Paul Trejo

Granted that it's too early to draw conclusions about details, I'd like to take a step back and assess what Tom and John have dug up here. If there is merit to this line of research -- and it appears that there is -- then we now have further evidence that Lee Harvey Oswald was working with one or more of the Intelligence Communities in 1963, very likely the FBI. It is interesting that President Gerald Ford, who was on the Warren Commission, wrote a book about Lee Harvey Oswald the year after the Warren Commission concluded its investigation. President Ford's book, Portrait of the Assassin (1965), begins with a startling confession -- that the Warren Commission struggled during its full first month of sessions because Dallas D.A. Henry Wade told J. Lee Rankin about documented evidence that Lee Harvey Oswald was a contract informer for the FBI. Of course J. Edgar Hoover denied it loudly and firmly, and swore, under oath to the Warren Commission that this was not true in any way, shape or form. Hoover also locked Oswald's FBI file away for 75 years. Yet Gerald Ford could find nothing wrong in Henry Wade's testimony, and it took a solid month to convince the Commission to finally reject Wade's evidence and move forward with J. Edgar Hoover's well-publicized, pre-fabricated conclusion for the Warren Commission. Jim Garrison was another believer in Wade's theory. But what Jim Garrison and later researchers lacked these forty-nine years has been material evidence to link LHO with the FBI. It just might be the case that Tom and John have discovered the material evidence - after all these years. If so, then we have a whole new ball game. Incidentally, this places the testimony of Harry Dean back on a front-burner. Best regards, --Paul Trejo

Tom, it is unlikely that those two terms would appear in the same crytpo-message by accident. I, for one, believe you are onto something important. Yet I don't pretend to follow your cryptological program yet. I wonder if most people here feel the same. You say you're no good at puzzles -- or rather you don't like them -- but you seem to have a natural talent for code-breaking. You mentioned earlier that you play jazz music -- and that is among the more complicated uses of the human mind. So, I believe you are a natural-born code-breaker. How you developed your talent, I don't know, but clearly you did. I have just one thing to add here -- Harry Dean told me in response to reading your thread that although he can't fully follow your theory, either, when he was an undercover operative for the FBI they ordered him to come up with his own code or they would come up with one for him. It was Standard Operating Procedure. Harry came up with his own. One wonders, given this input, whether Lee Harvey Oswald came up with his own code, or whether he was assigned one by any of the Intellgence Communities with which he was connected. Best regards, --Paul Trejo, MA <edit typos>

After reading Harry Dean's original Book/Manuscript earlier this year, the one sticking point I found in my own thinking was the notion that the John Birch Society was closely allied with the Mormon Church of the Latter Day Saints. I had never before heard of such a connection, and I had been observing the U.S. Right-wing rather closely since 1975. Evidently I had not been observing closely enough. I researched this further after reading Harry Dean's factual account, and I learned something new. Robert Welch started the John Birch Society in late 1958. (General Edwin Walker joined the JBS in early 1959). The reason that Edwin Walker joined the JBS was because he had a guilty conscience for having led U.S. Troops to use force to racially integrate Little Rock high school in Arkansas in 1957. This bothered General Walker for two reasons: (1) it was a violation of States rights; and (2) it used force in an area that he believed should always be left to free will. The U.S. President who gave the order to integrate Little Rock High was Dwight D. Eisenhower. General Walker had already been a fan of General Douglas MacArthur, who had been martyred by President Truman when he dismissed MacArthur from his command in Korea. Walker was also confirmed as a fan of MacArthur when he saw with his own eyes the nature of warfare in Korea which was compromised by United Nations deals on a daily basis at Panmunjom. Walker came to despise the "No Win" war concept. Back in the USA, after tearing his conscience at Little Rock High, General Walker encountered a book that was written by Robert Welch in 1956, two years before the JBS was founded. This book circulated underground like an electric current. Its title was: The Politician. In this book, Robert Welch tells his readers that President Dwight D. Eisenhower was, in no uncertain terms, a Communist. Welch used over 200 pages of argumentation to prove his point. Major General Edwin A. Walker became convinced that Robert Welch was telling the truth, and he joined the John Birch Society soon after reading that book. (See link below) The key here is that the John Birch Society begins with a rightist underground publication, The Politician (1956), and the main theme of that book is that Eisenhower was a Communist. But where did Robert Welch learn all the details for this viewpoint? Here is the fresh information that floored me. Robert Welch developed a personal relationship with Ezra Taft Benson, the 13th President of the Mormon Church of Latter Day Saints. Those who know the history already know that Ezra Taft Benson also worked for President Eisenhower for both terms as U.S. Secretary of Agriculture. Although loyal to Eisenhower, Benson was also very critical of his policies, especially any concerned with the National Council of Farm Cooperatives, of which he was in charge. Benson openly opposed Eisenhower's price supports for farmers, which he regarded as socialist; yet Eisenhower never fired him. Benson was an outspoken opponent of communism and socialism, and he supported Robert Welch's movement in every way except becoming a member. He called the JBS "the most effective non-church organization in our fight against creeping socialism and godless Communism." Some of his books include, Eight Years with President Eisenhower (1958) and Civil Rights: Tool of Communist Deception (1966). The connection between the LDS and the JBS is as real as rain. It was not invented by Harry Dean. It is actual fact. Best regards, --Paul Trejo, MA <edit typos> P.S. For those who might doubt that Robert Welch actually said this, here is a link that demonstrates my point: http://www.pet880.com/images/19560101_The_Politician.JPG http://www.pet880.co...ician_p_267.jpg

