11/22 is vitally important. Sneed's book is good at pointing out these men did not work in a vacuum. Cunningham was in a continuing poker game with Jack Revill - the Forgery Bureau and the Special Service Bureau had a special relationship. Here's some insight into Revill, who headed the intelllgence unit.. Jack is described in Sneed's book as vice-chair of the national LEIU (Law Enforcement Intelligence Unit). They shared intel from all over the country. Any re-defector from the Soviet Union would have been on the top of their list. Jack had an office at Fair Park where he had 12-13 assistants and the ability to communicate with federal, state and local officers around the country, leaving no paper trail that I am aware of. In early 1964, Revill picked up Loran Hall and Bill Seymour for running narcotics to raise money for the Minutemen - from reading the report, it doesn't even sound like they were arrested - they were probably informants. On 7/5/66, Jack Revill made two copies of an FBI report he had access to without permission. From the heading of the file, it was apparently Mafia-oriented. Revill got it from another Dallas officer - who apparently went inside the FBI agent's briefcase to get it. At a minimum, the Dallas officer lifted it from the agent's desk. The Dallas officer was VJ Brian - a key witness to the finding of the shells - Hoover was furious. Revill and Brian were demoted on the spot. Cunningham says in Sneed's book that this was a sting to bring down Revill. Turning to Westphal... like Westbrook and Hill, Westphal was at all the important crime scenes on 11/22. My memory is vague, but I remember Westphal's memory as very convenient as to "who was where when", I'll get into it at a later date. I don't give him a pass. None of these men distinguished themselves by trying to find out "what happened" in the deaths of JFK, Tippit, and Oswald. Sneed's book has them patting themselves on the back saying "yes, we lost JFK, and we lost Oswald, but we did a great job that weekend." Losing JFK was not solely on their shoulders - that was the primary job of the Secret Service. Losing Oswald was squarely on the Dallas police. No one on the force was punished. No one.

My central point is that I think FBI's John Fain, Jim Hosty and Dallas' Pat Gannaway and Jack Revill were working with the same group of Communists from Fort Worth and Dallas. And there weren't more than a dozen of them at most. Two of those Communists knew about Oswald and told Hosty and Fain about him. Gannaway and Revill must have had access to the same information. What gave their life meaning if not hunting Communists?

The Dallas police claimed they had no knowledge of Lee Harvey Oswald before the assassination. Gannaway said his intelligence unit tracked subversives and radicals, just like the FBI did, and that he had first-hand information on all of them - but he knew nothing about Oswald. How is that possible? It made the newspapers when Oswald defected from Fort Worth, and Oswald's photo ran with a headline in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram when he returned in 1962. Even the Washington Post heralded Oswald's return. Take a look at this summary and chronology. Is it credible that Gannaway didn't know the Fort Worth Communist Party members, that knew about it from the newspapers? Jim Hosty knew all about Oswald - it stands to reason Gannaway should have known too - they met every day. The argument between Gannaway's lieutenant Jim Revill and Hosty in the minutes after Kennedy's shooting revealed "tender spots" between the two regarding what the FBI knew about Oswald and what the Dallas police might have known. That argument has been analyzed for a long time - Hosty visited Gannaway's office every day for info on subersives and Gannaway was proud of having penetrated most of the subversive groups. Let's look at some salient facts about the FBI's knowledge of Oswald that Gannaway almost certainly had... The still unknown DL 16-S & DL 20-S - FBI informants either inside or linked with the Fort Worth branch of the Communist Party - knew about Oswald years before 11/22/63, and told the FBI. The FBI convinced the ARRB to withhold their names. If anybody on the Dallas force knew about Oswald before 11/22/63, it was Pat Gannaway and his ex-partner George Butler. It's hard to believe Gannaway didn't know about Oswald. Butler knew a lot about Ruby, and he probably told Gannaway. Researcher John Simkin writes that Will Fritz placed Butler in immediate charge of the downtown jail the morning of Nov. 24 when Oswald was shot by Ruby. Butler knew all about Ruby, he had questioned him at length in 1950. As for Oswald, the FBI knew about Oswald for several years before 1963 - their sources while he was in the USSR included "Communists in Fort Worth". It's hard to believe that these sources were not known to the Dallas police as well, and Gannaway and Butler in particular. And how could they avoid the local and national stories about LHO? Oswald's departure from the US and his return to the Dallas/Fort Worth area in mid-1962 was reported in the newspapers. The industrial security officers like Max Clark and I.B. Hale at General Dynamics, oil intelligence agent George de Mohrenschildt, prominent White Russians like George Bouhe, and Cuban exiles like Sylvia Odio all knew about LHO's presence in town well before Nov 22, 1963. Butler was busy investigating Odio and the Cuban exiles in particular. Jim Angleton himself told the Church Committee that Oswald’s re-defection and return to the US should have been “the highest priority for the intelligence community”. For more on why Gannaway should have known about Oswald, take a look at this chronology. Start with this discussion in 1947 - Gannaway was working on confidential investigations on the vice squad with his partner Lt. George Butler. This report adds: "(Gannaway) is extremely well informed as to the criminal activity in this city...knows or can determine the associates of practically all characters in the city." Bill Turner wrote that Jones told the FBI he believed Butler was first in earnest and wanted a payoff, desisting only when he learned the Texas Rangers were wise to the negotiations." 1955: Butler transferred from the field of racketeers and mobsters and into the juvenile division. (Stated in the 1958 testimony, below) 1958: With RFK asking the questions, Butler testified at the Investigation of improper activities in the labor or management field. Hearings before the Select Committee on Improper Activities in the Labor or Management Field Butler testified mainly about how the mob moved in during the late 40s with their coin-operated machines into Dallas and had an 18 million dollar enterprise - hardly what he testified in 1950. In 1961 - Lt. George Butler also provided information to W. Penn Jones Jr. According to Jones, Butler told him that 50% of the Dallas Police Department were also members of the Ku Klux Klan. More to the point, he also wanted Jones to start a statewide Klan newspaper with him! (Bill Turner, Ramparts, June 1967) Days after Marguerite Oswald asks the State Dept. about the fate of her son in the USSR, a Fort Worth CP meeting on 1/29/61 was held at 1423 Clinton Street, with both DL 16-S and DL 20-S reporting on the meeting. Within the month, DL 16-S and DL 20-S inform FBI agent John Fain that Oswald is not known to the Fort Worth Communist Party. On June 23, 1961, four days after John Fain receives the mailing list from New York with FPCC subscriber and Dallas resident Ernest Larson on it , Fain again asks his informants T-3 and T-4 aka DL-16-S and DL-20-S about Oswald. These informants know Oswald is a defector simply by reading the local newspapers. Five days later, a government clerk in Fort Worth, Dixie Wilson, tips off the FBI about Oswald's special training as an electronics operator and a radio operator. In November 1961 - DL-16-S and Dallas CP head Bill Lowery (DL-2-S) are both questioned by the FBI about the Minutemen - here is Bill Lowery ID'd as DL 2-S. Lowery came out as an 18 year informant on the Communist Party just weeks before the assassination.Gannaway's office had a file on Lowery and other CP members going back to at least 1955 - Lowery and DL 16-S do not know anything about them at that time. (In 1965, DL 16-S and DL 20-S were interviewed along with Gen. Walker's attorney regarding a Klan plot.,) DL 16-S and DL 20-S are questioned again after Oswald's return in mid-1962, and say that Lee and Marina are not involved in any Communist activities in Fort Worth. In the small world department, it is fascinating that during the summer of 1962, Bill Lowery and other Communists in Dallas were focused on the "Penn Jones case" - apparently involving his newspaper in some way - and that the Communist Party meeting reports got turned in faithfully to Jim Hosty. During the 1962-63 period, Trudy Castorr of Dallas (wife of Col. Castorr) discusses at great length how Butler was also pals with Sylvia Odio and got deep inside information from the whole Dallas Cuban crowd. Trudy Castorr made a point of giving him letters from Lucille Connell about Odio. Sylvia Odio was the cousin of Marcella Insua, the daughter of Joaquin Insua (an FBI informant and the head of Catholic Cuban Relief in Dallas). On the night of Nov 22, 1963, Gannaway led the raid on the home of TSBD employee Joe Molina. Molina probably didn't know it, but the Communist Party in Dallas had been manipulating events to favor Molina in his work with the American GI Forum (a Latino rights group) since at least 1955. By January 1964, even the FBI was concerned about Butler: "We are also instructing SAC, Dallas, to request the that the head of the Dallas Police Department determine whether Lt. George Butler of the Dallas Police Department is involved in a scheme to furnish FBI data to (right-wing activist Earl) Lively as alleged by (Dallas CP chief - and FBI informant - Bill) Lowery. Who are DL 16-S and DL 20-S? Like Oswald, It is not credible they were not known to Gannaway's intelligence unit. That's why their names remain withheld.