At least Ernie Lazar acknowledged that the FBI actually did investigate the John Birch Society in the early 1960's. Other detractors of Harry Dean's actual account have even gone so far as to deny that the FBI ever investigated the JBS. Unfortunately, Ernie still believes that the FBI was willing to show him everything that they have. Based only on what the FBI actually showed him, he came to this Forum with a high-hand to discredit Harry Dean's factual account. We should note that Harry Dean's account is not unique among the JFK conspiracy theories. Jack Ruby told Chief Justice Earl Warren personally that General Edwin Walker and the JBS were directly responsible for the JFK assassination and the patsification of Lee Harvey Oswald. Loran Hall, also, told the same story to Jim Garrison in 1968, agreeing with Harry Dean on many particulars, including the participation of Guy Gabaldon and Lawrence Howard along with Walker and the JBS. ATF agent Frank Ellsworth, who investigated underground arms sales in 1963, was also inclined to suspect General Walker of complicity in the JFK conspiracy. So, as I say, at least Ernie acknowledged that the FBI regarded the JBS as suspicious in the early 1960's. J. Edgar Hoover was a staunch Anticommunist, and he sought allies in his cause. But Hoover firmly rejected the JBS as an authentic ally in Anticommunism because the JBS also teaches that FDR was a communist, and that Truman was a communist, and that Eisenhower was a communist, and that Kennedy was a communist. J. Edgar Hoover went on record to defend Eisenhower of this mega-slander. In my opinion, he should have arrested Robert Welch as a traitor. The JBS was wide open in its beliefs and its intentions. Most Americans were Anticommunist in the 1960's, so quite a few were fooled by the Anticommunist rhetoric of the JBS. But cooler heads, like J. Edgar Hoover, exposed the JBS for the rightist revolutionaries that they really were. Hoover did have the JBS investigated. Hoover did forbid FBI agents from joining the JBS. (And so did the CIA.) Yet the JBS continued to operate above ground all these years -- and they still exist today. As we hear from the rhetoric of Sarah Palin and the current crop of Potomac Pretenders, they are still active in Republican politics to this very day. Finally, please be wary of the revisionist accounts of Harry Dean's memoirs as promulgated by William Morris. Morris got it all wrong. Best regards, --Paul Trejo <edit typos>

Jim, you're right that no police record suggests this. I personnally believe Walker is lying, either in his conscious mind or in his unconscious mind. (For decades General Walker blamed Jesse Curry for covering up the fact, as shown in his writings.) (1) But actually we have other records of this account -- for example, the Warren Commission raised the question of the German newspaper Deutsche NationalZeitung because on 29 November 1963, it prints the same story with a twist -- that RFK was the one who set Oswald free. The reporter claimed he got the report from Walker less than 24 hours after JFK was killed. (With one exception; the twist about RFK came from the editor, Dr. Gerhard Frey.) Then the story appeared in the JBS American Opinion in February, 1964. Then the story appeared in the National Enquirer on May 17, 1964. Almost certainly Edwin Walker was the source of all three stories. (2) As for Walker contradicting himself -- when one reviews the ten or so articles Walker produced on this topic, there are more and more contradictions. (I shared this was David Lifton back in January, as I recall, and he was speechless.) (3) Walker asked if the CIA was involved because - and this comes through in all his different accounts - he was really convinced that RFK was trying to kill him. We cannot forget that Walker played a key role in the Oxford, Mississippi riots of late 1962, and this was also during the Cuban Missile Crisis. The White House did not sleep that weekend. RFK was hopping mad. RFK didn't just arrest Walker, he held him for psychiatric examinations in an insane asylum. That turned out to be a blunder on RFK's part, because it made Walker into a martyr among liberals as well as rightist extremists. So, in only five days, Walker was out on the street. When Walker faced a Grand Jury in Mississippi for his role in the Oxford riots, they refused to indict him, and on January 21st, 1963, Walker was a free man. As you might know, Grand Jury records are sealed, and after three years are destroyed. There is no way to know why the Grand Jury let Walker go today, to the best of my knowledge. He had two great lawyers helping him -- Robert Morris and Clyde J. Watts. They must have been good -- and Walker probably stretched the truth, waved the flag and showed all his WW2 medals. He walked. In my humble opinion, we must consider the possibility that Walker's conscience bothered him about his causing a riot in which hundreds were injured and two were killed -- and then walking away. He wanted to be punished according to military justice, I believe, and so he began to live in a world of fantasy. This is my personal hunch -- he started to go paranoid. He thought RFK was after him because he really should have been convicted, if the truth were known about Oxford. This turned into a general paranoia. Just a hunch. Yes, Jim, those are the Senate Subcommittee Hearings on Military Preparedness and Education, in which General Walker attempted to explain why he was stripped of his command over the 24th Infantry Division in Augsburg, Germany. It is bizarre to read his fears that the Overseas Weekly was persecuting him from his first day in Germany to the last. Walker made it clear that he hated that magazine -- and only time will tell what really happened. The fact that he never married -- so was probably homosexual in the Military in the 1960's in Germany -- this might have been the original source of the persecution complex. (And Freud said paranoia begins with keeping homosexuality in the closet.) Lots of research can go down this road -- but what benefit this might be in unraveling the JFK assassination is still unclear. Best regards, --Paul Trejo <edit typos>

Paul, I think they may be housed at the Texas Tech Library in Lubbock, TX. Scroll down to the Melvin Munn collection http://www.swco.ttu.edu/Guide/M.htm Munn was the voice of Life Line Radio. He discussed the Kennedy Assassination and H L Hunt in a 1981 oral history... Michael, you were so right. That's where they were -- and they sold me the issues I needed. I'd asked ten different sources. You found them. Great work. Many thanks, --Paul

Tom, this is an exciting possibility. Jim Garrison was also keen to interview Loran Hall in connection with his pursuit of Edgar Eugene Bradley. Further, Harry Dean (in this Forum) claims to be an eye-witness to these events, and he portays Loran Hall and Guy Gabaldon as two key players in the JBS conspiracy to assassinate JFK. Harry Dean also mentions "Lawrence Howard" (AKA Alonzo Escruido) in this context. As I understand Harry Dean's portait, the leadership of the JBS gave Guy Gabaldon a lot of money. Gabaldon hired two guys -- Hall and Howard -- to monitor Lee Harvey Oswald. They were with Oswald for long periods of time, especially when he had no job (although Marina believed he was working) and when he could get away from Marina for days or weeks at a time (e.g. the Mexican episode). Gabaldon's offices were in Mexico. (Oswald received some of that money from Galbaldon in Mexico.) It occurs to me that attorney and convict Dean Andrews testified to the Warren Commision that he first met Lee Harvey Oswald in his office in New Orleans, when Oswald entered accompanied by some "gay Chicanos". Well, that sounds a bit odd, but if Oswald was accompanied by Hispanic men in New Orleans, it remains possible that the two men were Hall and Howard. If we can't find many other names besides these, then it is possible that Oswald was kept in the dark as regards the higher-ups. Now -- why would Oswald work with these guys? For one thing, they were also former U.S. Military men, very right-wing (as Oswald sometimes pretended to be, or perhaps actually was), and would accept cash payments for underground activities. Oswald might have been spying on them for the FBI. Or, Oswald might have been trying to earn extra cash. Or, Oswald might have been responding to threats from Guy Banister and David Ferrie. Or some combination of reasons. So, Tom, does your cryptography find anything like 'Alonzo Escruido?' Best regards, --Paul Trejo <edit typos>

Tom, my older brother once told me that a man who can play jazz is a man who can do anything. I have only just now discovered your thread, and it's intriguing. I will offer my first impressions now, before digging into your complex code system. (1) You find the word 'West' in association with 'Ewin' and I just wonder if 'Edwin Walker' can be found with any variation in your code. (2) William Duff was arrested and given a lie detector test in connection with the 10 April 1963 shooting at General Walker. He lived at Walker's home from December 1962 to April, 1963. In 1964 Duff told the FBI that during that time period he had seen Jack Ruby visiting General Walker's home, more than once, and that Ruby brought the same two large men with him each time. Duff never heard a word of their long conversations. (3) As regards George Bouhe, the Warren Commission witnesses paint a fairly clear picture: Bouhe was in love with Marina, and showered her with gifts and dresses. Lee Oswald despised George Bouhe for that, and he warned Bouhe to keep away from Marina. Bouhe also paid for dental work for Marina; he wouldn't stay away from her. That's why the Oswald's moved again in Dallas -- to get away from the Russian Exile community there. Oswald was originally friendly to the Russian Exiles, but after Bouhe's crass behavior (and the Russian community's tolerance of Bouhe), Oswald resented them all and wanted Marina to stay away from them. This was hell for Marina, because Lee also discouraged her from learning English. (Lee was evidently a jealous young man.) No Russian friends. No English-speaking friends -- Marina was locked in a closet, so to speak. So they fought bitterly for the first time in their marriage -- and all because of George Bouhe. So, when considering George Bouhe in your calculations, Tom, it may be well to reflect on Lee's intense dislike of Bouhe, as testified by both the De Mohrenshildt's and others. Anyway, back to the Mystery Package -- my first question is: WHAT ARE THE CONTENTS OF THIS PACKAGE? Best regards, --Paul Trejo

Jim, it isn't just me or Harry Dean or Loran Hall or Gerry Patrick Hemming or Dick Russell who claims that General Walker had direct or indirect interaction with Lee Harvey Oswald between May and October of 1963. General Walker's archives contain several items that suggest this. Here is a letter from Walker to Senator Frank Church in 1975 -- but it refers to the week of the 10 April 1963 shooting that we are talking about. I'd like to hear your opinion about this letter in particular: -------------------------------- ATTACHMENT --------------- To: Senator Frank Church U.S. Senate Office Bld’g Washington, D.C. June 23, 1975 Dear Senator Church: The Warren Commission found and concluded that Lee Harvey Oswald attempted to assassinate the undersigned at his home, at 9pm. on April 10, 1963. The initial and immediate investigation at the time of the incident reported two men at my home, one with a gun, seen by an eye-witness – a neighbor. Within days I was informed by a Lieutenant on the Dallas City Police Force that Oswald was in custody by 12pm that night for questioning. He was released on a higher authority than that in Dallas. There were two men, not a "Lonely Loner". Please inform me if the CIA was involved in this attempted assassination? Yours sincerely, Edwin A. Walker --------------------------- END ATTACHMENT ---------------- There's the letter, Jim. Edwin Walker himself tells the Senator that he obtained knowledge that Oswald was his shooter "within days" of the shooting. I realize there are more puzzles than this one involved within the content of this letter, but I would ask you, please, to offer your opinion about this one key point -- that Walker knew about Oswald "within days" of the April shooting. Best regards, --Paul Trejo

Tom, you're right that nobody should quickly decide anything in this tapestry of lies, secrets and cover-ups. I don't claim to have the Truth, I only claim to have clues, and I am trying hard to follow them up. I certainly agree that Oswald would have known if he had shot Walker or not. Also, after one shot, those involved sped away quickly. I see no evidence that Gerry Patrick Hemming was the shooter. The story by Dick Russell is the most convincing theory I've seen -- i.e. it is based on the confession by Bob Schmidt that he and his brother, Larrie Schmidt, and Oswald shot at Walker that night. This explains why the bullet fragment that Walker and Surrey found in his wall did not match a copper-jacketed bullet from a Manlicher-Carcano. A different rifle was used, and Bob Schmidt did not say which of them was the shooter -- although one might suspect that Oswald could have used somebody else's rifle. Also - Oswald did not tell Marina that he killed Walker, did he? Only that he shot at him. So, Dick Russell's story has the most merit. The Warren Commission story falls flat simply because they insist the bullet came from a Manlicher-Carcano, and FBI agent James Hosty himself had serious doubts as to that statement. He said the tests were inconclusive at the FBI labs. Best regards, --Paul Trejo