Thank you Larry - you are my favorite contrarian. Could you re-visit aspects of the two questions you posed years ago? These are the aspects that I'm trying to figure out. On the alleged relationship between the 112th and the Secret Service: You have studied this deeply - do you think Jones made up his story about 8-12 personnel coming to aid the Secret Service? Paul Hoch studied it back in the 70s in the pre-ARRB area, and concluded that the after-action report of Jones that would have contained their accounts had been lost. (Roy Hargraves was a bad actor and his actions should never be laid to rest. Hargraves had a history of working with the Army Reserves, the Cuban exiles, and many other intriguing characters.) On the suppression/inaccuracy of the 112th's reports: Do you think Jones made up his story that he learned about the Hidell card from someone (Doughty?) and passed it on to the FBI by 3:15 pm on 11/22?

A few more nuggets on this subject - Larry Hancock pointed out two mysteries about the 112th some time ago: 1. Did the 112th deploy personnel in Dallas to assist the Secret Service? Lt. Col. Robert Jones said yes - "8-12" from his unit alone. But there is no paper record supporting his statement and others disputed it. Who is right? Right now, I would put my money on Jones, because SS Agent Winston Lawson was the man in charge of the motorcade - there has much comment over the years about his Lawson's role in setting up the motorcade and the lack of security - the decisions for lunch at the Trade Mart, which meant going thru Dealey Plaza; the conduct of an insecure dogleg at Dealey Plaza; the decisions not to search the high buildings; the lack of a bubbletop; the failure to have police motorcyclists flanking the President; the failure to have agents prepared to shield the President inside the car; the failure of the agents in the front seat to take proper evasive action - and where is the tape of the Secret Service radio calls on that day? Larry Hancock quotes Vince Palamara as saying that Lawson was with the Army reserve. do see Spot Reports issued by the 112th from the scene and dated 11/22/63, which ties in with the second mystery -- 2. The majority of the information given to the 112th and reported by the 112th to various agencies was either incorrect, inaccurate, or actively suppressed - because it did not become part of the official investigation or record. Look at SS Agent Winston Lawson - much comment over the years about his role in setting up the motorcade and related subjects - Larry Hancock quotes Vince Palamara as saying that Lawson was with the Army reserve. George Doughty - head of the Dallas police Identification Division - he was with the 112th MIG and may have provided info to Col. Robert Jones of the 112th that the Hidell card was found on Oswald's person - I am trying to find Spot Report 418 (Larry H may have it) - Spot Report 419 from the 112th later on 11/22/63 does originate from "Dowdy". Jones called it into the FBI's San Antonio branch at 3:15 pm. The FBI HQ had this info before the day was over. On 11/22, Jones was only given information about Hidell, not Oswald from his source - he had to do his own sleuthing to cross-index Hidell's name and find out about Oswald. On 11/22, the reports from Dallas cops other than possibly Doughty refer to Oswald, not Hidell. who picked up Oswald at the Theatre refer to Oswald, not Hidell. And curiously, that Army Intelligence file (Dossier AB 65276) that was destroyed in the 70s was in the name of "Lee Harvey Oswald" - not "Harvey Lee Oswald"! That apparent misinformation was credited to Peter Dale Scott, who sought me out on this subject and said he was misquoted on this long ago. Lumpkin was head of the Service Division, which included George Doughty's Identification Bureau, Fingerprint Section, Crime Scene Search Section, HQ Section, Warrant Section, Property Bureau and the Records Bureau. Doughty had control of the first day evidence. His initials can be found on one of the Tippit shells. Dale Myers cites Doughty as the man in the wallet footage shot by WFAA at the Tippit death scene, looking on as Croy's superior Owens passes the wallet to Westbrook. If Doughty heard Westbrook ask FBI agent Robert Barrett: "Ever hear of Lee Oswald? Ever hear of Alek Hidell?" at the scene - as Barrett claims - that may be why Doughty was one of two officers that remained at the Tippit death scene while everyone else charged off with the new hot tip that the suspect was "in the balcony". To be fair, he and the other officer were with the crime unit, - but why were they the only ones who stayed? And why did the officers who captured Oswald say nothing about the Hidell card on 11/22/63, even in their internal communications, while the FBI and the 112th were buzzing all about it? I should add that I went thru all the testimony of the three individuals in the theater looking for the suspect before the police were called - and the consensus was that it was too dark to see where the suspect was - either the ground floor or the balcony. The ticket taker, Julia Postal, testified that she called the police, but never made a statement for the record that she told the dispatcher that she thought the suspect was in the balcony.

In regards to Ron's question about why Julia told the police that the man went up in the balcony - I have to initially say that the evidence indicates Brewer and Burroughs told her he was up there before she called the police. But I also have to say that it is not in her initial statement, nor does she say it to the Warren Commission. The dispatcher or the cops could have it cooked it up. If you review the three statements of Brewer, Burroughs and Postal to the WC, which pretty much match their initial statements as reported in the press, and statements to the police by Postal - you will see that at 1:30 to 1:35 Brewer was in hot pursuit of the Oswald-type character when he "ducked" by Postal into the Theatre. I say 1:30 to 1:35 because Postal knew that JFK was dead before the Oswald-type character entered the theatre. She said the news was announced "just about the time all chaos broke loose". This was 15-20 minutes after Oswald entered the theatre and later bought popcorn from Burroughs at 1:15 - according to Burroughs' statement to Jim Marrs in 1987 - and I think it was done to provoke a call to the police to the theatre. I have listened to Jones Harris' very explicit description to me of his interview with Postal - and he and others at the interview were convinced that Postal knew that she had sold a ticket to Oswald - but she would not admit and will never admit. She didn't just cry when asked if she sold him a ticket - she lost her bearings - and it happened twice. John Armstrong describes the route to the balcony: "The Texas Theater has a main floor level and a balcony. Upon entering the theater from the "outside doors," there are stairs leading to the balcony on the right. Straight ahead are a second set of "inside doors" leading to the concession stand and the main floor. It is possible to go directly to the balcony, without being seen by people at the concession stand, by climbing the stairs to the right." Thus, From the door, the Oswald-type character could either go straight up the stairs to the balcony, or he could enter the ground floor while passing by Burroughs' concession stand. Brewer and Burroughs looked for the character on the ground floor and checked the doors - since the doors were locked and they couldn't be locked from the outside, they assumed that the character was still in the theatre and was not seen in the ground floor. Burroughs said that he assumed that he had "sneaked up the stairs real fast" because the stairway was near the entry door - and was now up in the balcony. Brewer said they looked up in the balcony and "couldn't see anything", probably because it was so dark. They "told Julia that we hadn't seen him...and she called the police". The dispatcher reported that she told the police the man was "hiding in the balcony" - probably because that's what they told her. One of the cops claim that Postal told them when they got there that the suspect was in the balcony: K.D. Lyons, who was in the car with Hill and Bentley and Oswald during that very questionable ride. Did others tell that tale? This needs further research. It is intriguing to note that the news story reports that it was the mysterious manager John Callahan who turned the lights on and exposed LHO to the police. Postal said that just as Oswald entered the building, Callahan came running out the other way, and "got in his car...to see where (the police) were going." Another report says that the "manager on duty" had seen one man in the theater "since 12:05". To my knowledge, Callahan was never questioned by anybody.

Right, Steve, Peter Dale Scott studied Senkel and Turner for years and has always had a number of concerns about them and their handling of the evidence. They would fit the description of "Fritz's men". Senkel and Turner were also in the lead car of the motorcade with Lumpkin, Lt. Col. George Whitmeyer and Democratic National Committee advance man Jack Puterbaugh. Senkel said "Lumpkin explained that we would be driving ahead of the motorcade about a half -mile." Connally had worked hard to ensure that the Trade Mart was the luncheon site, with Puterbaugh, SS Winston Lawson and others checking it out ahead of time. The motorcade route hit the papers on the 19th. Turner also referred to the man as "Harvey Lee Oswald" in his report.