Ernie, I know this is a late reply, but your doubts are still relevant in the ongoing debates on this Forum. I would like to reply to your final series of allegations that you call "facts." 1. Just because a given informant was unacknowledged by the FBI is no reason to assume that the FBI is telling all that it knows. For example, our former President Gerald Ford in his own book on the JFK assassination suggested that FBI information is being withheld that Lee Harvey Oswald was at one time an informer for the FBI. One can easily imagine other similar cases. 2. You seem very certain that no official investigation of the JBS was ever opened by the FBI, yet you seem to forget that the JBS was one of the groups the FBI questioned during the riots of 1962 on the Oxford Mississipi campus. General Walker, a well-known and outspoken member of the JBS, was suspect #1, and any of the *thousands* of youths who traveled to Oxford the weekend of the riots was asked for their group affiliations, and any affiliation with General Walker or with the JBS was flagged as "of interest". 3. You presume that the FBI regarded the JBS as simply Anticommunist -- but that's untrue. J. Edgar Hoover specifically forbade any FBI Agent from joining the JBS. (The CIA made the same rule.) This is because the JBS went beyond Anticommunism into the madness of calling FDR a communist, and Truman a communist, and Eisenhower a communist, and of course JFK a communist, and the UN communist, and anybody they didn't like, including Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. -- a communist. Such views remain as mad today as they were then. 4. Threfore, just because one cannot find obvious documents relating to FBI spying on the JBS, that does not prove they don't exist, and therefore your allegation of 100% certainty that they could not exist simply holds no water. 5. As for the claim that Smoot and Skousen weren't members of the JBS, that's a moot point since they were favorite speakers at JBS rallies, they happily made a fortune selling their books to JBS members, and although they may have felt aloof and superior to the average JBS madman, rather, true believer, that does not excuse them from their decades of exploiting JBS members with eyes wide open. Regards, --Paul Trejo, MA

Robert, I'd also like to see the results of such a poll. Several members of this Forum believe Marina Oswald's testimony, as well as George and Jeanne De Mohrenschildt's testimony on the Oswald shooting. Others also believe Dick Russell's interview of Bob Schmidt after the JFK hit, when Bob confessed that he and Larrie Schmidt joined Oswald for this shooting. These are four folks who were close enough to Oswald to be taken seriously. So, if a poll is taken, I'd love to see the result. All best, --Paul Trejo

OK, so getting back to Loran Hall. This semester I'm studying the career of former Major General Edwin A. Walker in minute detail (with H.W. Brands at UT Austin) and one of the things that stumps historians today is the whereabouts of Walker from May, 1963 until October, 1963. Walker was a public figure who liked the limelight. When Walker left the Army in November 1961 he didn't retire, he resigned, probably to make himself a martyr in the eyes of the public (and to evoke images of General Douglas MacArthur whom Truman dismissed in 1951). Starting in December, 1961, Walker gave right-wing speeches to right-wing audiences, and joined Billy James Hargis in his public tours as well. He looked forward to his Senate Subcommittee testimony in April, 1962, and hoped that Douglas MacArthur would also appear at those hearings to give Walker a boost. (MacArthur didn't show; instead, G.L. Rockwell of the American Nazi Party appeared!) Walker also wanted to be Governor of Texas, but he came in last in 1962 (far behind Yarbrough and Connally). But Walker didn't give up the limelight. When Governor Barnett of Mississippi publicly opposed the admittance of James Meredith into Oxford University on racial grounds, Walker pushed himself into the limelight. After JFK ordered State troops onto the Oxford campus to enforce the law, Walker got on the radio and called for "10,000 strong from every State in the Union" to join him on the Oxford campus to protest this violation of States' rights. This turned into a riot with (according to H.W. Brands) 300 wounded and 2 killed. Walker was going to be in the limelight again because he was arrested the next day and RFK made a big deal about it. But when the Grand Jury in Mississippi heard Walker's side of the story in November 1962 through January 1963, they decided to drop all charges against Walker. Now free again, Walker hired lawyers to sue every newspaper who said bad things about him during the Oxford riots, plus he also joined with Billy James Hargis again from February 1963 through April 7th, 1963, in their Midnight Ride speaking tour from coast-to-coast. Clearly, Edwin A. Walker loved to be in the limelight. He felt most invigorated when the national news media fussed over him. HOWEVER - after Walker narrowly escaped death when Oswald (allegedly) tried to shoot him at his home on April 10th, 1963, Walker changed dramatically. He quickly dropped out of the national news media limelight. Where's Walker? He was hard to find. This is why the information from Gerry Patrick Hemming, Loran Hall and Harry Dean remains so important for historians. These men, and those who traveled with them, claim to have seen General Walker operating underground so to speak. Walker was sighted in Cuban Exile training camps in Florida, in Louisiana, and perhaps other places still to be disclosed. Walker was sighted in secret meetings of the John Birch Society in Covina, California. Loran Hall is unavailable to interviewers, and so is Gerry Patrick Hemming. While Hemming was part of this Forum, it seems to me that he was not alloted enough patience on the part of some members as he attempted to share his knowledge. Impatience was the keynote of perhaps most of the responses he received. That just wasted lots of time -- and Hemming didn't have much time left when he joined this Forum. To the best of my knowledge, the only member of that crowd that ran with Loran Hall in 1963 that this fortunate Forum can still interview is Harry Dean. Now, although Harry is an educated, professional businessman and former FBI operative with tons of valuable information, he is not a professional writer or a professional researcher. Therefore, we should treat his posts with patience and respect, and even some generosity, as we attempt to piece together the roles that Loran and Walker played in the greatest murder mystery of the 20th century. Where was General Walker from May until October, 1963? Official history has very little to go on. That's why this Forum, in threads like this one, has a special role to play for historians. We can finally reconstruct the major events leading up to Novemver 22, 1963 in Dallas. We should not be surprised to learn that the right-wing in Dallas (and associated cities) formed the center of the cyclone. I've been trying to find out more and more about Loran Hall. There are some tabloid articles about Hall in 1968 that are mildly interesting (mainly because they have photographs), but historians have little to go on. I've read some of the material Loran Hall shared with Jim Garrison. Also some material Hall shared with Edwin Meese. There is also a little bit on Hall in the HSCA Hearing records. But where is the largest cache of information about Loran Hall? To repeat: Harry Dean says that Loran Hall, Lawrence Howard, Congressman John Rousselot, General Edwin Walker, war-hero Guy Gabaldon and Harry Dean met in September, 1963, to explain how to make Lee Harvey Oswald a patsy. Harry Dean's story is the exact same story that Loran Hall tried to tell Garrison and Meese (as I read it). This is the path to follow, IMHO, to finally solve the JFK assassination mystery. Best regards, --Paul Trejo