Steve - I think the questions posed to the housekeeper Earlene Roberts at Oswald's apartment is extremely important. You pointed out that these men identified the boarder to her as "Harvey Lee Oswald" at 2:40 pm. She repeated that ID twice, saying that she only knew "O. H. Lee" and they were asking about "Harvey Lee Oswald". (A tip from military intelligence was received by Robert Jones "early that afternoon" that A. J. Hidell had been arrested - he was told the 112th MIG records referred to "Ana J. Hidell". The tip that Jones got came from "Dowdy". "Dowdy" provided more hot tips that night to the 112th, claiming that Marina had id'd the rifle as Oswald's and two men were firing at silhouette targets on 11/20 in Dealey Plaza! Dowdy was actually "Captain George Doughty", described by FBI as "head of the Crime Lab" for Dallas. Doughty was also in charge of the Identification Bureau. Doughty also got the call to go to the Texas Theatre at 1:40 pm, and was joined by polygraph chief Paul Bentley. Jones testified that the info from the Army file that included "Alek Hidell" were passed on at 3:15 to the FBI (180-10116-10200, not on MFF) - and that the tip he was given said nothing about Oswald. However, this 2:40 tip about Harvey Lee Oswald, probably from the now-destroyed Army intelligence file entitled "Harvey Lee Oswald", and probably the source of the Hidell tip, is even earlier than 3:15! (After Jones got this tip, he checked the Military Intelligence index for Hidell and came up with Oswald! Then Jones called the FBI at 3:15) The best indication is that the tip came from George Doughty of the Dallas Police Lab/Dallas ID Bureau/112th MIG. The officers that visited Roberts at 2:40 pm were Lt. Elmo L. Cunningham, with police officers Bill Senkel and William Potts. Roberts referred to them as "Fritz's men" - she had a long-standing familiarity with the Dallas police. (One man's opinion on Fritz and company: Former Dallas DA Travis Kirk opined that Fritz could have easily set up Fritz's death; one of his clients claimed Tippit had raped her; and that Ruby's first attorney Tom Howard had a stable of prostitutes.) Whether or not they were "Fritz's men", Cunningham and Potts were clearly the "Bunko Squad" - the forgery unit, they would examine fraud and con men. Historically, bunko squad men were often used in internal affairs, because capturing a dirty cop is not easy. To catch a con artist - it often takes a con artist. Westbrook was a con artist. So was Cunningham. The ranking officer who was questioning housekeeper about "Harvey Lee Oswald" at the scene at 2:40 pm would have been Cunningham. Lt. Cunningham came straight from the Texas Theatre, where he had been handed Westbrook's list of 21 or 22 witnesses to the capture of Oswald. He had been collecting names with Detectives John Toney, E.E. Taylor (who answered to Gannaway at the Special Services Bureau) and the polygraph chief Bentley (who claimed he found Oswald's wallet in his pocket) Westbrook's list of Texas Theatre witnesses was never seen again. I have found no record that Cunningham or Taylor was ever questioned about this list. Cunningham's report says nothing about the list. Taylor writes in his report that he and Cunningham and Toney put the list together. Toney reports the theatre was locked so they could interview the witnesses. Cunningham had one of his men wait in the car when he went towards the balcony of the theatre - Cunningham and Detective Toney came out with one witness who was questioned, but there is no record of the name of the witness Cunningham and Toney questioned in the balcony nor the "manager" that he and Toney spoke with. Here's a good map for the proximity of the boarding house/Texas Theatre events. Note how Cunningham went straight from questioning witnesses at the Theatre after the 1:50 arrest of Oswald to leading the interview at Oswald's boarding house at 2:40. A couple weeks later, Cunningham went out of his way to try to debunk Kirk Coleman's story that he saw three men fleeing the Walker shooting - even though others support Coleman's story. During June of 1963 Cunningham had gone out of his way to claim that Walker's aide "Bill Duff did not have anything to do" with his shooting. He admitted elsewhere that Duff was a con man and a check passer, but cleared him based on what I consider an inherently unreliable method - the polygraph. Again, Bentley was in charge of polygraphs. I should end with emphasizing Steve's find that Carroll made up his story about "mis-reading 602 Elsbeth" as "605 Elsbeth" by "looking over his shoulder" in the car after Carroll testified to the WC the previous month that he heard nothing in the car about Oswald's address. Like Taylor, Carroll also answered to Gannaway. We don't know if Doughty, Carroll and Taylor were also part of the 488th, but they were certainly Army Intelligence and I assume all part of the 112th.

Chief Jesse Curry said that the Dallas police did not know about the defector Lee Oswald living in their midst until after the assassination. It is not credible. The CIA and the FBI knew that he was living there. So did the Cubans in New Orleans. So did the Odio family and their friends and allies living in Dallas. Yet there is no official DPD record or testimony admitting that basic fact. It is not credible.

Here's an important addition to bullet point #7: Revill said he got the list on 11/22 of TSBD employees that he gave to Gannaway, led with the wrong address of "Harvey Lee Oswald" as "605 Elsbeth" - this address came from from Detective Carroll or Detective Taylor or other "officers involved in the arrest". The list names a number of people as not in the building! Even Dulles claimed he wanted to know the story on the Elsbeth address - which was probably parked in the Army's "Harvey Lee Oswald" intelligence file for some time - and Revill could have got it from Army Intelligence either before or on 11/22. Revill's response for Dulles and the WC on 5/19/64 was that he got it orally from Carroll, who misread the 602 Elsbeth address on LHO's library card when he looked at Oswald's wallet from "back over his shoulder" - Carroll was sitting in the front seat, so it's at least credible. But note how the "Harvey Lee Oswald" is also in there - and that was the Army's file on him. Carroll did not "misread" that - there was all kinds of info in the wallet, none with that name! Also note how the WC refused to address the "Harvey Lee Oswald" on the list, only the "605 Elsbeth". Detective Carroll was with Gannaway's criminal intelligence unit, and also came up with the pistol allegedly Oswald's at the theater. An addition and correction to bullet point #7: Molina was accused by Gannaway's team during the night of Nov. 22 of associating with Communist and subversive elements and indicated that Molina was a friend of Oswald. Molina knew who Oswald was, but had no relationship with him. One spooky fact is that "Prayer Man" was standing next to Molina in the notorious photos. Was Molina being intimidated in some way? I earlier said Molina sued the police - he sued the Radio Station WRR for false statements made by the police - but I see nothing showing he sued the police themselves. Bullet point #11 Stringfellow mistakenly identifies Oswald as being arrested in the balcony. Was this a slip by someone who couldn't remember what he was and wasn't supposed to know? Many have pointed to this as evidence that another man looking like Oswald was apprehended in the balcony and taken out the back door - as witnessed by hobby store owner Bernard Haire - and the man in the balcony was the man who was chased by Johnny Brewer into the theater. Brewer exchanged words before he began his pursuit with 2 unnamed IBM employees who frequented his shoe store in the weeks before 11/22 and would "kill time and lounge around", who were listening to the radio reports of the Tippit shooting right before the Oswald sighting. Brewer had known them throughout the time of his employment - he began working there in August 1962. Were these IBM employees part of the operation? This Stringfellow ID of "Oswald arrested in the balcony" is the opening of the Criminal Intelligence file maintained by Gannaway. For whatever reason, Gannaway ordered a string of interviews on or about Feb. 17, 1964 - probably at the request of the Warren Commission. Ticket taker Julia Postal heard about the announcement of JFK's death on the radio - which was at 1:30 - "just about the time all chaos broke loose". Moments later, as her boss was leaving the building, the Oswald figure entered the theater with Brewer in pursuit. After Postal called the police, the dispatcher told Jerry Hill and others at 1:46 that the suspect was "in the balcony". Bob Carroll of Gannaway's Special Services Bureau gets Oswald's gun inside the theater, who hands it over to an insistent Jerry Hill - who calls in the report to the dispatcher that Oswald was captured at 1:51.

Members 159 posts Report post Posted Monday at 02:33 PM OK - here's ten bullet points on the real (or imagined?) sins of Lumpkin and Gannaway - please send your comments and additions! I consider Lumpkin and Gannaway part of a small group that includes DPD personnel chief William Westbrook (who allegedly worked with the CIA), sergeant Jerry Hill (a former police reporter), reserve sergeant Kenneth Croy, (who allegedly "found" the Tippit wallet at his death scene and never reported it, and was suspected by the WC as assisting Jack Ruby in getting in position to shoot Oswald) and Lt. George Butler (Gannaway's partner for many years - who interviewed Jack Ruby at length back in 1950 and testified about it to the corruption investigations years later to the Kefauver Committee - Harold Weisberg and others believe Butler gave the order to bring down Oswald prematurely before the escort vehicle was in place, also aiding Ruby in getting in position to shoot Oswald) All six of these men are now deceased, but their friends and families can and should be interviewed. These men should all be treated as suspects - there are small groups like this I can identify at another time - identifying their roles puts together an important building block of the JFK investigation. 1. Both Lumpkin and Gannaway were high-ranking DPD officials that were also members of Army Intelligence. Both men were present at the meeting reviewing the entire operational plan for the motorcade conducted in Curry's office on 11/21/63. Both men played central roles in the events that resulted in Oswald being named as a suspect in the moments before his capture at the Texas Theatre. Lt. George Butler - who was Gannaway’s partner for many years - was the one in charge of the downtown jail at the time of the transfer of Oswald when he was shot by Jack Ruby. 2. Lumpkin was in the pilot car, 3 minutes ahead of the motorcade. It made a suspicious stop - talking to a policeman, unreported in any of the police affidavits - right in front of the book depository in the moments before the assassination. (21 WH 579; Scott, p. 273) 3. In the moments after the assassination, Lumpkin ordered the sealing of the book depository. (21 WH 580). This “sealing” proved to be very ineffective, as not all the doors were covered. (need source). Herbert Sawyer, the officer allegedly watching the doors after the "sealing", was the one who called in at 12:44 and got the radio call going that an unknown white man of nondescript build had told him that the shooter was “Slender white male about 30, five feet ten, 165”. Sawyer was with the Special Services Bureau - his boss was Gannaway. Sawyer was accused of corruption a few years after and resigned in disgrace. 4. Jerry Hill went to work for Westbrook in the personnel division just weeks before 11/22/63. Between the two men, they had access to all the personnel files. Westbrook was the decision-maker on hiring, firing, discipline, and Internal Affairs. Neither man had any business being at a crime scene - but Jerry Hill was one of the two men credited with finding the shells on the sixth floor and is photographed leaning out the window for the crime scene unit to come upstairs. The official report indicates that homicide officers found the shells in the TSBD - when in fact it was Jerry Hill and/or Luke Mooney. 5. "(Deputy Chief) Lumpkin (see Peter Dale Scott - Deep Politics, p. 274) then instructed Revill to organize his team against the east wall...and make a systematic search...a member of Revill's searching party...found the rifle." Why was Lumpkin making these various decisions. Because Lumpkin was head of the Service Division, which included George Doughty's Identification Bureau (this unit got the tip at 3:15 pm that there were cards in Oswald's wallet identifying him as "Alek Hidell" - the rifle was mail ordered in the name of Hidell), Fingerprint Section, Crime Scene Search Section, HQ Section, Warrant Section, Property Bureau and the Records Bureau. Lumpkin controlled the entire crime scene process and the subsequent processing - in other words, he controlled the evidence. 6. Lumpkin's role in taking Truly to Fritz right after Fritz's arrival at the TSBD with the story "I don't know if it means anything, but I'm missing a man - a young fellow named Lee Oswald." Truly was clutching a piece of paper he had already obtained from a phone call to "Aiken" at the warehouse for employee files were kept, and wrote down Oswald's age, height, weight, phone and address from his application form. (23, 5'9, 150, BL 31628, 2515 W. 5th Street, Irving) 7. The Houston Chronicle's 11/22 report that Oswald was was the only one who couldn't be accounted for,' in Truly's alleged employee roll-call according to Detective Capt. Pat Gannaway. That night, Gannaway led a group of officers to visit the home of TSBD employee Joseph Molina - who was singled out a long time ago by Communist Party leader and FBI informant William Lowery who was "the Herbert Philbrick of Dallas". Molina's name as a possible suspect got in the papers - and he wound up suing the Dallas police for defamation! 8. Peter Dale Scott wrote in 2010 about "the coincidence that the same the 488th Army Intelligence Reserve unit helped generate the false Marina story, as well as the false Stringfellow report." Scott points to a number of false reports about Oswald’s alleged rifle, and specifically reports indicating, falsely, that Marina Oswald presumed Oswald’s rifle in Dallas to be the rifle he owned in Russia. (Marina’s actual words, before mis-translation, were quite innocuous: “I cannot describe it [the gun] because a rifle to me like all rifles.”) ...The interpreter who first supplied the Marina story, Ilya Mamantov, was selected as the result of a phone call between Deputy Police Chief George Lumpkin and Jack Crichton. We have already seen that Crichton commanded the 488th; and Lumpkin, in addition to being the Deputy Police Chief, was also a deputy commander of the 488th under Crichton." 9. Scott also points to the statement made by "Assistant Chief Don Stringfellow, Intelligence Section, Dallas Police Department, (who) notified 112th INTC [Intelligence] Group, this Headquarters, that information obtained from Oswald revealed he had defected to Cuba in 1959 and is a card-carrying member of Communist Party. The cable sent on November 22 from the Fourth Army Command in Texas to the U.S. Strike Command at Fort MacDill in Florida, the base poised for a possible retaliatory attack against Cuba. ...Stringfellow’s superior officer, Captain W.P. Gannaway, was a member of Army Intelligence Reserve. Later Ed Coyle, himself a warrant officer of the 112th Intelligence Group, testified to the Assassinations Records Review Board that all the officers in the DPD’s Intelligence Section were in army intelligence. Actually they were almost certainly in the 488th Army Intelligence Reserve unit of Dallas: Jack Crichton , the head of the 488th, revealed in an oral history that there were “about a hundred men in that unit and about forty or fifty of them were from the Dallas Police Department.” (Russ Baker, Family of Secrets, p. 122) 10. On 2/26/64 - in an effort made to resolve chain of possession of backyard photo - Lumpkin "forgets" he made multiple copies and made them available on November 23 and November 24, but Carl Day tells on him, saying that "24 or more" were placed on a table for law enforcement officers - and "anyone" could have got ahold of them. This act directly violated a police order issued on November 22 that "photographs (in the JFK case) were to be disseminated only on authority of the Chief's office". Lumpkin was a deputy chief - not the chief. Days later, even the hangdog WC was asking the FBI for info on the "chain of possession" on the backyard photo - apparently sold to Life by Marina and James Martin for 5K -