Well, Jim, what I found in the Briscoe Center is a letter from Edwin Walker to Robert Welch in 1959 that explains his reasons for joining Welch's John Birch Society. Robert Welch had already joined an on-going Southern-based "Impeach Earl Warren" campaign in 1956. The first "Impeach Earl Warren" billboard to my knowledge went up in 1958 in San Francisco, California. Edwin Walker was only dimly aware of these movements in 1957 when he led the Arkansas Troops to racially integrate Little Rock High in 1957. However, that duty caused him many sleepless nights, and he asked Eisenhower (through channels) if he could use State's National Guard instead of Federal resources for an act like this. He was denied. Throughout virtually all his speeches and all his testimonies to Senate Subcommittees and other public hearings, Walker repeated that the Little Rock episode was the event that changed his politics forever. For one thing, he remembered, Governor Orval Faubus called Walker, "The Commander of Little Rock occupational forces." Walker was stung by this remark, and it caused him to read more about politics that were critical of Eisenhower. In 1959 Walker finally met Robert Welch, founder of the John Birch Society (1958). That's when Walker first submitted his resignation to the Army, because of: "a fifth column conspiracy...to minimize or nullify the effectiveness of my ideals and principles." But that letter to Robert Welch in 1959 is pretty clear, Jim. The trouble with the Little Rock episode was not so much the racial element -- the trouble was State's Rights. If a State didn't want to integrate racially, then why should they be FORCED to do so? That was the main problem. Also, most of Walker's friends were Southerners, and Southerners in 1959 still tended to feel very strongly in favor of racial segregation. So, Walker was defending his friends, too. His many speeches at so-called Citizens Councils for most of the rest of his life is ample evidence of that. It wasn't the racial thing as much as the FORCED thing, as Walker explained it. Best regards, --Paul Trejo

John, you ask a deep question when you ask, pro bono. I wonder about that myself - I want the answer. Walker had no regular job, so how could he afford to pay two high-profile lawyers for four years? That would take a lot of money. Walker got money from speaking engagements -- but that would likely pay his own bills -- not keep a stable of rich-man's lawyers hanging around. Now, it's possible that Watts and Morris did this work pro bono, or perhaps on speculation. That is, they may have firmly believed they would get a part of that $30 million that they were asking for (which, adjusted for inflation would be $300 million today). They may each have demanded 1/3 of the 'winnings' split three ways with Walker. Just a guess. I'm delighted with the fact that when it came to the Supreme Court, the Justice who heard the case was Earl Warren himself! Walker had been advertising loudly since 1959 to IMPEACH EARL WARREN because of the racial integration ruling. No 'Citizens Council' justice from Earl Warren -- he gave the three speculators exactly zip. I'm glad that these guys didn't profit from their fib about Walker's actual role in the Oxford riots. Best regards, --Paul Trejo

John, when I filter through the Edwin Walker Collection at the Briscoe Center for American History I occasionally encounter newspapers and pamphletts from racist rightists. Edwin Walker was a close companion of segregationist Evangelist, Billy James Hargis. Hargis was a college dropout who was given a doctorate in Laws from Bob Jones University, which insisted on racial segregation until 1975. Hargis would continually accuse the NAACP of Communism. This charge was present in virtually all of his sermons in the 1960's. The Edwin Walker archive contains some of these sermons and pamphlets by Billy James Hargis, and related material. For example, the notion that Martin Luther King Jr. was a Communist was widely circulated amongst rightists like Walker (relying on the publications of J. Edgar Hoover) during this period. Racial slurs and racial jokes were common in that literature. Hargis was also an anti-Semite -- no big surprise -- and we find some evidence that Walker was also an anti-Semite in some of the pamphlets that he kept (e.g. he appears to have subscribed to the Charles Hodgson newsletter for several years). Yet also, in some of his own writings, we find evidence of anti-Semitism, when he uses the euphemism, "Anti-Christ" when referring to powerful figures that he regarded as Jewish (e.g. in the Supreme Court). Also, when speaking the the Deutsche NationalZeitung reporter the day after JFK was assassinated, he spoke of the attorney Abt whom Oswald requested for representation, as, "a New York Jew who handles all the Communist cases." So far it seems to me that Walker's anti-Semitism came from the literature of semi-literate sectarian Christians like Billy James Hargis, Carl McIntyre and Fred Schwarz, and his racist attitudes towards blacks seems to come from the segregationist attitudes of the 1960's South, generally, but especially as embodied in Billy James Hargis as amplified by J. Edgar Hoover. It is fairly clear that Walker favored segregation -- because he frequently spoke at the many Citizen's Councils in the South, which were originally named White Citizen's Councils; and although they changed their name, they never pretended to change their politics. I don't see any direct connection between Walker and the KKK in those days, though. True, Walker was an iconic figure in the paramilitary militia, the Minutemen, led by Robert DePugh, and the Minutemen reportedly had lots of KKK members. (Right-wingers tended to mix fairly freely in the South -- not always, but often.) Walker made extra efforts to disassociate himself from the American Nazi Party led by George Lincoln Rockwell. In 1962, during the Senate Subcommittee Hearings on Military Preparedness, ex-General Walker explained why he quit the Army. Near the end of those proceedings, George Lincoln Rockwell entered the courtroom dressed in full Nazi attire, loudly praising General Walker. Walker was humiliated as Rockwell was ejected from the courtroom. When a Washington reporter nagged Walker about it after that session, Walker punched him in the eye. World War 2 was still fresh in America's mind in 1962; no matter how bad Blacks, Jews or Communists might be -- nothing was worse than a Nazi. Best regards, --Paul Trejo <edit typos>