OK - let's do a quick recap on the 488th. When I started this thread, I pointed towards two members of the 488th, DPD Chief George Lumpkin and DPD Special Services Bureau chief Pat Gannaway. 1. Lumpkin's role in taking Truly to Fritz right after Fritz's arrival at the TSBD with the story "I don't know if it means anything, but I'm missing a man - a young fellow named Lee Oswald." Truly was clutching a piece of paper he had already obtained from a phone call to "Aiken" at the warehouse for employee files were kept, and wrote down Oswald's age, height, weight, phone and address from his application form. (23, 5'9, 150, BL 31628, 2515 W. 5th Street, Irving) 2. The Houston Chronicle's 11/22 report that Oswald was was the only one who couldn't be accounted for,' in Truly's alleged employee roll-call according to Detective Capt. Pat Gannaway. Now let's add what Peter Dale Scott wrote in 2010 about "the coincidence that the same the 488th Army Intelligence Reserve unit helped generate the false Marina story, as well as the false Stringfellow report." 3. Scott points to a number of false reports about Oswald’s alleged rifle, and specifically reports indicating, falsely, that Marina Oswald presumed Oswald’s rifle in Dallas to be the rifle he owned in Russia. (Marina’s actual words, before mis-translation, were quite innocuous: “I cannot describe it [the gun] because a rifle to me like all rifles.”)...The interpreter who first supplied the Marina story, Ilya Mamantov, was selected as the result of a phone call between Deputy Police Chief George Lumpkin and Jack Crichton. We have already seen that Crichton commanded the 488th; and Lumpkin, in addition to being the Deputy Police Chief, was also a deputy commander of the 488th under Crichton." 4. Scott also points to the statement made by "Assistant Chief Don Stringfellow, Intelligence Section, Dallas Police Department, (who) notified 112th INTC [Intelligence] Group, this Headquarters, that information obtained from Oswald revealed he had defected to Cuba in 1959 and is a card-carrying member of Communist Party. The cable sent on November 22 from the Fourth Army Command in Texas to the U.S. Strike Command at Fort MacDill in Florida, the base poised for a possible retaliatory attack against Cuba. ...Stringfellow’s superior officer, Captain W.P. Gannaway, was a member of Army Intelligence Reserve. Later Ed Coyle, himself a warrant officer of the 112th Intelligence Group, testified to the Assassinations Records Review Board that all the officers in the DPD’s Intelligence Section were in army intelligence. Actually they were almost certainly in the 488th Army Intelligence Reserve unit of Dallas: Jack Crichton , the head of the 488th, revealed in an oral history that there were “about a hundred men in that unit and about forty or fifty of them were from the Dallas Police Department.” (Russ Baker, Family of Secrets, p. 122)

Paul, My understanding is that Larry is still very much alive and active, I don't know how to reach him however - maybe a general appeal to the Forum would work.

I have been wondering whether Crichton's 488th Army Intelligence Reserve Unit really existed, after reviewing the above. This line of evidence from "Looking Glass and Silver Dollar" by Peter Dale Scott concludes that it did: The Ubiquitous Shadow of the 488th Intelligence Reserve UnitThe explosive phase-one theory swiftly died, but did not lose its historical relevance. It led to the perceived risk that right-wing elements, such as Senator Eastland’s Senate Internal Security Subcommittee, would provoke a war with Cuba and possibly Russia. This fear became Johnson’s excuse for federalizing the murder case and persuading Earl Warren and Richard Russell to join the Warren Commission.44. Thus was established the official phase-two explanation, that Oswald was a misfit who acted alone. Of interest still today is the coincidence that the same the 488th Army Intelligence Reserve unit helped generate the false Marina story, as well as the false Stringfellow report. The interpreter who first supplied the Marina story, Ilya Mamantov, was selected as the result of a phone call between Deputy Police Chief George Lumpkin and Jack Crichton.45. We have already seen that Crichton commanded the 488th; and Lumpkin, in addition to being the Deputy Police Chief, was also a deputy commander of the 488th under Crichton. 46. John Crichton was the kind of figure Malcolm Gladwell in The Tipping Point described as a “connector....people with a special gift for bringing the world together.” 47. Some of his contacts are figures who should be familiar to students of the JFK assassination. His superior in the Army Reserves, Lieutenant Colonel George Whitmeyer, was on 11/22 in the pilot car of the Kennedy motorcade along with DPD Deputy Chief George Lumpkin; the pilot car is of interest because of its unexplained stop in front of the Texas School Book Depository.48. D.H. “Dry Hole” Byrd, owner of the Texas School Book Depository, was a director of Crichton’s firm Dorchester Gas Producing.49. Crichton, an oil engineer and corporation executive, also doubled as a member of the Dallas overworld. Although his 488th intelligence unit consisted almost 50 percent of Dallas policemen, Crichton also used it as a venue in the late 1950s to conduct “a study of Soviet oil fields;” and in the 1990s Crichton would himself explore the oil and gas reserves in the former Soviet Union.50. Also interested in Soviet oil reserves at this time were Ilya Mamantov’s employers and personal friends, the wealthy Pew family in Dallas who were owners of Sunoco. By 2009 the second largest source of crude for Sunoco (after Western Africa) was Central Asia, supplying 86,000 barrels of crude a day. 51. But Crichton’s most significant function as a connector on 11/22 may have been in his capacity as chief of intelligence for Dallas Civil Defense, which worked out of an underground Emergency Operating Center under the patio of the Dallas Health and Science Museum. As Russ Baker reports, “Because it was intended for ‘continuity of government’ operations during an attack, it was fully equipped with communications equipment.” 52. A speech given at the dedication of the Center in 1961 supplies further details: This Emergency Operating Center is part of the National Plan to link Federal, State and local government agencies in a communications network from which rescue operations can be directed in time of local or National emergency. It is a vital part of the National, State, and local Operational Survival Plan. 53. In an earlier draft of this talk I attempted to describe the central importance of America’s emergency communications network (or so-called Doomsday communications network) in four of our country’s recent provocation-deception plots: 11/22, Watergate, Iran-Contra, and 9/11. If one part of the government is deceiving another, it needs its own alternative network to do so. Oliver North, for example, used just such an anti-terrorist network, codenamed Flashboard, to conduct the Iran-Contra arms operations for which he was ultimately fired. 54.There is not time today to develop this theme, other than to note the importance of Crichton’s access to it. But others beside myself have pointed to the meta-importance of those charged with overseeing the Doomsday communications network, known most recently as the Continuity of Government (COG) network. James Mann, for example, has referred to the COG network overseers as “part of the permanent, though hidden, national security apparatus of the United States, inhabitants of a world in which Presidents may come and go, but America always keeps on fighting.” 55.The DPD-Army Connection ReconsideredI devoted a whole chapter of my book Deep Politics to the Dallas Police-Army Intelligence connection. But I now think that I seriously misinterpreted its significance, by seeing its phase-one propensity as an example of right-wing Texas divergence from the phase-two inclination of those responsible for running the country. Today we know that the phase-one zeal in Dallas to implicate Castro, by the use of deceptive falsehoods, had also characterized the Joint Chiefs of Staff in Washington.Researcher Larry Haapanen has discovered the 488th seems to have had its own direct chain of command linking it to Washington. In an esoteric publication entitled The Military Order of World Wars (Turner Publishing Company, 1997, p. 120), he found that Crichton "commanded the 488th MID (Strategic), reporting directly to the Army Chief of Intelligence and the Defense Intelligence Agency." 56. And in 1970 Haapanen was told by Crichton’s commander in the Texas Army Reserve, Lt. Col. Whitmeyer, that Crichton's unit did its summer training at the Pentagon.It is now clear that Stringfellow’s claims about Oswald as a Communist Party visitor to Cuba, though clearly false, fell well within the guidelines for a provocation-deception as set out in the Northwoods and May 1963 documents. All this Cuban deception planning was in support of JCS OPLANS 312 (Air Attack in Cuba) and 316 (Invasion of Cuba). These were not theoretical exercises, but actively developed operational plans which the JCS were only too eager to execute. As they told Kennedy, “We are not only ready to take any action you may order in Cuba, we are also in an excellent condition world-wide to counter any Soviet military response to such action.” 57.In other words, they were prepared for a nuclear strike against Soviet Russia; even though the JCS, as Air Force General Leon Johnson told the National Security Council in September 1963, believed this would probably result in “at least 140 million fatalities in the USSR.” 58.At the peak of the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, according to Khruschchev’s memoir, Robert Kennedy told the Russian ambassador, Anatoly Dobrynin:The President is in a grave situation and does not know how to get out of it. We are under very severe stress. In fact we are under pressure from our military to use force against Cuba…. Even though the President himself is very much against starting a war over Cuba, an irreversible chain of events could occur against his will. That is why the President is appealing directly to Chairman Khrushchev for his help in liquidating this conflict. If the situation continues much longer, the President is not sure that the military will not overthrow him and seize power. The American army could get out of control." 59. Footnotes: 44. Beschloss, Taking Charge, 67-69, LBJ phone call with Richard Russell, 11/29/63; cf. 65.45. 9 WH 106; Scott, Deep Politics, 275-76; Russ Baker, Family of Secrets, 119-22.46. Rodney P. Carlisle and Dominic J. Monetta, Brandy: Our Man in Acapulco (Denton, TX: University of North Texas Press, 1999), 128.47. Malcolm Gladwell, The Tipping Point, 38.48. Discussion in Scott, Deep Politics, 273-74.49. In early November 1963, Byrd and his investment partner, James Ling, made a significant insider purchase of stock in their defense industry investment, LTV. Although required by SEC rules to report this insider purchase, they delayed doing so until well after Kennedy’s assassination. Then in January LTV received the first major LBJ defense contract from the Pentagon – for a fighter plane designed for Vietnam. Cf. Joan Mellen, “The Kennedy Assassination and the Current Political Moment,” Part II, http://www.joanmellen.net/truth-2.html.50. Crichton’s collaborator in the 1950s study, fellow 488th member Lt. Col. Frank Brandstetter, was in turn a friend of men like:1) David Phillips, in charge of Covert Action at the Mexico City Station when Oswald allegedly visited there; Phillips had known Brandstetter since both men were together in Havana in the 1950s (Carlisle and Monetta, Brandy, 146-47)2) Gordon McLendon, wealthy Dallas businessman whom Jack Ruby described as one of his six closest friends (20 WH 39);3) George de Mohrenschildt, the oilman whom some see as a handler for the Oswalds in 1962; and also Dorothe Matlack and Sam Kail, the Army Intelligence personnel who coordinated George de Mohrenschildt’s April 1963 visit with CIA and Army Intelligence in Washington4) Philippe Thyraud de Vosjoli, a French intelligence (SDECE) agent who worked closely with Angleton in Washington. On 11/22 de Vosjoli reportedly panicked on hearing of Kennedy’s death, packed a few clothes into a van, and departed Washington to join Brandstetter in Acapulco. (Tom Mangold, Cold Warrior, 131-33).51. Sunoco, Inc., Annual Report, 2009, 4.52. Russ Baker, Family of Secrets, 121.53. “Statement by Col. John W. Mayo, Chairman of City-County Civil Defense and Disaster Commission at the Dedication of the Emergency Operating Center at Fair Park,” May 24, 1961, http://www.civildefensemuseum.com/fallout/dallaseoc.html.Six linear inches of Civil Defense Administrative Files are preserved in the Dallas Municipal Archives; a Finding Guide is viewable on line at http://www.ci.dallas.tx.us/cso/archives/FindingGuides/08001.html. I hope an interested researcher may wish to consult them.54. Peter Dale Scott, "Northwards Without North: Bush, Counterterrorism, and the Continuation of Secret Power." Social Justice (San Francisco), XVI, 2 (Summer 1989), 1-30: cf. Peter Dale Scott, "The Terrorism Task Force." Covert Action Information Bulletin, 33 (Winter 1990), 12-15.55. James Mann, The Rise of the Vulcans: The History of Bush’s War Cabinet (New York: Viking, 2004), 145. In 1991 a CNN feature on the COG overseers described these overseers even more ominously as a “shadow government,” and opened with “In theUnited States Federal Government there is a super-secret agency which controls this Shadow Government” (CNN, November 17, 1991, quoted in Shirley Anne Warshaw, The Co-presidency of Bush and Cheney [Stanford, Calif.: Stanford Politics and Policy, 2009], 162).56. The Military Order of World Wars (Turner Publishing Company, 1997), 120.57. Memorandum From the Joint Chiefs of Staff to President Kennedy, November 16, 1962JCSM-910-62, http://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/msc_cuba186.asp: “The Joint Chiefs of Staff are glad to report that our Armed Forces are in an optimum posture to execute CINCLANT OPLANS 312-62 (Air Attack in Cuba)(1) and 316-62 (Invasion of Cuba).(2) We are not only ready to take any action you may order in Cuba, we are also in an excellent condition world-wide to counter any Soviet military response to such action.”58. Douglass, JFK and the Unspeakable, 239-40.59. Khrushchev Remembers, ed. Strobe Talbott (Boston: Little, Brown, 1970; citation from paperback edition, New York: Bantam, 1971), pp. 551-52; quoted in James K. Galbraith, “Did the U.S. Military Plan a Nuclear First Strike for 1963?” American Prospect, 9/21/24; Douglass, JFK and the Unspeakable, 27.