Well, John, that $3 million was only hot air, only talk. It occurred like this. After the Oxford riots, RFK made the mistake of locking up General Walker in an insane asylum. Big mistake. You don't do that with political enemies. So, Walker was out on the street in only five days, and when Walker went to trial in November for his role in the Oxford riots, his lawyers (Clyde J. Watts and Dr. Robert Morris) were able to make the Grand Jury focus on the insanity charge the whole time, and so by the end of January, 1963, the Grand Jury could not indict him, so all charges were dropped. Now - getting a Grand Jury to drop all charges is such a big deal that Clyde Watts and Robert Morris decided to sue all the newspapers -- nationally -- that printed bad things about Walker. The Associated Press was involved in every single case as the original source of the story, so they are always named in the Court Cases. This started immediately after the acquittal. From February 1963 to December 1966, this involved about a dozen cases. If Walker's attorneys had won all they were asking for, they would have won $30 million, but as it turned out, they only got $3 million awarded in all those cases. HOWEVER - at the last minute the AP appealed to the Supreme Court, and the Supreme Court overturned every one of those victories in 1967, ruling that 'malice' was not involved, and therefore it was not true libel. Therefore, after four years of struggle, Walker, Watts and Morris walked away empty-handed. That's the story of the $3 million, John. Notice that it happened a full year after Walker retired, and Walker had no idea in November of 1961 that in November of 1962 he would be on trial for causing a riot at Oxford U. in Mississippi. Best regards, --Paul Trejo

Well, Norman, this story comes from Jim Root (on this Forum) and Gerry Patrick Hemming (formerly on this Forum). They agreed that General Edwin Walker instructed Lee Harvey Oswald on methods to get into the USSR. So, Oswald didn't exactly serve in Germany, but he only passed through Western Europe on his way to Russia, and met General Walker briefly on the way. That story comes from good sources, so I'm inclined to include it in my theory. Best regards, --Paul Trejo

Paul, I think they may be housed at the Texas Tech Library in Lubbock, TX. Scroll down to the Melvin Munn collection http://www.swco.ttu.edu/Guide/M.htm Munn was the voice of Life Line Radio. He discussed the Kennedy Assassination and H L Hunt in a 1981 oral history: http://www.swco.ttu.edu/abstracts/1774.htm Perhaps of interest: Billy James Hargis Papers: http://libinfo.uark.edu/SpecialCollections/findingaids/mc1412/2-3.asp Thank you, Michael, for this helpful research. I would not have guessed that Texas Tech would house the Melvin Munn collection. I sent their Southwest Collection staff a query, and am waiting for their response. I'm especially interested in the SEP-NOV '63 transcripts for LIFE LINE because of a newspaper article in the Austin Statesmen on the day after the JFK assassination in which a Texan claimed that the rightist rhetoric in LIFE LINE had been increasingly hostile in the past several weeks. I'd like to see that with my own eyes. H.L. Hunt was a financial backer of General Edwin Walker, and they were ideological soul-mates. H.L. Hunt once financed the "Douglas MacArthur for President" campaign. That was a flop, but H.L. Hunt always hoped to elect a President that he could control -- or at least one that thought 100% as he thought. Hunt preferred military types for President. I believe that Hunt may have been involved in convincing General Walker to resign from the Army and give up his pension with the promise that Hunt would finance his political career. After resigning from the Army, General Walker had no visible means of support, yet he had a lot of money. He moved into a large house in a plush neighborhood in Dallas, and he took an office in a tall building that belonged to, as I recall, the American Oil Company. Walker had money to fly around, and within months of resigning, he put down $1,000 (which is $10,000 adjusted for inflation) to register to campaign for Governor of Texas. The John Birch Society was the main ideology that H.L. Hunt and General Edwin Walker had in common. But Walker was also a war hero, and I believe that H.L. Hunt was hoping that he might become another MacArthur, or at least capitalize on the American emotion that still persisted whenever anybody mentioned the name of General Douglas MacArthur. So - the LIFE LINE radio program was written by H.L. Hunt personally and I want to see those transcripts to detect the increased levels of rhetoric. My reasoning is transparent -- if (and only if) General Walker was involved in a plot to kill JFK, then H.L. Hunt would also be implicated. Also, since General Walker gave us a few slips of the pen (regarding his early belief that Oswald did not act alone) it might be possible that H.L. Hunt also gave us a few slips of the pen. I hope Texas Tech has those transcripts. Finally, Michael, as for the segregationist preacher, Billy James Hargis, he seems to figure large in this same picture. There is a rumor that Hargis once wrote speeches for Senator Joseph McCarthy during the Red Scare. Hargis was a political animal who used Bible Preaching and Red Scare tactics to make millions of dollars. His program was similar to LIFE LINE, but Hargis was able to pursue his Christian Crusade full-time, while H.L. Hunt only pursued LIFE LINE part time. Like many money-hungry, high-profile Evangelists, Hargis eventually ran into scandals involving missing millions, and sexual scandals (including homosexual scandals) with students at Bob Jones University. Always -- underneath the political exploitation of Christianity -- we have found corruption and a high level of secrecy. Hmm. Best regards, --Paul Trejo, MA