Michael, this is great that you set up this thread! Unless Caravel is a last name - like "Jack Carvael" it is probably a codename and therefore a cryptonym. The words in a "slugline" - the line directly above the beginning of a memo - are generally cryptonyms. Pseudonyms are names that could actually be passed off as someone's name. Here's an example - Marginalia reveals that "Carlos Blanco" is the pseudo for Joaquin Samjenis/AMOT-2. This is a big one - there are hundreds of hits for Carlos Blanco. See 104-10229-10273.

To all - We have a new Pseudonyms and Aliases project underway at the Mary Ferrell Foundation. Come over and take a look. There's a lot of good new leads there, with a lot more to come. The same with the cryptonym page. We are always looking for new submissions and suggestions. Bill

Michael - I think ODTEST is US army intelligence, or another military intelligence agency. I am co-crediting you with this find on MFF. Bill

I thought I would revive this thread with some new information, Jeanne Allred contacted FBI on 12/3/63 with many contentions re her husband who separated from her on 5/5/63. all those below, and thought she saw a money envelope w Oswald's name on it. She was living in Laredo by 12/3/63. Check out this FBI mug shot and make of General Walker - done circa 1965-66. JAMES ALLRED, son of former Texas governor James V Allred, flew Walker to Jackson, MI on 9/29/62, based on research found in Jeffrey Caufield's book General Walker and the Murder of President Kennedy, at p. 357. Caulfield states that the two men aided smuggling guns to anti-Castro Cubans and that the FBI learned about it in April 1964. All this is supported by these redacted files - better copies may exist at the Archives. As stated above, the FBI learned about it as early as 12/3/63 from Mrs. Jeanne Allred. Her husband had left her in May 1963. Both in December and then again in July 1964, Mrs. Allred said her former husband like LHO belonged to the "Youth Freedom Society" - she said it was a pro-Cuban group. She apparently confused the FPCC with this group. Even more fascinating is her recollection that she saw her husband with copies of the Worker. the Communist Party paper from NYC. She had an uncertain recollection of Oswald's name on a pay envelope. She said her husband would do anything for money. Allred moved to Brazil and was killed flying a plane in Paraguay in 1965. The Walker evidence needs a deeper look - the Cubans may not have been his focus, but their networks certainly seem to intersect. Review of the existing files on Felipe Vidal Santiago/AMQUIP-1 may be the most direct pathway.

Paul, I agree with you. Researching the 488th is out of my lane - especially if it was an off the books operation by Crichton and bringing in thoroughly spookified officers like Brandy. Maybe we could approach it by first studying the 4150th? I don't see any sustained thread on that front.

Who was with Lumpkin in the 4150th Army Reserve Service Unit - is that info readily available?

I can't stop thinking about the 488th possibly being a Crichton legend. We do see clips on the 4150th Army Reserve Special Unit - with Lumpkin in charge. Maybe we should start a thread on the 4150th - it doesn't seem to be related to the 316th.

The other possibility, as Peter Dale Scott pointed out to me, is that a listening post operator simply lied and pretended that he or she heard this transmission. My article on WhoWhatWhy last year - easy to google - discusses a new Mexico City document from 1961-1962 where station chief Win Scott fabricated a story that a tape had picked up certain transmissions - Scott's goal was to break relations between Mexico and Cuba - oh yeah, and he didn't reveal to his superiors that he was essentially taking over foreign policy in this area with his lie.

I know the 488th were Reserves, and there is not a lot of paperwork on them.