Sure, John. General Edwin A. Walker had been the commander of the Arkansas Military District for only seven weeks when he was ordered by President Eisenhower to take Federalized troops into Little Rock High School to force them to implement racial integration against their will. Over a hundred members of the local PTA blocked nine black children on their way to school on September 19, 1957, and threatened them with violence if they didn't go home. Yet the city had also assigned the nine black children to go to that high school in obedience to a Supreme Court ruling on this very topic. Pushing the envelope of the Brown v. Board of Education case, signed by Supreme Court Justice Earl Warren, President Eisenhower said he would make it into a Federal case. Eisenhower ordered Little Rock High to integrate, or else. Governor Oral Faubas had called out the Arkansas National Guard as well as the State Police to keep law and order as he saw fit. Eisenhower then Federalized the Arkansas National Guard, the State Police, and the Reserves, and furthermore ordered local Army troops to join them all to enforce the New Law. (It was about this time that people started to display bumber stickers saying, "Impeach Earl Warren!") General Edwin A. Walker was ordered to command all these Troops to integrate the school. He resisted. He didn't object to racial integration, he said, if that's what The People want to do. But forced racial integration was, he said, Un-American. States had rights, too, he said, guaranteed by the Constitution. However, President Eisenhower rejected this logic. Being Commander in Chief, Eisenhower commanded Walker to carry out these orders, and Walker reluctantly - but efficiently - did as he was ordered to do. The Troops stayed in Little Rock through most of 1958. Then, in 1959, General Walker had a meeting with a right-wing extremist named Robert Welch. Robert Welch had recently published his "black book" which is entitled, The Politician. In that book, Robert Welch "proved" that Eisenhower and his brother Milton, were "confirmed Communists." That was enough for General Walker. That explained everything to him. He didn't want to serve under a Communist, so he tendered his resignation to the U.S. Army immediately. (Remember, when an officer resigns, instead of retires, he forfeits his pension.) Walker was aware of that -- and he had no other career than Army officer. And he had no other visible means of support. Yet rather than have any contact with Communists, he would give up his pension and trust in God to find some other way to live. Eisenhower just tore up the resignation, and flatly denied it. Instead, he gave Walker a promotion to serve over the 24th Infantry Division in Augsburg, Germany. He would have more than 12,000 troops under his command. Walker accepted the job in late 1959. Some people who would serve under Walker there would be Larrie Schmidt, Bernard Weismann, Jack Martin, and possibly, in secrecy, Lee Harvey Oswald. Best regards, --Paul Trejo <edit typos>

John, I believe this thread ended too early. Kaiser's logic was influenced by the Blakey epoch in mafia-centric theories. The problem with such theories was their myopia, i.e. they could not see far beyond the mafia. Your thread picked up substantial steam with the appearance of Harry Dean, but instead of following Dean's logic, the thread kept snapping back to Kaiser's logic. Now, the thread is about Loran Hall, not about David Kaiser, so I feel justified in abandoning Kaiser's dead end and picking up the fresh tracks revealed by Harry Dean. The key to Loran Hall's involvement in the JFK assassination isn't the mafia -- mostly big-talkers, money-throwers and snub-nose hit-men. The key is Hall's connection to genuine men of action -- ex-military men with right-wing fantasies and personal grudges against Kennedy. Enter resigned General Edwin A. Walker, the only U.S. General to have resigned in the 20th century. He resigned out of protest of the JFK Administration. (Actually, Walker tried to resign in protest of the Eisenhower Administration in 1959, but Eisenhower denied his request. Walker was bitter that his efforts in Korea were not plainly victorious, and he blamed Eisenhower for collaboration with the Communists, following Robert Welch's theory in The Politician (1956) which openly accused Eisenhower and his brother of being Communists.) Loran Hall's connections to General Walker are also documented by Harry Dean through their mutual connection, the John Birch Society (JBS). Like many right-wing groups of the early 1960's, the JBS frequently hired public speakers to whip up their crowds. Loran Hall was one of these public speakers, and Harry Dean would often attend JBS meetings in which Loran Hall gave a lecture. Another favorite speaker for the JBS was General Walker. After Walker resigned from the Army he took up public speaking as a career -- and made a lot of money with it. Anyway, in 1963 Harry Dean was operating underground for the FBI, spying on the JBS in Southern California. Loran Hall, John Rousselot, Harry Dean, General Walker and a few others would meet together at exclusive JBS meetings in 1963 where the assassination of Kennedy was discussed. That in itself is not very significant, because perhaps thousands of of such gripe sessions took place all over the U.S. in those months. What made these particular JBS meetings so interesting, however, is that they actively named Lee Harvey Oswald to be their patsy. This is what makes the JBS-Walker-Hall-Rousselot meetings front and center in U.S. history. Of all the perhaps hundreds of JFK assassination plots in the country, including those by Cuban exiles, the Mafia, ex-CIA rogues, ex-FBI rogues, Russian exiles, German exiles, and so on, only one of them actually carried it off. The one that carried it off was the one that took extraordinary steps to make Lee Harvey Oswald into the patsy. Best regards, --Paul Trejo

It's an interesting theory, Tom, but the evidence doesn't support a simple mistake on Walker's part, by my reading. It's complicated because Walker is lying (according to me). Since he is lying (which is proved by his self-contradiction) it is doubly difficult to decipher exactly what he's trying to hide and what he's trying to say. Here's a review of his claim: (1) That the DPD took Lee Harvey Oswald -- nobody else -- into custody before midnight after the shooting. (2) The Secret Service (or the CIA, or RFK or or the State Department or 'people in higher places than Dallas' -- again this identification changed with each version) ordered the DPD to release Oswald in the wee hours of the morning; and (3) That people associated with the DPD (and the titles of these folks change with each version) informed Walker about it WITHIN DAYS (or in some versions, did NOT tell him). He doesn't claim it was anybody else. Now -- we know he's lying on many counts. The fact that he keeps changing his story is ample evidence. But the legal record shows that Walker also insisted that William Duff be arrested and questioned in regards to this shooting. William Duff was an ex-Marine, down on his luck, who came to live with ex-General Walker for a few months. Then he disappeared. Walker wanted to know where he was. Duff was questioned, cleared, and then disappeared again. Also, as Walker told Dick Russell (TMWKTM), he was told that Larrie Schmidt and his brother Bob Schmidt were his actual shooters. Walker did not divulge to Dick Russell the source of that rumor. But let's look once again at Walker's letter to Senator Frank Church dated June 23, 1975: "Dear Senator Church: The Warren Commission found and concluded that Lee Harvey Oswald attempted to assassinate [me] at [my] home on April 10, 1963. The initial and immediate investigation at the time of the incident reported two men at my home with a gun, seen by an eye-witness -- a neighbor. Within days I was informed by a Lieutenant on the Dallas City Police Force that Oswald was in custody by 12pm that night for questioning. He was released on higher authority than that in Dallas...Yours sincerely, Edwin Walker." In this claim to Senator Church, Walker claimed not only the DPD, but an individual Lieutenant in the DPD was his informant. Notice the similarity and the difference of this report with the one he told to the Deutsche NationalZeitung less than 24 hours after the assassination of JFK. In that story, there was no Lieutenant. In that story, however, Walker openly named RFK as the 'higher authority'. Walker would repeat some variation of this story for the rest of his life. Why? Nobody was paying any attention to this guy. After his Oxford period, a large number of Americans just wrote him off as wacko. What was Walker trying to convey with his Big Myth that the DPD told him that Oswald was his shooter shortly afterwards? Naturally, the DPD never confirmed any of this. If anything, they treated the story as a sign of senility. Naturally, too, the FBI would never confirm this -- their official story was that they learned Oswald was Walker's shooter from Marina Oswald in early December, 1963 -- PERIOD. But the testimony from George DeMohrenschildt suggests that the FBI was lying -- just like General Walker. THEY WERE BOTH LYING. Perhaps they were trying to hide the same facts. Dick Russell came closest to solving this mystery. He interviewed DeMohrenschildt's friends, Mr. and Mrs. Igor Voshinin, and they told Russell that after George DeMohrenschildt told them that Lee Harvey Oswald was Walker's shooter, she immediately told the FBI. That was on Easter Sunday, 1963. Now -- if (and only if) that is the truth, then the protocol of the FBI would be to inform General Walker right away of these allegations, so that he could beware of people around him. They probably also told Walker that this was Top Secret, and to tell nobody else about it. If (and only if) that is correct, then we have the truth behind Walker's Big Lie. The FBI knew it was Oswald -- and the FBI did not arrest Oswald, but (metaphorically speaking) "released him". They did not prosecute Oswald, even though they had this information from George DeMohrenschildt. This also explains why Walker in his Warren Commission testimony is hostile toward George DeMohrenschildt, and accuses him of being part of the conspiracy to shoot Walker on 4/10/1963. It makes sense because George DeMohrenschildt told the FBI, but not the Dallas Police -- who would certainly have arrested Oswald and put him in prison. This was the right thing to do -- otherwise, Oswald was free to try to kill Walker again. Walker -- now concerned about this loose cannon named Lee Harvey Oswald, would take the law into his own hands. Not alone -- he was very well connected in the paramilitary underground. He had connections in the Minutemen for dirty jobs like this. Guy Banister was one of those Minutemen. Both Walker and Banister were also active members of the John Birch Society -- and now we enter into the plausibility of the account from Harry Dean -- that when the John Birch Society came into contact with General Walker's mission -- that's when the ball really started rolling. Best regards, --Paul Trejo <edit typos>

Robert, thank you; this is valuable information. I plan to contact Larrie Schmidt and Bernard Weissman to ask them about their encounters with General Walker and Lee Harvey Oswald as alleged by Dick Russell in his book, The Man Who Knew Too Much (1992). I looked in California and Nevada directories high and low and could not find the correct Larrie Schmidt. Thanks, also, for the recent Newspaper editorial by Schmidt - it's good to know he's a family man with roots now. As for the former Major General Edwin Walker being gay -- that is accepted by a number of writers. For one thing, he never married, never had a girlfriend that he talked about, and his archives have no records of any short-term relationship with a woman in his life. Also, after he had retired he was arrested, twice, for homosexual acts in public places. I hope to contact his surviving nephew, George Walker, in case there was a "Dear John" letter in his background that he refused to talk about. Now - from 1927 through 1961 when Walker served in the Army, the Army would have sacked him with a dishonorable discharge if they ever proved he was gay. But they didn't ask and he didn't tell, apparently. Those were naive times, and even a playboy like JFK could do wild things at the White House in full knowledge of the Press, and they would never leak it to the main media. So, as long as a high-profile person chose to remain in the closet, he or she could go a long way in American society in the old days. That's not true anymore, obviously. We are a more liberal society, generally, but we hold our public officials up to a higher standard than in the past -- because the Press won't keep secrets anymore for anybody. Thanks for the locations of Schmidt and Weissman, Robert. I'll chase them up as soon as I can. BTW, do any of your many contacts know where I might obtain H.L. Hunt's LIFE LINE transcripts from Sep-Nov 1963? Best regards, --Paul Trejo, MA <edit typos>

Robert, I'm becoming increasingly interested in the daily activities of H.L. Hunt in the 8 weeks before the JFK assassination. H.L. Hunt had a nationally syndicated radio program, something like the Rush Limbaugh hate-talk radio show. It was called, LIFE LINE, and it was broadcast daily. Also, written transcripts of LIFE LINE were available for subscription. The Briscoe Center has three years worth of LIFE LINE broadcast transcripts available, but strangely, the 8 weeks of LIFE LINE immediately before the JFK assassination are missing. The Library searched high and low for me, and they cannot explain why these issues are missing. I've tried many other libraries to obtain copies, including an Inter-Library loan search as well as the Dallas Public Library. Nobody seems to have these transcripts anymore! My question to you today, Robert, is whether you have any information about these LIFE LINE broadcasts, and might be able to direct me to a source that still offers them to the public. Best regards, --Paul Trejo

John, I don't want to forget this citation. I want to see all sides of this issue. The main problem I have with Chris Cravens' mini-biography of General Edwin Walker is that when he ttalks about the Oxford Mississippi riots, he quickly takes Walker's side and claims that Walker only tried to calm the students down. He does not cover the pages and pages of eye-witness ttestimony that say exactly the opposite. Also, John, do you have any idea how I can get in contact with James Meredith himself? I believe he still lives in Jackson, Mississippi. Best regards, --Paul Trejo